Tuesday,
Indicted General Sent Back To Prison
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - General Manvel Grigorian attends an event organized by the Yerkrapah
Union, 5 March 2018.
Armenia’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday overturned a lower court’s recent decision
to release Manvel Grigorian, a retired army general prosecuted on corruption
charges, from custody on bail, paving the way for his renewed arrest.
“This means that Manvel Grigorian will be arrested today,” a senior prosecutor,
Vahagn Muradian, told reporters. He hailed the high court’s decision as “legal
and substantiated.”
Grigorian was taken back to a prison in downtown in Yerevan a few hours later.
Grigorian was first arrested in June when security forces raided his properties
in and around the town of Echmiadzin. They found many 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 once powerful general, who served as deputy defense minister from
2000-2008, denies the accusations of illegal arms possession and embezzlement
leveled against him.
A district court in Yerevan ordered Grigorian’s release on health grounds on
December 21. The 62-year-old suffers from a number of serious illnesses,
reportedly including cancer.
Armenian prosecutors were quick to appeal against that court order.
Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian insisted on December 24 that Grigorian’s
illnesses are “not incompatible with incarceration.” The suspect could obstruct
justice if he remains at large, said Davtian.
Grigorian’s lawyers subsequently objected to the choice of a Court of Appeals
judge dealing with the case. The judge, Arsen Nikoghosian, twice rejected their
demands to abandon the case before ordering Grigorian’s renewed arrest.
One of the defense lawyers, Arsen Mkrtchian, charged that the decision was
“made under pressure” and “has nothing to do with the law, jurisprudence and
common sense.”
Grigorian’s release from pretrial detention provoked a series of angry
demonstrations in Echmiadzin, the general’s place of residence until his
arrest. Hundreds of local residents repeatedly blocked a nearby highway to
demand that he be sent back to prison.
Pashinian ‘Ready’ For Renewed Cooperation With Dashnaktsutyun
Armenia - The Armenian Revolutionary Federation holds an election campaign
rally in Yerevan, November 26, 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has expressed readiness to again “cooperate”
with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) three months after
forcing its members out of his government.
He made the offer in a written appeal to the delegates of Dashnaktsutyun’s
ongoing congress in Nagorno-Karabakh made public on Tuesday.
Pashinian paid tribute to the pan-Armenian party’s 129-year-long history,
saying that it has been “heroic” and “at times contradictory and
controversial.”He also praised Dashnaktsutyun’s “exceptional” role in the
worldwide Armenian Diaspora.
“On behalf of myself and Armenia’s newly elected parliament majority, I declare
that we are ready for cooperation with Dashnaktsutyun,” read the message
publicized by the party. “We will also be open to your proposals and criticism.”
Dashnaktsutyun was part of Armenia’s former government ousted during last
spring’s “velvet revolution.” It received two ministerial posts in a new
government formed by Pashinian in May. The popular prime minister fired his
Dashnaktsutyun-affiliated ministers in October, accusing their party of
secretly collaborating with former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party.
The Dashnaktsutyun congress got underway in Stepanakert on January 16. It is
attended by representatives of the party’s chapters in Armenia and other
countries around the world having sizable Armenian communities. They were due
to debate Dashnaktsutyun’s new political strategy after its failure to win any
seats in Armenia’s new parliament elected on December 9.
The weeklong congress began with an announcement by Dashnaktsutyun’s longtime
top leader, Hrant Markarian, that he will not seek reelection to the party’s
main decision-making body. Markarian was reportedly blamed by dissident
Dashnaktsutyun figures for the party’s poor showing in the elections.
Markarian and other Dashnaktsutyun leaders criticized Pashinian during the
election campaign. The premier reacted angrily to Markarian’s criticism in one
of his campaign speeches.
In his message, Pashinian said he hopes that Dashnaktsutyun -- which remains
influential in the Diaspora communities in the Middle East, the United States
and France -- will gain a “young spirit” and come up with “fresh ideas” after
its congress.
Armenian Governor Admits ‘Mistake’ Over Bonus Payments
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia-Garik Sargsian, governor of Ararat province, speaks to RFE/RL in
Yerevab, .
The governor of Armenia’s southern Ararat province, Garik Sargsian, admitted on
Tuesday that he made a mistake in paying himself and his senior staffers lavish
bonuses late last month.
Sargsian and two other provincial governors came under fire from media,
opposition politicians and even some pro-government lawmakers on Monday after
it emerged that they got yearend bonuses roughly equivalent to their monthly
salaries.
The Hetq.am publication revealed that Sargsian received the largest payment:
690,000 drams ($1,420). His monthly salary is about 660,000 drams. His senior
aides were also paid more than they earn in a single month.
Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian, who supervises provincial
administrations, said the bonuses should not have exceeded the salaries. But he
defended the two other governors and their subordinates, saying that the extra
financial rewards were legal.
“We admit our mistake,” Sargsian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. The Ararat
governor said that in an effort to make amends he and 14 senior members of his
staff have decided to donate a part of their January wages to a low-income
family living in the region.
Also expressing concern over the bonuses was Varuzhan Hoktanian, a programs
director at the Armenian affiliate of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency
International. He said that some of the rewarded officials were appointed to
the provincial administrations just a few months ago and should not have
qualified for any bonuses.
