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    Categories: 2021

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 09/29/2021

                                        Wednesday, 


Yerevan Reassures Iranian Envoy Over Bypass Road

        • Naira Nalbandian

Armenia - Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian (right) meets with 
Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri, Yerevan, .


Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian told Iran’s ambassador in Yerevan on 
Wednesday that Armenia will complete soon work on an alternative road that will 
allow Iranian trucks to bypass an Azerbaijani roadblock set up on the main 
highway connecting the two states.

Azerbaijan gained control over a 21-kilometer section of the highway last 
December following an Armenian troop withdrawal from border areas along 
Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province. Azerbaijani officers deployed there 
began stopping and taxing on September 12 Iranian trucks delivering goods to and 
from Armenia. Many truck drivers have refused to pay the “road tax” reportedly 
ranging from $150 to $350 per vehicle.

Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri has since met with various Armenian 
officials to discuss the resulting disruptions in cargo traffic between Armenia 
and Iran. He said last week that Tehran hopes the Armenian government will speed 
up the ongoing reconstruction of the alternative Syunik road bypassing 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas.

In a statement, Papikian said he assured Zohouri that the 70-kilometer bypass 
road will be fully refurbished “by the end of November.” He also reiterated that 
it will be extended further north to divert traffic from a tortuous mountain 
pass outside the Syunik village of Tatev.

Papikian added that he also reaffirmed the Armenian government’s plans to build 
or refurbish other Syunik roads leading to the Iranian border. The government 
hopes that the European Union and other international donors will finance the 
ambitious project worth an estimated $1 billion.

Iran is a major trading partner of Armenia and one of the landlocked country’s 
two conduits to the outside the world. Up to one-third of Armenia’s foreign 
trade is carried out via the Islamic Republic and its Persian Gulf ports in 
particular.

Yerevan has reacted to cautiously to Baku’s decision to levy hefty fees from 
Iranian vehicles entering Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested on 
September 15 the move is aimed at pressuring Armenia to open a transport 
corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through 
Syunik. But he stopped short of demanding an end to the serious hurdle to 
Armenia’s transport links with Iran.

Gohar Iskandarian, a Yerevan-based Iran expert, also pointed to Papikian’s 
recent remark that it is up to Tehran and Baku to sort out the road crisis.

“Iran and Azerbaijan are talking about the problem in a quite forceful way, 
whereas Armenia is making no such statements,” Iskandarian told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service. “On the contrary, [Yerevan] has adopted a very passive stance, 
saying that this is beyond the scope of our powers.”

Shortly after Baku set up the roadblock the Iranian military reportedly began 
massing troops and holding exercises along the Iranian-Azerbaijani border. 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the drills on Monday. Iran’s 
Foreign Ministry dismissed the criticism.



Armenian Officials Reject Freedom House Criticism

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party attend the inaugural 
session of the recently elected National Assemnly, Yerevan, August 2, 2021.


Pro-government lawmakers dismissed on Wednesday U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom 
House’s strong criticism of recently enacted legislation allowing Armenian 
authorities prosecute people insulting state officials.

The amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code make “grave insults” directed at 
individuals because of their “public activities” crimes punishable by heavy 
fines and a prison sentence of up to three months. Those individuals may include 
government and law-enforcement officials, politicians and other public figures.

Invoking the new Criminal Code clauses, the Armenian police launched earlier 
this month criminal proceedings against a social media user who allegedly made 
an offensive comment about Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on his Facebook page.

Freedom House deplored the development in a statement issued on Tuesday. The 
Washington-based watchdog urged the Armenian authorities to stop enforcing “this 
unconstitutional legislation” which it said indicates a “clear degradation of 
democratic norms in Armenia, including freedom of expression.”

Vahagn Hovakimian, a parliament deputy from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and 
one of the authors of the legislation, denied such a regression in the country. 
He said that Pashinian’s political team criminalized grave insults, rather than 
defamation.

“I am saddened to see inaccurate things in the Freedom House appeal because the 
international organization was misled in this particular case,” the former 
journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Another pro-government lawmaker, Zaruhi Batoyan, also defended the controversial 
amendments. She said they are needed to tackle widespread verbal abuse 
circulated on Armenian social media accounts.

