Wednesday,
Armenian Police, Hospitals Blamed For Suspect’s Death
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Larisa Ytarian (L), the mother of a man who died after police
interrogation, speaks to RFE/RL in Yerevan, Aptil 16, 2019.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities on Wednesday pledged to investigate the
death of a man which followed his arrest and interrogation by police in Yerevan.
The 36-year-old Edgar Tsatinian was detained late last week in connection with
the killing of an elderly woman who lived in his neighborhood. He reportedly
died from drug intoxication several hours after being rushed to hospital from a
police station in Yerevan’s Nor Nork district.
Tsatinian’s mother, Larisa Yetarian, claims that police officers beat him up in
in an attempt to get him to implicate two other persons in the murder. Yetarian
says that they planted a drug in his pocket after he refused to give such
incriminating testimony.
“My boy then took it from his pocket and swallowed it for fear [of
prosecution,]” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Tuesday.
Yetarian alleged that Tsatinian was denied medical assistance at the nearby
Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center before being taken to another hospital,
the Armenia Medical Center, where he died several hours later. He was not
properly treated there, she said.
“Edgar kept telling me, ‘Mom, don’t leave the [hospital] ward, they got orders
to kill me,” added the grief-stricken mother.
A deputy director of the Surb Grigor Lusavorich hospital, Petros Manukian, said
that Tsatinian was turned away from his hospital simply because it is not
equipped to treat drug intoxications. Officials at the Armenia Medical Center
insisted that Tsatinian did receive adequate medical care there.
The Armenian police, for their part, denied ill-treating Tsatinian. A police
statement also emphasized the fact that he had a criminal record. It warned
that his mother’s allegations may amount to “false denunciation,” a criminal
offence in Armenia.
Nevertheless, the allegations prompted serious concern from human rights
activists and some opposition parliamentarians. One of those activists, Nina
Karapetiants, said that the police may be bullying the deceased man’s family
with the “false denunciation” warning.
Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) announced, meanwhile, that it has
launched a criminal investigation into possible negligent homicide. The
investigation was recommended by the Office of the Prosecutor-General.
According to local and international human rights groups, ill-treatment of
criminal suspects in custody has long been commonplace in Armenia. Justice
Minister Artak Zeynalian claimed on Tuesday that the Armenian police have
stopped resorting to the illegal practice.
Russia Encouraged By Armenian-Azeri Talks
• Aza Babayan
RUSSIA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivers a speech during a
meeting with Arab League's officials in Moscow, Russia .
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sounded optimistic on Wednesday about
the implementation of confidence-building agreements reached by his Armenian
and Azerbaijani counterparts at their latest talks mediated by him.
Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanian and Elmar Mammadyarov met with Lavrov in
Moscow on Monday more than two weeks after an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit held
in Vienna. They were also joined by the U.S., Russian and French mediators
co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.
A joint statement issued by the participants said the warring sides reaffirmed
their earlier pledges to strengthen the ceasefire regime and take other
confidence-building measures in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
They specifically agreed to “allow families to have access to their relatives
held in custody in the respective detention centers of the parties.” “The
Ministers expressed their willingness to start concrete work on establishing
contacts between people, including through mutual visits of media
representatives,” added the statement.
“I believe that this is a very useful agreement,” Lavrov told a news conference
in Moscow. “I have read comments that similar things, especially in the
humanitarian sphere, had been agreed upon earlier but not always implemented.
This is true.”
“But as a result of the talks held in Moscow … I have reason to think that both
Baku and Yerevan are interested in ensuring that these agreements do not remain
on paper this time around. We will be assisting them in that,” he said.
Mammadyarov on Wednesday described the Moscow meeting as “productive.” He said
he and Mnatsakanian also discussed a peace plan which was proposed by Russia
following the April 2016 fighting in Karabakh.
Lavrov confirmed this, saying that the plan is in tune with the basic
principles of a Karabakh settlement which have repeatedly been laid out by the
U.S., Russian and French mediators in recent years. “The details are certainly
confidential,” he said.
