Author: Christine Harutyunian

President Sarkissian will not sign law on amendments of the electoral code

Christine Harutyunian

Save

Share

 17:12,

YEREVAN, APRIL 17, ARMENPRESS. The Administration of the President of Armenia issued a statement over the law on ‘’making amendments in the Constitutional law of the electoral code of the Republic of Armenia.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office, the law was submitted for the President’s signing on April 2, 2021.

The President discussed it with the heads of a number of parties, political figures, representative of the Central Electoral Commission, listened to their positions and remarks.

The examinations of the law by the President’s administration have brought to the conclusion that the law is not problematic in terms of constitutionality. But the President has his own observations over the law – it has been passed by the voting of only the political majority of the National Assembly.

President Sarkissian has stated numerous times that early parliamentary elections aimed at the overcoming of the crisis should take place following the procedure of comprehensive amendments of the Constitution and the Electoral Code, which demands reasonable time and according to the democratic principles, should be implemented listening to and considering the opinions shaped as a result of broad public and political debates.

According to the Venice Commission, amendments in the electoral legislation should take place at least one year before the elections. The Venice Commission has also stated its position that the stability of the electoral system is one of the most important principles, and that it is important to have enough time to hold in-depth public discussions on amendments to the Electoral Code with the participation of all stakeholders.

The law replaces one type of proportional electoral system with another.

Given the above-mentioned, the President of the Republic will not sign the law, but will not apply to the Constitutional Court for deciding its compliance with the Constitution.

Joe Biden must recognize the genocide of Armenians — both in the past and present

Christine Harutyunian
The Denver Post, CO

By Cole Wist and Simon Maghakyan |
PUBLISHED: at 10:36 a.m. | UPDATED: at 1:15 p.m.

Following …

Despite being widely considered by academia as the first modern genocide and the Nazis’ template for the Holocaust, the WWI-era Armenian Genocide remains officially unrecognized by the White House.

This is largely because of decades of persistent protest by the government of Turkey, which categorically denies the monumental crime committed by its Ottoman predecessors in erasing the existence of the indigenous Christian peoples of Asia Minor, consisting of several million Armenians, Assyrians, and Anatolian Greeks in 1915-1923.

AP Photo

Medical workers transport a wounded in a hospital during shelling by Azerbaijan’s artillery in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. Nagorno-Karabakh officials said Azerbaijani forces hit Stepanakert, the region’s capital, and the nearby town of Shushi with the Smerch long-range multiple rocket systems, killing one civilian and wounding two more.

This month, however, President Joe Biden, a long-time advocate for Armenian Genocide awareness, has a unique opportunity to formally recognize the first modern genocide. Such recognition would be a welcome move beyond the obvious moral and historical reasons to acknowledge the atrocity.

Just months ago, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, encouraged and aided neighboring Azerbaijan to attempt — and partly succeed — at repeating the Armenian Genocide in a post-Soviet region called Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh.

Starting on September 27, 2020, amid a global pandemic and the U.S. presidential election, Turkey-aided Azerbaijan launched a full-scale invasion on Artsakh, which Azerbaijan considers an occupied territory, ethnically cleansing much of the region from its indigenous Armenian community. This recent assault on Armenians arguably triggered other aggression in the name of “territorial integrity” against minorities, including the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. (Despite Azerbaijan’s insistence that Artsakh is its territory, Colorado rightfully recognized the Republic of Artsakh in 2019.)

During the 2020 onslaught on Artsakh, Turkey supplied Azerbaijan with combat UAVs, F16 fighter jets, Syrian mercenaries, and military personnel. War crimes included the precision air bombing of the main Holy Savior Cathedral of Shushi, twice, where civilians had taken refuge. While capturing and ethnically cleansing much of the region, Azerbaijan’s Turkey-supported army beheaded elderly Armenian civilians who hadn’t escaped.

