Author: Bedik Zaminian

                                        Tuesday, 
Former Aide Disrupts Armenian Minister’s News Conference
        • Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosian (C) cuts short his press 
conference disrupted by his former adviser Gevorg Tamamian (R), September 3, 
2019.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian cut short a news conference on Tuesday after it 
was gatecrashed by one of his former aides who accused him of mismanagement and 
corruption.
Gevorg Tamamian, who until recently advised the Armenian Justice Ministry on 
child oncology, entered a conference room of the Yerevan-based Hematology 
Center where Torosian met the press. Tamamian said he too wants to ask the 
minister questions.
Torosian suggested that Tamamian hold a separate news conference instead. The 
latter refused, leading Torosian to end the news conference.
“I have no problem with him,” Torosian told reporters as he left the room. “But 
he probably has a problem with me because he is pursuing some other interests. 
I won’t say who I’m talking about.”
Tamamian then read out his questions to the minister in the presence of the 
journalists and a dozen doctors from the sate-run clinic specializing in 
treatment of childhood leukemia. Ester Demirchian, the executive director of a 
charity helping the Hematology Center’s patients, was also in attendance.
The charity called the City of Smile was founded last year by Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian. Tamamian is a member of its board of 
trustees headed by Hakobian.
The former official, who now works at the Hematology Center, accused Torosian 
of disrupting government-funded treatment of cancer in Armenia. In that regard, 
he deplored the sacking of the head of the National Oncology Center, Armen 
Tananian. The minister has alleged corrupt practices in the hospital.
Tamamian also decried the fact that after taking office last year Torosian 
sharply increased government funding for a medical center owned by his wife. 
The center performs computer tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.
The health minister apologized to the journalists for cutting short his news 
conference in a live video address aired through Facebook later in the day. “I 
couldn’t concentrate in that tense atmosphere,” he said.
Torosian also accused his former subordinate of staging the “show” in a bid to 
discredit him.
Constitutional Court Set To Rule On Kocharian’s Appeal
        • Naira Bulghadarian
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Riot police separate rival protesters outside the Constitutional 
Court building in Yerevan, September 3, 2019.
Armenia’s Constitutional Court began on Tuesday final deliberations on former 
President Robert Kocharian’s appeal against his arrest and prosecution on coup 
charges.
Early this year, Kocharian petitioned the court to declare unconstitutional two 
articles of the Code of Procedural Justice used against him by law-enforcement 
authorities.
His lawyers maintain that the Armenian constitution gives him immunity from 
prosecution for his actions taken during the 2008 post-election violence in 
Yerevan. The Special Investigative Service (SIS), which indicted Kocharian 
shortly after last year’s “Velvet Revolution,” disputes these claims.
The court is due to announce its ruling on the appeal by Wednesday evening.
One of Kocharian’s lawyers, Hayk Alumian, expressed hope that the court will 
accept his and his colleagues’ arguments. In that case, he said, the 
ex-president will have to be freed and cleared of “overthrow of the 
constitutional order” alleged by the SIS.
The SIS specifically claims that Kocharian and three retired army generals 
illegally used Armenian army units against opposition protesters who 
demonstrated in Yerevan against alleged fraud in a February 2008 presidential 
election. The vote was controversially won by his preferred successor, Serzh 
Sarkisian.
The final deliberations unfolded amid demonstrations staged by Kocharian’s 
supporters and detractors outside the Constitutional Court building in the city 
center. Separated by riot police, the rival protesters chanted slogans and 
shouted insults at each other.
“We want freedom for Robert Kocharian,” one woman told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
service. “There are no grounds to keep Robert Kocharian in jail.” She dismissed 
the charges brought against him as “lies.”
“An honest person must be freed, right? It’s as simple as that,” said another 
Kocharian backer.
“Kocharian is a state criminal, not a hero,” countered a man who held the 
ex-president responsible for the deaths of ten people on March 1-2, 2008.
“I wish Kocharian a life sentence,” said another anti-Kocharian protester.
Late last week, Vahe Grigorian, the Constitutional Court’s newest member 
installed by the Armenian parliament in June, demanded that the court’s 
chairman, Hrayr Tovmasian, and two other judges recuse themselves from the 
case. He said that they cannot be impartial and objective because of having 
been previously involved in controversial decisions relating to the 2008 unrest 
case.
The nine-member court’s official response to Grigorian’s demand is still not 
known.
Grigorian himself was excluded from the consideration of Kocharian’s appeal in 
July. Tovmasian argued that he has represented relatives of the eight 
protesters killed in March 2008 in other courts.
