Author: Vardan Badalian

                                        Monday, 

Tsarukian Responds To Government, Denies Breaking Law

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian holds an election 
campaign meeting in Gyumri, December 6, 2018.

Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian on Monday dismissed 
pro-government lawmakers’ claims that he may be engaged in entrepreneurial 
activities in breach of Armenia’s constitution and laws.

Tsarukian responded to parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan in writing as he 
risked being stripped of his parliament seat because of the alleged violation.

The ruling My Step alliance led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian implicitly 
threatened last week to expel Tsarukian from the parliament amid mounting 
tensions with the BHK, which controls the second largest group in the National 
Assembly.

In a letter to Tsarukian, Mirzoyan said there are “legitimate concerns” and 
“reasonable” doubts about the BHK leader’s compliance with a constitutional 
provision that bars parliament deputies from engaging in business. The speaker 
publicized the letter on Thursday just hours after law-enforcement authorities 
pledged to investigate a small pro-government party’s claims that Tsarukian is 
flouting that ban.

Tsarukian and his associates had long denied such claims, saying that while he 
owns dozens of businesses they are not run by him on a day-to-day basis. The 
tycoon reiterated these assurances in a detailed written response to the 
speaker released by his spokesperson.

“I do not hold any position in any of the commercial firms founded by me and do 
not personally participate in their management,” he wrote. “Therefore, I object 
to your evaluations regarding the subject matter formulated as ‘justified 
concerns’ and ‘reasonable suspicions.’”

Tsarukian said that the “artificial” questions raised about his business 
interests are aimed at tarnishing his reputation.He claimed that he has never 
used his 16-year-long membership in the parliament to further those interests.

Mirzoyan and other critics have cited, among other things, Tsarukian’s recent 
calls for the government to impose hefty tariffs on imports of cement to 
Armenia. The tycoon owns the country’s largest cement plant which is 
increasingly struggling to compete with cheaper cement imported from 
neighboring Iran. He has warned that it could lay off the vast majority of its 
1,100 workers.

Tsarukian insisted that he is primarily concerned about the fate of those 
workers, rather than profits made by the Ararat Tsement plant. He also said 
there is nothing wrong with his publicized contacts with local and foreign 
businesspeople considering investing in Armenia.

“I have for years used my personal connections and standing solely for the 
development of Armenia’s economy and strengthening of the country,” he added.

Meanwhile, Lilit Makunts, My Step’s parliamentary leader, complained on Monday 
that the existing legal provisions meant to separate business from politics are 
not specific enough. “We must eliminate that loophole as soon as possible,” 
Makunts told reporters.

“The line between business ownership and management is too fine,” she said. 
“Right now it’s impossible to tell what amounts to involvement in business and 
what doesn’t.”



Armenian Businessman Freed From Custody

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - Davit Ghazarian, the owner of Spayka company, speaks to journalists, 
March 26, 2019.

The official owner of Armenia’s largest food exporting company accused of tax 
evasion has been released from custody after paying the government 1 billion 
drams ($2.1 million).

In a weekend statement, the State Revenue Committee (SRC) said a prosecutor has 
decided to set Davit Ghazarian free because there are no longer “grounds” for 
holding him in detention and because he has made the hefty payment “within the 
framework of the criminal case.” The statement did not give further details.

One of Ghazarian’s lawyers, Arsen Sardarian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service 
that the businessman was released on Friday, just three days after Armenia’s 
Court of Appeals refused to grant him bail.

Ghazarian’s Spayka company reposted the SRC statement on its Facebook page but 
did not officially comment on the development as of Monday evening.

Ghazarian was arrested one month ago after the SRC charged that Spayka evaded 
over 7 billion drams ($14.4 million) in taxes in 2015 and early 2016. The 
accusations stem from large quantities of foodstuffs which were imported to 
Armenia by another company, Greenproduct. The SRC says that Greenproduct is 
controlled by Spayka and that the latter rigged its customs documents to pay 
fewer taxes from those imports.

Ghazarian has strongly denied any ownership links to Greenproduct. He said on 
April 5 that the SRC moved to arrest him after he refused to pay the alleged 
back taxes.

