Weekly update
12 February
Armenia should not anticipate significant economic benefits from a planned rail link with Azerbaijan that could give it a new trade route to Russia, former Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian insisted on Friday. According to azatutyun.am “It will definitely not hurt, but it will not be a game changer given the structure of our economy,” Gabrielian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in an interview. The two South Caucasus countries are due to establish transport links under the terms of a ceasefire that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and follow-up agreements also brokered by Russia. The agreements specifically commit Armenia to opening a transit road and railway that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should in turn gain rail links with Russia, its main trading partner, and neighboring Iran via Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian regularly emphasizes this fact, predicting a massive boost to the Armenian economy. Most of Russian-Armenian trade, which totaled $2.6 billion last year, is carried out by trucks passing through the main Georgian-Russian border crossing at Upper Lars. Traffic through that mountainous pass is periodically blocked by bad weather, especially in winter months. Gabrielian said that extensive road upgrades launched by the Georgian authorities in that area last year will eliminate this problem and make the Upper Lars road even more attractive to Armenian exporters and importers.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31699471.html
11 February
Former Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, in an interview with Hetq, claimed that the newly announced 2020 Artsakh war inquiry committee will merely parrot the government line and divert attention from the real reasons for the Armenian defeat. Ohanyan, who served as defense minister from 2008 to 2016, now heads the opposition parliamentary Hayastan faction. It and the With Honor faction today announced they will boycott the committee. Four of the eleven committee seats are reserved for the opposition. When asked if it would be better for the opposition to participate in the committee’s work, despite its reservations to the contrary, Ohanyan said it’s necessary to first understand what exactly the committee is tasked with investigating. “It is necessary to get acquainted in depth with the issues that are put before the commission of inquiry, because superficial points are written in the presented proposal that dovetail with the idea of creating a committee in the first place,” Ohanyan said. The former defense minister said that the government has done nothing to address what led to the Armenian military defeat since it proposed the formation of the inquiry committee fifteen months ago.
https://hetq.am/en/article/141050
10 February
The Military Counterintelligence Division of Armenia’s National Security Service announced Thursday that it has neutralized a “network of agents” who were recruited by foreign intelligence agencies and were engaged in espionage. The investigation was carried out as part of a criminal case opened on espionage and state treason. The NSS said it gathered irrefutable evidence that “foreign intelligence agencies created a network of spies in the territory of Armenia and involved different officers and members of the military.” The spies opened fake social media accounts posing as Armenian women, and recruited their targets by luring them into believing that the online contacts would engage in “intimate relations.” The targets of the foreign intelligence agencies were over 20 military officers of various ranks. During their contacts, the Armenian military personnel allegedly were offered money in exchange for classified information on deployment locations of various military bases, units, command staff, defense lines, engineering structures and equipment. All personnel targeted by the intelligence agencies had the relevant security clearance to obtain the information.
https://asbarez.com/19-person-foreign-spy-network-neutralized-by-armenia-security-service/
9 February
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan states that concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and normalizing relations with Turkey is one of the goals of their government, as it has been one of the goals of all Armenian governments, Armenpress reports Pashinyan said during the parliament-Cabinet Q&A session, answering the question of MP Tsovinar Vardanyan from the “Civil Contract” Party. Vardanyan reminded of the commitment declared by the Republic of Armenia to open an era of peaceful development, at the same time, Azerbaijan regularly announces about readiness to sign a peace agreement with the Republic of Armenia. The MP inquired about the Prime Minister's opinion on concluding a peace treaty. According to Pashinyan, on the one hand, an attempt is being made to create the impression in Armenia and outside Armenia that someone is trying to impose an agenda on Armenia, on the other hand, that Armenia is avoiding an agenda. "The signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, the normalization of relations with Turkey and recording it with corresponding document, of course, is the goal of our Government, moreover, it was the goal of all the governments of Armenia. The purpose of the negotiation process on the Karabakh issue was to sign a peace treaty, it is recorded in all documents. Are we ready to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan? "Yes," Pashinyan said.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1075146.html
8 February
The Washington-based International Republican Institute’s public opinion poll, conducted November 22-December 5, 2021, measured the Armenian population’s views on political, economic and security issues. According to armenianweekly.com the survey was funded by the US Agency for International Development. The poll revealed a key finding: 46 percent of the population thinks that “Armenia is headed in the wrong direction,” while only 34 percent thinks that the country is headed in “the right direction.” This indicates that PM Nikol Pashinyan’s often-repeated boast that he enjoys “the people’s mandate” is not necessarily so. This is a significant shift from the 54 percent of the votes the Prime Minister’s political party received in the June 20, 2021 parliamentary elections. More importantly, the number of those who think that Armenia is headed in the wrong direction increased from 20 percent in May 21, 2021 to 34 percent in July 2021 and 46 percent in December 2021. However, on another important question, “Do you believe that you or people like you can influence decisions made in our country?,” 66 percent said yes, while 33 percent said no. This is definitely a positive indication for the authorities.
