Monday, 

Armenian Soldiers, Civilian Wounded Near Azeri Border


Armenia -- Soldiers pictured during a military exercise in Tavush, March 26, 
2019.

Two soldiers guarding Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and a teenage resident of 
an Armenian border village were reportedly wounded on Monday evening in what 
Yerevan described as Azerbaijani ceasefire violations.

The Armenian Defense Ministry reported that the soldiers sustained light wounds 
as their unit repelled an Azerbaijani raid on its positions in the northern 
Tavush province bordering the Gazakh district in western Azerbaijan.

A ministry statement said Azerbaijani forces also shot at two Armenian villages 
located in the area: Baghanis and Voskevan. It said a boy in Voskevan was 
wounded as a result.

Tavush’s governor, Hayk Chobanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the boy 
was shot in the chest and rushed to hospital. His life is not at risk now, said 
Chobanian.

“In order to stabilize the situation in the border zone and to counter the 
brazen actions by Azerbaijani forces … taken amid the [coronavirus] pandemic the 
Armenian Armed Forces will resort to actions commensurate with the situation. 
Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership will be fully responsible for the 
consequences,” read the Defense Ministry statement.

Another Armenian soldier deployed in Tavush was wounded on Friday, according to 
the ministry.

Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard Service, whose troops protect the Tavush-Gazakh 
section of the frontier, denied opening fire on the Armenian villages and said 
it was the Armenian side that fired at an Azerbaijani border village from heavy 
machine-guns. It said its troops shot back in response, according to the Trend 
news agency.

Three Azerbaijani border guards were shot dead in the same area earlier this 
year. One of them was reportedly killed on March 5 one day before the Armenian 
military claimed to have thwarted a similar Azerbaijani incursion attempt. Baku 
denied the alleged attack and accused the Armenian side of violating the 
ceasefire.

Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border section have been on the rise in 
recent months despite an overall decrease in truce violations in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone observed since October 2018.




Government To Hand Out Cash To Armenians Hit By Economic Shutdown

        • Nane Sahakian

Armenia -- An empty street cafe in Yerevan, March 15, 2020.

The Armenian government approved on Monday unprecedented cash payments to scores 
of people who have been hit hard by economic disruptions resulting from the 
coronavirus epidemic.

The one-off payments announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet will 
benefit tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of workers who have been 
temporarily out of work or laid off as well as owners of small businesses forced 
to halt their operations in recent weeks. The aid is meant to help them buy food 
and meet other basic needs during the nationwide lockdown imposed in Armenia 
last week.

Armenians who have lost their jobs since March 13 will receive 68,000 drams 
($137) each, while unemployed pregnant women whose husbands were fired in the 
same period will be paid 100,000 drams. Single and jobless pregnant women will 
also be eligible for this aid.

Government officials gave no estimates of the number of such citizens. They 
spoke instead of more than 100,000 people making up the third and largest 
category of aid recipients.

Among them are the employees of hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, clothing 
stores and other businesses that were closed after March 13. Depending on their 
monthly wages, they will get between 68,000 and 136,000 drams in compensation.

The government will pay similar sums to small-scale individual entrepreneurs 
also affected by the lockdown.


Armenia -- A cabinet meeting in Yerevan, .

Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Pashinian made clear that the 
government has no intention to compensate a large number of other Armenians who 
worked off the books and did not pay any taxes.

“This situation should tell us that all workers, all wages have to be registered 
[with tax authorities,]” said Pashinian. “We can’t deal with unregistered cases 
[of employment and self-employment] because it’s a black hole where nobody knows 
what’s going on.”

Opposition politicians have expressed serious concern about the plight of people 
involved in the informal sector of the Armenian economy. They have urged the 
government to take care of them as well.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian did not rule out the possibility of such 
assistance when he spoke at a news conference later on Monday. He stressed, 
though, that the government currently sees no effective mechanisms for extending 
the coronavirus relief package to the “unregistered jobs.”

The government approved last week a set of other measures designed to shore up 
the economy. In particular, it said creditworthy firms and individual 
entrepreneurs will receive grants worth $500 million (just over $1 million) if 
they pledge to use that money to pay their workers’ wages, buy equipment or raw 
materials or pay taxes. The scheme will not apply to Armenian banks, insurance 
companies and casinos.

