Author: Liana Toganian

                                        Thursday, 


Armenian Parliament To Probe Karabakh War

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Armenian flags fly by the graves of soldiers killed during the 2020 
war in Nagorno-Karabakh, January 28, 2022.


The pro-government majority in the National Assembly has initiated a 
parliamentary inquiry into the Armenian authorities’ handling of the 2020 war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh as well as its causes.

Opposition groups have demanded such an inquiry after a Russian-brokered 
ceasefire stopped the six-week war in November 2020. Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s political team has been in no rush to launch it, saying that the 
matter could be politicized by its political opponents.

The ruling Civil Contract party’s parliamentary group announced on Thursday the 
establishment of an ad hoc commission that will examine the causes of Armenia’s 
defeat in the war, assess the Armenian government’s and military’s actions and 
look into what had been done for national defense before the hostilities.

The commission will have access to classified documents and be able to interview 
current and former Armenian officials.

“The mission of the commission is to give answers to questions preoccupying us 
and draw up our country’s future defense strategy accordingly,” said Armen 
Khachatrian, a senior pro-government parliamentarian.

The parliament majority wants to name seven of its eleven members. The four 
other commission seats are offered to the two parliamentary opposition blocs 
holding Pashinian primarily responsible for the outcome of the war that left at 
least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead.


Nagorno Karabakh -- An Armenian soldier fires artillery on the front line on 
October 25, 2020.

One of the blocs, Pativ Unem, was quick to say that it will boycott the 
commission because it will be controlled by Pashinian’s loyalists.

“Our main concern is that the authorities will try to absolve the highest 
echelons of power of responsibility [for the defeat] and blame everything on the 
armed forces, other structures and anyone but the top officials,” said Pativ 
Unem’s Tigran Abrahamian.

The other, larger opposition force, Hayastan, did not immediately decide whether 
to participate in the probe. Its parliamentary leader, former Defense Minister 
Seyran Ohanian, suggested that Pashinian will use the commission to whitewash 
his incompetence and mishandling of the disastrous conflict.

“We need to understand the objectives set for the investigative commission,” 
Ohanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “If they just want to look into what had 
been done in the past and blame everything on former authorities, that is 
unacceptable to us.”

“It is the current state apparatus that’s responsible for the war and it’s clear 
that this state apparatus has not investigated and evaluated itself in the past 
year,” he said.

Other Hayastan figures said earlier that the commission must be headed by an 
opposition lawmaker and that Civil Contract and the opposition must be equally 
represented in it.


ARMENIA -- Police detain a participant of an opposition rally to demand the 
resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian over his handling of the 2020 war 
with Azerbaijan, April 7, 2021.

The ruling party wants to not only have a majority in the commission but also 
make sure that representatives of several other parties, not represented in the 
parliament and largely loyal to Pashinian, also participate in the probe. Civil 
Contract’s Khachatrian said the commission will decide the format of their 
participation during its first meeting scheduled for Monday.

As he faced angry street protests last year, Pashinian repeatedly blamed former 
Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, who lead Hayastan and Pativ 
Unem respectively, for the defeat. He denied ordering in October 2020 an 
Armenian military counteroffensive in Karabakh that proved disastrous and 
greatly facilitated Azerbaijan’s subsequent victory.

Pashinian has also held Sarkisian and Kocharian responsible for joint U.S., 
Russian and French peace plans which he claimed favored the Azerbaijani side.

The ex-presidents and other opposition leaders have brushed aside these claims.



Armenian Luxury Resort Sold After Nationalization


Armenia - The Golden Palace hotel complex in Tsaghkadzor.


After several failed attempts, the Armenian government has managed to find a 
buyer for a luxury hotel which was handed over to it by a former senior official 
three years ago.

The Golden Palace hotel located in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor used to belong 
to Armen Avetisian, a former chief of the Armenian customs service, and his 
family. They offered to donate it to the state in November 2018 after the 
National Security Service (NSS) moved to prosecute Avetisian for illegal 
entrepreneurship and money laundering. The NSS subsequently did not press 
charges against him.

In late 2019, the government decided to privatize the hotel and almost 1.4 
hectares of land surrounding it. Several auctions organized afterwards did not 
attract any buyers willing to meet the government’s asking price initially set 
at 7.5 billion drams ($15.6 million).

