Thursday, December 21 2017 European Body Calls For More Anti-Graft Measures In Armenia December 21, 2017 Armenia - A courtroom in Yerevan, 8Jun2017. An anti-graft arm of the Council of Europe on Thursday urged the Armenian authorities to make "further significance progress" in combatting corruption and boosting judicial independence in the country. The Strasbourg-based Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) said so far they have fully taken only five of the 18 policy measures that were recommended by it last year. "Of the remaining recommendations, twelve have been partly implemented and one has not been implemented," it said. In a February 2016 report, GRECO described corruption as an "important problem for Armenian society." The 18 recommendations contained by it concern independence of judges and prosecutors as well as corrupt practices among them and members of Armenia's parliament. GRECO assessed the authorities' response to those proposals in a follow-up report. The five recommendations which it says Yerevan has "implemented satisfactorily" relate to the work of judges, the appointment and dismissal of prosecutors and mandatory asset declarations by these and other state officials. "GRECO notes that further significant progress is necessary in order to achieve an acceptable level of compliance with the [other] recommendations within the next 18 months," reads its latest report. Most of the "partly implemented" recommendations also involve mechanisms for boosting judicial independence and preventing "improper political influence" on Armenian prosecutors. In particular, they call for restricting the Armenian president's role in the selection and dismissal of judges. In that regard, GRECO welcomed relevant constitutional amendments that were enacted in Armenia in 2015. It stressed, though, that the authorities in Yerevan have yet to put in place "effective rules against undue interference" in court cases. Despite having undergone frequent structural changes over the past two decades, Armenia's judicial system is still regarded by many people as corrupt and dependent on the government. Armenia's former human rights ombudsman, Karen Andreasian, highlighted the problem in a 2013 report that accused judges of routinely taking bribes. At least four Armenian judges are known to have been arrested and prosecuted on charges of bribery over the past year. Lawyers Protest Against Court Fines December 21, 2017 . Sisak Gabrielian Armenia - Lawyers for arrested radical opposition members argue with security guards at the entrance to a district court in Yerevan, 26Jul2017. A group of Armenian lawyers went on a symbolic brief strike on Thursday to protest against a government bill that will allow judges to fine them for contempt of court. One of the government-drafted amendments to Armenia's Judicial Code passed by the parliament in the first reading sets the maximum amount of such fines at 100,000 drams ($210). The protesting lawyers announced the 10-minute strike during one of the ongoing trials of radical opposition members who seized a police station in Yerevan in July 2016. They all represent the arrested gunmen. "This is ludicrous," said one of the lawyers, Tigran Hayrapetian. "Through that law they want to restrict a right given by the [Armenian] constitution and international conventions. Lawyers' rights cannot be restricted." "We want to show that legal advocacy and human rights advocacy must not be restricted in an unfounded and illegal way," said another attorney. Tigran Atanesian, another lawyer, also condemned the measure as a "disgrace." "This is an unacceptable norm that will kill advocacy in our county," Atanesian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "It will serve as a stick in the hands of judges which will be used for suppressing lawyers." The protesting lawyers threatened more acts of "civil disobedience" if the controversial amendment is approved by the National Assembly in the final reading. Court hearings in the three high-profile trials have been frequently disrupted by bitter wrangling between the presiding judges and the defendants and their lawyers. The latter have been routinely barred from hearings for contempt of court. Armenian Government Expects Strong Growth In 2017 December 21, 2017 . Emil Danielyan . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Workers at a new brewery in Dilijan, 21Nov2017. Armenia's economy will grow by more than 6 percent this year after stagnating in 2016, President Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday. A senior Armenian government official forecast even faster economic growth earlier in the day. "Only ten days remain until the end of the year, so let's wait and see [macroeconomic data,]" Deputy Minister for Economic Development Tigran Khachatrian told reporters. "A growth rate exceeding 7 percent is likely." Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Khachatrian said growth is driven by upswings in manufacturing, trade and other services as well as rising exports. "I don't want to make predictions but think that we are going to have economic growth of more than 6 percent," Sarkisian told leading Armenian businesspeople at a traditional year-end reception held in the presidential palace in Yerevan. The Armenian government forecast a 3.2 percent growth rate for 2017 a year ago. Official statistics showed the country's Gross Domestic Product increasing by around 5 percent in the first half of this year on the back of a double-digit rise in industrial output. Finance Minister Vartan Aramian said in September that full-year growth will likely come in at 4.3 percent. In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian said the domestic economy will expand even faster but gave no numbers Both Sarkisian and Karapetian also touted a 23.5 percent rise in Armenian exports which they said passed the record-high $2 billion mark in January-November 2017. "We have never had such an indicator," the president said. "For the first time in a fairly long time, our dear Armenian dram is not feeling any [downward] pressure in December and is on the contrary trying to gain ground," he added. In its most recent World Economic Outlook released in October, the International Monetary Fund said that Armenian growth will reach 3.5 percent this year. The IMF forecast a 3 percent growth rate in June. For its part, the international rating agency Fitch revised its 2017 growth projection for Armenia from 3.4 percent to 4.3 percent last week. "The economy is experiencing a strong recovery following a large external shock in 2014-15, driven by a structural improvement in export performance, firmer external demand conditions and recovering remittances, and supported by a credible monetary policy framework," it said. Fitch also upgraded Armenia's economic outlook from "stable" to "positive" and gave the country a "B+" credit rating. According to official statistics, the Armenian economy grew by only 0.2 percent last year not least because of a recession in Russia, Armenia's leading trading partner and main source of migrant worker remittances. Russia has posted modest growth this year. Opposition Condemns `Illegal' Votes In Parliament December 21, 2017 . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - A session of the National Assembly in Yerevan, 19Dec2017. The Armenian opposition accused the ruling Republican Party (HHK) on Thursday of resorting to blatant violations to push a government bill through the parliament. The bill involved amendments to Armenia's Judicial Code rejected by the two opposition groups represented in the National Assembly: the Tsarukian Bloc and the Yelk alliance. The parliament's electronic voting system showed on Wednesday that only 61 deputies backed it in the first reading, two votes short of the three-fifths majority needed for its passage. Nevertheless, speaker Ara Babloyan said the bill passed because one HHK deputy, Arpine Hovannisian, cast a verbal absentee ballot while another, Rustam Makhmudian, also voted for it but that the system did not count his vote because of a malfunction. The explanation infuriated leaders of the opposition minority, who accused the HHK-controlled majority of breaking the law. Deputies from the Tsarukian Bloc walked out of the parliament floor on Thursday morning in protest. Their colleagues from Yelk stayed on and tried unsuccessfully to prevent the bill's adoption in the second reading. "There is no legal provision that allows an oral statement by a deputy to count as a vote," said one of them, Nikol Pashinian. HHK lawmakers countered that they could not restrict Makhmudian's voting right because of what they insisted was a technical problem. Yelk responded by exercising, for as many as ten times, its legal right to interrupt a parliament sitting for 20 minutes, leaving many HHK parliamentarians exasperated. "Do our opposition colleagues object to the law or just want to disrupt the normal work of the National Assembly?" complained Vahram Baghdasarian, the HHK's parliamentary leader. "I think that they don't really care about the law right now." "This is our last remaining right," responded Yelk's Edmon Marukian. Babloyan, meanwhile, added to the controversy when twice put the bill to a final vote. Thursday's first vote also fell short of the required majority, something which the speaker blamed for the "disruptive" opposition tactic. He secured the necessary 63 votes during the repeat vote, triggering more opposition allegations of foul play. Press Review December 21, 2017 Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst, tells "168 Zham" that Russia would strongly oppose any attempts by Armenia to give the West a major role in the country's national security system. "There was such an attempt in 2013 and it was thwarted," he says. "I think that it will not be repeated." A German parliamentarian, Albert Weiler, is quoted by "Aravot" saying that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be resolved peacefully and at the same time "slowly but prudently." Such a settlement, he says, requires major concessions by both parties to the conflict. "A decision must be made with Azerbaijan, not against Azerbaijan," Weiler says when asked about bellicose statements made by Azerbaijani leaders. "As one of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia can play the role of a good moderator on this issue so that the conflict is best resolved." "Zhamanak" comments on Wednesday's "turmoil" in Armenia's parliament that marked the passage of a government-drafted amendments calling for fresh structural changes in the country's judicial system. The paper attributes it to the incompetence of some officials and lawmakers and personal feuds among them. It specifically points the finger at Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian and the chairman of the parliament committee on legal affairs, Hrayr Tovmasian, who are said to dislike each other. "The demographic situation in Armenia is the most serious problem facing us," writes "Haykakan Zhamanak." Citing official statistics, the paper says that the country's population has shrunk by 14,000 in the past year. It says this is further proof that President Serzh Sarkisian's target of increasing the population to 4 million by 2040 is not realistic. (Anush Mkrtchian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org