Category: 2019

Parliament Elects Three Deputy Speakers

Vardan Badalian
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11 hours ago

The newly-elected deputy parliament speakers flank parliament speaker Ararat Mirzonyan (second from left)

YEREVAN—Armenia’s newly-elected National Assembly on Tuesday elected three deputy speakers, two from the ruling My Step alliance and one from the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party, affiliated with the businessman Gagik Tsarukyan.

Of the 132 members of parliament, 130 participated in Tuesday’s vote.

My Step’s Lena Nazaryan and Alen Simonyan were elected with 124 and 109 votes, respectively. The Prosperous Armenia Party’s Vahe Enfiajyan was elected with 108 votes.

Per the legislature’s rules, a third deputy speaker must be elected from the opposition forces represented in parliament. The Prosperous Armenia Party nominated Enfiajyan, while the Bright Armenia Party, the third political entity represented in parliament , nominated former Social Security Minister Mane Tandilyan.

During Monday’s inaugural session of Parliament, lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to elect former deputy prime minister and My Step candidate Ararat Mirzoyan parliament speaker.

Turkish Agricultural Delegation Organizer Denies Armenian Genocide

Paul Hambardsumian
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10 hours ago

A meeting with representatives of the West Mediterranean Exporters’ Association, also known as BAIB (pictured) was canceled due to pressure from Armenian-Americans

The organizer of a Turkish agricultural delegation, whose meetings in Fresno were canceled after pressure from Armenian-American organizations, in a statement GV Wire, an the online news site, has denied the Armenian Genocide.

The organizer of the trip is the Irvine-based Trelodex, whose president Gurkan Suzer told GV Wire that last week’s abrupt cancellation of a meeting with Fresno business officials and representatives of the West Mediterranean Exporters’ Association, also known as BAIB, was because of “a tight schedule.”

However, Fresno business leaders said in an announcement last week that the meeting was canceled with Turkey’s agricultural industry representatives due to Armenian-American concerns about allowing Turkish government-affiliated entities to do business in Fresno.

“Out of respect to our community, the upcoming event scheduled for January 15 with an agriculturally-based Turkish delegation to Fresno has been canceled,” the Fresno Economic Development Council, Fresno Chamber of Commerce, Fresno County Farm Bureau, and the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Fresno said in a joint statement last week. State Sen. Andreas Borgeas, a Republican representing Fresno, also signed the statement.

Responding to inquiries from GV Wire, Suzer, the Trelodex president said in an email: “I need to tell you something about the Armenian community concerns. I can only say structures built on lies will collapse someday.”

“Russian archives and Turkish archives are open to researchers; German, French and English archives as well. Armenians like to use war propaganda material as facts (like Saddam’s nuclear bombs and the reality, every war creates a reason for itself). And they are increasing the number of casualties every 10 years. The total population of Armenians (was) around 1.5 to 2 million before war. Calculate their population today and compare with other people’s population check the difference. Turkey lost 4 million lives and in 90 years the population increased from 15 million to 80 million, 5 times. There are more than 6-7 million Armenians and it is also 5 times of 1.5 million,” Suzer told GV Wire, adding more of the usual Turkish denialist boiler plate statements to his response.

“We do not like to promote hatred like them. If they need the truth, ask them (to) research the archives,” said Suzer, who in a post script to his email to GV Wire also said: “please do not write the things about Armenian issues, this is not related with the delegation and I just wanted to give a friendly advice.”
“It is astonishing that while Trelodex President Gurkan Suzer claims that a meeting of a Turkish agricultural delegation with Fresno entities was cancelled last week due to scheduling conflicts, yet feels the need to use the tired Turkish government line to deny the Armenian Genocide,” the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region, whose Fresno chapter was active in the canceling the meeting, said in a statement about Suzer’s efforts to deny the Armenian Genocide.

