Category: 2017

                                        Tuesday, 

Russia's Ruling Party Said To Back EU-Armenia Deal


 . Emil Danielyan


Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) meets with Sergey Zheleznyak,
a senior member of the ruling United Russia party, in Yerevan,
27Nov2017.

A senior representative of Russia's ruling party reportedly voiced
support late on Monday for Armenia's efforts to forge closer links
with the European Union while maintaining its political and military
alliance with Russia.

Sergey Zheleznyak and three other lawmakers representing President
Vladimir Putin's United Russia party met with President Serzh
Sarkisian in Yerevan three days after Armenia signed the Comprehensive
and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the EU.

Sarkisian's press office quoted Zheleznyak, who is the deputy
secretary of United Russia's governing board, as praising "wise and
balanced" policies pursued by the Armenian government.

"He stressed that Russia's ruling party stands for the principle of
`both/and,' rather than `either/or,' of developing relations and
cooperation," the office said in a statement. "Armenia builds its
relations with the Russian Federation and the EU in that
context. Therefore, according to Sergey Zheleznyak, all those views
that differ from the above-mentioned position do not reflect the
official approaches of Russia and its ruling party."

Moscow's stance on the issue was a subject of intense media
speculation in Armenia throughout two-year negotiations that preceded
the signing of the CEPA in Brussels on Friday. Some pro-Western
pundits in Yerevan claimed that the Kremlin could force Yerevan to
pull out of the deal. Armenian officials ruled out such a possibility.

Russian pressure was widely attributed to President Sarkisian's
unexpected decision in 2013 to seek Armenia's accession to the
Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The move precluded the
signing of a more far-reaching Association Agreement between Armenia
and the EU.


RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Armenia's
President Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow on November 15, 2017.

While some pro-government Russian commentators expressed concern over
the CEPA in recent weeks, Moscow gave no indications that it
disapproves of the deal.

"Armenia is a sovereign country and it has the right to enter into any
agreements or blocs that do not contradict obligations assumed by it
earlier," the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Ivan Volynkin, told the
Arminfo news agency on Thursday.

The CEPA provisions, he said, do not run counter to Armenia's EEU
membership commitments. Volynkin expressed hope that Armenia will
become a "bridge of cooperation between the EU and the EEU."

The Russian envoy stressed at the same time that the EU is "unable to
replace Russia in providing security guarantees to Armenia." "The EU
itself is dependent on NATO in that sense," he said.

Armenian leaders have repeatedly stated that the alliance with Russia
remains the cornerstone of Armenian foreign and security
policy. Sarkisian visited Moscow and met with Putin nine days before
attending the CEPA signing ceremony in Brussels.



Babayan Sentenced To Six Years In Prison


 . Karlen Aslanian


Armenia - Samvel Babayan (R), Nagorno-Karabakh's former military
leader, stands trial in Yerevan, 20Nov2017.

Samvel Babayan, Nagorno-Karabakh's former top military commander
general linked to an Armenian opposition group, was sentenced to six
years in prison on Tuesday on charges of illegal arms acquisition and
money laundering which he strongly denies.

A court in Yerevan also sentenced two other men, who went on trial
with Babayan in July, to three and two years' imprisonment. The four
other defendants in the high-profile trial received suspended jail
terms ranging from two to two and a half years.

Babayan was arrested in March this year after Armenia's National
Security Service (NSS) claimed to have confiscated a surface-to-air
rocket system smuggled to the country. The arrest came about two weeks
before Armenia's last parliamentary elections. Babayan was
unofficially affiliated with the ORO alliance led by former Defense
Minister Seyran Ohanian and two other opposition politicians. ORO
condemned the criminal case as politically motivated.

Babayan likewise alleged political motives behind his prosecution in
his concluding remarks at the trial made on Monday. He claimed that
shortly after his arrest some officials "spoke of politics" with him
and "explained why they caught me." He declined to name them, while
saying that he know where the "order" to jail him came from.


Armenia - Samvel Babayan stands trial in Yerevan, 28Aug2017

Also, the once powerful general again denied prosecutors' claims that
he promised to pay other defendants, notably his longtime associate
Sanasar Gabrielian, $50,000 for the delivery of the shoulder-fired
Igla rocket.

