Thursday,
Family Of Woman Killed By Pashinian Motorcade Car Alleges Cover-Up
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Flowers, toys, and candles on a street in Yerevan where a pregnant
woman was hit and killed by a police car that led Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian's motorcade, April 27, 2022.
Close relatives of a pregnant woman who died after being hit by a police car
escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s motorcade accused Armenian
authorities on Thursday of destroying evidence relevant to the case.
They claimed that the law-enforcement authorities are reluctant to prosecute all
officials responsible for the death of Sona Mnatsakanian.
Mnatsakanian, 29, was struck by a police SUV while crossing a street in the
center of Yerevan on April 26. The vehicle did not stop after the collision.
Its driver, police Major Aram Navasardian, was twice arrested by investigators
but freed by courts. Navasardian denies the accusations of reckless driving and
negligence leveled against him.
Members of Mnatsakanian’s family are unhappy with the course of the ongoing
criminal investigation, saying that it amounts to a cover-up. The deceased
woman’s mother, Armine Makinian, said the authorities are hiding key facts
surrounding the fatal accident.
“They’ve destroyed [recordings of] radio conversations,” charged Makinian.
“Namely, what was spoken with the [police] driver moments before the crash, what
order was given, when [another] policeman who regulated traffic [near the site
of the accident] got that order, when they turned on their sirens.”
“All that data should have been documented and handed over to the investigator
in charge of the case. But the investigator has no such things at his disposal,”
she said.
The indicted policeman’s lawyer, Ruben Baloyan, confirmed but downplayed the
absence of audio of radio conversations among security personnel that escorted
Pashinian on that day. Citing the investigators, he claimed that they were not
recorded due to a technical malfunction.
According Raffi Aslanian, the lawyer representing the victim’s family, forensic
tests found that the police car raced through the city at almost 109
kilometers/hour (68 miles/hour), breaching a 100-kilometer/hour speed limit set
for government motorcades.
“This doesn’t really matter,” countered Baloyan. “He [Navasardian] could only be
subjected to disciplinary action for speeding.”
The lawyer again defended his client’s failure to stop his car and help
Mnatsakanian.
Makinian pointed out that her daughter died more than an hour after being hit by
the police car. She or her unborn baby could have stayed alive had she been
immediately rushed to hospital, said the grief-stricken mother.
“He [the policeman] must have stopped even at the risk of losing his job,” added
Makinian. “The prime minister was also obliged to stop to see what happened
there.”
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian inspects new Patrol Police vehicles in
Gyumri, April 16, 2022.
Pashinian’s limousine and the six other cars making up his motorcade drove past
the dying woman. Pashinian has still not publicly commented on her death.
The deputy chief of his staff claimed on April 27 that the motorcade would have
caused a traffic jam and made it harder for an ambulance to reach the victim had
it stopped right after the crash. Opposition figures and other government
critics brushed aside that explanation, blaming Pashinian for Mnatsakanian’s
death.
The probe of the accident has also prompted concern from seven members of
Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag. Four of them are affiliated with German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party.
In a joint letter sent on July 6, the German lawmakers urged Armenian parliament
speaker Alen Simonian to “closely follow the case to bring justice to Sona
Mnatsakanian and her family.” They said they hope that those responsible for the
young woman’s death will be brought to justice “regardless of their rank and
position.”
Pashinian Ally May Become Armenia’s Top Election Official
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Vahagn Hovakimian speaks at a session of the National Assembly,
Yerevan, February 6, 2020.
A longtime associate of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday did not deny
reports that the ruling Civil Contract party will install him as chairman of
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC).
Tigran Mukuchian, the current CEC chairman who has been in office since 2011,
will complete his tenure in October. His successor will soon be elected by the
Armenian parliament controlled by Civil Contract. The parliament’s factions have
until July 25 to formally nominate their candidates for the post.
The Yerevan daily Zhoghovurd reported on Wednesday that Pashinian’s party will
nominate one of its senior lawmakers, Vahagn Hovakimian. It has enough
parliament seats to appoint him as the new head of the body administering
Armenia’s general and local elections and releasing their results.
Hovakimian did not confirm or refute the report when he spoke to RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
“Everything will be clear when the parliamentary group [of Civil Contract] makes
a decision,” he said, adding that the parliamentary majority “has not yet
nominated any candidate.”
Armenia -- Tigran Mukuchian, chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC),
speaks to journalists, Yerevan, 21Feb2017
Hovakimian, 48, is a former journalist who worked for Pashinian’s Haykakan
Zhamanak daily from 1998 to 2012. Pashinian hired him as a parliamentary
assistant after being first elected to the National Assembly in 2012.
Hovakimian became a parliament deputy in 2019. He has since co-sponsored major
bills which critics say are aimed at helping Pashinian tighten his hold on power.
In particular, Hovakimian was one of the authors of controversial 2020
constitutional changes that led to the dismissal of Constitutional Court judges
at loggerheads with the Armenian government. Opposition lawmakers charged at the
time that the parliament approved the changes in breach of legal procedures for
amending the constitution. Hovakimian and other Pashinian allies denied breaking
the law.
Mukuchian, the outgoing CEC chairman, had been installed by former President
Serzh Sarkisian’s administration. He retained his post after the 2018 mass
protests that toppled Sarkisian and brought Pashinian to power. Pashinian had
for years accused the former Armenian authorities of rigging elections.
Turkey Reaffirms Conditions For Normalizing Ties With Armenia
• Tatevik Sargsian
Turkey - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attends a news conference
with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in Ankara, June 23, 2022.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday made the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Armenia negotiating a peace accord
with Azerbaijan and opening a land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave.
Cavusoglu complained that Yerevan has taken no “concrete steps” in that
direction after four rounds of Turkish-Armenian normalization talks held this
year.
“We don’t yet see clear steps from Armenia on the Zangezur [corridor] and other
projects or the peace treaty,” he told Turkish state television. “Armenia’s
leadership headed by Prime Minister Pashinian should take positive steps for
peace. Words alone are not enough.”
“Whether Armenia likes it or not, this is the reality,” said, pointing to the
Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance. “We are one nation and two states. That is why if
there is to be peace in the region, everybody needs to take steps, including
Georgia and Central Asian countries. We expect concrete steps from Armenia on
this issue, be it Zangezur, the comprehensive peace treaty or steps towards us.”
Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear before that Ankara is coordinating the
ongoing Turkish-Armenian dialogue with Baku. He stressed in February the
importance of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty which Baku says must commit
Yerevan to recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meets his Armenian
counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Antalya, March 12, 2022.
The Armenian government has said, by contrast, that it wants an unconditional
normalization of relations with Turkey. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan
complained in May that Ankara is “synchronizing” the normalization process with
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Meeting in Vienna on July 1, special envoys of the two neighboring states agreed
to open the Turkish-Armenian border to citizens of third countries and to allow
mutual cargo shipments by air. The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said
this will be done “at the earliest date possible.” But they set no concrete time
frames.
Armenian opposition leaders have repeatedly accused Pashinian of being ready to
accept the Turkish preconditions. The prime minister’s political allies have
denied that.
Pashinian’s administration maintains that the possible peace accord with
Azerbaijan must address the thorny issue of Karabakh’s status. It has also ruled
out any exterritorial corridors passing through Armenia’s internationally
recognized territory and southeastern Syunik province in particular.
Syunik is the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. Tehran has repeatedly
warned against attempts to strip it of the land border with Armenia.
“The Islamic Republic will not tolerate policies or plans that lead to the
closing of the Iran-Armenia border,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, tweeted on Tuesday after holding separate talks in Tehran with the
presidents of Turkey and Russia.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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