Friday,
Armenia Toughens Financial Disclosure Requirements For Officials
Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian (C) talks to Minister of High-Tech
Industry Hakob Arshakian during the Armenian government's question-and-answer
session in parliament, Yerevan, September 16, 2020.
The Armenian parliament approved on Friday a government proposal to require
high-ranking state officials to provide an anti-corruption body with detailed
information about not only their assets but also major private expenditures.
Under a relevant bill passed by the National Assembly, any single expenditure
exceeding 2 million drams ($4,100) must be declared to the Commission on
Prevention of Corruption. That includes money spent on leisure, debt repayment
or the purchase of real estate, cars or other expensive items.
The state commission has until now scrutinized only income and asset
declarations filed by senior government officials, parliamentarians, judges as
well as their family members. It can ask law-enforcement bodies to prosecute
individuals suspected of making false disclosures. It can also conduct its own
inquiries into possible conflicts of interest.
The bill will extend the asset declaration requirement to local government
officials and members of the municipal councils of Yerevan and most other urban
communities. In addition, it requires the officials in question to also disclose
properties and cars which they use but do not formally own.
Presenting the bill to lawmakers on Thursday, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian
described the tougher financial disclosure rules as an additional safeguard
against corruption in Armenia.
The bill was approved by 101 votes to 17. Voting against it were deputies from
the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK).
The Armenpress news agency quoted one of them, Taron Simonian, as saying that
the LHK supports the measure in principle and will back its passage in the
second reading if the government accepts amendments drafted by his party.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with senior law-enforcement
officials, Yerevan, February 26, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated
“systemic corruption” after coming to power in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” The
number of corruption cases brought by Armenian law-enforcement authorities has
risen sharply since the dramatic change of government. The most high-profile
cases have involved former top government officials and individuals linked to
them.
Nevertheless, Pashinian said in February that he is not satisfied with the
results of the corruption investigations. He said law-enforcement bodies must do
more to recover “funds stolen from the state.”
In April, Pashinian’s government pushed through the parliament a controversial
bill that allows prosecutors to investigate individuals suspected of having
assets the market value of which exceeds their “legal incomes” by at least 50
million drams ($103,000). The prosecutors can ask courts to nationalize those
assets if they find such discrepancies.
Earlier this month, the Office of the Prosecutor-General set up a special
division tasked with handling possible asset seizures.
Armenian Embassy In Israel Inaugurated
Israel - An office building in Tel Aviv housing the newly opened Armenian
Embassy,August 30, 2020.
Armenia has reportedly inaugurated its embassy in Israel one year after deciding
to upgrade diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
The opening of the Armenian Embassy in Tel Aviv, initially slated for the
beginning of this year, was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
A Russian-language news website, Vesti Izrail, reported that a senior Israeli
Foreign Ministry official attended the opening ceremony held on Thursday. It
quoted the official, Itzhak Carmel-Kagan, as saying that the embassy will
facilitate a “constructive dialogue” between the two countries.
The Armenian mission located inside a Tel Aviv office building began providing
consular services last month. Also, Ambassador Armen Smbat met with leaders of
the Armenian community in the Holy Land, including Jerusalem-based Patriarch
Nourhan Manougian.
The Armenian government decided to open the embassy in September 2019, saying
that it will not only “give new impetus” to its relations with Israel but also
help to secure the Armenian Apostolic Church’s continued presence in the Holy
Land.
The decision was hailed by Israeli leaders but criticized by some officials in
Iran, a key foreign partner of Armenia. The Armenian ambassador to Iran,
Artashes Tumanian, assured a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official in June
that Yerevan remains committed to its “friendly” relationship with the Islamic
Republic despite its desire to improve Armenian-Israeli ties.
Armenia and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1992 but have had no
embassies in each other’s capitals until now. The former Armenian ambassadors to
the Jewish state were based in Paris, Cairo and Yerevan.
Armenia -- Armenian officers demonstrate an Israeli-made "suicide" drone
SkyStriker which they say was intercepted during fighting with Azerbaijani
forces, July 24, 2020.
Armenian-Israeli relations have long been frosty, reflecting differing
geopolitical priorities of the two states. Yerevan has repeatedly expressed
concern over billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons which Israeli defense
companies have sold, with the Israeli government’s blessing, to Azerbaijan over
the past decade.
“Israel should stop this deadly business with Azerbaijan,” Armenian Foreign
Zohrab Mnatsakanian said following deadly fighting that broke out on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July.
The Azerbaijani army attacked Armenian military and civilian targets with
Israeli-manufactured drones during the weeklong hostilities. The Armenian
military claimed to have shot down or intercepted 13 of them.
