Thursday,
More Coronavirus Cases Confirmed In Armenia, PM Interrupts Vacation
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian interrupted his vacation and suspended
rallies in an ongoing constitutional referendum campaign for at least one day
late on Thursday after authorities confirmed two more coronavirus cases, with
the total number of patients in the country thus rising to six.
Armenian Health Minister Arsen Torosian said in a Facebook post earlier today
that both identified patients had been taken to an infectious diseases hospital
in Yerevan.
“The two are from among those who had been in close contact with the coronavirus
patient from Echmiadzin [a woman who had arrived from Italy]. They were isolated
yesterday evening. They had fever and later tested positive for coronavirus. At
this moment they feel well and have no fever,” Torosian wrote.
Three coronavirus patients identified in Armenia on March 11 had come from Italy
– two of them are citizens of Armenia and one is an Italian working in Armenia.
The first coronavirus patient identified in Armenia on March 1 was an Armenian
citizen evacuated from Iran.
In a live broadcast on Facebook tonight Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced
that his government will hold consultations on Friday to “fully assess the
situation.”
“Schools will be closed tomorrow as we will try to better understand and
evaluate the situation. We will inform [the public] about our further actions,”
said Pashinian, adding that campaign events scheduled for Friday will also be
postponed.
Armenia Mulls Measures For ‘Effective’ Self-Quarantines
Amid new coronavirus cases identified in Armenia this week the country’s
authorities are considering ways of ensuring the efficiency of self-quarantines
of citizens at homes.
At a meeting on Thursday the commission set up more than a month ago to
coordinate government efforts on preventing the spread of the new virus in
Armenia decided that citizens who will be evacuated from coronavirus-hit Italy
will be placed under a two-week quarantine.
Earlier, Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian announced that a charter
flight from Rome to Yerevan will be organized on March 15 for Armenian citizens
to be able to return from Italy, which appears to be the country hit by the new
coronavirus infection the hardest outside of China.
All three new coronavirus patients in Armenia, including one Italian citizen,
have arrived from Italy. The first patient identified on March 1 was an Armenian
citizen evacuated from Iran.
The Armenian Health Ministry said on March 12 that 57 more people who may have
had contacts with the new coronavirus patients had been isolated, with some of
them placed under home quarantines. Over three dozen citizens have been
quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the
beginning of this month over possible contacts with the first patient.
Chairing the meeting of the commission today Avinian raised the issue of how to
ensure the effectiveness of home quarantines.
“I think we also need to look at the introduction of some type of liability or
get a concrete understanding of how we can ensure the effectiveness of the
actual isolation of people at homes,” he said. “Even the World Health
Organization does not recommend isolating and keeping in quarantine all those
who enter the country, and this is also physically impossible. But in order to
exercise control over those who are in home quarantines, I think we need to hold
this discussion today, and we need to make decisions in that regard.”
After deciding on the 14-day quarantine regime for those to be evacuated from
Italy on Sunday, the commission instructed the Ministry of Health to work with
the Ministry of Justice on options to ensure the responsibility of those in
self-quarantines for breaking them.
The vice-premier also instructed all government agencies to tighten preventive
health measures.
Pashinian Signals No Need Yet For Suspending Referendum Campaign Over Coronavirus
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talking to journalists during a campaign rally in
Jermuk,
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday continued his tour of
Armenian towns campaigning in next month’s constitutional referendum, signaling
no need yet for suspending public rallies in view of new coronavirus cases
confirmed in Armenia.
Armenian authorities reported three new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday,
bringing the total of confirmed cases to four.
The country’s Ministry of Health said that two of the people testing positive
for the novel coronavirus infection known as COVID-19 were citizens of Armenia
aged 45 and 27 and one was a 51-year-old Italian who works in Armenia. All three
had arrived from Italy, officials said.
The first coronavirus patient indentified in Armenia on March 1 had arrived from
Iran, another country hit hard by COVID-19.
Over three dozen people have been quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s
resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the beginning of the month as a precaution
against the further spread of the infection.
Prime Minister Pashinian, who was visiting the central resort town of Jermuk
today, said that authorities had been taking measures to identify the scope of
contacts of the new coronavirus patients in order to place them under
quarantine, too. “This could also be home quarantines,” he said.
Later on Thursday Health Minister Arsen Torosian reported in a Facebook post
that all people who may have had close contacts with the new coronavirus
patients had been identified and isolated. “A total of 57 persons have been
isolated,” the minister said.
Talking to media today Pashinian also promised that his government will keep the
public informed on the coronavirus-related situation, including if the number of
cases and risks increase. As for his campaign rallies ahead of the April 5
constitutional referendum, the prime minister said: “As you see, at the moment
the campaign is ongoing. If there is a need to suspend it, we will do so. As
long as we don’t do so, it means there is no need for doing that.”
