Thursday,
Armenian Police To Expand Public Video Surveillance
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A control room of the Security Dream company operating speed radars
and cameras, Yerevan, September 5, 2014.
The Armenian government allowed the national police on Thursday to set up a
centralized system of video surveillance designed to facilitate the fight
against crime and improve road safety.
The new surveillance network will comprise all speed radars on Armenia’s streets
and highways as well as separate video cameras used for collecting street
parking fees in Yerevan, which have been operated by two private firms for
almost a decade. It will also be connected to security cameras installed inside
shops, restaurants, casinos and other private businesses across the country.
The chief of the Armenian police, Vahe Ghazarian, indicated that police officers
will also view many cameras to be placed in other public areas. He did not
specify their number or location.
Ghazarian said that the expanded surveillance system will have a “substantial
positive impact on improving the security environment.” Law-enforcement bodies
will be in a better position to maintain public order, prevent and solve crimes
and hunt for fugitive criminal suspects, he told a weekly cabinet meeting in
Yerevan chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian praised the police initiative. But he said nothing about the amount of
government funding that will be provided for its realization.
Samvel Martirosian, an independent cyber security expert, cautioned that while
the new surveillance network will likely make it easier for the police to combat
crime it could be vulnerable to hacker attacks and information leaks. He said it
is not clear how the government will protect citizens’ personal data and who
exactly will have access to it.
New Armenian Army Chief Appointed
Armenia - Major-General Edward Asrian holds a news briefing, Yerevan, May 27,
2021.
President Vahagn Khachaturian on Thursday appointed a new chief of the Armenian
army’s General Staff handpicked by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, filling a
position that has been vacant for nearly five months.
The appointment of Major-General Edward Asrian was announced just over a week
after the Armenian parliament approved a government bill that made the country’s
top general directly subordinate to the defense minister.
The previous army chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian, and six
other senior generals were sacked in February through presidential decrees also
initiated by Pashinian.
The sackings came one year after Davtian’s predecessor, Onik Gasparian, and 40
other high-ranking officers issued a joint statement accusing Pashinian’s
government of incompetence and misrule and demanding its resignation.
Incidentally, Asrian was among the signatories of the February 2021 statement
welcomed by the Armenian opposition but condemned by Pashinian as a coup attempt.
Some pro-government lawmakers have acknowledged that Pashinian’s administration
hopes the bill passed by the National Assembly on July 7 will prevent the army
top brass from challenging them in the future.
Under the bill criticized by the opposition, the chief of the General Staff will
also hold the post of first deputy defense minister. But he will not perform
ministerial duties if Defense Minister Suren Papikian is absent from the country.
Pashinian promised a major reform of the military shortly after Armenia’s defeat
in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. He has replaced three defense ministers since a
Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the six-week hostilities in November 2020.
Opposition forces blame Pashinian for the disastrous war that left at least
3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. They also say that his administration is doing
little to rebuild the armed forces.
Ruling Party Holds Back On Ousting Armenian Opposition From Parliament
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Riot police guard the entrance to the headquarters of the ruling Civil
Contract party in Yerevan, June 20, 2022.
A senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party said on Thursday that it will
not strip opposition deputies boycotting sessions of Armenia’s parliament of
their seats for now.
The leadership of the National Assembly affiliated with the party has
increasingly threatened in recent weeks to ask the Constitutional Court to take
such action. It was due to discuss the matter at a meeting slated for Thursday
evening.
“We have decided not to start such a process at this stage,” Hrachya Hakobian, a
Civil Contract lawmaker, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service hours before the
scheduled meeting.
“But we don’t exclude that one day we will again discuss stripping them of their
mandates,” he said. “I don’t exclude that the [ruling party’s parliamentary]
faction will once again organize a discussion on this issue in September or
October.”
Hakobian, who is also Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s brother-in-law, said the
parliament’s pro-government majority is giving the opposition lawmakers another
chance to return to the parliament.
Armenia - Empty seats of opposition deputies boycotting a session of parliament,
Yerevan, June 14, 2022.
One of those lawmakers, Gegham Manukian, dismissed the explanation, saying that
the Armenian authorities simply want to avoid another blow to their democratic
credentials.
“I presume that some smart guy, who is definitely not a parliament deputy, told
them, ‘Guys you are going way over the top, disgracing the country, destroying
the last ruins of our democratic bastion,’ and that’s why they came out with
such a statement,” he said.
The 35 members of the 107-seat parliament representing the opposition Hayastan
and Pativ Unem alliances began the boycott in April in advance of their daily
demonstrations demanding Pashinian’s resignation. One of their leaders made
clear on Monday that they will continue their boycott and hold more
antigovernment rallies in the weeks ahead.
Under Armenian law, a parliament deputy can lose their seat if they skip, for
“non-legitimate” reasons, at least half of parliament votes during a single
semi-annual session of the National Assembly. The final decision to that effect
is to be made by the Constitutional Court.
The parliament’s leadership said earlier this week all 29 deputies representing
Hayastan and four others affiliated with Pativ Unem can now be formally accused
of absenteeism.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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