Author: Babken Chilingarian

Turkish press: Turkey: Party head calls for democracy in Armenia

Babken Chilingarian
Emin Avundukluoglu   |02.03.2021

ANKARA 

The leader of a major party in Turkey called for democracy and common sense in Armenia on Tuesday.

"Even if the subject is Armenia, we want democracy to prevail. We insistently recommend common and good sense," Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told his party's parliamentary group.

Bahceli urged Armenia to steer clear of coups and stay with democracy.

Chief of General Staff Onik Gasparyan, along with other senior commanders, released a statement last week calling for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.

Pashinyan blasted the military's call as a coup attempt and urged his supporters to take to the streets to resist.

He later announced Gasparyan’s dismissal on Facebook.

The unrest follows the end of a military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan last fall which was widely seen as a victory for the latter.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

During the six week-conflict, which ended with a Russian-brokered truce, Azerbaijan liberated several strategic cities and nearly 300 of its settlements and villages from Armenian occupation.

Before this, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory had been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

S-400 missile defense systems

MHP chief Bahceli also said Turkey should respond according to its own interests to US calls not to use Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems it had purchased.

Underlining that Ankara should not hesitate to use the S-400 systems if faced with a threat, he said: "In our opinion, Ankara's criteria should be valid for the S-400s, not the formulas served by others.

"Moreover, we did not bear all the costs to relegate these weapons to rust in warehouses," he added

Last December, the US imposed sanctions on Turkey over the acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense system.

US officials have voiced opposition to the deal, claiming the S-400s would be incompatible with NATO systems and expose F-35 jets to possible Russian subterfuge.

Turkey, however, stressed that the S-400s would not be integrated into NATO systems, and pose no threat to the alliance or its armaments.

Turkish officials have repeatedly proposed a working group to examine the technical compatibility issue.

The Mystery Of Fly Armenia’s ‘Missing’ Boeing 737 Now In Iran

Babken Chilingarian
Simple Flying
March 2 2021

The Mystery Of Fly Armenia’s ‘Missing’ Boeing 737 Now In Iran

byJoanna Bailey
March 2, 2021

A Boeing 737-300 operated by Fly Armenia has vanished in Iran. The aircraft was supposed to be heading to Ukraine for maintenance ahead of its entry into service with the airline. It deviated from the planned flight path and declared an emergency over Iran; it has not been seen since.
The Mystery Of Fly Armenia’s 'Missing' Boeing 737 Now In Iran – Simple Flying

Where did the 737 go?

On February 19th, a Boeing 737 operated by Fly Armenia left its storage in Tallinn, Estonia, to undergo maintenance ahead of entry into service. The 737-300, registered EK-FAA, departed Tallinn just after 08:00 GMT; its destination, according to Armenian authorities, should have been Hostomel in Ukraine, where it would be brought into shape and returned to the airline at a later date.

But the plane did not fly to Hostomel. Instead, it headed south to Varan, Bulgaria, where it landed at just after midday. That in itself is bizarre, given that Bulgaria, as well as Romania and the Baltic states through which the aircraft passed, are in the EU. The EU has banned Armenian aircraft from flying through its airspace since June last year.

Also bizarre is the lack of tracking data. Searching for the aircraft on various tracking websites under its registration brings up nothing. However, Plane Finder allows for searching via HEX code, a unique number relating to the tracker fitted inside the aircraft, which in this plane’s case is 600011. That shows its trip down to Bulgaria clearly tracked.





Only one subsequent flight is tracked by that HEX number. The following day, a plane with the same transponder left Bulgaria at 09:25 GMT, and flew southeast. A lack of ADB-S data coverage over Turkey meant it was only partially tracked, but the parts available show it was not headed for Hostomel, or to its home in Armenia.


The last little sliver of tracking data we have is that the plane entered Iranian airspace at around 11:43 GMT that day. It has not been seen since.