“By urging Fresno authorities to ignore Armenian concerns, Suzer demonstrates his and his cohorts’ ignorance by attempting to distort history in a state and a city that have been on the forefront of Armenian Genocide recognition in the United States. After all, Fresno became a haven for refugees and survivors of systematic Turkish atrocities against Armenians, including the Armenian Genocide,” added the ANCA-WR.

“The ANCA-WR will continue to oppose efforts by Turkey’s business sector to infiltrate into California’s economy. This latest effort at denying the Armenian Genocide clearly demonstrates that the Republic of Turkey and its business representatives are not acting in good faith and through such statements and maneuvers are actually insulting the intelligence of California state and local officials, as well as its residents,” explained the advocacy organization.

Moscow Warns Baku Over Discrimination Against Russian Citizens

Alex Jidarian
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10 hours ago

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova

MOSCOW—The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent a note to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow over instances of discrimination against and ill treatment of Russian citizens based on their ethnicity, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The note follows verbal warnings presented by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who as recently as Friday warned Baku to halt its discriminatory practices against Russian citizens, especially of Armenia origin, at its border and will not ban their entry into Azerbaijan.

A diplomatic sourced confirmed to RIA Novosti of the note to the Azerbaijani Embassy.

“During the last year we have been informed about at least 16 cases where Russian citizens were banned entry into Azerbaijan due to their ethnicity. Those citizens were forced to wait and later sent back to Russia without any explanation,” Zakharova told reporters on Friday.

The spokesperson added that deportation of Russian citizens from Azerbaijan due to their ethnic background was a gross violation of the rights of those individuals. “I have seen many reports about this, including in social media,” said Zakharova.

“A similar incident was also registered during the holidays, but we have also seen similar cases in the past. We have regularly raised this issue with the Azerbaijani leadership, and we have said that unfortunately such cases become a commonplace.”

She added that the Russian authorities have urged Azerbaijan several times to stop this behavior since it’s not acceptable from the viewpoint of Russian-Azerbaijani relations.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/15/2019

Mary Lazarian 
                                        Tuesday, 

Pashinian Decries ‘Media Campaign Against Government’


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses supporters through Facebook, 
.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused Armenian media on Tuesday of 
systematically trying to discredit him and his government at the behest of the 
country’s former leaders.

Pashinian claimed that many media outlets are keen to make Armenians believe 
that the current authorities are no different from former President Serzh 
Sarkisian’s “corrupt” administration and Republican Party (HHK). He seemed to 
blame Sarkisian and another former president, Robert Kocharian, for the 
“propaganda campaign waged against my family and my political team.”

“Ninety percent of the media scene [in Armenia] is controlled either by the two 
entities representing the former authorities or [other] forces opposed to us … 
Most media outlets controlled by forces opposed to us are in the hands of 
representatives of the former regime,” Pashinian said in a live Facebook 
transmission.

“Why is this important?” he went on. “For the simple reason that the following 
process is now underway in the media scene: representatives of the former 
regime … are trying to ‘republicanize’ our government and say that there is no 
difference, that this government is the same as the Republican one was.”

Pashinian insisted that his government is fundamentally different from the 
previous authorities first and foremost because it “does not plunder the people 
and the state.” “This is the kind of change which we had dreamed about for many 
years,” he said.

The prime minister did not name any media outlets involved in the alleged smear 
campaign. He said only that they frequently show his, his family members’ and 
political allies’ private lives in a bad light.

On Sunday, Pashinian took to Facebook to lambaste a scathing newspaper report 
about a restaurant dinner organized by him for around 90 newly elected members 
of Armenia’s parliament representing his My Step alliance.

“Hraparak,” a Yerevan daily critical of both the current and former 
governments, drew parallels between the My Step get-together and Republican 
leaders’ notorious love of lavish parties.

Pashinian charged that the paper is “nostalgic about the corrupt Republican 
regime.” The “Hraparak” editor, Armine Ohanian, dismissed the criticism.



