Category: 2020

                                        Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Tsarukian’s Party Decries Government’s ‘Dirty Tricks’
        • Anush Mkrtchian
        • Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) attends the inauguration of a 
ceramics plant mostly owned by Gagik Tsarkian (R), November 7, 2019.
The opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) accused the authorities on Tuesday 
of launching a smear campaign against its leader Gagik Tsarukian in response to 
his calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation.
Tsarukian said on Friday that Pashinian and his cabinet must step down because 
they have failed to contain the coronavirus epidemic and mitigate its 
socioeconomic consequences. Meeting with senior BHK members, the tycoon also 
announced that he will try to rally “healthy” political groups and individuals 
“concerned about country’s future.”
Pashinian and his political allies reacted furiously to the unusually harsh 
criticism. The prime minister’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, claimed that 
Tsarukian attacked the government because he fears being prosecuted on 
corruption, tax evasion and other grave charges. She said the BHK leader should 
also be worried about the recent entry into force of a law allowing authorities 
to confiscate private assets deemed to have been acquired illegally.
The BHK, which has the second largest group in the Armenian parliament, rejected 
the “political blackmail.”
On Monday, a newspaper controlled by Pashinian’s family published a purported 
copy of a Soviet Armenian court’s decision to convict Tsarukian of involvement 
in a 1979 gang rape of two women outside Yerevan and to sentence him to 7 years 
in prison.
While not denying such a prison sentence, Tsarukian’s representatives accused 
the authorities of manipulating facts and resorting to dirty tricks. They 
publicized on Tuesday another document which shows that Armenia’s Court of 
Cassation overturned the 1979 verdict and acquitted Tsarukian in the mid-1990s.
Armenia -- Arman Abovian of the Prosperous Armenia Party speaks to RFE/RL, March 
21, 2020
“Sadly, instead of tackling all these problems [facing Armenia] the entire 
ruling team is now busy fighting against us,” said Arman Abovian, a senior BHK 
lawmaker.
“There is an ethical red line which must not be crossed,” he said. “They can’t 
mix politics with personal issues … Let them sort out the socioeconomic 
situation in the country as vigorously as they are fighting the BHK and Mr. 
Tsarukian.”
Abovian stressed that Tsarukian stands by his Friday statement and has already 
started meeting with other political figures also seeking regime change. He did 
not name any of them.
The Bright Armenia Party (LHK), the second opposition force represented in the 
parliament, said it has not been approached by Tsarukian yet. A senior LHK 
figure, Ani Samsonian, questioned the wisdom of demanding Pashinian’s and his 
cabinet’s resignation at this juncture.
“Let’s assume that there is a [parliamentary] vote of no confidence in the prime 
minister,” reasoned Samsonian. “Who will be the next prime minister? Is there 
any candidate for the job who is ready to work with this kind of a 
[parliamentary] majority?”
The authorities’ handling of the coronavirus crisis is increasingly criticized 
by not only the BHK and the LHK but also other opposition groups that are not 
represented in the current National Assembly. Pashinian’s My Step bloc responds 
by accusing them of trying to capitalize on the deadly epidemic.
Armenia -- Hrachya Hakobian.
“Those [opposition] forces and individuals are doing everything to get the 
people infected [with coronavirus,]” Hrachya Hakobian, a My Step lawmaker and 
Pashinian’s brother-in-law, alleged on Tuesday.“That means stabbing the people 
in the back. In the current situation demanding the resignation of a government 
enjoying strong popular support is also a stab in the back.”
The BHK used to be allied to Pashinian, having joined his first cabinet formed 
in May 2018 in the wake of the “Velvet Revolution.” Pashinian fired his 
ministers affiliated with BHK in October 2018, accusing Tsarukian’s party of 
secretly collaborating with the country’s former leadership.
The BHK finished second in the December 2018 parliamentary elections and won 26 
seats in Armenia’s 132-member parliament.
More Armenian Textile Plants Hit By Coronavirus Outbreaks
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
        • Karine Simonian
Armenia - Workers at a textile factory in Gyumri, 1Aug2015.
