Friday, September 8, 2017 No One Indicted Over Armenian Election Scandal . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Artak Sargsian, a businessman and parliament deputy. Armenian law-enforcement authorities will not prosecute anyone in connection with a secretly recorded audio suggesting that employees of a pro-government businessman were warned to help him get reelected to parliament or lose their jobs, it emerged on Friday. The recording was posted on Hayastan24.com in the wake of the April 2 parliamentary elections. It features the voice of a man threatening to fire those employees of Artak Sargsian's SAS supermarket chain in Yerevan who have failed to guarantee in writing that their friends and relatives will vote for their boss. The man also promises lavish bonuses to their colleagues who will "bring votes" to the candidate of President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The website said that the SAS staff meeting took place in the run-up to the elections won by the HHK. Sargsian, who earned the party 12,000 votes and was reelected to the National Assembly, has since refused to comment on the audio. Opposition politicians and other critics of the Armenian government seized upon the revelation as further proof that public and private sector employees across the country were illegally pressurized to vote for the HHK. In an April 3 statement, European election monitors likewise reported "pressure on civil servants and employees of private companies" Responding to the uproar, Armenia's Special Investigative Service (SIS) said on April 19 that it has opened a criminal case under an article of the Criminal Code dealing with coercion of voters by means of threats, intimidation or bribes. A spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency, Marina Ohanjanian, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the case has been closed for lack of evidence of such a crime. She did not comment further. According to the Hetq.am investigative publication, the man who threatened to fire SAS employees is Sargsian's elder brother Aram. The Hetq editor, Edik Baghdasarian, said SIS investigators never asked him to explain how his media outlet identified the man. For her part, Yeva Adamian, the Hayastan24.com editor, said she received recently a letter from the SIS asking for more information about the scandalous recording. Adamian said although she did not refuse to cooperate with the investigators they did not make further inquiries. "It's a cover-up," she charged. "I'm sure that it was ordered from the presidential administration. Serzh Sarkisian decided that there is no need make noise and that one of his prot g s must be a parliament deputy." It is not clear whether the HHK-affiliated tycoon or his brother have been questioned by the SIS. Hetq's Baghdasarian suggested that the SIS only imitated a probe into the audio. Varuzhan Hoktanian, the program coordinator at the Armenian branch of Transparency International, was not surprised by the SIS's decision not to press charges against anyone. "If a particular force's victory is to be ensured [at any cost] and that force is the ruling party, then such methods are not punishable for them," he said. "They would have been punishable if they had been used by the opposition." Armenia Dropped Out Of U.S.-Led Drills, Insists Georgia . Sargis Harutyunyan Georgia -- The initial logo of "Agile Spirit 2017" military exercises published by the Georgian Ministry of Defense. Armenia confirmed its participation in the latest U.S.-led military exercises held in Georgia before dropping out of them, the Georgian Defense Ministry insisted late on Thursday. The annual "Agile Spirit" exercises began near the town of Akhaltsikhe on September 3, bringing together around 500 troops from the U.S. Marine Corps and some 1,000 soldiers from Georgia and five other countries. Both the U.S. and Georgian militaries said last week that Armenia will also take part in the ten-day exercises. A Georgian official said Yerevan "abandoned that intention a few days before their start." Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian acknowledged on Monday that the Armenian military planned to join the exercises. But he said that "Armenia never officially stated that it will definitely participate." The Armenian Defense Ministry seemingly contradicted that explanation in a statement issued later on September 4. It said a decision not to send Armenian soldiers to the "Agile Spirit 20" wargames was made "right from the beginning" because they were not deemed of "primary significance to the Armenian Armed Forces." The Georgian Defense Ministry countered, however, that Armenian military officials "confirmed participation of three Armenian officers in the multinational exercise" when they attended the final planning conference for the drills in July. "The Georgian side was notified shortly before the active phase of Agile Spirit 2017 that the Armenian officers would not be able to take part in the military exercise," the ministry's press office said in a written statement to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "The reason for the refusal was not explained." Senior representatives of President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party (HHK) have dismissed suggestions that Armenia dropped out of the maneuvers under pressure from Russia, its main military ally. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin criticized in July exercises frequently organized by NATO in Georgia, saying that they undermine regional security. As recently as in the first half of August, some 30 Armenian soldiers took part in larger U.S.-led exercises that were held near Tbilisi. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited the 2,800 troops participating in the "Noble Partner" drills during an August 1 trip to Georgia. Incidentally, Armenia's arch-foe Azerbaijan skipped the "Noble Partner" drills but chose to participate in the "Agile Spirit" wargames. EU Envoy Backs Karapetian's `Reform Agenda' Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian (R) meets with Piotr Switalski, head of the European Union Delegation in Armenia, in Yerevan, 8Aug2017. A senior European Union diplomat reportedly praised on Friday "ambitious" reforms promised by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, saying that the EU stands ready to support them through more economic assistance to Armenia. "We strongly support your reform agenda," an Armenian government statement quoted Piotr Switalski, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, as telling Karapetian. "With the help of external experts, we have thoroughly analyzed your reform program. It is an ambitious program." "Now we are thinking about how to harmonize our efforts with your reform agenda. We wish to invest money where you think the reforms will be effective," Switalski added, according to the statement. "I want to assure you that we know how to change the country as we are well aware of our problems and shortcomings," Karapetian was reported to say for his part. A separate short statement by the EU delegation said the two men discussed "EU-funded programs and projects to support economic development of Armenia." It gave no details. Karapetian already met with Switalski and the Yerevan-based ambassadors of key EU member states in July to discuss his government's five-year policy program approved by Armenia's newly elected parliament. The program calls for major reforms aimed at improving the socioeconomic situation in Armenia. It specifically commits the government to reforming the domestic investment climate, assisting export-oriented manufacturers and combatting corruption. Karapetian has repeatedly promised to implement such reforms since being appointed prime minister in September last year. A senior official from the International Monetary Fund described his cabinet as "reform-minded" in April. Armenian opposition politicians dismiss the premier's economic agenda, however. They say, in particular, that wealthy businesspeople close to the government continue to enjoy a monopoly on lucrative imports of essential goods and commodities. Some of them have also argued that it is still unclear whether Karapetian will retain his post after President Serzh Sarkisian's final term expires in April 2018. According to Karapetian's press office, the premier also discussed with Switalski on Friday preparations for the signing later this year of a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the EU and Armenia. Opposition Bloc Demands Armenia's Exit From Eurasian Union . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - The opposition Yelk alliance led by Aram Sarkisian (L), Edmon Marukian (C) and Nikol Pashinian holds a demonstration in Yerevan, 30Mar2017. The opposition Yelk alliance on Friday officially called for an end to Armenia's membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), saying that it has hurt the country's economy and security. Yelk's parliamentary faction approved a draft statement by the National Assembly demanding that the Armenian authorities must embark on a "process" of invalidating Armenia's accession treaty with the EEU. The draft statement blames the EEU for the fact that the country's Gross Domestic Product has shrunk in U.S. dollar terms while public debt increased since 2015. EEU membership also limits Armenia's trade with neighboring Georgia and Iran, it claims. The proposed declaration further says that other EEU member states are not supporting Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh. It points to Russia's continued arms sales to Azerbaijan. Yelk's decision came two months after one of its leaders, Edmon Marukian, said that Armenia should leave the EEU because of Moscow's controversial decision to stop recognizing the validity of Armenian driving licenses used by migrant workers in Russia. Several other senior members of the opposition bloc backed the idea. Eduard Sharmazanov, a deputy parliament speaker and the spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), rejected those calls last month. He insisted that the trade bloc with Russia and two other ex-Soviet states is good for the Armenian economy. Sharmazanov, whose party has a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, again ruled out Armenia's exit from the EEU when he met with a group of university students in Yerevan on Friday. Yelk was set up by three opposition parties late last year and won 9 of the 105 seats in Armenia's current parliament elected in April. Two of those parties, Aram Sarkisian's Republic and Marukian's Bright Armenia, have a pro-Western orientation, while the third one, Civil Contract, advocates a more neutral foreign policy. The Civil Contract leader, Nikol Pashinian, opposed Armenia's accession to the EEU in January 2015. But he repeatedly objected last year to the country's immediate exit from the union demanded by pro-Western opposition figures. Press Review Armenia -- Newspapers for press review illustration, Yerevan, 12Jul2016 "Haykakan Zhamanak" calls Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's one-year tenure a failure, saying that he has failed to make good on his promises to attract multimillion-dollar investments in the Armenian economy. "There will be no $850 million in foreign investment in Armenia this year," writes the paper. "Is Karen Karapetian to blame for a drop in investments in the Armenian economy? He is and he is not. When he took over as prime minister our economy was already suffering from a lack of investments. The main reasons for falling investments are political. If most of an economy is controlled by monopolies and oligopolies, then such an economy is not attractive to investors." "Zhamanak" speculates that Russian-Armenian businesspeople are exploiting Armenia's problems "for solving their problems with our country and the Russian authorities." The paper points the finger at Ara Abrahamian, the chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia, and Samvel Karapetian, a billionaire businessman close to the Armenian premier. "They both are promising to `score goals' but only $40 million has been invested in Armenia so far this year," it says, adding neither tycoon cares about the country's socioeconomic woes. "Zhoghovurd" reports that operational losses reported by Armenia's Russian-owned gas distribution network continued to increase in the first half of this year year. "This is the highest rate of losses of the Gazprom Armenia operator in the last five years," writes the paper. "Never before have losses in the gas distribution network have approached the 24 percent mark. This is certainly cause for concern given the fact that the financial burden of solving such problems is usually placed on ordinary citizens through higher tariffs." "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" adds its voice to criticism of President Serzh Sarkisian's decision to give a medal for academic excellence to the teenage son of an Armenian town mayor charged with running over and killing a man with a car. "Serzh Sarkisian was probably not informed about details. Otherwise, he would have given that promising young man not only a medal but also a government post," the paper says with sarcasm. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org