Author: Greg Madatian

                                        Monday, December 4, 2017

Armenian Authorities Again Told To End Vote Buying


Armenia - Armenians vote in parliamentary elections at a polling
station in Yerevan, 2Apr2017.

Officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
have pressed the Armenian authorities to combat vote buying and abuse
of state resources during fresh discussions on the conduct of
Armenia's last parliamentary elections held in April.

Representatives of the OSCE's election-monitoring arm, the Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), visited Yerevan last
week to formally present their final report on the elections won by
the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).

The report released in July says the authorities largely respected
"fundamental freedoms" during the "well-administered" vote. But it
also cites "credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on
civil servants and employees of private companies."

The report also contains a set of policy recommendations. It says,
among other things, that the authorities should "publicly discourage"
vote buying or selling and ensure that Armenians are not forced to
"vote in a particular way."

In a weekend statement, the ODIHR said its representatives "explored"
the report's findings and recommendations at their meetings with
government officials, lawmakers, leaders of major Armenian parties and
civil society members. It said they also "proposed concrete steps that
can be taken by various stakeholders to address the recommendations."

"The ODIHR team drew attention to priority recommendations aimed at
addressing persisting issues of vote-buying and abuse of state
resources with a view to strengthening public confidence in the
electoral process," added the statement.

"ODIHR stands ready to offer its support in implementing the
recommendations, including through a review of amendments to electoral
legislation, advice on good practices and matters of technical
implementation," it quoted Alexander Shlyk, head of the ODIHR
Elections Department, as saying.

Throughout the parliamentary race the HHK was accused by its political
opponents and independent media of handing out vote bribes and
pressurizing schoolteachers, civil servants and other public sector
employees to vote for it. Armenian opposition parties say that those
illegal practices were decisive in the HHK's election victory.

The party headed by President Serzh Sarkisian denies having
systematically resorted to them. It insists that the vote was largely
democratic.

The European Union and the United States endorsed the findings of
nearly 440 European election observers that were mostly deployed by
the Warsaw-based ODIHR. At the same time they cautiously praised the
authorities' overall handling of the April 2 polls. The EU's foreign
policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said through a spokesperson on April
4 that the official vote results "reflect the overall will of the
Armenian people."

The OSCE-led mission did not report significant instances of multiple
voting, one of the most serious forms of fraud that marred previous
Armenian elections. The authorities in Yerevan enacted last year a set
of opposition-backed legal amendments designed to prevent such
violations.

That led to the introduction of electronic voter authentication
devices in all polling stations across the country. The authorities
also installed web cameras to broadcast online voting and ballot
counting in the vast majority of those stations. The EU allocated over
$7 million for the purchase of that equipment.



Sarkisian Watches Fresh War Games In Karabakh


Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (C) watches a
military exercise, 2Nov2017.

President Serzh Sarkisian inspected new facilities of
Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian-backed army and monitored its latest major
exercises during a weekend trip to the disputed territory.

The exercises held just southeast of Karabakh reportedly involved more
than a thousand soldiers, dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and
artillery systems as well as what an Armenian military official called
a major "new type of weapon." They simulated defensive and
counteroffensive operations in the presence of a Sarkisian, Defense
Minister Vigen Sargsian and Armenia's top army general, Movses
Hakobian.

"I am grateful to you," a uniform-clad Sarkisian told the
participating troops. "You have proved your skills with today's
exercises. Rest assured that you are thereby responding to those who
want to take away our homeland and try to demonstrate their might and
wrest something from us."

"We can and we will defend our borders, we can and we will defend our
homeland," he said in a speech.


Nagorno-Karabakh - Tanks and military personnel lined up for military
exercises, 2Nov2017.
The war games were held the day after Sarkisian met with the top brass
of the Karabakh Defense Army in Stepanakert. He was briefed on the
current situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani "line of contact"
around Karabakh. It has been relatively calm in recent weeks.

In a separate statement released on Monday, the Karabakh Armenian army
said Sarkisian also visited a number of its unspecified facilities and
familiarized himself with "novelties created with the aim of
countering the enemy in a more effective manner." It did not
elaborate.

