After the change of government in 2018, Nikol Pashinyan started criminal prosecutions against the opposition, the former, including especially the heads of local self-government bodies.

These persecutions reached their peak after the war of 2020 and especially in 2021, when it turned out that the CP government could not win in the local self-government. After the war, many community leaders demanded Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation and appeared on his black list.

In the foreground, of course, were the mayors of Syunik, who greeted Pashinyan with Syunik greetings. Pashinyan, whoever he could, arrested, whoever he could not, started to implement a new program of community enlargement, the real goal of which was to get rid of the opposition community leaders and the localization of local self-government bodies. Incredible fake criminal cases were “sewn” against hundreds of community leaders so that they would not dare to participate in the local elections, some were isolated for an indefinite period of time, some were detained before the elections, some after the elections.

At some point, almost all the mayors of Syunik appeared in prison: Arush Arushanyan, Mkhitar Zakaryan, Manvel Paramazyan, Arthur Sargsyan. Some of them did not participate in the elections, and Arushanyan won the CP from the fortress. According to undeniable rumors, a criminal case has been initiated against more than 300 community heads. The elections are over, we can say that the danger is in the past, but some community leaders continue to be detained, it can be thought that they have committed serious crimes. The allegations, however, are ridiculous, and the law requires that pre-trial detention be applied only in specific cases where there is a risk that a person may commit a new crime or influence witnesses. And the accusations against the mayors are either already committed, over, say, electoral crimes, or they are economic accusations, with articles of abuse of office, which are mostly unfounded and have a political context. And the meaning is only to keep the person in the status of a hostage and to impose some concessions. For example, Mamikon Aslanyan, the former mayor of Vanadzor, has been under arrest since December 2021. The bloc led by him won the most votes in the December 4 local elections, and if Aslanyan had not been arrested, he would have been elected mayor now. The authorities arrested Aslanyan to obstruct the election, and last month changed the law twice to appoint Arkady Peleshyan, known as Aka, with a criminal record, as acting mayor. And Aslanyan’s fault, according to the Investigative Committee, was to change the purpose of the specific addresses of Vanadzor city, “turning them from the lands of the purpose of the settlements into energy, transport, Targeted lands of communication and communal infrastructure objects, and operational significance from public construction lands, lands of operational significance of communal infrastructure, which he did not have the authority to: “As a result, the rights and legitimate interests of the state and the community have been severely damaged, which has caused serious consequences through negligence.”

His lawyers have repeatedly spoken about the actions attributed to Mamikon Aslanyan, calling them baseless and fabricated. The problem is that if Aslanyan is released, the councils of elders of the bloc and the “Homeland” party have a majority, they can convene a session and elect Aslanyan as mayor.

Berd community head Harutyun Manucharyan was arrested in November last year. He appeared in the throat of the government because he did not agree to make a deal with Pashinyan’s godfather’s governor Ghalumyan to resign, so that they would appoint his own official and occupy Berd as well. Manucharyan supported the opposition in last year’s snap elections, as a result of which he was arrested and is still being held in custody. Harutyun Manucharyan was charged with Article 308, Part 1 (abuse of official authority) and Part 314, Part 1 (official forgery) of the Criminal Code. According to the accusation, Manucharyan’s son, Anushavan Manucharyan, carried out construction.

Harutyun Manucharyan was officially informed about it in 2020. On August 27, when the head of the land use department, according to his son’s application, went and registered it on the spot. Administrative proceedings were initiated, and since the war started on September 27, the proceedings were suspended, and during that time the statute of limitations for administrative liability expired. Although part of the voluntary structure was on community land, the whole structure became the property of the community and sold to the developer, Anushavan Manucharyan. In addition to the fact that money was transferred to the community budget, the land outside the community, on the road, is rocky and not suitable for anyone, but the body conducting the proceedings considered that this act contains features of Article 308 of the Criminal Code, but criminal does not exist.

The mayor’s ombudsman once said that he had been arrested on the grounds that he had not applied administrative sanctions. “The investigator wrote in his decision that Harutyun Manucharyan had known since January 2018 that his son was carrying out illegal construction, but had not provided any evidence to the court.” A person is detained for about a year on such a ridiculous accusation.

