Monday, Armenian Policeman Accused Of Assaulting Oppositionist • Satenik Kaghzvantsian • Nelli Yeghiazarian Armenia - Opposition activist Karapet Poghosian speaks to RFE/RL in Gyumri, July 10, 2023 An opposition activist based in Gyumri on Monday claimed to have been assaulted by a local police officer. The maverick activist, Karapet Poghosian, said that the officer verbally abused and hit him after a tense conversation in a local grocery store during which he told the latter to “stay away” from him. “It was really a surprise to me, and I will definitely try to evaluate this as a clearly deliberate act,” Poghosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He did not specify why he warned the policeman moments before the alleged assault. Poghosian, who is a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, claimed that he was attacked because of his political activities. “This is not the first time in recent years that they resorted to violence or fabricated criminal cases against me,” he said. Armenia’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, expressed concern over the allegations, saying that law-enforcement authorities must investigate them in a “detailed and comprehensive” manner. “The human rights defender once again emphasizes that violence is totally unacceptable and condemnable,” read a statement released by Manasian’s office. The police told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they have already launched an internal inquiry into the incident. Another law-enforcement body, the Investigative Committee, said it is conducting a separate probe based on the policeman’s claim that he himself was attacked by the oppositionist. The Gyumri incident was reported two weeks after scores of Armenian lawyers went on strike to show support for their colleagues allegedly beaten up by police officers. One of the lawyers, Karen Alaverdian, claimed to have been subjected to “undue physical force” after trying to stop several policemen kicking and punching his client at a police station in Yerevan earlier in June. The Investigative Committee effectively denied the allegations on June 13, saying that Alaverdian himself shoved and even hit the officers in a bid to free the criminal suspect. Human rights activists say that ill-treatment of criminal suspects remains widespread in Armenia despite sweeping law-enforcement reforms promised by Pashinian’s government. Law-enforcement officers are still rarely prosecuted or fired for such offenses. As recently as on June 22, a man in Yerevan claimed that the Investigative Committee chief, Argishti Kyaramian, personally tortured and threatened to kill him following his arrest on June 17. A spokesman for Kyaramian denied the allegations. Opposition Lawmaker Set To Lose Parliament Post • Narine Ghalechian Armenia-Member of 'I Have Honor' faction Taguhi Tovmasian hold parliamentary briefing at the RA National Assembly building in Yerevan, Armenia,10Oct,2022 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party moved on Monday to oust the last remaining opposition lawmaker heading a standing committee of the Armenian parliament. The party’s parliamentary group claimed that Taguhi Tovmasian, the chairwoman of the parliament committee on human rights, “showed an indifferent attitude towards … hate speech in various situations, including a committee meeting chaired by herself.” It said Tovmasian must therefore be dismissed by the National Assembly. The parliament’s pro-government majority referred to the April 4 meeting during which the committee discussed two candidates for the then vacant post of Armenia’s human rights defender. The meeting was marred by verbal abuse and threats shouted by some Civil Contract deputies at Edgar Ghazarian, the candidate nominated by the Armenian opposition. Those deputies were incensed by Ghazarian’s claim that the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power was in fact a “Turkish-Azerbaijani revolution.” One of them, Artur Hovannisian, publicly pledged to “cut the tongues and ears of anyone” who would make disparaging comments about the regime change. Hovik Aghazarian, another pro-government lawmaker, defended Hovannisian’s scandalous behavior at the April 4 meeting, saying that it was “two levels below what was admissible in that situation created by Taguhi Tovmasian.” Armenia - Edgar Ghazarian (right) and pro-government deputy Artur Hovannisian attend a paliament committee meeting, April 4, 2023. “I could not ban Edgar Ghazarian from expressing any view during the committee meeting just like I could not prevent Artur Hovannisian from publicly threatening to cut the opposition candidate’s ears and tongue,” countered Tovmasian. “Lies have become the linchpin of the activities of the Civil Contract faction and the party as a whole,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Tovmasian, who is a former journalist and newspaper editor, claimed that Pashinian personally ordered his loyalists to strip her of the parliamentary post in retaliation against her defection from his political team following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. The National Assembly is scheduled to debate the issue on Tuesday. Tovmasian said she will not attend the session because of being on sick leave. She expressed hope that fellow lawmakers will not discuss her fate in her absence. Despite a resulting uproar, law-enforcement authorities declined to investigate the threats. Nor did Pashinian’s party take any disciplinary action against its lawmakers involved in the ugly scenes. It appears to have decided instead to replace Tovmasian, who is affiliated with the opposition Pativ Unem bloc. One of the parliament’s three deputy speakers, Ishkhan Saghatelian, and the chairman of the parliament committee on economic affairs, Vahe Hakobian, were ousted in July 2022 after weeks of anti-government protests organized by their Hayastan alliance and Pativ Unem. Another Hayastan deputy, Armen Gevorgian, immediately resigned as chairman of a committee dealing with “Eurasian integration” in protest. Tovmasian pointedly declined to follow suit. Gas Supply To Karabakh Briefly Unblocked By Azerbaijan • Robert Zargarian Nagorno-Karabakh - A woman and her son have a dinner at their home in Stepanakert in the absence of electricity and gas, January 18, 2023. Azerbaijan unblocked Armenia’s supplies of natural gas to Karabakh at the weekend only to halt them again several hours later amid growing shortages of energy, good and medicine experienced by the region’s population. The flow of gas through a pipeline passing through Azerbaijani-controlled territory has been regularly disrupted during Azerbaijan’s eight-month blockade of Karabakh’s only land link with Armenia and the outside world. According to officials in Stepanakert, it resumed on Saturday for the first time in more than three months but stopped shortly afterwards. Azerbaijani officials made no statements on the latest disruption which came three weeks after Baku banned emergency supplies of food, fuel and other essential items to Karabakh carried out by Russian peacekeepers. A senior Karabakh official, Artak Beglarian, accused Baku of seeking to “induce a sense of uncertainty and helplessness” among the Karabakh Armenians. “The authorities of Azerbaijan must realize that they cannot take away our natural rights from us and break our will and spirit of freedom with gas, electricity, fuel, food and other household deprivations,” he wrote on Facebook. Beglarian called on the international community to take “urgent and practical measures” to prevent a further worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Karabakh. “A day that began with promise again ended in disappointment and frustration,” Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s special envoy for the South Caucasus, tweeted on Sunday. “As reiterated many times by the EU, it is crucial that the flow of energy supplies be restored without restrictions, as well as the movement of people and goods via the Lachin corridor.” The United States and Russia have also repeatedly called for an end to the blockade. Azerbaijan has dismissed such appeals. Nagorno-Karabakh - Customers visit an almost empty food store in Stepanakert, January 7, 2023. With most vehicles in Karabakh powered by pressurized natural gas, the blockage of gas supplies has also disrupted public transport. Bus services between Stepanakert and other Karabakh towns and villages were seriously curtailed last week due to the fuel shortages. Ashkhen Grigorian, a resident of the village of Machkalashen, complained on Monday the only realistic way to get to Stepanakert from her community now is a single minibus that runs twice a week and is too small to accommodate all local travelers. “We ride it if we manage to get in and stand there on one foot,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Karabakh is also running out of key foodstuffs which the Russian peacekeepers shipped from Armenia in limited quantities until the June 15 tightening of the blockade. “There is no fruit, vegetables, cooking oil and sugar at all,” said Anahit Tonian, a resident of another Karabakh village. “The shops sell only limited amounts of rise, buckwheat and macaroni.” “We grow cucumbers and tomatoes in our garden and get by that way,” added Tonian. Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.