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
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