Monday,
Minister Details Coronavirus Safety Measures Ahead Of Reopening Of Schools
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenian Education Minister Arayik Harutiunian during an interview with RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service, .
Wearing face masks in classes will be mandatory for students in schools and
universities that reopen across Armenia next month, Education Minister Arayik
Harutiunian said on Tuesday, detailing basic health precautions that Armenian
authorities plan to put in place at all educational establishments to avoid
major coronavirus outbreaks.
All schools, universities, and other general education institutions in Armenia
have remained closed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March
when they switched to distance learning to ensure the continuity of the
educational process.
Minister Harutiunian said earlier this month that classes in all secondary
schools in Armenia as well as in vocational training colleges, music, and art
schools will begin on September 15. He said that university classes for freshman
students will open on September 1, while all others will start in mid-September.
Presenting coronavirus safety measures in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service (Azatutyun) on August 18 Harutiunian said that instead of five days a
week, students will attend schools six days a week, which will make it possible
to reduce the hours that they spend inside schools. Students’ spending less time
at schools will make it possible not to open school canteens, added the minister.
No more than 20 students will be allowed in one classroom and classes will be
organized in two shifts, said Harutiunian.
According to the minister, in physical training and signing classes students
will learn only theory, without engaging in practical exercises, which will also
reduce the risk of the spread of the coronavirus.
“These new rules are mandatory for both public and private schools,” Harutiunian
said.
The minister also recommended that two weeks before the start of the classes
children and their parents voluntarily self-isolate and limit their contacts “in
order not to bring the virus to schools and universities on the very first day
of the new academic year and break a possible large chain [of the infection
spread].”
“This will most likely allow us not to revert to restrictions at least during
the first semester,” Harutiunian added.
The minister said that authorities will respond to coronavirus cases identified
in schools by tracing the contacts of infected students and testing all their
classmates. “We will be acting in accordance with the situation…If as a result
of testing no spread is revealed among an infected student’s classmates, lessons
in this class will not be suspended. But if we do see the spread of the virus,
classes for these students will be discontinued and they will continue their
studies online,” he said.
The state of emergency introduced in Armenia in March to stem the spread of the
novel coronavirus is due to end on September 11. The government has indicated
that it will not seek an extension unless the coronavirus situation takes a turn
for the worse.
Armenia has recorded more than 42,000 coronavirus cases and 833 deaths since the
start of the epidemic. In recent weeks, however, the country’s heath authorities
have been reporting decreasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases and fatalities.
Former Yerevan Mayor Linked To Large-Scale Money Laundering Case
• Robert Zargarian
Former Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglarian (file photo)
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has opened a criminal case into what
it says was a case of large-scale money laundering allegedly involving former
Yerevan mayor Gagik Beglarian.
According to the NSS, Beglarian is suspected of involvement in illicit property
deals in 2009 when he served as Yerevan mayor as a result of which the municipal
budget lost 235 million drams (over $482,000).
Beglarian, a former member of ex-President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of
Armenia, in March was already charged with corruption in connection with illegal
privatization of municipal buildings, including kindergartens.
The NSS statement also said that although a Yerevan court has allowed
investigators to arrest Beglarian, the latter is not in Armenia and has been put
on the wanted list.
Beglarian’s lawyer Hrant Ananian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) on
Tuesday that his client was “surprised” by the announcement of a new criminal
case. He said they were not aware of the case.
“As Mr. Beglarian’s lawyer, I have no information about this case. Mr. Beglarian
has not received any notification regarding this case either. We learn about it
from the media,” the lawyer said.
The former mayor’s legal representative stopped short of commenting on the case
in detail yet, but said that as an expert he saw no grounds to link Beglarian to
any money-laundering crime.
Ananian said that Beglarian is still receiving treatment abroad, without
specifying his whereabouts. He found it difficult to say when the former Yerevan
mayor plans to return to Armenia.
Ex-President Sarkisian To Hold First Press Conference Since Resignation
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Former Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian arrives in parliament to testify to an
ad hoc committee looking into the 2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan,
April 16, 2020.
For the first time since his resignation as prime minister in 2018, former
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian is going to hold a press conference, his
office has announced.
The former leader’s aides said that the press conference scheduled for August 19
will deal with the topic of the April 2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, which
has been a matter of a parliamentary investigation during which Sarkisian was
also summoned to testify in April.
During a rare and brief conversation with journalists then he promised to hold
an extensive press conference after the end of the coronavirus-related state of
emergency, which has been repeatedly extended in Armenia since then and is now
due to end on September 11.
On August 7, Sarkisian posted on Facebook a series of short video messages in
which he defended his government’s policies during the deadly hostilities in
Nagorno-Karabakh in 2016 that he said amounted to an Armenian victory given that
Azerbaijan failed to achieve its strategic goals.
He blamed the current government’s “failed fight against the pandemic” and the
continuing state of emergency for his failure to meet the press and speak at
length for the first time since his resignation in April 2018.
