The Ministry of Justice had invited the media to an event: the invitation in particular read:
“The Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with partner non-governmental organizations, invites to the “Milano” hall of the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel on 2 November at 11:00 am to cover the professional discussion entitled “Course of Judiciary Reform in Post-Revolution and Post-Election Armenia”. During the discussion, the Ministry, representatives of civil society, legal scholars and other stakeholders will present their position, concerns and opportunities for vetting within the framework of existing legal regulations.”
It becomes clear from the agenda that the Ministry has cooperated in particular with the Open Society Foundations-Armenia (popularly known as the George Soros Foundation), and the discussion was organized within the framework of its operational program “Partnership for Open Society Initiative”. This is evidenced by the attached agenda, which featured two logos: those of the Ministry of Justice and the OSF-Armenia program.
In addition to the logo, the agenda of the discussion and the invitation prove this cooperation. After the Minister of Justice and the Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, Davit Amiryan, OSF-Armenia’s Deputy Director for Programs, delivered an opening speech.
The Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan, his Deputy Yeranuhi Tumanyants and the Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Jhangiryan left the discussion hall, not waiting for the speeches of the speakers, as well as the opinion of the participants of the “partner” civil society organizations invited to the event.
Deputy Minister of Justice Yeranuhi Tumanyants was the first to speak at the discussion. From her Curriculum Vitae (CV) disseminated by the Ministry of Justice, it becomes clear that Yeranuhi Tumanyants held the position of Deputy Human Rights Defender (Karen Andreasyan’s) from September 2015 to October 2016.
The Deputy Minister had worked at the Law Development and Protection Foundation as well. It should be noted that this organization is also funded by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, the details on which are provided below.
The invitation to the event mainly mentioned the representatives of the civil society organizations that are currently or previously funded by the Open Society Foundations – Armenia.
One of such representative was Arthur Sakunts, the President of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor office, who was to speak on transitional justice.
The number of participants who were not affiliated in any way with the activities of the above-mentioned fund was small.
As for the professional discussions, it should be noted that there were few who spoke about systemic issues in their reports/speeches. Member of the SJC Davit Khachaturyan expressed a comprehensive professional opinion; Lawyer Tigran Egoryan asked substantive questions during the questions session.
In his speech, Davit Khachaturyan mentioned that there is a misunderstanding related to the main concepts, which are used by specialists. According to him, when we say vetting, we should mean background check, and lustration (purification, cleansing) is the consequence of that.
“Integrity: this is very important, probably the most important concept we use․ while what is checked, and what is vetted ․
If we translate the word “integrity” from English, then it is, in the most comprehensive sense, “invulnerability”. The example of the ship is always given in this respect, that it has no “leaking” places. “When speaking about a person’s integrity, they do not say that he is moral, they say that he is not immune to certain risks,” David Khachaturyan said.
It should be noted that Davit Khachaturyan was previously the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Open Society Foundations-Armenia.
As we reported earlier, by the September 16 decision of the Government, the former head of the Special Investigation Service Sasun Khachatryan was appointed to the position of the Chairman of the newly established Anti-Corruption Committee: It should be noted that Sasun Khacahatryan is David Khachaturyan’s brother.
A Competition Board was formed to select candidates for the post of head of the structure, which also assessed the candidates’ integrity.
During the interview, it became clear that Sasun Khachatryan was vulnerable on several points:
One of the members of the Competition Board mentioned in his question that Khacahatryan’s daughter received a donation of 4.3 million drams, Tigran Gevorgyan is also among the donors, to whom Khachatryan’s wife donated 100% of the shares of “Clerical Office Number One” LLC in 2018. Sasun Khachatryan clarified that his daughter got married the previous year, “and on the occasion of her marriage, the newlyweds received a gift in the form of money from all the relatives and friends of both sides, and I do not think that 3.5 million drams is the large number they could receive as a wedding gift from friends.”
He also clarified that Tigran Gevorgyan is his wife’s brother. Tigran Gevorgyan’s name was mentioned several times during the questions and answers. It also turned out that Sasun Khachatryan was driving his wife’s brother’s car.
Sasun Khachatryan mentioned that the cost of the car is about 10 million drams, about 20 thousand dollars ․ “I can afford to buy such a car, I just do not need a car now, because I do not drive most of the time.”
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It should be noted that mainly the organizations, which took part in the meetings that were held after Karen Andreasyan was appointed Minister of Justice attended in this discussion.
It should be reminded that Karen Andreasyan, appointed Minister of Justice by the RA President’s 3 August decree, had meetings with some circles of civil society organizations.
In particular, on 20 August, the Corruption Prevention Commission published an article stating that “on the initiative of the RA Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan, the Corruption Prevention Commission held a meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations actively involved in corruption prevention in the Republic of Armenia.”
We draw your attention to the organizations that participated in that meeting.
On the right:
- Deputy Minister of Justice Suren Grigoryan
- Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan,
- Chairman of the Corruption Prevention Commission of Haykuhi Harutyunyan,
- Member of the Corruption Prevention Commission Narek Hambardzumyan
- Representative of the Corruption Prevention Commission Sasun Hambardzumyan
On the left:
- Spokeswoman for the Minister of Justice Lusine Martirosyan
- TIAC Program Manager Varuzhan Hoktanyan,
- TIAC Legal Expert Hayk Martirosyan,
- Representative of Checchi and Company Consulting Hasmik Hakobyan,
- Founding President of the Freedom of Information Center Shushan Doydoyan.
