“Places like Armenia give me hope for a world where everyone grows up to become grandmasters in whatever they like….all thanks to Education,” the blogger captioned the video on Facebook.
The video features Armenian President Armen Sarkissian and the country’s leading grandmaster Levon Aronian.
“Yes, I am the President of Armenia, and we love chess,” President Sarkissian says.
Tuesday,
Pashinian Meets Ter-Petrosian
Armenia - Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian (L) and Nikol Pashinian greet
supporters in Yerevan's Liberty Square, 31 May 2011.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian have
met for the first time in years to discuss challenges facing Armenia.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Tuesday, the Armenian government
said the meeting took place in Pashinian’s state-owned residence in Yerevan on
Monday.
“The first president [Ter-Petrosian] expressed his views regarding ways of
overcoming a number of challenges facing Armenia,” it said. “Issues pertaining
to foreign policy and the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict were discussed.”
“The meeting took place at Levon Ter-Petrosian’s initiative,” it added.
No further details were reported. Ter-Petrosian’s office issued no statements
on the meeting as of Tuesday afternoon.
Pashinian played a prominent role in Ter-Petrosian’s broad-based opposition
movement that nearly brought the latter back to power in a disputed
presidential election held in February 2008. Pashinian was one of the most
influential speakers at the ex-president’s anti-government rallies held at the
time. He spent about two years in prison on charges stemming from a
post-election government crackdown on the Ter-Petrosian-led opposition.
Pashinian fell out with Ter-Petrosian after being released from prison in 2011.
Accordingly, his relationship with Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress
(HAK) opposition party became very strained. As recently as in February, the
HAK’s deputy chairman, Levon Zurabian, scoffed at Pashinian’s plans to try to
stop then President Serzh Sarkisian from extending his decade-long rule.
Even so, the HAK voiced support for the Pashinian-led movement as it gained
momentum in mid-April. It demanded Pashinian’s immediate release when he was
detained on April 22, the day before Sarkisian decided to resign as prime
minister.
Ter-Petrosian, 73, issued different written statements during the unprecedented
mass protests that practically paralyzed the country in late April and early
May. The day before Pashinian was elected prime minister on May 8, he warned
the protest leaders against taking “unconstitutional steps.”
But on May 17, Ter-Petrosian, who served as Armenia’s first president from
1991-1998, expressed serious concern at street closures, blockades of
government buildings, strikes and other disruptive actions which continued even
after the dramatic regime change. He said they could help Sarkisian’s
Republican Party (HHK) “sabotage” the work of Pashinian’s government.
Serzh Sarkisian’s Fugitive Nephew Set To Face More Charges
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - An armed officer of the National Security Service guards an entrance
to the Yerevan house of former President Serzh Sarkisian's brother Aleksandr
searched by investigators, 4 July 2018.
Law-enforcement authorities have moved to bring more criminal charges against a
nephew of former President Serzh Sarkisian who apparently fled Armenia late
last month.
The National Security Service (NSS) issued an arrest warrant for Narek
Sarkisian after searching his family’s house in downtown Yerevan and other
properties earlier this month. It claimed that he asked one of his friends in
June to hide his illegally owned guns, cocaine and other drugs in a safer
place. The NSS released a video showing two suitcases purportedly filled with
those items.
According to the NSS, Narek flew to Moscow on June 22 together with his
bodyguard, Artem Poghosian, who was also wanted by the investigators. Poghosian
returned to Yerevan and turned himself in on July 10.
Narek’s younger brother Hayk was arrested and charged with attempted murder and
illegal arms possession last week. The two men’s controversial father Aleksandr
is a younger brother of former President Sarkisian. He was briefly detained
during the NSS raid on his luxury residence.
Armenia -- Narek Sarkisian, a nephew of former President Serzh Sarkisian.
The Armenian police said on Monday that Narek Sarkisian, 31, is now also
suspected of kidnapping a man last August with the help of his bodyguard and
other individuals. It said that Narek threatened to shoot the 49-year-old man
before beating him up and burning “various parts of his body” with a lighter.
