Thursday,
Parliament Speaker Again Approves Hefty Bonuses
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Speaker Alen Simonian chairs a session of the National Assembly,
Yerevan, December 8, 2021.
Sparking fresh controversy, parliament speaker Alen Simonian has allocated hefty
holiday bonuses to members and staffers of the National Assembly for the second
time in three months.
Simonian’s office said on Thursday that the year-end bonuses, equivalent to
their full monthly salaries, will cost taxpayers 143 million drams ($300,000).
It argued that payment of the so-called “13th salary” on the eve of the New Year
and Christmas holidays has long been common practice in the Armenian parliament.
Parliament deputies did not receive such bonuses one year ago, in the wake of
the devastating war with Azerbaijan. Then speaker Ararat Mirzoyan allocated them
only to the staffers.
Simonian approved similar, albeit slightly more modest, bonuses on the occasion
of Armenia’s Independence Day marked on September 21.
Both opposition alliances represented in the National Assembly criticized that
decision as profligate and unethical Lawmakers representing them donated their
bonuses to victims of the war and their families.
The Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs are also critical of the latest allocation.
Hayastan’s Artsvik Minasian said he and other deputies from the bloc will meet
soon to decide whether to accept the bonuses.
Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian was confident that members of his faction will
again use the bonuses for charitable purposes. “In one way or another, we give
such money back to the people,” he told said.
Members of Armenia’s 107-seat parliament currently earn roughly 500,000 drams
(just over $1,000). On top of that, they are paid 250,000 drams each to cover
their job expenses.
The official monthly wage in the country stands at almost 200,000 drams.
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party attend a parlament
session, September 13, 2021.
Vahe Ghalumian, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party, defended
the latest payouts.
“I find it normal that people working at the National Assembly get a 13th
salary,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We must strive to raise all
pensions and wages in Armenia.”
Ghalumian would not say why the Armenian government is not planning such pay
rises next year.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian significantly increased the amount and frequency
of bonuses paid to civil servants and especially high-ranking government
officials after coming to power in 2018. That prompted strong criticism from
opposition figures and other government critics.
Pashinian has repeatedly defended these payouts, saying that they discourage
corrupt practices in the government and the broader public sector.
Varuzhan Hoktanian, a program coordinator at the Armenian affiliate of the
anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, dismissed the official rationale
for hefty bonuses.
“It looks like they did the [2018] revolution to improve their lives,” Hoktanian
said, referring to Pashinian and his political team. “At the end of the day, the
state budget is losing money. While that was done illegally in the past, they
now deduct public funds in a legal way.”
French Presidential Candidate Visits Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh - French presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse (center)
visits the Center for Francophonie in Stepanakert, .
Valerie Pecresse, a major French presidential candidate, has visited
Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting strong condemnation from Azerbaijan’s government.
Pecresse travelled to Karabakh on Wednesday from Armenia where she met with the
country’s political and spiritual leaders during a trip which observers believe
is connected with France’s forthcoming presidential elections.
The conservative candidate, who heads the Ile de France region of greater Paris,
visited the Center for Francophonie in Stepanakert and met there with Ara
Harutiunian and Davit Babayan, Karabakh’s president and foreign minister
respectively. The Karabakh government issued no official statements on the
meeting.
Pecresse was accompanied by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and Bruno
Retailleau, who leads the conservative Les Republicains party’s group in the
French Senate.
“Why does France not provide humanitarian aid on the ground for the return of
refugees like other members of the [OSCE] Minsk Group do?” Retailleau asked in a
tweet on their trip to Karabakh.
The French charge d’affaires in Baku was on Thursday summoned to the Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry and handed a protest note. The ministry condemned the trip in a
statement, saying that it was part of the French presidential race and “directed
at Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“In Armenia, a brotherly country for France, I come to plead for the return of
peace in Nagorno-Karabakh and the strengthening of French support in the
economic and cultural areas and protection of religious heritage,” Pecresse
tweeted before flying back to Paris on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists in Yerevan on Tuesday, she reportedly described last
year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani over Karabakh as an “important warning to Europe.”
“We would be wrong to think that what happened here does not threaten us because
the history of Europe is full of examples of threats emerging at times when they
were underestimated,” she said.
France is home to an influential Armenian community. It was instrumental in the
December 2020 passage by both houses of the French parliament of resolutions
calling on President Emmanuel Macron’s government to recognize Karabakh as an
independent republic.
Macron, Pecresse and other candidates are expected to vie for French-Armenian
votes during the tight race. One of those hopefuls, controversial far-right
figure Eric Zemmour, visited Armenia last week.
French commentators say that with their pro-Armenian gestures Pecresse and
Zemmour are also reaching out to France’s non-Armenian conservative electorate
attached to traditional Christian values.
