Monday,
Another Armenian Lawmaker Quits Former Ruling Party
Armenia -- Parliament deputy Arman Sahakian.
Another parliament deputy defected from the parliamentary faction of Serzh
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) over the weekend, further
reducing its majority in the National Assembly.
The wealthy lawmaker, Arman Sahakian, gave no clear reason for the move when he
announced it on Facebook. He said only that he will now concentrate on problems
facing his constituency encompassing the country’s second largest city, Gyumri,
as well as Armenia’s broader economic development.
“I am ready to actively support all initiatives by both the current authorities
and my opposition comrades aimed at development,” wrote Sahakian.
It was not immediately clear whether he will also formally terminate his
membership in the HHK.
Sahakian, 40, is a businessman who has held a seat in the parliament since
2012. He reportedly owns companies importing alcohol, tobacco and foodstuffs to
Armenia as well as one of the country’s leading football clubs based in Gyumri.
At least two other deputies quit the HHK’s parliamentary faction just a few
days before Sahakian announced his decision. One of them, Artur Gevorgian, is
the son-in-law of Vladimir Gasparian, the former chief of the Armenian police.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian fired Gasparian two days after taking office on
May 8 following mass protests that forced Serzh Sarkisian to resign as premier.
After Sahakian’s exit, the HHK technically controls 55 of the 105 parliament
seats. One of the remaining nominal members of its faction, Felix Tsolakian,
twice broke ranks to vote for Pashinian’s premiership in early May.
The HHK leadership reprimanded Tsolakian but stopped short of expelling him
from the party ranks as a result. His continued loyalty to the former ruling
party now seems in serious doubt.
Some Armenian newspapers reported in recent days that several other wealthy
parliamentarians are also poised to defect to from the HHK faction.
The faction leader, Vahram Baghdasarian, admitted last week that Sarkisian’s
party now risks losing control over the parliament. He claimed at the same time
that it is “not desperate to retain our majority.”
A loss of that majority would mean that the HHK can no longer block key
government bills. It would also stop being in a position to thwart Pashinian’s
plans to force fresh parliamentary elections later this year. Those plans are
supported by the parliament’s three minority factions represented in
Pashinian’s cabinet.
‘Violent’ Mayor Charged But Freed For Now
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Masis Mayor Davit Hambardzumian speaks to RFE/RL after being set free
by a court in Yerevan, 2 June 2018.
The mayor of an Armenian town affiliated with the former ruling Republican
Party (HHK) and three other men were controversially released from custody on
Saturday one day after being charged with assaulting protesters in Yerevan in
April.
The incident took place in the city’s southern Erebuni district just hours
after Nikol Pashinian, the main organizer of mass protests against HHK leader
Serzh Sarkisian’s continued rule, was detained on April 22. Hundreds of
Pashinian supporters demonstrating there were attacked by several dozen men
wearing medical masks and wielding sticks and even electric shock guns.
Five individuals were arrested on Thursday in connection with the violence.
They included Davit Hambardzumian, the mayor of Masis, a small town about 10
kilometers south of Yerevan, and his deputy Karen Ohanian.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee charged Hambardzumian with organizing the
“mass riots” on Friday before asking a court in Yerevan to sanction his and the
four other suspects’ pre-trial arrest. The latter stand accused of
participating in the attack.
The court rejected all but one of those petitions, however. The presiding
judge, Tatevik Grigorian, ordered the immediate release of Hambardzumian,
Ohanian, the mayor’s cousin Gevorg and another suspect pending investigation.
Hambardzumian rejected the criminal case as “false” and said he will not resign
as Masis mayor when he walked free in the courtroom. “What should I resign
for?” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Armenia - A screenshot of a video of thugs beating up an opposition protester
in Yerevan's Erebuni district on 22 April 2018.
The Investigative Committee insisted that it has sufficient video and other
evidence of the mayor’s and the other freed suspects’ involvement in the
Erebuni attack. A spokesperson for the law-enforcement body said it will ask a
prosecutor overseeing the probe to appeal against Grigorian’s ruling.
The 30-year-old judge presided over the recent high-profile trial of Zhirayr
Sefilian and other radical opposition figures convicted of plotting to
overthrow former President Serzh Sarkisian. She repeatedly refused to free
those defendants pending a verdict in the case.
