Thursday, December 24, 2020
Former Culture Minister Wanted On Corruption Charges
December 24, 2020
Armenia -- Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosian at a press conference in Yerevan,
July 29, 2015.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency has brought corruption charges against former
Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosian and a prominent diplomat.
The Investigative Committee said on Thursday that Poghosian had abused her
position to misappropriate a state-owned historic building in downtown Yerevan
and land occupied by it.
The property, worth an estimated 201 million drams ($383,000) in the early
2000s, housed a non-governmental cultural organization of which Poghosian was
the deputy chairperson.
The Investigative Committee claimed that shortly after being appointed as
culture minister in 2006 she illegally privatized the property before selling it
to an offshore-registered company owned by one of her relatives. The company
paid only $550 for it, the committee added in a statement.
The statement also said that the complex fraud scheme was facilitated by Armen
Smbatian, who headed the NGO in question and was Armenia’s ambassador to Russia
at the time.
Poghosian, who served as culture minister from 2006-2016, has been charged with
abuse of power and money laundering. According to the statement, law-enforcement
bodies will try to track down and arrest her, suggesting that she may not be in
Armenia at present.
Smbatian stands accused of assisting in the alleged abuse of power. The
Investigative Committee said he posted bail and was not arrested. It was not
clear if he will plead guilty to the accusation.
Smbatian most recently served as Armenia’s ambassador to Israel. The Armenian
government recalled him shortly after the outbreak of the war in
Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27 in protest against continuing Israeli arms
supplies to Azerbaijan.
Court Blocks Arrest Of Anti-Pashinian Mayor
December 24, 2020
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Goris Mayor Arush Arushanian.
An Armenian court refused on Thursday to allow investigators to arrest the mayor
of the town of Goris who was prosecuted after calling for civil disobedience
against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The 29-year-old mayor, Arus Arushanian, was among the heads of more than a dozen
communities in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province who issued earlier this
month statements condemning Pashinian’s handling of the war with Azerbaijan and
demanding his resignation.
Arushanian urged Goris residents late on Sunday to block a regional highway and
not allow Pashinian to visit Syunik. He was arrested several hours later for
organizing what the Investigative Committee considers an illegal protest. A
Yerevan court of first instance ordered the committee to free Arushanian on
Tuesday.
Shortly after the order the law-enforcement agency indicted Arushanian on a
string of charges, including abuse of power, illegal entrepreneurship and
assault. It also requested a court permission to arrest him again.
A Yerevan judge refused to grant such permission. According to Arushanian’s
lawyer, Armen Melkonian, the judge found no legal grounds for the mayor’s
pre-trial detention.
Melkonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that his client was again summoned to
the Investigative Committee for questioning later on Thursday. Arushanian
rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
On Wednesday, the committee indicted and moved to arrest the mayor of another
Syunik town who has called for Pashinian’s resignation. Manvel Paramazian, who
has run the town of Kajaran since 2016, was charged with kidnapping and
assaulting another man in April this year.
Russia Vows Continued Relief Aid To Karabakh
December 24, 2020
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Local residents repair a roof with construction materials
supplied by Russia as humanitarian aid, November 25, 2020.
Russian Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev has visited Armenia and Azerbaijan
to discuss Moscow’s continuing humanitarian assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Zinichev held talks on Wednesday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as his Armenian and Azerbaijani
counterparts.
According to Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergencies, he “expressed
readiness to conduct an additional assessment of the humanitarian needs” of
civilian areas in Karabakh gravely affected by the recent war and to provide
them with more aid.
“The main objective of the ongoing humanitarian operation is a quick restoration
of peaceful life in the region,” a ministry statement quoted Zinichev as saying.
In another statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said a fresh batch of
Russian aid was delivered to Karabakh on Wednesday. It included construction
materials, heaters and other household appliances.
RUSSIA - Personnel and equipment of a Russian Emergencies Ministry unit is
examined at the Noginsk Rescue Center before being sent to Nagorno-Karabakh on
humanitarian mission, November 23, 2020.
Russia deployed about 2,000 peacekeeping troops in Karabakh shortly after
brokering the Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement that stopped the six-week
war on November 10. It also opened in Stepanakert a “center for humanitarian
reaction.”
The center coordinates ongoing Russian-led demining operations in Karabakh and
is also tasked with helping to rebuild homes and public infrastructure destroyed
or seriously damaged during the hostilities.
Zinichev’s ministry claims to have sent a total of 1,500 tons of relief supplies
to Karabakh so far. Pashinian thanked Moscow for this assistance when he met
with Zinichev in Yerevan.
The war displaced an estimated 90,000 ethnic Armenian residents of Karabakh
making up 60 percent of the disputed territory’s population. Most of them fled
to Armenia. Officials say that at least 42,000 refugees have returned to
Karabakh since the start of the Russian peacekeeping operation.
Pashinian Seeks To Allay Concerns Over Armenian Border Region
December 24, 2020
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- An opposition protester stands against the backdrop of riot police
protecting the main Armenian government building in Yerevan, December 24, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on Thursday that the latest Armenian
troop withdrawals resulting from the Russian-brokered ceasefire in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone did not endanger the security of Armenia’s
southeastern Syunik province.
Pashinian again sought to reassure Syunik’s population amid continuing street
protests in Yerevan staged by opposition parties demanding his resignation.
Syunik borders the Zangelan and Kubatli districts southwest of Karabakh which
were mostly recaptured by Azerbaijan during the recent war. Armenian army units
and local militias completed late last week their withdrawal from parts of the
districts close to the provincial capital Kapan and many other communities.
Many local residents are now seriously concerned about their security as well as
the safety of the main provincial highway running along a 20-kilometer stretch
of the Soviet-era Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Hundreds of them blocked another
section of the highway on Monday to bar Pashinian from visiting the mountainous
region. The prime minister cut short his visit as a result.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Pashinian reiterated that “not
a single inch” of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory has been ceded
to Azerbaijan.
“What is happening at this stage is a geolocation of some border sections the
operational purpose of which is to ensure security … Our position is that with
these actions we are enhancing security guarantees for Syunik and creating a new
security system of Armenia,” he said.
Pashinian admitted at the same time that this process could result in “painful
situations” for two Syunik villages. He implied that some of their houses and
agricultural lands could end up under Azerbaijani control.
Armenia -- Riot police clash with opposition protesters outside the main
Armenian government building in Yerevan, December 24, 2020.
As Pashinian addressed his ministers several hundred opposition supporters
demonstrated outside the main government building and tried to disrupt the
weekly cabinet meeting. Some of them clashed with security forces deployed in
and around the building. Several protesters were detained on the spot.
“Our country will be increasingly unprotected as long as Nikol Pashinian remains
prime minister,” Gegham Manukian, a leader of the opposition Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), told the angry crowd.
Dashnaktsutyun is a key member of a coalition of more than a dozen opposition
groups holding demonstrations in a bid to force Pashinian to resign. They blame
him for the Armenian side’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan and want him to
hand over power to an interim government that would hold snap parliamentary
elections within a year. Pashinian and his political allies reject these demands
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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