Monday,
Yazidi Activist Wins Prize Created In Memory Of Armenian Genocide
Armenia -- Yazidi activist Mirza Dinnayi receives the 2019 Aurora Prize for
Awakening Humanity at a ceremony in Yerevan, October 19, 2019.
A Yazidi activist who has helped civilian victims of atrocities committed by
the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria has received an annual
humanitarian award created in memory of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman
Turkey.
Mirza Dinnayi was named the winner of the 2019 Aurora Prize for Awakening
Humanity at a weekend ceremony in Yerevan attended by members of the Aurora
Prize Selection Committee, including former Presidents Ernesto Zedillo of
Mexico and Mary Robinson of Ireland.
Dinnayi, who lives in Germany, was awarded the $1 million prize for helping
more than 1,500 Yazidi women and children seek medical treatment in Europe. He
decided to donate the money to his organization, Air Bridge Iraq, and two other
aid groups helping victims of the ISIS.
The prize runner-ups were Zannah Mustapha, a lawyer who set up a school for
children affected by violence in northeastern Nigeria, and Yemeni lawyer Huda
Al-Sarari, who investigated human rights abuses in the war-torn country. They
received a $50,000 grant each.
The annual award was established in 2015 by three prominent Diaspora Armenians:
philanthropists Ruben Vardanyan and Noubar Afeyan, and Vartan Gregorian, the
president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It is designed to honor
individuals around the world who risk their lives to help others.
Armenia -- The co-founders of Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, Vartan
Gregorian (L), Ruben Vardanyan (second from left) and Noubar Afeyan (R), pose
for a photograph with its latest winner, Mirza Dinnayi, Yerevan, October 19,
2019.
The international prize is named after Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian genocide
survivor who witnessed the massacre of relatives and told her story in a book
and film.
“The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative empowers those who risk everything for the
sake of others and show extraordinary courage and conviction in situations of
adversity, and Mirza Dinnayi is a perfect example of that,” Gregorian said at
the award ceremony. “He embodies the power of compassion, of personal
commitment, of a burning desire to save lives.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian also spoke at the solemn event. “Mr.
Dinnayi, what you have been doing for the friendly Yazidi people in Iraq
reminds us of the activities a century ago, during the Armenian genocide, of
Western missionaries and other individuals that had helped to save thousands of
Armenian lives,” Pashinian said. “I also want to thank you on behalf of the
Yazidi community of Armenia.”
In January 2018, Armenia’s parliament unanimously passed a resolution
recognizing as genocide the 2014 mass killings of Yazidis in Iraq perpetrated
by the ISIS. The National Assembly also called on the international community
to track down and prosecute those directly responsible for the killings.
About 7,000 Yazidi women and children were seized by the ISIS when it overran
Iraq's northwestern town of Sinjar in August 2014. Almost 3,000 of them remain
unaccounted for. The town was regained from the jihadist group in late 2015 and
dozens of mass graves of Yazidis have since been found there.
Iraq -- Ayman, a boy from a minority Yazidi community, who was sold by Islamic
State militants to a Muslim couple in Mosul, hugs his grandmother after he was
returned to his Yazidi family, in Duhok, Iraq, January 31, 2017
The U.S. government officially declared in March 2016 that the ISIS is
“responsible for genocide” against Yazidis as well as Christians and other
religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria. A subsequent report released
by United Nations investigators similarly concluded that the Islamist
militants’ actions against Yazidis meet a 1948 UN convention’s definition of
genocide.
“The recognition of genocide is the first step in order to satisfy the
victims,” Dinnayi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He said Yazidi families
will not feel safe returning to their homes in Iraq until ISIS militants
involved in the atrocities face justice.
The 46-year-old doctor also expressed concern about the Turkish offensive
against Kurdish forces in northern Syria. He said it could further hamper
efforts to see justice done by providing militants jailed there with a “big
opportunity” to escape.
Pashinian Denies Persecuting Constitutional Court Head
• Artak Khulian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, October 9, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian denied through a spokesman on Monday opposition
claims that he ordered criminal proceedings against the chairman of Armenia’s
Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasian, in a bid to force the latter to resign.
