Thursday,
Yerevan Gunman ‘Sought Meeting With Kocharian’s Son’
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Police officers guard the entrance to the Erebuni Plaza Business
Center after a gunman opened fire there, Yerevan, January 23, 2020.
A gunman arrested by the Armenian police wanted to meet with former President
Robert Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak when he opened fire and took a hostage at an
office building in Yerevan last week, a lawyer said on Thursday.
“At least he has given such testimony,” Eduard Aghajanian, who represents the
32-year-old man, Artur Torosian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Aghajanian said his client gave investigators “no clear answer” as to why he
sought a meeting with Sedrak Kocharian. He suggested that Torosian may be
suffering from mental disorders and could undergo a relevant medical examination.
“In particular, he claimed that he was ‘programmed’ and he tried to find out who
‘programmed’ him and for what purpose,” explained the lawyer.
Torosian, surrendered to the police on January 23 after a two-hour standoff at
the Erebuni Plaza Business Center which did not leave anyone wounded. The
national police chief, Arman Sargsian, personally negotiated with him and drove
him to a police station in his car.
The Investigative Committee subsequently charged Torosian with life-threatening
assault and hostage taking. A spokeswoman for the law-enforcement body declined
to comment on the gunman’s testimony cited by his lawyer.
Erebuni Plaza houses the offices of the United Nations, several private
companies as well as Kocharian and two media outlets sympathetic to him. The
jailed former president is currently standing trial on coup and corruption
charges strongly denied by him.
Torosian worked until last October for a private security firm in Yerevan.
According to Vahagn Harutiunian, the director of the Berkut firm, before being
hired as a security guard he had passed a police exam and produced documents
certifying that he is mentally sane and has no history of drug abuse.
Armenian Constitutional Reform ‘May Result In New High Court’
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian talks to reporters after a cabinet
meeting in Yerevan, .
Justice Minister Rustam Badasian on Thursday did not exclude that constitutional
changes planned by the Armenian authorities will fully change the composition of
the country’s Constitutional Court.
The authorities have already tried in recent months to replace the chairman and
six other judges of the 9-member court who were installed by former Armenian
governments. Under a controversial government bill passed by the parliament in
December, they will receive lavish financial benefits if they agree to resign by
February 27.
None of those judges has accepted the proposed early retirement so far. Some of
them have denounced the offer as disrespectful.
“It won’t be a tragedy if nobody applies for the early retirement and it won’t
be a tragedy if somebody applies,” Badasian told reporters.
“I have already said that the overall crisis existing in the judicial system and
the Constitutional Court in particular can and must be resolved through
constitutional changes,” he said. “Whatever solution we find now, it cannot help
to fully restore public trust in the entire judicial system.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to implement judicial
reforms that would make Armenian courts “truly independent.” His critics say
that he simply wants to gain full control over the judiciary and the
Constitutional Court in particular.
Pashinian decided in late December to set up a commission tasked with drafting
wide-ranging amendments to the Armenian constitution. It will consist of 15
members, including Badasian, the Armenian government’s representative to the
European Court of Human Rights, human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan and a
representative of the country’s judges.
It will also comprise two civil society members, representatives of the three
political forces represented in the Armenian parliament and six legal scholars
who have already been chosen by the Justice Ministry on a supposedly competitive
basis.
The ministry published the list of those constitutional law experts on
Wednesday. The list does not include Arpine Hovannisian, a former justice
minister who had also applied for commission membership. Hovannisian suspended
her membership of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia a year ago but
remains very critical of the current government.
Badasian admitted that Hovannisian was excluded from the commission as a result
of a “political decision.” He implicitly cited her role in the previous
constitutional reform carried out by the former government in 2015.
“I want to thank Mr. Badasian for his frank answer which fully reflects the
standards lying at the heart of the constitutional commission’s formation,”
Hovannisian reacted later in the day. “This is an obvious disgrace conditioned
by political views,” she wrote on Facebook.
Armenian, Azeri FMs End Two-Day ‘Intensive’ Talks
Switzerland -- Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia and Elmar
Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and international mediators meet in Geneva, January
30, 2020.
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan concluded on Thursday two days
of fresh negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which official Baku said
were the “most intensive” in years.
Zohrab Mnatsakanian and Elmar Mammadyarov met in Geneva for two consecutive days
in the presence of the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE
Minsk Group. The two ministers and the mediators shed little light on the talks
in an ensuing joint statement issued there.
The statement said that the “intensive discussions” focused on “possible next
steps to prepare the populations for peace; principles and elements forming the
basis of a future settlement; and timing and agenda for advancing the settlement
process.”
The mediators again stressed the importance of “confidentiality in the
settlement process” and “the need for creativity and a spirit of compromise,” it
said.
