Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Corruption Survey Finds No Further Progress In Armenia
January 25, 2022
• Nane Sahakian
Germany -- Microphone cables dangle over a logo of Transparency International
(TI) during a press conference in Berlin, 23Sep2008
Armenia has practically not improved its position in an annual survey of
corruption perceptions around the world conducted by Transparency International.
It ranks, together with Greece, Jordan and Namibia, 58th out of 180 countries
and territories evaluated in the Berlin-based watchdog’s 2021 Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) presented on Tuesday.
Armenia and two other countries shared 60th place in the previous CPI released a
year ago. Transparency International assigned the South Caucasus state a CPI
“score” of 49 out of 100 at the time.
The watchdog kept the score, which is above the global average of 43, unchanged
in the latest survey.
“Following the 2018 Velvet Revolution, Armenia initially made both significant
democratic improvements and positive strides against corruption, climbing 15
points on the CPI over the last decade,” it said in a report. “But despite
progress, in 2021 promised anti-corruption and judicial reforms stalled in the
wake of the political and economic crisis triggered by the pandemic and renewed
conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.”
“No progress was registered in 2021,” agreed Varuzhan Hoktanian, the programs
director at Transparency International’s Armenian affiliate.
“I don’t yet see serious economic, political or social reforms,” he said. “That
is why we have this situation.”
Armenia was 105th in the rankings three years ago. A Transparency International
report released in January 2021 hailed “steady and positive improvements in
anti-corruption” achieved there since the 2018 regime change.
Armenia - Varuzhan Hoktanian of the Armenian branch of Transparency
International at a news conference in Yerevan, 15Mar2017.
Hoktanian suggested that the major change in corruption perceptions reflected
post-revolution optimism that reigned in the country in 2018-2019.
“People expected things to get better,” Hoktanian told a news conference. “That
is why the CPI went up. Now that period [of euphoria] is over, and both
businesspeople and local and international experts are starting to perceive the
situation with corruption through more concrete facts.”
“Secondly, you may recall that some serious steps were taken [by the
authorities] in 2018 and 2019,” he said. “Whether that was good or bad is a
different question.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated
“systemic corruption” since coming to power in May 2018. Armenian
law-enforcement authorities have launched dozens of high-profile corruption
investigations during his rule. They have mostly targeted former top government
officials and individuals linked to them.
The authorities set up last year a special law-enforcement agency tasked with
investigating corruption cases. They are also forming new courts that will deal
only with such cases.
Critics say that Pashinian uses corruption inquiries to crack down on his
political opponents. They also claim that some members of his entourage are busy
enriching themselves or their cronies.
Companies owned by or linked otherwise to at least three senior Armenian
officials, including Pashinian’s deputy chief of staff, won dozens of government
contracts in 2021, raising suspicions of a conflict of interest and even
corruption. Pashinian insisted last month that they did not exploit their
government connections to win tenders for road construction and procurements.
Armenian President Faces Fraud Probe After Resignation
January 25, 2022
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - New Armenian President Armen Sarkissian arrives for his inauguration
ceremony in Yerevan, 9 April 2018.
Two days after President Armen Sarkissian’s surprise resignation, Armenia’s main
security agency was instructed to look into a media report alleging that he was
not eligible to serve as head of state because of concealing a foreign
citizenship.
Sarkissian, in office since 2018, announced his resignation in a written
statement released late on Sunday. He attributed the move to the fact that the
Armenian constitution gives the president of the republic mainly ceremonial
powers.
Hetq.am, an independent investigative publication, claimed on Monday that
Sarkissian stepped down because it emerged that he violated a constitutional
provision stipulating that the president must have been a citizen of only
Armenia for at least six years preceding their election by the parliament.
The publication said that an ongoing investigation conducted by it jointly with
the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international
watchdog, has revealed that Sarkissian was a citizen of the Caribbean island
country of Saint Kitts and Nevis “not long before being elected president in
March 2018.”