It is not clear why Sarkisian decided not to wait until the end of the state of
emergency and decided to hold a press conference before the publication by the
parliament’s ad hoc commission of a report on its inquiry into the “April war.”
Sarkisian office coordinator Meri Harutiunian said in a Facebook post on Monday
that there will be some “interesting revelations” during the announced press
conference.
Chairman of the parliament’s ad hoc committee Andranik Kocharian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service (Azatutyun) that they are waiting for Sarkisian’s “epochal
revelations” to complete their report, on which they are still working. “If it
becomes clear at the press conference that Sarkisian hid something from the
committee, we will include that in the report, too,” Kocharian said.
Sarkisian, who barely held any news conference during his presidential tenure in
2008-2018, is likely to hold his largest press conference yet.
It is reported that all journalists accredited to the National Assembly, of whom
there are about a hundred in Armenia, have been invited to attend the event,
which, according to Sarkisian's office, will be held in the open-air space of
Harsnakar, a restaurant complex in Yerevan owned by Ruben Hayrapetian, a
fugitive member of the ex-president’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
The former president’s choice of the venue for holding his first press
conference in years has also drawn criticism. Harsnakar is a restaurant in
Yerevan’s suburban district of Avan where in 2012 the bodyguards of its owner
Hayrapetian beat a young military doctor to death. That incident sparked
sustained protests by civil society and human rights activists that led to
Hayrapetian’s giving up his parliamentary mandate.
Human rights activist Zhanna Aleksanian considers it remarkable that Sarkisian
apparently does not even remember that a person was killed at the place where he
plans a press conference. “Harsnakar is remembered only as a murder site. What
is remarkable is that it doesn’t even cross their mind that they should reckon
with the public opinion at least now that they are no longer in power,” she said.
Aleksanian also sees Sarkisian’s choice of the venue for his press conference as
a way to show his support for Hayrapetian, who is wanted by Armenian authorities
as part of two criminal investigations involving kidnapping, violent assault,
extortion and illegal land privatization charges.
Hayrapetian left for Russia in March this year shortly before being indicted. In
May, a Yerevan court agreed to issue an arrest warrant for Hayrapetian before
investigators launched an international hunt for him.
Earlier this month Armenia’s Prosecutor’s Office learned that Hayrapetian has
been a Russian citizen since 2003, an apparent reason for Moscow not to agree to
extradite him.
Hayrapetian strongly denies all accusations leveled against him and the HHK
rejects the cases against the former lawmaker and former head of Armenia’s
soccer federation as politically motivated.
Analyst Says Democratic Change In Belarus Of High Significance To Armenia
• Nane Sahakian
Political analyst Richard Giragosian during an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service, Yerevan, .
A leading Armenian political analyst believes that the establishment of
democracy in Belarus will be of high significance to Armenia, a member of the
Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization
that also include Belarus.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) on August 17 Richard
Giragosian, the founding director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center,
said that in that case Armenia where a democratic change of government took
place in 2018 will no longer feel “alone” in the post-Soviet groupings.
Giragosian thinks that the resignation of Belarusian President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka is only a matter of time. “It’s a question of days and even hours of
what time he has left. But I don’t think the question is if, but [I think it’s]
when he will leave power,” the political analyst said.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have been filling the streets of capital
Minsk and other Belarusian cities protesting against the official results of the
August 9 presidential election that they believe have been rigged in favor of
Lukashenka who has ruled Belarus since 1994.
Many observers in Yerevan have been drawing parallels between the unfolding
events in Belarus and Armenia’s peaceful protests in 2018 that led to the
resignation of Serzh Sarkisian, who attempted to extend his rule after
completing two five-year presidential terms.
“In a general sense like Armenia’s 2018 Velvet Revolution the movement in
Belarus is everything except geopolitical. This is not about the European Union,
it’s not about Russia or the West. It’s about a change of government in Belarus
like in Armenia,” Giragosian said. “One key difference in what makes Belarus
very different from Armenia is that in 2018 former President Serzh Sarkisian in
many ways realized that his time had run out. And to his credit, he did not go
out fighting. Lukashenka wants to go out with a battle.”
The political analyst also drew some parallels between the crackdown on
opposition supporters in Belarus and the crackdown on Armenia’s post-election
protests in 2018 in which 10 people were killed. “[The] March 1, 2008
[crackdown] was replicated, repeated in Belarus with the overreaction by the
security forces using torture, imprisonment of not only demonstrators, but even
innocent by-standers,” he said.
Giragosian highlighted several important aspects of democratic change in Belarus
for Armenia. “One is that Armenia is no longer vulnerable by being alone. We are
no longer the only victory of non-violence and people power and a democracy [in
post-Soviet groupings]. Belarus will hopefully join us. And second, what this
also means is that the real loser here is not just Lukashenka, it’s [Azerbaijani
President Ilham] Aliyev in Baku. Azerbaijan, after events in Belarus, is now
much more isolated and vulnerable,” he said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, the leader of Armenia’s 2018 “Velvet
Revolution”, sent congratulations to Lukashenka on his disputed reelection hours
after Belarus’s Central Election Commission announced the preliminary results of
the vote on August 10.