The man was freed only after promising not to open a nightclub in Yerevan,
according to a police statement.
A spokeswoman for Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service on Tuesday that his office has instructed the NSS to conduct a
kidnapping and assault investigation targeting Narek. The NSS did not
immediately comment on the new probe ordered by prosecutors.
Also facing prosecution is the ex-president’s second brother, Levon Sarkisian.
He and his daughter were charged with “illegal enrichment” after tax inspectors
discovered in late June that they hold millions of dollars in undeclared
deposits at an Armenian bank.
A Yerevan court issued an arrest warrant for Levon Sarkisian early this month.
He has still not been arrested, however, suggesting that he too fled the
country.
Serzh Sarkisian, who governed Armenia from 2008-20018, has not yet publicly
commented on the highly embarrassing criminal proceedings launched against his
close relatives.
Yerevan ‘Working’ On Aid Proposals To EU
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Belgium - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Armenia's Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian meet in Brussels,12 July, 2018.
The Armenian government will make soon detailed proposals designed to convince
the European Union to significantly increase its economic assistance to
Armenia, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday.
Pashinian criticized the EU for not promising additional aid to Yerevan when he
ended a two-day visit to Brussels last week. The head of the EU Delegation in
Armenia, Piotr Switalski, countered on Monday that his government needs to
first come up with specific reform-oriented projects requiring EU funding.
Pashinian’s press secretary, Arman Yeghoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am) that the government is now working on such projects.
“Those proposals are being worked out and I can say in general terms that they
will mainly relate to the development of Armenia’s public infrastructures and
institutional reforms … We are going to present clear programs,” he said.
Yeghoyan did not specify the amount of extra EU aid that will be requested by
the new authorities in Yerevan. “We are talking about a fairly solid sum, but I
can’t give a concrete figure,” he said.
Stepan Grigorian, a Yerevan-based political analyst, claimed that Pashinian’s
government will be seeking as much as 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in EU
funding.
The EU pledged last year to provide up to 160 million euros ($185 million) in
fresh aid to Armenia over the next three years in line with the Comprehensive
and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed with the previous Armenian
government.
Switalski announced that a senior official from the European Commission, the
EU’s executive body, will visit Yerevan later this week to discuss with
Armenian leaders their “expectations and needs.” “This must be a very concrete
discussion,” the diplomat stressed.
Stepan Safarian, another pro-Western analyst, was very skeptical about
Armenia’s ability to attract large-scale EU aid without a change of its
geopolitical orientation. “It is not realistic to expect the kind huge of
assistance which the EU has been providing to Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in
return for their complete Europeanization,” he said. “Armenia must not have
such expectations.”
Ever since he swept to power in a wave of mass protests in May, Pashinian has
repeatedly ruled out a change of his country’s geopolitical orientation. While
voicing support for closer ties with the EU as well as the United States, he
has pledged to keep it primarily allied to Russia.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” comments on European Union Ambassador Piotr Switalski’s response to
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s criticism of the EU. “Ambassador Switalski
says that they expect changes, new ideas from Armenia’s new government,” writes
the paper. “The ambassador’s remarks are certainly appropriate. Armenia needs
to make more substantive proposals to Brussels about what kind of assistance it
expects, in what form and on what scale. It is not yet clear whether Nikol
Pashinian presented such things during his visit to Brussels.” Pashinian should
clarify that, it says.
A Georgian analyst, Gela Vasadze, tells “168 Zham” that Yerevan would be wrong
to think that the EU will give it more aid “just because regime change occurred
here.” “We already went through that,” he says. “After that Georgia had to
spend a lot of time proving its European course … The EU needs neither Georgia
nor Armenia. We need the EU. We must prove that we are worthy of their
standards.”
“Our young rulers need to realize that they are no longer activists and none of
their steps and statements goes unnoticed,” writes “Hraparak.” The paper cites
controversy caused by Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s spokesman Karpis
Pashoyan, who questioned motives of Armenian soldiers killed in the 2016 war in
Karabakh. It also says: “While opposition politician Nikol Pashinian was free
to lambaste the Europeans and the Russians and tell bitter truths about their
hypocritical policies, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s slight discontent with
the EU’s perceived failure to properly finance reforms in Armenia could cause
an international scandal and prompt a tough reaction from the EU.”
