Author: Vicken Chmshkian

                                        Thursday, 

13 Arrested In Armenia After Violent Unrest
Հուլիս 18, 2019
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Riot police lined up in a square in Ijevan, .

Police in Armenia made 13 arrests early on Thursday after clashing overnight 
with residents of the northern Tavush province who protested against a 
government ban on logging in the area.

Several hundred protesters blocked on Wednesday a highway passing through the 
provincial capital Ijevan to demand that the authorities stop preventing them 
from cutting and selling wood from nearby forests. They said logging is their 
sole source of income.

Riot police used force after the protesters refused to unblock the highway 
leading to the main Armenian-Georgian border crossing.

Police officers were pelted with stones and hit by sticks during the clashes. 
Eleven of them required hospitalization, according to a spokesman for the 
Armenian police. At least one injured civilian also received medical assistance 
in a local hospital.

Traffic through the busy road resumed after police reinforcements were sent to 
Ijevan.The national police chief, Valeri Osipian, also rushed to the town close 
to the Georgian and Azerbaijani borders on Wednesday night. Osipian remained 
there as of Thursday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Naira Harutiunian, said 
dozens of people were taken for questioning following the violence. Thirteen of 
them were placed under arrest on suspicion of hooliganism and resistance to 
law-enforcement authorities, while six others signed written pledges not to 
leave their places of residence pending investigation, Harutiunian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

One of Osipian’s deputies, Vartan Movsisian, said the police are now trying to 
track down and arrest other violent protesters.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian condemned the unrest in Ijevan, his hometown, as 
he chaired a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “Those responsible for 
yesterday’s events as well as the organizers of illegal logging must be 
strictly punished,” said Pashinian.

“We will be halting illegal logging in the most resolute manner,” he added.

Pashinian also posted on his Facebook page video of Osipian addressing and 
praising police officers lined up in an Ijevan square on Thursday morning.

“We will not be lenient towards anyone,” said the police chief. “Everyone must 
receive a punishment for their deeds envisaged by the law.”



European Bodies Asked To Advise On Kocharian Case

        • Gayane Saribekian

France -- The building of the European Court of Human Rights is seen in 
Strasbourg, March 26, 2019.

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday decided to ask the European Court of 
Human Rights (ECHR) and the Council Europe’s Venice Commission to give an 
“advisory opinion” on the legality of coup charges brought against former 
President Robert Kocharian.

Kocharian was charged last year under Article 300.1of the Armenian Criminal 
Code dealing with violent seizure of power. The accusation stems from the 2008 
post-election street clashes in Yerevan which left ten people dead.

In separate appeals, Kocharian and a district court judge in Yerevan asked the 
Constitutional Court earlier this year to determine whether the Criminal Code 
clause conforms to the Armenian constitution. The court recently agreed to hold 
hearings and rule on the appeals.

But it is now seeking advice from the ECHR and the Venice Commission. In a 
short statement, the court said it will suspend the consideration of the 
appeals pending formal responses from the two Strasbourg-based bodies. The 
statement gave no further explanation of the decision.

The decision was announced one day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
launched a scathing attack on the Constitutional Court and its chairman, Hrayr 
Tovmasian, in particular. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, 
Pashinian accused Tovmasian of cutting political deals with former President 
Serzh Sarkisian to “privatize” the country’s highest court.

“The Constitutional Court must get out of this status of a privatized booth,” 
he said, implicitly demanding changes in the court’s composition. He said he 
could initiate constitutional amendments for that purpose.

Pashinian also signaled support for Vahe Grigorian, the court’s newest judge 
who has challenged the legitimacy of Tovmasian and six other members of the 
tribunal appointed before the Pashinian-led “Velvet Revolution” of April-May 
2018.


Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to 
the Constitutional Court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019.

Tovmasian, who served as a senior lawmaker representing Sarkisian’s Republican 
Party until becoming the court chairman in March 2018, refused to respond to 
Pashinian on Thursday. “I don’t comment on political statements, I comment on 
judicial acts,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenians service.

Asked whether he is ruling out his resignation, Tovmasian said: “Can you rule 
out the possibility of an earthquake in Armenia tomorrow? Can you rule out that 
the world will collapse tomorrow?”

The Venice Commission discussed the dispute over the Armenian Constitutional 
Court at a session held in Strasbourg last month. An internal report on the 
session disclosed by Armenian opposition circles on Monday suggests that at 
least some members of the Council of Europe body defended the court’s 
legitimacy. The report describes as “disturbing” the fact that Grigorian’s 
claims were hailed by some pro-government members of the Armenian parliament.

