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Category: Armenia

  • ‘Terrible Vengeance’: The History Of Turkish Atrocities Against Armenians And Why Biden Is Poised To Call Them Genocide

    It’s April 24, 1915. Some 250 Armenian intellectuals are rounded up in Constantinople and imprisoned by Ottoman police. Known as “Red Sunday,” it is today a day of remembrance for a murderous yearslong campaign that would see the majority of the Ottoman Empire’s prewar Armenian population expelled or exterminated. According to estimates, between 664,000 and 1.2 million people lost their lives.

    A century later, recognition of the killings as genocide is still a divisive diplomatic issue, with Turkey and Azerbaijan — who share strong ethnic and cultural ties — officially denying genocide took place. U.S. President Joe Biden promised recognition of the mass killings as genocide during his electoral campaign — a move that had also been promised by President Barack Obama, but which failed to materialize.

    Reports now strongly indicate that the Biden administration will, indeed, recognize the killings as genocide on April 24, a day commemorated in Armenia as Genocide Remembrance Day.

    In 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate both passed resolutions recognizing the massacres as genocide, but Biden — if he follows through on his promise — would be the first U.S. president to adopt recognition of genocide as official policy.

    What horrific events happened in Turkey beginning in 1915? And what’s behind Biden’s historic move?

    Did World War I lead to the killings?

    A secret pact between Germany and the Ottoman Empire set the stage for the massacres. Agreeing on the eve of World War I to fight alongside Germany against Russia, the Ottomans received a promise that Germany would be responsible for rectifying their eastern borders “in a manner suitable for the establishment of a link with the Muslim peoples of Russia.”

    The empire’s proclamation on entering the war stated that it would establish a new frontier, uniting “all branches of our race.”

    A map showing the nationalities living in the Central Powers. A large section of the eastern Ottoman Empire, bordering Russia, was inhabited by Armenians.


    A map showing the nationalities living in the Central Powers. A large section of the eastern Ottoman Empire, bordering Russia, was inhabited by Armenians.

    Separating the Muslims of Russia from those of Turkey was a large swath of territory inhabited by Armenians, stretching from the eastern part of the Ottoman Empire into Russian territory in the South Caucasus. That population had lived there for hundreds of years, for the most part coexisting peacefully with the Muslim Ottomans and enjoying a significant degree of autonomy.

    A number of prominent Armenian families performed important functions for the Ottoman elite, working as architects, gunpowder makers, and administrators of the imperial mint.

    After a long period of coexistence, what prompted the Ottomans to embark on an anti-Armenian policy?

    Relations between the Armenians and their imperial rulers were fraught before the outbreak of World War I. Emboldened by support from European powers and major Ottoman territorial losses in both the Caucasus and the Balkans, Armenian revolutionary groups were active both in the Ottoman Empire and across the border in Russia by the end of the 19th century.

    Groups such as the Dashnaks and Hunchaks organized uprisings, terrorist attacks, and assassination attempts in the Ottoman Empire. Some 100,000 Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Muslims in massacres in 1895 and 1896, foreshadowing what was to come two decades later.

    Troops of the 4th Armenian Battalion serving with the Imperial Russian Army, pictured in 1914


    Troops of the 4th Armenian Battalion serving with the Imperial Russian Army, pictured in 1914

    With the Armenian population split between the Ottoman and Russian empires, the start of the war in 1914 saw tens of thousands of them fighting on both sides of the front in the Caucasus.

    However, a significant proportion of Ottoman Armenians were supportive of Russia, and some had cooperated with Russian forces or greeted them as liberators in previous wars throughout the 19th century, such as the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, in which Russia annexed the regions of Kars and Batum, which both had large Armenian populations.

    This contributed to the Ottoman leadership’s perception of Armenians along the Russian front line as a risk, and their fear was not unjustified. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Sazonov, ordered that arms be smuggled to Ottoman Armenians in September 1914, ahead of the Ottoman Empire’s expected entry into the war. A Russian diplomat leaving Erzerum in late 1914 wrote:

    The Armenian population…is waiting impatiently for the arrival of Russian forces and their liberation from the Turkish yoke. They will hardly risk to stage an uprising before Russian forces arrive on their doorstep, fearing that the smallest delay of Russian assistance will lead to their complete destruction, because, even though they still have weapons hidden in various secret locations, they will not dare to take it because of the state of war proclaimed in the country and the threat of imminent massacres.

    The Ottomans began to turn on their Armenian subjects after a major defeat on the Russian front, at Sarikamish, in January 1915. Caucasus expert Thomas de Waal writes that after the disastrous failure of this attempt to advance into the Russian-controlled Caucasus, War Minister Enver Pasha ordered the disarming of non-Muslims in the army, who would be drafted into labor battalions.

    This was followed by British and French landings on the Dardanelles, threatening the Ottoman capital. Faced with catastrophe, the Ottomans began deporting and killing Armenians in regions near the Russian front line in February 1915, according to British historian Christopher J. Walker. The position of the Turkish government is that the Ottomans decided to relocate Armenians living in the war zone or areas near the advancing Russian Army, as well as Armenians in other regions who were suspected of collaborating.

    The diplomat’s prediction of an uprising was not too far off.

    With Russian forces in nearby Persia, Armenians in the city of Van in April 1915 prepared to defend themselves from the Ottomans, who had been searching nearby villages for weapons and arresting suspected rebels. These searches were accompanied by anti-Armenian pogroms.

    Rafael de Nogales, a Venezuelan mercenary among the Turkish forces, described witnessing a massacre in the village of Adilcevaz. Confronting an Ottoman official over the killings, he was told that the Ottoman forces, assisted by local Kurds, were carrying out an order from the provincial governor “to exterminate all Armenian males of 12 years of age and over.”

    About 55,000 Armenians were killed throughout the province.

    An 1896 map shows the proportion of the Armenian population in the area of Lake Van, where anti-Armenian pogroms took place in early 1915.


    An 1896 map shows the proportion of the Armenian population in the area of Lake Van, where anti-Armenian pogroms took place in early 1915.

    Greatly outnumbered and outgunned, Armenian forces, totaling just 1,300 men, held parts of Van for about a month, weathering a siege by the Ottomans and taking in refugees from the surrounding countryside, until Russian forces arrived on May 19, 1915.

    Armenian forces in Van in 1915


    Armenian forces in Van in 1915

    When did the killings turn systematic?

    The clash over Van marked a tipping point in the Turkish policy, which became much more radical.

    A week after Russian forces arrived in the city, the Ottoman government legalized the policy by adopting a Deportation Law. The deportations were conducted openly, with announcements giving local communities a few days to prepare.

    According to American historian Eugene Rogan, mass murders of these same deportees were secretly ordered in parallel. Regional officials who did not comply, or who asked for written confirmation, could be removed from their posts or even killed:

    “When one district governor in Diyarbakir Province demanded written notice before carrying out the massacre of Armenians from his district, he was removed from office, summoned to Diyarbakir, and murdered en route.”

    Armenians being hanged in Constantinople in June 1915


    Armenians being hanged in Constantinople in June 1915

    The U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau Sr., described the situation as follows in a July 1915 telegram:

    “Persecution of Armenians assuming unprecedented proportions. Reports from widely scattered districts indicate systematic attempts to uproot peaceful Armenian populations and through arbitrary arrests, terrible tortures, wholesale expulsions and deportations from one end of the Empire to the other, accompanied by frequent instances of rape, pillage, and murder, turning into massacre, to bring destruction and destitution on them.

    “These measures are not in response to popular or fanatical demand but are purely arbitrary and directed from Constantinople in the name of military necessity, often in districts where no military operations are likely to take place. The [Muslim] and Armenian populations have been living in harmony, but because Armenian volunteers, many of them Russian subjects, have joined [the] Russian Army in the Caucasus and because some have been implicated in armed revolutionary movements, and others have been helpful to Russians in their invasion of Van district, terrible vengeance is being taken.

    “Most of the sufferers are innocent and have been loyal to [the] Ottoman government. Nearly all are old men, women, all the men from 20 to 45 are in Turkish Army…. Untold misery, disease, starvation, and loss of life will go on unchecked.”

    Henry Morgenthau Sr., the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire: "Persecution of Armenians assuming unprecedented proportions."


    Henry Morgenthau Sr., the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire: “Persecution of Armenians assuming unprecedented proportions.”

    That many of the sufferers were innocent was admitted at the time by the Ottoman interior minister and “architect” of the massacres, Talaat Pasha. In an interview with the Berliner Tageblatt, he said:

    “We have been blamed for not making a distinction between guilty and innocent Armenians. [To do so] was impossible. Because of the nature of things, one who was still innocent today could be guilty tomorrow.”

