Wednesday,
Lawyers Appeal Against Ex-Minister’s Arrest
• Nane Sahakian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian attends a parliament session in
Yerevan, November 16, 2015.
Lawyers for former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian on Wednesday appealed
against a law-enforcement agency’s decision to arrest him on suspicion of
corruption.
The National Security Service (NSS) detained Khachatrian late on Tuesday after
searching his and his relatives’ homes and offices. The NSS director, Artur
Vanetsian, said he is suspected of abusing his powers and misusing “tens of
millions of dollars” worth of public funds while in office.
Khachatrian, who had also ran Armenia’s tax and customs services during former
President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule, was indicted on Tuesday as part of a separate
corruption inquiry conducted by another law-enforcement body, the Special
Investigative Service (SIS).
One of his lawyers, Yerem Sargsian, criticized the arrest, saying that his
client had never attempted to go into hiding. It would have been more
“reasonable” to have Khachatrian sign a pledge not to leave Armenia pending
investigation, instead of taking him into custody, Sargsian told reporters.
The NSS did not indict the former official, who is reputed to be one of the
country’s richest men, as of Wednesday evening. Nor did it shed more light on
the criminal case.
In Sargsian’s words, one of the accusations brought against Khachatrian stems
from NSS claims that some employees of the State Revenue Committee (SRC)
systematically did not report for work but still got paid by the government
agency.
“This raises the question of to what extent Mr. Khachatrian was responsible for
that,” said the lawyer. He also suggested that the alleged fraud could not have
cost the state the “tens of millions of dollars” cited by Vanetsian.
Khachatrian, 53, had held various positions in the tax and customs services for
over a decade preceding his appointment as SRC chief in 2008. He headed the tax
collection agency until 2014 and served as Armenia’s finance minister for the
next two years.
Throughout his tenure Khachatrian was dogged by corruption allegations. He
always denied illegally enriching himself and his family.
The NSS said on Tuesday that it began investigating Khachatrian in February
this year. This raised questions about the timing of his arrest. Some
commentators speculated that it is aimed at deflecting public attention from
the Armenian government’s possible decision to allow a Western company to
restart a controversial gold mining project resisted by environmentalists and
some opposition groups.
Two opposition lawmakers opposed to mining operations at the Amulsar deposit
cast doubt on the credibility of that speculation. “If it’s a [government]
ploy, then it’s a failed ploy,” one of them, Naira Zohrabian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service.
“Amulsar is a bigger issue than the arrest of [Robert] Kocharian, Serzh
Sarkisian, Gagik Khachatrian or anyone else,” said Edmon Marukian, the leader
of the opposition Bright Armenia Party.
Marukian at the same time welcomed Khachatrian’s arrest. “I hope that
[law-enforcement authorities] will not stop there,” he said.
Moody’s Upgrades Armenia’s Ratings
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - A view of the center of Yerevan and Mount Ararat, February 17, 2013.
Moody’s Investors Service has revised upward its credit ratings for Armenia and
forecast continued economic growth in the country.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ratings agency said it has upgraded
Armenia’s “local and foreign currency long-term issuer and foreign currency
senior unsecured debt ratings” to Ba3 from B1. “The outlook has been changed to
stable from positive,” said the statement.
“Moody's has concurrently raised Armenia's long-term local currency bond and
deposit ceilings to Baa2 from Baa3,” it added. “The long-term foreign currency
bond ceiling and long-term foreign currency deposit ceiling have also been
raised to Ba1 from Ba2 and B1 from B2, respectively.”
Moody’s also offered a positive outlook for the Armenian economy, saying that
it should grow by at least 5.5 percent annually in the coming years. “The
sectors that have contributed to 2018 growth will continue expand solidly, such
as tourism, information technology (IT), and light manufacturing, including of
textiles,” it said. “In particular, ongoing investments in hotels will raise
tourism capacity, new textile factories are being built, and the number of IT
sector companies and projects are growing rapidly.”
Moody’s was particularly encouraged by the long-running rapid expansion of the
Armenian IT industry, saying that it is “providing a strong foundation for the
development of a skills- and knowledge-based economy.”
The Western agency went on to praise the Armenian authorities’ fiscal and
monetary policies contributing to macroeconomic stability. “Moody's expects
Armenia's government debt burden to decline steadily from currently moderate
levels of around 51 percent of GDP as of the end of 2018,” it said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was quick to seize upon the ratings upgrades.
“This is a really important development which increases international
confidence in the Armenian economy and makes our country considerably more
attractive to investors,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Bagrat Asatrian, an economist who ran the Central Bank of Armenia in the 1990s,
likewise stressed the importance of the Moody’s statement. “In essence it
reflects positive changes that have occurred in our economy,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service.
Asatrian singled out the easing of the debt burden anticipated by Moody’s. “For
many years our public debt grew,” he said. “That growth has stopped and we have
even started having a reduction [in the debt.]”
But another economist, Suren Parsian, reacted more cautiously, saying that
Moody’s had already assigned the same ratings to Armenia in 2015. Parsian also
said that steady and robust growth forecast by the agency will not necessarily
materialize
“If we want to have dynamic growth in the medium and long terms we have to
revise our economic system and institutions, which has not been done,” he said.
Pashinian Ally Blasts ‘Selective Environmentalism’ In Armenia
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan,
June 24, 2019.
A close political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday hit out
at people vocally opposed to the Amulsar mining project, saying that many of
them know little about it and ignore other environmental issues facing Armenia.
“Many, many people writing ‘Save Amulsar’ on Facebook simply don’t know where
Amulsar is physically located in the territory of Armenia,” said deputy
parliament speaker Alen Simonian. “But when trees were cut down in [forests
around] Dilijan and Ijevan this selective environmentalism was not in action
for some reason.”
The Amulsar issue came to the fore after Pashinian indicated on August 19 his
intention to enable a British-American company, Lydian International, to mine
and smelt gold at the massive deposit located in the southeastern Vayots Dzor
province. He cited the findings of an independent environmental audit that was
conducted by a Lebanese firm, ELARD, contracted by the Armenian government.
In its final report released earlier in August, ELARD concluded, among other
things, that toxic waste from the would-be Amulsar mine is extremely unlikely
to contaminate mineral water sources in the nearby resort town of Jermuk or
rivers and canals flowing into Lake Sevan.
Armenian environmental activists denounced Pashinian’s statement. They as well
as protesters blocking the roads leading to Amulsar maintain that the project
would wreak havoc on the environment.
Opposition politicians and even some parliament deputies from Armenia’s ruling
My Step alliance have also spoken out against the U.S.-backed project. But
other My Step lawmakers have voiced support for Lydian’s renewed operations at
Amulsar disrupted by the protesters in June 2018.
Simonian downplayed those differences when he spoke to reporters after a
meeting of My Step’s parliamentary faction chaired by speaker Ararat Mirzoyan.
He insisted that they will not cause a split within Pashinian’s bloc.
“It’s up to the government, not the parliament faction, to make a decision on
the [Amulsar] issue,” said Simonian. “We will discuss the issue only if it
comes to the National Assembly.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak,” a newspaper owned by Pashinian’s family, commented on the
Amulsar controversy and other challenges facing Armenia in an editorial
published on Wednesday.
“In this situation, the government has to not only solve the problems but also
overcome the resistance of the entrenched [state] system,” the paper
complained. “But one gets the impression that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is
doing that single-handedly or with the help of a handful of ministers and
parliament deputies and that others are waiting on the sidelines to see how all
this ends.”
Simonian would not say whether he thinks that Pashinian warned his loyalists
through the “Haykakan Zhamanak” article to fall in line with the government’s
position on Amulsar.
In his August 19 comments, Pashinian said that Lydian International will have
to stick to “unprecedentedly high environmental standards that have not been
applied in Armenia until now.”
He said that the government will also force other mining companies operating in
the country to gradually comply with those standards. Pashinian suggested that
some of them have sponsored the environmentalists’ campaign against Lydian in
an effort to kill the Amulsar project and thus avoid spending large sums of
money on improving their notoriously poor environmental records.
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” hits out at Armenia’s former leaders and their allies
accusing the current authorities of failing to address Armenia’s problems and
using former President Serzh Sarkisian as a scapegoat. “It is evident that the
root causes of all existing serious problems lie in the past,” writes the
pro-government paper. It says that it was the Sarkisian administration that
allowed a Western company to develop the Amulsar gold deposit, “drove Karabakh
out of the negotiation process” and failed to counter Azerbaijan’s military
buildup. “In this situation, the government has to not only solve the problems
but also overcome the resistance of the entrenched [state] system,” it says.
“But one gets the impression that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is doing that
single-handedly or with the help of a handful of ministers and parliament
deputies and that others are waiting on the sidelines to see how all this
ends,” continues “Haykakan Zhamanak.” “Solutions to these problems require not
only teamwork but also a full mutual understanding between the [ruling] team
and the public. The establishment of that mutual understanding is incumbent on
not only Nikol Pashinian. This applies to everyone: both the authorities and
the opposition. In a critical situation one cannot step aside, place the entire
responsibility on one man and then complain that he governs the country on his
own.”
Citing comments made this week by a senior official from the Investigative
Committee, “Zhamanak” suggests that the authorities have made a “political
decision” to allow the Lydian International company to restart the Amulsar
project. “Apparently the authorities just need some time to ensure proper
conditions for the exploitation of the mine,” speculates the paper. It says the
protesters blocking Lydian’s access to Amulsar remain unwilling to lift the
blockade, thereby creating an “impasse” for the authorities. A use of force
against them would reflect negatively on Pashinian’s popularity, it claims,
adding that the prime minister risks meeting the fate of other post-Soviet
revolutionary leaders whose tenures proved a “political fiasco.”
“Zhoghovurd” describes as “overdue” the arrest of former Finance Minister Gagik
Khachatrian, arguing that law-enforcement authorities began investigating him
immediately after last year’s “Velvet Revolution.” State prosecutors said as
recently as in March that Khachatrian is not under investigation. “But it turns
out now that not only a criminal case was opened but that Khachatrian
compensated the state for the damage [caused by him] and yet Prosecutor-General
Artur Davtian was not aware of that,” says the paper.
(Sargis Harutyunyan)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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