Thursday,
Former Police Chief Also Charged Over 2008 Crackdown
• Naira Bulghadarian
Amenia - The national police chief, Alik Sargsian, argues with protesters
outside the prime minister's office in Yerevan, 01Sep2011.
Alik Sargsian, a former chief of the Armenian police, has been charged with
covering up what law-enforcement authorities now describe as security forces’
illegal post-election crackdown on opposition protesters in Yerevan in 2008.
Sargsian was named to run the national police service shortly after former
President Robert Kocharian handed over power to Serzh Sarkisian, his preferred
successor and the official winner of a disputed presidential election held in
February 2008. Sarkisian took office in April 2008 just over a month after
violent street clashes in Yerevan which left eight protesters and two police
personnel dead.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said on Wednesday evening that later in
2008 two aides to the new Armenian president ordered senior police officers,
including Alik Sargsian, to destroy evidence of the “overthrow of the
constitutional order” led by Kocharian.
An SIS statement claimed that the officers forged and backdated documents
justifying the use of force against supporters of opposition presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian, who staged daily demonstrations against alleged
vote rigging. It said they also helped to cover up the Armenian army’s alleged
involvement in the crackdown which investigators say was illegal.
Sargsian, who headed the police until 2011, flatly denied the accusations of
abuse of power, forgery and cover-up leveled against him. “I have nothing to do
with the March 1 [2008 events,]” said the retired police general who served as
a provincial governor during the deadly violence.
Sargsian, who was not arrested despite facing the grave charges, said he will
not hire a lawyer for now. “I don’t yet feel the need to have a defender,” he
said.
One of the presidential aides mentioned in the SIS statement, Gevorg Kostanian,
was subsequently appointed as Armenia’s prosecutor-general, while the other,
Gevorg Mherian, became a deputy chief of the national police. Mherian was shot
dead by an unknown gunman in February 2009. Nobody has been prosecuted in
connection with his murder.
The SIS did not indict Kostanian, who was elected to Armenia’s former
parliament in 2017 on the then ruling Republican Party’s ticket. Kostanian on
Thursday dismissed the “nonsensical” allegations made by the law-enforcement
body investigating the dramatic events of February-March 2008.
The SIS statement came two days after Alik Sargsian’s predecessor as police
chief, Hayk Harutiunian, was found shot to death in his home. Law-enforcement
authorities suggested that he committed suicide.
Harutiunian was repeatedly interrogated by investigators as a witness in the
case. The SIS claimed on Wednesday that he too had signed “official documents
containing false information and records” about the 2008 crackdown.
Two Armenian news websites reported on Tuesday that moments before his death
Harutiunian complained that he is being pressured by the authorities to give
false incriminating testimony against Kocharian. Law-enforcement officials
denied those reports.
Kocharian is currently under arrest, standing trial, along with three other
former officials, on coup charges. He rejects them as politically motivated.
Pashinian Slams ‘Former Corrupt Elites’ In UN Speech
U.S. -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during the 74th Session
of the General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York,
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused Armenia’s former rulers of trying to
obstruct his anti-corruption efforts and spreading “fake news” when he
addressed the UN General Assembly late on Wednesday.
“Our democratic transformation and zero tolerance policy against corruption are
not without resistance from former corrupted elites,” Pashinian said in a
speech. “Their vast financial resources are directed at escaping justice. Our
government has not pursued a single case of redistribution of property. At the
same time our resolve to press with reforms and justice is unwavering.”
“Our mass media is completely free from government control or interference,” he
went on. “However, some of them are not free from meddling and control from the
same old circles of former government, fabricating fake news and spreading
mistrust in the public about the origins and purposes of the Velvet Revolution.”
Meeting with Armenian Americans in New York earlier in the day, Pashinian
pointed to several former officials, including a brother of former President
Serzh Sarkisian, who have been charged with corruption since he swept to power
in the April-May 2018 revolution.
Armen Ashotian, the deputy chairman of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK), denounced Pashinian on Thursday for bringing up domestic political
issues at the UN body.
“Nikol is a rare leader who has used the UN rostrum for his internal political
agenda,” said Ashotian. “For example, it didn’t occur to [U.S. President
Donald] Trump to attack the Democrats who have launched impeachment proceedings
against him.”
“I hope that another person will speak on behalf of our country at the UN next
year,” he wrote on Facebook.
Ashotian and other HHK figures reacted in a similar fashion after Pashinian
branded Sarkisian and his relatives a “professionally corrupt family” and said
they “must return what they plundered” at a September 22 news conference in Los
Angeles.
In the 30-minute UN speech, Pashinian also said that his government is
committed to “advance democracy and reforms” but needs greater international
assistance in that endeavor.
“We need to have access to international best practices to save time and
resources,” he said. “We need to avoid the mistakes previously made by other
democracies to make our democratic reforms more fruitful and efficient.”
Luxury Hotel ‘Donated’ To Armenian Government
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- The Golden Palace hotel in Tsaghkadzor.
The Armenian government completed on Thursday the nationalization of a luxury
hotel handed over to it by a former senior official facing a corruption
investigation.
The Golden Palace hotel located in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor has until now
belonged to Armen Avetisian, a former chief of the Armenian customs service,
and his family. They offered to donate it to the state last November after the
National Security Service (NSS) moved to prosecute Avetisian for illegal
entrepreneurship and money laundering.
The NSS claimed in October 2018 that Avetisian financed the construction of a
similar five-star hotel in Yerevan when he headed the State Customs Committee
(SCC) from 2001-2008. The financing was carried out through an obscure company
registered in Cyprus and falsely presented as foreign investment, it said.
It remains unclear whether Avetisian was formally charged afterwards.
In February this year, the then NSS director, Artur Vanetsian, said that the
Tsaghkadzor hotel’s transfer to the state is “in progress.”
The government completed that process at a weekly meeting chaired by Deputy
Prime Minister Tigran Avinian. The latter said that the government should
decide before the end of this year what to do with the presently disused
property.
Armenia’s State Property Management Committee estimates the hotel’s market
value at around $16.5 million. The head of the government agency, Narek
Babayan, said some investors have already offered to buy it at a higher price.
“But I believe that an auction would be the best option in case of a sale [of
the hotel,]” Babayan told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
The NSS launched the investigation into Avetisian shortly Vanetsian alleged
that former President Robert Kocharian and his family accumulated hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of assets when he ruled Armenia from 1998-2008.
Kocharian dismissed the allegations, challenging law-enforcement authorities to
prove them. In an August 2018 interview, he also insisted that Avetisian did
not make a huge personal fortune while in office.
The former customs chief faced corruption allegations by opposition figures and
media throughout his tenure.
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” deplores opposition “propaganda manipulations” of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s latest remark that a Karabakh settlement must be
acceptable to the peoples of not only Armenia and Karabakh but also Azerbaijan.
The pro-Pashinian paper says that a more intransigent statement by Pashinian
would simply make no sense because no Karabakh peace accord can be put into
practice without being signed by Azerbaijan. “In other words, a variant
satisfying all three conflicting parties is the only way to resolve the
conflict,” it says.
Lragir.am comments on investigators’ latest allegations of an official cover-up
of the 2008 crackdown on the Armenian opposition and resulting criminal charges
brought against Alik Sargsian, a former chief of the Armenian police. The
publication draws parallels between Sargsian’s denial of the charges and former
President Robert Kocharian’s claims that he was not aware of controversial
orders issued to Armenia’s police and army in February-March 2008. It also
says: “The current investigation has not yet found the answer to the main
question: the circumstances of the killings of ten persons.”
“Zhamanak” comments on Pashinian’s repeated statements to the effect that his
government is seeking the “truth” about the Amulsar gold mining project
disrupted more than a year ago. The paper says that Pashinian is thus trying to
“win time in a difficult situation.” “It does not matter for which solution [he
is doing that] because either solution would cause a great deal of resistance
which would have to be overcome,” it says, adding that the challenger for the
Armenian government is to determine which decision on the future of the project
would be a lesser evil.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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