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
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