Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Tsarukian’s Party Decries Government’s ‘Dirty Tricks’
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) attends the inauguration of a
ceramics plant mostly owned by Gagik Tsarkian (R), November 7, 2019.
The opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) accused the authorities on Tuesday
of launching a smear campaign against its leader Gagik Tsarukian in response to
his calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation.
Tsarukian said on Friday that Pashinian and his cabinet must step down because
they have failed to contain the coronavirus epidemic and mitigate its
socioeconomic consequences. Meeting with senior BHK members, the tycoon also
announced that he will try to rally “healthy” political groups and individuals
“concerned about country’s future.”
Pashinian and his political allies reacted furiously to the unusually harsh
criticism. The prime minister’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, claimed that
Tsarukian attacked the government because he fears being prosecuted on
corruption, tax evasion and other grave charges. She said the BHK leader should
also be worried about the recent entry into force of a law allowing authorities
to confiscate private assets deemed to have been acquired illegally.
The BHK, which has the second largest group in the Armenian parliament, rejected
the “political blackmail.”
On Monday, a newspaper controlled by Pashinian’s family published a purported
copy of a Soviet Armenian court’s decision to convict Tsarukian of involvement
in a 1979 gang rape of two women outside Yerevan and to sentence him to 7 years
in prison.
While not denying such a prison sentence, Tsarukian’s representatives accused
the authorities of manipulating facts and resorting to dirty tricks. They
publicized on Tuesday another document which shows that Armenia’s Court of
Cassation overturned the 1979 verdict and acquitted Tsarukian in the mid-1990s.
Armenia -- Arman Abovian of the Prosperous Armenia Party speaks to RFE/RL, March
21, 2020
“Sadly, instead of tackling all these problems [facing Armenia] the entire
ruling team is now busy fighting against us,” said Arman Abovian, a senior BHK
lawmaker.
“There is an ethical red line which must not be crossed,” he said. “They can’t
mix politics with personal issues … Let them sort out the socioeconomic
situation in the country as vigorously as they are fighting the BHK and Mr.
Tsarukian.”
Abovian stressed that Tsarukian stands by his Friday statement and has already
started meeting with other political figures also seeking regime change. He did
not name any of them.
The Bright Armenia Party (LHK), the second opposition force represented in the
parliament, said it has not been approached by Tsarukian yet. A senior LHK
figure, Ani Samsonian, questioned the wisdom of demanding Pashinian’s and his
cabinet’s resignation at this juncture.
“Let’s assume that there is a [parliamentary] vote of no confidence in the prime
minister,” reasoned Samsonian. “Who will be the next prime minister? Is there
any candidate for the job who is ready to work with this kind of a
[parliamentary] majority?”
The authorities’ handling of the coronavirus crisis is increasingly criticized
by not only the BHK and the LHK but also other opposition groups that are not
represented in the current National Assembly. Pashinian’s My Step bloc responds
by accusing them of trying to capitalize on the deadly epidemic.
Armenia -- Hrachya Hakobian.
“Those [opposition] forces and individuals are doing everything to get the
people infected [with coronavirus,]” Hrachya Hakobian, a My Step lawmaker and
Pashinian’s brother-in-law, alleged on Tuesday.“That means stabbing the people
in the back. In the current situation demanding the resignation of a government
enjoying strong popular support is also a stab in the back.”
The BHK used to be allied to Pashinian, having joined his first cabinet formed
in May 2018 in the wake of the “Velvet Revolution.” Pashinian fired his
ministers affiliated with BHK in October 2018, accusing Tsarukian’s party of
secretly collaborating with the country’s former leadership.
The BHK finished second in the December 2018 parliamentary elections and won 26
seats in Armenia’s 132-member parliament.
More Armenian Textile Plants Hit By Coronavirus Outbreaks
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Workers at a textile factory in Gyumri, 1Aug2015.
Two more textile factories in Armenia suspended their operations on Tuesday
after dozens of their workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Gyumri-based factories belonging to the local Lentex and Svetex companies
employ a total of about 400 people.
Tigran Petrosian, the governor of the surrounding Shirak province, said 120
workers underwent coronavirus tests nearly half of which came back positive on
Monday. He said the company owners decided to temporarily shut down their plants
without any government orders.
“Svetex decided to take a two-week break while Lentex is discussing mechanisms
and ways of continuing its work,” Petrosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
“We can’t operate right now because the [infected] people have self-isolated
while others, who feel unwell, are having tests in policlinics,” said the Lentex
owner, Karen Gomtsian.
Gomtsian said he will decide “in the coming days” when to reopen the plant. He
suggested that some of his 350 or so employees will return to work soon so that
Lentex can fulfill its contractual obligations to foreign buyers. They have not
been in contact with infected workers and “feel well,” he said.
While insisting that the company has followed all anti-epidemic rules set by the
government, Gomtsian admitted that sanitary inspectors forced it to close for
one day late last month.
The provincial administration has reported 135 coronavirus cases among residents
of Gyumri and other Shirak communities. Only 42 of them are in hospital at
present.
Armenia -- Empty premises of the Gloria textile factory, Vanadzor, June 3, 2020.
Armenia’s largest textile plant located in Vanadzor, the administrative center
of neighboring Lori province, has been hit by a similar COVID-19 outbreak.
Authorities ordered the Gloria company’s plant to close on June 3 one of day
after three of its 2,600 predominantly female workers tested positive for the
virus.
The number of infected workers has since risen to 149. One of them, Lilik
Bayadian, was informed about her positive test result on Tuesday three days
after developing a fever and apparent pneumonia.
Bayadian repeatedly coughed when she spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service by phone
hours before being taken to hospital.
“I have gotten sick many times but never felt such pain in my muscles, arms and
legs before,” said the middle-aged woman. “My daughter-in-law also has a fever
but she is not in bed.”
