Tuesday,
Armenian Government Reluctant To Pay Karabakh Pensions
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Pensioners and other refugees from Nagorno Karabakh visit a Karabakh
office in Yerevan, October 18, 2023.
The Armenian government has no plans to pay the pensions and other benefits
received by residents of Nagorno-Karabakh until their exodus to Armenia, Finance
Minister Vahe Hovannisian said on Tuesday.
The government had for decades contributed a large part of Karabakh’s budget in
the form of monthly subsidies officially called “interstate loans.” The figure
reportedly averaged 12 billion drams ($30 million) per month this year, with
roughly half of it used for paying public sector salaries, pensions and other
benefits.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration made clear that it will not pay
them anymore shortly after more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians took refuge in
Armenia following the September 19-20 Azerbaijani military offensive that
restored Baku’s control over the region. It said that all refugees will instead
receive 50,000 drams ($125) each in November and December in addition to 100,000
drams given to them this month.
An exiled Karabakh official told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service earlier this month
that Yerevan is even reluctant to pay the September pensions and salaries
despite the fact that the exodus began at the end of last month.
Hovannisian confirmed this, saying that the government has no obligation to meet
the Karabakh leadership’s last financial obligations.
“We didn’t give pensions to anyone [in Karabakh,]” he told reporters. “We gave
the government of Nagorno-Karabakh money and it decided to what to do with it:
pay pensions or make other expenditures.”
“We have no decision not to give [the September pensions,] but I see no reason
why we should give … We are already paying people sums equivalent to pensions,”
added the minister.
ARMENIA - Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region ride in the back of a truck as
they arrive in the border village of Kornidzor, September 26, 2023.
A Karabakh office in Yerevan indicated, meanwhile, that the Karabakh pensioners,
many of whom lack adequate housing, may still be paid for September. It said
nothing about benefits paid to other categories of Karabakh’s displaced
population, notably retired military personnel.
Armen Arushanian, a disabled Karabakh veteran of a past war with Azerbaijan,
still hoped to continue getting his monthly allowance in Armenia when he visited
the office on Tuesday.
“They told me to forget about military pensions,” Arushanian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Armenian opposition figures and other critics have condemned the government’s
stance as immoral. They claim that Pashinian is washing his hands of the
Karabakh refugees after controversially recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over
Karabakh in May.
Pashinian has repeatedly assured the refugees that his government will help them
settle down and find new livelihoods in Armenia.
The government sparked another controversy last week when it decided to grant
them “temporary protection” formalizing their status of refugees. It thus made
clear that it does not consider the Karabakh Armenians as citizens of Armenia
despite the fact that virtually all of them hold Armenian passports. Government
officials described their passports as mere “travel documents,” a claim disputed
by some legal experts.
New Armenian Plant Moved Away From Azeri Border
Armenia - The site of a steel plant that was due to be built in Yeraskh, June
15, 2023.
Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian confirmed on Tuesday that a U.S.-Armenian joint
venture has decided, for security reasons, to relocate a metallurgical plant
which it began building on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan earlier this year.
The construction site in Yeraskh, a border village 55 kilometers south of
Yerevan, came under fire from nearby Azerbaijani army positions on a virtually
daily basis in June. Two Indian nationals working there were seriously wounded
on June 14.
The automatic gunfire began one week after the Azerbaijani government protested
against the $70 million project. It claimed that building the industrial
facility without its permission is a violation of international environmental
norms. The Armenian Foreign Ministry brushed aside Baku’s “false” environmental
concerns, saying that they are a smokescreen for impeding economic growth and
foreign investment in Armenia.
Despite making defiant statements, Armenian and U.S. investors behind the
project suspended work on the plant later in the summer.
A security guard at the Yeraskh construction site and several villagers said on
September 14 that the GTB joint venture has begun moving construction and
industrial equipment from the site. The company did not confirm that. An RFE/RL
crew spotted a new and active construction site near the town of Ararat, several
kilometers from Yeraskh.
“The Yeraskh metallurgical project continues to be implemented,” Kerobian told
reporters. He acknowledged that the steel plant is now constructed in a
different, “nearby” location.
Asked whether that means Armenia has again succumbed to Azerbaijani pressure,
the minister said: “We are dealing with private investors who decide their
further actions on their own. Given the geopolitical and regional environment,
we are trying to be as helpful as possible.”
Armenia’s largest gold mine also located on the border with Azerbaijan was
likewise targeted by systematic Azerbaijani gunfire this spring. The Russian
owner of the Sotk gold mine announced in June that it has no choice but to end
open-pit mining operations there and put many of its 700 workers on unpaid leave.
Drug Trafficking, Abuse Continues To Soar In Armenia
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Interior Minister Vahe Ghazarian meets with parliarnent deputies,
.
Pro-government lawmakers called for mandatory drug tests in Armenian schools on
Tuesday in response to a continuing rapid increase in drug trafficking cases in
the country.
The total number of drug-related crimes recorded by the Armenian police more
than doubled in the first nine months of this year, continuing an upward trend
observed in recent years. It is widely blamed on increasingly accessible
synthetic drugs mainly sold through the internet and, in particular, the social
media platform Telegram. Links to Telegram channels selling such narcotics can
now be seen painted on residential buildings and other public areas across
Yerevan.
The alarming trend has prompted serious concern from not only opposition
politicians but also parliament deputies representing the ruling Civil Contract
party. The latter again raised their concerns with Interior Minister Vahe
Ghazarian during a meeting held as part of preliminary parliamentary discussions
of the 2024 state budget drafted by the Armenian government. They were
particularly worried about drug trafficking in or around schools, a new
phenomenon which was virtually non-existent in Armenia several years ago.
One of those lawmakers, Hayk Sargsian, described the growing drug abuse among
school students as a “national security problem” and called for all teenagers to
be subjected to drug test by the police at least once a year. Positive test
results should be communicated to parents and/or lead to “some punitive
measures,” said Sargsian.
Armenia - A photo by the State Revenue Committee shows packets of heroin
smuggled from Iran and seized by Armenian law-enforcement authorities, July 2,
2021.
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the parliament committee on defense and
security, said such testing must also be mandatory for police officers and other
security personnel suspected of involvement in trafficking rings.
Another pro-government lawmaker, Vahagn Aleksanian, said the police should
instead encourage the parents of underage Armenians and “especially boys” to
conduct tests at home.
“If the problem is widespread among minors, then there isn’t much the police can
do,” he said. “Parental control must be the key thing here.”
Ghazarian backed these proposals and called for a broader toughening of the
fight against the increasingly serious problem. In particular, he said, the
Armenian authorities must again criminalize drug addiction.
“The more we toughen sanctions against drug trafficking, the more the figures
will fall,” the interior minister told the parliamentarians.
The rising drug-related cases have been a key factor behind considerable annual
increases in Armenia’s overall crime rate registered since the 2018 “velvet
revolution.” The police recorded 29,682 various crimes in January-September
2023, up by 12 percent year on year. Critics claim that the country is not as
safe as it used to be because its current government headed by Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian is more incompetent and softer on crime than the previous ones.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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