https://armenianweekly.com/2022/02/08/poll-finds-more-armenians-feel-country-is-going-in-the-wrong-direction/
7 February
U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House has criticized the Armenian authorities for continuing to prosecute citizens accused of insulting state officials. According to azatutyun.am in a weekend statement, it again said that the practice testifies to a “clear degradation of democratic norms” in Armenia. Amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code passed by the country’s government-controlled parliament last summer made “grave insults” directed at individuals because of their “public activities” crimes punishable by heavy fines and a prison sentence of up to three months. Those individuals may include government and law-enforcement officials, politicians and other public figures. The Armenian police have launched more than 260 criminal investigations stemming from the amendments that took effect in September amid strong criticism from local and international human rights groups. Many of those cases reportedly target people accused of offending Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The controversial amendments have also been condemned by the Armenian opposition. Opposition leaders say that Pashinian himself has relied heavily on slander and “hate speech” before and after coming to power in 2018. All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during then President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31691391.html
6 February
On February 3, 2022, it became known from Azerbaijani and international sources that the Azerbaijani government had formed a "working group on Caucausian Albanian history and architecture with the task to remove "fake Armenian traces" from Caucausian Albanian architectural monuments. It is obvious that this action is aimed at the elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage in the territory of Artsakh, as a result of which the basis for the demands of the Armenians of Artsakh to live in their own land as well as the protection of their rights will be questioned. According to transparency.am In this context, it is important to mention that in 2005 the Azerbaijani authorities destroyed the Armenian cemetery in the city of Jugha in Nakhichevan with its thousands of valuable khachkars. They were displaced and broken by the use of construction equipment and thereby used as construction material, while the vacated area of the cemetery was turned into a military school. Thus, the Azerbaijani authorities have proven that they are capable of pursuing their policy of ethnic cleansing by destroying Armenian historical traces.
https://www.transparency.am/en/news/view/3450
5 February
An Armenian citizen has been found guilty of insulting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan — the first conviction on the recently passed ‘grave insults’ law. In line with oc-media.org the unidentified person was fined ֏500,000 ($1,000). According to the Prosecutors Office, the person called a Police Station in September last year and swore towards Pashinyan and other high-ranking officials using ‘sexual swear words’. ‘In doing so, he deliberately insulted the prime minister’, they said in a statement. The Armenian parliament criminalised ‘grave insults’ in 2021, with more severe penalties reserved for those who direct such language at officials. The maximum fine is ֏3 million ($6,000) or up to three months in prison. As of 31 December 2021, over 260 criminal investigations had been launched under the law, with 31 people charged so far. Seven people are currently on trial. The law has been widely condemned by Armenian and international human rights organisations. ‘The enforcement of this legislation, which has resulted in the initiation of over 260 criminal cases in 2022 alone, signifies a clear degradation of democratic norms in Armenia and creates a chilling effect for free expression’, Andranik Shirinyan, the Armenian project coordinator of human rights watchdog Freedom House, told OC Media. ‘We call on the parliament to revoke this law that so brazenly violates the principles enshrined in the Armenian Constitution, the country’s OSCE commitments, and the European Convention on Human rights to which it is party', added Shirinyan.
https://oc-media.org/armenian-citizen-fined-for-insulting-pashinyan/
Sources: azatutyun.am, hetq.am, asbarez.com, armenpress.am, armenianweekly.com, transparency.am, oc-media.org