Pecresse stressed in Yerevan the importance of “protecting Christians” not only
in Armenia but also France and other European countries. They are facing common
“dangers,” she said.
A French opinion poll released over the weekend showed Pecresse as the likely
challenger to Macron in the second round of the presidential elections slated
for April 2022.
Ousted Yerevan Mayor’s Allegations ‘Investigated’
• Narine Ghalechian
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia -- Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian at a meeting on August 4, 2020
Prosecutors said on Thursday that they are looking into former Yerevan Mayor
Hayk Marutian’s allegations that senior officials pressured him to fire his
subordinates criticizing the government and ensure preferential treatment of
their cronies doing business in the Armenian capital.
Marutian voiced the allegations on Wednesday shortly before the municipal
assembly ousted him in a vote of no confidence initiated by its majority loyal
to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
He claimed that during his three-year tenure he routinely received phone calls
from unnamed “various officials” asking for construction permits, land
allocations, tax advantages and other privileges for “people close to them.” He
did not name any of them, saying only that he rejected all such requests.
Marutian further alleged that Armenia’s “most high-ranking officials” repeatedly
pressured him to sack municipal employees posting or “liking” comments on social
media critical of Pashinian’s government. He said he withstood that pressure as
well.
Leaders of the pro-government My Step bloc controlling the city council scoffed
at the allegations, saying that the outgoing mayor has never told them about the
alleged pressure before.
Daniel Ioannisian, a prominent civic activist leading the Yerevan-based Union of
Informed Citizens, likewise rebuked the ousted mayor for not going public with
his accusations earlier.
“This is part of a broader problem that we have, and Marutian’s case is not the
first time we hear about such stories after the sacking of people involved in
them,” he said.
Still, Ioannisian took Marutian’s claims seriously and submitted a relevant
“crime report” to Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian receives Yerevan's new Mayor Hrachya
Sargsian,
A spokesman for the law-enforcement agency told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that
it is “examining” the report. The prosecutors did not announce a formal criminal
investigation as of Thursday evening.
The prosecutors claimed to have still not received a separate report filed by
Ioannisian earlier this week. It stems from allegations about government
pressure exerted on city council members refusing to impeach Marutian.
Two such members affiliated with My Step claimed to have been blackmailed ahead
of the vote of no confidence.
One of them, Lusine Mkhoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday that
council majority leaders threatened to strip her of her seat for absenteeism if
she continues to support Marutian. Mkhoyan said she skipped many sessions of the
municipal council because of her maternity leave and infection with COVID-19.
The other member, Grigor Yeritsian, claimed to have been forced to resign from
the council. “I would have never thought that my colleagues could warn me that I
will have to go if I don’t vote against [the mayor,]” he said.
Marutian pointed to these allegations in his farewell speech on Wednesday. “With
‘good old’ methods, they literally threatened to fire one member of the Council
of Elders and cut funding to another,” he charged.
Armen Galjian, the council majority leader, denied the accusations.
My Step, which is controlled by Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, holds at least
54 seats in the 65-member council. The motion of no confidence in Marutian was
backed by 44 council members.
Armenian Opposition Refuses To Meet Pashinian
Armenia - Leaders of the opposition minority in the Armenian parliament talk
during a failed session boycotted by the ruling Civil Contract party, Yerevan,
November 15, 2021.
Armenia’s two leading opposition forces said on Thursday that they have turned
down Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s offer to meet behind the closed doors to
discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances said their parliamentary groups received
the offer through speaker Alen Simonian.
“The opposition factions replied that they will attend the meeting only in open
and equal conditions involving accountability to the people, which was rejected
[by Pashinian,]” they said in a joint statement.
The opposition blocs insisted that “the format of closed-door meetings on issues
relating to the Armenian people is unacceptable to begin with.” They also
claimed that Pashinian has repeatedly “manipulated and distorted” such
discussions which he held with opposition members during last year’s war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Zhoghovurd daily quoted a spokeswoman for Simonian as confirming that
Pashinian communicated such an offer to the parliamentary opposition and that
the latter said the meeting must be open to the press. She said the prime
minister was ready to discuss with his political opponents Armenia’s ongoing
talks with Azerbaijan.
The paper added that the offer was made “several days ago.”
Pashinian twice met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during a visit to
Brussels last week. The two leaders reportedly made progress towards easing
tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restoring rail links between the
two nations.
Following the Brussels talks the Armenian and Turkish governments appointed
special envoys for upcoming talks on normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations.
Armenian opposition leaders regularly accuse Pashinian of planning to make
sweeping concessions to Baku and Ankara. The joint statement by Hayastan and
Pativ Unem denounced his “secret” and “suspicious” talks.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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