Monday,
Armenian High Court Judges Offered Financial Incentives To Resign
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to
the Constitutional Court buildin in Yerevan, May 20, 2019.
Members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court will continue to receive their
salaries and other benefits if they resign before November, according to a
government bill made public late last week.
The bill, drafted by the Justice Ministry following harsh criticism of the
court’s chairman, Hrayr Tovmasian, voiced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
also stipulates that the court justices will have to be suspended if
law-enforcement authorities launch criminal proceedings against them.
In a July 19 interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Pashinian accused
Tovmasian of cutting political deals with former President Serzh Sarkisian to
become the head the country’s highest court and hold that position until 2035
through constitutional amendments that took effect in April 2018. “The
Constitutional Court must get out of this status of a privatized booth,” he
said, implicitly demanding changes in the court’s composition.
Tovmasian rejected the verbal attack as offensive and warned Pashinian’s
government against trying to force him and other court members to resign. He
pointedly declined to deny pro-opposition media claims that the government has
already instructed law-enforcement bodies to explore ways of exerting such
pressure on them.
Armenia - Hrayr Tovmasian attends a parliament session in Yerevan, 15 September
2015.
The Justice Ministry bill, which has yet to be formally approved by the
government, involves a set of draft amendments to an Armenian law on the
Constitutional Court. The ministry called for a public debate on the amendments
when it posted them on a government website.
One of the proposed measures gives Tovmasian and the eight other court judges
the option of tendering their resignations by October 31. In return, they would
keep receiving their salaries and other perks until what would have been the
end of their legal tenure. The bill implies that the success of judicial
reforms planned by the Armenian authorities requires a different makeup of the
Constitutional Court.
Some legal experts as well as critics of the government have denounced this
amendment, saying that it amounts to a legal “bribe” offered to the judges.
“This provision has, to put it mildly, nothing to do with the concept of a
rule-of-law state,” said Ruben Melikian, a lawyer critical of the government.
Melikian also described as unconstitutional another amendment envisaging the
suspension of the Constitutional Court members facing criminal investigations.
Nina Karapetiants, another lawyer, also criticized the proposed changes.
Karapetiants said that while the Constitutional Court is responsible for
validating “falsified” elections held in Armenia in the past the government
should not try to get rid of its judges in this fashion.
But Grigor Bekmezian, a member of Armenia’s Supreme Judicial Council recently
installed by the government-controlled parliament, disagreed. He insisted that
the government is proposing a workable solution to the “constitutional crisis”
in the country.
The existence of such a crisis was alleged in June by Vahe Grigorian, the
Constitutional Court’s newest judge also elected by the current parliament.
Grigorian claimed that only he and another judge of the 9-member court, Arman
Dilanian, can make valid decisions because they were elected after the
constitutional changes came into force over a year ago.
Armenia -- Vahe Grigorian, a nominee to the Constitutional Court, speaks in the
parliament, Yerevan, June 18, 2019.
Grigorian argued that the under the amended constitution the Constitutional
Court now consists of “judges,” rather than “members,” as was the case until
April 2018. He said that the other members therefore cannot be considered
“judges.”
The eight other members of the Constitutional Courts, including Dilanian,
dismissed those claims. They countered that an article of the amended
constitution makes clear that the court “members” appointed before 2018 can
serve as “judges” until they turn 65.
Grigorian’s position was backed by some senior pro-government lawmakers. The
government has stopped short of explicitly and formally endorsing it, however.
Citing the Justice Ministry bill, Melikian suggested that the government
recognizes all Constitutional Court members as “judges.”
The pressure on the high court followed sweeping judicial reforms promised by
Pashinian in May. The premier has repeatedly stated that he wants to make
Armenia’s courts “truly independent.” His political opponents and other critics
maintain, however, that he is on the contrary seeking to gain full control over
the judiciary.
Major Wildfire Rages In Armenia
Armenia -- A wildfire in the Arevik nature reserve, . (Photo by
the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations.)
Firefighters joined by army soldiers, police officers and forestry workers
battled a major wildfire in southeastern Armenia for the second consecutive day
on Monday.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations, it erupted on
Sunday afternoon in a forest several dozen kilometers north of Meghri, a small
town located near the country’s border with Iran.
A ministry statement said the fire destroyed around 12 hectares of mostly
wooded land belonging to the Arevik nature reserve by the time it was contained
on Sunday morning. It said the firefighting efforts there continued in the
following hours, involving about 70 firefighters as well as 30 soldiers, 45
police officers and dozens of civilian workers. Arevik’s mountainous terrain is
complicating the use of heavy equipment, added the statement.