The banks will receive instead government subsidies to provide cheap credit to 
small firms and farmers. The latter will be able to borrow up to 1 million drams 
each and avoid paying any interest for two years.

Pashinian also announced on March 27 that the banks have agreed to suspend loan 
repayments for some 100,000 individual or corporate borrowers.




Armenian Authorities Allowed To Use Phone Data To Fight Coronavirus

        • Gayane Saribekian
        • Karlen Aslanian

Armenia -- Deputies wear face masks during a parliament session in Yerevan, 
.

Ignoring strong opposition objections, Armenia’s parliament on Monday allowed 
authorities to access personal data from people’s mobile phones for the purpose 
of stopping the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Under a government bill passed the National Assembly in the first reading, state 
bodies enforcing the coronavirus-related state of emergency will be able to 
track movements, phone calls and text messages of Armenians infected with the 
virus.

Presenting the bill to lawmakers, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian said this 
will make it easier for them to identify and isolate those who have been exposed 
to infected individuals. He stressed that the authorities will not have access 
to the content of phone calls.

The two parliamentary opposition parties rejected this explanation, saying that 
the extraordinary powers sought by the government constitute a politically 
dangerous violation of citizens’ privacy and will not help to contain the 
epidemic.


Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian speaks in the National Assembly, 
Yerevan, .

“This is a regression of democracy,” claimed Naira Zohrabian of the Prosperous 
Armenia Party (BHK). “Mr. Minister, withdraw this bill. What you want to do is 
meaningless.”

“We are against ceding our liberties,” declared Edmon Marukian, the leader of 
the Bright Armenia Party.

“This will have a zero impact in terms of stopping the spread of the epidemic,” 
Marukian said during a heated parliament debate. He argued that many Armenians 
use online voice and text message systems to communicate with each other.

Parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan and other senior pro-government deputies also 
questioned the wisdom of the bill.

“People who have been in contact with virus carriers may have been infected in 
shops or on the street,” said Narek Zeynalian, the chairman of the parliament 
committee on healthcare. “Phone calls are not the only indicators of 
people-to-people contact.”

Nevertheless, the parliament approved the bill by 57 votes to 24, with one 
abstention. Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling My Step bloc, 
said the bill will likely be amended before being passed in the final reading. 
Makunts said that she and her colleagues will seek explicit guarantees that all 
phone data collected by the health authorities will be destroyed after the 
epidemic.


Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian at a news conference in Yerevan, March 
26, 2020.

As the parliament began debating the controversial measure the authorities 
reported that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia rose by 58 to 
482 in the past day. According to Health Minister Arsen Torosian, all but two of 
the new cases resulted from physical contact with known COVID-19 patients.

Torosian also said that 162 other citizens tested negative for the virus on 
Monday, bringing to over 2,216 the total number of such outcomes. A total of 
around 250 Armenians have been released from quarantine to date, he said during 
a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.

The Armenian authorities have reported three coronavirus-related so far.

In Torosian’s words, another patient remains in critical condition but is 
showing signs of improvement and could be disconnected from a lung ventilation 
device in the coming days. No other infected and hospitalized persons are now 
connected to ventilators, added the minister.




Armenia To Benefit From U.S. COVID-19 Aid Package


Armenia - The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.

The United States has pledged to provide Armenia with more than $1 million in 
aid designed to combat the coronavirus epidemic.

The funding will be part of a $274 million emergency aid package announced by 
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late last week. Pompeo said it will help “64 
of the world’s most at-risk countries” to better deal with the spread of 
coronavirus.

The assistance will be provided through international aid agencies, notably the 
World Health Organization.

“We are pleased that $1.1 million has been authorized for Armenia,” the U.S. 
Embassy in Yerevan announced at the weekend.

The embassy told RFE/RL’s Armenian service afterwards that the assistance has 
already been transferred to relevant international organizations. It is aimed at 
strengthening Armenian health authorities’ capacity monitor infections and 
detect the virus.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a Washington-based lobby 
group, welcomed the allocation. In a statement, ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian 
reiterated at the same time that some of the annual U.S. aid to Armenia 
allocated by Congress should also be channeled into the fight against 
coronavirus.

Armenia has already received limited amounts of coronavirus-related medical 
supplies from several other countries, including China. The Chinese aid reported 
by the Armenian government has included coronavirus test kits, protective 
medical uniforms and ventilators.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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