Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Opposition Lawmaker In ‘Grave Condition’ After Arrest
September 01, 2021
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Armen Charchian of the opposition Hayastan alliance arrives for a
session of the Armenian parliament.
A prominent Armenian surgeon and opposition parliamentarian suffered a heart
attack one day after being arrested again last week, his lawyer said on
Wednesday, demanding his immediate release.
Armen Charchian, who headed Yerevan’s Izmirlian Medical Center, is prosecuted
for allegedly pressuring his subordinates to vote in the June 20 parliamentary
elections. He was first arrested three days after being elected to the Armenian
parliament on the main opposition Hayastan alliance’s ticket.
Charchian, who rejects the accusations as politically motivated, was released
from custody on bail at the start of his trial a month later. He was sent back
to jail on August 23 after Armenia’s Court of Appeals overturned the decision
made by the judge presiding over the trial.
Charchian was rushed to Yerevan’s Nork-Marash Medical Center, a heart clinic,
the following day. The hospital director, Mikael Adamian, confirmed on Wednesday
that the 61-year-old suffered a heart attack.
Adamian described his current condition as “moderately grave” and said the
opposition lawmaker, who also suffers from diabetes, must remain in the hospital.
Charchian’s lawyer, Erik Andreasian, demanded, meanwhile, an immediate court
hearing on his petition to release his client on bail.
“Mr. Charchian cannot remain under arrest in these circumstances,” said
Andreasian.
The lawyer and the Hayastan alliance say that Charchian’s arrest was illegal
because it was not allowed by the parliament. Prosecutors counter that he did
not enjoy parliamentary immunity from prosecution because he was indicted before
being elected to the National Assembly.
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (R) greets Armen Charchian, director
of the Izmirlian Medical Center, during a rally in Yerevan, May 9, 2021.
Charchian is one of three jailed members of the parliament representing the
opposition bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian. The two others were
arrested in July on separate corruption charges also strongly denied by them.
Charchian was charged with coercing voters after a non-governmental organization
publicized a leaked audio recording of his pre-election meeting with the
Izmirlian Medical Center staff. He told them that they must participate in the
elections or face “much tougher treatment” by the hospital management.
The doctor has insisted that he only asked his staffers to vote on June 20 and
did not threaten to fire anyone.
Aleksanian has argued, for his part, that the leaked audio contains only a short
excerpt from Charchian’s comments made at the meeting. According to him, a
longer recording presented by the defense lawyers shows that the then hospital
chief made clear he will not resort to “repressions” against anyone refusing to
go to the polls.
Azerbaijan Accused Of Starting Wildfires In Armenian Border Area
September 01, 2021
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Wildfires rage near the Armenian border village of Kut, September 1,
2021.
Armenian officials have accused Azerbaijani troops of starting wildfires near
two border villages in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province to inflict more damage on
local farmers.
The villages of Sotk and Kut are situated along one of the portions of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border which Azerbaijani forces reportedly crossed in May
to advance a few kilometers into Armenian territory.
The wildfires reportedly erupted there on Monday, destroying pastures and hay
stacks belonging to villagers heavily dependent on animal husbandry. According
to local officials, 160 hectares of land was burned down on Tuesday alone.
The fires were extinguished around Sotk but continued to rage near Kut on
Wednesday. Photographs and videos circulated by Armenian media outlets showed
firefighters and local residents trying to put out flames manually.
Gevorg Galstian, the head of the Gegharkunik branch of the Armenian Rescue
Service, said the area’s mountainous terrain makes it impossible for his
firefighters to use fire engines.
Hakob Avetian, the mayor of a Gegharkunik community comprising Sotk and Kut,
charged that Azerbaijani soldiers deployed on nearby hills set fire to the local
fields.
“They roll down a burning tire and it spreads the fire. That is done
deliberately,” Avetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service by phone.