Ohanian Denies Coup Charges


Armenia - Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian (R) and chief of the Armenian army 
staff, General Yuri Khachaturov, at a meeting in Yerevan, 28May2015.

Former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian on Tuesday angrily denied coup charges 
brought against him as part of a criminal investigation into the 2008 
post-election unrest in Armenia.

Ohanian also deplored the same accusations of “overthrow of the constitutional 
order” that have been leveled against two other retired army generals, Mikael 
Harutiunian and Yuri Khachaturov, as well as former President Robert Kocharian.

Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) claims that the four men 
illegally used the armed forces against opposition supporters who demonstrated 
in Yerevan against alleged electoral fraud. It says Kocharian ordered troops 
into the Armenian capital before declaring a state of emergency late on March 
1, 2008 amid deadly clashes between security forces and opposition protesters. 
Eight protesters and two police servicemen died in what was the worst street 
violence in the country’s history.

Harutiunian, who now lives in Russia, served as defense minister while Ohanian 
was the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff at the time. The latter 
replaced Harutiunian as defense minister in April 2008.

Ohanian rejected the accusations as “baseless.” “Justice cannot be administered 
on order or under the influence of the street,” he wrote on Facebook.

The former minister also posted audio of this summer’s secretly recorded phone 
conversations between the SIS chief, Sasun Khachatrian, and Artur Vanetsian, 
the National Security Service (NSS) director. He said it shows that the ongoing 
investigation is not objective and fair.

In that audio, Vanetsian can be heard saying that he told a Yerevan judge to 
sanction Kocharian’s arrest in July. The NSS chief claims that it was doctored 
and that he never put pressure on the judge.

Ohanian also said that on December 20 law-enforcement authorities “illegally” 
restricted his freedom of movement without any explanation. He did not specify 
whether they prevented him from leaving the country.

“Do those trampling the constitution under foot have a right to administer 
justice against the colonel-generals, the [former] president and others who 
have made considerable contributions to the security of Armenia and Artsakh 
(Nagorno-Karabakh)?” said Ohanian.

The Karabakh-born general challenged Armenia’s former government after being 
sacked as defense minister in October 2016. He teamed up with two opposition 
politicians, Vartan Oskanian and Raffi Hovannisian, to run in parliamentary 
elections held in April 2017. Their ORO bloc failed to win any seats in 
Armenia’s parliament.

Unlike Kocharian, Ohanian and Khachaturov have not been placed under pre-trial 
arrest.



Parliament Majority Denounced For Backing Tsarukian Ally

        • Astghik Bedevian
        • Tatevik Lazarian

Armenia -- Newly elected speaker Ararat Mirzoyan (second from left) and his 
deputies Vahe Enfiajian (right), Alen Simonian (second from right) and Lena 
Nazarian at a parliament session in Yerevan, .

The opposition Bright Armenia party condemned the pro-government majority in 
the National Assembly on Tuesday for not electing one of its leaders as a 
deputy speaker of the parliament.

Deputies representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance voted 
instead for a senior lawmaker from businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous 
Armenia Party (BHK).

The Armenian constitution reserves one of the three posts of vice-speaker for a 
representative of the parliamentary opposition. Pashinian and his associates 
made clear last week that My Step will back the BHK candidate for the post, 
Vahe Enfiajian. They argued that the BHK is the second largest parliamentary 
force that controls 26 seats in the 132-member legislature, compared with 18 
seats held by Bright Armenia.

Bright Armenia leaders dismissed that explanation, saying that the constitution 
says nothing about the size of an opposition faction nominating a vice-speaker. 
They hoped that many My Step deputies will back their party’s candidate, Mane 
Tandilian, in Tuesday’s parliament vote.

The parliament majority remained unconvinced, however. Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan 
said it will “respect” the results of the December 9 parliamentary elections in 
which the BHK finished a distant second.

Accordingly, only 19 parliamentarians voted for Tandilian, who served as labor 
minister in Pashinian’s cabinet until last month. The BHK’s Enfiajian was 
elected vice-speaker with 108 votes.