Gabrielian, who received the three-year prison sentence, stated during
the trial that it was he who commissioned the confiscated Igla. He
claimed that he wanted to donate the launcher along with its
shoulder-fired rockets to Nagorno-Karabakh's army.

Gabrielian insisted he only showed Babayan a photograph of the Igla
system because the latter "knows everything" about weapons. Babayan,
he said, advised him to hide the weapon in a remote Karabakh village
and then anonymously tip off the Karabakh military about that.

Babayan echoed this version of events on Monday. "As regards the Igla,
it has nothing to do with me, there is no evidence," he said.

A trial prosecutor maintained on November 13 that law-enforcement
authorities have presented sufficient evidence of Babayan's guilt. The
prosecution has never clarified, however, why the former Karabakh army
chief sought to get hold of the Russian-made rocket designed to shoot
down planes and helicopters.

"They have duly executed the order," Babayan declared tartly when the
presiding judge, Arshak Zakarian, read out the guilty verdict.


Armenia -- A court in Yerevan examines a shoulder-fired rocket system
in the trial of Samvel Babayan and six other men, Yerevan, 25Sept2017.

Asked by reporters in the courtroom whether he believes the "order"
was issued by President Serzh Sarkisian, Babayan replied: "You said
so." He also declined to clarify whether he considers himself a
political prisoner.

Meanwhile, Babayan's lawyer, Avetis Kalashian, said that his client
will appeal against the "extremely harsh" verdict.

Babayan, 52, led Karabakh's Armenian-backed army from 1993-1999 and
was widely regarded as the unrecognized republic's most powerful man
at that time. He was arrested in 2000 and subsequently sentenced to 14
years in prison for allegedly masterminding a botched attempt on the
life of the then Karabakh president, Arkady Ghukasian.

Immediately after being set free in 2004, Babayan relocated to Yerevan
where he set up an opposition party that fared poorly in Armenian
parliamentary elections held in 2007. He emigrated to Russia in 2011
for still unclear reasons.

The retired general returned to Armenia in May 2016, citing the
increased risk of renewed war with Azerbaijan. He has repeatedly
criticized Armenia's and Karabakh's current governments since then.



Armenia Repatriates Azeri Soldier's Body


Armenian - Armenian military personnel and Red Cross officials hand
over to Azerbaijan the body of a dead Azerbaijani soldier, 28Nov2017.

The Armenian military repatriated on Tuesday the body of an
Azerbaijani soldier who was reportedly found dead on Armenia's border
with Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan exclave last week.

The handover facilitated by the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) took place at another section of the Nakhichevan
frontier.

The Defense Ministry in Yerevan released several photographs that
showed Armenian military personnel carrying a stretcher covered with a
white sheet at a fortified border post. They were accompanied by three
ICRC officials, one of whom held up a Red Cross flag.

According to the ministry, the Azerbaijani soldier was found on
Thursday lying dead in front of an Armenian army post facing eastern
Nakhichevan. A ministry statement released on Tuesday insisted that he
was an army captain.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has said, however, that the dead
soldier, identified as Bakhruz Jalibeyli, was a 19-year-old conscript
who deserted his unit after committing an unspecified "crime." So far
it has said nothing about the circumstances of his death.

The ICRC similarly assisted in the handover to Baku in February of the
body of another Azerbaijani soldier who was shot dead at another
section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border last December. Yerevan said
that his death was the result of an attempted Azerbaijani incursion
into Armenia which also left three Armenian servicemen dead.



Iranian FM Discusses Closer Business Ties In Armenia


 . Sargis Harutyunyan


Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (L) meets with Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Yerevan, 28Nov2017.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with President Serzh
Sarkisian and other Armenian leaders on Tuesday during a visit to
Yerevan that appeared to focus on ongoing efforts to expand
Armenian-Iranian economic ties.

He arrived in the Armenian capital with a large group of Iranian
businessmen who held a one-day conference with fellow entrepreneurs
from Armenia. Zarif and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian
opened the forum before holding talks.

