Tuesday,
Armenian Government Cuts Major Reproductive Health Program
. Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Inside the Erebuni hospital in Yerevan
Couples with infertility in Armenia will not be able to benefit from a
major state-funded reproductive health program next year after the
government has excluded it from the 2018 state budget, casting doubts
on its cost efficiency.
Artificial fertility is an expensive medical treatment and procedure
that most families in Armenia cannot afford. In 2015, the government
decided to help couples who cannot conceive a child otherwise by
covering the costs of the treatment.
Initially, 35 couples were chosen as beneficiaries of the program and
50 million drams (over $100,000) were earmarked to finance it.
Speaking during budget discussions in the National Assembly last week,
Health Minister Levon Altunian suggested that on the average 12
million drams (some $25,000) were spent for one child that was
eventually born under that program.
"We have numerous other programs that are more effective for
infertility treatment and these programs are now being considered,"
the minister said.
Another reason for the suspension of the program, according to the
official, is difficulties in objectively assessing the couples that
really need it. "As soon as we can apply some principles of an
objective approach, we will think about restarting this program,"
Altunian promised.
In response to an RFE/RL Armenian Service inquiry the Armenian
Ministry of Health said that in the period of 2016-2017, eight
children were born under the state-assisted program of artificial
fertilization. Another woman who has benefited from the program is
currently pregnant. Data received from three Yerevan hospitals
involved in the program shows, however, that during the same period 37
children were born under the program in question.
A 38-year-old woman from Tavush in northeastern Armenia is one of the
beneficiaries of the program. The woman who asked RFE/RL not to
disclose her name five months ago gave birth to a child conceived
through an extracorporeal fertilization technique. She says before
that she spent years for treatment during which she had to frequently
travel capital Yerevan. She says her family could not afford
artificial fertilization and so she turned to a relevant state program
that covered the costs. "After receiving the treatment I went through
an extracorporeal fertilization procedure and now we have a baby," she
says.
In one of his recent policy speeches Armenian President Serzh
Sarkisian called for an increase in the country's population from the
current 3 million to 4 million people by 2040. According to opposition
lawmaker Nikol Pashinian, cutting finances for programs like
artificial fertilization does not contribute to the cause. "Instead of
cutting this spending, the government should quadruple it," he said
during recent budget discussions in parliament.
Healthcare manager Arsen Torosian considers it a disaster that drastic
spending cuts are planned for the sector in next year's state budget.
"The entire state budget will be reduced by 14 billion drams (about
$29 million), of which a 5.9-billion-dram cut is foreseen for the
healthcare sector alone. It's like healthcare is an orphan," he
commented.
Armenia Supports Continued Talks On Karabakh Settlement
. Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian during a joint press conference in Yerevan,
21Nov, 2017
Despite Azerbaijan's unconstructive position, negotiations on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement should be continued, Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said during a joint press
conference with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in
Yerevan on Tuesday.
"Armenia is willing to continue with the Co-Chairs, in a constructive
manner, meetings at the level of foreign ministers and presidents,"
Nalbandian stressed following talks with Lavrov in the Armenian
capital. "We have never refused to meet at the level of ministers or
presidents," he added.
Lavrov arrived in Yerevan on Monday for talks with Nalbandian and
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian focused on bilateral relations as
well as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. The top Russian
diplomat visited Baku on November 19-20 where he also discussed the
conflict settlement with the Azerbaijani leadership.
Speaking in Yerevan, Lavrov reiterated that all elements of the
settlement are on the table.
"There are all elements for a resolution of this problem. These
elements are summarized in numerous documents that since 2007, 2009
and 2011 have been deposited with the OSCE secretary general. Thus
they are fixed as the co-chairs' proposals, they are still fully on
the table and the only thing that I would like to underline, like I
did in Baku, is that these elements have been formed into one package
and it is very difficult to take one, two or three of them and say:
let's come to an agreement based on them. Because in that case their
balancing elements will be left out and there will be no result that
all of us expect," Lavrov said.
According to the Russian foreign minister, it is important that the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan spoke positively about their last
month's meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, organized by the OSCE Minsk
Group that Russia chairs jointly with the United States and
France. "It is very important that this positive attitude should help
us move forward in essence. The co-chairs are engaged in this. We,
along with Washington and Paris, will analyze where we have reached,
will try to make some active efforts to reach a settlement," Lavrov
said.
"I won't be too optimistic, it's a challenging task, and the whole
experience of our negotiations comes to prove that they will not end
quickly," the top Russian diplomat concluded.
Armenia/Russia - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian receives Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Yerevan,21Nov,2017
Later on Tuesday Lavrov was received by Armenian President Serzh
Sarkisian.
According to the press service of the Armenian president, the meeting
focused on bilateral relations that Sarkisian described as "genuinely
allied".