Edmon Marukian, Bright Armenia’s top leader described the vote results as 
“disgraceful.”


Armenia - Mane Tandilian (C) and other election candidates of the Bright 
Armenia party campaign in Yerevan, November 26, 2018.

Also, Marukian hit out at the BHK during a debate that preceded the vote, 
prompting Tsarukian’s first-ever speech on the parliament floor.

“As long as we are not insulted or attacked we won’t say anything to anyone. 
But if someone tries to insult us I will respond to that with documents and 
video materials,” said the BHK leader.

Bright Armenia and the BHK traded bitter accusations following the December 
elections. In particular, Marukian said that Tsarukian should leave the 
political arena because of his extensive business interests. The tycoon has 
held a parliament seat for nearly 16 years but has rarely attended parliament 
sessions.

The two other newly elected vice-speakers, Lena Nazarian and Alen Simonian, are 
senior members of Pashinian’s bloc who actively participated in last spring’s 
“velvet revolution.”

Despite the controversy, the three factions reached consensus on who will chair 
the new parliament’s 11 standing committees. Mirzoyan announced that eight of 
them, including the committees on foreign relations, defense and economy, will 
be headed by My Step lawmakers.

BHK representatives will run two other panels, while the remaining post of 
committee chairperson was given to Bright Armenia.



Press Review



“Zhamanak” suggests that President Armen Sarkissian’s welcoming address to the 
new National Assembly was the most “memorable” episode of its inaugural session 
held on Monday. “What is more, Sarkissian set a high political bar for the work 
of the parliament with which one could measure the extent of the political 
content and the capacity of the parliament,” writes the paper. It also singles 
out Sarkissian’s remark that Armenians are a “global nation” despite the small 
size of their state.

“Many have started discussing personal merits and shortcomings of the National 
Assembly speaker and his deputies but that is a secondary issue,” writes 
“Aravot.” “It doesn’t matter who was elected speaker of the National Assembly. 
What matters is that the parliament speaker, let along the deputy speakers, 
have long stopped deciding anything. Public expectations are not from [speaker] 
Ararat Mirzoyan or [his deputy] Vahe Enfiajian or any minister or regional 
governor but only from Nikol Pashinian. And the majority of our citizens expect 
that the prime minister will make some miracles within several months.” The 
paper believes that opposition parties and civic groups could and should strive 
to change these public attitudes.

“Zhoghovurd” reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to 
congratulate Pashinian on being reappointed as prime minister on Monday. The 
paper says this fact is “noteworthy” given Putin’s failure to congratulate 
Pashinian on his My Step bloc’s victory in the December 9 parliamentary 
elections, which fuelled talk of Moscow’s discontent with the current Armenian 
leadership. It seems to suggest the Russian president’s congratulatory letter 
disproved that speculation.

(Lilit Harutiunian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

This week in history – 1990: Chronology of Events in Azerbaijan, Armenia

Emil Lazarian
The Associated Press
January 20, 1990, Saturday
Chronology of Events in Azerbaijan, Armenia
 
 International News
MOSCOW
  
Here is a chronology of the unrest between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the Soviet Caucasus:
 
Feb. 28, 1988 – Demonstrations by Armenians demanding Azerbaijan cede control of the mostly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region causes rioting in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, that kills 26 Armenians and six Azerbaijanis. Soviet troops help quell the clashes, said to be the most serious outbreak of nationalist unrest in the Soviet Union since the 1920s.
 
May 21 – Communist Party leaders of both republics are dismissed after protests in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.
 
 
 
July 4 – Armenian nationalists close the main airport in Yerevan, and widespread strikes are reported in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
 
July 18 – The Soviet government rejects a decision by Nagorno-Karabakh to break away from Azerbaijan.
 
Sept. 21 – Further turmoil prompts Moscow to declare a state of emergency in Nagorno-Karabakh. Soviet troops are deployed around government buildings in Armenia, where demonstrations and strikes continue.
 
