Armenian Parliament Votes to Arrest Oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan
The Armenian parliament voted to Arrest one of the richest
men of the country, oligarch-lawmaker Gagik Tsarukyan.
Armenian National Assembly voted to remove the parliamentary
immunity of the leader of the second-biggest faction “of the parliament
Prosperous Armenia” (Bargavach Hayastan) oligarch-billionaire Gagik Tsarukyan.
Prosecutor-General of Armenia during his speech in the
Parliament announced, that Tsarukyan created and led an organized group that
bought more than 17000 voted for his “Tsarukyan Alliance” during the
parliamentary elections in 2017.
Earlier it was stated that National security service
collected evidence, testimonies and documents proving the allegations.
Tsarukyan is also accused of financial irregularities which
cost the state more than 29 billion drams (60 million USD).
Tsarukyan and his party, however, call this charges
politically motivated, as they came shortly after Tsarukyan, used the occasion
of the coronavirus epidemic and the Pashinyan’s illness to call for
consolidation and overthrow Pashinyan’s government, which came to the power in
the result of the Armenian Velvet Revolution lead by Pashinyan in 2018 April.
Pashinyan’s press-secretary Mane Gevorgyan announced the
same day, that by his anti-governmental statements Tsarukyan is trying to
politicize the allegations against him which were ongoing in the National
Security Service.
The anti-government calls of Tsarukyan were greeted by the
former ruling Republican party representatives who lost their power in the
result of the revolution as well as by the supporters of the former president
Robert Kocharyan who is currently under arrest for charges of overthrowing the
constitutional order of the country in 2008 March during the bloody crackdown
of the peaceful protest.
After the statements for the anti-government consolidation,
many political experts in Armenia started to speak about the possibility of a
coup. It was spoken, that the Russian based Armenian oligarchs who are under
the strong influence of the Kremlin would also support the anti-government moves
of Tsarukyan.
However, Pashinyan shortly announced that he has recovered
of coronavirus and immediately the same day changed the heads of the Police and
the National Security Service of Armenia and stated that Armenia is in a war
with the coronavirus, and the forces who use the moment to overthrow the
government as treason and said this forces will be thrown to the history dump.
Tsarukyan, supported Pashinyan’s revolution when it was
already evident, that the revolution has almost succeeded and moment by moment
it was expected Serzh Sargsyan would resign from his post.
Tsarukyan, also had tense relations with Serzh Sargsyan and
in 2014 Tsarukyan joined his efforts with the leading opposition forces of
Armenia and demanded the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan, but was sharply
criticized by Sargsyan, who blamed Tsarukyan in crimes and not paying taxes and
announced he will destroy and remove Tsarukyan from politics. Shortly after Sargsyan’s statements,
Tsarukyan announced after his decision to leave politics. These statements
coincided with the moment when the law enforcement services started
investigation in his companies.
In 2017 Tsarukyan again returned to politics but not as
opposition but loyal to Serzh Sargsyan’s regime.
During the parliamentary listings today the vehicles of
Tsarukyan owned companies blocked some of the roads of Yerevan, a method, which
worked well during the Velvet Revolution
and was one of the main success tactics of Pashinyan’s Velvet revolution in Armenia, but shortly
residents of the city joined their forces with the law enforcers to unblock the
streets.
Because of a tense situation with Coronavirus in Armenia the
regime of the State of Emergency is ongoing and according to the regulations of
the State of Emergency all the gatherings in the country are illegal, however,
Tsarukyan’s party gathered few hundreds of his supporters in front of the
Parliament and the National Security Service headquarters. Some of the
supporters were taken to police stations and later released after being fined
for administrative penalties.
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