Wednesday,
Jailed Ex-Minister Goes On Trial
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian attends a parliament session in
Yerevan, November 16, 2015.
Gagik Khachatrian, a former Armenian finance minister, and his nephew went on
trial on Wednesday one year after being arrested on corruption charges denied by
them.
The two men were initially charged with a large-scale “waste” of government
funds. The National Security Service (NSS) claimed that Khachatrian hired and
registered employees who never reported for work when he headed the State
Revenue Committee (SRC) from 2008-2014. His indicted nephew Karen held another
senior position in the government agency comprising Armenia’s tax and customs
services.
Law-enforcement authorities brought several more criminal charges against
Khachatrian earlier this year. They accused him of abuse of power, forgery and
bribery. The crimes allegedly committed by him cost the state more than 20
billion drams ($41 million) in financial damage, according to them.
Khachatrian, who served as finance minister in former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s administration from 2014-2016, rejected the fresh accusations as
well.
Over the past year Armenian courts have repeatedly refused to release him from
custody despite his apparent health problems. The 64-year-old spent three months
in a Yerevan hospital earlier this year.
Khachatrian was absent from the opening session of his trial. In a letter to the
presiding judge read out by one of his lawyers, he said that he is too frail to
attend the court hearing.
One of the lawyers, Yerem Sargsian, said that his client now has trouble
standing on his feet and moving because of spinal cord problems. Sargsian
renewed his demands for the ex-minister’s release from jail.
One of the trial prosecutors countered, however, that Khachatrian should remain
under arrest because he could obstruct justice if set free. The prosecutor noted
in that regard that Khachatrian’s two sons went into hiding in early May after
being also indicted by the NSS.
Armenia -- Gurgen Khachatrian.
One of the sons, Gurgen Khachatrian, is the chairman of Ucom, a leading Armenian
telecommunication operator controlled by the ex-minister’s extended family. In
an April 28 statement, he claimed that “high-ranking” officials have threatened
to arrest him if the family refuses to sell its 77 percent stake in Ucom at a
knockdown price.
Responding to that claim, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said through a
spokeswoman that Gagik Khachatrian and his relatives must return hundreds of
millions dollars “stolen from the people.” She said authorities will allow the
Khachatrians to sell Ucom only if the latter agree to transfer all proceeds from
such a deal to the government.
Khachatrian was dogged by corruption allegations throughout his tenure, with
some Armenian media outlets and opposition figures accusing him of using his
position to become one of the country’s richest men. They pointed to his
family’s extensive business interests, which include not only Ucom but also a
shopping mall, a car dealership and a luxury watch store in Yerevan.
Khachatrian repeatedly denied ownership of these and other businesses, saying
that they belong to his two sons and other relatives.
Baku, Yerevan Again Urged To Respect Karabakh Truce
RUSSIA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov greets his Azeri counterpart
Ceyhun Bayramov, as a COVID-19 medic is ready to measure temperature, in Moscow,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday urged Armenia and Azerbaijan
to prevent further ceasefire violations, saying that is essential for
kick-starting the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
Lavrov expressed Russia’s readiness to help create the “necessary atmosphere”
for resuming Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations during a meeting with his
visiting Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov. He also discussed the Karabakh
conflict in a phone call with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian.
“I understand that our common intent is to continue the negotiation process,”
Lavrov told a joint news conference with Bayramov held after the talks. “In this
regard, it is important to ensure the necessary atmosphere for setting up a
steady negotiating process.”
“We will do our best to foster the creation of such conditions both in the
national capacity and as one of the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,” he
said.
Lavrov said that he specifically discussed with Bayramov the Russian, U.S. and
French mediators’ plans to visit the conflict zone and organize talks between
the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. He stressed that the plans are
contingent on preventing the kind of deadly ceasefire violations that broke out
on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on July 12.
“We very much hope that what happened in July will not be repeated,” added the
chief Russian diplomat.
The weeklong border clashes involving artillery and attack drones left at least
17 soldiers from both sides dead. Lavrov said last week that “active Russian
mediation” helped to stop them.
Speaking at the news conference in Moscow, Bayramov, who was appointed as
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister on July 16, blamed Armenia for the flare-up of
violence and accused it of obstructing a Karabakh settlement. He also said that
the talks planned by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the Minsk Group
must be “substantive.”