The Minsk Group co-chairs reaffirmed their compromise peace formula, also known
as the Madrid Principles, in a March 9 statement. They said “any fair and
lasting settlement” must involve “return of the territories surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh
providing guarantees for security and self-governance; a corridor linking
Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; future determination of the final legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will.”
Speaking at a March 19 news conference in Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian said that the Madrid Principles are open to different interpretations
and need to be clarified. Pashinian said afterwards that he raised the matter
with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the mediators at the Vienna summit
held on March 29.
Armenian Opposition Rejects New Government Structure
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Bright Armenia Party leader Edmon Marukian speaks during a
parliament session in Yerevan, .
The opposition minority in the Armenian parliament condemned the government on
Wednesday for reducing the number of its ministries from 17 to 12 and refusing
to limit Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s powers.
Lawmakers representing the opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Bright
Armenia (LHK) parties rejected a government bill setting a new structure of
Pashinian’s cabinet. But leaders of the pro-government majority in the National
Assembly defended the bill, practically making its passage a forgone conclusion.
The bill calls for abolishing the post of first deputy prime minister, meaning
that Pashinian would have only two deputies. Also, the Armenian ministries of
education, culture, and sports and youth affairs would be turned into a single
agency. A similar merger of the ministries of energy and local government would
lead to the creation of a new Ministry of Territorial Administration and
Infrastructures. The Diaspora Ministry is due to be scrapped altogether.
The bill also means that Armenia’s police, National Security Service (NSS) and
State Revenue Committee (SRC) would remain subordinate to the prime minister,
rather than his cabinet. They were directly controlled by Armenia’s presidents
under the previous, presidential system of government.
Armenia - Prime Minister NIkol Pashinian meets with senior police officers,
Yerevan, January 26, 2019.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian made sure that they will be accountable to the
prime minister when turned Armenia into a parliamentary republic. Sarkisian
planned to stay in power as prime minister after serving out his second
presidential term in April 2018.
Pashinian, Edmon Marukian and other leaders of the now defunct Yelk opposition
alliance accused him of introducing a “super prime-ministerial” system of
government with the aim of maintaining a tight grip on power.
Pashinian has been reluctant to change that system since he swept to power in
last spring’s “velvet revolution.”His government has objected to an LHK bill
that would turn the police and the NSS into ministries and incorporate the SRC
into the Finance Ministry.
Marukian, who leads the opposition LHK, denounced Pashinian’s adherence to the
“super prime-ministerial” system which he likened to a “suit made for Serzh
Sarkisian.” “Why have you put on Serzh Sarkisian’s suit?” he said during a
parliament debate on the bill.
Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of Pashinian’s My Step bloc, rejected
the criticism, saying no government in the world would draft a bill limiting
its own powers. Makunts also said My Step is ready to draft, together with the
opposition factions, new legislation that would require the police and NSS
chiefs to regularly answer questions from parliament deputies.
Armenia - Employees of the Armenian ministries of culture and Diaspora protest
against possible staff cuts in Yerevan, December 21, 2018.
The BHK was more concerned about the planned downsizing of the government and
the resulting layoffs of many civil servants. Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian
said that “several hundred” government employees will only temporarily lose
their jobs because they will be placed on a “reserve” list. “This is not
unemployment,” claimed Zeynalian.
“I’m sure that you too don’t doubt that they will stay [on that list] forever,”
countered the BHK’s Naira Zohrabian.
Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to downsize the government. He has said that
it will operate more efficiently as a result.
Mikael Melkumian, another senior BHK lawmaker, dismissed those assurances.
“This [new government] structure lacks elementary efficiency,” he said.
Tsarukian Cancels Mass Layoffs For Now
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of Prosperous Armenia Party, addresses
workers of a cement plant in Ararat,.
Businessman Gagik Tsarukian assured on Wednesday workers of a cement plant
owned by him that they will not be laid off for now because he still hopes that
the Armenian government will impose tariffs on cement imports from Iran.
