Friday,
Ruling Party To Ignore Anti-Sarkisian Protests
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia - Civic activists demonstrate in Yerevan against President Serzh
Sarkisian's perceived plans to extend his rule, 24 March 2018.
The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) has said that street
demonstrations planned by opposition groups cannot deter it from helping
President Serzh Sarkisian stay in power after his final presidential term ends
on April 9.
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian confirmed on Thursday his Civil Contract
party will hold rallies in Yerevan in an attempt to prevent Armenia’s
HHK-controlled parliament from electing Sarkisian prime minister later in
April. Pashinian did not rule out non-violent actions aimed at disrupting
sessions of the National Assembly. His party is due to present a more detailed
plan of actions on Saturday.
Commenting on Pashinian’s plans, HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said late on
Thursday: “Nobody has the right to … impede our constitutional right to freely
perform our duty to vote [for prime minister] in the parliament.”
“If the [opposition] Yelk alliance had a majority [in the parliament] and
someone tried to limit its voting rights or its right to decide who must be
prime minister, how would they react? Our people voted for us [in the April
2017 elections] and we … will execute their political order,” Sharmazanov told
reporters.
Yelk is the country’s third largest parliamentary force that consists of Civil
Contract and two other opposition parties. The latter have refused to join
Pashinian’s campaign, saying that it is unlikely to attract large crowds.
Sarkisian has not yet officially confirmed his plans to become prime minister
in time for Armenia’s transition to a parliamentary system of government. But
some of his political allies have described this as a forgone conclusion.
Sarkisian stated in 2014 that he “will not aspire” to the post of prime
minister if Armenia is transformed into a parliamentary republic. His political
opponents now accuse him of reneging on that pledge.
Also planning anti-Sarkisian street protests is a coalition of smaller and more
radical opposition groups called For the Armenian State. Pashinian has been
reluctant to join forces with it so far, saying that it must speak out against
violent methods of political struggle.
EU Visa Service Provider Investigated By Armenian Government
• Anush Muradian
Luxembourg -- A street sign marks the beginning of the village of Schengen,
January 27, 2016
An Armenian government agency has launched an inquiry into a Turkish-owned
company controversially chosen to process visa applications from Armenians
planning to travel to Germany and five other European Union member states.
The EU visa applications for Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria
and Luxembourg have until now been handled by the German Embassy in Yerevan.
The embassy announced earlier this week that starting next month it will it
outsource its consular services to Visametric, a private Turkish-Russian agency
whose parent company is based in Turkey.
The announcement raised fears in Armenia that the Turkish state will gain
access to sensitive personal data of many Armenian nationals. The latter are
required to disclose their incomes, bank details and other personal information
in their applications for so-called Schengen visas valid in virtually all EU
member states.
Armen Ashotian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign
relations, echoed “the concerns of many of our citizens” regarding “the Turkish
entity” on Thursday. In a Facebook post, Ashotian said he has appealed to the
government on behalf of the committee to look into the matter.
The Agency for Personal Data Protection, which is part of Armenia’s Justice
Ministry, said on Friday that it is now investigating the visa service provider
to “prevent possible violations” of Armenian law. A short statement by the
agency gave no further details.
The German ambassador to Armenia, Matthias Kiesler, sought to allay these fears
when he announced the new visa application procedure at a news conference on
Wednesday. “Protection of personal data is of utmost importance to us and we
can guarantee that no such data will be accessible to external users,” he said.
Turkey refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and fully
supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
European Firms To Build Large Solar Plant In Armenia
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia - A newly constructed solar power plant in Talin, 7Nov2017.
A consortium of Dutch and Spanish companies has won an international tender for
the construction of Armenia’s first large solar power plant which is expected
to cost around $50 million.
The 55-megawatt plant will be built in Mets Masrik, a village close to the
eastern coast of Lake Sevan, as part of the Armenian government’s efforts to
reduce the domestic energy sector’s dependence on natural gas mostly imported
from Russia.
