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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 04/06/2020

                                        Monday, April 6, 2020

Armenians Repatriated From Russia, Quarantined

        • Aza Babayan

Russia -- Russian police officers patrol on the nearly-deserted Red Square in 
Moscow, April 6, 2020

The Russian government has waived its ban on commercial flights abroad to allow 
at least 400 citizens of Armenia to return home from Russia because of the 
coronavirus epidemic.

It suspended all flights in and out of Russia on April 3 to try to stem the 
spread of coronavirus. The decision left hundreds of Armenians stranded at 
Moscow’s Domodedovo international airport.

At the request of the Armenian Embassy in Russia, Moscow allowed a Russian 
airline, Red Wings, to transport 222 of them to Yerevan on Monday. They all were 
placed in quarantine by Armenian health authorities immediately after arriving 
at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport.

The Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations released a short video that showed 
officials clad in protective gear escorting the evacuees to buses that took them 
to two hotels where they will stay for at least two weeks.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian announced afterwards that the Russian 
government has allowed Red Wings to carry out a second Moscow-Yerevan flight. 
The flight is scheduled for Tuesday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said later in 
the evening.

Most of the evacuees are understood to have been selected by the Armenian 
Embassy. According to Ambassador Vartan Toghanian, priority was given to transit 
passengers from other Russian cities and people travelling with young children 
or lacking money to stay in Russia.

Toghanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Sunday that a total of about 3,000 
Armenian nationals have asked the embassy to help them return to Armenia. “There 
are two categories of people willing to return: those who are ready to pay and 
to go to Armenia and those who are unable do to that because of financial or 
other problems,” he said.

The envoy said the Armenian mission in Moscow is now looking into ways of 
helping the latter category. “First of all, we will try to accommodate them in 
several hotels outside Moscow,” he said, adding that other stranded Armenians 
will likewise be offered free but temporary accommodation in two cities in 
southern Russia.

Russia is home to hundreds of thousands of Armenian migrant workers. Many of 
them now risk losing their jobs due to coronavirus-related lockdowns ordered by 
authorities in various parts of the country.

According to Armenia’s Labor and Health Inspectorate, almost 12,000 people have 
returned to Armenia from “countries in the high-risk zone” and been ordered to 
self-isolate since March 19.




Food Exports From Armenia Restricted

        • Robert Zargarian

Russia - A shopper holds a buckwheat packet at a Moscow supermarker, March 20, 
2020.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has temporarily banned exports of key 
foodstuffs from its member states, including Armenia, to other countries, a 
senior Armenian official confirmed on Monday.

Deputy Economy Minister Varos Simonian said the Russian-led trade bloc’s 
executive body, the Eurasian Economic Commission, has initiated the three-month 
ban in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The ban will not apply to 
humanitarian aid that might be provided by Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan 
or Kyrgyzstan, he said.

The foodstuffs in question include various cereals, soya beans, sunflower seeds, 
onions and garlics. Unlike Russia, Armenia is not a major exporter of these 
products.

The Eurasian Economic Commission explained on its website that the export 
restrictions are meant to “provide the population with sufficient quantities of 
such products during an escalation of the sanitary-epidemiological situation.”

The Moscow-based commission at the same time decided last week to temporarily 
lift import duties on foodstuffs imported by the EEU member states.

“We are talking, for example, about potatoes, onions, garlics, carrots and a 
number of other products,” Simonian told a news conference. “Their imports to 
the EEU area will be taxed at zero rates.”

This is aimed at preventing major increases in food prices in Russia and the 
four other ex-Soviet states.

The prices of flour, sugar, butter and cooking oil sold in Yerevan supermarkets 
and smaller stores have already risen in recent days.

Gegham Gevorgian, the head of Armenia’s State Commission for the Protection of 
Economic Competition (SCPEC), blamed this on a coronavirus-related weakening of 
the national currency, the dram, which began last month.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian echoed this explanation when he answered 
questions from Facebook users later in the day. “I must point out that some of 
these price hikes may be connected with exchange rate fluctuations,” he said.




Runner-Up Calls For Karabakh Election Boycott

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Nagorno-Karabakh -- Masis Mayilian speaks to RFE/RL, Stepanakert, February 22, 
2020.

Citing the coronavirus pandemic, the candidate who finished second in the first 
round of Nagorno-Karabakh’s presidential election has called on supporters to 
boycott a runoff vote scheduled for April 14.

Masis Mayilian has at the same time refrained from withdrawing from the race.

Official results of the March 31 election showed Ara Harutiunian, a wealthy 
businessman and Karabakh’s former prime minister, winning over 49 percent of the 
vote. Mayilian garnered 26.4 percent, meaning that the ballot has to go into a 
runoff.

The vote went ahead despite serious concerns about the spread of coronavirus in 
Karabakh. Mayilian and several other presidential candidates demanded its 
postponement during the election campaign. The authorities in Stepanakert 
countered that precautionary measures taken by them helped to prevent any 
coronavirus cases in Karabakh so far.

In a weekend statement, Mayilian, who is also Karabakh outgoing foreign 
minister, said his supporters should stay away from polling stations on April 14 
because of the “growing danger of coronavirus.”

