Weekly update
2 July
Armenia’s parliament controlled by the ruling Civil Contract party voted on Friday to dismiss one of its deputy speakers and the chairman of its economic committee affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan bloc. According to azatutyun.am the bloc condemned the decision and said it will give up other leadership positions in the National Assembly in protest. Speaking before the vote, Civil Contract lawmakers again said that deputy speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian and the committee chairman, Vahe Hakobian, must be dismissed because of boycotting sessions of the parliament and its standing committees. Civil Contract’s Arusyak Julhakian also accused Saghatelian of “provoking clashes” and “using hate speech” during antigovernment rallies launched by the Armenian opposition on May 1. Saghatelian, Hakobian and the 33 other deputies representing Hayastan and the other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, began the boycott ahead of the daily rallies aimed toppling Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. They have said that they have no plans yet to return to the parliament.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31924836.html
1 July
The future of the idyllic red-roofed Aghavno village, nestled on the riverbank of the same name, is imperiled again. Aghavno is strategically significant for its location along the Lachin Corridor, serving as a gateway to Artsakh from Armenia. In line with armenianweekly.com compatriots from the Diaspora, Armenia and Artsakh live and work in unity in this village, rebuilt largely with the help of the Armenian Diaspora. Today, however, the village, along with the town of Berdzor and the settlement of Sus, is in danger of coming to an end. Armenian officials had been quiet about this issue until Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan spoke out in the National Assembly on June 30. Referring to the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement, Harutyunyan said that we must leave Berdzor and that there is little opportunity for our compatriots to live there. “We have not yet discussed and continue to conduct negotiations,” Harutyunyan said regarding Aghavno, continuing, “We will continue our fight for Aghavno.” Meanwhile, Azerbaijani media have been reporting on ongoing construction of an alternate road connecting Armenia with Artsakh. The route starts from Kornidzor village in Goris, passes through the Hin Shen-Mets Shen villages in Artsakh, and eventually joins the Yeghtsahogh and Lisagor highways. The 32-kilometer road will likely be guarded by Russian peacekeepers, while Armenian settlements along the Lachin Corridor would be ceded to Azerbaijan.
https://armenianweekly.com/2022/07/01/aghavnos-fight-for-survival/
30 June
The Fiscal Year 2023 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs House Appropriations legislation includes humanitarian assistance to Armenia in the amount of $60 million, and $2 million for Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) informed. In accordance with armenpress.am The report language states that the "Committee recommendation includes not less than $60,000,000 for Armenia for economic development, private sector productivity, energy independence, democracy and the rule of law, and other purposes."In addition, the "Committee recommendation also includes not less than $2,000,000 for demining activities in Nagorno-Karabakh...[and] remains concerned about the humanitarian impact of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and resulting challenges in the areas of housing, food security, water and sanitation, health care and other human needs."
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1087327.html
29 June
The town of Berdzor and several nearby villages inhabited by Armenians will be ceded to Azerbaijan following the construction of a new route connecting Armenia and Artsakh, according to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to armenianweekly.com Pashinyan confirmed during a three-and-a-half hour online press briefing on June 27 that several villages and towns in the Berdzor district “will pass to Azerbaijan’s control.” The Berdzor district was ceded to Azerbaijan after the 2020 Artsakh War, except for the Lachin corridor, which was protected by the November 9 ceasefire agreement as the sole route connecting Armenia and Artsakh. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to construct an alternate route to the Lachin corridor within the following three years, to which Russian peacekeepers would be redeployed. The new route will bypass the Armenian communities that currently lie along the Lachin corridor, which will be ceded to Azerbaijan. The communities include the villages Aghavno, Nerkin Sus and Sus, as well as the town of Berdzor.
