Weekly update

31 January

• Monitors of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have expressed their concern about the high level of tension between State institutions in Armenia. This is stated in the statement of the co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the monitoring of Armenia which is posted on the website of the PACE, NEWS.am said. “We are very concerned by the high level of tension between two State institutions in Armenia, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Presidency of the Constitutional Court,” said co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the monitoring of Armenia, Andrej Šircelj and Kimmo Kiljunen.

30 January

• The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group reiterate their full commitment to helping the sides find a peaceful solution to the conflict and the principle of confidentiality in the settlement process, reads the joint statement by the Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the OSCE, the statement runs as follows, “The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stéphane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) met separately and jointly with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Geneva on 28-30 January. They were joined in their meetings by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk. Over three days of intensive discussions, the Co-Chairs and the Ministers discussed the following agenda items: implementation of agreements and proposals discussed in 2019 and possible next steps to prepare the populations for peace; principles and elements forming the basis of a future settlement; and timing and agenda for advancing the settlement process. The Co-Chairs reiterated their full commitment to helping the sides find a peaceful solution to the conflict and the principle of confidentiality in the settlement process, as well as the need for creativity and a spirit of compromise to achieve a fair and lasting peace. The Ministers agreed to meet again in the near future under Co-Chair auspices”.

29 January

• People very often confuse the rules of good conduct with obsequiousness, ascribing gestures of politeness to bribery, Chair of the Constitutional Court Hrayr Tovmasyan said in a televised interview, commenting on the prime minister’s recent Facebook post with the pen gift received from him. “There is a difference in terms of perceiving phenomena to distinguish between politeness and obsequiousness. If we take gratefulness for obsequiousness, why not say it right away” he told the Armnews TV channel on Tuesday.  Tovmasyan noted Nikol Pashunyan’s public post sparked wide debates over the pen’s price (from €150 to €530), adding that he himself does not even remember how much it cost or whether or not he had bought it himself. Tovmasyan said he evenfeels ashamed to address the topic at all. More you can read here.

28 January

• According to the Prime Minister office, on the occasion of Armenian Army Day, together with Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II, National Assembly Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, members of the National Security Council, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Yerablur Military Pantheon to pay tribute to Armenian heroes who sacrificed their lives for the sake of Homeland’s independence. Prime Minister Pashinyan laid flowers at the tombs of our heroes who perished in the Four-Day War in April, 2016, Sparapet Vazgen Sargsyan and Andranik Ozanyan. The Premier laid a wreath at the Memorial to Fallen Freedom Fighters.

• RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) reported, at least three activists highly critical of Armenia’s current leadership were briefly detained in Yerevan on Tuesday in what they denounced as a government attempt to intimidate them. They all were set free without charge after spending several hours in police custody. The Armenian police said two of the outspoken activists, Narek Malian and Konstantin Ter-Nakalian, were detained on suspicion of illegal arms possession. Both men shrugged off the explanation. An amateur video posted on the Internet showed masked officers of a special police unit toppling Malian to the ground outside his office in downtown Yerevan, handcuffing him and pushing him into a car. Another activist, Artur Danielian, was stopped by policemen while driving his car and airing a live video address on Facebook. Danielian said after his release later in the day that two of his associates were also forcibly taken to a police station. He said they were told that they are suspected of drug possession. Some opposition figures and other critics of the Armenian government condemned the detentions as arbitrary, saying the authorities are trying to stifle dissent in the country. Danielian and Ter-Nakalian are the leaders of the nationalist Adekvad movement, while Malian leads a separate group called Veto. Both groups rely heavily on social media in their campaigns against the government and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in particular.

27 January

• PANORAMA reported, Armenian Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasyan has asked his defense team to initiate a defamation claim against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over a statement made by the PM during the recent news conference, his lawyer Amram Makinyan said on Facebook. "Chairman of the Constitutional Court Hrayr Tovmasyan has read Nikol Pashinyan's 'disproportionate blow' and asked us to prepare the lawsuit,” the lawyer wrote.  Speaking at the big press conference in the town of Kapan on Saturday, Pashinyan stated that Tovmasyan had “repeatedly offered him his services”, which was strongly denied by Tovmasyan in a subsequent statement. "From now on, I will wait patiently for 20 days for Pashinyan to publish any objective fact or credible evidence substantiating his allegations. In case of a failure to do so, I will ask my lawyers to file a lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan for slander,” Tovmasyan said. In a Facebook post later on Saturday, the PM promised to publicize the requested credible proof upon reaching Yerevan. Later he posted a photo of a pen on Facebook, claiming that it was a gift from the top court head to him which proved that Tovmasyan offered him his services. 

25 January

• President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan and RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are responsible for security in the region of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The head of the Armenian government said this at a press conference on January 25 in Kapan, ARMINFO said. He added that the responsibility for security is shared, and fulfilling this mission with honor is an extremely important task. In this context, the Prime Minister pointed out the usefulness of periodic meetings between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, at the same time, noting the absence of a specific document on the negotiating table. As the head of government noted, work is currently underway towards achieving specifics on the negotiation process. "It is necessary to use this period effectively to reach the point from which the negotiation process can be started. The position of the Armenian side was clearly stated at the joint meeting of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh in Stepanakert, where the idea of resolving the conflict was put forward based on the interests of the peoples of Artsakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan, "said Nikol Pashinyan, adding that the Armenian side is ready for a constructive dialogue. 

Sources: https://www.president.am, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/, https://arminfo.info/index.php?lang=3, https://www.panorama.am/en/, https://www.tert.am/en/, https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/.