Nov. 24 – The Soviet military takes control of Baku and Yerevan after several days of clashes that leave at least 28 people dead, including three soldiers, and 126 wounded. Officials say 100,000 refugees have fled the two republics because of the unrest.
 
Dec. 7 – A major earthquake hits Armenia, killing about 25,000 people.
 
Jan. 12, 1989 – The Soviet government puts Nagorno-Karabakh under the direct rule of Moscow.
 
June – Strikes and demonstrations continue.
 
Aug. 29 – Soviet troop reinforcements are sent to Nagorno-Karabakh after renewed fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
 
Sep. 25 – President Mikhail S. Gorbachev calls on leaders of both republics to negotiate an end to an Azerbaijani rail blockade that has halted supplies for earthquake reconstruction.
 
Nov. 28 – The Supreme Soviet restores Azerbaijan's control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
 
Dec. 1 – The Armenian Parliament condemns Moscow's restoration of Azerbaijani control over Nagorno-Karabakh and votes to unite with the territory. The nationalist Azerbaijani Popular Front reimposes the rail blockade against Armenia.
 
Jan. 1, 1990 – Soviet Azerbaijanis seeking freer travel to visit their ethnic brethren in neighboring Iran attack border posts, causing damage and at least one death, according to Soviet media reports.
 
Jan. 14 – A demonstration in Baku causes rampages by gangs of Azerbaijani nationalists on Armenians living in the city. At least 25 people are reported killed. Clashes break out in other areas.
 
Jan. 15 – The Soviet Union declares a state of emergency in parts of Azerbaijan and orders army, navy and KGB security forces to help contain the fighting.
 
Jan. 16 – The Soviet government sends 11,000 army and internal police troops to Azerbaijan. The government puts the death toll at 56 in three days of fighting.
 
Jan. 17 – Roadblocks in Azerbaijan prevent the Soviet troops from moving freely, hindering their deployment. Reports reaching Moscow indicate Armenians and Azerbaijanis have seized heavy weapons, with some reports calling the violence a virtual civil war.
 
Jan. 19 – Gorbachev blames the unrest on extremists trying to undermine his reform proposals and also says some nationalist Azerbaijanis want to sececde to form a Moslem state. A government statement warns of a national catastrophe if the unrest continues. In the face of widespread public protest, the government suspends the Defense Ministry's callup of reservists to beef up military units. Soviet reports say weapons have been brought in from Iran by the demonstrating Azerbaijani nationalists.
 
Jan. 20 – Soviet troops use tanks to break through barricades and enter Baku, exchanging gunfire with Azerbaijani nationalists. Initial reports indicate scores of additional deaths.

This week in history – 1990: Baku reverts to ancient hatreds

Arpi Talalian

The Independent, UK
January 20 1990, Saturday


This week in history:

1990: Baku reverts to ancient hatreds

by RUPERT CORNWELL in Moscow

THE CITY is magnificent and malign, one that nature herself might have intended as a theatre of splendour and tragedy. Few views in the world are as majestic as Apsheron Bay at night. Yellow refinery flares stream into the sky. An evil moon plays upon the oil derricks miles out into a Caspian Sea twinkling with the lights of one of the great metropolises of the Orient.

Baku is not only built on oil, but swimming in it. The black pitch which even today oozes there from the surface of the earth made it famous in ancient times as a seat of eternal fire. It was one of the first centres of the modern petroleum industry. Crumbling mansions along the seafront bear silent tribute to the magnates who once made their own and the city's fortunes.

But they are just one part of a stage-set whose character even the grey uniformity of communism has failed to extinguish. After 70 years, the veneer of the Soviet Union is only skin-deep. Baku is the Orient, a place of ghosts and memories – and of a violence which you can almost touch in the air.

