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Introduction
Hello,
and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong,
Week in Review. This show was recorded on Monday, June 20, 2022.
I’m Asbed
Bedrossian, here with Hovik Manucharyan.
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with the show!
Here are the
major topics we’ll touch on today:
● Did the Opposition Blink?
● Scandal in the SJC
● More “Peace” Talks, More Border Shootings
To talk about
these issues, we have with us:
Tevan
Poghosyan, who is president
of the International Center for Human Development. Mr. Poghosyan was an MP in
the National Assembly between 2012 and 2017 from the Heritage party. From 1997
to 1999 he served as the Nagorno-Karabakh Public Affairs Office Director in
Washington, D.C.
Topics This Week
Did the Opposition Blink?
So on Tuesday of this past week, the leaders of the opposition announced some “tactical changes” to the daily protests
in Yerevan which have gone on since the beginning of May.
I
think that if you look at the protest movement, they had plateaued and were
getting a certain daily mass of participants, but it was not enough to put it
over certain barriers to cause the change they wanted.
So
to my understanding, the movement has removed all the tents in France Square, they’ve gone from daily to
weekly marches and rallies, targeting Fridays or Saturdays, and also making the
protest leadership available for people to meet and greet and discuss on
Wednesdays at France Square.
But
there are other structural changes to the movement itself.
Tevan let’s do a review and outlook on the leadership
of the movement:
● What has the movement achieved to date?
● What are the failures of the movement to date?
● What are the structural changes the movement is
implementing?
Note:
● Organizing in the Marzes
● Building a platform
● Targeting Pashinyan’s resignation, regime change
Scandalous Leak Involving Gagik Jhangiryan
Today, Monday
June 20, deposed chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Ruben Vardazaryan
and his lawyer, released a scandalous recording that is sure to generate a political tsunami
for Nikol Pashinyan and his team.
The recording,
which Vardazaryan said was made on Feb. 20, 2021, and whose authenticity has
not been confirmed yet, is mainly between Ruben Vardazaryan (then chairman of
the Supreme Judicial Council) and Gagik Jhangiryan (former chief prosecutor and
close associate of LTP). A third SJC member, Stepan Mikaelyan
(who is also the president of the Court of Cassations of Armenia) was also
present and acting as a middle man.
While only 14 minutes was released (out of a total of 2+ hours of recording
claimed by Vardazaryan), there are many implications:
● First, it casts into doubt the independence of
the prosecution in Armenia, since a voice that sounds like Gagik Jhangiryan in
the audio is heard gloating that he is able to stop certain cases from being
investigated.
● Second, it casts into doubt the independence of
the Constitutional Court in Armenia, Jhangiryan’s
voice appears to indicate that the effort to remove three “reform” the
constitutional court was done in similar vein, to tilt the court for political
purposes.
● Third, it casts into doubt the independence of
the Supreme Judicial Council itself since there’s evidence that the SJC,
through administrative tricks, attempted to delay or invalidate a hearing where
this evidence was going to be presented.
● It basically paints a picture that the executive
body in Armenia, in this case Prime Minister Pashinyan, is able to get the
silence or subservience of key people in the judicial and law enforcement
systems of Armenia, with apparent ease.
Some background
on the key players, to set the context of this scandal:.
●
SJC: The Supreme Judicial Council, a constitutional body formed out of the
2015 Armenian constitution, is tasked with guaranteeing the unrestricted implementation
of the judicial system. It currently consists of 5 “academician judges” or
distinguished members, elected by the national assembly (Jahangiryan
came in through this route). It also consists of five experienced judges,
elected by the general assembly of judges in Armenia.
●
Ruben Vardazaryan, at the time of the recording, was the chairman
of SJC. He was appointed to the position in July 2019, so after the 2018 change
of power. Vardazaryan became a target of Nikol Pashinyan’s
regime after November 15, 2020 (5 days after signing of the capitulation). At
that time, in a call to judges, he urged them to be true to their
oath and to stay away from any kind of political pressure and influence. This
call, and especially the timing of it, was seen as an act of insubordination by
Pashinyan and since then the Pashinyan regime has been pursuing Vardazaryan through multiple criminal cases.
