SEPTEMBER 19, 2020 MMirror-SpeirTHEror-SpeARMENIAN ctator Volume LXXXXI, NO. 10, Issue 4652 $ 2.00 NEWS The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 IN BRIEF Anniversary Events Development on the Frontier Moved Online YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Most events dedicated to the 29th anniversary of Armenia’s Independence will be held online and will be shown on TV because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). On September 21 festive programs will be broadcast on the First Channel, Armen Khachatryan, head of the department of Information and Public Relations at the PM’s administration, told Armenpress. “There will be numerous interesting archival videos, warm greetings by soldiers serving in the Army and performance by musicians in the beautiful sites of the country, and the annual award ceremony Hero of Our Times will take place in the Zvartnots historical-cultural museum-reserve. It will be held by keeping all anti-coronavirus rules,” he said. China to Join Military California Assemblymember Exercises in Russia Nazarian Asks Congress to Halt BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and Russian forces will Military Funding of Azerbaijan take part in joint military exercises in southern Russia later this month along with troops from After Tavush Attacks Armenia, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan and oth- By Aram Arkun SACRAMENTO – ers, China’s defense ministry announced Thursday. Fifteen California The “Caucasus 2020” drills will deploy wheeled Mirror-Spectator Staff vehicles and light weaponry to be flown to the drill State Assembly The Tavush countryside on the outskirts of Ijevan (courtesy of Mateos Hayes) and Senate members sent a letter to the location by China’s latest transport aircraft, the Californian representation in the United States ministry said in a statement. Congress calling for an end to US assistance and The exercises, running September 21-26, will funding to Azerbaijan after the attacks on Tavush, Tavush Province, Part I focus on defensive tactics, encirclement and battle- Armenia, in July 2020. Assemblymember Adrin field control and command, the ministry said. Nazarian, who spearhead- As part of a three-article series, the Mirror-Spectator has investigated the The exercises have special meaning for China- ed this initiative, provides economic and development challenges faced by residents and Russia ties “at this important moment when the its background. leaders of the Tavush region whole world is fighting the pandemic,” it said. The letter, dated August China has reported no new domestic coronavirus 3, is signed by members of By Mateos Hayes TAVUSH, Armenia — The province of cases in weeks, while Russia is continuing to see the Armenian Caucasus in Special to the Mirror-Spectator Tavush is the green jewel of the new cases and has reported more than 1 million the California legislature Armenian landscape. Located in the people infected. as well as other support- landlocked nation’s northeastern corner, Tavush is a crossroads of sorts, Since establishing a “comprehensive strategic ers. Nazarian said that in sharing an international border with Georgia and Azerbaijan. partnership” two decades ago, China and Russia general, if there is an With its idyllic rolling green hills, its majestic mountains, and its pic- have cooperated increasingly closely on military important issue on the turesque valleys and rivers, Tavush Province is unquestionably one of the matters and diplomacy, largely to counter U.S. influ- California State national level, such letters most beautiful corners of Armenia. It is replete with friendly and hard- ence. Assemblymember working locals eager to extend their hospitality to the few outsiders that Adrin Nazarian asking for support from the California delegation pass through the province. New Yerevan Metro are sent, but that usually However, the largely agrarian province is also one of the more underde- they concern domestic topics like health care or veloped parts of Armenia, accounting for just 1.2 percent of Armenian Station in the Works criminal justice reform. Foreign policy does not fall industrial output as of 2019. There are many contributing factors to this sit- under the jurisdiction of the state level, so this, he uation, including underdeveloped infrastructure and the legacy of post- YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net) — The said, was an act “purely of advocacy.” Soviet economic decline. But one of the factors central to the challenges the Armenian government will provide $35 million for see PETITION, page 7 province currently faces has been the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. the construction of a new subway station in the see TAVUSH, page 3 north of Yerevan, mayor Hayk Marutyan said Monday, September 14. Marutyan noted they initially intended to involve Armenia Backs Egypt the private sector to ease the burden on the gov- ernment but none of the terms were in the interests In Row With Turkey of the city or the state, Aysor.am reports. "A tender for the project is being worked out at YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenia the moment, which will cost about $35 million," the voiced on Monday, September 