Wednesday,
Students Protest Ouster Of Armenian University Chief
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Student of Brusov State University boycott classes, Yerevan, March 15,
2023.
Hundreds of students of a state-run university in Yerevan boycotted classes on
Wednesday to protest against the Armenian government’s decision to effectively
depose its recently reelected rector.
The board of trustees of Brusov State University (BSU) voted to reappoint Karine
Harutiunian as BSU rector on December 9. Harutiunian defeated another candidate
for the post, Davit Gyurjinian, who enjoyed government support.
Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosian, who headed the BSU board,
and Education Minister Vahram Dumanian were sacked three days later. Media
reports suggested that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian thus punished Dumanian and
Matevosian for their failure to install the government-backed candidate.
Later in December, Armenian prosecutors opened two criminal cases in connection
with the BSU vote. For its part, Pashinian’s government refused to validate
Harutiunian’s reelection, alleging vote irregularities strongly denied by the
rector and other BSU board members. The board was dissolved as a result.
Armenia - BSU rector Karine Harutiunian and Davit Gyurjinian.
The government announced on Wednesday that Gyurjinian, the defeated candidate,
has been appointed as acting head of the university specializing in the teaching
of foreign languages.
Many university professors and students expressed outrage at the decision.
Tigran Torosian, a former parliament speaker heading BSU’s Political Science
Chair, condemned it as illegal.
“Their move today proves that they are doing everything to replace Karine
Harutiunian by Davit Gyurjinian,” Torosian said during an emergency meeting of
the university faculty.
“We want to be run by the rector who was elected by us and the faculty,” said
one of the students boycotting classes.
Gyurjinian, who is also the chief of the Armenian Education Ministry’s Language
Inspectorate, and Education Minister Zhanna Andreasian met with the university
staff later in the day. The two officials were escorted by dozens of police
officers as they made their way into the university building in downtown Yerevan.
“I expect support from all of you,” Gyurjinian told the staff.
Tsolak Akopian, a BSU deputy rector, argued with Andreasian during the meeting,
saying that he will challenge Gyurjinian’s appointment in court. The minister
responded by warning that the government will scrutinize the legality of
decisions made by the university administration.
Armenia - Students of Brusov State University protest outside the prime
minister's office in Yerevan, October 17, 2022.
Representatives of the protesting students said, meanwhile, that the boycott
will continue on Thursday.
They as well as Akopian claimed that the government decided to arbitrarily
install Gyurjinian because it wants to to press ahead with its controversial
plans to merge BSU with two other state-run universities.
Those plans triggered angry street protests by BSU students last fall.
Harutiunian, the deposed rector, backed the protesters.
Pashinian and his associates pledged to give universities more freedom from the
government when they swept to power in 2018. But in 2021, they pushed through
the parliament a bill that empowered the government to appoint most members of
university boards. Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared the bill
unconstitutional a few months later.
Armenian Military Reports Arms Acquisitions In 2022
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Defense Minister Suren Papikian inspects an Armenian army post on the
border with Azerbaijan, March 10, 2023.
Armenia’s armed forces received significant amounts of new weapons and
ammunition last year, Defense Minister Suren Papikian said on Wednesday.
Papikian said that they included mortars, air defense and anti-tank rocket
systems, drones as well as demining, communication and night-vision surveillance
equipment. He declined to reveal the sources, quantities or monetary value of
the arms acquisitions.
“I can’t tell where we bought them from. It’s a secret,” Papikian told the
Armenian parliament committee on defense and security.
In an apparent reference to Russia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained
last September that “our allies” have failed to deliver weapons to Armenia
despite contracts signed with them in the last two years.
At around the same time, Armenia reportedly signed contracts for the purchase of
$245 million worth of Indian multiple-launch rocket systems, anti-tank rockets
and ammunition. Papikian explored the possibility of more such deals when he
visited India in October.
Indian media reported afterwards that the two sides signed in November a $155
million deal to supply Indian 155-milimeter self-propelled howitzers to the
Armenian army in the coming years. Yerevan has not officially confirmed that
either.
UAE - Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian visits IDEX arms exhibition in
Abu Dhabi, February 20, 2023.
Armenia’s military spending is projected to rise by over 40 percent to 506
billion drams ($1.3 billion) this year.
Earlier in September, the Armenian military suffered serious casualties and
territorial losses in border clashes with Azerbaijani forces. Armenian
opposition leaders portrayed them as further proof of Pashinian’s incompetence
and inability to protect the country’s borders. They said that his
administration has done little to rebuild the armed forces since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian said last week that Russia donated “enormous”
amounts of military hardware to Armenia in the past but stopped that
“military-technical assistance” when Pashinian came to power in 2018.
