Author: Christine Harutyunian

Forwarding Press Release from Raffi Kantian in Germany. See program cover in 
the PDF attachment

rgh 

Hannover Conference Press Release 2.2019.doc
MS-Word document

                                        Wednesday, 

Armenian PM Denies Secret Deals With Azerbaijan’s Aliyev

        • Emil Danielyan
        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Switzerland - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses businesspeople 
in Zürich, January 21, 2019.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that he and Azerbaijan’s 
President Ilham Aliyev did not reach any secret agreements to resolve the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at their three meetings held in recent months.

Speaking the day after his latest talks with Aliyev held in Davos, Pashinian 
also insisted that they did not discuss any “concrete detail” of a possible 
Karabakh settlement.

“We mostly discuss the history of the negotiation process,” he said in a live 
Facebook address aired from the Swiss resort town. “That is, what happened 
when, how and at what stage, what the situation was like then, and so on.”

“We certainly also discuss … conditions existing for a settlement, what is 
possible and what is not. And I want to say in this context that we don’t 
discuss any concrete detail. We just exchange thoughts,” he said.

Aliyev and Pashinian held what they called an “informal meeting” on Tuesday on 
the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. They also spoke to 
each other during two summits of ex-Soviet states held in September and 
December. Their September conversation was followed by a significant decrease 
in ceasefire violations around Karabakh and along the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers have also held a series of talks 
in the last several months, most recently in Paris on January 16. According to 
international mediators, the ministers acknowledged the need for “taking 
concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace.”

The European Union hailed the high-level negotiations on January 18, saying 
that they “send a positive signal for progress” in the Karabakh peace process. 
“The European Union is looking forward to the full implementation of their 
outcomes,” an EU foreign policy spokeswoman said in a statement.


Russia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President 
Ilham Aliyev pose for a photograph at a summit in Saint Petersburg, December 6, 
2018.

Those developments have fuelled Armenian media and opposition speculation about 
far-reaching understandings reached by Pashinian and Aliyev. Some critics claim 
that Pashinian may have agreed to make significant territorial concessions to 
Azerbaijan.

Pashinian brushed aside these “conspiracy theories” in his latest video 
address. “There can be no conspiracies,” he said. “It’s absurd to even think 
about that.”

“I want to stress once again that if someone thinks that our government and I 
personally can engage in or be drawn into any conspiracy then this is the 
consequence of their failure to understand the situation,” he added.

The premier did not shed more light on his latest conversation with Aliyev. Nor 
did he say whether they plan to meet again soon.

In Yerevan, meanwhile, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party (BHK), one of the 
two opposition groups represented in the parliament, called on Pashinian to 
brief major political forces on his talks with Aliyev.

“At least the leaders of the three parliamentary parties must be informed about 
what sort of negotiations [with Azerbaijan] are going on,” Edmon Marukian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

Marukian said the government should thus “share responsibility” for Karabakh 
talks with other political forces. “This is a pan-Armenian kind of issue and a 
burden which the head of the government should not carry single-handedly,” he 
said.

A leading member of Pashinian’s My Step alliance, deputy parliament speaker 
Lena Nazarian, insisted that the government will consult with the public as 
well as Karabakh’s leadership before making “any decision.” She also said that 
Yerevan will not make disproportionate concessions to Baku under external 
pressure.

“External forces have no leverage to force these authorities to make decisions 
undesirable for our country and society,” said Nazarian.



Armenian Government Vows National Health Insurance

        • Narine Ghalechian

Armenia - A newly built hospital in Vanadzor, November 10, 2018.

The Armenian government plans to start introducing in 2021 a system of national 
health insurance that should cover the country’s entire population, Health 
Minister Arsen Torosian said on Wednesday.

Torosian indicated that an additional income tax will be introduced for that 
purpose.

“In developed countries, the average income tax rate for medical insurance is 
20 percent,” he told a news conference. “These are the wealthiest, most 
industrialized countries.”

“There are countries, for example in Eastern Europe, where it is set at 2-3 
percent. We suppose that we will start with approximately the same rates,” he 
said.

Public access to healthcare in Armenia declined significantly following the 
collapse of the Soviet Union as cash-strapped governments allowed hospitals to 
legally charge their patients. Most Armenian hospitals were privatized in the 
1990s.

Currently only state-run policlinics are required to provide medical services 
to the population free of charge. Healthcare, including surgeries, is also 
supposedly free for children aged 7 and younger. Their parents often have to 
make hefty informal payments to doctors, however.

Also, for the past several years the state has partly covered healthcare 
expenses of civil servants, schoolteachers and other public sector employees.


Armenia - Newly appointed Health Minister Arsen Torosian addresses his staff, 
May 15, 2018.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance promised to ensure 
“accessible and high-quality healthcare” in the country during the recent 
parliamentary election campaign. Its election manifesto said that a compulsory 
national insurance system will be put in place for that purpose.

Torosian, who is a senior member of My Step, announced that Pashinian’s 
government has started fully covering the cost of cancer surgeries performed at 
local hospitals. It will also finance expensive radiation therapy for around 
200 cancer patients this year, he said.