    In the same interview, the minister admitted that deportees were being killed — although he put the blame on individual officials and claimed they had been punished. “We are no savages,” he told the newspaper.

    The views Pasha expressed privately were quite different, however.

    A German envoy wrote that Pasha was unambiguous about the Ottoman government’s intention to “use the world war to make a clean sweep of its internal enemies — the indigenous Christians of all confessions — without being hindered in doing so by diplomatic intervention from other countries.”

    In the envoy’s words, Pasha intended to “annihilate the Armenians.”

    This was echoed in a report from Germany’s ambassador to Constantinople, Baron Hans von Wangenheim. The expansion of the deportations to provinces far from the front line, he said, “and the manner in which the deportation is being carried out shows that, indeed, the government is pursuing the purpose of annihilating the Armenian race in the Turkish Empire.”

    Ottoman Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, who has been called the main architect of the killings. He was assassinated by an Armenian in Berlin in 1921.


    Ottoman Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, who has been called the main architect of the killings. He was assassinated by an Armenian in Berlin in 1921.

    As suggested by the baron’s reference to the expansion of deportations and killings to new provinces, the policy was not carried out evenly throughout the empire. Nor were all parts of the Ottoman state willing participants. Some regional governors asked for their Armenians to be spared or took active measures to save them, and the Ottoman military’s role in the deportations has been described as minimal.

    Instead of the military, the massacres were mainly carried out by the so-called Special Organization, an outfit of some 30,000 men that was mainly composed of ex-convicts. The German consul in Aleppo wrote that the Ottoman government had “released convicts from prison, put them in soldiers’ uniforms, and sent them to areas which the deportees are to pass.”

    The killings followed the same general pattern, as described by Rogan: A few days after deportation notices were posted, armed men would drive Armenians from their homes. The males aged 12 and up would be separated from the rest and led out of town to be killed. The women, children, and elderly men would be marched from town to town in the blazing heat until they collapsed and died, or would be killed as they fell behind.

    Most were marched toward Aleppo, from where the survivors were sent on to other cities along the Euphrates River. By some estimates, less than 10 percent of the prewar Armenian population was left in the Ottoman Empire when it finally collapsed in 1922.

    Ottoman Armenians being deported


    Ottoman Armenians being deported

    Did the outside world know what was happening?

    The atrocities were well-known to the outside world while they were occurring. In a joint diplomatic note protesting the killings, the Entente Powers — Russia, France, and Britain — were the first to use the phrase “crimes against…humanity.”

    Besides diplomatic notes and reports home from envoys and ambassadors, the massacres were widely reported in the press. On July 12, 1915, The New York Times wrote: “Armenians have been pitilessly evicted by tens of thousands and driven off to die in the desert near Konia or to Upper Mesopotamia…. It is safe to say that unless Turkey is beaten to its knees very speedily, there will soon be no more Christians in the Ottoman Empire.”

    A relief movement formed in the United States, and Ambassador Morgenthau was instructed to inform Constantinople that its policy toward the Armenians had “aroused general and unfavorable criticism among the American people, which is destroying the feeling of goodwill which the people of the United States have held towards Turkey.”

    Publicity turned the massacres into a significant political issue in the United States and even featured in President Woodrow Wilson’s campaign for reelection in 1916. The U.S. Congress adopted a resolution in July 1916 urging Wilson to “designate a day on which the citizens of this country may give expression to their sympathy by contributing to the funds now being raised for the relief of the Armenians in the belligerent countries.”

    In response, Wilson declared October 21-22, 1916, as Armenian (as well as Syrian) relief days.

    A poster calls on Americans to donate to the Committee for Armenian and Syrian relief.


    A poster calls on Americans to donate to the Committee for Armenian and Syrian relief.

    What is the Turkish position on the killings and deportations?

    Turkey does not deny that many Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, but the government’s official position is that the “Armenian deaths do not constitute genocide.”

    Highlighting deaths among other nationalities of the empire, Turkey justifies the policy of deportations, with a Foreign Ministry website stating that the “Armenians took arms against their own government. Their violent political aims, not their race, ethnicity, or religion, rendered them subject to relocation.”

    It also states that “no direct evidence has been discovered demonstrating that any Ottoman official sought the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians as such.”

    An aerial view of the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial complex in Yerevan


    An aerial view of the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial complex in Yerevan

    The United States knew what the Ottomans were doing. Why wasn’t it recognized as genocide back then?

    The term “genocide” did not exist while the massacres were taking place. It would only be coined in 1944, before being recognized as a crime in international law with the adoption of the UN’s Genocide Convention in 1948.

    This was at the beginning of the Cold War and just a year before NATO was created. Turkey joined the Western military alliance in 1952. Despite the American relief effort and diplomatic interventions on behalf of the Armenians, the killings have remained unrecognized as genocide at the U.S. federal level for over a century — although 49 out of 50 U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, have adopted their own resolutions recognizing them as such.

    Turkey’s importance as a strategic ally was a major factor in the reluctance to use the word and extend official recognition, with the Trump administration referring to “atrocities” instead and saying bills passed by both the U.S. House and Senate in 2019 that symbolically recognized the killings as genocide did not reflect U.S. policy.

    Voting on the Senate bill was even blocked temporarily at the request of the White House in order to avoid offending Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in the United States when the vote was scheduled.

    In 1981, Ronald Reagan became the only sitting U.S. president to refer to the killings as genocide. However, this was in the context of a proclamation issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day and was not a statement of policy.

    What has changed and put the United States on the brink of recognizing the killings as genocide?

    The decision to recognize the killings as genocide, if it is announced, would come amid a significant worsening of relations with Turkey in recent years, and after a pledge by Biden in his campaign to make “universal human rights a top priority.”

    One major bilateral issue is the Turkish purchase of advanced Russian S-400 air-defense systems, which led to the United States kicking Ankara out of the F-35 fighter program and imposing sanctions on the NATO ally’s weapons-procurement sector. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Turkey operating the Russian system would “endanger the security of U.S. military technology and personnel and provide substantial funds to Russia’s defense sector.”

    The S-400 purchase is not the only thing contributing to the deterioration of the relationship. The United States has also refused to extradite Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey accuses of organizing what it calls an attempted coup in 2016. A Turkish military operation against Kurds who fought alongside U.S. forces in Syria also angered Washington, although no action was taken against Ankara by the Trump administration. More recently, Erdogan accused the United States of siding with Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

    Domestically, more than 100 House members signed a letter on April 21 calling on Biden to recognize the killings as genocide. The move has also long been demanded by the significant Armenian diaspora in the United States.

    Samantha Power, the UN ambassador under Obama, apologized for that administration’s failure to follow through on its campaign pledge, calling the killings an “open wound.”

    The earlier U.S. congressional resolutions drew a rebuke from Turkey’s communications director, who called them “irresponsible and irrational actions…against Turkey.”

    If Biden makes good on his promise and the United States joins some 30 other countries, including Russia, with an official policy of genocide recognition, it will certainly anger Ankara and further strain an already uneasy relationship between the two NATO allies.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Biden Expected To Recognize Massacre Of Armenians As ‘Genocide’

    U.S. President Joe Biden is likely to recognize the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide, media reports say, amid calls for the move by more than 100 U.S. lawmakers.

    The recognition, promised by Biden during the presidential campaign for the November election he won, would be largely symbolic but is likely to anger Turkey and step up already high tensions between the two NATO allies.

    Biden is expected to use the word “genocide” as part of a statement on April 24 when annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day commemorations are held around the world, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters and The New York Times.

    “My understanding is that he took the decision and will use the word genocide in his statement on Saturday,” a source told Reuters.

    However, sources warned that given the importance of bilateral ties with Turkey, Biden may still choose to drop the “genocide” term at the last minute. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has warned the White House that recognition would “harm” U.S.-Turkish ties.

    The reports came as a bipartisan group of more than 100 members of the House of Representatives on April 21 signed a letter to Biden calling on him to become the first U.S. president to formally recognize the systematic killings and deportation of Armenians as an act of genocide.

    The letter was led by Representative Adam Schiff (Democrat-California).

    “The shameful silence of the United States Government on the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to follow through on your commitments, and speak the truth.”

    Biden as a candidate pledged in April last year that if elected he would recognize the Armenian genocide, saying that “silence is complicity,” but did not give a timeline for delivering on the promise.

    During and immediately after World War I, Ottoman Turks killed or deported as many as 1.5 million Armenians — a Christian minority in the predominately Muslim empire. Many historians and some other countries consider the killings genocide.

    Turkey objects to the use of the word “genocide” to describe the killings. Ankara claims the deaths were a result of civil strife rather than a planned Ottoman government effort to annihilate Armenians. Turkey also claims fewer Armenians died than has been reported.

    White House press secretary Jen Psaki on April 21 told reporters the White House would likely have “more to say” about the issue on April 24, but declined to elaborate.

