Friday,
Crackdown On Armenian Election Contenders Condemned
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Opposition supporters hold pictures of former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon
Aslanian and other arrested opposition members during a demonstration in
Yerevan, .
Human rights campaigners on Friday accused the Armenian authorities of resorting
to arrests and intimidation to gain control of communities where the ruling
Civil Contract party failed to prevail in this month’s local elections.
Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, said opposition groups that did
well there are being illegally pressured not to install their leaders or allies
as community heads.
“That is being done under the guise of so-called criminal and political
proceedings,” he said. “Explanations are not given to the public adequately or
not given at all. Dangerous interventions are carried out with regard to people
directly elected by citizens.”
“Pressure is exerted on elected council members so that they vote ‘accordingly’
during the inaugural sessions of the councils. These practices are fundamentally
at odds with democratic norms,” added Tatoyan.
Civil Contract was defeated or failed to win outright in some of the 36
communities across Armenia that elected on December 5 local councils empowered
to appoint their mayors. The party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
suffered its biggest setback in the country’s third largest city of Vanadzor.
Armenia -- Human right ombudsman Arman Tatoyan speaks during parliamentary
hearings in Yerevan, April 5, 2019.
A bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian practically won the local
ballot with about 39 of the vote. Civil Contract came in second with 25 percent.
Aslanian was thus well placed to regain his post during the first session of the
new municipal council initially slated for this Friday. However, he was arrested
on Wednesday on a string of charges rejected by him and his allies as
politically motivated.
Artur Sakunts, a veteran human rights activist based in Vanadzor, described the
criminal proceedings launched against Aslanian as “political persecution.” He
said the authorities are trying to distort election outcomes in these and other
communities.
“In essence, these actions are an attempt to alter the results of popular votes
with methods that are obviously not democratic,” Sakunts told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service. This will only undermine popular trust in Pashinian’s administration
and electoral process, he said.
Armenia -- Human rights activist Artur Sakunts.
Pashinian’s loyalists maintain that none of the post-election arrests was
politically motivated. They also deny that the authorities are forcing their
challengers to back Civil Contract’s mayoral candidates.
In a community comprising the town of Vartenis and surrounding villages, the
ruling party won 46 percent of the vote on December 5. But two local blocs
challenging it got 37 percent and 16.5 percent respectively, putting them in a
position to have a common candidate elected as mayor.
The leaders of those blocs announced such a deal last week. Law-enforcement
authorities arrested one of them on corruption charges and raided the other’s
home in the following days.
In another town, Talin, a similar power-sharing deal was reached by three other
opposition groups that won between them 11 of the 21 seats in the local council.
Karen Grigorian, the leader of one of those parties called Hayk party, broke
ranks and voted for Civil Contract’s mayoral candidate on Friday, enabling the
latter to take over the local government. Grigorian gave no clear reasons for
the move. According to press reports, he has faced strong government pressure in
recent days.
Three Talin-based members of another opposition party, Zartonk, were briefly
detained by police earlier this week. In a statement issued later on Friday,
Zartonk alleged “police and other interventions” in the local race.
Armenian Parliament Speaker Again Lands In Hot Water
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian talks to journalists, August 25, 2021
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian has caused another scandal after reportedly
telling journalists to stand up when seeing him in the National Assembly
building in Yerevan.
When Simonian entered the parliament lobby on Thursday he did not like the
posture of cameramen sitting there and had all chairs frequently occupied by
them and other reporters removed from there. His spokeswoman, Tsovinar
Khachatrian, defended the decision on Friday, saying that the cameramen sat
cheekily and thus disrespected the speaker.
The chairs were brought back after parliamentary correspondents met with
Simonian later on Thursday. Khachatrian said the cameramen apologized for their
“inappropriate and impolite posture.”
According to Hripsime Jebejian, a journalist with the Aravot daily present at
the meeting, Simonian told her and her colleagues that they must stand up every
time they see him or other lawmakers.
“That demand was very surprising,” Jebejian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We
told him that we cannot comply with it.”
