Electric Archives

#ElectricYerevan: Petition in Baghramyan Avenue as public protest continues

July 2, 2015 By administrator

The continuing protests against the rising electricity prices have driven the population of Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue to anger, with most complaining about the noise and the inconvenience around.

Most residents have been conducting a petition since Wednesday.
“The [residents] are not able to stand this anymore. We cannot sleep or open a balcony door because of the terrible noise. The much respected demonstrators fail to observe the rules of co-existence,” one of residents told our correspondent.
The Ministry of Healthcare has also issued a warning, asking the demonstrators to be conscientious and circumspect not to hamper the ambulance service’s work.
“Lost moments may at time turn out fatal for an individual needing an emergency medical aid. And we can never rule out that the individual in question may be the relative of any one of us or we ourselves,” reads its statement.
Drivers of public transport also complain about the difficulties and inconvenience.
Speaking to Tert.am, President of the Association of Passenger Carriers Hrant Yeghiazaryan said all drivers demand urgent measure for restoring the regular operation of traffic routes.
“We are facing enormous problems due to the closed street. The passenger transportation process is derailed, with the microbuses waiting for hours in traffic jams. And less people use [public transport],” he said.

Protests Continue As New Organizers Step Forward #ElectricYerevan

July 2, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Protesters continuing to occupy a central Yerevan avenue chose new leaders who pledged to reinvigorate their campaign for the cancellation of a controversial rise in Armenian electricity prices overnight on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ongoing civic movement dubbed “Electric Yerevan” had been in turmoil since its initial organizer, the “No To Plunder” youth group, urged protesters to unblock Marshal Bagramian Avenue and move back to the city’s pedestrian Liberty Square on Sunday.

The No To Plunder leaders warned of another violent police crackdown on the non-stop demonstration, saying the campaign should now take different forms. They also pointed to a major concession that was made by President Serzh Sarkisian on Saturday.

Most protesters rejected the appeal, leading “No To Plunder” to renounce responsibility for future actions on the blocked street leading to the presidential palace. Attendance at the demonstration visibly declined on Monday and Tuesday, with only up to several thousand people participating in it before midnight.

The young protesters formed a new leadership comprising of 15 mostly little-known activists. The most well-known of them is Davit Sanasarian, a senior member of the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party. Sanasarian, who is also a member of the city’s municipal assembly, made it clear that he is participating in “Electric Yerevan” only in his personal capacity.

“Our first task is to sort out this disorganized situation,” Sanasarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “There are no leaders here. There are only persons who are doing hard work.”

“We should spend more time here than other citizens, because we are responsible for what is happening here,” he said.

The new leaders set about forming on Tuesday night separate teams of activists who will deal with public order on the avenue, public relations, as well as economic and legal aspects of the movement’s demands. “Each team will have a representative who will present proposals to the citizen’s [leadership] group that will in turn work on those proposals and submit them to you,” one of them, Narek Ayvazian, told the crowd remaining on Marshal Bagramian Avenue.

The new leaders put a greater emphasis on public discussions there, offering any protester a chance to speak up and suggest concrete actions. Sanasarian insisted that any decision made by them will have to be backed by most protesters.

It is not yet clear whether the new group will seek to step up pressure on the Armenian authorities by expanding the protests or adding political demands to their agenda. Its members say that they will only settle for a full acceptance of their key demand by the authorities. As one of them, Hmayak Mkrtchian, put it, “Even half a step back would mean a defeat for us.”

Meanwhile, the Armenian police on Wednesday again threatened to forcibly end the protests, saying that it was not sanctioned by municipal authorities and “disproportionately limits the constitutional rights of other citizens and public interests.” It also urged the protesters to rally elsewhere in downtown Yerevan.

Earlier in the day, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian and a senior police officials urged parents not to allow their underage children to spend nights at the site of the protests.

Electrified: Yerevan protest kept alive as new leadership emerges

July 2, 2015 By administrator

Despite dwindling numbers of participants in their daily rallies activists occupying one of Yerevan’s central boulevards have been keeping up the pressure of their protests against rising electricity prices.

As new leaders took over coordination of the Baghramyan Avenue protest dubbed Electric Yerevan the campaign vowed to continue to press the authorities to revoke their controversial decision to raise electric power tariffs by more than 16 percent beginning August 1.

A group of protesters led by initial organizers, a civil initiative called No To Plunder, left the protest site after President Serzh Sargsyan offered a “compromise” plan to defuse tensions last weekend, suggesting that the government will subsidize the hike pending an international audit of Armenia’s power grid run by a Russian-owned company.

But a majority of protesters remained camped in Baghramyan Avenue, determined to achieve their ultimate goal through a peaceful sit-in.

As the nonstop protest continued Nelly Duryan, a senior police officer in charge of minors’ affairs, visited the site Wednesday evening to get acquainted with the situation and urge parents not to allow their underage children to come to the protest venue, especially alone.

A number of activists confronted the police colonel, saying that their gatherings were peaceful and nothing threatened the children there.

Meanwhile, Duryan also cited the current hot weather conditions as one of the factors to discourage children from attending the rallies.

Meteorologists warned on July 1 that a new heat wave was on its way and that daytime air temperatures in Armenia would climb to 39 degrees centigrade (102F) in the coming days.

#ElectricYerevan: Police “count on demonstrators’ good sense”

July 2, 2015 By administrator

The Armenian police count on good sense of demonstrators against the power tariff rise and speedy voluntary opening of Bagramyan Avenue in central Yerevan, Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police Valery Osipyan told reporters today (July 2), according to Panorama.am.

“Bagramyan Avenue has been blocked illegally. The police will regularly take preventive measures to restore public order. Free movement of other citizens has been restricted disproportionately,” he said.

The Armenian police issued a statement yesterday, July 1, calling on the rally organizers and participants to be reasonable, respect the Constitution and laws of Armenia, rights and legitimate interests of other people, and voluntarily clear Bagramyan Avenue.

The statement says:

“From June 19-22, 2015 the citizens protesting against the increase of the price of electricity, organized an assembly and a twenty-four-hour sit-in on Freedom Square, violating the procedures envisaged by the law on Freedom of Assemblies. On June 22, the above-mentioned persons carried out an illegal march towards Baghramyan Avenue completely blocking the movement of transport means and pedestrians, and at 8 pm the march was turned into а sit-in at the same place. The police regularly carried out preventive and precautionary measures in line with legislation of and international standards during the whole process of the assembly and march as well as the 10-hour sit-in that followed. And only in the morning of June 23 the Police was forced to stop the assembly after the long and useless negotiations on admonishing to continue the assembly on Freedom Square and neglected multiple precautions on stopping the unauthorized assembly. In accordance with the line of acting relevant to such cases, the police immediately conducted internal proceedings to verify the lawfulness of its employee’s actions as well.

However, on the evening of the same day the organizers and participants of the assembly once again completely blocked the traffic of Baghramyan Avenue and adjacent streets through the new unlawful assembly, as well as the march, sit-in and other illegal actions that followed.

From the mentioned period till now the police showed tolerance towards the long term blocking of one of Yerevan city’s main avenues, the fact of bringing unallowed items to the place of assembly, as well as towards the noise in the areas surrounding residential buildings at nighttime disturbing the rest of the people, giving the opportunity to the participants to this assembly to express their position on the issue of public interest.

At the same time the police state that any implementation of the right for the freedom of assemblies despite its nature, the essence of the demand of the participants or their attitude towards the satisfaction of those demands should be in line with the relevant provisions of the Armenia’s Constitution, law on Freedom of Assemblies and other legal acts.

In this regard the right to freedom of assemblies, first of all doesn’t and can’t be absolute and can be limited for the purpose of public order or protection of constitutional rights and freedoms of others in democratic society as well as guaranteeing the regular traffic circulation.

It comes precisely from legislative regulations that any assembly has its beginning and the end, that is to say it should be temporary. Besides this, the right to the freedom of assemblies does not include the satisfaction of the demand expressed during the assembly.

At the same time the police attach importance to the fact that the organizers and the participants of the assembly have had enough time to announce their demands, as well as to present them to the society, the competent authorities and to the officials.

In these circumstances one of the main transportation channels of Yerevan city, which provides a daily movement of tens of thousands of people, including the requirement to work, leisure and other requirements, continues to remain blocked for indefinite time: moreover, on the road section and on the sidewalks of Baghramyan avenue the objects or barriers restricting the movement of public transport and pedestrians are installed. Eventually, one of the city’s constantly busy highways has been closed for a long term and is used for the leisure activities or sports and cultural events.

Based on the above mentioned facts and legal assessments given to them, the Armenian police announce that the closure of Baghramyan avenue and its consequences excessively restrict the constitutional rights of other people and social interests.

Therefore, the police calls on the organizers of the assembly to respect the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Armenia, the rights and legal interests of others and voluntarily eliminate blocking of Baghramyan Avenue, which continues about 10 days.

At the same time, police of the Republic of Armenia urge the organizers of the assembly and participants:

– to hold futurw public events in accordance with the requirements of the law of the Republic of Armenia on Freedom of Assembly.

– to move the assembly to another place, as a result of negotiations with the police.

Otherwise, the police of the Republic of Armenia will be forced to exert the powers vested by legislation of the Republic of Armenia in full.

Police of the Republic of Armenia hope that the public order disrupted in recent days, activities of public organizations, as well as violated rights of people will be possible to restore in an atmosphere of understanding and good will, without coercion or use of force.”

Panorama.am: Ոստիկանությունը ցուցարարների ողջամտության վրա է թողնել Բաղրամյան պողոտայի բացումը. Վ. Օսիպյան

Armenia state commission: Inter RAO seeks reason to justify shortcomings #ElectricYerevan

July 2, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of the Republic of Armenia (RA) has formally responded to the statement by Boris Kovalchuk—Chairman of the Management Board of Inter RAO UES, which is a Russian state-owned company—that the financial losses of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company are a result of the current regulatory system in the country.

“The RA Public Services Regulatory Commission considers Mr. Kovalchuk’s position over the situation to be incomprehensible and groundless, and it stands ready to prove this also during discussions with international consultants.

“The commission insists that the RA legislation, especially regarding the regulatory domain, is fully consistent with the international track-record and it has a broad application.

“Under the circumstances, we consider unacceptable that, instead of paying even more attention to own deficiencies and shortcomings, and attempt is made to seek a reason to justify them,” reads the PSRC statement in response.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

Three weddings and a fuel subsidy as Armenia’s electricity protests spread #ElectricYerevan

July 1, 2015 By administrator

By Karena Avedissian ‏@KarenaAv Jun 28

President’s offer to finance price hikes does little to quell the fervour as thousands of demonstrators remain on the streets. EurasiaNet.org reports

There have been both kisses and water cannons; three wedding celebrations and a barrage of injuries. The protests against electricity price hikes in Armenia’s capital, now in their third week, just refuse to go away despite a significant government concession.
Armenia protests escalate after police turn on demonstrators
Read more
Thousands of mainly young Armenians remain on the streets of Yerevan surrounding the presidential palace, and smaller demonstrations have spread to the towns of Gyumri, Vanadzor, Kapan and Sisian.

The #ElectricYerevan protests have become “a multi-headed dragon” for President Serzh Sargsyan’s administration, said independent analyst Saro Saroian. “After decapitating one head, another one grows immediately in its place.”

That is essentially what happened on 27 June when some protesters accepted Sargsyan’s offer to subsidise the hugely unpopular tariff rise that sparked the protests – and a far larger group elected to stay on the streets.

Addressing the crowd as “my dears”, Sargsyan, a veteran politician who has faced down more than a few rebellions in his seven years in office, urged the group to listen to his “friendly appeals” for a solution. He said that having police disperse protesters from downtown Yerevan “is not our aim”.

Hundreds of citizens have been arrested in the protests so far and journalists have had their equipment smashed. The use of water cannon on unarmed civilians led to condemnation from human rights groups .