It is not too late for President Biden to support Artsakh’s right to existence, including by advocating for a humanitarian aid package. Despite winning the war in early November and ethnically cleansing Armenians from every square inch of lands taken over, Turkey-backed Azerbaijan has doubled down on its belligerence against Armenians, including by refusing to release nearly 200 Armenian prisoners of war and by engaging in the systematic erasure of Armenian monuments.

Cultural destruction is particularly painful for Armenians, who have spent the last 1,700 years creating a unique Christian culture, including the majestic khachkar (cross-stone), an intricately carved statuesque memorial. The world’s largest collective of medieval khachkars was the renowned cemetery of Djulfa (Jugha), once home to 10,000 medieval headstones, which was placed under Azerbaijan’s domain by a 1921 Turkish-Soviet treaty.

In December 2005, Azerbaijan deployed army platoons to remote Djulfa to eradicate the sacred site. Turkish and Azerbaijani officials claim that Armenians are not indigenous peoples. So Djulfa, they now say, never existed to begin with.

Denver residents and visitors have a unique opportunity to get a glimpse of what one of the 10,000 medieval khachkars of Djulfa looked like. The Colorado state Capitol khachkar on the northeast grounds of the statehouse is a Djulfa replica. It was unveiled on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015 and commemorates the victims of all crimes against humanity — from genocide to slavery.

AP Photo

Men examine a bomb crater near the Holy Savior Cathedral after shelling by Azerbaijan’s forces during a military conflict in Shushi, outside Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh continued on Thursday, as the latest cease-fire agreement brokered by the U.S. failed to halt the flare-up of a decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Colorado has a long history of recognizing and commemorating the Armenian Genocide. In 2018, Colorado designated a portion of Arapahoe Road in Arapahoe County as the Sardarapat Armenian Memorial Highway. Colorado K-12 schools will soon require teaching regarding the Armenian Genocide, along with the Holocaust. This is not just world history. It’s also our own, American, history because in 1915-1930, scores of Americans volunteered for the Near East Relief, the first U.S. international humanitarian outreach, created to save and nurture over 100,000 orphans of the Armenian Genocide.

Ahead of April 24, the day when Armenian communities across the world and in Colorado will commemorate the Armenian Genocide for the first time since the recent Artsakh war, President Biden is uniquely positioned to right the bipartisan White House wrong of playing immoral politics with the first modern genocide. The Congress, which officially recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2019, has made such acknowledgment by the White House easier.

For President Biden’s recognition to truly matter, it must include both acknowledgment of and effective actions addressing the Armenian Genocide’s ongoing consequences, including Turkey-Azerbaijan’s intent genocidal intent to end Armenian existence in Artsakh. President Biden should recognize the Armenian Genocide’s past and present.

Cole Wist is an attorney with the law firm Squire Patton Boggs and a former Republican state representative from Arapahoe County. Simon Maghakyan is a lecturer in international relations at CU Denver and a community leader.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

RFE/RL – Opposition Leader Rules Out Support For Pashinian’s Reelection

Christine Harutyunian
Ապրիլ 13, 2021
  • Karlen Aslanian

Armenia – Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with opposition leader Edmon Marukian, December 29, 2020

Edmon Marukian, the leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), on Tuesday ruled out a power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian that would enable the latter to remain in power after snap general elections expected in June.

Marukian said that the LHK, which is one of the two opposition parties represented in Armenia’s current parliament, would also not join a coalition government headed by former President Robert Kocharian, another major election contender.

“During the election campaign we will be telling our people that we agreed to these elections … not for the sake of Nikol Pashinian’s reelection,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “What’s the point of holding the elections if he is to get reelected?”

Asked whether his party could strike a post-election coalition deal with Pashinian, Marukian said: “We rule out any coalition under the premiership of Nikol Pashinian or Robert Kocharian.”

Marukian said that his party is open to other “compromise solutions” that would not lead to Pashinian’s reelection as prime minister or Kocharian’s return to power.

“We need to ensure that no political force has an outright majority in the new parliament,” he stressed. “That’s the only way to ensure that nobody can be single-handedly elected as prime minister.”

Pashinian has pledged to hold the elections in June to resolve a continuing political crisis sparked by last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He has dismissed calls for his resignation made by virtually all opposition groups.

Kocharian said last week that he will lead an electoral alliance comprising at least two opposition parties. The ex-president, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, predicted earlier this year a “bipolar” parliamentary race, implying that he will be Pashinian’s main challenger.

Marukian last week urged both Kocharian and Pashinian to drop out of the unfolding race. He said Armenia needs to follow a “third path” represented by his party.

Russian, Azerbaijani military in close dialogue over debris of Iskander missiles — Kremlin

Christine Harutyunian
TASS, Russia
On April 2, the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action demonstrated debris of tactical missiles Iskander, which, Azerbaijan argues, were used by Armenia during hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh in the autumn of 2020
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The issue of Baku’s claims that some debris of Iskander-M missiles have been found in Nagorno-Karabakh is being closely discussed by the Russian and Azerbaijani military, Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told the media on Tuesday.

"Military officials are engaged in a close dialogue. All corresponding questions are being discussed," the Kremlin spokesman said when asked if the issue of Iskander missiles’ debris, reportedly found in Nagorno-Karabakh, was raised in a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

Peskov answered in the negative, when asked if Putin and Aliyev discussed Russian helicopter Mi-24 that was shot down over Armenia near the border with Azerbaijan in November.

Aliyev said that on April 1 he discussed with the Russian president the reported discovery of debris of Iskander-M missiles in the city of Shusha. Also, he said that on April 4 Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry sent an official query on the issue to Russian counterparts.

On April 2, the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action demonstrated debris of tactical missiles Iskander, which, Azerbaijan argues, were used by Armenia during hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh in the autumn of 2020. On the same day, the Russian presidential spokesman said that Iskander missiles were not used during the escalation of the conflict in the region in the autumn of 2020.

Artsakh to apply to Russian peacekeeping mission over Azeri machine gun fire at farmers

Christine Harutyunian

Save

Share

 10:31,

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh’s police say they will apply to the Russian peacekeeping command regarding the latest incident when Azerbaijani military servicemen opened cross-border automatic gunfire at farmers in Artsakh.

The Interior Ministry spokesperson Hunan Tadevosyan told ARMENPRESS that police have prepared materials and a protocol for submitting to the peacekeepers.

“Around 09:40, April 7, Azerbaijani [servicemen] started shooting from the Azeri-occupied Sargsashen village in the direction of 65-year-old Shirin Sargsyan and 36-year-old Vitaly Harutyunyan, residents of the Sarushen village who were farming in the fields of Sarushen. The Azerbaijani side used a machine gun, and the left-side windshield of Harutyunyan’s tractor was broken. Detectives of Askeran Regional Police have questioned the farmers, photographed the scene and the tractor, relevant materials were prepared and will be presented to the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. In addition, at the order of Interior Minister Karen Sargsyan, police patrol is on a heightened regime at the Shosh-Sarushen-Karmir Shuka highway. More police checkpoints will be added for 24/7 monitoring if needed,” Tadevosyan said.

Despite the incident, the farmers continue working in the fields.

Shirin Sargsyan and Vitaly Harutyunyan both escaped unharmed from the incident.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Artsakh records 2 new cases of COVID-19 in one day

Christine Harutyunian

Save

Share

 12:11,

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. 2 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Artsakh in the past 24 hours, the ministry of healthcare reports.

50 COVID-19 tests were conducted on April 11.

33 infected patients receive treatment at hospital, the others – at home.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Republic has risen to 2,552.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

How Jews in Palestine were persecuted during the 1915 Armenian Genocide

Christine Harutyunian
Jewish News Syndicate
April 9 2021

Uzay Bulut
Ottoman Turkish authorities aimed to Islamize the whole region by eliminating non-Muslim populations: Christians, Jews and Yezidis—groups that continue to be targeted in and outside of Turkey today.

