Monday,
Former Armenian Security Chief ‘Died In Apparent Suicide’
• Robert Zargarian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- The funeral of former National Security Service Director Georgi
Kutoyan, Yerevan, .
Georgi Kutoyan, a former head of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) who
was found shot dead on Friday, most probably committed suicide,
Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian said over the weekend.
Davtian told reporters that investigators have found “quite a bit of information
testifying to a suicide” as he attended a requiem service for Kutoyan held on
Saturday. He cautioned, though, that they are continuing to consider other
theories of the 38-year-old’s shock death, including murder.
Kutoyan’s body was discovered at a Yerevan apartment belonging to his family.
According to the Investigative Committee, he had a gunshot wound to his head.
A spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency, Naira Harutiunian, said on Monday
that investigators have found no “traces of violence” on the body. She also told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service that they are awaiting the results of several forensic
tests that could shed more light on Kutoyan’s death.
A deputy head of the Investigative Committee, Artur Melikian, said on Friday
that his officers found dozens of bullets and spent cartridge cases in the
apartment.
In a written statement released on Saturday, the Investigative Committee said it
has established that Kutoyan fired 35 gunshots at an apartment wall after
“consuming alcohol” there in late December. He was killed by a bullet fired from
the same pistol legally owned by him, said the statement.
Armenia -- Police officers cordon off an apartment building in Yerevan where
former National Security Service Director Georgi Kutoyan was found dead, January
17, 2020.
Kutoyan and his family did not live in the apartment in question. According to
the Investigative Committee, the former NSS chief went there the day before his
death after telling his loved ones that he wants to “rest there for two or three
days.” The committee statement also said that Kutoyan, who reportedly studied in
Britain, “returned” to Armenia on December 9.
A lawyer by education, Kutoyan had worked as an assistant to President Serzh
Sarkisian from 2011 until his surprise appointment as director of Armenia’s most
powerful security agency in February 2016. He was sacked by newly elected Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian in May 2018 immediately after the “Velvet Revolution”
that toppled Sarkisian.
Sarkisian was reportedly shocked by the unexpected death of his former aide. The
65-year-old ex-president attended the requiem service and Kutoyan’s funeral on
Monday as did most of his top loyalists. He refused to talk reporters.
Kutoyan is the second former senior security official found shot to death in the
last four months. Hayk Harutiunian, a former chief of the Armenian police, was
found dead in his country house in September. Investigators suggested that he
committed suicide.
Government Won’t Rule Out Gas Price Rise
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian, speaks to journalists, Octobe
9, 2019.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian on Monday did not rule out the possibility
of an increase in the prices of Russian natural gas supplied to Armenian
households and corporate consumers.
Armenia’s national gas distribution company owned by Russia’s Gazprom giant said
last week that it may ask public utility regulators soon to allow it to raise
its retail prices.
They have remained unchanged since Gazprom raised the wholesale gas price for
Armenia from $150 to $165 per thousand cubic meters in January 2019. The Russian
gas monopoly said last month that the tariff will not rise further before the
end of 2020.
In this regard, Grigorian reiterated his earlier assurances that Armenian
households will not pay more for gas at least until April 1. “As for a change of
the price of gas supplied to our homes, we should also wait until April 1,” he
told reporters. “We will have clearer ideas then.”
Grigorian insisted that the Armenian government and Gazprom have not reached a
confidential deal on a price rise that would take effect later this year. But he
noted at the same time that Gazprom’s Armenian subsidiary needs additional
revenues to make capital investments in the country’s gas distribution network.
“Regarding investment plans, I won’t make secret of the fact that there are
desires to make some investments because we have to bear in mind that it’s a
matter of safety, efficiency and proper maintenance of the [gas]
infrastructure,” he said.
Grigorian was also confident that a possible higher gas price would not reflect
negatively on continued economic growth in Armenia.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin
discussed the issue when they met in Yerevan in October. “We talked about a gas
price for Armenia that will not break Armenia’s economic dynamics,” Pashinian
said afterwards.
Farmers Protest Government Ban On Home Butchery
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- Cattle farmers protest outside the prime minister's office in
Yerevan, .
More than a hundred farmers and meat traders again rallied outside the prime
minister’s office in Yerevan on Monday to protest against a ban on home
slaughter of livestock imposed by an Armenian government agency.
