Where do Russia and the West fit into the new Armenian government?

Naira Hayrumyan

A month has passed since Armenia’s ‘violet revolution’. The country is being lead by a new prime minister who came from outside the old system, and the new government, young and energetic, is completely unalike any other government that has been in power before.

But what has changed in Armenia, both within the country and within its foreign relations, especially with Russia and the West?

He Was a Protester. Now, Nikol Pashinyan Is Armenia’s Prime Minister

Neil MacFarquhar

 

Nikol Pashinyan, who led the nonviolent protest movement that improbably toppled the government of Armenia, had just ended a brief interview and headed into another room when he whirled around.

“Would you like to eat?” he asked, beckoning to a table scattered with plastic cartons holding takeout pork kebabs wrapped in paperlike bread, as well as tomato and cucumber salad. “This kind of lunch is the usual for us for the past month; we have not gotten back to civilized ways.”

If whirlwind events of the past month are any guide, Armenia might never get back to its old ways, civilized or not. On Tuesday, Mr. Pashinyan became Armenia’s interim prime minister, when a Parliament dominated by his political foes elected him by a 59-to-42 vote.

After vowing to remake the country’s political and economic systems, Mr. Pashinyan told a cheering throng in the central Republic Square in Yerevan, the capital, that, “Your victory is not that I was elected as prime minister of Armenia; your victory is that you decided who should be prime minister of Armenia.”

Armenia rejects the ‘politics of eternity’

Chase Johnson

 

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, three countries in the South Caucasus once ruled by the former Soviet Union, still operate in the shadow of what is now called Russia.

The three states are located between Iran and Turkey on the western side and Russia to the north. What happens in them affects Russian interests in the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, over the last 18 years, has maintained strong political, military and economic relations – sometimes welcome, sometimes not – with these countries and their leaders in an attempt to keep them on Russia’s side. Russia’s intervention in Syria’s civil war and its growing alliances with Iran and Turkey makes maintaining influence over the South Caucasus states even more enticing for Putin. He wants to be the guy in charge.

Sometimes Armenian Protests Are Just Armenian Protests

Thomas de Waal

 

When a leader is deposed by street protests in any Russia-allied post-Soviet country, analysts from Washington to Moscow jump to geopolitical conclusions faster than you can say “George Soros.” But sometimes, as in Armenia these past several days, government-toppling protests are just government-toppling protests.

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned as Armenia’s prime minister under pressure from mass civil unrest, led mainly by young people, in the capital, Yerevan. The streets of the city turned into an exhilarating carnival of people power that surprised most Armenians.

Armenia's Peaceful Revolution Is a Lesson for Putin

Leonid Bershidsky

It was almost inconceivable after Russia's violent reaction to Ukraine's 2014 "Revolution of Dignity" that tiny Armenia, a largely Moscow-friendly nation, would attempt a revolution of its own. Yet on Monday [April 23, 2018], Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to resign by mass protests that paralyzed the nation.

Moscow Reacts to Resignation of Armenian PM Sargsyan

Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned on Monday after days of anti-government protests in the capital Yerevan and other cities.

Sargsyan, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had served as Armenia's president for a decade until earlier this month and had faced accusations of clinging to power when parliament voted for him to take up the post of prime minister.

Armenia's Membership in the EEU Raises More Questions than It Answers

Babken Dergrigorian

 

Upon reading Harut Sassounian’s latest article “The West Must Offer Armenia Incentives Rather than Decry its Ties with Russia,” I have been compelled to write a response addressing its shortcomings and inaccuracies, increasingly common also within the broader narratives regarding Armenia’s accession into the EEU in the Armenian community.

The West Must Offer Armenia Incentives Rather Than Decry Its Ties with Russia

Harut Sassounian

On October 10, after lengthy heated debates, Armenia signed a treaty to join the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), composed of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. The agreement goes into effect on January 1, 2015, subject to ratification by parliaments of the four countries. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have also expressed an interest in joining the Union.