"There are quite good opportunities for expanding economic relations
between the two countries," Zarif told an ensuing joint news
conference with Nalbandian.

"Energy and cargo transit are very important areas of our cooperation
with Armenia," he said. "We also attach importance to our cooperation
on science and technology."


Armenia - Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Mohammad Javad Zarif
at a news conference in Yerevan, 28Nov2017

Nalbandian said, for his part, that they discussed ways of increasing
bilateral commerce and preparations for next month's meeting in
Yerevan of an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on
economic cooperation. In that context, he stressed the importance of a
planned free-trade deal between Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian
Economic Union which is strongly backed by Armenia.

According to official Armenian statistics, Armenian-Iranian trade
stood at a relatively modest $197.4 million in the first nine months
of this year. It was up by 10 percent from the same period in 2016.

Zarif was reported to tell Sarkisian later in the day that the current
scale of Armenian-Iranian business dealings "does not befit the high
level of political relations between the two friendly nations." The
two men agreed on the need to "bolster economic ties and develop
mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas," reported the
Armenian presidential press office. It said Zarif called Armenia a
"very good neighbor" of Iran.


Armenia - The Armenian and Iranian foreign ministers open an
Armenian-Iranian business forum in Yerevan, 28Nov2017.

Economic issues dominated Zarif's separate meeting with Prime Minister
Karen Karapetian. They discussed, among other things, the upcoming
launch of a free economic zone in Armenia's southeastern Meghri
district bordering Iran. According to an Armenian government
statement, they agreed that the tax haven for manufacturing firms
could give a major boost to Armenian-Iranian business ties.

The statement added that Armenian-Iranian energy projects were also on
the agenda of Karapetian's talks with the chief Iranian diplomat. But
it did not elaborate.

Karapetian met with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, First
Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Energy
Minister Sattar Mahmoudi when he paid an official visit to Tehran in
October. He reportedly discussed the possibility of a trilateral deal
that would enable Armenia to import cheap natural gas from
Turkmenistan via Iran. No concrete agreements to that effect have been
announced so far.

The Armenian premier on Tuesday described his trip to Iran as "quite
promising." "Armenia's government is extremely interested in
qualitatively changing and raising our trade to a higher level," he
told Zarif.



Press Review



"Aravot" ridicules Russian commentators who have reacted angrily to
the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement
(CEPA) between Armenia and the European Union. "These and other
displays of jealousy and venomous comments addressed to us by Russia's
not-at-all-independent media are especially surprising now that the
Kremlin says that it has no problem with that agreement," writes the
paper. "Either [Russian] propagandists have not received corresponding
orders or their leadership says one thing in public but stirs up
something else from behind the scenes."

"Haykakan Zhamanak" says that President Serzh Sarkisian's desire to
extend his rule was one of the main reasons why the CEPA was signed
last week. "Before launching an assault on the government in 2018
Serzh Sarkisian is demonstrating to the European Union and the West in
general that he is open to cooperation with them and that if the West
attempts to impede his `reproduction' in 2018 it will have to do
business with pro-Russian [Prime Minister] Karen Karapetian," explains
the paper. "And if Russia attempts to impede his reproduction it will
have to do so through Karen Karapetian. These latest developments have
shown that Karapetian does not have sufficient clout to thwart the
signing of the CEPA and is therefore unfit for the role of the
protector of Moscow's interests in Armenia."

Interviewed by "168 Zham," Nicu Popescu, a Paris-based political
analyst, describes the CEPA as a "big achievement for Armenia and the
EU given the circumstances in which Armenia had abandoned the
Association Agreement" with the EU in 2013. "But it would be wrong to
say that this represents some kind of association with the EU because
Armenia will not have the kind of relationship with the EU which
Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova have," he says.

"Hraparak" claims that pro-European groups in Armenia have only now
revolted against their country's membership in the Russian-led
Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The paper considers this reaction
overdue and says those groups should now focus instead on the
implementation of the new EU-Armenia agreement. They should "force the
authorities to take real steps in that direction so that the document
does not remain on paper," it says.

(Tigran Avetisian)


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