Author: Garnik Zakarian

                                        Friday, 
Former Armenian Security Chief Found Shot Dead (UPDATED)
        • Marine Khachatrian
        • Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia - Georgi Kutoyan, the former director of the National Security Service.
Georgi Kutoyan, who headed Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) in the 
final years of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule, was found shot to death 
in Yerevan on Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee, Naira Harutiunian, reported in 
the afternoon that Kutoyan’s body had a gunshot wound then it was discovered by 
his wife at his Yerevan apartment “a short while ago.”
Forensic experts and other officers of the law-enforcement agency are already 
“working at the scene,” Harutiunian wrote on Facebook.
A high-ranking Investigative Committee official, Artur Melikian, said later in 
the day that preliminary indications are that Kutoyan, 38, was killed by a 
gunshot fired at his head. But investigators also found dozens of bullets in the 
apartment and forensic experts will determine whether those were fired from the 
same pistol, he told reporters outside the apartment building cordoned off by 
police.
Melikian said that premeditated murder is therefore one of the theories of 
Kutoyan’s death considered by the investigators.
“We don’t yet have information that anyone heard gunshots,” he said, adding that 
more residents of the apartment block will be questioned in the coming days.
A lawyer by education, Kutoyan had worked as an assistant to Sarkisian from 2011 
until his surprise appointment as director of the NSS in February 2016. He was 
sacked by newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in May 2018 immediately 
after the “Velvet Revolution” that toppled the country’s former leader.
Kutoyan has made no public statements since then. He also kept a low profile 
during his tenure.
Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian talks to the newly appointed National 
Service Chief Georgi Kutoyan, 12Feb2016
Sarkisian offered condolences to Kutoyan’s family and said he is “deeply 
shocked” by the death of the former NSS chief whom described as a highly 
competent and “decent” individual. In a statement, the ex-president also called 
for public scrutiny of the unfolding probe of his death.
Armen Ashotian, the deputy chairman of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia 
(HHK), also expressed shock at the “murder” of Kutoyan. “This tragic incident is 
very strange and raises many questions,” he wrote, demanding a “transparent and 
comprehensive” investigation from law-enforcement authorities.
Edmon Marukian, the leader of another opposition party, Bright Armenia, likewise 
demanded that relevant authorities find “clear answers to many questions” 
resulting from the fatal shooting.
“This is an unexpected and shocking development which we need to seriously 
analyze and understand … what caused it,” Alen Simonian, a senior lawmaker 
representing the ruling My Step bloc, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Simonian suggested vaguely that Kutoyan’s death is one of the “echoes of the 
past which we are still hearing.” He declined to elaborate.
Kutoyan is the second former senior security official found shot dead in the 
last four months. Hayk Harutiunian, a former chief of the Armenian police, was 
found dead in his country house in September.
Harutiunian reportedly had a gunshot wound to his head. Investigators suggested 
that he committed suicide.
In the months leading up to his death, Harutiunian was repeatedly interrogated 
in an ongoing criminal investigation into the 2008 post-election violence in 
Yerevan. The Special Investigative Service, which is conducting that inquiry, 
told the Armenpress news agency that it never questioned Kutoyan as a witness or 
suspect.
The Investigative Committee and the NSS did not investigate or interrogate 
Kutoyan either, according to the committee spokeswoman.
Armenian Gas Operator May Seek Price Rise
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia - The Gazprom Armenia headquarters in Yerevan, October 31, 2014.
Armenia’s national gas distribution company owned by Russia’s Gazprom giant 
confirmed on Friday that it may ask public utility regulators to raise its 
retail prices set for households and corporate consumers.
“The company is discussing the issue of revising the tariffs,” said a spokesman 
for the Gazprom Armenia network. He did not specify the scale of the possible 
price rise.
The retail prices are set by the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PRSC). 
Its chairman, Garegin Baghramian, did not comment on the likelihood of their 
increase when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service. He said only that the two 
sides are continuing their discussions on “long-term pricing.”
