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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/08/2020

                                        Monday, June 8, 2020

Ex-President’s Son-In-Law Faces More Charges

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia-Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasian,undated

Four days after Armenia’s Court of Appeals revoked an arrest warrant issued for 
Mikael Minasian, investigators said on Monday that they have broadened 
corruption charges brought against former President Serzh Sarkisian’s fugitive 
son-in-law.

The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said Minasian has been charged with more 
counts of “illegal enrichment,” false asset disclosure and money laundering. It 
claimed to have collected an “unprecedented” amount of information about his 
dubious financial activities.

Minasian, who rejects the accusations as politically motivated, was first 
indicted in March one month before the SRC moved to arrest him. A district court 
in Yerevan agreed to issue an arrest warrant for him on May 6. However, the 
Court of Appeals overturned that decision on Thursday.

One of Minasian’s lawyers, Amram Makinian, scoffed at the investigators’ 
decision to bring more and “equally baseless” charges against Armenia’s former 
ambassador to the Vatican. He said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian could not 
come to terms with the Court of Appeals ruling.

Makinian said earlier that the money laundering charge stems from large sums of 
cash which Minasian transferred from one of his bank accounts to another in 
2017-2018. The lawyer also claimed that the other accusations are based on a 
“technical error” committed by the employee of a private firm which drew up and 
filed his client’s income declarations.

In a statement released on Monday, the SRC charged that Minasian had also failed 
to declare his “de facto” ownership of a 49 percent stake in Armenia’s largest 
food-exporting company, Spayka. The stake formally belonged to another person, 
Roza Stepanian. She too has been indicted as part of the same criminal case, 
according to the statement.

In a related development, Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government lawmaker and 
Pashinian’s brother-in-law, said that investigators have recovered thousands of 
deleted files from a computer that belonged to Minasian. He claimed that the 
files contain detailed information about Minasian’s financial transactions and 
illegally acquired assets.

Hakobian refused to say how he gained access to the supposedly classified SRC 
data when he was contacted by RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

Minasian, 42, enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in Armenia 
when it was ruled by his father-in-law from 2008-2018. He is also thought to 
have developed extensive business interests in various sectors of the Armenian 
economy.

A bitter critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Minasian left Armenia shortly 
after he was dismissed as ambassador to the Vatican in late 2018. He has 
declined to reveal his current whereabouts in a series of video messages posted 
on Facebook in recent weeks.

Minasian has said that he is not returning to Armenia because he believes that 
the investigators are acting on Pashinian’s orders. He has also accused the 
prime minister of corruption and misrule.

For his part, Pashinian has repeatedly accused Minasian of illegally making a 
huge fortune during Sarkisian’s rule.




Former Judge In Kocharian Case Acquitted

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia -- District court judge Davit Grigorian leaves the courtroom after 
ordering former President Robert Kocharian's release from prison, May 18, 2019.

A court in Yerevan has thrown out controversial criminal charges brought against 
a judge who ordered former President Robert Kocharian’s release from prison a 
year ago.

The judge, Davit Grigorian, presided over the ongoing trial of Kocharian and 
three other former officials when it got underway in May 2019. A few days later, 
he not only agreed to free the ex-president but also suspended the trial, 
questioning the legality of coup charges brought against him.

The decisions angered political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian. Heeding Pashinian’s calls, hundreds of them blocked the entrances to 
court buildings across Armenia. Pashinian demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all 
Armenian judges, saying that many of them remain linked to the country’s 
“corrupt” former leadership.

Kocharian was arrested again in June 2019 after Armenia’s Court of Appeals 
overturned Grigorian’s decisions. Three weeks later, law-enforcement officers 
searched and sealed the judge’s offices. Later in July, a state body overseeing 
the Armenian judiciary suspended Grigorian and allowed the Special Investigative 
Service (SIS) to prosecute him.

Grigorian denied the ensuing accusations of document forgery brought against him 
and his secretary. He considers them government retribution for Kocharian 
release.

Investigators have denied any connection between the Kocharian case and 
Grigorian’s prosecution. Prosecutors endorsed the accusations and sent the case 
to a Yerevan district court last month, paving the way for the suspended judge’s 
trial.

