Category: 2018

                                        Wednesday, 
Ex-President Sarkisian’s Nephew Charged With Attempted Murder
        • Anush Muradian
Armenia -- Hayk Sarkisian, a nephew of former President Serzh Sarkisian, is 
detained by law enforcement officers, Yerevan, 4 July, 2018.
A nephew of former President Serzh Sarkisian has been charged with attempting 
to kill a man in Yerevan more than a decade ago, an Armenian law-enforcement 
agency said on Wednesday.
The man, Davit Simonian, was shot and wounded in April 2007. Another Yerevan 
resident claimed at the time to have accidentally fired a bullet at Simonian 
from a pistol which he allegedly found lying in a street. The criminal case was 
closed shortly afterwards.
Armenia prosecutors ordered a renewed investigation into the incident earlier 
this month, citing “new circumstances” that have emerged lately. The 
Investigative Committee claimed on July 3 that in fact Simonian was shot by the 
ex-president’s nephew, Hayk Sarkisian, at the basement of the latter’s 
residence in the city center. Sarkisian was detained and held in custody for 
several hours the following day.
A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee, Sona Truzian, said he has now 
been formally charged with attempted murder and illegal arms possession. 
Investigators have asked a court to allow them to keep him under pre-trial 
arrest, Truzian said.
It was not clear whether Hayk Sarkisian denies the charges. He was first 
detained immediately after officers of another law-enforcement agency, the 
National Security Service (NSS), searched his family’s vast apartment in 
downtown Yerevan.
Following the nine-hour search, the NSS issued an arrest warrant for Hayk’s 
elder brother Narek, who appears to have fled Armenia. It claimed that the 
latter asked one of his friends late last month to hide his illegally owned 
guns, cocaine and other drugs in a safer place.
According to the NSS, Narek flew to Moscow on June 22 together with his 
bodyguard, Artem Petrosian, who was also wanted by the investigators. A 
spokesman for the security agency told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that Petrosian 
returned to Yerevan and turned himself in on Tuesday.
Armenia -- Aleksandr Sarkissian is detained by investigators, Yerevan, 4Jul2018.
Hayk and Narek are the sons of Serzh Sarkisian’s brother Aleksandr, who is 
better known to the public as “Sashik.” He has repeatedly caused controversy in 
the past with his flamboyant behavior and insults addressed to critics of 
Armenia’s former governments.
Aleksandr Sarkisian, who is thought to have made a big fortune in the past two 
decades, spent several hours in police custody on June 25 on suspicion of 
illegal arms possession. He was again briefly detained during the NSS’s July 4 
raid on his luxury residence.
Also facing prosecution is the ex-president’s second brother, Levon Sarkisian. 
He and his daughter were charged with “illegal enrichment” after tax inspectors 
discovered in late June that they hold millions of dollars in undeclared 
deposits at an Armenian bank.
A Yerevan court issued an arrest warrant for Levon Sarkisian on Saturday. He 
has still not been arrested, however, suggesting that he may have fled the 
country.
Serzh Sarkisian, who governed Armenia from 2008-20018, has not yet publicly 
commented on the criminal proceedings launched against his close relatives.
U.S. Hopes For ‘Impartial’ Audit Of Armenian Mining Project
        • Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Gold mining facilities constructed by Lydian International company at 
Amulsar deposit, 18 May 2018.
The U.S. government expressed hope on Wednesday that an environmental audit of 
a massive gold deposit in Armenia developed by a U.S.-based company will be 
conducted objectively and “in strict accordance with the law.”
It said it also expects the new Armenian government to carry out similar 
inspections of other mining companies operating in the country.
All roads leading to the Amulsar deposit have been blocked since June 23 by a 
group of residents of nearby communities protesting against gold mining 
operations planned there by the Lydian International company. They thus halted 
the multimillion-dollar construction of Lydian’s mining facilities which was 
due to be completed this fall.
