In an interview with Tert.am, a Russian political analyst commented upon the social rebellion against the rising power prices in Armenia, admitting that the decision by Yevgeniy Bibin, the CEO of the Electric Networks of Armenia, turned out bad for Russian investors, simultaneously affecting the country’s international reputation.
“Yes, Binin’s activity greatly damaged the reputation of not only Russian investors in Armenia but also the state and national interests of Russia,” said Alexander Krylov, the president of the Society for Caucasus Studies.
Describing Bibin as a common Russian “universal manager’ prone to treat the “inferior class” (those not affiliated with wealthy business circles) with contempt and arrogance, the analyst said he finds that Russian energy companies’ social policies must be built upon approaches responsive to the realities in Armenia.
“Apart from the Russian management’s negative aspects in Armenia, much more undermining is the role played by the domestic ‘fat cats’, whose boundless greediness makes [many] Armenians leave their own homeland and state in search for a better future in Russia and other countries,” he noted.
The analyst said he sees that the poor management in Armenia’s state and business infrastructures too, essentially contributed to the decision to raise the electricity tariffs. “So without any drastic reforms, the problems in Armenia will increase in number from now on too, causing the social slogans to change into political ones,” he added.
Armenian Activists Cite Harassment By ‘Suspicious People’ #ElectricYerevan
A demonstrator holds an Armenian flag as others shout slogans during a protest against an increase on electricity prices in Yerevan on June 25.
Activists from the “Electric Yerevan” protest movement that has rallied thousands of supporters in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, in weeklong protests against electricity price hikes say certain “suspicious people” have begun to harass members of the group as well as peaceful demonstrators.
In a statement on June 27, the No To Plunder activists called on Armenian officials to pay attention to the issue and urged law-enforcement bodies “not to try to threaten us and to act strictly within the boundaries of the law.”
They did not disclose any specific cases of harassment.
Protesters insist that President Serzh Sarkisian revoke a June 17 decision by the state’s tariff-setting body raising energy prices by some 16 percent starting August 1.
They have said that they will not leave the avenue until Sarkisian announces the cancellation of the tariffs on national television.
They are also demanding that the current tariff be reconsidered and lowered, and they want punishment for the police officers who beat activists and journalists in a violent breakup of June 23 protests.
Armenian police chief Vladimir Gasparian has called on electricity price protesters who continue to block a central street in Yerevan to show “common sense” and end a street blockade in the capital city he said is “hindering” ordinary life.
Gasparian talked to several members of parliament who had come to Marshal Baghramian Avenue to stand as “human shields” between security personnel and the protesters to ensure riot police do not take violent action against the crowd.
He asked them to urge the young activists to unblock the avenue, which is one of the central thoroughfares near the state administration buildings of Armenia, including President Serzh Sarkisian’s offices.
“We show tolerance and exercise restraint, but you obstruct the vital functions of the city,” Gasparian said. “Now you form a ‘human shield’ as if we are enemies of our people.”
“Tell the young people that we perceive their action philosophically, but it does not mean that they must block the whole of Yerevan…. Police will not take action against citizens if they remain within the boundaries of the law. Do not block the city.”
Demonstrators on June 26 had briefly blocked a square adjacent to Baghramian Avenue, paralyzing traffic there. But after calls from police they moved out of the traffic junction.
On June 27, police said they had detained one demonstrator with a gun. They identified the man as Tigran Rostomian, 23, and said that his gun was confiscated after he was taken to a nearby police station.
In Gyumri, the second-largest Armenian city, where citizens have also held protests against rising electricity prices, police detained two people who took part in a recent march.
According to a report, one of them possessed a substance “looking like marijuana” and the other had a folding knife.
Police said they confiscated the drugs and knife and were investigating the matter.
In Yerevan, Sarkisian and Russian Transportation Minister Maksim Sokolov on June 26 commissioned a joint audit of the Russian-owned company that operates Armenia’s power grid.
Armenian opposition and civic groups have accused the Electric Networks of Armenia of corruption and mismanagement, arguing that it can operate at a profit even without applying for higher electricity tariffs.
Long Overdue?
Vaghinak Shushanian, one of the leaders of the No To Plunder group that leads the protests, described the move as “belated.”
No To Plunder activists continued to insist that Sarkisian revoke a June 17 decision by the state’s tariff-setting body raising energy prices by some 16 percent starting August 1.
