Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

                                        Friday, June 4, 2021

Tycoon Denies Link Between Pro-Government Stance, Business

        • Karlen Aslanian

Armania - Businessman Khachatur Sukiasian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, June 4, 
2021.

A wealthy businessman insisted on Friday that he is running for parliament on 
the ruling Civil Contract party’s ticket to help Armenia’s current government 
stay in power and continue its policies, rather than increase his fortune.

The businessman, Khachatur Sukiasian, is fifth on Civil Contract’s list of 
candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Another prominent 
entrepreneur, Gurgen Arsenian, occupies 14th position on the list.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian repeatedly pledged to separate business from 
politics shortly after coming to power in May 2018. He declared that wealthy 
Armenian entrepreneurs no longer need to hold parliament seats in order to 
protect and expand their assets.

In an interview with told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Sukiasian denied any 
contradiction between his participation in the elections and Pashinian’s 
statements. He said the prime minister referred to corrupt government officials 
who had enriched themselves while in office “at the expense of business owners.”

Sukiasian also ruled out any potential conflicts of interest arising from his 
current political activities. “To be honest, I have not engaged in business 
since 2005,” he claimed. “I have mostly engaged in analyses. But of course, I’m 
a business owner.”

“I thought a lot about whether or not to run [in the elections,]” said 
Sukiasian. “The number one [motive] was always this: so that there is a stable 
[parliamentary] majority and Armenia follows the same path for several more 
years.”

He said he also wants to prevent Armenia’s former rulers from returning to power 
as a result of the snap elections scheduled for June 20.

Sukiasian, 59, became one of the country’s richest men during the 1991-1998 rule 
of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian. He was reputedly close to some key 
members of Ter-Petrosian’s administration at the time.

The tycoon openly backed Ter-Petrosian in a disputed February 2008 presidential 
election in which the ex-president was the main opposition candidate. He fled 
Armenia in March 2008 to escape arrest on charges stemming from post-election 
violence in Yerevan. He returned to the country in 2009 and rarely criticized 
then President Serzh Sarkisian in the following years.

Arsenian, the other tycoon allied to Pashinian, led a small pro-government party 
and held a parliament seat in the 2000s when Armenia was ruled by Robert 
Kocharian, Sarkisian’s predecessor.

Opposition blocs led by Kocharian and Sarkisian are among the main opposition 
forces challenging Pashinian and his party in the current parliamentary race.



Kocharian’s Bloc Opens Hundreds Of Campaign Offices

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (C) and other leaders of the newly 
established Hayastan alliance march through the center of Yerevan, May 9, 2021.

An opposition alliance led by former President Robert Kocharian on Friday 
claimed to have opened about 800 campaign offices across Armenia for the 
upcoming parliamentary elections.

Armen Gevorgian, the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance’s top campaign manager, said 
they will report to regional campaign headquarters also opened by the bloc.

Kocharian and two opposition parties allied to him set up Hayastan on May 9 one 
day before the snap polls were formally scheduled for June 20. The bloc is 
expected to be one of the main challengers of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and 
his Civil Contract party.

Although campaigning for the polls will officially start on June 7, all major 
election contenders have effectively launched their campaigns. In particular, 
Kocharian has been holding meetings with members and supporters of his bloc in 
various parts of the country.

Gevorgian said that Hayastan will be holding both indoor and outdoor rallies in 
the coming weeks.

“Strangely enough, our supporters prefer indoor meetings which allow them to 
directly communicate with alliance representatives and leaders in a 
question-and-answer format,” Gevorgian told a news conference.

Aram Vardevanian, Hayastan’s campaign spokesman, strongly denied allegations by 
some government loyalists that Kocharian’s bloc is getting ready to hand out 
cash to voters. He said it has alerted law-enforcement authorities about groups 
of government-linked “provocateurs” reportedly offering to buy votes on behalf 
of the bloc.

“We have nothing to do with vote buying, fraud or any other activity of this 
kind. We are the first to strongly oppose that,” he said.

Vardevanian claimed that the Armenian government itself is trying to buy votes 
with additional economic aid allocated to mostly rural communities in recent 
weeks. He singled out a government announcement about mowers and similar 
agricultural equipment donated to five remote villages earlier this week.

Vahagn Aleksanian, a spokesman for Pashinian’s party, denied any connection 
between the aid and the elections.

“Let them count how many community projects have been subsidized by the state 
for the last three years preceding this pre-election period,” he told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service.

Aleksanian said he too has heard rumors about vote buying planned by Hayastan. 
But he acknowledged that he has seen no evidence in support of those claims so 
far.



Armenian Lawmaker Admits Stealing Reporter’s Phone

        • Satenik Hayrapetian

Armenia -- Parliament deputy Hayk Sargsian speaks with journalists, November 29, 
2019.

