Wednesday, 

Armenian Parliament Panel Starts Probe On Leaked Phone Calls

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia -- Former Prosecutor-General Gevorg Kostanian speaks to RFE/RL in 
Yerevan, 1 July 2018.

An ad hoc commission of the Armenian parliament officially began on Wednesday 
an inquiry into leaked phone calls between two high-ranking law-enforcement 
officials which have caused a political scandal in the country.

The heads of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) and Special 
Investigative Service (SIS) apparently spoke in July shortly before former 
President Robert Kocharian was arrested as part of an SIS-led investigation 
into the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. The conversations were 
wiretapped and posted on the Internet earlier this month.

In particular, the NSS’s Artur Vanetsian told the SIS’s Sasun Khachatrian that 
he ordered a judge to sanction Kocharian’s controversial arrest. Vanetsian also 
urged the SIS not to arrest Yuri Khachaturov, the Armenian secretary general of 
the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), warning of a 
negative reaction from Russia. He noted that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
wants investigators to “lock up” Khachaturov.

Pashinian condemned the “illegal” wiretapping and denied putting pressure on 
investigators. The scandal led Armenian prosecutors to order an investigation.

Kocharian, who was released from pre-trial custody in August, has portrayed the 
audio as further proof that the criminal case against him is politically 
motivated and directed by Pashinian. Top representatives of the former ruling 
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), the country’s largest parliamentary force, 
have echoed these claims.

At the HHK’s initiative, the parliament decided to set up the special 
multi-partisan commission on September 12. Lawmakers representing the 
pro-Pashinian Yelk alliance objected to the decision. Still, Yelk agreed to 
name two of the eleven members of the commission.

The panel held its first meeting on Wednesday. It was chaired by Gevorg 
Kostanian, an HHK parliamentarian who served as Armenia’s prosecutor-general 
from 2013-2016.

Kostanian said after the meeting that members of the commission will submit 
next week proposals on which documents it must request from relevant state 
bodies and who should be asked to testify at its further meetings. He also made 
clear that it will focus on a possible “obstruction of justice” by the NSS and 
the SIS chiefs.

“We have a special clause in the Criminal Code regarding obstruction of 
justice,” Kostanian told reporters. “No criminal case has been opened under 
that clause. Therefore, the commission is entitled to conducting a full 
investigation within that framework.”

He said the panel will also look at whether the Office of the 
Prosecutor-General has carried out“proper oversight” over the ongoing criminal 
investigations into the 2008 violence and the legality of Kocharian’s arrest in 
particular.




Kocharian Sees ‘Serious Support’ From Putin


Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Armenian President Robert 
Kocharian walk at the Bocharov Ruchei summer retreat, 24Jan2007.

Robert Kocharian, Armenia’s former president facing criminal charges criticized 
by Russia, has described a recent phone call from Russian President Vladimir 
Putin as a show of “serious support” for him.

In an extensive newspaper interview published on Wednesday, Kocharian praised 
Putin and claimed to have developed a warm rapport with the latter during his 
1998-2008 rule.

“Our contacts have continued ever since the end of my presidency,” he told the 
Russian daily “Kommersant.” “I did not publicize or try to somehow capitalize 
on them.”

“I have huge respect for him and feel that his attitude towards me is similar,” 
he said. “We respect each other and all the work which we had jointly done in 
Russian-Armenian relations.”

Putin telephoned Kocharian to congratulate him on his 64th birthday anniversary 
on August 31. The phone call came just over a month after Kocharian was 
arrested on charges of illegally using the armed forces against opposition 
protesters in Yerevan in February-March 2008.

An Armenian appeals court freed him from custody on August 13. The ex-president 
denies the charges as politically motivated.

In late July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the prosecutions 
of Kocharian, as well as two retired Armenian generals facing the same charges. 
Lavrov said they run counter to the new Armenian leadership’s earlier pledges 
not to “persecute its predecessors for political motives.”

“That phone call [from Putin] is serious support, but I have never showcased 
these relations,” said Kocharian.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian downplayed the significance of the call before 
visiting Moscow and meeting Putin on September 8. Pashinian declared after 
those talks that Russian-Armenian relations are “brilliant.” He went on to 
brand Kocharian as well as another former president, Serzh Sarkisian, as 
“political corpses.”

Kocharian scoffed at that characterization, saying that in fact Pashinian is 
scared of his political comeback which he announced immediately after his 
release from jail. “I suppose that he is very worried about the results 
achieved during my presidential tenure,” he said. “And a considerable part of 
the society realizes that I am capable of doing that once again.”

Comparing Pashinian to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Kocharian 
again gave a grim assessment of the current Armenian government’s track record. 
“It is chaotic, knows nothing about the economy and lacks a clear plan of 
actions,” he said.

The ex-president specifically accused Pashinian’s cabinet of scaring away local 
and foreign investors. “Nobody knows what is on the minds of the new government 
members,” he claimed. “This means uncertainty and money runs away from 
uncertainty. Just the opposite was the case during my time [in office.]”

Pashinian, his loyalists and other critics say that Kocharian systematically 
stifled dissent, tolerated government corruption, sponsored economic 
monopolies, and rigged elections when he ran the country from 1998-2008.

Announcing his comeback on August 16, Kocharian denied that corruption was 
widespread at the time. He argued that the Armenian economy grew fivefold and 
living standards improved considerably in the ten-year period. He also 
dismissed long-standing claims that he made a huge personal fortune while in 
office, challenging the current authorities to prove his alleged enrichment.




U.S. Seeks Extradition Of Turkish American Lobbyist Arrested In Armenia


Armenia - Turkish American activist Kemal Oksuz is questioned by Armenian 
police, 29 August 2018.

