Armenian PM slams ‘coup attempt’ as tensions rise
Ruling party rapped for using failed military mission to sow ethnic division
Armenia’s prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months of protests calling for his resignation following the country’s defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced opposition calls to step down ever since he signed a Nov. 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter century.
Turkey, which backed its ally Azerbaijan in the NagornoKarabakh conflict, would relish instability that would further weaken Armenia.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country strongly condemns the coup attempt in Armenia and stands against all coup attempts anywhere in the world.
The opposition protests gathered pace this week, and the feud with his top military commanders has weakened Pashinyan’s position, raising concerns about stability in the strategic South Caucasus region, where shipments of Azerbaijan’s Caspian crude oil pass through on their way to Western markets. The immediate trigger for the latest tension was Pashinyan’s decision earlier this week to oust the first deputy chief of the military’s General Staff that includes the armed forces’ top officers.
In response, the General Staff called for Pashinyan’s resignation, but he doubled down and ordered that the chief of the
General Staff be dismissed.
After denouncing the military’s statement as a “coup attempt,” Pashinyan led his supporters at a rally in the capital, and he addressed them in a dramatic speech in which he said he had considered — but rejected — calls to resign.
“I became the prime minister not on my own will, but because people decided so,” he shouted to the crowd of more than 20,000 people in Republic Square.
“Let people demand my resignation or shoot me in the square.” He warned that the latest developments have led to an “explosive situation, which is fraught with unpredictable consequences.” In nearby Freedom Square, over 20,000 opposition supporters held a parallel rally, and some vowed to stay there until Pashinyan stepped down. Demonstrators paralyzed traffic all around Yerevan, chanting “Nikol, you traitor!” and “Nikol, resign!”
There were sporadic scuffles in the streets between the sides, but the rival demonstrations led by Pashinyan and his foes later in the day went on in different parts of the capital.
As the evening
fell, some opposition supporters built barricades on the central avenue to step up pressure on Pashinyan. The crisis has its roots in Armenia’s humiliating defeat in heavy fighting with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh that erupted in late September and lasted 44 days.
A Russia-brokered agreement ended the conflict in which the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces — but only after more than 6,000 people died on both sides.
Pashinyan has defended the peace deal as a painful but necessary move to prevent Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
Despite the simmering public anger over the military defeat, Pashinyan has maneuvered to shore up his rule and the protests died down during winter. But the opposition demonstrations resumed with new vigor this week — and then came the spat with the military brass.
New video obtained by a South Korean broadcaster offers a glimpse of a daring defection by a North Korean man who last week swam, crawled through a tunnel, and wandered around the heavily guarded border zone for hours before being noticed. The man crossed the Demilitarized Zone from North Korea on Feb. 16. The grainy video footage, obtained by South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun, shows a dark figure passing under a road sign as bright lights flash.
Wearing a diving suit and fins, the man had swum for around six hours in the ocean in the dead of night, coming ashore more than 3 km inside South Korean territory.
YOUR DAILY ARABIC PROVERB
When would thirst ever be quenched if seas got their water from coffeepots; and when would the mean people ever be deterred if the noble ones stayed away? Al-Qadhi Abdul Wahhab Al-Maliki
(Medieval judge, jurist and poet)
Iran’s regime has begun testing the Biden administration by escalating its aggressive and belligerent policies in the region. A barrage of rockets on Saturday targeted an airbase in Balad, north of Baghdad, where a US defense company is based. A few days before that, a dozen rockets struck coalition forces at a US base next to Irbil international airport, northern Iraq. Six people were wounded and a civilian contractor with the American-led anti-Daesh coalition was killed. The Kurdish authorities had to close the airport for a short time and warned residents to stay at home. Shiite militant group Saraya Awliya Al-Dam (the Guardians of Blood Brigade) claimed responsibility for the attack on Irbil. It has also threatened to cause more bloodshed. According to the Site Intelligence Group, a nongovernmental organization that monitors the online activities of armed organizations, the militia group said in a statement: “The American occupation will not be safe from our strikes in any inch of the homeland, even in Kurdistan, where we promise we will carry out other qualitative operations.”
The Iranian regime most likely sponsors this little-known militia group. It is also likely that Saraya Awliya Al-Dam launched the rockets in order to win the approval of the Iranian regime.
Iran is already known to support a conglomerate of militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). These groups ratchet up the conflict in Iraq by engaging in various crimes, including torture, indiscriminate attacks and unlawful restrictions on the movement of people fleeing the fighting. They have also become skilled at using sectarianism as a tool to gain power and further Iran’s parochial, religious and political ambitions. The Tehran regime has even pushed the Iraqi government into recognizing the PMU members as “legitimate” groups, incorporating them into the state apparatuses and making Baghdad allocate wages and ammunition for them.
It is important to point out that the Iranian regime still intends to take revenge on the US for Qassem Soleimani’s killing. More than a year after the Quds Force commander’s death, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei continues to mention him in his speeches. He warned last month: “Those who ordered the murder of Gen. Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished. This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.” Taking revenge for Soleimani’s killing is critical for the regime, partially because Tehran has never faced such a major humiliation in its four-decade rule. It wants to show its proxies, militia groups and hardline base that it is not weak. Furthermore, taking revenge against the US would deter Washington and other parties from targeting Iranian officials in the future.
