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Eurasia Future.com

May 28 2018

Armenia’s “Self Appointed” Premier Seeks Legitimacy With Snap Elections as Protests Continue

Adam Garrie 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is already suffering from a case of “be careful what you wish for” even though thus far he has got everything he has wanted without any significant resistance. Throughout April, Pashinyan led street protests in Yerevan where the once suited and shaved newspaper oligarch donned a baseball cap, backpack, camouflage shit and beard as the self-styled “man of the people” led what looked like a colour revolution minus the ethno-religious hatred – something which is literally impossible in a homogeneous state like Armenia. It later emerged that he was advised by a think tank to “remake his image” to look more in tune with the street, but that not withstanding, the backpack is off and Pashinyan is now in power.

Pashinyan’s road to power was achieved one part through blackmail and the other part through peaceful and wilful capitulation to that blackmail on the part of the Prime Minister he ousted. On 23 April, long serving President turned Premier Serzh Sargsyan resigned stating that he preferred a peaceful transition of power to a bloody one. Not content with ousting Sargsyan whose Republican Party had won a majority in the unicameral National Assembly as recently as April of 2017, Pashinyan continued to mobilise protesters who agitated for Pashinyan to become Prime Minister himself.

On the 1st of May, the National Assembly failed to give Pashinyan enough votes to become Prime Minister, even though he was running in a one-man election. The problem here was that Pashinyan’s own party, the Way Out Alliance only had 9 seats in a 105 seat Assembly and was not able to court enough votes from the ruling Republicans to win the vote for the Premiership.

After some behind the scenes horse trading and  further protests, on the 8th of May, members of the Republican Party surrendered to what many were calling the “inevitable” and voted for Pashinyan in a further one man election.

Since then, protesters have continued to march in Yerevan, much to the chagrin of Pashinyan who is now telling the protesters to go home as they have clearly outlived their usefulness to him. However, because the Assembly over which Pashinyan rules as Prime Minister is still comprised of a majority of Republican deputies, Pashinyan is seeking fresh elections in order to try and attain a majority for his own party.

If he gets his wish and if his party wins a majority in new elections, it would appear that the Republican members of the Assembly who voted for a Pashinyan premiership as a kind of short-sighted olive branch, may have accidentally voted themselves out of a job.

While Pashinyan’s opponents are quickly learning that the more they give him – the more he continues to demand, what Pashinyan himself ought to be learning is that the “revolution” that brought him to power may well turn its attention to him. In this sense, it would appear the protesters have learned from Pashinyan that the more one complains and agitates, the more one will eventually get one’s wish. The difference is that this time the protesters and Pashinyan are wishing for something different.

Armenians protesters were in reality one part those who are either coaxed or persuaded by Pashinyan himself to take to the streets while the other major sectors of protesters were those who saw the bloodless event as a kind of street festival. In this mix were those who genuinely want important anti-corruption/anti-oligarch economic reforms in the landlocked and economically poor state.

As in reality, Pashinyan was, like the rest of Armenians elite class, just another oligarch, it would seem that many Armenians are demanding something more than an just another oligarch with a ‘street fighter’ makeover and instead would like a genuine people’s leader. Such a man was never going to be Pashinyan in any case and because of this, he may find that in new elections, young candidates who don’t follow Pashinyan nor his predecessors may be able to mount a serious challenge to the old elite which Pashinyan has always been a part of and still is.

Thus, Pashniyan’s rebukes towards protesters to go home and start supporting him, may end up being self-defeating as the “revolution” Pashinyan and his handlers helped to create might actually grow into a genuine revolution calling for genuine change.

Those protesting on the streets may not have any personal animosity towards the man they helped to attain power, but now that he is in power and it doesn’t appear as though too much will change on the domestic front, the “revolution” may eat its own and produce a leader who is generally from outside of the political mainstream.

While Pashinyan struggles with the “west-east” balancing act from a place of weakness, just as his predecessors have done, it may be that a new leader is among the protesters and in this sense, Pashinyan is facing the long term risk of meeting the fate of Serzh Sargsyan based on the very precedents that Pashinyan himself created.

The Economist

May 28 2018

The Economist explains

How Armenia’s revolution has been different

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.

Jerusalem Online

May 28 2018

Speaker of Israeli parliament removes recognition of Armenian Genocide from the agenda.

 Guy Singer

The vote, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was quietly pulled from the agenda by the office of the Speaker of the Knesset. His spokesperson is on the record stating that the vote was pulled to avoid embarrassment for the parliament.