“They spread fires in those directions where they can cause more damage,” he
said, pointing to hay that was collected and stacked by local farmers for their
livestock.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, also blamed the fires on
Azerbaijani troops deployed in the “sovereign territory of Armenia.”
“As a result of these actions taken by Azerbaijani servicemen, pastures
belonging to civilian residents are being destroyed and people are being
deprived of their livelihoods,” Tatoyan said in a statement released late on
Tuesday.
Baku denied that its forces deliberately caused the wildfires. It also maintains
that they did not cross into Armenian territory in May.
The farmers in Sotk, Kut and two nearby villages lost access to some of their
traditional summer pastures as a result of the Azerbaijani troop advances.
Another Armenian Soldier Killed On Azeri Border
September 01, 2021
Armenia - Armenian soldiers walk through their positions along Armenia's border
with Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan exclave, July 22, 2021.
An Armenian soldier was shot dead on Wednesday in what the Defense Ministry in
Yerevan described as a fresh Azerbaijani truce violation at a volatile section
of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
A ministry statement said the 39-year-old Sergeant Gegham Sahakian died when
Armenian army units deployed outside the village of Yeraskh bordering
Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave came under cross-border fire.
The statement said that the Azerbaijani actions “will not go unanswered” and
that Baku will bear responsibility for the “escalation of the situation.”
The Azerbaijani military denied violating the ceasefire regime in the area about
70 kilometers south of Yerevan.
Tensions along that border section rose dramatically in mid-July after more than
two decades of relative calm. Sahakian is the third Armenian soldier killed
there since then.
Yeraskh’s mayor, Radik Oghikian, was gravely wounded as cross-border skirmishes
in the area adjacent to northeastern Turkey escalated later in July.
The Armenian military says that the skirmishes began after Azerbaijani troops
tried to move their border posts closer to its Yeraskh positions.
Tensions have also been running high at other portions of the border where
Azerbaijani forces reportedly crossed into Armenian territory in May.
Armenia’s Hospitals Again Under Strain As COVID-19 Cases Rise
September 01, 2021
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Medics look after a COVID-19 patient at the Nork Hospital for
Infectious Diseases, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
Hospitals in Armenia are again struggling to cope with coronavirus cases that
began slowly but steadily rising more than two months ago.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday morning that 615 people
tested positive for the coronavirus in the past day, up from less than 100 cases
a day routinely recorded in early and mid-June. It also registered 15 more
deaths directly or indirectly caused by COVID-19.
Deputy Health Minister Gevorg Simonian rang alarm bells over the epidemiological
situation late on Tuesday, saying that it is “increasingly deteriorating.”
In a Facebook post, Simonian warned that the 14 hospitals across the country
treating COVID-19 patients have only 235 vacant beds at the moment. “About 700
patients are in a severe and 125 others in a critical condition,” he wrote.
“The situation is really tense and concerning,” Naira Stepanian, the deputy
director of Yerevan’s Nork Hospital for Infectious Diseases, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service on Wednesday.
“Phone calls received by us have begun increasing again. Behind every phone call
is a [coronavirus] case evaluated as severe or critical,” she said.
According to Stepanian, the Nork hospital’s intensive-care unit had only two
available beds as of Wednesday morning. Virtually all patients treated there
were under the age of 60, a further sign that the more contagious Delta variant
of the coronavirus has become prevalent in Armenia as well.
In response to the latest resurgence of coronavirus cases, the Armenian
government has pledged in recent weeks to toughen its lax enforcement of
anti-epidemic rules imposed by it last year. The rules include mandatory mask
wearing inside buses, shops and offices.
Most Armenians still do not wear masks indoors, however.
The spread of the disease is also facilitated by a very slow pace of the
government’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign launched in April.
According to the Ministry of Health, a total of 275,138 vaccine shots were
administered in the country of about 3 million as of August 29. Only 98,586
people making up less than 5 percent of the population were fully vaccinated.
The ministry has recorded just over 6,000 coronavirus-related deaths to date.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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