Thursday, Armenian Mayor Arrested Over Attack On Protesters Armenia - Davit Hambardzumian, the mayor of Masis. The mayor of an Armenian town affiliated with the former ruling Republican Party (HHK) and four other men have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting protesters in Yerevan last month. The incident took place in the city’s southern Erebuni district just hours after Nikol Pashinian, the main organizer of mass protests against HHK leader Serzh Sarkisian’s continued rule, was detained on April 22. Hundreds of Pashinian supporters demonstrating there were attacked by several dozen men wearing medical masks and wielding sticks and even electric shock guns. They threw stones at the crowd and beat up some of the protesters. Law-enforcement authorities launched a criminal investigation into the attack after Sarkisian resigned as prime minister on April 23. Pashinian demanded such a probe immediately after being elected as the country’s new premier on May 8. Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Thursday that it has arrested five persons on suspicion of participating in the “mass disturbances” in Erebuni. It said they include Davit Hambardzumian, the mayor of Masis, a small town about 10 kilometers south of Yerevan, his deputy Karen Ohanian and three other Masis residents. Armenia - A screenshot of a video of thugs beating up an opposition protester in Yerevan's Erebuni district on 22 April 2018. The law-enforcement body said its investigators have looked into online videos of the violence and other media reports about it. “The investigation is continuing,” it said in a statement. “Measures are being taken to ensure a comprehensive, full and objective examination of all circumstances of the incident.” A screenshot of one such video publicized by the “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily purportedly shows that Hambardzumian was among the masked thugs who attacked the protesters in Erebuni. It was not immediately clear whether the Masis mayor and the other detained men admit their involvement in the attack. Hambardzumian, 32, is an HHK member who was elected mayor in 2016 with the help of the then ruling party. He is reportedly related to Arshak Hakobian, the chief bodyguard of Vladimir Gasparian, the former chief of the Armenian police sacked by Pashinian earlier this month. Law-enforcement authorities have also made at least three other arrests in connection with similar incidents that occurred in two other parts of Yerevan during the Pashinian-led protest movement. Some Armenian media outlets have accused Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian and Mihran Poghosian, a controversial parliamentarian, of orchestrating those attacks on protesters. Both men affiliated with the HHK deny that. Greater U.S. Assistance To Armenia Under Discussion • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills speaks in Yerevan, . The U.S. government is discussing with the new authorities in Yerevan the possibility of providing more economic assistance to Armenia under a special program designed to foster reforms in developing nations, U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills said on Thursday. “We are very pleased to be fully engaged with the new government and have an opportunity to talk about how the U.S. government can help the new government,” Mills told reporters. Armenia qualified for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) program shortly after Washington launched it in 2006, receiving $177 million for the rehabilitation of rural irrigation networks. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government agency running the aid scheme, also planned to allocate $60 million for the reconstruction of the country’s rural roads. But it scrapped that allocation shortly after a disputed 2008 presidential election that was followed by a harsh government crackdown on the Armenian opposition. The administration of former President Serzh Sarkisian tried unsuccessfully to restore Yerevan’s eligibility for the multimillion-dollar scheme in the following years. U.S. officials said, among other things, that it is not doing enough to combat widespread corruption. Armenia - Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian (L) and Patrick Fine, vice-president of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, visit a newly constructed pumping station in Ararat province, 03Oct2011. The United States signaled its readiness to boost economic aid to Armenia following the recent democratic revolution there. Visiting Yerevan earlier this week, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, Bridget Brink, offered U.S. assistance to the new Armenian government’s ambitious anti-corruption agenda. Mills said Brink discussed with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other senior Armenian officials “possible options” for increasing U.S. aid. Those include renewed MCA funding, he said. “We will continue those discussions,” added the U.S. ambassador. Immediately after Pashinian took office on May 8, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), an influential lobbying group, renewed its calls for $140 million in fresh MCA funding to Armenia. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the ANCA chairman, Raffi Hamparian, said that would help to cement the country’s “democratic development.” Pompeo replied to Hamparian on May 17, saying that he shares the ANCA’s “enthusiasm about the peaceful, constitutional political transition that transpired in Armenia.” “We hope to see the Armenian government make progress on MCC’s eligibility criteria (‘scorecard’) this year so that the MCC Board of Directors may consider Armenia for a compact during the annual selection process,” he wrote. The ANCA wants the MCC to mostly spend the proposed sum on improving science, technology, engineering and math education in Armenia’s underfunded public schools. It says that would ultimately benefit the country’s burgeoning information technology (IT) industry. Energy Firm Hits Back At Armenian Government • Hovannes Movsisian Armenia - An electricity transmission tower. A company belonging to Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian said on Thursday it itself has pulled out of an agreement with the Armenian government to manage the country’s electricity transmission network. The Russian-based company, Tashir Kapital, denied the recently appointed Energy Minister Artur Grigorian's claim that the new government has decided to terminate the management contract because some of its provisions are “not beneficial for the state.” “During the process of termination of the agreement between the Armenian government and Tashir Kapital no provisions were discussed and there were no negotiations on any [specific] issue, especially with the participation of the newly appointed [energy] minister,” read a company statement. The previous