He also criticized the authorities’ handling of the polls, saying it was “very 
far” from Karabakh residents’ expectations of democratization. He cited in that 
regard the findings of election observers from Armenia that reported voter 
irregularities.

Still, Mayilian “took note” of the official results and stopped short of 
explicitly rejecting them as fraudulent.

The election runner-up has avoided any contacts with the media since March 31. 
He did not answer phone calls from RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Monday.

The chairwoman of Karabakh’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Srbuhi 
Arzumanian, said it has received no formal notifications from Mayilian about his 
withdrawal from the race. This means, she said, that his name will be on the 
ballot on April 14.


Nagorno Karabakh - Voting is underway in the presidential and parliamentary 
election in Nagorno Karabakh, Stepanakert,31Mar,2020

Meanwhile, Harutiunian signaled support for the holding of the second round. 
“There are only several days to go [before the runoff,] and we should … finish 
the elections,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service from Stepanakert.

Asked whether he is urging supporters to again go to the polls, Harutiunian 
said: “Let the CEC announce the final results [of the first round] first and I 
will appeal to my compatriots after that.”

Karabakh Armenians also elected on March 31 their new parliament. Harutiunian’s 
Free Fatherland party won more than 40 percent of those votes and will have the 
largest number of parliament seats.

Azerbaijan strongly condemned the Karabakh elections, saying that they run 
counter to Azerbaijani and international law. It also said that that the 
Armenian-populated territory, which broke away from Azerbaijani rule in 1991, is 
governed by an “illegal regime installed by Armenia.”

U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group stressed, for 
their part, that Karabakh is not recognized as an independent state by the 
international community and that “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 marke by high voter 
turnout. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian described the polls as democratic and 
said they could facilitate a resolution of the Karabakh conflict.




Putin, Pashinian Discuss Russian Gas Price For Armenia


Turkmenistan -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian speak during a summit of ex-Soviet states in Ashgabat, October 
11, 2019.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian telephoned Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on 
Monday to discuss the price of Russian natural gas for Armenia which Yerevan 
hopes will be cut due to economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

“The sides discussed issues related to natural gas supplies to Armenia,” read an 
Armenian government statement. It gave no details of the discussion.

A Kremlin readout of the phone call did not explicitly mention the gas issue. It 
said instead that the two leaders talked about their government’s efforts to 
stem the spread of coronavirus and that Pashinian thanked Putin for “assistance 
provided by the Russian side.”

According to the Armenian statement, Pashinian was appreciative of Moscow’s 
decision to allow continued cargo shipments between the two countries despite 
the coronavirus-related closure of Russia’s borders.

Pashinian spoke to Putin one week after his government effectively asked 
Russia’s Gazprom monopoly to cut the price of its gas imported by Armenia. 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.

Gazprom executives and Russian government officials have not yet publicly 
commented on new tariff negotiations requested by Yerevan.

The Armenian government appears to hope that a price cut will at least offset a 
major rise in domestic gas prices for households and businesses, which was 
formally requested by Armenia’s Gazprom-owned national gas distribution network 
on April 1.

The retail prices have remained unchanged since Gazprom raised its wholesale 
tariff for Armenia from $150 to $165 per thousand cubic meters in January 2019. 
This has translated into additional losses for the Gazprom Armenia network.

Pashinian also discussed the matter by phone on March 31 with President 
Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus, which is also heavily dependent on Russian gas. 
According to Lukashenko’s press office, the two men agreed that the current gas 
prices set for their countries are “inflated” and “do not correspond to 
international levels.”

In televised remarks aired over the weekend, Lukashenko claimed that because of 
the collapse in oil prices Belarus is now paying more for Russian gas than 
European Union member states.




Pashinian ‘Encouraged’ By Armenia’s Latest Coronavirus Numbers


Armenia -- Masked pedestrians on the streets of Yerevan, March 17, 2020.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday reported a significant drop in new 
cases of coronavirus in Armenia and said his government will consider easing a 
nationwide lockdown if a downward trend continues in the coming days.

Pashinian said that only 11 more people tested positive for the virus in the 
past 24 hours, the lowest daily increase in more than two weeks which brought 
the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 833.

“Today’s figures are encouraging for us,” said in a video address to the nation 
livestreamed on Facebook. “We can’t be certain because we have to also look at 
tomorrow’s figures. But if hopes raised by these figures materialize … they 
should inspire all of us to remain maximally disciplined and comply with 
restrictions for one more week.”

“And if our theory materializes, it will mean that starting from next Monday we 
will be able to think about easing the [quarantine] regime,” added the premier.

Armenia had only 249 confirmed coronavirus cases when its government issued 
stay-at-home orders and forced the closure of nonessential businesses on March 
24. The number of infections continued to rise by over 10 percent per day in the 
following days, leading the authorities to impose more transport restrictions.

In particular, they suspended public transport in Yerevan and restricted travel 
between the Armenian capital and the rest of the country. Official statistics 
show that the daily infection rate began falling on April 3.

Pashinian also reported that another person died from COVID-19 late on Sunday, 
raising to 8 Armenia’s death toll from the virus. The premier said the 
68-year-old man also suffered from diabetes and other pre-existing diseases.

According to the Armenian Ministry of Health, five other infected people 
recovered from coronavirus in the past day. The total number of such recoveries 
thus rose to 62.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 


Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS