Author: Varazdat Torgomian

                                        Thursday, 


Ruling Party Slams Opposition Push For Regime Change

        • Anush Mkrtchian
        • Marine Khachatrian

Armenia - Opposition supporters participate in an "awareness march" in Yerevan, 



Representatives of the ruling Civil Contract party on Thursday denounced 
opposition efforts to bring down Armenia’s government through street protests 
and said they will end in failure.

Accordingly, they ruled out Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation 
demanded by the country’s two leading opposition blocs.

The Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs began on Monday small-scale protests in 
preparation for mass demonstrations aimed at toppling Pashinian and preventing 
what they say are sweeping concessions to Azerbaijan planned by him.

Pashinian signaled earlier this month his administration’s readiness to 
recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity through a bilateral peace treaty. 
Critics say he is intent on helping Baku regain control of Karabakh. The 
premier’s political allies deny this.

Artur Hovannisian, a parliament deputy from Civil Contract, accused the 
opposition of exploiting the Karabakh issue for political purposes.

“This narrative ended after 2018,” Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. 
“They are now trying to revive it because they have no legitimate source of 
coming to power -- namely, the people’s support -- because we can see that their 
actions are not accompanied by strong support from citizens.”

Armenia - Members of the former ruling Republican Party hold an anti-government 
rally in Yerevan, .

Hrachya Hakobian, another pro-government lawmaker and Pashinian’s 
brother-in-law, also said that the opposition forces will fail to unseat the 
current government.

“The [average] guy sitting at home and following their actions hears only 
negative messages and will not participate in those actions,” he said.

Both lawmakers rejected any parallels between the ongoing opposition campaign 
and the 2018 mass protests that brought Pashinian to power.

Meanwhile, large groups of opposition members and supporters staged “awareness 
marches,” blocked streets and entered university campuses in Yerevan for the 
fourth consecutive day. Riot police stepped up arrests of protesters as they 
unblocked traffic through those streets.

Armenia - Opposition leader Artur Vanetsian and members of his Fatherland party 
march through Yerevan, .

A spokesman for the Armenian police said that about 40 persons were detained by 
late afternoon. They were expected to be set free a few hours later.

“We must achieve the final result,” Hayastan’s Gegham Manukian told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service as he led a group of supporters that began marching to Yerevan 
from Armavir province in the morning.

“We must defend Artsakh,” he said. “We must defend Armenia and restore our 
security by ousting these authorities because these authorities are not capable 
of doing anything anymore.”

The opposition is scheduled its first major rally in Yerevan on Sunday.



Armenian Publisher Attacked By Opposition Protesters

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - Publisher Armen Martirosian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, 


An Armenian book publisher known for his conciliatory views on Azerbaijan and 
Turkey was assaulted late on Wednesday by opposition supporters holding an 
anti-government demonstration in Yerevan.

Armen Martirosian, the owner of the Antares publishing house, ran into the 
protesters on his way to a business meeting. Videos of the incident showed some 
of them hitting, shoving and verbally abusing him.

“Some people in the crowd probably recognized me,” Martirosian told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service. “They started shouting Antares, calling me a Turk, swearing.”

The Armenian police said on Thursday that they are investigating the incident. 
It was not clear whether anyone was questioned or detained by investigators.

Martirosian said that riot police officers escorting the crowd did not protect 
him against the violence. He said that the police had also failed to act on 
threats received by him in the past.

The publisher suggested that the main reason for the assault was one of his 
social media posts made shortly after Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with 
Azerbaijan. He criticized at the time Armenian occupation of districts around 
Nagorno-Karabakh retaken by Baku as a result of the six-week war. He stood by 
the criticism on Thursday.

“Being in the territory of Kubatli (one of those districts) is not the same 
thing as being in the territory of Artsakh (Karabakh),” Martirosian said. “There 
is a big difference between them.”

The Yerevan rally marred by the attack on Martirosian was part of the Armenian 
opposition’s preparations for mass protests against the government. Opposition 
leaders say they want to topple Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in order to 
prevent further concessions to Azerbaijan planned by him.



Pashinian Faces More Opposition Calls To Resign After Fatal Accident

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Citizens pay their respects to a pregnant woman who was hit and killed 
by a police car that was part of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's motorcade, 
Yerevan, .


Armenian opposition leaders have blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for the 
death of a pregnant woman hit by a police car that led his motorcade in Yerevan.

They said this is another reason why Pashinian must resign four years after 
coming to power in a popular uprising.

Security camera footage publicized by Armenian media showed that the 28-year-old 
woman, Sona Mnatsakanian, was struck by a police SUV while crossing a street in 
downtown Yerevan on Tuesday. The vehicle drove on after throwing the pedestrian 
several meters away. Its driver was arrested later on Tuesday.

Nor did any of the seven other cars carrying Pashinian, his bodyguards and other 
security personnel stop to try to help Mnatsakanian.

Pashinian has still not publicly commented on the unprecedented accident. He did 
not mention it during a weekly session of his cabinet held on Thursday.

Armenia - Law-enforcement officers inspect the scene of a fatal accident caused 
by a police car escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, April 26, 
2022.

The deputy chief of Pashinian’s staff, Taron Chakhoyan, said late on Wednesday, 
that the prime minister noticed a “fallen woman” when his limousine drove past 
her. Pashinian “gave appropriate orders to the health minister and 
law-enforcement officials” after finding out that she was hit by the police 
vehicle escorting him, Chakhoyan wrote on Facebook.

The government official claimed that the motorcade would have caused a traffic 
jam and made it harder for an ambulance to reach the victim had it stopped right 
after the deadly collision.

Opposition figures and other critics of the Armenian government dismissed such 
explanations.

“Would the [arrested] police major have stopped right after the collision had he 
not escorted Nikol Pashinian?” said Artur Ghazinian, a parliament deputy from 
the main opposition Hayastan alliance. “He would have definitely stopped … and 
quickly taken [the victim] to the hospital located 300 meters away.”

“Now who is more to blame, the car driver or Nikol Pashinian?” Ghazinian asked, 
clearly putting the blame on the prime minister.

Armenia - Deputy parliament speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian (second from left) leads 
an opposition protest in Yerevan, .

The accident came as Hayastan and other opposition groups geared up for mass 
protests aimed at toppling Pashinian over what they see as sweeping concessions 
to Azerbaijan planned by him.

“What else should [Pashinian] do to get people to take to the streets?” Ishkhan 
Saghatelian, a senior Hayastan figure, said, commenting on the young woman’s 
death.

“This citizen must be our last victim,” Saghatelian told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service. “He [Pashinian] must simply resign.”

Gevorg Papoyan, a parliament deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party, 
responded by accusing the opposition of dishonestly exploiting the accident for 
political purposes. Papoyan also said Pashinian “did not know that an accident 
occurred” when his motorcade raced through Yerevan.


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