Author: Hambardsumian Paul

                                        Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Opposition Lawmaker In ‘Grave Condition’ After Arrest
September 01, 2021
        • Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Armen Charchian of the opposition Hayastan alliance arrives for a 
session of the Armenian parliament.
A prominent Armenian surgeon and opposition parliamentarian suffered a heart 
attack one day after being arrested again last week, his lawyer said on 
Wednesday, demanding his immediate release.
Armen Charchian, who headed Yerevan’s Izmirlian Medical Center, is prosecuted 
for allegedly pressuring his subordinates to vote in the June 20 parliamentary 
elections. He was first arrested three days after being elected to the Armenian 
parliament on the main opposition Hayastan alliance’s ticket.
Charchian, who rejects the accusations as politically motivated, was released 
from custody on bail at the start of his trial a month later. He was sent back 
to jail on August 23 after Armenia’s Court of Appeals overturned the decision 
made by the judge presiding over the trial.
Charchian was rushed to Yerevan’s Nork-Marash Medical Center, a heart clinic, 
the following day. The hospital director, Mikael Adamian, confirmed on Wednesday 
that the 61-year-old suffered a heart attack.
Adamian described his current condition as “moderately grave” and said the 
opposition lawmaker, who also suffers from diabetes, must remain in the hospital.
Charchian’s lawyer, Erik Andreasian, demanded, meanwhile, an immediate court 
hearing on his petition to release his client on bail.
“Mr. Charchian cannot remain under arrest in these circumstances,” said 
Andreasian.
The lawyer and the Hayastan alliance say that Charchian’s arrest was illegal 
because it was not allowed by the parliament. Prosecutors counter that he did 
not enjoy parliamentary immunity from prosecution because he was indicted before 
being elected to the National Assembly.
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (R) greets Armen Charchian, director 
of the Izmirlian Medical Center, during a rally in Yerevan, May 9, 2021.
Charchian is one of three jailed members of the parliament representing the 
opposition bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian. The two others were 
arrested in July on separate corruption charges also strongly denied by them.
Charchian was charged with coercing voters after a non-governmental organization 
publicized a leaked audio recording of his pre-election meeting with the 
Izmirlian Medical Center staff. He told them that they must participate in the 
elections or face “much tougher treatment” by the hospital management.
The doctor has insisted that he only asked his staffers to vote on June 20 and 
did not threaten to fire anyone.
Aleksanian has argued, for his part, that the leaked audio contains only a short 
excerpt from Charchian’s comments made at the meeting. According to him, a 
longer recording presented by the defense lawyers shows that the then hospital 
chief made clear he will not resort to “repressions” against anyone refusing to 
go to the polls.
Azerbaijan Accused Of Starting Wildfires In Armenian Border Area
September 01, 2021
        • Susan Badalian
Armenia - Wildfires rage near the Armenian border village of Kut, September 1, 
2021.
Armenian officials have accused Azerbaijani troops of starting wildfires near 
two border villages in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province to inflict more damage on 
local farmers.
The villages of Sotk and Kut are situated along one of the portions of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border which Azerbaijani forces reportedly crossed in May 
to advance a few kilometers into Armenian territory.
The wildfires reportedly erupted there on Monday, destroying pastures and hay 
stacks belonging to villagers heavily dependent on animal husbandry. According 
to local officials, 160 hectares of land was burned down on Tuesday alone.
The fires were extinguished around Sotk but continued to rage near Kut on 
Wednesday. Photographs and videos circulated by Armenian media outlets showed 
firefighters and local residents trying to put out flames manually.
Gevorg Galstian, the head of the Gegharkunik branch of the Armenian Rescue 
Service, said the area’s mountainous terrain makes it impossible for his 
firefighters to use fire engines.
Hakob Avetian, the mayor of a Gegharkunik community comprising Sotk and Kut, 
charged that Azerbaijani soldiers deployed on nearby hills set fire to the local 
fields.
“They roll down a burning tire and it spreads the fire. That is done 
deliberately,” Avetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service by phone.