Today its Armenian colony which once numbered a quarter of a million has all but vanished. Even in September the trellised houses in their dusty old quarter of Armenikend up on the hill behind the bay were shuttered and empty.

Before the latest pogroms, only 20,000 at most were left, in shanty towns like Khutor on Baku's northern edge, or in the bleak high-rise blocks which disfigure the outskirts of Baku like those of any other large town in the Soviet Union. Now most of those have gone too, either fleeing by ship or plane to safety or – in the case of a few wretched dozen – dragged from their homes and murdered in the last few terrible days. How many died like this no one may ever know. Their possessions have been commandeered or destroyed, their homes occupied by Azeri refugees who in turn have fled from Armenia.

Like Byzantium or Beirut, Baku has seen everything before – even events like those of this week. In 1905, oil installations and whole areas of the city were set ablaze in another witch-hunt of Armenians. Then it was the Cossacks, crack troops of the Tsar, who were sent in to restore order. In 1990, Soviet Army and Interior Ministry troops are trying, apparently in vain, to perform an identical task.

The city's natives are warm and friendly to the visitor – their hospitality and generosity can be overwhelming to the Westerner. But well before the present horrors, a sense of impending calamity was almost tangible. On street corners groups of idle youths loiter. Obviously unemployed, they seemed even then the casual guns of a future shoot-out. Talk to an Azeri and within minutes the conversation would revert to Armenians and their supposedly favoured status in Moscow, and the eternal issue of Nagorny Karabakh.

The worst has now happened. Baku's seafront boulevards are reported blocked by demonstrations. Columns of tanks are prevented from entering the city by crowds of protesters ready to lay down their lives. What comes next is quite unpredictable. All that is certain is that Baku itself, whether run-down or resurgent, will survive. It always has.

Foreign News Page 12

Armenia’s Pashinyan appointed PM after ‘velvet revolution’

Antranik Varosian
Agence France Presse
Monday 12:14 PM GMT
Armenia's Pashinyan appointed PM after 'velvet revolution'
 
Yerevan, Jan 14 2019
 
Armenia's president appointed former protest leader Nikol Pashinyan as Prime Minister on Monday as the Caucasus country's parliament met for the first time since an election last month.
 
Pashinyan won a landslide victory in the snap December parliamentary elections, cementing his authority after he swept to power in a peaceful revolution last year.
 
Speaking in the National Assembly, President Armen Sarkisian said the election had "endowed this parliament with a high legitimacy".
 
Only parties who backed Pashinyan's "velvet revolution" made it to parliament as a result of the vote which international monitors hailed as democratic.
 
Pashinyan's Civil Contract party won 70.43 percent of the vote.
 
"The main political change expected in Armenia has already happened: power has been returned to the people and democracy has been established," Pashinyan said in a meeting with the president according to the prime minister's press service.
 
"Now there is another task: to strengthen this democracy with institutional guarantees."
 
The 43-year-old former journalist has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty in the impoverished, landlocked ex-Soviet republic of three million people.
 
Pashinyan first became prime minister in May after spearheading weeks of peaceful anti-government rallies that ousted veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian.
 
But he resigned in October after efforts at reform stalled in the face of opposition from Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party. The move triggered a snap election which Pashinyan said would "bring the velvet revolution to its logical end".
 
The Republican Party failed to clear the five percent threshold needed to make it into parliament.
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Pashinyan a congratulatory note, the Kremlin said.
 
"I hope our dialogue and constructive joint work will further strengthen Russian-Armenian united cooperation," a statement quoted Putin as saying.
 
"This is undoubtedly in the interest of our brotherly nations."
 
While seeking reforms at home, Pashinyan has also pursued a balanced foreign policy during his first five months in office.
 
He has reassured Putin that Armenia would remain Moscow's loyal ally but at the same time sought to charm Western leaders.
 
