On 18 December, the Investigative Committee of Armenia arrested three people on suspicion of arranging illegal adoptions of Armenian children by foreigners, reported the Armenian Radio Free Europe.

Amongst the arrested officials were the head of Armenia’s largest maternity hospital, Razmik Abrahamyan, his deputy Arshak Jerjeryan and the director of a Yerevan-based state orphanage, Liana Karapetyan. They are suspected of having forced young women to abandon their babies who were then adopted by foreign nationals in 2016-2018. The latter allegedly paid hefty bribes for those adoptions.

On the same day, the Investigative Committee also arrested 2 more people as part of the extensive criminal investigation launched by Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) this summer. Those persons have not been identified yet.

The Investigative Committee chief, Hayk Grigoryan said that all arrested officials will be formally charged by the end of this week with illegal separation of parents and their new-born babies. “We have testimonies by a number of persons which unmask the crimes committed by those [arrested] individuals,” Grigorian said during a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Pashinyan admitted at the cabinet meeting that he was sceptic that the investigation would bear any results. “To be honest, from a human standpoint, I couldn't believe that there would be any specific findings on this topic. The fact is that we have detained people. Of course, according to the Armenian legislation, the presumption of innocence of anyone cannot be violated. But if such actions were taken, it means there are at least suspicious grounds,“ he said.

He also noted that it was understandable that this case had caused quite an emotional reaction among the public. “But it is very important that the investigation of the case be without emotions, complete. It is important to understand how that such a mechanism worked in Armenia,” he added.

The discussion about the suspiciously large number of adoptions of Armenian children by foreigners began in January 2019. At that time, changes to the Family Code were being discussed in parliament. Acting Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that there had been cases of the adoption of children for the sale of children’s organs:

“Over the course of several months of my work, I tried my best to unravel this tangle, and I constantly had the feeling that something was wrong here. Everything is very close to disclosure, but I still could not achieve tangible results. The money we are talking about starts [at] maternity hospitals and continues on to other institutions, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

In November, the Armenian National Security Service posted on their website that “two citizens of Armenia, using their contacts in one of the republican obstetric institutions, as well as in orphanages, organized the illegal adoption of over 30 children by Italian citizens.”

Further investigation had shown that mothers were persuaded to abandon their children. To do this, those involved in the scheme exerted psychological and moral pressure. Fraudsters chose victims mainly among women who, for some personal reasons or because of social problems, were going to terminate their pregnancy. After giving birth, the criminals received a document that the child had been abandoned, transferred the new-borns to orphanages – often on the basis of fake “diagnoses”.

Currently, the Armenian government is developing a new adoption procedure in order to prevent such cases in the future. It even provides training courses – both for locals and foreigners who want to adopt a child. “The reforms [support] the implementation of a matching procedure. A clear comparison should be made of the wishes and requirements of the potential parent. The procedure will be implemented in two stages. Many factors will be taken into account, starting with character traits,” says Anahit Kalantaryan, head of the Children’s Department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The new adoption procedure also mandates the introduction of clear control mechanisms.

Also, in November of this year the government passed a decision to grant housing ownership certificates to 300 orphans who have turned 18 and have gone through the orphanage system. In addition to providing housing for former residents of orphanages, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan announced that the government would construct five state-owned houses and five assisted-living homes. This was part of a wider campaign of ‘deinstitutionalisation’ in Armenia. This includes closing down all orphanages and specialised boarding houses in the country with the aim of returning children back to their families or placing them in the foster care system, a fairly new initiative in Armenia.

Armenia, along with other former Soviet states, has seen an increase in international adoptions following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia was once the second largest source of international adoptions until the practice was banned in 2012, though Ukraine still ranks in the top five. Most of these children have been adopted by families in the West with the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Australia being the most common destinations. According to the Washington Post, Evangelical Christians, in particular, have been known to adopt children with disabilities or girls from countries where these traits would otherwise cause social exclusion. Unsurprisingly this demand has unwittingly propelled a sort of black market for orphans in their countries of origin.