Following a successful motion to vote in the Israeli Parliament on officially recognizing the American was passed by MK Tamar Zandberg, the current chairwoman of left-wing Israeli party Meretz, the Knesset was expected to vote on the issue this Tuesday. However, when the week's Knesset agenda was released by the office of the Speaker of the Knesset, the vote was nowhere to be found on it. Speaking to the press, the spokesperson for the Speaker's office stated that the vote was pulled in order to avoid a potential embarrassment for the Knesset. It was not certain whether a majority needed to pass the bill would be attained, and so the Speaker's decision to pull the bill was apparently a strategic one. 

 

Commenting on the Speaker's decision to pull the bill, Zandberg levied an accusation at the Speaker, claiming his office was "putting politics ahead of morality." The Speaker, however, laid praise for the intent of the bill on Monday when he spoke to a gathering of Meretz Party members. “Holding this debate, with a historic vote to recognize, is the right thing to do. Some preferred politics to doing the right thing,” he said, adding that “the Knesset should do what it promised. This is a matter of historic justice.”

Potential opposition to the bill from other members of the Knesset likely stem from the potential the bill has to anger Turkey and Azerbaijan, which strictly maintain that the Armenian Genocide did not occur. Currently, the diplomatic relationship between Turkey and Israel is already extremely strained, with both countries choosing to withdraw their ambassadors after Turkey publicly supported Palestinians who engaged in violent demonstrations leading to the storming of the Israel-Gaza border. Last week, when it was announced that a motion to vote on the bill had passed unanimously, Turkey's government distributed statements that any move on Israel's part to recognize the genocide would result in further damage to the two country's relationship. The risk of further angering Turkey during this key time of rising tensions is perhaps enough to prevent many Members of Knesset from voting to pass the bill. Maintaining diplomatic ties with Azerbaijan is perhaps equally important to these Members of Knesset, given the country's strategic geographic location as a neighbor of Iran.

Israel, which contains strong Armenian communities such as the historic Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, has been publically debating recognition of the genocide on and off since Armenia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Many in Israel, including prominent members of the Israeli government, believe that recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a duty of all Jews, given the people's history of persecution worldwide. In 2011, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (then Speaker of the Knesset) stated that "It is my duty as a Jew and Israeli to recognize the tragedies of other peoples."

Multiple Jewish and Israel-related organizations in the United States have already publicly recognized the genocide, including the Anti-Defamation Leagure and the American Jewish Committee. Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust memorial museum in Israel has also previously declared 24 individual Armenians as being "righteous among the nations", a term reserved for non-Jews who sacrifice much in order to benefit the Jewish nation. The 24 were recognized as such for their heroic acts saving Jewish residents of Europe from the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

It remains unclear whether the vote on the bill will be put back on the agenda in the near future, whether or not diplomatic relations with Turkey stabilize. 

ArmenPress, Armenia

May 27 2018

HRH Prince Charles supports Armen Sarkissian's brainchild charity initiative

During a Sunday visit to the Yerevan My Love Benevolent Foundation office in the Armenian capital, President Armen Sarkissian told reporters that HRH Prince Charles of Wales in supporting the foundation.

Yerevan My Love is the brainchild of Armen Sarkissian, which he founded in 2010 – when he didn’t hold public office.

Yerevan-My-Love is a heritage-led regeneration project dedicated to preserving architecturally significant buildings in Yerevan and putting them to use to improve the life experience of disabled children, young people and disadvantaged families.

Both family members and friends of President Armen Sarkissian have had great contribution in the activities of the foundation.

“Prince Charles is also supporting this project, who had visited Armenia with this purpose. At that time, many didn’t understand why he arrived and wrote foolish things [referring to certain media rumors]. The Prince is also a great friend of Armenia, he is supporting this project for many years, he has great knowledge about the history of Armenia’s architecture and he came to our country to see Armenia,” the president said.

Prince Charles was in Armenia in May 2013 on a private visit. Armen Sarkissian accompanied the heir apparent to the British throne during the visit.

Sarkissian served three terms as Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, most recently from September of 2013 until 2018.

English –translator/editor:Stepan Kocharyan

RFE/RL Report

French FM Visits Armenia, Urges Closer Ties

May 28, 2018

Hovannes Movsisian

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for the expansion of France’s 

cordial relationship with Armenia on Monday during a visit to Yerevan timed to 

coincide with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first Armenian 

republic.