This recording was done in February 2021 when it was already public knowledge
that there were criminal cases against Vardazaryan. By April 2021, Vardazaryan’s powers as SJC chairperson were terminated and Gagik Jhangiryan became the acting chairman
of the SJC. Media reported that despite the ongoing criminal case, which seems
to be going forward very slowly if at all, there is still pressure against
Vardazaryan to officially resign in order to allow for Jhangiryan to formally
take the position.
●
Gagik Jhangiryan was in the law enforcement system of Armenia
since the early 1990s. From 1996 until 2006 he was the Chief Military
Prosecutor of Armenia and Deputy Prosecutor General. From 2006 - 2008 he
relinquished the role of military prosecutor and stayed as the Deputy
Prosecutor General of Armenia.
○ In 1996, Jhangiryan gained notoriety in
allegations that he was one of the core members of the Levon
Ter-Petrosyan team tasked
with falsifying those elections. He denies these allegations.
○ After the terrorist events in the Armenian
parliament in 1999, Jhangiryan’s was one of the 5
names presented in an ultimatum to Robert Kocharyan, which demanded that
Jhangiryan be named as prosecutor general. Jhangiryan oversaw the prosecution
of the October 27 case and was notoriously accused of torturing witnesses to
extract potentially fake testimony. We
all know where that case went.
○ After the 2008 elections, he became opposition
and was prosecuted by the government of Serzh Sargyan
for his involvement in the riots. He was later exonerated by the ECHR of
charges against him in a precedent setting case, where the sole testimony from
a police officer is insufficient for conviction.
○ In 2012, he became an MP under Armenian National
Congress and in the same faction as Nikol Pashinyan.
○ Since 2013, Jhangiryan was in retirement until
January 2021, when Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract
party nominated him for a position on the Supreme Judicial Council, despite him
being over the maximum age of 65 for judges as defined in Armenian
jurisdiction. That particular case, of whether he was qualified to be
appointed, is currently being heard by the Constitutional Court.
In essence,
Jhangiryan is seen as one of the key anti-Kocharyan personas in Armenia and
trusted by Nikol Pashinyan since the days when they were on the same team.
On Feb. 20, 2021,
the political climate in Armenia was very turbulent. In just 5 days (on Feb.
25), Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan,
backed by many senior army officials, would make a call for Pashinyan to
resign.
The segment of the
recording released appears to show Jhangiryan trying to persuade Vardazaryan to
resign, and he seems to hint that criminal charges against him will be dropped.
However, if he doesn’t comply within a certain deadline, then Jhangiryan says
he can’t be held responsible for the subsequent processes. When Vardazaryan
counters that this sounds like a threat and what exactly would happen if he
doesn’t comply, Jhangiryan seems to say different things, such as “if you want
to serve jail time, then be my guest” or “do you really need this, you have
family, kids”.
The voice,
allegedly that of Jhangiryan, also casually mentions that he really doesn't
want to see “bad things” happen to Vardazaryan, pointing to the state of the
constitutional court judges. But if things come to that, then the speaker said
he is resolved to see things come through because this is a task that has been
“placed on his neck” and he sees it as part of his debt to do it.
When Vardazaryan
asked Jhangiryan why he’s doing this, Jhangiryan countered that he doesn’t want
to see Robert Kocharyan, addressing him with vulgar homophobic slurs, come to
power.
As we recall, in May
2020 Pashinyan triggered snap parliamentary elections by resigning, as part of
an agreement with the opposition of that time (Bright Armenia and Prosperous
Armenia).
Tevan, you have previously worked with Jhangiryan on
the State and Legal Affairs Standing Committee in parliament, I believe in
2013.
