Author: Mary Lazarian

                                        Tuesday, 
Lawmakers Seek Lower Taxes For Army Compensation Scheme
        • Artak Khulian
ARMENIA -- A wounded Armenian serviceman with heavy burns who claimed that 
Azerbaijani forces had used phosphorus munitions against him, undergoes 
treatment at a hospital in Yerevan, December 8, 2020
Two pro-government lawmakers are pressing the National Assembly to scale back a 
recent sharp increase in a special tax used for compensating the families of 
Armenian soldiers killed or seriously wounded in action.
The compensations are financed from a special fund to which every working 
Armenian contributed 1,000 drams ($2) a month until this year. The recent war 
with Azerbaijan drastically increased the number of people covered by the 
scheme, forcing the Armenian government to boost the fund’s revenues accordingly.
A government bill passed by the parliament late last month significantly raised 
and diversified the fixed tax. Public and private sector employees now have pay 
from 1,500 drams to 15,000 drams depending on their monthly wages.
They are divided into five income brackets that determine the amount of their 
monthly contributions to the insurance fund. The minimum sum is levied from 
people earning up to 100,000 drams a month, compared with 3,000 drams set for 
wages ranging from 101,000 to 200,000 drams. People making 1 million drams or 
more will pay the highest tax.
The two parliament deputies representing the ruling My Step bloc consider the 
quasi-progressive tax unfair, saying that high earners contribute a much lower 
share of their incomes to the fund than other taxpayers. A bill drafted by them 
would lower the tax rates for people making between 100,000 and 750,000 drams.
The bill also calls for two new tax brackets for wages ranging from 750,000 to 
1.5 million drams and even higher incomes. Their earners would pay 15,000 and 
20,000 drams respectively.
“The sums contributed to the insurance fund would account for 1 percent to 2 
percent of wages earned by various categories of people, compared with the [tax 
rates of] 0.85 percent to 3 percent set by the current law,” one of the 
lawmakers, Gevorg Papoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday.
“The 3 percent rate is set for low-wage earners while the 0.85 percent for 
higher earners,” complained Papoyan.
The government and My Step’s parliamentary leaders have not yet reacted to the 
proposed changes.
Kocharian’s Trial Resumes
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian gestures during his trial in 
Yerevan, .
The trial of former President Robert Kocharian and three other former senior 
Armenian officials facing coup charges resumed on Tuesday nearly four months 
after being effectively interrupted by the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
A court in Yerevan held the first hearing in the case since the outbreak of the 
war on September 27.
The hearing was originally scheduled for last month. But it did not take place 
because of the absence of lawyers representing Kocharian and other defendants.
The lawyers said that they joined a nationwide strike declared by Armenian 
opposition parties demanding that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian resign because 
of his handling of the war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 
10.
In early December, Kocharian also blamed Pashinian for the Armenian side’s 
defeat in the war and urged his supporters to take part in anti-government 
demonstrations organized by the opposition.
Several dozen Kocharian supporters rallied outside the court building in Yerevan 
to show support for the Karabakh-born ex-president who ruled Armenia from 
1998-2008. Kocharian talked to them and urged them to disperse, citing a cold 
weather. He refused to answer questions from journalists.
Kocharian, his former chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and two retired army 
generals stand accused of overthrowing the “constitutional order” in the wake of 
a disputed presidential election held in 2008. They all reject the accusations 
as politically motivated.
Speaking during Tuesday’s court hearing, Kocharian claimed that the high-profile 
criminal case “directly contributed” to the outcome of the recent war. He said 
Pashinian’s administration has done everything to discredit Armenia’s military 
and former leaders.
“There is a saying that when a nation does not honor its heroes it ends up 
having no heroes,” he said.
“I am prosecuted for declaring a state of emergency [in March 2008,]” Kocharian 
went on. “We have lived under a [coronavirus-related] state of emergency or 
martial law for almost a year. The war was stopped two and a half months ago but 
martial law remains in force.”
“Do the prosecutors do have anything to do with this?” he asked after accusing 
them of being complicit in the Armenian side’s defeat.
The accusation sparked an altercation between a trial prosecutor and Kocharian 
and defense lawyers.
Kocharian was first arrested and indicted in July 2018 two months after the 
“Velvet Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. He was freed again in June 
this year after paying a record $4.1 million bail set by Armenia’s Court of 
Appeals.
The bulk of the hefty sum was reportedly provided by four wealthy Russian 
businessmen. They included Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the main shareholder in AFK 
Sistema, a large Russian corporation. Kocharian has been a member of Sistema’s 
board of directors since 2009.
The 66-year-old ex-president was allowed to visit Moscow and attend a board 
meeting last month during what his office described as a private trip.
Pashinian Again Defends Government’s Response To Pandemic
ARMENIA - A doctor wearing a protective face mask and personal protective 
equipment speaks with a patient at the Grigor Lusavorich Medical Centre in 
Yerevan on May 27, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on Tuesday that the Armenian government 
has done a good job dealing with the coronavirus pandemic as he explained his 
decision to replace Health Minister Arsen Torosian.
Torosian, who is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, was 
replaced by his first deputy, Anahit Avanesian, and appointed as chief of 
Pashinian’s staff on Monday.
Introducing Torosian to the staff, Pashinian said the Armenian state apparatus 
needs a major “restart” after the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh that plunged 
the country into a serious political crisis.
“That restart must definitely start from the prime minister’s staff,” he said. 
“That restart is the main objective set for Mr. Torosian.”
The prime minister praised Torosian’s track record when he introduced Avanesian 
to senior officials from the Armenian Ministry of Health in a separate meeting. 
He said that the ministry has been “one of our most efficient agencies” despite 
being frequently criticized by the Armenian opposition and media. This is why, 
he said, the new health minister is a member of the same “team” that has run the 
ministry since May 2018.
Armenia -- Arsen Torosian, the newly appointed chief of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian's staff, attends a meeting in Yerevan chaired by Pashinian, January 
19, 2021.
Pashinian specifically defended its handling of the coronavirus crisis. He 
argued that Armenia has stopped being one of the countries worst hit by the 
pandemic.
“There was a time (in the summer of 2020) when in the context of the fight 
against the coronavirus they showed us the example of other countries, saying: 
‘Look at how you should be fighting against the coronavirus, you don’t know how 
to fight against the coronavirus.’
“But we were confident that we are following the balanced path. Now that our 
statements have been borne out by the reality they no longer show us [the 
example of] those countries.”
Armenia has been hit hard by the pandemic, with nearly 165,000 coronavirus cases 
officially confirmed in the country of about 3 million so far. The real number 
of cases is believed to be much higher.
The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that 9 more people have died from 
COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 3,007. The 
figure does not include the deaths of 734 other Armenians infected with the 
virus. According to the ministry, they were primarily caused by other diseases.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian introduces Armenia's newly appointed 
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian (L) to senior Ministry of Health officials, 
Yerevan, .
The authorities largely stopped fining people and businesses to enforce their 
anti-epidemic rules following the September 27 outbreak of the Karabakh war. The 
daily number of new COVID-19 infections reported by them grew rapidly as a 
result. But it has fallen significantly since mid-November.
The ministry reported 236 new cases on Tuesday, sharply down from more than 
2,000 cases a day routinely recorded in late October and early November.
Despite the decreased coronavirus numbers, opposition groups and other critics 
of Pashinian’s government have continued to denounce it. They maintain that 
Armenia could and should have avoided many COVID-19 deaths.
The pro-government majority in the Armenian parliament last week gave the green 
light to a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s response to the pandemic 
demanded by the opposition.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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