The Mystery Of Fly Armenia’s 'Missing' Boeing 737 Now In Iran – Simple Flying

On February 23rd, Armenpress reported that the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia was contacted by its counterparts in the UAE and informed that the plane had been hijacked. However, other sources stated that there had been a problem in flight, and that the plane had landed in Tehran as an emergency.

Advertisement:

A former government official, Hakob Tchagaryan, told the publication,

“The plane took off from Tallin, Estonia, and according to the flight plan it was to land in Yerevan. But instead, a decision was made mid-air to fly to the Emirates for technical maintenance. And due to technical problems, it landed in Tehran.”

While the reason for landing in Iran is unconfirmed, the plane has not taken off since. It is not even known for sure which airport it landed at. Both Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini are potential locations, but with limited tracking in that geography, the final destination is inconclusive.

A plane for Caspian Airlines?

Investigations are reportedly ongoing into where exactly this aircraft is and what has become of it. However, reports in PanARMENIAN.Net this week paint a different picture of the fate of the Boeing 737.

The publication states that analyst and expert on US foreign policy Suren Sargsyan claims the aircraft was sold or given to Iran deliberately. Sanctions on Iran prohibit it from purchasing aircraft with US-manufactured parts, making it difficult to obtain new metal for its airlines.

According to Scramble, Iranian media is reporting that a new Boeing 737-300 has arrived for Caspian Airlines, and will be joining the fleet very soon. This would make it less of an emergency or hijacking and more of a delivery flight. Further, the publication says that Fly Armenia’s second aircraft, a 737-400 registered EK-FAB, will also join Caspian Airlines’ fleet soon.

Interestingly, Fly Armenia has removed the 737-300 from its fleet list. The website currently only lists the 737-400 as its aircraft. The company was formed in 2019, but only received its operating license in July 2020. It acquired its first aircraft in November 2020, but has only undertaken cargo flights to Moscow due to the COVID situation.

If the aircraft’s ’emergency landing’ was indeed a means of getting a new plane into Iran, it wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened. In 2015, a similar tactic was used to acquire a fleet of widebody aircraft for Mahan Air.

Four Airbus A340s were bought by Al-Naser Airlines in Iraq, and the airline decided to fly all of them to Kazakhstan for maintenance on the same day. All four A340s declared an emergency above Iran and landed in Tehran, subsequently joining the fleet of Mahan Air.

Factbox – Nikol Pashinyan: from street protester to embattled Armenian PM

Babken Chilingarian
Reuters
Feb 25 2021

By Reuters Staff

YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan finds himself at the centre of a political crisis after the army demanded he resign, a move he said looked like an attempted military coup.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan greets his supporters during a gathering in the centre of Yerevan, Armenia February 25, 2021. Pashinyan warned of an attempted military coup against him after the army demanded he and his government resign. Stepan Poghosyan/Photolure via REUTERS

Here are some highlights from the 45-year-old’s rise to power and the challenges he has faced in his post:

RISE TO POWER

Pashinyan emerged as the leader of a wave of anti-government street protests that rocked Armenia in the spring of 2018.

Initially prompted by the election of former president Serzh Sarksyan as prime minister, the protests quickly began targeting the government’s perceived political cronyism.

Pashinyan, a former journalist and lawmaker, nurtured his image as a politician close to the people, wearing casual clothes and a baseball cap at protests to clash with the formal suits worn by members of the ruling Republican Party.

The rallies, sometimes referred to as Armenia’s Velvet Revolution, forced Sarksyan to resign. Opposition parties then united around Pashinyan to vote him in as prime minister despite resistance from the ruling party.

REFORMS AND CHALLENGES

Pashinyan pledged sweeping reforms to revamp the South Caucasus country’s economy and fight corruption, earning him vast popular support. He fired members of the former political elite and prosecuted former officials for alleged embezzlement.

In December 2018, Pashinyan’s My Step Alliance emphatically won snap parliamentary elections that confirmed his popularity.

Despite support for his reforms, Pashinyan has faced criticism from some members of the military apparatus for allegedly being too soft on certain issues.

His opponents have criticised him for not having done his military service. Some even suggested the trademark camouflage T-shirt Pashinyan wore at street protests was meant to compensate for not having served.

