Monday,
Ex-General’s Son Also Charged With Embezzlement
Armenia - Mayor Karen Grigorian (second from left) joins his supporters
rallying in Echmiadzin, 16 June 2018.
The former mayor of Echmiadzin has been charged with embezzling aid donated to
the Armenian military together with his arrested father, retired General Manvel
Grigorian.
Grigorian was arrested on June 16 when Armenia’s National Security Service
(NSS) raided his properties in and around Echmiadzin. An official video of
searches conducted there showed NSS officers finding large amounts of weapons,
ammunition, medication and field rations for soldiers provided by the Armenian
Defense Ministry.
They also discovered canned food and several vehicles donated by Armenians at
one of Grigorian’s mansions. The private donations were made during the April
2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karen Grigorian resigned as Echmiadzin mayor immediately after the embarrassing
video was aired by Armenian TV channels and widely shared on social media on
June 17. He governed the town located about 20 kilometers west of Yerevan for
almost ten years.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS), which is conducting the high-profile
investigation, said Karen Grigorian was charged on Friday with helping his
father misappropriate three military vans that were contributed by the Armenian
Diaspora in Russia in 2016.
The SIS did not arrest Grigorian and instead had him sign a formal pledge not
to leave the country until the inquiry is over. It was not immediately known
whether the former mayor will plead guilty to the accusation carrying between
four and eight years in prison.
Armenia - Retired General Manvel Grigorian speaks at a congress of the
Yerkrapah Union in Yerevan, 18 February 2017.
Manvel Grigorian, 61, has denied the more serious charges levelled against him.
According to his lawyers, he has told investigators that the supplies found in
his property were shipped to and from there by other senior members of the
Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh war veterans without his knowledge.
Grigorian, who was a prominent field commander during the war, has headed the
union linked to the military for almost two decades. Its governing board
decided on Saturday to suspend Grigorian as Yerkrapah chairman and convene an
emergency congress of the once powerful organization.
Grigorian, who served as deputy defense minister from 2000-2008, has held sway
in Echmiadzin and surrounding villages for more than two decades. He strongly
supported former President Serzh Sarkisian throughout the latter’s decade-long
rule. Armenian media outlets have long accused the ex-general and his family
members of corruption, violent conduct and other abuses.
New Charge Brought Against ‘Violent’ Mayor
Armenia - Davit Hambardsumyan, Mayor of Masis, Yerevan, 2 Jun, 2018
Law-enforcement authorities have filed another criminal charge against the
embattled mayor of an Armenian town stemming from violent attacks on opposition
supporters who protested against the country’s longtime leader, Serzh
Sarkisian, in April.
Mayor Davit Hambardzumian of Masis, who is affiliated with Sarkisian’s
Republican Party (HHK), was detained and charged late last month with
organizing one such assault in Yerevan on April 22.
The incident occurred just hours after Nikol Pashinian, the main organizer of
mass protests against Sarkisian’s continued rule, was detained by security
forces. Hundreds of Pashinian supporters demonstrating there were attacked by
several dozen masked men wielding sticks and even electric shock guns.
Hambardzumian denied any involvement in the attack. A Yerevan court refused to
allow investigators to keep him and four other suspects in pre-trial detention.
They all were set free three days after their arrest.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Monday that it has collected “factual
evidence” of the Masis mayor’s involvement in another violent incident reported
later on April 22. Residents of the southern Ararat province encompassing Masis
were attacked by a smaller group of other individuals as they marched to
Yerevan to take part in an anti-government rally.
According to an Investigative Committee statement, four protesters sustained
major injuries as a result. One of them was shot and wounded.
The law-enforcement agency claimed to have identified the shooter. It said the
suspect, a Masis resident, is now on the run.
The statement insisted that Hambardzumian was also among the attackers. He was
formally charged with grave “hooliganism” on Sunday, it said. If convicted, the
mayor will risk between four and seven years in prison.
Hambardzumian, 32, was elected mayor in 2016 with the help of the HHK. Eight
senior parliamentarians representing the former ruling party called for his
release from custody following his arrest a month ago.
