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
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