Thursday, More Coronavirus Cases Confirmed In Armenia, PM Interrupts Vacation Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian interrupted his vacation and suspended rallies in an ongoing constitutional referendum campaign for at least one day late on Thursday after authorities confirmed two more coronavirus cases, with the total number of patients in the country thus rising to six. Armenian Health Minister Arsen Torosian said in a Facebook post earlier today that both identified patients had been taken to an infectious diseases hospital in Yerevan. “The two are from among those who had been in close contact with the coronavirus patient from Echmiadzin [a woman who had arrived from Italy]. They were isolated yesterday evening. They had fever and later tested positive for coronavirus. At this moment they feel well and have no fever,” Torosian wrote. Three coronavirus patients identified in Armenia on March 11 had come from Italy – two of them are citizens of Armenia and one is an Italian working in Armenia. The first coronavirus patient identified in Armenia on March 1 was an Armenian citizen evacuated from Iran. In a live broadcast on Facebook tonight Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced that his government will hold consultations on Friday to “fully assess the situation.” “Schools will be closed tomorrow as we will try to better understand and evaluate the situation. We will inform [the public] about our further actions,” said Pashinian, adding that campaign events scheduled for Friday will also be postponed. Armenia Mulls Measures For ‘Effective’ Self-Quarantines Amid new coronavirus cases identified in Armenia this week the country’s authorities are considering ways of ensuring the efficiency of self-quarantines of citizens at homes. At a meeting on Thursday the commission set up more than a month ago to coordinate government efforts on preventing the spread of the new virus in Armenia decided that citizens who will be evacuated from coronavirus-hit Italy will be placed under a two-week quarantine. Earlier, Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian announced that a charter flight from Rome to Yerevan will be organized on March 15 for Armenian citizens to be able to return from Italy, which appears to be the country hit by the new coronavirus infection the hardest outside of China. All three new coronavirus patients in Armenia, including one Italian citizen, have arrived from Italy. The first patient identified on March 1 was an Armenian citizen evacuated from Iran. The Armenian Health Ministry said on March 12 that 57 more people who may have had contacts with the new coronavirus patients had been isolated, with some of them placed under home quarantines. Over three dozen citizens have been quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the beginning of this month over possible contacts with the first patient. Chairing the meeting of the commission today Avinian raised the issue of how to ensure the effectiveness of home quarantines. “I think we also need to look at the introduction of some type of liability or get a concrete understanding of how we can ensure the effectiveness of the actual isolation of people at homes,” he said. “Even the World Health Organization does not recommend isolating and keeping in quarantine all those who enter the country, and this is also physically impossible. But in order to exercise control over those who are in home quarantines, I think we need to hold this discussion today, and we need to make decisions in that regard.” After deciding on the 14-day quarantine regime for those to be evacuated from Italy on Sunday, the commission instructed the Ministry of Health to work with the Ministry of Justice on options to ensure the responsibility of those in self-quarantines for breaking them. The vice-premier also instructed all government agencies to tighten preventive health measures. Pashinian Signals No Need Yet For Suspending Referendum Campaign Over Coronavirus Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talking to journalists during a campaign rally in Jermuk, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday continued his tour of Armenian towns campaigning in next month’s constitutional referendum, signaling no need yet for suspending public rallies in view of new coronavirus cases confirmed in Armenia. Armenian authorities reported three new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total of confirmed cases to four. The country’s Ministry of Health said that two of the people testing positive for the novel coronavirus infection known as COVID-19 were citizens of Armenia aged 45 and 27 and one was a 51-year-old Italian who works in Armenia. All three had arrived from Italy, officials said. The first coronavirus patient indentified in Armenia on March 1 had arrived from Iran, another country hit hard by COVID-19. Over three dozen people have been quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the beginning of the month as a precaution against the further spread of the infection. Prime Minister Pashinian, who was visiting the central resort town of Jermuk today, said that authorities had been taking measures to identify the scope of contacts of the new coronavirus patients in order to place them under quarantine, too. “This could also be home quarantines,” he said. Later on Thursday Health Minister Arsen Torosian reported in a Facebook post that all people who may have had close contacts with the new coronavirus patients had been identified and isolated. “A total of 57 persons have been isolated,” the minister said. Talking to media today Pashinian also promised that his government will keep the public informed on the coronavirus-related situation, including if the number of cases and risks increase. As for his campaign rallies ahead of the April 5 constitutional referendum, the prime minister said: “As you see, at the moment the campaign is ongoing. If there is a need to suspend it, we will do so. As long as we don’t do so, it means there is no need for doing that.” Since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Armenia the South Caucasus country’s authorities tightened controls at the border with Iran and re-introduced entry visas for Iranian citizens. On March 10, Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Armenian citizens to refrain from visiting Italy and those who are currently in Italy to “urgently suspend their trips and return to Armenia.” That same day budget airline Ryanair announced suspension of all flights from Yerevan to Italy and back until April 8. Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian has announced that a charter flight from Rome to Yerevan will be organized on March 15 to evacuate Armenian citizens from Italy. U.S. Says Popular Distrust In Impartiality Of Judges Remains Strong In Armenia • Heghine Buniatian U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks on the 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices at the State Department in Washington, The Armenian government took steps in 2019 to investigate and punish alleged abuses by former and current government officials and law enforcement authorities, according to an annual U.S. Department of State report on human rights practices. As evidence the country report for Armenia published on March 11 refers to criminal cases and trials involving former high-ranking government officials. “On September 12, hearings began in a high-profile case against former officials for their alleged involvement in sending the military to break up protests following the 2008 presidential election, in which eight civilians and two police officers were killed. Charges filed in this and associated criminal cases included allegations of overthrowing the constitutional order, abuse and exceeding official authority, torture, complicity in bribery, official fraud, and falsification of evidence connected with the investigation of the 2008 postelection events,” the U.S. Department of State says, listing the names of high-profile suspects in the cases, including former president Robert Kocharian. At the same time, the U.S. Department of State quotes Council of Europe commissioner for human rights Dunja Mijatovic as noting in her report “the importance of conducting the process in a careful manner, ‘in strict adherence to the principles of rule of law, judicial independence, transparency, and guarantees of fair trial’, in order to dispel any accusations of revenge politics or selective justice.” Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of State says that more than a decade after the deadly post-election events of March 2008, in June 2019, the Armenian parliament adopted a law on providing assistance to the victims of the violence, and in September the government allocated 720 million drams (about $1.5 million) to assist victims and their families. Referring to human rights violations in Armenia last year, the U.S. Department of State highlights shortcomings in the judicial sphere, indicating “significant problems with the independence of the judiciary.” “Although the law provides for an independent judiciary, the judiciary did not generally exhibit independence and impartiality. After the 2018 political transition, popular distrust in the impartiality of judges remained strong, and NGOs highlighted that the justice sector retained many officials who served the previous authorities. Corruption of judges remained a concern,” the report says. It reminded that in May “in an apparent reaction to the release of former president Robert Kocharian from detention by a Yerevan court, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called on his supporters to block access to courts throughout the country, a move questioned by some observers as pressuring the judiciary.” Speaking about the judiciary, the U.S. Department of State observed that “following the “Velvet Revolution,” many judges released suspects in politically sensitive cases from pretrial detention.” “According to human rights groups, because no other circumstances had changed in their cases, this was an indication that, before the April and May 2018 events, judicial decisions to hold those suspects in detention instead of allowing their release on bail were politically motivated.” The Armenian judiciary came under criticism also for an “increasing tendency to fall back into the previous practice of applying pretrial detention.” “Lengthy pretrial detention remained a chronic problem,” the U.S. Department of State says, referring to the government’s statistics, according to which as of October 1, approximately 45 percent of the prison population consisted of pretrial detainees. The report also refers to abuse in police stations and in prisons. “According to human rights activists, impunity for past instances of police abuse contributed to the persistence of the problem, although to a lesser extent than observed prior to the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” Furthermore, observers contended that the failure to prosecute these past cases was linked to the lack of change in the composition of law enforcement bodies since the 2018 political transition, other than at the leadership level.” As for prisons, the report notes that according to the Prison Monitoring Group, “political will at the highest level to eradicate corruption in the penitentiaries had not yet been translated into institutional change.” As for corruption, the U.S. Department of State says that Armenia has “a legacy of systemic corruption in many areas, including construction, mining, public administration, the parliament, the judiciary, procurement practices, and provision of grants by the state.” “There were allegations of embezzlement of state funds, involvement of government officials in questionable business activities, and tax and customs privileges for government-linked companies. In 2018 the government made combating corruption one of its top priorities and continued to take measures to eliminate it during the year. Although top officials announced the “eradication of corruption” in the country, local observers noted that anticorruption measures needed further institutionalization. Criminal corruption cases were uncovered in the tax and customs services, the ministries of education and health care, and the judiciary,” the report says. “According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in the 13 months ending in June, enforcement bodies and tax services