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    Categories: 2019

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 04/26/2019

                                        Friday, 

Corruption Charges Against Senior Armenian Official ‘Well-Founded’


Armenia - Davit Sanasarian (L), head of the State Oversight Service, and Artur 
Vanetsian (R), director of the Natonal Security Service, at a cabinet meeting 
in Yerevan, February 21, 2019.

Corruption charges brought against a senior government official who actively 
participated in last year’s “velvet revolution” are “completely substantiated,” 
the head of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), Artur Vanetsian, 
insisted on Friday.

The NSS indicted Davit Sanasarian, the head of the State Oversight Service 
(SOS), last week as part of a criminal investigation into alleged corruption 
practices within the anti-corruption government agency. It arrested two other 
senior SOS officials in late February, saying that they attempted to cash in on 
government-funded supplies of medical equipment to three hospitals.

Sanasarian is accused of helping them enrich themselves and a private company 
linked to them. He has rejected the accusations as “fabricated.”

“There have been no fabricated [criminal] cases since the well-known events of 
April 2018,” countered Vanetsian. “We all are building a rule-of-law state and 
the National Security Service is playing a key role in that effort.”

“The accusation brought against Davit Sanasarian has been completely 
substantiated by testimony given by various persons and face-to-face 
interrogations,” he told reporters. “But not wanting to breach the presumption 
of Mr. Sanasarian’s innocence, I am calling on everyone to wait a little, until 
the case is sent to court.”

Earlier this week, Petrosian’s lawyer asked Armenian prosecutors to order 
another law-enforcement body, the Special Investigative Service (SIS), to take 
over the high-profile probe.

Vanetsian said that he has “no problem with such a transfer.” “I have no doubts 
whatsoever that our investigators [from the NSS] are working within the bounds 
of the law,” he explained.

Sanasarian’s supporters, among them leaders of some Western-funded 
non-governmental organizations, have strongly defended him, denouncing the NSS 
and Vanetsian in particular. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hit back at the 
critics last week. He said that they place their personal relationships with 
Sanasarian above the rule of law.



Armenian Police Chief’s Nephew Charged With Assault

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia - The chief of the Armenian police, Valeri Osipian, speaks to 
journalists in Yerevan, December 20, 2018.

A nephew of Valeri Osipian, the chief of the Armenian police, has been indicted 
in a renewed criminal investigation into a stabbing incident that occurred in 
Yerevan five years ago.

Osipian insisted on Friday that the 27-year-old Sedrak Osipian did not stab and 
seriously wound another young man during the June 2014 dispute in the city’s 
southern Nubarashen suburb.

A local resident, Smbul Hovannisian, said shortly after the incident that 
Valeri Osipian, who was then a deputy chief of Yerevan’s police department, 
asked her to have her son Sargis confess to the crime and thus save Sedrak from 
imprisonment.

Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) investigated the allegation which 
was strongly denied by Osipian. It cleared the latter of any wrongdoing later 
in 2014.

Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee announced this week 
that it has reopened the inquiry into the stabbing and charged Sedrak, Smbul 
Hovannisian’s son Sargis and two other men in connection with it.

Sargis’s elder brother, Samvel Hovannisian, told RFE/RL Armenian service on 
Thursday that he has been arrested in Russia. He said he fears that Sargis will 
be unfairly blamed for the violent attack. He also claimed that Osipian meddled 
in the investigation in 2014.

Osipian flatly denied any influence on the probe. “If I did have such 
influence, I would have made sure that the case is not reopened in the first 
place,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

“Please stop linking me with that case,” he said. “I have nothing to do with 
it. I’m busy doing my job.”

The police chief also insisted on his nephew’s innocence. “I’m sure that it 
wasn’t my brother’s son [who stabbed the Nubarashen resident.] I’m sure that 
the investigators will prove that.”

Osipian used to be in charge of police units dealing with rallies and other 
public gatherings held in Yerevan. He was a fixture at virtually all major 
street protests staged against Armenia’s former government. Those included last 
spring’s mass protests led by Nikol Pashinian.

Pashinian unexpectedly appointed Osipian as chief of the national police 
service immediately after becoming prime minister in May 2018.



Pashinian Again Touts New Jobs Numbers

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (second from left) visits a new 
cheese factory opened by the Spayka company in Yerevan, March 26, 2019.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reiterated on Friday that the number of 
officially employed people in Armenia has increased by more than 50,000 since 
last spring’s “velvet revolution” that brought him to power.

In a recent speech delivered at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly 
(PACE), Pashinian spoke of 51,000 new jobs created in the country after the 
dramatic regime change. Critics accused him of misdealing the domestic public 
and the international community. They said that some Armenian companies have 
simply stopped underreporting the number of their employees for tax evasion 
purposes, rather than hired new workers.

