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ARMENIA-POLITICS-CORRUPTION
New Armenia PM targets former elite in graft crackdown
YEREVAN, July 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nearly two months after mass anti-
government protests propelled him to power, Armenia’s new premier Nikol
Pashinyan has launched an all-out crusade against corruption that has long
eroded the ex-Soviet republic.
Armenians were under no illusions about their ruling elite but allegations
that a former war hero diverted humanitarian aid to feed animals in his
private zoo have shocked the public.
Pashinyan was elected in May after he brought tens of thousands of people
onto the streets of the poor South Caucasus nation against deeply-unpopular
veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian, forcing him to resign.
As an MP who headed a small opposition party, Pashinyan built his
popularity on promises to uproot the endemic graft that has long been the
cause of anger against leaders.
Last month, investigators began looking into alleged crimes within the
government, arresting two senior officials.
They also started investigating the army, customs officials and school.
Searches were made of the houses of Sarkisian’s brother and nephew.
Investigators said the company of the former had failed to pay some $600,000
(514,000 euros) in taxes.
But the biggest shock was in mid-June when police arrested retired army
general Manvel Grigoryan, who was also an MP in Sarkisian’s formerly ruling
Republican party.
The 61-year-old hero of Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s over
the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region was accused of large-scale
misappropriation of state goods and illegal arms possession.
– Weapons, luxury cars –
Republicans initially denounced the arrest as “unlawful and politically
motivated,” but after prosecutors released evidence relating to the charges,
they issued a statement renouncing him as a party member.
Public television aired video footage of the search in Grigoryan’s country
mansion where police found a cache of weapons, a collection of luxury cars
along with vehicles that were intended for the military but registered in the
names of his relatives.
Investigators claimed Grigoryan — who was in charge of delivering
humanitarian aid to the army in his capacity of the head of the military
veterans’ union — used food parcels sent by schoolchildren to Armenian
soldiers to feed animals in his own zoo.
He has been stripped by parliament of his immunity from prosecution as an
MP and placed in pre-trial detention.
“We are dealing with the biggest corruption exposure in the country’s
history,” Pashinyan told his cabinet.
The crackdown has also exposed tax fraud by major companies linked to the
Republican party.
– Plot to kill premier –
Analysts said the extent of corruption revealed since Pashinyan has come to
power had dealt a death blow to the Republicans.
“The corruption in Armenia is a Soviet legacy, but even in the Soviet era
it was not this ugly and widespread,” independent analyst Hakob Badalyan told
AFP.
“There is a popular consensus that such crimes wouldn’t have been possible
without the former government’s complicity.”
Another analyst, Vigen Hakobyan, said Grigoryan’s arrest “was a heavy blow
to Republicans, they bear the moral responsibility. Their chances of winning
the next elections are now equal to zero.”
Protest hero-turned-prime minister Pashinyan may have already transformed
the country’s political landscape, ousting old elites from power, but
analysts have warned of possible “resistance by corrupt officials who feel
they are at the end of their tether.”
“Pashinyan and his government pursue the anti-corruption struggle step-by-
step, cautiously as they realise that some powerful forces might try to fight
back,” said Hakobyan.
Last week, Pashinyan’s closest ally Artur Vanetsyan, who heads Armenia’s
national security service, told journalists he was getting intelligence about
“certain groups” plotting to kill him and the prime minister.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 0948 hrs