Thursday, October 7, 2021 Pro-Government Lawmaker Avoids Prosecution For Violence • Narine Ghalechian Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party clash with their opposition colleagues, August 25, 2021. An Armenian law-enforcement agency has decided not to prosecute a controversial pro-government lawmaker who assaulted an opposition colleague on the parliament floor in late August. The incident was part of a bigger brawl that broke out when Vahe Hakobian of the opposition Hayastan bloc criticized the Armenian government’s five-year policy program during a heated session of the parliament attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Hakobian interrupted his speech before being approached by three deputies from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and kicked by one of them. He and five other Hayastan deputies, including deputy speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian, were hit by a larger number of Civil Contract lawmakers in an ensuing melee that was not swiftly stopped by scores of security personnel present in the chamber. The Special Investigative Service (SIS) pledged to look into the ugly scenes filmed by various media outlets. It launched afterwards a formal criminal investigation into the beating of only one Hayastan deputy, Gegham Manukian, prompting allegations of a cover-up from Armenia’s leading opposition force. One of the video clips circulated on the Internet shows that Manukian was assaulted by Civil Contract’s Hayk Sargsian. The SIS confirmed on Thursday that it has halted the probe and will not try to indict Sargsian. It claimed to have found no evidence of any criminal offence committed by him. Manukian accused the law-enforcement agency of covering up the attacks which he said were incited by Pashinian. “The SIS is not compatible with Armenia’s laws and constitution,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Daniel Ioannisian of the Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens also criticized the SIS’s decision. Ioannisian said the SIS failed to properly investigate and dispel suspicions that the brawl was pre-planned by the parliament’s pro-government majority. He claimed that Pashinian seemed to “bless” the violent conduct of his loyalists hours before the incident. In a detailed analysis and a video clip posted on his Facebook page last month, Ioannisian named nine pro-government lawmakers involved in the violence. The civic activist also emphasized the fact that uniformed security officers waited for about a minute before stepping in to stop the violence. Armenia -- Parliament deputy Hayk Sargsian. Meanwhile, Sargsian again blamed the opposition. “With our actions we showed that we will not tolerate the use of force [in the parliament,]” he said. Sargsian, whose twin brother Nairi is a senior aide to Pashinian, already avoided prosecution this summer for stealing the mobile phone of a journalist trying to interview him. Armenia’s leading media organizations expressed outrage at the SIS’s decision not to bring criminal charges against him. Earlier this year, Sargsian wrested the microphone from another reporter who approached him in the parliament building. Obstruction of journalistic work is a criminal offense in Armenia. Pope Meets Armenian Church Leader The Vatican - Pope Francis and Catholicos Garegin (Karekin) II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, meet in the Vatican, October 6, 2021. Pope Francis and Catholicos Garegin (Karekin) II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, have met in the Vatican during a conference of religious leaders from around the world. The two-day International Meeting for Peace concluded on Thursday with an ecumenical prayer for peace at Rome’s Colosseum. Francis, Garegin and representatives of other Christian denominations also observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims of all wars. “Let us unambiguously urge that arms be set aside and military spending reduced, in order to provide for humanitarian needs, and that instruments of death be turned into instruments of life,” Francis said in his address at the event reported by the Vatican news service. Garegin spoke at the conference organized by the St. Egidio Community, a lay Catholic association, earlier on Thursday. Meeting with Francis on Wednesday, Garegin focused on the aftermath of last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war. A statement by his office said he touched upon “current challenges facing Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh” and stressed the need for the release of dozens of Armenian soldiers and civilians still held by Azerbaijan. “The Armenian Pontiff also expressed his gratitude to His Holiness Pope Francis for the support to the Armenian people and Armenia during the war,” added the statement. It said Francis greeted after the conversation members of an Armenian delegation accompanying Garegin. They included Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman. Tatoyan said afterwards that he handed the pontiff copies of his offices’ reports on what he called Azerbaijani atrocities committed during and after the six-week war. The delegation headed also held a separate meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state. Garegin’s office said they discussed “issues related to the security of the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the encroachments on the sovereign territories of Armenia as well as the preservation of the Armenian spiritual and cultural heritage in the territories under the control of