INTERNET BLOCKADE OF ARMENIA: GEORGIA DELIBERATELY OBSTRUCTS TRAFFIC TRANSIT?
Regnum, Russia
Aug. 9, 2006
The Georgian side, to all appearances, just switched off hardware
maintaining Armenia’s access to the internet, ArmenTel national
monopolist internet provider press secretary Hasmik Chutilyan said
in an interview to REGNUM. She says "the connection has just been
interrupted on the Georgian territory, which is hard to interpret at
the moment."
Chutilyan stated recently that the internet connection was completely
restored after the cable failure on the Black Sea seabed, for which
"satellite connection and reserve sources had been used." She also
said that the recovery of the Black Sea cable was underway and to be
completed in 10 days.
As it was reported earlier, population of Armenia twice for the last
week had been cut off the internet. The reason of the failure in
the work of Armenian internet providers became the cable breakage
on the Georgian territory. According to ArmenTel information, the
cable was damaged on August 4 in the Kutaisi region resulting in
Armenia’s having no internet connection for 6 hours. On August 5,
the cable was damaged on the Black Sea seabed.
The data transfer is performed through the only cable connecting
Armenia and Ukraine via Georgia on the Black Sea seabed. In the south,
the cable is connected to the analogous Iranian communications. Lately
it has been a third large-scale internet cable failure on the Georgian
territory.