“Zhoghovurd” comments on the launch of a criminal investigation into an
Armenian parliament deputy and a village mayor suspected of handing out vote
bribes in last year’s general elections. The paper claims that tens of
thousands of other people in Armenia can also be prosecuted on such charges
given the scale of chronic vote buying in the country.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
Monday,
Ex-General’s Son Also Charged With Embezzlement
Armenia - Mayor Karen Grigorian (second from left) joins his supporters
rallying in Echmiadzin, 16 June 2018.
The former mayor of Echmiadzin has been charged with embezzling aid donated to
the Armenian military together with his arrested father, retired General Manvel
Grigorian.
Grigorian was arrested on June 16 when Armenia’s National Security Service
(NSS) raided his properties in and around Echmiadzin. An official video of
searches conducted there showed NSS officers finding large amounts of weapons,
ammunition, medication and field rations for soldiers provided by the Armenian
Defense Ministry.
They also discovered canned food and several vehicles donated by Armenians at
one of Grigorian’s mansions. The private donations were made during the April
2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karen Grigorian resigned as Echmiadzin mayor immediately after the embarrassing
video was aired by Armenian TV channels and widely shared on social media on
June 17. He governed the town located about 20 kilometers west of Yerevan for
almost ten years.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS), which is conducting the high-profile
investigation, said Karen Grigorian was charged on Friday with helping his
father misappropriate three military vans that were contributed by the Armenian
Diaspora in Russia in 2016.
The SIS did not arrest Grigorian and instead had him sign a formal pledge not
to leave the country until the inquiry is over. It was not immediately known
whether the former mayor will plead guilty to the accusation carrying between
four and eight years in prison.
Armenia - Retired General Manvel Grigorian speaks at a congress of the
Yerkrapah Union in Yerevan, 18 February 2017.
Manvel Grigorian, 61, has denied the more serious charges levelled against him.
According to his lawyers, he has told investigators that the supplies found in
his property were shipped to and from there by other senior members of the
Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh war veterans without his knowledge.
Grigorian, who was a prominent field commander during the war, has headed the
union linked to the military for almost two decades. Its governing board
decided on Saturday to suspend Grigorian as Yerkrapah chairman and convene an
emergency congress of the once powerful organization.
Grigorian, who served as deputy defense minister from 2000-2008, has held sway
in Echmiadzin and surrounding villages for more than two decades. He strongly
supported former President Serzh Sarkisian throughout the latter’s decade-long
rule. Armenian media outlets have long accused the ex-general and his family
members of corruption, violent conduct and other abuses.
New Charge Brought Against ‘Violent’ Mayor
Armenia - Davit Hambardsumyan, Mayor of Masis, Yerevan, 2 Jun, 2018
Law-enforcement authorities have filed another criminal charge against the
embattled mayor of an Armenian town stemming from violent attacks on opposition
supporters who protested against the country’s longtime leader, Serzh
Sarkisian, in April.
Mayor Davit Hambardzumian of Masis, who is affiliated with Sarkisian’s
Republican Party (HHK), was detained and charged late last month with
organizing one such assault in Yerevan on April 22.
The incident occurred just hours after Nikol Pashinian, the main organizer of
mass protests against Sarkisian’s continued rule, was detained by security
forces. Hundreds of Pashinian supporters demonstrating there were attacked by
several dozen masked men wielding sticks and even electric shock guns.
Hambardzumian denied any involvement in the attack. A Yerevan court refused to
allow investigators to keep him and four other suspects in pre-trial detention.
They all were set free three days after their arrest.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Monday that it has collected “factual
evidence” of the Masis mayor’s involvement in another violent incident reported
later on April 22. Residents of the southern Ararat province encompassing Masis
were attacked by a smaller group of other individuals as they marched to
Yerevan to take part in an anti-government rally.