The blockage is continuing despite repeated appeals from Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian. He has said that Lydian must be allowed to resume its operations 
pending the findings of an ad hoc government task force that will start 
inspecting the company soon.
The mining site remained blocked even after Pashinian visited the mountainous 
area about 160 kilometers southeast of Yerevan last week. He met with leaders 
of the protest and senior executives of the company employing more than 1,400 
people. Many of those workers are also local residents.
Armenia -- Protesters block a road leading to Amulsar mine, 2Jul2018.
Commenting on the continuing standoff, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Richard 
Mills, said: “We are pleased the government is conducting an environmental 
audit of Lydian’s Amulsar project, which was requested by those concerned with 
the project’s environmental impact and which must be standard practice for such 
projects.”
“We hope that it will be carried out in strict accordance with the law, 
engaging professional and impartial expertise. We also expect that these audits 
will be unilaterally applied across the mining sector,” Mills added in written 
comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Pashinian promised in late May thorough inspections of “all metal mines” aimed 
at verifying and, if necessary, ensuring their compliance with environment 
protection norms and their tax obligations. He went on to assign that task to 
Artur Grigorian, the new head of an environment protection government agency.
Grigorian is a well-known environmentalist who has for years campaigned against 
the Amulsar project. He said late last month that Lydian will be the first 
company to be audited by a working group formed by him.
The group comprises officials from various Armenian government ministries, 
Lydian representatives as well as non-governmental activists strongly opposed 
to gold mining at Amulsar. It is supposed to submit recommendations to 
Pashinian’s government later this month or in August.
Pashinian said on July 6 that the government’s decisions on Amulsar must be 
based on “facts rather than emotions.” “If we make any unlawful step in this 
situation – even one that is deemed unlawful not necessarily from our 
standpoint but at least from the point of view of international relations – we 
may face major problems,” he warned.
Lydian, which claims to have already invested more than $300 million in 
Amulsar, has not ruled out the possibility of international legal action 
against the Armenian state that had granted it exclusive rights to mine gold 
there. It says that it has already lost at least $14 million as a result of the 
continuing disruption of its operations.
Environment protection groups say that the Amulsar project, if implemented, 
will contaminate air, water and soil in the area. They also point to the site’s 
proximity to Jermuk, the country’s most popular spa resort.
Lydian maintains that it will use advanced technology to prevent any damage to 
the local ecosystem. The company is registered in a British tax haven but 
headquartered in the U.S. state of Colorado. Its shareholders include U.S., 
Canadian and European investment funds as well as the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Armenia - Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian (second from left) and U.S. 
Ambassador Richard Mills (R) visit the Amulsar gold deposit, 15Aug2015. (Photo 
courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan).
The mining project has been supported by the U.S. and British governments. 
Mills expressed confidence in 2016 that Lydian “will continue to serve as an 
example of responsible mining, operating transparently in line with 
international environmental and social standards.”
“Mining in Armenia is an opportunity to diversify the nation’s economy and 
increase the number of well-paying jobs, but only if mining operations are 
conducted to the highest international standards to protect the environment,” 
the U.S. ambassador said on Wednesday. “That is why the U.S. Embassy welcomed 
the interest in the Armenian mining sector from Lydian International, which 
operates mining projects around the globe that must meet international 
environmental standards.”
Mills did not say whether he thinks the Pashinian government’s possible 
decision to revoke Lydian’s operating license could hurt U.S.-Armenian business 
ties and scare away other foreign investors.
Lydian has pledged to invest over $400 million in what would be one of the 
largest business projects in Armenia’s history. It has said that it plans to 
produce roughly $250 million worth of gold and pay $50 million in taxes 
annually.
Armenia’s overall exports stood at $2.2 billion in 2017, according to official 
statistics. Non-ferrous metals and ore concentrates accounted for around half 
of them.