    The State Department referred queries on the issue to the White House and the National Security Council had no comment beyond what Psaki said.

    Moves to recognize the Armenian genocide have stalled in the U.S. Congress for decades, and U.S. presidents have refrained from formally using the term amid concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by Ankara.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had established a close bond with former U.S. President Donald Trump, but he has yet to speak to Biden since he was inaugurated as president on January 20.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Reuters, AP, and The New York Times

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Armenian Holy Site Where Music ‘Rings Like A Bell’

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Canada Blocks Defense Exports To Turkey Over Transfer Of Drones To Azerbaijan

    Canada has halted some military exports to NATO ally Turkey after a probe confirmed Canadian drone technology was used by Azerbaijan in last year’s fighting with Armenia over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

    Canada suspended military export permits to Turkey last October pending an investigation into allegations Canadian technology was misused when the Turkish military provided armed drones to support Azerbaijan.

    “Following this review, which found credible evidence that Canadian technology exported to Turkey was used in Nagorno-Karabakh, today I am announcing the cancellation of permits that were suspended in the fall of 2020,” Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in an April 12 statement.

    “This use was not consistent with Canadian foreign policy, nor end-use assurances given by Turkey,” he added.

    Garneau said he had spoken with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu about the decision and offered to start a dialogue mechanism to ensure any future defense export permits are in line with end-user agreements.

    The export ban affects 29 permits for military goods and technologies, including camera components used in Turkish drones.

    The Canadian review found Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 armed drones were equipped with imaging and targeting systems made by Canadian company L3Harris Wescam. The Canadian camera system is exclusively used in the Turkish drones, but no export permits for Canadian sensors were issued for Azerbaijan.

    Azerbaijan and Armenian forces fought a six-week war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the fall, during which Turkish support helped Azerbaijan prevail over ethnic Armenian forces.

    Under a Moscow-brokered cease-fire, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by Armenians.

    Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the region’s population reject Azerbaijani rule.

    Canada had previously suspended export licenses during a Turkish military incursion into Syria against Kurdish forces in 2019. Those restrictions were then eased, but reinstated during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Can New Election Laws Pull Armenia Out Of Its Political Crisis?

    YEREVAN — When Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian signed a Russian-brokered cease-fire in November to end the war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, it created a tumultuous postwar crisis that has eroded public confidence in Yerevan’s political establishment.

    Opinion polls show the approval rating of Pashinian’s government has fallen from about 60 percent in September 2020 to around 30 percent today.

    Pashinian’s allies — faced with political upheaval and declining public confidence in politicians — are now working to change the country’s election laws ahead of snap parliamentary elections expected in June.

    The 45-year-old Pashinian’s My Step alliance is revamping parts of the Electoral Code that were put in place in 2016 by his predecessors, the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), two years before the “Velvet Revolution” swept him into office.

    My Step gained power with 70 percent of the vote in 2018 snap elections after Pashinian led mass protests against the HHK-led government. It was enough for My Step to take a commanding 88 of the 132 seats in Armenia’s single-chamber parliament.

    By comparison, the discredited pro-Russian HHK of former President Serzh Sarkisian failed to clear the minimum 5 percent threshold needed to win parliamentary seats. That left the Republicans sidelined along with more than a dozen other small parties that remain outside of parliament.

    Postwar Crisis

    Five lawmakers have quit My Step’s parliamentary faction since the end of the war to become nonaligned deputies — leaving My Step with 83 parliament seats.

    Strikingly, the two opposition parties in parliament have not benefited from My Step’s evaporating support. Research by the International Republican Institute reveals a simultaneous decline in public support for the opposition Prosperous Armenia and a rival opposition faction, Bright Armenia.

    Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukian gives a speech in parliament in Yerevan.


    Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukian gives a speech in parliament in Yerevan.

    Led by powerful businessman Gagik Tsarukian, Prosperous Armenia had been a member of the Republican Party’s governing coalition from 2008 to 2012 — calling itself a “nongoverning party” after that until 2015, when it formally declared itself in opposition to the Republicans.

    Controversial former President Robert Kocharian has also been an influential figure in Prosperous Armenia, which has 24 deputies in the current parliament.

    Bright Armenia is led by Edmon Marukian, a Western-educated former ally of Pashinian who is seen to have pro-European leanings. Bright Armenia has 17 deputies in the current parliament.

    Bright Armenia leader Edmon Marukian (file photo)


    Bright Armenia leader Edmon Marukian (file photo)

    Rounding out parliament are eight nonaligned lawmakers, including two who vote with the My Step faction on many issues.

    Outside of parliament, 17 anti-Pashinian groups with differing political orientations formed a postwar tactical coalition called the Homeland Salvation Movement (HPS).

    The HPS is not a separate political entity. But it organized demonstrations that brought thousands of protesters to the streets throughout the winter to demand Pashinian’s resignation over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which led to Armenian forces losing control of large swaths of territory.

    Pashinian responded to the criticism by blaming his predecessors for the country’s war losses — including members of the HPS — saying they had neglected Armenian’s military forces for more than a decade.

    Amid the mudslinging and declining public confidence in all political factions, Pashinian announced on March 18 that he will soon resign so the next general elections, originally scheduled for December 2023, can be moved forward to June 20.

    Larisa Minasian, executive director of Open Society Fund-Armenia, says Armenia’s political crisis has morphed into “a deep societal crisis — meaning a substantial loss of trust in the government” and “frustration with the opposition, which obviously…feeds off the tragedy” of Armenia’s battlefield losses.

    Larisa Minasian


    Larisa Minasian

    “Recent polls show that the frustration is quite widely shared amongst the Armenian population,” Minasian says. “An average of 42 percent and, in Yerevan, as much as 50 percent — half of the population — are really deeply frustrated with [all] sides.”

    “After a long back and forth to maneuver through the crisis, finally the government decided to go with snap elections…as the means to get out of this crisis,” Minasian says.

    Election Law Changes

    Political analyst Stepan Grigorian says holding a new election without changing the Electoral Code created in 2016 by the then-ruling HHK will not resolve the deepening crisis. “If we do not change the electoral code we will have the same parliament. We will have a newly elected parliament and we will have, again, the current government in place,” says Grigorian, who heads the Yerevan-based Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation.

    “We will be hearing this mutual accusation process again, where one side says, ‘You’re a traitor,’ and the other one says, ‘No, you’re the traitor.’”

    “That’s why a transition to a ‘multipartisan’ system is what we need” to replace a parliament long characterized by the dominance of one party and a divided opposition, he says.

    Stepan Grigorian


    Stepan Grigorian

    Grigorian says numerous smaller parties left out of parliament need to be brought into the political process so that views emerging across Armenia since the end of the war are also represented in the legislature. “Our purpose is to get a discussion started so the parliament becomes multipartisan,” he concludes.

    In fact, the My Step alliance has been using its continued control of parliament to push through election law changes that had been among the promises made during the Velvet Revolution. A key amendment passed on April 1 eliminated so-called “district list” voting for individual candidates. That change to the technical rules of voting transforms Armenia’s electoral system into one of fully proportional representation.

    Bright Armenia, the party that first warned about faults within the district-list system, is now criticizing its elimination — saying the move will leave regions outside of Yerevan underrepresented in the next parliament. None of Bright Armenia’s deputies participated in the April 1 vote.

    The opposition Prosperous Armenia faction boycotted the parliamentary session at which the change was approved.

    Lilit Makunts, leader of the pro-Pashinian majority in parliament, says other amendments still could be introduced to the Electoral Code ahead of the June vote. On April 5, Makunts said those changes could include lowering the threshold needed by political parties to win seats — a move that gives smaller parties a better chance to enter parliament.

    She said any additional changes would have the backing of the Venice Commission, an influential advisory body to the Council of Europe on constitutional law. Makunts also said Armenia’s Central Election Commission must deem any changes as feasible within the time remaining before the vote and consult other political parties.

    Can Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hold on to power?


    Can Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hold on to power?

    The proposed amendments have already been submitted to the Venice Commission for review. They include lowering the threshold for a party to enter parliament from 5 percent to 4 percent of the vote. Another proposed change would raise the threshold for political alliances to 8 percent for two-party alliances, 9 percent for three-party alliances, and 10 percent for alliances with more than three parties.

    Political analysts say such reforms could restore public confidence in democracy by encouraging and fostering a multiparty system that represents a wider range of voter views. They say the logic is to ensure political parties are encouraged to participate independently and to reveal their ideologies so that voters understand the party platforms.

    With more parties entering parliament, analysts say governing coalitions can be formed to better represent the will of the people when a single party doesn’t control a majority.