Grigorian said in the parliament on June 20 that only he and another judge of 
the 9-member court, Arman Dilanian, can make valid decisions. He argued that 
under constitutional amendments which took effect last year the court now 
consists of “judges,” rather than “members,” as was the case until April 2018. 
He said that the seven other members of the court therefore cannot be 
considered “judges.”

The eight other members of the Constitutional Courts, including Dilanian, 
dismissed Grigorian’s claims in a joint statement.


Kocharian Trial Judge Tight-Lipped About Office Raid

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia -- Judge Davit Grigorian orders former President Robert Kocharian's 
release from custody, Yerevan, May 18, 2019.

A Yerevan judge presiding over the suspended trial of former President Robert 
Kocharian refused on Thursday to clarify why his office was searched and sealed 
by law-enforcement authorities earlier this week.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Davit Grigorian only confirmed that 
officers of the Special Investigative Service (SIS) confiscated his computer 
during Tuesday’s raid.

“I don’t want to talk about that now. I will express my position later on,” 
Grigorian said when asked about what he is accused or suspected of.

Nor would he say if he sees a connection between the search and his handling of 
the high-profile trial.

The SIS said on Wednesday that Grigorian’s office was searched as part of an 
ongoing criminal investigation conducted by it. A spokeswoman for the 
law-enforcement agency did not give any details of that probe or say whether 
the judge could be prosecuted.

Grigorian ordered Kocharian freed from custody on May 18 five days after the 
latter went on trial on charges mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election 
violence in Yerevan. The judge also decided to suspend the trial, questioning 
the legality of the coup charges and asked the Constitutional Court to pass 
judgment on them.

The decisions angered political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian.Heeding Pashinian’s calls, hundreds of them blocked the entrances to 
court buildings across Armenia’s on May 20. Pashinian demanded a mandatory 
“vetting” of all Armenian judges, saying that many of them remain linked to the 
country’s “corrupt” former leadership.

Kocharian was arrested again on June 25 hours after Armenia’s Court of Appeals 
overturned Grigorian’s decisions. His trial has still not resumed, however, 
because the Court of Appeals has yet to send materials of the case back to the 
lower court.

Earlier this month, Kocharian’s lawyers accused the Court of Appeals of 
deliberately dragging out the judicial process to make sure the ex-president 
remains under arrest as long as possible. They said Grigorian might again free 
the ex-president accused of usurping power in the final weeks of his 1998-2008 
rule.

It also emerged this week that in March a Yerevan resident asked the SIS to 
launch criminal proceedings against Grigorian. The citizen’s lawyer, Garik 
Malkhasian, refused on Thursday to specify his client’s allegations against the 
judge. He also could not say whether the search conducted in Grigorian’s office 
is connected with them.



Press Review


“Haykakan Zhamanak” comments on late-night clashes in Ijevan between riot 
police and local residents protesting against a government ban on logging in 
nearby forests. The paper says that the Armenian authorities are right to crack 
down on a long-running deforestation of the area. “This is a very profitable 
business and profits generated by it have long fuelled entrenched local clans,” 
it says. “They felt safe in the past. But after the revolution the situation 
changed and the new authorities moved to stop industrial logging. In recent 
days, the noose [around those businesses] tightened and the problem became more 
acute.” The paper says the same clans organized Wednesday’s protests and 
ensuing clashes with security forces.

“Zhamanak” praises Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s comments made in an 
interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Wednesday, saying that they reflect 
the public mood in the country. “There is no doubt that today’s judicial system 
and the Constitutional Court are incompatible with the New Armenia,” writes the 
paper. It says Pashinian voiced support for Vahe Grigorian, a Constitutional 
Court judge who has effectively declared seven other members of the court 
illegitimate.

“At the same time, it is obvious that even the prime minister does not yet have 
solutions, especially after reservations and critical comments voiced from 
Venice [Commission,]” the paper goes on. “In the coming months the solutions 
will definitely be found and we will have a Constitutional Court and judicial 
system corresponding to today’s Armenia. But Nikol Pashinian’s team will not be 
able to win back the lost time, the year wasted by it.”

“Zhoghovurd” says government bodies should have issued more detailed warnings 
about the contamination of Lake Sevan reported a few weeks ago. The paper says 
officials should have indicated concrete areas where swimming is considered 
hazardous, instead of effectively urging swimmers to stay away from the entire 
lake. It also calls for a “direct dialogue” between the government and private 
entrepreneurs operating resorts located along the Sevan coastline.