government moved last year to authorize Tashir Kapital to manage the High-Voltage Electric Networks (HVEN) for the next 25 years. Government officials said at the time that the new operator will cut costs by “synchronizing” Armenia’s power transmission and distribution networks. They said Tashir Kapital will also obtain large-scale loans that will be used for refurbishing electricity transmission lines and substations and building new facilities. Grigorian did not specify the reasons for the government’s decision to scrap the deal when he spoke to journalists on Wednesday. For its part, Tashir Kapital gave no reasons for its purported decision not to run HVEN. Instead, Tashir Kapital listed a raft of data meant to show that HVEN has been badly mismanaged and is a heavy burden on state finances. In particular, ts statement pointed to $520 million in outstanding debts incurred by the state-owned network in the last 15 years. The statement said that Tashir Kapital would slash HVEN’s “inflated” operational costs by 40 percent if the deal did not fall through. The company also claimed that the cost of a planned new power transmission line connecting Armenia to Georgia, estimated by the government at $200 million, is disproportionately high. It said it could have built the line with only $70 million in investments. “HVEN cannot be of interest to Tashir Kapital as a source of profit,” added the statement. “The main motive for the negotiations was to ease [HVEN’s] impact on the [electricity] tariffs.” Tashir purchased the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), the debt-ridden national power utility, and a large power plant in the Armenian town of Hrazdan from a state-run Russian energy company in 2015. The new owner appears to have significantly cut ENA’s massive losses since then. Samvel Karapetian strongly supported former Prime Minister Karen Karapetian (no relation) throughout the latter’s tenure which came to an end when former President Serzh Sarkisian became prime minister on April 17. Karen Karapetian took over as acting prime minister after Sarkisian stepped down on April 23 amid mass protests against his continued rule. Pashinian Ends Visit To Georgia • Karlen Aslanian Georgia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is greeted by people outside an Armenian church in Tbilisi, . Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sounded optimistic about the future of Georgian-Armenian relations on Thursday as he toured Armenian-populated areas of Georgia at the end of a two-day official visit to the country. Pashinian lavished praise on his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Kvirikashvili, calling him a “good friend” of Armenia the day after they met for the first time in Tbilisi. “I want to say that the most important result of this visit is that a warm personal relationship, friendship has been established between Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and me,” he said. The two premiers pledged to give new impetus to bilateral ties after their talks. They attended later on Wednesday an official reception at the Tbilisi City Hall dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Armenia’s first independent republic. Speaking at the event, Kvirikashvili hailed the recent peaceful protests in Armenia that brought Pashinian to power. “All the signs are the changes in Armenia laid the firm foundation for Armenia’s further development,” he said. Pashinian met with the influential head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, and businesspeople in Tbilisi on Thursday morning before heading to Georgia’s Javakheti region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians. He visited several local towns and villages where scores of people gathered to greet him and listen to his speeches. Georgia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze meet with residents of Akhalkalaki, . “I believe that after this official visit a new page will be opened in Armenia’s relations with Georgia and Armenian-Georgian relations in general,” Pashinian said at a rally held in the village of Gandza. “We think that Armenian-Georgian relations must be based on the following new formula. Georgia’s government and people must be confident that there is no conspiracy and threats towards Georgia and the Georgian people in the actions of Armenia and the Armenian people.” “By the same token, Armenia and the Armenian people must be confident that there is no conspiracy and threats towards Armenia and the Armenian people in the actions of the Georgian state and the Georgian people,” he added. “It is on this basis that we need to build a new relationship, new friendship, new brotherhood.” Pashinian insisted that the current Georgian government is committed to tackling high unemployment and other socioeconomic problems in Javakheti that have long fueled discontent among local residents. Press Review “Zhamanak” comments on allegations by the National Security Service (NSS) that businessman Samvel Aleksanian’s Alex Holding group has evaded millions of dollars in taxes. “The NSS has revealed something which just about every active citizen of Armenia knows,” writes the paper. The only question, it says, is that how much Aleksanian and other influential tycoons paid the country’s previous rulers for their privileged positions in business. “After the velvet revolution the [former ruling] HHK has found itself in a pit whit itself had dug,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper sees an “outflow” of deputies from the HHK’s parliamentary faction, saying that the party has no “legislative levers” to force defectors to resign from the parliament. It says that the HHK itself had previously resisted calls for obligating such defectors to relinquish their parliament seats. “The HHK elite now regrets not taking that measure,” it says. “It did not occur to HHK figures that Serzh Sarkisian will resign and they will lose power one day.” “Haykakan Zhamanak” suggests that the new Armenian government will try to achieve a reduction in the prices of electricity and natural gas in the country. “Even without complex calculations, it is evident that there are substantial resources for cutting the tariffs,” writes the paper. “The thing is that the energy and gas sectors have always been murky to the public. They are closed systems with huge amounts of money in circulation. For many years the Armenian energy sector has been controlled by loyalists of the ruling clan. People holding high-level and mid-level positions there have made huge fortunes.” “Hayots Ashkhar” sees a growing Azerbaijani military threat to Armenia emanating from the Nakhichevan exclave. The paper points out that in recent weeks Azerbaijani troops deployed there have moved their positions closer to Armenian army posts at some sections of the Armenia-Nakhichevan border. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org