    Leveling The Playing Field

    The Electoral Code pushed through parliament ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections was widely seen as giving unfair advantages to the ruling HHK. That party was described by The Economist magazine in 2007 as a “typical post-Soviet ‘party of power’ mainly comprising senior government officials, civil servants, and wealthy business people dependent on government connections.”

    Vardine Grigorian is the coordinator of Democratic Institutions Monitoring at the Vanadzor branch of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Armenian Committee. Her NGO has taken part in proposing and drafting changes to the 2016 election laws in an attempt to level the playing field for smaller political parties.

    Grigorian explains that the HHK had seen a way in 2016 to gain an advantage by changing technical details of what was then a mixed electoral system — a blend of proportional representation and races between individual candidates.

    Vardine Grigorian


    Vardine Grigorian

    For proportional voting, each party presents its party list of potential lawmakers. Voters cast a ballot for the party of their choice and parliamentary seats are distributed according to the percentage of votes received by each party — provided a party crosses the minimum threshold needed to enter parliament.

    In past elections, voters in about half of Armenia’s precincts would cast ballots in races between individual candidates. “Before the 2017 parliamentary elections, if two majoritarian candidates were competing against each other the winner would take all. But these votes did not transfer to party votes,” Vardine Grigorian notes.

    “The Republican Party realized this mixed system was not conducive to getting as many votes as they needed,” she says. “So they introduced something called ‘district lists,’ which allowed any candidate running from a party to bring their votes directly to the political party.”

    “This allowed the Republican Party to get more than 100,000 additional votes in the 2017 parliamentary elections, even though their approval ratings were a lot lower than the years before,” she says.

    “The district lists were good for the protection of the ruling [HHK] regime because it allowed them to be able to recruit all the influential business and administrative people in the regions that would be able to bring in as many votes as possible,” she says. “We saw while looking at the electoral process how violations evolved and became so sophisticated. Before, election fraud had been actual falsification of results, forging protocols, and things like that.”

    “Then, the violations moved out of the polling stations. It became issues of vote buying, abuse of administrative resources, and forcing people to participate in meetings and to vote in a certain way by threatening them with losing their job,” she says.

    It's hoped that electoral reforms would bring a more honest level of political discourse to parliament.


    It’s hoped that electoral reforms would bring a more honest level of political discourse to parliament.

    Political analyst Stepan Grigorian agrees. He notes that district lists are a Western norm that works well in established and affluent democracies. “But Armenia is a poor country. In our situation, the district-list system meant a bigger influence for those with money and administrative resources,” he tells RFE/RL. “Removing the district lists was necessary to diminish the serious influence that our oligarchs had on the outcome of elections through their resources and money, and through corruption.”

    Armenia’s district lists also discouraged the development of smaller political parties because of a requirement that all political parties have at least five candidates in all 13 regions of Armenia — with each paying a high deposit cost.

    “All the conditions were there for less political participation, for fewer parties to participate, and for more parities to go into alliances and form alliances before they entered into parliament,” Vardine Grigorian says.

    “These alliances were not really sustainable. Most of them would fall apart with the next disagreement that appeared in parliament,” she says. “Alliances would be a onetime opportunity to be able to pass that minimum threshold. But then the parliament wouldn’t reflect the will of the people and what they voted for.”

    “Meanwhile, the focus was so much on those races with individual candidates that the competition in the election campaign became very apolitical,” she says. “They were not focused on the party platforms or contributing to the development of the party system — which is so needed for trying to establish and work out this parliamentary system in Armenia.”

    “That’s why we’ve been trying to develop on this process since 2016,” she says.

    Written and reported from Prague by Ron Synovitz with additional reporting by Suren Musayelian in Yerevan

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Analysis: Bitter Military Losses Lead To Power Struggle In Nagorno-Karabakh

    YEREVAN — More than five months after the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Nagorno-Karabakh, the dust is settling in the halls of power in Stepanakert, the disputed region’s de facto capital.

    In Karabakh’s very opaque political environment, however, it’s not entirely clear who has come out on top after the 44-day Second Karabakh War won convincingly by Azerbaijan late last year.

    There are two men who appear to be in close competition to control the Azerbaijani region predominantly inhabited by ethnic Armenians: de facto President Arayik Harutiunian and the region’s influential security chief, Vitaly Balasanian.

    Harutiunian has led the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, as it’s known by Armenians, since his victory in the March 2020 presidential election.

    That vote was by far the most competitive in Karabakh’s post-Soviet history and saw Harutiunian — who was prime minister from 2007 to 2017 — emerge victorious in a runoff after securing just under 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

    One of his opponents in that first round was Vitaly Balasanian, a former general-turned-opposition leader who garnered nearly 15 percent of the vote, finishing third.

    But after the dismal showing in the war with Azerbaijan led to unhappiness with Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership, Balasanian is now poised to be the president’s main challenger domestically.

    Defeat Brings Change

    The crushing defeat resulted in a major political shakeup in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    In the months following the November 10 cease-fire deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan — which was brokered by Russia — nearly all of the region’s cabinet ministers were replaced.

    Harutiunian himself said he would resign at some unannounced date and leave politics — something he has not yet done.

    Arayik Harutiunian (file photo)


    Arayik Harutiunian (file photo)

    In the meantime, Balasanian was appointed by Harutiunian on December 2 as head of Karabakh’s powerful Security Council, the chief military body for the region. Harutiunian also announced two weeks later that Karabakh’s armed forces were subordinate to the council, effectively granting huge power to Balasanian.

    That move led many to speculate that he would formally replace Harutiunian as Karabakh leader and had, in fact, already garnered sufficient power to exercise authority in the breakaway state.

    Who Holds The Most Power?

    But it is still unclear which of the two men has more influence in Karabakh.

    Emil Sanamyan, a fellow at the University of Southern California’s Institute of Armenian Studies, thinks Balasanian is indeed in the ascendent.

    Sanamyan said it seems “very likely” that Balasanian will replace Harutiunian as Karabakh’s president.

    “The question is when that might happen,” he added, pointing out that Karabakh is not in a position to hold an election anytime soon.

    Sanamyan suggested Harutiunian might thus remain as a figurehead, the formal leader in Karabakh but with Balasanian exercising “effective commander in chief powers.”

    Vitaly Balasanian (file photo)


    Vitaly Balasanian (file photo)

    Balasanian gained prominence in the First Karabakh War as head of the Askeran regiment that spearheaded the operation to seize the Azerbaijani city of Agdam in 1993, resulting in tens of thousands of ethnic Azerbaijanis being expelled.

    He left the army in 2005 to join Karabakh’s political opposition, making a name for himself as “the opposition general.”

    He ran for president of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2012, finishing second. He first served as head of the Security Council from 2016 to 2019.

    In the last two years he became known for his political stances, particularly his strident opposition to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, whom Balasanian slammed as a “Western stooge.”

    Some people think his opposition to the previously popular Pashinian and his first tenure heading the Security Council has cost him politically.

    “In 2016, [Balasanian] became the head of the security council [Nagrono-Karabakh], joining a small group of ‘siloviki’” in the region, said an Armenian official with knowledge of Karabakh politics, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This was the turning point for him. The modest, noncorrupt general became part of the most corrupt group in Karabakh.”

    Sanamyan has a completely different view of Balasanian.

    “He is a man of integrity and not known for any criminal or corrupt activity,” he said.

    And Then There’s Russia

    The narrative about the rise of Balasanian has grown beyond what the situation in Stepanakert reflects, said the anonymous official.

    “There’s a real hype around [Balasanian], especially in Yerevan, but this doesn’t reflect reality,” the official said. “Balasanian doesn’t have the administrative resources [that Harutiunian] does and there are only three members of parliament [from his party],” he added.

    Russian peacekeepers on the move in Nagorno-Karabakh late last year.


    Russian peacekeepers on the move in Nagorno-Karabakh late last year.

    But observers warn that the political savvy of Harutiunian should not be discounted.

    “Arayik [Harutiunian] has effectively consolidated power in the last few months,” the official continued. “He has tied everyone to him by bringing them into his cabinet. There is a joke right now in Karabakh: if you want to be a minister, just criticize [Harutiunian],” he explained. “I don’t think Balasanian has anywhere near the influence [that Harutiunian] has,” he said.

    Whatever the true balance of power behind the scenes, many think that both men are still playing second fiddle to the real authority in town: Russia.

    “De facto, real authority [in Karabakh] is now in Russia’s hands,” said Benyamin Poghosian, chairman of the Yerevan-based Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies. “[Rustam] Muradov, the Russian peacekeeping head [in Karabakh], is the no. 1 guy. The Karabakh government does still function, but [the situation is] somewhere between strong Russian influence and de facto control.”

    General Rustam Muradov (left) with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (file photo)


    General Rustam Muradov (left) with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (file photo)

    For the time being at least, Harutiunian and Balasanian appear to be prepared to try to ride out the tough situation in the sparsely populated, war-torn region, which Armenian forces controlled from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until last year.

