Thursday,
Armenian Archbishop Indicted
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan leads a ceremony in St. Sargis Church,
Yerevan, September 2, 2014.
An influential archbishop has been charged with fraud and money laundering amid
mounting tensions between Armenia’s political leadership and the Armenian
Apostolic Church.
In a statement released late on Wednesday, the National Security Service (NSS)
claimed that Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan had colluded with an Armenian
businessman to defraud another entrepreneur.
Although the statement named no names, it clearly referred to Ashot Sukiasian,
who was convicted in December 2017 of having misappropriated most of a $10.7
million loan which his former business partner, Paylak Hayrapetian, borrowed
from an Armenian commercial bank in 2012. Sukiasian had pledged to invest that
money in diamond mining in Sierra Leone. He never did that, according to
prosecutors.
A district court in Yerevan sentenced Sukiasian to 16 years in prison. However,
Armenia’s Court of Appeals shortened the sentence and released the disgraced
businessman from prison in January this year.
Sukiasian was arrested in Georgia, extradited to Armenia and charged with fraud,
money laundering and tax evasion in 2014 after Hetq.am discovered that
Hayrapetian’s money was transferred to the offshore bank accounts of several
Cyprus-registered companies. The investigative publication disclosed a document
purportedly certifying that one of those firms is co-owned by Sukiasian, then
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian and Archbishop Kchoyan.
Armenia - Businessman Ashot Sukiasian stands trial in Yerevan, May 2016.
Both Sarkisian, who resigned as prime minister in April 2014, and Kchoyan
strongly denied having any stakes in the company, saying that it was registered
in their names in Cyprus without their knowledge. Sukiasian likewise claimed to
have forged their signatures.
The NSS statement said that Kchoyan, who heads the Armenian Apostolic Church’s
largest diocese econmpassing Yerevan and the southern Ararat province, owned 33
percent of the offshore company. It said that he convinced Sukiasian to cover up
his involvement in the scam.
The statement said nothing about the company’s other owners. Nor did it make any
reference to Tigran Sarkisian, who now lives and works in Russia.
Kchoyan on Thursday denied through a lawyer the accusations brought against him.
“Let them present a single piece of evidence that the archbishop was offered or
given a single penny from that sum,” the lawyer, Hovik Arsenian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service.
Reacting to the accusations, the Echmiadzin-based Mother See of the Armenian
Church urged government officials and media to respect Kchoyan’s presumption of
innocence.
In a statement, it also described as “bewildering” the fact that the NSS
announced the charges one day after the church’s supreme head, Catholicos
Garegin II, called for the release on health grounds of the jailed former
President Robert Kocharian.
“Although this fact causes some concerns, the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin
hopes and will strive to ensure that an impartial and comprehensive
investigation is conducted as part of the criminal case,” read the statement.
Garegin’s call for Kocharian’s release was criticized by Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s office. It prompted angry reactions from Pashinian’s political
allies and supporters. Some of them demanded his resignation.
Kchoyan has long faced criticism from Armenia media outlets for his behavior and
lifestyle seen as too earthly. He also sparked controversy by participating and
even speaking at political gatherings organized by the former ruling Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK). The archbishop personally blessed HHK leader Serzh
Sarkisian at a February 2008 campaign rally held in the run-up to a dispute
presidential election.
Sarkisian Testifies Before Lawmakers
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian arrives at the parliament building
in Yerevan to testify before lawmakers, .
Former President Serzh Sarkisian testified on Thursday before an Armenian
parliamentary commission investigating the April 2016 hostilities in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian initiated the inquiry last year with the stated
aim of assessing the Sarkisian administration’s preparedness for the four-day
fighting which nearly escalated into an all-out Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
The ad hoc commission conducting it is headed by Andranik Kocharian, a senior
lawmaker representing Pashinian’s My Step bloc. It has questioned dozens of
current and former military officials.
Sarkisian, who ruled Armenia from 2008-2018, agreed to answer questions from
members of the panel after it promised earlier this month to provide him with a
copy of his videotaped testimony not subject to publication.