Pashinian did not deny this when he insisted on the credibility of the jobs 
numbers in a live Facebook broadcast.

“Yes, the first theory is that these jobs were in the shadow economy and were 
simply brought out of the shadow after the revolution,” he said. “But of course 
this figure also includes newly created jobs. We need a more in-depth analysis 
to differentiate between these numbers.”

“These nuances are not important at this point,” he went on. “What matters is 
that the number of jobs registered in Armenia in January 2019 was up by 50,141 
from January 2018.”

Pashinian vowed a tough crack down on widespread tax evasion when he was 
elected prime minister in May last year. The Armenian government’s tax revenues 
rose by over 14 percent in 2018.


Armenia - Labor and Social Affairs Minister Mane Tandilian speaks at a cabinet 
meeting in Yerevan, 21 June 2018.

Mane Tandilian, a senior lawmaker representing the opposition Bright Armenia 
Party (LHK), welcomed the major rise in the number of registered workers but 
downplayed its impact on economic growth or even the government’s overall tax 
revenues.

Tandilian, who served as labor minister in Pashinian’s cabinet from May through 
November, argued that greater proceeds from employee income tax collected by 
the government will be offset by less profit tax paid by private firms.

“In essence, they cannot be considered new jobs,” she said, commenting on the 
employment data touted by Pashinian. “They are having no impact on economic 
activity because [workers newly registered with tax authorities] receive their 
wages and spend them in the country like they did before.”

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Tandilian also claimed that despite its 
anti-corruption efforts the government has yet to create a more favorable 
investment climate in Armenia. In particular, she pointed to repeated delays in 
the introduction of major tax cuts promised by Pashinian.

The Armenian economy grew by 5.2 percent last year, down from 7.5 percent 
reported by the country’s Statistical Committee in 2017. The government has 
forecast a similar growth rate for 2019.



Dashnaktsutyun Leaders Meet Russian Envoy


Armenia - Russian Ambassador Sergey Kopyrkin at a news conference in Yerevan, 
December 18, 2018.

Two leaders of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation 
(Dashnaktsutyun) met with Russia’s ambassador in Yerevan on Thursday to discuss 
Russian-Armenian relations and regional security.

In a statement released on Friday, Dashnaktsutyun said Hagop Der Khatchadurian 
and Armen Rustamian also discussed with Ambassador Sergey Kopyrkin “other 
issues of mutual interest.” It did not give any details.

Dashnaktsutyun has traditionally supported Armenia’s close ties with Russia. 
The pan-Armenian party reaffirmed its foreign policy orientation at a January 
congress in Nagorno-Karabakh which elected the new head and members of its 
decision-making Bureau.

The Bureau is headed by Der Khatchadurian, a Canadian Armenian, and also 
comprises 12 other members, including Rustamian. The latter has long been one 
of the party’s top figures in Armenia.

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 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in May. Pashinian sacked 
his Dashnaktsutyun-affiliated ministers in October, accusing their party of 
secretly collaborating with former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party.

Dashnaktsutyun has since been increasingly critical of Pashinian’s government. 
It failed to win any seats in the Armenian parliament in snap general elections 
held in December.



Press Review



For “Aravot,” it is obvious that Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik 
Tsarukian’s political activities are based on his business interests. “This 
would be a totally normal approach if he was not a National Assembly member and 
did not formally act like a politician,” writes the paper. It says Tsarukian’s 
and the BHK’s position on the thorny issue of taxing cement imported to Armenia 
is a vivid of example of such a conflict of interest. They want significant 
tariffs on cement imports because the country’s largest cement plant, Ararat 
Tsement, is owned by Tsarukian, and that is “not a normal phenomenon,” it says. 
“Parliament deputies cannot simultaneously represent the interests of their 
voters and one person’s business interests,” concludes “Aravot.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” says that Mihran Poghosian, a former senior official facing 
corruption charges in Armenia, requested political asylum in Russia after being 
detained there late last week. The pro-government paper dismisses Poghosian’s 
claims that he is prosecuted for political reasons. It also notes growing 
suspicions among ordinary people that the Armenian authorities allowed indicted 
former officials like Poghosian to flee the country in return for hefty 
payments. While sharing these concerns, the paper says that the authorities 
would break the law if they banned every ex-official from travelling abroad.

“Zhoghovurd” comments on questions surrounding significant assets that have 
been declared by Argishti Kyaramian, one of the deputies of Davit Sanasarian, 
the head of the State Oversight Service (SOS) prosecuted on corruption charges. 
The paper wonders how Kyaramian, who previously worked as a tax inspector and 
law-enforcement official, acquired them. The official is expected to run the 
SOS pending the outcome of the ongoing corruption case against Sanasarian.

(Lilit Harutiunian)


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