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
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