Friday, December 8, 2017
Armenian Parliament Passes Bill Against Domestic Violence
. Ruzanna Stepanian
. Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - A protest against domestic violence in Yerevan, 25Nov2017.
Following a heated debate, the Armenian parliament passed on Friday a
government bill which is meant to combat domestic violence in the
country.
The government pushed the bill through the National Assembly despite
continuing resistance from some deputies representing the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). But it won over other, more senior
HHK figures who openly criticized the initial version of the
legislation circulated in September.
The latter joined conservative fringe groups in claiming that some of
the proposed legal provisions would undermine traditional "Armenian
family values." The Armenian Justice Ministry responded by amending
the bill drafted by it. In particular, the ministry expanded the title
of the bill to emphasize that it is aimed at not only preventing
domestic violence and protecting its victims but also "restoring
solidarity within families."
Women's groups have criticized this phrase, saying that "solidarity"
is not a legal term and could be open to different interpretations by
relevant authorities.
Armenia - A session of the National Assembly in Yerevan, 30May2017.
The final version of the bill retained other significant
provisions. The Armenian police will now be required to stop violence
within families threatening the lives or health of their members. What
is more, the police could force a violent husband to leave his
victim's home and stay away from it for up to 20 days. Armenian courts
will be allowed to extend such bans to between 6 and 18 months.
The law stipulates that domestic violence can be not only physical but
also sexual, psychological and even economic. It makes clear that a
"substantiated presumption" of such instances of violence will be
sufficient grounds for police intervention. Deputy Justice Minister
Vigen Kocharian stressed that this would be done by a special police
unit trained to deal with such cases.
Hayk Babukhanian, a controversial lawmaker from the ruling HHK,
attacked this provision during Thursday's parliament debate on the
bill. "Can you imagine what it could lead to?" he said, warning of
police mistakes.
Armenia - Gevorg Petrosian of the Tsarukian Bloc, 30Nov2017.
Gevorg Petrosian of the Tsarukian Bloc, the second largest
parliamentary force, echoed this concern. Petrosian claimed that the
law would revive what he called a Soviet-era practice of police
prosecuting men at the best of their "malicious, freedom-loving
wives." "I regard it as a law on destroying peace and harmony in
families," he said.
Babukhanian, who publishes a newspaper known for its anti-Western
commentaries, also denounced another clause that provides for
non-governmental organizations' involvement in the protection of
domestic violence victims.
Samvel Farmanian, a more mainstream HHK parliamentarian, also spoke
out against the bill. "Unfortunately, this law will not help to reduce
cases of violence in families. It may actually have opposite effects,"
he claimed.
Nevertheless, the HHK-controlled National Assembly backed the landmark
law by 73 votes to 12, with 6 abstentions. All of those 12 deputies
represent the Tsarukian Bloc, which claims to be in opposition to the
government.
None of the HHK deputies voted against the bill. Babukhanian and
several other Republicans chose to boycott the vote instead.
Gagik Melikian, the number two figure in the ruling party's
parliamentary faction, defended the legislation, saying that it poses
no threat to "traditional families."
Deputies from the opposition Yelk bloc also voted for the measure. One
of them, Mane Tandilian insisted later on Thursday that domestic
violence is a more serious problem in Armenia than it may seem.
Armenia - Mane Tandilian of the opposition Yelk bloc, 7Nov2017.
"People don't talk about it because it happens in their families,"
Tandilian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "And for us,
the family is taboo, a sacred environment about which we don't like
saying negative things in public."
The female lawmaker also said that the new powers given to the police
will discourage violent conduct.
A senior representative of the Armenian police advocated the passage
of the bill when she spoke at parliamentary hearings in October. The
police recorded 3,571 cases of domestic violence from 2012-2016.
According to the Yerevan-based Women's Resource Center, more than 50
Armenian women have been beaten to death and murdered otherwise by
their husbands or other relatives in the last five years.
