RFE/RL – Armenian Report – 12/17/2021

                                        Friday, 


Crackdown On Armenian Election Contenders Condemned

        • Susan Badalian

Armenia - Opposition supporters hold pictures of former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon 
Aslanian and other arrested opposition members during a demonstration in 
Yerevan, .


Human rights campaigners on Friday accused the Armenian authorities of resorting 
to arrests and intimidation to gain control of communities where the ruling 
Civil Contract party failed to prevail in this month’s local elections.

Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, said opposition groups that did 
well there are being illegally pressured not to install their leaders or allies 
as community heads.

“That is being done under the guise of so-called criminal and political 
proceedings,” he said. “Explanations are not given to the public adequately or 
not given at all. Dangerous interventions are carried out with regard to people 
directly elected by citizens.”

“Pressure is exerted on elected council members so that they vote ‘accordingly’ 
during the inaugural sessions of the councils. These practices are fundamentally 
at odds with democratic norms,” added Tatoyan.

Civil Contract was defeated or failed to win outright in some of the 36 
communities across Armenia that elected on December 5 local councils empowered 
to appoint their mayors. The party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
suffered its biggest setback in the country’s third largest city of Vanadzor.


Armenia -- Human right ombudsman Arman Tatoyan speaks during parliamentary 
hearings in Yerevan, April 5, 2019.

A bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian practically won the local 
ballot with about 39 of the vote. Civil Contract came in second with 25 percent.

Aslanian was thus well placed to regain his post during the first session of the 
new municipal council initially slated for this Friday. However, he was arrested 
on Wednesday on a string of charges rejected by him and his allies as 
politically motivated.

Artur Sakunts, a veteran human rights activist based in Vanadzor, described the 
criminal proceedings launched against Aslanian as “political persecution.” He 
said the authorities are trying to distort election outcomes in these and other 
communities.

“In essence, these actions are an attempt to alter the results of popular votes 
with methods that are obviously not democratic,” Sakunts told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service. This will only undermine popular trust in Pashinian’s administration 
and electoral process, he said.


Armenia -- Human rights activist Artur Sakunts.

Pashinian’s loyalists maintain that none of the post-election arrests was 
politically motivated. They also deny that the authorities are forcing their 
challengers to back Civil Contract’s mayoral candidates.

In a community comprising the town of Vartenis and surrounding villages, the 
ruling party won 46 percent of the vote on December 5. But two local blocs 
challenging it got 37 percent and 16.5 percent respectively, putting them in a 
position to have a common candidate elected as mayor.

The leaders of those blocs announced such a deal last week. Law-enforcement 
authorities arrested one of them on corruption charges and raided the other’s 
home in the following days.

In another town, Talin, a similar power-sharing deal was reached by three other 
opposition groups that won between them 11 of the 21 seats in the local council.

Karen Grigorian, the leader of one of those parties called Hayk party, broke 
ranks and voted for Civil Contract’s mayoral candidate on Friday, enabling the 
latter to take over the local government. Grigorian gave no clear reasons for 
the move. According to press reports, he has faced strong government pressure in 
recent days.

Three Talin-based members of another opposition party, Zartonk, were briefly 
detained by police earlier this week. In a statement issued later on Friday, 
Zartonk alleged “police and other interventions” in the local race.



Armenian Parliament Speaker Again Lands In Hot Water

        • Robert Zargarian

Armenia - Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian talks to journalists, August 25, 2021


Parliament speaker Alen Simonian has caused another scandal after reportedly 
telling journalists to stand up when seeing him in the National Assembly 
building in Yerevan.

When Simonian entered the parliament lobby on Thursday he did not like the 
posture of cameramen sitting there and had all chairs frequently occupied by 
them and other reporters removed from there. His spokeswoman, Tsovinar 
Khachatrian, defended the decision on Friday, saying that the cameramen sat 
cheekily and thus disrespected the speaker.

The chairs were brought back after parliamentary correspondents met with 
Simonian later on Thursday. Khachatrian said the cameramen apologized for their 
“inappropriate and impolite posture.”

According to Hripsime Jebejian, a journalist with the Aravot daily present at 
the meeting, Simonian told her and her colleagues that they must stand up every 
time they see him or other lawmakers.

