Monday,
Karabakh Leader Again Fuels Talk Of Resignation
• Artak Khulian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Arayik Harutiunian and Ruben Vardanyan meet in Stepanakert,
September 8, 2022.
A former political ally of Arayik Harutiunian has accused Nagorno-Karabakh’s
president of reneging on his pledge to resign.
Fresh rumors about Harutiunian’s impending resignation began circulating last
week amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Karabakh caused by Azerbaijan’s
eight-month blockade of the Lachin corridor. One of his top loyalists flatly
denied the rumors on Friday.
Nevertheless, Ruben Vardanyan, a former Karabakh premier, claimed over the
weekend that Harutiunian told him and several other individuals “early this
week” that he has already decided to step down and will not change his mind.
“Some of the eight individuals present at that meeting did not believe your
words, while others thought that maybe you are telling the truth this time
around,” Vardanyan said in video appeal to Harutiunian posted on Facebook. He
gave no other details of that meeting.
Vardanyan, who was sacked by Harutiunian in February, went on to brand the
Karabakh leader as a liar who is “wrecking state institutions.”
Harutiunian pointedly declined to respond to his former top minister. His press
secretary told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that he will not comment on
the allegations.
Meanwhile, Harutiunian’s Free Fatherland party issued a statement accusing
Vardanyan and “some groups” of trying to force the elected president to resign
for the sake of their “parochial interests.” But it did not explicitly deny the
resignation pledge allegedly made by Harutiunian.
Harutiunian already fueled speculation about his impending exit early this year.
In January, he signaled his desire to force snap elections in Karabakh despite
the Azerbaijani blockade. In March, he helped to enact a constitutional
amendment that empowered the Karabakh parliament to elect an interim president
in case of his resignation.
Vahram Atanesian, a local pundit, claimed on Monday that Karabakh’s three main
opposition parties increasingly cooperating with Vardanyan are trying to force
Harutiunian to quit and install a new president allied to them. None of those
parties has publicly called for his resignation.
An opposition leader, Davit Ishkhanian of the Karabakh branch of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), was elected parliament speaker
earlier this month. Lawmakers representing Harutiunian’s party voted for him.
Yerevan Downplays Lack Of UN Security Council Action On Karabakh
UN - UN Security Council discusses the humanitarian situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh, New York, August 16, 2023.
The Armenian government downplayed on Monday the United Nations Security
Council’s failure to formally demand an end to Azerbaijan’s blockade of
Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of an emergency meeting held last week.
Armenia initiated the session in a bid to drum up stronger international
pressure on Baku. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan attended and addressed it,
saying that Yerevan expects the Security Council to condemn Baku, demand the
immediate reopening of the Lachin corridor, send a fact-finding mission to
Karabakh and provide humanitarian aid to the region’s struggling population.
Although most of its members, notably the United States and Russia, urged the
lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade, the Council stopped short of adopting a
relevant resolution or statement. This fact led some in Armenia to question the
wisdom of initiating the meeting and sending Mirzoyan to New York.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry countered that the format of the meeting did not
“presuppose the adoption” of any such document.
“Besides, only the 15 (permanent and non-permanent) members of the UN Security
Council have the right to draft UN Security Council resolutions and initiate
voting. Armenia, not being a member of the UN Security Council, does not have
such authority,” the ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, said in written
comments to the press.
Badalian insisted that the Security Council session was worth it because the
international community could now pay more attention to “possible catastrophic
consequences” of the worsening humanitarian situation in Karabakh. She also said
Yerevan will continue to “work actively in the UN and other platforms” with the
aim of achieving the reopening of Karabakh’s land link with Armenia and the
outside world.
The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called on
Azerbaijan to allow renewed commercial and humanitarian traffic through the
Lachin corridor. Baku has dismissed their appeals.
Armenian Mining Output Shrinks Amid Economic Growth
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits a mining enterprise in Agarak,
August 18, 2023.
Mining and metallurgy, the key manufacturing subsector of the Armenian economy,
contacted significantly in the first half of this year despite continued robust
GDP growth reported by the country’s government.
