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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/23/2020

                                        Thursday, 

Gunman Held After Opening Fire In Yerevan Office Building

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia -- Police officers guard the entrance to the Erebuni Plaza Business 
Center after a gunman opened fire there, Yerevan, .

A gunman surrendered to the Armenian police after reportedly bursting into an 
office building in Yerevan and opening fire there on Thursday.

Police officers rushed to the Erebuni Plaza Business Center and cordoned it off 
shortly after the gunfire. “The situation is under control,” a police spokesman 
told reporters outside the building.

In an ensuing written statement, the national police service said that its 
acting chief, Arman Sargsian, personally negotiated with the gunman and that the 
latter handed his weapon and surrendered as a result. The unidentified man was 
then taken to a police station in Sargsian’s car, according to the statement,

“No citizens were injured,” added the statement. “All circumstances of the 
incident are being clarified.”

The police said nothing about the man’s demands or motives.


Armenia -- Armed policemen rush to Erebuni Plaza Business Center where a gunman 
opened fire, Yerevan, .

Erebuni Plaza houses the offices of the United Nations, several private 
companies as well as the jailed former President Robert Kocharian and two media 
outlets sympathetic to him. Their employees were not allowed to leave the 
building during the two-hour standoff.

A journalist working for the Yerevan.Today news website said she saw an armed 
man and heard gunshots on the ground floor and immediately fled the scene. She 
said she and her colleagues were told leave the building after the standoff.

The head of Kocharian’s office, Victor Soghomonian, told reporters that it was 
empty during the incident. He said he does not know whether the gunfire had 
anything to do with the ex-president, who is standing trial on coup charges 
strongly denied by him.

“I have no information now,” said Soghomonian.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was quick to react to the incident. “Any 
manifestation of violence, whatever the motive or justification, is 
unacceptable,” Pashinian wrote on Facebook. “No to violence! Armenia without 
violence.”



Armenia Advances In Global Corruption Rankings

        • Artak Khulian

Germany -- Microphone cables dangle over a logo of Transparency International 
(TI) during a press conference in Berlin, 23Sep2008

Armenia’s has considerably improved its position in an annual survey of 
corruption perceptions around the world conducted by Transparency International.

It ranked, together with Bahrain and the Solomon Islands, 77th out of 180 
countries and territories evaluated in the Berlin-based watchdog’s 2019 
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released on Thursday.

Armenia and seven other countries shared 105th place in the previous CPI 
released a year ago. Transparency International assigned the South Caucasus 
state a CPI “score” of 35 out of 100 at the time. The watchdog raised the score 
to 42 in the latest survey.

Armenia continues to trail neighboring Georgia but is ahead of its three other 
neighbors, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, in the global rankings. Georgia occupies 
44th place in the 2019 CPI.

“Following the revolution in 2018 and the formation of a new parliament, 
[Armenia] has demonstrated promising developments in advancing anticorruption 
policy reforms,” Transparency International said in the report.

But it also cautioned: “Despite these improvements, conflicts of interests and 
nontransparent and unaccountable public operations remain impediments to ending 
corruption in the country. While improving political integrity will take time 
and resources, increasing public trust in law enforcement and the judiciary are 
critical first steps in ensuring appropriate checks and balances and improving 
anti-corruption efforts.”

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian cited the findings out the latest Transparency 
International report during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “We have progressed by 
28 points,” he said.

Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in 
Armenia since he swept to power in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.”

The number or corruption investigations launched by Armenian law-enforcement 
authorities has risen significantly since the dramatic change of government. The 
most high-profile of these cases have involved former top government officials 
and individuals linked to them.



Dutch FM Praises ‘Excellent’ Ties With Armenia

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia -- Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian (R) begins talks with his Dutch 
counterpart Stef Blok, Yerevan, .

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok on Thursday described as “excellent” his 
country’s relationship with Armenia and confirmed its plans to open an embassy 
in Yerevan soon.

Blok also spoke of “excellent prospects” for deepening bilateral ties further 
during what was the first-ever visit to Armenia by the Netherlands’ top diplomat.

“With this visit I would like to underline the excellent bilateral relations 
between Armenia and the Netherlands,” he said after holding talks with Armenian 
Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Blok said they discussed the “excellent 
prospects for Armenia and the Netherlands to continue to work together in the 
future.”

“Economic cooperation is one of the main opportunities lying ahead of us,” he 
said, singling out the information technology and agriculture sectors.