(April 9, 2021 / JNS) April 24 marks the 105th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey. As Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities notes,

“On April 24 of 1915, leaders and intellectuals within the Armenian community of Constantinople were detained and interned. This event initiated a longer series of arrests that resulted in the imprisonment, relocation, and/or murder of countless notable Armenians across the Ottoman Empire over the course of the subsequent months. Soon thereafter, Ottoman authorities commenced internment, displacement, and deportation actions against the general Armenian population. For their part, Armenian men were most often put into servitude at a variety of forced labor camps before facing arbitrary executions. Women, children, and elderly members of the Armenian community, by contrast, were made to participate in ‘death marches.’ These forced marches led victims on protracted journeys through what is now the Syrian desert with many subjected to torture and rape in addition to death through attrition.

“While estimates on the total number of those who perished can vary, between 1,000,000 and 1,800,000 Armenians are known to have lost their lives as a result of the genocide. This number amounts to approximately 70% of the region’s Armenian community. The scale and cruelty of the atrocities served as one of the principal inspirations for the creation of the word ‘genocide’ by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin and, by extension, the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

A significant but widely unknown fact is that not only Greek and Assyrian Christians of Ottoman Turkey, but many Jews of Palestine were also targeted, persecuted and deported during the Armenian Genocide.

A thoroughly researched book by Dr. Andrew Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, exposes the persecution and mass expulsions that the Jewish population in Palestine endured as a result of the orders of Djemal Pasha, an Ottoman military leader. He was also one of the three Pashas who ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I and organized the genocide. He writes:

“During World War I in Palestine, between 1915 and 1917, The New York Times published a series of reports on Ottoman-inspired and local Arab Muslim-assisted anti-Semitic persecution that affected Jerusalem and the other major Jewish population centers. For example, by the end of January 1915, seven thousand Palestinian Jewish refugees—men, women and children—had fled to British-controlled Alexandria, Egypt. Three New York Times accounts from January and February 1915 provide these details of the earlier period.

‘On Jan. 8, Djemal Pasha ordered the destruction of all Jewish colonization documents within a fortnight under penalty of death. … In many cases land settled by Jews was handed over to Arabs, and wheat collected by the relief committee in Galilee was confiscated in order to feed the army. The Muslim peasantry are being armed with any weapons discovered in Jewish hands. … The United States cruiser Tennessee has been fitted up on the lines of a troop ship for the accommodation of about 1,500 refugees, and is plying regularly between Alexandria and Jaffa. … A proclamation issued by the commander of the Fourth [Turkish] Army Corps describes Zionism as a revolutionary anti-Turkish movement which must be stamped out. Accordingly, the local governing committees have been dissolved and the sternest measures have been taken to insure that all Jews who remain on their holdings shall be Ottoman subjects. … Nearly all the [7,000] Jewish refugees in Alexandria come from Jerusalem and other large towns, among them being over 1,000 young men of the artisan class who refused to become Ottomans.’

“By April of 1917, conditions deteriorated further for Palestinian Jewry, which faced threats of annihilation from the Ottoman government. Many Jews were in fact deported, expropriated, and starved, in an ominous parallel to the genocidal deportations of the Armenian dhimmi communities throughout Anatolia. Indeed, as related by Yair Auron,

‘Fear of the Turkish actions was bound up with alarm that the Turks might do to the Jewish community in Palestine, or at least to the Zionist elements within it, what they had done to the Armenians. This concern was expressed in additional evidence from the early days of the war, from which we can conclude that the Armenian tragedy was known in the Yishuv [Jewish community in Palestine].’