Another Gloria employee, Karine Rafaelian, has had no coronavirus tests and
shown no symptoms of the disease. But like many of her colleagues, she too has
been told by the Vanadzor police to quarantine at home.
“In my circumstances self-isolating means committing a suicide because I live
alone,” complained Rafaelian. “My children live in Russia and my husband is
dead. Who is going to buy food for me?”
The Lori governor, Andrei Ghukasian, pledged to help people like her. “We keep
in touch with everyone by phone to see if they need food,” he said. “We have
food packages that will be delivered to them by our workers and volunteers so
that they don’t leave their homes.”
Gloria will remain closed at least until June 20. This and other Armenian firms
manufacturing clothing were allowed to resume their work in late April following
a month-long stoppage ordered by the government as part of a nationwide
lockdown. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on April 12 that the textile
industry should be able to reopen despite being “the main driving force” of
coronavirus infections in the country.
Following Pashinian’s statement, a government task force set concrete social
distancing rules and other safety standards for the export-oriented industry.
Gloria’s owner, Bagrat Darbinian, claimed that those requirements are too strict
when his employees defied the government ban and returned to their workplaces on
April 21.
The authorities shut down the plant again the following day. Still, they agreed
to soften the rules.
The daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia has increased
dramatically since then.
“The main reason for the rise in the number of cases is industrial enterprises,”
Pashinian said on May 24. The prime minister accused businesses of failing to
follow the rules.
The authorities have registered 13,675 coronavirus cases and 217 deaths to date.
Six people died from the virus on Monday, according to the Armenian Ministry of
Health.
The official count does not include the deaths of 74 other Armenians who were
also infected with the respiratory disease. The ministry says that these
fatalities were caused by other, pre-existing conditions.
Pashinian Demands Stronger Police Action Against COVID-19
Armenia -- Police officers fine a car driver for violating coronavirus-related
safety rules, Yerevan, June 2, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told the Armenian police on Tuesday to step up
the enforcement of social distancing and other rules meant to contain the spread
of the coronavirus in the country.
Pashinian said this must be the primary task of the newly appointed chief of the
national police service, Vahe Ghazarian.
“The quality of the work of the police will continue to be essential in the
fight against the epidemic,” he said, introducing Ghazarian to senior police
officials. “As much as we realize that the entire police staff is on the verge
of exhaustion, new impetus should be given [to police efforts] no matter how
impossible that may seem.”
Ghazarian was appointed as police chief on Monday immediately after the sacking
of his predecessor, Arman Sargsian. The latter ran the police for only 9 months.
Pashinian gave no clear reasons for Sargsian’s sacking at the meeting with the
senior police officials. But his remarks suggest that he was dissatisfied with
ongoing efforts to make Armenians practice social distancing, wear face masks in
all public areas and take other precautions against the virus.
Pashinian ordered the law-enforcement and sanitary authorities to toughen the
enforcement of those rules on June 2 as the COVID-19 epidemic in Armenia reached
alarming proportions. He stated the following day that citizens’ failure to
comply with them has become so widespread that there is little the police can do
about it.
The police claim to have fined since then many more people who did not wear face
masks in cars or buses.
Armenia -- Vahe Ghazarian, the newly appointed chief of the Armenian police, is
introduced to his staff, Yerevan, June 9, 2020.
Like Pashinian, Ghazarian was born and raised in Ijevan, a small town and the
administrative center of Armenia’s northern Tavush province. The two men
reportedly studied in the same local school. Pashinian is 45 years old while
Ghazarian will turn 46 next week.
Ghazarian has rapidly worked his way up the police hierarchy since the “Velvet
Revolution” of April-May 2018 that brought Pashinian to power. He was appointed
as chief of the police department of Tavush in May 2018 and became the commander
of Armenian interior troops a year later.
Pashinian assured the senior policemen on Tuesday that the police service is now
fully merit-based and that political or personal connections will play no role
in their promotion.
Authorities Want To Send Hospitalized Kocharian Back To Jail
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian greets supporters during his trial,
Yerevan, February 25, 2020.
Armenia’s Penitentiary Service has appealed against a court’s decision to allow
the jailed former President Robert Kocharian to remain in hospital until the end
of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kocharian was taken to Yerevan’s Izmirlian Medical Center and underwent surgery
there in late April for the second time in seven months. On May 13, a district
court in the Armenian capital again refused to release him from custody pending
the outcome of his ongoing trial.
Two weeks later, Kocharian’s lawyers succeeded in convincing another court to
rule that the ex-president should not be sent back to prison as long as he
remains at risk of contracting the coronavirus.
It emerged on Tuesday that the Penitentiary Service, which is part of the
Armenian Ministry of Justice, challenged that decision made by the
Administrative Court. The agency running Armenian prisons did not explain the
move condemned by Kocharian’s lawyers.
“The Administrative Court is guided by a very clear logic,” one of the lawyers,
Aram Vartevanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “After all, penitentiary
institutions do not have the capacity to preclude the spread of the coronavirus
among arrested suspects or convicts.”
Vartevanian argued that at least one inmate at the Kosh prison 40 kilometers
west of Yerevan tested positive for the virus late last week.
It was the first reported case of a COVID-19 infection among prisoners. The
Penitentiary Service had previously reported coronavirus cases only among prison
guards.
Kocharian was held in Yerevan’s Kentron jail prior to his hospitalization. His
lawyers have insisted in recent month that the pandemic is another reason why he
should be set free. Law-enforcement authorities have dismissed those demands,
saying that his chances of catching the disease at Kentron are minimal.
Kocharian, 65, and three other former senior officials stand trial on charges
mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. The ex-president,
who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, also stands accused of bribery. He rejects all
accusations leveled against him as politically motivated.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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