Two more textile factories in Armenia suspended their operations on Tuesday 
after dozens of their workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Gyumri-based factories belonging to the local Lentex and Svetex companies 
employ a total of about 400 people.
Tigran Petrosian, the governor of the surrounding Shirak province, said 120 
workers underwent coronavirus tests nearly half of which came back positive on 
Monday. He said the company owners decided to temporarily shut down their plants 
without any government orders.
“Svetex decided to take a two-week break while Lentex is discussing mechanisms 
and ways of continuing its work,” Petrosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
“We can’t operate right now because the [infected] people have self-isolated 
while others, who feel unwell, are having tests in policlinics,” said the Lentex 
owner, Karen Gomtsian.
Gomtsian said he will decide “in the coming days” when to reopen the plant. He 
suggested that some of his 350 or so employees will return to work soon so that 
Lentex can fulfill its contractual obligations to foreign buyers. They have not 
been in contact with infected workers and “feel well,” he said.
While insisting that the company has followed all anti-epidemic rules set by the 
government, Gomtsian admitted that sanitary inspectors forced it to close for 
one day late last month.
The provincial administration has reported 135 coronavirus cases among residents 
of Gyumri and other Shirak communities. Only 42 of them are in hospital at 
present.
Armenia -- Empty premises of the Gloria textile factory, Vanadzor, June 3, 2020.
Armenia’s largest textile plant located in Vanadzor, the administrative center 
of neighboring Lori province, has been hit by a similar COVID-19 outbreak. 
Authorities ordered the Gloria company’s plant to close on June 3 one of day 
after three of its 2,600 predominantly female workers tested positive for the 
virus.
The number of infected workers has since risen to 149. One of them, Lilik 
Bayadian, was informed about her positive test result on Tuesday three days 
after developing a fever and apparent pneumonia.
Bayadian repeatedly coughed when she spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service by phone 
hours before being taken to hospital.
“I have gotten sick many times but never felt such pain in my muscles, arms and 
legs before,” said the middle-aged woman. “My daughter-in-law also has a fever 
but she is not in bed.”
Another Gloria employee, Karine Rafaelian, has had no coronavirus tests and 
shown no symptoms of the disease. But like many of her colleagues, she too has 
been told by the Vanadzor police to quarantine at home.
“In my circumstances self-isolating means committing a suicide because I live 
alone,” complained Rafaelian. “My children live in Russia and my husband is 
dead. Who is going to buy food for me?”
The Lori governor, Andrei Ghukasian, pledged to help people like her. “We keep 
in touch with everyone by phone to see if they need food,” he said. “We have 
food packages that will be delivered to them by our workers and volunteers so 
that they don’t leave their homes.”
Gloria will remain closed at least until June 20. This and other Armenian firms 
manufacturing clothing were allowed to resume their work in late April following 
a month-long stoppage ordered by the government as part of a nationwide 
lockdown. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on April 12 that the textile 
industry should be able to reopen despite being “the main driving force” of 
coronavirus infections in the country.
Following Pashinian’s statement, a government task force set concrete social 
distancing rules and other safety standards for the export-oriented industry. 
Gloria’s owner, Bagrat Darbinian, claimed that those requirements are too strict 
when his employees defied the government ban and returned to their workplaces on 
April 21.
The authorities shut down the plant again the following day. Still, they agreed 
to soften the rules.
The daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia has increased 
dramatically since then.
“The main reason for the rise in the number of cases is industrial enterprises,” 
Pashinian said on May 24. The prime minister accused businesses of failing to 
follow the rules.
The authorities have registered 13,675 coronavirus cases and 217 deaths to date. 
Six people died from the virus on Monday, according to the Armenian Ministry of 
Health.
The official count does not include the deaths of 74 other Armenians who were 
also infected with the respiratory disease. The ministry says that these 
fatalities were caused by other, pre-existing conditions.