Government Reaffirms Poverty Reduction Target
. Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian attends a parliament
session in Yerevan, 20May2015.
The government has reaffirmed its pledges to significantly reduce
poverty in Armenia in the next five years.
The government's policy program approved by parliament in June says
that sustained and faster economic growth will cut poverty from 29.4
percent in 2016 to 18 percent by 2022. It also says that export
promotion and better conditions for doing business will allow the
Armenian economy to grow by around 5 percent annually in this
five-year period.
Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian called these targets realistic
when he spoke to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) this
week. Gabrielian stressed the importance of faster growth anticipated
by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's cabinet. He said it will benefit
rural regions of the country where poverty has traditionally been
higher than in Yerevan.
"If you look at our [2018] budget you will see that agriculture is one
of the few sectors where there will be an increase in [government]
spending," said Gabrielian. "It means that we are planning measures
especially in that sector, which could have the greatest impact on
poverty reduction."
But Vahagn Khachatrian, an economist affiliated with the opposition
Armenian National Congress (HHK) dismissed the government plan as
"extremely unrealistic." "These are just pieces of paper which they
write up for the sake of writing and which are not put into practice,"
he said.
Khachatrian argued that the government's 2018 budget does not call for
any increases in public sector salaries, pensions and poverty benefits
which were most recently raised in 2015. That, he said, means that
real incomes of hundreds of thousands of Armenians will fall next year
because of consumer price inflation.
Under the government program, the minimum national wage, which
currently stands at 55,000 drams ($114) per month, will rise by 25
percent by 2022. According to Deputy Minister of Labor and Social
Affairs Tadevos Avetisian, the government will start raising it after
2018.
Using a different methodology, the World Bank has recorded lower
poverty rates in Armenia. According to it, just under 25 percent of
Armenians lived in poverty in 2016. In a report released in May, the
bank forecast that the poverty rate will fall to 22.2 percent in 2019.
Armenian Budget For 2018 Approved By Parliament
. Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - The Prime Minister's Office and Finance Ministry buildings
in Yerevan, 30Sep2017.
The National Assembly approved on Friday Armenia's state budget for
next year which will increase government spending by more than 7
percent but keep public sector salaries, pensions and other social
benefits unchanged.
The budget drafted by the Finance Ministry in late September calls for
over 1.46 trillion drams ($3 billion) in total expenditure, up by
around 100 billion drams from the government's 2017 spending
target. It commits the government to ensuring a sharper rise in tax
revenue that would reduce the budget, projected at 158 billion drams,
to 2.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
Most of the extra spending planned by the government will be channeled
into various infrastructure projects. The remainder will mainly be
spent on national defense. Armenia's defense spending is to rise by 18
percent to 248 billion drams ($514 million).
The spending bill was backed 64 members of the 105-seat parliament
representing the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and its
junior coalition partner, Dashnaktsutyun. Thirty-five other deputies
affiliated with the opposition Tsarukian Bloc and Yelk alliance voted
against it.
The opposition minority strongly criticized the caps on social
spending during parliamentary debates that preceded the vote. They
said that will only increase poverty in the country in 2018.
"The groundwork is not laid not only for economic growth but also
economic development," said the Tsarukian Bloc's Mikael
Melkumian. "Furthermore, spending on social programs, education and
science is juxtaposed against capital spending."
Government ministers and HHK lawmakers insisted, however, that
increased spending on capital projects is a more efficient way to ease
socioeconomic hardship as it would stimulate economic activity in the
country.
"We have promised one thing in our program: we have said that if we
have economic growth we will adequately solve economic problems of our
people," said Finance Minister Vartan Aramian. He indicated that the
government may well raise pensions and salaries in 2019.
The budgetary targets are based on government projections that
economic growth in Armenia will reach 4.5 percent in 2018. The
government has forecast a 4.3 percent growth rate for this year.