Grigorian’s decision to have Mayor Hambardzumian freed for now caused outrage
among many Armenian civil society members and other supporters of the new
government in Yerevan. They were quick to accuse her of acting on orders issued
by Sarkisian’s HHK or other state elements loyal to the former Armenian
government.
Incidentally, eight senior parliamentarians representing the HHK last week sent
a joint letter to Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian and the Investigative
Committee head, Aghvan Hovsepian, calling for the release of Hambardzumian and
the other suspects.
The mayor’s arrest sparked street protests by his supporters in Masis. Some of
them also demonstrated outside the Yerevan court before the ruling.
Hambardzumian, 32, is an HHK member who was elected mayor in 2016 with the help
of the then ruling party. He is reportedly related to the chief bodyguard of
Vladimir Gasparian, the former head of the Armenian police sacked by Pashinian.
Law-enforcement authorities have also made at least three other arrests in
connection with similar incidents that occurred in two other parts of Yerevan
during the Pashinian-led protest movement. Some Armenian media outlets have
accused Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian and Mihran Poghosian, a controversial
parliamentarian, of orchestrating those attacks on protesters. Both men
affiliated with the HHK deny that.
New Armenian Police Chief Claims To End Corruption
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Valeri Osipyan, chief of the Armenian police, speaks to reporters, 4
June 2018
Less than one month after being appointed as chief of the Armenian police,
Valeri Osipian claimed on Monday to have practically eliminated bribery and
other corrupt practices among fellow police officers.
“I can announce with confidence that there are now no corrupt elements in the
police,” he told reporters. “I can announce with confidence that I have taken
concrete steps.”
“I don’t exclude that one or two of my colleagues [may be corrupt] but I can
say for sure that corruption does not exist [as a systemic problem.]”
Nikol Pashinian named Osipian to run the national police service on May 10 two
days after being elected Armenia’s prime minister following weeks of
anti-government protests led by him.
Osipian was until then a deputy head of Yerevan’s police department responsible
for public order and crowd control. He has been personally present at just
about every major anti-government rally staged in the Armenian capital in the
past decade. He frequently warned and argued with Pashinian during the protests
which the former opposition leader launched on April 13 in a successful attempt
to topple Serzh Sarkisian.
Introducing Osipian to high-ranking police officials on May 11, Pashinian said
one of his main tasks will be to crack down on corruption in the police ranks
which is believed to have long been endemic. Osipian replaced virtual deputy
chiefs of the police in the following days.
Armenia To Retain Close Ties With Russia, Insists FM
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia - New Russian Ambassador Sergey Kopirkin (L) hands copies of his
credentials to Armenia's Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian, Yerevan,4June
2018.
The new Armenian government will maintain Armenia’s “very deep” ties with
Russia while trying to “complement” them with closer cooperation with the
European Union and other world powers, according to Foreign Minister Zohrab
Mnatsakanian.
In a weekend interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am),
Mnatsakanian ruled out major changes in Armenia’s traditional foreign policy
orientation. He said the recent dramatic events that led to a change of
government in Yerevan were an “Armenian process that totally fitted into the
Armenian reality.”
“Our foreign policy will also be the same,” Mnatsakanian added, commenting on
some Russian commentators’ fears that Armenia may drift away from Russia under
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
“We have very deep and very important relations with Russia and they will
continue,” stressed the recently appointed minister. “Our strategic
cooperation, strategic relations with Russia have a very strong, logical and
explicable basis.”
Armenia will at the same time continue to seek closer ties with the EU,
including through the implementation of the Comprehensive Enhanced Partnership
Agreement (CEPA) signed last November, Mnatsakanian went on.
“That agreement was not signed and is not implemented to the detriment of other
directions [of Armenian foreign policy,]” he said. “Instead, it complements
what we have been doing for our national interests. And if we need to give more
explanations, then we are going to do that.”
Russia closely watched the mass protests in Armenia sparked by former President
Serzh Sarkisian’s attempt to extend his decade-long rule. In their public
statements, Russian officials avoided taking sides in the standoff that led to
Sarkisian’s resignation on April 23.