Sardarian told the “168 Zham” newspaper on Saturday that the tax evasion 
charges against his client have not been dropped and that he might have to make 
more payments to the SRC. “Calculations still need to be done,” the lawyer 
said. “The criminal proceedings will end only when they the calculations are 
over and they reach agreement on that issue.”


Armenia -- A commercial greenhouse belonging to the Spayka company, April 19, 
2017.

Spayka is Armenia’s leading producer and exporter of agricultural products 
grown at its own greenhouses or purchased from farmers in about 80 communities 
across the country. The company employing about 2,000 people also owns hundreds 
of heavy trucks transporting those fruits and vegetables abroad and Russia in 
particular.

In a series of statements issued last month, Spayka claimed that because of 
Ghazarian’s arrest its mainly foreign creditors are withholding further funding 
for the company. It said it may therefore not be able to buy large quantities 
of agricultural produce from Armenian farmers this year.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian dismissed those warnings on April 9. He said he 
is confident that the food giant will carry on with the wholesale purchases.

As recently as on March 26, Pashinian attended the inauguration of a cheese 
factory built by Spayka in Yerevan.

Spayka was already fined about 2.5 billion drams ($5 million) for profit tax 
evasion in July last year. Ghazarian said before his arrest that he agreed to 
pay the “unfounded” fine in order to have the company’s bank accounts unfrozen.



Armenian Lawmaker ‘Accused Of Assault’

        • Nane Sahakian

Armenia - Arsen Julfalakian, an Armenian parliament deputy and former world 
wresling champion.

A man in Yerevan reportedly claimed to have been beaten up on Sunday by Arsen 
Julfalakyan, a prominent Armenian wrestler and pro-government parliamentarian, 
and his equally famous father.

Police said on Monday that the 63-year-old man, Sergey Mkhitarian, was taken to 
the city’s Erebuni hospital after suffering physical injuries. The incident is 
being investigated, a police spokesman told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

The Erebuni director, Mikael Manukian, said Mkhitarian was discharged from the 
hospital after doctors examined him and found that there is “nothing dangerous” 
in his injuries.

According to Shamshyan.com, Mkhitarian claimed that he was punched and kicked 
by Julfalakyan and the latter’s father Levon during a dispute. The Julfalakyans 
were questioned at a police station in Yerevan later on Sunday, reported the 
crime news website.

Mkhitarian did not return phone calls and could not be reached for comment. 
Arsen Julfalakyan denied assaulting him.

Julfalakyan is a former world and European wrestling champion who was elected 
to the Armenian parliament on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step 
alliance’s ticket in December. The 31-year-old still competes for Armenia in 
international wrestling tournaments.

His father is the head coach of Armenia’s national Greco-Roman wrestling team. 
Levon Julfalakyan is also a former Olympic, world and European champion.

Arsen Julfalakyan revealed on Monday that he, his father and Mkhitarian co-own 
a café in Yerevan. They met on Sunday to discuss business, he said, adding that 
Mkhitarian required hospitalization because he “felt unwell” during the 
conversation that was “a bit more tense than usual.”

In a Facebook post, Julfalakyan insisted that “there was no brawl or physical 
violence.” “I can’t imagine what would happen if I (and my father together with 
me) beat up someone, what consequences that could have,” he wrote.



Sharp Pay Rise For Yerevan Mayor Criticized

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia -- Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian speaks to journalists, February 15, 2019.

Opposition members of Yerevan’s municipal assembly denounced Mayor Hayk 
Marutian on Monday for planning to double his and his top aides’ salaries.

Under a bill drafted by his office, Marutian’s monthly salary is to rise from 
575,000 drams to 1.2 million drams ($2,500). His deputies would earn 947,000 
drams, a large sum in a country where the average wage stands at 177,000 drams.

The bill also calls for similarly sharp pay rises for other high-ranking 
members of the mayor’s office. Most of them have been appointed by Marutian.

A much larger number of other, lower and mid-ranking municipal workers would 
have their salaries raised by around 30 percent.