“A mass expulsion of the Jews of Jerusalem, although ordered twice by Djemal Pasha, was averted only through the efforts of the Ottoman Turks’ World War I allies, the German government, which sought to avoid international condemnation. The eight thousand Jews of Jaffa, however, were expelled quite brutally, a cruel fate the Arab Muslims and the Christians of the city did not share. Moreover, these deportations took place months before the small pro-British Nili spy ring of Zionist Jews was discovered by the Turks in October 1917 and its leading figures killed. A report by United States consul Garrels (in Alexandria, Egypt) describing the Jaffa deportation of early April 1917 (published in the June 3, 1917 edition of The New York Times), included these details of the Jews’ plight:

‘The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population. Even German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian Jews were ordered to leave the town. Mohammedans and Christians were allowed to remain provided they were holders of individual permits. The Jews who sought the permits were refused. On April 1 the Jews were ordered to leave the country within 48 hours. Those who rode from Jaffa to Petach Tikvah had to pay from 100 to 200 francs instead of the normal fare of 15 to 25 francs. The Turkish drivers practically refused to receive anything but gold, the Turkish paper note being taken as the equivalent of 17.50 piastres for a note of 100 piastres.

‘Already about a week earlier 300 Jews had been deported in a most cruel manner from Jerusalem. Djemal Pasha openly declared that the joy of the Jews on the approach of the British forces would be short-lived, as he would make them share the fate of the Armenians.

‘In Jaffa, Djemal Pasha cynically assured the Jews that it was for their own good and ‘interests that he drove them out. Those who had not succeeded in leaving on April 1 were graciously accorded permission to remain at Jaffa over the Easter holiday.

‘Thus 8,000 were evicted from their houses and not allowed to carry off their belongings or provisions. Their houses were looted and pillaged even before the owners had left. A swarm of pillaging Bedouin women, Arabs with donkeys, camels, etc., came like birds of prey and proceeded to carry off valuables and furniture.

‘The Jewish suburbs have been totally sacked under the paternal eye of the authorities. By way of example, two Jews from Yemen were hanged at the entrance of the Jewish suburb of Tel Aviv in order to clearly indicate the fate in store for any Jew who might be so foolish as to oppose the looters. The roads to the Jewish colonies north of Jaffa are lined with thousands of starving Jewish refugees. The most appalling scenes of cruelty and robbery are reported by absolutely reliable eyewitnesses. Dozens of cases are reported of wealthy Jews who were found dead in the sandhills around Tel Aviv. In order to drive off the bands of robbers preying on the refugees on the roads, the young men of the Jewish villages organized a body of guards to watch in turn the roads. These guards have been arrested and maltreated by the authorities.

‘The Mohammedan population has also left the town recently, but they are allowed to live in the orchards and country houses surrounding Jaffa and are permitted to enter the town daily to look after their property, but not a single Jew has been allowed to return to Jaffa.

‘The same fate awaits all Jews in Palestine. Djemal Pasha is too cunning to order cold-blooded massacres. His method is to drive the population to starvation and to death by thirst, epidemics, etc., which according to himself, are merely calamities sent by God.’

“Auron cites a very tenable hypothesis put forth at that time in a journal of the British Zionist movement as to why the looming slaughter of the Jews of Palestine did not occur—the advance of the British army (from immediately adjacent Egypt) and its potential willingness ‘to hold the military and Turkish authorities directly responsible for a policy of slaughter and destruction of the Jews—may have averted this disaster.”

Jews were not the only non-Christians targeted during the genocide. “In addition to the Armenians,” writes Dr. Maria Six-Hohenbalken, “demographically smaller groups of Christian denominations, as well as non-Christian groups such as the Yezidi, were targeted by the politics of annihilation. It is nearly impossible to know the number of the victims; about 12,000 Yezidis managed to find refuge in Armenia, where they established a diasporic community in the Soviet realm.”

During the genocide, Ottoman Turkish authorities aimed to Islamize the whole region by eliminating non-Muslim populations: Christians, Jews and Yezidis. These groups continue to be targeted both in and outside of Turkey today. An effective way to end these abuses and create a region where persecuted communities are safe and equal is for Turkey and international governments to recognize the 1915 genocide, and honor all of its victims and their descendants.

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara. She is currently a research student at the MA Woodman-Scheller Israel Studies International Program of Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 04/02/2021

Christine Harutyunian 
                                        Friday, April 2, 2021

Prosecutors Reluctant To Drop Coup Charges Against Kocharian

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian talks to his lawyers during his 
trial, Yerevan, April 2, 2021.

Prosecutors have refused to drop coup charges against former President Robert 
Kocharian that have been declared unconstitutional by Armenia’s Constitutional 
Court.

Kocharian as well as two retired generals are prosecuted under Article 300.1 of 
the Armenian Criminal Code dealing with “overthrow of the constitutional order.” 
The accusation rejected by them as politically motivated stems from the 2008 
post-election unrest in Yerevan that left ten people dead.

The current Criminal Code was enacted in 2009. The previous code, which was in 
force during the dramatic events of March 2008, had no clauses on “overthrow of 
the constitutional order” and contained instead references to “usurpation of 
state power.”

The Constitutional Court last week backed defense lawyers’ arguments that that 
Article 300.1 cannot be used retroactively against Kocharian and the other 
defendants.

Citing the court ruling, the lawyers have demanded that the Anna Danibekian, a 
Yerevan judge presiding over their two-year trial, throw out the coup charges.

Trial prosecutors objected to the demand on Friday. One of them, Gevorg 
Baghdasarian, revealed that Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian has appealed to the 
Constitutional Court to also declare unconstitutional legal provisions that do 
not allow the prosecutors to alter the accusations leveled against the 
defendants.

Davtian insisted in his appeal that Kocharian and retired Generals Seyran 
Ohanian and Yuri Khachaturov must be prosecuted for what they did in March 2008 
because their actions contained “elements not allowed by the Criminal Code.”

Baghdasarian said Danibekian should therefore suspend the trial pending a 
Constitutional Court ruling on Davtian’s appeal.

Kocharian’s lawyers rejected the prosecutors’ demand as illegal. They insisted 
that the presiding judge must end the coup trial altogether.

Danibekian responded by saying that she will announce her decision on Tuesday.

Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, also stands accused of 
bribe-taking. He strongly denies that accusation as well.



Moscow Hopes For Pre-Election Calm In Armenia

        • Heghine Buniatian

RUSSIA -- A view of Kremlin' Grand Kremlin Palace, towers, churches and frozen 
Moskva (Moscow) river in Moscow, February 14, 2018

Russia hopes that political tensions in Armenia will not boil over in the run-up 
to snap parliamentary elections expected in June, a senior Russian diplomat said 
in an interview published on Friday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told the “Novoye Vremya” Armenian 
newspaper that while Moscow considers the elections Armenia’s internal affair it 
“cannot stay indifferent to what is happening in a friendly country.”

“We call on all political forces in the republic to show restraint and look for 
reasonable compromises to consolidate Armenian society. We express hope that 
during the pre-election period everything will go peacefully and within the 
framework of the constitution and serve as a starting point for achieving 
long-term stability in Armenia,” he said when asked whether Moscow supports any 
of the Armenian election contenders.

The Kremlin confirmed, meanwhile, that Russian President Vladimir Putin and 
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian are scheduled to meet in Moscow on April 
7. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the upcoming Armenian 
elections will be on the agenda of their talks.

Pashinian announced on March 18 plans to hold the elections following renewed 
opposition protests against his rule which were sparked by Armenia’s defeat in 
last year’s war with Azerbaijan.

The Armenian military’s top brass added its voice to opposition demands for 
Pashinian’s resignation in an unprecedented statement issued on February 25. The 
prime minister condemned the statement as a coup attempt.

Moscow expressed concern at the deepening political crisis in Armenia. Putin 
discussed it with Pashinian in a phone call later on February 25.

