On 31 March, the ruling “My Step” faction in Armenia managed to pass the highly controversial law, which allows total electronic surveillance of citizens during the state of emergency in connection with the novel coronavirus pandemic. The opposition factions “Bright Armenia” and “Prosperous Armenia” tried until the very last moment to prevent the law from being passed by boycotting the meeting, so that the draft failed at first reading. But the opposition could not hold out against the government-controlled parliamentary majority for long. On the evening of 31 March, the members of “My Step” passed the law with 71 votes.
The controversial law allowed authorities to access citizens' private data from public communications networks without any court order. For example, the government will from now on track each citizen's location, monitor their movements, as well as their internet communications, contacts, their telephone number, call forwarding, phone calls and their length. The Ministry of Justice, however, assured the people that the content of the calls would not be intercepted. All recorded data would be permanently deleted one month after the end of the state of emergency.
In order to voluntarily go under state surveillance, all Armenian citizens have to download a specific app on their smartphones that authorities will soon make available. Those citizens who would not install the app would be isolated at home or even “in an institution”.
The government accused the opposition of blocking the law and thus not saving lives. The leader of the party “Bright Armenia”, Edmon Marukyan, reminded the government team that they campaigned even after the epidemic in Armenia. The first confirmed coronavirus case in Armenia had already been reported on 1 March, nonetheless organized the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan numerous meetings with the Armenian citizens to promote the postponed referendum on constitutional changes until 13 March.
On 16 March a state of emergency was declared and on 1 April the quarantine measures in Armenia were hardened again by imposing a nationwide curfew. The number of people infected with Covid-19 is currently 663 so far, with five reported deaths.
Azerbaijan
On 2 April, police monitoring of citizens through electronic devices was also introduced in Azerbaijan. The Deputy Chairman of the Main Public Security department Aziz Bagishev said that the citizens leaving their house will have to explain the reason for going out by calling or sending a message to a certain number. “The [system that receives this information] will redirect it to the police. Having stopped a citizen on the street, the police will already know whether this person is allowed to leave the house or not. A citizen will even have to inform them about going to the pharmacy or market. This work has already been completed, and the public will be informed soon,” he said.
The spokesperson of Azerbaijan’s Cabinet of Ministers Ibrahim Mammadov also outed his worries about the spread of the virus in the country. “Only 26 people [have] recovered. The increase in this gap is a bad trend. It is not said that the situation is out of control. If this trend continues, if the situation worsens, the declaration of a state of emergency is not ruled out. The government has all the plans. But it is desirable that there is no need for it,“ he stated. He remained optimistic though and added that if the citizens comply with the current rules “a positive turning point regarding coronavirus can start after 2 weeks”.
Currently, 400 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Azerbaijan, with 5 recorded deaths. It has also been reported that the infection cases have been recorded in all regions of the country.
