Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Hospitalized Protester ‘Ignored By Investigators’
June 08, 2022
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - An opposition supporter is injured in clashes between protesters and
riot police, Yerevan, June 3, 2022.
An Armenian opposition supporter severely injured by riot police said on
Wednesday that he has not been questioned by law-enforcement authorities
supposedly investigating the use of force against protesters demanding Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation.
The 33-year-old Edmond Nargizian was struck by a stun grenade when security
forces clashed with protesters last Friday after not allowing them to approach
the parliament building in Yerevan. He was rushed to a hospital and underwent
surgery there.
“I was lucky. Thank God, I stayed alive,” Nargizian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service as he continued to recover from his head injury in the hospital.
The clashes, which left dozens of protesters and police officers injured, broke
out on the 34th day of nonstop anti-government protests organized by Armenia’s
leading opposition groups. The police fired stun grenades as some opposition
supporters tried to break through a police cordon.
Opposition leaders condemned the police actions. They said that policemen
mishandled the stun grenades and wounded many other officers.
The police denied that, saying that the “special means” were fired in the air
and did not put people’s lives at risk. Nargizian countered that one of the
grenades struck him on the head.
The hospitalized man also said that law-enforcement officials have still not
visited and spoken to him. He said they instead confiscated his mobile phone
when he was being operated on.
“They won’t give back my phone. I don’t know why,” added Nargizian.
Armenia - Riot police clash with opposition protesters in Yerevan, June 3, 2022.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said on Monday that it has ordered an
inquiry into the use of the stun grenades and other instances of police
brutality alleged by the opposition.
The Anti-Corruption Committee, which is supposed to conduct the inquiry,
confirmed on Wednesday that it has not indicted any police officers. It has not
even opened a formal criminal case with regard to the legality of the police
actions.
Meanwhile, another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, is
pressing assault charges against 15 participants of Friday’s opposition
demonstrations. Ten of them are under arrest pending investigation.
Opposition leaders reject the accusations as politically motivated. They say the
authorities have not presented any video evidence corroborating police claims
that some protesters threw stones and other objects.
Videos of the clashes publicized by opposition activists showed several
policemen punching protesters as the latter were dragged away and arrested by
other officers.
Opposition Lawmakers Barred From Conference On Judicial Reforms
June 08, 2022
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Venice Commission President Claire Bazy Malaurie addresses a
conference on judicial reforms in Yerevan, June 8, 2022.
Opposition parliamentarians were not allowed to attend on Wednesday an
international conference in Yerevan organized by Armenia’s Constitutional Court
and the Council of Europe.
The conference brought together Armenian government officials, senior judges,
representatives of Western-funded nongovernmental organizations as well as
European diplomats and the head of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission,
Claire Bazy Malaurie. They discussed ways of reforming the Armenian judiciary
and making it a “guarantor of democracy.”
Several opposition members of Armenia’s parliament also tried to participate in
the forum but were barred from entering a conference hall of a Yerevan hotel
where it was held. They expressed outrage at the ban.
Organizers also seriously restricted media access to the conference. Only two
media outlets, the government-funded Armenian Public Television and Armenpress
news agency, were allowed to cover it.
“They talk about the judicial branch and its independence. How can this [event]
be so closed?” one of the lawmakers, Aram Vartevanian, told reporters outside
the hotel.
Armenia - Opposition leader Aram Vartevanian addresses supporters demonstrating
outside the EU Delegation office in Yerevan, June 7, 2022.
Another deputy, Hayk Mamijanian, said the two opposition blocs represented in
the parliament will likely lodge a complaint to the Council of Europe leadership
in Strasbourg. He accused European officials of discrediting “European values”
promoted by them in Armenia.
The opposition parliamentarians were similarly barred from taking part on May 20
in a “forum for democracy” attended by senior Armenian officials and the
Yerevan-based ambassadors of the European Union and the United States.
The Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs have repeatedly accused the West of turning a
blind eye to human rights abuses and other undemocratic practices in Armenia
since launching on May 1 sustained street protests aimed at forcing Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign.
Opposition leaders had earlier echoed claims by some Armenian judges and lawyers
that Pashinian’s government is trying to increase its influence on courts under
the guise of judicial reforms backed by the EU and the U.S. The government
maintains that the reforms are aimed at increasing judicial independence.
Armenia - Andrea Wiktorin, head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, speaks at a
conference on judicial reforms in Yerevan, June 8, 2022.
The head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, Andrea Wiktorin, commented on ongoing
political developments in Armenia when she addressed Wednesday’s conference.
Armenpress quoted her as urging all political factions to “reduce tensions” and
saying that police should refrain from the excessive use of force against
anti-government protesters.
Wiktorin said that the authorities are already properly investigating some of
the violent incidents that happened during the protests. “This is how democracy
works,” she said, pointing to unspecified decisions made by Armenian courts.
It was not clear whether the diplomat referred to decisions allowing the
pre-trial arrests of over two dozen opposition activists accused of assaulting
police officers or government supporters. The opposition rejects the accusations
as politically motivated.
Vartevanian accused Wiktorin of encouraging “police brutality” against
protesters when he led an opposition demonstration outside the EU mission in
Yerevan on Tuesday.
Ukraine War Boosts Armenian Currency
June 08, 2022
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- A statue symbolizing the national currency, the dram, outside the
Central Bank building in Yerevan.
Mirroring exchange rate fluctuations in Russia, Armenia’s national currency, the
dram, has strengthened significantly during the continuing war in Ukraine.
The dram weakened against the U.S. dollar and the euro by more than five percent
in the first weeks following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That
was a clear consequence of the West’s crippling economic sanctions against
Russia, Armenia’s number one trading partner and main source of cash remittances.
The Russian ruble lost around half of its nominal value in late February and
early March. But it rallied strongly in the following weeks, boosted by a fall
in imports, interest rate hikes and unprecedented capital controls imposed by
the Russian authorities.
The ruble also benefited from by Moscow’s decision to require European Union
consumers to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles. The Russian currency is now
stronger than it was before the war.
The dram has similarly strengthened against the dollar by almost 20 percent
since the middle of March.
Analysts regard the stronger ruble as the key factor behind the steady
appreciation of the dram which continued this week.
The Armenian currency may have also been boosted by thousands of Russians who
moved to Armenia and/or opened bank accounts there after the war broke out on
February 24.
According to Armenian authorities, about 27,000 foreigners, most of them Russian
citizens, opened Armenian bank accounts from February 24 through the end of
March. Also, some Russian tech companies reportedly relocated their personnel to
the South Caucasus country to evade the Western sanctions.
RUSSIA -- A man walks past a currency exchange office in central Moscow on
February 28, 2022.
The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has so far not commented on the dram’s
appreciation which has prompted concern from some local exporters.
Over the past month, the Russian authorities have eased their capital controls
and significantly cut interest rates, causing a slight weakening of the ruble.
By contrast, the CBA has refrained from lowering its benchmark refinancing rate
raised in mid-March.
Narek Karapetian, a Yerevan-based economist, suggested that the stronger dram
will help to curb rising inflation in Armenia.
“This is a major development that will definitely have an impact on consumer
prices,” Karapetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The Armenian government’s Statistical Committee recorded an annual inflation
rate of 8.4 percent in April, up from 7.4 percent in March. According to the
committee, food prices in the country rose by an average of 12.1 percent in the
first quarter of this year.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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