According to an Investigative Committee statement, four protesters sustained
major injuries as a result. One of them was shot and wounded.
The law-enforcement agency claimed to have identified the shooter. It said the
suspect, a Masis resident, is now on the run.
The statement insisted that Hambardzumian was also among the attackers. He was
formally charged with grave “hooliganism” on Sunday, it said. If convicted, the
mayor will risk between four and seven years in prison.
Hambardzumian, 32, was elected mayor in 2016 with the help of the HHK. Eight
senior parliamentarians representing the former ruling party called for his
release from custody following his arrest a month ago.
Armenia Continues To Back Russia At UN
U.S. -- A session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, December
21, 2017.
Armenia has again sided with Russia at the United Nations General Assembly,
underscoring its new government’s intention not to change the country’s
traditional foreign policy orientation.
Armenia was among 15 nations -- including Russia, Belarus, Iran and North Korea
-- that voted against a General Assembly resolution calling for the withdrawal
of Russian troops from the breakaway Transdniester region of Moldova.
The nonbinding resolution was adopted late on June 22 by a vote of 64 to 15,
with 83 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly. It was co-sponsored by Britain,
Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and seven other mostly eastern European countries.
Transdniester is considered one of the many "frozen conflicts" in the former
Soviet Union. The mainly Russian-speaking region declared independence from
Moldova in 1990 over fears that Chisinau would seek reunification with
neighboring Romania. Moldovan forces and Moscow-backed Transdniester fighters
fought a short but bloody war in 1992.
The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement after Russian troops in the
region intervened on the side of the separatists. Some 1,400 Russian troops
remain in Transdniester guarding Soviet-era arms depots, and Moscow has
resisted numerous calls over the years to withdraw its troops.
Armenia’s decision to vote against the resolution on Transdniester was
consistent with its voting record at the UN and other international
organizations. Yerevan has usually opposed measures critical of Russia, the
South Caucasus state’s leading ally. Those include a 2014 General Assembly
resolution that that condemned Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and upheld
Ukraine’s sovereignty over the Black Sea peninsula.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to keep his country
allied to Russia since he swept to power in a democratic revolution last month.
“Nobody … will cast doubt on the strategic importance of Russian-Armenian
relations,” he told Russian President Vladimir Putin at their first meeting
held in Sochi on May 14.
For his part, Putin expressed hope that Yerevan and Moscow will continue to
cooperate in the international arena. He singled out the UN, noting that
“Armenia and Russia have always supported each other” there.
Sarkisian’s Brother, Top Bodyguard Detained
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (L) and his chief bodyguard Vachagan
Ghazarian, 11 July 2015.
A controversial brother and the chief bodyguard of Armenia’s former President
Serzh Sarkisian were detained on Monday.
It was not immediately clear whether law-enforcement authorities will press
criminal charges against them.
A spokesman for the Armenian police, Ashot Aharonian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) that Aleksandr Sarkisian was detained on suspicion of
illegal arms possession. A short amateur video posted on Facebook showed masked
policemen hauling him and his bodyguards out of their cars in downtown Yerevan.
Sarkisian was set free several hours later. Aharonian said the police are now
checking the legality of weapons possessed by him and his men.
Sarkisian, who is better known to the public as “Sashik,” has repeatedly caused
controversy in the past with his flamboyant behavior and insults addressed to
critics of Armenia’s former governments.
The 62-year-old is thought to have made a big fortune in the past two decades.
Unconfirmed reports in the Armenian press have said that he spent millions of
dollars buying real estate in Europe and the United States.
Armenia - Aleksandr Sarkisian.
Tax inspectors raided on Saturday the offices of a real estate company in
Yerevan at least partly controlled by Serzh Sarkisian’s second, youngest
brother Levon and his family. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) accused the
company of failing to pay 300 million drams ($625,000) in taxes. Nobody has
been arrested yet as part of that criminal case.
