Armenia: 4 youth join Yerevan Council member on hunger strike #ElectricYerevan

July 8, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Four 19-year-olds that are participating in the sit-in at Liberty Square, in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, have joined the ongoing hunger strike by member of the opposition “Barev [Hello], Yerevan” faction at Yerevan Council, activist Davit Sanasaryan.

These youth told Armenian News-NEWS.am that their hunger strike is for an indefinite period, and that they will continue it until people assemble at Liberty Square and they achieve their ultimate goal: the revoking of the recent decision to raise the price of electricity in the country.

The youth on hunger strike added that they are fighting against this electricity price hike ever since the first days of the respective demonstrations.

Yerevan police on Monday dispersed the demonstrators that had closed down Baghramyan Avenue—which leads to the Office of the President—for the past two weeks. Subsequently, the protesters assembled at Liberty Square, where their demonstration had initially started. They also wanted to hold a march, but the police did not allow it. Many protesters are staying at the square overnight.

Leaders #electricYerevan avoid the standoff with authorities

July 7, 2015 By administrator

Several hundred Armenians protesting against rising electricity prices have again gathered in Yerevan on Monday night hours after being driven Avenue Bargramian by riot police, but they have avoided reoccupy a major artery of the city.

The gathering in the pedestrian area of the Liberty Square (at the opera) began shortly after police released 46 protesters who were stopped early Monday afternoon when dismantling by police (without water cannon or baton) of a barricade that marked the territory of the non-stop protest installed on the avenue Bagramyan Marshal for two weeks.

People interpelées belong to the group of current leaders of the movement “electric Yerevan” that brought the Armenian government to suspend the 17% increase of energy prices.

Youth leaders affirmed their commitment to continue the movement. But citing the need to avoid further clashes with the police, they gave up starting a new march toward the avenue of Marshal Bagramyan, preferring to call a demonstration in the city center on Thursday.

“We need to rest,” said Narek Ayvazyan, one of the activists, Armenian service of RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am), arguing that he and his comrades are exhausted by non-stop sit-in on the avenue leading to the residence of President Serzh Sargsyan.

“I promise you that we will again go void Bagramyan” said another leader of “electric Yerevan” Davit Sanasarian, the demonstrators. “The police, the authorities are really afraid.”

Sanasarian at the same time regretted that only a small number of people took part in demonstrations last week, which according to him is not enough to move the Armenian authorities. He announced that he would begin a hunger strike in order to draw attention of the population and encourage them to join more heavily in the campaign.

“We are waiting for you,” said another speaker, calling on the nation. “All Armenians should get up for this fight.”

The demonstrations had attracted thousands of people until President Serzh Sargsyan announced on June 27 that the government will bear the increased cost of electricity prices until the results of an audit on service electricity from Armenia. The audit is to determine whether the unpopular measure is economically justified or results of fraud and mismanagement with the Russian company that owns it.

Dozens of protesters tried to march into the evening, but they were stopped by police deployed in the square. The leaders of “electric Yerevan” were not among them.

PSRC to impose AMD 75mln fine on Electric Networks of Armenia

July 6, 2015 By administrator

During a meeting on Wednesday, July 8, the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia (PSRC) is planning to impose an AMD 75 million fine on Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), according to Panorama.am.

12 out of the 14 decisions of the Commission envisage a fine of AMD 5 million each, while the other two decisions presuppose fines of AMD 5.4 million and AMD 10 million respectively.

ENA management decided recently to set up a new procedure of connecting the consumption systems of new subscribers to power supply networks. Explaining the measure by financial difficulties, ENA suggested that consumers should cover the expenses to be connected to power supply networks, in addition to the fixed payment for connection. The company said that sum will be deducted from payments made for the electricity consumed in the course of the next 5 years.

Cher on #ElectricYerevan: U.S. Armenian celebrity tweets on protest

July 6, 2015 By administrator

Electricity price hike protesters who continue their nonstop demonstrations in downtown Yerevan have got a boost from Armenian American singer Cher who appears to support their cause.

The 69-year-old U.S. celebrity born Cherilyn Sarkisian has brought the attention of her fans on Twitter to the situation with the continuing social protests in Armenia.

“Russia raises electricity prices [by] 22%,” Cher tweeted on July 4, reminding that protesters in Yerevan campaigning against electricity price hikes sought by a Russian-owned utility company were “beaten & shot” with water cannons.

“No one cares about Armenians,” the singer says, adding a praying hands icon and a hashtagged name of another Armenian American celebrity, Kim Kardashian.

The protest known as Electric Yerevan that began in the Armenian capital’s Liberty Square on June 19 and continued several days later with protesters occupying central Baghramyan Avenue has issued an ultimatum to the authorities over the weekend to comply with their demand for the revoking of the price hike by Monday evening or see the “advancement” of their barricades towards the Presidential Palace.

https://twitter.com/cher/status/617449301237575680

Yerevan police release all Baghramyan Avenue detainees, except for one #ElectricYerevan

July 6, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Everyone, who was detained on Monday at Baghramyan Avenue in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan—who were demanding the revoking of the recent decision to raise the price of electricity in the country—and taken to police stations, have been released.

But one of them, an about-50-year-old man, refuses to leave the police station claiming that the officers of the law had used violence against him.

Political analyst Stiopa Safaryan informed about the abovementioned to reporters, as he left one of the police precincts (PHOTOS).

Safaryan noted that there was no need to detain the people, since the demonstrators had not hampered police operations.

Four girls also were taken to a police station. One of them told us that the aforementioned man had felt ill while being detained.

“I saw how they were yanking him,” she added.

The Yerevan police on Monday issued a statement informing that they were about to open Baghramyan Avenue, which the protesters had closed down for the past two weeks. The demonstrators were given until 12:30pm to open the avenue themselves. The protesters, however, continued their sit-on at the boulevard. At around 1pm, the number of police forces sharply increased at the avenue. Subsequently, the law enforcement detained the majority of the protesters by holding them from their feet and carrying them away. They also formed a human chain and moved the rest toward the sidewalk.

A total of 46 people were detained during this police action.

Baghramyan Avenue has reopened, and traffic on this boulevard has resumed.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

Police Disperse #ElectricYerevan Protests, Detain Young Activists

July 6, 2015 By administrator

Yerevan police remove protesters from Baghramyan Ave. (Photolure)

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Riot police forcibly unblocked on Monday a central Yerevan avenue that has been the scene of a nonstop demonstration for the past two weeks against a controversial rise in electricity prices in Armenia.

Only between 100 and 200 protesters remained camped out on Marshal Bagramian Avenue when the police began dismantling their barricade. They went on to carefully disperse the small crowd.

Youth activists leading the protests and dozens of their supporters were detained in the process. A police spokesman subsequently put the number of detainees at 46. Police confirmed that nine of those arrested were released.

“I think everyone will be set free within three hours,” General Hunan Poghosian, a deputy chief of the national police, told several opposition parliamentarians who arrived at the scene immediately after the start of the operation overseen by him.

The police did not use batons and a water cannon or attack reporters in sharp contrast with their violent crackdown on a larger number of mostly young protesters who first occupied the street leading to the presidential palace in Yerevan on June 22-23.

That crackdown only backfired, leading thousands more Armenians to block the street and demand that the authorities revoke the more than 17 percent energy price hike. President Serzh Sarkisian announced on June 27 that his government will subsidize the price, meaning that Armenian households will not have to pay more for electricity for the time being.

No To Plunder, a youth group that launched the “Electric Yerevan” campaign, urged the protesters on June 28 to unblock Marshal Bagramian Avenue. Most protesters rejected the appeal. Nevertheless, attendance at the protests fell dramatically in the following days.

The police ended the protests early in the afternoon, just hours before the expiration of an ultimatum that was issued by the new leaders of the movement on Saturday. The latter said they will advance further towards the presidential palace unless the authorities fully and unconditionally meet their demands by Monday evening.

The police warned the remaining protesters to disperse in a statement that was issued shortly before the operation. The protesters sat on the road in hopes of making their dispersal harder. The more numerous police officers did not need much time to drag them away and reopen traffic through the street.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Ashot Aharonian, the chief police spokesman, praised the crowd for not putting up strong resistance to security forces. He said none of the detained individuals will be prosecuted or fined.

Aharonian would not be drawn on a police response to possible fresh attempts to occupy Marshal Bagramian Avenue.

#ElectricYerevan Protesters Give Authorities 9 p.m. Monday Deadline to Meet Demands

July 4, 2015 By administrator

Baghramyan Ave. protest organizer Davit Sanasaryan (left) reads a statement that includes a deadline to government

YEREVAN–As the protests against electricity price hikes in Armenia continued into the 13th day, organizers gave the government a deadline of 9 p.m. Monday to meet at least one of their demands or the trash cans that have been acting as barricades against the police would move closer to the 26 Baghramyan Avenue–the presidential palace.

Davit Sanasaryan, speaking on behalf of the organizers, addressed the crowd at 9 p.m. local time Saturday and laid out the 48-hour deadline, explaining that every day that the protesters’–the people’s–demands aren’t met, the barricades would advance closer to the presidential palace.

The protesters, whose numbers have dwindled during the past several days, listened attentively as Sanasaryan explained that the fight has entered a new phase of urging action for demands that have been laid out from the first day of the protests.

“We are not here to sit in Baghramyan Avenue. Our aim is to make our protests heard at the presidential palace, but we are not being allowed since the police are blocking our way, forcing us to erect barricades. Thus our decision to move forward in order to advance our fight,” Sanasaryan told Azatutyun.am’s Hovhannes Movsisyan during a live interview from the site of the protest.

