Monday,
Armenian Opposition To Boycott Election Of New High Court Judges
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Deputies start the autumn session of the Armenian parliament, Yerevan,
.
Opposition members of the Armenian parliament said on Monday that they will
boycott the election of three new members of the Constitutional Court who will
replace justices controversially ousted in June.
The deputies representing the opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Bright
Armenia (LHK) parties again challenged the legality of constitutional changes
enacted by the parliament’s pro-government majority.
The changes call for the gradual resignation of seven of the Constitutional
Court’s nine judges who have been locked in a standoff with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s political team. Three of them were to resign with immediate effect.
Also, Hrayr Tovmasian had to quit as court chairman but remain a judge.
Tovmasian and the ousted judges refused to step down, saying that their removal
is illegal and politically motivated. They appealed to the European Court of
Human Rights (ECHR) to have them reinstated.
Despite the legal action, Pashinian, President Armen Sarkissian and a national
convention of Armenian judges have each nominated a candidate to replace the
ousted judges. Under the Armenian constitution, all new members of the
Constitutional Court must be appointed by the parliament in secret ballot.
The National Assembly discussed the three candidacies ahead of the vote
scheduled for Tuesday. The candidates held separate meetings with deputies from
Pashinian’s My Step bloc prior to the parliament session. None of them met with
the BHK’s and the LHK’s parliamentary groups, a fact deplored by the latter.
“I have been a member of the parliament since 2007 and can’t recall any other
case of parliamentary opposition factions being ignored in this fashion,” said
the BHK’s Naira Zohrabian.
Armenia -- Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian reads out a court
ruling, Yerevan, March 17, 2020.
Ruben Rubinian, a senior My Step lawmaker, criticized the opposition boycott. He
also dismissed other critics’ claims that all three candidates for the vacant
Constitutional Court seats were linked to Armenia’s former leadership in one way
or another.
The candidates were asked tough questions by other pro-government lawmakers. One
of the candidates, Yervand Khundkarian, has headed the Court of Cassation, the
country’s highest body of criminal and administrative justice, for the last two
years. He was nominated by fellow judges in early August.
According to media reports, the state Commission on the Prevention of Corruption
has advised the parliament against appointing Khundkarian, citing his judicial
track record.
Also, My Step’s Taguhi Tovmasian cited a 2013 report by the country’s former
human rights ombudsman which accused Khundkarian of helping the former Armenian
authorities suppress judicial independence. The nominee strongly denied that.
Another candidate, Artur Vagharshian, was picked by President Armen Sarkissian.
Vagharshian is a chair of jurisprudence at Yerevan State University. Sarkissian
already nominated him for a vacant seat in the Constitutional Court as recently
as in May 2019. The parliament majority rejected his candidacy at the time.
Pro-government lawmakers were clearly unhappy with the president’s decision to
again try to have Vagharshian appointed to the high court.
Tsarukian’s Party Faces Another Probe Into ‘Vote Buying’
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of Tsarukian Bloc, casts his vote at the
parliamentary election, Arinj village, 02Apr,2017
Law-enforcement authorities raised the possibility of more criminal charges
against businessman Gagik Tsarukian on Monday when they claimed that employees
of one of his companies had bought votes for his Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK).
The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said some workers of a Tsarukian-owned cement
plant located in the southern town of Ararat handed out vote bribes to local
residents in the run-up to parliamentary elections held in 2012 and 2017.
In a statement, the SRC also claimed to have obtained “factual data” indicating
that other workers were told to join the BHK and earn it votes or lose their
jobs. They then presented the management of the Ararat Tsement plant with lists
of people planning to vote for Tsarukian’s party at their urging, it said in a
statement.
The statement gave no other details. It said the SRC, which comprises Armenia’s
tax and customs services, has sent the criminal case to the Office of the
Prosecutor-General for further investigation.
A spokesman for the office, Gor Abrahamian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that
nobody has been charged as part of that case yet. “It’s too early to speak about
that now,” he said.
Abrahamian also said that the prosecutors have already instructed the National
Security Service (NSS) to look into the SRC claims. The case may well be
incorporated into an ongoing NSS investigation into vote buying allegedly
ordered by Tsarukian.
Armenia -- Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian (C) emerges from his
villa in Arinj after it was raided by security forces, Jne 14, 2020.
The NSS charged in June that Tsarukian “created and led an organized group” that
bought more than 17,000 votes for the BHK during the 2017 parliamentary race.
The tycoon, whose party has the second largest group in Armenia’s current
parliament, rejects the accusations as politically motivated. He claims that
they were “fabricated” in response to his calls for Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s resignation voiced earlier in June.
One of Tsarukian’s lawyers, Emin Khachatrian, dismissed the SRC’s claims as “not
credible” while acknowledging that he is not familiar with their details.
Senior BHK representatives could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Opposition Lawmakers Drop Plans For Anti-Abortion Bill
Armenia - The Prosperous Armenia Party's mayoral candidate Naira Zohrabian
speaks at an election campaign rally in Yerevan, 21 September 2018.