Citing this disparity, the two opposition groups represented in the city 
council, the Luys (Light) bloc and the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), said 
they will vote against the bill when it is debated later this week.

“The heads of [Armenia’s] National Security Service, police, State Oversight 
Service or State Revenue Committee would get lower salaries than some 
municipality officials,” argued Davit Khazhakian, the Luys leader.

“Regional governors would earn less than deputy heads of Yerevan’s 
administrative districts,” he said. “We have 22 deputy district chiefs.”

The BHK’s Mikael Manrikian also criticized the proposed measures as unfair. 
Manrikian said Marutian should on the contrary double the wages of his 
rank-and-file staffers and opt for a more modest pay rise for himself and other 
senior officials.

The mayor’s spokesman, Hakob Karapetian, dismissed the criticism, saying that 
the uneven increases in salaries are mandated by Armenian law. Karapetian 
claimed that the mayor would have liked to keep his own salary unchanged but 
cannot do so because of those legal requirements.

Marutian has already been under opposition and media fire in recent months over 
a worsening situation with garbage collection in Yerevan. He has pledged to 
significantly improve it in the coming months.

A former TV comedian, Marutian, 42, is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s My Step alliance. He became mayor as a result of the September 2018 
municipal elections in which My Step won 80 percent of the vote.

The governing bloc controls 57 seats in the 65-member city council, putting it 
in a position to easily enact the controversial bill.



Japan Donates More Fire Engines To Armenia


Armenia -- Japanese fire engines donated to Armenia at a ceremony in Yerevan, 
May 6, 2019.

The government of Japan donated 14 fire engines to Armenia on Monday at a 
ceremony in Yerevan attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Officials said that 22 more such vehicles as well as other firefighting 
equipment will be delivered to the country later this year as part of a $14 
million aid program launched by the Japan International Cooperation Agency 
(JICA) in 2017.

The first batch of those fire trucks will be provided to three provincial 
divisions of the Armenian Rescue Service (ARS). Firefighters in the Shirak, 
Lori and Syunik provinces are already being trained by Japanese instructors, 
according to an Armenian government statement.

The Japanese ambassador to Armenia, Jun Yamada, said outdated firefighting 
equipment used in those regions complicates the ARS’s ability to prevent and 
cope with fires.

“Natural disasters frequently occur in Armenia, which is an obstacle to the 
development of rural areas,” Yamada said in a speech delivered in Armenian. 
“That is why Japan finds it imperative to assist Armenia in the area of 
disaster prevention.”

The Japanese government had already donated 28 fire engines worth $8 million to 
firefighters in Yerevan in 2010.

Speaking at the ceremony, Pashinian thanked Japan for this and other aid 
provided to Armenia since its independence.

“It must be pointed out that Japanese aid has been particularly significant for 
our capacity to guard against natural disasters,” he said. “That includes the 
fight against landslides, seismic stability, modernization of the firefighting 
service and other activities.”

“Armenia is always ready to strengthen friendly relations and cooperation with 
Japan,” added Pashinian. “I believe there are many things that unite our 
peoples.”

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono visited Yerevan and met with Pashinian in 
September.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

                                        Tuesday, 

Pashinian Backs Defense Chief’s Tough Talk On Karabakh

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia -- Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan (R) inspects Armenian army positions 
on the border with Azerbaijan, July 21, 2018.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Tuesday threw his weight behind Defense 
Minister Davit Tonoyan, who has seemingly ruled out Armenian territorial 
concessions to Azerbaijan and promised a more offensive posture against the 
Azerbaijani army.

Visiting the United States at the weekend, Tonoyan dismissed the so-called 
“lands-for-peace formula” of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “We are 
saying the opposite: a new war for new lands,” the Voice of America quoted him 
as telling members of the Armenian community in New York.

“Nothing will be conceded,” said Tonoyan. He added, though, that “compromises 
are possible.”

“We will rid ourselves of the trench-based, constantly defensive posture and 
increase the number of those army units that can shift hostilities into enemy 
territory,” warned Tonoyan.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned the “provocative” statement, saying 
that it undermined international efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict. It 
also challenged the Armenian government to clarify whether Tonoyan voiced his 
personal views or official Yerevan’s position.


