Tuesday,
Armenian Group Plans Renewed Protests Against Pension Reform
• Sargis Harutyunyan
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia - A demonstration against controversial pension reform outside a
government building in Yerevan, 6Feb2014.
Leaders of a pressure group strongly opposed to a controversial reform of
Armenia’s pension system on Tuesday pledged to stage street protests against
the new government’s decision to complete its gradual introduction next month.
The new Western-backed system, which the former Armenian government started
introducing in January 2014, is to cover 280,000 or so Armenian workers born
after 1973. It requires them to earn most of their future pensions by
contributing sums equivalent to at least 5 percent of their gross wages to
private pension funds until their retirement.
Thousands of employees mostly employed by private firms demonstrated against
the new pension tax in Yerevan in early 2014. The protests organized by the Dem
Em (I Am Against) group forced the administration of then President Serzh
Sarkisian to make it optional for private sector employees until July 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government formally decided not to extend this
deadline at a meeting held late on Monday. It also approved a bill that would
temporarily cut the pension tax rate to 2.5 percent.
The government decision was denounced by organizers of the 2014 protests.
“The new system in its current form still does not enjoy the trust of the
overwhelming majority of the public,” Dem Em’s Davit Manukian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
“No significant changes have been made,” another member of the pressure group,
Levon Harutiunian, said, downplaying the pension tax cut.
He said that the new government must at least further delay making the new tax
mandatory for all workers aged 44 and younger. Or else, he warned, Dem Em will
launch renewed protests against the reform.
Advocates of the reform say that the old mechanism for retirement benefits is
not sustainable because of Armenia’s aging and shrinking population. According
to government officials, more than 200,000 people are already covered by the
new system.
Khosrov Harutiunian, a senior lawmaker representing Sarkisian’s Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK) praised the new government’s stance on the issue,
calling it “very prudent.” He noted that Pashinian and other opposition figures
criticized the reform in 2014.
“They were saying back then that we are not telling the truth [about pensions,]
that they don’t trust us,” Harutiunian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am). “Now they have realized that we were not lying.”
The reform was also opposed in 2014 by businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK) which holds five portfolios in Pashinian’s cabinet. A
senior BHK parliamentarian, Gevorg Petrosian, said on Tuesday that he continues
to have serious misgivings about the switch to the so-called pay-as-you-can
system.
Still, Petrosian echoed Pashinian’s argument that the affected workers should
no longer be worried about the fate of their extra pension contributions
because the new government is far more popular than the previous one.
“So if the people trust the government let them cede a portion of their
income,” he said. “The question is whether that government will last for 40
years and preserve the popular trust.”
The parliament is due to debate the pension bill later this month.
Law-Enforcement Body Told To Crack Down On Corruption
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with senior officials from the
Special Investigative Service in Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told an Armenian law-enforcement agency on
Tuesday to vigorously prosecute corrupt state officials, tackle vote buying and
solve the killings of eight opposition protesters committed in 2008.
Pashinian issued the orders as he presented the new head of the Special
Investigative Service (SIS), a body tasked abuse of power and electoral fraud
committed by senior state officials, to his senior staff.
The previous SIS chief, Vahram Shahinian, tendered his resignation last week.
His successor, Sasun Khachatrian, is a former prosecutor who ran a private law
firm until his latest appointment.
“No corrupt official in Armenia must sleep well at night,” Pashinian told
Khachatrian and other senior SIS officials. “This is the most important thing.
And every law-abiding citizen of Armenia must sleep well at night and … know
that there is a government, judicial authority and law-enforcement system which
ensure their security, freedom and rights.”
Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to “root out” endemic government corruption
since a protest movement led by him toppled the country’s previous government
headed by Serzh Sarkisian. The new head of the National Security Service (NSS)
appointed by him a month ago was quick to launch at least two high-profile
corruption investigations.
The 43-year-old premier stressed the “special importance” of fighting against
election-related crimes and vote buying in particular. He noted that
individuals financing or handing out “widespread” vote bribes have rarely been
prosecuted. “I hope that such crimes will be properly investigated and there
will be concrete results,” he said.
The former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) still headed by Sarkisian
has long been accused by its political opponents, including Pashinian’s Yelk
alliance, of heavily relying on the illegal practice. Critics say that the
HHK’s victory in the April 2017 primarily resulted from vote buying. Sarkisian
and other party leaders deny that.
Pashinian further instructed the SIS to finally identify and punish those who
were directly responsible for the deaths of eight protesters and two police
servicemen during the March 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan.