Pashinian Meets French President On First Trip To Europe As PM
Belgium - French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Armenian Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian meet at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian emphasized the “privileged” character of 
Armenia’s relationship with France when he met with French President Emmanuel 
Macron in Brussels late on Wednesday.
Joined by their foreign ministers, the two men held talks on the sidelines of a 
NATO summit in the Belgian capital. Pashinian was due to attend a session of 
the summit focused on the ongoing NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. The 
multinational military contingent deployed there includes 130 or so Armenian 
soldiers.
Macron and Pashinian exchanged warm greetings in English at the start of the 
meeting held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. The French president could 
be heard saying in front of TV cameras that he is “very happy to see” the 
Armenian premier.
An Armenian government statement cited Pashinian as saying that “Armenia highly 
appreciates its privileged relations with France based on traditional 
friendship and mutual respect of the two peoples.”
For his part, Macron was reported to say that France is ready to deepen 
economic and political ties with Armenia. He also said he looks forward to 
paying a state visit to Yerevan in October.
The visit will be timed to coincide with a summit of Francophonie, a grouping 
of over 70 mainly French-speaking nations, which will be held in the Armenian 
capital.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Yerevan in late May to 
discuss with Armenia’s new government preparations for the summit. Le Drian 
stressed the fact that he is the first high-level foreign official to arrive in 
the South Caucasus state since a popular uprising that swept Pashinian to power 
earlier in May.
Macron was likewise the first Western leader to meet Pashinian during the 
latter’s first-ever trip to Europe in his current capacity.
According to the government statement, the two leaders also discussed the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with Pashinian praising international efforts to 
resolve it which have long been spearheaded by the United States, Russia and 
France. Pashinian also warned against Azerbaijani attempts to solve the 
conflict militarily. No other details were reported.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” looks forward to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s visit to Brussels 
which begins on Wednesday. “Not only the new [Armenian] government must be 
qualitatively different from the previous one in terms of policies but also the 
European Union’s policy must be qualitatively different from its policy towards 
the previous authorities,” writes the paper.
“Zhoghovurd” reports that Samvel Babayan, Nagorno-Karabakh’s former military 
leader who was released from an Armenian prison last month, visited Stepanakert 
and met with Karabakh President Bako Sahakian on Tuesday. “This is a noteworthy 
event given Babayan’s personality and the fact that recently the political 
situation in Artsakh was a bit tense and Bako Sahakian assured [the local 
population] that he will not run in the 2020 presidential elections,” says the 
paper. “One can presume that Mr. Babayan has certain political interests seeing 
as political issues were also discussed at his meeting with Bako Sahakian.”
“Hraparak” comments on Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian’s first meeting 
with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov scheduled for Wednesday. The 
paper says that the meeting will be “decisive in terms of the continuation of 
negotiations” on a Karabakh settlement. It says that bellicose statements 
coming from Baku and recent Azerbaijani military exercises do not bode well for 
the success of renewed peace talks.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports on the prosecution of Serzh Sarkisian’s nephew Hayk 
on charges of attempted murder and illegal arms possession. “This is setting a 
new bar in the work of the new government,” writes the paper. “Until now there 
have been suggestions that in the fight against abuses [committed by the former 
regime] there is a red line which the government will not dare to cross and 
that red line is imprisonment of Serzh Sarkisian’s relatives. But in the event 
of Hayk Sarkisian’s arrest it will become evident that there is no such line.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

                                        Tuesday, 
Government Details First Results Of Crackdown On Tax Fraud
        • Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Tax inspectors raid the offices of the GLG Project company linked to 
a brother of former President Serzh Sarkisian, 23 June 2018.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday that his government has 
recovered more than 20 billion drams ($42 million) of unpaid taxes in less than 
two months.
Pashinian attributed that to an ongoing “fight against corruption, abuses and 
the shadow economy.” “This is a very important indicator, and I think that we 
must keep up our efforts in this direction,” he said at a weekly cabinet 
meeting in Yerevan.
