Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

                                        Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Armenian Gas Operator Seeks Gas Price Rise

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - The Gazprom Armenia headquarters in Yerevan, 31Oct2014.

Armenia’s national gas distribution company owned by Russia’s Gazprom giant on 
Wednesday asked public utility regulators to raise its retail prices set for 
households and corporate consumers.

“The [Gazprom Armenia] company wants an 11 percent increase in the existing 
average tariff,” Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services 
Regulatory Commission (PSRC), told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

According to a Gazprom Armenia application publicized later in the day, the 
company is seeking a more than 16 percent increase in the gas price set for 
manufacturing and agricultural firms. At the same time it is ready to slightly 
cut the price for the majority of households, which currently stands at an 
equivalent of $290 per thousand cubic meters. Still, it wants to scrap a sizable 
price discount enjoyed by low-income families.

Under Armenian law, the PSRC has to make a decision on the requested tariff 
revision within the next 80 days.

The cost of Russian gas supplied to Armenian consumers remained unchanged after 
Gazprom raised its wholesale price for Armenia from $150 to $165 per thousand 
cubic meters in January 2019. This translated into additional major expenses for 
Gazprom Armenia, which already reported growing financial losses in the course 
of 2018.

Baghramian acknowledged that the gas distribution network has reason to seek 
price rises given the extra costs incurred by it. But he said this will no 
longer be the case if Gazprom lowers the wholesale price of Russian gas for 
Armenia.

The Armenian government requested such a price reduction on Tuesday in apparent 
anticipation of the application filed by Gazprom’s Armenian subsidiary.

In a letter to Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller, Deputy Prime Minister Mher 
Grigorian argued that international oil prices, which greatly determine the cost 
of natural gas, have fallen sharply over the past month. Grigorian also said 
that economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic will significantly 
reduce energy consumption levels in Armenia unless they are offset by a lower 
gas price.




Phone Tracking Needed To Fight Coronavirus, Insists Armenian Government

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian at a news conference in Yerevan, 
April 1, 2020.

The Armenian government continued to defend on Wednesday its controversial 
decision to use personal data from people’s mobile phones to fight against the 
coronavirus epidemic.

Justice Minister Rustam Badasian reiterated government assurances that the 
extraordinary measure will not infringe on citizens’ privacy and civil rights or 
be used for eavesdropping on opposition figures.

“It’s only about a state of emergency declared as a result of an epidemic,” he 
told a news conference. “That is, in case of a state of emergency declared on 
any other grounds there will be no such interference in citizens’ rights and 
liberties.”

Badasian insisted that access to mobile phone location and usage data will help 
the Armenian authorities to better contain the spread of the virus. They will 
find it easier to trace people who have come into contact with those infected 
with the disease, he said.

The circle of such people is to be determined by an automated system. If it 
turns out that they not only received phone calls or messages from infected 
persons but also were in close proximity with the latter, they will be contacted 
by officials and possibly placed in quarantine or self-isolation.

“If, for example, I am a virus carrier who phoned [from Yerevan] the same person 
in Gyumri 10 or 20 times, that alone will not be deemed a risk factor,” 
explained Badasian. “But if I phoned another person even once and our locations 
matched … an official from the Ministry of Emergency Situations will make a 
phone call, ascertain additional details and make a decision based on that.”

The government hastily pushed a relevant bill through the Armenian parliament 
late on Tuesday amid strong objections from opposition lawmakers. They voiced 
concerns about privacy violations and cast doubt on the effectiveness of 
smartphone tracking. Some civic activists have echoed those concerns.

Badasian again dismissed them, saying that the authorities will not have access 
to, let alone publicize, the content of any phone conversations or text 
messages. Only a handful of government specialists will be processing phone 
data, he said, adding that they all will sign non-disclosure pledges.

The minister also argued that the bill, which President Armen Sarkissian swiftly 
signed into a law, requires the authorities to delete all data after the 
coronavirus-related state of emergency ends in Armenia.

Shushan Doydoyan of the Yerevan-based Center for Freedom of Information, 
countered, however, that the data has to be deleted only within one month after 
the end of emergency rule. “What will they be doing with that data for one 
month?” she said.




More Travel Restrictions Imposed In Armenia

        • Gayane Saribekian
        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia -- Police officers enforcing a coronavirus lockdown check cars leaving 
Yerevan, April 1, 2020.

Authorities suspended public transport in Yerevan and set up roadblocks across 
Armenia on Wednesday as they stepped up their efforts to slow the spread of 
coronavirus.

An Armenian government task force coordinating those efforts announced the new 
travel restrictions after extending on Tuesday existing curbs on people’s 
movement and the closure of most businesses in the country by at least ten days.

The Armenian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday morning that the number of 
registered coronavirus cases rose by 39 to 571 in the past 24 hours. The 
ministry had reported slightly faster rises in COVID-19 infections in previous 
days.