(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

                                        Tuesday, 

Armenia May Set Up Powerful Anti-Graft Body

        • Naira Nalbandian

Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 
June 27, 2019.

Armenia’s Justice Ministry has proposed the creation of a new anti-corruption 
agency that would be empowered to prosecute state officials suspected of 
bribery, fraud and other corrupt practices.

The ministry drafted last month an anti-graft strategy and a three-year plan of 
actions stemming from it and submitted them to the Armenian government for 
approval. The Anti-Corruption Committee would be set up as part of that 
document posted on a government website.

Under the proposed strategy, the committee would have not only preventive but 
also law-enforcement powers. The Justice Ministry wants it inherit those powers 
from the existing Special Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency 
tasked with combatting various crimes committed by state officials.

More specifically, an SIS department dealing corruption and abuse of power 
would be incorporated into the Anti-Corruption Committee. The other SIS 
divisions would be merged with the Investigative Committee, another 
law-enforcement body.

The SIS chief, Sasun Khachatrian, confirmed on Monday that his agency will be 
abolished if the ministry’s proposals are approved by the government. “The 
creation of the new anti-corruption body presupposes the dissolution of the 
SIS,” Khachatrian told reporters.

“But it’s still a draft,” he said. “No concrete bill has been circulated yet. 
So we will see.”

The Justice Ministry’s initial version of the anti-graft strategy was put 
forward late last year and strongly criticized by civic activists. One of them, 
Artur Sakunts, welcomed the latest draft on Tuesday, saying that it is far more 
specific and workable.

Armenia already has an anti-corruption agency which was set up by its previous 
government. The Commission on Preventing Corruption is primarily charged with 
scrutinizing income and asset declarations submitted by senior officials and 
investigating possible conflicts of interest among them. It can only ask 
law-enforcement bodies to prosecute officials suspected of engaging in corrupt 
practices or making false disclosures.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to root out corruption in 
the country since he swept to power during last year’s “Velvet Revolution.” 
Pashinian declared in February that his administration has already “broken the 
spine of systemic corruption in Armenia.” He said it will now focus on putting 
in place “institutional” safeguards against the problem.

The head of the European Union Delegation in Armenia, Piotr Switalski, said 
afterwards that the current authorities in Yerevan have made “serious progress” 
in their anti-corruption drive. He approved of their plans to “create a new, 
independent anti-corruption agency that will have wide-ranging powers.”



Armenian, Iranian Officials Discuss Energy Projects


Iran -- Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian (R) meets with Armenia's Deputy 
Prime Minister Mher Grigorian, Tehran, July 2, 2019.

Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian has met with Iran’s Energy 
Minister Reza Ardakanian in Tehran for talks that reportedly focused on joint 
energy projects planned or already implemented by the two neighboring states.

Grigorian travelled to the Iranian capital to chair, together with Ardakanian, 
the latest session of an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on 
bilateral economic cooperation. The two-day session began on Monday morning, 
according to the official Iranian IRNA news agency.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Armenian government said the commission 
discussed ways of deepening bilateral ties in a range of areas, including 
energy, trade, transport and financial services. The statement quoted Grigorian 
as saying that the meeting was preceded by “productive” discussions held by 
Armenian-Iranian working groups. But it did not report any concrete decisions 
made by the commission.

Another government statement said Grigorian and Ardakanian discussed at their 
separate talks “the state of joint projects implemented by Armenia and Iran in 
the sphere of energy.” It gave no details.

Grigorian met with one of Ardakanian’s deputies, Homayoun Haeri, in Yerevan on 
Saturday. ISNA, another Iranian news agency, said the two men discussed 
accelerating the ongoing construction of a new Armenian-Iranian power 
transmission line. It was due to be completed next year or in 2021.

The new line is designed to significantly increase Armenian electricity exports 
to Iran. The latter pays for them with natural gas supplied to Armenia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed this project with Iranian President 
Hassan Rouhani when he visited Tehran in February. Pashinian’s office said at 
the time that they also agreed to take “practical steps” towards building a 
major hydroelectric plant on the Armenian-Iranian border.

Grigorian was also reported to stress the significance of preferential trade 
agreement signed by Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) last 
year. He said the deal could help to boost Armenian-Iranian trade.

