Author: Hovik Karapetian

                                        Thursday, December 24, 2020
Former Culture Minister Wanted On Corruption Charges
December 24, 2020
Armenia -- Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosian at a press conference in Yerevan, 
July 29, 2015.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency has brought corruption charges against former 
Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosian and a prominent diplomat.
The Investigative Committee said on Thursday that Poghosian had abused her 
position to misappropriate a state-owned historic building in downtown Yerevan 
and land occupied by it.
The property, worth an estimated 201 million drams ($383,000) in the early 
2000s, housed a non-governmental cultural organization of which Poghosian was 
the deputy chairperson.
The Investigative Committee claimed that shortly after being appointed as 
culture minister in 2006 she illegally privatized the property before selling it 
to an offshore-registered company owned by one of her relatives. The company 
paid only $550 for it, the committee added in a statement.
The statement also said that the complex fraud scheme was facilitated by Armen 
Smbatian, who headed the NGO in question and was Armenia’s ambassador to Russia 
at the time.
Poghosian, who served as culture minister from 2006-2016, has been charged with 
abuse of power and money laundering. According to the statement, law-enforcement 
bodies will try to track down and arrest her, suggesting that she may not be in 
Armenia at present.
Smbatian stands accused of assisting in the alleged abuse of power. The 
Investigative Committee said he posted bail and was not arrested. It was not 
clear if he will plead guilty to the accusation.
Smbatian most recently served as Armenia’s ambassador to Israel. The Armenian 
government recalled him shortly after the outbreak of the war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27 in protest against continuing Israeli arms 
supplies to Azerbaijan.
Court Blocks Arrest Of Anti-Pashinian Mayor
December 24, 2020
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Goris Mayor Arush Arushanian.
An Armenian court refused on Thursday to allow investigators to arrest the mayor 
of the town of Goris who was prosecuted after calling for civil disobedience 
against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The 29-year-old mayor, Arus Arushanian, was among the heads of more than a dozen 
communities in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province who issued earlier this 
month statements condemning Pashinian’s handling of the war with Azerbaijan and 
demanding his resignation.
Arushanian urged Goris residents late on Sunday to block a regional highway and 
not allow Pashinian to visit Syunik. He was arrested several hours later for 
organizing what the Investigative Committee considers an illegal protest. A 
Yerevan court of first instance ordered the committee to free Arushanian on 
Tuesday.
Shortly after the order the law-enforcement agency indicted Arushanian on a 
string of charges, including abuse of power, illegal entrepreneurship and 
assault. It also requested a court permission to arrest him again.
A Yerevan judge refused to grant such permission. According to Arushanian’s 
lawyer, Armen Melkonian, the judge found no legal grounds for the mayor’s 
pre-trial detention.
Melkonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that his client was again summoned to 
the Investigative Committee for questioning later on Thursday. Arushanian 
rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
On Wednesday, the committee indicted and moved to arrest the mayor of another 
Syunik town who has called for Pashinian’s resignation. Manvel Paramazian, who 
has run the town of Kajaran since 2016, was charged with kidnapping and 
assaulting another man in April this year.
Russia Vows Continued Relief Aid To Karabakh
December 24, 2020
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Local residents repair a roof with construction materials 
supplied by Russia as humanitarian aid, November 25, 2020.
Russian Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev has visited Armenia and Azerbaijan 
to discuss Moscow’s continuing humanitarian assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Zinichev held talks on Wednesday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as his Armenian and Azerbaijani 
counterparts.
According to Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergencies, he “expressed 
readiness to conduct an additional assessment of the humanitarian needs” of 
civilian areas in Karabakh gravely affected by the recent war and to provide 
them with more aid.
“The main objective of the ongoing humanitarian operation is a quick restoration 
of peaceful life in the region,” a ministry statement quoted Zinichev as saying.
In another statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said a fresh batch of 
Russian aid was delivered to Karabakh on Wednesday. It included construction 
materials, heaters and other household appliances.
RUSSIA - Personnel and equipment of a Russian Emergencies Ministry unit is 
examined at the Noginsk Rescue Center before being sent to Nagorno-Karabakh on 
humanitarian mission, November 23, 2020.
Russia deployed about 2,000 peacekeeping troops in Karabakh shortly after 
brokering the Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement that stopped the six-week 
war on November 10. It also opened in Stepanakert a “center for humanitarian 
reaction.”
The center coordinates ongoing Russian-led demining operations in Karabakh and 
is also tasked with helping to rebuild homes and public infrastructure destroyed 
or seriously damaged during the hostilities.
Zinichev’s ministry claims to have sent a total of 1,500 tons of relief supplies 
to Karabakh so far. Pashinian thanked Moscow for this assistance when he met 
with Zinichev in Yerevan.
The war displaced an estimated 90,000 ethnic Armenian residents of Karabakh 
making up 60 percent of the disputed territory’s population. Most of them fled 
to Armenia. Officials say that at least 42,000 refugees have returned to 
Karabakh since the start of the Russian peacekeeping operation.
Pashinian Seeks To Allay Concerns Over Armenian Border Region
December 24, 2020
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- An opposition protester stands against the backdrop of riot police 
protecting the main Armenian government building in Yerevan, December 24, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on Thursday that the latest Armenian 
troop withdrawals resulting from the Russian-brokered ceasefire in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone did not endanger the security of Armenia’s 
southeastern Syunik province.
Pashinian again sought to reassure Syunik’s population amid continuing street 
protests in Yerevan staged by opposition parties demanding his resignation.
Syunik borders the Zangelan and Kubatli districts southwest of Karabakh which 
were mostly recaptured by Azerbaijan during the recent war. Armenian army units 
and local militias completed late last week their withdrawal from parts of the 
districts close to the provincial capital Kapan and many other communities.
Many local residents are now seriously concerned about their security as well as 
the safety of the main provincial highway running along a 20-kilometer stretch 
of the Soviet-era Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Hundreds of them blocked another 
section of the highway on Monday to bar Pashinian from visiting the mountainous 
region. The prime minister cut short his visit as a result.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Pashinian reiterated that “not 
a single inch” of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory has been ceded 
to Azerbaijan.
“What is happening at this stage is a geolocation of some border sections the 
operational purpose of which is to ensure security … Our position is that with 
these actions we are enhancing security guarantees for Syunik and creating a new 
security system of Armenia,” he said.
Pashinian admitted at the same time that this process could result in “painful 
situations” for two Syunik villages. He implied that some of their houses and 
agricultural lands could end up under Azerbaijani control.
Armenia -- Riot police clash with opposition protesters outside the main 
Armenian government building in Yerevan, December 24, 2020.
As Pashinian addressed his ministers several hundred opposition supporters 
demonstrated outside the main government building and tried to disrupt the 
weekly cabinet meeting. Some of them clashed with security forces deployed in 
and around the building. Several protesters were detained on the spot.
“Our country will be increasingly unprotected as long as Nikol Pashinian remains 
prime minister,” Gegham Manukian, a leader of the opposition Armenian 
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), told the angry crowd.
Dashnaktsutyun is a key member of a coalition of more than a dozen opposition 
groups holding demonstrations in a bid to force Pashinian to resign. They blame 
him for the Armenian side’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan and want him to 
hand over power to an interim government that would hold snap parliamentary 
elections within a year. Pashinian and his political allies reject these demands
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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