The United States has formally asked Armenia to extradite the former head of a 
Turkish American lobbying group who was arrested in Yerevan on August 29.

The Armenian police detained Kemal (Kevin) Oksuz a week after U.S. 
law-enforcement authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him. A 
Yerevan court was quick to allow the police to keep the Turkish-born man in 
custody for at least one month.

Oksuz used to run the Texas-based Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians 
as well as the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan. The two groups came under 
scrutiny after organizing in 2013 an all-expenses-paid visit to Azerbaijan by 
10 members and 32 staffers of the U.S. Congress.

The Washington Post reported in 2015 that the trip was secretly funded by 
Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company SOCAR in violation of U.S. congressional 
rules. The paper said that SOCAR spent $750,000 for that purpose.

The Ethics Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives launched an inquiry 
into the secret funding around that time. Oksuz reportedly refused to testify 
in the probe.

An Armenian police statement issued on August 30 revealed that Oksuz 
subsequently moved to Armenia and set up a company there last year. He is now 
wanted in the U.S. for lying to the Ethics Committee about foreign funding 
received by his organizations, according to the statement.

A spokeswoman for Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General, Arevik 
Khachatrian, told the Armenpress news agency on Wednesday that it has received 
a formal extradition request from U.S. law-enforcement authorities. She did not 
say when the Armenian side will respond to it.

Under Armenian law, final decisions on extraditing foreign nationals living in 
the country have to be made by the Justice Ministry. They can be challenged in 
court.

Armenpress also reported that the police suspect Oksuz’s Armenian-registered 
company called the Sena Group oftax evasion. If charged, he will risk heavy 
fines or up to five years’ imprisonment.

It remains unclear why Oksuz decided to relocate to Armenia, a country that has 
strained relations with both Turkey and Azerbaijan. Just like other Turkish 
American activists, he had lobbied the U.S. Congress against recognizing the 
1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.

Reporting on Oksuz’s arrest, the pro-government Turkish newspaper “Sabah” 
referred to him as a “high-ranking” loyalist of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based 
Turkish cleric facing coup charges in Turkey. The paper also called his 
Turquoise Council of Americans a “Gulenist umbrella organization.”

Thousands of Gulen supporters have been jailed in Turkey since a failed 2016 
coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.




Western Watchdog Condemns Police Raid On Armenian Media Outlet


FRANCE -- Press releases are pictured during a press conference of Reporters 
Without Borders (RSF) to present the its World Press Freedom Index for 2018, in 
Paris, April 25, 2018

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the 
Armenian police for searching the offices of a news website as part of a 
criminal investigation into leaked phone calls between two top law-enforcement 
officials.

“The search of Yerevan.Today’s premises and the seizure of its equipment 
constitute grave violations of the principle of the protection of journalists’ 
sources, which is guaranteed by Armenian legislation and the European Court of 
Human Rights,” said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central 
Asia desk.

“We regret that the police did not seek a less intrusive and more proportionate 
way to achieve their legitimate goal,” he added in a statement released late on 
Tuesday.

Officers of a special police unit and the Investigative Committee confiscated 
several computer hard disks when they raided the headquarters of the 
Yerevan.Today online publication on Monday.

The seven-four search stems from a wiretapping scandal that rocked the Armenian 
political scene last week. Unknown individuals posted on the Internet the audio 
of two recent phone calls between the heads of two other Armenian 
law-enforcement bodies. The latter discussed an ongoing inquiry into the 2008 
post-election violence in Yerevan.

The Investigative Committee said law-enforcement officers searched this and 
five other locations in a bid to ascertain “the method of the secret recording 
and dissemination” of the sensitive conversations. It claimed that 
Yerevan.Today posted the scandalous audio on its website earlier than other 
Armenian media outlets.

The website editor, Sevak Hakobian, strongly denied that, calling the police 
actions “irresponsible.” He said that the search all but “paralyzed” 
Yerevan.Today’s activities.




Press Review



“Zhoghovurd” says that recriminations traded by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
and his de facto coalition partners in the ongoing mayoral race in Yerevan are 
calling into question his plans to force snap parliamentary elections by next 
June. The paper goes as far as to claim that Pashinian’s power-sharing deal 
with them is “on the brink of collapse.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” likewise notes that at least two parties allied to 
Pashinian are now threatening to walk away from political deals reached with 
him in May. The Pashinian-linked paper says that the premier and his political 
team themselves can now scrap those deals and push for the dissolution of the 
Armenian parliament already this year. “Pashinian’s team might not even wait 
for amendments to the Electoral Code and go for fresh elections under the 
existing code,” it says, adding that they would be certain to win the elections 
in any case.

“Our society is so isolated from the outside world that we … are surprised with 
the most elementary realities,” editorializes “Hraparak.” For instance, the 
paper says, many in Armenia do not know that sensitive phone conversations 
between senior officials can also be wiretapped and publicized in many other 
countries. “The famous WikiLeaks scandal is enough to understand that even 
[documents kept in] the Pentagon and State Department archives can be leaked 
and can change geopolitical realities as a result,” it says.

“Zhamanak” comments on the latest increase in ceasefire violations in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. “Azerbaijan will never dare to start a 
large-scale war without being certain that there are favorable conditions for 
doing that as a result of Armenian foreign policy failures or Armenia’s 
international isolation,” writes the paper. “In this regard we find it 
extremely important to overcome the existing crisis in Russian-Armenian 
relations which primarily benefits Azerbaijan … On the other hand, Armenia’s 
foreign policy should get out of the trap of solely Russian trajectory and 
become truly diversified and proactive.”

(Tigran Avetisian)

Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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