Days after Pashinyan took office, clashes between Armenian and Azeri troops erupted on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan. The clashes were short-lived, but Pashinyan’s detractors criticised him for not having responded more aggressively.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Pashinyan’s political woes spiralled when he agreed last November to a Russian-brokered ceasefire to end six weeks of fighting between ethnic Armenian and Azeri forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The deal that ended the heaviest fighting in the region since the 1990s secured significant territorial gains for Azerbaijan in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated and until recently fully controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Pashinyan said he had been compelled to agree to the peace deal to prevent greater human and territorial losses. The agreement – celebrated as a victory in Azerbaijan – prompted angry crowds to storm government buildings in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

Calls for Pashinyan to resign have grown exponentially since the deal, which many Armenians have branded a betrayal.

Reporting by Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Moscow; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mark Heinrich

Armenian president refuses to fire armed forces chief at center of political crisis

Babken Chilingarian
National Post, Canada
Feb 27 2021
Author of the article:
Reuters
Nvard Hovhannisyan and Artem Mikryukov
Publishing date:

Feb 27, 2021  •  2 hours ago  

YEREVAN — Armenian President Armen Sarkissian refused to fire the head of the country’s armed forces on Saturday, intensifying a standoff between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the army over what Pashinyan said was an attempted coup to remove him.

Pashinyan dismissed Chief of General Staff Onik Gasparyan on Thursday, but his sacking needed the formal approval of the president – who rejected the move as unconstitutional and said the army should be kept out of politics.

| National Post

Hundreds of opposition supporters, who had been rallying in the center of the capital, Yerevan, welcomed Sarkissian’s decision with cheers and applause after it was announced by the president’s office.

Pashinyan criticized the president’s move, saying in a statement on Facebook that “this decision doesn’t contribute to the solution of the current situation at all.”

Gasparyan has not commented in public about the coup accusations.

The army had called for the resignation of Pashinyan after what critics say was the government’s disastrous handling of a bloody six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

Pashinyan has faced calls to quit before, but it was the first time the military had called publicly for his resignation.

| National Post

Pashinyan is entitled to send the decree back to the president for a second time, at which point Sarkissian should either sign it or send it to the constitutional court, presidential spokeswoman Zoya Barseghyan told Reuters.

Pashinyan said he would resubmit the decree.

If Sarkissian neither signs the decree nor sends it to the constitutional court, the decree comes into force by default.

“Without question, the armed forces must maintain neutrality in political matters,” the presidential office said in a statement on its website.

“Obviously, due to the war, today more than ever the staff of the armed forces need the support and attention of us all.” (Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Matthias Williams and Helen Popper)

Armenia’s Pashinyan to re-submit to president proposal to dismiss General Staff chief

Babken Chilingarian
TASS, Russia
Feb 27 2021

President's step does not contribute to solving the current situation, he said

YEREVAN, February 27. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has submitted again to President Armen Sarkissian the proposal to dismiss Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan, Pashinyan wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

"The President decided to send back to the Prime Minister a draft decree on dismissal of the chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces. This step does not contribute to solving the current situation. I am resending to the President the request to dismiss the chief of the General Staff, expecting it to be signed in accordance with the established procedure," he noted.

Earlier in the day, President Armen Sarkissian sent back to the prime minister his order to dismiss Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan, pointing out that the decree, according to lawyers, was unconstitutional. The president added that he was not supporting either of the political forces and that the current crisis cannot be solved with frequent reshuffles. After Pashinyan had re-submitted his proposal, the president has three days to either sign the decree or to appeal it at the Constitutional Court.

On February 25, mass rallies of Pashinyan’s supporters and critics began in Armenia after the General Staff of the Armed Forces had called for the resignation of prime minister and his cabinet. The statement was signed by Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan, his deputies and other military top brass. Pashinyan slammed the move as a military coup attempt and announced his decision to dismiss the General Staff chief. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who, under the Constitution, is in charge of appointing and dismissing the chief of the General Staff at the prime minister’s initiative, has not signed that order yet.

