Tuesday, Armenian Mining Giant May Rehire Laid-Off Workers Armenia - Open-pit mining at Teghut copper deposit, 20Dec2014. A leading Armenian mining company said on Tuesday that it hopes to resume soon production operations at a large copper mine in northern Armenia and rehire hundreds of people that worked there until this month. The company, Vallex Group, sent the vast majority of its 1,200 employees working at the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave on January 12, citing the need for "planned prophylactic repairs" of the mine's waste disposal facilities. It announced on February 2 that it will lay them off due to what it expects to be a "prolonged stoppage" of mining and ore processing at Teghut. In its latest statement, Vallex specified that the layoffs cover over 85 percent of its Teghut workforce. But it said it will keep a skeleton staff of around 300 employees tasked with maintaining sophisticated equipment and guarding the vast mining site. The company also said 200 other laid-off workers will be transferred to other mining enterprises belonging to it. Those include a copper smelter in the nearby town of Alaverdi and metal mines in Nagorno-Karabakh. "The company is hopeful that in case of a favorable course of events it will manage to restore, within a short period of time, the [Teghut] staff formed over the years," added the statement. It cited no possible time frames, saying only that Vallex will be able to "quickly relaunch production after solving problems facing the company." The Liechtenstein-registered company announced the layoffs several months after expressing its intention to significantly increase copper ore extraction at Teghut. It said on February 2 that it needs to hire Armenian and foreign consultants for conducting "scientific research" for that purpose. It did not elaborate. In recent months, environment protection groups have repeatedly reported toxic leaks from Teghut's waste disposal dump contaminating a nearby river. Vallex has denied those reports. The environmentalists opposed open-pit mining at Teghut even before it was launched in 2014. They argued, among other things, that the multimillion-dollar project will lead to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of rich forest. Vallex pledged to plant a new and bigger forest in adjacent areas. It also promised to create 1,300 jobs, build new schools and upgrade other infrastructure in nearby villages. The Teghut mine generated over 42 percent of Vallex's total operating revenue which soared by about 32 percent to $358 million last year. The mining group benefited from rising international prices of copper and other non-ferrous metals. A loan extended by the Russian commercial bank VTB has covered most of $380 million in capital investments which Vallex claims to have made in Teghut. The company also tried to secure through VTB a $62 million credit from a Danish pension fund for buying Danish mining equipment. Denmark's Export Credit Agency (EKF) initially agreed to guarantee the export credit. However, EKF withdrew the guarantee in October, accusing the Teghut operator of failing to comply with environmental standards. Armenian Government Plans More Borrowing In 2018 . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Finance Minister Vartan Aramian attends a parliamentary hearing in Yerevan on the Armenian state budget for 2017, 31Oct2016. Armenia's public debt is continuing to rise in absolute terms despite its government's plans to sharply cut back on borrowing this year. The total amount of the government's and the Central Bank's outstanding debts rose by $123.5 million to almost $6.9 billion last month. Low-interest loans extended by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral institutions account for most of this figure. According to official estimates, the government's debt was equivalent to 55.4 percent of Armenia's Gross Domestic Product at the end of last year. Finance Minister Vartan Aramian said in December that the government will cut this ratio to 54.4 percent by the end of 2018. Aramian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) late last week that the government is planning to obtain around $360 million in fresh loans this year to finance the state budget deficit. "This is a substantial decrease from last year," he stressed. The Armenian public debt rose by $863.5 million in 2016 and 832.5 million in 2017. It stood at $1.9 billion before the 2008-2009 global financial crisis that plunged the county into a severe recession. Artak Manukian, an independent economist, noted that the debt grew faster than the Armenian economy last year. He said this fact is raising questions about "the qualitative aspect" of economic growth which accelerated to 6.7 percent in 2017, according to official statistics. Annual government spending on debt servicing is expected to peak at $736 million in 2020. A senior Finance Ministry official said in late December that $307 million is due to be spent on debt repayments this year. The sum is equivalent to roughly 10 percent of overall public spending envisaged by the 2018 budget. Yerevan Council Session Marred By Violence . Anush Muradian Armenia - Marina Khachatrian of the opposition Yerkir Tsirani party is confronted by pro-government members of Yerevan's municipal assembly, . A session of Yerevan's