Monday,
Armenia Partly Closes Iran Border Due To Coronavirus
• Susan Badalian
Iran -- Iranian women wearing protective masks to prevent contracting a
coronavirus walk at Grand Bazaar in Tehran, February 20, 2020
Armenia partly closed its border with Iran and suspended flights between the two
neighboring states for two weeks on Monday, citing the need to guard against a
new coronavirus that has killed at least 12 people in the Islamic Republic.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced the decision at a meeting of an
interagency commission coordinating Armenian government’s precautionary measures
against the deadly virus. He made clear that it does not apply to cargo traffic
through the Armenian-Iranian border.
“Cargo shipments will continue to be carried without restrictions,” said
Pashinian. “It’s just that there will be special monitoring of [truck] drivers
carrying out cargo shipments and a special regime for cargo shipments.”
“There will be no restrictions on citizens’ return [to their countries,]” he
went on. “We are talking about citizens of Iran who are currently in Armenia and
Armenian citizens who are currently in Iran. They are free to return to their
homelands.”
Pashinian also said that the government will review the travel restrictions two
weeks later. “We will be in closer contact with official representatives of the
friendly Islamic Republic of Iran so that we have a more complete evaluation of
the situation and jointly decide our further actions in that direction.”
Iran -- People wearing protective masks shop at a pharmacy in the capital
Tehran,
Iran is a major trading partner of Armenia and one of the landlocked country’s
two transport conduits to the outside world.
The Armenian government faced calls to close the Iranian border shortly after
the first cases of coronavirus were reported in Iran last week. Health Minister
Arsen Torosian publicly objected to such a measure as recently as on Sunday.
Pashinian announced later in the day, however, that the Armenian authorities
will suspend travel between the two countries.
Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said on Monday that 12 people have
died and up to 61 have been infected with coronavirus in the country. Most of
the cases in Iran have been in Qom, a Shi’ite Muslim holy city 120 kilometers
south of the capital Tehran.
No coronavirus cases have been reported in Armenia so far.
The travel ban comes less than a month before an annual influx to Armenian of
thousands of Iranian tourists celebrating Nowruz, the ancient Persian New Year.
Iranians do not need visas to travel to Armenia.
Armenia also had a visa-free regime with China until this month. Yerevan
suspended it on January 31 to prevent the possible spread of coronavirus.
New Karabakh Army Commander Named
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Major-General Jalal Harutiunian (L) at a staff exercise in
Stepanakert, February 20, 2020.
The commander of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army, Lieutenant-General
Karen Abrahamian, was dismissed and replaced by his first deputy on Monday.
Bako Sahakian, the outgoing Karabakh president, signed relevant decrees five
days after the sacking of two senior military officials in Armenia.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian fired the heads of the Armenian military police
and an army department in charge of military moral following a spate of
non-combat deaths of soldiers who served in Armenia and Karabakh.
Five of those soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in separate
incidents investigated by law-enforcement authorities. The shootings caused
public outrage and cast a renewed spotlight on the chronic problem of hazing and
other abuses in the army ranks. Armenia’s political and military leadership
pledged to improve military discipline in response to the outcry.
Nagorno Karabakh - Karen Abrahamian (L), the Karabakh army commander, inspects
frontline troops, November 6, 2019.
Pashinian and Sahakian chaired a meeting of top military officials in
Stepanakert on Saturday. The participants included Abrahamian, Armenian Defense
Minister Davit Tonoyan and army chief of staff Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian.
Few details of the meeting were made public.
The new commander of the Karabakh Defense Army, Major-General Jalal Harutiunian,
served as Abrahamian’s first deputy and chief of the army’s General Staff until
now.
Like his predecessors, Harutiunian, 45, is a decorated veteran of the 1991-1994
war with Azerbaijan. He joined newly formed Karabakh forces in 1992 at the age
of 17 and mostly served in artillery units during and after the war.
Harutiunian rose through army ranks after graduating from a Russian military
academy in the early 2000s. In 2016, then Karabakh army chief Movses Hakobian
described him as one of the army’s best officers.