Davit Ananian, the head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC), specified that 
the sum equivalent to almost 1.8 percent of Armenia’s 2017 tax revenue was 
collected from 73 companies accused of tax evasion. They have been investigated 
by not only the SRC but also the National Security Service (NSS) and the 
police, he told cabinet members.
Ananian singled out a tax fraud case brought against a customs brokerage 
company reportedly linked to his predecessor, Vartan Harutiunian.
The NSS claimed in late May that the company, Norfolk Consulting, has evaded $7 
million in taxes since being set up last summer and obtaining exclusive rights 
to process imports from China, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Norfolk’s 
executive director, Armen Unanian, and two chief accountants were arrested at 
the time. They all were freed a week later after Unanian agreed to transfer the 
allegedly unpaid taxes to the state.
In mid-June, the SRC accused two other customs brokerage firms of failing to 
pay more than 2 billion drams in taxes.
Armenia’s leading food supermarkets have been the other major targets of the 
new government’s stated crackdown on tax evasion. They have agreed to pay hefty 
fines despite insisting that they stuck to taxation rules that were set by the 
previous government.
Ananian promised a tougher crackdown on companies and individuals 
underreporting their earnings when he was appointed as head of the SRC in late 
May. He said that the government’s tax revenue will be “substantially higher 
than planned” this year. It rose by more than 7 percent in 2017.
Pashinian said on Tuesday that the unpaid taxes detected by the law-enforcement 
authorities will be added to Armenia’s 2018 state budget. In particular, he 
said, the government will allocate 10 billion drams ($21 million) in additional 
subsidies to impoverished communities outside Yerevan.
The premier also stressed: “This figure [$42 million] doesn’t include illegal 
enrichment and embezzlement cases and cases involving other corrupt practices, 
which are also extremely large in scale. This process will definitely continue, 
and we will recover very serious sums and reverse damage inflicted on the 
state.”
The most high-profile probes of “illegal enrichment” launched to date involve 
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s former chief bodyguard, Vachagan Ghazarian, 
and brother Levon.
Ghazarian was arrested late last month after the NSS confiscated more than $2 
million worth of cash from him. According to the NSS, he claimed to have 
“forgotten” to add this and other money to his official income declarations.
Around the same time, the SRC discovered documents showing that Levon Sarkisian 
and his two children hold nearly $7 million in an Armenian bank. Sarkisian and 
his daughter are now facing prosecution for their failure to disclose these 
sums to a state anti-corruption body.
An Armenian court issued an arrest warrant for Levon Sarkisian on Saturday. He 
has still not been arrested, however, suggesting that he may have fled the 
country.
Investigators To Question Another General Over 2008 Violence
        • Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian (R) and chief of the Armenian army 
staff, General Yuri Khachaturov, at a meeting in Yerevan, 28May2015.
Armenia’s former top army general currently heading the Russian-led Collective 
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been summoned to Yerevan for 
interrogation in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in the country.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said on Tuesday that Yuri Khachaturov 
will be questioned as a “witness” in its long-running inquiry into the deadly 
unrest. A spokeswoman for the SIS told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) 
that he has pledged to arrive in Yerevan and answer investigators’ questions at 
the end of this month.
The questions will likely revolve around the Armenian army’s alleged 
involvement in the March 2008 crackdown on opposition supporters who 
demonstrated in Yerevan in the wake of a disputed presidential election. Then 
President Robert Kocharian declared a state of emergency and ordered army units 
into the capital amid vicious clashes between security forces and protesters. 
Eight protesters and two police servicemen died as a result.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who was a key speaker at the 2008 protests, 
told the SIS to finally solve the killings shortly after he swept to power in a 
popular uprising in May.
The law-enforcement body last week issued an arrest warrant for retired General 
Mikael Harutiunian, who was Armenia’s defense minister during the 2008 unrest. 
