Wednesday, Serbia Admits Arms Deals With Armenia • Gevorg Stamboltsian SERBIA -- Armenian President Armen Sarkisian (L) inspects the guard of honor with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, October 4, 2019 Serbia’s government on Tuesday acknowledged that Serbian defense companies have supplied weapons to Armenia but did not confirm Azerbaijani claims that they included mortars. A government-linked Azerbaijani news website, Haqqin.az, claimed on July 19 that Serbian-made mortars as well as ammunition for them were delivered to Armenia via Georgia recently and used in deadly clashes that broke out on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on July 21. Serbia’s ambassador in Baku, Danica Veinovic, was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in connection with the report. Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov was reported to tell her that the alleged arms supplies called into question Azerbaijan’s “friendly relations” with the Balkan state. Serbia’s outgoing Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said in this regard that private Serbian firms sold small quantities of light weapons to Armenia earlier this year. “I cannot name those companies, but according to our information, they mainly supplied rifles and pistols to Armenia,” Serbian media quoted Ljajic as saying. “Their combined market value is less than 1 million euros. Those weapons were supplied in two batches, in May and June.” Ljajic made no mention of mortars. He stressed that there are no international sanctions or agreements that bar his country from selling weapons to Armenia. “It is therefore hard to turn down that country’s offers to buy our weapons,” added the Serbian minister. Meanwhile, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry denied the alleged transit of Armenia-bound weapons through Georgian territory. It denounced the Haqqin.az claim as “disinformation” aimed at undermining “Georgian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership.” Azerbaijan itself has purchased billions of dollars worth of heavy weapons from Russia, Israel, Turkey and other countries over the past decade in a bid to gain a military superiority over Armenia. Yerevan has repeatedly expressed concern over those arms deals. Bill On Armenian Constitutional Court Takes Effect • Artak Khulian Armenia -- The Constitutional Court building in Yerevan, December 27, 2019. A government-backed bill meant to complete the controversial dismissal of three of the nine members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court came into force on Wednesday three weeks after being passed by the parliament. President Armen Sarkissian has pointedly declined to sign the bill into law, leaving it to parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan to do that. Sarkissian has not explained his refusal to validate the legislation strongly condemned by the Armenian opposition. Mirzoyan, who is a leading member of the ruling My Step bloc, signed it immediately after the end of a three-week period given by the Armenian constitution to the largely ceremonial head of state. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian swiftly announced Mirzoyan’s move on his Facebook page. “Three new Constitutional Court judges will be elected soon,” he wrote. The National Assembly controlled by My Step passed the bill on June 30 one week after voting to amend the constitution. The amendments require the gradual resignation of seven members of the high court installed before April 2018. Three of them are to resign with immediate effect. Also, Hrayr Tovmasian must quit as court chairman but remain a judge. Tovmasian and the ousted judges have refused to step down, saying that their removal is illegal. They have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to have them reinstated. Tovmasian and six other court justices have been under strong government pressure to step down over the past year. Pashinian has accused them of maintaining close ties to Armenia’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 country’s highest court. Under Armenian law, the three new Constitutional Court members are to be nominated by Pashinian’s government, President Sarkissian and an assembly of the country’s judges and appointed by the parliament. The nine court justices will then pick their new chairperson. Justice Minister Rustam Badasian told reporters that the government has yet to choose its candidate to fill one of the three vacancies. He said that in any case it will nominate an “apolitical individual who can guarantee judicial independence.” Government Sees Greater Business Compliance With Coronavirus Safety Rules • Robert Zargarian Armenia -- Officials from Armenia's Health and Labor Inspectorate inspect a supermarket in Yerevan to verify its compliance with coroanvirus safety rules, . The Armenian government has reported a significant decrease in the number of local businesses failing to comply with its safety regulations aimed at minimizing coronavirus infections in the country. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who coordinates the government’s response to the pandemic, said on Tuesday that sanitary authorities fined and/or briefly shut down about 400 private entities for such violations during the first ten days of this month. This is sharply down from 1,339 firms sanctioned in the same period of June, he said. Despite growing coronavirus cases, the government reopened virtually all sectors of the Armenian economy in early May. It at the same time set concrete operational rules designed to contain the spread of the virus. Shops, cafes, restaurants, manufacturing firms and other businesses are required, among other things, to enforce physical distancing among their employees and customers and to make sure that the latter wear face masks. An RFE/RL correspondent witnessed on Wednesday numerous violations of these rules during a brief tour of small businesses across Yerevan. In particular, many vendors in the city’s food markets pulled masks under their chins or did not wear them at all. “I took it off so I can talk to you,” claimed one of them. “I put it on as soon as a customer approaches me,” said another woman selling agricultural produce. Armenia - Customers at a cafe in downtown Yerevan, May 14, 2020 Wearing a mask or a cloth covering mouth and nose not only in enclosed spaces but also in the streets and all other public areas has been mandatory in Armenia since the beginning of June. Thousands of people have been fined for not complying with this requirement. Almost 35,700 coronavirus cases have been registered in the country of about 3 million to date. The Armenian health authorities detected 439 of those cases as a result of a smaller-than-usual number of coronavirus tests carried out on Tuesday. The Ministry of Health also reported on Wednesday morning the deaths of 18 more people, including a 59-year-old doctor, infected with COVID-19. It said that the virus was the main cause of 16 of those fatalities, bringing the official death toll to 678. According to the ministry, 217 other infected Armenians have died primarily because of other, pre-existing diseases. 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.