Health Minister Arsen Torosian expressed concern over these infection rates late 
on Tuesday. He said that if they do not fall in the comings days Armenia will 
have as many as 2,000 coronavirus cases by April 14. This would overwhelm the 
national healthcare system increasingly struggling to contain the epidemic, he 
said.

“If this pace persists and [the coronavirus curve] does not become flat like in 
South Korea we will be forced to treat [COVID-19] patients with mild or no 
symptoms at home,” warned Torosian.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who heads the coronavirus task force, said 
for his part that by toughening the nationwide lockdown the government hopes to 
cause the epidemic to recede in the second of April.

In line with the new restrictions, all subway and bus services in Yerevan were 
suspended on Thursday morning. Only taxis will be allowed to transport people 
until April 12.


Armenia -- A woman stands outside a closed metro station in Yerevan, April 1, 
2020.

People also can move around in their or their family members’ or co-workers’ 
cars. But they must prove, including with documents signed by their employers, 
that they left their homes for work or other urgent needs.

Early in the afternoon, police and other security agencies set up checkpoints on 
highway sections just outside Yerevan and other Armenian cities and towns. They 
checked every vehicle leaving or entering those communities.

Bus services between the Armenian capital and the rest of the country were 
already halted last week.

Many of the remaining commuters in Yerevan were not happy with the temporary ban 
on public transport. They argued that they have to go to work and cannot afford 
taxis on a daily basis.

“I work in a hospital and also provide home care to a sick person,” said Liana 
Babayan, a healthcare worker. “Working people should be able to use public 
transport. Let them just show their documents or have their temperature checked.”

“I now have to go to work on foot,” complained another resident. “My workplace 
is far away from my home.”




Karabakh’s Presidential Vote To Go Into Runoff


Nagorno-Karabakh -- A polling station in Stepanakert, .

Ara Harutiunian, a businessman and former prime minister, won the first round of 
a presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh and will face another candidate, 
Masis Mayilian, in a runoff two weeks later, according to preliminary vote 
results released on Wednesday.

The official results also show Harutiunian’s party winning the largest number of 
seats in Karabakh’s next parliament also elected on Tuesday.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said more than 73 percent of Karabakh’s 
104,300 eligible cast ballots in the polls strongly condemned by Azerbaijan.

The turnout was high despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the 
Armenian-populated territory that broke away from Azerbaijani rule in 1991. The 
authorities in Stepanakert have registered no coronavirus cases so far.

According to the CEC, Harutiunian garnered 49.3 percent of the vote, narrowly 
missing the threshold for winning the presidential ballot outright. Mayilian 
came in second with 26.4 percent of the vote, followed by retired General Vitaly 
Balasanian, who got 14.7 percent. The 11 other presidential candidates fared far 
more poorly.

Also, Harutiunian’s Free Fatherland party won over 40 percent of the vote and 
will therefore have the largest group in the new local legislature.


Armenia - Ara Harutiunian speaks to RFE/RL in Yerevan, May 31, 2019.
The United Homeland party of Samvel Babayan, another retired general, finished 
second with 23.6 percent of the vote. Babayan had led Karabakh’s Armenian-backed 
army during and after the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan.

Also winning parliament seats were three other Karabakh parties: Balasanian’s 
Justice (7.9 percent), the Karabakh branch of the Armenian Revolutionary 
Federation (6.4 percent) and the Democratic Party (5.8 percent). The latter is 
led by Ashot Ghulian, the outgoing parliament speaker.

None of the presidential candidates was openly backed during the election 
campaign by Bako Sahakian, the outgoing Karabakh president, or Armenia’s 
political leadership. Both frontrunners as well as Balasanian used to hold major 
positions in Sahakian’s administration.

Balasanian has been a bitter critic of the current Armenian government and Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian in particular ever since he resigned as Karabakh’s top 
security official last year. Pashinian’s political allies have accused the 
general of maintaining close ties with Armenia’s former leadership overthrown in 
the 2018 “Velvet Revolution.”

Harutiunian has a much more cordial relationship with the Pashinian government. 
The 46-year-old served as Karabakh’s prime minister from 2007-2017. He has 
extensive business interests in the territory.

For his part, Mayilian was appointed as foreign minister in 2017. He went on 
leave late last year to concentrate on the elections.


Armenia -- Masis Mayilian, 27Mar2020.

Azerbaijan has always condemned elections held in Karabakh as illegitimate. The 
Foreign Ministry in Baku said on Tuesday that the latest polls also run counter 
to Azerbaijani and international law and that Karabakh is governed by an 
“illegal regime installed by Armenia.”

U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group said that 
Karabakh is not recognized as an independent state by the international 
community and “the so-called general elections” cannot predetermine the outcome 
of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks mediated by them.