uncovered violations in the amount of 110.5 billion drams (almost $230 million), constituting damages to the state, embezzlement, abuse of official duty, and bribes. Of this amount, 30.1 billon drams ($63 million) was reportedly paid to the state budget; NGOs raised concerns regarding insufficient transparency in this process. “During the year former officials made public announcements of their intent to return assets to the state, allegedly to avoid prosecution. The process by which the government accepted or negotiated such arrangements were unclear.” Speaking about omissions, the U.S. Department of State refers to media reports throughout the year that “the Ministry of Defense was providing incomplete information or not reporting on certain noncombat deaths in the army.” “Human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) voiced concern regarding the Defense Ministry’s classification of military deaths and the practice of qualifying many noncombat deaths as suicides, making it less likely that abuses would be uncovered and investigated.” At the same time, the report says that in its July 8 biannual report on the human rights situation in the armed forces, the NGO Peace Dialogue noted that, for the first time, the Ministry of Defense had designated the protection of soldiers’ human rights as an organizational priority: “On July 24, the Defense Ministry launched a “trust line,” a telephone number that soldiers may call to submit complaints, ask for assistance, and provide suggestions.” The report also presents observations on media. The U.S. Department of State says that since the 2018 political transition, the media environment in Armenia has been freer. “However, there were reports that some outlets avoided criticizing the authorities so as not to appear ‘counterrevolutionary’,” it adds. “According to some media watchdogs, public television continued to present news from a pro-government standpoint, replacing one government perspective with another in the aftermath of the political transition. Nonetheless, public television was open and accessible to the opposition as well and covered more diverse topics of public interest than before.” “Media company ownership was mostly nontransparent. The country’s Fourth Action Plan of Open-Government Partnership Initiative of the Republic of Armenia (2018-2020) included commitments to improve ownership disclosure. Media NGOs advocated for the media sector to be included as a priority sector in the action plan and proposed changes to the Law on Television and Radio that fostered media ownership transparency,” reads the U.S. Department of State’s report. Whereas previous annual reports criticized the Armenian authorities for systemic corruption, violence against journalists and the opposition, the suppression of freedom of speech and assembly, impunity of law-enforcement agencies and violations during elections, this time, the U.S. Department of State says, quoting international observers, that Armenia’s early parliamentary elections of December 2018 “were held with respect for fundamental freedoms and enjoyed broad public trust that needs to be preserved through further electoral reforms.” Armenian Financial System ‘Not Affected’ By Ruble Depreciation • Robert Zargarian Armenian Central Bank representative Andranik Grigorian The fall in world oil prices that has led to a sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble has not had any serious impact on Armenia’s financial system, according to a Central Bank representative. Andranik Grigorian, head of the Central Bank’s Financial System Stability and Development Department, said the Armenian financial system enjoys a “fairly high liquidity”. “There is no need for panic,” Grigorian said on Wednesday. “Our banks are well capitalized and have sufficient liquidity in any currency. Investors in our financial system can rest assured both in terms of their deposits and in terms of servicing loans. Our exchange rate is a free floating one, and I don’t see anything extraordinary here.” As for the possible depreciation or appreciation of the Armenian national currency, the dram, against other currencies, Grigorian said that the Central Bank has been conducting various analyses to understand the potential impact of both trends. “In both cases we can say that our system is quite liquid,” he added. The Central Bank official said the closed border with Iran due to the new coronavirus infection has not yet had any impact on Armenia’s financial system, but cautioned that certain risks are always present when borders are closed – “be it in Armenia, Germany or the United States.” “For the time being we do not see any problems here. Our financial system does not have that level of related assets for the closed border with Iran to lead to problems in it,” Grigorian added. The Ministry of Economy declined to comment on the possible impact of the closed border with Iran on the Armenian economy in general. Economist Vahagn Khachatrian believes, however, that a closed border with the neighboring country cannot but have a negative effect on Armenia’s economy. “We all understand that a closed border means that there will be problems. It is clear that there will be some impact and that impact will be negative. Here we just need to be able to assess how solvable the problem will be over time,” he said. The economist said that no business in Armenia could possibly guess in January how the situation would unfold in order to take long-term measures like storing supplies in warehouses for several months. But according to Khachatrian, it is important not to panic now and even more important for the government to take proper action through its relevant agencies. “Entrepreneurs should be kept updated on the situation, as many are asking questions now, wondering when the border can be re-opened. But no one can make any forecasts in this matter even by following the international news. On the one hand you hear more positive news from China [on coronavirus], but news coming from European countries, especially from Italy, are more negative,” Khachatrian said. The closed border regime with Iran is expected to be in place at least until March 24. 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.