Ara Mkrtchyan, the mayor of Kasakh, who is the father of Anna Mkrtchyan, a member of the “I have honor” faction of the National Assembly, has also been detained since November last year, and it is his daughter’s strict opposition activities that determine such an attitude towards her father. According to law enforcement agencies, 61-year-old village head Ara Mkrtchyan had previously agreed with a citizen to buy a 9,600-square-meter plot of land in Kasakh for $ 15. In another episode, the head of the community and his subordinates made the citizen who came to an agreement with them participate in the auction, mentioning the value of one square in the papers at 2,900 drams. The lands were actually sold for 59 million drams, but the documents mentioned about twice less money – 28 million drams. That is, the buyer paid them 59 million drams in cash, of which 31 million drams were misappropriated instead of entering the budget. The other episode is related to the June 20 elections. During the campaign, the recording of the village mayor’s meeting with the staff of the Neurosis Clinic in Kasakh was spread on the Internet, where Mkrtchyan was heard asking his daughter to vote. “You do not want to, you do not love me, I offended you, do not vote for me, but I force you not to vote for these zombie zombies.”

Former mayor of Vardenis, member of the “United Vardenis” bloc of parties Aram Harutyunyan has also been in custody since last December. The authorities hoped that by arresting Harutyunyan, they would get a majority in the Council of Elders, but here, as a result of internal “fights”, the leadership of the community passed to the opposition, and Harutyunyan resigned from prison to transfer his mandate to someone else and be able to elect a mayor. He is still being held as a punishment. They are accused of abuse of official authority, forgery of documents, fraud, which is related to the abuses found in the regional social assistance agency in 2019. Arrest in this case had been denied once before.

Lusine Shahverdyan

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/af187a93589abbfad4009661ae23ba38?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

MP Kristine Vardanyan of the opposition Hayastan bloc blasted the decision to bar opposition lawmakers from the two-day judicial forum which kicked off in Yerevan on Wednesday morning.

Opposition MPs were not invited to the conference “Judiciary as a guarantor for democracy” attended by representatives of international organizations and Armenia’s judicial authorities.

Speaking to reporters at a protest outside the government building, Vardanyan accused the authorities of “pretending” to be committed to a democratic path.

“They have positioned themselves as holders of democratic values, but they are actually the biggest traitors of those values,” she said.

“These people have absolutely no connection with democracy and human rights. Moreover, they pose a threat to the two concepts. They just continue to tell lies [to people] and extend their grip on power,” the deputy noted.

Vardanyan claims the real defenders of democracy are opposition leaders and supporters who have stood up to defend Armenian statehood, ensure security and protection of human rights in the country.

10 people were detained in Yerevan in the case of clashes between police and protesters at the intersection of Demirchyan and Proshyan streets, the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia informed

On 3 June, there was a clash between law enforcers and supporters of the Resistance Movement at the intersection of Demirchyan and Proshyan streets. The law enforcers used stun grenades against the protesters. In addition, 15 people were brought as defendants. They were charged with organizing mass riots.

Ten of them were placed under arrest as a preventive measure. Four more persons were taken to a non-custodial measure. Apart from the 15 people in question, one more citizen was detained. A petition for his arrest has been filed. The preliminary investigation is continuing.

By Harut Sassounian,

I wrote last week about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to collect votes from Turkish Americans for his reelection next year by opening an office in Washington for his ruling party (AKP) and hiring his cousin, Dr. Halil Mutlu, as a registered lobbyist. Already, Erdogan has scored an initial political success in the United States with the victory of Turkish-American Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

This week, I would like to report on Pres. Erdogan’s similar political efforts in France by planting Turkish moles in the French legislature. This has been their long-term objective of Erdogan ever since 2010, when he urged his compatriots in France, during his visit to Paris, to run for political office.

Naturally, no one can object to Turks in France and the United States to run for political office. However, when such political action is prompted and supported by a foreign government, in this case Turkey, and its autocratic leader, serious concerns are raised that these Turkish politicians can become a tool in the hands of Erdogan to export his despotic policies beyond Turkish borders and propagate anti-Armenian positions.

Heeding Erdogan’s marching orders, Ali Gedikoglu, founder of the Strasbourg-based Equality and Justice Party, “presented 50 candidates in the 2017 [French] legislative elections,” Intelligence Online reported. “Gedikoglu is also known to be a long-time close associate of the Turkish foreign affairs minister and founding AKP member, Mevlüt Çavusoglu.”