“They spread fires in those directions where they can cause more damage,” he 
said, pointing to hay that was collected and stacked by local farmers for their 
livestock.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, also blamed the fires on 
Azerbaijani troops deployed in the “sovereign territory of Armenia.”
“As a result of these actions taken by Azerbaijani servicemen, pastures 
belonging to civilian residents are being destroyed and people are being 
deprived of their livelihoods,” Tatoyan said in a statement released late on 
Tuesday.
Baku denied that its forces deliberately caused the wildfires. It also maintains 
that they did not cross into Armenian territory in May.
The farmers in Sotk, Kut and two nearby villages lost access to some of their 
traditional summer pastures as a result of the Azerbaijani troop advances.
Another Armenian Soldier Killed On Azeri Border
September 01, 2021
Armenia - Armenian soldiers walk through their positions along Armenia's border 
with Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan exclave, July 22, 2021.
An Armenian soldier was shot dead on Wednesday in what the Defense Ministry in 
Yerevan described as a fresh Azerbaijani truce violation at a volatile section 
of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
A ministry statement said the 39-year-old Sergeant Gegham Sahakian died when 
Armenian army units deployed outside the village of Yeraskh bordering 
Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave came under cross-border fire.
The statement said that the Azerbaijani actions “will not go unanswered” and 
that Baku will bear responsibility for the “escalation of the situation.”
The Azerbaijani military denied violating the ceasefire regime in the area about 
70 kilometers south of Yerevan.
Tensions along that border section rose dramatically in mid-July after more than 
two decades of relative calm. Sahakian is the third Armenian soldier killed 
there since then.
Yeraskh’s mayor, Radik Oghikian, was gravely wounded as cross-border skirmishes 
in the area adjacent to northeastern Turkey escalated later in July.
The Armenian military says that the skirmishes began after Azerbaijani troops 
tried to move their border posts closer to its Yeraskh positions.
Tensions have also been running high at other portions of the border where 
Azerbaijani forces reportedly crossed into Armenian territory in May.
Armenia’s Hospitals Again Under Strain As COVID-19 Cases Rise
September 01, 2021
        • Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Medics look after a COVID-19 patient at the Nork Hospital for 
Infectious Diseases, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
Hospitals in Armenia are again struggling to cope with coronavirus cases that 
began slowly but steadily rising more than two months ago.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday morning that 615 people 
tested positive for the coronavirus in the past day, up from less than 100 cases 
a day routinely recorded in early and mid-June. It also registered 15 more 
deaths directly or indirectly caused by COVID-19.
Deputy Health Minister Gevorg Simonian rang alarm bells over the epidemiological 
situation late on Tuesday, saying that it is “increasingly deteriorating.”
In a Facebook post, Simonian warned that the 14 hospitals across the country 
treating COVID-19 patients have only 235 vacant beds at the moment. “About 700 
patients are in a severe and 125 others in a critical condition,” he wrote.
“The situation is really tense and concerning,” Naira Stepanian, the deputy 
director of Yerevan’s Nork Hospital for Infectious Diseases, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service on Wednesday.
“Phone calls received by us have begun increasing again. Behind every phone call 
is a [coronavirus] case evaluated as severe or critical,” she said.
According to Stepanian, the Nork hospital’s intensive-care unit had only two 
available beds as of Wednesday morning. Virtually all patients treated there 
were under the age of 60, a further sign that the more contagious Delta variant 
of the coronavirus has become prevalent in Armenia as well.
In response to the latest resurgence of coronavirus cases, the Armenian 
government has pledged in recent weeks to toughen its lax enforcement of 
anti-epidemic rules imposed by it last year. The rules include mandatory mask 
wearing inside buses, shops and offices.
Most Armenians still do not wear masks indoors, however.
The spread of the disease is also facilitated by a very slow pace of the 
government’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign launched in April.
According to the Ministry of Health, a total of 275,138 vaccine shots were 
administered in the country of about 3 million as of August 29. Only 98,586 
people making up less than 5 percent of the population were fully vaccinated.
The ministry has recorded just over 6,000 coronavirus-related deaths to date.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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