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