They also are demanding that the current tariff be reconsidered and lowered, and they want punishment for the police officers who beat activists and journalists in a violent breakup of June 23 protests.
Sarkisian told the Russia official that while some analysts “try to look for anti-Russian sentiments” behind the protests against electricity price hikes in Yerevan, he is glad that the protesters themselves dismiss this speculation as “nonsense.”
He added that he endorsed the unpopular rate hikes as necessary because of the depreciation of the national currency and the increased cost of energy production.
Sarkisian said the government will subsidize the rising cost of tariffs for some 105,000 low-income families, or some 400,000 citizens, by increasing their social allowances.
Sokolov said the audit of the electric company’s activities will be organized by an Intergovernmental Commission, with the involvement of experts and representatives of all the parties concerned.
The process will be open and transparent, he said, so that the results of the audit will be clear and unambiguous to everyone.
Armenian Government to assume the burden of price hike until audit conducted #ElectricYerevan
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held consultations with the agencies responsible for the Republic’s economic policy to discuss issued of energy security and solution of existing problems.
Speaking about the ongoing protests against the planned electricity price hike, President Sargsyan hailed the mutual trust established between the protesters and the law-enforcement bodies over the past days.
“I have been following the recent developments and I can assert that over the past week Armenia has turned into a large and effective educational center, where our citizens and law-enforcers, journalists and lawmakers, intellectuals and foreigners teach each other, listen to each other, tolerate each other, something that rarely happens in the world.,” the President said.
The President reminded that during a meeting with Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov he stressed the importance of conducting an audit at the Armenian Electric Networks. He added, however, that the decision on price hike was justified.
“I’m confident that if the price is not increased, the energy system will face the danger of collapse.”
He suggested to select an experienced international consulting company to conduct an audit at the Electric Networks, to give an answer to the following questions: to what extent the price hike is justified and which are the dangers threatening the energy system in case the price is not increased.
The President said that before the final decision, the government will assume the burden of the increased prices.
“If the audit comes to prove that the price hike is justified, the consumers will start paying the cost. In case the audit concludes that the planned price hike was groundless, the government will do its best to get back the sums spared by the Electric Networks and will call the officials to accountability,” President Sargsyan stated.
Armenia GOLDEN APRICOT festival receives 1,600 film submissions
The GOLDEN APRICOT 12TH Yerevan International Film Festival presented its competition programs at the press conference held on 26th of June.
This year the festival has received around 1,600 film submissions from 105 countries. 76 films are selected for competition programs, from which 12 films will be vying in the International Feature, 13 in the International Documentary, 17 in the Armenian Panorama and 34 films in the “Apricot Stone” Short Film competitions. The geography of the competing films includes 26 countries.
“Regrettably, not all festivals have short film competitions,” Vardan Hakobyan, a selection committee member, told reporters on Friday.
Week Two on Horizon: “#ElectricYerevan” powers on
A protest against proposed electricity tariff hikes has entered its second week in Yerevan and in some communities outside the Armenian capital. The stand-off has turned into a sit-in that has its epicenter near the Presidential Residence on Baghramyan Avenue, and as momentum seems to be growing, there are expectations and some apprehensions of what the weekend and beyond hold.
Led by the “No to Plunder” civil initiative, the movement has been dubbed “Electric Yerevan” and with crowds of up to 10,000 demonstrators, has gotten the attention of international media – some of whom are making comparisons to incidents that sparked revolution in Ukraine.
In Yerevan, however, leaders of the resistance to the proposed 16 percent hike (effective August 1), insist that their cause is social, and not political, and they simply want to be heard, again, as the voice of the people.
Some media reports have speculated that protest leaders want negotiations with President Serzh Sargsyan, but those leaders say their demands are clear and it is up to the president whether to meet them.
“There are no expectations for a new meeting,” one of the members of the initiative, founding president of amateur bicycle riding and tourism federation Arman Antonyan told ArmeniaNow.
After an early demonstration was met with force (water cannons) and detention of more than 200, police have promised to remain calm so long as the protestors do, too. Both sides kept order, and the result has been growing numbers that opponents of the tariff hike hope to see grow.
“The president was here before leaving for Brussels (to attend a European Peoples Party summit), if he wanted to change something, he would have. Now, maybe, we should press with more numbers of people, because changes take place only with united forces. If we become 60-70,000, our demand will become heard,” Eduard Mkhitaryan, member of No to Plunder civil initiative told ArmeniaNow.