Only a handful of world leaders have congratulated Lukashenka on his disputed
election win. Among them are Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s leader
Xi Jinping. The European Union has said it does not recognize the results, and
the United States has expressed deep concern over the election results and the
unrest, with President Donald Trump describing the situation unfolding in
Belarus as “terrible.”
Pashinian’s move immediately drew criticism from his political opponents and
some leading human rights activists who believe that the Armenian leader took a
hasty step. Pashinian himself refused to comment on the criticism, but other
officials and pro-government lawmakers have defended his step.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on August 16 Secretary of
Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigorian said that decisions like the one to
congratulate Lukashenka are taken on the basis of a “comprehensive risk
assessment.”
“Security-related and other major decisions have grounds, they are not born out
of thin air,” Grigorian said. “In general, a complete risk assessment is made,
and a decision is taken in the interests of the Republic of Armenia.”
Giragosian also questions the timing of the congratulatory message that
Pashinian sent to Lukashenka.
“My problem and criticism is not necessarily with the message itself, but the
timing of the message. It was sent much too quickly and it would have been much
smarter for the Armenian government to delay, to wait. Also, to send a message
later would be lost in the overwhelming responses of other bigger countries. But
we are someone exposed for the hypocrisy of it. In other words, doesn’t that
message to Lukashenka and that election in particular stand in contradiction to
everything that the Armenian government is supposed to stand for? This is my
problem. And it wasn’t smart diplomatically. What was the rush? It should have
and could have been delayed to a more cautious approach,” the political analyst
concluded.
Key Witness In Tsarukian Case Denies Vote-Buying
• Naira Bulghadarian
Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian arrives for a court hearing in
Yerevan, June 21, 2020.
A key witness in the criminal case against opposition Prosperous Armenia Party
(BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian has denied that the money he received from the
tycoon ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections was meant for vote buying.
Earlier this year the National Security Service (NSS) said that when it searched
the office of a construction company owned by Vazgen Poghosian as part of a
different criminal case it found evidence incriminating Tsarukian in organizing
vote buying for his bloc during the elections.
In June, Tsarukian was stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution
and indicted on vote buying charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
A lower court in Yerevan later refused to issue an arrest warrant sought by
investigators for Tsarukian, confining the wealthy businessman to country limits
pending the investigation of the case. Prosecutors have appealed the decision.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) this week Poghosian,
who is considered to be the main witness in the case, acknowledged that he had
received a hefty amount of money from Tsarukian ahead of the 2017 vote, but
insisted that it was intended to cover the costs of the general BHK election
campaign rather than buy votes.
“[As a witness] I went through confrontation with Tsarukian at the NSS
investigation committee and you can find out all these secrets in the
investigation committee. I have no problems with Tsarukian, all this is a lie,
it is just to arouse interest among people. Tsarukian and I have known each
other since 1990. I built his business premises, his casino, I laid the
foundations of the church he built. I built all that, and I was paid very
generously,” said Poghosian, director of the Yerevanshin construction company.
Poghosian is accused of giving a bribe to a former chairman of the Urban
Development Committee. It was within the framework of this criminal case that in
February law-enforcement officers conducted a search at Yerevanshin and found
documents related to alleged vote buying. The NSS also reported that Poghosian,
who was a candidate on the slate of the bloc led by Tsarukian in the 2017
elections to the National Assembly, had informed law-enforcement officials about
electoral bribes.
Poghosian, however, insists that the 90 million drams (about $185,000) mentioned
in the NSS statement were spent only for campaign purposes. “Every election
requires expenses, doesn’t it? Why do you consider it to be vote buying? Don’t
you need money for organizational work? All these expenses were for
organizational work – to rent offices, to pay people for two months, to buy
fuel, pay for electricity, water and sewage, pay for other costs. Who should be
paying for all that if not the party? Participation in general elections
requires serious expenses, and it should not be considered a bribe,” the
68-year-old businessman said.
Poghosian polled 8,151 votes as a candidate on the Tsarukian bloc list in the
2017 parliamentary elections, but later he gave up his parliamentary mandate.
According to prosecutors, Poghosian testified that in 2017 Tsarukian invited him
and offered him to run in the elections on condition that he secure at least
9,000 votes in the Gegharkunik province. It was as part of that agreement that
Poghosian received money from two other associates of Tsarukian – Sedrak
Arustamian, the director of the Multi Group Company owned by the Tsarukian
family, and Abraham Manukian, a former BHK lawmaker – for vote buying purposes,
prosecutors allege.
Poghosian confirmed that he had met with Arustamian and Manukian, but said those
meetings were aimed at securing financing for the campaign and not for vote
buying. “I didn’t discuss it with Tsarukian. Tsarukian instructed me to ‘go to
the guys.’ The guys were Abraham Manukian and Sedrak Arustamian,” he said.
Manukian and another former BHK lawmaker Vanik Asatrian are also charged in the
same case. Only Asatrian is under arrest. As part of the investigation Poghosian
has also been confronted with Manukian.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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