The president’s overture essentially split the protest between a few hundred who agreed with the government’s proposal and left Baghramian Avenue for nearby Liberty Square, and many more who stayed put.
Meanwhile, the protests have been taking an increasingly jubilant tone, with three couples choosing the streets of Yerevan as their wedding venue.

“This is the result of a civilian struggle over the past two to three years, when thousands of people were mobilised. Not a crowd, but an organised fight, and a national fight, when the citizens know their rights,” said Saroian.

One demonstrator, 32-year-old psychologist Anush Badalian, said that experiences after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the economy and energy sector collapsed and Armenia fought a brutal, six-year war with Azerbaijan over the still-disputed territory Nagorno-Karabakh, fuelled protesters’ refusal to back down.

“We are the generation who saw the war,, who ate bread received with ration cards. Nothing scares us because we are used to hardships and fights,” Badalian said.

Ruben Mehrabian, a political analyst at the Armenian Center for National and International Studies in Yerevan, advises caution.

“At the moment, there is not the power [among the protesters] to serve as an alternative to the current government. But that does not mean that it will not appear in the future,” Mehrabian said. “Everything is still ahead.”

Stepan Danielian, head of the Collaboration for Democracy Center, warned that the protests may rnf in disappointment.

While even more Armenians on the streets could prove decisive, “public structures and mechanisms to make decisions must be developed,” he said.

“Even if Serzh Sargsyan resigns and the [ruling] Republican Party is dissolved, by that alone, problems are not solved. New Serzh Sargsyans will be born. The problem is more radical [than that].”
At the heart of the protests is the government’s perceived tradition of looking out for its business buddies: in this case Electric Networks of Armenia, owned by the Russian company Inter RAO, which has close ties to the Kremlin.

Demonstrators are furious over reports such as Transparency International Armenia’s, which claimed that the company spent 450 million-drams (about £600,000) on luxury cars.

To address that anger, the government has suggested that civil society and the opposition help appoint auditors and has not excluded the possibility of selling or nationalising the utility company.

But some analysts believe these proposals do not go far enough to address the underlying resentment.

“The post-Soviet system in Armenia, which by itself represents the Russian-style system of vertical corruption, does not work anymore,” said Mehrabian, a political analyst at the Armenian Center for National and International Studies. “It has expired, [yet] it is impossible to exchange its existence [for something else].”

Mass protests in Armenia as killings test loyalty to Moscow
Read more
The absence of an alternative could prove reassuring to Moscow, which has been watching the protests for signs of a repeat of the Ukrainian revolution. Little have come, with demonstrators denying they are aiming at Russia, Armenia’s closest ally.

Moscow’s recent decision to allow an Armenian court to try a Russian soldier charged with the murder of a family in the town of Gyumri appeared to be a bid to deflect anger away from the Kremlin. The rumour on the streets is that the decision only demonstrates how much Moscow understands their power.

A version of this article originally appeared on EurasiaNet.org, part of the New East network

Young Activists Electrify Armenia: Lessons Learned. #ElectricYerevan

July 1, 2015 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

When a group of young Armenians spontaneously gathered in Yerevan’s Liberty Square 10 days ago to challenge the planned increase of electricity rates, no one expected their protest to reverberate around the world.

To everyone’s surprise, the small gathering mushroomed into several thousand mostly young people who marched to the Capital City’s major thoroughfare, the Baghramyan Avenue, where the Presidential Palace, the Parliament, and the Constitutional Court are located, and staged an overnight sit-in. The protests quickly spread to major towns and cities throughout Armenia.

Since the demonstrators refused to vacate the Avenue, the police dispersed them with water cannons, injuring a dozen protesters and arresting 237 others. The police also detained several journalists, damaging or confiscating their cameras and tape recorders.

As images of these confrontations were disseminated through social media and various websites, several thousand more protesters showed up the next day, making crowd control practically impossible. At the time of writing this column — the evening of June 29 — demonstrators were still occupying portions of Baghramyan Avenue.