Russia’s Next Land Grab

Brenda Shaffer (1)

Notes by "Armeniaca"

 

We have posted this fine piece of "political art" posing as political science only because The New York Times allowed itself to forget that a "newspaper of record" must have facts checked before running something, including giving away op-ed space to a lobbyist for a foreign country. Therefore, we took that task upon ourselves. Neither the First Amendment nor a Ph.D. degree should validate freedom to blatant lies. This article was published three days after the same newspaper ran an important report on foreign influence over American think tanks on its front page, including the following comment: "The government of Azerbaijan hired a Washington-based public relations and lobbying firm in 2012 with the explicit purpose of expanding its relationships with think tanks here to try to reinforce public opinion in the United States and to make it clear that this Central Asian nation is an important security partner. It is a campaign that produced real results" (The New York Times, September 7, 2014). Is the purpose of this piece anything different?

Serzh Sarkisian Speaks about Latest Meeting with Aliyev

Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian spoke in an exclusive interview with Armenia’s “Banadzev” (Formula) television program following his latest meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on August 10 in Sochi, initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The full transcript of the President’s interview with ArmNews TV’s Artak Alexanian follows.

Was Turkey Behind Syrian Sarin Attack?

Robert Parry

 

Last August, the Obama administration lurched to the brink of invading Syria after blaming a Sarin gas attack outside Damascus on President Bashar al-Assad’s government, but new evidence – reported by investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh – implicates Turkish intelligence and extremist Syrian rebels instead.

Western Leaders Cannot Face a ‘Looming’ War

Robert Fisk



For some reason, our last century’s two world wars started rather far from home. I bet that most people in January 1914 couldn’t find Sarajevo on a map. But then again, how many of us – really, I mean – could have found Simferopol on a map a year ago? Or three weeks ago, for that matter? The Second World War started because Britons simply wouldn’t take another crooked deal like Czechoslovakia – “a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing”, in which our Neville at least put distance in front of ignorance. So Poland it was, which, by awful mischance, shares a border with modern-day Ukraine.

Youth Group Vows More Protests Against Armenian Entry Into Russian Bloc

Hovannes Movsisian

 

Youth activists who organized a demonstration in Yerevan against Russia’s visiting President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that they will stage more street protests against Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led customs union.
They also vowed to campaign for President Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation, accusing him of sacrificing their country’s independence and sovereignty.

Unwelcome Guest, Undesired Host: A Street Perspective of Putin’s Armenia Visit

Samson Martirosyan

 

On Dec. 2, 1920, Armenian Prime Minister Alexandre Khatisian signed the Alexandropol Treaty between the First Republic of Armenia and Turkey. Pro-Soviet forces took control of Armenia’s government, and the country was declared a Soviet state. Exactly 93 years later, on Dec. 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Armenia to welcome President Serge Sarkisian’s decision to join the Russian-led Custom’s Union, which many argue is an incarnation of the Russian imperialistic appetite and an attempt to create a Soviet Union 2.0.

Democracy, Sovereignty and Armenia’s Eurasian Path

Houry Mayissian

 



As Armenia turns 22 this month, our country finds itself at a crossroads—perhaps the most defining one in its independent existence. After four years of negotiations with the European Union (EU) on the terms of an Association Agreement as part of the Eastern Partnership program, President Serge Sarkisian last week announced Armenia would join the Russian-led Customs Union.

The Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and now Armenia will be the foundation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) with its own executive body and a single currency. To be launched in January 2015, the EEU is largely seen as Russia’s alternative to the EU.

Do Not Insult Our Intelligence Anymore

Vartan Matiossian

It has been a constant since the mid-1990s to expect an election marred by fraud in Armenia. If the fraud has not been visible (ballot stuffing and all), it has just been of the invisible type (I pay you this amount of money and you go and vote for me). The claims of fraud, justified or not, have ended sometimes in violent ways; one may remember the storming of the National Assembly building and the beating of its speaker in 1996 or, even more unjustified, the death of 10 people (eight demonstrators and two policemen) on March 1, 2008 in the repression after ten days of peaceful demonstrations.

We will not comment on the events in Armenia after the presidential election of February 18, 2013, as they are still evolving. Suffice it to say that they showed a very strong performance by the main opposition candidate, Raffi Hovannisian, who officially obtained 36.75 percent of the votes, against 58.64 of the incumbent, President Serge Sargsian. Denunciations of fraud have been made—we assume that, justified or not, there may be some grounds for them--and heavily crowded meetings at Freedom Square have followed, including the support of some opposition forces that had neither participated in the election not thrown their support behind Hovannisian, namely the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Armenian National Congress.

People have started to fill mailboxes with their conspiracy-theory rants, as the one who had sent the following morning-after pill: