Author: Hovik Karapetian

                                        Sunday, 
Deadly Fighting Reported On Armenian-Azeri Border (UPDATED)
Armenia -- Soldiers pictured during a military exercise in Tavush, March 26, 
2019.
At least three Azerbaijani soldiers were reportedly killed and several others 
wounded in heavy fighting that broke out at a section of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Sunday.
The spokeswoman for Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Shushan Stepanian, said 
Azerbaijani forces shelled an Armenian army outpost in the northern Tavush 
province during a failed attempt to seize it. Stepanian said they suffered 
casualties while being repelled by Armenian soldiers stationed there.
“There are no casualties on the Armenian side,” she wrote on Facebook.
According to Stepanian, earlier in the afternoon a military vehicle carrying 
Azerbaijani soldiers tried to cross into Tavush “for reasons unclear to us.” The 
soldiers fled and left the vehicle behind after warning shots fired from the 
Armenian side, said the official.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that Armenian forces backed 
by artillery fire attacked its border posts in Azerbaijan’s western Tovuz 
district bordering Tavush. It said two Azerbaijani servicemen died and five 
others were wounded as a result.
The ministry reported a third Azerbaijani combat death later on Sunday.
The fighting reportedly continued into the early hours of Monday. The Defense 
Ministry in Yerevan said Azerbaijani troops are using a battle tank and mortars 
to continue shelling the same Armenian army post.
“Gunfire is periodically continuing with various intensity,” Stepanian, the 
ministry spokeswoman, said shortly after midnight. No Armenian soldier has been 
killed or wounded, she added.
The Azerbaijani military claimed, meanwhile, that Armenian forces are firing 
mortars on not only at Azerbaijani border positions but also a nearby 
Azerbaijani village.
Stepanian insisted in another overnight Facebook post that Armenian army units 
are targeting only Azerbaijani military facilities.
Armenia -- A view of the Tavush province bordering Azerbaijan, November 6, 2018.
Each side blamed the other for the escalation. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry 
accused Yerevan of heightening tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone 
and seeking to “seize more territory.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, insisted that the 
fighting was sparked by the Azerbaijani “attempts to infiltrate into Armenian 
positions.”
Naghdalian also tweeted that Armenia’s foreign and defense ministers are “in 
constant contact” with the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the 
OSCE Minsk Group over the latest escalation.
The mediators urged the conflicting parties to strengthen the ceasefire regime 
during a June 30 video conference with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign 
ministers. In a joint statement, they reiterated that “there is no military 
solution to the conflict.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev rejected that assertion and lambasted the 
Minsk Group co-chairs last week. He also threatened to pull out of “pointless 
negotiations” with Yerevan.
Both conflicting parties had reported deadly ceasefire violations in the same 
border area early this year. In March, the Armenian military claimed to have 
thwarted two incursions attempted by troops from Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard 
Service. No major incidents were reported there in the following months.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
 

                                        Friday, 
Armenia To Again Extend Coronavirus State Of Emergency
        • Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- A masked police officer patrols streets of Yerevan, .
The Armenia government said on Friday it will likely extend a state of emergency 
by yet another month due to the continuing coronavirus crisis in the country.
“In all likelihood, the decision to extend the state of emergency by another 
month will be made public on Monday,” Mane Gevorgian, the spokeswoman for Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
The government declared a one-month state of emergency on March 16 following the 
first outbreaks of the coronavirus registered in Armenia. It imposed a 
nationwide lockdown later in March.
The government began easing lockdown restrictions in mid-April. But it has 
extended emergency rule on a monthly basis since then, citing the rapidly 
growing number of new coronavirus cases.
Pashinian said earlier this week that the government has no choice but to resort 
to another extension due to the continuing spread of the deadly disease. He said 
it needs special powers to continue to make people wear mandatory face masks in 
public areas and to enforce other anti-epidemic rules.
Armenia has one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the world, with a 
total of 30,903 cases confirmed in the country of about 3 million so far. 
According to the Armenian Ministry of Health, 557 people tested positive for the 
virus on Thursday.
Armenia -- A healthcare worker clad in protective gear looks after COVID-19 
patients at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
The ministry also reported on Friday morning the deaths of 18 more people 
infected with COVID-19. It said COVID-19 was the primary cause of 11 of those 
deaths.
The official death toll thus rose to 546. The figure does not include 177 other 
infected people who the ministry says have died from other, pre-existing 
conditions.
Under Armenian law, the National Assembly has to meet for an emergency session 
immediately after the declaration or extension of emergency rule.
Ani Samsonian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Bright Armenia Party 
(LHK), said she and her colleagues will attend the upcoming session to question 
the government’s “very ineffective” strategy of dealing with the COVID-19 
pandemic.
“The number of new infections is not falling while the [number of] deaths is 
already very troubling,” Samsonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Arusyak Julhakian, a lawmaker representing Pashinian’s My Step bloc, dismissed 
the criticism. She argued, in particular, that Armenia’s coronavirus mortality 
rate is low by Western standards.
“If we speak of ineptness, then I think Ms. Samsonian should blame the entire 
world and say that the entire world has been inept and failed so far to defeat 
the pandemic,” said Julhakian.
Samsonian further suggested that the authorities will again extend the state of 
emergency also because they want to keep up the existing ban on street 
demonstrations. They are afraid of anti-government protests, she claimed.
“It’s not that thousands of people would take to the streets if there was no 
state of emergency,” countered Julhakian. “Our only fear is that if people 
gather in large numbers they will get infected.”
Tsarukian Again Criticizes Armenian Government
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia 
Party, arrives at the parliament to give a speech ahead of a vote that stripped 
him of immunity from prosecution, Yerevan, June 16, 2020.
Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the main opposition Prosperous Armenia Party 
(BHK), on Friday again accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government of 
mishandling the coronavirus crisis and its socioeconomic consequences.
But Tsarukian stopped short of explicitly demanding the government’s resignation 
this time around, saying more vaguely instead that “inept officials must be 
replaced by competent ones.”
“The authorities are said to be afraid of Tsarukian and this is why they 
launched a campaign against him,” he said in a lengthy statement. “They should 
not be afraid of Tsarukian. They should be afraid of hundreds of thousands of 
people left without work and income.”
Tsarukian, who is also a wealthy businessman, attacked the government and 
demanded its resignation at a June 5 meeting with senior BHK members. “We are 
losing the country,” he declared in a speech strongly condemned by Pashinian and 
the ruling My Step bloc.
Ten days later, Tsarukian was stripped of its parliamentary immunity from 
prosecution and indicted on vote buying charges rejected by him as politically 
motivated. He claims that Pashinian ordered the criminal proceedings in response 
to his speech.
The BHK leader said on Friday that the speech as a “wakeup call” to the 
government.
“I have reason to suspect that the authorities do not realize the real scale of 
problems,” he wrote. “They don’t realize that we will soon have 200,000-300,000 
new unemployed people, that tens of thousands of business are shutting down … 
that if we don’t rescue them today it will not be possible to revive them 
tomorrow.”
Tsarukian described Armenia’s coronavirus crisis as a “disaster” and accused the 
government of wasting public funds meant to shore up businesses affected by the 
pandemic. In these circumstances, the government should “get serious” and 
“listen to advice and proposals from others,” said the tycoon who was infected 
with COVID-19 last week and has not yet recovered from it.
While claiming that the current government has prevented him from creating 
thousands of new jobs, Tsarukian pledged to come up soon with “large-scale 
investment projects” that will mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic.
He said he will also strive to improve Armenia’s relations with Russia because 
he believes they are vital for his country’s national security and economic 
development. “Why would Russia’s big business … come to Armenia if our relations 
with Russia are tense?” he added.
BHK representatives did not clarify whether the indicted tycoon’s latest 
statement means that the Pashinian administration’s resignation is no longer on 
their party’s agenda.
For her part, Pashinian’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, declined to comment on 
the statement.
Tsarukian-Owned Casino Faces Closure
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- The Shangri La casino outside Yerevan.
A government body has revoked the operating license of a company managing 
Armenia’s largest casino owned by embattled businessman and opposition leader 
Gagik Tsarukian.
In its decision posted on a government website late on Thursday, a Ministry of 
Finance commission regulating gambling activities in the country said the Onira 
Club company failed to make in 2018 a mandatory payment to the state stemming 
from the license. The commission also accused it of violating an Armenian law on 
gambling.
The decision suggests that the Shangri La casino run by Onira will be shut down 
at least temporarily. The company, which is also part of Tsarukian’s Multi Group 
conglomerate, did not immediately react to it.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) accused Onira and Shangri La of 
large-scale fraud hours after searching Tsarukian’s villa as part of a separate 
criminal investigation on June 14. The NSS claimed that the financial 
irregularities cost the state more than 29 billion drams ($60 million) in damage.
Onira strongly denied the allegations in a statement issued on June 15. It also 
insisted that Tsarukian, who leads the main opposition Prosperous Armenia Party 
(BHK), was never directly involved in its day-to-day activities and cannot be 
held responsible for them.
Also on June 15, the Armenian parliament controlled by Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s My Step bloc voted to allow the NSS to arrest and prosecute 
Tsarukian on charges of buying votes during parliamentary elections held in 2017.
Tsarukian and his party strongly deny the accusations. They claim that Pashinian 
ordered the NSS to “fabricate” them in response to the BHK leader’s June 5 calls 
for the Armenian government’s resignation. The prime minister and his allies 
deny this.
A district court in Yerevan refused to sanction Tsarukian’s pre-trial arrest on 
June 21. The Court of Appeals overturned the verdict earlier this week. But it 
stopped short of allowing investigators to take the tycoon into custody, 
ordering the lower court instead to hold new hearings on the arrest warrant.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
 

                                        Monday, 
Opposition Party Demands Pashinian’s Interrogation
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Prosperous Armenia Party's Naira Zohrabian speaks during a parliament 
session, February 11, 2020.
A senior member of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) on Monday 
challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to substantiate his allegations that 
it has illegally bought votes in various national and local elections.
Naira Zohrabian said that law-enforcement authorities must summon Pashinian for 
questioning in connection with the allegations.
The National Security Service (NSS) indicted BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian 
immediately after the Armenian parliament lifted his immunity from prosecution 
on June 16. The NSS claims that the wealthy businessman “created and led an 
organized group” that bought more than 17,000 votes for the BHK during 
parliamentary elections held in 2017.
Tsarukian and his political allies reject the accusations as politically 
motivated. They say that Pashinian ordered the criminal proceedings in response 
to the BHK leader’s recent calls for the Armenian government’s resignation.
Pashinian again denied that when he spoke in the parliament controlled by his My 
Step bloc on June 25. “Is the fact that Prosperous Armenia has earned votes with 
bribes a revelation?” he said. “Is that a revelation for anyone?”
“I think that our law-enforcement system must also summon the prime minister and 
tell him to substantiate his information with facts,” countered Zohrabian. “We 
expect facts. If I had made such a statement they would have definitely summoned 
me the next day.”
“If I had said, for example, that we have information that various oligarchs, 
who used to work for the former authorities, very actively worked for one or 
another candidate of My Step in the 2018 parliamentary elections I would have 
been immediately summoned for questioning and told to come up with facts,” she 
said.
Pashinian’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, dismissed Zohrabian’s demand. “Yes, the 
prime minister said such a thing and he is not renouncing that statement,” she 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “As for who should be interrogated, that is 
decided by the relevant [investigating] body.”
In that regard, Gevorgian noted that a former Tsarukian associate, Abraham 
Manukian, was arrested late last week as part of the same inquiry.
Zohrabian claimed that Manukian’s arrest is aimed at “extracting testimony” 
against Tsarukian. A spokesman for Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian denied that.
On June 21, a Yerevan court refused to allow the NSS to arrest Tsarukian pending 
investigation. Prosecutors appealed against the ruling.
Tsarukian’s party controls 25 seats in Armenia’s 132-member National Assembly, 
making it the country’s leading parliamentary opposition force.
Parliament Majority Drafts More Amendments On Constitutional Court
        • Artak Khulian
        • Harry Tamrazian
Armenia -- The main meeting room of the Constitutional Court, Yerevan, September 
3, 2019.
The National Assembly will debate and almost certainly pass on Tuesday further 
legal amendments designed to complete the controversial dismissal of three of 
the nine members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court.
The parliament already approved on June 22 amendments to the Armenian 
constitution calling for their replacement by other judges to be appointed by 
its pro-government majority. The constitutional changes rejected by the 
opposition bar current and future Constitutional Court judges from serving more 
than 12 years.