It charged Harutiunian with illegally using the armed forces against the 
protesters, saying that amounted to an “overthrow of constitutional order.”
Khachaturov was a deputy defense minister in March 2008. The newly elected 
President Serzh Sarkisian appointed him as chief of the army’s General Staff in 
April 2008. Khachaturov’s predecessor in that post, Seyran Ohanian, was named 
defense minister at the time.
Ohanian was personally involved in the enforcement of three-week emergency rule 
introduced by Kocharian. SIS investigators reportedly questioned him as a 
witness last week. They also sent a summons to Kocharian.
Khachaturov, 65, served as the army’s chief of staff from 2008-2016. Russia, 
Armenia and four other ex-Soviet states making up the CSTO appointed him as 
secretary general of the Russian-led defense pact in April 2017.
Pashinian Allies Want Fresh Elections In Yerevan
        • Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Nikol Pashinian (C) and other leaders of the Yelk alliance lead a 
pre-election demonstration in Yerevan, 21Apr2017.
A senior representative of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Yelk alliance on 
Tuesday called for the conduct of fresh municipal elections in Yerevan 
following the resignation of Mayor Taron Markarian.
Markarian, who is a senior member of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s 
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), stepped down on Monday after weeks of 
pressure from Pashinian and his allies.
Under Armenian law, Yerevan’s municipal council has to elect a new mayor within 
a month. Failure to do so would give the central government the right to 
disband the legislature and hold snap elections in the capital.
Representatives of the HHK, which holds 46 seats in the 63-member council, 
declined to say on Tuesday whether it will nominate a mayoral candidate. A 
senior Yelk councilor, Davit Khazhakian, was confident that the former ruling 
party will not do that.
“It is evident that there must be pre-term elections of the city council,” 
Khazhakian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). The vote should be 
held in September, he said.
Yelk, which controls 14 council seats, consists of three political parties that 
were in opposition to Armenia’s former government. One of them, Civil Contract, 
is headed by Pashinian.
In Khazhakian’s words, it is not yet known whether the three Yelk parties would 
participate in the snap polls jointly or on their own. Nor have they discussed 
any candidacies for the vacant post of mayor so far, he said.
“I think such discussions will be held very soon,” added Khazhakian.
Yelk finished second in the last Yerevan elections held in May 2017. It claimed 
that the HHK won them through vote buying and abuse of administrative 
resources. Sarkisian’s party denied that.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” finds “interesting” the fact that Yerevan’s Mayor Taron Markarian 
gave no reason for his resignation which he announced on Monday. “It is not 
clear whether or not the resignation was agreed with Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian,” writes the paper. It notes that Pashinian effectively called for 
Markarian’s resignation shortly after he came to power. It describes Markarian 
as “one of the key figures of the former government who was not acceptable to 
the new authorities.”
“After the street-based regime change it was not hard to guess that joint work 
between the former regime’s representative Taron Markarian and the 
velvet-revolutionary government is impossible,” writes “Hayots Ashkhar.” This 
is why the mayor had no choice but to step down, says the paper.
“Zhamanak” reacts to former President Robert Kocharian’s latest comments on the 
2008 crackdown on opposition protesters which was ordered by him. The paper 
says that while defending his actions in February-March 2008 Kocharian is now 
trying to dodge responsibility for a secret order to the armed forces which was 
signed by then Defense Minister Mikael Harutiunian. Kocharian said that he did 
not have to agree to Harutiunian’s decision to deploy troops in and around 
Yerevan. Kocharian is thus “washing his hands on the issue of Mikael 
Harutiunian,” comments the paper. “What is more, he is indirectly holding Serzh 
Sarkisian responsible for that,” it claims.
“168 Zham” quotes a U.S. political analyst, Paul Stronski, as saying that U.S. 
President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are unlikely 
to discuss the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict when they meet in Helsinki 
this month. He notes that there Russia and the United States have had few 
differences on Karabakh.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org