It said that in written comments to Hetq.am Sarkissian asserted that he had
automatically gained that citizenship in return for investing in a local hotel a
decade ago. He said he instructed his lawyers to hand back his passport to
authorities in Saint Kitts and Nevis shortly before being appointed as Armenia’s
ambassador to Britain in 2013.
According to the report, Sarkissian claimed to have discovered in 2017 that the
lawyers failed to fulfill his wish. He said he then made sure he does not have
that citizenship anymore.
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) meets with Armenian Ambassador to
Britain Armen Sarkissian in Yerevan, 19Jan2018.
Hetq.am noted that Sarkissian answered its questions during a visit to the
United Arab Emirates which he wrapped up on January 18.
The presidential press office announced at the end of the trip that Sarkissian
is going on a “short vacation” to undergo a “necessary medical examination.” He
is believed to have flown to another foreign country without returning to
Armenia.
The office did not comment on the report on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Armenian prosecutors told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they
have told the National Security Service (NSS) to “verify” the information
contained in the report. He said this will be done “within the framework” of a
criminal case opened by prosecutors last May.
That inquiry was launched following renewed allegations that Sarkissian, who
lived in the United Kingdom for nearly three decades before returning to Armenia
in 2018, remained a British national after 2011. Law-enforcement authorities
have still not released any details of the probe.
The 68-year-old president has insisted all along that he renounced his British
citizenship in 2011.
Pashinian Again Accused Of Making Pro-Azeri Statements
January 25, 2022
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Tigran Abrahamian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Pativ Unem
bloc, at a news conference, Yerevan, January 25, 2022.
Representatives of Armenia’s two leading opposition forces have accused Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian of again signaling his readiness to help Azerbaijan
regain full control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a televised interview aired late on Monday, Pashinian was asked to comment on
the possibility of Armenian recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
through a “peace treaty” sought by Baku.
He responded by claiming that Armenia already did so when it signed and ratified
in 1992 a treaty on the creation of the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS).
“Armenia and Azerbaijan de jure recognized in 1992 the inviolability of borders
and [each other’s] territorial integrity within the bounds of borders existing
in the CIS,” he said.
Pashinian also argued that territorial integrity of states has been one of the
main elements of peace plans on Karabakh jointly drawn up by the U.S., Russian
and French mediators.
Armenia - Gegham Manukian of the opposition Hayastan alliance speaks during a
paliament session in Yerevan, October 27, 2021
Lawmakers representing the main opposition Hayastan alliance were quick to
portray the remarks as further proof of Pashinian’s readiness to end Armenian
control over Karabakh. One of them, Gegham Manukian, accused him of echoing
“Azerbaijani arguments” in the conflict.
“According to him, Karabakh is Azerbaijan. Period,” another Hayastan deputy,
Andranik Tevanian, wrote on Facebook.
Tigran Abrahamian of the Pativ Unem bloc, the other parliamentary opposition
force, added his voice to these allegations on Tuesday.
“Nikol Pashinian is trying to substantiate Artsakh’s being Azerbaijani
territory,” he told a news conference.
Abrahamian also argued that the so-called Madrid Principles of a Karabakh
settlement, which were first put forward by the mediating powers in 2007,
include not only territorial integrity but also people’s right to
self-determination.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with Karabakh President Arayik
Harutyuanian, Yerevan, January 24, 2022.
Various versions of that peace plan stipulated that Karabakh’s predominantly
Armenian population would be able to determine the disputed territory’s
internationally recognized status in a future referendum.
Pashinian has repeatedly criticized the proposed peace deal since Armenia’s
defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. He claimed late last month that they
envisaged the eventual restoration of Azerbaijani control over Karabakh. He also
declared that “Artsakh (Karabakh) could not have ended up being completely
Armenian.”
Those remarks were condemned by the Armenian opposition as well as Karabakh’s
leadership. The latter openly accused Pashinian of making statements playing
into Baku’s hands.
In a January 2021 article, Pashinian likewise said that the U.S., Russian and
French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group sought a “surrender of lands” to
Azerbaijan and offered the Armenian side nothing in return. The then Russian
co-chair of the group, Igor Popov, bluntly denied the claim.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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