Monday,
Armenian Acting Vice-Premier Dismisses Corruption Claim
November 03, 2018
• Tatev Danielian
Armenian acting Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian (file photo)
Armenian acting Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian has denied any wrongdoing
after a local online magazine published a story alleging his possible
involvement in a corruption scheme.
On October 29, Hetq.am reported that the company founded by Avinian had won a
$35,000 grant from the Agricultural Development Fund at the time when the
latter already occupied the post of Armenia’s vice-premier.
The publication further noted that the Fund’s director Gegham Gevorkian was
appointed Armenia’s minister of agriculture in October.
On November 1, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told journalists that he
had ordered an examination of the case. “I will draw my own conclusion based on
the results of that examination. I do have explanations, but I want it to be
clear that there can be no manifestation of corruption in Armenia,” said the
popular leader, who vowed to battle corruption when he came to power on the
wave of anti-government protests in May.
Talking to media on the margins of a production exhibition on Friday, Avinian
ruled out any corrupt practice on his part, insisting that the fruit-drying
company founded by him in 2011 went through a rigorous selection process, most
of which was completed even before the Pashinian team came to power.
“There can be no conflict of interests here. Our company applied for that
program in February. Nine of the 10 stages of the selection process were
completed before the revolution, and I was even mostly unaware of the process.
The ultimate 10th stage took place a few days after I was appointed deputy
prime minister,” Avinian explained.
Acting Minister of Agriculture Gegham Grigorian also denied any role in
providing the grant to the company linked with Avinian. He also ruled out any
link between his appointment and the Fund’s decision on grants. “I have worked
in this field for two years and was the director of a fund that is one of the
largest structures within the ministry. Before that I worked in the government
system for 10 years,” he said, implying that his appointment was a merit-based
decision.
Acting Deputy Prime Minister Avinian, meanwhile, welcomed the probe ordered
into the case by Pashinian, saying that it will help officials stay more
vigilant and will reveal some bad practices in the media field as well.
“The morals that used to exist in the political field [before the power change]
were also present in the media field, and I don’t exclude that some corruption
continues in the media field even now. In general, different stories have been
published about me, about different officials, and I do have some reasonable
suspicions that some of these stories have been ordered,” Avinian said, without
giving names.
The row over the company linked with Avinian followed another publication that
alleged that the 29-year-old deputy prime minister smoked marijuana inside the
government building. Avinian’s office denied that information and announced its
intention to file a lawsuit against the media outlet that published the report
over libel.
On Friday, Avinian said that libel suits against media will not be “a
consistent policy.” “It was a concrete case, and I hope that it will also send
a message to certain websites and media outlets disseminating misinformation
that such activities are not just unreasonable, but may also result in
liability,” the senior official said.
Armenia May Lose CSTO Leadership Post
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Anna Naghdalian, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry,
speaks at a news briefing in Yerevan, 28 August 2018.
An Armenian Foreign Ministry official on Monday neither confirmed nor denied
that Yerevan may lose a rotating leadership post in a Russian-led defense
grouping of several post-Soviet nations.
Last Friday, Yuri Khachaturov was relieved of his duties as secretary-general
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Russia,
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Khachaturov occupied that post since May 2017 as part of a rotating process in
the multinational organization. But he was recalled by official Yerevan in July
amid charges of overthrowing the country’s constitutional order brought against
him as part of a criminal investigation into a 2008 post-election crackdown.
Khachaturov served as a deputy defense minister at that time.
The same charges were brought against former President Robert Kocharian, who
was accused of ordering the use of the army for the violent repression of the
opposition-led protests, in which eight demonstrators and two police officers
were killed.
The new candidate for the post is likely to be discussed at a CSTO summit to be
held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on November 8.
Citing its diplomatic sources in three CSTO-member countries the Russian
Kommersant daily reported on Sunday that a Belarus representative may become
the new secretary-general of the organization.
The newspaper suggested that the candidate is Stanislav Zas, who currently
serves as the state secretary of the Belarus’s Security Council.