“The Ministers agreed to meet again in the near future under Co-Chair auspices,”
added the statement. It gave no further details.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministries also issued separate and largely
identical statements.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Leyla Abdullayeva, described the
Geneva talks as “the most intensive discussions between the sides over the last
years.” “The sides held thorough discussions over agenda items presented by the
OSCE [Minsk Group] co-chairs,” she tweeted in English.
Both parties to the Karabakh conflict support the “intensification of
negotiations,” Abdullayeva wrote after Wednesday’s meeting which she said lasted
for seven hours.
Mnatsakanian and Mammadyarov previously met in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava on
December 4. Mammadyarov described those talks as “tough.” The mediators said,
for their part, that the two ministers will meet again in early 2020 “to
intensify negotiations on the core issues of a peaceful settlement.”
Mammadyarov claimed later in December that the Bratislava meeting touched on the
most recent version of a framework peace accord originally drafted by the
mediators in 2007. He said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presented it
to the conflicting parties two years ago.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry insisted, however, that “no document is being
discussed” by the parties at present.
Azerbaijan Found Guilty In 2010 Death Of Armenian Captive
• Naira Bulghadarian
Azerbaijan -- Armenian captive Manvel Saribekian is paraded on Azerbaiani
television, 17Sep2010.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Azerbaijan guilty of
brutally torturing an Armenian man who died in Azerbaijani captivity more than
nine years ago.
Manvel Saribekian, a 20-year-old resident of an Armenian village very close to
the Azerbaijani border, was detained after crossing into Azerbaijan in September
2010.
Azerbaijani authorities paraded Saribekian on national television, saying that
he was trained by an Armenian commando unit and sent to Azerbaijan to carry out
terrorist attacks. Saribekian’s family strongly denied the allegations,
insisting that he accidentally crossed the border while grazing cattle.
Saribekian was found hanged in a Baku detention center in October 2010.
Azerbaijani officials claimed that he committed suicide.
The young man’s body underwent a forensic examination after being handed over to
Armenia. Law-enforcement authorities in Yerevan concluded that he was tortured
to death.
Saribekian’s parents filed an appeal in the ECHR in the following months. The
Strasbourg-based court ruled in their favor in a verdict announced on Thursday.
“The Court found in particular that the applicants had made a prima facie case
that their son, Manvel Saribekian, had died as a result of the violent actions
of others, notably personnel at the Military Police Department in Baku, where he
was being held,” the ECHR said in a statement.
“It could not accept the Azerbaijani authorities’ version of events that he had
hanged himself,” it said. “Furthermore, Azerbaijan had not provided any evidence
to question Armenian forensic findings on injuries suffered by Mr Saribekian
before his death, including signs of beating and a head trauma, ill-treatment
which had to be classified as torture.”
France - This photo shows the inside of the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) in Strasbourg, eastern France, on February 7, 2019.
“The Court took account of the Armenian forensic examination, which apart from
strangulation injuries, had recorded kidney, chest, lumbar, thigh and rectal
hemorrhages as well as a head injury, all caused by a blunt object … The Court
thus found that Mr Saribekian had been subjected to ill-treatment in the form of
severe physical violence during the final days of his life,” added the statement.
The ECHR also ordered the Azerbaijani government to pay the victim’s parents
60,000 euros ($66,000) in damages. Baku can appeal against the ruling in the
ECHR Grand Chamber.
Saribekian’s mother, Siranush Balian, struggled to hold back tears when she
commented on the ruling by phone. “They killed him, it’s all lies,” she said,
referring to the Azerbaijani claims.
Saribekian is not the only Armenian civilian who died after straying into
Azerbaijani territory in similar circumstances.
Karen Petrosian, a 33-year-old resident of another Armenian border village, was
pronounced dead in August 2014 one day after being detained in an Azerbaijani
village across the border. The Azerbaijani military claimed that he died of
“acute heart failure.”
The Armenian authorities believe, however, that Petrosian was murdered or beaten
to death. The United States and France expressed serious concern at Petrosian’s
suspicious death and called on Baku to conduct an objective investigation.
Azerbaijan -- Karen Petrosian (C), a resident of an Armenian border village, is
pictured shortly after his detention, 08Aug2014
Another villager, the 77-year-old Mamikon Khojoyan, died in May 2015 three
months after being detained on the Azerbaijani side of the heavily militarized
border. Doctors in Yerevan said he suffered serious injuries during his
month-long captivity.
At least one Armenian national is known to be currently held in an Azerbaijani
prison. Karen Ghazarian, a 34-year-old resident of the Tavush province bordering
Azerbaijan, was captured in July 2018.
In February 2019, an Azerbaijani court sentenced Ghazarian to 20 years in prison
on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and “sabotage” in Azerbaijan. His trial
was reportedly held in closed session.
Yerevan condemned the ruling and demanded Ghazarian’s immediate release. It
insists he has a history of mental disease and never served in the Armenian army
because of that.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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