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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 12/02/2020

                                        Wednesday, 

Armenian Prosecutors Consider First Asset Seizures

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia -- Srbouhi Galian speaks to RFE/RL, April 15, 2020.

Armenian prosecutors have started scrutinizing assets of more than 200 people to 
determine whether they were acquired illegally and can be confiscated under a 
controversial law enacted earlier this year.
The law drafted by the Armenian government allows the prosecutors to conduct 
such inquiries in case of having “sufficient grounds to suspect” that the market 
value of an individual’s assets exceeds their “legal income” by at least 50 
million drams ($100,000). Should the prosecutors find such discrepancies they 
can ask courts to nationalize them even if their owners are not found guilty of 
corruption or other criminal offenses.

The latter will have to prove the legality of their holdings if they are to 
retain them. They will also be given the option of reaching an out-of-court 
settlement with the authorities, which would require them to hand over at least 
75 percent of their assets in and outside Armenia to the state.

The politically sensitive process is handled by a special team of prosecutors 
formed in September and overseen by Deputy Prosecutor-General Srbuhi Galian.

Galian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday that the team is now 
investigating 206 people suspected of having enriched themselves illegally. She 
declined to name any of them or say whether there are well-known individuals 
among them.

“I hope that the public will hear in the near future about the practical 
application of this legal instrument,” said the 28-year-old official.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly portrayed the law as a major 
anti-corruption measure that will help his administration recover “wealth stolen 
from the people.” Pashinian has indicated his intention to use it against the 
country’s former rulers and their cronies.

Opposition groups and figures, among them supporters of former President Serzh 
Sarkisian, have condemned the law as unconstitutional and accused Pashinian of 
planning a far-reaching “redistribution of assets” to cement his hold on power.

Final decisions on asset forfeiture are due to be made by special 
anti-corruption courts which the Armenian authorities plan to set up soon. The 
government has already drafted a bill on such courts. It is not yet clear when 
it will be debated by the National Assembly.



Armenian Government Eases Martial Law


Armenia -- Riot police detain an opposition protester in Yerevan, December 1, 
2020.

Armenia’s government lifted on Wednesday serious restrictions on civil liberties 
stemming from martial law declared by it following the outbreak of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh war on September 27.

Martial law allowed the government to not only call a nationwide mobilization of 
army reservists but also ban rallies, strikes and media reports critical of its 
war-related decisions. Citing the mobilization, it also prohibited men under the 
age of 55 from leaving the country without permission granted by military 
authorities.

The government announced the lifting of these bans in a decision posted on its 
website. The chief of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s staff also issued a 
separate statement to that effect.

The move came one week after the pro-government majority in the Armenian 
parliament rejected opposition demands to lift martial law altogether.

The two opposition parties represented in the National Assembly said the 
restrictions are no longer necessary after a Russian-brokered ceasefire that 
stopped the bloody war on November 10.

Government officials and parliament majority leaders countered that martial law 
is still needed for the ongoing redeployment of Armenian army units along 
Armenia’s border with four districts west of Karabakh handed over to Azerbaijan 
as a result of the war and the truce agreement.

They said the Defense Ministry has drafted legislation allowing it to call up 
army reservists without martial law. The government, they said, needs time to 
examine and approve the ministry proposals.

Opposition lawmakers claimed that the authorities are keeping the restrictions 
in place to stifle street protests against the truce accord that locked in 
Azerbaijan’s sweeping territorial gains. They also argued that martial law does 
not allow parliamentary motions of no confidence in Pashinian and his cabinet.



Putin Backs Pashinian Over Karabakh Truce Implementation

        • Aza Babayan

RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a summit of the Collective 
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state 
residence outside Moscow, December 2, 2020.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian for agreeing to the “painful” ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and said 
Russia and its ex-Soviet allies should help him implement the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement brokered by Moscow.

“Armenia and the Armenian people have endured a really difficult period in their 
history,” Putin said during a virtual summit of the Russian-led Collective 
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). “The leadership of Armenia, the prime 
minister had to take very hard but necessary, for the Armenian people, decisions.

