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    Categories: 2023

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 08/21/2023

                                        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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