Thursday, Head Of Armenian Judicial Watchdog Prosecuted Armenia -- Ruben Vartazarian, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, holds a news conference in Yerevan, September 4, 2019. Law-enforcement authorities have launched criminal proceedings against the head of a state body overseeing Armenia’s judiciary more than one month after he was strongly criticized by pro-government lawmakers. The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) said on Thursday Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian has notified it about the opening of a criminal case against its chairman, Ruben Vartazarian. In a statement, it said Vartazarian was therefore suspended as head of the SJC and a Yerevan district court judge pending investigation. Neither the SJC nor Davtian’s office gave any details of the investigation. They said only that the criminal proceedings are not connected with the performance of Vartazarian’s duties. Vartazarian made no public statements on the development. Some media outlets reported that he was summoned to the Special Investigative Service (SIS) for questioning later on Thursday. The law-enforcement agency did not confirm or deny this as of 10 p.m. local time. Vartazarian faced a barrage of harsh criticism from lawmakers representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc during a question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament in early March. They accused him of effectively siding with opposition groups trying to topple Pashinian. They pointed to a November 15 statement in which Vartazarian urged judges to prove that they are “honest professionals,” rather than “judges whimpering under walls.” Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits his supporters blocking the entrance to a court in Yerevan, May 20, 2019 Pashinian lambasted unnamed “whimpering” judges in 2019 when he accused the Armenian judiciary of maintaining ties with the country’s former leadership. The My Step deputies charged that with his controversial statement Vartazarian encouraged courts to hand down anti-government rulings. The SJC chairman flatly denied that. In recent months, Armenian judges have refused to allow law-enforcement authorities to arrest dozens of opposition leaders and members as well as other anti-government activists. Virtually all of those individuals are prosecuted in connection with street protests sparked by the Pashinian administration’s handling of the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinian claimed in December that Armenia’s judicial system has become part of a “pseudo-elite” which is trying to topple him after the disastrous war. Vartazarian rejected the criticism. Armenia -- Gagik Jahangirian (R) attends a session of the Armenian parliament, January 22, 2021. Vartazarian has headed the SJC for almost two years. The body empowered to nominate, sanction and fire Armenian judges will be run by its oldest member, Gagik Jahangirian, at least until the end of the inquiry. The parliament controlled by the ruling bloc elected Jahangirian and another lawyer to the SJC in January. Critics of the Armenia government say that Pashinian expects them to help increase his influence on courts. Jahangirian criticized Pashinian’s political team for not “purging” the judiciary when he spoke in the parliament in January. He called for “getting rid of judges who committed blatant human rights violations.” Jahangirian himself was accused of serious human rights abuses when he served as Armenia’s chief military prosecutor from 1997-2006. He has always denied the allegations voiced by civic activists. Armenians In No Rush To Get COVID-19 Vaccine • Satenik Hayrapetian GEORGIA -- A health worker holds a vial of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Infectious Diseases, AIFS and Clinical Immunology Research Center in Tbilisi, March 15, 2021 Only 60 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 during the first two days of the Armenian government’s first major inoculation program launched earlier this week, health authorities said on Thursday. The vaccinations targeting only frontline workers, seniors and people suffering from chronic illnesses began in Yerevan on Tuesday and other parts of Armenia the following day. The authorities are currently using 24,000 doses of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca’s vaccine which were delivered to the country on March 28. Only people aged 55 and older are eligible for the vaccine jab because of lingering questions about its safety. Younger people deemed most at risk from the coronavirus will be offered the Russian Sputnik V vaccine later this month. Armenia received 15,000 doses of the jab on April 8. Health officials acknowledged that even vulnerable Armenians are in no rush to take free vaccines despite a high rate of coronavirus infections. Yerevan’s Policlinic No. 13 administered its first vaccine shot on Thursday. Its director, Ruzan Durgarian, said policlinic staff are now busy phoning residents of surrounding neighborhoods eligible for the first vaccinations and inviting them to the medical center. So far, she said, most people have declined the invitations. “Some people say they don’t want to be vaccinated while others say they have heard bad things about that or claim they are allergic to vaccines,” explained Durgarian. Many of the elderly and middle-aged people randomly interviewed in the streets told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they are ready to be vaccinated. “I’m afraid [of taking a vaccine,] but both I and my husband have already been infected and know what a tough experience it is,” said one woman. Another woman said she does not trust Armenian health institutions and plans to get a Sputnik shot in Russia. “I don’t know what they inject here,” she said. Another pensioner did not trust the coronavirus vaccines. “I’m afraid of dying,” she said. Armenia -- Medics at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center in Yerevan, Armenia's largest hospital treating COVID-19 patients, June 5, 2020. Concerns about the AstraZeneca jab’s presumed dangerous side-effects appeared to be one of the reasons for the slow pace of vaccinations. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian again downplayed the risk of a rare blood clotting disorder linked to the vaccine when she spoke in the Armenian parliament on Thursday. “Many countries have resumed use [of the AstraZeneca vaccine] but changed age thresholds [for its recipients,]” she said, arguing that the Armenian government has done the same to minimize the health risk. Avanesian reiterated that the government’s objective is to have between 600,000 and 700,000 people vaccinated within a year. She said this will be enough to develop herd immunity against COVID-19 in the country of about 3 million. The Armenian Ministry of Health reported, meanwhile, 1,014 new single-day coronavirus cases and the deaths of 30 more people infected with the disease. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths thus reached 4,781, according to the ministry. Armenia is currently grappling with a third wave of infections that began in late February. Critics blame the resurgence of COVID-19 on the authorities’ failure to enforce their physical distancing and sanitary restrictions. Armenia Could Extend Ban On Imports From Turkey • Naira Nalbandian Armenia - Commercial trucks parked at the Bagratashen border crossing with Georgia, November 29, 2018. (Photo by the State Revenue Committee of Armenia) The Armenian government may well extend a ban on the import of manufactured goods from Turkey which it initiated during last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian said on Thursday. The six-month month ban came into force on December 31. Yerevan described it as retaliation for Ankara’s “inflammatory calls,” arms supplies to Azerbaijan and “deployment of terrorist mercenaries to the conflict zone.” Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Grigorian said the government is now inclined to extend the measure in June. He clarified that the import ban does not apply to Turkish raw materials and parts used by Armenian manufacturers. Armenia imported (mostly via Georgia) $220 million worth of Turkish-manufactured products last year, Grigorian said, adding that local firms can produce or import them from China, Russia or other ex-Soviet states. “I think that the market will very quickly adapt to this situation,” he told lawmakers. Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and kept the border between the two states closed since the early 1990s out of solidarity with Azerbaijan. It has also banned all imports from Armenia. Ankara has yet to clarify whether a final Karabakh settlement acceptable to Baku remains a precondition for normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations after the six-week war that resulted in the restoration of Azerbaijani control over all districts around Karabakh. Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian said late last month that the Turks must end their “hostile actions against Armenia” if they want to contribute to peace and stability in the region. Ayvazian’s remarks contrasted with a statement on Turkish-Armenian relations made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian earlier in March. The latter said Armenia also needs to review its policies towards Turkey as well as Azerbaijan. “We, the regional countries, must reappraise our mutual attitudes and postures,” said Pashinian. Opposition leaders and other critics of the Armenian government denounced that statement as further proof of Pashinian’s desire to continue sacrificing Armenia’s national interests. Armenian President Opposes Heavier Fines For Defamation Georgia - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian arrives in Tbilisi on an official visit, . President Armen Sarkissian has refused to sign into law a government-backed bill that would triple maximum legal fines set for defamation in Armenia, calling it a threat to the freedom of speech. He has also asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality of the measure condemned by Armenian press freedom groups. The bill involving amendments to the Armenian Civil Code was drafted by a close associate of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian, and passed by the National Assembly late last month. It stipulates that media outlets and individuals convicted of “slander” could be fined as much as 6 million drams ($11,500) while those making offensive claims will face a maximum fine of up to 2 million drams. Later in March, Armenia’s leading media associations asked Sarkissian not to endorse the bill and to challenge it in the Constitutional Court instead, saying that it could be exploited by government officials and politicians to stifle press freedom. The president met with their representatives shortly afterwards. In a statement released on Thursday, the presidential press office said Sarkissian shares their concerns. It said that while Sarkissian regards defamation offenses as “unacceptable and condemnable” he believes that the much heavier fines “could cause substantial damage to the freedom of speech and considerably limit journalists’ freedom and media outlets’ ability to … objectively cover the activities of officials and public figures in an unconstrained manner.” The bill also appears to be “contentious in terms of its constitutionality,” the statement said, adding that the head of state has appealed to the Constitutional Court for that reason. In what civics groups see as a related development, Armenian prosecutors drafted earlier this year legislation that would make defamation of state officials a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. All forms of libel and defamation were decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during the rule of former President Serzh Sarkisian. The move was recommended by the Council of Europe. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.