During an international summit in the capital Yerevan in October he danced traditional Armenian dances with French President Emmanuel Macron and wore matching socks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

This week in history – 1990: Azerbaijanis Attack Armenians; 25 People Reported Killed in Baku

Alex Jidarian
The Associated Press
January 14, 1990, Sunday

Azerbaijanis Attack Armenians; 25 People Reported Killed in Baku

By JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG
MOSCOW

Rioting broke out overnight in the capital of the Azerbaijan republic after calls were made to drive out minority Armenians, and official media Sunday said at least 25 people died, most of them Armenians.
A witness described a street awash in blood and said the victims included two women tossed from balconies and one shot point-blank in the head and chest.

It was the deadliest clash in nearly two years between Azerbaijanis and Armenians, who are locked in a feud over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave populated mainly by Armenians but which is controlled by Azerbaijan.

Most Armenians are Christians; most Azerbaijanis are Shiite Moslems.

The violence reportedly spurred calls for Armenians with weapons to volunteer to protect their breathren.
The rampage apparently was set off by news that an Azerbaijani had been killed and another wounded by Armenians in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.

Radio Moscow said the incidents were announced at a rally Saturday night in Baku's central square that was attended by about 150,000 people.

"Calls were made at the rally to drive the Armenians out of the city," the Radio Moscow correspondent reported from the Caspian Sea port of 1.7 million people. "Among the crowd, anti-Armenian slogans were shouted, and then the most terrible thing of all began – the pogroms."

In the ensuing violence, the official Tass news agency said 25 people were killed. Radio Moscow said 26 people were wounded and quoted local Interior Ministry officials as saying most victims were Armenians.

Tass said there were more than 50 "pogroms," or ethnically motivated attacks.

A Russian resident of Baku told The Associated Press by telephone she saw at least two Armenian women in torn, blood-spattered clothes hurled from the balconies of upper floors of apartment houses on Lenin Street.

In front of the office, she said, an old woman who looked like an Armenian was shot point-blank in the head and chest by a mob armed with shotguns and pistols.

"You can't imagine, I've just seen death for the first time in my life," said the woman, who asked not to be identified by name for fear she would become the target of reprisals. She said Lenin Street was covered with blood.

About 20,000 ethnic Armenians, mainly elderly people, live in Baku, although ethnic violence in the last two years has caused an exodus of Azerbaijans and Armenians back to their home republics.

Alexander Argumanyan, a press officer for the Armenian National Movement, said at least 250,000 people gathered in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, Sunday after hearing of the violence.

He said Vano Syragedlyan, a member of the movement's directorate, urged Armenians who own firearms to volunteer to be flown by helicopter to two districts of Azerbaijan near the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Radio Moscow said the strife was kindled in Baku, a major petroleum-producing center, when two Azerbaijanis visited an Armenian family at midday and demanded they leave town. The Armenians had an ax, and the Azerbaijanis were hurt in a struggle and taken to a hospital.

One died and the other was in serious condition, the radio said.

The news enflamed the crowd that gathered later in Baku.

Alesker Siyabov, a spokesman for the Azerbaijani People's Front, said the rally voted to establish a "council for national security" designed to protect Azerbaijanis.

Radio Moscow said police had 1,500 men on patrol.

"It was not possible to avert so many sad and tragic cases. But in dozens of cases, the militia (police) saved people," the Baku correspondent said. In other cases, he said, Azerbaijanis saved Armenian neighbors by sheltering them.

Radio Moscow said 53 apartments, presumably those of Armenians, were wrecked in the violence and that the situation in the city, 1,240 miles southeast of Moscow, remained tense.

"Operational bulletins constantly contain reports about hostages being taken, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, about exchanges of fire, about tragic events," the Radio Moscow reporter said.

"The republic is on the boil. Hearts are bleeding and the militia is trying to do everything it can."

He said he had been told that reinforcements were on the way. "But what guarantee is there that the frightful thing which took place yesterday evening and last night will not be repeated?"

