Thursday,
Sarkisian Trial Hearings Postponed Over Coronavirus
Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian arrives at a courtroom in Yerevan,
February 25, 2020.
A court in Yerevan agreed to postpone by one month hearings in the corruption
trial of former President Serzh Sarkisian which were due to resume on Thursday.
Sarkisian’s lawyers requested the postponement earlier this week, citing the
“epidemiological situation” in coronavirus-hit Armenia.
One of the lawyers, Amram Makinian, said the presiding judge granted the request
and scheduled the next court hearing for April 23.
Sarkisian and four other men went on trial on February 25, accused of embezzling
489 million drams ($1 million) in government funds allocated in 2013 for the
provision of subsidized fuel to farmers.
The ex-president was specifically charged in December with giving privileged
treatment to a longtime friend and businessman whose company won a government
contract to supply the fuel. He rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
Sarkisian, 65, ruled Armenia from 2008-2018. He resigned amid mass protests
sparked by his attempt to extend his decade-long rule.
Armenian Government Unveils Coronavirus Rescue Package
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, .
Armenia’s government formally approved on Thursday a multimillion-dollar
stimulus package designed to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus
pandemic on businesses and ordinary people.
The plan makes most Armenian firms as well as farmers eligible for financial
assistance or credit subsidies.
It also calls for one-off cash handouts to citizens who have lost their jobs
this month due to economic disruption caused by coronavirus. They will receive
100,000 drams ($200) each if they have children under the age of 14 and are the
sole breadwinners of their families.
The main focus of the wide-ranging aid is on struggling businesses. In
particular, creditworthy firms and individual entrepreneurs will receive grants
worth $500 million (just over $1 million) if they pledge to use that money to
pay their workers’ wages, buy equipment or raw materials or pay taxes. The
scheme will not apply to Armenian banks, insurance companies and casinos.
The government promised additional grants to those small businesses that have
not laid off any workers in recent weeks. The amount of such funding will depend
on the volume of their annual turnover.
The government will also enable small firms to receive low-interest loans with
subsidies to be paid to commercial banks.
Armenia -- An empty street cafe in Yerevan, March 14, 2020.
The banks will also be paid to provide cheap credit to farmers across the
country. The latter will be able to borrow up to 1 million drams each and avoid
paying any interest for two years.
If farmers set up cooperatives and launch major agricultural projects the
government will co-finance between 30 percent and 70 percent of them.
“If a cooperative decides, for example, to take a 200 million-dram loan it will
only need 60 million drams worth of collateral,” Economy Minister Tigran
Khachatrian said during a cabinet meeting. “The government will cover the rest.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said, for his part, that the government
assistance will also boost Armenia’s banking system. “We want the circulatory
system of our economy to start working again,” he told ministers.
Pashinian insisted that the coronavirus relief package will not only help the
domestic economy weather the storm but also lay the groundwork for its renewed
expansion during “the post-epidemic period.”
The premier did not specify the total amount of the emergency funding. He said
last week that the government plans to inject at least 150 billion drams ($300
million) into the economy. Armenia’s overall public spending is projected to
total around $4 billion this year.
Opposition leaders dismissed the promised aid as insufficient. During a
parliament debate on Wednesday, some of them called on the government to impose
a blanket freeze on all loan repayments in the country.
Pashinian rejected those calls. He said the banks should deal with defaulting
clients on a case-by-case basis. Some banks have already decided to extend
repayment deadlines for consumer and mortgage loans by two months.
Armenia Reports First Coronavirus Death
Armenia -- The Nork hospital in Yerevan specializing in treatment of infectious
diseases, March 24, 2020.
Armenia reported its first fatality from a coronavirus infection on Thursday ten
days after declaring a state of emergency to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokeswoman for the Armenian Ministry of Health, Alina Nikoghosian, said the
72-year victim suffered from multiple medical conditions, including a heart
disease, and died one day after being transferred to an intensive care unit of
Yerevan’s Nork hospital.
“Unfortunately, it was not possible to save the latter’s life because of the
accompanying diseases,” she wrote on Facebook.
Nikoghosian did not identify the victim.
Other Armenian officials said earlier in the day that two elderly persons
infected with coronavirus are in “extremely grave” condition. One of them is a
U.S. citizen, according Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
As of Thursday morning, Armenian health authorities confirmed a total of 290
cases of coronavirus in the country, up from 265 cases reported the previous
day. Health Minister Arsen Torosian said on Wednesday night that 36 infected
persons are suffering from pneumonia at the moment.
Almost 100 of those cases were registered in the last four days. “Even if this
pace of growth remains the same [in the days ahead] it will still be a favorable
pace,” Torosian told a news conference held a few hours before the announcement
of the first coronavirus-related death.
Torosian insisted that the COVID-19 infection rate in Armenia is slowly
declining thanks to confinement orders issues by the authorities to thousands of
people who have been in contact with coronavirus patients. He also stressed the
importance of a nationwide lockdown imposed by the government late on Tuesday.
“We hope that the restriction of people’s movement for [at least] seven days …
will help to restrain the increase in those numbers,” said the minister.
Pashinian likewise stated that Armenia has so far avoided a “worst-case
scenario” for the spread of the deadly virus.
“As we can see, in other countries the numbers are growing in geometrical
progression,” he said during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “We don’t have
such a thing. We have a certain rise [in coronavirus cases], and in order to
keep the situation under control we must strictly maintain the [lockdown] regime
set for this week.”
Yerevan Eases Coronavirus-Related Curbs On Press Freedom
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- A police vehicle parked outside the Armenian government headquarters
at Yerevan's deserted Republic Square, .
Responding to strong criticism from journalists and media watchdogs, Armenia’s
government has significantly eased its controversial restrictions on the spread
of information about the coronavirus pandemic.
Immediately after declaring a state of emergency last week, the government
obligated Armenian media outlets and social media users to disseminate only
coronavirus-related news that are released by official sources. It said this is
necessary for preventing false rumors and panic-mongering in the country.
The Armenian police have since accused more than two dozen news services of
flouting these restrictions and ordered them to remove news stories from their
websites.They have also controversially forced some Facebook users to delete
posts critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Journalists, press freedom groups and opposition politicians have denounced the
de facto censorship imposed by the authorities. They believe that the curbs on
freedom of speech are unnecessary and counterproductive.
The OSCE’s representative on freedom of the media, Harlem Desir, also voiced
concern at the restrictions in a statement issued on Tuesday. Desir said that
while he understands the Armenian authorities’ desire to prevent panic
independent news reporting is essential for “countering ‘fake news’ on the
pandemic.”
The government decided to allow such reporting on Wednesday. It said the
Armenian media will only be required to fully reflect information coming from
official sources and to swiftly publish retractions or clarifications demanded
by government bodies enforcing the state of emergency. Local journalists will
also be free to cite or reprint relevant reports by foreign media.
Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech
welcomed on Thursday the new rules for media coverage of the pandemic.
“Now that … media outlets can again operate in an unrestricted manner I believe
that they will be able to collect information important to the public from their
own sources as well,” Melikian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. He urged them to
double-check facts and avoid reporting fake news.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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