Author: Toneyan Mark

                                        Tuesday, February 1, 2022


Ruling Party Confirms Choice Of Armenia’s Next President

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Economist Vahagn Khachatrian is interviewed by RFE/RL, Yerevan, 
February 24, 2019


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political team on Tuesday confirmed their 
decision to install High-Tech Industry Minister Vahagn Khachatrian as Armenia’s 
president.

Pashinian’s Civil Contract party announced the decision hours after parliament 
speaker Alen Simonian formally accepted President Armen Sarkissian’s resignation 
and took over as interim president.

Simonian will perform the largely ceremonial duties of Armenia’s president until 
National Assembly controlled by Civil Contract elects a new head of state. The 
vote is expected in late February or early March.

Sarkissian announced his unexpected resignation on January 23, citing a lack of 
constitutional powers vested in the presidency. Pashinian indicated the next day 
that he will replace Sarkissian by a figure loyal to him.

Khachatrian effectively confirmed on Monday reports that he has been offered to 
take up the post. He visited the parliament building in Yerevan and met with 
lawmakers from the ruling party on Tuesday.

Civil Contract’s parliamentary leader, Hayk Konjorian, announced the 
presidential nomination after the meeting that lasted for two and a half hours. 
Konjorian said Khachatrian’s background and “political prudence” make him a good 
fit for the job.

“I think we made a good choice,” agreed Simonian.


Armenia - President Armen Sarkissian (left) and parliament speaker Alen Simonian 
arrive for a special session of the National Assembly, Yerevan, August 2, 2021.

Khachatrian, 62, is an economist who had served as mayor of Yerevan from 
1992-1996 during former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s rule. He was a staunch 
political ally of Ter-Petrosian until agreeing to join Pashinian’s government 
last August.

Pashinian’s party holds 71 seats in the 107-member parliament, putting in a 
position to install Khachatrian, without opposition support, in the second round 
of voting.

Aram Vartevanian, a lawmaker from the main opposition Hayastan bloc, all but 
ruled out such support, saying that Khachatrian is a partisan figure who can 
hardly play the role stipulated by the Armenian constitution.

Vartevanian also told journalists that Hayastan has not yet decided whether to 
nominate its own presidential candidate. The other parliamentary opposition 
force, Pativ Unem, has also not named or backed any candidate so far.

The constitution requires the president of the republic to have been a citizen 
of only Armenia and resided in the country for at least six years preceding his 
or her election.

An Armenian investigative publication, Hetq.am, claimed on January 24 that 
Sarkissian violated this requirement. It said that he remained a dual citizen of 
the Caribbean island country of Saint Kitts and Nevis “not long before being 
elected president in March 2018.”

Sarkissian left Armenia several days before stepping down. In a January 25 
statement, the presidential press office reaffirmed the stated reason for his 
resignation and accused the independent publication of trying to “divert public 
attention with a false agenda.”



Armenian Judge Alleges Government Retribution

        • Marine Khachatrian

Armenia - Judge Boris Bakhshiyan.


Lawyers representing an Armenian judge claimed on Tuesday that law-enforcement 
authorities want to arrest him because of his decision to grant bail to an 
opposition figure detained in December.

The Supreme Judicial Council, a state body overseeing Armenia’s courts, allowed 
the authorities on Monday night to seek an arrest warrant for the judge, Boris 
Bakhshiyan, on charges that were initially not made public.

The Office of the Prosecutor-General shed light on them on Tuesday evening 
following statements in support of Bakhshiyan made by a senior judge as well as 
lawyers and opposition politicians.

In a statement, the office said that Bakhshiyan, who works at the court of first 
instance of southeastern Syunik province, baselessly ordered the arrest of a 
defendant in an ongoing trial presided over by him. It said the unnamed 
defendant was arrested for not attending a court hearing for legitimate reasons.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s outgoing human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, said that 
he has received a letter from Bakhshiyan’s lawyers alleging that the criminal 
proceedings are an illegal “encroachment on the judge’s independence.”

According to Tatoyan, the lawyers believe that the case is “connected with his 
decision to release another individual from custody.”

On January 26, Bakhshiyan agreed to release Ashot Minasian, a prominent war 
veteran and opposition activist, on bail.

Minasian was arrested on December 1 one year after being charged with plotting 
to kill Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and overthrow the Armenian government and 
illegally possessing weapons. The National Security Service dropped the coup 
charges later in December.

Lawyers critical of the government claim that Pashinian’s administration is also 
punishing Bakhshiyan for freeing last fall two other opposition figures based in 
Syunik. They were arrested last summer on separate charges rejected by them as 
politically motivated.