Since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Armenia the South Caucasus country’s
authorities tightened controls at the border with Iran and re-introduced entry
visas for Iranian citizens.
On March 10, Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Armenian citizens to
refrain from visiting Italy and those who are currently in Italy to “urgently
suspend their trips and return to Armenia.” That same day budget airline Ryanair
announced suspension of all flights from Yerevan to Italy and back until April 8.
Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian has announced that a charter
flight from Rome to Yerevan will be organized on March 15 to evacuate Armenian
citizens from Italy.
U.S. Says Popular Distrust In Impartiality Of Judges Remains Strong In Armenia
• Heghine Buniatian
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks on the 2019 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices at the State Department in Washington,
The Armenian government took steps in 2019 to investigate and punish alleged
abuses by former and current government officials and law enforcement
authorities, according to an annual U.S. Department of State report on human
rights practices.
As evidence the country report for Armenia published on March 11 refers to
criminal cases and trials involving former high-ranking government officials.
“On September 12, hearings began in a high-profile case against former officials
for their alleged involvement in sending the military to break up protests
following the 2008 presidential election, in which eight civilians and two
police officers were killed. Charges filed in this and associated criminal cases
included allegations of overthrowing the constitutional order, abuse and
exceeding official authority, torture, complicity in bribery, official fraud,
and falsification of evidence connected with the investigation of the 2008
postelection events,” the U.S. Department of State says, listing the names of
high-profile suspects in the cases, including former president Robert Kocharian.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of State quotes Council of Europe
commissioner for human rights Dunja Mijatovic as noting in her report “the
importance of conducting the process in a careful manner, ‘in strict adherence
to the principles of rule of law, judicial independence, transparency, and
guarantees of fair trial’, in order to dispel any accusations of revenge
politics or selective justice.”
Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of State says that more than a decade after
the deadly post-election events of March 2008, in June 2019, the Armenian
parliament adopted a law on providing assistance to the victims of the violence,
and in September the government allocated 720 million drams (about $1.5 million)
to assist victims and their families.
Referring to human rights violations in Armenia last year, the U.S. Department
of State highlights shortcomings in the judicial sphere, indicating “significant
problems with the independence of the judiciary.”
“Although the law provides for an independent judiciary, the judiciary did not
generally exhibit independence and impartiality. After the 2018 political
transition, popular distrust in the impartiality of judges remained strong, and
NGOs highlighted that the justice sector retained many officials who served the
previous authorities. Corruption of judges remained a concern,” the report says.
It reminded that in May “in an apparent reaction to the release of former
president Robert Kocharian from detention by a Yerevan court, Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian called on his supporters to block access to courts throughout
the country, a move questioned by some observers as pressuring the judiciary.”
Speaking about the judiciary, the U.S. Department of State observed that
“following the “Velvet Revolution,” many judges released suspects in politically
sensitive cases from pretrial detention.”
“According to human rights groups, because no other circumstances had changed in
their cases, this was an indication that, before the April and May 2018 events,
judicial decisions to hold those suspects in detention instead of allowing their
release on bail were politically motivated.”
The Armenian judiciary came under criticism also for an “increasing tendency to
fall back into the previous practice of applying pretrial detention.” “Lengthy
pretrial detention remained a chronic problem,” the U.S. Department of State
says, referring to the government’s statistics, according to which as of October
1, approximately 45 percent of the prison population consisted of pretrial
detainees.
The report also refers to abuse in police stations and in prisons. “According to
human rights activists, impunity for past instances of police abuse contributed
to the persistence of the problem, although to a lesser extent than observed
prior to the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” Furthermore, observers contended that the
failure to prosecute these past cases was linked to the lack of change in the
composition of law enforcement bodies since the 2018 political transition, other
than at the leadership level.”
As for prisons, the report notes that according to the Prison Monitoring Group,
“political will at the highest level to eradicate corruption in the
penitentiaries had not yet been translated into institutional change.”
As for corruption, the U.S. Department of State says that Armenia has “a legacy
of systemic corruption in many areas, including construction, mining, public
administration, the parliament, the judiciary, procurement practices, and
provision of grants by the state.”
“There were allegations of embezzlement of state funds, involvement of
government officials in questionable business activities, and tax and customs
privileges for government-linked companies. In 2018 the government made
combating corruption one of its top priorities and continued to take measures to
eliminate it during the year. Although top officials announced the “eradication
of corruption” in the country, local observers noted that anticorruption
measures needed further institutionalization. Criminal corruption cases were
uncovered in the tax and customs services, the ministries of education and
health care, and the judiciary,” the report says.
