Tuesday,
Privileged Healthcare Sought For Armenian PM, Family
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian inspects new medical equipment
installed at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center in Yerevan, July 26, 2021.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has drafted legislation that would
require the government to provide “personal doctors” to Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian, parliament speaker Alen Simonian and members of their families.
An Armenian law on “individuals subject to special state protection” has until
now guaranteed such privileged healthcare only for the president of the republic
and his family. The NSS wants to extend the government-funded privilege to the
two other officials.
The security agency circulated a relevant bill on Monday days after Pashinian’s
government reportedly stopped paying for medical services provided to ordinary
citizens by public and private hospitals. According to news reports, the
Armenian Ministry of Health attributed the drastic measure to a lack of public
funds resulting from an increased number of people seeking free surgeries and
other essential treatment.
Opposition politicians and other government critics denounced the NSS bill,
saying that it makes mockery of Pashinian’s past promises to establish social
justice and equality in the country.
“Three years ago Nikol Pashinian was saying that there are three million prime
ministers in Armenia,” said Anna Grigorian, a parliament deputy from the
opposition Hayastan bloc. “But that is still not manifested in any way. The
prime minister has extensive powers now, and you can see how just big his
security detail is.”
Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian on Tuesday that the extra privilege sought for
him is all the more unethical now that Armenia is continuing to grapple with
serious national security challenges after last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hayk Mamijanian, another opposition lawmaker representing the opposition Pativ
Unem bloc, speculated that the NSS bill may be aimed at deflecting public
attention from those challenges. He said Pashinian and Simonian “must have the
morality and the will to renounce that privilege” and redirect government
funding required for it to low-income Armenians in urgent need of medical aid.
Yerevan residents randomly interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service echoed the
opposition criticism.
“If ordinary people cannot be treated at the state’s expense why should they
have such privileges?” said one woman. “Are they better than ordinary people?”
“This was done covertly in the past. Now they want to legalize that,” complained
a man.
Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government parliamentarian and Pashinian’s
brother-in-law, defended the proposed measure which appears to enjoy government
backing. Hakobian argued that Armenia’s presidents and their families have never
been criticized for having personal doctors paid by the state. The prime
minister and the parliament speaker must not be denied the same right, he said.
Gazprom Chief Visits Armenia
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with Gazrprom
Chairman Alexei Miller, Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian described Gazprom as Armenia’s “strategic energy
partner” as he met with the visiting chairman of the Russian natural gas giant,
Alexei Miller, on Tuesday.
The Armenian government’s press office gave few details of their talks held in
Yerevan. In a statement, it cited Pashinian as saying that the government is
committed to deepening its “mutually beneficial cooperation” with Gazprom,
Armenia’s principal supplier of natural gas.
The statement said Miller briefed Pashinian on his company’s “investment and
social programs” in the country. “The interlocutors discussed the state of
Russian-Armenian cooperation in the area of energy and prospects for its
development,” it added without elaborating.
Gazprom issued an even shorter statement on the meeting. It said the two men
discussed “key issues” of that cooperation.
It was not clear if the price of Russian gas supplied to Armenia was on the
agenda of the talks. Gazprom raised it by 10 percent, to $165 per thousand cubic
meters, in January 2019 and has kept it unchanged since then.
Yerevan urged the Russians last year to cut the wholesale price, arguing that
that global energy prices have collapsed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pashinian raised the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But they
failed to reach any agreements.
International energy prices have rallied strongly this year amid renewed
economic growth around the world. In June, Gazprom raised its average gas export
price for European countries to $240 per thousand cubic meters.
The Reuters news agency reported that spot prices in the Dutch TTF gas hub
reached as much as $800 per thousand cubic meters on Tuesday amid low levels of
underground gas storage in Europe.
Head Of Armenian Judicial Watchdog Denies Illicit Enrichment
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Gagik Jahangirian, the acting head of the Supreme Judicial Council,
speaks in the National Assembly, .
A former prosecutor heading Armenia’s judicial watchdog insisted on Tuesday that
expensive properties belonging to him and his relatives are not the result of
their illicit enrichment or other corrupt practices.
Also, Gagik Jahangirian again denied allegations that he is pressuring courts to
allow arrests of opposition members and make other decisions sought by the
Armenian government.
Jahangirian, who is widely regarded as a figure loyal to the government, was
installed by Armenia’s former parliament as a member of the Supreme Judicial
Council (SJC) in January. The supposedly independent body nominates judges,
monitors their integrity and can also dismiss judges.