“We are citizens of this country and we will decide the fate of our country,” said Sanasaryan during his speech before presenting the deadline.

Earlier on Saturday, Yerevan police issued another warning to protesters, urging them to empty Baghramyan Avenue.

Sansaryan made it clear that protest organizers did not want to clash with the police. However, he added that they were not afraid because they believe that their protest is just and the people have the right to demand justice.

On Friday, the group led a protest march through the streets of Yerevan, beginning at the Opera House on Liberty Square all the way to Baghramyan Avenue.

Sanasaryan reiterated the protesters’ demands, which: the immediate reversal of the decision to raise electricity prices; punish those responsible for use of brute force against demonstrators and journalists on June 23; review the current electricity rates with aim of lowering them.

‘Electric Yerevan’ Insists No One Has Pulled Plug On Armenia Protests

July 4, 2015 By administrator

By RFE/RL

Demonstrators dance in the street during the “Electric Yerevan” protest on July 2.

YEREVAN — Street protests in the Armenian capital that sent shock waves far beyond the Caucasus have gone nearly quiet, with neither side able to claim victory in a battle over electricity prices.

A two-week standoff over makeshift barricades and nightly rallies that are blocking a main throughfare in downtown Yerevan continues, and organizers have vowed to remain on the street.

They oppose a nationwide hike of at least 16 percent in electricity prices from August, announced some time ago but only cleared by the country’s price regulator on June 17.

A police threat remains in effect to tear down the largely unoccupied mini-encampment on Marshal Baghramian Avenue, where only a handful of protesters linger during the midday heat but ranks of demonstrators swell for evening rallies.

But tensions have eased significantly since President Serzh Sarkisian signaled a possible compromise on June 27, and competing protest factions have emerged to take some steam out of the movement.

A protest leader and Yerevan city assemblyman, Davit Sanasarian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on July 3 that while the government might be “physically” overpowering demonstrators, it lacks “political resource” to repeat the kind of dispersal operation that shocked Armenians and the international public more than a week ago.

And a senior activist from the No To Plunder group that led the first round-the-clock protests in Yerevan, but which has since changed tactics in an effort to take its message to other regions, says plans are continuing for a “public meeting” in the city of Gyumri on July 4.

Authorities appear reluctant to repeat the mistakes that grabbed international headlines on June 23 when police conducted mass arrests and riot policemen trained a water cannon on peaceful participants in a sit-in that began when the protesters’ route to the presidential palace was blocked.

On July 3, prosecutors announced the launch of a criminal investigation into possible police wrongdoing in that clash, in which protesters and journalists were injured and reporters (including from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service) had their equipment seized.

The daily Hayots Askkhar this week described the protest as “nominally going on…but in terms of substance, it is simply melting away, dying down, like an ice cream in the summer heat.”

The “public meeting” on Gyumri’s central Theater Square should provide an indication of whether No To Plunder can muster sufficient support to take its movement beyond the capital.

Meanwhile, in Yerevan, 15 little-known activists stepped into the breech that No To Plunder left behind on July 1 and have vowed to reenergize the protest on Baghramian Avenue.

Sanasarian, a senior member of the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party who is also a member of the city’s municipal assembly, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the new “Electric Yerevan” organizers’ “first task is to sort out this disorganized situation.”

He dismissed the notion of “leaders,” though, saying, “There are only persons who will be doing hard work…[and] should spend more time here than other citizens, because we are responsible for what is happening here.”

In a Facebook chat moderated by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service from Baghramian Avenue on July 3, Sanasarian vowed that protesters would stand their ground in the street and continue to press the authorities to meet their demands.

On June 27, President Sarkisian said the Armenian government would tap its funds set aside for a “further strengthening of national security” to “bear the burden” and subsidize higher energy tariffs in the coming months, pending an audit of Armenia’s Russian-controlled power distributor.

The Yerevan protesters insisted on July 3 that their demands remain the same: to completely revoke the 16-percent-plus electricity price hike; to investigate the June 23 violence against protesters and punish police officers guilty of excessive violence or ordering the use of such force; and to reconsider current electricity prices with an eye to lowering them from current levels.

Organizers, wary of being portrayed as insurrectionists of the kind that helped to oust the government in nearby Ukraine in early 2014, have resisted suggestions that they harbor broader aims connected to Armenia’s strategic positioning.

A small group of would-be protesters who turned up at the Yerevan rally on the evening of July 2 waving EU flags were quickly confronted as “provocatuers” and told to “go away.”

Russian officials have repeatedly accused the West of fomenting “color revolutions” in the former communist bloc and pressured Yerevan in 2013 to spurn closer ties with the European Union.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on July 2 warned against “find[ing] it useful to go further and develop these processes in a political direction” in Armenia.

