Wednesday, EU Official Sees Greater Aid To Armenia • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Luc Devigne (R) of the European External Action Service at a meeting of the EU-Armenia Partnership Committee in Yerevan, . The European Union intends to increase its financial and technical assistance to Armenia, a senior EU official said on Wednesday. “We have increased and will increase our support to Armenia because we see a [government] will to move in the direction supported by us,” Luc Devigne, a deputy managing director at the European External Action Service, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service in Yerevan. Devigne noted that the EU is currently implementing 250 million euros ($283 million) worth of projects in Armenia. “We also have loans for 1 billion euros in Armenia. We will do more,” he said without specifying future aid volumes. After meeting with top EU officials in Brussels in July, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian criticized the 28-nation bloc for not boosting its assistance to Armenia following mass protests that brought him to power. The head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, Piotr Switalski, countered at the time that Pashinian’s government needs to propose specific reform-oriented projects before demanding greater aid. “We have seen a number of what we believe are positive actions taken by the government,” Devigne said, singling out its efforts to combat corruption in Armenia. The anti-graft drive bodes well for greater EU investments in the Armenian economy, he added. The EU official spoke after co-chairing, together with Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Karen Nazarian, the first session of the EU-Armenia Partnership Committee. The body was set up recently in line with the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Brussels and Yerevan in November last year. “At the meeting, the EU reiterated its support for the Armenian government's reform process,” read a statement released by the committee late on Tuesday. The Armenian side, for its part, pledged to ensure that the December 9 parliamentary elections in the country are “genuinely free and fair,” according to the statement. “We are confident that on December 9 the parliamentary elections will take place in good order,” Devigne said in this regard. Earlier this month, the EU and three of its member states -- Britain, Germany and Sweden -- allocated 2.9 million euros in aid aimed at facilitating the proper conduct of the snap polls. Armenia's Water Operator Avoids Price Rise Armenia - A sign outside the Yerevan headquarters of the Veolia Djur company, September 2, 2018. A French company managing Armenia’s water distribution network has agreed not to raise the price of drinking water in the country for the next few years in return for financial concessions made by the Armenian government. The Veolia Djur operator moved in August to raise the price from over 191 drams (40 U.S. cents) to 205 drams per cubic meter starting next January. It said it needs additional revenue to upgrade the aging network. It also argued that annual price hikes are envisaged by its 15-year management contract with the government signed in November 2016. The government’s State Committee on Water Resources strongly objected to Veolia Djur’s plans, criticizing the company’s track record. Later in August, the Armenian police launched a criminal investigation into what they called corrupt practices by state utility regulators and the water operator. A police statement said that in late 2017 the then chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), Robert Nazarian, and seven other senior officials from the regulatory body travelled to France on a visit fully funded by Veolia Djur.The statement charged that this amounted to a bribe paid by Veolia Djur’s director general, Christian Lefaix, and another senior executive paid for securing the PSRC’s subsequent decision to allow the company to raise the water price. The police also claimed to have found financial irregularities in Veolia’s contracts with Armenian suppliers worth 3.7 billion drams. The company, which is part of France’s Veolia utility giant, angrily denied the accusations. The PSRC also rejected them as “baseless.” Last week, the PSRC indicated its plans to allow Veolia to set the water price at 202 drams per cubic meters. But it announced on Wednesday that Veolia has agreed to delay the price hike until 2025 as part of a deal with the Armenian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources signed on Monday. In a separate statement, the ministry specified that in return for keeping the price unchanged the company will be allowed to make less capital investments in the water network than were envisaged by the 2016 management contract. It presented the deal as proof of increased “mutual trust” between the Armenian government and Veolia. According to the PSRC, the government will also continue to subsidize the water tariff in 2019. This means that Armenian households will keep paying 180 drams for every cubic meter of water. Veolia managed the water and sewerage network of Yerevan from 2007-2016, phasing out Soviet-era water rationing in the vast majority of city neighborhoods. “By 2030 the entire population of Armenia will be supplied with drinking water [around the clock] thanks to Veolia,” the company pledged in November 2016. Chief Prosecutor Insists On Kocharian’s Renewed Arrest • Anush Muradian • Anush Mkrtchian Armenia - Proescutor-General Artur Davtian speaks to journalists in Yerevan, . Armenia’s courts must allow law-enforcement authorities to again arrest former President Robert Kocharian in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan, Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian insisted on Wednesday. Kocharian was arrested in July on charges stemming from the deadly breakup of opposition demonstrations during the final weeks of his 1998-2008 rule. He strongly denies the accusations, saying that the current Armenian government is waging a political “vendetta” against him. The Court of Appeals freed the 64-year-old in August, saying that the Armenian constitution gives him immunity from prosecution. Both state prosecutors and Kocharian appealed against that ruling. The latter claimed that there were also other legal grounds for his release. Earlier this month, the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest body of criminal