First-half data released by the government’s Statistical Committee shows a more
than 7 percent decrease in the production of metal ores and ore concentrates
which totaled 218 billion drams ($566 million). The production of copper,
molybdenum and other base metals was down by as much as 16 percent year on year,
at 74.4 billion drams.
This was one of the reasons why overall Armenian industrial output, worth about
1.2 trillion drams ($3 billion), was practically stagnant, contrasting with a
roughly 10 percent increase in GDP recorded by the Statistical Committee in
January-June 2023.
Economic growth continued to be primarily driven by double-digit gains in trade
and other services resulting from massive cash inflows from Russia sparked by
Western sanctions against Moscow. Armenia’s trade with Russia has skyrocketed
since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Armenian mining industry remains oriented towards Western markets. The South
Caucasus country’s largest metallurgical enterprise, the Zangezur
Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), is also its number one corporate taxpayer.
Based in Kajaran, a town in Armenia’s Syunik province, ZCMC employs about 4,000
people. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) collected a total of 35 billion drams
in various taxes from ZCMC in the first half 2023, compared with 105 billion
drams last year.
A smaller company mining copper and molybdenum near another Syunik town, Agarak,
was seventh in the SRC’s 2022 tax rankings. Now it is not even among the
country’s 100 leading taxpayers.
Armenia - An ore-processing facility at the Chaarat Kapan, September 6, 2018.
Some analysts blame these sharp decreases on a recent fall in global metal
prices. A significant strengthening of the Armenian dram, another side effect of
the Western sanctions, may be another factor.
The British-registered parent company of another Syunik-based mining enterprise,
Chaarat Kapan, singled out the exchange rate fluctuation in an August 16
statement announcing its decision to sell Chaarat Kapan to another firm for over
$55 million.
Chaarat Kapan has about 1,000 workers. Hundreds of them went on strike last year
to demand better pay and working conditions. The company management said at the
time that it cannot afford pay rises because of the stronger dram and other
unfavorable global developments.
Also, Armenia’s largest gold mine located on the border with Azerbaijan was
largely shut down this spring due to systematic cross-border gunfire targeting
its workers and production facilities. A Russian company operating the Sotk mine
stopped open-pit mining there and put many of its 700 workers on unpaid leave.
“Unless new mines are opened, the mining industry will start slowly declining,”
said Hrant Mikaelian, an analyst with the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute. “As
far as I know, the creation of new mines has been very slow in recent years.”
Flights To Armenian Border Town Go Ahead Despite ‘Azeri Gunfire’
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - A plane carrying Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian lands at Kapan
airport, August 17, 2023.
An Armenian airline began regular commercial flights to Kapan on Monday after
what Armenian officials described as cross-border gunfire from Azerbaijan
targeting the border town’s airport.
The Kapan airport reportedly came under fire on Friday less than 24 hours after
a plane carrying Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian landed there. According to
Armenia’s state border guard service, three gunshots were fired from Azerbaijani
army positions overlooking the facility, damaging its roof and one of the
windows.
Another shooting incident was reported on Saturday. Karen Balian, an aide to the
governor of Armenia’s Syunik province, of which Kapan is the capital, said on
Monday that airport employees heard gunfire several minutes after a plane
carrying other senior officials from Yerevan touched down on the runway.
Balian accused Azerbaijan of trying to disrupt the first post-Soviet flight
service between Yerevan and Kapan launched by the NovAir airline. While
acknowledging apparent security risks involved, he urged travellers to fly to
and from Kapan.
“We must not succumb to these provocations and must carry out the regular
flights which are very important for Syunik,” the official told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
The inaugural 50-minute flights went ahead as planned on Monday morning, with
NovAir using small L-410 aircraft capable of carrying up to 17 passengers.
A spokeswoman for the Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Committee told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that there were only two passengers on each of those
flights. They included Syunik Governor Robert Ghukasian’s deputy and adviser,
according to the provincial administration.
The private carrier plans to carry out such flights twice a week.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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