The government decided to introduce such tariffs earlier this year, citing
mounting losses incurred by Armenian cement manufacturers. An Armenian
parliament committee on economic issues watered down a relevant government bill
on April 12 to ensure that the extra import duties do not apply to cement
clinker, a nodular material developed before the final stage of cement
production.
Tsarukian’s Multi Group holding company was quick to notify most of the 1,100
or so employees of the Ararat Tsement plant in writing that they will fired
within two months. It said Ararat Tsement would need a fraction of its current
workforce to manufacture cement with cheap Iranian clinker.
Hundreds of workers of the plant located about 50 kilometers south of Yerevan
went on strike on Monday in protest against the planned layoffs. They also
demanded a meeting with Tsarukian.
The tycoon, who also leads the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), met
with the workers and told them to “tear up and burn” the notices of termination
sent to them by the company management.
“I thought, ‘If they [the authorities] don’t care, then I don’t care either,’”
he said. “But then I realized that I, as Tsarukian, as the leader of the party
… can’t neglect you. I was just outraged by that wrong decision.”
Tsarukian said the BHK’s parliamentary group, the second largest in the
National Assembly, will lobby the government and the parliament majority loyal
to it to restore the initial version of the cement bill. BHK lawmakers will
organize discussions on the issue on Thursday, he said, inviting one of the
Ararat Tsement workers, Henrik Khechumian, to take part in them.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service afterwards, Khechumian said he will go to
the parliament only with several of his colleagues.
Although the workers agreed to suspend their strike, Khechumian did not seem
satisfied with Tsarukian’s assurances. “We may find ourselves in the same
situation one week later,” he said.
Ararat Tsement, which reportedly accounts for at least 70 percent of cement
production in Armenia, is facing an uncertain future amid renewed tensions
between the BHK and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance. Earlier
this month Tsarukian publicly criticized the government’s economic policies and
said many government officials are incompetent.
This was followed by bitter recriminations traded by My Step and the BHK over a
transgender activist’s bombshell speech delivered in the Armenian parliament.
On April 9 Pashinian accused a senior BHK lawmaker of organizing a “political
provocation” against the parliament majority loyal to him. Tsarukian and his
associated rejected the accusation.
Tax officials raided a market and pressurized gas stations belonging to
Tsarukian in the following days. BHK representatives suggested that the tax
audits are politically motivated.
The tycoon denied on Wednesday any political motives behind his initial
decision to fire many Ararat Tsement workers.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” reports that Mihran Poghosian, a former senior security official
charged with corruption, has revealed that he now lives in Moscow and does not
intend to return to Armenia and face arrest there. The paper wonders if Russian
authorities will agree to extradite him to Armenia. It notes it this regard
that former Defense Minister Mikael Harutiunian, who is facing coup charges,
avoided extradition after it emerged that he is a Russian citizen. “It looks
like Russia is becoming a political safe haven for members of Armenia’s former
regime,” it says. “Basically this is not surprising given the fact that that
regime operated under Russia’s tutelage. That sponsorship is thus continuing,
and if things continue like this one must not rule out the emergence of an
Armenian government in exile, shadow cabinet or alternative power in Moscow a
few months or one or two years later.”
“Zhoghovurd” is disappointed with bitter verbal arguments that have erupted on
the Armenian parliament floor of late. The paper says some parliament deputies
seem to view the current National Assembly as a penitentiary institution and
instead of “working in a constructive atmosphere” are busy threatening and
lecturing their political opponents.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says there are “suspicions” that protests staged by
employees of three large Armenian companies facing an uncertain future are part
of “well-organized sabotage” against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
government. “In any case, we are dealing with possible layoffs of workers and
this is where elements of sabotage are visible because the chief executives of
those companies are engaged in pretty much the same behavior,” writes the paper
edited by Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian. “They present the problems of their
workers like this: ‘We have to make staff cuts as a result of government
policies.’ Put simply, the owners of these large businesses are clearly trying
direct the wave of discontent by people, who risk of losing jobs because of
their inefficient work, at the government.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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