Earlier on Monday, the National Security Service (NSS), detained Serzh
Sarkisian’s longtime chief bodyguard, Vachagan Ghazarian. An NSS spokesman
declined to say whether that is connected with more than $1.1 million and
230,000 euros ($267,000) in cash confiscated from Ghazarian’s Yerevan apartment
late last week.
The money was found during a joint operation conducted by the police and
another law-enforcement body, the Investigative Committee. The committee said
Ghazarian and his wife failed to disclose it in their income and asset
declarations submitted to an anti-corruption state commission.
Such declarations are mandatory for Armenia’s high-ranking state officials and
their close relatives. Ghazarian was such an official until Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian dismissed him last month as first deputy head of a security
agency providing bodyguards to the country’s leaders.
Armenian Coup Suspect Freed For Now
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Former Deputy Defense Minister Vahan Shirkhanian is released from
custody, .
A veteran Armenian politician accused of plotting to seize power together with
members of a clandestine militant group was released from custody on Monday
pending the outcome of their ongoing trial.
Vahan Shirkhanian, a former deputy defense minister, is one of the 20
individuals who went on trial on coup charges in December 2015. Most of them
were detained in a dawn raid on their hideout in Yerevan. Armenian security
forces found large quantities of weapons and explosives stashed there.
Those arrested in that raid were apparently led by Artur Vartanian, a
36-year-old obscure man who reportedly lived in Spain until his return to
Armenia in April 2015.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) claims that the core members of
Vartanian’s group called Hayots Vahan Gund (Armenian Shield Regiment) underwent
secret military training in an Armenian village in August-September 2015. It
says that Vartanian and his associates drew up detailed plans for the seizure
of the presidential administration, government, parliament, Constitutional
Court and state television buildings in Yerevan.
According to the prosecution, Shirkhanian agreed to participate in the alleged
plot and suggested in 2015 that the armed group assassinate then President
Serzh Sarkisian, instead of focusing on the seizure of the key state buildings.
Shirkhanian denies the accusations as politically motivated,
A Yerevan judge presiding over the high-profile trial on Monday agreed to free
him for now after two members of the Armenian parliament guaranteed in writing
that the 71-year-old will not attempt to escape justice. Both lawmakers are
affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party.
Armenia - An alleged 2015 photograph of members of an Armenian militant group
arrested on coup charges.
As he walked free in the courtroom Shirkhanian said his provisional release was
made possible by the recent change of Armenia’s government. “I congratulate all
of you on the end of the rule of evil in Armenia,” he told reporters.
The case against Shirkhanian is based in large measure on his conversation with
Vartanian which took place in his home and was secretly recorded. The trial
prosecutors publicized the transcript of that conversation during a court
hearing in December 2017.
According to that text, the two men seemed to discuss ways of achieving a
violent overthrow of the government. In particular, Shirkhanian was quoted as
saying that then Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian “hates” Sarkisian’s and the
presidential entourage and “will do what we say” immediately after the
president is eliminated. In that context, he spoke of a possibility of the
presidential plane “taking off and falling down.”
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service earlier in 2017, Shirkhanian’s lawyer,
Hayk Alumian, said the wiretap is “illegal” and its content is “equivocal and
can be interpreted in different ways.”
Press Review
(Saturday, June 23)
“Zhamanak” looks at the new Armenian government’s anti-corruption efforts,
saying that they must also lead to new legislative measures that would prevent
corrupt practices in the country. The paper says it is also essential that the
Armenian society becomes more intolerant of corruption and “shames” anyone who
abuses their powers.
“Aravot” says that notorious figures like Manvel Grigorian and Arakel Movsisian
stopped using abusive language in public after being interrogated by the
National Security Service (NSS). “They now have to be more restrained and
humble because nobody stands by them anymore,” writes the paper. “But it would
be a gross exaggeration to claim that this mentality has been eliminated
because if you are not part of a rejected team you may still not give a damn
about the law.” It points out that members of an armed group that seized a
police station in Yerevan in July 2016 remain unrepentant about their violent
“feats” after being released from custody.
“168 Zham” comments on a new Armenian law on benevolence that prompted strong
objections from businessman Gagik Tsarukian and members of his political force.