It emerged on Monday that the court decided to throw out the case due to lack of 
evidence even before the start of the trial.

Grigorian’s lawyer, Yervand Varosian, hailed the decision made by a district 
court judge, Davit Balayan.

“Justice in Armenia will not be killed,” Varosian wrote on Facebook. “On the 
contrary, it will recuperate and consist of competent, courageous and 
independent judges.”

“Today Judge Davit Balayan took a very important step in that direction,” said 
the lawyer critical of the Armenian government.

The Office of the Prosecutor-General and the SIS did not immediately react to 
the development.

Kocharian’s high-profile trial has been presided over by another judge, Anna 
Danibekian, since August. Danibekian has repeatedly refused to release him 
pending the outcome of the trial.

The ex-president rejects the coup and corruption charges leveled against him as 
politically motivated.




Pashinian, Family Recover From Coronavirus


Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a news briefing outside his 
official resdience, Yerevan, June 4, 2020.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Monday that he and members of his family 
have recovered from the coronavirus just over a week after testing positive for 
the disease.

Pashinian announced their infection and went into self-isolation on June 1. 
Since then he has run the Armenian government from his official residence in 
Yerevan where he lives with his wife and three young daughters.

Despite the self-isolation Pashinian held daily news briefings with other 
officials outside the residence throughout last week. The officials wore face 
masks and stood a couple of meters away from him during the briefings. The prime 
minister insisted that neither he nor any other member of his family is showing 
any symptoms of COVID-19.

In a Facebook post, Pashinian said that the entire family twice tested negative 
for the virus over the weekend. “I am returning to full-fledged work,” he said.

The 45-year-old premier suggested on June 1 that he most probably caught the 
virus from a government employee who served him water during a recent government 
meeting. He said he believes he might have only infected “as few people in the 
government as possible.”

No mass testing of members of Pashinian’s staff and other government officials 
was reported in the following days.

The Armenian authorities have recorded 13, 325 coronavirus cases and at least 
211 deaths so far. The daily number of new infections has grown steadily and 
significantly since the authorities began lifting in mi-April a nationwide 
lockdown imposed in late March.




Pashinian Sacks Top Military, Security Officials


Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets the newly appointed Police Chief 
Arman Sargsian (R) and National Security Service Director Eduard Martirosian, 
March 20, 2020.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sacked on Monday Armenia’s top army general and 
the heads of the police and National Security Service (NSS) amid a deepening 
coronavirus crisis in the country.

Pashinian gave no reasons for the unexpected shakeup announced on his Facebook 
page. He only thanked Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian and national police chief 
Arman Sargsian and NSS Director Eduard Martirosian for their work.

Pashinian indicated later in the day that they were dismissed because of 
breaching or failing to enforce the coronavirus-related state of emergency in 
Armenia.

Sargsian and Martirosian were named to run two law-enforcement bodies on a 
permanent basis less than three months ago. They had served as acting heads of 
the police and the NSS respectively since September.

Pashinian said that Sargsian will be replaced by another police colonel, Vahe 
Ghazarian, while Martirosian’s replacement is his recently appointed deputy, 
Argishti Kyaramian.

The 29-year-old Kyaramian headed an anti-corruption government body until last 
month. Unlike his predecessor, he has never worked in Armenia’s most powerful 
security service before. Kyaramian is widely seen as a political appointee.

The new chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff is Lieutenant-General Onik 
Gasparian. He has served as Davtian’s first deputy until now.


Armenia -- General Artak Davtian inspects Armenian troops deployed in Tavush 
province.

Pashinian commented on the sackings when he chaired in the evening a meeting of 
senior government officials dealing with the coronavirus epidemic. Sargsian and 
Martirosian were also present at the meeting.

“It’s high-ranking state officials that must first and foremost demonstrate with 
their actions the importance of following anti-epidemic rules,” said Pashinian. 
“Unfortunately, we see cases where that does not happen.”

At an ensuing news briefing, Pashinian effectively confirmed that Davtian was 
fired because of hosting on Sunday his son’s wedding party despite the state of 
emergency. He also seemed to fault the police and NSS chiefs for not preventing 
the wedding.

