Thursday, May 7, 2020
Former Security Chief Summoned For Questioning
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Former National Security Service Director Artur Vanetsian is
interviewed by Armenian newspaper editors, Yerevan, February 5, 2020.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency on Thursday summoned former National Security
Service (NSS) Director Artur Vanetsian for questioning over scandalous
allegations made by Mikael Minasian, former President Serzh Sarkisian’s fugitive
son-in-law.
Minasian said late last week that that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian had
offered to guarantee his and his father’s immunity from prosecution if he
pledges to pay cash and stop challenging the Armenian government. In a video
message posted on Facebook, he said Vanetsian personally communicated
Pashinian’s offer to him during a February 2019 meeting held in Rome.
Pashinian has still not commented on Minasian’s claims. Vanetsian, who resigned
as NSS chief in September 2019 after falling out with Pashinian, has also
declined a comment.
Armenian prosecutors were quick to instruct the Special Investigative Service
(SIS) to look into the allegations. The SIS should decide by next week whether
to launch a formal investigation.
A lawyer representing Vanetsian, Lusine Sahakian, was the first to announce that
her client was summoned to the SIS earlier in the day.
“A legal process is underway and we will refrain from further comments regarding
it,” Sahakian wrote on Facebook. She gave no other details.
Three Armenian media outlets reported afterwards that Vanetsian has already
visited the investigators but refused to give any testimony. The SIS declined to
comment.
Vanetsian claimed late last year that he met with Minasian at the prime
minister’s initiative when he ran Armenia’s most powerful security service. But
he gave no details of the alleged conversation.
Minasian, who now lives abroad, made the allegations one week after it emerged
that he was charged with illegal enrichment, false asset disclosure and money
laundering earlier this year. He rejected the accusations as politically
motivated.
Pashinian has repeatedly accused Minasian of illegally making a huge fortune
during Sarkisian’s rule.
A newspaper controlled by the prime minister alleged in January that Minasian
and Vanetsian have joined forces in a bid to topple him.
Also, a spokeswoman for Pashinian claimed last week that “according to the
government’s information” Vanetsian abused his NSS position to buy Minasian’s
minority stake in Armenia’s largest mining company. Vanetsian strongly denied
that.
The former security chief officially announced his entry into politics in
February, saying that he is setting up an opposition party for that purpose.
Armenia Hopes To Complete Energy Project With Iran In 2020
Armenia -- Workers build a high-voltage power transmission line in Vayots Dzor
region, August 4, 2017
The Armenian government hopes that the ongoing construction of a third power
transmission line connecting Armenia to neighboring Iran will be completed by
the end of this year, Minister for Local Government and Infrastructures Suren
Papikian said on Thursday.
Work on the high-voltage line, which is mainly carried out in southeastern
Armenia by an Iranian company, was supposed to finish in September 2019.
However, the launch of the $120 million facility was delayed due to a host of
factors, reportedly including the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
“The construction is due to be completed this year,” Papikian told the Armenian
parliament, according to the Armenpress news agency.
“Unfortunately, because of the coronavirus the beginning of this year was not
that promising [for the project,]” he said. “We hope to be able to conclude the
construction within the planned time frames.”
The high-voltage line will stretch almost 280 kilometers from Yerevan to
Armenia’s border with Iran. It will allow the two neighboring states to triple
mutual power supplies. Armenia has for years exported electricity to Iran in
payment for up to 500 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas imported by it
annually.
Papikian said in December that the new facility will also put Armenia in a
better position to serve as a transit route for electricity supplies to the
Islamic Republic from Georgia and even Russia.
IRAN -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with Iranian President
Hassan Rohani at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran, February 27, 2019
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly made clear that his government
will seek to deepen Armenian-Iranian political and economic ties despite the
U.S. sanctions.
“Our countries have very good relations,” he said on Thursday. “They are
developing dynamically.”
Speaking in the parliament, Pashinian pointed to his April 28 phone conversation
with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
According to an official Armenian readout of the phone call, Rouhani and
Pashinian discussed ways of minimizing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on
bilateral commercial ties. “Both sides stressed the importance of taking further
steps in that direction,” said the statement.