The latest Armenian-Iranian negotiations followed a further upsurge in tensions 
between Iran and the United States. Pashinian made clear late last year that 
his country will maintain its “special relationship” with the Islamic Republic 
despite renewed U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran over its controversial nuclear 
program.

Meeting with Pashinian in February, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali 
Khamenei urged Yerevan to strengthen its ties with Tehran “contrary to what the 
United States desires” to see.



Parliament Fails To Name Majority-Backed Candidate For Judicial Body

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia -- Deputies from the ruling My Step alliance attend a parliament 
session in Yerevan, June 28, 2019.

The pro-government majority in the National Assembly has raised eyebrows after 
failing to install a new member of Armenia’s state judicial watchdog nominated 
by it.

The ruling My Step alliance last week nominated Anna Margarian, a law professor 
at Yerevan State University, for a vacant seat in the Supreme Judicial Council. 
Margarian had to be backed by at least 80 members of the 132-member parliament. 
With My Step holding 88 parliament seats, her election seemed a forgone 
conclusion.

However, only 66 deputies voted for Margarian in secret ballot on Monday. 
Nineteen others voted against her appointment to the SJC.

Only one parliamentary force, the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), spoke 
out against her candidacy before the vote.

A senior LHK parliamentarian, Gevorg Gorgisian, on Tuesday accused My Step of 
demonstrating an “unserious attitude” towards its own nominee. Gorgisian said 
he believes that some pro-government lawmakers broke ranks to vote against 
Margarian.

My Step’s parliamentary leader, Lilit Makunts, ruled out such a possibility. 
She said no member of the parliament majority had objected to Margarian’s 
appointment.

However, another senior My Step lawmaker, Vahagn Hovakimian, did not exclude 
that some of his pro-government colleagues voted against her “for some reasons.”


Armenia - Anna Margarian, a candidate for the Supreme Judicial Council, speaks 
in the parliament, July 1, 2019.

Hovakimian suggested that Margarian would have been elected if about two dozen 
deputies had not been absent from Armenia on Monday due to business trips 
abroad. According to information available on the parliament’s website, 12 of 
them are from My Step.

Armenian law allows My Step to again nominate Margarian for the SJC. Makunts 
said that later on Monday the bloc led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made 
such an offer to Margarian but that the latter was “not inclined” to accept it.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Margarian made clear that she does not 
“find it expedient” to again run for the SJC. She insisted that she was not 
offended by the outcome of the parliament vote.

The SJC has wide-ranging constitutional powers, including the right to nominate 
judges appointed by the president of the republic. It can also sanction and 
even terminate judges.

The SJC was effectively paralyzed by the resignations of five of its nine 
members last month just as Pashinian and his political allies continued to push 
for a sweeping reform of the national judiciary. Later in June, the parliament 
elected two new members of the watchdog nominated by My Step.

Under the Armenian Judicial Code, the SJC must have 10 members. Half of them 
are appointed by the parliament while the other half are chosen by the 
country’s judges. As things stand now, the parliament can pick one more member 
of the body, with the remaining three seats reserved for the judges.



Press Review


“Zhamanak” claims that Armenia’s Constitutional Court has effectively stopped 
functioning after being declared illegitimate by its newest judge, Vahe 
Grigorian. The paper says that this has not paralyzed the national judicial 
system.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” accuses opposition forces of “exploiting” the 
Nagorno-Karabakh issue in their criticism of the government. “They claim that 
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities has been lowered and equated to 
the status of Karabakh’s Azerbaijani community, that Artsakh’s 
military-political leadership is pressured to cede lands [to Azerbaijan] and so 
on,” writes the pro-government paper. It dismisses such claims as baseless, 
pointing to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s repeated assurances that no peace 
deal with Azerbaijan can be accepted without the approval of Karabakh’s people 
and leadership. “As always, while rejecting the position of the current 
Armenian authorities, Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian do not come up with 
an alternative or clarify their own positions,” it says.

Lragir.am says that Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for Sarkisian’s 
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), keeps challenging Pashinian to name “foreign 
agents” which the latter says operate in the Armenian political scene. “It’s a 
serious issue and Sharmazanov’s concerns are legitimate,” comments the 
pro-Western online publication. “It must be pointed out that he is the only 
person consistently raising that issue. Only Pashinian knows what and whom he 
meant.” It says that Sharmazanov should, for his part, explain why he and his 
HHK colleagues had voted for gas deals with Russia which “limited Armenia’s 
sovereignty.”

(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