Wednesday, Tycoon Rebuked Over ‘Threat’ • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia -- The national police headquarters in Yerevan, February 4, 2020. A deputy chief of the Armenian police on Wednesday criticized a wealthy businessman close to the country’s former leadership for an angry statement which he made after being briefly detained in Yerevan on Tuesday. The controversial businessman and former parliamentarian, Ruben Hayrapetian, spent nearly three hours in police custody and was set free without charge. The police said he was detained on suspicion of illegal arms possession. Hayrapetian, who claims to own firearms legally, laughed off this explanation after his release. He said the police action was part of government attempts to intimidate him. Speaking to journalists outside the national police headquarters, he also said: “One day I will make them lie on the ground and wipe my feet on them.” The remark prompted strong condemnations from political allies of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Andranik Kocharian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense and security, described it as a “blow” to the police and the government. “I don’t remember anyone daring to make such a statement under police walls before,” Kocharian told reporters. He said that the police should have taken strong action in response to what he called a threat voiced by Hayrapetian. But Vartan Movsisian, a deputy chief of the national police, reacted more cautiously to the controversial remark. “I cannot evaluate at this point whether or not it was a threat,” said Movsisian. “It may have been a mere emotional outburst. But such statements are certainly not welcome regardless of who makes them.” Movsisian also defended Hayrapetian’s detention, saying that the police did not break any laws. Citing similar “suspicions,” the police also detained several anti-government activists last week. The latter denounced the police actions as politically motivated. Authorities Move To Replace High Court Judges Through Constitutional Changes • Gayane Saribekian Armenia -- Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian (C) reads out a ruling on an appeal lodged by former President Robert Kocharian, Yerevan, September 4, 2019. In a move denounced by the Armenian opposition, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc has drafted constitutional changes that would dismiss seven of the nine members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court locked in a bitter dispute with the government. The amendments were unveiled on Wednesday one day before an emergency session of the Armenian parliament which will discuss a separate My Step bill limiting the court’s powers. They call for the replacement of the court’s embattled chairman, Hrayr Tovmasian, and six other judges who were installed by the former Armenian governments. An explanatory note released by 37 co-sponsors of the proposed changes argues that they are not covered by the 2015 constitutional changes envisaging shorter tenures for new members of the country’s highest court. It also claims that the court lacks “democratic legitimacy.” “The three branches of government in Armenia were usurped by the former authorities: [former Presidents] Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian and their satellites,” said deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian. “The people of Armenia liberated the government and the National Assembly from their claws and they are now going to liberate the judicial system as well,” he added, referring to the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Sarkisian and brought Pashinian to power. Representatives of the two parliamentary opposition parties rejected the proposed changes and questioned their legality, however. “This path chosen by the authorities carries a great danger for the rule of law in Armenia,” Edmon Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “It could set a bad precedent for any future government to oust judges and handpick new ones in the same way.” Marukian also warned that the authorities risk putting Armenia at odds with the Council of Europe. “If they want to get Armenia in serious trouble and relegate us to the level of Azerbaijan, which is criticized for similar problems, then it means they … do not realize what dangers this decision is fraught with,” he said. Tovmasian has faced in recent months growing government pressure to resign, with the ruling political team accusing him of maintaining ties to the “corrupt former regime” and impeding judicial reforms. Prosecutors charged him in late December with abusing his powers when serving as justice minister from 2010-2014. The Constitutional Court chairman rejects the accusations as politically motivated. He said last week that he has no intention to resign. Earlier in December, the parliament passed a government bill offering Tovmasian and the six other Constitutional Court judges financial incentives to retire before the end of their mandate. None of them has accepted the offer so far. In a statement released on Monday, the president of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, warned against “any undue political or personal pressure on the judges concerned.” Speaking to reporters later in the day, Marukian said that the authorities are planning to hold a referendum on the draft amendments to the constitution. He deplored their unwillingness to have the Venice Commission examine the amendments before such a vote. The parliament may debate the amendments as early as on Thursday. The official agenda of its extraordinary session, approved by the parliament leadership after repeated delays on Wednesday evening, includes a package of other legal amendments also drafted by the ruling bloc. They would allow the 132-member National Assembly, in which My Step holds 88 seats, to bypass the Constitutional Court to amend the constitution. Under existing Armenian laws, the high court has to examine and validate any constitutional changes before they can be put on a referendum or be passed by the National Assembly. Senior Armenian Official Held For Bribery • Robert Zargarian Armenia -- Vahagn Vermishian, head of the Urban Development Committee, speaks at a news conference in Yerevan, July 1, 2019. The head of the Armenian government’s Urban Development Committee, Vahagn Vermishian, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly taking bribes from real estate developers. The National Security Service (NSS) arrested Vermishian as well as two other individuals hours after searching his office. NSS officers confiscated a computer and documents kept there. In an ensuing statement, the NSS said Vermishian has admitted receiving five bribes, worth between 1 million drams ($2,100) and 2.5 million drams each, from private construction firms that were given privileged treatment by various government bodies in return. It said that the kickbacks were channeled into an architectural firm which the official had set up and registered in a friend’s name. According to the NSS, Vermishian, who has headed the government agency since March 2019, also received $5,000 in cash and $4,800 worth of construction materials last October to secure a state award to the unnamed owner of several construction firms. It was not immediately clear whether that businessman was also taken into custody. The high-profile arrest came nearly four months after Sarhat Petrosian, the prominent head of the government’s Cadaster Committee, resigned in protest against government policies on urban development. Petrosian hit out at Vermishian and the previous head of the Urban Development Committee, Avetik Eloyan, after tendering his resignation. In particular, Petrosian claimed that Eloyan, who now works as an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, has used his position to win lucrative contracts for an architectural firm registered in his brother’s name in May 2019. Avinian and Vermishian dismissed those claims at the time. The deputy prime minister also denied that government regulation of urban development in Armenia has “regressed” since the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org