RFE/RL Armenian Report – 08/27/2020

                                        Thursday, August 27, 2020

Government To Relocate Armenian Village For Irrigation Dam
August 27, 2020
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian

Armenia -- The Akhurian river in Shirak province, August 27, 2020

Armenia’s government gave on Thursday the green light for the relocation of an 
entire village as part of a $71 million project to build a new reservoir and 
irrigation system in northwestern Shirak province.

The construction of the Kaps reservoir on the Akhurian river had begun in Soviet 
times but stopped after the catastrophic 1988 earthquake that devastated many 
local communities and the provincial capital Gyumri in particular.

Armenia’s former government decided to revive and complete the project. 
Germany’s state-run development bank KfW agreed to lend it 50 million euros ($59 
million) for that purpose in 2014. The government pledged to provide the 
remaining 10 million euros needed for building the irrigation facilities.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet has also been committed to the project 
designed to improve supplies of irrigation water to farmers in Shirak.

It approved on Thursday a plan to relocate Jradzor, a village 22 kilometers 
north of Gyumri which would be fully or partly submerged by the Kaps reservoir. 
Jradzor’s 350 or so residents are to be resettled in a new village that will be 
built from scratch several hundred meters away.

The plan commits the government to providing all of them with new and free 
housing. This will cost the state an estimated 4.9 billion drams ($10 million), 
according to Vache Terterian, a deputy minister for local government.

The Jradzor mayor, Gevorg Hovakian, and several other local residents 
interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian service said they look forward to the 
relocation. The impoverished village was severely damaged by the 1988 earthquake 
and never completely rebuilt.

Terterian told Pashinian and cabinet members that work on the new village will 
likely start next year and be completed by 2024. He gave no time frames for the 
construction of the reservoir itself.

Pashinian stressed the strategic significance of these and other irrigation dams 
planned or already built in Armenia. “Approximately 7 billion cubic meters of 
water originates in the territory of Armenia every year,” he said. “But we can 
now manage only a fraction of these resources: around 10-15 percent. We must be 
able to achieve much more serious strategic objectives in this area.”




Health Minister Defends Vacation Plans
August 27, 2020
        • Naira Nalbandian

Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and Health Minister Arsen Torosian 
at a coronavirus-related news briefing, Yerevan, May 28, 2020.

Health Minister Arsen Torosian on Thursday dismissed rumors about his impending 
dismissal and defended his decision to go on vacation despite the continuing 
coronavirus crisis in Armenia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian allowed him on Tuesday to take a three-week 
vacation, effective from August 31, amid media reports saying that Torosian 
tendered his resignation after a tense meeting with the premier. A spokeswoman 
for Torosian was quick to deny the claims.

The 38-year-old minister likewise insisted that he did not step down and was not 
lambasted by Pashinian over the coronavirus situation in the country. “I don’t 
even remember when I last met with the prime minister [tete-a-tete,]” he told 
reporters. “It was so long ago.”

He also denied that a body coordinating the Armenian government’s response to 
the coronavirus pandemic has demanded a detailed financial report from the 
Ministry of Health to investigate a possible misuse of government funds 
allocated for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Torosian was conspicuously absent on Thursday from a weekly cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan chaired by Pashinian. He attended instead a meeting organized by a 
standing committee of the Armenian parliament.

Asked after the meeting about opposition criticism of his upcoming vacation, 
Torosian said: “Nobody has a right to exploit the expediency of my vacation. I 
will stay in Armenia, remain reachable and probably go to work on some days.”


Armenia -- A healthcare worker in protective gear tends to a COVID-19 patient at 
the Surp Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.

Torosian again defended the health authorities’ handling of the coronavirus 
crisis, which has been denounced by opposition groups and other critics of 
Pashinian’s government.

“The percentage of Armenia’s citizens who have been infected with and, 
unfortunately, died from the coronavirus shows that the public health system has 
done more than it could considering the financial resources and attention given 
to healthcare over the past decade,” he said.

Armenia has had one of the highest infection rates in the wider region, with 
43,270 coronavirus cases and at least 864 deaths recorded as of Thursday morning.

Even so, the daily number of new confirmed cases has shrunk by more than half 
since mid-July despite the virtual absence of lockdown restrictions in the 
country of about 3 million. Pashinian and other Armenian officials say that the 
government’s emphasis on making people wear face masks in all public spaces and 
practice social distancing is bearing fruit.

Torosian did not exclude that Armenia could soon face a second wave of COVID-19 
infections as a result of a colder weather, easing of sanitary restrictions on 
business activity and the government’s recent decision to reopen schools and 
universities in September. He said Armenians should therefore continue to follow 
anti-epidemic rules set by the authorities.




Armenian Government Moves To Lift Coronavirus State Of Emergency
August 27, 2020
        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia -- People wear faces masks on a street in Yerevan, August 11, 2020.

The Armenian government signaled on Thursday plans to lift a state of emergency 
which it declared more than five months ago to fight against the coronavirus 
pandemic.

The government approved a bill that would allow it keep in place safety and 
hygiene rules and even impose, if necessary, nationwide or local lockdowns 
without again extending emergency rule, which is due to expire on September 11.

Under the bill involving amendments to several Armenian laws, authorities will 
also be able to seal off local communities hit by serious coronavirus outbreaks, 
quarantine infected people and continue requiring all citizens to wear masks in 
public spaces.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian 
confirmed that the government will not again extend the state of emergency if 
the bill is passed by the Armenian parliament by September 11.

Badasian insisted that the new legal regime will involve fewer restrictions on 
people’s freedom of movements and civil rights. In particular, he said, the 
authorities will stop accessing personal data from mobile phones to identify 
individuals who have had physical contact with COVID-19 patients and completely 
banning any type of business activity.

The government already lifted earlier this month a coronavirus-related ban on 
rallies strongly criticized by the Armenian opposition. But it set strict 
physical distancing requirements for organizers and participants of public 
gatherings.

The government approved the bill even though Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
strongly criticized its authors, the Armenian ministries of justice and health, 
for not consulting with the Ministry of Defense beforehand. He also deplored the 
fact that the bill was sent to the office of the state human rights ombudsman 
only two days before the latest cabinet meeting.

Armenia has had one of the highest infection rates in the wider region, with 
43,270 coronavirus cases and at least 864 deaths recorded to date. The daily 
number of new confirmed cases has shrunk by more than half since mid-July 
despite the virtual absence of lockdown restrictions in the country of about 3 
million.

Citing the downward trend, the government decided recently to reopen all schools 
and universities in September. The Ministry of Education went on to put in place 
detailed safety protocols for all educational institutions.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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