Friday, Armenia Toughens Financial Disclosure Requirements For Officials Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian (C) talks to Minister of High-Tech Industry Hakob Arshakian during the Armenian government's question-and-answer session in parliament, Yerevan, September 16, 2020. The Armenian parliament approved on Friday a government proposal to require high-ranking state officials to provide an anti-corruption body with detailed information about not only their assets but also major private expenditures. Under a relevant bill passed by the National Assembly, any single expenditure exceeding 2 million drams ($4,100) must be declared to the Commission on Prevention of Corruption. That includes money spent on leisure, debt repayment or the purchase of real estate, cars or other expensive items. The state commission has until now scrutinized only income and asset declarations filed by senior government officials, parliamentarians, judges as well as their family members. It can ask law-enforcement bodies to prosecute individuals suspected of making false disclosures. It can also conduct its own inquiries into possible conflicts of interest. The bill will extend the asset declaration requirement to local government officials and members of the municipal councils of Yerevan and most other urban communities. In addition, it requires the officials in question to also disclose properties and cars which they use but do not formally own. Presenting the bill to lawmakers on Thursday, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian described the tougher financial disclosure rules as an additional safeguard against corruption in Armenia. The bill was approved by 101 votes to 17. Voting against it were deputies from the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK). The Armenpress news agency quoted one of them, Taron Simonian, as saying that the LHK supports the measure in principle and will back its passage in the second reading if the government accepts amendments drafted by his party. Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with senior law-enforcement officials, Yerevan, February 26, 2020. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” after coming to power in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” The number of corruption cases brought by Armenian law-enforcement authorities has risen sharply since the dramatic change of government. The most high-profile cases have involved former top government officials and individuals linked to them. Nevertheless, Pashinian said in February that he is not satisfied with the results of the corruption investigations. He said law-enforcement bodies must do more to recover “funds stolen from the state.” In April, Pashinian’s government pushed through the parliament a controversial bill that allows prosecutors to investigate individuals suspected of having assets the market value of which exceeds their “legal incomes” by at least 50 million drams ($103,000). The prosecutors can ask courts to nationalize those assets if they find such discrepancies. Earlier this month, the Office of the Prosecutor-General set up a special division tasked with handling possible asset seizures. Armenian Embassy In Israel Inaugurated Israel - An office building in Tel Aviv housing the newly opened Armenian Embassy,August 30, 2020. Armenia has reportedly inaugurated its embassy in Israel one year after deciding to upgrade diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. The opening of the Armenian Embassy in Tel Aviv, initially slated for the beginning of this year, was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. A Russian-language news website, Vesti Izrail, reported that a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official attended the opening ceremony held on Thursday. It quoted the official, Itzhak Carmel-Kagan, as saying that the embassy will facilitate a “constructive dialogue” between the two countries. The Armenian mission located inside a Tel Aviv office building began providing consular services last month. Also, Ambassador Armen Smbat met with leaders of the Armenian community in the Holy Land, including Jerusalem-based Patriarch Nourhan Manougian. The Armenian government decided to open the embassy in September 2019, saying that it will not only “give new impetus” to its relations with Israel but also help to secure the Armenian Apostolic Church’s continued presence in the Holy Land. The decision was hailed by Israeli leaders but criticized by some officials in Iran, a key foreign partner of Armenia. The Armenian ambassador to Iran, Artashes Tumanian, assured a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official in June that Yerevan remains committed to its “friendly” relationship with the Islamic Republic despite its desire to improve Armenian-Israeli ties. Armenia and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1992 but have had no embassies in each other’s capitals until now. The former Armenian ambassadors to the Jewish state were based in Paris, Cairo and Yerevan. Armenia -- Armenian officers demonstrate an Israeli-made "suicide" drone SkyStriker which they say was intercepted during fighting with Azerbaijani forces, July 24, 2020. Armenian-Israeli relations have long been frosty, reflecting differing geopolitical priorities of the two states. Yerevan has repeatedly expressed concern over billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons which Israeli defense companies have sold, with the Israeli government’s blessing, to Azerbaijan over the past decade. “Israel should stop this deadly business with Azerbaijan,” Armenian Foreign Zohrab Mnatsakanian said following deadly fighting that broke out on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July. The Azerbaijani army attacked Armenian military and civilian targets with Israeli-manufactured drones during the weeklong hostilities. The Armenian military claimed to