Author: Arpi Talalian

Arminfo, Armenia
Aug 24 2018


Chancellor Merkel: I do not consider the issue of Armenian Genocide
recognition in legal framework

Yerevan August 24

Naira Badalian. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman
Empire is not a legal issue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated at
a joint press conference with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
on August 24 in Yerevan.

According to Merkel, Germany remembers the terrible events of 1915
against the Armenian people. As she recalled, in June 2016 the
Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognition and condemnation of the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. "In accordance with the
spirit of this resolution, I have visited Tsitsernakaberd today, and
we realize that terrible events occurred in 1915. This fact should not
be forgotten, this is not a legal issue for me," Merkel said.

                                        Wednesday, 

Pashinian Sends Mixed Signals On Constitutional Changes

        • Emil Danielyan
        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a parliament session chaired 
by speaker Ara Babloyan, 23 May 2018.

Seemingly backtracking on a statement made last week, Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian said on Wednesday that he will not necessarily push for 
constitutional changes meant to facilitate the conduct of fresh parliamentary 
elections in Armenia.

He also denied claims by the country’s former leadership that he is bullying 
the current Armenian parliament and seeking to control the judiciary and stifle 
dissent.

Under Armenia’s constitution, snap general elections can be held only if the 
prime minister resigns and the National Assembly twice fails to elect his or 
her replacement. Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) 
still has the largest faction in the parliament.

Addressing tens of thousands of supporters rallying in Yerevan on Friday, 
Pashinian warned of the possibility of the HHK and other parliamentary forces 
installing another prime minister in case of his resignation. He said his 
political team will therefore draft constitutional amendments that would allow 
the parliament to dissolve itself. He told his supporters to be ready to force 
lawmakers to enact those amendments.

The premier stated on Wednesday, however, that the constitutional changes are 
only “one of the scenarios” considered by his government. “What was said at 
[Yerevan’s Republic] square must be taken into consideration but it is not the 
only option,” he told reporters. “We will have discussions.”

Pashinian’s earlier pledge to try to amend the constitution through popular 
pressure prompted serious concern from senior HHK figures and parliament 
speaker Ara Babloyan in particular. In an extraordinary video address to the 
nation, Babloyan accused Pashinian of subjecting the parliament to “pressure 
and coercion.”

Babloyan also deplored Pashinian’s stern warnings to his political opponents 
and judges who he claimed are linked to Sarkisian’s political team. “Prime 
Minister Pashinian’s speech at the rally contained extremely dangerous messages 
to the constitutional order which simply run counter to Armenia’s international 
obligations to build a democratic and rule-of-law state,” said the speaker.

Babloyan added that he is planning to discuss his “deep concerns” with 
Pashinian, President Armen Sarkissian as well as other Armenian officials and 
foreign diplomats based in Yerevan.

Pashinian said that he is ready to meet with the speaker. “It is very important 
to us that our fellow citizens, including parliament deputies, correctly 
understand our political activities and have no unnecessary fears and 
concerns,” he said.

The 43-year-old former journalist at the same time rejected the HHK criticism, 
saying that the former ruling party’s leadership still does not “understand the 
situation correctly.” “I am not exerting pressure on anyone,” he said. “I am 
just calling on everyone to reckon with the people’s opinion … They must not 
put the people in a situation that would force us to again carry out a 
revolution or the next phase of the revolution.”

In that context, Pashinian claimed to be unfazed by the declared political 
comeback of Robert Kocharian, another former president who is now facing coup 
charges stemming from a 2008 crackdown on anti-government protesters in 
Yerevan. Kocharian is too unpopular to pose a serious threat to the current 
government, he said.

Accordingly, Pashinian stood by his assertions that he is strongly backed by 
the overwhelming majority of Armenians. “I am not in power, the people are in 
power,” he said.




Chinese School Inaugurated In Armenia


Armenia - The newly constructed Chinese-Armenian Friendship School in Yerevan, 
.

China has built a state-of-the-art school in Yerevan where hundreds of Armenian 
children will study the Chinese language in addition to subjects taught in 
secondary and high schools across Armenia.

The Chinese-Armenian Friendship School was inaugurated on Wednesday at a 
ceremony attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian 
Erlong.

Officials said that the Chinese government has spent over $12 million on 
building and equipping the school located in Yerevan’s northern Kanaker suburb. 
It is designed for up to 405 students aged between 10 and 18 who will have 
intensive language courses taught by Chinese teachers.

“Knowledge of Chinese opens up opportunities to access information about a huge 
layer of human history and civilization,” Pashinian said at the ceremony. “I 
hope that this school will become a channel through which Armenians will gain 
more in-depth knowledge of the enormous influence which China and Chinese 
civilization have had on the development of humankind.”

The educational institution, Pashinian went on, is also opening a “new page” in 
Chinese-Armenian relations which should now grow closer. China and Armenia have 
“many common interests” and like “strategic thinking,” he said.

Pashinian said that having many Chinese speakers is also an “economic 
necessity” for Armeniagiven a rising number of Chinese tourists visiting the 
country. Chinese investors are likewise showing a growing interest in the 
Armenian economy, he added.


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian Erlong 
pose for a photograph with students of the Chinese-Armenian Friendship School 
in Yerevan, .