Lavrov also reportedly praised the current level of Russian-Armenian
relations and briefed Sarkisian on his talks with Armenian Foreign
Minister Nalbandian during which, he said, they "reviewed all
directions of our alliance and strategic partnership."
Opposition Member Installed As First Deputy Mayor In Vanadzor After
Power-Sharing Deal
. Nare Stepanian
Armenia - Arkady Peleshian, newly elected First Deputy Mayor of
Vanadzor, 21Nov, 2017
An opposition party representative has been elected first deputy mayor
of Vanadzor after his faction struck a controversial deal with the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) to end a stymie in the work
of a local municipal council boycotted by its majority opposition
groups.
Following an offer from Vanadzor mayor Mamikon Aslanian representing
the HHK, the leader of the five-member faction of the Armenian Revival
party Arkady Peleshian agreed to sign a cooperation deal to share
"responsibility for the work" of the city's legislature.
The move changed the balance of forces in the 33-seat municipal
council of Armenia's third largest city in favor of the HHK and its
junior coalition partner, Dashnaktsutyun, which together with Armenian
Revival unanimously elected Peleshian first deputy mayor with 20
votes.
As a result of the October 2016 elections in Vanadzor the HHK and
Dashnaktsutyun were a minority in the legislature, but they managed to
install their candidate Aslanian as mayor of Vanadzor despite the
agreement among three opposition parties, Bright Armenia, Prosperous
Armenia and Armenian Revival, to have another candidate elected.
Aslanian then received 19 council votes cast in secret ballot, meaning
that four opposition councilors secretly broke the ranks amid
allegations of pressure put on the opposition parties.
Since that ballot all 18 opposition councilors have been boycotting
sessions of the Vanadzor legislature. But despite the lack of quorum,
the 15 other, pro-government councilors have held sessions of the
council and adopted decisions on its behalf since March. The Vanadzor
municipality has insisted that those decisions are valid, citing an
article of Armenia's Law on Local Government.
By its November 10 ruling Armenia's Constitutional Court, however,
backed the opposition claim that the article is unconstitutional and
effectively gave until March 31, 2018 to redress the situation.
Edmon Marukian, an opposition lawmaker and leader of the Bright
Armenia party, said the only way to comply with the Court's ruling was
holding new elections in the city, since the Court has effectively
recognized that the municipal council has not functioned for as long
as a year.
The opposition Yelk alliance in the Armenian parliament, of which
Marukian is a senior member, on Monday called on the central
government to terminate the powers of the Vanadzor municipal council
and appoint early elections. "Now, in fact, the government will show
how far it respects the decision of the Constitutional Court," he
said.
Pashinian called the deal reached between the pro-government forces in
the Vanadzor municipal council and Armenian Revival "an ineffective
attempt to revive a dead body." He also claimed that the signing of
the deal has exposed the force that ensured an HHK candidate's victory
in Vanadzor's controversial mayoral election in October 2016. Armenian
Revival denies breaking ranks in the vote a year ago.
Meanwhile, HHK parliamentary faction leader Vahram Baghdasarian said
on Monday that there is no need to turn to the government over the
situation in Vanadzor. He expressed an opinion that sessions of the
city's municipal council were held in accordance with the law. "It is
another question that [the Constitutional Court ruling] mentions a
contradiction between the Law on Local Government and the
Constitution. By March 31, this law should be brought in conformity
with the Constitution," he said, stressing that he sees no reasons for
holding pre-term elections in Vanadzor.
Armenian Ruling Party Rebuffs Russian Propagandist TV Channel
. Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Eduard Sharmazanov, a spokesman for the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia, giving a news conference in Yerevan against the
background of HHK banners, 15Feb2017.
Armenia's ruling party has dismissed as "ridiculous and ignorant" a
claim made by a Russian propagandist television channel that accused
the South Caucasus nation's government elites of glorifying Nazism.
Zvezda TV, which is known to be the propagandist arm of Russia's
Ministry of Defense, last week aired a program in which it, in
particular, compared the logo of the Republican Party of Armenia's
(HHK) to the emblem of the Third Reich and Armenian military commander
and thinker Garegin Nzhdeh, whose ideology the HHK espouses, to World
War II-era Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, claiming that
"Armenia's ruling elites glorify Nazi collaborators."
The program, in particular, referred to the fact that a statue to
Nzhdeh was recently unveiled in the center of the Armenian capital,
Yerevan.
"Garegin Nzhdeh is one of the greatest heroes of the Armenian nation
and monuments to him should be erected not only in Yerevan, but also
in different parts of Armenia," HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov, who
is also a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, told RFE/RL's
Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) on Tuesday.
"Armenia is a sovereign country and will decide itself whose monuments
to erect," Sharmazanov added.
Sharmazanov described comparisons of the HHK's logo to a Nazi emblem
as "ridiculous and political blind", at the same time downplaying the
fact that Zvezda is a television channel patronized by the Russian
Ministry of Defense.