The 12-year term limit was already included in the constitution when it was 
previously amended in April 2018. But it did not apply to the judges already 
serving. A clause in the amended constitution allowed these judges to retain 
their positions until reaching retirement age.
The latest amendments scrapped the clause, requiring the gradual resignation of 
seven members of the high court installed before April 2018. Three of them -- 
Alvina Gyulumian, Felix Tokhian and Hrant Nazarian -- are to resign with 
immediate effect. The amendments also stipulate that Hrayr Tovmasian must quit 
as court chairman but remain a judge.
Tovmasian and the three judges refused to step down, however. In a joint 
statement issued on Thursday, they argued that the authorities have not made 
similar changes to a separate law on the Constitutional Court which also exempts 
them from the 12-year term limit. Justice Minister Rustam Badasian dismissed 
their objections, saying that the constitution takes precedence over the law 
cited by them.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step was quick to draft 
relevant changes to the law in question. A senior My Step deputy, Vahagn 
Hovakimian, announced on Monday that they will be debated at an emergency 
session of the parliament scheduled for Tuesday. With Pashinian’s bloc 
controlling at least 88 of the 132 parliament seats, their swift passage is all 
but a forgone conclusion.
The chief of the Constitutional Court staff, Edgar Ghazarian insisted on 
Saturday that Tovmasian and the three other judges technically continue to 
perform their duties.
Tovmasian formally went on vacation late on Thursday, just hours before the 
constitutional changes came into force. Gyulumian said that she will temporarily 
head the court in his absence.
Pashinian and parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan countered, however, that the 
court’s acting chairman is Ashot Khachatrian, the oldest of the six other 
judges. Mirzoyan made a point of meeting with Khachatrian on Saturday.
Armenia - Constitutional Court Judge Alvina Gyulumian is interviewed by RFE/RL, 
Yerevan, November 15, 2019.
In a weekend interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Gyulumian maintained that 
she remains a high court justice. She further stood by her claims that the 
12-year term limit does not apply to her also because she most recently took the 
bench in 2014.
Gyulumian, 64, had also served as a Constitutional Court judge from 1996-2003. 
She says that those years cannot be added to the length of her current tenure.
Gyulumian again warned that she will challenge the legality of her ouster in the 
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). She was a member of the Strasbourg-based 
court from 2003-2014.
Tovmasian, Gyulumian and five other judges have been under strong government 
pressure to step down over the past year. Pashinian has accused them of 
maintaining close ties to the country’s former government and impeding his 
judicial reforms.
Tovmasian and opposition figures have dismissed Pashinian’s claims and in turn 
accused the prime minister of seeking to take control of the Constitutional 
Court.
In a written opinion made public on June 22, the Venice Commission of the 
Council of Europe largely backed the amendments drafted by the Armenian 
authorities. But it criticized the authorities’ refusal to introduce a 
transitional period that would “allow for a gradual change in the composition of 
the court in order to avoid any abrupt and immediate change endangering the 
independence of this institution.”
The Strasbourg-based body also said that the authorities should not rush to have 
Tovmasian replaced by another Constitutional Court chairman.
In a letter to Tovmasian publicized by the Constitutional Court on Friday, 
Venice Commission President Gianni Buquicchio reiterated that the amendments are 
“not in line” with the commission’s recommendations.
COVID-19 Outbreak In Armenian Parliament
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Deputies from the ruling My Step bloc at a parliament session in 
Yerevan, June 22, 2020.
At least a dozen deputies of Armenia’s 132-member parliament have reportedly 
been infected with the coronavirus amid the continuing spread of the disease in 
the country.
Vahe Enfiajian, a deputy parliament speaker, was the first to announce his 
positive test result on June 23. Several other deputies admitted testing 
positive in the following days.
Enfiajian said he has a fever but not pneumonia when he spoke to RFE/RL’s 
Armenian service from his home on Saturday. He insisted that he does not know 
who might have infected him.
“I always wore a mask in my office,” said the senior lawmaker affiliated with 
the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK).
Enfiajian said that several other BHK deputies have also tested positive for the 
virus and had to self-isolate. One of them, Arman Abovian, confirmed his 
infection on Saturday.
