Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Armenian PM Accused Of Shifting Coronavirus Blame
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Deputies from the opposition Bright Armenia Party attend a parliament
session, Yerevan, May 26, 2020.
The Armenian opposition accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday of
trying to shift the blame for his government’s handling of the coronavirus
crisis to the public.
Leaders of the two opposition parties represented in the National Assembly
pointed to Pashinian’s daily statements to the effect that the virus has been
rapidly spreading in the country because Armenians do not follow safety rules
set by the health authorities.
“I agree that each of us should bear individual responsibility … but to say that
‘each of you is responsible for yourself’ reminds me of the famous [and
sarcastic Russian] saying: ‘Drowning people must rescue themselves,’” said Naira
Zohrabian of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). “No, it’s the government that’s
responsible.”
“Frankly, I am seeing for the last two days a very dangerous and dishonest
tendency to put the blame for this situation on citizens. Don’t you dare do such
a thing,” Zohrabian warned the government.
Edmon Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), said the
government is also to blame for the fact that many people are still not taking
the coronavirus epidemic seriously.
“Why are people incredulous?” Marukian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Maybe
because they heard what [Health Minister] Arsen Torosian said in March and still
do not believe [in the epidemic.]”
“We were saying in March that this virus is very serious, that the
constitutional referendum and the Karabakh elections should be postponed and
that they should shut do this and that, whereas they were telling the people
that the opposition is spreading panic,” he said.
“If we set a rule which is almost impossible to apply in practice we thereby
forego responsibility,” said another senior LHK figure, Mane Tandilian. “I don’t
want the government to be engaged in that now. It should receive counseling from
countries that have successfully fought against the coronavirus.”
Other opposition parties have been even more critical of the government measures
against the virus. They too accuse Pashinian of trying to dodge responsibility
for the growing number of COVID-19 infections and deaths caused by them.
Pashinian denied this during his latest video address livestreamed on Wednesday.
“It’s not about who is responsible,” he said. “I am responsible. But does it
change anything? Does [the question of] who is responsible make things easier
for dying people and their loved ones?”
Pashinian again called on Armenians to practice social distancing, wear face
masks and frequently wash or disinfect their hands. He said this alone would
stop the spread of the deadly virus.
The Armenian health authorities have registered more than 10,500 coronavirus
cases and 170 deaths. They have also reported the deaths of 59 other people
infected with COVID-19 which they say were primarily caused by other,
pre-existing diseases.
Pashinian Again Appeals To Nation As COVID-19 Cases Continue To Soar
• Robert Zargarian
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- A police officer monitors cars entering Yerevan to see if their
drivers and passengers wear face masks, June 1, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian again insisted that the success of his
administration’s fight against coronavirus depends on ordinary people’s behavior
after Armenian health authorities reported more than 500 new COVID-19 infections
for the second consecutive day on Wednesday.
Pashinian said that noncompliance with social distancing and other rules set by
the government has become so widespread that law-enforcement authorities cannot
effectively enforce them.
“I am arriving at the conclusion that there is no security or administrative
body in the world that can solve the problem of such scale,” he declared in a
video address streamed live on Facebook.
“This is not a merely organizational issue,” he added. “Even if it is, no
structure, not even the government, can solve this problem unless each of us
views this problem as their own.”
Pashinian pointed to dozens of photographs of people across the country not
practicing social distancing which he has received from Facebook users and
shared on his page since Tuesday night.
Pashinian repeated these complaints when he held a daily news briefing later on
Wednesday. He said that given the “huge scale” of popular complacency the
Armenian police and sanitary authorities should not be blamed for the continuing
rapid spread of the virus. He pledged at the same time to ensure a stricter
enforcement of the safety rules.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian
(L) and national police chief Arman Sargsian at a news briefing, Yerevan, June
3, 2020.
Speaking at the news briefing, the national police chief, Arman Sargsian, said
his officers fined on Tuesday more than 900 people who did not wear face masks
in cars and buses. Sargsian also confirmed that riot police quelled overnight a
protest by angry traders at a wholesale agricultural market outside Yerevan who
defied sanitary authorities’ order to shut down temporarily.
Pashinian has regularly stated in recent weeks that the onus is on Armenians to
end the coronavirus crisis by wearing masks, observing social distancing and
frequently washing their hands.
Critics have responded by accusing him of incompetence and attempts to avoid
responsibility for his failure to contain the epidemic. They say that the
authorities never properly enforced a nationwide lockdown imposed in March and
ended it too son.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who coordinates government measures
against the epidemic, said Wednesday that the authorities still hope to avoid a
renewed lockdown. He said they will continue to put the emphasis on enforcement
of the existing rules and a “substantial change in our social behavior” for now.
Avinian also announced that starting from Thursday Armenians will have to wear
masks not only in enclosed spaces but also in the streets and other public
areas. This requirement will not apply to children under the age of 7 or adults
exercising outside their homes, he said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported in the morning that the total number
of coronavirus cases in the country of about 3 million rose by 515 to 10,524 in
the past 24 hours. It also said that 12 more people died from COVID-19, bringing
the official death toll to 170.
A ministry spokeswoman, Alina Nikoghosian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that
there are now virtually no vacant beds left at the intensive care units of
Armenian hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
Armenian Airlines Banned From Flying To EU
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - A passenger jet at Yerevan's Zvartnots international airport,
10Apr2017.
The European Union has banned all seven airlines registered in Armenia from
carrying out regular flights to EU member states, saying that they do not meet
international safety standards.
The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, announced on Tuesday that it
decided to blacklist them after assessing the country’s “safety oversight
capabilities.” In a statement, it said the decision followed hearings of
representatives of the Armenian government and six Armenian carriers.
“The decision to include the Armenian carriers on the EU Air Safety List has
been made based on the unanimous opinion delivered by the Air Safety Committee,”
the statement quoted EU Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean as saying. “The
Commission, with the assistance of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency,
stands ready to cooperate and invest in Armenia to improve its aviation safety.”
The Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Committee downplayed the ban, arguing
that only one local airline, Aircompany Armenia, flies to Europe and the French
city of Lyon in particular.
“It’s not that Armenian airlines had occupied the European [aviation] market and
their passengers will acutely feel [the impact of the ban,]” a senior committee
official, Stepan Payaslian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Wednesday.
Aircompany Armenia refused to comment on the EU sanction. “We will officially
address this topic later on, after the end of the [coronavirus-related] state of
emergency in the country,” said its deputy executive director, Gevorg
Khachatrian.
The company was allowed to carry out a Yerevan-Lyon charter flight on Tuesday in
order to evacuate Armenian citizens stranded in Europe because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
The EU’s Aviation Safety Agency is understood to have recommended the ban last
November because of what it views as the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee’s
failure to ensure adequate oversight and licensing of the domestic airlines.
The move sparked bitter recriminations between the Armenian government and its
political opponents. The latter seized upon it to accuse the government of
incompetence and mismanagement.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian dismissed the accusations and put the blame on
the country’s former leadership, saying that it had for years failed to properly
regulate the aviation sector. Still, Pashinian sacked in January one of his
advisers who dealt with the sector.
Pashinian and the head of the Civil Aviation Committee, Tatevik Revazian,
discussed the European Commission’s decision during a video conference held on
Wednesday. According to a government statement, Revazian assured him that her
agency is taking serious measures to address the EU concerns about flight
safety. She also said that the EU will not lift the ban before November 2022.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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