Armenia Continues To Back Russia At UN
U.S. -- A session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, December
21, 2017.
Armenia has again sided with Russia at the United Nations General Assembly,
underscoring its new government’s intention not to change the country’s
traditional foreign policy orientation.
Armenia was among 15 nations -- including Russia, Belarus, Iran and North Korea
-- that voted against a General Assembly resolution calling for the withdrawal
of Russian troops from the breakaway Transdniester region of Moldova.
The nonbinding resolution was adopted late on June 22 by a vote of 64 to 15,
with 83 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly. It was co-sponsored by Britain,
Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and seven other mostly eastern European countries.
Transdniester is considered one of the many "frozen conflicts" in the former
Soviet Union. The mainly Russian-speaking region declared independence from
Moldova in 1990 over fears that Chisinau would seek reunification with
neighboring Romania. Moldovan forces and Moscow-backed Transdniester fighters
fought a short but bloody war in 1992.
The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement after Russian troops in the
region intervened on the side of the separatists. Some 1,400 Russian troops
remain in Transdniester guarding Soviet-era arms depots, and Moscow has
resisted numerous calls over the years to withdraw its troops.
Armenia’s decision to vote against the resolution on Transdniester was
consistent with its voting record at the UN and other international
organizations. Yerevan has usually opposed measures critical of Russia, the
South Caucasus state’s leading ally. Those include a 2014 General Assembly
resolution that that condemned Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and upheld
Ukraine’s sovereignty over the Black Sea peninsula.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to keep his country
allied to Russia since he swept to power in a democratic revolution last month.
“Nobody … will cast doubt on the strategic importance of Russian-Armenian
relations,” he told Russian President Vladimir Putin at their first meeting
held in Sochi on May 14.
For his part, Putin expressed hope that Yerevan and Moscow will continue to
cooperate in the international arena. He singled out the UN, noting that
“Armenia and Russia have always supported each other” there.
Sarkisian’s Brother, Top Bodyguard Detained
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (L) and his chief bodyguard Vachagan
Ghazarian, 11 July 2015.
A controversial brother and the chief bodyguard of Armenia’s former President
Serzh Sarkisian were detained on Monday.
It was not immediately clear whether law-enforcement authorities will press
criminal charges against them.
A spokesman for the Armenian police, Ashot Aharonian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) that Aleksandr Sarkisian was detained on suspicion of
illegal arms possession. A short amateur video posted on Facebook showed masked
policemen hauling him and his bodyguards out of their cars in downtown Yerevan.
Sarkisian was set free several hours later. Aharonian said the police are now
checking the legality of weapons possessed by him and his men.
Sarkisian, who is better known to the public as “Sashik,” has repeatedly caused
controversy in the past with his flamboyant behavior and insults addressed to
critics of Armenia’s former governments.
The 62-year-old is thought to have made a big fortune in the past two decades.
Unconfirmed reports in the Armenian press have said that he spent millions of
dollars buying real estate in Europe and the United States.
Armenia - Aleksandr Sarkisian.
Tax inspectors raided on Saturday the offices of a real estate company in
Yerevan at least partly controlled by Serzh Sarkisian’s second, youngest
brother Levon and his family. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) accused the
company of failing to pay 300 million drams ($625,000) in taxes. Nobody has
been arrested yet as part of that criminal case.
Earlier on Monday, the National Security Service (NSS), detained Serzh
Sarkisian’s longtime chief bodyguard, Vachagan Ghazarian. An NSS spokesman
declined to say whether that is connected with more than $1.1 million and
230,000 euros ($267,000) in cash confiscated from Ghazarian’s Yerevan apartment
late last week.
The money was found during a joint operation conducted by the police and
another law-enforcement body, the Investigative Committee. The committee said
Ghazarian and his wife failed to disclose it in their income and asset
declarations submitted to an anti-corruption state commission.