https://armenianweekly.com/2022/06/29/armenian-communities-in-lachin-to-be-ceded-to-azerbaijan/
28 June
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has revealed that there is a "preliminary understanding" that Lachin corridor connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) will be changed. According to panarmenian.net Pashinyan made the demarks during an online press conference organized for the media and non-governmental organizations on Monday, June 27. He cited the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, according to which "the Parties have agreed that a plan for the construction of a new route along the Lachin corridor shall be determined within the next three years." "During this time, we have been holding discussions, preliminary agreements have been reached," the Prime Minister said. "The purpose of this change is to provide a more reliable, stronger and better road connection for Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia." Asked what will happen to the residents of Aghavno and Sus communities, which are situated within the current corridor, Pashinyan said: "In case of a change in the route, the territories that are not part of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region will pass under the control of Azerbaijan. The problems of the residents of Aghavno will be solved with the help of the Artsakh government."
https://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/301164/Pashinyan_says_corridor_connecting_Armenia_to_Karabakh_will_be_changed
27 June
Dozens of relatives of several men killed and wounded in a small community in central Armenia rallied at the weekend to demand an objective investigation into the shooting which they blame on local government-linked individuals. As reported by azatutyun.am The shooting, which occurred on June 18 in a village just outside Aparan, a town 55 kilometers north of Yerevan, left two local residents dead and five others wounded. Law-enforcement authorities said it was sparked a road rage incident that escalated into a violent clash between two groups of young men. The presumed shooter, a 32-year-old resident of Yerevan, was arrested on June 20. Investigators have made no other arrests so far. They have denied media reports claiming that the Aparan men were attacked because of publicly swearing at Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The angry relatives of the shooting victims also denied any political reasons for the deadly dispute as they demonstrated in Aparan on Saturday. But they confirmed reports that the attackers included close relatives of Edgar Parvanian, a deputy governor of surrounding Aragatsotn province, and Matevos Asatrian, a member of the Armenian parliament representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. The protesters said that both officials based in Aparan must leave the rural community because they are responsible for the fatal shooting.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31917170.html
26 June
The degradation of Armenia’s national security structure (as well as the crisis of political confidence) is often attributed to the defeat in the 2020 Artsakh War; while the defeat contributed to both, it did not cause either. According to evnreport.com (https:// evnreport.com /opinion/the-supremacy-of-state-interests/) it exposed a problem which has much deeper roots. Almost all systemic and structural political and military weaknesses of the Republic of Armenia share a fundamental root cause, which is the chronic absence of a culture and tradition of Statehood, both in the mindset of the political leadership and in the general public. This, in turn, is rooted in the absence of a cohesive political culture in the country, where a generally apolitical public, focused primarily on individual political leaders and their record, and fixated mainly on how that record affects their personal lives, has little or no appreciation of a broader, national, issue-driven political process and purpose. The absolutism of State interests, which is a key guiding principle for most successful sovereign states, has been absent from the political thought process of successive governments of Armenia since independence. In many countries, during the formative years of their Statehood when they lack the requisite institutional depth, it has fallen upon visionary leaders to define, articulate, and defend State interests. This top-down process never took place in Armenia.
https:// evnreport.com /opinion/the-supremacy-of-state-interests/
25 June
All those responsible for the murder of two people during the conflict with shooting in the village of Nigavan, Aragatsotn Region, should be punished, the casualties' relatives have stated at a protest action held in the town of Aparan. The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in the evening on June 19, a conflict broke out in Nigavan, which ended in shooting. As a result, seven people were hospitalized; two of them died in hospital. The conflict occurred between supporters and opponents of Nikol Pashinyan, the oppositional MPs have stated. Today, casualties' relatives have held a protest rally in the central square of Aparan, the "News.am" has reported. They demanded to punish those guilty of the deaths of two people. The father of one of those killed, Tigran Arutyunyan, said at the rally that he demanded a fair inquiry, arrest and punishment of all those responsible. "The quarrel was a day earlier; and all the policemen and their local boss knew about it. The conflict continued at the gas filling station belonging to a deputy governor," the "Yerevan.today" quotes the father as saying. Arutyunyan's father claims that relatives of high-ranking officials were present at the venue of the incident.
https://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/60549/
Sources: azatutyun.am, armenianweekly.com, armenpress.am, panarmenian.net, evnreport.com, kavkaz-uzel.eu