Friday,
Deal On Karabakh’s Status ‘Key To Lasting Peace’
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick gave a press conference at
the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, 26 October, 2015
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh will remain unresolved as long as there is no
agreement on the disputed territory’s status, according to James Warlick, a
former U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.
In an interview with Infoco.am, Warlick also said that Armenia can benefit from
the opening of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey “once there is that kind
of settlement in place.” “This can be a big change but it does require a lasting
settlement,” he stressed.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly stated that transport links with
Azerbaijan and Turkey will significantly benefit the Armenian economy and help
to usher in an “era of peaceful development” in the region.
Pashinian’s critics point to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s regular claims
that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war resolved the conflict and demands for
Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over the territory through a
bilateral “peace treaty.”
“I think that Baku does need to understand that there needs to be a way to
address the issue of status for Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Warlick. “There will be
no permanent, lasting settlement without the issue of status being addressed.”
“I think that the way to do that is to have a negotiating process that the sides
can trust, that has international guarantees from the OSCE, perhaps
international peacekeepers of some sort, that provides a status for
Nagorno-Karabakh, that clarifies the borders, that deals with issues such as
refugees,” added the former diplomat, who led the Minsk Group, together with
fellow envoys from Russia and France, from 2013 to 2016.
In his words, the United States, Russia and France should conduct such a process
“at the foreign ministers’ level and higher.”
The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, has likewise repeatedly stated that
Washington believes the Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. “We do not see the
status of Nagorno-Karabakh as having been resolved,” she said last September in
remarks condemned by Baku.
Aliyev mocked the Minsk Group co-chairs and questioned the wisdom of their
continued activities last month. “They must not deal with the Karabakh conflict
because that conflict has been resolved,” he said.
Warlick suggested that Russia, which helped to stop the six-week war, can play a
key role in reviving the Karabakh peace process.
“Frankly, Russia should welcome the kind of lasting settlement that really and
truly brings a lasting peace to the South Caucasus,” he said. “Does Russia
really want to have continued instability in the region? I don’t believe so.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in June that the mediators should
not rush to broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani deal on Karabakh’s status. He
insisted that confidence-building measures in the conflict zone must be their
top short-term priority.
Rising Energy Prices Hit Greenhouse Farming In Armenia
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - A greenhouse in Ararat province,
Greenhouse owners in Armenia have warned that rising prices of electricity and
natural gas will further push up the cost of their agricultural produce and
could also drive many of them out of business.
Greenhouse owners in Armenia have warned that rising prices of electricity and
natural gas will further push up the cost of their agricultural produce and
could also drive many of them out of business.
Armenian utility regulators raised the electricity prices by an average of about
10 percent in December. The steepest price hike (12 percent) was set for
businesses.
The retail prices of gas are widely expect to go up on April 1, less than two
years after the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) raised the gas
tariff for corporate consumers by roughly 4.5 percent.
Greenhouses, which now account for a sizable share of fruits and vegetables
grown in Armenia, are especially reliant on gas and electricity in winter
months. Their owners say that they will struggle to remain afloat after the
upcoming price hike.
“If gas becomes more expensive, we won’t burn it anymore [for heating purposes.]
Let people buy stuff grown abroad,” said Samvel Harutiunian, a farmer from
Hovtashat, a village in Armenia’s southern Ararat province.
Armenia - Samvel Harutiunian, a greenhouse owner in Hovtashat village, February
18, 2022.
Harutiunian, who built his greenhouse more than a decade ago, said that he
already had trouble operating at a profit last year.
“We’ll have to think about leaving this country or doing something else here,”
he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We can’t do agricultural work anymore.”
According to Poghos Gevorgian, the head of the Armenian Greenhouse Association,
natural gas accounts for at least half of the production costs incurred by
farmers like Harutiunian.
“People already don’t have money to buy [greenhouse output,] and so greenhouses
are now collapsing little by little,” said Poghosian.
Greenhouse farming in Armenia has expanded rapidly since the early 2000s, making
it the most dynamic segment of domestic agriculture still dominated by
subsistence farming. Greenhouses were built across the country not only by
village but also large export-orient companies.