Pashinian has since repeatedly stated that he will not pull Armenia out of the
Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. He
assured Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 14 that Armenia will remain
allied to Russia during his tenure.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin said late last month that
regime change in Armenia has not had a negative impact on Russian-Armenian
relations. “The vector and the dynamics [of bilateral ties] remain the same,”
he told the TASS agency.
Incidentally, Mnatsakanian discussed those ties with Russia’s new ambassador in
Yerevan, Sergey Kopirkin, at a meeting held on Monday. According to the
Armenian Foreign Ministry, the minister expressed hope that the
Russian-Armenian relationship will grow even closer.
Mnatsakanian is scheduled to visit Moscow and meet with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov later this week.
Pashinian Urges End To Protests In Karabakh
• Sisak Gabrielian
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian kisses a baby
after a news conference in Stepanakert, May 9, 2018. Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday called for an end to
anti-government protests in Nagorno-Karabakh sparked by a violent dispute
between security officers and other local residents.
Pashinian made what he described as a “brotherly request” as about 200 people
demonstrated in Stepanakert for a fourth day to demand the resignation of the
heads of Nagorno-Karabakh’s two main law-enforcement agencies blamed for the
violence.
The brawl broke outside a Stepanakert car wash on Friday, with two groups of
men bitterly arguing and pushing and punching each other for still unclear
reasons. Several of them turned out to be officers of Karabakh’s National
Security Service (NSS). They reportedly seriously injured at least one of the
other, civilian participants of the fight.
The incident triggered a demonstration by angry Stepanakert residents who say
that it is symptomatic of what they see as impunity enjoyed by members of
security forces and their relatives. They blocked the town’s main avenue,
demanding the resignation of the NSS and police chiefs. The street section has
since been the scene of daily anti-government rallies.
Karabakh law-enforcement authorities arrested several individuals, including
two NSS officers, in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Karabakh’s
political leadership pledged to ensure an objective criminal investigation.
These assurances failed to satisfy the protesters, however. Their
representatives twice met with Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, over the
weekend. Sahakian is said to have told them late on Sunday that he is ready, in
principle, to sack senior law-enforcement officials but will refrain from doing
that now.
“The people will not leave until their demands are met,” one of the protest
leaders said after the demonstrators decided to keep the Stepanakert street
closed to traffic on Monday morning.
Nagorno-Karabakh - The parliament building in Stepanakert, 2Sep2016.
Meanwhile, Karabakh’s parliament set up a multi-party “investigative
commission” at an emergency session held later in the day. The ad hoc
commission is tasked with monitoring the probe of the brawl and other abuses
allegedly committed by law-enforcement officials.
Pashinian appealed to the protesters late on Monday, saying that “any violence
is unacceptable regardless of who resorts to it” and calling for “concrete
conclusions” to be drawn from the June 1 incident. In a live Facebook
broadcast, he praised Sahakian for meeting representatives of the protesters
and reaching “concrete agreements” with them. He hinted that the Karabakh
leader agreed to make personnel changes in the local security apparatus after
the ongoing criminal inquiry is over.
The protests should therefore end, said the Armenian premier. “In a
conversation with me, the president of Artsakh (Karabakh) reaffirmed his
determination to implement those agreements and it is imperative to enable him
to do that,” he added.
Pashinian’s appeal followed serious concerns voiced by some politicians and
public figures in Armenia. They warned that a destabilization of the political
situation in Karabakh could tempt Azerbaijan to attack Karabakh Armenian
positions along “the line of contact” around the disputed territory.
“What happened in Armenia is inadmissible, to put it mildly, for Karabakh,”
former President Levon Ter-Petrosian said in a weekend statement. “I mean mass
protests and pressures on the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s authorities. They
could have disastrous consequences for a country which is in a state of war.”
Ter-Petrosian alluded to the recent mass protests in Armenia that brought
Pashinian to power. He said Pashinian must publicly call for an end to the
Stepanakert protests.
The Karabakh leader’s spokesman, Davit Babayan, sought to allay such fears
earlier on Monday. “The situation is not critical. This is a form of dialogue,”
Babayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Babayan also warned against attempts to “politicize” the June 1 incident and
urged the protest leaders to drop their “ultimatums” issued to the authorities
in Stepanakert.
More Armenian Lawmakers Quit Former Ruling Party
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Parliament deputy Felix Tsolakian, 4 April 2018.