Armenia already heard serious allegations related to Nzhdeh from
official Moscow shortly after a monument to Nzhdeh was inaugurated in
Yerevan in May 2016 in a ceremony attended by President Serzh
Sarkisian and other senior officials affiliated with the ruling party.
"We cannot understand why that statue was placed," Zakharova said
then, stressing that the Russian government is strongly opposed to
"any revival, glorification or other manifestations of Nazism,
neo-Nazism and extremism."
Armenia - The statue of Garegin Nzhdeh in Yerevan
Born in the Russian Empire in 1886, Nzhdeh was one of the prominent
military leaders of a short-lived independent Armenian republic formed
in 1918. In 1920, he mounted armed resistance against the republic's
takeover by Bolshevik Russia in Zangezur, a mountainous region in what
is now southeastern Armenia. Nzhdeh and his supporters ended the
resistance and fled to neighboring Persia in July 1921 after receiving
assurances that the region will not be incorporated into Soviet
Azerbaijan.
Nzhdeh was one of several exiled Armenian leaders who pledged
allegiance to Nazi Germany in 1942 with the stated aim of saving
Soviet Armenia from a possible Turkish invasion after what they
expected to be a Soviet defeat by the Third Reich.
Nzhdeh surrendered to advancing Red Army divisions in Bulgaria in 1944
after reportedly offering Josef Stalin to mobilize Armenians for a
Soviet assault on Turkey. In 1948, a Soviet court sentenced him to 25
years in prison on charges that mainly stemmed from his
"counterrevolutionary" activities in 1920-1921.
Nzhdeh was rehabilitated in Armenia after the republic's last
Communist government was removed from power in 1990. He is widely
credited with preserving Armenian control over Zangezur. He is also
revered by many Armenians as the founder of a new brand of Armenian
nationalism that emerged in the 1930s.
The HHK has espoused Nzhdeh's Tseghakron ideology, which puts the
emphasis on armed self-defense and self-reliance, ever since it was
set up in the early 1990s. The HHK's current coalition partner, the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which is one of
the oldest Armenian political parties, also espouses Nzhdeh's
teachings.
Senior HHK figures rejected the Russian criticism back in 2016,
downplaying Nzhdeh's collaboration with Nazi Germany and insisting
that he is an Armenian national hero. The Russian Foreign Ministry
later softened its stance on the matter, with its spokesperson
Zakharova saying that the Armenian authorities' decision to place
Garegin Nzhdeh's statue in the center of Yerevan was "Armenia's
internal affair."
In lambasting "certain ruling elites" in Armenia, Russia's Zvezda TV
specifically pointed to a new accord that Armenia plans to sign with
the European Union at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on
November 24.
HHK spokesman Sharmazanov has refused to be drawn on whether the kind
of program on Russian TV may indicate some dissatisfaction existing
among the Russian leadership regarding Yerevan's planned deal with the
EU.
Officials in Armenia have repeatedly stated that their relations with
Brussels do not affect Yerevan's allied relations with Moscow or
jeopardize the South Caucasus nation's membership in the Russian-led
trade bloc.
Later on Tuesday Sharmazanov said that Zvezda TV had sent an official
letter to the Armenian side admitting that "incorrect statements were
made" in its program.
Press Review
Armenian newspapers focus on the visit of Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov to Baku and Yerevan.
"Zhamanak" comments on Lavrov's statements made in the Azerbaijani
capital ahead of his visit to Armenia: "In Baku Lavrov made a number
of remarkable and significant statements, saying that in the Karabakh
settlement issue Moscow has the same position as Washington and
Paris. In practical terms this means that Russia tells Azerbaijan to
have no expectations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked
about this earlier when after returning from his talks with Russian
President Vladimir Putin in Sochi he told reporters that he had raised
the issue of [Azerbaijan] regaining five districts [surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh], but the Russian president, while agreeing with this
option, did not express a hope that it was possible."
"Haykakan Zhamanak" considers Lavrov's visit to Armenia in the context
of Yerevan's upcoming signing of a new accord with the European
Union. "On November 14, [Armenian President] Serzh Sarkisian was on a
visit to Moscow where he held a meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin. According to experts, the visit could be connected
with the planned signing of a new EU-Armenia accord and Sarkisian was
to understand Russia's attitude towards this circumstance. It is
difficult to say what Putin said to Sarkisian, but a repeat of the
2013 about-face has not taken place yet# Three days before the planned
signing, however, pressure on Armenia is growing as Russia's foreign
minister is visiting Yerevan."
Talking to "168 Zham", Russian political analyst Vadim Dubnov insists
that Russia and its allies in the Eurasian Economic Union do not
consider the expected EU-Armenia accord to be a challenge like it was
in 2013 when Armenia was going to initial an association agreement
with the EU of a totally different quality.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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