Le Drian emphasized the fact that he is the first high-level foreign official 

to visit the South Caucasus state since the recent dramatic change of its 

government.

“Armenia is at a turning point in its history,” he said after talks with his 

new Armenian counterpart, Zohrab Mnatsakanian. “We welcome the responsibility shown by political forces and the Armenia people [during the political crisis,] which allowed the election of a new prime minister [on May 8.]”

“I am very proud of being the first high-ranking foreign official to visit new 

Armenia and meet its new leaders,” he told a joint news briefing with 

Mnatsakanian. “France will continue to stand with Armenia and help it to build 

democracy.”

Le Drian, who met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian later in the day, also 

reaffirmed France’s strong support for Armenia’s efforts to forge closer links 

with the European Union. He stressed the significance of a wide-ranging 

agreement which the previous Armenian government signed with the EU last 

November.

Mnatsakanian also emphasized the “privileged” character of French-Armenian 

relations. He said he and Le Drian held a “productive discussion” on bilateral 

ties and regional security.

Those ties stem in large measure from the existence of an influential Armenian 

community in France. Yerevan will underline them when it hosts in October a 

summit of Francophonie, a grouping of over 70 mainly French-speaking nations.

Preparations for the summit were also high on the agenda of Le Drian’s talks in 

Yerevan. The minister reaffirmed that French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to travel to Armenia in October on a state visit that will be followed by his participation in the Francophonie summit.

With France co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group together with Russia and the United States, the two ministers also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Le Drian called for renewed efforts at a negotiated solution to the conflict, 

saying that “both the status quo and the use of force are not acceptable.”

“We reaffirm Armenia’s commitment to a solely peaceful resolution of the 

Karabakh problem,” Mnatsakanian said for his part. “My colleague and I agreed that an atmosphere conducive to peace is important for the success of the process.”

RFE/RL Report

First Arrests Made In Armenian Anti-Corruption Sweep

May 28, 2018

Naira Bulghadarian

Ruzanna Stepanian

Three senior executives of a customs brokerage firm reportedly linked to the 

former head of Armenia’s tax and customs services have been arrested as part of a crackdown on corruption announced by the National Security Service (NSS).

The NSS accused the private firm, Norfolk Consulting, of failing to pay 

millions of dollars in taxes and customs duties after raiding its offices, 

searching other premises, and announcing the arrests late last week. It claimed 

to have confiscated $500,000 in cash from the home of the company director, 

Armen Unanian.

An NSS statement said that Norfolk Consulting was set up in June last year and quickly gained de facto exclusive rights to process commercial cargo shipments from China, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. It said nine other customs brokerage firms handling those imports until then were effectively driven out of business because of a “special privileged status” enjoyed by Norfolk with the help of senior officials from the State Revenue Committee (SRC).

The NSS charged that Norfolk may have since earned $7 million in “illegal 

revenue” by helping importers evade or underpay taxes. The precise “damage 

inflicted on the state” will be ascertained as a result of an ongoing examination of the company’s books, it said.

Unanian as well as the company’s chief accountants, Tigran Zohrabian and Simon Arakelian, were formally charged and remanded in pre-trial custody on Monday. Marine Mkrtchian, a Norfolk cashier also detained on Friday, was released from custody pending in investigation.

It was not immediately clear whether Unanian, 51, will plead guilty to the 

fraud accusations levelled against him. The lawyer for the two other arrested 

suspects said that they both deny helping importers evade taxes.

“We believe that the accusations are completely unfounded,” the lawyer, Armen Andrikian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

According to the NSS statement, two former deputy heads of the SRC have been questioned as “witnesses” in the investigation. It said nothing about Vartan Harutiunian, who ran the tax collection agency until last week.

A figure close to former Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, Harutiunian managed the Gazprom-Armenia national gas distribution network before being appointed as head of the SRC in October 2016. Unanian, the arrested Norfolk director, is Gazprom-Armenia’s former chief accountant.

The Armenian customs service has long been regarded as one of the country’s 

most corrupt government agencies. Harutiunian pledged to reform it after taking office. The SRC reported last year a sharp rise in customs duties and other import taxes collected by it.

The high-profile arrests came a week after the new head of the NSS, Artur 

Vanetsian, said that many individuals who have long “enriched themselves 

through large-scale corruption schemes” will be held accountable soon. The NSS will strive to ensure that they compensate the state for public funds embezzled by them, he said.