    “I don’t think [Harutiunian] is going anywhere,” said the official. “A few months ago, when people were demanding his resignation, he said he wouldn’t leave because the Russians want him there. He has very good relations [with Muradov].”


    “There’s some speculation that [Harutiunian] will resign on May 21, the one-year anniversary [of his swearing-in as president], but I’m not sure,” said Poghosian. “Many people also think he will stay [in office beyond that date].”

    Of course high politics are currently of little concern to the average Karabakh Armenian civilian, many of whom are still reeling from the bitter defeat in the war, which led to large swaths of territory being taken by Azerbaijani forces.

    “It’s hard to speculate about [politics and] policies considering the situation [Karabakh] finds itself in,” concludes Sanamian. “The priority [is] people’s security.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenia Accuses Azerbaijan Of Breaking Truce Deal Over Prisoners’ Release

    YEREVAN — Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of violating a key term of the Russian-brokered cease-fire deal that ended last fall’s fighting over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, alleging that Baku is reneging on a pledge to free Armenian soldiers and civilians captured during the conflict.

    “Unfortunately, the return of prisoners is again delayed,” the office of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian said in a statement posted on Facebook on April 9.

    Avinian said that “Russian-mediated negotiations are continuing and we hope that the Azerbaijani side will at last respect” the cease-fire agreement signed in November 2020, putting an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

    There was no immediate reaction from Azerbaijani officials.

    Avinian’s accusations come a day after Armenian government representatives said that a group of prisoners of war (POWs) was about to be repatriated to Armenia.

    But a plane from Azerbaijan that was expected to bring 25 POWs turned out to be empty when it landed in Yerevan.

    Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s.

    Under the Moscow-brokered cease-fire deal, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.

    The agreement also resulted in the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers, and provided for an exchange of POWs and other detained people.

    Several prisoner exchanges have taken place in recent months.

    There are no official figures of how many Armenians are still being held by Azerbaijan, but the RBK news agency said there were about 140. It’s unclear how many Azerbaijani prisoners there are.

    On April 9, hundreds of relatives of POWs and missing soldiers protested in Yerevan and other parts of Armenia.

    In the capital, about 400 blocked the entrances of the Defense Ministry for a second day. Some protesters clashed with police.

    More than 6,000 people died in last year’s fighting.

    With reporting by dpa

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Watchdog Calls On Russia To End Information ‘Black Hole’ In Nagorno-Karabakh

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling on Russia to stop denying entry to foreign reporters in the South Caucasus disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, and is urging the United Nations and Council of Europe to ensure respect for the right to the freedom to inform.

    Russian peacekeepers controlling access to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia via the Lachin Corridor have denied entry to at least 10 foreign journalists since February, the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said in a statement on April 9.

    “A growing number of foreign journalists are being systematically refused entry by Russian soldiers,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

    Cavelier warned that without international media, Nagorno-Karabakh “is liable to become a news and information ‘black hole.’”

    Last fall, Azerbaijani and Armenian forces fought a brief war over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s.

    The six-week fighting concluded in November 2020 with a Russian-brokered cease-fire, under which a chunk of the region and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.

    It also resulted in the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers along frontline areas and the Lachin Corridor connecting the disputed territory with Armenia.

    More than 6,000 people died in the fighting.

    According to RSF, a French photographer, a reporter for the French TV channel M6, and a Canadian freelancer for The Guardian and CNN, were among the journalists who were denied entry in Nagorno-Karabakh since February.

    The group said access to the region is also “restricted” via Azerbaijan. It cited the case of TV crews from France 24 and the European channel Arte which “made highly controlled visits from Azerbaijan and were not able to report freely.”

    The Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement has no specific provision for the entry of journalists, RSF pointed out.

    It said press accreditation is issued by the consulate of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist authorities or by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

    However, the Russia peacekeepers “grant or refuse entry to foreign citizens, who are notified of the decision on the eve of their planned visit,” while Armenians and Russians “just need to show their passports in order to enter” the region.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian Leader Asks Putin For Help With POWs Held By Azerbaijan

    Armenia’s prime minister has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help in releasing dozens of prisoners of war captured by Azerbaijan during last year’s brief war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Speaking on April 7 during a trip to Moscow, Nikol Pashinian also said Armenia was interested in acquiring more Russian-made Sputnik-V vaccines.

    Last fall’s war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was waged over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s.

    The six-week war concluded with a Russian-brokered cease-fire, under which a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.


    The agreement also led to the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers along frontline areas and a land corridor connecting the disputed territory with Armenia.

    More than 6,000 people died in the fighting.

    The final status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved.

    There are no official figures of how many Armenian POWs are being held by Azerbaijan, but the RBC news agency said there were about 140 Armenians still being held in Azerbaijan. It’s unclear how many Azerbaijani POWs there are.

    “I would like to note that in this context there is a very important issue that has not yet been settled,” Pashinian told Putin. “This is a question of prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees.”

    “As we have repeatedly discussed…all hostages, prisoners of war, and other detainees should be returned to their homeland, but, unfortunately, we still have detainees in Azerbaijan,” the Armenian prime minister added.

    In his meeting with Putin, Pashinian said the first shipment of 15,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine was expected to arrive in Armenia on April 6, but the country needs more than 1 million doses in all.

    “The first shipment was, so to speak, a symbolic shipment. We hope to acquire a large amount of the Russian vaccine, because it has proven its efficacy,” he said.

    Pashinian’s trip to Moscow came as Armenia prepares for early parliamentary elections in June, triggered by opposition demands the prime minister step down over his handling of the war with Azerbaijan.

    With reporting by Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Governments In Europe, Central Asia Used Pandemic To Clamp Down On Human Rights, Amnesty International Report Says

    Amnesty International says some measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic have aggravated existing patterns of abuses and inequalities in Europe and Central Asia, where a number of governments used the crisis “as a smokescreen for power grabs, clampdowns on freedoms, and a pretext to ignore human rights obligations.”

    Government responses to COVID-19 “exposed the human cost of social exclusion, inequality, and state overreach,” the London-based watchdog said in its annual report released on April 7.

    According to the report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, close to half of all countries in the region have imposed states of emergency related to COVID-19, with governments restricting rights such as freedom of movement, expression, and peaceful assembly.

    The enforcement of lockdowns and other public health measures “disproportionately” hit marginalized individuals and groups who were targeted with violence, identity checks, quarantines, and fines.

    Roma and people on the move, including refugees and asylum seekers, were placed under discriminatory “forced quarantines” in Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, and Slovakia.

    Law enforcement officials unlawfully used force along with other violations in Belgium, France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, and Spain.

    In Azerbaijan, arrests on politically motivated charges intensified “under the pretext” of containing the pandemic.

    In countries where freedoms were already severely circumscribed, last year saw further restrictions.

    Russian authorities “moved beyond organizations, stigmatizing individuals also as ‘foreign agents’ and clamped down further on single person pickets.”

    Meanwhile, authorities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan adopted or proposed new restrictive laws on assembly.

    Belarusian police responded to mass protests triggered by allegations of election fraud with “massive and unprecedented violence, torture and other ill-treatment.”

    “Independent voices were brutally suppressed as arbitrary arrests, politically motivated prosecutions and other reprisals escalated against opposition candidates and their supporters, political and civil society activists and independent media,” the report said.

    Across the region, governments in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan “misused existing and new legislation to curtail freedom of expression.”

    Governments also took insufficient measures to protect journalists and whistle-blowers, including health workers, and sometimes targeted those who criticized government responses to the pandemic. This was the case in Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

    In Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, medical workers “did not dare speak out against already egregious freedom of expression restrictions.”

    Erosion Of Judicial Independence

    Amnesty International said that governments in Poland, Hungary, Turkey, and elsewhere continued to take steps in 2020 that eroded the independence of the judiciary. This included disciplining judges or interfering with their appointment for demonstrating independence, criticizing the authorities, or passing judgments that went against the wishes of the government.

    In Russia and in “much” of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, violations of the right to a fair trial remained “widespread” and the authorities cited the pandemic to deny detainees meetings with lawyers and prohibit public observation of trials.

    In Belarus, “all semblance of adherence to the right to a fair trial and accountability was eroded.”

    “Not only were killings and torture of peaceful protesters not investigated, but authorities made every effort to halt or obstruct attempts by victims of violations to file complaints against perpetrators,” the report said.

    Human Rights In Conflict Zones

    According to Amnesty International, conflicts in countries that made up the former Soviet Union continued to “hold back” human development and regional cooperation.

    In Georgia, Russia and the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia continued to restrict freedom of movement with the rest of the county, including through the further installation of physical barriers.