By contrast, Armenia defended the holding of the elections. It cited a 1992 OSCE 
document saying that “elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh” should also 
participate in the peace process.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 

                                        Thursday, March 03, 2020

Coronavirus Cases In Armenia Keep Rising
March 27, 2020
        • Tatevik Lazarian

Armenia -- Healthcare workers are seen outside the Nork hospital in Yerevan 
which deals with most coronavirus cases in Armenia, March 20, 2020.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia rose by 39 to 329 in the 
past 24 hours, health authorities reported on Friday morning.

Health Minister Arsen Torosian said later in the day that a 72-year-old person 
who died in hospital on Thursday remains the country’s sole fatality from the 
deadly virus.

Torosian said another elderly patient remains in critical condition. “We also 
have one citizen who is in serious condition,” he added in a live Facebook 
transmission. “The lives of the other [infected persons] are not at risk right 
now. Many patients are asymptomatic.”

The latter include a young woman and her two-month-old baby, the minister went 
on. “The child has showed no symptoms [of the disease] while the mother had a 
fever for two days but is showing no symptoms now. They both are in hospital.”

Torosian also reported that ten more people have been cured of the COVID-19 
virus, raising to 28 the total number of such recoveries in Armenia.

According to Armenian government data, Yerevan accounts for around half of the 
infections. The vast majority of the other coronavirus cases were registered in 
the surrounding Armavir, Ararat and Kotayk provinces.

Health authorities have quarantined at least 3,000 people in the last two weeks. 
Officials say around 150 of them have been released from the two-week quarantine 
after repeatedly testing negative for the virus.


Armenia -- A police officer enforcing a coronavirus lockdown checks a woman's 
documents, Yerevan, March 25, 2020.

The Armenian government declared a state of emergency and closed all schools and 
universities on March 16 shortly after reporting the first coronavirus cases. 
Earlier this week, it also ordered the closure of most businesses and imposed 
stringent restrictions on people’s movement in an effort to slow the spread of 
the disease.

Armenians are only allowed out to buy food, receive medical care and briefly 
exercise. When leaving their homes they must carry IDs and filled-out forms 
explaining their reasons for not staying indoors. The Armenian police said that 
in the last three days they have fined more than 1,400 people for not complying 
with these restrictions.

The authorities have also suspended bus services between Yerevan and the rest of 
the country. Deputy Minister for Local Government Armen Simonian told reporters 
on Friday that public transport links among communities located within each of 
the ten provinces outside the Armenian capital will also be temporarily banned.

Armenia’s borders with Georgia and Iran were closed for travel earlier this 
month. People have since been able to enter and leave the country only by air. 
According to Simonian, only one Belarusian and four Russian airlines continued 
to fly to and from Yerevan on Friday.

This means that Armenia will be effectively cut off from the outside world after 
a Russian government ban on all commercial flights abroad comes into force early 
on Saturday.



‘An Eastern Partnership that delivers for all’
March 27, 2020

An op-ed by the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, and 
commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi.

In this challenging time, marked by the coronavirus outbreak, we can see how 
important international cooperation is. Over the last decade, the Eastern 
Partnership has brought concrete benefits for people in Armenia and across the 
European Union’s eastern neighbourhood.

The European Union provides Armenian companies, which will be economically hit 
the hardest by the pandemics, with funding, training, and export support to new 
markets, through the EU4Business initiative. Since 2009, the European Union 
loaned the companies in Armenia €500 million, supported 25,000 enterprises and 
created 2,500 new jobs.

The European Union also supports one of the most growing industries in the 
country – tourism. For example, with our help the Dilijan Tourist Information 
Centre and Arts and Crafts Centres were established, together with 11 hiking 
trails in Dilijan National Park and 300 km trails in Syunik, Gegharkunik and 
Vayots Dzor. The tourism projects in Armenia created over 100 new jobs for the 
local population and supported more than 300 local SMEs.

The Pilot Regional Development Programme Grant Scheme ‘EU4Regions: support to 
Regional Development in Armenia’ supported regional and local economic 
development and created 544 new jobs. Under the project, support was provided to 
2,831 individuals to improve their employability, as well as to 719 enterprises. 
This allowed creating 460 new, sustainable jobs.

Over the past 14 years, the European Union has supported Armenian colleges’ 
educational reforms, renovation and upgrading. Over 4,500 students have 
benefited from the reforms supported by the EU, and 17 colleges have been 
renovated. The ‘Organic Agriculture’ training module has been introduced in 15 
colleges. Under Erasmus+ (2014-2020), over 1,800 students and academic staff 
from Armenia have studied or taught in Europe, and 885 Europeans went to 
Armenia. In addition, over 6,800 young people and youth workers took part in 
short-term exchanges, mobility, training and volunteering projects.

