Friday, Italy Also Sends Medical Team To Armenia Italy -- Italian medics pose for a photograph before their departure to coronavirus-hit Armenia, . (Photo by the Italian Civil Protection Department) A team of eleven Italian healthcare workers arrived in Armenia on Friday to assist their Armenian colleagues in dealing with the continuing spread of the coronavirus. The Italian Embassy in Yerevan said they will stay in the country for three weeks to “help our brothers and sisters in the fight against COVID-19.” “The operation, which falls within the scope of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, was ordered by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte following a request for international assistance made by Armenia to the European Commission,” read a statement released by Italy’s Civil Protection Department earlier in the day. The statement said that the medics come from Piedmont, Lombardy and Tuscany, the three Italian provinces that have been hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. Similar medical teams have also been sent to Armenia by France, Russia and Lithuania over the past 10 days. They have been deployed to local hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. Italy has reported about 240,000 coronavirus cases and over 34,700 deaths to date. A three-month lockdown has helped the health authorities there to contain the pandemic. In Armenia, the coronavirus crisis is continuing unabated, with 23,247 cases and at least 410 deaths recorded as of Friday morning. The South Caucasus country’s number of confirmed cases per million people is almost twice higher than Italy’s. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged on Friday that Armenia now has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the world. “This is a big problem for all us,” he said. Pashinian again complained that many Armenians still do not realize the seriousness of the situation. He said that his government is therefore planning a further toughening of sanctions against people who do not practice physical distancing, wear face masks in public or follow other sanitary rules. Opposition Party Appeals To Constitutional Court • Astghik Bedevian • Gayane Saribekian Armenia -- The Constitutional Court building in Yerevan, December 27, 2019. In an appeal dismissed by the government as null and void, the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) on Friday asked the Constitutional Court to invalidate constitutional changes mandating the immediate removal of three of its nine judges. Under Armenian law, such appeals have to be signed by at least one-third of the 132 members of the National Assembly. The BHK, which controls 25 seats, submitted 26 signatures in support of its court challenge against the legality of controversial amendments passed by the parliament earlier this week. Government officials and lawmaker representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc insisted that the BHK needed at least 27 signatures. Bright Armenia (LHK), the second parliamentary opposition party, agreed, saying that the Constitutional Court cannot consider the appeal. The LHK refused to join the BHK initiative despite opposing the constitutional changes engineered by Pashinian. “The legal community is divided over this issue,” Naira Zohrabian, a senior BHK member, said after handing the appeal to court officials in the morning. “The Constitutional Court will decide whether or not to accept it,” Zohrabian told reporters. “I will not comment on the issue anymore.” The opposition politician also said that the court will announce that decision within the next two weeks. Armenia -- Gagik Tsarukian and other deputies from his Prosperous Armenia Party attend a parliament session in Yerevan, July 9, 2019. The BHK move came just hours after the entry into force of the amendments that bar current and future Constitutional Court judges from serving more than 12 years. The 12-year term limit was already included in the constitution when it was previously amended in April 2018. But it did not apply to the judges already serving. A clause in the amended constitution allowed these judges to retain their positions until reaching retirement age. The latest amendments scrapped the clause, requiring the immediate resignation of three of the nine members of the high court. They also stipulate that Hrayr Tovmasian must quit as court chairman but remain a judge. Tovmasian and the three affected judges refused to step down, however. In a joint statement issued on Thursday, they argued that the authorities have not made similar changes to a separate law on the Constitutional Court which also exempts them from the 12-year term limit. Justice Minister Rustam Badasian dismissed their objections, saying that the constitution takes precedence over the law cited by them. For his part, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced shortly after midnight Tovmasian is not the court’s chairman and the three other judges -- Alvina Gyulumian, Felix Tokhian and Hrant Nazarian -- its members anymore. Nevertheless, Gyulumian reported for work in the morning. She insisted that she remains a Constitutional Court judge. Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan (second from left) and Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian (left) attend a Christmas mass at St. Gregory the Illuminator's Cathedral in Yerevan, January 6, 2020. It also emerged that Tovmasian decided to formally go on vacation late on Thursday, just hours before the amendments came into force. Gyulumian said that she will head the court in his absence. Meanwhile, another high court justice, Vahe Grigorian, who was appointed by the current Armenian parliament a year ago, hailed the constitutional changes as “historic.” “This is a solution to the Constitutional Court crisis,” he said. In a written opinion made public on June 22, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe largely backed the proposed changes. But it said it “regrets” the Armenian authorities’ refusal to introduce a transitional period that would “allow for a gradual change in the composition of the court in order to avoid any abrupt and immediate change endangering the independence of this institution.” The Strasbourg-based commission also said that the authorities should not rush to have Tovmasian replaced by another Constitutional Court chairman. Tovmasian, Gyulumian and five other judges have been under strong government pressure to step down over the past year. Pashinian has accused them of maintaining close ties to the country’s former government and impeding his judicial reforms. Tovmasian and opposition figures have dismissed Pashinian’s claims and in turn accused the prime minister of seeking to take control of the Constitutional Court. WHO Alarmed By COVID-19 Upsurge In Armenia • Marine Khachatrian Armenia -- A hospital worker (C) wearing a protective face mask and outfit, speaks with two ambulance doctors wearing yellow protective suits at the Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center in Yerevan, May 27, 2020 The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over a “very significant” increase in coronavirus infections in Armenia and 10 other countries in Europe and the former Soviet Union. “For weeks I have spoken about the risk of resurgence as countries adjust measures,” said Hans Henri Kluge, a WHO regional director. “In several countries across [wider] Europe, this risk has now become a reality – 30 countries have seen increases in new cumulative cases over the past two weeks.” “In 11 of these countries, accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence that if left unchecked will push health systems to the brink once again in Europe,” Kluge told a virtual news conference in Copenhagen on Thursday. The WHO said afterwards that those countries include Armenia, Sweden, Moldova, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Kosovo. The Armenian Ministry of Health reported 759 new COVID-19 infections on Friday morning, bringing the total number of cases in the South Caucasus country of about 3 million to 23,247. The ministry also said that 13 more people died from the respiratory disease in the past day. The official death toll from the epidemic thus rose to 410. The figure does not include the deaths of 131 other people infected with the virus. Those deaths were caused by other, pre-existing conditions, according to the health authorities in Yerevan. Kluge praised European Union member states such as Poland, Germany and Spain for reacting to dangerous local outbreaks with “rapid and targeted interventions.” He did not say whether he believes the 11 other countries mentioned by him should re-impose lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. Another senior WHO official, Michel Thieren, visited Yerevan and met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian earlier this week. Pashinian’s office quoted Thieren as saying that people in Armenia and other countries “should get used to living” with the coronavirus and following safety rules set by the authorities. The Armenian government issued stay-at-home orders and shut down schools, universities and most nonessential businesses in late March shortly after recording the first COVID-19 cases. But it began easing those restrictions already in mid-April and all but lifted the lockdown by the beginning of May. The number of coronavirus cases has risen substantially since then. Pashinian has repeatedly indicated that his government has no plans to impose another lockdown and will continue instead to put the emphasis on getting more Armenians to practice social distancing and wear face masks in public. 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.