    The de facto authorities in Moldova’s breakaway Transdniester region introduced restrictions on travel from government-controlled territory, which affected medical provisions to the local population.

    And in eastern Ukraine, both Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists also imposed restrictions on travel across the contact line, with scores of people suffering lack of access to health care, pensions, and workplaces.

    Last fall’s armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan resulted in more than 5,000 deaths and saw all sides using cluster munitions banned under international humanitarian law, as well as heavy explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated civilian areas.

    Both Azerbaijani and Armenian forces also “committed war crimes including extrajudicial execution, torture of captives and desecration of corpses of opposing forces.”

    Shrinking of Human Rights Defenders’ Space

    Amnesty International’s report said some governments in Europe and Central Asia further limited the space for human rights defenders and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) through “restrictive laws and policies, and stigmatizing rhetoric.”

    This “thinned the ranks of civil society through financial attrition, as funding streams from individuals, foundations, businesses and governments dried up as a consequence of COVID-19-related economic hardship.”

    The Kazakh and Russian governments continued moves to silence NGOs through smear campaigns.

    Authorities in Kazakhstan threatened over a dozen human rights NGOs with suspension based on alleged reporting violations around foreign income.

    Peaceful protesters, human rights defenders, and civic and political activists in Russia faced arrests and prosecution.

    In Kyrgyzstan, proposed amendments to NGO legislation created “onerous” financial reporting requirements, while “restrictive new NGO legislation was mooted” in Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, and Serbia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenia’s Ex-President Kocharian Cleared Of Coup Charges

    An Armenian judge has dropped a criminal case against former President Robert Kocharian and his co-defendants over a deadly crackdown on protesters more than a decade ago.

    Anna Danibekian, the judge presiding over the two-year trial in Yerevan, threw out the coup charges on April 6, 11 days after the Constitutional Court found “invalid” an article of the Criminal Code under which the accused were being prosecuted.

    However, Danibekian ruled that Kocharian and his former chief of staff, Armen Gevorgian, will continue to stand trial on bribery charges which they also deny.

    Kocharian, who served as president from 1998 to 2008, and two retired generals, Yuri Khachaturov and Seyran Ohanian, were charged in 2018 with overthrowing the constitutional order.

    The charge stemmed from clashes during postelection protests in Yerevan in 2008 during which eight demonstrators and two police officers died.

    The 66-year-old ex-president has rejected the allegations against him as political retaliation by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

    He was released from detention in June 2020 after paying a record $4.1 million bail.

    Pashinian was one of the organizers of the 2008 protest and was ultimately jailed until being released in 2011 under a government amnesty. He came to power in 2018 after leading massive demonstrations that ousted his predecessor.

    Danibekian’s decision comes as Armenia prepares for early parliamentary elections in June, triggered by opposition demands Pashinian step down over his leadership during a six-week war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which ended in what many Armenians felt was a humiliating defeat.

    Kocharian, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, was one of the leaders of the region’s separatist forces and was Nagorno-Karabakh’s first de facto president between December 1994 and March 1997.

    In January, Kocharian said he would participate in any early elections.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian Parliament Approves Changes To Electoral System

    The Armenian parliament has adopted changes to the country’s Electoral Code that the opposition says are aimed at helping Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian win snap elections expected in June.

    The amendments, announced on March 24 by Pashinian, whose My Step faction dominates the National Assembly, will switch the Caucasus country’s electoral system to a fully proportional one.

    Armenians have until now voted for parties and alliances as well as individual candidates. In the last two general elections, parliament seats were equally distributed among candidates picked through national party lists and individual races.

    The amendments adopted on April 1 mean that the next election will be held only on a proportional, party-list basis. Only by pro-government lawmakers voted for the changes.

    No one from the opposition faction Bright Armenia participated in the vote, while lawmakers from the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction boycotted the parliamentary meeting.

    Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (file photo)


    Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (file photo)

    Following talks with the opposition, Pashinian on March 18 agreed to hold early general elections on June 20 in an effort to defuse a political crisis sparked by a war late last year with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

    Armenia has been in the grip of political upheaval since November, when Pashinian signed a Moscow-brokered cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan that ended six weeks of fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Under the deal, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.


    The opposition held demonstrations in a bid to force Pashinian to step down over his handling of the war, during which more than 6,000 people were killed.

    But the prime minister, whose My Step faction dominates parliament, has refused to resign, agreeing to early elections instead.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenia Gets First Batch Of AstraZeneca Vaccines Under COVAX Scheme

    Armenia has received its first batch of 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine under the UN-backed COVAX facility as the country braces for a third wave of infections from the virus.

    The AstraZeneca shot, which has been authorized in more than 70 countries, is a pillar the COVAX scheme, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) with the aim of providing 2 billion vaccine doses for low-income countries by the end of this year.

    The Armenian Health Ministry said it will use the first tranche of doses, which arrived by plane on March 28, to inoculate medical workers, nursing home employees, persons aged 65 and older, as well as the chronically ill.

    The vaccine is used widely in Britain, Europe and in other countries, but its rollout was marred by initial questions about its effectiveness.

    Several European countries this month suspended using the vaccine over concerns it could cause blood clots, but they since resumed administering it after the EU’s drug regulator and WHO confirmed the vaccine was safe.

    The British-Swedish company has said its vaccine is “highly effective in adults,” with 76 percent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 in a U.S. trial. More importantly, the vaccine was 100 percent effective against severe or critical disease and hospitalization.

    “The vaccine is quite effective in preventing serious cases, almost 100 percent of hospitalizations and deaths,” said Gayane Sahakian, the deputy director of the Armenia’s National Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Armenia already started a vaccination drive with a limited supply of Russia-developed Sputnik V vaccine.

    The number of COVID-19 infections recorded by Armenian health authorities has surged over the past month after falling significantly since November. The resurgence of the virus has forced the authorities to set up hundreds of new hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

    Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 190,000 recorded coronavirus infections in Armenia and more than 3,400 related deaths, according to a tally run by Johns Hopkins University.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian High Court Drops Criminal Case Against Ex-President Kocharian

    YEREVAN — Armenia’s Constitutional Court has ruled that a criminal case against former President Robert Kocharian must be dropped, ending a legal saga over a deadly crackdown on protesters more than a decade ago.

    The high court on March 26 found “invalid” an article of the Criminal Code under which Armenia’s second president was being prosecuted.

    Court Chairman Arman Dilanian said Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code regarding “overthrowing the constitutional order” runs counter to two articles of the constitution. The decision is final.

    The ruling means Kocharian’s case must be terminated, according to the ex-president’s lawyer Aram Vardevanian.

    Prosecutors did not immediately comment.

    Kocharian, who served as the South Caucasus country’s president from 1998 to 2008, was accused of violating the constitutional order by sending police to disperse postelection protests in Yerevan in 2008. Eight demonstrators and two police officers died in the clashes.

    The ex-president, who is also accused of taking bribes in a separate case, has rejected the allegations against him as political retaliation by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Kocharian was released from detention in June 2020 after paying a record $4.1 million bail.

    Pashinian was one of the organizers of the 2008 protest and was ultimately jailed until being released in 2011 under a government amnesty.

    Pashinian came to power in 2018 after leading massive demonstrations that ousted his predecessor.

    The high court verdict comes as Armenia prepares for early parliamentary elections in June, triggered by opposition demands Pashinian step down over his leadership during a six-week war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which ended in what many Armenians felt was a humiliating defeat.

    Kocharian, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, was one of the leaders of the region’s separatist forces and was Nagorno-Karabakh’s first de facto president between December 1994 and March 1997.

    In January, Kocharian said he would participate in any early elections.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Verdict Expected In Murder Trial Of Turkish-Armenian Journalist Dink

    A Turkish court is due to deliver its verdict on March 26 in the murder trial of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead 14 years ago in Istanbul.

    Dink was gunned down in broad daylight on January 19, 2007, outside the offices of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, where he was the editor. He was 53.

    Dink was a vocal proponent of better ties between Turkey and Armenia. But had been convicted two years before for his writings about the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

    Only six of 76 defendants are in custody. The accused include U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016.

    In 2012, ultranationalist sympathizer Ogun Samast, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

    However, the trials continue for others charged with willful killing, violating the constitution, and membership in a terrorist organization.

    The protracted legal process is attributed to the fact that the reason for his murder has never been fully settled. At one point it came to light that Turkish security had knowledge of the plot but failed to take action.

    After Samast’s conviction, a series of photos were revealed showing two police officers posing for the camera with the 17-year-old, while carrying a Turkish flag at the police station, causing outrage and raising questions about possible state involvement in the murder.