A duty officer at the Azerbaijani Communist Party's Central Committee, Kamal Abdulayev, said the number of victims was unclear. He repeated charges made at the rally Saturday that Armenians in helicopters were firing on Azerbaijani villages in a district near Nagorno-Karabakh.

The duty officer at the republic's Interior Ministry, which is responsible for law enforcement, said Baku "was and is normal." He hung up before he could be asked his name.

Azerbaijani People's Front spokesman Khalid Mukhtarov denied knowing of any rioting. When told that Pravda, the Communist Party daily, had printed the Tass dispatch about the hooligan rampages, he charged that the newspaper always printed lies about Azerbaijan.

In Nagorno-Karabakh itself, violence also continued, with the special Interior Ministry troops who have been sent in to preserve order now becoming targets of attack, Tass said.

On Saturday, in a village populated by Armenians and Azerbaijanis, a barracks was sprayed with machine-gun fire and a private in the Interior Ministry forces, M. Mantaev, was mortally wounded, Tass said.

The previous day, it was reported that Lt. I. Tsymbalyuk of the Interior Ministry was shot and killed in the Azerbaijani-populated village of Akhullu, apparently by an Azerbaijani policeman.

The Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute is the bloodiest of the many ethnic conflicts facing Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The worst rioting occurred in February 1988, when Azerbaijanis attacked Armenians in the city of Sumgait, near Baku. Thirty-two people died, most of them Armenians.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory of about 160,000 people, has been controlled by Azerbaijan since 1923.

Last week, Azerbaijan resumed a railway blocade of Armenia, which gets most of its supplies through Azerbaijan, as part of its campaign for full control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In addition to Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijanis also have rioted over demands they be united with their Shiite Moslem breathren in the neighboring Iranian Azerbaijani region. Over the New Year's holiday weekend, Azerbaijani rioters tore down border fences and put guard towers and communications lines out of commission.

This week in history – 1990: Kasparov rescues Armenian relatives

Toneyan Mark

The Independent
January 20 1990, Saturday

This week in history -1990:

Kasparov rescues Armenian relatives

by TIM MCGIRK

MADRID – Gary Kasparov, the Russian world chess champion, rescued 60 Armenian family and friends from an armed mob of Muslim Azeris in the city of Baku, writes Tim McGirk.

A Spanish chess player, Leontxo Garcia, on Thursday telephoned the world champion in Moscow after he had successfully managed to fly some – but not all – of his Armenian relatives to safety.

As Mr Kasparov, whose status in the Soviet Union is akin to a popstar or football hero, related: 'I managed to get some of my friends to send a special plane to Baku, which we filled with 60 people, including nearly all of my family. It was a miracle that we saved them. Getting to the airport, while the Azeri rebels were trying to cut off all the roads, was an odyssey. I didn't feel safe until I was back in Moscow, hugging my wife.' The 26-year old chess master's flight from Baku occurred last Wednesday at the height of the Azeri attacks in which more than 50 Armenians were massacred. Mr Garcia wrote up his telephone conversation in the Spanish daily, El Pais. Mr Kasparaov said that although he personally was not in any danger, several of his Armenian family were on the Azeri militants' revenge list. 'He was unable to get out two of his relatives,' said Mr Garcia. Mr Garica said: 'Gary repeated several times that he was so angry, he didn't want to make any political statements which he might regret later. He kept saying, 'Forgive me . . . but I can still see those children suffering in Baku.'

Foreign News Page 12

Bright Armenia faction head describes NA vice speaker election “shameful”

Liana Toganian
Aysor, Armenia
Jan 15 2019

The election of vice speaker of parliament was a shame, Bright Armenia faction head Edmon Marukyan told the reporters, referring to the results of the voting.

“As to me, it was a shameful voting as I think the arguments we have presented for Mane Tandilyan to be vice speaker were not denied in any way,” he said.

As to the MP from other faction who voted for Mane Tandilyan, Marukyan said, more probably it is an MP from My Step bloc and did not exclude that he may be their former party mate Hayk Konjoryan.