“The meeting took place in very normal conditions and I am very glad that I
could give additional information about the April hostilities,” Sarkisian told
reporters after the four-hour hearing held behind the closed doors.
“My goal is very clear: to give the public real, credible information about the
hostilities during which we -- I mean the armed forces, the civil society and
the public in general -- won and won not only on the battlefield but also
diplomatically,” he said.
Sarkisian refused to give any details of his testimony, saying that he will hold
an extensive news conference after the coronavirus-related state of emergency in
Armenia ends on May 14.
“Mr. Sarkisian recalled many things,” Kocharian said for his part. He said the
ex-president acknowledged the Armenian side’s “shortcomings” during the four-day
heavy fighting which left about 80 Armenian soldiers dead.
The fighting broke out early on April 2, 2016 with an Azerbaijani offensive
launched at several sections of the “line of contact” around Karabakh. It was
halted by a Russian-mediated agreement four days later.
Some of Sarkisian’s opponents, including Pashinian, blamed the former Armenian
leadership for modest territorial gains made by Azerbaijani troops and said the
Armenian military should have anticipated the offensive involving tanks and
heavy artillery.
Sarkisian and other former Armenian leaders maintain that the Azerbaijani army
failed to achieve any major objectives and suffered disproportionate casualties.
Sarkisian’s allies have also accused Pashinian of trying to exploit the issue
for political aims.
Pashinian Again Warns Against Coronavirus Complacency
• Robert Zargarian
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- A COVID-19 patient is brought to the Surp Grigor Lusavorich hospital
in Yerevan, April 8, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday again urged Armenians to strictly
follow social distancing rules, warning of the risk of a fresh upsurge in
coronavirus cases in the country.
Both Pashinian and Health Minister Arsen Torosian insisted at the same time that
the COVID-19 epidemic, which has killed 18 people so far, remains under control.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported the latest fatality in the morning. It
also said that 48 more coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the past day.
They brought to 1,159 the total number of cases registered in Armenia so far.
Also, the number of people who have recovered from the highly contagious disease
rose by 61 to 358. Torosian stressed the importance of this figure when he spoke
at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
He said the health authorities thus “ended the day with a positive balance”
despite more than doubling the daily number of coronavirus tests since April 10.
The authorities are still able to use only half of Armenia’s hospital capacity
in the fight against the virus, he added.
Torosian also revealed that more than 1,500 Armenians have been released from
quarantine while about 300 other quarantined people have tested positive for the
virus since the government declared a state of emergency on March 16. “I’m
saying this to show that the quarantine measures are very effective,” explained
the minister.
“Overall, our infection curve is now within a manageability range, so to speak,”
Pashinian said for his part. “But if we carry on with the kind of attitudes
which we see very often in our reality we may have a renewed outbreak of the
disease.”
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, .
“The police cannot control everything” he went on. “Citizens must realize that
this situation is extremely serious … Those who are healthy and very unlikely to
die [from the disease] must realize that their loved ones and the elderly loved
ones of their friends and relatives can die as a result of their actions.”
Pashinian cited in that regard the government’s decision late on Wednesday to
effectively seal off Norashen, a village 20 kilometers south of Yerevan, over
the risk of mass infections among its residents. He revealed that a quarantined
resident of Norashen was allowed to attend the funeral of his father who died
there a few days ago.
“The isolated citizen was escorted to the funeral service after being warned to
follow social distancing and other rules,” said Pashinian. “However, things got
emotional at one point and contrary to those appeals and warnings they did not
stick to the rules and hugged their relatives in line with the common practice.
Two days later the isolated person tested positive for coronavirus.”
According to Norashen sources, the infected man was placed under quarantine
immediately after returning from Russia earlier this month.
All roads leading to Norashen remained blocked by police checkpoints on Thursday
afternoon. Vehicles were allowed to enter or leave the village only in cases of
extreme necessity. A senior regional police official said the quarantine will
last until Sunday morning.
The village mayor, Artak Harutiunian, refused to say whether participants of the
funeral have been identified and isolated or whether he was among them.
“Everything is alright,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service by phone. “I’m in the
village, with my fellow villagers.”