It was not immediately clear whether Lavrov’s phone conversation with
Mnatsakanian took place just before or after his meeting with Bayramov. The
Armenian Foreign Ministry released no details of the conversation.
Immediately after the border fighting Yerevan called on Baku to agree to
confidence-building measures that would bolster the ceasefire regime. It
referred to concrete agreements to that effect that had been reached by
Azerbaijani President Aliyev and his former Armenian counterpart President Serzh
Sarkisian in 2016.
The agreements called for the deployment of more OSCE field observers in the
conflict zone and international investigations of armed incidents occurring
there. Baku subsequently refused to implement them, saying that they would
cement the status quo.
Yerevan Apartment Block Hit By Deadly Blast
• Artak Khulian
Armenian -- A rescuer and a sniffer dog search through the rubble of an
apartment building severely damaged by an explosion, Yerevan, .
One person was killed and two others injured in an explosion that partly
destroyed an apartment building in Yerevan early on Wednesday.
Both injured residents of the four-story building were rushed to hospital. One
of them, a 40-year-old man, was reportedly in a critical condition.
Armenia’s Minister for Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakian suggested that a gas
leak was the likely cause of the blast as he oversaw a search and rescue
operation conducted by his subordinates.
The rescuers needed more than five hours to find and recover the body of the
deceased victim buried under the rubble of the building’s destroyed section.
Tsolakian said that the 58-year-old man was found lying on his bed. “He was
probably asleep,” the minister told journalists at the scene.
Authorities also evacuated 21 other residents of the building located in
Yerevan’s northern Kanaker-Zeytun district. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
pledged to provide them with temporary housing when he inspected the site of the
explosion in the morning.
According to Tsolakian, the blast destroyed or seriously damaged 12 apartments.
It also blew out windows in adjacent apartment blocks.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee was quick to launch a criminal inquiry into
the deadly accident. The law-enforcement agency said in the afternoon that its
officers are questioning local residents and taking other “investigative
actions.”
Armenian Military Proposes New Auxiliary Force
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- An Armenian army reservist takes a selfie with Defense Minister Davit
Tonoyan (R) during a military exercise, September 30, 2019.
The Armenian Defense Ministry has called for the creation of a nationwide
militia that would reinforce Armenia’s armed forces in times of war.
A bill drafted by the ministry cites the need to expand Armenians’ involvement
in national defense, which has until now mainly taken the form of compulsory
military service performed by male citizens and call-ups of army reservists.
Under the bill, the new auxiliary force would be formed on a territorial basis
in Yerevan and towns and villages across the country and consist of units
commanded by deputy heads of relevant local governments. It would be subordinate
to the Armenian army command.
One of the proposed amendments to several Armenian laws lists the tasks to be
performed by the militia. In particular, the latter would have to “confront,
neutralize and destroy” enemy special forces trying to strike key military and
civilian facilities “deep inside the country’s territory.” The auxiliaries could
also be deployed at “endangered sections” of Armenia’s borders or “line of
contact with the adversary.”
The Defense Ministry bill posted on a government website on Tuesday has not yet
been discussed and approved by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet. Defense
Minister Davit Tonoyan and other military officials have not publicly commented
on it so far.
The bill was praised and endorsed on Wednesday by Sasun Mikaelian, an
influential lawmaker affiliated with Pashinian’s My Step bloc and a prominent
veteran of the 1991-1994 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia -- Volunteers are handed uniforms, weapons and ammunition at a military
base in Yerevan before their departure to Nagorno-Karabakh, April 3, 2016.
Mikaelian said the Armenian military needs such a volunteer militia because “we
are surrounded by enemies.” He also spoke of an increased threat of Turkey’s
direct military intervention in the Karabakh conflict on Azerbaijan’s side.
“The militia must have at least 100,000 members,” Mikaelian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service. “There could be a sudden enemy attack at any moment and we
must be prepared for it.”
The proposed volunteer force would not be a substitute for a possible wartime
mobilization of Armenian army reservists. The army called up tens of thousands
of such reservists during what it described as “strategic” military exercises
held in Armenia and Karabakh in September 2019.
Mikaelian also heads the Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh war veterans. Many of its
members as well as thousands of other Armenian volunteers joined Karabakh’s
Armenian-backed army in April 2016 during large-scale hostilities that nearly
escalated into an all-out Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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