Thursday, October 7, 2021
Pro-Government Lawmaker Avoids Prosecution For Violence
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party clash with their
opposition colleagues, August 25, 2021.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency has decided not to prosecute a controversial
pro-government lawmaker who assaulted an opposition colleague on the parliament
floor in late August.
The incident was part of a bigger brawl that broke out when Vahe Hakobian of the
opposition Hayastan bloc criticized the Armenian government’s five-year policy
program during a heated session of the parliament attended by Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian.
Hakobian interrupted his speech before being approached by three deputies from
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and kicked by one of them. He and five other
Hayastan deputies, including deputy speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian, were hit by a
larger number of Civil Contract lawmakers in an ensuing melee that was not
swiftly stopped by scores of security personnel present in the chamber.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) pledged to look into the ugly scenes
filmed by various media outlets. It launched afterwards a formal criminal
investigation into the beating of only one Hayastan deputy, Gegham Manukian,
prompting allegations of a cover-up from Armenia’s leading opposition force.
One of the video clips circulated on the Internet shows that Manukian was
assaulted by Civil Contract’s Hayk Sargsian.
The SIS confirmed on Thursday that it has halted the probe and will not try to
indict Sargsian. It claimed to have found no evidence of any criminal offence
committed by him.
Manukian accused the law-enforcement agency of covering up the attacks which he
said were incited by Pashinian. “The SIS is not compatible with Armenia’s laws
and constitution,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Daniel Ioannisian of the Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens also
criticized the SIS’s decision.
Ioannisian said the SIS failed to properly investigate and dispel suspicions
that the brawl was pre-planned by the parliament’s pro-government majority. He
claimed that Pashinian seemed to “bless” the violent conduct of his loyalists
hours before the incident.
In a detailed analysis and a video clip posted on his Facebook page last month,
Ioannisian named nine pro-government lawmakers involved in the violence. The
civic activist also emphasized the fact that uniformed security officers waited
for about a minute before stepping in to stop the violence.
Armenia -- Parliament deputy Hayk Sargsian.
Meanwhile, Sargsian again blamed the opposition. “With our actions we showed
that we will not tolerate the use of force [in the parliament,]” he said.
Sargsian, whose twin brother Nairi is a senior aide to Pashinian, already
avoided prosecution this summer for stealing the mobile phone of a journalist
trying to interview him. Armenia’s leading media organizations expressed outrage
at the SIS’s decision not to bring criminal charges against him.
Earlier this year, Sargsian wrested the microphone from another reporter who
approached him in the parliament building.
Obstruction of journalistic work is a criminal offense in Armenia.
Pope Meets Armenian Church Leader
The Vatican - Pope Francis and Catholicos Garegin (Karekin) II, the supreme head
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, meet in the Vatican, October 6, 2021.
Pope Francis and Catholicos Garegin (Karekin) II, the supreme head of the
Armenian Apostolic Church, have met in the Vatican during a conference of
religious leaders from around the world.
The two-day International Meeting for Peace concluded on Thursday with an
ecumenical prayer for peace at Rome’s Colosseum. Francis, Garegin and
representatives of other Christian denominations also observed a minute of
silence in memory of the victims of all wars.
“Let us unambiguously urge that arms be set aside and military spending reduced,
in order to provide for humanitarian needs, and that instruments of death be
turned into instruments of life,” Francis said in his address at the event
reported by the Vatican news service.
Garegin spoke at the conference organized by the St. Egidio Community, a lay
Catholic association, earlier on Thursday.
Meeting with Francis on Wednesday, Garegin focused on the aftermath of last
year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war. A statement by his office said he touched upon
“current challenges facing Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh” and stressed the need
for the release of dozens of Armenian soldiers and civilians still held by
Azerbaijan.
“The Armenian Pontiff also expressed his gratitude to His Holiness Pope Francis
for the support to the Armenian people and Armenia during the war,” added the
statement.
It said Francis greeted after the conversation members of an Armenian delegation
accompanying Garegin. They included Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights
ombudsman.
Tatoyan said afterwards that he handed the pontiff copies of his offices’
reports on what he called Azerbaijani atrocities committed during and after the
six-week war.
The delegation headed also held a separate meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
the Vatican secretary of state. Garegin’s office said they discussed “issues
related to the security of the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the
encroachments on the sovereign territories of Armenia as well as the
preservation of the Armenian spiritual and cultural heritage in the territories
under the control of Azerbaijan.”