"The growth forecast is too optimistic," said Mane Tandilian, a deputy
from Yelk. "I think it will not materialize."
In its latest World Economic Outlook released in October, the
International Monetary Fund forecast more modest growth rates for
Armenia: 3.5 percent in 2017 and 2.9 percent in 2018. The IMF had
anticipated slower growth earlier.
Judge Extends Jail Time For Armenian Opposition Activist
. Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Opposition activist Gevorg Safarian goes on trial in
Yerevan, 20May2016.
An Armenian opposition activist will remain behind bars even after
completing his two-year prison sentence on January 1, a court in
Yerevan ruled on Friday.
The activist, Gevorg Safarian, was among members of the Founding
Parliament radical opposition movement who scuffled with riot police
as they tried to celebrate the New Year in Yerevan's Liberty Square
early on January 1, 2016.
Safarian was arrested and accused of assaulting one of the officers, a
charge which he and Founding Parliament rejected as politically
motivated. A Yerevan court sentenced the outspoken activist to two
years in prison in January this year.
Safarian, Founding Parliament's arrested leader, Zhirayr Sefilian, and
several other men went on a separate trial in May, accused of plotting
an armed revolt and "mass disturbances." They strongly deny these
charges as well.
A prosecutor in that trial said on Friday that despite having spent
almost two years in jail Safarian must remain under arrest pending a
verdict on the Sefilian case.
Safarian reacted angrily to the move, saying that President Serzh
Sarkisian's administration has decided to prolong his
imprisonment. "It's already clear that the judge has received an order
and will keep me under arrest," he declared before leaving the
courtroom.
One of the defense lawyers, Tigran Yegorian, also walked out in
protest. Two other attorneys, Tigran Hayrapetian and Arayik Papikian,
tried unsuccessfully to have the presiding judge, Tatevik Grigorian,
delay consideration of the prosecutor's petition. They said they need
time to come up with their counterarguments.
Grigorian ruled 20 minutes later that Safarian will not be set free on
January 1.
"It's clear that Gevorg Safarian is a victim of political
persecution," Papikian charged afterwards.
Safarian's mother present in the courtroom also condemned the judge's
decision. "By punishing Gevorg they want to keep the people in fear so
that they don't revolt against the authorities," she said.
In a January 2016 statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced
Safarian's arrest as "wholly unjustified." The New York-based watchdog
said he is prosecuted for his political views and should be released
from custody.
Press Review
"Hraparak" joins other newspapers in lamenting the government's
failure to fully rebuild parts of Armenia that were devastated by the
December 1988 earthquake. The paper claims that foreign assistance
provided to the country in the last 29 years was enough for the
complete reconstruction of at least the cities of Gyumri and Vanadzor.
"Haykakan Zhamanak" hits out at a parliament deputy from the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), Hakob Hakobian, who said on
Thursday that the latest hikes in the prices of some key foodstuffs in
the country will not affect the poor because the latter could not
afford those products anyway. Hakobian is also the chairman of the
Armenian parliament committee on social affairs and health. Another
HHK parliamentarian, Khosrov Harutiunian, similarly said on Thursday
that low-income people have not been affected by the increased prices
of meat because they have been reliant on potatoes.
"We will probably surprise Khosrov Harutiunian a lot if we assert that
the poor in Armenia have become so poor that they have even started
consuming less potatoes," comments the paper. "This is a fact recorded
by Armenia's National Statistical Service (NSS), not taken out of thin
air."
Meanwhile, the HHK's parliamentary leader, Vahram Baghdasarian, tells
"Hayots Ashkhar" that poverty in Armenia is slowly but steadily
decreasing. "That small decrease obviously doesn't satisfy us," he
says. "More serious steps are needed to improve the situation. The
government is now pursuing a new policy. Instead of using budgetary
funds for raising salaries and pensions, it attaches greater
importance to ensuring economic stability and laying the foundations
for economic growth."
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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