Monday, March 02, 2020 Tsarukian-Backed Mayor Indicted March 02, 2020 Armenia -- Abovian Mayor Vahagn Gevorgian speaks to RFE/RL, June 10, 2019. Law-enforcement authorities have brought criminal charges against a town mayor linked to the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) nine months after he defeated a government-backed challenger in a tense local election. Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said on Monday that Mayor Vahagn Gevorgian of Abovian, a town 15 kilometers north of Yerevan, has been charged with criminal negligence and will risk up to five years in prison if convicted. In a statement, it claimed that he that he deliberately failed to stop a private company from “seizing” communal land in Abovian and illegally constructing an apartment block there. It was not immediately clear whether Gevorgian, who was apparently not arrested, will deny the accusation. The statement said that the Investigative Committee decided to indict Gevorgian even though a regional department of the Armenian police investigated the redevelopment project and cleared the mayor of any wrongdoing last year. It said Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian personally ordered a new investigation in October because the police inquiry was “flawed.” The police inquiry was ordered by regional prosecutors in July 2019, one month after Gevorgian narrowly won reelection in a tightly contested mayoral race. His main challenger, Grigor Gulian, was a candidate of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. Pashinian travelled to Abovian and held a rally there in support of Gulian during the election campaign. Romanos Melikian, the Civil Contract-affiliated governor of the surrounding Kotayk province, also personally campaigned for Gulian after taking a leave of absence for that purpose. The provincial administration had for months been at loggerheads with the Abovian municipality, accusing it of corruption and mismanagement. The mayor strongly denied the allegations. Armenia’s National Security Service launched a separate corruption inquiry into the municipality just days before the mayoral election. Abovian has long been a political and economic stronghold of BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian. Tensions between his party and Civil Contract ran high in the run-up to the vote. Although the BHK did not officially endorse Gevorgian, Tsarukian’s right-hand man, Eduard Babayan, and other senior BHK figures actively participated in the incumbent’s reelection campaign. The BHK, which has the second largest group in the Armenian parliament, did not react to the charges brought against the Abovian mayor as of Monday evening. Security Official Prosecuted For Revealing Armenian Minister’s Criminal Record March 02, 2020 Armenia -- Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian speaks at a news conference in Yerevan, February 26, 2020. A senior official from Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has been charged in connection with the disclosure by a Yerevan newspaper of Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian’s criminal record. The “Hraparak” daily reported last month that Papikian was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months in prison in 2006 for stabbing his commander during compulsory military service which he apparently performed at a Russian base in Armenia. It said that he was released from prison a year later. The paper critical of the Armenian government accused Papikian of hiding this fact in his official biography. While acknowledging the criminal conviction, Papikian condemned the “Hraparak” article as an intrusion into his personal life. The minister, who is one of the most influential members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet, urged law-enforcement authorities to find out who publicized “the secret information relating to my private life.” The Special Investigative Service (SIS) launched a criminal investigation in response to the appeal. The SIS announced on Monday that it has charged a senior NSS officer with abusing his powers to “illegally collect and disseminate” the information which it said constitutes a personal secret. It did not name the officer, saying only that he heads a “relevant” NSS division and has been suspended pending investigation. It also said that he is not held in pre-trial detention. According to an SIS statement, the suspect instructed one of his subordinates to scrutinize Papikian’s past to find out whether the minister has a criminal record. The unnamed subordinate obtained such information from the Armenian police, said the statement. The SIS claimed that the indicted officer publicized it for the sake of his “personal self-interest.” It did not elaborate. “Hraparak” earlier denounced Papikian’s angry reaction to its article. The paper insisted that the revelation of Papikian’s criminal record was not an invasion of privacy and that it should not have been kept confidential in the first place. Some press freedom groups have backed this stance. Papikian, 33, is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party who actively participated in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. He taught history at a private high school in Yerevan prior to the revolution. Government Bill Seen As Threat To Press Freedom In Armenia March 02, 2020 • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia -- Photojournalists and cameramen at an official ceremony in Yerevan, January 10, 2019. Armenia’s leading media associations on Monday expressed serious concern over government plans to effectively criminalize libel and defamation, saying that they pose a threat to freedom of expression. A new Criminal Code drafted by a working group set up by the Armenian Justice Ministry would make it a crime for media outlets to publish untrue information about crimes committed by government officials or other individuals. Such “false denunciations” would be punishable by up to two years in prison. Armenia’s existing Criminal Code already sets punishments for false denunciation. But they do not apply to the work of mass media. Eleven non-governmental organizations dealing with press freedom strongly objected to the current Armenian government’s apparent intention to extend criminal liability for such offenses to journalists and editors. “It could inhibit the work of media and result in very serious limitations in terms of sources of information,” said Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech. He warned that the new legislation, if enacted, will make it much harder for media outlets to obtain or publish “confidential information important to the public.” “In this sense, this is a threat to press freedom,” stressed Melikian. All forms of libel were decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during the rule of former President Serzh Sarkisian. “We have stated under all authorities and want to reiterate now that nobody must be sent to jail for their