Wednesday,
Russia’s Gazprom Responds To Armenian Offer Of Gas Talks
• Naira Nalbandian
Kyrgyzstan -- Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller exchanges documents with a member of
the Kyrgyz delegation during a signing ceremony following the talks of
Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Sooronbai Jeenbekov of Kyrgyzstan in
Bishkek, March 28, 2019.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian said on Wednesday that Russia’s Gazprom
monopoly has responded to an Armenian government proposal to start talks on
reducing the price of Russian natural gas supplied to Armenia.
Grigorian effectively requested a price cut in a letter to Gazprom Chairman
Alexei Miller sent on behalf of his government late last month.
He argued that international oil prices, which greatly determine the cost of
natural gas, have fallen sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic. He also said
that economic disruptions caused by the virus will significantly reduce energy
consumption levels in Armenia unless they are offset by cheaper gas.
“Russia’s Gazprom has replied that it is keeping the issue at the center of its
attention,” Grigorian told Armenian lawmakers. “At the same time the letter
[from Gazprom] says that contacts on the issue will be at the government level.”
Grigorian did not say whether Miller replied to him before or after Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on
April 6.
According to Pashinian’s press office, the gas issue was on the agenda of the
phone call. The office did not give any details.
Yerevan hopes that a price cut will at least offset a roughly 11 percent rise in
internal gas prices for Armenian households and businesses, which was 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.
Garegin Baghramian, the head of Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission,
said on Wednesday that it is now looking into the network’s application. Under
Armenian law, the regulatory body, which sets utility prices in the country, has
to decide by June 19 whether to approve or reject it.
More Armenian Companies Set To Resume Work
• Karlen Aslanian
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Workers at a new textile factory in Yerevan, 5Oct2017.
The Armenia government will allow more companies to resume next week their
operations suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian said on Wednesday.
Pashinian stressed that the permission will be conditional on employers
enforcing social distancing rules and following other precautions against the
spread of the virus. He singled out Armenia’s export-oriented textile industry
employing thousands of people.
“The sector should be reopened from April 20,” Pashinian said during the
government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament. “Our strategy is to
reopen as many sectors as possible.”
“But we have to realize that … after the coronavirus outbreak life in
manufacturing plants, cafes, restaurants, schools and universities will not be
the same as it was before. Some new [safety] rules will have to be put in
place,” he warned.
The government ordered the temporary closure of most nonessential businesses,
including cafes and restaurants, on March 24 amid an accelerating spread of
coronavirus in Armenia. The ban did not apply to agriculture, food retailers,
public utilities and services, banks as well as food-processing, mining and
cargo firms.
As the rate of new infections slowed considerably last week the government
decided to reopen some sectors of the Armenian economy. Local firms engaged in
open-air construction or manufacture cigarettes, cement and other construction
materials were allowed to resume work on Monday.
Pashinian said on Saturday that the government is also planning to lift the ban
on textile manufacturing even though the sector has reportedly been the single
largest of source of more than 1,000 coronavirus infections recorded in Armenia
to date. “We will hold more detailed discussions with textile industry
entrepreneurs … so that they can organize manufacturing as safely as possible,”
he said.
Armenia -- Bagrat Darbinian, the owner of Gloria textile company speaks to
RFE/RL, Vanadzor, March 16, 2020.
One of the country’s largest textile factories, Gloria, is located in the
northern city of Vanadzor. Its 2,600 workers were put on unpaid leave almost a
month ago.
Gloria’s owner, Bagrat Darbinian, made clear on Wednesday that the plant is
unlikely to restart production operations this month in any case. “I am not
inclined to resume work in April,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We will
also remain closed in May, until everyone calms down.”
Darbinian said that even in the days leading up to the lockdown production
operations at his company were disrupted by sanitary workers who spent hours
disinfecting its premises and measuring workers’ temperatures on a daily basis.
He claimed that Gloria is now unable to import fabric and other raw materials
because new regulations set by the Eurasian Economic Union.
Darbinian further complained that the national tax service has refused to
certify Gloria’s creditworthiness, something which would have made it eligible
for a low-interest $1 million loan subsidized by the government.
Like virtually all other Armenian textile firms, Gloria sells the bulk of its
output abroad. It mainly manufacturers clothes for customers in Italy and
Germany, including the German federal police.
Darbinian said that as recently as last week an Italian company commissioned a
large amount of protective medical clothing from the Vanadzor factory. He said
his company could not take the lucrative order because of the economic shutdown
in Armenia.
Armenian Church Head Calls For Kocharian’s Release
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Catholicos Garegin II leads an Easter mass at St. Gregory the
Illuminator's cathedral, Yerevan, April 12, 2020.
The supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II, has
been criticized by Armenia’s political leadership after calling for former
President Robert Kocharian’s release from prison.
In written comments to News.am publicized late on Tuesday, Garegin said that
relevant authorities should free Kocharian in order to avoid “further
complications of his health condition” during the coronavirus pandemic. He cited
“doctors’ professional opinions regarding the president’s health.”
Garegin also argued that countries around the world are releasing criminal
suspects and convicts “not posing a threat to the society” these days to prevent
them from being infected with coronavirus.
