Wednesday,
Ex-President’s Indicted Brother Allowed To Leave Armenia
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian's brother Aleksandr is seen outside the
parliament building in Yerevan, 10 June, 2010.
An indicted brother of Armenia’s former President Serzh Sarkisian has been
allowed to temporarily leave the country after agreeing to pay the state $30
million from his bank account that was frozen last summer.
Aleksandr Sarkisian avoided arrest but was banned from leaving Armenia when the
National Security Service (NSS) charged him with fraud last month.
NSS spokesman Samson Galstian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Wednesday that
investigators have allowed Sarkisian to stay abroad “for some time.” Galstian
declined to give the reason for his departure or possible dates for his return
to the country.
Sarkisian’s $30 million bank account in Armenia was frozen as part of a
separate inquiry launched by the NSS shortly after his elder brother resigned
in April 2018 amid nationwide anti-government protests. Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian publicly demanded in September that he “return the money to the state
budget.” Sarkisian rejected Pashinian’s demand as illegal, while offering to
donate part of the sum to the government as a gesture of goodwill.
The NSS announced last week that he has donated $19.6 million to the Armenian
military. The money will be spent on arms acquisitions, the security agency
said in a statement.
The statement said Aleksandr Sarkisian has also paid $6.5 million in back
taxes. The nearly $3.9 million remaining in his frozen account will also be
transferred to the state to fully settle his tax debt, according to the NSS.
Armenia -- Aleksandr Sarkisian is taken to the NSS for questioning, Yerevan,
July 4, 2018.
The fraud charges brought against the ex-president’s brother stem from over a
dozen drawings by the 20th century Armenian painter Martiros Saryan which were
found in his Yerevan villa in July. The NSS confiscated the drawings, saying
that his fugitive son Narek had fraudulently obtained them from Saryan’s
descendants.
Narek Sarkisian, 37, fled Armenia in June before being charged with illegal
arms possession and drug trafficking. The Czech police detained him in Prague
in December on an Armenian arrest warrant. Armenian prosecutors formally
demanded his extradition three weeks later.
Aleksandr Sarkisian’s second son, Levon, is currently standing trial on charges
of attempted murder and illegal arms possession which he denies. The
33-year-old was arrested in July and freed on bail in September.
During his brother’s 2008-2018 rule, Aleksandr Sarkisian, who is better known
to the public as “Sashik,” earned notoriety for his flamboyant behavior and
insults addressed to critics of Armenia’s former government. The 62-year-old is
thought to have made a big fortune in the past two decades. He held a
parliament seat from 2003-2011.
Armenian Speaker Proposes Multi-Party Talks On Electoral Reform
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan speaks at a parliament session in Yerevan,
March 5, 2019.
Parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan urged political forces on Wednesday to start
negotiations on reforming Armenia’s electoral legislation and bodies.
“The electoral institutions need to be improved and I want to take this
opportunity and invite political forces to start jointly developing electoral
reforms,” Mirzoyan said. He stressed that the pro-government majority in the
Armenian parliament is ready to accept “radical changes” that would require
constitutional amendments.
Vahagn Hovakimian, another lawmaker from the ruling My Step alliance, said the
offer applies to not only the parliamentary opposition but also parties that
are not represented in the National Assembly. The majority leaders will soon
clarify the format of the proposed multi-party talks, he said.
Gevorg Gorgisian, a senior deputy representing the opposition Bright Armenia
Party (LHK), reacted cautiously to the proposal, saying that it is not clear
enough.
But the other parliamentary opposition force, the Prosperous Armenia Party
(BHK), welcomed the idea. A senior BHK figure, Naira Zohrabian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service that her party will definitely participate in the proposed
reform of the Electoral Code.She said it will specifically advocate a lower
vote threshold to enter the parliament and the abolition of nationwide
constituencies from which half of the members of the current parliament were
elected.
The previous Armenian parliament came very close to enacting these and other
amendments before being dissolved in November. Former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s Republican Party was widely blamed for its failure to pass them.
Pashinian Deplores ‘Azeri Intransigence’ On Karabakh
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C) and members of his government
attend a question-and-answer session in the parliament, Yerevan, March 6, 2019.
Azerbaijan is reluctant to accept a compromise solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday ahead of his
anticipated fresh talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Pashinian complained that Baku has not
reciprocated his recent calls for a Karabakh settlement that would be
acceptable to the peoples of not only Armenia and Karabakh but also Azerbaijan.
“Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani side has still not made similar statements,” he
said. “On the contrary, it constantly speaks of its readiness for and the
possibility of a military solution to the problem. There are statements which
make it clear that Azerbaijan’s government is not even thinking about any
variant of the conflict’s resolution that would also be acceptable to the
people of Armenia and Karabakh.”