In April, the SJC chairman, Ruben Vartazarian, was controversially suspended and
charged with obstruction of justice after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
political allies accused him of encouraging courts to free arrested government
critics.
Vartazarian denies the accusations. He has said the authorities ordered the
criminal proceedings to replace him with Jahangirian. The latter was named as
acting head of the SJC pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.
In recent months Armenian courts have approved virtually all arrest warrants
issued by law-enforcement authorities for opposition figures prosecuted on
various charges rejected by them as politically motivated. Three of those
oppositionists were arrested after being elected to the current parliament in
June.
Jahangirian faced tough questions opposition lawmakers on Tuesday as he appeared
before the National Assembly to present the SJC’s candidates for a vacant seat
in Armenia’s Court of Cassation. They accused him of pressuring and intimidating
judges. He denied that.
Armenia - Aregnaz Manukian of the opposition Hayastan alliance speaks during a
session of the National Assembly, Yerevan, .
Aregnaz Manukian, a deputy from the main opposition Hayastan bloc, also grilled
Jahangirian about the origin of his family’s expensive properties. She
specifically challenged him to explain how he had managed to build a villa in
one of Yerevan’s richest neighborhoods while working as a senior prosecutor
earning a relatively modest salary.
Jahangirian said the villa currently rented by the Iraqi Embassy in Armenia is
“very modest” compared to surrounding mansions. “May the Iraqi Embassy staff
forgive me for working in such bad conditions,” he said.
Jahangirian claimed that he built the villa with proceeds from the sale of
another house where he and his family lived until 2003. He said he had built
that three-story house in the center of Yerevan after selling in 1989 the
family’s 3-bedroom apartment located in a city suburb.
Manukian was unconvinced. “You are one of the lucky few to have managed to sell
a 3-bedroom apartment and build a huge house in the famous Yerevan
neighborhood,” she said with sarcasm.
Jahangirian also appeared to confirm the opposition lawmaker’s claim that his
son acquired a luxury apartment in downtown Yerevan, worth over $600,000, after
he took over the SJC in April. But he linked the acquisition to the fact that
that the latter is married to a daughter of Khachatur Sukiasian, a wealthy
businessman and parliamentarian representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
“That apartment block was built by a brother of my in-law Khachatur Sukiasian,”
he said. “So they [the Sukiasian brothers] either gave or did not give that
money. I have no idea. Ask them.”
Jahangirian announced in early August that the judicial watchdog has drafted
legislation aimed at “purging” courts of “people who have committed crimes
against justice.” The 66-year-old official himself was accused by civic groups
of covering up crimes and committing human rights abuses when he served as
Armenia’s chief military prosecutor from 1997-2006.
France Starts COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments To Armenia
Armenia - Armenian and French officials stand next to the first shipment of
coronavirus vaccines donated to Armenia by France, Yerevan, .
Armenia received on Tuesday the first batch of coronavirus vaccines donated to
it by France.
The 25,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab were delivered to Yerevan’s
Zvartnots airport and handed over to the Armenian Ministry of Health in the
presence of French diplomats.
French President Emmanuel Macron touted the shipment on his Twitter and Facebook
pages. Macron cited his August 3 pledge to provide 200,000 doses of vaccines to
Armenia.
“The rest of the deliveries will continue tomorrow and in the weeks to come in
coordination with the Armenian authorities,” read a statement released by the
French Embassy in Yerevan. “France stands with Armenia in dealing with the
pandemic.”
Armenia received earlier this month 187,000 and 27,500 doses of the same vaccine
from Belgium and Lithuania respectively.
The donations are significant for the country of about 3 million where only
about 336,000 vaccine shots were administered as of September 12. Fewer than
122,000 of its residents have been fully vaccinated since the launch of the
Armenian government’s immunization campaign in April, according to the Ministry
of Health.
The campaign has been seriously hampered by widespread vaccine hesitancy. In a
bid to accelerate it, Health Minister Anahit Avanesian decided late last month
to require virtually all public and private sector employees refusing
vaccination to take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense.
Avanesian defended last week the unpopular measure effective from October 1. She
said Armenians not complying with it should not only face heavy fines but also
risk losing their jobs.
The daily number of officially confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia has been
slowly but steadily rising since June. The Ministry of Health reported on
Tuesday morning 657 new cases and 21 coronavirus-related deaths.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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