They are not ready to go for any compromise. President Serzh Sargsyan, who returned from Brussels on Thursday, still leaves protestors’ demands unanswered, and the government warns about electricity interruptions, if the tariff is not increased.
Meanwhile representatives of the government wrote on social networks that as a matter of fact the government has nothing to do with increasing or decreasing the tariff, as doing so is the responsibility of the Public Services regulatory Commission (PSRC).
Political analyst Edgar Vardanyan from the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) is sure that negotiations with the government might harm the civil movement.
“In non-democratic countries movements that were initiated to reach radical changes and succeeded, de facto negotiations with the government were run only when it became clear that the movement won, however, there was need to record a “soft” victory to avoid unnecessary shocks,” Vardanyan wrote on his Face book account.
“In the beginning of the movement or in the midway negotiating with the authorities almost always harmed civil movements,” he concluded.
But the absence of negotiations has created a wall, and negotiations will be very complicated, although they seem to be easy; economist Ashot Khurshudyan, an expert with the International Center for Human Development said.
“It is complicated, because we should find a solution which will be accepted by the sides.”
“The wall situation is the one when the sides realize that a mutual solution is necessary, and the alternatives are bad for the both of them. In this case, a mutual solution means, for the government – people go home, or at least liberate the Avenue moving to another spot. The protestors want the same, only when their condition is met, when their voice is heard (the meaning of closing the avenue is always the same – “do not ignore our problem”),” Khurshudyan said.
The “wall” grows bigger if the issue is politicized, leaders of the movement say.
“This is solely a civil initiative, and follows only one goal – suspension of electricity tariff increase. The youth has stood up and will go till the end,” initiative leader Arman Antonyan said.
“Now there are MPs with us, both opposition and republican. They come and go, but nobody will make a speech. This movement is self-initiated, no loud announcements will be made,” Mkhitaryan added.
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Armenia initiative presents new demands #ElectricYerevan
Armenian Youth using cell phone fore light
YEREVAN. – The “No to Plunder” initiative of Armenia has presented its new demands, which are as follows:
“1) To review and cancel the PSRC’s [i.e. the Public Services Regulatory Commission] unlawful decision on the electricity tariff. 2) To review last year’s tariff for the purpose of reduction. 3) To punish all law-breaking police officers that unlawfully beat the peaceful demonstrators on [Monday,] June 22 at Baghramian Avenue, as well as to punish those that give them an unlawful order.”
On early Tuesday morning, the capital city Yerevan police dispersed the activists—that were led by members of the “No to Plunder” initiative—protesting against electricity price hike by using water cannon, and they detained many activists and journalists, who were later released.
On Tuesday evening, however, the sit-in participants marched toward the Office of the President—on Baghramian Avenue—yet again and with a larger crowd, but the police blocked their way again.
However, the sit-in still continues at the starting point of Baghramian Avenue, which is closed off, and traffic towards this boulevard is suspended.
Despite numerous protests, the Public Services Regulatory Commission recently increased the price of electricity in Armenia, and this decision will take effect on August 1. The decision, however, is expected to be followed by an increase in the prices of numerous products and services in the country.
Yerevan, Prime Minister Rejects Reversal on Energy Hike, As Russia Urges ‘Compromise’
Protesters on Baghramyan Avenue continue their demands into the fourth day (Photolure)
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian on Thursday defended state regulators’ decision to raise electricity prices and urged thousands of protesters to unblock a major street in Yerevan on the fourth day of their nonstop demonstrations against the controversial measure.
Abrahamian also announced that the Armenian government will compensate some 105,000 low-income families for the more than 16 percent tariff increases authorized by the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) last week. Monthly poverty benefits paid to them will be raised by 2,000 drams ($4.2), he said.
The Armenian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimates that the tariff hike will cost the average family living below the official poverty line only 1,400 drams in additional monthly expenditures.
“I would like to appeal to our activists, organizers of those rallies and say that such actions will lead nowhere,” Abrahamian said at the weekly meeting of his cabinet. “I am calling on them to be more constructive. The government is ready to discuss any issue that is being raised by them.”
Abrahamian insisted that the price hike reflects “objective realities” of the Armenian energy sector. He echoed the PSRC’s arguments that the Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA) utility needs to be compensated for last year’s depreciation of the Armenian dram, a longer-than-anticipated stoppage of the Metsamor nuclear plant’s reactor and decreased water levels on rivers fueling hydroelectric stations.