Moscow agreed a $200 million loan on favorable terms to Armenia’s government that was signed on June 26, reportedly for the purchase of Russian weapons but leading to speculation that it was a disguised effort to help Armenia cope with its electricity crisis.

Armenian Deputy Defense Minister Ara Nazarian rejected talk of any connection between the “export credit” and the protests, according to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Written by Andy Heil in Prague based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in Yerevan

Intellectuals urge Yerevan demonstrators to disperse and wait for ENA audit results

July 3, 2015 By administrator

The Armenian youth woke up, as if from a deep sleep, and now they need to attract professional economists and lawyers to their ranks, People’s Artist of Armenia, director Nikolai Tsaturyan said today referring to the rallies staged in Bagramyan Avenue of Yerevan to protest a hike in electricity prices.

In his words, there are still numerous problems to be solved because of a deficit in public trust. People have ‘slight faith’ even in the audit expected to be conducted at Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company, the director said.

Writer, publicist Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan for his part spoke about the latest developments in Armenia, expressing discontent over the reaction to those events in other countries, particularly in Russia.

“I fail to understand why the Russians are trying to see a Maidan in these developments. Let them keep their Maidan to themselves. We have glorious youth and their goals are honest,” the writer said.

The government has also behaved correctly, Ter-Gulanyan said. Yet he considering the young people’s refusal to meet with the head of state an incorrect move.

“Except for June 23, the Armenian police also showed to good advantage,” the writes said. In his words, things that should not have taken place happened that day.

Nikolai Tsaturyan and Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan appealed to those rally participants who still remain on Bagramyan Avenue: “Dear guys. Go home. It’s hot today. Go and wait for the audit results”.

As was reported, President Serzh Sargsyan said at the June 27 consultation with officials responsible for the economic policy in Armenia that cancelling the decision on power tariff rise is “very dangerous”. For this reason the government will cover the tariff rise until the conclusion (of an audit of Electric Networks – editor), he said. “Of course, we will not pull out the ongoing programs or social expenditures, but will identify other resources among the means allotted for the further strengthening of (energy) security.

Certainly, our security issues are far from being solved, to say the least, and yet that environment of suspicion and distrust that we have now, I think is another security issue and a very important one. And that must be solved. And if that conclusion [of the audit] confirms the price increase is well-based, from that moment on the consumers will begin paying the new tariff without having any suspicions. Should the conclusion confirm the increase had been groundless, the government would take measures to get refunds from the ENA on the amount surcharged, as well as bring to account those officials that failed on their duties»,” the president said noting that under such conditions the work that the government started a few months ago to change the owner of ENA will become a certainty, and the option of returning the company to the state and transferring it for competitive management is not ruled out.

Source: Panorama.am

Uncompromising: #ElectricYerevan defies police calls to unblock avenue

July 2, 2015 By administrator

Report Alina Nikoghosyan
ArmeniaNow

Two #ElectricYerevan protesters on hunger strike in Baghramyan Avenue

Despite police calls to unblock Baghramyan Avenue, protesters against electricity price hikes are not going to leave their “territory”. They say they are going to stay put in the central Yerevan boulevard until their demands are fulfilled. Report Alina Nikoghosyan ArmeniaNow

The campaign dubbed Electric Yerevan continues in Baghramyan Avenue, with a new coordinating group working with the public. David Sanasaryan, a member of this group, told ArmeniaNow that the fight will continue in Baghramyan Avenue.

The Armenian Police urge citizens currently blocking the thoroughfare in Yerevan to end their blockade. Otherwise, they warn they will have to use “in full volume” the powers vested in them by Armenian laws.

“It has been 10 days we are listening to the threats of the Police, it is not news, and we continue our work. The citizens who gather here know that the Police are on the other side of the barricades and that they are able to use force, but they are not afraid anyway,” Sanasaryan said. “At this moment, there are a few people there, so they have a chance to remove the barricades and take the people away but then they realize that if not Baghramyan Avenue, then some other street can be blocked. Citizens have decided to stay on Baghramyan and that’s all. Some of them thought that it will be better to go to Liberty Square, but then they came back.”

According to Sanasaryan, this struggle is not just a problem of electricity prices rising by 7 AMD (about 1.5 cents). He said that one should not avoid using the word “political” as the demand stated by the protesters has elements of politics as well.

“The movement will have influence on the future decision-making. The problem is civil as there is no political force in the forefront, but it is “political” because we deal with political decisions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Baghramyan Avenue has had its ninth peaceful night. Interestingly, former coordinator of the campaign representing the No To Plunder initiative, including one of its leaders Maxim Sargsyan, also spent the night there. The number of participants in the nonstop protest dwindles by day because of the heat, but the crowd swells again towards the night, with the rally continuing with singing, dancing and speeches into late hours.