Thursday, 13 Arrested In Armenia After Violent Unrest Հուլիս 18, 2019 • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Riot police lined up in a square in Ijevan, . Police in Armenia made 13 arrests early on Thursday after clashing overnight with residents of the northern Tavush province who protested against a government ban on logging in the area. Several hundred protesters blocked on Wednesday a highway passing through the provincial capital Ijevan to demand that the authorities stop preventing them from cutting and selling wood from nearby forests. They said logging is their sole source of income. Riot police used force after the protesters refused to unblock the highway leading to the main Armenian-Georgian border crossing. Police officers were pelted with stones and hit by sticks during the clashes. Eleven of them required hospitalization, according to a spokesman for the Armenian police. At least one injured civilian also received medical assistance in a local hospital. Traffic through the busy road resumed after police reinforcements were sent to Ijevan.The national police chief, Valeri Osipian, also rushed to the town close to the Georgian and Azerbaijani borders on Wednesday night. Osipian remained there as of Thursday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Naira Harutiunian, said dozens of people were taken for questioning following the violence. Thirteen of them were placed under arrest on suspicion of hooliganism and resistance to law-enforcement authorities, while six others signed written pledges not to leave their places of residence pending investigation, Harutiunian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. One of Osipian’s deputies, Vartan Movsisian, said the police are now trying to track down and arrest other violent protesters. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian condemned the unrest in Ijevan, his hometown, as he chaired a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “Those responsible for yesterday’s events as well as the organizers of illegal logging must be strictly punished,” said Pashinian. “We will be halting illegal logging in the most resolute manner,” he added. Pashinian also posted on his Facebook page video of Osipian addressing and praising police officers lined up in an Ijevan square on Thursday morning. “We will not be lenient towards anyone,” said the police chief. “Everyone must receive a punishment for their deeds envisaged by the law.” European Bodies Asked To Advise On Kocharian Case • Gayane Saribekian France -- The building of the European Court of Human Rights is seen in Strasbourg, March 26, 2019. Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday decided to ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Council Europe’s Venice Commission to give an “advisory opinion” on the legality of coup charges brought against former President Robert Kocharian. Kocharian was charged last year under Article 300.1of the Armenian Criminal Code dealing with violent seizure of power. The accusation stems from the 2008 post-election street clashes in Yerevan which left ten people dead. In separate appeals, Kocharian and a district court judge in Yerevan asked the Constitutional Court earlier this year to determine whether the Criminal Code clause conforms to the Armenian constitution. The court recently agreed to hold hearings and rule on the appeals. But it is now seeking advice from the ECHR and the Venice Commission. In a short statement, the court said it will suspend the consideration of the appeals pending formal responses from the two Strasbourg-based bodies. The statement gave no further explanation of the decision. The decision was announced one day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian launched a scathing attack on the Constitutional Court and its chairman, Hrayr Tovmasian, in particular. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Pashinian accused Tovmasian of cutting political deals with former President Serzh Sarkisian to “privatize” the country’s highest court. “The Constitutional Court must get out of this status of a privatized booth,” he said, implicitly demanding changes in the court’s composition. He said he could initiate constitutional amendments for that purpose. Pashinian also signaled support for Vahe Grigorian, the court’s newest judge who has challenged the legitimacy of Tovmasian and six other members of the tribunal appointed before the Pashinian-led “Velvet Revolution” of April-May 2018. Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to the Constitutional Court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019. Tovmasian, who served as a senior lawmaker representing Sarkisian’s Republican Party until becoming the court chairman in March 2018, refused to respond to Pashinian on Thursday. “I don’t comment on political statements, I comment on judicial acts,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenians service. Asked whether he is ruling out his resignation, Tovmasian said: “Can you rule out the possibility of an earthquake in Armenia tomorrow? Can you rule out that the world will collapse tomorrow?” The Venice Commission discussed the dispute over the Armenian Constitutional Court at a session held in Strasbourg last month. An internal report on the session disclosed by Armenian opposition circles on Monday suggests that at least some members of the Council of Europe body defended the court’s legitimacy. The report describes as “disturbing” the fact that Grigorian’s