14, strong mayor said. support for Egypt’s position in bitter dis- putes with Turkey over maritime bound- aries in the eastern Mediterranean and the conflict in Libya. Little Armenias: It’s a Making an official visit to Cairo, INSIDE Foreign Zohrab Mnatsakanyan also Small World After All accused Ankara of destabilizing these and neighboring regions, including the By Alin K. Gregorian South Caucasus. Ode to the Mirror-Spectator Staff see EGYPT, page 5 PARIS — Say you are visiting Estonia and get the yen for yalanchi. Robin Midwest Koulaksezian has you covered. You have your choice of Sevan Grill, Noy Grill and Page 8 Zangezur Grillbar in downtown Tallinn. Similarly, yearning for some khorovats in Vietnam? Look no further than Restaurant INDEX Armenia, Small Armenia and Yerevan Grill Armenia . .2-3 BBQ on the beach resort of Nha Trang on Arts and Living . 12 the south central coast of that country. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Community News. 6 Feeling in the need for spiritual support in Shoukry (R) and his Armenian counter- Editorial . 18 Eswatini? He offers directions to the part Zohrab Mnatsakanian hold a news International . .4-5 Church of Holy Resurrection in the capital. confrence after talks in Cairo, September see DIASPORA, page 15 14, 2020. 2 S ATURDAY S EPTEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 2 0 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Opposition to Boycott Election Opposition Lawmakers Drop Plans for Anti- Of New High Court Judges Abortion Bill YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Opposition have each nominated a candidate to Khundkaryan, has headed the Court of YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Citing strong objections members of the Armenian parliament replace the ousted judges. Under the Cassation, the country’s highest body of from civil society members, two opposition parlia- said on September 14 that they will boy- Armenian constitution, all new mem- criminal and administrative justice, for mentarians have abandoned plans to introduce legis- cott the election of three new members bers of the Constitutional Court must the last two years. He was nominated by lation that would ban abortions in Armenia except in of the Constitutional Court who will be appointed by the parliament in secret fellow judges in early August. cases of medical emergency. replace justices controversially ousted ballot. According to media reports, the state Naira Zohrabian of the opposition Prosperous in June. The National Assembly discussed the Commission on the Prevention of Armenia Party (BHK) announced last week that she The deputies representing the opposi- three candidacies ahead of the vote Corruption has advised the parliament and fellow BHK deputy Shake Isayan will circulate a tion Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and scheduled for Tuesday. The candidates against appointing Khundkaryan, citing “draft law on unborn children’s right to life” in the Bright Armenia (LHK) parties again held separate meetings with deputies his judicial track record. coming days. Zohrabyan cited a large number of challenged the legality of constitutional from Pashinyan’s My Step bloc prior to Also, My Step’s Taguhi Tovmasyan abortions carried out in the country. She said the changes enacted by the parliament’s the parliament session. None of them cited a 2013 report by the country’s for- bill is also necessary for tackling the chronic prob- pro-government majority. met with the BHK’s and the LHK’s par- mer human rights ombudsman which lem of gender-based selective abortions. The changes call for the gradual resig- liamentary groups, a fact deplored by accused Khundkaryan of helping the Health experts and civic activists strongly objected nation of seven of the Constitutional the latter. former Armenian authorities suppress to the proposed ban. They argued, among other Court’s nine judges who have been “I have been a member of the parlia- judicial independence. The nominee things, that Armenian law already prohibits selective locked in a standoff with Prime Minister ment since 2007 and can’t recall any strongly denied that. abortions. Nikol Pashinyan’s political team. Three other case of parliamentary opposition Another candidate, Artur Zohrabyan complained about critics’ “attacks” but of them were to resign with immediate factions being ignored in this fashion,” Vagharshyan, was picked by President sought to distance herself from the bill on Monday, effect. Also, Hrayr Tovmasyan had to quit said the BHK’s Naira Zohrabyan. Armen Sarkissian. Vagharshyan is a September 14. as court chairman but remain a judge. Ruben Rubinyan, a senior My Step chair of jurisprudence at Yerevan State Zohrabyan, who also heads the Armenian parlia- Tovmasyan and the ousted judges lawmaker, criticized the opposition boy- University. Sarkissian already nominat- ment committee on human rights, said she and refused to step down, saying that their cott. He also dismissed other critics’ ed him for a vacant seat in the Isayan decided not to press for the bill’s passage by removal is illegal and politically moti- claims that all three candidates for the Constitutional Court as recently as in the National Assembly because other NGOs came up vated.