Pashinian’s spokesman, Vladimir Karapetian, at the same time effectively
accused Tovmasian of complicity in “crimes” committed by members of the former
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
Two law-enforcement agencies announced separate criminal investigations into
Tovmasian on October 17 two days after seven of the eight other Constitutional
Court rejected the Armenian parliament’s calls for his dismissal.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said it is investigating a possible
“usurpation of power” by Tovmasian and former senior officials that helped him
become head of the country’s highest court in 2018. For its part, the National
Security Service (NSS) interrogated his father and two daughters.
HHK representatives as well as other critics of Pashinian denounced the
criminal proceedings as acts of political prosecution. They were particularly
critical of the NSS’s actions, saying that the authorities are now targeting
Tovmasian’s relatives as part of their efforts to oust the court chairman.
Karapetian brushed aside those claims. “If the NSS has some questions regarding
corruption issues then I see nothing wrong with that,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service. “That body can address questions to any person. The
proceedings are carried out at this level at this point, and any talk of
[government] pressure is just meaningless.”
“They know very well who Hrayr Tovmasian is,” Karapetian said of the HHK
critics. “He shares their ideology, he is well aware of the spate of crimes
which … had been committed by many representatives of that party. This explains
their support for their, so to speak, last of the Mohicans.”
The official also made clear that Pashinian stands by his recent claims that
Tovmasian, who used to be affiliated with the HHK, was installed as
Constitutional Court chairman as a result of legally questionable political
deals cut with Armenia’s former political leadership.
Tovmasian, who also served as justice minister from 2010-2013, dismissed those
claims. He said on October 2 that the authorities want to force him out in
order to gain control over Armenia’s highest court.
Under Armenian law, Tovmasian cannot be prosecuted without the consent of at
least five other members of the Constitutional Court. In a joint statement
issued on Friday, seven court justices said they are “monitoring developments
relating to Hrayr Tovmasian and members of his family and will react if need
be.”
The head of the SIS, Sasun Khachatrian, stressed on Monday that Tovmasian has
not been charged or regarded by his investigators as a suspect as yet. But he
did not rule out the possibility of such charges.
“Do you want me to make presumptions?” Khachatrian told reporters. “I repeat
that … a criminal case been opened in connection with the existence of signs of
an apparent crime.”
SIS officers raided the Constitutional Court and HHK headquarters in Yerevan to
confiscate some documents on Thursday.
On Friday, the NSS sought to justify it decision to summon Tovmasian’s father
and two daughters for questioning.
In a statement, the former Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB said it is
investigating a possible misuse of some 855 million drams ($1.8 million) in
funding allocated by the Justice Ministry in 2012 for capital repairs of three
buildings. It said also suspected that Tovmasian’s relatives had not submitted
accurate asset declarations to a state body.
Lawyers for Tovmasian’s family said NSS officers asked his daughters on Friday
questions about a car and a garage which they received as a gift from a cousin
who emigrated to the United States in 2016. According to them, Tovmasian’s
75-year-old father was summoned to the NSS headquarters to explain who repaired
the roof of his house in a village near Yerevan.
Indicted Tycoon Delays Return To Armenia
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Businessman Samvel Mayrapetian at the official opening of his Toyota
car dealership in Yerevan, 23 June 2009.
Citing health reasons, a wealthy businessman prosecuted on corruption charges
has postponed his return to Armenia from Germany where he was allowed to
receive medical treatment early this year.
The businessman, Samvel Mayrapetian, was arrested in October last year on
charges of “assisting” in large-scale bribery alleged by a fellow entrepreneur,
Silva Hambardzumian.
Hambardzumian claimed to have transferred millions of dollars in cash to former
Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian and another former official
through Mayrapetian in 2008. The latter denied the allegation before being
freed on bail in late December.
In January, the Special Investigative Service (SIS) reluctantly allowed
Mayrapetian to undergo treatment in a German clinic. Doctors in Yerevan said
the tycoon, who suffered from a serious form of pancreatitis, needs the kind of
surgery which is not performed in Armenian hospitals.
Mayrapetian promised to return to the country after recuperating from the
life-threatening disease. The SIS said recently that it expects him to fly back
to Yerevan by October 15.
According to the SIS, Mayrapetian’s lawyers have told investigators that he was
on his way back to Armenia when his condition deteriorated sharply at a German
airport. They said that he was therefore taken back to hospital.
