Month: February 2020

                                        Wednesday, 
Tycoon Rebuked Over ‘Threat’
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- The national police headquarters in Yerevan, February 4, 2020.
A deputy chief of the Armenian police on Wednesday criticized a wealthy 
businessman close to the country’s former leadership for an angry statement 
which he made after being briefly detained in Yerevan on Tuesday.
The controversial businessman and former parliamentarian, Ruben Hayrapetian, 
spent nearly three hours in police custody and was set free without charge. The 
police said he was detained on suspicion of illegal arms possession.
Hayrapetian, who claims to own firearms legally, laughed off this explanation 
after his release. He said the police action was part of government attempts to 
intimidate him.
Speaking to journalists outside the national police headquarters, he also said: 
“One day I will make them lie on the ground and wipe my feet on them.”
The remark prompted strong condemnations from political allies of Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian. Andranik Kocharian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian 
parliament committee on defense and security, described it as a “blow” to the 
police and the government.
“I don’t remember anyone daring to make such a statement under police walls 
before,” Kocharian told reporters. He said that the police should have taken 
strong action in response to what he called a threat voiced by Hayrapetian.
But Vartan Movsisian, a deputy chief of the national police, reacted more 
cautiously to the controversial remark.
“I cannot evaluate at this point whether or not it was a threat,” said 
Movsisian. “It may have been a mere emotional outburst. But such statements are 
certainly not welcome regardless of who makes them.”
Movsisian also defended Hayrapetian’s detention, saying that the police did not 
break any laws.
Citing similar “suspicions,” the police also detained several anti-government 
activists last week. The latter denounced the police actions as politically 
motivated.
Authorities Move To Replace High Court Judges Through Constitutional Changes
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian (C) reads out a ruling 
on an appeal lodged by former President Robert Kocharian, Yerevan, September 4, 
2019.
In a move denounced by the Armenian opposition, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
My Step bloc has drafted constitutional changes that would dismiss seven of the 
nine members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court locked in a bitter dispute with 
the government.
The amendments were unveiled on Wednesday one day before an emergency session of 
the Armenian parliament which will discuss a separate My Step bill limiting the 
court’s powers.
They call for the replacement of the court’s embattled chairman, Hrayr 
Tovmasian, and six other judges who were installed by the former Armenian 
governments.
An explanatory note released by 37 co-sponsors of the proposed changes argues 
that they are not covered by the 2015 constitutional changes envisaging shorter 
tenures for new members of the country’s highest court. It also claims that the 
court lacks “democratic legitimacy.”
“The three branches of government in Armenia were usurped by the former 
authorities: [former Presidents] Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian and their 
satellites,” said deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian.
“The people of Armenia liberated the government and the National Assembly from 
their claws and they are now going to liberate the judicial system as well,” he 
added, referring to the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Sarkisian and 
brought Pashinian to power.
Representatives of the two parliamentary opposition parties rejected the 
proposed changes and questioned their legality, however.
“This path chosen by the authorities carries a great danger for the rule of law 
in Armenia,” Edmon Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “It could set a bad precedent for any future 
government to oust judges and handpick new ones in the same way.”
Marukian also warned that the authorities risk putting Armenia at odds with the 
Council of Europe. “If they want to get Armenia in serious trouble and relegate 
us to the level of Azerbaijan, which is criticized for similar problems, then it 
means they … do not realize what dangers this decision is fraught with,” he said.
Tovmasian has faced in recent months growing government pressure to resign, with 
the ruling political team accusing him of maintaining ties to the “corrupt 
former regime” and impeding judicial reforms. Prosecutors charged him in late 
December with abusing his powers when serving as justice minister from 2010-2014.
The Constitutional Court chairman rejects the accusations as politically 
motivated. He said last week that he has no intention to resign.
Earlier in December, the parliament passed a government bill offering Tovmasian 
and the six other Constitutional Court judges financial incentives to retire 
before the end of their mandate. None of them has accepted the offer so far.
In a statement released on Monday, the president of the Council of Europe’s 
Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, warned against “any undue political or 
personal pressure on the judges concerned.”
Speaking to reporters later in the day, Marukian said that the authorities are 
planning to hold a referendum on the draft amendments to the constitution. He 
deplored their unwillingness to have the Venice Commission examine the 
amendments before such a vote.
The parliament may debate the amendments as early as on Thursday. The official 
agenda of its extraordinary session, approved by the parliament leadership after 
repeated delays on Wednesday evening, includes a package of other legal 
amendments also drafted by the ruling bloc. They would allow the 132-member 
National Assembly, in which My Step holds 88 seats, to bypass the Constitutional 
Court to amend the constitution.
Under existing Armenian laws, the high court has to examine and validate any 
constitutional changes before they can be put on a referendum or be passed by 
the National Assembly.
Senior Armenian Official Held For Bribery
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Vahagn Vermishian, head of the Urban Development Committee, speaks at 
a news conference in Yerevan, July 1, 2019.
The head of the Armenian government’s Urban Development Committee, Vahagn 
Vermishian, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly taking bribes from real 
estate developers.
The National Security Service (NSS) arrested Vermishian as well as two other 
individuals hours after searching his office. NSS officers confiscated a 
computer and documents kept there.
In an ensuing statement, the NSS said Vermishian has admitted receiving five 
bribes, worth between 1 million drams ($2,100) and 2.5 million drams each, from 
private construction firms that were given privileged treatment by various 
government bodies in return. It said that the kickbacks were channeled into an 
architectural firm which the official had set up and registered in a friend’s 
name.
According to the NSS, Vermishian, who has headed the government agency since 
March 2019, also received $5,000 in cash and $4,800 worth of construction 
materials last October to secure a state award to the unnamed owner of several 
construction firms. It was not immediately clear whether that businessman was 
also taken into custody.
The high-profile arrest came nearly four months after Sarhat Petrosian, the 
prominent head of the government’s Cadaster Committee, resigned in protest 
against government policies on urban development. Petrosian hit out at 
Vermishian and the previous head of the Urban Development Committee, Avetik 
Eloyan, after tendering his resignation.
In particular, Petrosian claimed that Eloyan, who now works as an adviser to 
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, has used his position to win lucrative 
contracts for an architectural firm registered in his brother’s name in May 2019.
Avinian and Vermishian dismissed those claims at the time. The deputy prime 
minister also denied that government regulation of urban development in Armenia 
has “regressed” since the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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