The ENA has had to buy larger volumes of much more expensive electricity generated at Armenian thermal power plants. The company owned by a Russian energy giant currently has over $225 million in outstanding debts to power plants and banks.
Critics say, however, that the ENA’s losses are the result of corruption and mismanagement. They also point to the company’s extravagant expenses, including on luxury cars and office space for its senior executives, which have been disclosed by the Armenian media in recent months.
Abrahamian sought to dispel these claims accepted by many Armenians. “I don’t exclude that there have been abuses [within the ENA,]” he said. “But I want to declare with utmost responsibility that regardless of the scale of possible abuses inside the company, not a single penny of them was calculated into the tariff.”
“Such abuses stemming from poor management have hurt the company’s owner, rather than consumers, seeing as its profits have decreased,” added the premier.
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian
Abrahamian went on to assert that failure to raise the tariffs would disrupt electricity supplies in Armenia and lead to the kind of crippling power shortages which the country had endured in the early 1990s.
No To Plunder, a pressure group leading the protests, was quick to dismiss these statements. One of its leaders, Vaghinak Shushanian, said the protesters will not leave Marshal Baghramyan Avenue until the authorities meet their demands.
“If he has so much courage, he should come here and talk to us,” Shushanian told RFE/RL’ Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “Let him appear before the people here and say from the podium that … this measure is justified.”
Like senior law-enforcement officials, Abrahamian said that the nonstop protests on the avenue leading to the presidential palace are illegal. But he stopped short of threatening to forcibly disperse the mostly young people demonstrating there.
The chief of the Armenian police, Vladimir Gasparian, also did not voice such threats when he visited the scene and talked to some protesters early in the morning.“Stay peaceful and don’t provoke us,” he said.
Gasparian further said that law-enforcement authorities are investigating violence against more than a dozen journalists, including three RFE/RL correspondents, perpetrated by his officers during Tuesday’s violent crackdown on the Bagramian Avenue protesters. “Who said that we can’t have shortcomings and make mistakes?” he told reporters. “The key thing is to identify and address them.”
Gasparian was accompanied by Levon Yeranosian, one of his deputies who the journalists say personally ordered the violence.
Russia Urges ‘Compromise Solution’ To Armenian Standoff
Russia has called on the Armenian authorities to make concessions to thousands of people holding nonstop demonstrations in Yerevan against the latest increase in electricity prices in Armenia.
Significantly, a senior Russian official also disputed claims by some Russian pro-government politicians and pundits that Western powers are behind the continuing standoff between Armenian protesters and riot police.
“We count on the common sense and wisdom of the Armenian leadership,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said late on Wednesday, according to the RIA Novosti agency. “According to our information, one can expect that a compromise decision on issues raised by the demonstrators will be found.”
“We are awaiting news from Yerevan,” added Karasin. He did not specify whether the Russian government is ready to assist in such a settlement.
Karasin cast doubt on the credibility of these claims, saying that they “need to be proved.” “We will be carefully looking into everything that preceded [the Yerevan protests,] but I wouldn’t jump into such hasty conclusions,” he said.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow is “very closely” monitoring the dramatic developments in Armenia and hopes that there will be no “violations of the law.”
“it’s not a revolution, it is a revolt” The beautiful youth of Armenia, Ara Toranian #ElectricYerevan
“This is a revolution? No, sir, it’s not a revolution, it is a revolt. “This pastiche for proposals reversed the famous dialogue between La Rochefoucauld and Louis XVI about the storming of the Bastille could well define the movement” Stop looting “which, for a week, engages youth, occupies the street, and passed bad nights our leaders. This nebula born from civil society without leaders, unrelated to the traditional parties is upsetting the political situation in Armenia, claiming the presence of a third party between the government and the classical opposition: the people. And especially young people. Notably absent from political life, and taillables bondsmen to thank you, in particular through conscription, those aged 18-25 in the country who has to defend the borders are suddenly assert their right to speak. They are invited in the debate via the “street”, since this is the only place available to express themselves, except of course the social networks where it is carried to modernity.