An SIS spokesperson told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the law-enforcement
body is now trying to check the veracity of the lawyers’ claims.
Mayrapetian, 60, is one of Armenia’s leading real estate developers who also
owns a national TV channel and a car dealership. Some media outlets for years
linked Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership.
Kocharian is currently held in pretrial detention, having been charged in July
2018 in connection with the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests
in March 2008. He was also charged with bribe-taking in February this year. The
ex-president denies the accusations as politically motivated.
The bribery case against Kocharian is based on Hambardzumian’s testimony. In a
February interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, the businesswoman insisted
that she had asked Mayrapetian to “take the money to the three persons” so that
they “don’t interfere with my business.”
“I myself gave the money. They didn’t demand it from me," she stressed, adding
that she did not meet with Kocharian or Sarkisian and does not know whether the
alleged bribe reached them.
Unlike Kocharian, Sarkisian is not facing any criminal charges.
Deputy PM Criticizes Departing Official
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia -- Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian speaks in the National Assembly
October 2, 2019
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian criticized on Monday the head of Armenia’s
Cadaster Committee who has resigned in protest against government policies on
urban development.
Sarhat Petrosian, who was appointed to run the government agency following last
year’s “Velvet Revolution,” tendered his resignation on Friday. In a statement,
he said he “can no longer tolerate dilettantism and sectarianism bordering on
corruption.”
Petrosian, whose agency regulates and registers property deals in Armenia, hit
out at the current and former heads of the government’s Urban Development
Committee. The latter now works as an adviser to Avinian.
Avinian rejected the criticism, saying that Petrosian wanted to overstep his
powers. “The post of head of the Cadaster Committee did not allow him to
operate in the area of urban development,” he told reporters. “I presume that
Mr. Petrosian is a bit disappointed with this fact.”
Avinian dismissed Petrosian’s claim that government regulation of urban
development in the country has “regressed” despite a buoyant real estate
market. “I think that Mr. Petrosian, who has not been the head of the Urban
Development Committee, hardly has in-depth knowledge of problems existing in
the area of urban development,” he said.
The head of the committee, Vahagn Vermishian, could not be reached for comment.
In his resignation statement, Petrosian did not give examples of mismanagement
and incompetence alleged by him. He said he will talk about concrete cases
later on.
The 37-year-old official held a farewell meeting with his staff on Monday. In a
Facebook post later in the day, he thanked well-wishers for their support. He
also reiterated that unnamed “opportunists” must not be allowed to discredit
the 2018 revolution or use its achievements “for personal welfare.”
Petrosian actively participated in the revolution that brought Nikol Pashinian
to power. The Armenian prime minister has not yet commented on his resignation.
Another Former Armenian Official Arrested
Armenia- Arsen Babayan, the deputy chief of the parliament staff, April 6, 2018.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency made the first arrest on Monday in its
ongoing investigation into a possible “usurpation of power” by Constitutional
Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said Arsen Babayan, the former deputy
chief of the Armenian parliament staff, is suspected of forging documents
during the “process” of the resignation in early 2018 of Tovmasian’s
predecessor, Gagik Harutiunian.
An SIS statement on Babayan’s arrest gave no details of his alleged crime
punishable by up to two years in prison. It indicated that he has not been
formally charged yet.
The SIS said that it found evidence of forgery committed by multiple
“officials” during the criminal investigation into Tovmasian’s election as
Constitutional Court chairman by the former Armenian parliament. Such a probe
was demanded by an Armenian parliamentarian who alleged recently that the
process of replacing Harutiunian was illegal.
The probe was launched on October 17 two days after the Constitutional Court
rejected the current parliament’s demands to oust Tovmasian. The former ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), with which Tovmasian was previously
affiliated, says it is part of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s continuing
efforts to force the high court chairman to resign.
The HHK’s deputy chairman, Armen Ashotian, said Babayan’s “ludicrous” and
“immoral” arrest is meant to serve the same purpose.
“This will not help you either,” Ashotian warned the authorities on Facebook.
“Hrayr [Tovmasian] will stay on in his trench no matter how much you and your
propaganda machine whimper.”
Babayan condemned the criminal proceedings against Tovmasian prior to his
arrest. He has also been very critical of the Pashinian government.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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