Tuesday, August 4, 2020 Fugitive Tycoon’s Russian Citizenship Revealed • Naira Bulghadarian Armenia - Ruben Hayrapetian, chairman of the Football Federation of Armenia, speaks at a news conference in Yerevan, 12Jan2018. Ruben Hayrapetian, a once influential businessman linked to Armenia’s former leadership and prosecuted on a string of criminal charges, has been a Russian citizen since 2003, prosecutors in Yerevan said on Tuesday. Hayrapetian left for Russia in March this year shortly before being indicted in two criminal investigations launched by Armenian law-enforcement authorities. He strongly denied all accusations leveled against him and claimed to be unable to return to Armenia because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Investigative Committee dismissed the claim, saying that it believes he fled the prosecution. The committee charged Hayrapetian, his son and four other persons with kidnapping, violent assault and extortion in May. Another law-enforcement agency, the Special Investigative Service, claimed afterwards that the tycoon illegally privatized municipal land in Yerevan in 2015. Later in May, a Yerevan court agreed to issue an arrest warrant for Hayrapetian before investigators launched an international hunt for him. One of his lawyers said last week that Russian law-enforcement bodies have formally decided to stop hunting for his client. Armenian prosecutors asked their Russian colleagues to confirm or refute the lawyer’s claim. According to Gor Abrahamian, a spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General, they have still not received an answer from Moscow. Abrahamian said investigators have found out that Hayrapetian received Russian citizenship in June 2003. It is not yet clear whether this is the reason why he was reportedly removed from Russia’s most wanted list, the official told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. In late 2018, Moscow refused to extradite Mikael Harutiunian, a former Armenian defense minister wanted by Armenian law-enforcement authorities on coup charges. It argued that Harutiunian is a Russian national. Armenia’s constitution did not allow dual citizenship until 2006. Hayrapetian, 56, has long supported former President Serzh Sarkisian and remains affiliated with the latter’s Republican Party (HHK). He was repeatedly elected to Armenia’s former parliaments on the HHK ticket. Hayrapetian, who is commonly known as “Nemets Rubo” and notorious for violent conduct, also headed the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) from 2002-2018. Armenian President Also Picks Candidate For High Court Armenia -- President Armen Sarkissian speaks at a meeting with members of a government commission on constitutional reform, Yerevan, July 7, 2020. President Armen Sarkissian also nominated on Tuesday a candidate to replace one of the three members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court controversially dismissed in June. The candidate, Artur Vagharshian, is a chair of jurisprudence at Yerevan State University (YSU). Sarkissian already nominated him for a vacant seat in the Constitutional Court as recently as in May 2019. The Armenian parliament controlled by the ruling My Step bloc refused to appoint Vagharshian to the country’s highest court at the time despite his assurances that he is “not linked to any political force.” The parliament also voted against another candidate proposed by the largely ceremonial head of state in April 2019. The presidential press office mentioned these rebuffs in a statement released on Tuesday. It said Sarkissian stands by his recently articulated view that he should be empowered to appoint, and not just nominate, some of the Constitutional Court justices. The statement emphasized the fact that Vagharshian, 56, was one of three prospective justices who had been shortlisted by an advisory “working group” set up by Sarkissian in 2018.This is why Sarkissian decided to again seek his appointment to the court, it explained. Under Armenian law, the government, a general assembly of judges of all Armenian courts and the president of the republic must each field one candidate to fill the three high court vacancies. The government picked its candidate, senior YSU professor Vahram Avetisian, on July 23, while the judges nominated Court of Cassation Chairman Yervand Khundkarian at the weekend. The National Assembly is expected to discuss and vote on the three candidacies in September. Constitutional changes passed by the parliament in June call for the gradual resignation of seven of the Constitutional Court’s nine justices 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 and politically motivated. They have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to have them reinstated. Mayor Defends Café Construction In Yerevan Park • Tatevik Lazarian Armenia -- A new cafe and restaurant is constructed at Mashtots Park in downtown Yerevan, August 4, 2020. Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian defended on Tuesday his decision to allow the construction of a new restaurant and café in a famous park which was the scene of a three-month standoff between former municipal authorities and environmental activists eight years ago. Marutian’s predecessor, Taron Markarian, sparked angry protests in early 2012 when he placed a dozen commercial kiosks in the small park located in downtown Yerevan. They were due to be rented out to private entrepreneurs. Scores of mostly young people demonstrated there on a virtually basis for more than three months in protest against what they saw as further damage to the city’s green areas. They repeatedly clashed with riot police while trying to stop construction work. The protests ended only after then President Serzh Sarkisian visited the park and publicly told Markarian to remove the kiosks. The decision was hailed as a landmark triumph of growing civic activism in Armenia. Armenia - A police officer tries to stop environmental activists pitching a tent in Yerevan's Mashtots Park, 13Mar2012. The former authorities refurbished the park, commonly known as Mashtots Park, in the following years. Only one structure, a one-story glass-and-steel café and restaurant built in the early 2000s, was allowed to remain there. The café was dismantled after the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” which was followed by Marutian’s election as Yerevan mayor. It emerged earlier this year that the new municipal administration allowed its owner to build a new and apparently larger property in its place. The builders have cut down several trees as a result, triggering an uproar on social media from environment protection and other civic groups in recent days. The latter have demanded that the mayor’s office halt and ban the construction. Some activists point out that Marutian was among those prominent public figures who voiced support for the 2012 protests at Mashtots Park. The 43-year-old mayor was a popular TV comedian at the time. Armenia -- Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian speaks at a news conference, August 4, 2020. Marutian held a news conference on Tuesday to explain his decision which he said was the result of a deal struck with the café owner. In his words, the owner agreed to give up ownership of the 300-square-meter former café in return for renting the same plot of land from the municipality until 2040. The new café will formally belong to the municipality, stressed Marutian. He also insisted that the trees in question were too old and had to be cut down in any case. The mayor further defended his failure to organize prior public discussions on the issue. “Discussions are held during elections,” he said. “Then [voters] elect a mayor, who takes over and makes decisions.” Marutian announced at the same time that work on the new café was suspended earlier in the day because of what he described as violations of the construction permit issued by his office. He said he will decide his further steps after municipal officials “ascertain the number of deviations” from the construction project. 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.