Tuesday,
Pashinian’s Party In No Rush To Admit New Members
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Deputy parliament speaker Lena Nazarian speaks at a workshop in
Yerevan, February 12, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party is careful not to admit a
large number of new members even though thousands of Armenians are seeking to
join it, a senior party member said on Tuesday.
Lena Nazarian said Civil Contract has received 9,000 membership applications
since Pashinian swept to power in May on a wave of mass protests that brought
down Armenia’s former government. “We have still not accepted those
applications,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Nazarian, who is also a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, suggested
that many of the applicants have ulterior motives. “They think that it would
give them some advantages in terms of getting government jobs or some other
privileges,” she said. “That is not possible. I don’t think that we will admit
all of those people who have submitted membership applications.”
Armenia - Nikol Pashinian and senior members of his Civil Contract party start
nonstop anti-government protests in Yerevan, April 13, 2018.
Nazarian stressed that Civil Contract will thus not follow the example of
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), which had
accumulated vast financial and administrative resources during its long
presence in government.
The HHK heavily relied on those resources to win just about every major
Armenian election held before Sarkisian’s dramatic resignation in April 2018.
It had hundreds of thousands of nominal members, many of them public sector
employees, government-linked entrepreneurs and people working for them. Few of
them showed support for Sarkisian during the Pashinian-led “velvet revolution.”
The HHK failed to clear the 5 percent vote threshold to enter the parliament in
snap general elections held in December.
Armenia - The ruling Republican Party of Armenia holds a congress in Yerevan,
26Nov2016.
“We don’t want to go down that path,” said Nazarian, who actively participated
in the revolution. “We don’t want to admit people who are accustomed to being
in a ruling party.”
“We want to recruit only ideological people for the party,” she added. “People
who understand what the party stands for and want to join the state system
because they have skills, knowledge and experience and are willing to be of use
or just want to be in the party, finance it and oversee it.”
Pashinian set up Civil Contract in 2013 after splitting from former President
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress. It operated as a
non-governmental organization mostly uniting young civic activists before
becoming a full-fledged political party in 2015.
EU Envoy Sees ‘Serious Progress’ In Armenian Anti-Graft Fight
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia -- Piotr Switalski, head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, at a news
conference in Yerevan, .
Armenia’s current government has made “serious progress” in combatting
corruption in the country but should not “rest on its laurels,” a senior
European Union diplomat said on Tuesday.
Piotr Switalski, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, admitted that the
reform-minded government is serious about its repeated pledges to eliminate
corrupt practices.
“But political will, being the sine qua non element, is not enough,” Switalski
cautioned at a news conference. “You also need other elements such as
institutions, laws and a social culture or environment.”
“Regarding the institutions, we can see that the government wants to create a
new, independent anti-corruption agency that will have wide-ranging powers,” he
said. He also praised the government’s plans to enact anti-graft laws.
Switalski added that the EU stands ready to “help” the authorities in what he
hopes will be a sustained and “long” campaign against corruption. “Don’t rest
on your laurels because the way [forward] is long,” he said, appealing to them.
The number of high-profile corruption investigations launched by Armenian
law-enforcement authorities has risen significantly since last spring’s “velvet
revolution.” They have targeted former senior officials as well as former
President Serzh Sarkisian’s relatives.
Speaking in the parliament on February 12, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
declared that his administration has already “broken the spine of systemic
corruption in Armenia.” Pashinian said it will now focus on putting in place
“institutional” safeguards against the problem. In particular, he said, it will
make information about the personal assets of individuals holding or aspiring
to state posts easily accessible to the public.
Switalski made clear that the EU is also encouraged by other reforms initiated
by Pashinian’s government and will reward them with greater financial
assistance already this year. He cited statements to that effect made by
Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner for European neighborhood and enlargement
negotiations.
Hahn hailed democratic change in Armenia when he visited Yerevan and met with
Pashinian late last month. He singled out the conduct of the December 9
parliamentary elections, saying that they are regarded as free and fair by the
international community.
Hahn did not specify the likely amount of the extra EU aid. He said only that
it will be allocated from an EU fund designed to reward partner states’
“special achievements” in the areas of democratization and rule of law.
Parliament Majority Rejects ‘Threats’ From Radical Group
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Senior members of the My Step alliance applaud as Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian arrives at its headquarters in Yerevan, December 10, 2018.
Representatives of the pro-government majority in the Armenian parliament
denounced on Tuesday what they called threats to the authorities made by a
leader of a party whose members stormed a police station in Yerevan in 2016.
Zhirayr Sefilian of the Sasna Tsrer party demanded on Monday the immediate
release of his two loyalists accused of murdering three police officers during
the attack. Sefilian threatened to “force” the authorities to free them.
His strongly worded statement fueled media speculation about extreme actions
against the Armenian government planned by Sasna Tsrer.
