Wednesday,
Opposition Vows Pushback Against Pashinian’s Plans For New Constitution
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Opposition leader Ishkhan Saghatelian speaks during a rally in
Yerevan, September 2, 2023.
The Armenian opposition will push back hard against Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s attempts to enact a new constitution demanded by Azerbaijan, one of
its leaders said on Wednesday.
Ishkhan Saghatelian said his main opposition Hayastan alliance and its allies
would “do everything” to turn a possible referendum on the constitution into a
popular vote of no confidence in Pashinian.
“Ten days ago, we began virtually daily meetings with our fellow citizens in
various regions and towns to explain all those dangers that will emerge in the
event of a constitutional referendum,” Saghatelian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
“We will not sit idly and we will soon work with our people on a larger scale,”
he said. “In my view, they [the authorities] are trying to examine the public
mood and they will make a final decision [to hold the referendum] only if they
feel that they will succeed. Through our work, we need to make sure they realize
that it’s impossible.”
“If the constitutional referendum does take place, we will do everything to turn
it into a referendum of no confidence in Nikol Pashinian. This is a case where
we see a real possibility of a broad-based consolidation of Armenia’s opposition
camp,” added Saghatelian.
Pashinian declared last month that Armenia needs a new constitution reflecting
the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. Analysts believe that he first
and foremost wants to get rid of a preamble to the current constitution that
makes reference to a 1990 declaration of independence adopted by the republic’s
first post-Communist parliament. The declaration in turn cites a 1989
unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on February 1 that Armenia should remove
that reference if it wants to cut a peace deal with his country. Armenian
opposition leaders portrayed Aliyev’s statement as further proof that Pashinian
is planning to change the constitution at the behest of Baku.
Pashinian has denied the opposition claims while saying that Armenia “will never
have peace” as long as it sticks to the 1990 declaration. His critics maintain
that his appeasement policy will not stop Azerbaijan from demanding further
Armenian concessions and resorting to military action for that purpose.
Russia Detains Azeri Man Wanted By Armenia
• Naira Bulghadarian
Russia - A lawyer for Azerbaijani man Kamil Zeynalli (left) takes a selfie with
him following his arrest in Moscow, .
Police in Russia briefly detained on Wednesday an Azerbaijani man accused by
Armenia of committing war crimes during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The man, Kamil Zeynalli, was apprehended at Moscow’s Domodedovo international
airport early in the morning as he was about to board a flight to Baku. In a
live video message aired on social media during his detention, Zeynalli said
Russian police officers told him that Armenian law-enforcement authorities
issued an arrest warrant for him last May and he must therefore face extradition
hearings in a Russian court.
Zeynalli, who is known as a fitness coach and blogger, was reportedly set free
hours later, after the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow pledged to deal with the
case. He is due to appear before the Russian court on Thursday, according to
Azerbaijani media.
A spokesman for Armenia’s Interior Ministry, Narek Sargsian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service that the Azerbaijani is wanted on murder charges. But he
refused to give any details.
The charges are believed to stem from the execution of two Karabakh Armenian men
captured by Azerbaijani troops in October 2020. A video posted by Azerbaijani
social media users at the time showed Azerbaijani-speaking soldiers shooting and
killing them.
The victims wore Karabakh Armenian uniforms and were bound and draped in
Armenian flags during the execution. Armenian prosecutors identified them as
residents of Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district occupied by the Azerbaijani
army during the six-week war.
In a detailed 2020 analysis published by the investigative website Bellingcat, a
retired British army officer and open source expect suggested that “these two
men were indeed Armenian combatants who were captured between October 9 and
October 15 by Azerbaijani soldiers, possibly special forces, and likely executed
a short time later.” Bellingcat denied Baku’s claims that the video is fake.
Azerbaijani forces were also accused of committing other war crimes. In December
2020, Britain’s The Guardian daily examined gruesome videos that show men in
Azerbaijani army uniforms beheading two elderly civilians recognized by their
Karabakh Armenian relatives and neighbors.
“The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective
villages said,” wrote the paper.
Armenian Tech Entrepreneur Set Free
Armenia - Ashot Hovanesian inaugurates his Synergy International Systems
company's branch in Vanadzor, March 11, 2022.