The ban effective from January 15 means that cattle and other farm animals can
be slaughtered only at 24 abattoirs currently operating in Armenia. Shops and
market stalls are now obliged to have documents certifying that meat sold by
them is supplied from those slaughterhouses.
The State Food Safety Inspectorate says that this will help to prevent the sale
of unhealthy or contaminated meat and thus protect consumers.
Some of the affected farmers, who have traditionally slaughtered their livestock
on their farms and courtyards, strongly oppose the new requirement, saying that
it places a heavy financial burden on them.
They say they are already struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford the
extra costs of transporting their animals to the abattoirs and paying for their
slaughter. Disaffected meat vendors in Yerevan make similar arguments.
“Forcing a villager who has two or three animals to take them to an abattoir is
the same thing as telling him to stop raising cattle because the villager will
have to pay 20,000 to 30,000 drams ($42-$62) to take each animal to the
abattoir,” said one of the farmers protesting outside Armenia’s main government
building.
“We can’t give the abattoir 10,000 drams and pay another 12,000 drams for the
medical paper,” said another protester.
The angry crowd demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. It
briefly blocked an adjacent street after none of the officials from Pashinian’s
staff emerged from the building to talk to them.
The protesters said they will step up the pressure on the government by blocking
highways leading to Yerevan.
The State Food Safety Inspectorate strongly defended the ban on home butchery
after the first protest staged by the farmers and vendors late last week.
“There will be no step backwards because I don’t want our country to be stuck in
the Middle Ages,” a senior official from the government agency, Artur
Shatvorian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service at the weekend.
Shatvorian claimed that there are no farmers among the demonstrators and that
Yerevan-based meat traders are strongly opposed to the ban because it will put
an end to tax evasion among them.
“We are all farmers, we are all from the Ararat province,” countered one of the
participants of Monday’s rally. He and other protesters also denied the
inspectorate’s assertion that the private abattoirs have agreed to provide free
livestock transportation to farmers living in nearby communities and selling at
least three animals at a time.
Opposition Parties Join Constitutional Reform Panel
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Deputies from the opposition Bright Armenia Party attend a parliament
session in Yerevan, .
The two opposition parties represented in Armenia’s parliament have named their
representatives to an ad hoc commission tasked with drafting constitutional
changes planned by the government.
Under an executive order signed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian earlier this
month, the commission will consist of 15 members, including Justice Minister
Rustam Badasian, the government’s representative to the European Court of Human
Rights, human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan and a representative of the
country’s judges.
It will also comprise six legal scholars, who will be chosen by the Justice
Ministry on a supposedly competitive basis, two civil society members and
representatives of the three political forces represented in the Armenian
parliament.
The opposition Bright Armenia (LHK) and Prosperous Armenia (BHK) parties will be
represented in the commission by their senior lawmakers: Taron Sahakian and
Gevorg Petrosian respectively. Vladimir Vartanian, the pro-government chairman
of the parliament committee on legal affairs, will represent Pashinian’s My Step
alliance.
The government officially announced plans to amend the constitution in October
as part of its strategy of reforming the national judicial and electoral
systems. The strategy calls for constitutional changes relating to the work of
judicial bodies and conduct of elections.
There is also lingering speculation that Pashinian is considering restoring the
presidential system of government in the country, even though he has made no
public statements to that effect so far. My Step’s parliamentary leader, Lilit
Makunts, said on Monday that she sees no need for such a radical change. But she
also said that it is up to the commission to recommend whether Armenia should
remain a parliamentary republic.
The BHK, which boasts the second largest group in the National Assembly, has yet
to decide what kind of amendments to the Armenian constitution it should press
for. The party’s leader, Gagik Tsarukian, noted on Monday that in 2015 he was
forced to temporarily leave the political arena because of opposing the switch
to the parliamentary system of government initiated by then President Serzh
Sarkisian.
For its part, the LHK has been campaigning for constitutional curbs on sweeping
powers enjoyed by the prime minister. Sahakian, its nominee for the commission,
said the planned constitutional changes should end the “overconcentration of
power in the executive branch” while preserving the parliamentary system.
Makunts claimed in this regard that the existing system cannot be described
“super prime-ministerial” because elections held in Armenia are no longer rigged
and the parliamentary opposition is now in a better position to hold the
government in check.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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