Wednesday, Armenian Authorities Rule Out Referendum Fraud • Gayane Saribekian • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at an election campaign rally in Masis, December 3, 2018. Armenia’s political leadership has insisted that it will not resort to fraud and use government levers to win the upcoming referendum on controversial constitutional changes sought by it. “I would rather cut off my two hands than allow the falsification of a single vote because that would mean erasing the entire life lived by us and all those values which we stand for,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declared during a referendum campaign fundraiser held by his Civil Contract Party in Yerevan late on Tuesday. Pashinian again defended his administration’s push to oust the chairman and six other judges of Armenia’s nine-member Constitutional Court through the proposed amendments. He said that they do not “represent the people” and hamper far-reaching political reforms in the country. Critics dismiss this explanation, saying that Pashinian is simply seeking to fill the country’s highest court with his loyalists. The fundraiser, which journalists were not allowed to attend, marked the official start of the ruling party’s campaign for a “Yes” vote in the referendum scheduled for April 5. The campaign is managed by the party’s nominal chairman, Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian. Armenia -- Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian at a news conference in Yerevan, . Papikian said on Wednesday that Pashinian and other Civil Contract figures holding senior positions in the central and local governments will be actively campaigning for a referendum victory in the coming weeks. He promised that Pashinian’s political team will not use its administrative resources to secure around 650,000 votes needed for the adoption of the constitutional amendments. Papikian said that government officials abusing their powers for that purpose would be “strictly punished.” “Let nobody, be it a city or village mayor, do the authorities such a disservice,” he told a news conference. “We don’t need that.” Armenia’s former leadership routinely pressured public sector employees and exploited its administrative resources otherwise to win elections and referendums marred by fraud allegations. Its election campaigns were usually managed by Hovik Abrahamian, a once influential minister for local government who also served as prime minister from 2014-2016 during President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule. Some bitter critics of the current government have speculated that Papikian, whose ministry oversees Armenian provincial administrations and local government bodies, will take advantage of his post in a similar fashion. The 33-year-old minister categorically ruled out such a possibility. “Please do not compare me to Hovik Abrahamian,” he said. “I see no similarities apart from the position held by us.” Pashinian Unhappy With Results Of Corruption Probes Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with senior law-enforcement officials, Yerevan, . Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian criticized on Wednesday the results of corruption investigations conducted by Armenian law-enforcement authorities during his rule, saying that so far they have recovered only up to $80 million in “funds stolen from the state.” Pashinian said the sum makes up a fraction of the financial “damage which Armenia has suffered in the last 30 years as a consequence of corruption-related crimes.” “Can we guarantee that the law-enforcement system is now fully and wholeheartedly performing … its functions in the fight against corruption? Unfortunately, I cannot give a definitely positive answer [to this question,]” he said at a meeting with the heads of Armenia’s law-enforcement agencies. “Armenia has suffered billions of dollars worth of damage as a result of corrupt activities of high-ranking officials, and I, as the leader of Armenia, received a popular mandate also for my pledges to recover those billions,” he told them. “So I expect the law-enforcement bodies to live up … to our people’s just expectations.” Pashinian complained that investigators have failed to prevent some corruption suspects from fleeing the country and to find evidence of current or former state officials’ connection to illegally acquired assets. In that context, he spoke of “traitors in the highest echelons of the law-enforcement system” who he said had ulterior goals. Pashinian did not name names in his opening remarks at the meeting publicized by his press office. The office released no details of his ensuing discussion the top security officials. It said only that they discussed “further steps in the fight against corruption.” Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in Armenia after coming to power in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” The number of corruption cases brought by Armenian law-enforcement authorities has risen significantly since the dramatic change of government. The most high-profile of these cases have involved former top government officials and individuals linked to them. Armenia has improved its position in an annual survey of corruption perceptions around the world conducted by Transparency International. It ranked, together with Bahrain and the Solomon Islands, 77th out of 180 countries and territories evaluated in the Berlin-based watchdog’s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released last month. Armenians Evacuated From Coronavirus-Hit Iran • Susan Badalian Armenia -- Armenian citizens flown back from Iran are seen at Yerevan airport, . Fifty-two Armenians were evacuated from Iran on Wednesday as the Islamic Republic continued to grapple with the spread of coronavirus. The Armenian nationals arrived at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport on a special flight from Tehran arranged by the Armenian government. They wore medical masks and received guidance from medics deployed by the Ministry of Health at the airport’s arrivals section. Another medic was on the plane that brought them back to Armenia. None of the passengers was said to have a fever or other potential coronavirus symptoms. The evacuees were not placed under quarantine. Health authorities instead collected their contact details and pledged to regularly monitor their condition. “There is more panic here [than in Iran,]” one of the evacuees told reporter at Zvartnots. Armenia plans to evacuate more of its citizens from Iran with another special flight scheduled for Friday. The Armenian government decided on Monday to suspend regular flights between the two countries and close the Armenian-Iranian border for individual travel for at least two weeks. The border will remain for open cargo shipments. According to the Armenian Health and Labor Inspectorate, 155 Iranian truck drivers and 11 other persons crossed into Armenia on Tuesday and Wednesday. Armenian health officials briefly examined their condition at the border checkpoint and detected no suspected cases of the virus, said the government agency. Iran -- An Iranian woman wears a protective mask at a drug store in Tehran, . Iranian authorities reported on Wednesday that 139 people have been infected by coronavirus in Iran and 19 of them have died so far. This is the highest number of deaths from coronavirus outside China, where the virus emerged in late 2019. Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan have all reported cases of coronavirus involving people who traveled to Iran. No cases have been reported in Armenia. The authorities in Yerevan say they are continuing to take precautionary measures against the possible spread of the virus. In a related development, the Armenian Defense Ministry on Wednesday temporarily banned visits by relatives and friends of military personnel to all army bases. It also cancelled the soldiers’ leaves. 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.