The cost of Russian gas supplied to Armenian consumers remained unchanged after 
Gazprom raised its wholesale price for Armenia from $150 to $165 per thousand 
cubic meters in January 2019. This translated into additional major expenses for 
Gazprom Armenia, which already reported growing financial losses in the course 
of 2018. Armenian officials have said until now that the gas network can offset 
those losses through cost-cutting.
In a statement issued on New Year’s Eve, Gazprom announced that it will not 
raise further the price of gas supplied to its Armenian subsidiary at least 
before the end of 2020.
The announcement came after months of negotiations between Armenian and Russian 
government officials and Gazprom executives. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the issue when they met 
in Yerevan in October.
“We talked about a gas price for Armenia that will not break Armenia’s economic 
dynamics,” Pashinian said afterwards.
One of Pashinian’s deputies, Mher Grigorian, expressed confidence in November 
that the domestic gas tariffs will not rise before April 2020.
Armenian households currently pay 139 drams (30 U.S. cents) per cubic meter of 
Russian gas.
Parliament Attack Ringleader Appeals To Pashinian
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A screenshot of TV footage of gunmen opening fire in the Armenian 
parliament on 27 October, 1999.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s office on Friday confirmed reports that he has 
received a letter from the jailed man who led a deadly attack on the Armenian 
parliament in 1999.
The office declined to disclose the content of the letter sent by Nairi Hunanian.
An obscure former journalist, Hunanian led an armed group that burst into the 
National Assembly and sprayed it with bullets on October 27, 1999. Then Prime 
Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, parliament speaker Karen Demirchian and six other 
officials were killed in the shooting spree that thrust Armenia’s government 
into turmoil.
Hunanian accused the government of corruption and misrule and called for regime 
change as he held dozens of parliament deputies and government officials hostage 
following the killings. He and the four other gunmen, including his brother 
Karen and uncle Vram Galstian, surrendered to police after overnight 
negotiations with then President Robert Kocharian. The gunmen were subsequently 
tried and sentenced to life in prison.
Hunanian became eligible for parole in October last year because of having spent 
20 years in prison. He asked appropriate authorities to set him free. The 
application was rejected.
The jailed ringleader, who turned 54 recently, appears to have written to 
Pashinian shortly after law-enforcement authorities decided late last month 
resume a criminal investigation into the 1999 killings. They will presumably try 
to establish whether Hunanian’s armed group had powerful sponsors outside the 
parliament building.
Some relatives and supporters of the assassinated officials still suspect former 
Kocharian and his successor President Serzh Sarkisian (no relation to Vazgen), 
who was Armenia’s national security minister in October 1999, of masterminding 
the killings to eliminate powerful rivals. Both men repeatedly dismissed such 
suggestions during and after a serious political crisis caused by the killings.
Throughout his and his henchmen’s marathon trial Hunanian insisted that he 
himself had decided to seize the parliament without anybody's orders.
Press Review
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” accuses Armenia’s former rulers of plotting to overthrow 
the current government and alleges that members of the Constitutional Court are 
part of this creeping “coup.” “At any moment they may decide to declare Nikol 
Pashinian’s government illegal,” claims the paper. It says that they are not 
only spreading fake news but also trying to form “some counterweight against the 
authorities.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” complains that most Armenians still feel that people 
demonstrating against various government decisions or policies are definitely 
right. “The reasons for this sentiment are understandable,” writes the paper. 
“With a handful of exceptions, this has for decades been the case in Armenia. In 
hopes of solving their problems, victims of one or another injustice simply 
organized protests, having no other means of communication with the authorities 
… We now have a situation where everyone is by and large in favor of changes and 
believes that Armenia must become a more modern state. But everyone thinks that 
everything except the ‘traditional’ practices of their sphere must change.” The 
paper says that this sentiment is fanned and exploited by the country’s former 
leaders.
“Aravot” comments on Armenian reactions to Human Rights Watch’s latest annual 
report on human rights practices around the world, including Armenia. The paper 
says pro-government and opposition forces cherry-picked different parts of the 
report fitting their conflicting political agendas. “The authorities maintain 
that Human Rights Watch glorified Armenia’s post-revolution achievements while 
the oppositions are convinced that the organization voiced devastating criticism 
of the state of human rights in Armenia,” it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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