According to official Armenian statistics, China has been Armenia’s second 
largest trading partner for the last several years. Chinese-Armenian trade 
soared by nearly 50 percent, to $342 million, in the first half of this year.

Political relations between the two nations have been cordial ever since 
Armenia gained independence in 1991. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his then 
Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian reported “mutual understanding on issues 
relating to pivotal interests and concerns of the two countries” after holding 
talks in Beijing in 2015.

Beijing further underscored its interest in the South Caucasus country last 
year when it started building a new and much bigger building for its embassy in 
Yerevan. The 40,000-square-meter embassy compound is due to be completed by the 
end of 2019. It will reportedly be the second largest Chinese diplomatic 
mission in the former Soviet Union.

China has provided at least $37 million in economic assistance to Armenia since 
2012. It has also donated hundreds of public buses and ambulance vehicles to 
Yerevan. “The Armenian people highly appreciate that assistance,” said 
Pashinian.




Major Armenian Copper Mine Still In Limbo

        • Karine Simonian

Armenia - Open-pit mining at Teghut copper deposit, 20Dec2014.

Armenia’s second largest copper and molybdenum mine is facing an uncertain 
future eight months after being shut down because of environmental risks.

Vallex Group, a private mining company, sent 1,200 or so employees working at 
the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave in early January, citing the need for 
“planned prophylactic repairs.” Vallex claimed that it needs time to commission 
feasibility studies on its plans to significantly boost production there.

Environment protection activists said, however, that the shutdown is the result 
of growing toxic leaks from the mine contaminating a nearby river. For their 
part, government officials said that the company’s waste disposal facilities 
need major upgrades.

In April, Vallex rehired around 300 of the laid-off employees to work at other 
metal mines belonging to it. The remaining 800 workers, most of them residents 
of nearby villages, are still jobless.

One of them, Haykasar Marukian, said on Wednesday that the Vallex management 
has failed to make good on its promises. “We were told that the company is 
going to resume work, and so people took loans [from banks] to improve their 
living conditions,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “They now have trouble 
repaying those loans.”

According to Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, in order to 
restart mining operations at Teghut Vallex needs substantial investments to 
refurbish its tailings dump which poses a threat to the environment. The 
Liechtenstein-registered company is now trying to secure a fresh loan from the 
Russian bank VTB for that purpose, he said.

“We [the government] will do everything so that those negotiations are 
completed and a solution is found very soon,” Avinian told reporters during a 
visit to the northern Lori province encompassing Teghut.

“We have no solution at the moment,” he said. “Either Vallex will again exploit 
the Teghut mine or a new company will take over.”

VTB had already provided the bulk of $380 million which Vallex claims to have 
spent on building mining and ore-processing facilities at Teghut.

Environmentalists opposed open-pit mining there even before it began in 2014. 
They argued, among other things, that the multimillion-dollar project will lead 
to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of rich forest.

Vallex pledged to plant a new and bigger forest in adjacent areas. It also 
promised to create 1,300 jobs, build new schools and upgrade other 
infrastructure in local communities.




Press Review



“Zhoghovurd” is encouraged by official statistics showing that the Armenian 
economy has continued to grow despite the recent political turmoil in the 
country. But the paper urges Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other 
government officials to be careful in touting the latest figures released by 
Armenia’s Statistical Committee. “The society has long lost faith in official 
statistics because of the former authorities,” it says. “And now a vast segment 
of the society is not inclined to believe these authorities’ figures either and 
has its own standards for gauging the government’s performance. Have their 
living standards improved? Have their incomes risen?”

“Aravot” comments on Pashinian’s revelation that the brother of a former senior 
Armenian official not named by him holds $30 million in a single bank account 
in Armenia. “Having $30 million or even $30 billion in your bank account is not 
a crime in itself,” writes the paper. “It must be proved that the money was 
acquired illegally. If [Pashinian] referred to [Serzh Sarkisian’s brother] 
Aleksandr Sarkisian then nobody will doubt that he would not have accumulated 
such a huge sum had he not been the former president’s brother. But it’s one 
thing to suspect and another to investigate, indict, try and sentence.”

“Hraparak” says lawyers and other pundits are now trying to make sense of 
Pashinian’s plans to create “bodies of transitional justice” in Armenia. The 
paper says that some of them have already spoken out against or in favor of the 
idea even though “nobody has any idea what exactly it involves.” “One does not 
need to have much legal and historical knowledge to realize that no matter how 
much we want it we cannot say that we are in the process of transition from one 
social order to another which necessitates transitional bodies.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that the former ruling HHK and former President 
Robert Kocharian planned a coordinated “attack” on the new government ahead of 
a rally held by Pashinian on Friday. The paper linked to Pashinian says they 
hoped that the rally will not draw a huge crowd. “The August 17 rally 
completely precluded that scenario and a second pre-planned scenario was put in 
motion,” it says. “At the heart of that scenario was parliament speaker Ara 
Babloyan’s  address. The most important part of that speech is that he 
is planning to discuss the existing situation with representatives of foreign 
diplomatic missions. In other words, Kocharian’s team is going to organize 
external pressures on the government. But this is a wrong calculation. No major 
foreign power will even try to blackmail the government enjoying an 
unprecedented level of popular support for the sake of preserving the freedom 
and assets of several persons.”

(Tigran Avetisian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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