Pashinian Demands Stronger Police Action Against COVID-19
Armenia -- Police officers fine a car driver for violating coronavirus-related 
safety rules, Yerevan, June 2, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told the Armenian police on Tuesday to step up 
the enforcement of social distancing and other rules meant to contain the spread 
of the coronavirus in the country.
Pashinian said this must be the primary task of the newly appointed chief of the 
national police service, Vahe Ghazarian.
“The quality of the work of the police will continue to be essential in the 
fight against the epidemic,” he said, introducing Ghazarian to senior police 
officials. “As much as we realize that the entire police staff is on the verge 
of exhaustion, new impetus should be given [to police efforts] no matter how 
impossible that may seem.”
Ghazarian was appointed as police chief on Monday immediately after the sacking 
of his predecessor, Arman Sargsian. The latter ran the police for only 9 months.
Pashinian gave no clear reasons for Sargsian’s sacking at the meeting with the 
senior police officials. But his remarks suggest that he was dissatisfied with 
ongoing efforts to make Armenians practice social distancing, wear face masks in 
all public areas and take other precautions against the virus.
Pashinian ordered the law-enforcement and sanitary authorities to toughen the 
enforcement of those rules on June 2 as the COVID-19 epidemic in Armenia reached 
alarming proportions. He stated the following day that citizens’ failure to 
comply with them has become so widespread that there is little the police can do 
about it.
The police claim to have fined since then many more people who did not wear face 
masks in cars or buses.
Armenia -- Vahe Ghazarian, the newly appointed chief of the Armenian police, is 
introduced to his staff, Yerevan, June 9, 2020.
Like Pashinian, Ghazarian was born and raised in Ijevan, a small town and the 
administrative center of Armenia’s northern Tavush province. The two men 
reportedly studied in the same local school. Pashinian is 45 years old while 
Ghazarian will turn 46 next week.
Ghazarian has rapidly worked his way up the police hierarchy since the “Velvet 
Revolution” of April-May 2018 that brought Pashinian to power. He was appointed 
as chief of the police department of Tavush in May 2018 and became the commander 
of Armenian interior troops a year later.
Pashinian assured the senior policemen on Tuesday that the police service is now 
fully merit-based and that political or personal connections will play no role 
in their promotion.
Authorities Want To Send Hospitalized Kocharian Back To Jail
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian greets supporters during his trial, 
Yerevan, February 25, 2020.
Armenia’s Penitentiary Service has appealed against a court’s decision to allow 
the jailed former President Robert Kocharian to remain in hospital until the end 
of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kocharian was taken to Yerevan’s Izmirlian Medical Center and underwent surgery 
there in late April for the second time in seven months. On May 13, a district 
court in the Armenian capital again refused to release him from custody pending 
the outcome of his ongoing trial.
Two weeks later, Kocharian’s lawyers succeeded in convincing another court to 
rule that the ex-president should not be sent back to prison as long as he 
remains at risk of contracting the coronavirus.
It emerged on Tuesday that the Penitentiary Service, which is part of the 
Armenian Ministry of Justice, challenged that decision made by the 
Administrative Court. The agency running Armenian prisons did not explain the 
move condemned by Kocharian’s lawyers.
“The Administrative Court is guided by a very clear logic,” one of the lawyers, 
Aram Vartevanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “After all, penitentiary 
institutions do not have the capacity to preclude the spread of the coronavirus 
among arrested suspects or convicts.”
Vartevanian argued that at least one inmate at the Kosh prison 40 kilometers 
west of Yerevan tested positive for the virus late last week.
It was the first reported case of a COVID-19 infection among prisoners. The 
Penitentiary Service had previously reported coronavirus cases only among prison 
guards.
Kocharian was held in Yerevan’s Kentron jail prior to his hospitalization. His 
lawyers have insisted in recent month that the pandemic is another reason why he 
should be set free. Law-enforcement authorities have dismissed those demands, 
saying that his chances of catching the disease at Kentron are minimal.
Kocharian, 65, and three other former senior officials stand trial on charges 
mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. The ex-president, 
who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, also stands accused of bribery. He rejects all 
accusations leveled against him as politically motivated.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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