Vanetsian on Monday promised more corruption “revelations” in the coming days. “All corrupt officials will be punished,” he told reporters.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who named Vanetsian to run the powerful 

security agency, has repeatedly pledged to “root out” government corruption in Armenia since he swept to power on May 8 after weeks of massive anti-government protests led by him.

ArmenPress, Armenia

May 27 2018

Gift of Hearing: Sir Elton John and President Sarkissian kick off charity mission in Yerevan, Armenia

Renowned English singer Sir Elton John, who arrived in Yerevan on Saturday, says that Armenian President Armen Sarkissian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have initiated great changes in the country, and that he is happy to be a part of the “tsunami” of planned changes.

Speaking to reporters in the Yerevan head office of Yerevan My Love Benevolent Foundation, a charity project founded by the president 8 years ago, Sir Elton John emphasized that everything cannot be changed at once, and reforms should be done step by step.

Sir Elton John, who arrived to Armenia as part of a charity mission of Starkey Hearing Foundation, visited the Hayk and Elza Titizian Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Yerevan with the Armenian president and Starkey founder and CEO William Austin.

100 hearing aids were donated to children on Sunday as part of the initiative.

Speaking to reporters in the Yerevan My Love Foundation office, the Armenian president said that Sir Elton John is Armenia’s friend for one simple reason, because he has many Armenian friends, one of them being himself.

“He is not only a world-renowned singer but also a great intellectual who reads a lot and knows Armenia’s history very well. I remember how years ago when Catholicos Garegin I passed away, Elton wrote me a letter and we met and discussed the history of Armenian Christianity,” the president said.

Sarkissian also mentioned Elton John’s huge charitable activities in preventing HIV and helping HIV-positive people in their treatment.

“The person wears this tool for the first time and begins to hear: anyone can be moved by seeing this. A new life is being opened before the children,” the president said regarding the hearing aid initiative.

The president also said that Elton John can help in raising awareness for Armenia globally, because Sir Elton John’s team has also arrived and they are filming the charity initiative and the film will be screened during the singer’s upcoming tour. Asked by a reporter whether or not Elton John’s attitude for Armenia has changed after the recent change of government, Sarkissian said that Armenia exists for thousands of years, and the attitude for the country is deep.

“You haven’t changed before or after the revolution, you are simply more free today, more vigourous. I said during my swearing-in ceremony that I dream of a young Armenia, it turned out I don’t need to dream – you are the young Armenia, and this is obvious. Elton too said in his speech that the vigor which exists in the city is visible, although he has been here only for few hours”, President Sarkissian said.

Sir Elton John arrived in Armenia on the sidelines of a charity project implemented by Yerevan My Love Benevolent Foundation. The foundation is implementing different charitable initiatives, one of which jointly with Save The Children.

The charity helps disabled children with therapy and rehabilitation activities.

Later, the renowned singer took part in the launch of the 2nd phase of Starkey’s mission in Armenia. The event  was attended by President Armen Sarkissian, Speaker of Parliament Ara Babloyan and Starkey founder and CEO William Austin.

The initiative took place in the Hayk and Elza Titizyan Children’s Rehabilitation Center.

The rehabilitation center is one of the projects of Yerevan My Love. Speaker Ara Babloyan, who is a doctor by profession, is a co-founder of the initiative.

“Last year nearly 2000 people received hearing aids. We continued working after that. I am here because I am one of the co-founders of the project,” Babloyan said.

Asked what is the tie between himself, Elton John and Starkey, Babloyan said that 25 years ago, Arabkir children’s charitable foundation – his brainchild – had one purpose, to help the segment of the Armenian population whom the government is still unable to provide with necessary aid.

“One of the projects is prevention of disabilities especially among children, but also adults. The Arabkir medical complex has 11,800 children will chronic problems, various development diseases, 800 of whom are children with hearing problems”, he said.

“Today, together with Starkey Foundation, we provide both children and adults with hearing devices,” he added.

“I would like to mention that Starkey is carrying out this project in many countries. Today doctor Bill [William Austin] said something which was very touching. He said: “I am carrying out this project in many countries, but in Armenia I feel at home, I feel the warmth which perhaps doesn’t exist everywhere””.

The Arabkir Children’s Charitable Foundation and Starkey Hearing Foundation carried out today’s mission in the Save The Children center in Yerevan, and will continue the mission on May 28 and May 29 in the town of Tsakhkadzor, and more than 1500 people from Yerevan and other cities will be provided with a variety of services – such as hearing diagnosis, donation of hearing aids, consulting etc.

English –translator/editor:Stepan Kocharyan