Abovian, who is a senior BHK member, said he does not know whether the party’s 
top leader, Gagik Tsarukian, has also been affected by the outbreak.
For the last two weeks BHK’s 25-strong parliamentary group has boycotted 
sessions of the National Assembly in protest against its pro-government 
majority’s June 16 decision to lift Tsarukian’s immunity from prosecution. The 
BHK leader is facing accusations of vote buying which he rejects as politically 
motivated.
The parliamentary majority representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step 
bloc has also been hit by COVID-19 infections. One of its deputies, Hayk 
Gevorgian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that he had a coronavirus test on June 
24 hours after showing some symptoms of the disease during a parliament session. 
He said he believe that he was infected inside the parliament building.
According to Gevorgian, there were 7 confirmed coronavirus cases among My Step 
deputies as of Saturday.
Another pro-government lawmaker, Karen Hambardzumian, admitted testing positive 
on Monday. “I am being examined in hospital,” he told the Armenpress news agency.
The Bright Armenia Party, the third political group represented in the 
parliament, said at the weekend that there have been no infections among its 
deputies so far.
Despite the outbreak, the parliament’s leadership reportedly decided on Monday 
to hold an emergency session of the parliament on Tuesday. It was not clear how 
it will try to prevent a further spread of the virus among deputies and 
parliament staffers.
The deputies have had to wear masks on the parliament floor and in their offices 
for the past month. The parliament statutes do not allow them to attend sessions 
and vote via a video link.
The Armenian health authorities have reported 25,127 coronavirus cases and at 
least 433 deaths caused by them so far.
Armenians Urged To Stay At Home
Armenia -- Medics clad in protective suits at Yerevan's Nork Hospital for 
Infectious Diseases treating coronavirus patients, June 5, 2020.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian urged people to stop meeting relatives and 
friends, avoid going to restaurants and stay at home “as much as possible” on 
Sunday as official statistics showed no letup in coronavirus infections in 
Armenia.
“We need a conscious lockdown, rather than an obligatory one,” Torosian wrote on 
his Facebook page. “We all must limit our nonessential contacts, movements, 
visits, events and meetings. We must stay at home as much as possible.”
“Do not visit your loved ones unless there a vital need for that,” he said.
Armenians, he said, must also minimize physical contact with neighbors, shun 
birthday parties and funerals, end sight-seeing day trips to the countryside and 
even refrain from evening strolls in streets or parks.
“Stop visiting cafes and restaurants,” added the minister. “These are the only 
places where you can be without a mask and infect each other.”
Armenia - A newly reopened cafe in downtown Yerevan, May 14, 2020.
The latter point prompted strong criticism from the Armenian Association of 
Restaurants. “Amid a sharp decrease in sales, such a categorical appeal looks 
like a death verdict for public food service companies,” it said in a statement.
The statement insisted that the vast majority of restaurants operate in “strict 
compliance” with safety and hygiene rules set by the Armenia government. It 
argued that restaurants flouting the rules are temporarily shut down by relevant 
authorities.
Torosian appealed to the population as the Armenian Ministry of Health 
registered 736 new coronavirus cases. The ministry reported 482 single-day 
infections the following morning. The decrease was apparently due to a smaller 
number of coronavirus tests carried out on Sunday.
According to the ministry, 7 more people died from COVID-19 in the past day, 
bringing Armenia’s official death toll to 433. The figure does not include the 
deaths of 143 other people who were also infected with the disease. The health 
authorities say that they were primarily caused by other, pre-existing 
conditions.
Armenia -- People walk in the center of Yerevan, June 10, 2020.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country of about 3 million reached 
25,127 by Monday morning. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged on Friday 
that Armenia now has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the world.
Despite the continuing spread of the virus, Pashinian has repeatedly indicated 
that his government has no plans to impose another lockdown and will continue 
instead to put the emphasis on getting more Armenians to practice social 
distancing and wear face masks in public. The premier said on Friday that the 
government is planning a further toughening of sanctions against people not 
complying with these rules.
The government issued stay-at-home orders and shut down schools, universities 
and most nonessential businesses at the start of the coronavirus crisis in late 
March. But it began easing those restrictions already in mid-April and all but 
ended the lockdown by the beginning of May.
The number of coronavirus cases has risen sharply since then. Critics say that 
the lockdown was lifted too soon.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.