Thursday, July 1, 2021

Prosecutors Seek First Asset Seizures

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - A mansion in Yerevan believed to belong to the family of Vladimir 
Gasparian, a former chief of the Armenian police.


Armenian prosecutors are poised to ask courts to allow the confiscation of 
expensive properties and other assets of three former officials suspected of 
illegal enrichment.

A controversial law enacted by the Armenian government last year allows 
prosecutors to seek asset forfeiture in case of having “sufficient grounds to 
suspect” that the market value of an individual’s properties exceeds their 
“legal income” by at least 50 million drams ($100,000).

Courts can allow the confiscation of such assets 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.

The politically sensitive process is handled by a special division formed within 
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General last September.

A spokesman for the law-enforcement agency, Gor Abrahamian, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service on Thursday that the division has investigated more than 200 
individuals and believes that at least four of them had illegally enriched 
themselves and their families.

Abrahamian said the prosecutors have secured court decisions to freeze their 
assets worth a combined 6 billion drams ($12 million). Those include 20 
properties and cash, he said.

The suspects are Vladimir Gasparian, a former chief of the Armenian police, 
fugitive former Environment Minister Aram Harutiunian as well as a retired 
National Security Service officer and his son.

Abrahamian said Gasparian has already visited the prosecutors’ headquarters in 
Yerevan to familiarize himself with details of investigators’ claims about the 
legality of properties owned by him, his wife, two children and mother-in-law.

A lawyer for Gasparian declined to say whether the once influential police 
general will plead guilty to the corruption accusations.

The law in question allows an out-of-court settlement of such cases which would 
require suspects to hand over 25 percent of their assets to the state.

In Abrahamian’s words, the prosecutors’ will take court action if the suspects 
refuse such a settlement in the coming weeks.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly portrayed the law on asset 
forfeiture 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 Armenia’s former leaders 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.

One former official, who used to run the Armenian customs service, decided to 
“donate” a luxury hotel belonging to his family to the government in late 2018 
to avoid prosecution on charges of illegal entrepreneurship and money 
laundering. The government has repeatedly failed to auction off the property 
which was valued at $15.8 million before the coronavirus pandemic.



Armenian Officials Lacking Faith In Pashinian Told To Resign


Armenia - Government and law-enforcement officials attend a cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan, June 24, 2021.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday that Armenian civil servants and 
other state officials lacking faith in his administration must resign in view of 
his party’s victory in the June 20 general elections.

Meeting with members of his staff, Pashinian argued that the Civil Contract 
party won a popular mandate to implement its election platform.

“I want to say that the entire government system’s task is very clear: to 
implement over the next five years what is written in the Civil Contract party’s 
pre-election program and was approved by Armenian citizens’ votes,” he said. 
“Therefore, it is people who believe in that program and regard it as their 
operational guideline who must work in the state governance system. This is an 
important precondition.”

“Those who do not believe, do not accept or have reservations [about the 
program] … we find that normal. Therefore, we must wish those who have a problem 
with that success in their further activities,” he said.

Pashinian did not specify any mechanisms for getting rid of government or 
law-enforcement officials not trusting him. He said only that his government is 
planning “major reforms of the civil service system.”

Armenian law bans politically motivated dismissals of civil servants.

During the recent election campaign Pashinian pledged to “purge” the state 
bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local government officials 
supporting the opposition. He repeatedly brandished a hammer meant to symbolize 
a popular “steel mandate” which he said he needs in order to continue ruling 
Armenia with a more firm hand.

The state human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, denounced that campaign 
rhetoric. He said that staff purges inevitably involve mass violations of 
workers’ rights.

The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, stated earlier 
this week that Pashinian’s party received a popular mandate to carry out such 
purges. “The state apparatus … must unequivocally serve the victorious 
[political] force,” he told Armenian Public Television.

According to Armenian press reports, several provincial governors appointed by 
Pashinian are now pressuring elected heads of local communities, who supported 
opposition forces during the elections, to resign. One of those governors has 
publicly demanded their resignation.