In recent months, prominent members of Russia’s large Armenian community, among 
them Kremlin-linked media figures and wealthy businessmen, have also called for 
Pashinian’s resignation. Their statements have fuelled more speculation about 
Putin’s distrust of Pashinian.

Rudenko insisted, however, that Russian-Armenian relations have been “developing 
dynamically at various levels and regardless of any external or internal 
developments.” He argued in particular that Putin and Pashinian had more than 60 
phone calls last year.

Most of those conversations apparently took place during the autumn war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire.



New High-Tech Industry Minister Named


Armenia - Hayk Chobanian.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has replaced Armenia’s Minister of High-Tech 
Industry Hakob Arshakian who resigned on Wednesday almost two weeks after 
assaulting a journalist at a restaurant in Yerevan.

Arshakian’s successor, Hayk Chobanian, has served as governor of northern Tavush 
province for the last two years.

Pashinian announced his decision to appoint Chobanian as the new minister of 
high-tech industry during a cabinet meeting held on Thursday. President Armen 
Sarkissian formalized the appointment with a decree signed on Friday.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Pashinian praised Arshakian’s track record but 
did not comment on the reason for his resignation.

Arshakian and his wife dined at a Yerevan restaurant on March 18 when he was 
approached by Paylak Fahradian, the editor of the Irakanum.am news website. The 
latter asked the minister to explain why he is not at work. Footage from a 
security camera showed Arshakian hitting Fahradian in the face and damaging his 
laptop computer moments later.

Arshakian apologized to the journalist several days after the incident. In a 
statement issued on Wednesday, he said he will step down because he believes it 
is “unacceptable for an official to use violence against any citizen.”

Arshakian, 35, is a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. He has 
held the ministerial post since October 2018.



Russia In Fresh Talks With Armenia, Azerbaijan

        • Aza Babayan

Russia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Armenian 
counterpart Aya Ayvazian in Moscow, April 1, 2021.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed with his Armenian and 
Azerbaijani counterparts the implementation of Russian-brokered agreements to 
stop the war in Nagorno-Karabakh during separate talks held in Moscow late on 
Thursday.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the three ministers touched upon 
“humanitarian” issues and the “unblocking of economic and transport links” in 
the region.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian was cited by his office as telling Lavrov 
that Azerbaijan is continuing to violate the ceasefire agreement brokered by 
Moscow on November 9. Ayvazian singled out Baku’s refusal to free more than 100 
Armenian prisoners of war and civilians remaining in Azerbaijani custody.

The truce accord calls for the restoration of transport links between Armenia 
and Azerbaijan. Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Azerbaijani counterpart 
Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian decided to set up a 
trilateral “working group” for that purpose when they met in Moscow on January 
11.

The group co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states has held 
several meetings since January 30. Its Russian co-chair, Alexei Overchuk, met 
with Aliyev and Pashinian in Baku and Yerevan on Thursday.

Aliyev reportedly praised the trilateral group, saying that it has already 
achieved concrete results. He also told Overchuk that the risk of a renewed 
escalation of the Karabakh conflict is now minimal.

Aliyev and Putin spoke by phone later on Thursday. According to the Kremlin, 
they both were satisfied with the work of the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task 
force.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

ANCA Washington Summer Internship Application Deadline Extended to April 15

Christine Harutyunian

April 1, 2021



Join the hundreds of university students who have gotten hands-on Armenian American advocacy training through the ANCA Leo Sarkisian and Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Internship programs.

Leo Sarkisian Summer Internship and Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Fellowship Will Explore Hybrid Virtual/In-Washington, DC Options  

WASHINGTON—University students interested in advancing Armenian American policy priorities and experiencing federal-level pro-Armenian advocacy firsthand are encouraged to apply to the Armenian National Committee of America Leo Sarkisian Summer Internship (LSI) and Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Fellowship by April 15.

