Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Chinese Nationals Hospitalized In Armenia For Virus Tests
January 29, 2020
• Susan Badalian
China -- Medical staff members wear protective clothing to help stop the spread
of a deadly virus accompanying a patient as they walk into a hospital in Wuhan,
January 26, 2020.
Two Chinese citizens were taken on Wednesday to a hospital in Armenia and tested
there for possible cases of a dangerous new virus which has infected thousands
of people in China and killed at least 132 of them.
Officials in Yerevan said they were hospitalized after being barred from again
entering neighboring Georgia at the main Armenian-Georgian border crossing.
According to Liana Torosian, a senior official from the National Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, one of the Chinese travellers showed no symptoms
of any virus while the other only had a mild fever and is now undergoing an
X-ray examination of their lungs at a Yerevan hospital specializing in treatment
of infectious diseases.
“Let’s see what results the X-ray will produce,” Torosian told reporters. “The
condition of both patients is satisfactory at the moment. They will certainly
remain under medical surveillance in separate insulated wards.”
Torosian insisted that the likelihood of either Chinese national suffering from
the new kind of coronavirus is low because they had left China before the
disease outbreak. “During the entire [two-week disease] incubation period they
were in Georgia and Armenia and had no health issues,” she said.
There have been around 6,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus nationwide in
China so far. Dozens of other cases have been confirmed outside mainland China
as well, including in Europe, North America, and elsewhere in Asia.
Nobody has been diagnosed with the coronavirus in Armenia, according to the
country’s medical authorities. Speaking at a joint news conference with
Torosian, Deputy Health Minister Lena Nanushian said Armenia is considered a
low-risk zone for the spread of the virus not least because of the absence of
direct flights to China. Nanushian said the health authorities are examining
Armenian citizens returning from China via third countries and taking other
precautions.
The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan last week advised Armenians to refrain from
travelling to China for now. It said six Armenians live in the Chinese city of
Wuhan lying at the epicenter of the outbreak.
Torosian admitted that the authorities currently lack the capacity to
definitively detect cases of the coronavirus through laboratory testing. But she
said they should be equipped to do so by the end of next week.
High Court Chief Again Rules Out Resignation
January 29, 2020
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Constituional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian speaks to journalists,
Yerevan, December 27, 2019.
Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian has said that he will not step
down despite facing criminal charges and growing pressure from Armenia’s
political leadership.
“What doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger,” Tovmasian told 168.am in a video
interview posted late on Tuesday. “I will not respect myself if I back away, for
the reasons mentioned by you, from the issues, the mission assigned to me.”
“You would not respect me, nobody would respect me [in that case,] and I would
consider that a humiliation,” he said, adding that he will therefore “fight to
the end” in the increasingly acrimonious standoff.
The remarks followed a series of renewed verbal attacks on him launched by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian. Speaking at a weekend news conference, Pashinian
labeled Tovmasian as a “representative of the corrupt former regime” who
“offered his services” and cozied up to him following the 2018 “Velvet
Revolution.”
Pashinian went on to state that law-enforcement authorities’ allegations that
Tovmasian illegally became the head of Armenia highest court shortly before the
revolution are “effectively proven and irrefutable.”
Tovmasian deplored that claim, saying that Pashinian violated the presumption of
innocence guaranteed by the Armenian constitution.
“Are you a court?” he said, appealing to the premier. “Are you an investigator?
Where did you get such information from to determine [Tovmasian’s guilt?] What
will you do when national or international courts rule tomorrow that none of
that happened?”
“If they want to pressure me in this way then I have to say that … they should
not try in vain,” he added.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) claimed in October that the former
Armenian parliament elected Tovmasian court chairman as a result of an illegal
seizure of the judicial authority by a “group of officials.” It said that took
the form of forgery committed by former parliament speaker Ara Babloyan and one
of his top staffers. Both men strongly deny relevant accusations leveled against
them.
In late December, a senior prosecutor declined to endorse those accusations,
ordering the SIS to conduct an “additional investigation.”
A few days later, Tovmasian was indicted on other, unrelated charges.
Prosecutors said that he unlawfully privatized an office in Yerevan and forced
state notaries to rent other premises “de facto” belonging to him when he served
as Armenia’s justice minister from 2010-2014. Tovmasian rejects the accusations
as baseless and politically motivated.
The chief justice also indicated in his latest interview that he may backpedal
on his stated decision to file a defamation lawsuit against Pashinian.
“Maybe I got emotional at that point and spoke of going to court,” he said. “But
I think that everything has become clear to the public and everyone now has the
answer to that question. I will again talk to my legal team and decide.”
Soros Foundation In Armenia Decries ‘Smear Campaign’
January 29, 2020
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia -- Larisa Minasian, director of Open Society Foundations-Armenia, speaks
at a news conference in Yerevan, January 29, 2020.
The Armenian branch of U.S. billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations
(OSF) on Wednesday accused radical anti-government forces of conducting an
“unprecedented” smear campaign against it and its local partners.
“A large-scale counterpropaganda and an unprecedentedly aggressive information
campaign, accompanied by hate speech and often overt calls for violence, is
waged against the foundation and our partners for quite some time,” the
OSF-Armenia director, Larisa Minasian, told a news conference.
Minasian said that the effort is aimed at preventing OSF from supporting various
reforms announced by the Armenian government.
“We realize that the civil society’s potential to demand and support systemic
changes in Armenia is what made us and our partners the target of this smear
campaign,” she said. “Also targeted is public trust in our country’s democratic
institutions, the legitimately elected National Assembly and the government
formed by it.”
Minasian complained that some Armenian media outlets help OSF detractors spread
false claims about Soros and activities financed by his charity in Armenia and
other countries. She insisted in particular that the prominent philanthropist
has never provoked or assisted in any anti-government revolt.
“George Soros made his fortune in the financial markets of democratic countries
that are strictly regulated by regulatory bodies,” she added.
Minasian also dismissed claims that OSF has been promoting a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which would benefit Azerbaijan. “The foundation has
never financed any propaganda of pacifism towards Azerbaijan or any initiative
related to the Karabakh conflict,” she said.
Nationalist groups as well as some individual activists opposed to Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government have increasingly attacked OSF in their
public statements made since the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” They allege that the
government is furthering Soros’s secret political agenda in Armenia which they
say poses a serious threat to national security and traditional Armenian values.
Some of them have gone as far as to claim that Soros was behind the “revolution”
that brought Pashinian to power.
Minasian already shrugged off those claims during a March 2019 news conference
in Yerevan. In a separate statement issued at the time, OSF-Armenia said it will
continue to support “civil society organizations and all Armenians working to
advance sustainable, systemic reforms.”
Over the past two decades OSF has provided a total of about $53 million in
grants to Armenian non-governmental organizations and individuals. They have
been spent on hundreds of projects implemented in a wide range of areas,
including education, human rights, judicial reforms and media.
Former Armenian President To Go On Trial
January 29, 2020
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian attends the funeral of former
National Security Service Director Georgi Kutoyan, Yerevan, January 20, 2020.
Armenian prosecutors have paved the way for a trial of former President Serzh
Sarkisian, formally endorsing corruption charges brought against him.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General, Arevik Khachatrian, told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the indictment was sent to a court in Yerevan on
Wednesday.
Armenia’s Judicial Department said, though, that it has not yet received
materials of the criminal case.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) charged Sarkisian in early December with
organizing the “embezzlement by a group of officials” of 489 million drams (just
over $1 million) in government funds allocated in 2013 for the provision of
subsidized diesel fuel to farmers.
The SIS claimed that Sarkisian interfered in a government tender for the fuel
supplier to ensure that it is won by a company belonging to his longtime friend,
businessman Barsegh Beglarian, rather than another fuel importer that offered a
lower price. It also indicted Barseghian and three former government officials.
All five suspects deny the accusations.
In a statement released last week, Sarkisian’s lawyers insisted that the
accusations are baseless and are part of his “political persecution” by the
current Armenian authorities.
Artashes Mayilian, a senior SIS official who led the probe, dismissed those
claims when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service on January 24.
The high-profile case is reportedly based on former Agriculture Minister Sergo
Karapetian’s incriminating testimony against the ex-president. Karapetian and
his former deputy Samvel Galstian are among the five suspects.
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) has also described the charges as
politically motivated. It says that the ex-president is prosecuted in
retaliation for his public criticism of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Sarkisian, who ruled Armenia from 2008-2018, accused Pashinian’s government of
jeopardizing democracy and stifling dissent in a November speech at a congress
of the European People’s Party held in Croatia. He had kept a low profile since
resigning in April 2018 amid Pashinian-led mass protests against his continued
rule.
Pashinian has repeatedly implicated Sarkisian, his family and political
entourage in corruption both before and after coming to power in the “Velvet
Revolution.”
Parliament Majority Leader Wants Police To Explain Detentions
January 29, 2020
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling My Step bloc,
at a news conference in Yerevan, May 6, 2019.
Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling My Step alliance, said on
Wednesday that the Armenian police must explain why they briefly detained at
least four activists highly critical of the government.
The police said on Tuesday that two of the outspoken activists, Narek Malian and
Konstantin Ter-Nakalian, were held in custody for several hours on suspicion of
illegal arms possession. They did not comment on two other detentions which were
reported later in the day.
Immediately after being set free without charge, the activists claimed that
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian ordered the police actions in a bid to humiliate
and bully them.
Representatives of the two opposition parties represented in Armenian parliament
expressed concern over the detentions. Arman Abovian of the Prosperous Armenia
Party cited “quite serious questions” about their legality and timing.
Taron Simonian, a lawmaker representing the Bright Armenia Party, saw “no
obvious grounds” for the detentions carried out by masked officers of a special
police unit tasked with combatting organized crime. “I am asking and urging our
police officers to stick to the letter of the law,” he said.
Makunts, who leads the parliamentary group of Pashinian’s My Step bloc, reacted
to those concerns.
“I think that law-enforcement bodies should present explanations of the grounds
on which they took the actions,” Makunts told reporters. “I don’t think that
it’s right to evaluate those grounds that before the law-enforcers present them.”
“As for the detained individuals, if they think that their rights were violated
there are all necessary legal provisions for them to protect their rights,” she
said. “In the meantime, we will wait for the police explanations.”
Makunts added that she will raise the matter with the acting chief of the
national police, Arman Sargsian, when he meets with My Step lawmakers on
Thursday.
One of those lawmakers, Hayk Konjorian, denied that the radical activists are
persecuted for their political views and activities.
“Only politicians can be subjected to political persecution in any hypothetical
situation,” said Konjorian. “There is no political persecution in Armenia.
Armenia has a fully democratic system. The individuals who were detained
yesterday are not politicians.”
Malian used to work as an adviser to former police chief Vladimir Gasparian and
now leads a group called Veto. Ter-Nakalian and another activist, Artur
Danielian, are the leaders of the nationalist Adekvad movement. Both groups rely
heavily on social media in their campaigns against the government.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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