Sefilian dismissed such speculation on Tuesday, accusing unnamed media outlets
of “distorting” his statement. He insisted that his party is not planning an
armed struggle against the country’s current leadership.
This did not stop senior lawmakers representing Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s My Step alliance from condemning Sefilian.
“They had better finally stop talking in the language of threats,” said Lena
Nazarian, a deputy parliament speaker. “That is unacceptable. That will not
produce any results.”
“[Sefilian] said, ‘If you don’t free them, we will take some actions,’” Nikolay
Baghdasarian, another My Step deputy, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “He then
said, ‘No, we won’t take those actions.’”
“He must realize that he cannot adopt such a tone to publicly talk to the
government because the government is now doing its best to get the country on
its feet, develop its economy and live up to people’s hopes,” said
Baghdasarian. “With such actions, he wants to drive a wedge between various
representatives of the society, which means playing into the hands of the
[former ruling] HHK.”
Vahagn Hovakimian, another Pashinian ally, argued that the government cannot
interfere in the ongoing trial of 31 members of the armed group that seized the
police station in July 2016. That would be illegal, he said.
All of those defendants except Armen Bilian and Smbat Barseghian were set free
pending the outcome of the trials shortly after last spring’s “velvet
revolution” led by Pashinian. Bilian and Barseghian stand accused of killing
the three policemen during the gunmen’s two-week standoff with security forces.
The armed group stormed the police facility in Yerevan’s southern Erebuni
district to demand that then President Serzh Sarkisian free Sefilian and
resign. Sefilian was arrested a month before the deadly attack.
Pashinian lambasted Sasna Tsrer in the run-up to the December 2018
parliamentary elections. He said its members and supporters will “feel the
taste of asphalt” if they attempt to destabilize the political situation in
Armenia.
The warning was prompted by Sasna Tsrer leaders’ claims that the new Armenian
parliament will have to be dissolved within two years because the country is
now in a post-revolutionary “transitional period.”
Former Armenian Mayor Arrested In Corruption Probe
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Voting in a mayoral election in Hrazdan, 17Apr2016.
The former longtime mayor of the central Armenian town of Hrazdan affiliated
with former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) was arrested on
Tuesday on suspicion of embezzling public funds.
The Investigative Committee said that Aram Danielian’s arrest stems from its
ongoing inquiry into misuse of land and property taxes collected by the Hrazdan
municipality in 2015-2018. It gave no other details.
Also arrested was Samvel Grigorian, the former head of a municipality division
tasked with tax collection.
A spokesman for the Hrazdan mayor’s office told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that
a recent audit of the municipality books conducted by a private firm detected
financial irregularities worth nearly 139 million drams ($286,000). He could
not say whether Danielian’s arrest is directly connected with that.
Danielian ran the town located 45 kilometers north of Yerevan for over 15
years. He resigned in July two months after Sarkisian was ousted from power
during the “velvet revolution” led by Nikol Pashinian, Armenia’s current prime
minister.
Danielian said then that he wants to ensure that Hrazdan “doesn’t suffer” from
the regime change in Yerevan. He admitted at the same time that his resignation
was “recommended” by the new provincial governor named by Pashinian.
A 25-year-old son of Sasun Mikaelian, a top Pashinian ally, was subsequently
elected as Hrazdan’s new mayor. Sasun Mikaelian was Danielian’s main challenger
in the previous mayoral election held in 2016. He accused the incumbent of
buying votes and abusing administrative resources. The HHK denied the
allegations.
Danielian was again put on the defensive in 2017 after his teenage son Razmik
was charged with running over and killing a man with a car belonging to the
Hrazdan municipality. The 16-year-old not only avoided imprisonment but was
also among more than 100 schoolchildren who received medals for academic
excellence from Sarkisian later in 2017.
Press Review
“The Sasna Tsrer party is becoming increasingly dangerous for the state,”
writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper refers to a strongly worded statement that was
issued by one of the party’s top leaders, Zhirayr Sefilian, on Monday.
“Sefilian is making threats against the authorities, implying openly that they
will again take up arms if need be,” it says. “The authorities must be
seriously concerned about this fact. After all, Sasna Tsrer has repeatedly
demonstrated that it does not regret the fact that two policemen were killed as
a result of its actions smacking of terrorism.”
“In effect, Zhirayr Sefilian is creating an impasse,” writes 1in.am. “If Bilian
and Barseghian (the two men accused of killing the policemen) are freed then
the public will think that Nikol Pashinian has bowed to the threats made by
Sefilian.” The publication says the release of these men would hugely undermine
Pashinian’s standing with the police.
“Zhoghovurd” claims that Pashinian and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev are
unlikely to officially meet anytime soon. The paper says that the two leaders
could “at best” talk to each other on the fringes of some international forums
and have their foreign ministers hold more meetings. “One of the reasons for
that is Pashinian’s pledge to bring Karabakh back to the negotiating table,” it
says. “This is an absolutely legitimate demand.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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