The World Bank pledged in 2015 to finance most of the landmark project in the
form of a grant allocated to the government. The resulting tender attracted
bids from two dozen energy companies from around the world. Ten of them were
shortlisted for the final stage of the contest.
The Armenian Energy Ministry announced on Friday that the consortium consisting
of the Dutch-based company Fotowatio Renewable Ventures and Spain’s FSL Solar
won the bidding because of promising the lowest cost of electricity to be
generated at the solar plant. It will be cheaper than power supplied by scores
of small hydroelectric plants scattered around the mountainous country, the
ministry said in a statement.
Work on the Mets Masrik plant may start already this year, in which case it
will be completed by the end of 2020. The new facility will be far more
powerful than three small solar plants that were built in Armenia late last
year.
The ministry said that it has also chosen locations for five other large or
medium-sized solar plants which could be constructed in the coming years. They
would increase Armenia’s combined solar capacity to at least 120 megawatts.
Solar energy can eventually gain a major share in Armenian electricity
production, added the ministry statement.
Armenia - A newly built solar power plant in Tsaghkadzor, 29Sep2017.
Earlier this year, the Armenian government reaffirmed its pledges to
significantly increase the share of hydropower and other renewables in domestic
electricity production. Energy Minister Ashot Manukian said the government
objective is to ensure that renewable sources meet at least half of Armenia’s
energy needs within the next few years.
According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), hydroelectric plants
accounted for about 30 percent of electricity generated in the country last
year. By comparison, thermal power plants using gas had a 37 percent share in
the total. Virtually all of the remaining 33.7 percent of energy was generated
by the Metsamor nuclear power station, NSS data shows.
Manukian cited the upcoming construction of a 76-megawatt hydroelectric plant
on the Debed river flowing through the northern Lori province. The $150 million
project is led by Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire businessman.
Another Spanish company specializing in renewables, ACCIONA Energy, is
currently exploring the possibility of building large wind farms in Armenia
that could have a combined capacity of at least 100 megawatts. Prime Minister
Karen Karapetian met with top ACCIONA executives in Davos, Switzerland in
January.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” is scathing about the Armenian government’s decision to allocate
an apartment to President Serzh Sarkisian and his family in view of the
upcoming end of his second term in office. The paper notes that the former
Armenian presidents, Levon Ter-Petrosian and Robert Kocharian, also received
free housing from the state after their tenure. But in the case of Sarkisian,
it says, one important difference is that he has been given a property that has
long been part of a residential complex in Yerevan reserved for the most
high-ranking state officials. “They allocated the house where Sarkisian lives
now,” it says. The paper believes that the main purpose of the government
decision is to make sure that Sarkisian does not have to move to another
residence before becoming prime minister on April 17.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” also finds the decision “noteworthy.” The paper says
Sarkisian “added a clear subtext” to it, which can be summed up as follows: “As
long as I am alive Armenia will have no other leaders.”
“Zhamanak” says it is already clear that the prolongation of Sarkisian’s
10-year rule will be accompanied by anti-government protests in Yerevan. “The
circle of their organizers is fairly large,” writes the paper. “It is not
clear, though, whether they will join forces.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says the current political situation in Armenia is
“ideal” for Sarkisian. “Tens of thousands of people follow political
developments through the Internet and discuss among themselves the question of
whether or not a handful of wretched oppositionists will manage to gather
several thousand people in Liberty Square,” writes the paper.
“Aravot” says that both the West and Russia are to blame for rising tensions
between them. “Russia is an authoritarian, extremely corrupt and
technologically and economically backward country,” editorializes the paper.
“But these flaws will not be fixed with the [Western] sanctions and expulsions
of [Russian] diplomats. Fortunately, the West is not urging Armenia to say ‘the
Russians are so terrible that they poisoned Skripal,’ while the Russians are
not forcing us to say ‘the West is so bad that it started a diplomatic war for
no reason.’ What is more, they by and large agree on Armenia and cooperate
within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Hopefully, this will continue.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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