Armenian Official Fears Coronavirus Resurgence
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- A healthcare worker wearing protective gear takes notes at the Surb
Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
Armenia’s COVID-19 infection rate may be increasing again after two months of
steady decline, Deputy Health Minister Lena Nanushian warned on Friday.
She said that the reopening on Tuesday of all Armenian schools and universities
could contribute to a resurgence of coronavirus cases.
The Ministry of Health registered between 239 and 295 new daily cases for the
last three days, up from an average of roughly 150 cases reported last week. A
near doubling of coronavirus tests carried out across the country on a daily
basis seems to be the main reason for the increase.
Nevertheless, health officials are concerned about the latest COVID-19
statistics. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian echoed their concerns during a
cabinet meeting on Thursday. He said the Armenian police must not be lenient
towards people refusing to wear mandatory face masks in public spaces.
Pointing to data from her ministry, Nanushian said more people contracted the
disease than recovered from it in recent days. This will likely translate into a
further rise in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, she said.
“True, we are now carrying out a larger number of tests,” she told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service. “But we should take into account factors affecting those
indicators. Namely, the population’s increased mobility and the reopening of
schools and other educational establishments, which will also contribute to
[COVID-19] outbreaks.”
Nanushian said that compliance with the government’s strict safety protocols for
schools and universities will therefore be critical. She insisted that the
government is right to require all school students to wear masks during classes.
“All we have to do is to follow the rules and ensure mask-wearing by children,
rather than look for dubious sources of information to claim that masks are
harmful [for their health.] That’s not true,” added the official.
The Ministry of Health has recorded a total of 46,910 coronavirus cases and 926
deaths caused by them since the start of the pandemic. According to it, the
number of active cases in the country of about 3 million stood at 3,330 as of
Friday morning.
Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes, Pashinian Tells Allies
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits Khndzoresk village in Syunik
province, September 12, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has urged his political team not to be afraid of
making mistakes and unpopular decisions in implementing its ambitious reform
agenda shaped by Armenia’s 2018 “Velvet Revolution.”
“The biggest threat to the revolutionary government, formed in an atmosphere of
widespread sympathy and affection, is a drive to be ‘right,’” Pashinian said in
lengthy Facebook post on Friday.
“A government that created the substance of the revolution must take only
strategic steps without being afraid of mistakes and by sometimes consciously
committing them in cases where expectations of right decisions do not allow it
to move forward and ultimately to lead to paralysis and inability to make
decisions,” he wrote.
“We must give up our penchant for being in the comfort zone of ‘popular love’
because we did not come to power to stay here. We came to power to form a new
mental plane for our state and our people and to elevate Armenia to that plane …
There is no greater mistake than marking time,” he added.
Pashinian said this was the main thrust of his address to leading members of his
Civil Contract party and senior government officials delivered late on Thursday.
He did not divulge other details of the meeting or specify unpopular government
measures which he believes are necessary for the country.
Armenia - Supporters of Nikol Pashinian celebrate his election as prime minister
of Armenia in Republic Square in Yerevan, 8 May 2018.
The meeting came amid the ruling political team’s acrimonious disputes with the
parliamentary opposition and a number of civic organizations that supported
Pashinian until recently.
The latter accuse Pashinian of betraying the goals of the 2018 revolution that
brought him to power. They are particularly upset with the choice of three new
members of the Constitutional Court appointed by the Armenian parliament earlier
this week.
The prime minister lambasted the Western-funded civic activists when he spoke in
the National Assembly on Wednesday. He charged that they are primarily concerned
with their own parochial interests, rather than the rule of law.
Armenia -- Celebrations in Yerevan after the election of Nikol Pashinian as
prime minister, May 9, 2018.
Pashinian is also facing growing opposition calls to sack Arayik Harutiunian,
his education minister and longtime associate. Lawmakers representing Civil
Contract stood by the embattled minister during a heated parliament debate this
week.
The debate triggered a renewed war of words between the Pashinian administration
and the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK). The premier joined
Harutiunian in launching scathing personal attacks on BHK leader Gagik
Tsarukian. Tsarukian responded in kind.
Pashinian stressed on Friday that he and his loyalists have repeatedly proved
critics wrong since setting up Civil Contract in 2013. He noted, in particular,
that his party was ridiculed by other opposition forces when it launched in
March 2018 a campaign to scuttle then President Serzh Sarkisian’s plans to
extend his decade-long rule.
“You all know what happened next,” Pashinian said, referring to subsequent
nationwide protests that toppled Sarkisian.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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