The Armenian government decided on February 24 to close the Iranian border for
travel and cancel regular flights between the two states. The border, which
serves as one of landlocked Armenia’s two conduits to the outside world, has
remained largely open for cargo shipments.
Official Signals Further Delay In Armenian Constitutional Referendum
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a referendum campaign rally
in Vayk, March 12, 2020.
The Armenian authorities are unlikely to hold a planned referendum on their
controversial bid to oust most members of the country’s Constitutional Court
until they defeat the coronavirus epidemic, a pro-government lawmaker said on
Thursday.
Armenians were scheduled to vote on April 5 on draft constitutional amendments
ending the powers of seven of the nine Constitutional Court judges who had for
months been under strong government pressure to resign.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly accused them -- and Constitutional
Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian in particular -- of maintaining ties to the
“corrupt former regime” and impeding judicial reforms. Tovmasian and opposition
figures have dismissed these claims, saying that Pashinian is simply seeking to
gain control over Armenia’s highest court.
Also, leading opposition parties have said that the proposed amendments run
counter to other articles of the Armenian constitution.
Pashinian officially launched his campaign for a “Yes” vote in the referendum on
March 10 but had to end it a week later amid a rapid spread of coronavirus in
Armenia which led his government to declare a state of emergency. Under Armenian
law, no elections or referendums can held during emergency rule.
Armenia -- A Constitutional Court hearing in Yerevan, February 11, 2020.
The government has yet to announce whether it will again extend the state of
emergency which expires on May 14. A decision to end it would require the
holding of the constitutional referendum in between 50 and 65 days’ time.
“I think that as long as the health of our citizens remains in danger in this
coronavirus situation we will not take a risk and hold the referendum,” said
Hrach Hakobian, a parliament deputy from the ruling My Step bloc.
“The [Constitutional Court] problem remains and it has not been resolved, but
the health of our citizens is more important for us than other issues,” he told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
The spread of coronavirus in Armenia has continued unabated after the government
essentially lifted a nationwide lockdown on Monday. The Armenian Ministry of
Health reported on Thursday morning 102 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths
caused by the virus. The total number of cases thus reached 2,884.
Hakobian, who is also Pashinian’s brother-in-law, said that the authorities are
now considering various ways of ending what they call a “constitutional crisis.”
“I can’t tell which options we are now discussing,” he said. “There are options
and we are discussing them.”
Pashinian said last month that despite the coronavirus outbreak he remains
determined to replace the Constitutional Court judges who had been installed by
Armenia’s previous governments. But he did not elaborate.
Pashinian Meets Opposition Leader
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Bright Armenia Party leader Edmon Marukian at a news conference in
Yerevan, April 20, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian held on Thursday an unexpected meeting with Edmon
Marukian, the leader of one of the two opposition parties represented in the
Armenian parliament.
“We drank coffee,” Pashinian told reporters after the meeting held in Marukian’s
office in the parliament building. He refused to give any details.
Marukian said, for his part, that the conversation focused on recent
developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. He said Pashinian dispelled
his concerns over opposition and media speculation that Armenia is facing strong
pressure from international mediators to agree to a peace deal involving
far-reaching Armenian territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.
“I think we need to hold such discussions from time to time,” added the leader
of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK).
Pashinian was asked by another opposition lawmaker about the current state of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiating process but shed little light on it when he
spoke in the National Assembly on Wednesday. He reiterated the official Armenian
line that Karabakh residents’ right to self-determination must be at the heart
of any peaceful settlement.
Marukian insisted that he did not discuss any domestic political issues with the
prime minister.
The meeting came ten days after Marukian traded serious insults with one of
Pashinian’s close associates, Alen Simonian, on the parliament floor. Marukian
was enraged by Simonian’s sexist comments about a female LHK parliamentarian who
criticized by the latter during a parliament debate. Simonian apologized to the
lawmaker, Ani Samsonian, afterwards.
Pashinian and Marukian are former political allies who used to co-head the Yelk
bloc that was in opposition to Armenia’s former leadership. The bloc fell apart
after Marukian and his party refused to join mass protests launched by Pashinian
in April 2018 against then President Serzh Sarkisian’s attempt to extend his
decade-long rule.
The peaceful protests known as the “Velvet Revolution” forced Sarkisian to
resign and brought Pashinian to power.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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