Category: 2019

                                        Thursday, 

Former Armenian Official Jailed In ‘Coup’ Probe

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia -- Supporters of arrested former parliament staffer Arsen Babayan 
protest outside a court building in Yerevan, .

A court in Yerevan allowed investigators on Thursday to hold a former 
parliament staffer in detention on coup charges which his lawyers said are 
aimed at stepping up government pressure on Hrayr Tovmasian, the embattled 
chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional Court.

The Special Investigative Service (SIS) arrested Arsen Babayan, the former 
deputy chief of the Armenian parliament staff, on Monday before accusing him of 
involvement in a “usurpation of power” resulting in Tovmasian’s appointment as 
court chairman in March 2018.

The SIS claimed that former parliament speaker Ara Babloyan illegally accepted 
and announced the resignation of Tovmasian’s predecessor, Gagik Harutiunian, 
before receiving a relevant letter from the latter. It said Babayan backdated 
the letter to enable Tovmasian to become court chairman before the entry into 
force of sweeping amendments to the Armenian constitution.

The amendments introduced a six-year term in office for the head of Armenia’s 
highest court. Tovmasian was named to run the court under the previous 
constitution which allows him to hold the post until the age of 70.

Babloyan insisted on Wednesday that he received and signed Harutiunian’s letter 
of resignation on March 2, 2015, not three days later, as is claimed by the 
SIS. The former Constitutional Court chairman said, for his part, that his 
resignation was voluntary and in accordance with Armenian law.

Nevertheless, Babayan was remanded in pre-trial custody. The district court in 
the Armenian capital also refused to free him on bail.

One of Babayan’s lawyers, Lusine Sahakian, condemned the court’s decisions and 
the charges leveled against her client as politically motivated.

“There is no testimony that corroborates the accusations,” Sahakian told 
reporters outside the court building. “There are only testimonies corroborating 
the fact that there was no forgery or backdating.”

“It was obvious to us that with this clearly illegal process they were going to 
imprison yet another person to put further pressure on Hrayr Tovmasian,” she 
said. “The court has ensured that.”

Babayan also denied any wrongdoing in a letter to the Yerevan daily “Hraparak” 
sent through his attorneys. The former official urged his sympathizers not to 
worry about him, saying that he remains in a “combative” mood.

The SIS announced the coup inquiry on October 17 two days after seven of the 
nine Constitutional Court judges dismissed calls for Tovmasian’s dismissal made 
by the current Armenian parliament loyal to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. In 
an appeal to the court, the parliament claimed, among other things, that 
Tovmasian cannot act impartially because of his past affiliation with the 
former ruling Republican Party (HHK).

Pashinian similarly charged in July that Tovmasian “privatized” the 
Constitutional Court with the help of the HHK. Tovmasian countered early this 
month that the authorities are seeking to oust him in order to gain control 
over Armenia’s highest court. He said he has no intention to step down.

Critics, notably senior HHK figures, say that Babayan’s arrest and other 
criminal proceedings targeting Tovmasian are part of Pashinian’s efforts to 
force the high court chief’s resignation. The prime minister and his political 
allies deny this.




Court Extends Arrest Of Former Tax Chief

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia -- Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian attends a parliament session in 
Yerevan, November 16, 2015.

A court in Yerevan on Thursday extended until December 24 the pre-trial arrest 
of former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian who is accused abuse of power and 
misuse of public funds.

Khachatrian, who was a member of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s cabinet 
from 2014-2016, was arrested in late August after a law-enforcement agency 
claimed to have recovered 800 million drams ($1.7 million) in “damage inflicted 
on the state” by him.

Khachatrian’s nephew Karen was also arrested and charged at the time. The 
latter used to run an internal security division of the State Revenue Committee 
(SRC). The government agency comprising Armenia’s tax and customs services was 
headed by Gagik Khachatrian from 2008-2014.

Karen Khachatrian’s pre-trial arrest was extended on Wednesday. Both he and his 
uncle deny a large-scale “waste” of government funds alleged by the National 
Security Service (NSS). Details of that accusation have still not been made 
public.

The NSS claims that as head of the SRC Gagik Khachatrian also hired and 
registered employees who never reported for work.

The court allowed the NSS to keep Khachatrian under arrest for two more months. 
Accordingly, it rejected defense lawyers’ latest request to free him on bail. 
One of the lawyers, Yerem Sargsian, said they will appeal against the decision.

Sargsian said that his client has serious health problems and needs to undergo 
surgery abroad.

Throughout his tenure Khachatrian was dogged by corruption allegations, with 
some Armenian media outlets and opposition figures accusing him of using his 
position to become one of the country’s richest men. They cited his family’s 
extensive business interests, which include one of Armenia’s three mobile phone 
networks, a shopping mall, a car dealership and a luxury watch store in Yerevan.

Khachatrian repeatedly denied ownership of these and other businesses, saying 
that they belong to his two sons and other relatives.




U.S. House Set To Vote On Armenian Genocide Resolution

        • Emil Danielyan

U.S. -- A view of the US Capitol is seen in Washington, September 9, 2019

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote next week on a 
resolution calling for official U.S. recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide 
in Ottoman Turkey.

The resolution was introduced by several pro-Armenian U.S. lawmakers, including 
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, in April this year and has 
had 117 co-sponsors since then. It calls on the U.S. government to “commemorate 
the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance” and to 
“reject” Turkish and other efforts to deny it.

The resolution is included on the House agenda for next week released by 
Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. It is due to debated right after a 
House vote on a bipartisan bill that would sanction Turkey for its military 
offensive in northern Syria.

“We're going to have a Turkey sanctions bill and we're going to have an 
Armenian genocide bill,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel 
told National Public Radio earlier this week. “Both of which I'm sure the 
government of Turkey is not happy with, but then again we're not happy with the 
government of Turkey.”


Armenia - Congressmen David Cicilline (L), Ed Royce (C) and Eliot Engel lay 
flowers at the Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan, 24Apr2014.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, Schiff and other leaders of the 
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues said they are “very pleased” that the 
resolution “will receive a vote next week by the full House.”

Armenian-American lobby groups also hailed the initiative which is understood 
to enjoy the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“This latest [Turkish] assault on vulnerable ethnic groups demonstrates the 
need for Congress to unequivocally affirm the Armenian genocide and adopt the 
resolutions pending in the House and Senate,” said Bryan Ardouny, the executive 
director of the Armenian Assembly of America.

“We urge all [House] members to support this important human rights measure and 
send a strong message that the days of genocide denial are over,” Ardouny told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

The Assembly and the Armenian National Committee of America have for decades 
been campaigning for the passage of such legislation. Genocide resolutions 
drafted by pro-Armenian lawmakers have been repeatedly approved by 
congressional committees. But they have not reached the House or Senate floor 
until now because of opposition from U.S. administrations worried about their 
impact on U.S.-Turkish relations.


U.S. -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam 
Schiff, D-CA, speak during a press conference in the House Studio of the US 
Capitol in Washington, October 2, 2019

Successive Turkish governments have warned of serious damage to those ties, 
vehemently denying the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenian subjects of the 
Ottoman Empire. Ankara has not yet reacted to the announcement of the planned 
House vote.

There was also no immediate reaction from the White House. Like his 
predecessors, President Donald Trump avoided using the word genocide in his 
annual statements on the World War One-era mass killings and deportations of 
Armenians. He has spoken instead of “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 
20th century.”

On Wednesday, Trump lifted sanctions imposed by him on Turkey earlier this 
month, saying that a ceasefire in northern Syria is now permanent.




Armenia Slides In Investment Climate Rankings

        • Robert Zargarian

U.S. -- The World Bank building in Washington, April 9, 2008

The World Bank has downgraded Armenia’s position in its annual survey on the 
ease of doing business around the world despite reporting an improvement in the 
country’s investment climate.

Armenia ranked 47th, together with Belgium and Moldova, in the latest Doing 
Business survey which assessed economic conditions in 190 nations with a range 
of specific indicators. It was 41st in last year’s global rankings.

Armenia scored poorly in two of the ten categories used by the bank for 
evaluating the ease of engaging in entrepreneurial activity: “Protecting 
Minority Investors” and “Resolving Insolvency.” Even so, the World Bank said 
the Armenian authorities have “strengthened minority investor protections” over 
the past year. It also found improvements in taxation procedures and 
construction quality control.

As a result, the country’s overall Doing Business score went up from 73.2 to 
74.5. “This means that over the course of last year Armenia has improved its 
business regulations as captured by the Doing Business indicators in absolute 
terms,” the head of the World Bank office in Yerevan, Sylvie Bossoutrot, said 
in a statement issued on Thursday.

This latest edition of the study documents reforms implemented in the 190 
economies over a 12-month period ending on May 1, 2019, one year after Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian and his government took office. Pashinian has 
repeatedly claimed to have eradicated “systemic corruption” and significantly 
improved Armenia’s business environment.

Pashinian discussed the country’s worsened position in the investment climates 
during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan. Economy Minister Tigran Khachatrian blamed 
it on what he described as a change in the bank’s methodology of measuring 
minority shareholder protection. Artur Javadian, the Central Bank governor also 
present at the meeting, claimed, for his part, that Armenia’s poor score in 
that category is the result of a “technical error.”




Press Review


“Zhamanak” reports on parliamentary debates on a bill that would allow 
political appointees to run Armenia’s police and National Security Service 
(NSS). The paper notes that a deputy chief of the police, Hovannes Kocharian, 
was sacked on Wednesday one day after publicly objecting to the bill drafted by 
the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK).It says this is a further indication 
that the law-enforcement system remains “under review.”

“For at least the last two decades Armenia’s entire state governance system has 
been based on crime and corruption,” claims “Haykakan Zhamanak.” “This 
certainly does not mean that everyone involved in the system was a criminal. 
But the system was like that and in order to win promotion any official had to 
execute illegal orders issued by their boss, turn a blind eye to abuses, rig 
elections and so on.” The paper controlled by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
family dismisses opposition claims that the arrests of some of those officials 
are politically motivated repressions organized by the current authorities. It 
says that such claims are spread by those who had “forced their subordinates to 
commit those abuses.”

“Aravot” says that Armenian political and public figures engaged in 
increasingly heated debates over high-profile arrests and prosecutions at home 
are overlooking important geopolitical developments unfolding in the broader 
region. The paper singles out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest 
negotiations with his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts, Ilham Aliyev and 
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as Aliyev’s meeting with Erdogan held in Baku 
earlier this month. It is worried that these developments could have “extremely 
negative and dangerous” ramifications for Armenia. “Yet nobody seems to care 
about that,” it says.

(Lilit Harutiunian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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