Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Armenian Gas Operator Seeks Gas Price Rise
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - The Gazprom Armenia headquarters in Yerevan, 31Oct2014.
Armenia’s national gas distribution company owned by Russia’s Gazprom giant on
Wednesday asked public utility regulators to raise its retail prices set for
households and corporate consumers.
“The [Gazprom Armenia] company wants an 11 percent increase in the existing
average tariff,” Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services
Regulatory Commission (PSRC), told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
According to a Gazprom Armenia application publicized later in the day, the
company is seeking a more than 16 percent increase in the gas price set for
manufacturing and agricultural firms. At the same time it is ready to slightly
cut the price for the majority of households, which currently stands at an
equivalent of $290 per thousand cubic meters. Still, it wants to scrap a sizable
price discount enjoyed by low-income families.
Under Armenian law, the PSRC has to make a decision on the requested tariff
revision within the next 80 days.
The cost of Russian gas supplied to Armenian consumers remained unchanged after
Gazprom raised its wholesale price for Armenia from $150 to $165 per thousand
cubic meters in January 2019. This translated into additional major expenses for
Gazprom Armenia, which already reported growing financial losses in the course
of 2018.
Baghramian acknowledged that the gas distribution network has reason to seek
price rises given the extra costs incurred by it. But he said this will no
longer be the case if Gazprom lowers the wholesale price of Russian gas for
Armenia.
The Armenian government requested such a price reduction on Tuesday in apparent
anticipation of the application filed by Gazprom’s Armenian subsidiary.
In a letter to Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller, Deputy Prime Minister Mher
Grigorian argued that international oil prices, which greatly determine the cost
of natural gas, have fallen sharply over the past month. Grigorian also said
that economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic will significantly
reduce energy consumption levels in Armenia unless they are offset by a lower
gas price.
Phone Tracking Needed To Fight Coronavirus, Insists Armenian Government
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian at a news conference in Yerevan,
April 1, 2020.
The Armenian government continued to defend on Wednesday its controversial
decision to use personal data from people’s mobile phones to fight against the
coronavirus epidemic.
Justice Minister Rustam Badasian reiterated government assurances that the
extraordinary measure will not infringe on citizens’ privacy and civil rights or
be used for eavesdropping on opposition figures.
“It’s only about a state of emergency declared as a result of an epidemic,” he
told a news conference. “That is, in case of a state of emergency declared on
any other grounds there will be no such interference in citizens’ rights and
liberties.”
Badasian insisted that access to mobile phone location and usage data will help
the Armenian authorities to better contain the spread of the virus. They will
find it easier to trace people who have come into contact with those infected
with the disease, he said.
The circle of such people is to be determined by an automated system. If it
turns out that they not only received phone calls or messages from infected
persons but also were in close proximity with the latter, they will be contacted
by officials and possibly placed in quarantine or self-isolation.
“If, for example, I am a virus carrier who phoned [from Yerevan] the same person
in Gyumri 10 or 20 times, that alone will not be deemed a risk factor,”
explained Badasian. “But if I phoned another person even once and our locations
matched … an official from the Ministry of Emergency Situations will make a
phone call, ascertain additional details and make a decision based on that.”
The government hastily pushed a relevant bill through the Armenian parliament
late on Tuesday amid strong objections from opposition lawmakers. They voiced
concerns about privacy violations and cast doubt on the effectiveness of
smartphone tracking. Some civic activists have echoed those concerns.
Badasian again dismissed them, saying that the authorities will not have access
to, let alone publicize, the content of any phone conversations or text
messages. Only a handful of government specialists will be processing phone
data, he said, adding that they all will sign non-disclosure pledges.
The minister also argued that the bill, which President Armen Sarkissian swiftly
signed into a law, requires the authorities to delete all data after the
coronavirus-related state of emergency ends in Armenia.
Shushan Doydoyan of the Yerevan-based Center for Freedom of Information,
countered, however, that the data has to be deleted only within one month after
the end of emergency rule. “What will they be doing with that data for one
month?” she said.
More Travel Restrictions Imposed In Armenia
• Gayane Saribekian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Police officers enforcing a coronavirus lockdown check cars leaving
Yerevan, April 1, 2020.
Authorities suspended public transport in Yerevan and set up roadblocks across
Armenia on Wednesday as they stepped up their efforts to slow the spread of
coronavirus.
An Armenian government task force coordinating those efforts announced the new
travel restrictions after extending on Tuesday existing curbs on people’s
movement and the closure of most businesses in the country by at least ten days.