Sarkisian travelled to Karabakh less than a week before planned fresh
talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. They
will try to build on some progress that was reportedly made at
Sarkisian's most recent meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev held in Geneva on October 16.

Right after that summit, Sarkisian and Aliyev pledged to intensify the
Karabakh peace process and bolster the ceasefire regime in the
conflict zone. The U.S., Russian and French mediators announced in the
Swiss city that they will soon hold follow-up "working sessions" with
the two foreign ministers.



Man Sentenced Over `Armed Revolt Plot'


 . Anush Muradian


Armenia -- Artur Movsisian (L) and his lawyer Arayik Papikian in
court, 4Dec2017.

An Armenian court sentenced a man to three years in prison on Monday
after convicting him involvement in an armed revolt allegedly plotted
by Zhirayr Sefilian, a radical opposition figure.

The court ignored Artur Movsisian's protestations of innocence voiced
before and during his four-month trial.

Movsisian was detained in Moscow on an Armenian arrest warrant in
November 2016 and handed over to law-enforcement authorities in
Yerevan six months later. The authorities claim that he was affiliated
with Sefilian's alleged militant group and kept some of its weapons
and ammunition in his home.

In his concluding remarks made shortly before the announcement of the
verdict, Movsisian again denied the accusations and said he does not
even know Sefilian personally. He cited a "complete absence of
evidence" to the contrary presented by the prosecution. His lawyer,
Arayik Papikian, said afterwards that he will appeal against the
ruling.

Papikian confirmed that police found two assault rifles in the
basement of the defendant's apartment. But he said Movsisian had
allowed another man, Galust Grigorian, to put them there only because
he had been told by the latter that they are construction tools.

Grigorian is one of six persons who are standing a separate trial with
Sefilian which began in May. They were arrested in June 2016 on
charges of forming an armed group to seize government buildings and
military facilities. Both Sefilian and his Founding Parliament
opposition group have denied the charges as politically motivated.

Sefilian's arrest came less than one month before three dozen gunmen
mostly affiliated with Founding Parliament seized a police station in
Yerevan. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian free their
leader and step down. They surrendered to law-enforcement authorities
following a two-week standoff which left three police officers dead.

Papikian said the guilty verdict against his client "predetermined the
outcome" of Sefilian's trial. He predicted that the radical
oppositionist will get a much longer prison sentence.



Private Investor To Explore For Oil In Armenia


 . Satenik Kaghzvantsian


Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and Russian-Armenian
businessman Samvel Karapetian inaugurate a new shopping mall in
Yerevan, 13Nov2017.

A newly established company controlled by Russian-Armenian billionaire
Samvel Karapetian has asked for a government permission to explore for
oil and gas in northern Armenia.

The company called Armenian Oil and Gas held on Monday mandatory
public hearings in Gyumri on the environmental impact of oil
exploration sought by it in the surrounding Shirak province and two
other regions in the country's north. They were attended by officials
from the Environment Protection Ministry, geologists and ecologists.

Under Armenian law, such hearings are must precede the ministry's
decisions on whether or not to allow particular companies to take the
first step towards exploiting natural resources.

Speaking at the discussion, an Armenian Oil and Gas representative,
Erik Ananian, said the company would use nuclear magnetic resonance,
as opposed to traditional drilling, to determine whether the area
close to Georgia has commercially viable hydrocarbon reserves. In
Shirak, he said, the exploration would be carried out near six rural
communities.

"If we see that there is a certain industrial potential [for oil
production] we will switch to the next phase," added Ananian. He would
not say whether the company already has any tentative estimates to
that effect.

It also remained unclear when it would start the exploratory work in
case of securing clearance from the government.

Hmayak Hovannisian of the Geophysics Institute in Yerevan said it is
still too early speculate about the potential size of oil or gas
fields in the area. But he stressed that magnetic resonance allows for
deeper penetration than exploratory drilling done in Armenia to date.

Another scientist working at the institute, Roland Gasparian, claimed
that the possible discovery and extraction of oil would pose an
"enormous danger" to local agriculture, while some environmentalists
expressed concern at the new method of oil exploration.

Several Western companies have already explored for but found no major
oil deposits in Armenia over the past two decades.