A controversial pro-government parliamentarian admitted on Friday stealing the 
mobile phone of an Armenian journalist who filmed him in a street in Yerevan.

The incident occurred on Thursday after Anush Dashtents, a correspondent for the 
Hraparak daily, approached the 28-year-old deputy, Hayk Sargsian, and other 
persons standing outside an office of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party.

Dashtents said Sargsian got angry when she switched on the phone’s camera and 
began asking him questions about Russian-mediated talks on the ongoing 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border dispute. “He jumped on me like a tiger, took the 
phone and tried to delete [the video,]” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Sargsian got into a car and left the scene after failing to delete it on the 
spot, Dashtents said, adding that she got her phone back about an hour later.

The lawmaker essentially confirmed this account and defended his actions, 
accusing Dashtents of violating his privacy.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry but I don’t want to answer your question,’” he told 
reporters. “Then that woman kept asking me questions and holding the phone in 
front of my face, as a result of which I took the phone and deleted the clip 
filmed by her.”

Sargsian said he afterwards willingly gave the phone back to the journalist 
through one of his colleagues. Dashtents disputed that claim, saying that he 
returned the phone only after she alerted a “well-known” member of Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team.

The Armenian police launched a preliminary inquiry into the incident. Dashtents 
was summoned to the police for questioning.

Obstruction of journalistic work is a criminal offense in Armenia.

Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech 
believes that Sargsian’s behavior breached a relevant article of the Armenian 
Criminal Code.

“A person who cannot [properly] socialize with journalists and media has no 
right to engage in politics,” said Melikian. “Since this is not the first 
incident of its kind I believe that the leadership of the parliament must draw 
conclusions and discuss and evaluate it.”

Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, also condemned Sargsian’s 
behavior as illegal.

Sargsian, who is affiliated with Pashinian’s party, is no stranger to 
controversy. Earlier this year he wrested the microphone from another reporter 
who tried to interview him in the parliament building in Yerevan.

Sargsian, whose twin brother Nairi is an aide to Pashinian, caused greater 
uproar last July when he partied with dozens of other young people at an 
Armenian lakeside resort in violation of coronavirus safety rules set by the 
government. The police fined him and shut down the summer beach club at the time.



Yerevan Praises Russian Role In Armenian-Azeri Border Talks

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia -- Arsen Torosian, the newly appointed chief of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian's staff, attends a meeting in Yerevan chaired by Pashinian, January 
19, 2021.

Russia is doing its best to broker a peaceful solution to a continuing border 
dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a top aide to Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian said on Friday.

Moscow hosted renewed talks between Armenian and Azerbaijani military officials 
for that purpose on Wednesday. No agreements were announced after that meeting.

Arsen Torosian, the chief of Pashinian’s staff, said Armenian-Azerbaijani 
negotiations will continue “at the highest level” but did not give any dates or 
other details.

“They will continue so that we reach the kind of a settlement about which we 
have repeatedly spoken,” he told journalists. “Azerbaijani army units must leave 
Armenia’s sovereign territory, and that will happen.”

Torosian downplayed the apparent lack of concrete results achieved in the talks 
so far.

“Time is needed to assess achievements,” he said. “There have been results in 
the sense that at the highest level there is a mutual understanding with our 
sole security partner, Russia, as to what solution there must be [to the border 
dispute.] They are making every effort to ensure that it happens without a 
single gunshot.”

The Russian and Armenian defense ministers met in Moscow last week to discuss 
the border crisis. The Armenian Defense Ministry said they agreed on “necessary 
steps” to resolve it but did not elaborate.

The crisis erupted after Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed several sections 
of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border three weeks ago, triggering an Armenian 
military buildup there.


Armenia - Armenian soldiers take up positions on the border with Azerbaijan, May 
17, 2021.

The Armenian Defense Ministry repeatedly threatened later in May to take 
military action to force them to pull back. However, Pashinian effectively ruled 
out the use of force even after one Armenian soldier was killed and six others 
captured by Azerbaijani forces last week.

Pashinian proposed May 27 that both sides withdraw their troops from the 
contested border areas and let Russia and/or the United States and France, the 
two other countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, deploy observers there.

In a joint statement issued the following day, the French, Russian and U.S. 
mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group backed the proposed troop 
disengagement. But they did not specify whether their countries support the idea 
of an international observation mission.

Torosian could not say if any of the mediating powers is ready to send 
observers. “I’m not the official who receives those reactions and I can’t give a 
complete answer,” he said.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry effectively turned down Pashinian’s proposal 
earlier this week. Baku denies violating Armenia’s territorial integrity and 
maintains that its troops took up positions on the Azerbaijani side of the 
frontier.


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