Francis saluted Armenia for making Christianity an “essential part of its
identity” when he visited the South Caucasus nation in June 2016. He and Garegin
held an ecumenical liturgy in Yerevan’s central square which attracted thousands
of people. The two religious leaders praised the “growing closeness” between
their churches in a joint declaration issued at the end of the papal trip.
While in Armenia, Francis also reaffirmed his recognition of the 1915 Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey, prompting a strong condemnation from Ankara.
Iranian Minister Upbeat On Transport Links With Armenia
• Heghine Buniatian
Armenia - A cargo terminal at a border crossing with Iran, November 29, 2018.
(Photo by the State Revenue Committee of Armenia)
The Iranian minister of roads and urban development indicated on Thursday Iran
will fully restore soon its transport links with neighboring Armenia which have
been disrupted by an Azerbaijani checkpoint setup on the main road connecting
the two states.
In a Twitter post, Rostam Qassemi predicted a complete change of “the transit
map of the region.”
Qassemi’s deputy Kheirollah Khademi visited Armenia earlier this week to discuss
with Armenian officials the ongoing reconstruction of an alternative road in
Armenia’s Syunik province which will allow Iranian trucks bypass the Azerbaijani
roadblock. Khademi said Tehran is ready to help Yerevan refurbish this and other
Syunik roads leading to the Iranian border.
Khademi said on his return to Iran that work on the bypass road will be
completed soon. Speaking with reporters at the Nurduz crossing on the
Iranian-Armenian border, he said Iran and Armenia also reached agreements on
extending that road northwards.
“Thanks to special instructions issues to the deputy minister, the issue of the
road running from Nurduz to Armenia and the Caucasus corridor will be solved,”
tweeted Qassemi.
“Those who caused problems must know that no road can remain closed for us. But
‘burned bridges’ will not be restored easily,” he said in an apparent message to
Azerbaijan.
The Armenian government controversially ceded to Azerbaijan a 21-kilometer
section of the existing main highway connecting Armenia to Iran shortly after
last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani police and customs set up the
checkpoint there on September 12 to levy hefty fees from Iranian trucks
transporting cargo to Iran. Tensions between Tehran and Baku have run high since
then.
The Iranian military launched last week large-scale military exercises on the
country’s border with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has
criticized the drills. He has also rejected Iranian claims that Baku is
harboring Middle Eastern “terrorists” as well as Israeli security personnel near
Iran’s borders.
A senior Iranian parliamentarian reportedly accused Aliyev on Monday of trying
to “cut Iran’s access to Armenia” with the help of Turkey and Israel. Visiting
Moscow on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned
that Tehran will not tolerate any “changes in the region’s map.”
Pashinian Deplores Armenia’s Slow Vaccine Rollout
• Marine Khachatrian
ARMENIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian receives a shot of COVID-19
vaccine in Yerevan, May 3, 2021
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday lambasted health authorities and
other state bodies over the continuing slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations in
Armenia.
“Our vaccination numbers are bad, very bad, and you must not blame others,” he
told government officials during a weekly session of his cabinet. “This applies
to all people sitting in this hall.”
The Ministry of Health reported earlier this week that just over 517,000 vaccine
shots have been administered in Armenia since the launch of its government’s
immunization campaign in April. Only about 165,000 people making up less than 6
percent of the country’s population were fully vaccinated as of October 4.
Speaking during the cabinet meeting, Health Minister Anahit Avanesian
acknowledged that the vaccination process remains slow despite having
accelerated in recent weeks. She blamed that on individuals and groups
“maliciously” spreading false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and their side
effects.
Pashinian rejected the explanation. “I set a task for you,” he said. “Don’t tell
me who is obstructing and who is not. Just go and accomplish it. I mean the
Ministry of Health, other state bodies.”
The authorities, Pashinian went on, must use their “administrative levers” to
speed up the process. He ordered law-enforcement authorities to crack down on
medics who he said issue bogus vaccination certificates to individuals unwilling
to get inoculated against COVID-19.
“Detain, arrest them,” he said. “Very strict measures must also be taken against
those doctors who exploit the situation to not vaccinate people and to spoil
vaccines.”
The government has already taken administrative measures in a bid to have many
more Armenians get vaccinated. A recent directive signed by Avanesian requires
virtually all public and private sector employees refusing vaccination to take
coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense.
The requirement took effect on October 1, prompting protests from some
opposition politicians and anti-vaccine campaigners. Critics say, in particular,
that many people can hardly afford regular coronavirus tests.
Pashinian dismissed such complaints, saying that they can avoid such
expenditures by getting free vaccine shots.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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