justice, ordered the Court of Appeals to examine the case anew. The latter began hearings on the matter on Tuesday. Davtian is personally attending the hearings along with several other prosecutors. “Our position is that [Kocharian] must stay under arrest,” he told reporters. “We are making arguments substantiating the need for the second president’s arrest at this stage of the investigation,” added the chief prosecutor. ARMENIA -- Then Armenian President Robert Kocharian talks to the media at a polling station in Yerevan, February 19, 2008 Kocharian is specifically accused of illegally using the armed forces against opposition supporters who protested against alleged fraud in a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. Law-enforcement authorities say that amounted to an overthrow of the constitutional order. Eight protesters and two police personnel were killed when security forces quelled those protests on March 1-2, 2008. The Court of Appeals assigned the case to one of its judges, Ruben Mkhitarian, by a draw, prompting strong objections from Kocharian’s lawyers. They claimed that this is a violation of Armenian law and demanded Mkhitarian’s replacement. The judge rejected the demand on Wednesday. One of the defense lawyers, Hayk Alumian, said they will file other court petitions on Thursday. In particular, he said, they will demand that Mkhitarian ask Armenia’s Constitutional Court to rule on an article of the Criminal Code used against the ex-president. The lawyers believe that the article is unconstitutional, said Alumian. Kocharian announced his return to active politics just days after his release from prison. He has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government of endangering the country’s national security, undermining its relations with Russia and lacking economic programs. Still, he decided not run in snap parliamentary elections slated for December 9. Pashinian, who played a key role in the 2008 protests and spent nearly two years in prison because of that, has strongly defended the criminal case against Kocharian. “All murderers will go to prison,” he declared on August 17. Pashinian Refuses TV Debate With Republican Leader • Naira Nalbandian Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a campaign rally in Maralik, November 26, 2018. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian refused on Wednesday to take part in a one-on-one televised debate with the top parliamentary election candidate of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The candidate, Vigen Sargsian, challenged Pashinian to such a debate earlier in the day, while accusing the latter of campaigning for the December 9 elections in “the most ugly and inappropriate” way. Pashinian dismissed the proposal as “illogical” as he campaigned in the northern Tavush province. “The same proposal could be made by [Bright Armenia party leader] Edmon Marukian, [Menk alliance] leader Aram Sarkisian and other parties,” he told reporters. “Should I have 10 separate debates?” Pashinian said he is prepared instead for a different TV debate that would involve leaders of all 11 parties and blocs running in the snap elections. Sargsian said he too supports such a broad-based debate but believes that he and Pashinian must also face each other separately because the HHK is the main target of the premier’s harsh verbal attacks launched on the campaign trail. Pashinian spends most of his campaign “scaring the people with Republicans,” said the former defense minister. The HHK condemned this “hate speech” in a written appeal to Armenia’s Central Election Commission and human rights ombudsman issued on Tuesday. Pashinian shrugged off the HHK claims. “I think that with their black-and-white posters the Republicans created a notion or admitted that they are hated in Armenia,” he said. “I’m not the one who has disseminated that sentiment. They have disseminated it with their activities.” Campaigning in another northern province, Lori, on Tuesday, Pashinian pledged to “grab by the throat,” “throw to the ground” and jail loyalists of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) who would try to pressure voters. He ordered the Armenian police to deal with HHK-linked “criminal elements” in a similar fashion. He did not name names. Press Review “Zhamanak” reports that Armenia’s Court of Appeals has opened fresh hearings on the pre-trial arrest of former President Robert Kocharian sought by law-enforcement authorities. The paper notes that hearings coincided with the start of the parliamentary election campaign. It says Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated on the campaign trail on Tuesday that public funds which he said were stolen from the state by Kocharian and other former official must be given to the Armenian military. “Zhoghovurd” quotes Russia’s ambassador to Armenia, Sergey Kopyrkin, as saying that the disputed issue of who should be the next secretary general of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty (CSTO) organization must be resolved by consensus. “In his words, all member states of the organization are interested in seeing the organization function and contribute to their security,” writes the paper. It also cites Pashinian as saying on Tuesday that Armenia’s relationship with Russia, including within the CSTO framework, must be “raised to a new level.” “That is to say that Armenia’s new authorities are once again sending a clear message to international partners and the Russian Federation in the first instance to the effect that there will be no change in [Armenia’s] foreign policy vector,” it says. “Aravot” dismisses the “conspiracy theory” about Western involvement in the spring revolution in Armenia aimed at facilitating a pro-Azerbaijani resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “The Karabakh issue is of less interest to the young people who blocked streets [in Yerevan] than to our generation,” writes the paper’s veteran editor, Aram Abrahamian. “True, during the April 2016 war [in Karabakh] their peers sacrificed their lives to defend our borders. But that does not negate the fact that the main aim of the key participants of the revolution, namely young people, was to reject the previous, corrupt and rotten, system … The Karabakh theme was not a factor. People just want to have a normal, modern and democratic state free from corruption and impunity.” (Lilit Harutiunian) 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