Wednesday, July 7, 2022
Putin, Pashinian Again Discuss Armenian-Azeri Talks
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian in his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, April 19, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Wednesday to discuss the implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements
brokered by Russia.
The Kremlin said that the two leaders focused on “issues of ensuring security on
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the restoration of economic, transport and
logistics ties in the South Caucasus.”
The Armenian government’s press office similarly reported that Putin and
Pashinian spoke about continuing efforts to demarcate the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border and open it to travel and cargo shipments. It said they specifically
discussed the work of a recently formed Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on the
border demarcation.
The commission held its first meeting at a border section on May 24. Its second
session is due to be held in Russia. No date has been set for it yet.
Moscow has been more actively involved in separate negotiations on
Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links. A Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani commission
dealing with the matter met in Moscow and Saint Petersburg last month.
The Armenian co-chair of the commission, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian,
said on June 28 that Baku and Yerevan have narrowed their differences on “border
and customs control as well as safe passage of citizens, vehicles and cargo
through roads and railways in Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
By contrast, Pashinian said on June 27 that Baku has rejected a draft agreement
on the construction of a railway that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan
exclave through Armenia.
“The draft document was presented by the Russian co-chair of the trilateral
commission, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk,” he said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly demanded an exterritorial
“corridor” for Nakhichevan that would exempt travellers and cargo from Armenian
border controls. Yerevan has rejected these demands, saying that they run
counter to the Russian-brokered agreements.
Aliyev and Putin met on June 29 on the sidelines of a summit of Caspian states
held in Turkmenistan.
Armenian Government Denies Targeting Oppositionists In Enlistment Drive
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Young men drafted for compulsory military service are seen at a
recruitment center in Yerevan, June 28, 2022.
Defense Minister Suren Papikian said on Wednesday that he did not order the
Armenian military to draft opposition activists in a bid to weaken continuing
antigovernment demonstrations in Yerevan.
Armenia’s government approved on June 23 a three-month call-up of more than
1,440 army reservists which will start on August 1. It cited the need to
reinforce the armed forces with skilled and combat-ready personnel.
Representatives of the main opposition Hayastan alliance said late last week
that scores of its male members and supporters have since received military
call-up papers. They said that the authorities are thus trying to punish active
participants of the regular rallies and discourage other Armenians from joining
more street protests planned for the coming weeks.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Papikian complained that Seyran Ohanian, a
former defense minister who now leads Hayastan’s parliamentary group, has phoned
the military’s top enlistment officer to demand an end to the alleged mass
recruitment of opposition youths.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, May 4, 2022.
“Are you citizens of the Republic of Armenia or not?” a visibly irritated
Papikian said, appealing to the opposition. “Did the defense minister order
that? Even if such things have happened in the past, they are not happening on
our watch.”
“Secondly, next time do not reserve the right to call military officials or make
covert appeals to them because such calls can lead to legal liability,” he
warned.
The Armenian military has not been accused in the past of trying to draft
opposition members or supporters en masse for political reasons.
Ohanian dismissed Papikian’s criticism, saying that Armenian law allows
parliament deputies to demand explanations from state officials both orally and
in writing. He said he simply asked the country’s chief military commissar to
clarify whether he really ordered his subordinates to target oppositionists.
“Military mobilization cannot be selective,” Ohanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
The retired general also pointed to what he regards as an illegal instruction
which a senior pro-government lawmaker publicly issued on May 5 five days after
the Armenian opposition began daily street protests aimed at toppling Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Armenia - Opposition leader Seyran Ohanian speaks to journalists, December 17,
2021
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense
and security, suggested that many of the protesters detained by riot police
evade compulsory military service or periodical call-ups of army reservists.
Speaking at a committee meeting in Yerevan, Kocharian said law-enforcement
agencies should “collect personal data of these citizens and pass them on to the
Armenian Defense Ministry.”
High-ranking police and military officials attending the meeting backed the idea
condemned by human rights activists.
“What legal norms are they talking about?” said Ohanian. “People who committed
crimes during their military service are talking about that. They had better do
their job.”
The opposition leader apparently referred to Papikian’s criminal record
disclosed by an Armenian newspaper in early 2020.
The Hraparak daily reported that Papikian, who served as a minister for local
government at the time, had been sentenced to more than 2 years in prison in
2006 for stabbing his commander during compulsory military service. It said that
he was released from prison a year later.
Papikian, who is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, admitted
the criminal conviction while condemning the newspaper report as an intrusion
into his personal life.
Parliament Approves Tighter Government Control Of Army Top Brass
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - General Kamo Kochunts (left), acting army chief of staff, greets
Defense Minister Suren Papikian at the start of a meeting in Yerevan, June 28,
2022.
The National Assembly approved on Wednesday a government proposal to make
Armenia’s top military general directly subordinate to the defense minister.
“The armed forces must report to the defense minister and the
commander-in-chief,” Defense Minister Suren Papikian told pro-government
lawmakers before they passed corresponding amendments to an Armenian law on
national defense.
Under those amendments, the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff will also
automatically hold the post of first deputy defense minister. But he will not
perform ministerial duties if the minister is absent from the country.
Papikian said that this will make the military’s command and control structure
“smoother” and more “vertical.” He said the country’s leadership wants to “learn
lessons” from unspecified “bitter experience.”
The last chief of the General Staff, Artak Davtian, and six other senior
generals were sacked in February through presidential decrees initiated by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian. The latter has still not handpicked a new army chief,
prompting serious concern from the Armenian opposition.
The generals’ sackings came one year after Davtian’s predecessor, Onik
Gasparian, and four dozen other high-ranking officers accused Pashinian’s
government of incompetence and misrule and demanded its resignation. The
unprecedented demand was welcomed by the opposition but condemned as a coup
attempt by Pashinian.
Armenia -- Colonel-General Onik Gasparian (C), the chief of the Armenian army's
General Staff, meets with senior Russian military officials, Yerevan, January
25, 2021.
Armen Khachatrian, a senior parliamentarian representing the ruling Civil
Contract party, acknowledged that the authorities hope the structural change
will prevent the army top brass from challenging them in the future.
Opposition lawmakers believe that this is the main purpose of the government
bill approved by the parliament in the first reading.
“They are solving a purely internal political issue,” said Tigran Abrahamian of
the opposition Pativ Unem bloc. “They think that they will thereby ensure tight
control over the military which will preclude any political statements or
actions by generals.”
“But they are not really solving the issue because the chief of the General
Staff was already subordinate to the defense minister, not to mention his
subordination to the prime minister,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Abrahamian accused Pashinian’s government of “politicizing” the top military
post.
Pashinian promised a major reform of the military shortly after Armenia’s defeat
in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. He has replaced three defense ministers since a
Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the six-week hostilities in November 2020.
Opposition forces blame Pashinian for the disastrous war that left at least
3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. They also say that his administration is doing
little to rebuild the armed forces.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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