“One of the most important things which need to be done by the Special
Investigative Service is to solve the March 1 [2008] crime, the March 1
killings,” he said. “I want to make clear that when say there are no
restrictions [on the scope of the investigation] we really mean that.”
The ten people were killed as security forces tried to disperse supporters of
opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian demanding the rerun of a disputed
presidential election held in February 2008. Dozens of Ter-Petrosian allies,
including Pashinian, were subsequently arrested and prosecuted on what human
rights groups described as politically motivated charges.
The SIS has for years claimed to be continuing to investigate the bloodshed.
Armenia’s New Government Suffers First Resignation
Armenia - Labor Minister Mane Tandilian is sworn in at the presidential palace
in Yerevan along with other members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's
cabinet, 21 May 2018.
One month after becoming Armenia’s minister of labor and social affairs, Mane
Tandilian resigned on Tuesday, voicing her opposition to Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s intention to continue an unpopular reform of the national pension
system.
Tandilian was one of the organizers of street protests in 2014 against the
former Armenian government’s decision to require citizens born after 1973 to
finance a large part of their future pensions through additional tax payments.
The protests forced the new government to make the new system, recommended by
Western donors, optional for private sector employees until July 2018.
Shortly after Pashinian appointed her as minister last month, Tandilian
proposed that this deadline be extended by one more year. She said that more
“public discussions” on the issue should be held in the meantime.
Pashinian’s government decided on Monday, however, that the new pension system
will become mandatory for all Armenians aged 44 and younger next month. The
only concession it made was to ask the parliament to cut the new pension tax
rate from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.
Tandilian cited the government decision when she announced her resignation on
her Facebook page. “After lengthy discussions it became obvious that my
proposal is not supported by the government,” she wrote. “Instead, another
variant was put forward and approved at the government meeting.”
“This issue is of utmost importance to me,” she said, arguing that the pension
reform is opposed by most Armenians and people affected by it must therefore be
free to choose a mechanism for determining their retirement benefits.
Armenia - Mane Tandilian (L) and Nikol Pashinian campaign for parliamentary
elections in Yerevan, 18 March 2017.
Tandilian, 40, also said that she is terminating her membership in the Bright
Armenia party, which teamed up with Pashinian’s Civil Contract and another
opposition party to contest last year’s parliamentary elections. Their Yelk
alliance came in third in the polls.
Tandilian was elected to the Armenian parliament on the Yelk ticket. She had to
resign from the National Assembly after agreeing to join Pashinian’s government
formed following the April 23 resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.
Neither Pashinian nor other Yelk leaders immediately reacted to her resignation.
Tandilian did not openly object to the government decision on the pension
reform during Monday’s cabinet meeting. The decision was openly opposed by
another cabinet member, Minister for Economic Development Artsvik Minasian.
Minasian’s objections clearly irritated Pashinian, who said that all ministers
must share “collective responsibility” for all government actions. “Those who
don’t shoulder this responsibility are not with us,” the premier warned bluntly.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” reacts to Karabakh President Bako Sahakian’s decision to step down
in 2020, saying the move heralds the start of a presidential race in Karabakh.
The paper also sees a “completion of sorts of the velvet revolution in Armenia.”
“The atmosphere in Armenia has changed since the victory of the velvet
revolution, and citizens are now going public about problems which have been
accumulated over the years and which they have avoided talking about in the
past,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper says Armenians are now demanding the
resignations of “those officials with whom they have been unhappy.” Those
include mayors, prosecutors and even kindergarten directors. The paper is far
more critical of calls for the resignation of the supreme head of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II. It says only clergymen have a
legitimate right to demand his ouster.
“Hraparak” says that if the new Armenian government faced as much media
scrutiny as the former one had there would be no lack of daily news reports
about controversial statements and actions of new ministers and other
officials, the government’s “contradictory decisions” and steps running counter
to Nikol Pashinian’s past positions. “But we are letting them work, even though
they are not letting us work,” it says. “Two facts are enough to understand
just how different the new government’s statements are from its actions. Nikol
Pashinian has stated that media criticism is necessary and useful. But the fact
is that the prime minister’s teammates have a totally different view on the
matter.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” looks at the “unexpected” resignation of Aghvan Hovsepian,
the controversial head of Armenia’s Investigative Committee. “Hovsepian would
have loved to continue his tenure,” claims the paper. “The judicial and
law-enforcement systems are now beyond the new government’s control. And in
many cases, these systems are trying to create problems for the new government.
Aghvan Hovsepian has been an ally of Serzh Sarkisian and previously Robert
Kocharian. He is tied to them by many threads.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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