“Maybe this should be a temporary solution, but it is necessary at this point 
and our social life testifies to that,” said the former labor minister and civic 
activist.

By contrast, Artsvik Minasian, a parliamentary leader of the main opposition 
Hayastan alliance, echoed the Freedom House criticism.

“This law cannot contribute to Armenia’s democratic development,” said Minasian. 
“On the contrary, it will help Armenia regress in the objective rankings of all 
human rights organizations.”

Hayastan and other opposition groups claim that Pashinian himself has relied 
heavily on slander and “hate speech” since coming to power in 2018.

All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 
during then President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.



Armenia's Water Operator Seeking Price Hike

        • Artak Khulian

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 asked public 
utility regulators to allow it to raise the price of drinking water in the 
country by over 24 percent.

The price has stood at 180 drams (37 U.S. cents) per cubic meter ever since the 
Veolia utility giant took over the nationwide network in 2017 after signing a 
15-year management contract with the former Armenian government.

Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission 
(PSRC), said on Wednesday that the company’s Armenian subsidiary, Veolia Djur, 
requested last month permission to raise it to almost 224 drams per cubic meter. 
The operator cited, among other things, higher-than-expected inflation and the 
increased cost of electricity, he told reporters.

Under Armenian law, the PSRC has to fully or partly approve the tariff rise or 
reject it by December 1.

Baghramian signaled the regulatory body’s intention to agree to a higher water 
price. He argued that the management contract with Veolia envisages price hikes 
for the coming years.

But he stressed that the tariff will likely remain unchanged for about 100,000 
low-income households that already enjoy electricity and natural gas price 
discounts.

The official also revealed that the PSRC and the government are negotiating with 
Veolia on a deal that would set a fixed water price for the next 10 years.

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. The 
2016 contract commits it to investing 37.5 billion drams ($77 million) in 
Armenia’s aging and inefficient water distribution network.

It is not clear how much the company has invested so far. Veolia Djur has still 
not responded to relevant questions sent by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last week.



Dozens Of Karabakh Civilians Still Missing After 2020 War

        • Karlen Aslanian

NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An Azeri military truck drives along a street in the town of 
Hadrut, November 25, 2020


About two dozen civilian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh remain unaccounted for 
one year after the outbreak of the Armenian-Azerbaijani war, according to the 
authorities in Stepanakert.

“They are mostly elderly or disabled individuals who did not manage to leave 
their places of residence in the Hadrut, Shushi and Askeran districts [occupied 
by Azerbaijani forces,]” Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday.

“I presume that those individuals too were subjected to torture or killed, but 
their bodies have not been handed over to the Armenian side to date,” he said. 
“It is also possible that some of them remain in Azerbaijani captivity. 
Azerbaijan does not provide any real information about their whereabouts.”

Stepanian claimed that 38 other Karabakh Armenian civilians were executed or 
tortured to death after being captured by Azerbaijani forces. He said their 
bodies recovered by Karabakh authorities bore traces of violence.

In December 2020, Britain’s The Guardian daily examined gruesome videos that 
show men in Azerbaijani army uniforms beheading two elderly men recognized by 
their Karabakh Armenian relatives and neighbors.

“The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective 
villages said,” reported the paper.

“The villagers’ testimony in interviews with the Guardian corroborates 
identifications by a human rights ombudsman for the Armenian-backed local 
government and two prominent Armenian human rights lawyers preparing a criminal 
case relating to the murders,” it said.

So far Azerbaijan has admitted detaining only three ethnic Armenian civilians 
during the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. 
It has denied ill-treating them or Armenian soldiers taken prisoner.

According to Baku, 93 civilian residents of Azerbaijani towns and villages 
shelled by the Armenian military were killed during the hostilities.

Stepanian’s office has reported 42 civilian deaths caused by Azerbaijani 
shelling of Karabakh.

The war also left at least 3,700 Armenian soldiers dead. According to Armenian 
authorities, 231 others remain unaccounted for.

Azerbaijan’s government has acknowledged more than 2,800 combat deaths in the 
Azerbaijani army ranks.


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