Monday, May 9, 2022
Armenian Opposition Protesters Face Criminal Proceedings
• Susan Badalian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Police detain opposition protesters in Yerevan, May 5, 2022.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities have opened more than a dozen criminal
cases against participants of daily opposition demonstrations aimed at forcing
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign.
They say that the protesters have defied police orders to unblock roads and
committed “hooligan” acts during the weeklong demonstrations organized by
Armenia’s leading opposition forces.
The Investigative Committee said over the weekend that one man has been arrested
on charges of hitting a policeman while two others indicted for burning tires at
a blocked street intersection in Yerevan. The committee said other protesters
may also be prosecuted for not obeying “legitimate orders” of riot police.
Elinar Vartanian, a parliament deputy from the main opposition Hayastan
alliance, denounced the “absurd” criminal proceedings, saying that they are
aimed at discouraging Armenians from campaigning for Pashinian’s removal from
power. She said opposition supporters simply exercised their constitutional
right of peaceful assembly.
The authorities have not launched such proceedings against any police officers
accused by the opposition as well as human rights groups of disproportionate use
of force. One policeman was caught on camera last week punching an opposition
supporter during his arrest.
The Armenian police have said they are conducting internal inquiries into nine
alleged instances of such misconduct. No officer is known to have been suspended.
On Friday, law-enforcement officials raided the offices of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party, a key member of Hayastan, in
Armavir province. Two local Dashnaktsutyun activists were arrested afterwards on
charges of paying people to attend the anti-government protests in Yerevan.
Dashnaktsutyun’s governing body in Armenia was quick to condemn the arrests and
reject the accusations, saying that they are part of government efforts to
thwart the opposition push to oust Pashinian.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in France Square, Yerevan, May 9,
2022.
The Investigative Committee also claimed to have obtained evidence of vote
buying by Dashnaktsutyun in general and local elections held last year.
“To accuse Dashnaktsutyun of vote buying is just absurd,” Artsvik Minasian, a
senior party figure, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday.
Minasian claimed that the authorities are opening “false and illegal criminal
cases” because they “realize that this liberation movement is gaining momentum.”
“This movement will not die down,” Ishkhan Saghatelian, another Dashnaktsutyun
leader, told thousands of people who again rallied in the center of Yerevan
later in the day. He said the protests will continue until Pashinian agrees to
step down.
The prime minister, who is accused by the opposition of planning to make
sweeping concessions to Azerbaijan, has rejected the demands for his resignation.
The authorities raised eyebrows last Thursday when they effectively threatened
to have the Armenian military call up men of fighting age participating in the
protests. Senior pro-government lawmakers said law-enforcement agencies should
pass their personal data on to the Defense Ministry.
Armenian Judge Freed After ‘Political’ Arrest
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Judge Boris Bakhshiyan speaks to journalists after being released from
prison, Yerevan, May 7, 2022
An Armenian judge was set free over the weekend three months after being
arrested on what he sees as politically motivated charges.
Boris Bakhshiyan was taken into custody on February 7 two weeks after granting
bail to a jailed opposition figure.
The accusations leveled against him stem from another decision which Bakhshiyan
made during a trial presided over by him. Prosecutors claim that the 36-year-old
judge illegally ordered the arrest of one of the defendants in that trial.
An Armenian court twice extended Bakhshiyan’s pre-trial arrest by one month in
March and April. Investigators did not request another extension this time
around. The Office of the Prosecutor-General declined to give a clear reason for
their decision to release him from custody.
Bakhshiyan, who worked in a court of first instance of southeastern Syunik
province, was greeted by a group of fellow judges and lawyers as he walked free
from Yerevan’s Vartashen prison on Saturday.
“Just like three months ago, I am of the same opinion and maintain that this was
an interference in my work as a judge, and a crude one,” Bakhshiyan told
reporters.
“I continue to maintain that the judicial decision made by me was legal and
substantiated,” he said.
Bakhshiyan’s lawyers have denounced his arrest as government retribution for his
January 26 decision to free Ashot Minasian, a prominent war veteran and
opposition activist.
Minasian was arrested in December one year after being charged with plotting to
kill Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and overthrow the Armenian government and
illegally possessing weapons. The National Security Service dropped the coup
charges later in December.
Armenia - The Supreme Judicial Council holds a hearing in Yerevan, July 26, 2021.
The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a state body overseeing Armenian courts,
allowed Bakhshiyan’s arrest despite an uproar from many lawyers and the
leadership of Armenia’s Union of Judges.
The chairman of the union, Aleksandr Azarian, cited Bakhshiyan’s arrest and
suspension by the SJC in a lengthy appeal to the UN Human Rights Council, the
U.S. State Department and international legal experts published on Friday.
Azarian urged them to push back against what he called Armenian government
efforts to “subjugate the judiciary.”
Other Armenian judges as well as opposition groups and lawyers have also accused
the government of seeking to increase its influence on courts under the guise of
judicial reforms. The authorities deny this, insisting that the reforms are
aimed at increasing judicial independence.
Armenia’s parliament controlled by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party
approved in February legislation that made it easier for law-enforcement
authorities to indict and arrest judges.
Armenia Marks WW2 Victory Day
Armenia - Armenian veterans of World War Two attend an official ceremony to mark
the 77th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, Yerevan, May 9,
2022.
Armenia’s leaders and ordinary citizens laid flowers at a World War Two memorial
in Yerevan on Monday as they marked the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s
victory over Nazi Germany.
The anniversary has remained a public holiday, officially called Victory and
Peace Day, in Armenia after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Some 320,000 residents of Soviet Armenia, then a republic of just 1.3 million
people, were drafted to the Soviet army during the bloodiest war in the history
of humankind. The total number of its ethnic Armenian participants from various
Soviet republics is estimated at more than 500,000. About half of them were
killed in action.
In a statement issued on the occasion Pashinian praised Armenians’ “invaluable”
contribution to the defeat of “one of the greatest evils: fascism.”
“107 Armenians were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, many of our
compatriots fought in the armies of the allied countries, participated in the
anti-fascist struggle of a number of countries and were crowned with glory,” he
said. “Today we bow to the deeds and memory of our heroes, our martyrs, and we
are proud of the heroism of our ancestors.”
Armenia - Russian soldiers march at Yerevan's Victory Park during an official
ceremony to mark the 77th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, 9
May, 2022.
Pashinian and President Vahagn Khachaturian led in the morning a wreath-laying
ceremony at the war memorial located in Yerevan’s Victory Park. Armenian and
Russian soldiers marched past its eternal fire during the ceremony.
Thousands of people, among them elderly war veterans, visited the memorial in
the following hours.
Pashinian also exchanged traditional congratulatory messages with Russian
President Vladimir Putin and other ex-Soviet leaders.
“The memory of the great past obliges us to strengthen the bonds of friendship
inherited by us and to comprehensively develop Armenian-Russian relations for
the benefit of the peoples of our countries,” he wrote to Putin.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.