Asked on Monday whether Zas’s candidacy is indeed being discussed, Armenian
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalian said: “The issue of the new CSTO
secretary-general is at the stage of consultations. These discussions have some
confidential character and are not conducted in the public domain. Respecting
this principle, we cannot provide any additional information not to harm these
discussions.”
Armenian Court Refuses To Arrest Father Of Ex-President’s Son-in-Law
• Anush Mkrtchian
Ara Minasian (file photo)
An Armenian court on Monday rejected investigators’ request for an arrest to be
applied against Ara Minasian, a former director of one of Yerevan’s leading
hospitals accused of fraud and forgery.
Minasian’s attorney Tigran Ghazarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the
court found the petition concerning the father of ex-President Serzh
Sarkisian’s son-in-law ungrounded.
“The final part of the judicial act was published. It said that the
investigators’ petition is rejected on the basis that it is ungrounded,” said
the attorney, adding that they will study the document in detail after
receiving it later today.
On Friday, the Investigation Committee said that charges of “particularly
large-scale fraud and forgery committed with a group of people” had been
brought against Minasian.
“Minasian is hiding from the investigation, and his whereabouts are unknown. He
has been put on a wanted list,” the Committee said.
Asked about where his client was at this moment, Minasian’s attorney Ghazarian
said that he could not give any information on that account.
Prosecution against Ara Minasian last week was announced amid the news of the
recalling of his son, Mikayel Minasian, from several ambassador posts,
including the post of Armenia’s ambassador to the Vatican.
Mikayel Minasian, who is married to one of the daughters of ex-President Serzh
Sarkisian, served as the country’s envoy to the Holy See since 2013. Before
that, he occupied a senior position in the Sarkisian administration and many
political pundits regarded him as the former president’s political and public
relations strategist.
During his years of work in public office Minasian, 41, mostly kept a low
profile, but he is also thought to have controlled several private TV stations
as well as a number of online news services.
The move to recall Minasian from ambassador posts came amid changes put in
place by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, a former opposition lawmaker
who took office in May after spearheading weeks of protests.
The demonstrations helped bring the resignation of Sarkisian, his long-ruling
predecessor.
Under Pashinian’s administration cases were brought against several former
officials and close relatives of Sarkisian’s family for a variety of alleged
crimes.
The health minister in the Pashinian government sacked Ara Minasian from the
position of executive director of Yerevan’s Surb Grigor Lusavorich medical
center in July.
Armenian Envoy To Germany Denies Alleged Ties To Ethnic Mafia
• Heghine Buniatian
Armenia’s ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatian has categorically denied any
ties to local Armenian criminal groups after an investigation conducted by two
leading German media made the allegation, citing classified police reports.
According to a joint investigation carried out by Der Spiegel and the MDR TV
and Radio Company, for three years, the Federal Criminal Police Office,
together with the land police departments, has been conducting a classified
operation to search for and detain representatives of the Armenian mafia. The
Federal Intelligence Service and Europol have helped the criminal investigation
officers of Germany in the investigation.
However, the Federal Criminal Police Office recommended that investigators do
not accept the assistance of the diplomatic mission of Armenia in Germany,
since the investigators do not rule out links between so-called ‘thieves in
law’ and representatives of the state structures of Armenia.
The authors of the investigative report also note that as a result of the
large-scale operation codenamed FATIL (Fight Against Thieves in Law) that
involved a number of special services, the law-enforcement authorities
established that Armenian mafia groups have developed “deep roots” and created
a “strong network” in Germany, but the suspects could not be detained due to
insufficient evidence.
The existence of the Armenian mafia in Germany began to be discussed in 2014
after a shootout between two criminal clans in July 2014 in the city of Erfurt,
Thuringia, that left two ethnic Armenian men wounded. However, due to lack of
evidence, the results of the investigations have not yet led to accusations and
criminal cases.
The German law-enforcement authorities initiated 14 criminal proceedings
against more than four dozen people, with charges including money laundering.
The Erfurt shootout was followed by an attack on a restaurant owned by an
ethnic Armenian.
According to media publications, the names of well-known Armenian boxers,
Arthur Abraham and Karo Murat, who live in Germany, were also circulated in the
investigation. However, the law-enforcement authorities did not succeed in
finding solid evidence against them and other suspects.