Such declarations are mandatory for Armenia’s high-ranking state officials and
their close relatives. Ghazarian was such an official until Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian dismissed him last month as first deputy head of a security
agency providing bodyguards to the country’s leaders.
Armenian Coup Suspect Freed For Now
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Former Deputy Defense Minister Vahan Shirkhanian is released from
custody, .
A veteran Armenian politician accused of plotting to seize power together with
members of a clandestine militant group was released from custody on Monday
pending the outcome of their ongoing trial.
Vahan Shirkhanian, a former deputy defense minister, is one of the 20
individuals who went on trial on coup charges in December 2015. Most of them
were detained in a dawn raid on their hideout in Yerevan. Armenian security
forces found large quantities of weapons and explosives stashed there.
Those arrested in that raid were apparently led by Artur Vartanian, a
36-year-old obscure man who reportedly lived in Spain until his return to
Armenia in April 2015.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) claims that the core members of
Vartanian’s group called Hayots Vahan Gund (Armenian Shield Regiment) underwent
secret military training in an Armenian village in August-September 2015. It
says that Vartanian and his associates drew up detailed plans for the seizure
of the presidential administration, government, parliament, Constitutional
Court and state television buildings in Yerevan.
According to the prosecution, Shirkhanian agreed to participate in the alleged
plot and suggested in 2015 that the armed group assassinate then President
Serzh Sarkisian, instead of focusing on the seizure of the key state buildings.
Shirkhanian denies the accusations as politically motivated,
A Yerevan judge presiding over the high-profile trial on Monday agreed to free
him for now after two members of the Armenian parliament guaranteed in writing
that the 71-year-old will not attempt to escape justice. Both lawmakers are
affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party.
Armenia - An alleged 2015 photograph of members of an Armenian militant group
arrested on coup charges.
As he walked free in the courtroom Shirkhanian said his provisional release was
made possible by the recent change of Armenia’s government. “I congratulate all
of you on the end of the rule of evil in Armenia,” he told reporters.
The case against Shirkhanian is based in large measure on his conversation with
Vartanian which took place in his home and was secretly recorded. The trial
prosecutors publicized the transcript of that conversation during a court
hearing in December 2017.
According to that text, the two men seemed to discuss ways of achieving a
violent overthrow of the government. In particular, Shirkhanian was quoted as
saying that then Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian “hates” Sarkisian’s and the
presidential entourage and “will do what we say” immediately after the
president is eliminated. In that context, he spoke of a possibility of the
presidential plane “taking off and falling down.”
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service earlier in 2017, Shirkhanian’s lawyer,
Hayk Alumian, said the wiretap is “illegal” and its content is “equivocal and
can be interpreted in different ways.”
Press Review
(Saturday, June 23)
“Zhamanak” looks at the new Armenian government’s anti-corruption efforts,
saying that they must also lead to new legislative measures that would prevent
corrupt practices in the country. The paper says it is also essential that the
Armenian society becomes more intolerant of corruption and “shames” anyone who
abuses their powers.
“Aravot” says that notorious figures like Manvel Grigorian and Arakel Movsisian
stopped using abusive language in public after being interrogated by the
National Security Service (NSS). “They now have to be more restrained and
humble because nobody stands by them anymore,” writes the paper. “But it would
be a gross exaggeration to claim that this mentality has been eliminated
because if you are not part of a rejected team you may still not give a damn
about the law.” It points out that members of an armed group that seized a
police station in Yerevan in July 2016 remain unrepentant about their violent
“feats” after being released from custody.
“168 Zham” comments on a new Armenian law on benevolence that prompted strong
objections from businessman Gagik Tsarukian and members of his political force.
“Of course, everyone realizes that this was a way of demonstrating force,”
writes the paper. “This knee-jerk reaction not only highlighted the fact that
in our country benevolence has pronounced political implications but also
showed what kind of resistance there will be if the National Assembly is
presented with a bill really limiting the impact of money and capital on
political processes.” Only fresh parliamentary elections can enable Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian to make good on his pledge to separate business from
politics, concludes the paper.
(Tatev Danielian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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