The eight-week sessions will run from June 14th to August 6, 2021. Detailed information and online application forms are available at anca.org/internship. Students looking for internship opportunities participating in the UCDC Program, CalState in DC, and Pepperdine University DC Programs are also welcome to apply for summer positions at the ANCA.  The ANCA summer program will begin on a virtual basis, with the possibility of a hybrid virtual/in-Washington, DC experience based on COVID-19 health considerations.

“The ANCA, building on years of on-line engagement, took our summer internship fully virtual last year, keeping our students safe while also developing best-practices for expanded Armenian American activism,” said ANCA Program Director Alex Manoukian.  “This year, we’ll continue to reap the benefits of virtual programs while exploring a hybrid-model to offer a hands-on Washington, DC experience.”

The 2020 Leo Sarkisian and Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Summer interns with ANCA staff members Aram Hamparian, Tereza Yerimyan, Sipan Ohannesian, and Nerses Semerjian

The ANCA’s LSI Summer Internship provides participants a unique opportunity to engage in the public policy issues in the nation’s capital but also allows them to network with the ANCA’s vast network of ANCA Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway alumni and LSI alumni residing in the DC area and across the country. For more than three decades, it has been the Armenian American community’s signature advocacy training program, preparing hundreds of leaders who actively advance ANCA policy priorities on campuses and in communities nationwide.

“ANCA’s longstanding LSI Program has served as an advocacy bootcamp for hundreds of promising Armenian students for over three decades, further strengthening our grassroots capacity throughout the country while providing a meaningful and enriching professional experience to the program participants in Washington, DC,” remarked ANCA Western Region Executive Director Armen Sahakyan. “I highly recommend students interested in international affairs, political science, media, and related fields to apply for this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

The 2020 ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship and Maral Melkonian Fellowship participants encouraged broad-based civic outreach to Senators and Representatives in support of continued U.S. funding for life-saving demining and rehabilitation services to the people of Artsakh and helped ramp up community advocacy during Azerbaijan’s July attacks on the Tavush region of Armenia. For the first time, the 2020 program included participants from the United Kingdom, enriching the growing and vibrant ANC advocacy efforts there.

“Training the next generation of activists is of the utmost importance to the region. In an effort to support this goal, the ANCA Eastern Region established the ANCA Eastern Region ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship Endowment Fund to secure the financial future of the region’s involvement in the LSI program as we continue to equip our youth activists with the tools necessary to continue the work of Hai Tahd,” said Tamar Gregorian, ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director. “As a former LSI intern myself, I can attest to the unforgettable experience that the program provides including personal and professional growth,” said Gregorian.

Established in 1986 and named after the ANCA Eastern U.S. leader Leo Sarkisian, a pioneer of ANCA grassroots advocacy, the LSI program is a cornerstone of the ANCA’s nationwide efforts to educate, motivate, and activate Armenian American youth to expand advocacy efforts in their hometowns and campuses. It was augmented in 2019 with the establishment of the Marl Melkonian Avetisyan Fellowship, established as a living legacy to a devoted youth leader whose community activism and commitment to the Armenian homeland continues to inspire new generations of young Armenian Americans.

The participants work on a wide variety of projects based on their individual interests while gaining hands-on experiences within the American political system. A bi-weekly lecture series features guest lecturers, including Members of Congress, Ambassadors, and Armenian-American leaders. During the eight-week Washington, DC program, interns live at The Aramian House, named in honor of the late community leader and philanthropist Martha Aramian of Providence, R.I., and located a short distance from the ANCA’s Washington DC headquarters.

Applications are reviewed and approved by the ANCA Eastern Region and ANCA Western Region Boards, following careful consideration of individual academic records and demonstrated community or campus leadership on Armenian American concerns.

In addition to opportunities in Washington, DC, the ANCA Western Region and ANCA Eastern Region offer internships and fellowships in Los Angeles, CA, Sacramento, CA and virtually throughout the East Coast.