“I must say that those decisions were painful but, I repeat, necessary, and 
their adoption required the Armenian prime minister’s personal courage. This is 
obvious, and each of us participating in this meeting understands the extent of 
responsibility needed for making such decisions. He [Pashinian] took that 
responsibility.”

“And our task now is to support both the prime minister and his team in order to 
establish a peaceful life, ensure the implementation of all adopted decisions 
and help people [in the Karabakh conflict zone] who have found themselves in a 
difficult situation,” added Putin.

The remarks came amid continuing calls for Pashinian’s resignation voiced by 
Armenian opposition leaders and a growing number of public figures. They hold 
him responsible for sweeping territorial gains made by Azerbaijan during the war 
and locked in by the ceasefire agreement.


Armenia - Opposition parties hold an anti-government rally in Liberty Square, 
Yerevan, November 18, 2020.

The announcement of the agreement on November 10 provoked a series of 
anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan. Opposition groups plan to resume them 
on Saturday.

Pashinian’s critics were further infuriated by Putin’s November 16 assertion 
that the Armenian side would have suffered fewer territorial losses and, in 
particular, retained control of the strategic Karabakh town of Shushi (Shusha) 
had Pashinian agreed to Azerbaijan’s terms of a ceasefire on October 20.

Pashinian has rejected the opposition demands for his resignation and snap 
parliamentary elections. He has pledged to “restore stability” in Armenia in the 
months ahead.

Addressing the CSTO summit from Yerevan, Pashinian again thanked Putin for 
helping to stop the war with Azerbaijan and deploying Russian peacekeepers in 
Karabakh. He also complained about the slow pace of the exchange of Armenian and 
Azerbaijani prisoners of war and mutual handover of bodies of soldiers killed in 
action.



Authorities Implicate Opposition Groups In Yerevan Riots


Armenia - Angry protesters break into the prime minister's office, Yerevan, 
November 10, 2020.

The National Security Service (NSS) on Wednesday accused Armenian opposition 
members and supporters of organizing violent protests in Yerevan following the 
announcement of the Russian-brokered ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Hundreds of angry men broke into Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s office and 
residence and the Armenian parliament and ransacked them early on November 10. 
They condemned the ceasefire agreement as a sellout.

Some of the protesters also beat up parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan. The 
latter underwent several surgeries as a result.

In a statement, the NSS said it has indicted about 50 people and arrested 18 of 
them in a continuing criminal investigation into what it described as “mass 
disturbances” aimed at facilitating a violent overthrow of the Armenian 
government.

The statement claimed that the participants of the riots were recruited by 
“supporters of political forces acting in the opposition field and having 
anti-government views.” Many of the rioters support former Presidents Robert 
Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian or are affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary 
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and other opposition groups, it said.

The security service added that it is now taking “large-scale investigative 
measures” to ascertain “the role of the organizers of the mass disturbances” and 
identify more people involved in the violence. It did not say whether it has 
already brought relevant criminal charges against any opposition politicians.

A senior Dashnaktsutyun member, Bagrat Yesayan, said he has been questioned as a 
witness in the case but not charged by NSS investigators. He said the NSS is now 
trying to falsely implicate him in the violence.

Yesayan accused the Armenian authorities of trying to link the riots to peaceful 
protests against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian launched by Dashnaktsutyun and 
over a dozen other opposition forces on November 10.

The opposition forces hold Pashinian responsible for the outcome of the war and 
want him to resign. The prime minister has rejected their demands.

Kocharian’s office was also quick to react to the NSS allegations.

“It is widely known that President Kocharian has thousands of supporters who are 
patriotic and politically active people and always take part in various 
demonstrations and protest actions,” the office said in a statement. “The NSS’s 
functions and capacity are needed for another task: clarifying the motives of 
treasonous capitulators.”

Pashinian discussed the NSS probe on Monday at a meeting with the heads of 
Armenian law-enforcement bodies, senior judges and other officials. He seemed 
upset with Armenian courts’ refusal to sanction the pre-trial arrest of many of 
the individuals accused of involvement in the November 10 violence.

Opposition figures and other critics of the Armenian government accused 
Pashinian of pressuring the judiciary. Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman 
Tatoyan, also expressed serious concern over the meeting.


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.

 


Eduard Nalbandian: