Thursday, April 1, 2020 Tsarukian’s Top Business Manager Faces More Charges Ապրիլ 09, 2020 • Naira Bulghadarian Armenia -- Sedrak Arustamian speaks to workers of a cement plant in Ararat, April 15, 2019. Կիսվել • 1 Կարդալ մեկնաբանությունները Տպել A law-enforcement agency has brought more criminal charges against the top manager of companies belonging to Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian. The Investigative Committee said on Wednesday that Sedrak Arustamian, the chief executive of Tsarukian’s Multi Group, is prosecuted for his refusal to stop the “illegal” construction of a luxury hotel in downtown Yerevan which the holding company began in early 2018. Yerevan’s current municipal administration froze the construction shortly after taking office in October 2018. It said Multi Group never received a building permission for the high-rise. Tsarukian denied that. Arustamian’s lawyer, Hovik Sukiasian, insisted on Thursday that both the current and previous Yerevan mayors did issue construction permits to Multi Group. Sukiasian also said that Multi Group is now locked in a court battle with the municipality and the Investigative Committee should not have indicted his client before a final court ruling in the case. Arustamian was already charged with fraud and tax evasion in September 2019. Those accusations do not relate to any of the several dozen firms making up Multi Group and stem from Arustamian’s separate economic activities. The Investigative Committee claimed that Tsarukian’s right-hand man helped a Chinese construction company building a 56-kilometer highway in northwestern Armenia evade 240 million drams ($503,000) in taxes. It said the company also paid an Armenian firm owned by Arustamian and run by two other men 117 million drams in fictitious consulting frees as part of the scam. Arustamian denied those charges as well. He avoided arrest after Armenian courts granted him bail over investigators’ objections. The Investigative Committee decided not to seek his arrest this time around. Tsarukian is one of the country’s wealthiest men. His opposition party controls the second largest number of seats in the Armenian parliament. Armenia Evacuating Nationals From Turkey • Tatevik Sargsian Turkey A worker sprays disinfectant outside Ortakoy Mosque, to prevent, the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Istanbul. Armenia’s government is evacuating at least 70 Armenian citizens from coronavirus-hit Turkey in coordination with Turkish and Georgian authorities, the Foreign Ministry in Yerevan said on Thursday. Three buses carrying them left Istanbul on Wednesday morning and were due to reach Armenia via Georgia early on Friday. “The transportation was agreed with relevant Turkish and Georgian authorities whose assistance is appreciated,” the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, said in written comments to the Armenpress news agency. Naghdalian said that just like Armenians returning from other countries, all of the evacuees will be placed in a two-week quarantine on their arrival in Armenia. One of them, Gagik Musheghian, confirmed that the Armenian government paid for the bus service. “The Armenian authorities have helped us a lot,” Musheghian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service by phone. “They’ve paid our bus fares, they’ve covered all our expenses.” “The buses will pass through a transit corridor in Georgia and enter Armenia through the Bagratashen crossing,” he said. It was not clear whether more Armenians living and working in Turkey will be repatriated in the coming days. According to Naghdalian, about 100 of them have so far contacted Armenia’s Foreign Ministry for the purpose of their possible evacuation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip reportedly expressed readiness to assist in the repatriation of Armenian citizens when he spoke to the spiritual leader of Turkey’s ethnic Armenian community, Patriarch Sahak Mashalian, on Wednesday. According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, Erdogan also said that Ankara is ready to provide Yerevan with medicines that could be used for treating coronavirus. Commenting on the reported offer, Naghdalian said: “As a third party, we will refrain from commenting on unofficial information. In any case, such information is not on our agenda.” The Turkish authorities have reported more than 38,000 coronavirus cases and 812 deaths resulting from them so far. Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations. Successive Turkish governments have kept the border between the two neighboring states closed because of the unresolved conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. World Bank Warns Of Recession In Armenia • Emil Danielyan Armenia -- A deserted sidewalk in the center of Yerevan, April 7, 2020. The World Bank has warned of the growing risk of a recession in Armenia while saying that the Armenian economy could still grow modestly this year despite the coronavirus pandemic. “Under the baseline scenario, envisaging the start of a gradual recovery [of economic activity] in mid-summer of 2020, the real GDP growth rate in 2020 is expected to moderate to 1.7 percent,” the bank said in its Europe and Central Asia Economic Update released on Thursday. “At the same time, a prolonged [coronavirus] outbreak scenario would result in stagnant GDP or even an economic contraction,” it warned. “The probability weight on that happening is rising due to worsening health, economic, and financial outcomes across the world.” The Armenian economy grew by 7.6 percent last year and continued to expand robustly in the first two months of this year. However, the situation changed dramatically last month as the Armenian government put the country under lockdown to fight against the spread of coronavirus. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) forecast last week a 0.7 percent GDP growth rate for 2020. Economy Minister Tigran Khachatrian agreed with that projection. The World Bank noted that the pandemic has already shut down the Armenian tourism sector, caused a major drop in international prices of copper, one of the court’s main exports, and will increasingly cut multimillion-dollar remittances from Armenians working abroad and Russia in particular. “Efforts to contain the spread will dampen demand further,” reads its report. “A dollarized economy and undiversified exports add to the challenges of managing the shock. However, a relatively healthy banking sector, a precautionary [loan] arrangement with the IMF, as well as some fiscal buffers partly mitigate the risks.” A wide-ranging stimulus package approved by the Armenian government late last month calls for one-off cash payments to a large part of the population, financial assistance to businesses and loan subsidies for farmers. In particular, many creditworthy firms and individual entrepreneurs are due to receive grants worth $500 million ($1 million). Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, April 9, 2020. The government on Thursday decided to extend the cash handouts to the owners of microbusinesses with annual revenue of up to 24 million drams. They will be eligible for up to 136,000 drams in compensation. “The government has a clear strategy of how to overcome the crisis,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan. The government has already spent 3.7 billion drams on coronavirus relief, he said, adding that the sum makes up less than 10 percent of emergency spending planned by it. Pashinian went on to praise Armenian banks for honoring their pledge to suspend loan repayments for some 290,000 individual borrowers and 5,300 businesses. He also noted that the Armenian national currency, the dram, has rallied against the U.S. dollar in recent days after losing more than 4 percent of its value in March. The World Bank report warns that falling remittance inflows from Russia may lead to “stronger depreciation pressures” on the dram in the months ahead. The bank offered a far more positive outlook for the next few years. “GDP growth is forecast to recover over the medium term, to around 4.5 percent in 2021-22, supported by stabilizing external conditions and catch-up of delayed activities,” it said. The Ministry of Health reported on Thursday morning that the number of coronavirus cases in Armenia rose by 28 to 921 in the past 24 hours. The latest official figures suggest that the virus, which has killed 10 people so far, continued to spread considerably more slowly than it did in the second half of March. Pashinian again stated that the government is “cautiously optimistic” about containing the COVID-19 epidemic. He said a government task force will meet on Friday to decide whether to extend or ease the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 24. EU To Boost Coronavirus Aid To Armenia Belgium -- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holds a news conference detailing EU efforts to limit economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Brussels, April 2, 2020. The European Union has pledged to nearly double its promised financial assistance to Armenia aimed at helping the country tackle the coronavirus epidemic and its severe socioeconomic consequences. The EU said last week that its aid package will be worth 51 million euros ($55 million). The EU Delegation in Yerevan announced late on Wednesday that the 27-nation bloc has decided to increase the assistance to 92 million euros after “further restructuring” of ongoing projects in Armenia financed by it. “The funds will be directed towards supplying medical devices and equipment, training for medical and laboratory staff, support to [small and medium-sized enterprises] and business community, as well as social and humanitarian assistance to those affected by the coronavirus outbreak,” it said in a statement. The statement added that they will be part of the EU’s 20 billion-euro aid program for “partner countries” around the world hit hard by the disease. The Delegation specified on its Facebook on April 2 that the EU will spend 30 million euros on supporting Armenian businesses by improving their “access to cheap loans, working capital and guarantees.” It also promised to deliver “humanitarian aid packages” to over 3,000 poor families living in three Armenian provinces. The EU announcements mark the largest coronavirus-related aid allocation secured by Yerevan so far. 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.