Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Justice Minister Unhappy With Court Ruling In Favor Of Kocharian
April 07, 2021
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian speaks with journalists, April 7,
2021.
Justice Minister Rustam Badasian deplored on Wednesday an Armenian court’s
decision to throw out coup charges brought against former President Robert
Kocharian in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.
A Yerevan judge presiding over the two-year trial of Kocharian and three other
former officials made the decision on Tuesday ten days after the charges were
declared unconstitutional by Armenia’s Constitutional Court.
The high court argued that they cannot be prosecuted for the alleged “overthrow
of the constitutional order” because there was no such article in the country’s
former Criminal Code which was in force during the events of March 2008.
“I can say that I am very upset with the processes that have taken place,”
Badasian told reporters when asked to comment on the development.
Badasian declined to comment on the future of the long-running criminal case on
the worst street violence in Armenia’s history. He said it is up to prosecutors
to decide whether to appeal against the decision made by Anna Danibekian, a
judge of the Yerevan court of first instance.
The minister implied that the decision may have been made possible by the
current Armenian authorities’ failure to radically reform the judiciary and
“vet” all judges.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all Armenian
judges in May 2019 just days after another judge, who initially presided over
Kocharian’s trial, freed the ex-president from custody and questioned the
legality of the coup charges. Pashinian’s government subsequently agreed to
refrain from such a purge of the judiciary at the urging of European legal
experts.
The prime minister has repeatedly stated that law-enforcement authorities have
identified those responsible for the March 2008 deaths of eight opposition
protesters and two police servicemen in vicious street clashes between security
forces and demonstrators. His critics dispute that claim.
Kocharian and the other defendants deny responsibility for the bloodshed and
reject the accusations as politically motivated.
Putin Meets Pashinian On ‘Strategic’ Ties, Karabakh Peace
April 07, 2021
RUSSIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir
Putin meet at the Kremlin in Moscow, April 7, 2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian on Wednesday for talks that focused on bilateral ties and the
implementation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped last year’s
Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Putin emphasized the “strategic character” of Russia’s relationship with Armenia
in his opening remarks at the meeting held in the Kremlin. He also noted the
“solid” volume of Russian-Armenian trade, expressing confidence that it will
grow again after shrinking last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Putin went on mention the “post-war situation” in the Karabakh conflict zone
and, in particular, renewed transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan
envisaged by the ceasefire agreement which he brokered in November.
He said the reopening of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border for commercial traffic
will give Armenia “new opportunities for the country’s development.” “In my
view, this is an extremely important thing,” he told Pashinian.
Pashinian complained, for his part, that Azerbaijan is continuing to hold many
Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives in breach of the truce accord.
“I am very glad that we have no differences regarding how to resolve this
problem,” he said.
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev failed to reach an agreement on
the prisoner release during their trilateral meeting with Putin held in Moscow
on January 11. They only agreed to set up a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working
group tasked with working out practical modalities of restoring transport links
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The group co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states has held
several meetings since January 30. Its Russian co-chair, Alexei Overchuk,
visited Baku and Yerevan last week.
No concrete agreements were announced after Putin’s and Pashinian latest talks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said late last week that Armenia’s forthcoming
snap parliamentary elections will also be on the meeting’s agenda.
Pashinian has pledged to hold the elections in June in a bid resolve a domestic
political crisis sparked by Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war.
Moscow has expressed concern at the deepening crisis. Putin discussed it with
Pashinian in a February 25 phone call.
Neither leader mentioned the Armenian elections at the start of Wednesday’s
meeting.
Pashinian cited instead the need to ascertain “some nuances” of Russian-Armenian
military cooperation. He also announced that Armenia will receive on Thursday
the first 15,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.
“We need more than a million doses,” the Armenian leader said, implicitly asking
Putin to facilitate their delivery.
“Our [vaccine] production is gaining momentum,” replied Putin. “We are talking
about a fairly large volume of production of this vaccine. So I think that we
will solve this problem.”
U.S. Supports COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts In Armenia
April 07, 2021
• Narine Ghalechian
GEORGIA -- A health worker holds a vial containing the AstraZeneca vaccine
against COVID-19 used at the Infectious Diseases, AIFS and Clinical Immunology
Research Center in Tbilisi, March 15, 2021
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Wednesday
that it will allocate $1 million to help health authorities in Armenia vaccinate
people against COVID-19.