Kocharian, who is standing trial on corruption and coup charges strongly denied
by him, was taken back to a prison in central Yerevan on April 3 after spending
more than three weeks in hospital. His lawyers claimed that he will risk
contracting the virus if not set free.
“The Armenian government has no comment on His Holiness’s wishes and hopes,”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service.
Armenia -- President Robert Kocharian and Catholicos Garegin II attend an
official celebration in Yerevan, September 21, 2006.
Gevorgian noted in that context the fact that Garegin’s spokesman, Rev. Vahram
Melikian, had formally vouched for Samvel Mayraperian, a businessman indicted as
part of the corruption case against Kocharian.
Law-enforcement authorities allowed Mayrapetian in January 2019 undergo
treatment in Germany for a life-threatening form of pancreatitis. Melikian and a
prominent Armenian academic guaranteed in writing that he will return to Armenia
once his treatment in a German clinic is complete. Investigators said in early
March that the tycoon is now refusing to present himself before them on
“unsubstantiated” grounds.
Gevorgian said that the government expects the Echmiadzin-based Mother See of
the Armenian Apostolic Church to “reassess” the guarantee signed by Garegin’s
spokesman.
A close associate of Pashinian, deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian, went
farther on Wednesday, accusing the Catholicos of trying to exert pressure on
Armenian courts. “For decades he did not intervene in the imprisonment of
various people,” Simonian said, referring to political opponents of Armenia’s
former governments.
Other government loyalists took to social media to condemn Garegin in even
stronger terms. Gevorg Gorgisian, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Bright
Armenia Party, denounced the verbal attacks.
“The Catholicos can make any statement on any believer,” Gorgisian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service. “Why has he not made [such statements] in the past and why is
he making them now? These are legitimate questions that can be put to the
Catholicos. But that must be done with utmost respect.”
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian kisses a cross held by Catholicos
Garegin II during an Easter Mass at Yerevan's St. Gregory the Illuminator
Cathedral, April 21, 2019.
The Mother See defended Garegin’s stance, saying that it is in tune with the
church’s “humanist mission and values. “Therefore, it is not appropriate to
politicize the position of His Holiness and engage in fruitless debates,” it
said in a statement issued later on Wednesday.
Kocharian, 65, as well as his former chief of staff and two retired army
generals went on trial last year on charges mostly stemming from the 2008
post-election unrest in Yerevan. The ex-president, who ruled Armenia from
1998-2008, rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
The judge presiding over the high-profile trial, Anna Danibekian, has repeatedly
refused to free Kocharian pending a verdict in the case. Prosecutors have also
opposed his release.
Danibekian was due to consider a written appeal for Kocharian release, signed by
three former Armenian prime ministers, during a court hearing scheduled for
March 17. The hearing was postponed, ostensibly because of her illness, leading
defense lawyers to accuse the authorities of foul play. The trial is due to
resume later this month.
New Karabakh Leader Elected
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Nagorno-Karabakh --Ara Harutiunian speaks to RFE/RL, Stepanakert, February 21,
2020
Ara Harutiunian, a businessman and former prime minister, cruised to a
comfortable victory in the second round of Nagorno-Karabakh’s presidential
election held on Tuesday amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the
Armenian-populated territory.
Official election results released on Wednesday showed Harutiunian winning 88
percent of the vote. His challenger and Karabakh’s outgoing foreign minister,
Masis Mayilian, got 12 percent.
Harutiunian, 46, served as Karabakh’s prime minister from 2007-2017. He has
extensive business interests in the region which had broken away from Azerbaijan
in 1991.
The outcome of the runoff became a forgone conclusion after Mayilian urged
supporters on April 5 to boycott it because of the coronavirus pandemic. Citing
serious health risks, he earlier called for the vote to be postponed or
cancelled altogether.
Mayilian “took note” of the official vote results but said they “have no
significance whatsoever for our political team” because he did not campaign for
the runoff. He also wished Harutiunian “success,” citing the “foreign
policy-related importance” of the polls denounced by Azerbaijan.
The coronavirus-related concerns were apparently the main reason why only 45
percent of Karabakh’s 104,000 eligible voters cast their ballots on Tuesday.
Turnout stood at 73 in the first round of voting held on March 31.
Karabakh Armenians also elected their new parliament on that day. Harutiunian’s
Free Fatherland party won 16 of the 33 parliament seats. Four other political
groups will also be represented in the local legislature.
Speaking after the announcement of his victory, Harutiunian said the economic
fallout from coronavirus will be his administration’s first major challenge.
“We must unite not only in Artsakh (Karabakh) but also … rally around Armenia’s
authorities as they now bear the main burden of responsibility for addressing
that problem,” he told reporters. “Schadenfreude and political disagreements are
our main enemy on this front.”
Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian congratulated Harutiunian on his victory
even before the announcement of the official results.
For his part, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian congratulated Karabakh Armenians on
“completing the elections.” “They mandated authorities to further strengthen the
security of Artsakh and represent it in the peace process,” Pashinian tweeted on
Wednesday. “We continue our close cooperation with Artsakh to reach our common
goals.”
Azerbaijan strongly condemned the Karabakh polls late last month, saying that
they run counter to Azerbaijani and international law. It also said that that
Karabakh 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.
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.