Harutiunian was promoted to the rank of major-general in July last year.
Armenian Chief Justice Sues Pashinian For ‘Slander’
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) and Constitutional Court Chairman
Hrayr Tovmasian shake hands ahead of a 2018 meeting in Yerevan.
Hrayr Tovmasian, the chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional Court, has filed a
defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in response to recent
verbal attacks on him.
Pashinian again lashed out at Tovmasian late last month in a continuing bitter
dispute with the latter and most other members of the court. In particular, he
charged that Tovmasian “offered his services” and cozied up to him following the
2018 “Velvet Revolution.” He said he rebuffed those overtures because he did not
want to cooperate with “representatives of the corrupt former regime.”
Tovmasian, who has been under strong government pressure to resign in recent
months, rejected the claim as untrue while challenging Pashinian to come up with
“credible evidence” of it. He said will take legal action if Pashinian fails to
do that.
The prime minister responded by posting on Facebook a photograph of an expensive
pen which he said Tovmasian gifted him at a 2018 meeting in Yerevan. He
portrayed the gift as proof of “the weirdest flattery I’ve ever seen.”
Tovmasian said through his lawyers afterwards that he will press ahead with the
lawsuit.
According to court records publicized on Monday, he wants Pashinian for retract
the “slanderous” statements and apologize for them.
The case has already been assigned to a district court judge in Yerevan, Gayane
Khachatrian. She has not yet scheduled the first court hearing.
The legal action followed Pashinian’s controversial decision to hold a
referendum on dismissing Tovmasian and six other judges of the 9-member
Constitutional Court who had been installed by Armenia’s former governments.
Opposition groups have denounced the April 5 referendum as unconstitutional.
Pashinian and his political allies have defended the legality of the vote.
Pashinian stepped up his verbal attacks on Tovmasian immediately after the
latter pledged to take him to court. He said law-enforcement authorities’
allegations that Tovmasian illegally became the head of the country’s highest
court shortly before the 2018 revolution are “effectively proven and
irrefutable.”
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) claimed in October that the former
Armenian parliament elected Tovmasian court chairman as a result of an illegal
seizure of the judicial authority by a “group of officials.” It said that took
the form of forgery committed by former parliament speaker Ara Babloyan and one
of his top staffers. Both men strongly deny corresponding accusations leveled
against them.
Armenian prosecutors have twice declined to endorse those coup accusations,
ordering the SIS to conduct an “additional investigation.”
Armenian Speaker Confident Of Referendum Win
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan (C) chairs a parliament debate on
constitutional changes, Yerevan, February 6, 2020.
Parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan expressed confidence on Monday that Armenia’s
political leadership will win the upcoming referendum on its bid to oust most
Constitutional Court judges.
To pass, corresponding constitutional amendments drafted by Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s My Step bloc have to be backed by a majority of referendum
participants making up at least one-quarter of Armenia’s 2.57 million or so
eligible voters.
Mirzoyan, who is a close associate of Pashinian, insisted that the authorities’
possible failure to garner around 650,000 votes needed for a referendum victory
is not a “realistic” scenario.
“I believe that the referendum will take place [as planned on April 5] and
citizens of the Republic of Armenia will deliver a sufficient number of votes in
favor of the proposed changes,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Mirzoyan dismissed suggestions that even for many government supporters
Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian’s ouster will not be enough of an
incentive to turn out and vote on April 5.
“It’s not about Hrayr Tovmasian,” he said. “There are many more layers and
in-depth nuances connected with this issue.”
The ruling political team says that Tovmasian and six other judges of the
9-member Constitutional Court must go because they are linked to Armenia’s
“corrupt former regime.” Critics say that that Pashinian is simply keen to
replace them by judges that would be loyal to him.
The country’s leading opposition groups have denounced the referendum as
unconstitutional. At the same time they have decided not to actively campaign
against the draft amendments.
Although campaigning for the vote officially began on February 17 My Step has
held no rallies or in-door gatherings so far. Mirzoyan said it will launch its
campaign for a “Yes” vote at a fundraiser that will be held in Yerevan on
Tuesday.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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