In a statement, the U.S. government agency said the United Nations children’s
agency, UNICEF, will receive the funding to “provide targeted technical
assistance to support and ensure effective implementation of COVID-19
vaccination efforts in Armenia.”
The statement said the allocation brought to $11 million the total amount of
coronavirus-related aid provided by USAID to the country since the outbreak of
the pandemic.
“This includes emergency funding to address immediate health needs and efforts
to address the secondary and tertiary impacts of the pandemic on democratic
development and economic growth,” it said.
Although Armenia has been hit hard by the pandemic and is currently grappling
with a third wave of coronavirus infections, its government plans to vaccinate
only a limited proportion of the population.
The country of about 3 million received on March 28 the first major batch of a
COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX Facility, the World Health Organization’s global
vaccine-sharing scheme. The 24,000 doses of the vaccine developed by the
AstraZeneca pharmaceutical giant and Oxford University will be made available to
medical workers, care home personnel, persons aged 65 and older as well as
younger people suffering from chronic diseases.
Healthcare workers were due to start administering the vaccine on Monday. The
inoculations were postponed by several days due what the authorities called
logistical problems.
Deputy Health Minister Lena Nanushian said on Wednesday that Armenia is
continuing to negotiate with Russia on the acquisition of a smaller amount of
the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Nanushian also told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that COVAX has offered the
Armenian government to supply other coronavirus vaccines developed by the U.S.
companies Novavax and Johnson & Johnson.
“[The offer] has been discussed with a team of [health] specialists and the
country has replied to COVAX that it is ready to acquire these vaccines as
well,” she said.
The official did not specify how many doses of the Novavax and Johnson & Johnson
vaccines could be delivered to Armenia.
The daily number of coronavirus cases in the country and deaths caused by them
has increased sharply since the end of February.
The Armenian Ministry of Health said earlier on Wednesday that 1,025 new cases
have been registered in the past day. It also reported the deaths of 24 more
people infected with COVID-19.
According to the ministry, there were only 6 vacant beds at the intensive care
units of Armenian hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. Nearly 280 of those
patients were in a critical condition.
Russian, Armenian Defense Chiefs Talk Again
April 07, 2021
Defense Ministers Vagharshak Harutiunian (L) of Armenia and Sergei Shoigu of
Russia.
During a fresh phone call on Wednesday Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu
reportedly discussed with his Armenian counterpart Vagharshak Harutiunian
Russia’s military presence in Armenia and sweeping defense reforms announced by
Yerevan.
The Russian Defense Ministry gave no details of the conversation, saying only
that the two men spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and “other issues of
mutual interest.”
According to a longer readout of the phone call released by the Armenian Defense
Ministry, Harutiunian and Shoigu focused on the activities of the Russian
military base in Armenia as well as “large-scale reforms launched in the
Armenian army” after last year’s war with Azerbaijan.
Harutiunian and the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, General
Valery Gerasimov, also discussed the reforms when they spoke by phone on March
23. Harutiunian’s press office said they agreed that a high-ranking Russian
delegation will visit Yerevan soon for more detailed talks on the subject.
A delegation led by one of Gerasimov’s deputies, Colonel-General Sergei
Istrakov, already held weeklong negotiations with the Armenian army’s top brass
in Yerevan in January. Harutiunian said afterwards that the talks were aimed at
“assisting us in the reform and modernization of Armenia’s armed forces.”
The minister said concrete “recommendations” have already been made on how to
rearm the Armenian army in the current circumstances. He did not elaborate.
Harutiunian’s also asserted that that the Russian military base in Gyumri will
be expanded in view of the post-war “military-political realities in the
region.” He suggested that more Russian troops could be deployed to Armenia’s
southeastern Syunik province.
Syunik borders districts southwest of Karabakh which were retaken by Azerbaijan
during and after the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on
November 10. Russia deployed soldiers and border guards to the region to help
the Armenian military defend it against possible Azerbaijani attacks.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said “security issues in Syunik” were also on
the agenda of Harutiunian’s latest phone call with Shoigu.
The conversation came as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian flew to Moscow for talks
with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Pashinian announced plans to further deepen Russian-Armenian military ties
shortly after the Karabakh war. He said his country now needs “new security
guarantees.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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