For the upcoming June 12 and 19, 2022 French Parliamentary elections, the Turkish news website Medyaturk, in collaboration with the French version of Turkish government-owned Anadolu Agency, has been promoting three Turkish candidates: “French-Turkish dual citizens Celil Yilmaz (for 5th constituency of Ain); Yalcin Ayvali (14th constituency of Rhône); and Ramazan Calli (5th constituency of Saône-et-Loire),” a candidate of the Union of French Muslim Democrats. All three are “involved in the Strasbourg-based association Cojep (Conseil pour la justice, l’égalité et la paix), whose name translates as council for justice, equality and peace,” according to Intelligence Online. Created in 1985, Cojep has an annual budget of 300,000 euros. It “advocates for the interests of the Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ‘Turkish Justice and Development Party’ or AKP, to which its leadership is close.”

Candidate Celil Yilmaz is President of the Cojep association and former town councilor for Nantua (east of France). Cojep’s director Gedikoglu is an active denialist of the Armenian Genocide in the European Parliament where he is registered as a lobbyist with the Parliament’s Transparency Registry. He is also described as “the driving force behind the AKP’s media presence and charity work in France,” according to Intelligence Online.

Given the widespread recognition of the Armenian Genocide throughout Europe, Turks who deny the Genocide become the laughing stock of Europeans, just as in the United States, after both chambers of congress and Pres. Biden recognized the Genocide. Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide are the equivalent of trying to prove that “the earth is flat.”

Candidate Yilmaz was “indicted in 2018 by the Paris prosecutor’s office for ‘incitement to hatred,’” according to Intelligence Online. “Yilmaz demonstrated his capacity to rally people to his side when, in just a few minutes via social media, he managed to gather a hundred Turks to counter a pro-Kurdish demonstration in front of the Turkish consulate in Lyon in January 2018.”

Intelligence Online revealed that “Yilmaz also arranged for Cojep staff to meet with an official delegation from the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] that had travelled to talk with senior AKP members at its headquarters in Turkey in August 2021. The DRC party included President Félix Tshisekedi’s brother Roger Tshisekedi. Yilmaz also relies on Cojep’s Vice President for international relations, Sati Arik, who is a substitute on the board of AKP’s women’s branch ‘AKP Kadin Kollari.’ Arik, who hails from Strasbourg, is close to the Turkish-German AKP Member of Parliament Zafer Sirakaya. According to her biography on the party’s website, she writes reports on “Muslims in France” for Sirakaya. The other two candidates, Ayvali and Calli, only show their association with Cojep via social media, though Calli is its local contact person for Montceau-les-Mines, eastern France.”

In addition to the United States and France, Erdogan has set up a chain of lobbying groups throughout Europe. They consist of “Union of European Turkish Democrats (Union des démocrates turcs européens) created by the AKP in Brussels [Belgium] in 2003 to back Turkey’s candidature to join the European Union. This entity has since become the parent company of several micro-parties close to the AKP, such as “Be.one” in Belgium, the Multicultural Law Party (Multicultural Recht Partij) in the Netherlands and the Alliance for Innovation and Justice (Bündnis für Innovation und Gerechtigkeit) in Germany,” according to Intelligence Online.

This extensive Turkish lobbying effort should be confronted by everyone, not just Armenians. Even though Turkey is a bankrupt country, Pres. Erdogan, has chosen to use his country’s limited financial resources to arm its military and disseminate Turkish propaganda around the world.

The Armenian team won two medals at the European Weightlifting Championships in the Albanian capital.

Varazdat Lalayan won the title of European vice-champion in the +109 kg weight category and the silver medal with the result of 451 kg (211 + 240). Olympic vice-champion Gor Minasyan became a bronze medalist with a result of 446 kg (210 + 236). The RA KGMS notes that the Armenian men’s team is the second in the European Championship in the team standings. Georgia’s Lasha Talakhadze (462 kg) won the title of European super heavyweight champion for the 7th time.

Gone are the days when we mistakenly thought that Nikol was our son, he would not do things that would harm Artsakh and Armenia. Those times passed irrevocably. Nikol Pashinyan has already crossed the line of return, continues to move forward in Armenia, in a direction unknown to many in Artsakh. In other words, Nicole has ceased to be our Nicole.

There are people who claim that it has been clear since November 9, 20 that he is not ours. For me, however, it became clear when he did not resign or leave as a capitulated leader. If he was ours, he should have taken his guilt and left, while he did the most incredible step, he stayed. No defeated leader has done that before. And I consider his move to be a greater sin than, yes, losing the war on unequal orders. It was a war, even the blood of the victims could be understood and forgiven, but to remain joking on that blood, sorry, was beyond all human imagination.

Did he stay or was he kept? This is another issue that still needs to be addressed. Did he not have to tell his people about it, ask them to take it from that invisible force? Did he not see, did he not know that he was being led to new defeats, concessions, that the country was being dragged into the abyss with him? And who at that crucial moment handed him the hog with the famous prison to continue manipulating and fooling ordinary citizens?
I do not know, it’s their fault that they may have known who was moving Nicole, but they were afraid to speak out. I only heard one phrase from Serzh Sargsyan, that is, I did not lose to Nikol, I lost to bigger forces. And where are the clear indications? Soros, West, USA … These words mean nothing. Where was the NSS? If Serzh Sargsyan knew what forces they were, wouldn’t the NSS know? Who reported to Serzh Sargsyan? Probably, the NSS lost to the big forces a little earlier than Serzh Sargsyan, having learned about it from the newspapers. But look what they are doing now, how they are pressuring the opposition and the people standing up so that nothing happens to Nikol. And why only the NSS? When did the police manage to defeat those forces, and what about the army that, even after the disgraceful war, was able to expel from Armenia or level the ground with both Nikol and the force holding her?
Nicole completely forgot about the brakes. There is no use for them at the moment. He is not the de facto Prime Minister of Armenia. I do not know what else: a soccer ball, a soft toy, a police inflated balloon, a NSS truncheon, a light grenade, an Alpha detachment … He is the prime minister today, because he is the prime minister, that’s all. On one occasion, Levon Ter-Petrosyan was angry with the opposition: no matter what you do, outsiders talk to the Armenian authorities, and the Armenian authorities are Nikol. De jure, yes, but to him, whatever the outsiders do. They take me to Brussels, they sing different songs, they take me to Moscow, completely different. He sings other songs in front of the people … He knows so many songs that he will not even say them. And everyone takes us, puts forward their programs and policies at our expense.

Have you read the messages of the CSTO leaders on the occasion of his birthday? They got it, didn’t they? Nicole is called a prominent and prominent politician. Believe me, no one understood better than the jubilee that he was taken. But tell me, did his eyebrow move because of that? No, he is moving towards the future, towards a higher group of democracy, towards an era of peace … he goes. Okay, let him go again, but let Ali’s mouth tell you to withdraw your troops from Armenia so that we can deal with the border issue, let a mouth say: Artsakh will not be part of Azerbaijan, say a few other things is the abyss? A brake? Is there a brake to brake?

And what to do in this situation, how to get him out of that car, how can we not have a de jure prime minister named Nicole, so that those who hold him and those who talk to him finally understand that it is impossible to say something that just exists? does not have as a negotiator. What should we do, hit? Where was he? But even in this situation, he does it by hand from the car: lokh is good, security, rights, flan, fstan. And I’m scared. I’m afraid that he will be hit by outsiders when they see that a comedy called Nicole is turning into nonsense. They will do something stupid and throw it at us. There is a smart young man working in that penitentiary, he is a master of that business. He said that the clash at the intersection of Proshyan and Demirchyan streets was directed by the opposition leaders. Hey, you weren’t there, I was, They were my family members, no one guided us or took us to a collision. The clash was provoked by people in civilian clothes, who were recognized by the police and carefully removed from the fight. There are facts, did you know? And if you have been told otherwise, it’s your problem, not just yours. This is a much bigger problem than you can imagine. Tomorrow, if your crazy driver is hit by a prostitute, they will report the same horse to you, do you understand?
To be honest, I do not know what the end of this will be. And don’t ask me anything else, what do you say, will this go? This is going on, dear people, if only it would take us with it. And one more bad news, we have no brakes.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/58e0e1560961145eaafa98d7e406ff2a?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

Relatives of several Azerbaijanis who were deported from Germany before being arrested upon their return have held a demonstration in Baku.

On Tuesday, around a dozen people gathered outside the German Embassy. The demonstration was broken up by Azerbaijani police soon after it began.

According to protesters, six asylum seekers were deported from Germany and then arrested over the past year, and their families are demanding they be given a fair and open trial. The protesters also said they wanted the German embassy to pay more attention to the issue. 

Protesters said four of the six people deported from Germany and later arrested were charged with fabricated drug offences.

Police officers who arrived at the demonstration removed protesters from the area and confiscated posters and copies of their common statement, however, no one was detained.