A strictly confidential report drawn up at the end of the investigation,
nevertheless, stated that “in Germany there is, indeed, an Armenian mafia
which, along with other criminal groups in the Russian-Eurasian region,
possesses substantial financial resources, threatening the rule of law in the
country.”
The leading German media outlets note that last March Armenian Ambassador to
Germany Smbatian met with the chief of the Thuringia District Police Office and
offered official Yerevan’s assistance in detecting Armenian criminal groups.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, however, advised colleagues in a
secret report against cooperating with Armenian authorities, citing “possible
fusion” between Armenian authorities and mafia groups, according to Der Spiegel.
According to the media, in particular, the law-enforcement authorities in
Germany suspected that the ambassador, who was appointed in 2015 by the decree
of the then Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, had links with criminal groups,
but no evidence supporting these suspicions was found.
Earlier, in 2008, when Smbatian was an embassy official, the Federal
Intelligence Service suspected him of international smuggling, but no evidence
was found in that case either, and the investigation was suspended.
Smbatian, who last week was appointed also to the post of Armenia’s ambassador
to Liechtenstein, combining these new duties with his current diplomatic post,
categorically denies the latest allegations, describing them as absurd.
The German Public Television and Radio Company has produced an extensive film
about the investigation and its revelations, which it plans to broadcast on
Tuesday.
In response to a request from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, the Armenian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs on Monday said it was in touch with the German authorities
to clarify the credibility of the reports published by the media.
“Taking into account the delicate nature of the issue and its potential impact
on the work of our diplomatic mission, at this point we do not find it
appropriate to give an additional comment. We will provide additional
information based on the results,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalian
said.
Karabakh Speaks Against ‘All-For-All’ POW Swap With Azerbaijan
• Naira Bulghadarian
David Babayan, deputy chief of the Karabakh president’s staff (file photo)
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have dismissed a possible offer
from Azerbaijan to exchange prisoners of war and detainees held by both sides
according to an “all-for-all” scheme.
David Babayan, deputy chief of presidential staff in Stepanakert, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service that they cannot regard Azerbaijanis, who committed serious
crimes on the Armenian side on the same plane with “ordinary Armenian citizens
who inadvertently crossed the border.”
“Of course, we do not agree to such an exchange, because terrorists and
murderers must serve their punishments and we will not exchange them. As for
other categories of detainees, first, there should be such an application, and
we need to see who can be exchanged with whom, if there are equal categories
[of prisoners]. I do not speak about criminals, saboteurs and terrorists,” the
Nagorno-Karabakh official said.
According to the data of the Armenian Ministry of Defense, three Armenians are
currently kept in prison in Azerbaijan. Official Baku considers Arsen
Baghdasarian, Karen Ghazarian and Zaven Karapetian as saboteurs, accusing them
of war crimes. The three Armenians have been sentenced to long prison terms in
Azerbaijan. The Armenian side denies the Azerbaijani claims.
The Armenian side also has three Azerbaijanis kept in prison. Shahbaz Quliyev
and Dilham Askerov were detained in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2014.
The court in Stepanakert convicted the two men of a number of heavy crimes
(murder, kidnapping, espionage, illegal border crossing, possessing ammunition)
and sentenced Askerov to life imprisonment and Quliyev to 22 years in prison.
The third Azerbaijani citizen held by the Armenian side is Elnur Huseynzade,
who was detained last year in the vicinity of the Talish village of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Official Stepanakert insists that Huseynzade, 23, is a
soldier of the Azerbaijani army and was detained at the time of committing an
act of sabotage.
Baku denies the three men were involved in any crime in the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, which it regards as Azerbaijani territory.
Babayan emphasized that Stepanakert is not against the exchange of prisoners in
principle, but is against the variant offered by Baku.