“Of course, everyone realizes that this was a way of demonstrating force,”
writes the paper. “This knee-jerk reaction not only highlighted the fact that
in our country benevolence has pronounced political implications but also
showed what kind of resistance there will be if the National Assembly is
presented with a bill really limiting the impact of money and capital on
political processes.” Only fresh parliamentary elections can enable Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian to make good on his pledge to separate business from
politics, concludes the paper.
(Tatev Danielian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
PanARMENIAN.Net – An Iranian citizen crossed the border to Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) on May 18, Artskh’s police said in a statement on Saturday, June 2.
A resident of the Iranian city of Hamadan, Hassan Gholani Sayat Ali (b. 1988) crossed the border across a bridge on the River Araks without proper documents.
About an hour later, the trespasser was discovered by Artsakh’s border guards in a settlement called Khudaferin in Hadrut region and detained.
Shortly before Prosecutor-General Karen Bisharyan, filed a motion to find Ishkhan Barseghyan, accused of receiving large-scale bribery, guilty and sentence to 8 years of imprisonment.
In his speech, he considered Ishkhan Barseghyan’s guilt justified. The prosecutor also mentioned that there were no mitigating and aggravating circumstances of the judge’s sentence.
Attorney Elsa Zakaryan was also involved in the same case. Sh e is charged with bribery.
The prosecutor petitioned to abolish the criminal prosecution against Elsa Zakaryan as she accepted her guilt and helped to find out the case.
At the next hearing the defense party will deliver speeches.
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. The agenda of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Georgia is rather busy, with important emphases, expert Joni Melikyan told ARMENPRESS.
Melikyan noted the rather expanded delegation of the PM, suggesting a comprehensive and effective visit.
“This visit also bears a courtesy nature, but in addition to getting to know each other issues of bilateral interest will be raised during a number of planned meetings,” he said, adding that a new phase of development in the Armenian-Georgian ties can be expected after this visit.
The Armenian PM is also expected to visit Javakheti.
Only two official visits from Armenia were made to Javakheti in the last 15 years – one by Serzh Sargsyan who was serving as defense minister at the time, and the other by PM Andranik Margaryan.
“The visit to Javakheti is very important. Firstly it is agreed with Tbilisi, which is a bilateral message – both to certain external powers and certain internal political circles. The message is the following: Javakheti is not a disconnecting, but a connecting area in the Armenian-Georgian relations. It is a bridge in the Armenian-Georgian ties,” Melikyan said.
The one-on-one meeting of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili has kicked off in the governmental seat of Georgia in Tbilisi.
The Armenian PM was welcomed outside the governmental seat in Tbilisi in an official welcoming ceremony.
The one-on-one meeting will be followed by an expanded format meetings of delegations.
The Prime Ministers will deliver a joint press conference afterwards.
Later the Armenian PM will have meetings with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Speaker of Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze, and President Giorgi Margvelashvili.
The Prime Minister will lay flowers at the tombs of Hovhannes Tumanyan, Raffi and Gabriel Sundukyan and Sayat Nova in the Khojivank pantheon.
As part of the two-day visit, PM Pashinyan will also visit Javakheti and meet with the Armenian community.
The delegation of the Armenian PM includes his deputy Tigran Avinyan, defense minister Davit Tonoyan, foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, education and science minister Arayik Harutyunyan, culture minister Lilit Makunts, minister of diaspora Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, minister of transportation, communication and IT Ashot Hakobyan and other government officials.
The Armenian PM arrived in Georgia on May 30.
English –translator/editor:Stepan Kocharyan
It has been peaceful and Russia has kept away. Can that continue?
Almost a month ago, tens of thousands of Armenians filled the middle of the capital, Yerevan. They were listening to Nikol Pashinian, a journalist turned lawmaker. He was leading a protest against the old guard who had more or less controlled the Caucasian republic since it split from the Soviet Union in 1991. Power, he told the crowd, belonged to them and not to the politicians clinging on to their jobs. A few days later, the parliament reluctantly chose Mr Pashinian as prime minister and on May 23rd he formed a new government. What happened in Armenia amounted to a democratic velvet revolution—a rarity these days, particularly in Russia’s backyard. Unlike the revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, it was barely noticed in the West. That is partly down to Armenia’s small size and relative remoteness, but more important still was the lack of violence and the absence of Russian intervention. Few pundits or politicians outside Armenia saw it coming. So why did it succeed and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
First, the conditions were right. The Armenian government had lost popular legitimacy because of corruption and a prolonged economic slump. So when the outgoing president, Serzh Sargsyan, tried to retain power by changing the constitution and making himself prime minister protests erupted. A generation of Armenians that had never experienced Soviet rule started challenging the post-Soviet elite. Second, Armenia is a mono-ethnic country backed by a powerful diaspora. Politically it is freer than Russia and more consolidated than Ukraine. Using force against fellow Armenians would have turned Mr Sargsyan into a pariah both at home and abroad. Mr Pashinian broadened the protest both geographically and politically. He rejected traditional, divisive definitions of liberalism, nationalism and modernism. As Alexander Iskandaryan, the head of the Caucasus Institute, said, he campaigned “for everything that is good and against everything that is bad”. Lastly and crucially, he steered clear of geopolitics, focusing the protest exclusively on domestic issues, and keeping out of Russia’s confrontation with the West.
Moscow behaved with remarkable restraint, partly because it feels Armenia is not moving away from it and partly because despite its economic and military presence in Armenia, it had limited tools with which to influence the situation. In Ukraine, Russia exploited linguistic and historical divides between the Russian-speaking east and the Ukrainian-speaking west to ignite conflict, and then invaded the Donbas region. In Georgia in 2008 it used decades-long separatist conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as cover for an invasion. It had little chance of doing so in Armenia. It also had to tread carefully because of Armenia’s combustible relationship with two neighbours, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Yet the fact that Russia did not interfere and that the revolution was peaceful does not make it less important. Quite the contrary. In many ways, it poses a greater threat to Mr Putin precisely because it has been peaceful and so far successful. Mr Putin congratulated Mr Pashinian on his appointment and shook hands with him in Sochi. He may hope that economic difficulties, inflated expectations, populist promises and regional conflicts will in due course allow Moscow to gloat about the failings of popular revolutions. Mr Pashinian stresses Armenia’s strategic alliance with Russia alliance even as his country breaks away from the oligarchic system that Mr Putin embodies. Dismantling that system will be harder than ousting the government. So far he has behaved with caution, not promising miracles but retaining popular appeal. The revolution might be over; the transformation of the country is just starting.
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/05/25/how-armenias-revolution-has-been-different
On the initiative of Armenian benefactor Hrachya Poghosyan of St. Petersburg, Russia, the flags of Armenia and capital city Yerevan were sent to the International Space Station (ISS), reported Novostnik.
At present, these flags are making their next orbit of Earth.
The Russian cosmonauts’ team in the ISS will return to Earth in September.
And in October, the centennial of the First Republic of Armenia and the 2800th anniversary of Yerevan will be celebrated in the capital city.
A delegation from Russia will also take part in these celebrations. The aforesaid cosmonauts also will be in this delegation, and they will hand these flags to the leadership of Armenia and Yerevan.
RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan wrote on his Facebook page the following:
“Dear Compatriots,
“We can record another positive shift for economy and transport.
“Yesterday representatives of the Russian Federation and Georgia met in Prague and discussed the implementation of the agreement “On basic principles of customs administration and commodity trade monitoring mechanism” signed in 2011. The parties have agreed that a tripartite commission from Georgia, Russia and the Swiss company SGS should be formed for the customs control of cargo in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“In case of the implementation of the agreement, we will have alternative ways of transportation, in cases where the Upper Lars highway is closed.
“We also talked about the implementation of the agreement with RF President Vladimir Putin during meeting in Sochi on May 14.
We highly appreciate the readiness and efforts of the parties to implement this contract, which is extremely important for us.”