Later in July, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian signaled support for Grigorian 
and launched a scathing attack on Tovmasian. Pashinian accused the latter of 
cutting political deals with former President Sarkisian to “privatize” the 
country’s highest court. Tovmasian responded by warning the government against 
attempting to force him and his clients to resign.
Russian Activist Granted Asylum In Armenia
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Vitaly Shishkin, a Russian activist granted asylum in Armenia, 
speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, September 3, 2019.
Armenia has granted asylum to a Russian anti-government activist who moved to 
the South Caucasus country in January after serving a four-year prison sentence 
in Russia, it emerged on Tuesday.
A document released by the Armenian Migration Service says that the activist, 
Vitaly Shishkin, could be persecuted for his political views if he is forced to 
return to Russia.
A spokeswoman for the government agency, Nelly Davtian, refused to elaborate on 
that explanation. She said only that an Armenian law on political asylum has 
never been invoked before.
“I have received the status of refugee in Armenia on the grounds that I am 
persecuted in Russia for my political views,” Shishkin told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
service.
The 47-year-old claimed that Russian law-enforcement authorities issued an 
arrest warrant for him after he left Russia in January. A spokeswoman for 
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General insisted, however, that it has 
received no extradition requests from Moscow.
Shishkin was arrested in 2014 after calling for anti-government protests in 
Moscow. A Russian court subsequently sentenced him to four years in prison on 
charges of plotting “mass disturbances” and spreading hate speech.
The Russian human rights group Memorial recognized Shishkin as a political 
prisoner in 2015. It also referred to him as a “representative of the moderate 
wing of the Russian nationalist movement.”
According to the Interfax news agency, Shishkin headed a regional branch of the 
Russkiye Ethnic-Political Association. A Moscow court declared the nationalist 
group “extremist” and banned it in 2015.
Some Armenian anti-government activists and news websites claimed that Shishkin 
was also involved in anti-Armenian riots in 2013 sparked by a murder committed 
in the Russian city of Arzamas. Shishkin denied those claims, saying that they 
are spread by Russia’s FSB security service.
The activist said that last year’s “Velvet Revolution” was one of the reasons 
why he decided to seek asylum in Armenia.“I know that for Armenia Russia is a 
very acute issue,” he said. “Something must be done about, a lot must be 
changed in [Russian-Armenian] relations because Russia is a dictatorial country 
while Armenia has been building a democratic society for more than a year.”
Yerevan’s decision to grant Shishkin asylum came almost one month after the 
Russian authorities refused to extradite Mihran Poghosian, a former senior 
Armenian official facing corruption charges in Armenia.
Poghosian, who was an influential figure in Armenia’s former leadership, was 
detained in the northern Russian region of Karelia in April on an Armenian 
arrest warrant. He asked the Russian authorities to grant him asylum, saying 
that the charges brought against him are politically motivated.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” comments on the impending Constitutional Court hearings on the 
legality of coup charges leveled against former President Robert Kocharian. The 
paper suggests that if the court declares those charges unconstitutional either 
Kocharian will have to be released from prison or the authorities will refuse 
to comply with the court’s decision. “At any rate, any decision by the 
Constitutional Court will at least open a new page in the internal political 
situation,” it says.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says that Monday’s official celebrations of the 28th 
anniversary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s declaration of independence were marred by a 
number of “irresponsible statements” that unsettled many people in Karabakh and 
Armenia. In particular, Vitaly Balasanian, a retired army general and former 
top aide to Karabakh President Bako Sahakian, accused the Armenian government 
of meddling in Karabakh’s internal affairs by sending observers to local 
elections that will be held there this month. The paper says Balasanian’s claim 
provoked “equally ludicrous” statements by some government supporters in 
Armenia. “As if that was not enough, several senior Karabakh officials led by 
Bako Sahakian congratulated Robert Kocharian [on his birthday anniversary] 
publicly and with a lot of pomp,” it goes on, adding that the congratulations 
also undermined “the Armenia-Artsakh unity.”
“Zhoghovurd” reports on a “final” split within the Yerkir Tsirani party of 
Zaruhi Postanjian, an outspoken politician who has challenged both the current 
and former Armenian authorities. The paper says that virtually all of 
Postanjian’s well-known associates have left the party “little by little” and 
Yerkir Tsirani is now “gradually leaving the political arena.” “And Zaruhi 
Postanjian seems to be getting back to her former profession: legal practice,” 
it says, adding that Yerkir Tsirani will either become a “one-person party” or 
simply be disbanded. The paper sees a lack of clear ideology as the main reason 
for the party’s collapse. Many other Armenian parties have proved short-lived 
for the same reason, according to it.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

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