Russia Blasts New Charge Against Gyumri Mayor
Azatutyun.am
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova listens during the annual news conference of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, January 18, 2023.
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized Armenian law-enforcement authorities on Thursday for filing a new accusation against the jailed opposition mayor of Gyumri stemming from his calls for closer ties between Armenia and Russia.
It also challenged them to explain why they have not prosecuted anyone for advocating Armenia’s accession to the European Union.
The Gyumri mayor, Vartan Ghukasian, was arrested on October 20 on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated. He was also indicted at the weekend under an Armenian legal provision that makes it a crime to call for a violent overthrow of the constitutional order or violation of the country’s territorial integrity.
The new charge is based on Ghukasian’s September statement to the effect that Armenia should form a “union” with Russia similar to the EU while preserving its “independent statehood.” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian decried Ghukasian’s “statement against the sovereignty of Armenia” on October 1. He also pledged to “throw out” the mayor of the country’s second largest city from “the political and public arena.”
Ghukasian’s lawyers say this alone proves that the accusation is also politically motivated. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, likewise scoffed at it during a news briefing in Moscow.
“The work of Armenia’s law-enforcement system is certainly the country’s and its people’s internal affair, but it is impossible not to express astonishment at the fact that somebody managed to find in statements about advantages of cooperation with Russia calls for renouncing the country’s sovereignty,” Zakharova said with a chuckle. “And it sounds especially surprising against the background of numerous statements by Armenian public figures, officials and leaders about the need to join the European Union and the adoption in Armenia of a law on the launch of a corresponding process. What do [Armenian] law-enforcement bodies think about that?”
“Membership in the European Union requires a substantial restriction of the sovereignty [of member states,] and they make this very clear … But for some reason we haven’t seen and heard any criminal cases in Armenia over support for European aspirations,” she said.
“We believe that publicly discussing a country’s foreign policy course and approaches to cooperation with its neighbors is a normal, healthy practice in any democratic society where freedom of speech is respected. We hope that Armenian judicial bodies will manage to avoid politicized approaches when performing their duties,” added Zakharova.
Armenia’s relations with Russia, its traditional ally, have grown increasingly strained in the last few years, with Pashinian’s government trying to reorient the South Caucasus towards the West and making major concessions to its longtime arch-foes: Azerbaijan and Turkey. Speaking after Ghukasian’s arrest, Pashinian branded his political opponents as agents of a foreign state, presumably Russia. Opposition leaders, say for their part, Pashinian is cracking down on dissent for fear of losing parliamentary elections due in June 2026.