The Armenian government is now facing growing calls to shore up the greenhouse
industry in the face of the rising energy costs. Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian
said last month that the government is helping farmers offset the price hikes
with higher productivity. But he did not elaborate.
Armenia - Workers at a commercial greenhouse in Ararat province, 19Apr2017.
The Ministry of Economy said on Friday that it will not to comment on the impact
of a higher gas price until the utility regulators make a “final decision” next
month.
Razmik Hambarchian, a farmer who owns a 2-hectare greenhouse in another Ararat
village, Ghukasavan, said he will raise the prices of his vegetables by around
15 percent if gas does become more expensive. He said he has already laid off
some of his workers and switched to new crops in response to the increased
living costs.
“Electricity, water and food have become more expensive,” complained
Hambarchian. “What can we do? Rise up? If we rise up, where should we go? To
Paris or Berlin? Things have become more expensive all over the world.”
According to official statistics, food prices in Armenia soared by an average of
almost 13 percent last year, reflecting a global trend. They pushed up overall
inflation to 7.7 percent, the highest rate in many years.
Opposition Activist May Face Trial For ‘Insulting’ Pashinian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Political activist Shahen Harutiunian speaks with RFE/RL's Armenian
Service, Yerevan, .
Law-enforcement authorities have launched criminal proceedings against a young
political activist who has branded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian a
“nation-destroying scourge” and accused him of treason.
Shahen Harutiunian, the 22-year-old leader of a small party called Shant
Alliance, is one of several hundred individuals investigated by the authorities
under legal amendments condemned by Armenian and Western human rights groups.
The amendments to the Criminal Code passed by Armenia’s government-controlled
parliament last summer made “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.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor-General, 31 Armenians faced such
criminal charges by January 1. Many of them are thought to have been accused of
offending Pashinian.
Harutiunian may also be indicted. He was summoned to a police station in Yerevan
on January 20 just days after denouncing on his Facebook page “yet another act
of high treason and manifestation of indignity” by Pashinian. He also echoed
former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s famous characterization of the prime
minister as a “nation-destroying scourge.”
Harutiunian publicly repeated his comments before being questioned by police
officers for a second time.
“I refused to give any explanations and left the police station and then made
the written comment for a third time,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on
Friday. “Maybe they will summon me again in the coming days.”
The activist argued that he did not swear at Pashinian and simply expressed his
political views. He accused the authorities of trying to muzzle him and other
vocal critics of their policies.
Armenia - Opposition activist Shahen Harutiunian invades the pitch during an
Armenia-Portugal football game at the Republican Stadium in Yerevan, 13Jun2015.
A spokesperson for Armenia’s Investigative Committee said, meanwhile, that he
has not been formally charged yet.
Harutiunian had risen to prominence during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s
rule when he campaigned for the release of his father Shant, a fringe
nationalist politician jailed for organizing a violent anti-government protest
in 2013.
Shant Harutiunian was set free six months after Sarkisian was toppled in 2018
mass protests led by Pashinian. His son actively participated in the “velvet
revolution” and worked in 2019 as an aide to a pro-Pashinian parliamentarian.
Shahen Harutiunian began openly challenging the current government after
Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. His party helped to defeat
Pashinian’s Civil Contract in at least two local elections held last fall.
All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010.
The Pashinian administration’s decision to restore criminal liability for such
offenses drew criticism from local and international human rights groups as well
as the Armenian opposition.
ARMENIA -- Police detain an opposition demonstrator during an anti-government
protest in Yerevan, February 23, 2021
Opposition leaders say that Pashinian himself has relied heavily on slander and
“hate speech” before and after coming to power in 2018.
The U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House has repeatedly called a repeal of the
controversial amendments, saying that they highlight a “clear degradation of
democratic norms” in Armenia.
Vladimir Vartanian, a senior pro-government lawmaker, again defended the
amendments last week. “We have to understand that freedom of speech has limits,”
he said.
Ruben Melikian, a pro-opposition lawyer representing over a dozen persons
prosecuted for insulting Pashinian and other officials, suggested that the
criminal cases run counter to the Armenian constitution.
“The stories I hear are so ridiculous that they are enough to declare these
articles [of the Criminal Code] unconstitutional,” he said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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