    Based on reporting by dpa and Freeturkeyjournalists.ipi.media

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian PM Advocates ‘Mutually Beneficial’ Infrastructure Projects For Both Yerevan, Baku

    Building railroads and roads will be “mutually beneficial” for Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on March 20 during a visit to the country’s western Aragatsotn Province, as he attempted to ease concerns about the development of such infrastructure projects.

    Addressing scores of supporters in the village of Nerkin Bazmaberd, Pashinian noted that one of the provisions of the trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia ending last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh calls for the unblocking of “all economic and transport links” in the region.

    This includes the construction of new roads and railroads linking the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan with mainland Azerbaijan via Armenian territory.

    A trilateral working group led by the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia was formed in February to work on details of the projects.


    The provision in the cease-fire agreement on establishing “economic and transport links” in the region raised concerns in Armenia about possible geopolitical and economic implications of such infrastructure projects passing through the country’s southern parts.

    For now, the matter mainly concerns the construction of railroads and the road that would connect Naxcivan to mainland Azerbaijan, but energy facilities like pipelines could come into the picture at some point in the future.

    Pashinian said the development of transportation infrastructure could be a step toward overcoming animosity in the region.

    “If someone says that the opening of these roads is beneficial only for Azerbaijan, do not believe it. If someone says that the opening of transportation is beneficial only for Armenia, do not believe it either. The opening of transportation, especially in this situation, is beneficial for both Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he stressed.

    “It is in Azerbaijan’s interest because it should get transportation with Naxcivan; it is in Armenia’s interest because we need a reliable railway link with the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.

    Pashinian’s statement came two days after he announced early parliamentary elections in June.

    During the rally, Pashinian did not conceal that his political team will seek a fresh mandate from the people to be able to form a government again. He said, however, that he and his team were ready to accept any outcome of the elections.

    Pashinian and his government have come under fire from various opposition parties and groups over the Armenian defeat in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. They have demanded Pashinian’s resignation since the Russian-brokered cease-fire was signed on November 10, ending six weeks of hostilities in which thousands of soldiers were killed.

    Under the deal, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.

    The coalition of opposition parties has been holding anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country in a bid to force Pashinian to step down and allow an interim government to be formed before snap elections.

    But the prime minister, whose My Step alliance dominates parliament, has refused to hand over power to such an interim government.

    Following discussions with the leaders of two opposition parliamentary factions, Pashinian said on March 18 that it was agreed that early elections in Armenia will be held on June 20.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Embattled Armenian PM Announces Early Parliamentary Elections

    YEREVAN — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says that early general elections will be held on June 20, following talks with the leader of the opposition parliamentary faction Prosperous Armenia.

    He and Gagik Tsarukian acknowledged during their meeting that the snap elections were “the best way out” of the ongoing political crisis, Pashinian wrote on his Facebook account on March 18.

    “Taking into account my discussions with President [Armen Sarkisian], the My Step faction, the leader of the Bright Armenia faction Edmon Marukian, early parliamentary elections will be held in the Republic of Armenia on June 20,” he said.

    The opposition has been pushing for Pashinian to resign after the defeat suffered by Armenian forces last year against Azerbaijan in fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    A coalition of opposition parties has been holding anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country in a bid to force Pashinian to hand over power to an interim government.

    Pashinian, whose My Step faction dominates parliament, has refused to step down but had hinted at accepting early parliamentary elections under certain conditions.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian President, PM Discuss Possible Snap Elections

    Armenian President Armen Sarkisian met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan on March 13 as part of a presidential effort to defuse the political crisis that has gripped that Caucasus country since a cease-fire was signed to end intense fighting over a breakaway region of neighboring Azerbaijan.

    Opposition-led street protests have targeted Pashinian since the truce was signed in early November 2020, surrendering control of some regions around Nagorno-Karabakh that had been under ethnic Armenian control for decades.

    Azerbaijani forces mostly routed overmatched Armenian forces on the battlefield during the six-week intensification of a nearly three-decade, mostly “frozen,” conflict.

    Sarkisian’s office said the two men discussed “the situation in the country [and] ways of resolving it and overcoming the internal political crisis.”

    “In this context, they discussed holding early parliamentary elections as a solution,” the presidential office said.

    Sarkisian had asked for the meeting.

    After a break, opposition parties and other critics renewed their protests to demand Pashinian’s exit in late February.

    The leaders of the pro-government My Step parliamentary faction and one of the two opposition factions, Bright Armenia, also accepted Sarkisian’s invitation to March 13 talks, and their meetings with the president were planned for later in the day.

    In a statement disseminated late on March 12, the president’s office said that the two other sides invited to the talks — the parliamentary opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the Homeland Salvation Movement, an alliance of about a dozen political parties and groups, including the BHK, demanding Pashinian’s resignation — had proposed their own agendas and set conditions for the meeting.

    Sarkisian’s office said that made the format of talks in which all invited parties would meet at one table “unfeasible.”

    As Pashinian visited the presidential compound in a heavily guarded motorcade, supporters of the Homeland Salvation Movement staged more protests in the adjacent boulevard that they have been blocking since late February.

    The opposition movement continues to insist that Pashinian must step down and a provisional government led by its leader Vazgen Manukian be formed before snap parliamentary elections can be held in a year.

    Ishkhan Saghatelian, one of the leaders of the movement, said that in order to be able to discuss their possible participation in snap elections, Pashinian must first step down and then the parliament must be dissolved.

    Pashinian, who was swept to power by a peaceful protest movement in 2018, has rejected calls for his immediate resignation but left the door open to early elections.

    Talking to several media on March 12, the leader of the BHK, Gagik Tsarukian, announced an upcoming meeting with Pashinian.

    He repeated the demand that the prime minister resign and that snap parliamentary elections be held as early as possible to end the current political crisis.

    Pashinian’s allies hold a comfortable majority in parliament.

    He and his political team have sought assurances from the two opposition factions excluding the risk of upheavals in the country.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian Opposition Protesters Blockade Parliament To Demand PM’s Resignation

    YEREVAN — Thousands of Armenian opposition supporters have blockaded the parliament building in Yerevan to press a demand for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign.

    The demonstrators surrounded the building on March 9 and engaged in occasional scuffles with police, as several opposition lawmakers stood between the two sides to prevent violent clashes.

    Police officers clad in riot gear did not attempt to disperse the crowd.

    “Do not succumb to provocations,” opposition activist Ishkhan Saghatelian told the protesters. “None of us is going to break through the National Assembly gate.”

    “This is our civil disobedience action against this parliament,” he said.

    Pashinian has faced mounting protests and calls from the opposition for his resignation following a six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

    At the heart of the turmoil is the Russian-brokered deal Pashinian signed in November that brought an end to the fighting after Armenian forces suffered territorial and battlefield losses from Azerbaijan’s Turkish-backed military.

    Under the deal, Armenia ceded control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan that had been occupied by Armenian forces since the early 1990s.

    Political tensions escalated last month when Pashinian dismissed the chief of the General Staff, Onik Gasparian, after the prime minister accused high-ranking military officers of attempting a coup by calling on him to resign.

    Supporters of Pashinian and the opposition have been staging competing rallies in the capital amid the crisis.

    In an attempt to defuse the crisis, Pashinian has offered to hold snap parliamentary elections later this year but rejected the opposition’s demand to step down before the vote.

    Pashinian has defended the November deal as the only way to prevent the Azerbaijani Army from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.

    Russia has deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the agreement.

    With reporting by AP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EU-Armenia Partnership Pact Enters Into Force

    An agreement between Armenia and the European Union designed to deepen relations across an array of issues entered into force on March 1.

    The European Union-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) represents an “important milestone” in relations between the two sides, the EU said.

    EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the agreement “sends a strong signal” that the EU and Armenia are committed to supporting democratic principles, the rule of law, and a broad reform agenda.

    “Across political, economic, trade, and other sectoral areas, our agreement aims to bring positive change to people’s lives, to overcome challenges to Armenia’s reforms agenda,” Borrell said in a statement.

    The EU said the pact will strengthen ties on such issues as the economy, transport, digitalization, green energy, and the judicial system.

    “The agreement plays an important role for the modernization of Armenia, in particular through legislative approximation to EU norms in many sectors,” it said.

    Both sides signed the agreement in November 2017 and it was subsequently ratified by Armenia, all EU member states, and the European Parliament.

    The agreement is a less ambitious alternative to an Association Agreement negotiated by Armenian and EU officials in 2013.

    Former President Serzh Sarkisian unexpectedly scuttled that deal in 2013 after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Yerevan.

    Armenia went on to join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) trade bloc in 2015.