According to the official, over the past years Azerbaijan has grossly violated
the rights of Armenian captives. “They put on them Armenian military uniforms,
and even these uniforms belong to the Azerbaijani army. They shows them on
television, which is strictly prohibited by conventions. It is more so
unacceptable to use them for the purpose of political speculations. And these
people were also forced to speak bad things about Artsakh (ed:
Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia. Now, in fact, it turns out that they return
these people with the expectation that they should be put on trial here. This
is an inhumane approach,” he said.
The issue of a possible prisoner-of-war exchange has been actively addressed by
Azerbaijani media in recent days. The head of the State Security Service of
Azerbaijan, Madat Quliyev, also commented on the issue on Sunday, claiming that
the number of Azerbaijani captives kept by the Armenian side reaches 871.
Moreover, as the Azerbaijani official said, “they [Armenians] are trying to
convince these people that the state of Azerbaijan does not exist anymore and
that Azerbaijan is entirely under Armenia’s control.”
Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovannisian described the
statistics cited by the Azerbaijani official as nonsense. “In my opinion,
Azerbaijan does not wish to hand over to us our prisoners of war without
preconditions. It sets an ultimatum, speaks about some absurd figures, gives
some unknown names and sets preconditions, which is unacceptable in this case,”
Hovannisian said.
Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan recently appealed to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for
Human Rights to provide support in ensuring the rights and repatriation of
Karen Ghazarian, who is a prisoner in Azerbaijan.
The talk about a possible exchange of prisoners of war between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani sides comes shortly after a visit to the region by the American,
Russian and French co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe’s Minsk Group, who commended the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan
for “implementing constructive measures in good faith” following their meeting
in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the margins of an CIS summit, and expressed support
for the two countries’ leaders’ readiness to continue their dialogue.
Press Review
(Saturday, November 3)
“Haykakan Zhamanak” ridicules the claim made by former lawmaker Zaruhi
Postanjian’s Yerkir Tsirani party on Friday that ex-president Serzh Sarkisian
and his son-in-law Mikayel Minasian were “co-authors” of last spring’s “velvet”
revolution in Armenia. “The statement was made on the day when Minasian was
recalled from his post of ambassador to the Vatican and his father, Ara
Minasian, was charged in a fraud case and put on the police’s wanted list.
Before that, criminal cases were instituted against Serzh Sarkisian’s brother,
Levon Sarkisian, as well as several members of the ex-president’s extended
family. So, it turns out Sarkisian and Minasian organized something that
boomeranged themselves,” the paper writes.
“Zhamanak” warns acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team against
repeating the mistakes of its predecessor – the parliamentary majority of the
former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK): “Such a mistake can be
manifested in complete reliance on Pashinian and considering him indispensable.
If the Pashinian team makes the same mistake, considering that the task of the
parliamentary majority is to vote for anything coming from Pashinian, the
consequences for this majority will be no less painful than they were for the
HHK.”
“Zhoghovurd”, meanwhile, notes another risk of Pashinian’s Civil Contract Party
repeating the fate of the HHK: “A number of officials and those who count on
getting government positions soon these days have been declaring about their
joining the Civil Contract Party. The most recent example is the statement by
the head of the State Control Service, David Sanasarian, about his quitting the
Heritage Party and joining the Civil Contract Party. No matter how many times
Sanasarian repeats that “together we will do everything to ensure that no new
HHK appears in power,” with his move he himself has contributed to the
penetration of “HHK morals” into the new government. So, Pashinian and the
leadership of the Civil Contract Party now face the task of preventing party
monopolization of the government system.”
The editor of “Aravot” looks back at the evolution of the proportional
electoral system in Armenia as opposed to single-seat races to the country’s
parliament. Aram Abrahamian suggests that “majoritarian” votes have contributed
to the appearance of ‘non-political’ figures in the parliaments of the previous
convocations. After the failure of the Pashinian government to push through an
electoral reform scrapping so-called ‘regional lists’ of candidates, the
daily’s editor still expects that the popular acting prime minister’s My Step
alliance will win a stable majority in the next parliament. “The number of
rating or non-rating deputies will not change much, but the current electoral
system will affect the quality as the factions of the pro-government alliance
and the Prosperous Armenia Party will have more ‘non-political’ figures than
good or bad politicians,” he adds.
(Tatev Danielian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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