Pashinian dismissed that claim on Tuesday, suggesting that Sarkisian referred to
outdated “free weapons” sent by Moscow.
“Armenia purchased more weaponry in 2018-2020 than during the previous ten years
combined,” he told a news conference.
A senior member of Sarkisian’s opposition Republican Party, Hayk Mamijanian, hit
back at Pashinian, saying that the allegedly outdated weapons still account for
a large part of the Armenian military arsenal. Mamijanian also argued that
Russia is using many of those Soviet-era weapons in the ongoing war with Ukraine.
Pashinian also described as “unserious” the ex-president’s claim that the
Armenian side did not use its “most powerful weapons” during the disastrous war
with Azerbaijan.
During the parliament committee’s meeting with Papikian, an opposition lawmaker,
Anna Grigorian, expressed serious concern over the state of Armenian army
fortifications along the volatile border with Azerbaijan.
The minister acknowledged that “things on the frontlines are not as we would all
like them to be.” But he insisted that “everything is being done” to strengthen
Armenian military positions.
“There is a great deal of work to be done in the army and … I will bring that
work to its successful completion,” added Papikian.
Pashinian Again Denies ‘Systemic Corruption’ In Armenia
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian arrives for a news conference in
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has again claimed to have eliminated “systemic”
corruption in Armenia amid continuing allegations about illicit enrichment of
members of his government and political team.
“There is no systemic corruption in Armenia,” Pashinian insisted during a news
conference held on Tuesday. He said this is evidenced by a large number of
corruption cases investigated by law-enforcement authorities.
“Had there been systemic corruption there would not have been these [corruption]
revelations,” he said. “Systemic corruption would mean that I have a share in
[corruption schemes.]”
Daniel Ioannisian of the Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens disputed
Pashinian’s claim. He said that while corrupt practices in the country are not
as “systemic” as they were before the 2018 “velvet revolution” they remain
widespread and involve the higher echelons of government as well.
“We can see, for example, that a person, who had received taxpayers’ money for
bogus business trips lasting for hundreds of days and then had to return that
money [to the state,] is appointed as chairman of the [recently established]
Anti-Corruption Court,” argued Ioannisian. “Instead of putting him on trial,
they appoint him as chairman of the Anti-Corruption Court.”
“We can see a very tolerant treatment of many [corrupt] practices,” he told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - Daniel Ioannisian is interviewed by RFE/RL, November 28, 2022.
Together with Romania, Armenia ranked 63th out of 180 countries and territories
evaluated in Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
released in January. It occupied 58th place in the previous CPI released a year
ago.
The Berlin-based watchdog said that the downgrade reflects “worrying signs” in
the South Caucasus country. Its Armenian branch pointed to “selective”
enforcement of laws and regulations, controversial appointments of senior
officials as well as growing questions about integrity in public procurement.
Pro-opposition and independent media outlets increasingly accuse members of
Pashinian’s entourage of enriching themselves or their cronies.
In particular, the investigative publication Hetq.am reported recently that
Defense Minister Suren Papikian acquired last summer another apartment in
Yerevan which is now worth an estimated at $412,000. Papikian, who is also a
leading member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, paid only $168,000 for the
apartment located in an exclusive residential district.
The district is being constructed by a company belonging to Ashot Arsenian, a
wealthy businessman who was, at least until recently, very close to former
President Serzh Sarkisian. Arsenian’s son Vahagn was investigated for draft
evasion before being elected mayor of the town of Jermuk on the Civil Contract
ticket last year.
Armenia - Defense Minister Suren Papikian, January 19, 2023.
Ioannisian noted that Papikian received from Arsenian a significant discount to
buy the expensive property.
“Will they give you or any of your radio listeners a discount of 50-100 million
drams ($128,000-$256,000)?” he said. “They won’t. Cheese is free only in the
mousetrap.”
Pashinian defended his defense minister and close political ally during his news
conference, questioning the market value of the apartment cited by Hetq.am. He
said that just like tens of thousands of other Armenians, Papikian obtained a
mortgage to buy real state and will repay it with his legal incomes.
The mortgage was provided by a commercial bank owned by the family of Khachatur
Sukiasian, a pro-government businessman and parliamentarian.
Sukiasian and his extended family have reportedly expanded their business
interests since Pashinian came to power in 2018. As recently last month, an
insurance company controlled by them won another government contract without a
tender.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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