Hoktanian also said the payments may fuel suspicions that the officials were
rewarded for covertly campaigning for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step
alliance in the recent parliamentary elections.
Sargsian, who is a senior member of My Step, ruled out such a possibility. “I
don’t think that we committed a criminal act or that there was some corruption
scheme at play here.”
Asked whether he had expected the criticism, the governor said: “Not at all
because in the past nobody paid attention to what the governors did … We had
millionaire governors who probably did not even know whether the plastic cards
with their salaries are kept by their children, assistants or mistresses.”
Armenian, Azeri Leaders In Fresh Talks
Switzerland - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliyev meet in Davos, .
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham
Aliyev met in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday for what they described as
“informal” talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
A short statement by Pashinian’s office said they “exchanged views” on the
current state of the Karabakh negotiation process and “further discussions.”
In a separate Facebook post, the Armenian leader said the meeting held on the
sidelines of the World Economic Forum lasted for about 90 minutes.
Aliyev’s press service issued a virtually identical statement cited by the
Trend news agency.
Aliyev and Pashinian spoke to each other for the first time on the sidelines of
a summit of former Soviet republics held in Tajikistan in September. There has
been a significant decrease in ceasefire violations around Karabakh and along
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border since then.
The two leaders talked again during another ex-Soviet summit that took place in
Russia in early December. Aliyev said afterwards that the year 2019 will see a
“new impetus” to the Karabakh peace process.
The Russian RIA Novosti news agency quoted Aliyev as saying in Davos earlier on
Tuesday that his previous conversations with Pashinian were “useful.”
For their part, the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers have met for
four times in the last six months. The U.S., Russian and French mediators
seemed particularly encouraged by the most recent of those meetings which took
place in Paris on January 16.
In a joint statement, the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group said Foreign
Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanian and Elmar Mammadyarov “agreed upon the necessity
of taking concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace.” They said
another Aliyev-Pashinian encounter could “give a strong impulse to the dynamic
of negotiations.”
With virtually no details of the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations made public
so far, it remains unclear whether the two sides have narrowed their
differences on how to end the protracted conflict.
Pashinian Meets Brazil’s New President
Switzerland - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and Brazil's
President Jair Bolsonaro (C) meet in Davos, .
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Brazil’s new President Jair
Bolsonaro reportedly called for closer relations between their countries when
they met in Switzerland on Tuesday.
The two leaders discussed bilateral ties on the sidelines of the annual World
Economic Forum held in the Swiss town of Davos.
“They highly appraised the state of Brazilian-Armenian friendly relations and
stressed the importance of expanding the areas of cooperation,” Pashinian’s
office said in a statement. It gave no other details.
Bolsonaro, who is known for his far-right views, took office on January 1 two
months after winning presidential elections.
Armenia has long maintained warm relations with Brazil as well as neighboring
Argentina and Uruguay cemented by the existence of sizable Armenian communities
in the three South American nations.
There are up to 100,000 ethnic Armenians living in Brazil. Most of them are
descendants of survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
The Brazilian Senate recognized the genocide in 2015 in a “resolution of
solidarity with the Armenian people.” The resolution also praised Armenians for
their “economic, social and cultural” contributions to Brazil.
Armenia opened an embassy in the capital Brasilia in 2010. In 2016, then
President Serzh Sarkisian attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the
construction of a new embassy building there. The construction was financed by
Brazilian Armenian philanthropist Hilda Diruhy Burmaian, who is also Armenia’s
honorary consul in Sao Paulo.
Sarkisian’s predecessors, Robert Kocharian and Levon Ter-Petrosian, also
visited South America’s largest country while in office.
Brazil opened an embassy in Yerevan in 2006. A square in the Armenian capital
was named after Brazil in 2003.
Press Review
“Aravot” comment on controversy caused by several Armenian provincial governors
who paid themselves lavish yearend bonuses. “By rewarding themselves and their
staffers the governors clearly did not break any laws,” the paper writes in an
editorial. “This practice has definitely existed before. But there were also
many other [questionable] practices in the government system before the
revolution, and tens of thousands of people took to the streets to reject them.
Now it is necessary to spread the kind of practices that will not contradict
the slogan ‘I serve the Republic of Armenia.’ Public requirements towards
government officials are now stricter because we, the taxpayers, entrust them
with our money. They must be flawless in terms of not only the law but also
moral and ethical norms.”
“The authorities need to realize one simple thing: the rule of law is not the
only difference from the former regime which the public wants to see,” writes
“Zhamanak.” “The public also wants to see differences in culture, value system,
behavior and mentality. Just because something is not illegal does not mean
that it will be legitimate in the public’s eyes. The authorities’ task is not
just to stick to the letter of the law but also to set the bar high for
value-based public cohabitation and mental standards.”
“Every step taken by the new authorities, including on financial transactions,
is at the center of public attention,” comments “Past.” “And that is natural.
Stereotypes associated with the former authorities have not been completely
rooted out, and the behavior of the [current] authorities still keeps those
stereotypes alive. The problem is not the bonuses themselves but the fact that
the authorities continue to carelessly waste the political capital given to
them. The public expects to see a qualitatively new kind of elite for which he
it naturally has set strict requirements.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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