The company in question belongs to Karapetian's Tashir Kapital group
that owns Armenia's national electric utility and will soon also
manage the country's state-owned power transmission network. A Tashir
subsidiary is also planning to build, together with other
Russian-Armenian and Western investors, two major hydroelectric
plants. In addition, it recently launched Armenia's first-ever solar
power plant.

The Armenian-born tycoon further underscored his growing involvement
in the Armenian economy on November 13 when he inaugurated another
massive shopping mall built by Tashir in Yerevan.



Press Review



(Saturday, December 2)

"Zhoghovurd" says that the Armenian authorities remain euphoric about
their Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the
European Union that was signed on November 24. "The authorities were
just as jubilant when they were joining the Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU)," scoffs the paper. It claims that Armenia has still not drawn
tangible benefits from its membership in the EEU.

"Haykakan Zhamanak" discusses leading Russian TV channels' highly
negative reaction to the CEPA, saying that they were "instructed" to
do so because the EU-Armenia deal is "not quite to the Russian
leadership's liking." The paper says this disproves statements to the
contrary that were made by Armenian officials.

"Past" also looks at the Russian outcry against Armenia's efforts to
deepen its economic and political relations with Russia. The paper
says that some Russian commentators have defended in this regard
Russia's controversial arms deals with Azerbaijan widely condemned in
Armenia. It deplores this fact.

"168 Zham" reports on the latest Armenian-drafted statement on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that was adopted at a summit of the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held in the
Belarusian capital Minsk. "The CSTO presidency is held by Armenia and
Armenia has managed to used that for securing declarations expedient
for it," the paper quotes a Russian military analyst, Pavel
Felgenhauer, as saying. "With that statement, the CSTO affirmed its
position that it can only assist, rather than intervene, the platform
which is supposed to help solve this conflict. It is not a
pro-Armenian statement. But the three principles mentioned by it are
Armenian diplomatic wordings. We have repeatedly heard them."

Felgenhauer also makes the point that Armenia could not have gotten
the other CSTO member states to back such a statement without Russia's
backing. "Russian assisted in the adoption of that statement because
both Russia and the CSTO were subjected to criticism after the April
[2016] war and Russia is trying to address [that criticism] one by
one," he says. "This can also be seen as a step taken for the Armenian
society in addition to all those measures that were taken by Russia
after the April war." Those measures include new and more powerful
weapons supplied to the Armenian military, according to the Russian
analyst.

(Artur Papian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

                                        Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Parliament Majority Blocks Debate On Eurasian Union


 . Astghik Bedevian


Armenia - A session of the National Assembly in Yerevan, 30May2017.

The Armenian parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly refused to debate on
a pro-Western opposition alliance's calls for Armenia's withdrawal
from the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

A parliamentary declaration drafted by the Yelk alliance says that
membership in the EEU, effective from January 2015, has hurt the
country's economy and security. Deputies representing the
pro-government majority in the National Assembly spoke out against the
document when it was first circulated in September.

Nevertheless, Yelk continued to press for a full-fledged parliamentary
debate on the issue. The parliament committee on foreign relations
discussed and gave a negative assessment of the Yelk motion on
November 29.

Only six deputies, all of them from Yelk, voted for the issue's
inclusion on the parliament agenda. Seventy-six others voted
against. The latter represent not only the ruling Republican Party
(HHK) but also its junior coalition partner, the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, and businessman Gagik Tsarukian's alliance.

Just before the vote, the HHK's Samvel Farmanian addressed fellow
lawmakers and defended the Armenian leadership's foreign policy which
aims to complement Armenia's alliance with Russia with closer ties
with the West. He implicitly referred to the Comprehensive and
Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Armenia and the
European Union on November 24.

"An artificial juxtaposition of the EEU and the EU is not in the
interests of Armenia, and I am sure that the faction sitting on our
left [Yelk] is utterly conscious of that," said Farmanian.

Yelk's Edmon Marukian rebutted that claim. He insisted that the EEU is
to blame for rising consumer prices and other economic problems facing
Armenia.

According to official Armenian statistics, Russia and other EEU member
states accounted for about 28 percent of Armenia's foreign trade in
January-October 2017. The EU's share in the total stood at just over
24 percent.