Azerbaijan.” Francis saluted Armenia for making Christianity an “essential part of its identity” when he visited the South Caucasus nation in June 2016. He and Garegin held an ecumenical liturgy in Yerevan’s central square which attracted thousands of people. The two religious leaders praised the “growing closeness” between their churches in a joint declaration issued at the end of the papal trip. While in Armenia, Francis also reaffirmed his recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey, prompting a strong condemnation from Ankara. Iranian Minister Upbeat On Transport Links With Armenia • Heghine Buniatian Armenia - A cargo terminal at a border crossing with Iran, November 29, 2018. (Photo by the State Revenue Committee of Armenia) The Iranian minister of roads and urban development indicated on Thursday Iran will fully restore soon its transport links with neighboring Armenia which have been disrupted by an Azerbaijani checkpoint setup on the main road connecting the two states. In a Twitter post, Rostam Qassemi predicted a complete change of “the transit map of the region.” Qassemi’s deputy Kheirollah Khademi visited Armenia earlier this week to discuss with Armenian officials the ongoing reconstruction of an alternative road in Armenia’s Syunik province which will allow Iranian trucks bypass the Azerbaijani roadblock. Khademi said Tehran is ready to help Yerevan refurbish this and other Syunik roads leading to the Iranian border. Khademi said on his return to Iran that work on the bypass road will be completed soon. Speaking with reporters at the Nurduz crossing on the Iranian-Armenian border, he said Iran and Armenia also reached agreements on extending that road northwards. “Thanks to special instructions issues to the deputy minister, the issue of the road running from Nurduz to Armenia and the Caucasus corridor will be solved,” tweeted Qassemi. “Those who caused problems must know that no road can remain closed for us. But ‘burned bridges’ will not be restored easily,” he said in an apparent message to Azerbaijan. The Armenian government controversially ceded to Azerbaijan a 21-kilometer section of the existing main highway connecting Armenia to Iran shortly after last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani police and customs set up the checkpoint there on September 12 to levy hefty fees from Iranian trucks transporting cargo to Iran. Tensions between Tehran and Baku have run high since then. The Iranian military launched last week large-scale military exercises on the country’s border with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has criticized the drills. He has also rejected Iranian claims that Baku is harboring Middle Eastern “terrorists” as well as Israeli security personnel near Iran’s borders. A senior Iranian parliamentarian reportedly accused Aliyev on Monday of trying to “cut Iran’s access to Armenia” with the help of Turkey and Israel. Visiting Moscow on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that Tehran will not tolerate any “changes in the region’s map.” Pashinian Deplores Armenia’s Slow Vaccine Rollout • Marine Khachatrian ARMENIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian receives a shot of COVID-19 vaccine in Yerevan, May 3, 2021 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday lambasted health authorities and other state bodies over the continuing slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations in Armenia. “Our vaccination numbers are bad, very bad, and you must not blame others,” he told government officials during a weekly session of his cabinet. “This applies to all people sitting in this hall.” The Ministry of Health reported earlier this week that just over 517,000 vaccine shots have been administered in Armenia since the launch of its government’s immunization campaign in April. Only about 165,000 people making up less than 6 percent of the country’s population were fully vaccinated as of October 4. Speaking during the cabinet meeting, Health Minister Anahit Avanesian acknowledged that the vaccination process remains slow despite having accelerated in recent weeks. She blamed that on individuals and groups “maliciously” spreading false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and their side effects. Pashinian rejected the explanation. “I set a task for you,” he said. “Don’t tell me who is obstructing and who is not. Just go and accomplish it. I mean the Ministry of Health, other state bodies.” The authorities, Pashinian went on, must use their “administrative levers” to speed up the process. He ordered law-enforcement authorities to crack down on medics who he said issue bogus vaccination certificates to individuals unwilling to get inoculated against COVID-19. “Detain, arrest them,” he said. “Very strict measures must also be taken against those doctors who exploit the situation to not vaccinate people and to spoil vaccines.” The government has already taken administrative measures in a bid to have many more Armenians get vaccinated. A recent directive signed by Avanesian requires virtually all public and private sector employees refusing vaccination to take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense. The requirement took effect on October 1, prompting protests from some opposition politicians and anti-vaccine campaigners. Critics say, in particular, that many people can hardly afford regular coronavirus tests. Pashinian dismissed such complaints, saying that they can avoid such expenditures by getting free vaccine shots. 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.