Monday,
Sarkisian’s Indicted Brother Returns To Armenia
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - An armed officer of the National Security Service guards an entrance
to the Yerevan house of former President Serzh Sarkisian's brother Aleksandr
searched by investigators, 4 July 2018.
An indicted brother of former President Serzh Sarkisian has returned to Armenia
for further questioning in a criminal investigation conducted by the National
Security Service (NSS).
The NSS charged Aleksandr Sarkisian with fraud in February several months after
freezing his $30 million Armenian bank account as part of a separate inquiry.
It announced shortly afterwards that he has donated $19.6 million from that
account to the Armenian military. It said the state will also receive the rest
of the sum in payment of Sarkisian’s back taxes.
Aleksandr Sarkisian was allowed to temporarily leave the country in early
March. He reportedly travelled to Europe.
An NSS spokesman told RFE/RL’s Armenian on Monday that investigators have
ordered the ex-president’s brother to fly back to the country and participate
in fresh “investigative actions” planned by them. He has already arrived in
Yerevan, the official said without giving any details of the probe.
The fraud charges stem from over a dozen drawings by the 20th century Armenian
painter Martiros Saryan which were found in Aleksandr Sarkisian’s Yerevan villa
in July. The NSS said 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 strongly denies. The
33-year-old was arrested in July and freed on bail in September.
Sarkisian, 62, is thought to have made a big fortune in the past two decades.
He held a parliament seat from 2003-2011.
Time Will Judge Armenia’s ‘Velvet Revolution,’ Says President
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia -- President Armen Sarkissian speaks at a ceremony in the presidential
palace in Yerevan, June 4, 2018.
President Armen Sarkissian has described as “memorable” the unprecedented mass
protests that brought down Armenia’s former government one year ago.
In a weekend interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Sarkissian again hailed
the peaceful character of the dramatic regime change. But he cautioned that
more time is needed to assess the “the velvet revolution” and its significance.
“In retrospect, it was a time of great changes in my, your and many Armenians’
lives one year ago, and I think that each of those days was memorable,” he
said. “Many recalled and probably also tried to analyze, evaluate every day [of
those protests,] but any person, any event is judged by time or, if you like,
God. And Go [will do so] through the words and thoughts of our compatriots, our
future generations.”
Armenia marked the first anniversary of the revolution on Saturday with a new
public holiday, called Citizen’s Day, designated by its current leadership.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, the protest leader who swept to power in May
2018, personally participated in festivities held in the streets of Yerevan.
Armenia -- President Armen Sarkissian gives an interview to RFE/RL's Harry
Tamrazian, Yerevan, 27Apr2019
Sarkissian did not attend the celebrations criticized by opposition groups. Nor
did he issue any statements on the occasion.
Asked about how he is marking Citizen’s Day, Sarkissian said: “If you ask me
some time later I will remember the following: today my staff was happy to
admit a new employee, a very bright young man who is one of the heroes of the
April [2016] war [in Nagorno-Karabakh,] and was not just wounded but also lost
a part of his leg during the war.”
A former diplomat who lived in London for nearly three decades, Sarkissian was
elected president of the republic in March 2018 by the former Armenian
parliament controlled by outgoing President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party
(HHK). He was sworn in on April 9, 2018, just days before the start of the
Pashinian-led protests against Serzh Sarkisian’s plans to extend his
decade-long rule by serving as prime minister under a new, parliamentary system
of government.
The protests rapidly gained momentum, threatening to paralyze the country. On
April 21, the president visited Yerevan’s Republic Square, the focal point of
the protests, to talk to Pashinian and propose that the latter hold crisis
talks with Serzh Sarkisian. The talks held in front of reporters the following
day ended in failure. Serzh Sarkisian resigned as prime minister on April 23.
Armenia - President Armen Sarkissian (L) meets with opposition leader Nikol
Pashinian in Republic Square in Yerevan, 21 April 2018.
Explaining his surprise appearance on Republic Square, Armen Sarkissian said
his main objective was to broker a dialogue between the government and the
Pashinian-led opposition and thus prevent street violence.
“We and others called it a velvet revolution,” he went on. “I often call it a
revolution in the Armenian way … We are Armenians and we are different from
many others in that we manage to carry out dramatic changes, including
revolutions, in a very humane manner, without clashes, without tragedies, which
of course hugely impressed the world.”