What is now crucial for the ruling clerics of Iran is how the new US administration will respond to these attacks. Unfortunately, not only has the Biden administration not taken a firm stance, it last week announced that it would not be pursuing the previous administration’s efforts to reimpose UN sanctions on the Iranian regime. This move outraged several American lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who said: “Not long after Iranian-backed forces attacked Americans in Iraq, President (Joe) Biden is desperately trying to re-enter a failed deal and provide sanctions relief to the Iranian regime. The president must make clear that he understands that Khamenei cannot be trusted to honor international agreements, and that the United States will not play into the hands of the Iranians for the next four years.” By reversing the Trump administration’s call to reimpose UN sanctions, Biden also appears to be in agreement with the lifting of the arms embargo on Iran. Tehran’s leaders scored a major political victory against the US, its allies and regional powers when the UN Security Council in August voted down a proposal to extend its 13-yearold arms embargo on Iran. The embargo was lifted in October in spite of the fact the regime was violating all of the restrictions of the nuclear deal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Biden administration has also lifted restrictions on Iranian diplomats traveling to the UN headquarters in New York.
In addition, after the first attack in Iraq, the Biden administration announced that it was ready to meet with the Iranian leaders to discuss re-entering the 2015 nuclear deal. In a statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program.”
By turning a blind eye to Iran’s aggression, the Biden administration is only empowering and emboldening the Tehran regime, which will further escalate its military adventurism and destructive behavior in the Middle East.
Many experts deem the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to be the worst global crisis since the Second World War. Lockdown measures have resulted in massive job losses and income reductions, leaving millions of people in precarious situations. The World Bank has stated that, during the nine months following the onset of the pandemic, a total of 215 countries delivered 1,414 social protection measures to an estimated 1.28 billion people, or 16 percent of the global population. Data from 126 countries reveals that a total of more than $800 billion has been invested in these response efforts.
The pandemic’s devastating social and economic impacts have brought into focus the shortcomings of social protection systems during emergencies. Many factors are exacerbating these problems worldwide, such as reduced fiscal leverage due to declining government revenues, the universality of the crisis affecting a large segment of the population, limited social mobility policies, and the prolonged, uncertain duration of the pandemic. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in December said that “the pandemic brings new awareness of the social and economic risks that arise from inadequate social protection systems.” It is important to note that those countries with existing strong protection systems have been better positioned to support their populations during this calamity.
Social protection is a universal human right. There is no doubt that a nation’s most precious resource is its human capital. Therefore, it is considered a moral and public duty to support vulnerable groups at different life stages or in precarious circumstances, ensuring they are not in poverty and are able to lead happy, productive lives.
Social protection systems can deliver a spectrum of benefits, such as reducing poverty, strengthening food security, improving education outcomes, enhancing health, improving relationships, reducing inequality, and promoting social cohesion and inclusion. They also aim to boost economic productivity, reduce government expenditure on various support services, and improve state-citizen trust.
They usually include a suite of offerings, such as cash transfers, government fee waivers, utility support, health coverage, and in-kind benefits to support households that need to cope with losses, emergencies, an inability to work, and vulnerabilities. Global lockdowns have also forced governments to offer wage subsidies, unemployment benefits, paid sick leave, and child care vouchers to make up for lost income and employment. Reimagining and modernizing social protection systems should be a national priority for governments in order to protect vulnerable populations and safeguard years of economic and social progress. Perhaps the most important aspect of any social protection system is its financial sustainability. In an effort to achieve this important condition, many governments have established dedicated funds that yield positive yearly returns through a portfolio of investment strategies.
For example, Singapore’s Community Care Endowment Fund (ComCare) was established as a sustainable funding source to support low-income Singaporeans. What started with $250 million of capital, along with periodical top-ups, is currently valued at $1.9 billion. Similarly, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is a Canadian crown corporation established with a mandate of maximizing long-term investment returns from workers’ pension contributions. The fund is currently worth $475.7 billion and is projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2032. Over the past 10 years, it has achieved a net rate of return of 9.9 percent and is regarded as a successful model on retirement security. In addition to establishing funds, it is also vital to engage the private sector, philanthropists and civil society with different causes. We have witnessed during this pandemic their extraordinary efforts and contributions to alleviating people’s suffering.
Program planners can utilize the power of digital technologies to design agile social protection systems that provide rapid relief during emergencies. Many governments have benefited from this to design simple online application processes, dispense cashless payments through electronic banking, and keep an electronic register of all beneficiaries in order to coordinate relief efforts with other government agencies. As a result, responses are quicker, less costly and safer than in-person transactions.
It is also important for policymakers to work on pre-emptive policies that increase social mobility across different life stages. There are a number of interventions that support vulnerable communities, such as offering universal health coverage, housing grants, child care allowances and subsidies, educational scholarships, fee waivers for certain public services, and food vouchers. Family-friendly policies that enable parents to work and care for their children, such as flexible working arrangements, part-time employment, paid sick leave and generous parental leaves, are also vital. Furthermore, various types of awareness programs will ensure vulnerable communities adopt positive behaviors and make decisions that improve their lives, such as financial literacy skills and healthy lifestyle habits. If anything, history has taught us that crises are windows of opportunity for improvement. By designing social protection systems that are resilient in the face of emergencies and able to universally cater to vulnerable populations, we can safeguard decades of progress.