“According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in the 13 months ending in June,
enforcement bodies and tax services uncovered violations in the amount of 110.5
billion drams (almost $230 million), constituting damages to the state,
embezzlement, abuse of official duty, and bribes. Of this amount, 30.1 billon
drams ($63 million) was reportedly paid to the state budget; NGOs raised
concerns regarding insufficient transparency in this process.
“During the year former officials made public announcements of their intent to
return assets to the state, allegedly to avoid prosecution. The process by which
the government accepted or negotiated such arrangements were unclear.”
Speaking about omissions, the U.S. Department of State refers to media reports
throughout the year that “the Ministry of Defense was providing incomplete
information or not reporting on certain noncombat deaths in the army.” “Human
rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) voiced concern regarding the Defense
Ministry’s classification of military deaths and the practice of qualifying many
noncombat deaths as suicides, making it less likely that abuses would be
uncovered and investigated.”
At the same time, the report says that in its July 8 biannual report on the
human rights situation in the armed forces, the NGO Peace Dialogue noted that,
for the first time, the Ministry of Defense had designated the protection of
soldiers’ human rights as an organizational priority: “On July 24, the Defense
Ministry launched a “trust line,” a telephone number that soldiers may call to
submit complaints, ask for assistance, and provide suggestions.”
The report also presents observations on media. The U.S. Department of State
says that since the 2018 political transition, the media environment in Armenia
has been freer. “However, there were reports that some outlets avoided
criticizing the authorities so as not to appear ‘counterrevolutionary’,” it adds.
“According to some media watchdogs, public television continued to present news
from a pro-government standpoint, replacing one government perspective with
another in the aftermath of the political transition. Nonetheless, public
television was open and accessible to the opposition as well and covered more
diverse topics of public interest than before.”
“Media company ownership was mostly nontransparent. The country’s Fourth Action
Plan of Open-Government Partnership Initiative of the Republic of Armenia
(2018-2020) included commitments to improve ownership disclosure. Media NGOs
advocated for the media sector to be included as a priority sector in the action
plan and proposed changes to the Law on Television and Radio that fostered media
ownership transparency,” reads the U.S. Department of State’s report.
Whereas previous annual reports criticized the Armenian authorities for systemic
corruption, violence against journalists and the opposition, the suppression of
freedom of speech and assembly, impunity of law-enforcement agencies and
violations during elections, this time, the U.S. Department of State says,
quoting international observers, that Armenia’s early parliamentary elections of
December 2018 “were held with respect for fundamental freedoms and enjoyed broad
public trust that needs to be preserved through further electoral reforms.”
Armenian Financial System ‘Not Affected’ By Ruble Depreciation
• Robert Zargarian
Armenian Central Bank representative Andranik Grigorian
The fall in world oil prices that has led to a sharp depreciation of the Russian
ruble has not had any serious impact on Armenia’s financial system, according to
a Central Bank representative.
Andranik Grigorian, head of the Central Bank’s Financial System Stability and
Development Department, said the Armenian financial system enjoys a “fairly high
liquidity”. “There is no need for panic,” Grigorian said on Wednesday. “Our
banks are well capitalized and have sufficient liquidity in any currency.
Investors in our financial system can rest assured both in terms of their
deposits and in terms of servicing loans. Our exchange rate is a free floating
one, and I don’t see anything extraordinary here.”
As for the possible depreciation or appreciation of the Armenian national
currency, the dram, against other currencies, Grigorian said that the Central
Bank has been conducting various analyses to understand the potential impact of
both trends. “In both cases we can say that our system is quite liquid,” he
added.
The Central Bank official said the closed border with Iran due to the new
coronavirus infection has not yet had any impact on Armenia’s financial system,
but cautioned that certain risks are always present when borders are closed –
“be it in Armenia, Germany or the United States.”
“For the time being we do not see any problems here. Our financial system does
not have that level of related assets for the closed border with Iran to lead to
problems in it,” Grigorian added.
The Ministry of Economy declined to comment on the possible impact of the closed
border with Iran on the Armenian economy in general.
Economist Vahagn Khachatrian believes, however, that a closed border with the
neighboring country cannot but have a negative effect on Armenia’s economy. “We
all understand that a closed border means that there will be problems. It is
clear that there will be some impact and that impact will be negative. Here we
just need to be able to assess how solvable the problem will be over time,” he
said.
The economist said that no business in Armenia could possibly guess in January
how the situation would unfold in order to take long-term measures like storing
supplies in warehouses for several months. But according to Khachatrian, it is
important not to panic now and even more important for the government to take
proper action through its relevant agencies.
“Entrepreneurs should be kept updated on the situation, as many are asking
questions now, wondering when the border can be re-opened. But no one can make
any forecasts in this matter even by following the international news. On the
one hand you hear more positive news from China [on coronavirus], but news
coming from European countries, especially from Italy, are more negative,”
Khachatrian said.
The closed border regime with Iran is expected to be in place at least until
March 24.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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