The Armenian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday morning that the number of
registered coronavirus cases rose by 39 to 571 in the past 24 hours. The
ministry had reported slightly faster rises in COVID-19 infections in previous
days.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian expressed concern over these infection rates late
on Tuesday. He said that if they do not fall in the comings days Armenia will
have as many as 2,000 coronavirus cases by April 14. This would overwhelm the
national healthcare system increasingly struggling to contain the epidemic, he
said.
“If this pace persists and [the coronavirus curve] does not become flat like in
South Korea we will be forced to treat [COVID-19] patients with mild or no
symptoms at home,” warned Torosian.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who heads the coronavirus task force, said
for his part that by toughening the nationwide lockdown the government hopes to
cause the epidemic to recede in the second of April.
In line with the new restrictions, all subway and bus services in Yerevan were
suspended on Thursday morning. Only taxis will be allowed to transport people
until April 12.
Armenia -- A woman stands outside a closed metro station in Yerevan, April 1,
2020.
People also can move around in their or their family members’ or co-workers’
cars. But they must prove, including with documents signed by their employers,
that they left their homes for work or other urgent needs.
Early in the afternoon, police and other security agencies set up checkpoints on
highway sections just outside Yerevan and other Armenian cities and towns. They
checked every vehicle leaving or entering those communities.
Bus services between the Armenian capital and the rest of the country were
already halted last week.
Many of the remaining commuters in Yerevan were not happy with the temporary ban
on public transport. They argued that they have to go to work and cannot afford
taxis on a daily basis.
“I work in a hospital and also provide home care to a sick person,” said Liana
Babayan, a healthcare worker. “Working people should be able to use public
transport. Let them just show their documents or have their temperature checked.”
“I now have to go to work on foot,” complained another resident. “My workplace
is far away from my home.”
Karabakh’s Presidential Vote To Go Into Runoff
Nagorno-Karabakh -- A polling station in Stepanakert, .
Ara Harutiunian, a businessman and former prime minister, won the first round of
a presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh and will face another candidate,
Masis Mayilian, in a runoff two weeks later, according to preliminary vote
results released on Wednesday.
The official results also show Harutiunian’s party winning the largest number of
seats in Karabakh’s next parliament also elected on Tuesday.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) said more than 73 percent of Karabakh’s
104,300 eligible cast ballots in the polls strongly condemned by Azerbaijan.
The turnout was high despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the
Armenian-populated territory that broke away from Azerbaijani rule in 1991. The
authorities in Stepanakert have registered no coronavirus cases so far.
According to the CEC, Harutiunian garnered 49.3 percent of the vote, narrowly
missing the threshold for winning the presidential ballot outright. Mayilian
came in second with 26.4 percent of the vote, followed by retired General Vitaly
Balasanian, who got 14.7 percent. The 11 other presidential candidates fared far
more poorly.
Also, Harutiunian’s Free Fatherland party won over 40 percent of the vote and
will therefore have the largest group in the new local legislature.
Armenia - Ara Harutiunian speaks to RFE/RL in Yerevan, May 31, 2019.
The United Homeland party of Samvel Babayan, another retired general, finished
second with 23.6 percent of the vote. Babayan had led Karabakh’s Armenian-backed
army during and after the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan.
Also winning parliament seats were three other Karabakh parties: Balasanian’s
Justice (7.9 percent), the Karabakh branch of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (6.4 percent) and the Democratic Party (5.8 percent). The latter is
led by Ashot Ghulian, the outgoing parliament speaker.
None of the presidential candidates was openly backed during the election
campaign by Bako Sahakian, the outgoing Karabakh president, or Armenia’s
political leadership. Both frontrunners as well as Balasanian used to hold major
positions in Sahakian’s administration.
Balasanian has been a bitter critic of the current Armenian government and Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian in particular ever since he resigned as Karabakh’s top
security official last year. Pashinian’s political allies have accused the
general of maintaining close ties with Armenia’s former leadership overthrown in
the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.”
Harutiunian has a much more cordial relationship with the Pashinian government.
The 46-year-old served as Karabakh’s prime minister from 2007-2017. He has
extensive business interests in the territory.
For his part, Mayilian was appointed as foreign minister in 2017. He went on
leave late last year to concentrate on the elections.
Armenia -- Masis Mayilian, 27Mar2020.
Azerbaijan has always condemned elections held in Karabakh as illegitimate. The
Foreign Ministry in Baku said on Tuesday that the latest polls also run counter
to Azerbaijani and international law and that Karabakh is governed by an
“illegal regime installed by Armenia.”
U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group said that
Karabakh is not recognized as an independent state by the international
community and “the so-called general elections” cannot predetermine the outcome
of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks mediated by them.
By contrast, Armenia defended the holding of the elections. It cited a 1992 OSCE
document saying that “elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh” should also
participate in the peace process.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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