The Netherlands is already one of Armenia’s leading trading partners in the 
European Union. According to Armenian government data, trade between the two 
countries rose by over 6 percent to $178 million in January-November 2019.

Mnatsakanian hailed a 23 percent surge in the number of Dutch tourists visiting 
Armenia recorded last year. Blok likewise noted that “the Dutch immensely like 
to travel and also more and more to Armenia.”

The Dutch minister met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian later in the day. 
Pashinian was quoted by his office as telling him that the Armenian government 
remains committed to its “ambitious” reform agenda. Blok said, for his part, 
that the Dutch government is ready to assist in its implementation, according to 
the office.

At the news conference with Blok, Mnatsakanian announced that Pashinian is due 
to visit the Netherlands later this year. He said the visit and the upcoming 
opening of the Dutch Embassy in Yerevan show that bilateral ties have “received 
new impetus after the democratic changes that occurred in Armenia.”



Disclosure Of Armenian Editor’s Phone Records Declared Illegal

        • Marine Khachatrian

Armenia -- Knar Manukian, editor-in-chief of "Zhoghovurd" daily, speaks to 
RFE/RL, March 18, 2019.

Armenia’s Court of Appeals on Thursday declared illegal a lower court’s decision 
to give a law-enforcement agency access to the recordings of phone calls of a 
newspaper editor facing criminal proceedings.

The Special Investigative Service (SIS) launched the proceedings against the 
editor, Knar Manukian, shortly after her “Zhoghovurd” daily published a year ago 
leaked testimonies by ex-President Serzh Sarkisian and other former officials 
interrogated over the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. The SIS has 
repeatedly questioned her in connection with that it sees as illegal 
revelations, prompting accusations of harassment from the independent 
publication.

After Manukian refused to disclose the source of the leak, the SIS asked a 
district court judge in Yerevan to allow it to obtain her cellphone records. The 
judge granted the request.

Manukian says she learned about that decision and appealed against it after an 
SIS investigator informed her that he has the transcripts of her phone 
conversations with two other persons. She says the official asked her to reveal 
“which of these two individuals shared the March 1 [case] testimonies with you.”

The Court of Appeals backed the editor’s claim that the lower court 
authorization of the disclosure of her phone calls was illegal.

The chairman of the Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardian, welcomed the ruling, 
saying that the SIS actions are “definitely a cause for concern.” Navasardian 
said the law-enforcement body investigating the 2008 unrest is unjustly trying 
to shift responsibility for the leak to “Zhoghovurd” and its editor.

Manukian said she complained to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian about the 
criminal proceedings launched against her during a New Year’s reception hosted 
by him for Armenian journalists. In her words, Pashinian, himself a former 
newspaper editor, assured her that there will be no violations of press freedom 
or the due process.

The “Zhoghovurd” editor on Thursday held SIS chief Sasun Khachatrian and 
Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian personally responsible for the attempts to 
force her to disclose her sources “in such a mean fashion.”

Manukian was most recently interrogated by the SIS in December. A few days later 
unknown intruders broke into the empty offices of “Zhoghovurd” and caused havoc 
there. They did not steal anything, according to the newspaper staff.

Taguhi Tovmasian, the paper’s founder who is currently a parliament deputy 
representing Pashinian’s My Step alliance, suggested that the intruders “looked 
for information.” Tovmasian described the overnight break-in as a serious threat 
to press freedom in Armenia. Nobody has been detained in connection with it so 
far.



Press Review


“Zhamanak” reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday dismissed 
opposition criticism of his response to the mysterious death of former National 
Security Service Director Georgi Kutoyan. The paper says that the onus is now on 
law-enforcement authorities to find answers to all questions raised by Kutoyan’s 
death. This is a “matter of state security,” it says.

“People are like children,” writes “Aravot.” “If you teach them that they 
receive more care, compassion and consolation in case of complaining, moaning or 
voicing discontent then they will be prone to falling into depression so that 
they are loved and caressed. Their oppressor is certainly the government and the 
consoler the opposition. If the latter manages to woo and take pity on the 
people its success will be guaranteed.”

“Zhoghovurd” reports that Pashinian will hold a news conference in the 
southeastern Armenian town of Kapan this weekend. The paper criticizes the 
government for not providing free transportation and accommodation for 
Yerevan-based journalists planning to cover the news conference. “This means 
that very few journalists will take part in that news conference because for 
mass media operating in Armenia it is not easy to get to Kapan, rent a hotel 
there, take part in the news conference and return at their own expense,” it 
claims.

(Lilit Harutiunian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS