Author: Garnik Tadevosian

                                        Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Coronavirus Phone Tracking Launched In Armenia
April 7, 2020
        • Naira Bulghadarian
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- A deserted street in the center of Yerevan, April 7, 2020.
Armenian authorities have started accessing and using personal data from 
people’s mobile phones to fight against the coronavirus epidemic, a senior 
official said on Tuesday.
Armenia’s parliament controversially allowed them to track movements, phone 
calls and text messages of people infected with the virus as the number of 
COVID-19 cases in the country spread rapidly last week. Opposition lawmakers as 
well as civic activists condemned the move, questioning its effectiveness and 
voicing concern about privacy violations.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government has repeatedly ruled out using 
smartphone tracking for political purposes. It maintains that the extraordinary 
measure will make it easier for the authorities to trace people who have come 
into contact with COVID-19 patients.
Such people are to be identified by an electronic system using phone location 
and usage data.
According to an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who coordinates 
the government’s response to the epidemic, the new monitoring mechanism has 
already been launched.
“All personal data remains on mobile phone operators’ servers,” the official, 
Bagrat Badalian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We send them a phone number 
which is of interest to us; namely a patient’s phone number. The special 
software then determines the circle of their contacts.”
Armenia -- A woman wearing a face mask crosses a deserted street in Yerevan, 
April 7, 2020.
“When that circle is determined we receive the phone numbers of only those 
individuals who have potentially been in contact with the patient,” he said, 
adding that they are then ordered to self-isolate.
“If they leave their self-isolation sites information about that automatically 
goes to the police, which either telephones them or send a special group of 
officers to find out the reasons for their departure,” explained Badalian.
The isolated persons, the official went on, are also monitored by 
epidemiologists who may refer them to policlinics for coronavirus tests. “If a 
person is in serious need in terms of food supplies … that information is 
collected and passed on to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs so that it 
supplies them with food,” he said.
Badalian did not say how many Armenians exposed to infected persons have been 
identified through phone tracking so far.
The daily numbers of new coronavirus cases registered in Armenia have fallen in 
the last few days. The Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 20 people 
tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of 
COVID-19 cases to 853.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Monday that as part of their efforts 
to stem the spread of the virus the authorities are also planning to 
significantly expand COVID-19 testing. He said the daily number of such tests, 
which has varied between 200 and 400 in the last two weeks, will like reach 
1,000 by the end of this week.
Armenia -- Coronovirus testing at a hospital in Yerevan, April 7, 2020.
Medics hailed these plans, saying that the more extensive testing will ascertain 
the current incidence of the disease and the effectiveness of a nationwide 
lockdown and other measures taken by the authorities.
“A larger number of tests will show what is really happening in our country and 
whether or not it’s worth continuing mass testing,” said Arman Badalian, an 
epidemiology lecturer at Yerevan State Medical University.
Hasmik Ghazinian, a senior doctor at Yerevan’s Nork hospital treating the 
largest number of coronavirus patients in Armenia, agreed. “I welcome that 
decision because that’s how we can first and foremost determine how many 
infected people we have,” she said.
Government officials say that 60,000 test kits purchased from China will be 
delivered to Armenia later this week. The authorities also expect to receive 
thousands of more test kits from Russia.
Kocharian Again Sues Pashinian
        • Marine Khachatrian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian (second from right) and his lawyers 
attend a court hearing in Yerevan, January 9, 2020.
Armenia’s jailed former President Robert Kocharian has again filed a defamation 
lawsuit against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, it emerged on Tuesday.
A lawyer for Kocharian, Hayk Alumian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that his 
client is seeking 2 million drams ($4,000) in damages and the retraction of what 
he regards as false and slanderous claims made by Pashinian.
Alumian did not specify which of Pashinian’s recent statements prompted the 
lawsuit.
The premier again accused Kocharian as well as another ex-president, Serzh 
Sarkisian, and other former Armenian officials of having “plundered” Armenia 
when he campaigned for a constitutional referendum in early March. He did not 
immediately react to the news of the lawsuit.
Kocharian already sued Pashinian for slander in September 2018 two months after 
being first arrested on coup charges. He withdrew the suit in June 2019 after 
Pashinian clarified through a lawyer that he did not publicly accuse the 
ex-president of “organizing killings” during the 2008 post-election violence in 
Yerevan.
The coup charges leveled against Kocharian stem from that unrest which left 
eight opposition protesters and two police servicemen dead. The ex-president was 
also charged with bribe-taking a year ago. He rejects all charges as politically 
motivated.
The latest defamation suit was announced four days after Kocharian was taken 
back to Yerevan’s Kentron prison after spending more than three weeks in 
hospital. His lawyers renewed their demands for his release from custody, saying 
that the 65-year-old will risk being infected with coronavirus in the prison. 
Law-enforcement authorities countered that they are taking necessary 
precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus among prison inmates.
All Foreigners Banned From Entering Armenia
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Armenia - The Zvartnots international airport in Yerevan.
Armenia has banned virtually all foreign nationals from entering the country due 
to the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
The Armenian government imposed last month such a ban only on the citizens of a 
few dozen states, -- notably China, Iran, Italy and Spain -- that were hit 
hardest by coronavirus.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the government decided to 
extend the travel ban to the entire world because virtually all countries have 
recorded coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
In a statement, the ministry said that the ban will not cover those foreigners 
who are married to Armenians or have Armenian residency permits as well as 
foreign diplomats and representatives of international organizations. But it 
cautioned that they all will have to self-isolate or be put in quarantine 
immediately after entering the country.
Armenia’s land borders with neighboring Georgia and Iran were closed for travel 
in March, and virtually all airlines stopped flying to Yerevan and Gyumri by the 
beginning of this month. The latest government measure may therefore change 
little in practice.
According to the Foreign Ministry statement, the government expanded the travel 
ban on April 3 just before the spread of coronavirus in Armenia began slowing 
down.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 20 people tested 
positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of 
COVID-19 cases to 853. Twenty-five other Armenians recovered from the virus in 
the same period, according to the ministry.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian seized upon these figures to express “cautious 
optimism” about the government’s efforts to contain the epidemic. He again said 
that the government will consider easing a nationwide lockdown if the downward 
trend continues in the coming days.
Armenia has reported eight coronavirus-related deaths so far.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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