    CEPA does not include the removal of tariff barriers between Armenia and the EU due to Armenia’s membership in the EEU.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian Opposition Continues Protests Against Prime Minister

    Several thousand opposition supporters rallied in the capital, Yerevan, on February 27 demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation over his handling of last year’s war with Azerbaijan that ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement that many see as a national humiliation. The latest demonstrations come in the wake of a letter by the country’s chief of the general staff urging Pashinian to step down. The prime minister called it a coup attempt and dismissed General Onik Gasparian. President Armen Sarkisian, however, has refused to sign off on the dismissal, considering it unconstitutional.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian President Declines To Sign Order Dismissing Army Chief

    YEREVAN — Armenian President Armen Sarkisian has refused to sign off on the dismissal of the head of the country’s general staff whose firing by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on February 25 prompted a political crisis.

    According to a February 27 statement posted on Sarkisian’s website, the president considered the firing of General Onik Gasparian unconstitutional.

    The president’s move gave Pashinian five days during which to resubmit the dismissal order. However, Pashinian announced immediately that he had already sent it back to the president.

    Pashinian wrote on Facebook that Sarkisian’s decision “is by no means conducive to the resolution of the situation.”

    Sarkisian now has three days to either sign the order or submit it to the Constitutional Court for review.

    WATCH: What’s Next After Pashinian Denounces ‘Attempted Coup’?

    In his statement, Sarkisian stressed that he was not supporting either side in the dispute over Gasparian’s firing and that “the armed forces should maintain political neutrality.”

    At an opposition rally in Yerevan, former Prime Minister Vazgen Manukian, who has been put forward as a replacement for Pashinian, said with the decision, “the president has proved that he stands by the army.”

    “I hope we will see statements from the police and the national security service that they too have sided with the army,” he added.

    Pashinian has said he fired Gasparian after what he called an attempted coup aimed at removing him. Gasparian and other top military officials had issued an open letter calling for the resignations of Pashinian and his cabinet over their handling of a six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

    Pashinian, whose My Step alliance holds a majority in parliament, has rejected opposition demands for early elections.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian Prime Minister Says Military’s Demands For His Resignation Attempt At Coup

    Armenia’s armed forces have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his government, prompting him to claim it’s an attempted coup by the military.

    The chief of information at the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Samvel Asatryan, said in a statement posted on February 25 that the call came in “resolute protest” against the dismissal of the first deputy chief of the General Staff “for short-sighted reasons.”

    The move “was carried out without taking into account the national and state interests of the Republic of Armenia. In such difficult conditions for the country, such a decision is an anti-state, irresponsible step.”

    “The prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, the government, will no longer be able to make adequate decisions in this critical situation for the Armenian people,” the statement added.

    In response, Pashinian called for his supporters to gather in the center of the capital, Yerevan.

    “I consider the statement of the General Staff as an attempt at a military coup. I invite all our supporters to Republic Square right now. I will be going live to the public soon,” Pashinian wrote on Facebook.

    Pashinian has faced protests and calls to resign after what his critics say was the disastrous handling of a bloody six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Armenian Opposition Protesters Detained In Yerevan

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Thousands March In Yerevan To Demand Prime Minister’s Resignation

    YEREVAN — Several thousand people marched in Armenia’s capital again on February 22 to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian over his handling of the war over Nagorno-Karabakh with Azerbaijan.

    The protesters marched to France Square in central Yerevan and blocked several adjacent streets, temporarily paralyzing traffic in the city center.

    The crowd soon dispersed. But opposition politicians say they plan to hold another demonstration on February 23 as part of what they say is a plan for “non-stop” protests and acts of civil disobedience.

    A coalition uniting 16 opposition parties has been holding anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country in a bid to force Pashinian to hand over power to an interim government.

    Opposition forces want their joint candidate, Vazgen Manukian, to become transitional prime minister to oversee fresh elections.

    Protests broke out in Armenia last November after Pashinian signed a Russian-brokered cease-fire deal that brought an end to 44 days of fierce fighting over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Armenian forces had been largely defeated by Azerbaijan’s Turkish-backed military in the recent fighting.

    Under the terms of the cease-fire, Pashinian ceded control over some territory in Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan that had been occupied by Armenian forces since the early 1990s.

    Pashinian has refused to step down under pressure from the protesters. He has defended the cease-fire deal as a painful but necessary move to prevent Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.

    The opposition protests had stopped in the midst of winter. But demonstrations resumed on February 20 with thousands taking to the streets of Yerevan once again.

    With reporting by AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Thousands Rally In Armenia To Demand Pashinian’s Resignation

    YEREVAN — Thousands of protesters have rallied in the Armenian capital to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian over his handling of a six-week war with Azerbaijan last year.

    Demonstrators gathered on February 20 in Freedom Square in central Yerevan under a heavy police presence shouting, “Armenia without Nikol!” and “Nikol traitor!”

    Pashinian has refused calls to step down but raised the possibility of holding early parliamentary elections.

    Pashinian, who swept to power amid nationwide protests in 2018, has come under fire since agreeing to a Moscow-brokered deal with Azerbaijan that took effect on November 10. The deal ended six weeks of fierce fighting in and around the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh that saw ethnic Armenian forces suffer battlefield defeat.

    A coalition uniting 16 opposition parties has been holding anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country in a bid to force Pashinian to hand over power to an interim government.

    Opposition forces want their joint candidate, Vazgen Manukian, to become transitional prime minister to oversee fresh elections.

    “It doesn’t matter how many people gather on the square, Nikol Pashinian will not resign voluntarily,” Manukian told a crowd of protesters waving Armenian flags in Freedom Square.

    Despite facing a united opposition front, Pashinian’s My Step bloc maintains an overwhelming majority in parliament.

    Under the Moscow-brokered cease-fire, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years of control by Armenians.

    Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the region’s population reject Azerbaijani rule.

    They had been governing their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan’s troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region and seven adjacent districts in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.

    With reporting by AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Earthquake Shakes Armenia’s Capital

    A 4.7-magnitude earthquake shook the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Feburary 13, prompting residents to flee buildings into the streets in fear of an aftershock.

    Armenia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported some destruction in Yerevan, and local news reports said items were knocked off shelves in stores.

    The ministry has reported about 20 minor aftershocks.

    One person was injured, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on his Facebook page.

    The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said the quake’s magnitude was 4.7 and its epicenter was 13 kilometers south of Yerevan.

    With reporting by AP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EU, WHO Announce Vaccine Program For Six Eastern European Countries

    The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union are launching a 40 million euro ($48.5 million) regional program to help six Eastern European countries with COVID-19 vaccinations.

    The program will involve Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the EU and UN health agency said on February 11.

    “By strengthening preparedness and readiness of the countries for vaccinations, this program will prepare the countries for the effective receipt and administering of vaccines, including those from COVAX and through vaccine-sharing mechanisms with EU member states,” the European Commission said.

    COVAX is a global initiative aimed at providing shots to poorer countries.

    The six countries are part of the Eastern Partnership that seeks to strengthen ties between the EU and several Eastern European states.

    The EU will pay for the vaccine program over a three-year period while the WHO will help implement it.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Turkey, Azerbaijan Begin Joint Military Drills Near Armenian Border

    Turkey and Azerbaijan began large-scale joint military exercises in eastern Anatolia near the border with Armenia on February 1.

    The winter military exercises, set to run from February 1 to 12 near the city of Kars, are the latest sign of deepening ties between the Turkic allies after Turkey threw its weight behind Azerbaijan in its victory against ethnic Armenian forces in a six-week war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement the drills are intended to ensure combat coordination and capabilities under winter conditions.

    On Twitter, it posted a video of two combat helicopters saluting the Turkish flag above Kars castle.

    On January 30, a joint Turkish and Russian observation center to monitor a cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh began operations inside Azerbaijan, giving Ankara a greater footprint in the South Caucasus.

    Under a Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement reached on November 9, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years under the control of ethnic Armenians.

    More than 4,700 people were killed in the flare-up of violence.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Joint Turkish-Russian Center To Monitor Nagorno-Karabakh Truce Begins Operations

    A joint Turkish and Russian observation center to monitor a cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region will be begin operations on January 30.

    Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced on January 29 that one Turkish general and 38 personnel will be stationed at the center.

    Turkish officials previously said the observation center will be located in Azerbaijan’s Aghdam region, which was captured from ethnic Armenian forces during a six-week flare-up of the conflict. Monitoring of the cease-fire will be aided by drones.

    “Our activities will intensify with the work of this joint Turkish-Russian center and we will fulfill our duty to defend the rights of our Azerbaijani brothers,” Akar said in a statement posted on the Defense Ministry’s website.

    Turkey and Russia agreed to form a joint observation center shortly after Moscow in November brokered a cease-fire agreement that ended fierce fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey was a major backer of Azerbaijan in the conflict.

    Under the cease-fire agreement, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years under the control of ethnic Armenians.

    Around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers are also deployed along frontline areas and to protect a land link connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.