Thursday, April 2, 2020
EU Announces Coronavirus Aid Package For Armenia
Belgium -- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holds a news
conference detailing EU efforts to limit economic impact of the coronavirus
outbreak, Brussels, April 2, 2020.
The European Union announced on Thursday 51 million euros ($55 million) in
assistance designed to help Armenia deal tackle the coronavirus epidemic and its
severe socioeconomic consequences.
The EU Delegation in Yerevan said this includes 18 million euros in “new funds”
allocated to Armenia and 33 million euros that will be “redirected” from other
projects which it had planned to finance in the country.
It said the aid package will be used for supplying medical equipment, training
medical personnel, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and providing
humanitarian assistance to socially vulnerable groups of the population.
“More is yet to come through access to important regional banking facilities and
further restructuring of projects,” the delegation added in a statement.
According to additional information posted on the mission’s Facebook page, the
EU will spend 30 million euros on supporting Armenian businesses by improving
their “access to cheap loans, working capital and guarantees.”
It also says: “Over 3,000 vulnerable households with elderly people, people with
disabilities and large families in Shirak, Tavush and Lori regions will receive
humanitarian aid packages.”
The EU announcement marks the largest coronavirus-related aid allocation secured
by Armenia so far.
The United States last week pledged to provide with more than $1 million in
similar aid. It is primarily aimed at strengthening Armenian health authorities’
capacity monitor infections and detect the virus.
Armenia Praises Karabakh Polls
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C), Karabakh
President Bako Sahakian (R) and Archbishop Pargev Martirosian leave a newly
built church in Stepanakert, May 9, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday described the latest presidential and
parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh as democratic and said they could
facilitate a resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
“I think that those were high-quality elections and that is evidenced by their
official results,” Pashinian said as he opened a weekly cabinet meeting in
Yerevan.
“The unprecedentedly large number of presidential candidates and participants of
the parliamentary elections is quite telling,” he said. “Also quite telling is
the fact that opposition, rather than pro-government, forces finished second and
third in the parliamentary elections.”
“And I think that further development of democracy in Artsakh (Karabakh) is
important also in terms achieving a just settlement of the conflict and security
and stability in the region,” added Pashinian.
Azerbaijan strongly condemned the Karabakh elections held on Tuesday, saying
that they run counter to Azerbaijani and international law. It also said that
that the Armenian-populated territory, which broke away from Azerbaijani rule in
19991, is governed by an “illegal regime installed by Armenia.”
U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group stressed, for
their part, that Karabakh is not recognized as an independent state by the
international community and that “the so-called general elections” cannot
predetermine the outcome of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks mediated by them.
The mediators noted at the same time that they “recognize the role of the
population of Nagorno-Karabakh in deciding its future” as part of a future
resolution of the conflict.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry called the latter point “noteworthy,” saying that
peace proposals made by the three mediating powers uphold the Karabakh
Armenians’ right to self-determination.
Official election results showed Ara Harutiunian, a wealthy businessman and
Karabakh’s former prime minister, winning the first round of the presidential
ballot with over 49 percent of the vote. Masis Mayilian, the outgoing Karabakh
foreign minister, came in second with 26.4 percent, meaning that the two men
will face each other in a runoff two weeks later.
Also, five parties won seats in the Karabakh legislature. Harutiunian’s Free
Fatherland will control the largest number of seats but will lack an overall
majority.
Both Harutiunian and Mayilian have good relations with the current Armenian
government, unlike Vitaly Balasanian, a retired general who finished third in
the presidential race.
Balasanian has harshly criticized Pashinian over the past year. Pashinian’s
political allies have responded by accusing him of maintaining close ties with
Serzh Sarkisian, Armenia’s former president toppled in the 2018 “Velvet
Revolution.”
Incidentally, Sarkisian also praised the conduct of the “democratic” elections
and urged all Karabakh factions to recognize their official results.
Mayilian stopped short of doing so in a statement released on Thursday. “We are
now holding political consultations and will inform the public about our further
steps in the coming days,” he said.
Balasanian made clear, meanwhile, that he will not endorse Harutiunian or
Mayilian ahead of the planned runoff because of his “ideological differences”
with them. He also urged the rival camps to “avoid upheavals and
destabilization.”
Both Mayilian and Balasanian again criticized the authorities in Stepanakert for
not postponing the polls because of serious concerns about the spread of
coronavirus in Karabakh. Mayilian pointed out that the coronavirus epidemic
inhibited the work of hundreds of election observers who arrived from Armenia.
Some of those observers reported serious irregularities on election day. They
were particularly alarmed by the fact that many Karabakh voters photographed
their marked ballots before casting them.
Government Approves More Cash Handouts To Struggling Families
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zaruhi Batoyan at a news conference
in Yerevan, April 2, 2020.
The Armenian government approved on Thursday cash payments to more people who
have been hit hard by economic disruptions resulting from the coronavirus
epidemic.
The fresh financial assistance will be provided to the underage children of
those Armenians who had no officially registered jobs or businesses or did not
receive poverty benefits when the unprecedented shutdowns began on March 12.
Their parents will receive 26,500 drams ($52) per child.
The government already allocated on Monday 68,000 drams to registered workers
who have lost their jobs during the crisis. The employees of hotels, travel
agencies, restaurants, clothing stores and other businesses closed since March
13 will be paid up to 136,000 drams.
The government initially planned no such one-off payments to people involved in
the informal sector of the Armenian economy.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zaruhi Batoyan said the government will now
also help “those citizens who could not benefit from the measures announced by
us” earlier. Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, she gave no estimates
as to the number of the new recipients of the government aid.
As part of its efforts to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus
lockdown, the government also decided last week to allocate grants to many
private firms and subsidize commercial bank loans to small businesses and
farmers.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday that this aid package “will help
hundreds of thousands of our compatriots to overcome this crisis.”
Pashinian’s political opponents have dismissed these measures as insufficient.
More Armenian Hospitals To Treat Coronavirus
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Medical workers are seen outside the Nork hospital in Yerevan where
coronavirus patients are treated, March 20, 2020.
Health authorities are setting up hundreds of additional hospital beds to cope
with a continuing rise in coronavirus cases in Armenia.
The Armenian Ministry of Health on Thursday added the country’s largest
hospital, the Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, to the list of hospitals that
are currently treating only people infected with coronavirus.
Dozens of ambulances began transporting its patients suffering from other
diseases to three other hospitals also located in Yerevan.
“We will finish [the evacuation] today and be ready to admit [coronavirus]
patients starting from tomorrow,” Grigorich Lusavorich’s deputy director, Petros
Manukian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Manukian said that around 400 hospital beds, including those of an intensive
care unit, will be made available for that purpose.
Eight other hospitals located in Yerevan and four other cities were turned into
COVID-19 clinics last month. According Health Minister Arsen Torosian, a total
of 16 medical centers across the country are currently treating coronavirus
patients.
Torosian said on Thursday that the authorities are also making contingency plans
to convert indoor sports arenas into makeshift hospitals that would accommodate
hundreds and possibly thousands of more patients. “We must be prepared for any
scenario,” he told a news conference.
More than a hundred beds have already been placed at Yerevan’s Karen Demirchian
Sports and Concert Complex, Armenia’s largest concert hall.
Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian at a news conference in Yerevan, March
26, 2020.
The urgent measures were announced as the number of officially registered
coronavirus cases in the county reached 663, up from 571 cases reported on
Wednesday morning.
Torosian said that the vast majority of the 92 persons who tested positive for
the virus in the past day had come into contact with known COVID-19 patients.
Others include Armenians who were infected abroad and returned home in recent
weeks, the minister said at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
The Ministry of Health also reported another coronavirus-related death on
Thursday, raising the nationwide death toll from the virus to 5. In Torosian’s
words, four other people infected with the disease are in a critical condition.
No other patients are connected to lung ventilators at present, he added.
Coronavirus cases in the country are thus continuing to rise despite
stay-at-home orders, travel restrictions and business shutdowns initiated by the
Armenian government. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian blamed that on “widespread
complacency” among Armenians.
“It is this complacency which is creating the danger of a faster pace of
infections,” complained Pashinian. He stressed at the same time that “the
situation is still manageable.”
Torosian also informed Pashinian and fellow cabinet members that the health
authorities will sharply increase the number of coronavirus tests which have
reportedly averaged over 200 a day in the past week.
“Very soon 400-500 tests will be conducted on a daily basis,” he said. “This
number will reach 1,500 after we acquire new equipment.”
The equipment also includes 100 ventilators which are due to be shipped from
China to Armenia in the coming days. Armenian hospitals currently have more than
70 such life-saving devices set aside for coronavirus cases.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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