The Union of Communities of Armenia, which represents the country’s elected 
local administrations, on Wednesday condemned the government pressure as illegal 
and undemocratic.

Pashinian already pledged to purge the government, judiciary and security 
apparatus of “remnants” of the country’s former leadership in April 2020. He 
accused them of trying to discredit him and scuttle his initiatives.



Pashinian Again Replaces Chief Of Staff

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian speaks at a cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan, June 11, 2020.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian replaced his chief of staff on Thursday for the 
second time in six months.

Arsen Torosian was named to manage the prime minister’s staff on January 18. He 
previously served as Armenia’s health minister.

Torosian was replaced by Arayik Harutiunian, a senior adviser to Pashinian and a 
former education minister. Both men are leading members of Civil Contract.

Pashinian introduced Harutiunian to his staff later in the day. Commenting on 
what was the first major personnel change made by him since his Civil Contract 
party’s victory in the June 20 parliamentary elections, he said Torosian asked 
to be allowed to take up one of the ruling party’s 71 seats in Armenia’s new 
107-member parliament.

Pashinian also cited the need to increase the “efficiency of governance” in the 
country. “The quality of governance starts from the prime minister’s staff,” he 
said.

Pashinian should technically form a new cabinet and receive a vote of confidence 
from the National Assembly later this summer. Neither he nor his political 
allies have indicated so far whether he will replace many of his current 
ministers.

Pashinian sacked seven ministers in a cabinet reshuffle announced by him in the 
aftermath of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire 
in November.

Armen Khachatrian, a pro-government member of Armenia’s outgoing parliament, 
said on Thursday that he does not know whether the new cabinet will be 
significantly different from the current one. He said he hopes that Pashinian 
will pick more technocrats.

“I think that professionals must be chosen … for a number of spheres,” 
Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “As regards the question of who they 
have supported and what they have done, it must not matter at all.”

Khachatrian asserted at the same time that Pashinian’s staffing policy has been 
too “tolerant” until now.

Sofia Hovsepian, one of several lawmakers who defected from Pashinian’s team 
late last year, was skeptical about the composition of the new cabinet and its 
competence. “They don’t get rid of failed officials,” she told reporters.

Hovsepian said that instead of appointing “capable individuals” to senior 
positions Pashinian is planning a purge of civil servants and other state 
officials who have not pledged allegiance to him. She said Torosian’s 
replacement by another Pashinian ally suggests that the prime minister has not 
learned any lessons from his mistakes.

The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, claimed earlier 
this week that Pashinian’s party received a popular mandate to carry out such a 
purge. “The state apparatus … must unequivocally serve the victorious 
[political] force,” he told Armenian Public Television.



Armenian Government Expects Faster Growth In 2021

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (file photo)


The Armenian government has revised upwards its economic growth forecast for 
2021, expecting a faster growth after last year’s decline.

At a cabinet session on Thursday acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that 
the economy is now projected to grow by 6 percent this year.

Earlier, the forecast was that the Armenian economy would grow by 3.2 percent 
after shrinking by 7.6 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the 
war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I am glad to say that while economic growth forecasts are being revised upward, 
our economic growth forecast for 2021 now is 6 percent,” Pashinian said.

“It is important that in parallel with these indicators, we are quite 
successfully fulfilling the revenue part of the state budget, and in this 
regard, we have even over-fulfilled it during the first half of the year,” the 
acting premier added.

The kind of revision comes less than two weeks after Pashinian and his political 
party, Civil Contract, scored a landslide victory in snap parliamentary 
elections, gaining the right to form the next Armenian government 
single-handedly.

Ensuring a more dynamic growth of the economy was one of Civil Contract’s 
pledges during the election campaign.

Speaking at today’s cabinet session head of the State Revenue Committee Eduard 
Hovannisian presented some details of the tax collection during the first six 
months of 2021.

He said that tax revenues in the period in question amounted to more than 750 
billion drams ($870 million), whereas they had originally been planned at a 
level of 683 billion drams.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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