So this beautiful youth of Armenia today offers wonderful political lesson to the whole nation. Firstly by the dignity of his approach which proceeds from a necessary assertiveness, prelude of any release process. Then by its realism. Our young people do not chase utopias, do not call dreams. Brought to hard in a country where war is knocking at the door, they are fighting for very specific social rights. Last summer, it was against the increase in transport prices. This time, it’s against rising electricity rates. It is not a matter for them to promise the big night or a better tomorrow. But here and now to improve living conditions in the context of demographic hemorrhage that we know. They invent a new grammar of mobilization, longer solely confined to the identity and create a new algorithm on what should be the full citizenship in this post-Soviet state.
With them, no Parliament bis, or alternative program. We are not dealing with romantic whose claim targets is inversely proportional to the modest means, but realistic that open the field of possibilities on admittedly modest reforms, but achievable. However, significant changes, since they allow not only to positively affect the daily, but in doing so to conquer the right to speak, to reclaim the state, the nation, and force gently the transition to democracy by introducing civic engagement. The popular will was kicked out of the polls because of fraud? She comes by the street window to be heard! This is what we said watermark “No looting”, this Armenian declination undoubtedly the “Podemos” Spanish, Turkish Guézi, the May 68 French.
In this sense, this revolt also galvanized with songs and patriotic slogans, has accents of cultural revolution, carries a heavy load of hopes. But also very mature. So far our young people have achieved a faultless not only clearly circumscribing their axes of struggle, but also unambiguously opting for non-violence. We are not on 1 March 2008. The protesters are not going to confrontation. They are not fighting the security forces, but opposed their passive resistance, peaceful, making it more difficult temptations to resort to ruthless repression.
Especially since, prodigy of globalization and the Internet, cameras are everywhere and that the web follows planet live events. The authority is aware, that is until now remained master of himself in a relatively moderate management repression. Water cannon and muscular arrests certainly, but no free rein to unbridled brutality not use tear gas or fillers police batons in hand. At least until these lines are written.
The regime in front of him the children of the motherland, the best of his son. A young, beautiful, proud and intelligent. And it seems that he has not yet the will to declare war, while, for its part, it does not give him the excuse, setting limits to its objectives and calibrating its methods of struggle. There is in this standoff, a nice lesson of wisdom and political virtue of a country that is learning democracy, to blow social crises and popular upheavals. As in Europe.
Thursday, June 25, 2015,
Ara © armenews.com
Ara © armenews.com
Yerevan sit-in continues despite heavy rain
YEREVAN. – A sit-in of the activists protesting against rise in electricity prices continues despite heavy rain.
According to the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent, the number of participants is growing.
On early Tuesday morning, the Yerevan police dispersed the activists protesting against electricity price hike by using water cannon, and they detained many activists and journalists, who were later released.
On Tuesday evening, however, the sit-in participants marched toward the Office of the President—on Baghramian Avenue—yet again and with a larger crowd, but the police blocked their way again.
But the sit-in continues at the starting point of Baghramian Avenue, which is closed off, and traffic towards this boulevard is suspended.
Despite numerous protests, the Public Services Regulatory Commission recently increased the price of electricity in Armenia, and this decision will take effect on August 1. The decision, however, is expected to be followed by an increase in the prices of numerous products and services in the country.
Special Investigation Service preparing report on violence against journalists during Yerevan protest
YEREVAN. – The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia is preparing a report on special service officials’ carrying out violence and hampering the lawful professional activities of journalists during Tuesday’s protest in capital city Yerevan, and against the recent decision to raise the price of electricity in the country.
The SIS Press Secretary, Mikayel Aharonyan, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the service is preparing the aforesaid report on the basis of the respective information disseminated by the mass media.
As reported earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am had learned from the General Prosecutor’s Office that the latter’s Special Cases Investigation Department had forwarded the respective materials, video recordings as well as a letter from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office Director, human rights activist Artur Sakunts, to the SIS in order to process them.
On early Tuesday morning, the Yerevan police dispersed the activists protesting against electricity price hike by using water cannon, and they detained many activists and journalists, who were later released.
On Tuesday evening, however, the sit-in participants marched toward the Office of the President—on Baghramian Avenue—yet again and with a larger crowd, but the police blocked their way again.
But the sit-in continues at the starting point of Baghramian Avenue, which is closed off, and traffic towards this boulevard is suspended.
Despite numerous protests, the Public Services Regulatory Commission recently increased the price of electricity in Armenia, and this decision will take effect on August 1. The decision, however, is expected to be followed by an increase in the prices of numerous products and services in the country.
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