Pashinian dismissed Baku’s offers to grant Karabakh a high degree of autonomy.
“The people of Nagorno-Karabakh have a right to self-determination and must be
able to exercise that right,” he told lawmakers.
Aliyev claimed, for his part, on Tuesday that “Yerevan is not showing a serious
desire to conduct substantive negotiations and is trying to impede a Karabakh
settlement by all means.”
“It is essential that the international community exert serious pressure on
Yerevan to achieve progress in the negotiating process and the withdrawal of
Armenia’s armed forces from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories,” Aliyev told
Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, who is also the current
chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Aliyev and Pashinian traded the accusations just days after the U.S., Russian
and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group announced that they have
agreed to meet soon for further talks. The mediators gave no date for the
summit.
Pashinian’s most recent meeting with Aliyev took place on January 22 on the
sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It followed fresh
negotiations held by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Paris.
According to the Minsk Group co-chairs, the ministers acknowledged the need for
“taking concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace.”
Yerevan Seeks Release Of Armenian Villager Jailed In Azerbaijan
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian attends a meeting of the Armenian
Armenia’s government is doing its best to bring back home a resident of an
Armenian border village who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in
Azerbaijan, Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian said on Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani military detained the 34-year-old Karen Ghazarian in still
unclear circumstances in July. It claimed to have captured him while thwarting
an Armenian incursion into Azerbaijani territory.
The Armenian Defense Ministry categorically denied the alleged incursion
attempt, insisting that Ghazarian is a civilian resident of Berdavan, a village
in the northern Tavush province located just a few kilometers from the
Azerbaijani border. It said he has a history of mental disease and had never
served in the Armenian army because of that.
On February 27, a court in the Azerbaijani city of Ganja convicted Ghazarian of
plotting “terrorist attacks” and “sabotage” in Azerbaijan and sentenced him to
20 years’ imprisonment following a short trial reportedly held in closed
session.
The Armenian government strongly condemned the verdict and again demanded
Ghazarian’s immediate release.
Zeynalian accused Baku of illegally keeping Ghazarian in jail on bogus charges
when he was asked about the captive’s fate during the government’s
question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament.
“Representatives of Karen Ghazarian have appealed to the European Court of
Human Rights,” replied the minister. “That appeal is now being considered, …
and the Republic of Armenia will be involved [in the legal action] as a third
party.”
“Besides, the government is using all instruments and means to secure Karen
Ghazarian’s life. At the same time everything is done to bring him back to the
homeland,” added Zeynalian.
Another Armenian man, Zaven Karapetian, is also being held captive in
Azerbaijan. Karapetian was detained in June 2014, with Baku similarly claiming
to have thwarted an Armenian incursion. Yerevan insisted that Karapetian is a
civilian resident of Vanadzor, an Armenian city around 130 kilometers from the
border section which he crossed for still unknown reasons.
Three residents of other Tavush villages strayed into Azerbaijan in 2014. Two
of them were branded Armenian “saboteurs” by the authorities in Baku and died
shortly afterwards.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” writes on the 60th birthday anniversary of Armenia’s late Prime
Minister Vazgen Sarkisian marked on Tuesday, saying that it rekindled memories
of the October 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament in which he and seven
other officials were assassinated. The paper hopes that the shock killings were
be finally solved under the current Armenian leadership. “After a 20-year
pause, many are now sure that the organizers of the October 27 [attack] can be
identified,” it says.
In this regard, the paper quotes President Armen Sarkissian as calling for a
proper legal “evaluation” of the 1999 shootings after laying flowers at Vazgen
Sarkisian’s grave on Tuesday. It notes that the head of state has made more
ambiguous statements about the March 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.
“Zhamanak” reports, meanwhile, that former President Serzh Sarkisian attended a
separate remembrance ceremony for Vazgen Sarkisian which was held in
Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday. The daily believes that the event also had
“political connotations” since it followed the latest newspaper interview given
by another ex-president, Robert Kocharian. The latter expressed serious concern
over the current Armenian authorities’ policy on the Karabakh conflict. The
paper says that Kocharian is keen to exploit the issue in his efforts to secure
his release from prison and resume his political activities. It claims that
Serzh Sarkisian’s “silent” attendance of the event in Stepanakert is a
“political response” to Kocharian’s alarmist statements on Karabakh.
“Hraparak” dismisses allegations by some opposition politicians and other
critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian that Armenian civic groups and
activists financed by U.S. billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations
(OSF) pose a serious threat to Armenia’s sovereignty and national security. The
paper blasts the “limited mindset” of those critics. “The higher the degree of
public self-consciousness and the more developed a country is, the fewer
clichés it has,” it says, adding that educated Armenians will not buy such
“conspiracy theories.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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