Citing strong objections from civil society members, two opposition
parliamentarians have abandoned plans to introduce legislation that would ban
abortions in Armenia except in cases of medical emergency.
Naira Zohrabian of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) announced last
week that she and fellow BHK deputy Shake Isayan will circulate a “draft law on
unborn children’s right to life” in the coming days. Zohrabian cited a large
number of abortions carried out in the country. She said the bill is also
necessary for tackling the chronic problem of gender-based selective abortions.
Health experts and civic activists strongly objected to the proposed ban. They
argued, among other things, that Armenian law already prohibits selective
abortions.
Zohrabian complained about critics’ “attacks” but sought to distance herself
from the bill on Monday. She said that it was drafted and put forward by
“several pro-governmental organizations.”
Zohrabian, who also heads the Armenian parliament committee on human rights,
said she and Isayan decided not to press for the bill’s passage by the National
Assembly because other NGOs came up with “substantiated” arguments against the
proposed ban.
According to Zohrabian, parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan recently forwarded
the same bill to a parliament committee on public health and social affairs
after receiving it from the same authors. Most members of the committee spoke
out against banning abortions, she wrote on Facebook.
Abortion has been legal in Armenia since Soviet times. Armenian law currently
allows the procedure during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Armenia Backs Egypt In Row With Turkey
Egypt - Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) and his Armenian counterpart
Zohrab Mnatsakanian hold a news confrence after talks in Cairo, September 14,
2020.
Armenia voiced on Monday strong support for Egypt’s position in bitter disputes
with Turkey over maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean and the
conflict in Libya.
Making an official visit to Cairo, Foreign Zohrab Mnatsakanian also accused
Ankara of destabilizing these and neighboring regions, including the South
Caucasus.
“We are following closely developments in the Eastern Mediterranean,”
Mnatsakanian said after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry. “We
are in solidarity with Greece and Cyprus on their inalienable rights to economic
activities in the exclusive economic zone in line with international law.”
“I want to also emphasize our solidarity and support to Egypt in the same way,”
he told a joint news conference held shortly before his separate meeting with
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Mnatsakanian went on to praise Egypt’s “commitment to peace and stability” in
Libya where Cairo and Ankara support rival warring factions. “We very much
welcome your efforts in this regard,” he told Shoukry.
Tensions between Turkey on one side and Greece, Cyprus and Egypt on the other
have grown in recent months over conflicting claims to the extent of their
continental shelves in the eastern Mediterranean.
In early August, Egypt and Greece signed an agreement designating their
exclusive economic zone in the region thought to be rich in natural gas. Both
nations had denounced as illegal a similar deal signed by Turkey and Libya’s
internationally recognized government earlier. For its part, the Turkish
government described the Greek-Egyptian agreement as null and void before
ordering more preparatory work for potential hydrocarbons exploration.
Turkish seismic research vessel Oruc Reis in the Mediterranean Sea.
Armenia publicly sided with Greece and Cyprus later in August, sparking a
renewed war of words with its big neighbor and arch-rival. Yerevan and Ankara
began trading bitter accusations following the July 12 outbreak of heavy
fighting on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, Turkey’s regional ally.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders blamed Yerevan for the
weeklong deadly hostilities and reaffirmed support for Baku in unusually strong
terms, raising the possibility of Turkish military intervention in the Karabakh
conflict.
Mnatsakanian expressed serious concern over the Turkish “military buildup” and
cited unconfirmed reports that Ankara is recruiting Islamist militants in Syria
and sending them to Azerbaijan. “These are exactly the moves which undermine the
efforts towards peace and stability in the region,” he said.
In that context, the Armenian minister spoke of the “same sources of
destabilization” in the South Caucasus, the east Mediterranean and North Africa.
“Any attempts to export instability and escalation to different regions as part
of power projection is deplorable, whether it is in North Africa or in the South
Caucasus,” he said in another jibe at Ankara.
Successive Turkish governments have refused to establish diplomatic relations
with Yerevan and open the Turkish-Armenian border out of solidarity with
Azerbaijan. They have made the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations
conditional on a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Baku.
Egypt - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (C) meets with Armenian Foreign
Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian, Cairo, .
Turkey’s relationship with Egypt has been strained ever since the 2013 overthrow
of the Arab nation’s former Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi. The latter was
supported by Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party during his short rule. Many
members and supporters of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood fled to Turkey after the
coup.
Mnatsakanian seemed satisfied with his “very good discussion” with the Egyptian
foreign minister, saying that it focused not only on international security but
also ways of expanding Armenian-Egyptian relations. “We are keen to take
practical steps in this direction,” he said.
The top Armenian diplomat also said his country supports Egypt’s efforts to sign
a free-trade deal with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union.
He further revealed that al-Sisi is planning to visit Armenia. But he gave no
possible dates for the trip.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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