Before that, the Ministry of Justice, Karen Andreasyan met with representatives of other civil society organizations as well:
- Open Society Foundations – Armenia
- Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor office
- Union of Informed Citizens
- Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center
- Protection of Rights Without Borders
- Law Development and Protection Foundation
- Helsinki Association
- Freedom of Information Center
- European in Law Association
- Checchi and Company Consulting
Examining the list of participants, it becomes clear that the newly appointed Minister meets mostly with organizations that have been funded or are being funded from a single source, the Open Society Foundations-Armenia (popularly known as the George Soros Foundation).
The Open Society Foundations-Armenia publishes on the grants section of its website information on the years in which the foundation has provided grants and the organizations to which these grants were provided to implement this or that project.
We present to your attention the official publications on the 2020 and 2019 grants that have been received by:
- Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor office,
- Union of Informed Citizens,
- Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center,
- “Protection of Rights without Borders” NGO
- Law Development and Protection Foundation.
Arthur Sakunts is the President of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor office.
Daniel Ioannisyan is the Program Director of the “Union of Informed Citizens” NGO; Ashkhen Musheghyan is the Executive Director.
Sona Ayvazyan is the Executive Director of “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO.
Araks Melkonyan is the President of the “Protection of Rights without Borders” NGO.
Genya Petrosyan is the Director of the Law Development and Protection Foundation.
Organizations with which the Minister was associated or collaborated
In 2003-2004, Karen Andreasyan worked as an international expert and consultant at “Article 19” international organization, based in Great Britain, “Open Society Justice Initiative” international organization, based in Hungary and Access to Information Programme, Bulgaria.
As we have already mentioned, the representative of Checchi and Company Consulting Hasmik Hakobyan also took part in the meeting with Andreasyan in the Corruption Prevention Commission.
Karen Andreasyan also worked as Expert and Consultant at the United Nations Development Programme, Checchi and Company Consulting, Management Systems International (MSI), European Journalism Centre, “Mellat Bank” CJSC, Access to Information and Investigative Journalism for Better Informed Citizens Project, carried out by the “Freedom of Information Center of Armenia” NGO and co-financed by the European Union.
This is mentioned in the biography of Karen Andreasyan as a Minister, published on the official website of the Ministry of Justice.
Studying Hasmik Hakobyan’s biography, another coincidence can be seen: both worked for the American Bar Association. Andreasyan in 2005-2008 as Lawyer, later Chief Lawyer and later Deputy Director at the American Bar Association.
Shushan Doydoyan, President of the Freedom of Information Center, and Karen Andreasyan worked in the same organizations, for example, in Internews: Andreasyan as a lawyer (in 2001-2002) and Doydoyan as a journalist (in 1998-2001).
Notably, in 2001 “Internews” also received a grant from Open Society Foundations-Armenia.
Lusine Hakobyan is the President of the “Europe in Law Association” human rights NGO. The organization is now operating independently.
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It should be added to all this that as we had already reported back in 2019, the call announced for the involvement of non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council was organized with a number of violations.
According to Paragraph 3, Part 5 of the call announced for the non-governmental organizations involved in the Council and the rotation order approved by Prime Minister’s decision (submitting applications by NGOs for the purpose of getting involved in the council) non-governmental organizations present applications to the ministry within 10 days after the publication of the announcement. This order does not foresee any provisions on extending the deadline of the call, irrespective of any type of energy failures, and it doesn’t matter whether the competition is delayed for “just” one or ten days. However, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement on the last 10th day of expiry of the competition it was postponed for one day.
And it was just on that postponed day that the “Union of Informed Citizens” Consulting NGO submitted its application to the Ministry, as a result of which the “Union of Informed Citizens” Consulting NGO, “Freedom of Information Center” and “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO, as result of an unlawful decision and in violation of involvement of non-governmental organizations in the Council and rotation order approved by Prime Minister’s decision were included in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council.
None of the people who have held the post of Minister of Justice since 2019 have started an official investigation into this violation and have not overturned this illegal decision.
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The Ministry of Justice issued a press release on the 2 November event, noting:
“A professional discussion on transitional justice, integrity issues and legal opportunities for vetting took place in Yerevan today with the participation of more than 50 stakeholders.”
It is assumed that by “stakeholders” the ministry meant individuals, including representatives of the Supreme Judicial Council and a small number of CSO representatives.
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Coming back to the discussion on 2 November and combining the above arguments, it becomes clear that Open Society Foundations-Armenia, under the guise of dependent CSOs and a handful of other CSOs is trying to impose its agenda on the Ministry of Justice on behalf of senior officials within its sphere of influence; and this event serves as a public veil to achieve that goal.
Let us also inform that the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, which on 1 November published its professional proposals for judicial reform, with two studies and an appeal to the executive branch to start inclusive discussions was not invited to the event.
The Coalition proposes as a priority holding vetting of the members of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Corruption Prevention Commission. The Coalition currently includes 71 civil society organizations,
However, as it turned out, the Ministry of Justice did not need to hold an inclusive, in-depth professional discussion involving all actors in the field, but rather an Open Society Foundations-Armenia led veil event with its “partners” and a small number of CSOs ‘to show later that the proposals presented to MoJ by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia were collected during the “Civil Society Organizations” event’.
