Tuesday,
Pashinian Defends Renewed Collection Of Utility Fees
• Artak Khulian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian defended on Tuesday state regulators’ decision to
allow Armenian utility companies to cut off electricity, natural gas and water
supplies to people not paying their bills because of economic disruptions caused
by the coronavirus pandemic.
On March 25, Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) banned the
companies from doing that for the duration of a coronavirus-related state of
emergency which was initially due to end on April 14.
The decision was meant to ease economic hardship resulting from a nationwide
lockdown imposed by the Armenian government. The lockdown has hit workers with
modest salaries and no cash savings particularly hard.
With the state of emergency subsequently extended until May 14, the PSRC
announced last week that all Armenians must now pay their utility bills for
February and March. The move prompted claims that the authorities have reneged
on their promises.
“When we promised that we hoped that we will end this emergency rule within a
month,” said Pashinian. “But who can now say how long this coronavirus crisis
will last?”
Pashinian insisted that failure to pay for electricity, gas or water would lead
to a “collapse” of the Armenian energy system. “Saying that during this health
crisis people don’t have to pay utility bills would mean saying that there will
be no electricity in the country,” he said.
In Pashinian words, more than 5,000 defaulting households have already been
disconnected from electricity or gas supplies. He claimed that many of them are
well-to-do consumers who tried to take advantage of the situation.
Various Armenian media outlets have reported in recent days on concrete poor
families unable to pay for electricity and gas because of the economic shutdown.
Earlier this month the government decided to partly compensate more than 500,000
families for their utility bills for February. Pashinian said on April 17 that
the government has spent 2.6 billion drams ($5.5 million) for this purpose.
Kocharian Again Hospitalized
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian attends hearins at the Court of
Appeals, Yerevan, December 9, 2019.
Armenia’s jailed former President Robert Kocharian was on Tuesday taken to a
hospital in Yerevan where he underwent surgery in October.
One of his lawyers, Hovannes Khudoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that
Kocharian will have a “post-operative checkup” at the Izmirlian Medical Center.
Khudoyan did not give other details.
Earlier this spring, Kocharian spent more than three weeks at another Yerevan
hospital after complaining of blood pressure fluctuations. He was sent back to
prison on April 3.
Kocharian’s lawyers have since repeatedly demanded his release from custody,
saying that he risks being infected with coronavirus. They say that 65-year-old
is in a COVID-19 high-risk group because of his age and health problems.
The lawyers submitted a relevant petition to a district court in the Armenian
capital last week. The court has yet to respond to it.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities have reported no coronavirus cases among
prison inmates or detainees so far. Earlier this month they released two dozen
criminal suspects from pre-trial detention, citing the need to protect them
against the potentially lethal virus.
Kocharian and three other former officials are standing trial on charges mostly
stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. They all deny the
accusations, with the ex-president accusing the current Armenian authorities of
waging a political “vendetta” against him. The authorities maintain that the
coup and corruption charges leveled against him are not politically motivated.
The trial was suspended in March after the presiding judge, Anna Danibekian,
unexpectedly took sick leave. Although Danibekian officially returned to work on
April 17, she decided that the trial will resume on May 8.
Ex-Minister ‘Forced To Cede Control Of Key Armenian Tech Firm’
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Gurgen Khachatrian, the chairman of Ucom company's board of directors.
The family of arrested former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian on Tuesday
accused Armenian authorities of illegally trying to force it to sell its
controlling stake in one of Armenia’s leading telecommunication and information
technology companies at a knockdown price.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was quick to respond to the claim, saying through
a spokeswoman that Khachatrian and his relatives must return hundreds of
millions dollars “stolen from the people.”
Khachatrian and his family have extensive business interests in Armenia. The
most important of their assets is Ucom, one of the country’s three mobile phone
operators and largest Internet and cable TV provider. The ex-minister’s two sons
and a nephew own a combined 77 percent of the Ucom stock. One of the sons,
Gurgen Khachatrian, is also the chairman of the company’s board of directors.
In a written statement, Gurgen Khachatrian claimed that “high-ranking” Armenian
officials have threatened to arrest him if he and his brother refuse to cede
control of Ucom and another major IT firm.
“The threats have reached a point where they have promised to create an
uncontrollable situation in the companies, as a result of which, according to
them, we will have to agree to sell at the lowest possible price,” said
Khachatrian.
“Seeing that the attempts to sabotage the company were futile and we were able
to manage the situation, in the last couple of days they have presented a direct
demand to alienate Ucom and made clear that in case of not complying [with the
demand] I will be accused of committing a particularly serious crime and
arrested, which will then be followed by similar actions against my brother,
other family members, relatives and other people related to us,” he said.