Immediately after refusing to discuss the Yelk initiative, the
parliament began debating a new uniform Customs Code which is due to
be adopted by the EEU member states. The draft code calls, among other
things, for solely electronic filings of customs declarations and
other documents starting from 2020.A deputy head of Armenia's State
Revenue Committee, Vakhtang Mirumian, said this would make it easier
for Armenian companies to engage in import and export operations.



Armenian Government Reports Further Drop In Poverty


 . Marine Khachatrian


Armenia - People read vacancy notices at an open-air job fair in
Yerevan, 9Oct2017.

Poverty in Armenia continued to fall slowly last year despite sluggish
economic growth, the National Statistical Service (NSS) said on
Tuesday.

In an annual report, the government agency said 29.4 percent of
Armenians lived below the official poverty line as of the end of 2016,
down from 29.8 percent in 2015.

The poverty line is set at almost 40,900 drams ($85) per month. The
NSS regards as "very poor" over a third of some 880,000 Armenians
whose average monthly income did not exceed that figure. Another
54,000 people are considered "extremely poor," NSS officials said as
they presented the report to journalists in Yerevan.

Adrine Babloyan of the Yerevan office of the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) also spoke at the news conference. Babloyan expressed
concern over the fact that at 34.2 percent the poverty rate among
Armenian children was still above the nationwide average. And it did
not shrink considerably in 2016, she said.

Poverty fell more rapidly during an almost a decade of double-digit
economic growth in Armenia that came to an end with the onset of a
global financial crisis in late 2008. It stood at 27.6 percent at that
time but soared to almost 36 percent in 2010, one year after the
country's Gross Domestic Product shrunk by over 14 percent.

Economic growth has been modest since then. It all but ground to a
halt in 2016 but seems to have significantly accelerated this
year. NSS data released in recent months suggests that the Armenian
economy is now on course to expand by at least 4 percent.

Senior government officials have said that rapid poverty reduction is
contingent on an economic growth rate of at least 5 percent. Prime
Minister Karen Karapetian's cabinet set this annual growth target in
its five-year policy program approved by parliament in June.

The 120-page program says that sustained faster growth will cut
poverty to about 18 percent by 2022.

Using a different methodology, the World Bank has recorded lower
poverty rates in Armenia. According to it, just under 25 percent of
Armenians lived in poverty in 2016. In a report released in May, the
bank forecast that the poverty rate will fall to 22.2 percent in 2019.

The NSS currently estimates the average monthly wage in the country at
just over 190,000 drams ($394).The official rate of unemployment
exceeds 20 percent.



Government Adamant On Ending Amnesty For Cash


 . Karlen Aslanian


Armenia - Armenian army soldiers are lined up at a military base in
Tavush province, 2Dec2016.

Despite strong objections voiced by senior lawmakers from the ruling
Republican Party (HHK), the Armenian government remains determined to
scrap in 2019 a law allowing men, who have illegally evaded military
service, to buy an amnesty.

Under a law first enacted in 2004, they have been able to avoid
criminal prosecution in exchange for a hefty fee. The amnesty-for-cash
scheme was originally applicable to fugitive men born before
1978. This age threshold has been repeatedly raised since then.

The Armenian parliament approved another extension last month. A
relevant HHK-drafted bill passed in the first reading will apply to
male citizens who have turned 27 before December 1, 2017. They would
have to pay roughly 3.6 million drams ($7,440) each.

Earlier in November, the Defense Ministry put forward an amendment
stipulating that there will be no further extensions of the
scheme. The parliament committee on defense and security rejected the
amendment strongly criticized by its chairman and several members
affiliated with the HHK. They included Karine Achemian, one of the
authors of the bill.

The National Assembly debated the bill in the second reading on
Tuesday. Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian made clear that the
government is adamant in ensuring that the amnesty-for-cash
arrangement is not extended beyond December 2019. He insisted that it
only encourages draft evasion.

"At some point the law will cease to be a mechanism for avoiding
military service," Zakarian said during the final debate. "As a result
of discussions with its authors, we arrived at common conclusions, so
to speak."