In addition, the minister went on, the government will provide underage 
Armenians suffering from cancer with 15 types of cancer drugs for free.

The Armenian state budget for 2019 commits the government to spending 90 
billion drams ($186 million) on healthcare. It envisages pay rises for 14,000 
or so doctors and other medical personnel working in the state-run policlinics.



Pashinian, Bolton Speak By Phone


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with U.S. National Security 
Adviser John Bolton in Yerevan, 25 October 2018.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton 
discussed U.S.-Armenian relations and regional developments during a phone call 
on Wednesday.

“We discussed issues relating to the situation in the region and bilateral 
relations,” Pashinian wrote on his Facebook page.

“Both Mr. Bolton and I stressed the importance of U.S.-Armenian relations for 
our governments,” he said. “We agreed to continue discussions on further 
development of our relations.”

Pashinian claimed that they did not discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He 
spoke with Bolton by phone the day after meeting with Azerbaijani President 
Ilham Aliyev in Davos, Switzerland.

Bolton singled out the Karabakh issue after meeting with Pashinian in Yerevan 
in October. He said Washington expects the Armenian leader to take “decisive 
steps” towards the conflict’s resolution “right after” his widely anticipated 
victory in the December 9 parliamentary elections.

Late last week, U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Pashinian on winning 
the snap elections and retaining his post. In a congratulatory message, Trump 
said a Karabakh settlement would facilitate closer commercial ties between 
Armenia and the United States.

During his visit to Yerevan, Bolton also said that normalizing relations with 
Azerbaijan and Turkey would enable Armenia to break “historical patterns” that 
have shaped its traditional foreign policy. He further indicated that 
Washington is ready to sell Yerevan U.S. weapons and thus reduce Russia’s 
“excessive influence” on Armenia.

Russia condemned those remarks, accusing the U.S. of meddling in its South 
Caucasus ally’s internal affairs. “We expect that the current leadership of 
Armenia … will have the courage to resist the unhidden external blackmail and 
pressure,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said last month.

Armenian leaders earlier played down the significance of Bolton’s public 
statements. In particular, they insisted that they have received no concrete 
offers to buy U.S. military hardware.



Sarkisian Hands 2019 Chess Awards


Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian (R) attends an awards ceremony at 
the Tigran Petrosian Chess House in Yerevan, .

In a rare public appearance, former President Serzh Sarkisian honored on 
Wednesday the winners of Armenia’s 2019 chess championships in his capacity as 
chairman of the national Chess Federation.

Sarkisian attended the awards ceremony organized for the men’s and women’s 
champions, Arman Pashikian and Maria Gevorgian, as well as Hayk Martirosian, 
the winner of a separate blitz chess tournament. According to the Armenpress 
news agency, he also handed awards to other Armenian chess players during the 
ceremony held at the Tigran Petrosian Chess House in Yerevan.

A keen chess fan, Sarkisian has headed the Armenian Chess Federation for well 
over a decade. During his tenure Armenia’s men’s national team won the world 
Chess Olympiads in 2006, 2008 and 2012.


Germany - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian makes the first move in World 
Chess Championship Candidates Tournament in Berlin,10Mar2018.

Sarkisian was also instrumental in the former Armenian government’s decision to 
make chess a mandatory subject in primary schools. Armenia was the first 
country in the world to add the game to the school curriculum.

Sarkisian has remained federation chairman even after resigning as Armenia’s 
prime minister in April last year amid mass street protests against his 
continued rule. The 64-year-old ex-president, who governed Armenia for ten 
years, has made very few public statements and appearances since then.

Sarkisian also remains the chairman of the former ruling Republican Party of 
Armenia (HHK). An HHK spokesman said last week that he has no plans to retire 
from active politics.



Press Review



“Zhamanak” says that the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK) has called for 
the government to significantly cut the number of deputy governors of the 
country’s ten provinces for cost saving purposes. The paper hails the 
initiative and says that the provincial administrations must be thoroughly 
reformed in order to act more like development agencies than the government’s 
territorial divisions. “Armenia is too small a country to be in serious need of 
[large] provincial administrations,” it says.

“Hraparak” reports that Yerevan State University and two other state-run 
universities are now supervised by new boards of trustees formed since last 
year’s “velvet revolution.” “It must be noted that the new chairmen [of the 
boards] are apolitical figures, unlike the previous ones, and in this sense 
Nikol Pashinian’s government and Education Minister Arayik Harutiunian in 
particular are making good on their promises to depoliticize the universities 
and especially their governing bodies,” comments the paper. It hopes that the 
university boards will now play a greater role in efforts to reform Armenia’s 
system of higher education.

“Zhoghovurd” is concerned about the UNESCO’s recent decision to declare a 
traditional Armenian folk dance, kochari, an Azerbaijani dance and include it 
on its list of “intangible cultural heritage.” “Interestingly, the Armenian 
side never tried or managed to thwart the Azerbaijani efforts,” complains the 
paper. “We should have fought against the Azerbaijani initiative not at the 
last minute … but earlier.”

(Lilit Harutiunian)




Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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