Khachatrian added that he will not bow to the “pressure exerted through the
abuse of political power and legal instruments.” “Ucom is not for sale, neither
is our dignity,” he declared.
Armenia -- The entrance to a Ucom office, Yerevan, December 30, 2019.
The statement also urged Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, business associations
as well as Yerevan-based foreign ambassadors to “follow this process and assess
it accordingly.”
Pashinian’s press secretary, Mane Gevorgian, scoffed at the allegations. In a
Facebook post, she described Gagik Khachatrian as a “corrupt” former official
who had made a huge fortune while serving as finance minister from 2014-2016 and
holding senior positions in the Armenian tax and customs services in the
preceding decades.
“According to the Armenian government’s information, Gagik Khachatrian and his
sons headed a corrupt mafia system that had long operated in Armenia, as a
result of which they accumulated illegal wealth worth several hundred million
dollars,” wrote Gevorgian. “The prime minister’s position is that this loot must
be returned to the state in full.”
The official stressed in that regard that relevant authorities will allow the
Khachatrians to sell their Ucom stake only if they agree to transfer all
proceeds from such a deal to the government.
Late last month, law-enforcement authorities froze the family’s business assets
as part of their continuing corruption investigation into the former minister
arrested last August. His son claimed that the move was part of the government
efforts to dispossess his family.
Gurgen Khachatrian made the allegations shortly after Armenia’s National
Security Service (NSS) effectively accused his father of having received, while
in government, a $22 million bribe from Sedrak Arustamian, the top manager of
companies belonging to businessman Gagik Tsarukian.
Armenia -- Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian attends a parliament session in
Yerevan, November 16, 2015.
An NSS statement said that Arustamian, who was arrested late last week, had paid
the bribe in return for ensuring privileged treatment of those companies by tax
authorities. It claimed that the payments took the form of two bogus loans
provided to the ex-minister. “At the initiative” of his sons, the money was
transferred to foreign bank accounts of companies linked to the Khachatrians,
added the security service.
Arustamian’s lawyer confirmed on Monday that his client had lent the hefty sum
to two other individuals. He insisted, however, that it was a commercial
transaction, not a kickback.
Gurgen Khachatrian did not comment on the NSS claims. His lawyers could not be
reached for comment on Tuesday.
Early this month, Ucom’s chief executive, Hayk Yesayan, and hundreds of other
employees supporting him tendered their resignations. Yesayan and his brother
Aleksandr, who have a 6 percent stake in Ucom, at the same time offered to buy
the rest of the company from the Khachatrian brothers and the other shareholders
for 34 billion drams ($70 million).
The majority shareholders rejected the offer and replaced Yesayan with another
chief executive.
Ucom, which employs around 1,800 people, was founded in 2008 and became
Armenia’s leading Internet and cable TV provider in the following years. In
2015, it purchased one of the country’s three mobile phone networks from the
French telecom giant Orange.
Armenian Government Plans To Fully Reopen Economy
Armenia -- A worker disinfects streets in Yerevan, April 22, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Tuesday plans to allow all
businesses, including cafes and restaurants, to resume their operations in 10
days’ time despite the continuing spread of coronavirus in Armenia.
Pashinian said the Armenian government will also further ease its restrictions
on people’s movements already on Wednesday. Citizens will now be able to walk
with their family members near their homes and to exercise in more distant
locations, he said.
“Unless something extraordinary happens, we will minimize the restrictions
regime in the next 10 days,” Pashinian announced in a video message streamed
live on Facebook. “We now think that all sectors of economic activity should be
reopened in the next 10 days. But for every sector the Ministry of Health must
set certain safety rules.”
“We will only maintain restrictions for the education system and then see what
happens and react accordingly,” he added.
Pashinian’s government issued stay-at-home orders, banned public transport and
shut down most businesses in late March. The spread of coronavirus in Armenia
slowed significantly afterwards, leading the government to reopen some sectors
of the domestic economy already on April 13.
The government allowed late last week the resumption of more types of business
activity and softened its restrictions on transport links between Yerevan and
the rest of the country.
Amid the easing of the nationwide lockdown, the daily number of new coronavirus
infections in the country has increased over the past week.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday morning that the number of
COVID-19 cases rose by 59 to 1,867 in the last 24 hours. It also said that one
more person died from the disease, bring the death toll to 30.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Sunday, Health Minister Arsen Torosian
warned that due to the number of new infections the authorities will soon be
unable to hospitalize or isolate most infected people.
All people testing positive for the virus in Armenia have until now been taken
to hospitals or hotels turned into temporary medical centers. There were 971
such patients kept there as of Tuesday morning, according to the Ministry of
Health.
In his latest video message, Pashinian did not comment on Torosian’s warning or
the official COVID-19 figures.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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