speech,” Melikian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Speech must be countered with speech or through civil lawsuits.” He said that existing Armenian laws allow the authorities to fight against fake or slanderous reports with libel suits. But Ara Gabuzian, the head of the Justice Ministry task force that has drafted the bill, defended its proposal to criminalize the dissemination of such reports. “False denunciation is a deliberate crime. People spreading such reports must be conscious that they are spreading lies,” said Gabuzian, who is also a senior law professor at Yerevan State University. Armenia To Tighten Iran Border Controls Due To Coronavirus March 02, 2020 Iran -- Workers disinfect subway trains against coronavirus in Tehran, February 26, 2020. Armenia will restore the visa regime with neighboring Iran and tighten controls at the partly closed Armenian-Iranian border in an effort to prevent more cases of coronavirus in the South Caucasus country, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Monday. One day after Armenian authorities reported the first such case, Pashinian also urged Armenians to avoid nonessential travel to Italy and Turkey. The infected person, a 29-year-old male, was among 130 or so Armenian nationals airlifted from Tehran to Yerevan last week amid a rapid spread of coronavirus in Iran. The Islamic Republic’s official death toll from the virus reached 54 on Sunday evening. “We have decided to extend and tighten restrictions on communication through the Armenian-Iranian border,” Pashinian said at a meeting of an interagency task force coordinating coronavirus-related measures taken by the Armenian government. “We will start a process of temporarily restoring the visa regime with Iran and the visa regime will be restored within five days.” “Of course, we remain in constant touch with our Iranian partners,” he added. “We want to express our solidarity with the friendly people and government of Iran in the task of overcoming this difficult situation, and we will assist them to the best of our ability.” Armenia -- A meeting of an Armenian government commission coordinating measures taken against coronavirus, Yerevan, March 2, 2020. The Armenian government decided on February 24 to essentially close the Iranian border for individual travel and to cancel regular flights between the two states for at least two weeks. The border, which serves as one of landlocked Armenia’s two conduits to the outside world, remains open for cargo shipments. Pashinian indicated that his government will impose additional restrictions on the cargo traffic mostly carried out by Iranian trucks. He did not elaborate. Speaking at the meeting, Health Minister Arsen Torosian said that Iranian trucks entering Armenia are already escorted by police and officials from his ministry. Ministry officials are also monitoring the health condition of their drivers, he said. Pashinian also called on Armenians to “limit as much as possible” trips to coronavirus-hit Italy as well as Turkey. But he spoke out against suspending flights from Yerevan to Milan, Rome and Istanbul, saying that Armenia must not “isolate” itself from the outside world. The prime minister went on to urge citizens to avoid panic buying of foodstuffs and to pay much greater attention to personal hygiene. “To be honest, this is a good opportunity to give up some not-so-pleasant habits,” he said. “As has been recommended by the health minister, we can now end the practice of greeting each other by kissing each other.” Armenia Reports First Coronavirus Case March 01, 2020 Armenia -- A woman wears a medical mask in Yerevan, March 1, 2020. Armenia’s government closed all schools, universities and kindergartens until March 8 after reporting the first case of coronavirus in the country on Sunday. Authorities also quarantined three dozen people who have been in contact with a 29-year-old Armenian man who tested positive for the virus overnight. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said in the morning that the infected man and his wife were among Armenian nationals evacuated from neighboring Iran on a special Tehran-Yerevan flight on Friday. “His condition is good,” Pashinian wrote on Facebook. “He had a fever when he went to hospital. He does not have a fever right now … Incidentally, the patient’s wife tested negative.” “All necessary measures are being taken to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said, adding that “all individuals who have been in risky contact with the patient will be isolated.” Sunday, March 1, 2020 Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian gives a press conference, Yerevan, March 1, 2020. Health Minister Arsen Torosian told reporters afterwards that 32 persons have been taken to a disused hotel in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor and placed under quarantine there. They include passengers of the Tehran-Yerevan flight who sat close to the infected man and an ambulance crew that transported him to a Yerevan hospital, he said. Torosian said it makes no sense to quarantine all Armenians who have returned to Armenia from Iran since the recent outbreak of coronavirus there. At least 130 of them were airlifted from Tehran this week. The Armenian government decided on February 24 to partly close Armenia’s border with Iran and cancel regular flights between the two for at least two weeks due to the rapid spread of the virus in the Islamic Republic. The border remains open for commercial cargo shipments mostly carried out by Iranian trucks. According to Torosian, Iranian truck drivers’ physical contact with people in Armenia has been “minimized.” A spokeswoman for the Armenian Ministry of Health said on Saturday that the drivers are under the “24-hour surveillance” of Armenian medics and are not allowed to leave their vehicles without police escort. Armenia -- An Iranian truck parked at the Armenian-Iranian border checkpoint, February 29, 2020. Pashinian announced later in the day that classes in Armenian kindergartens, schools and universities have been suspended for one week. “We need some time to understand what’s going on,” he said in a live video addressed aired on Facebook. Despite the prime minister’s calls to “maintain calm,” the news of the first coronavirus case detected in Armenia triggered panic buying of foodstuffs in some supermarkets in Yerevan. There were also reports that holidaymakers began cancelling hotel bookings in Tsaghkadzor for fear of being infected by the people quarantined at the secluded local hotel. Pashinian aired another Facebook address to try to allay his fears, saying the 32 individuals are held in complete isolation from the outside world. The prime minister said that he, his wife and young children will travel to the popular ski resort 57 kilometers north of the Armenian capital in evening and spend a night there to show that “the epidemiological situation in Tsaghkadzor has not worsened.” 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.