“In crisis situations things get to a point where discipline, order and precise 
and unconditional execution of actions stemming from the country leader’s 
statements take precedence over all other issues,” he said in that context.

According to “Hraparak” daily, the wedding was attended by about 100 guests in 
possible violation of social distancing rules set by the government.

A government task force enforcing the state of emergency pledged in the morning 
to look into the wedding’s legality and, if necessary, hold the general’s family 
accountable.

“Everyone is equal before the law, and if I committed any violation I will 
certainly bear responsibility for that,” Davtian said in a statement issued 
shortly before his sacking. “Of course, I believe that there was no violation 
but let relevant bodies determine that.”

Davtian was appointed as army chief of staff shortly after the 2018 “Velvet 
Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.

The sackings come as a growing number of opposition figures accuse Pashinian of 
mishandling the coronavirus crisis and demand his resignation. The premier’s 
political allies dismiss such calls.




More Armenian Hospitals To Treat COVID-19 Patients


Armenia -- A healthcare worker clad in protective gear looks after COVID-19 
patients at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.

The Armenian authorities scrambled to set up more hospital beds at the weekend 
after admitting that the country’s healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the 
continuing rapid spread of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Saturday that about 200 people infected 
with the virus are “waiting for their turn for hospitalization” because of a 
lack of vacant beds at about a dozen Armenian hospitals treating COVID-19 
patients.

Pashinian said that one infected person died at home while waiting to be 
hospitalized while two others died at hospital due to a shortage of 
intensive-care beds.

“Our healthcare system is now so overwhelmed that we are unable to promptly take 
to hospital patients subject to hospitalization,” he said in a video address 
livestreamed on Facebook.

“We are already walking through hell,” added the premier.

Health Minister Arsen Torosian warned last Thursday that the hospitals coping 
with the coronavirus pandemic may soon be unable to admit all infected people in 
need of urgent treatment. Torosian had earlier warned of an impending shortage 
of beds at the intensive care units of those hospitals.

The authorities are facing growing criticism of their handling of the 
coronavirus crisis. Some media outlets and medical experts claim that they could 
and should have organized life-saving treatment for a larger number of people 
suffering from the grave respiratory disease.

Pashinian announced on Sunday three more hospitals located outside Yerevan will 
join the fight against the pandemic “in the coming days.” They will be able to 
treat a total of about 240 COVID-19 patients, he said.

There are currently around 2,000 hospital beds available for such patients 
across Armenia.


Armenia -- An ambulance races through streets of Yerevan, June 2, 2020.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country of about 3 
million reached 13,325 on Monday morning after the authorities reported 195 new 
infections. The daily figure was sharply down from previous days’ official 
statistics because the largest Armenian coronavirus lab was shut down on Sunday 
for what the Ministry of Health described as “prophylactic” maintenance.

The ministry said that only 829 COVID-19 tests were performed on Sunday, 
compared with some 2,500 tests carried out on Saturday. The number of new cases 
reached a fresh daily of 766 as a result of Saturday’s tests.

The ministry also reported 11 more coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the 
official death toll to 211. The figure does not include the deaths of 72 other 
people who were also infected with the coronavirus. The ministry says that those 
fatalities were primarily caused by other, preexisting conditions.

The Armenian government issued stay-at-home orders and shut down most 
nonessential businesses in late March following the first outbreaks of the 
virus. It began easing those restrictions already in mid-April and lifted 
virtually all of them by the beginning of May.

The number of COVID-19 infections has increased sharply since then, fuelling 
growing calls for a renewed nationwide lockdown. Critics of the government say 
that it never properly enforced the March-April lockdown and ended it too soon.

Pashinian again spoke out against restoring a “total lockdown” on Saturday, 
saying that it would have “dire economic consequences.” He also claimed that 
Armenians would not comply with renewed restrictions on their movements.

The authorities, the prime minister said, will therefore continue to focus 
instead on getting more citizens to practice social distancing, wear masks in 
all public and enclosed spaces, frequently wash hands and stay away from large 
gatherings. Critics are skeptical about the effectiveness of this strategy.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 


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