Aleksandr Azarian, the chairman of the Union of Judges of Armenia, also 
expressed serious concern over the case, linking it to Bakhshiyan’s professional 
activities.


Armenia -- Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian urges lawmakers to allow the arrest 
and prosecution of opposition leader Gagik Tsarukian, Yerevan, June 16, 2020.

A spokesman for Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian insisted on Monday that the 
move to arrest Bakhshiyan has nothing to with the release of Minasian or the 
other oppositionists.

“There are no grounds to allege political persecution,” the official, Gor 
Abrahamian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

The statement released by the prosecutors accused Bakhshiyan’s lawyers of 
“misleading the public.”

One of those lawyers, Arsen Sardarian, said the arrest decision that landed his 
client in trouble was made in early December. He said the fact that the 
prosecutors waited for nearly two months to indict the 36-year-old judge only 
proves that the latte is prosecuted in retaliation for freeing Minasian.

The prosecutors need a court permission to arrest Bakhshiyan. As of Tuesday 
evening, it was not clear when they will submit a corresponding petition and 
initiate court hearings on it.



Serzh Sarkisian Defends Karabakh Peace Plans

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian holds a news conference in Yerevan, 
August 19, 2020.


Former President Serzh Sarkisian has rejected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
continuing criticism of peace proposals made by the United States, Russia and 
France during his rule, insisting that they did not call for Azerbaijani control 
over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The proposals were based on the so-called Madrid Principles of the Karabakh 
conflict’s resolution first drafted by the three world powers leading the OSCE 
Minsk Group in 2007.

The draft framework accord envisaged that Azerbaijan would regain control over 
virtually all seven districts around Karabakh occupied by Karabakh Armenian 
forces in the early 1990s. In return, Karabakh’s predominantly Armenian 
population would be able to determine the disputed territory’s internationally 
recognized status in a future referendum.

Pashinian has repeatedly criticized the peace plan since Armenia’s defeat in the 
2020 war with Azerbaijan. In recent remarks on the subject, he singled out new 
versions of the plan which the Minsk Group co-chairs put forward in 2016-2018, 
during the final years of Sarkisian’s presidency.

“In 2016 … Karabakh lost all theoretical and practical chances of not being part 
of Azerbaijan,” Pashinian claimed in December amid continuing opposition 
statements blaming him for the outcome of the six-week war that left at least 
3,800 Armenian soldiers dead.

Sarkisian sought to disprove such claims in an interview broadcast online late 
on Monday. He insisted that updated proposals submitted to the conflicting 
parties by the mediators in 2016 did not cross Armenian “red lines.”


Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian greets the Minsk Group co-chairs, Yerevan, 
April 9, 2016

“Our red lines were Nagorno-Karabakh’s self-determination, the existence of a 
land border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the international community’s 
recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities as legitimately elected people,” 
he said.

Sarkisian dismissed Pashinian’s arguments that the proposed deal set no date for 
the referendum of self-determination. He said that Lachin and Kelbajar, two of 
the seven districts around Karabakh, would remain under Armenian control until 
Baku agreed to the vote.

“Peacekeepers, the Armenian army and Karabakh self-determination forces would be 
deployed [around Karabakh] with the international community’s approval,” he went 
on. “In those circumstances, it would be much more painful for Azerbaijan to 
restart hostilities.”

Pashinian similarly stated a year ago that the U.S., Russian and French 
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group sought a “surrender of lands” to Azerbaijan 
and offered the Armenian side nothing in return. The then Russian co-chair of 
the group, Igor Popov, bluntly denied the claim.


Nagorno Karabakh -- A man stands by his son's grave at a memorial cemetery, in 
Stepanakert, November 27, 2020.

In televised interview aired on January 24, the prime minister also commented on 
the possibility of Armenian recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity 
through a “peace treaty” sought by Baku. He claimed in that regard that Armenia 
already did so when it signed and ratified in 1992 a treaty on the creation of 
the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Armenian opposition groups condemned the remarks as further proof of Pashinian’s 
readiness to end Armenian control over Karabakh.

Sarkisian likewise accused Pashinian of lending credence to Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev’s regular claims that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 
war put an end to the Karabakh conflict.

“There is an atmosphere of hopelessness [in Armenia,] and claims by both the 
[Armenian] authorities and Azerbaijan that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is 
resolved have had some impact on people,” said the ex-president. “I want to 
again state that Artsakh (Karabakh) will never be part of Azerbaijan. Despite 
the disastrous war, there are still possibilities for [ensuring] that.”


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