Jebejian also condemned the removal of the chairs. “Even if someone behaved
inappropriately in the National Assembly, why should all journalists suffer as a
result of that … and be deprived of elementary working conditions which the
National Assembly is obliged to put in place?” she said.
Armenia - Relatives of Armenian POWs clash with riot police outside the
parliament building in Yerevan, December 8, 2021.
Simonian, who is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party,
imposed unprecedented restrictions on press coverage of the National Assembly
immediately after becoming its speaker in August. He curbed journalists’ freedom
of movements inside the building and banned them from filming ugly scenes on the
parliament floor.
Armenia’s press freedom groups as well as the parliamentary opposition strongly
condemned those restrictions.
Simonian, who reportedly controls a pro-government news website, also came under
fire last month when the Armenian government allocated 90 million drams
($185,000) for the purchase of a new limousine for him. He claimed that his
current official car frequently breaks down and requires expensive repairs.
The 41-year-old speaker caused an even greater controversy with his disparaging
comments about Armenian prisoners of war revealed on December 7. He had been
caught on camera branding many of those soldiers as deserters who “laid down
their weapons and ran away” during fighting with Azerbaijani forces.
The remarks sparked street protests by angry relatives of POWs. Pashinian and
members of his political team did not publicly criticize or disavow them.
Tsarukian Ally Elected Town Mayor
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - The Prosperous Armenia Party's mayoral candidate Eduard Babayan
attends an election campaign rally in Abovian, December 1, 2021.
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian’s right-hand man and
former bodyguard became the new mayor of the town of Abovian on Friday two weeks
after defeating the ruling Civil Contract party in a local election.
Eduard Babayan topped the list of BHK candidates in the election held on
December 5. The opposition party won 44.4 percent of the vote, compared with
35.2 percent polled by Civil Contract.
Two other parties also won seats in the municipal council empowered to appoint
the mayor of Abovian and surrounding villages making up a single community.
The 27-member council, in which the BHK controls 13 seats, narrowly elected
Babayan during its inaugural session. The latter became mayor thanks to the
backing of the sole council member representing the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a more hardline opposition party.
Twelve other members of the local legislature voted for Civil Contract’s mayoral
candidate, Pavel Tsugunian.
Located about 15 kilometers north of Yerevan, Abovian has long been a political
stronghold of Tsarukian. Despite failing to win any seats in Armenia’s current
parliament elected in June, the tycoon and his party appear to have retained
much of their influence in the town of some 44,000 inhabitants.
Abovian’s previous mayor was also allied to Tsarukian. He defeated another Civil
Contract candidate and got reelected in 2019.
Speaking right after his election, Babayan said that he has a popular mandate to
govern Abovian.
“The people voted; I have nothing else to say,” he told reporters. “I will
answer all your questions soon.”
Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian and his chief bodyguard Eduard Babayan (R)
at an election campaign rally in Hrazdan, 11 April 2012.
Babayan, 49, was known as Tsarukian’s chief bodyguard until he became a
parliament deputy in 2018. In 2019, he was sentenced to three and a half years
in prison on charges of violent assault denied by him. The burly ex-policeman
did not go to jail thanks to a general amnesty declared by the Armenian
authorities.
Civil Contract’s Tsugunian, sought to rationalize the ruling party’s defeat in
Abovian.
“Elections have been held every year [since 2018,]” he said. “People were
probably tired and didn’t go the polls [in large numbers.]”
The party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was also defeated in several
other major communities, notably Armenia’s third largest city of Vanadzor, on
December 5. Opposition leaders now accuse Pashinian of trying to reverse most of
those setbacks with crackdowns on the leaders of local opposition groups that
won or did well in the polls.
Mamikon Aslanian, a former Vanadzor mayor who was well placed to regain his
post, was arrested on Tuesday on corruption charges rejected by him as
politically motivated.
Law-enforcement authorities earlier arrested a local leader who looked set to
prevent Civil Contract from installing its preferred mayor of another community.
They deny political reasons for the arrests.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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