claims were hailed by some pro-government members of the Armenian parliament. Grigorian said in the parliament on June 20 that only he and another judge of the 9-member court, Arman Dilanian, can make valid decisions. He argued that under constitutional amendments which took effect last year the court now consists of “judges,” rather than “members,” as was the case until April 2018. He said that the seven other members of the court therefore cannot be considered “judges.” The eight other members of the Constitutional Courts, including Dilanian, dismissed Grigorian’s claims in a joint statement. Kocharian Trial Judge Tight-Lipped About Office Raid • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia -- Judge Davit Grigorian orders former President Robert Kocharian's release from custody, Yerevan, May 18, 2019. A Yerevan judge presiding over the suspended trial of former President Robert Kocharian refused on Thursday to clarify why his office was searched and sealed by law-enforcement authorities earlier this week. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Davit Grigorian only confirmed that officers of the Special Investigative Service (SIS) confiscated his computer during Tuesday’s raid. “I don’t want to talk about that now. I will express my position later on,” Grigorian said when asked about what he is accused or suspected of. Nor would he say if he sees a connection between the search and his handling of the high-profile trial. The SIS said on Wednesday that Grigorian’s office was searched as part of an ongoing criminal investigation conducted by it. A spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency did not give any details of that probe or say whether the judge could be prosecuted. Grigorian ordered Kocharian freed from custody on May 18 five days after the latter went on trial on charges mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. The judge also decided to suspend the trial, questioning the legality of the coup charges and asked the Constitutional Court to pass judgment on them. The decisions angered political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.Heeding Pashinian’s calls, hundreds of them blocked the entrances to court buildings across Armenia’s on May 20. Pashinian demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all Armenian judges, saying that many of them remain linked to the country’s “corrupt” former leadership. Kocharian was arrested again on June 25 hours after Armenia’s Court of Appeals overturned Grigorian’s decisions. His trial has still not resumed, however, because the Court of Appeals has yet to send materials of the case back to the lower court. Earlier this month, Kocharian’s lawyers accused the Court of Appeals of deliberately dragging out the judicial process to make sure the ex-president remains under arrest as long as possible. They said Grigorian might again free the ex-president accused of usurping power in the final weeks of his 1998-2008 rule. It also emerged this week that in March a Yerevan resident asked the SIS to launch criminal proceedings against Grigorian. The citizen’s lawyer, Garik Malkhasian, refused on Thursday to specify his client’s allegations against the judge. He also could not say whether the search conducted in Grigorian’s office is connected with them. Press Review “Haykakan Zhamanak” comments on late-night clashes in Ijevan between riot police and local residents protesting against a government ban on logging in nearby forests. The paper says that the Armenian authorities are right to crack down on a long-running deforestation of the area. “This is a very profitable business and profits generated by it have long fuelled entrenched local clans,” it says. “They felt safe in the past. But after the revolution the situation changed and the new authorities moved to stop industrial logging. In recent days, the noose [around those businesses] tightened and the problem became more acute.” The paper says the same clans organized Wednesday’s protests and ensuing clashes with security forces. “Zhamanak” praises Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s comments made in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Wednesday, saying that they reflect the public mood in the country. “There is no doubt that today’s judicial system and the Constitutional Court are incompatible with the New Armenia,” writes the paper. It says Pashinian voiced support for Vahe Grigorian, a Constitutional Court judge who has effectively declared seven other members of the court illegitimate. “At the same time, it is obvious that even the prime minister does not yet have solutions, especially after reservations and critical comments voiced from Venice [Commission,]” the paper goes on. “In the coming months the solutions will definitely be found and we will have a Constitutional Court and judicial system corresponding to today’s Armenia. But Nikol Pashinian’s team will not be able to win back the lost time, the year wasted by it.” “Zhoghovurd” says government bodies should have issued more detailed warnings about the contamination of Lake Sevan reported a few weeks ago. The paper says officials should have indicated concrete areas where swimming is considered hazardous, instead of effectively urging swimmers to stay away from the entire lake. It also calls for a “direct dialogue” between the government and private entrepreneurs operating resorts located along the Sevan coastline. (Lilit Harutiunian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org