Minister of Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakian discussed the operation with
his top subordinates at an emergency meeting held on Sunday evening. They
formed a special task force to deal with the emergency.
Armenia - A wildfire in the Khosrov Forest Reserve, 14Aug2017.
It was the most serious forest fire reported in Armenia since August 2017.
Authorities struggled at the time to extinguish fires that broke out in the
Vayots Dzor province and the Khosrov forest reserve southeast of Yerevan in the
space of two days.
The Khosrov blaze was particularly serious, with hundreds of hectares of
woodland burned as a result. It was put out with the help of a heavy
water-dropping aircraft sent by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations at
the Armenian government’s request.
Tsolakian’s ministry has reported dozens of small-scale wildfires in various
parts of the country, including Yerevan, in the last few months.
Britain Names Ethnic Armenian Envoy To Yerevan
• Heghine Buniatian
UK -- Alan Andranik Gogbashian, the newly appointed British ambassador to
Armenia.
The British government has appointed an ethnic Armenian diplomat as the United
Kingdom’s new ambassador to Armenia.
A government statement released on Monday said Alan Gogbashian will replace
Judith Farnworth, a fellow diplomat who has served as British ambassador in
Yerevan for the last four years.
Gogbashian has headed various divisions at the British Foreign Office since
2014. He was Britain’s deputy head of mission in Morocco from 2011-2014.
The office of Zareh Sinanyan, Armenia’s commissioner general of Diaspora
affairs, implicitly welcomed Gogbashian’s appointment. “This is the first time
that a Diaspora Armenian will be ambassador to Armenia,” the office wrote on
its Facebook page.
The development coincided with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian’s latest
visit to London. Sarkissian’s office said on Monday that he met there with “a
number of high-ranking UK officials.” It did not name any of those officials.
Sarkissian expressed Armenia’s readiness to deepen ties with the UK when he
congratulated Boris Johnson on becoming British prime minister late last month.
Sarkissian, 66, lived and worked in London, including as Armenian ambassador to
Britain, for nearly three decades prior to becoming Armenia’s largely
ceremonial head of state in April 2018. He received British citizenship in 2002
but renounced it about a decade later.
Meanwhile, the British Embassy in Yerevan touted on Monday a “substantial”
increase in commercial ties between the two countries.
“Growth in trade turnover was 42 percent and 18 percent in 2017 and 2018
respectively,” it said in written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “There
was a substantial growth in the UK’s investment flows to Armenia over the past
four years in sectors such as ICT, pharmaceutical and mining.”
“The British Embassy in Yerevan sees further potential for growth and is
working with UK companies and sectors in Armenia to encourage more UK trade and
investment,” it added.
The British mission also said London is committed to helping Armenia become a
“democratic, prosperous and resilient country.”
“To do this, over the last year or so, the UK has increased its support to
Armenia’s domestic reform agenda,” it said. “We supported delivery of the free
and fair elections last December and now we are focusing on helping to
strengthen Armenia’s institutions, which is crucial for Armenia’s long-term
development. We are doing this through a range of governance and economic
reforms, defense reform, efforts to tackle corruption and uphold human rights.”
Tsarukian-Owned Firm Faces Bankruptcy Proceedings
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian arrives for a
parliament session in Yerevan, July 9, 2019.
An Armenian cargo firm has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against one of the
country’s largest wineries owned by businessman Gagik Tsarukian, accusing it of
failing to pay for 120 million drams ($252,000) worth of transport services
provided to it.
The company, Daf Alco Trans, has shipped brandy distilled at Tsarukian Ararat
Brandy Wine-Vodka Factory to Russia for almost a decade. Daf says that the
factory stopped making payments for the shipments in February and has since
ignored its repeated demands to clear the debt. It claims to have incurred 85
million drams in debts to two dozen subcontractors because of that.
A lawyer for Daf, Harutiun Harutiunian, said on Monday that the company warned
Ararat in April that it could ask a court to declare the winery bankrupt. “We
have still not received a reply,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Daf had no choice but to file a bankruptcy petition, Harutiunian said, adding
that Ararat will automatically be declared insolvent if it fails to present
written objections within 15 days.
Ararat refused to comment on the accusations on Monday. A spokesperson said
only that that company’s executive director will comment after returning to
Armenia later this week.
The Yerevan-based brandy manufacturer, the oldest in Armenia, is part of
Tsarukian’s Multi Group comprising more than four dozen mostly medium-sized
companies. Tsarukian is also the founder and leader of the Prosperous Armenia
Party, the largest opposition group represented in the country’s parliament.
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