Armenia Police urge to observe public order, call for restraint

Babken Chilingarian

Tweet
Save

Share

 14:44,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The Police of Armenia released a statement on the ongoing political developments in the country, urging the citizens to observe the public order.

“The Police of Armenia ensure the preservation of public order and security in accordance with its functions.

Due to the current situation the Police urge everyone to strictly observe the public order, show vigilance, restraint and not to give in to provocations”, the statement says.

On February 25 the General Staff of the Armenian Forces of Armenia issued a statement, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Cabinet.

In his turn Pashinyan commented on the statement, calling it as a “military coup attempt”. He invited all his supporters to the Republic Square to discuss the ongoing developments. Currently Pashinyan is marching across Yerevan with his supporters.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Opposition MP urges Armenia’s president not to sign Pashinyan’s decree to dismiss army chief –

Babken Chilingarian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 25 2021

MP Edmon Marukyan from the opposition Bright Armenia Party on Thursday called on President Armen Sarkissian not to sign Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decree to dismiss Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan.

The Armenian premier sacked Gasparyan shortly after the army’s top brass demanded his and his government’s resignation in a statement earlier on Thursday. The statement came after the PM's decision to dismiss Gasparyan’s first deputy, Tiran Khacharyan.

“The recent moves of the prime minister were aimed at decapitating the already worn out army by dismissing the generals of the General Staff, which is absolutely unacceptable in post-war Armenia,” Marukyan wrote on Facebook.

“I urge President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian not to sign Nikol Pashinyan's decree, to preserve the Armenian Armed Forces together with its generals, who now need the support of all of us in restoring the army,” the lawmaker said. 

Thousands gather at Liberty square for the opposition rally despite unfavorable weather

Babken Chilingarian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 20 2021

The rally organised by opposition Homeland Salvation Movement, a coalition of 17 opposition parties, have started in Yerevan despite unfavorable weather. Thousands have gathered in central Liberty square to demand the resignation of Pm Pashinyan and the ruling force. 

Heavy police forces are deployed around the square and central part of the city. A number of political, public and cultural figures have urged the people to join today’s rally. 

Miserable attempts by authorities to silence us will fail – VETO movement

Babken Chilingarian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 20 2021

VETO social-political movement issued on Saturday a statement in connection with the detention of its founder Narek Malyan. As reported earlier, a group of plainclothes police officers detained opposition activists Malyan ahead of the nationwide rally at 15.00 in the Liberty square. 

"Yesterday's developments came to show that the capitulant authorities will continue resorting to transgressions to suppress the freedom of speech and persecute their political opponents," the statement said , referring to the detention of number of opposition activists and public figures by the country's National Security Service (NSS), political scientists Anzhela Elibekova, Karen Bekaryan as well as former National Assembly Chief of Staff Ara Saghatelyan among them. 

"We assure that miserable attempts to silence us will fail," the statement added, calling on the citizens to join the rally at 14.00 at Liberty square where the members of the movement plan to stage a futuristic performance named "The execution of Ceaușescu or death to the traitors." 

 

Armenian President, British Minister highlight OSCE MG’s role in NK conflict settlement

Babken Chilingarian

 18:09,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian received Wendy Morton, the UK Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on February 17.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office, welcoming the working visit of the British Minister to Armenia, President Sarkissian noted that the two countries have a great potential for developing partnership.

The sides referred to the post-war situation in Artsakh and addressed regional security and stability issues. The sides highlighted the role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ role for the final and lasting settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Among several priority issues, including those of humanitarian nature, President Sarkissian assessed the issue of undelayed return of Armenian POWs and other detainees by Azerbaijan of key importance. The President also referred to the protection of the Armenian historical heritage in the territories that have appeared under Azerbaijani control.

During the meeting the sides also discussed COVID-19 situation and the cooperation between the two countries for the prevention of the spread of the virus. The Armenian President and the British Minister assessed the cooperation in the spheres of IT and high technologies, AI, health, science, education and energy as promising.