To ensure our partnership continues to deliver in the fast changing world of 
today, we need to do even more and better. To shape our priorities, we consulted 
last year with people, businesses, organisations and governments of 33 countries 
from across our shared region. While there was an appreciation for the results 
achieved, there was also a clear expectation that we enhance our cooperation 
when it comes to jobs and prosperity, investments, connectivity, good governance 
and common challenges such as climate change and the digital transformation.

And now we presented our response to these consultations with long-term 
objectives for our policy beyond 2020. Our continued engagement with the Eastern 
Partnership countries remains a key priority for the European Union. Our 
proposals for the future are ambitious yet achievable. They build on existing 
cooperation but also identify areas where we need to go further. They are built 
on fundamental values as the heart of the EU project, such as the rule of law, 
protection of human rights and fight against corruption.

Concretely, we are proposing to our partners to work together on the following 
objectives:

--Together for resilient, sustainable and integrated economies: Strengthening 
the economy is key to meeting citizens’ expectations and reducing inequality and 
for making our partnership a success. We will focus on job creation and economic 
opportunities, through increased trade, investments, stronger connectivity, in 
particular in transport and energy, and linking education, research and 
innovation better with private sector needs.

--Together for accountable institutions, the rule of law and security: Good 
governance and democratic institutions, the rule of law, successful 
anti-corruption policies and security are essential for sustainable development 
and the consolidation of democracy. They are the backbone of resilient states 
and societies as well as strong economies.

--Together for environmental and climate resilience: To protect our world for 
generations to come, we all need to take responsibility. The EU will work with 
its partners to improve the resource-efficiency of economies, develop new green 
jobs and promote local and renewable sources of energy.

--Together for a resilient digital transformation: The EU will further invest in 
the digital transformation of our partners, aiming to extend the benefits of the 
Digital Single Market to partner countries. Our joint work will also focus on 
strengthening e-Governance, scaling up digital start-ups and supporting the 
cyber resilience of partner countries.

--Together for resilient, fair and inclusive societies:Free and fair elections 
together with transparent, citizen-centred and accountable public 
administrations are essential for democracy. The EU will continue to focus on 
these key areas, engaging with civil society, which needs to be given sufficient 
space, and supporting free, plural and independent media and human rights, as 
well as ensuring mobility and people-to-people contacts, all particularly 
important also due to growing disinformation against EU values.

Over the past decade, trade between the EU and its eastern partners has nearly 
doubled. Over 125,000 small and medium-sized businesses have directly benefitted 
from EU funding, creating or sustaining more than 250,000 jobs. We are better 
connected thanks to improved transport links and easier access to high capacity 
broadband. And according to recent surveys, the EU is the most trusted 
international institution among Eastern Partnership citizens. We will keep this 
results-oriented approach and look to do much more together in the face of 
today’s challenges, including when it comes to crises such as COVID-19 pandemic.

And through this we will build an even more ambitious Eastern Partnership that 
delivers for all and continues to bring our shared continent closer together.



Armenian Banks Defer Loan Repayments
March 27, 2020

Armenia -- Closed shops in an underground pass in Yerevan, March 27, 2020.

Armenian banks have agreed to suspend loan repayments for tens of thousands of 
individual borrowers and businesses hit hard by economic fallout from by the 
coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Friday.

“The volume of the restructured loans is around 200 billion drams ($404 
million),” Pashinian wrote on Facebook. They were borrowed by around 97,000 
individuals and nearly 3,400 local firms, he said.

The Armenian government last week imposed strict restrictions on people’s 
movement and ordered the closure of most firms to tackle the spread of 
coronavirus. The lockdown has left scores of Armenians facing a loss of jobs and 
income.

The government has faced opposition calls for imposing a blanket freeze on all 
loan repayments. Pashinian rejected those calls when he spoke in the parliament 
on Wednesday. He said the banks should deal with defaulting clients on a 
case-by-case basis.

Pashinian also said on Wednesday that Armenia’s public utility companies have 
agreed not to cut off electricity, natural gas and water supplies to people 
failing to pay their bills because of the economic shutdown.

The national gas distribution network, Gazprom-Armenia, confirmed on Friday that 
it will stop collecting gas fees for February at least until the state of 
emergency in the country ends on April 14.

In a statement, Gazprom-Armenia put the total amount of unpaid gas bills at 4.8 
billion drams. It stressed that only about 7 percent of the sum is owed by 
low-income families receiving poverty benefits.

In a related development, Pashinian’s government approved on Thursday a 
multimillion-dollar stimulus package designed to cushion the broader impact of 
coronavirus. It includes one-off cash payments to citizens who have lost their 
jobs this month as well as financial assistance or credit subsidies to 
businesses and farmers. Pashinian said many banks will also benefit from the 
relief.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.