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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/13/2022

                                        Monday, 


Armenia’s Civil Aviation Chief Resigns

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Tatevik Revazian, head of Armenia's Civil Aviation Committee, speaks 
at an official ceremony at Zvartnots airport, June 10, 2022.


The head of Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee, Tatevik Revazian, resigned on 
Monday after four years in office.

Revazian gave no clear reason for her resignation which she announced on her 
Facebook page just days after returning to work from maternity leave.

“I have decided to return to the world of business,” she wrote without 
elaborating.

Revazian suggested that her resignation will give rise to “fake news and 
gossips.” “I am resigning from office with positive emotions and do not have 
interpersonal differences with anyone,” she said.

Revazian, 34, was named to run the government agency in 2018 shortly after the 
“velvet revolution” that brought Nikol Pashinian to power. She lived in Denmark 
until then. Her family had migrated to the northern European country in the 
1990s.

Revazian did not say whether she will stay in Armenia. She could not be reached 
for comment on Monday.

The government did not immediately appoint a new head of its Civil Aviation 
Committee. The agency was run by Revazian’s deputy Mihran Khachatrian during her 
parental leave.

Armenia - A passenger jet at Yerevan's Zvartnots international airport, 
10Apr2017.

Revazian’s four-year tenure was marred by the European Union’s decision in June 
2020 to ban airlines registered in Armenia from carrying out regular flights to 
EU member states. The EU’s executive European Commission said that they do not 
meet international safety standards.

The ban sparked bitter recriminations between the Armenian government and its 
political opponents. The latter accused the government and Revazian in 
particular of incompetence. Pashinian put the blame on the country’s former 
leadership.

“It wasn’t [Revazian’s] fault,” said Shahen Petrosian, who had headed the civil 
aviation authority in the early 1990s. “She was just wrong not to have been 
consistent enough to sort out what had happened in the past.”

Revazian actively encouraged Western budget airlines to start flying to Armenia. 
Two such carriers, Ryanair and Wizz Air, launched first-ever flights between 
Yerevan and several European cities in early 2020 only to end them weeks later 
due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.



Top Security Official Avoids Prosecution For Violence

        • Robert Zargarian

Armenia - Security forces disperse opposition protesters blocking a street in 
Yerevan, May 2, 2022.


Armenian law-enforcement authorities have refused to prosecute the head of Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s security detail who reportedly assaulted two 
journalists during a recent opposition demonstration in Yerevan.

Sargis Hovannisian, who runs the State Protection Service (SPS), was approached 
by a cameraman and a reporter for the news website Mediahub.am on May 2 as he 
apparently issued orders to security forces confronting opposition protesters at 
a major street intersection.

Videos circulated online showed Hovannisian shouting at the female reporter, 
Nare Gevorgian, before hitting her microphone. Gevorgian said he also kicked the 
cameraman, Arman Gharajian, during the incident strongly condemned by Armenian 
media groups.

Responding to the uproar, prosecutors ordered the Investigative Committee to 
look into the incident and determine whether Hovannisian broke the law.

In a statement issued late last week, the committee cleared Hovannisian of any 
wrongdoing. It put the blame on the journalists, saying that they interfered 
with the high-ranking officer’s work and ignored his legitimate orders to stop 
filming him and asking him questions.

Gevorgian on Monday denounced the Investigative Committee’s decision as 
“ridiculous” and said she will challenge it in court.

“Our live stream and footage represent complete evidence of a crime,” the 
journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Armenia - Journalist Nare Gevorgian speaks to RFE/RL, .

Hovannisian, whose agency provides bodyguards to Pashinian and other senior 
state officials, was already caught on camera kicking an opposition protester in 
Yerevan last year. He was not prosecuted or subjected to disciplinary action.

Opposition leaders have questioned the legality of Hovannisian’s presence at 
anti-government demonstrations, arguing that the SPS’s powers do not include 
crowd control. Some of them have accused the SPS chief of ordering riot police 
to beat up opposition supporters demanding Pashinian’s resignation.

Videos posted on social media in recent weeks showed some police officers 
kicking and punching protesters arrested by their colleagues. None of those 
officers is facing criminal proceedings.

Law-enforcement authorities have instead arrested and pressed assault charges 
against more than three dozen participants of the Armenian opposition’s “civil 
disobedience” campaign launched on May 1.


Armenian Authorities To Decriminalize Insults

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - The main government building in Yerevan, March 6, 2021.


After months of criticism from domestic and international civil rights groups, 
the Armenian authorities have decided to scrap controversial legislation that 
made it a crime to insult government officials and public figures.

Government-backed amendments to the Criminal Code passed by Armenia’s parliament 
last summer made “grave insults” directed at individuals because of their 
“public activities” an offense punishable with hefty fines or prison sentences 
of up to three months.

More than 50 Armenians have been charged with defamation and hundreds of others 
investigated on the same grounds since the amendments took effect in September. 
At least six of them have already been found guilty by courts.

Many of those individuals have been prosecuted for insulting Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian.

Opposition and human rights groups have strongly criticized the criminalization 
of insults. Western watchdogs such as Freedom House and Amnesty International 
have added their voice to the criticism.

Pashinian’s political allies have repeatedly dismissed calls for a repeal of the 
legislation, insisting that it does not constitute an infringement of free 
speech.

In a surprise announcement, Justice Minister Karen Andreasian said over the 
weekend that the punitive measure will be excluded from a new Criminal Code that 
will come into force next month. Pashinian and other government officials now 
believe that its enforcement is no longer “expedient,” he wrote on Facebook.

Andreasian defended the authorities’ earlier decision to criminalize insults, 
saying that it was necessary to “rein in the shameful and unacceptable behavior 
of certain groups and individuals.”

Armenian press freedom groups welcomed the move while questioning the reason for 
it given by the minister. They said that the authorities simply bowed to the 
domestic and Western pressure.

“I think that this law has never been necessary and it has not had any positive 
impact,” said Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Free 
Speech.

Melikian said that the Armenian Civil Code, which sets fines for insults, must 
be the sole legal instrument for dealing with slanderous public statements. The 
authorities tripled the maximum amount of those fines to 3 million drams 
($6,800) last year.

All forms of slander and defamation had already been decriminalized in Armenia 
in 2010 during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.


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