Citing his constitutional role as a largely ceremonial head of state, the
65-year-old president was careful not to pass judgment on the current
government’s policies and, in particular, its stated efforts to bring about an
“economic revolution” in the country.
“It’s not the president’s role,” he said. “The president may have his personal
views and readily share them with the prime minister or members of the
government but not with journalists.”
Justice Minister Questions Prison Corruption Claims
April 29, 2018
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A newly constructed prison in Armavir region, 29Nov2014.
Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian disputed on Monday a law-enforcement agency’s
claims that crime figures held in at least one of Armenia’s prisons have
continued to enjoy privileged treatment despite his pledges to root out prison
corruption.
The National Security Service (NSS) publicized last week a secretly filmed
video purportedly substantiating its claims about lax security in the prison
located near the town of Armavir. It showed mobile phones, tablet computers and
Internet connection devices confiscated by NSS officers who searched the prison
cells.
The NSS also said that the prison administration gave privileged treatment to
some of the inmates known for their strong underworld connections. The video
showed one of them standing by the open door of his cell with no prison guards
in sight. The NSS referred to him as an “overseer” subordinate to crime bosses.
The footage was released just days after Zeynalian assured Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian that convicts have longer been held in privileged conditions since
last year’s “velvet revolution” thanks to sweeping measures taken by the
Justice Ministry.
The Armavir prison chief, Khachik Harutiunian, resigned following the release
of the NSS report. Zeynalian was quick to appoint him to a senior position in a
Justice Ministry division running Armenia’s penitentiary institutions.
Zeynalian defended the appointment, saying that it did not amount to
Harutiunian’s promotion. He also insisted that the NSS claims cannot be taken
at face value yet.
“An internal inquiry has been ordered and that internal inquiry will determine
whether or not they correspond to reality,” the minister told a news conference.
“In the penitentiary institutions there are no prison cells that are not
searched [by prison guards,]” he said. “There are no inmates who are privileged
like they were before and don’t have [unauthorized] things confiscated from
them.”
Eurasian Union ‘Very Important’ For Armenia
April 29, 2018
Armenia - Prime Ministers Nikol Pashinian (R) of Armenia and Dmitry Medvedev of
Russia meet in Yerevan, .
Armenia remains committed to its continued membership in the Eurasian Economic
Union (EEU) and broader alliance with Russia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
told his visiting Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on Monday.
Pashinian hosted Medvedev in his private residence ahead of a meeting in
Yerevan of the prime ministers of five ex-Soviet states making up the
Russian-led trade bloc.
Medvedev is the most high-ranking Russian official to visit Yerevan since last
year’s “velvet revolution” which toppled the former Armenian government. In his
opening remarks at the informal talks with Pashinian, he said Armenia and
Russia remain “allied countries that have a special history of relations.”
“Now is a very important moment in our relations,” Pashinian said, for his
part. “And I’m sure that contrary to pessimists we will succeed in raising our
relations to a new level … I think that we should actually turn pessimists into
optimists. We will do everything for that.”
Turning to the EEU, Pashinian said that membership in the organization is “very
important” for Armenia. “We will do everything to make the EEU and our
membership in it more effective,” he said.
The Armenian premier likewise stressed the bloc’s significance for his country
when he visited Moscow and spoke at the EEU headquarters in January.
Pashinian criticized Armenia’s accession to the EEU and even called for its
withdrawal from the bloc when he was opposition to former President Serzh
Sarkisian. But immediately after Sarkisian was forced to resign in April 2018
he made clear that he will not pull his country out of the EEU or the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
In an interview with the Moscow-based newspaper “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” published
last week, Pashinian admitted that he is still distrusted by “some Russian
circles.” He said they are wrong to suspect that the Armenian “velvet
revolution” was orchestrated by Western powers. He reiterated that there will
be “no fundamental changes” in Armenia’s traditional foreign policy.
Meeting with Medvedev, Pashinian said Russian-Armenian relations have
“developed steadily” since last year’s regime change in Yerevan. Still, he
noted the existence of some “issues” in bilateral ties.
One of those contentious issues is coup charges that were brought by the new
Armenian authorities last year against former President Robert Kocharian and
Yuri Khachaturov, a retired Armenian army general who was the CSTO’s secretary
general at the time. Moscow denounced the charges as politically motivated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled his continuing support for Kocharian
after the latter was again arrested in December.
Kocharian, Khachaturov and two other retired generals are expected to go on
trial soon.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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