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian lays flowers at the Yerablur military 
cemetery in Yerevan, April 2, 2019.

“If Davit Tonoyan had made a different statement I would have dismissed him as 
defense minister,” Pashinian said, commenting on the minister’s remarks. “What 
did the defense minister say? He said that if a war breaks out our objective 
will be to win that war.”

“This does not cast a shadow on the peace process,” he told reporters. “On the 
contrary, it underscores the importance of a peaceful settlement.”

Asked whether Tonoyan coordinated with him, Pashinian replied: “The defense 
minister acts under the prime minister’s leadership and is subordinate to him.”

The prime minister spoke at the Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan after 
leading an official ceremony to mark the third anniversary of fierce fighting 
around Karabakh which nearly degenerated into a full-scale Armenian-Azerbaijani 
war. At least 190 Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers were killed during four-day 
hostilities halted by a Russian-brokered agreement. It was the worst escalation 
of the Karabakh in over two decades.


Nagorno-Karabakh - Karabakh Armenian troops fire rounds from a howitzer in the 
Martakert district, 3Apr2016.

Azerbaijan’s President marked the anniversary with a visit to a military base 
used by Azerbaijani special forces, which played the key role in offensive 
operations launched by Baku on April 2, 2016. Meeting with military personnel 
serving there, Aliyev again ruled out any peace deal that would fall short of 
restoring Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.

“No country recognizes and, I’m sure, will recognize the so-called 
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” he said, according to the Turan news agency.

Aliyev also said that the new Armenian government has failed to change the 
internationally accepted format of peace talks. He clearly referred to 
Pashinian’s regular calls for Karabakh’s direct involvement in the talks.

Aliyev and Pashinian met in Vienna as recently on Friday. In a joint statement 
with the U.S., Russian and French mediators, the Armenian and Azerbaijani 
foreign ministers described the three-hour meeting as “positive and 
constructive.” The two leaders discussed “key issues of the settlement process 
and ideas of substance” and “recommitted to strengthening the ceasefire,” 
according to the statement.



Yerevan Insists On Karabakh’s Involvement In Peace Talks

        • Karlen Aslanian

Armenia - Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian, 21 May 2018.

Armenia will continue to press for Nagorno-Karabakh’s direct involvement in its 
peace negotiations with Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian said 
on Tuesday.

“If Nagorno-Karabakh does not have a sense of ownership towards this 
negotiating process, the process cannot be effective,” Mnatsakanian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service and Civilnet in an interview. “This is at the heart 
of our approach. Taking away this sense of ownership means breaking the 
effectiveness of the negotiating process.”

Mnatsakanian would not say whether he thinks Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders 
can participate any time soon in high-level talks held by Baku and Yerevan. 
“One may look at this issue primitively and imagine who will be sitting at the 
negotiating table,” he said. “You have to realize that for the last 20 years 
there has been an established format, a working model which has reflected 
realities of that period.”

Ever since he swept to came in May last year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
has said on numerous occasions that he does not have a mandate to negotiate on 
behalf of the Karabakh Armenians and that they should therefore become a 
full-fledged negotiating party. Baku rejects this demand, saying that Karabakh 
is Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.

Speaking just hours after his March 29 talks in Vienna with Pashinian, 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that “the format of negotiations 
remained unchanged” as a result of the summit. Pashinian criticized that 
statement on Monday, saying that it “does not reflect the atmosphere which we 
have in the negotiations.”

Aliyev again ruled out any changes to the format of the long-running talks on 
Tuesday. “The conflict is between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.

Armenian opposition politicians and other critics of Pashinian have seized upon 
such statements to accuse the prime minister of failing to fulfill his pledges 
to get Karabakh back to the negotiating table.

Mnatsakanian dismissed the criticism. “What are we going to do?” he went on. 
“We are going to carry on. We are not going to say that … we won’t sit down and 
talk [to Baku.] We will not take a childish approach. This is a very serious 
issue. At stake are people’s lives.”