"It appears that the government does not intend to extend the law
further because we don't want to encourage people to flee [Armenia] #
After all, we are a country at war," Achemian told fellow
parliamentarians.

Speaking to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) later in the day,
Achemian confirmed that she no longer objects to the government's
stance.

Officials say that around 10,000 draft dodgers have bought an amnesty
since 2004. Almost 9,500 other Armenian men remain on the run on draft
evasion charges.



Top Armenian General Forced To Quit Army


 . Sargis Harutyunyan


Armenia - Lieutenant-General Haykaz Baghmanian, deputy chief of the
Armenian army's General Staff, 28Jan2015.

One of Armenia's most influential army generals was sacked on Tuesday
after being publicly rebuked by Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian.

President Serzh Sarkisian relieved Lieutenant-General Haykaz
Baghmanian of his duties as deputy chief of the Armenian army's
General Staff just hours after the extraordinary criticism.

Speaking to reporters, Sargsian said Baghmanian has asked to be
discharged from the military "at my urging." He accused the latter of
failure to comply with unspecified "working agreements" which is
"incompatible with further joint service." The minister did not
elaborate.

Baghmanian has held the position since 2009. The former Soviet army
officer had previously commanded two of Armenia's army corps.

Baghmanian has long been under media spotlight because of his reported
business interests and lavish lifestyle that raised questions about
his integrity. He has also been occasionally dogged by controversy.

Last year, for example, an entrepreneur from the eastern Armenian town
of Martuni alleged that Baghmanian has gained ownership of one of his
businesses by fraudulent means. The general denied the allegation. The
business in question, a liquefied gas station, is now run by his
28-year-old son.

In 2010, the Hetq.am investigative publication reported that
Baghmanian was spotted at a requiem service held for a deceased crime
figure.


Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and Defense Minister Vigen
Sargsian visit the Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan, 2Apr2017.

Hakob Badalian, a Yerevan-based political analyst, suggested that by
openly attacking and forcing Baghmanian to quit Sargsian sought to
demonstrate that he has sufficient authority over the military.

"This is a signal to foreign powers, the Armenian public and the
ruling clique regarding Vigen Sargsian's political clout in the armed
forces," Badalian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

Sargsian, 42, is widely regarded a prot g and potential successor of
President Sarkisian. He was the chief of the presidential staff before
being appointed as defense minister just over a year ago.

Meeting senior military officials in late October, Sarkisian pledged
to "modernize" Armenia's army through a seven-year plan of actions
which he said will be launched less than three months before he
completes his final presidential term in April.



Press Review



According to "Haykakan Zhamanak," analysts are pessimistic about a
fresh meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers
scheduled for December 6 because "there is nothing new about the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict." "Everyone is sticking to
their guns and nothing suggests that the parties could reach a common
denominator in the foreseeable future," writes the paper.

"Hayots Ashkhar" says, for its part, that the weekend military
exercises in Nagorno-Karabakh testify to "positive changes in not only
the international community's attitudes towards the negotiation
process but also Armenian perceptions of their essence." The paper
says that the official scenario of the drills, which involved
defensive and counteroffensive operations, "mirrored our latest
successes on the diplomatic front." All international mediators and
major foreign powers, it claims, came up with initiatives in November
aimed at keeping the Karabakh conflict "frozen." It says that Turkey's
efforts to reverse this trend by getting Russia to put pressure on
Armenia have ended in failure.

"Zhoghovurd" shrugs off recent government pledges to seriously clamp
down on corruption in Armenia. The paper says that in making such
statements government officials try to look so serious that "they
almost start believing what they say." "They started those shows long
ago but those have intensified of late," it speculates, seeing a
connection between the government's anti-corruption rhetoric and the
signing of Armenia's landmark agreement with the EU. "It is laughable
to see the authorities fight against a vice which is the reason why
they came into existence in the first place," it says.

"Past" says that the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership
Agreement (CEPA) is first and foremost a "political document." "For
Serzh Sarkisian, this is the only diplomatic victory of his ten-year
tenure," writes the paper. "In the existing situation, it is also a
huge carte blanche for his legitimacy. And it's a carte blanche from
both Russia and Europe."

(Tigran Avetisian)



Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org