The founder and chief executive of a major software company was released from
custody on Wednesday three weeks after being arrested in a corruption
investigation openly criticized by some Armenian officials.
Ashot Hovanesian as well as two current and former employees of his
U.S.-registered company Synergy International Systems were charged with helping
senior Ministry of Economy officials rig a procurement tender which was
controversially won by Synergy but invalidated by a court last June.
The indicted officials include Vahan Kerobian, who resigned as economy minister
on February 14 two days before being put under house arrest. Kerobian denies
abusing his powers to illegally disqualify another bidder and grant the
procurement contract to Synergy. Even before his resignation, he publicly
dismissed the same charges brought against several of his subordinates.
Hovanesian has likewise denied through his lawyers assisting in the alleged
abuse of power by the government officials. His arrest has been criticized by
Armenia’s Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE) and some
pro-government lawmakers.
The latter were among about 70 parliament deputies from Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party who petitioned prosecutors to free Hovanesian,
senior Synergy executive Lili Mkrian and her former colleague Ani Gevorgian
pending investigation. The two young women were released from custody on
February 12.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General said Hovanesian, 71, was also set free on
bail because he testified about “circumstances of essential importance for the
criminal proceedings” and is now less likely to obstruct the probe.
In a February 4 statement, the UATE said that “unfounded” detentions of
“business representatives and other prominent persons” are turning Armenia into
a “risky country” for local and foreign tech entrepreneurs.
France’s Macron Reaffirms Support For Armenia
France - French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian make statements to the press at the presidential Elysee Palace, Paris,
Azerbaijan should explicitly recognize Armenia’s borders and enable
Nagorno-Karabakh’s displaced population to return to its homeland “freely and
rapidly,” French President Emmanuel Macron said when he met with Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian in Paris on Wednesday.
“France stands with your country because that’s where the camp of justice,
independence, liberty and international law is,” Macron told Pashinian at the
start of their meeting at the presidential Elysee Palace.
The two leaders were due to attend later in the day an official ceremony to
induct Missak Manouchian, an ethnic Armenian hero of the French Resistance to
Nazi occupation, into France’s national Pantheon. The burial was timed to
coincide with the 80th anniversary of the execution of Manouchian and members of
his Resistance group by the Nazis.
In a statement to the press, Macron said he will discuss with Pashinian the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and what he described as the lingering “risk of an
escalation on the ground.” He called for a “just and lasting peace” between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Azerbaijan should end any ambiguity -- this seems to me more necessary than
ever before -- regarding its respect for the territorial integrity of Armenia
and, in particular, any ambiguity regarding a reference map for working in good
faith on the delimitation and demarcation of its borders [with Armenia,] which
should also serve as the basis for a necessary mutual withdrawal of troops from
the borders.”
Armenia insists on using the most recent Soviet military maps drawn in the
1970s. Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Union Council
President Charles Michel backed this mechanism for the border delimitation in a
joint statement with Pashinian issued last October.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again rejected it in early January, saying
that it favors the Armenian side. Aliyev also renewed his demands for Armenia to
withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages” and open an extraterritorial
corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. Yerevan rejected the demands,
saying that they amount to territorial claims to Armenia.
France, which is home to an influential Armenian community, has stepped up
support for Armenia and criticism of Azerbaijan in recent years, prompting angry
rebuttals from Baku. It initiated an emergency session of the UN Security
Council right after Azerbaijan’s September military offensive in Karabakh
condemned by key EU member states as well as the United States.
Macron said on Wednesday that Baku should comply with a November order by the
International Court of Justice to ensure the security of Karabakh Armenians
willing to return to the depopulated region. He also made clear that Paris “will
continue our defense cooperation with Armenia.”
France became last October the first Western nation to sign major arms deals
with Yerevan. Baku condemned those deals before expelling two French diplomats
in December. Paris ordered the tit-for-tat expulsion of two Azerbaijani
diplomats shortly afterwards.
Pashinian defended the French-Armenian military ties, saying that they are only
aimed at helping Armenia protect its internationally recognized borders.
“Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of all of its neighbors,” he
stressed.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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