Nurana Ashurova, whose husband Samir Ashurov was among those in custody, told reporters that they had not received any response from the German embassy. 

‘When we were sent from Germany, they said that Samir would not be persecuted, but he was arrested almost immediately’, she said.

Ashurov is a political activist who was arrested several times after taking part in anti-government protests, before seeking asylum in Germany in 2018.

[Read on OC Media: Activist arrested in Azerbaijan following deportation from Germany]

Vahid Karimli, whose son Punhan Karimli was arrested after being returned to Azerbaijan, also took part in the protest. Punhan Karimli is an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan..

‘Initially, the police said that Punhan was detained on suspicion of carrying an illegal weapon. Then this weapon turned into a drug. Just as my son was arrested on trumped-up charges, his trial is virtually closed’, Karimov said.

“Hraparak” newspaper writes. “Yesterday, there were serious clashes between the participants of the resistance movement and the police near the third building of the government.

A number of citizens appeared in the police departments, some in the hospital. The protesters demanded that the opposition deputies be allowed to meet with the ministers and ask whether they were in favor of Artsakh being never part of Azerbaijan or not. There was no meeting and the answer to that question could not be heard. Instead, ministry officials supported the protesters by waving Artsakh and Armenian state flags from their balconies, handing water to protesters, and throwing leaflets reading “Police, be human” and “Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan.” “As far as we understand, the employees of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs were active, watching how the police used violence against their former minister, Aghvan Vardanyan.” More details in today’s issue of the newspaper

As of 23:00, 50 people were taken to different medical centers following the incident at the Proshyan-Demirchyan crossroads.

34 of them are police officers and 16 are civilians, according to the Ministry of Health. According to the report, one of the injured is in serious condition and is currently undergoing surgery, and the other injured have received the first surgical treatment of the injuries. As of 22:30, the Ministry of Health reported 42 citizens who applied to medical centers, 22 of them police officers. Opposition groups called for a two-hour rally in front of a government building in France Square on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. The police had concentrated large forces here. The action was accompanied by clashes, the police used a special means – light and sound grenades. Earlier, the special sitting initiated by the opposition in the National Assembly, in which the opposition wanted to adopt a statement on Artsakh, failed due to the government’s efforts. In particular, they demanded to state in the form of a statement that “Artsakh can not be part of Azerbaijan.” The government had boycotted the sitting, announcing that it was a false political agenda.

A man who came to Yerevan on a donkey with Pashinyan was arrested on charges of false betrayal Sjada Ghukasyan, a resident of Achajur village, Tavush region,

has been arrested. It should be reminded that he became more famous to the public last year when he came to the National Assembly building with a donkey and announced, “I have come to take the traitorous capitulator to Ijan sitting on a donkey.” Ghukasyan’s lawyer Sergey Harutyunyan told 168.am that the reason for his arrest was allegedly giving false information against a police officer. “Last month, when the citizens were marching from Ijjan to Yerevan,

the next day at the intersection of Alek Manukyan-Gnuni streets, during the action, Sada’s tooth was broken due to the disproportionate use of force by the police. Then, at the police station, the ombudsman’s staff advised Sjada, as there is such an injury, that Sjada had to report a crime. “Taking into account that the report was about a police officer, the case was being investigated by the NSS,” said Sjada Ghukasyan’s lawyer. According to Harutyunyan, about a week ago, during the investigation of the case by the NSS, a recording of unknown origin was spread in one of the media outlets, where there was a sentence cut from the context of the conversation, with half of the sentence where Sada allegedly says “I’m going to tell the police what to do.”

“After the publication of that recording, the case was urgently terminated, taking into account that this was allegedly possible by Sjada, then a criminal case was initiated on the article of false betrayal. It is not clear here what Sada is really saying in that context, whether it is a montage or not, besides, it is not clear whether he is joking or not. “It was a basis for making a decision on arrest minutes or hours after the termination of the criminal case, and then detaining him, as if Sada would obstruct the preliminary investigation,” the ombudsman said. Sergey Harutyunyan emphasized that this sets a precedent for anyone not to dare to report. “Suddenly, you see, you may find yourself in that situation next.” Sjada Ghukasyan’s lawyer informed that the court session ended at around 9:30 pm yesterday, and the court announced the decision on the arrest at around 1:00 pm. He added that they will appeal the decision. It should be reminded that Sjada Ghukasyan in a conversation with 168.am in France Square mentioned that the police had broken his tooth using brute force.