have shot down or intercepted 13 of them. Armenian Official Fears Coronavirus Resurgence • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia -- A healthcare worker wearing protective gear takes notes at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020. Armenia’s COVID-19 infection rate may be increasing again after two months of steady decline, Deputy Health Minister Lena Nanushian warned on Friday. She said that the reopening on Tuesday of all Armenian schools and universities could contribute to a resurgence of coronavirus cases. The Ministry of Health registered between 239 and 295 new daily cases for the last three days, up from an average of roughly 150 cases reported last week. A near doubling of coronavirus tests carried out across the country on a daily basis seems to be the main reason for the increase. Nevertheless, health officials are concerned about the latest COVID-19 statistics. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian echoed their concerns during a cabinet meeting on Thursday. He said the Armenian police must not be lenient towards people refusing to wear mandatory face masks in public spaces. Pointing to data from her ministry, Nanushian said more people contracted the disease than recovered from it in recent days. This will likely translate into a further rise in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, she said. “True, we are now carrying out a larger number of tests,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “But we should take into account factors affecting those indicators. Namely, the population’s increased mobility and the reopening of schools and other educational establishments, which will also contribute to [COVID-19] outbreaks.” Nanushian said that compliance with the government’s strict safety protocols for schools and universities will therefore be critical. She insisted that the government is right to require all school students to wear masks during classes. “All we have to do is to follow the rules and ensure mask-wearing by children, rather than look for dubious sources of information to claim that masks are harmful [for their health.] That’s not true,” added the official. The Ministry of Health has recorded a total of 46,910 coronavirus cases and 926 deaths caused by them since the start of the pandemic. According to it, the number of active cases in the country of about 3 million stood at 3,330 as of Friday morning. Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes, Pashinian Tells Allies Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits Khndzoresk village in Syunik province, September 12, 2020. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has urged his political team not to be afraid of making mistakes and unpopular decisions in implementing its ambitious reform agenda shaped by Armenia’s 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” “The biggest threat to the revolutionary government, formed in an atmosphere of widespread sympathy and affection, is a drive to be ‘right,’” Pashinian said in lengthy Facebook post on Friday. “A government that created the substance of the revolution must take only strategic steps without being afraid of mistakes and by sometimes consciously committing them in cases where expectations of right decisions do not allow it to move forward and ultimately to lead to paralysis and inability to make decisions,” he wrote. “We must give up our penchant for being in the comfort zone of ‘popular love’ because we did not come to power to stay here. We came to power to form a new mental plane for our state and our people and to elevate Armenia to that plane … There is no greater mistake than marking time,” he added. Pashinian said this was the main thrust of his address to leading members of his Civil Contract party and senior government officials delivered late on Thursday. He did not divulge other details of the meeting or specify unpopular government measures which he believes are necessary for the country. Armenia - Supporters of Nikol Pashinian celebrate his election as prime minister of Armenia in Republic Square in Yerevan, 8 May 2018. The meeting came amid the ruling political team’s acrimonious disputes with the parliamentary opposition and a number of civic organizations that supported Pashinian until recently. The latter accuse Pashinian of betraying the goals of the 2018 revolution that brought him to power. They are particularly upset with the choice of three new members of the Constitutional Court appointed by the Armenian parliament earlier this week. The prime minister lambasted the Western-funded civic activists when he spoke in the National Assembly on Wednesday. He charged that they are primarily concerned with their own parochial interests, rather than the rule of law. Armenia -- Celebrations in Yerevan after the election of Nikol Pashinian as prime minister, May 9, 2018. Pashinian is also facing growing opposition calls to sack Arayik Harutiunian, his education minister and longtime associate. Lawmakers representing Civil Contract stood by the embattled minister during a heated parliament debate this week. The debate triggered a renewed war of words between the Pashinian administration and the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). The premier joined Harutiunian in launching scathing personal attacks on BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian. Tsarukian responded in kind. Pashinian stressed on Friday that he and his loyalists have repeatedly proved critics wrong since setting up Civil Contract in 2013. He noted, in particular, that his party was ridiculed by other opposition forces when it launched in March 2018 a campaign to scuttle then President Serzh Sarkisian’s plans to extend his decade-long rule. “You all know what happened next,” Pashinian said, referring to subsequent nationwide protests that toppled Sarkisian. 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.