Two more parliament deputies have defected from the parliamentary faction of
Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), putting it on the verge of
losing its majority in the National Assembly.
One of them, Arman Sahakian, gave no clear reason for his move when he
announced it on Facebook over the weekend. He said only that he will now
concentrate on problems facing his constituency encompassing the country’s
second largest city, Gyumri, as well as Armenia’s broader economic development.
“I am ready to actively support all initiatives by both the current authorities
and my opposition comrades aimed at development,” wrote Sahakian.
Sahakian, 40, is a businessman who has held a seat in the parliament since
2012. He reportedly owns companies importing alcohol, tobacco and foodstuffs to
Armenia as well as one of the country’s leading football clubs based in Gyumri.
Armenia -- Parliament deputy Arman Sahakian.
The other lawmaker, Felix Tsolakian, announced his exit from the HHK faction on
Monday. He said his affiliation with it “effectively ended” after he twice
broke ranks to vote for Nikol Pashinian’s becoming Armenia’s prime minister in
early May. In a Facebook post, he said he will now be acting as an independent
deputy.
The HHK leadership reprimanded Tsolakian for voting for Pashinian but stopped
short of expelling him from the party ranks last week.
Tsolakian, 66, was a career KGB officer in Soviet times and a deputy director
of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) from 2007-2013. He headed the
national tax service from 2003-2007. Tsolakian governed the northwestern Shirak
province when he was elected to the parliament from a local constituency in
2017.
At least two other deputies quit the HHK’s parliamentary faction last week. One
of them, Artur Gevorgian, is a son-in-law of Vladimir Gasparian, the former
chief of the Armenian police. Pashinian fired Gasparian two days after taking
office on May 8 following mass protests that forced Serzh Sarkisian to resign
as premier.
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia at a parliament
session in Yerevan 28 February 2018.
After the latest defections the HHK technically controls 54 of the 105
parliament seats. Some Armenian newspapers reported in recent days that several
other wealthy parliamentarians are also poised to defect to from its
parliamentary faction.
The faction leader, Vahram Baghdasarian, admitted last week that Sarkisian’s
party now risks losing control over the parliament. He claimed at the same time
that it is “not desperate to retain our majority.”
A loss of that majority would mean that the HHK can no longer block key
government bills. It would also stop being in a position to thwart Pashinian’s
plans to force fresh parliamentary elections later this year. Those plans are
supported by the parliament’s three minority factions represented in
Pashinian’s cabinet.
Press Review
(Saturday, June 2)
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that the prices of fruits, vegetables and meat sold
in Armenian supermarkets have gone up sharply following accusations of
large-scale tax evasion levelled against the country’s largest retail chain
owned by parliament deputy Samvel Aleksanian. The paper close to the new
Armenian government assures readers that there is “nothing terrible” about the
price hikes because the cost of these foodstuffs sold in smaller shops and
markets remains unchanged. It also argues that the government needs to put an
end to corporate tax fraud.
“Hraparak” says that the retail “oligarchs” are retaliating against the
crackdown launched by Nikol Pashinian’s government. “On the one hand, this is
blackmail directed at the authorities that have breached ‘rules of the game,’”
writes the paper. “On the hand, it’s a slap in the face of the society that has
carried out a democratic revolution.” It hopes that the price hikes will be
more than offset by extra tax payments to the state budget.
“Aravot” reports that the supermarket managers have sent a collective letter to
Pashinian. The paper says their message to the prime minister can be summed up
as follows: “If we stick only to the law we will go bankrupt and food prices
will rise.” It says that while public anger about large businesses evading
taxes is legitimate “government officials and experts have something to think
about.” “Maybe relevant laws were really written in such a way that it was very
hard not to circumvent them,” it says.
“Zhamanak” reports on a corruption scandal surrounding activities the Armenian
Youth Fund, a state-funded structure that has long been effectively controlled
by the youth wing of Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) headed by Karen
Avagian, a parliament deputy. Avagian alleged on June 1 that the fund’s
executive director has embezzled over 326 million drams ($680,000) from the
fund. Law-enforcement authorities have launched a criminal investigation into
the allegation. The paper wonders if Avagian’s allegation is a further
indication of mounting friction within the HHK.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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