municipal council descended into chaos on Tuesday as three of its female opposition members scuffled with pro-government colleagues while trying to stage an unusual protest against Mayor Taron Markarian. Zaruhi Postanjian, an outspoken opposition politician, and two other council members representing her Yerkir Tsirani party brought to the council auditorium glass containers filled with sewage collected from a damaged sewer pipe in the city's Nubarashen suburb. A group of angry local residents blocked a road there on Monday to demand that municipal authorities quickly fix the problem. Shortly after the regular session got underway, two Yerkir Tsirani councilors put on gloves, took up the foul-smelling containers and walked towards the assembly podium occupied by Markarian to present him with what they called a "gift from Nubarashen residents." They were confronted by a group of angry councilors representing the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The two sides scuffled and shouted insults at each other in ensuing chaotic scenes. Members of Yelk, a less radical opposition group also represented in the council, tried in vain to separate them. One of the Yerkir Tsirani councilors, Marina Khachatrian, slapped a male colleague from the HHK, Edmond Kirakosian, after being jostled by him. Kirakosian slapped Khachatrian in the face while another HHK member pulled her hair in response. Another government loyalist grabbed her around the waist and forcibly dragged her away moments later. Armenia - Zaruhi Postanjian (L) and two other members of her Yekir Tsirani party stage a protest at a session of Yerevan's municipal council, . The two other women were also forced out of the council room before Markarian interrupted the session. The mayor's allies defended the use of force against them. One of them, Naira Nahapetian, claimed that the Yerkir Tsirani action was an "attack on Taron Markarian." "We too condemn the use of force and nobody can use force here," the mayor said for his part. Postanjian and her two associates remained defiant when the session resumed after the emergency break in the presence of police officers called in by Markarian. By contrast, journalists were barred from returning to the chamber without any clear explanation. "That foul smell will accompany you wherever you go," Postanjian told the pro-government majority. "Even your expensive perfume and cognac won't save you. You can't suffocate from foul smell. But you must be poisoned. We are going to poison your lives." Yerkir Tsirani won 5 seats in Yerevan's 65-member council in municipal elections held in May. The party set up a year ago effectively lost two of those seats as a result of defections. Postanjian and the two other women have frequently clashed with Markarian and his allies during council sessions. They also have uneasy relations with Yelk, which holds 14 council seats. Postanjian has branded Yelk as President Serzh Sarkisian's "clients." Press Review "Zhamanak" says that the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group had Azerbaijan in mind when they called for additional measures to boost ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone after ending a fresh regional tour on Sunday. "It is evident that [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev is in a sort of diplomatic deadlock and his aggressive steps reflect that, rather than his self-confidence," writes the paper. Even so, it says, Aliyev still gets away with keeping tensions on the frontlines high and making anti-Armenian statements. The Armenian diplomacy should have ensured more explicit international criticism of his actions, it says. Interviewed by "168 Zham," a German political analyst, Uwe Halbach, sees "some positive notes" in the co-chairs' latest statement. He argues that the mediators described the current situation along the Karabakh "line of contact," deplored inflammatory statements and mentioned the pre-election periods in Armenia and Azerbaijan. "Of course the statement wasn't targeted, for which it is criticized by many people," says Halbach. "But many others see a rational negotiation process. I personally find this approach positive." "Zhoghovurd" says there is now little doubt that President Serzh Sarkisian will become prime minister after the end of his final presidential term on April 9. Despite this, the paper says, representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) remain coy about his political future in their public statements. "The Republicans' behavior is surprising, to put it mildly," it says. "After all, there is no point in prolonging the game so much, especially given that the authorities' intentions were already clear several years ago." "Haykakan Zhamanak" says public statements made by the presidential candidate Armen Sarkissian these days "totally correspond to Serzh Sarkisian's wishes." "[Sarkissian] has spoken a lot but in essence said little so far," explains the paper. "More importantly, he is giving no indications that he is unhappy with that Serzh Sarkisian is taking away from the future president what little powers they were supposed to have." It goes on to claim that the post of president of Armenia will become "the most uninteresting, the most dull and the most meaningless" in the world. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org