“But the issue [of Karabakh’s participation] cannot be removed from the table 
because it contains a very simple logic, and our aim is to pursue this matter 
so that we can boost the effectiveness of this negotiating process,” he added.

Asked whether a compromise settlement acceptable to both conflicting sides can 
ever be worked out, Mnatsakanian said: “This is what the negotiations are all 
about. There have been different approaches, ideas and proposals during all 
these years. It should be possible [to achieve such a settlement] through a 
combination of them.”

The minister cautioned, however, that this remains an “extremely difficult” 
task.



Ruling Party Denies Infighting

        • Naira Nalbandian

Armenia - Nikol Pashinian and senior members of his Civil Contract party start 
nonstop anti-government protests in Yerevan, April 13, 2018.

The deputy chairman of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party 
dismissed on Tuesday media claims about growing tensions and disagreements 
within its ranks.

“My answer is definitive: our party is more than united and strong,” said Suren 
Papikian, who is also Armenia’s minister for local government. “Of course, 
there can always be debates inside all political forces. But we don’t have 
disagreements and I must disappoint those who expect the opposite.”

Armenian media outlets critical of the government increasingly report on the 
alleged emergence of rival factions within Civil Contract -- and its 88-strong 
parliamentary group in particular -- jockeying for influence on Pashinian. Some 
of them have claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian and National 
Security Service Director Artur Vanetsian lead two of those factions.

Civil Contract is the dominant force in the Pashinian-led My Step alliance 
which scored a landslide victory in last December’s parliamentary elections 
held seven months after the “velvet revolution” in Armenia.

Pashinian set up Civil Contract in 2013 after splitting from former President 
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress. It operated as a 
non-governmental organization mostly uniting young civic activists before 
becoming a full-fledged political party in 2015.


Armenia -- Leaders of the Civil Contract movement speak to journalists, 
Yerevan, October 13, 2014.
Party representatives reaffirmed on Tuesday Civil Contract’s plans to elect by 
secret ballot a new governing board at a congress expected later this year. In 
Papikian’s words, the election will see “healthy competition” among congress 
delegates.

Vahagn Hovakimian, another Pashinian associate, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service 
that the congress should also approve changes to the party’s statutes and 
program. Ad hoc team formed by the party leadership is already working on those 
changes, he said.

Hovakimian also confirmed that Civil Contract has received more than 10,000 
membership applications since Pashinian swept to power in May on a wave of mass 
protests that brought down Armenia’s former government. He said the party has 
admitted only 300 new members, many of them individuals appointed to senior 
positions in the new government.

Deputy parliament speaker Lena Nazarian suggested in February that many 
applicants have ulterior motives. The ruling party is therefore in no rush to 
recruit new members en masse, she said.

Nazarian stressed it will thus not follow the example of former President Serzh 
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), which had attracted hundreds of 
thousands of nominal members thanks to its vast financial and administrative 
resources.



Press Review



“Zhamanak” says that the four-day hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh which broke 
out on April 2, 2016 took Armenia off guard and demonstrated that the army is 
the only state institution which was prepared for war. “The state [as a whole] 
was not prepared and that was the most shocking thing for us,” writes the paper.

Lragir.am quotes Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian as endorsing Defense Minister 
Davit Tonoyan’s latest statements on the Karabakh conflict. “Prime Minister 
Pashinian’s reaction to Tonoyan’s statement made in New York is noteworthy not 
from the emotional standpoint, even considering the fact that it was made on 
the [second] anniversary of the April war,” writes the online publication. “The 
subject matter here fits into the pragmatic framework of state policy.”

“Zhoghovurd” weighs in on controversy sparked by acting Culture Minister Nazeni 
Gharibian’s decision to dismiss the director of Armenia’s national opera and 
ballet theater, Constantine Orbelian. The paper backs Gharibian’s claims that 
Orbelian was appointed as director in 2017 in violation of Armenian laws and 
regulations. It says that Orbelian’s track record and professional merits 
cannot outweigh people’s equality before the law.

(Lilit Harutiunian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org