“That demand was very surprising,” Jebejian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We 
told him that we cannot comply with it.”

Jebejian also condemned the removal of the chairs. “Even if someone behaved 
inappropriately in the National Assembly, why should all journalists suffer as a 
result of that … and be deprived of elementary working conditions which the 
National Assembly is obliged to put in place?” she said.


Armenia - Relatives of Armenian POWs clash with riot police outside the 
parliament building in Yerevan, December 8, 2021.

Simonian, who is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party, 
imposed unprecedented restrictions on press coverage of the National Assembly 
immediately after becoming its speaker in August. He curbed journalists’ freedom 
of movements inside the building and banned them from filming ugly scenes on the 
parliament floor.

Armenia’s press freedom groups as well as the parliamentary opposition strongly 
condemned those restrictions.

Simonian, who reportedly controls a pro-government news website, also came under 
fire last month when the Armenian government allocated 90 million drams 
($185,000) for the purchase of a new limousine for him. He claimed that his 
current official car frequently breaks down and requires expensive repairs.

The 41-year-old speaker caused an even greater controversy with his disparaging 
comments about Armenian prisoners of war revealed on December 7. He had been 
caught on camera branding many of those soldiers as deserters who “laid down 
their weapons and ran away” during fighting with Azerbaijani forces.

The remarks sparked street protests by angry relatives of POWs. Pashinian and 
members of his political team did not publicly criticize or disavow them.



Tsarukian Ally Elected Town Mayor

        • Narine Ghalechian

Armenia - The Prosperous Armenia Party's mayoral candidate Eduard Babayan 
attends an election campaign rally in Abovian, December 1, 2021.


Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian’s right-hand man and 
former bodyguard became the new mayor of the town of Abovian on Friday two weeks 
after defeating the ruling Civil Contract party in a local election.

Eduard Babayan topped the list of BHK candidates in the election held on 
December 5. The opposition party won 44.4 percent of the vote, compared with 
35.2 percent polled by Civil Contract.

Two other parties also won seats in the municipal council empowered to appoint 
the mayor of Abovian and surrounding villages making up a single community.

The 27-member council, in which the BHK controls 13 seats, narrowly elected 
Babayan during its inaugural session. The latter became mayor thanks to the 
backing of the sole council member representing the Armenian Revolutionary 
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a more hardline opposition party.

Twelve other members of the local legislature voted for Civil Contract’s mayoral 
candidate, Pavel Tsugunian.

Located about 15 kilometers north of Yerevan, Abovian has long been a political 
stronghold of Tsarukian. Despite failing to win any seats in Armenia’s current 
parliament elected in June, the tycoon and his party appear to have retained 
much of their influence in the town of some 44,000 inhabitants.

Abovian’s previous mayor was also allied to Tsarukian. He defeated another Civil 
Contract candidate and got reelected in 2019.

Speaking right after his election, Babayan said that he has a popular mandate to 
govern Abovian.

“The people voted; I have nothing else to say,” he told reporters. “I will 
answer all your questions soon.”


Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian and his chief bodyguard Eduard Babayan (R) 
at an election campaign rally in Hrazdan, 11 April 2012.

Babayan, 49, was known as Tsarukian’s chief bodyguard until he became a 
parliament deputy in 2018. In 2019, he was sentenced to three and a half years 
in prison on charges of violent assault denied by him. The burly ex-policeman 
did not go to jail thanks to a general amnesty declared by the Armenian 
authorities.

Civil Contract’s Tsugunian, sought to rationalize the ruling party’s defeat in 
Abovian.

“Elections have been held every year [since 2018,]” he said. “People were 
probably tired and didn’t go the polls [in large numbers.]”

The party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was also defeated in several 
other major communities, notably Armenia’s third largest city of Vanadzor, on 
December 5. Opposition leaders now accuse Pashinian of trying to reverse most of 
those setbacks with crackdowns on the leaders of local opposition groups that 
won or did well in the polls.

Mamikon Aslanian, a former Vanadzor mayor who was well placed to regain his 
post, was arrested on Tuesday on corruption charges rejected by him as 
politically motivated.

Law-enforcement authorities earlier arrested a local leader who looked set to 
prevent Civil Contract from installing its preferred mayor of another community. 
They deny political reasons for the arrests.


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