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosian 
announced on Thursday that the expensive resort, which also had a casino, has 
been finally sold to an Armenian company for 5 billion drams ($10.4 million). 
The private company, Project Inter-Invest, was the sole bidder for the property, 
he said.

Project Inter-Invest is involved in a wide range of business activities, notably 
flour production and cargo shipments. In 2019, the government granted it tax 
breaks for the import of 200 heavy trucks used by it.



Turkey To Keep Coordinating Armenian Policy With Azerbaijan

        • Tatevik Sargsian

AZERBAIJAN -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (left) meets with his 
Azeri counterpart Ceyhun Bayramov in Baku, November 1, 2020


Turkey will continue to coordinate with Azerbaijan its ongoing attempts to 
normalize relations with neighboring Armenia, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut 
Cavusoglu reiterated on Thursday.

“We have not taken and will not take any steps without consulting with 
Azerbaijan,” Cavusoglu told Turkish state television. “Azerbaijan too would like 
us to communicate with Armenia directly, without any mediators, because some 
issues require a direct dialogue.”

“This problem in the South Caucasus ended with Azerbaijan’s victory in Karabakh. 
We now need peace and cooperation,” he said, adding that the outcome of the 2020 
war is both a “lesson and opportunity” for Armenia.

Turkish and Armenian officials held last month the first round of negotiations 
on normalizing bilateral ties. They are scheduled to meet again on February 24.

Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with 
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.

In recent months Turkish leaders have made statements making the normalization 
of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Armenia agreeing to open a land 
corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.

Cavusoglu mentioned the so-called “Zangezur corridor” in his latest televised 
remarks. He also stressed the importance of an Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace 
treaty” which Baku says must commit Armenia to recognizing Azerbaijani 
sovereignty over Karabakh.

Yerevan continues to insist on the Karabakh Armenians’ right to 
self-determination. It has also ruled out any exterritorial corridors passing 
through Armenia’s internationally recognized territory.

The Turkish-Armenian talks were on the agenda of Cavusoglu’s February 8 phone 
call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said they discussed “additional steps 
the United States could take to support these efforts.” He did not elaborate.

Commenting on the phone call, Cavusoglu said he asked Washington to encourage 
Armenian-American organizations to support Ankara’s dialogue with Yerevan.



Armenian Official Rules Out Joining Russia-Belarus Union

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia -- Armen Grigorian, secretary of the Security Council, speaks at a news 
briefing, October 28, 2021


Armenia has no plans to join a “union state” formed by Russia and Belarus, a 
senior Armenian official said on Thursday, responding to claims made by 
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“There is no such issue on Armenia’s agenda,” said Armen Grigorian, the 
secretary of Armenia’s Security Council. “And if there is no such issue, my 
position is that Armenia is a sovereign, democratic state and must remain as 
such.”

In a televised interview broadcast earlier this week, Lukashenko predicted that 
Moscow will cobble together a bigger “union of sovereign states” with common 
defense, national security and economic systems over the next 10 to 15 years.

He said it will comprise not only Russia and Belarus but also Central Asian 
states, Armenia and even Ukraine. Armenia will join the union because it “has 
nowhere to go,” claimed the long-serving Belarusian strongman.

The remarks provoked a storm of criticism in the South Caucasus nation. The 
Armenian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Belarus’ ambassador in Yerevan and 
said Lukashenko’s claims “have nothing to do with Armenia and its foreign 
policy.”

Lawmakers representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party 
attacked Lukashenko in even stronger terms. Pashinian joined in the chorus of 
condemnations on Wednesday, recalling Lukashenko’s brutal crackdown on 
opposition protesters following a disputed presidential election held in Belarus 
in 2020.

“There were [similar] events in Armenia. But did you see me walk in the streets 
with an assault rifle?” Pashinian said on the parliament floor.

Russia and Belarus signed a Union State treaty in 1999 and have been negotiating 
on and off since then. So far Moscow has not publicly expressed a desire to 
expand the union.

Armenia is already a member of two other Russian-led alliances of ex-Soviet 
states: the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic 
Union.


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