● What are your impressions about this leak?
● Do you have any doubts about its authenticity?
The Hayastan Dashinq claims that this is further proof that the June 2021
election results were fixed by the government.
● What would be the mechanism by which this would
be the case?
More border shootings
It seems that
every time there is a threatening speech by Ilham Aliyev, it is followed by an
escalation on the Armenian border. On
June 15, Pashinyan made another outrageous speech in parliament. Then on June
17, Aliyev in his speech at the Global Baku Forum seemed to address some of Pashinyan’s statements. On June 18, there was an incident
on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan near Vardenis
and a 19-year-old serviceman was killed.
Pashinyan’s speech
Let’s begin with Pashinyan’s speech in Parliament. It was nearly a half-hour
speech with content that unfortunately has become too familiar to us. We
probably don’t have time to go over all of it, but he again made several
contentious points, including:
● That Armenia has recognized Azerbaijan's
territorial integrity in 1992 as part of creating the CIS.
● … by accepting the Madrid principles Armenia's
former leadership has excluded Artsakh's status as an independent state.
What is the read
on Pashinyan’s speech?
Aliyev’s speech
Aliyev’s speech was mostly threats against Armenia if the
latter doesn’t choose “peace”, which according to Aliyev (and maybe Pashinyan?)
means total capitulation.
Besides his usual
repertoire about the so-called “Zangezur corridor”, Aliyev’s speech also
contained warnings to Armenia against bringing up the status of Artsakh in
negotiations. Aliyev specifically said that there is a verbal agreement with Pashinyan about this.
Aliyev also said
that if Armenia dares to question Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, then this
would be reciprocated by Azerbaijan challenging Armenia’s territorial integrity
over Armenia (specifically he mentioned Syunik, but Aliyev has even claimed
Yerevan as Azerbaijani).
Does this explain
Yerevan’s official position so far, where emphasis is put on guarantees of
rights rather than status?
Mirzoyan response
to Aliyev: Karabakh issue still exists.
Is Aliyev in his
groove?
Shooting on the border
On June 18, in an
escalation on the border near Vardenis, 19-year-old
conscript Hrach Piliposyan
gave his life protecting the border. He succumbed to wounds from gunshots by
the enemy. Eternal glory to Hrach and our heroes.
The Ministry of
Defense promised to release more details, but 48 hours after it happened, still
not a peep.
● Why isn’t the MOD trying to manage the
information disclosure?
● How can
an Armenian officer or general have made the decision that the best thing to do
is to stay silent?
Political Murder in Aparan?
Relatives
of Civil Contract MP (Matevos Asatryan) and deputy
governor of Aragatsotn region (Edgar Parvanyan) shoot
at youths who were insulting Pashinyan with automatic weapons, according to
Politik.am. According to the police, there are 7 victims and at least one
death, possibly more.
What’s interesting is that there are discrepancies between the police
description and what’s reported:
● “Domestic” unrest
● Hunting rifle
Is
there a police or government cover up?
Topics from the Panelists
1. Tevan - Support Artsakh, for example through Seround.am
2. Hovik
- Political Murder in Aparan
Wrap-up
That
was our Week in Review show, and we hope it helped you catch up with
some of the issues in and around Armenia from this past week. As always, we
invite your feedback and your suggestions. You can find us on most social media
and podcast platforms, or our website Groong.org.
Thanks
to Laura Osborn for the music on our podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe to our
channel on YouTube, Like
our pages and follow us on social media. On behalf of everyone in this episode,
we wish you a good week, thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next week.
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Keywords
Tevan Poghosyan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nikol
Pashinyan, Ilham Aliyev, Ruben Vardazaryan, Gagik Jhangiryan, Supreme Judicial
Court, Yerevan Protests, Hayastan Dashinq, Armenia
Alliance, Vardenis, Border, Border Shootings, Agenda
of Peace, Peace Negotiations, South Caucasus,