2019 February 7

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Feb/7/2019: \ March 1st, Kocharyan, Serj and Ter-Petrosyan \ Kotayk province anti-corruption stats \ More transparent military death investigations \ Azeri lawsuit vs Armenia thrown away \ Fake news Narco-Karabakh exposed as a black-PR by Azeri regime \ Azeri soldier in Artsakh \
by ar_david_hh

All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law. Currency in Armenian Drams unless specified otherwise.

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Higher court has ruled that Robert Kocharyan should remain in jail for 2 more months, after his lawyers challenged the Lower court's verdict. They plan to take the case to Cassations court.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963411.html

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According to lawyer:

Robert Kocharyan didn't know about the existence of order 0038 which involved his army in politics,

he didn't know that the police were conducting illegal raids against peaceful and sleeping anti-Kocharyan protesters on the morning of March 1st,

he also didn't know that his Minister of Defense (wanted by police) was a foreign citizen at the time of being hired.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154130

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Serj Sargsyan was questioned as a witness as part of March 1st investigation again. Sargsyan was the Prime Minister on 2008.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154137

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2008 presidential candidate and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan has been questioned as a witness as part of March 1st investigation.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154162

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QP and Yerevan municipality are discussing a proposal to install a monument dedicated to March 1st victims. The victims' families wanted it done before upcoming March 1st, but mayor Marutyan said it's impossible to finish that quick.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154141

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Kotayk province crime stats:

Kotayk prosecutor's office has investigated more than twice as many corruption cases on 2018, compared to 2017.

81 cases of abuse of power by various officials. The number of overall crime reports rose by 23%, very heavy crime down by 25%. The 75% of all cases have been solved.

As in the rest of the country, the overall crime rise was attributed to theft and burglaries, which rose by 30-58% (160 incidents of the latter). Only 37% of burglaries were solved.

Murder incidents: 2016 - 5; 2017 - 5; 2018 - 0.

Deliberate injury to health was also down. 93% of all cases solved.

The law enforcement will work on improving lighting near the apartment complexes, encourages code locks to be installed at the doors, will consider increasing foot patrol in risky areas, will monitor potential suspects more closely.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963489.html

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PM Pashinyan and Minister of Finances discussed further changes in salary bonus distribution rules to make it more fixed and predictable. Minister said the reports of him receiving 5mln bonuses are not true. The sum included his salary, bonuses, compensation for unused vacations, and taxes.

Minister is against rising salaries and eliminating the bonus system. Says the bonus system encourages workers to work harder. "When they know their salary is going to be high no matter what, they often don't perform well."

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963503.html

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The Investigative Committee has signed an agreement with 10 public organizations to make the military death investigations more transparent, and to let the organizations monitor the investigators' work to verify there are no errors or neglect.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963433.html

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A new aluminum foundry factory has been built near Yerevan. It'll process and export aluminum for the international markets. 100 jobs and 2bln investments.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/154181

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Today is the national Write Armenian In Armenian Alphabet day. Have some respect for OG Mesrop Mashtots!

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963439.html

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Wikimedia-Armenia representative says there is a rise in Armenian alphabet adoption on the internet. People are less likely to use other alphabets to write Armenian words, and sometimes փիփլ վրայթ ինգլիշ ուիդ արմէնյան լեթթերս։

There are 251,000 Wikipedia articles in Armenian.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963495.html

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Western Armenian had received its own international ISO language code, and will have a separate section in Wikipedia. There are 7,000 articles written in Western Armenian.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963443.html

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7 patients with a stroke have now been operated for free, as part of government's improvements to the healthcare coverage. https://armtimes.com/hy/article/154124

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Some of the healthcare reforms to expand the people who qualify for subsidy, has gone into effect.

The following groups will receive free or subsidized care: Families who have over 30 points in the Family Aid system, the lowest poverty level to qualify for the healthcare has been lowered to include more poor, WW2 and some other vets, elderly care patients, temporary homeless shelter residents, Chernobyl cleanup crew members, human trafficking survivors, prison inmates.

The following groups now qualify for a free dental care: Families who have over 30 points in the Family Aid system, disabled people, all kids under 7, teens under 18 who are from poor families, pre-military draft or draft age men.

The list of free services has also been increased, and now includes: mucus membrane treatment for under 18, caries treatment for over 18, prosthesis պրոթեզ repair and free parts.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963476.html

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It is a known fact that Hraparak paper has turned into a clickbait when it comes to Pashinyan cabinet coverage for a while now (see the ridiculous khash dinner story). Latest example:

https://hraparak.am/post/68663531

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President Sarkissian's France visit continues. He met with Electricity de France representative. The latter has agreed to visit Armenia and discuss energy sector investment possibilities.

Sarkissian had earlier met a military and logistics manufacturer who agreed to visit soon.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154107

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The life in Talish, Artsakh which was briefly invaded and damaged by the enemy troops before being liberated, is continuing to return to normal life.

A new kindergarten and 10 additional houses have been built. There will be 33 new houses by the end of 2019. School and mayor's offices are being renovated. Most of residents are men who do land work. Families will return once the houses, schools and kindergarten are ready.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963350.html

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The Azeri soldier who was freed from Artsakh jail after serving 2 years for illegal border crossing, has asked Artsakh authorities for a permission to stay in the country to avoid persecution by Azerbaijan. It is unlikely to happen. He is set to be handed over to a 3rd country.

https://youtu.be/nOhu8lFUR40?t=35

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UN's European Economic Commission has rejected Azerbaijan's complaint against Armenia, filed on 2011.

After 7 years of court hearings and diplomacy, Armenia was able to prove that it properly follows the obligations around cross-border environmental issues. (Apparently Azerbaijan complained that Armenia harms its nature. No details so far.)

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963453.html

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QP MP Alen Simonyan has called former HHK MP Gevorg Kostanyan a good lawyer who represented Armenia and defended it against Azeri diplomatic attacks in international institutions.

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The fake documentary Narco-Karabakh, which was published by an anonymous person and used as part of a smear campaign against Artsakh's independence, has been exposed as a fake black-PR campaign, most definitely by Azeri state actors, per Eurasianet report.

https://eurasianet.org/new-book-claims-to-expose-karabakh-as-international-crime-hub

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/u/ThatGuyGurgen

has a some of the article as a TLDR https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/anypkj/new_book_claims_to_expose_karabakh_as/efxotx0/

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SHELVE WARS!

Ukraine's Ashan supermarkets chain administration has issued an apology and resolved the incident involving Armenian products being sold under Azeri flag. The Armenian embassy was made aware that the Armenian shelves are empty, while all its products were moved to the Azeri shelf.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/963441.html

Stop 👏 stealing 👏 Armenian 👏 stuff 👏

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Former Brazil president Luis Lula da Silva has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering and corruption

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154097

Link to original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/ao8g3b/anticorruption_feb72019_march_1st_kocharyan_serj/