Another local resident, who claimed to have not participated in the funeral, was
untroubled by the situation in the winegrowing community. “My dear, he had
endured hunger and power cuts [in the early 1990s,]” he said. “How can we not
survive this quarantine?”
Armenia -- Police officers enforcing a coronavirus lockdown check cars leaving
Yerevan, April 1, 2020.
The Armenian government imposed a nationwide lockdown and ordered the closure of
many nonessential businesses as the epidemic gained momentum on March 24. The
rate of new infections fell considerably after April 3, leading the government
to allow some of those businesses to resume their operations on April 13.
Pashinian on Thursday reaffirmed the authorities’ intention to reopen next week
more sectors of the Armenian economy and textile manufacturing in particular.
“But if the owners and employees of those factories do not show particular
responsibility this decision will have disastrous consequences,” he declared.
He said the health and law-enforcement authorities will therefore keep those
plants under “special surveillance” to ensure that they take all precautions
against the virus.
Armenian Parliament Passes Bill On Asset Seizures
• Gayane Saribekian
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks in the parliament, Yerevan,
.
The Armenian parliament passed in the second and final reading on Thursday a
government bill allowing authorities to confiscate private properties and other
assets deemed to have been acquired illegally.
The package of legal amendments drafted by the government late last year allows
prosecutors to investigate individuals in case of having “sufficient grounds to
suspect” that the market value of their assets exceeds their “legal incomes” by
at least 50 million drams ($103,000).
Should the prosecutors find such discrepancies they can ask courts to
nationalize those assets even if their owners are not found guilty of corruption
or other criminal offenses. The latter will have to prove the legality of their
holdings if they are to retain them.
Speaking during a parliament debate on Wednesday, Justice Minister Rustam
Badasian insisted that current and former state officials will be the main
targets of what the government portrays as a major anti-corruption measure. But
he reaffirmed that it will also cover other individuals, who are accused or
suspected of corrupt practices.
“This is an instrument for returning to the state the wealth amassed illegally,
often times through corruption mechanisms, and skillfully hidden by persons who
abused their position,” said Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc.
Deputy Justice Minister Srbuhi Galian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Tuesday
that the process will be handled by a new division that will be set up within
the Office of the Prosecutor-General later this year.
Galian said rulings on confiscations demanded by the prosecutors will initially
be handed down by judges to be selected by the Supreme Judicial Council, which
oversees Armenian courts. Such cases will eventually be referred to a special
anti-corruption court which is due to be set by the end of 2021, she said.
Armenia -- Deputy Justice Minister Srbuhi Galian speaks to RFE/RL, April 14,
2020.
The National Assembly overwhelmingly approved the bill in the first reading on
March 5. The two opposition parties represented in the parliament tentatively
backed it before proposing dozens of amendments.
Only some of those amendments were incorporated into the final version of the
bill. In particular, the government agreed to increase the threshold for asset
seizures from 25 million to 50 million drams.
The changes failed to satisfy the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK). One of
its deputies, Arkady Khachatrian, said during Wednesday’s debate that time
frames set by the bill do not provide for speedy investigations into the
legality of people’s wealth.
Earlier, LHK leader Edmon Marukian questioned the effectiveness of the entire
mechanism, saying that corrupt officials who registered their properties in
their relatives’ name may well be let off the hook.
Mikael Melkumian, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party
(BHK), also voiced misgivings. In particular, he said that the bill does not
take into account sharp increases in real estate prices that occurred in Armenia
in the 2000s.
Nevertheless, BHK deputies were among 91 members of the 132-seat parliament who
voted for the bill on Thursday. One LHK deputy voted against and 15 others
abstained.
Other critics of the government have challenged the legality of the planned
asset seizures. They also claim that Pashinian is intent on a far-reaching
“redistribution of property” in the country.
Pashinian has denied having such plans. He insisted in December that asset
forfeiture is essential for rooting out corruption and will not be arbitrary.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian openly objected to the bill at the time,
however. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, the former banker said he is worried
that it could scare away investors and lead to capital flight from Armenia.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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