Who are these young men and women and what do they want? They are not affiliated with any political parties or foreign powers, contrary to baseless accusations, and have no agenda other than demanding that the Armenian government rescind the 17% increase in the cost of electricity, effective August 1. These activists believe that they are legally and morally justified to block city streets because their protest is peaceful and spontaneous! They have named their movement “No to Plunder.”

The authorities made several attempts to persuade these young people to abandon their protest. When President Serzh Sargsyan proposed to meet with them, the protesters declined the request demanding that the meeting be televised live to the public. The government’s offer to subsidize the higher cost of electricity by providing a corresponding increase in aid to over 100,000 destitute families was also rejected. Finally, the President’s decision to freeze the rate increase until an international auditing company reviews the financial records of the Energy Networks of Armenia, a subsidiary of a Russian company, to see if the new rate is warranted, was also turned down.

The first break in the tense standoff came last Sunday night when the protest organizers accepted the police offer and moved back to Liberty Square to avoid another bloody confrontation. They announced on Monday night that they are ending their protest and will decide their next move shortly. Most demonstrators, however, refused to follow the lead of the organizers, spending another night in the middle of Baghramyan Avenue, chanting: “We are the masters of our country.”

This new generation of men and women are disenchanted with both the authorities and the political opposition. However, rather than giving up and leaving the country like so many others, the protest organizers took to the streets to defend the people’s rights. These activists showed that although they have no power, no wealth, and no official position, they are capable of rising to the occasion when necessary and rally the masses around them, commanding the grudging respect of the authorities! One may disagree with the protesters’ tactics, but cannot help but admire their sincerity and commitment to the welfare of their fellow Armenians!

There are three important lessons to be learned from these recent developments:

The future of Armenia will be in good hands as long as there are young people in the upcoming generation like those who appeared spontaneously last week in the streets of Yerevan;

Opposition political parties in Armenia have little chance of assuming power anytime soon, unless they completely overhaul their policies, attract bright, committed and resourceful young men and women to their ranks, and allow them to rise to positions of leadership;

The people of Armenia have had a deep-seated distrust of all successive governments before and since independence. The leaders in power are facing far greater problems than the price of electricity. It is an existential imperative for Armenia to establish a just and democratic society in which the citizenry can live in dignity, prosperity and peace. Armenians would not need to protest in the streets of Yerevan if there are effective mechanisms that people can trust to defend their basic civil rights and secure their economic well-being.

Two protestors go on hunger strike in Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue #ElectricYerevan

June 30, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Two young protestors, Harutyun Hautyunyan and Hayk Parikyan, went on hunger strike at 18:00 at the junction of Isahakyan and Baghramyan streets. The They don’t yet know how long their hunger strike will last.

The young men demand to cancel the decision on electricity tariff rise.

Yerevan Deputy Chief of Police Valery Osipyan approached them and inquired who they are and how long their hunger strike will last, to which the young men responded: “Until our demand is met.”

Responding to the journalists’ question on whether Armenia’s Chief of Police knows there are people on hunger strike, Osipyan said: “The Chief of Police is aware of the operative situation.”

Armenia Power bills not to be subsidized through state budget: Prime Minister

June 30, 2015 By administrator

The subsidies to cover extra costs of electric power won’t be provided from Armenia’s state budget, Prime Minister said.

Hovik Abrahamyan, however, didn’t expand on the sources the funding will be provided from. He also refrained from comments on the Electric Networks of Armenia’s possible nationalization, Tert.am reports.

“It is still too early to discuss that. We still have to wait for debates; as a result of the auditing, we’ll have what we will and will by all means make our decision public,” he told reporters.

The PM did not respond to remarks about the reported allegations that the auditing will fall short of revealing the abuses in the system. He said the outcomes will be known as early as in July.

http://http://www.tert.am/am/news/2015/06/30/amh/1721816

No To Plunder: Still committed to cause, but not blocking avenue anymore #ElectricYerevan

June 30, 2015 By administrator

BY Alina Nikoghosyan ArmeniaNow

Members of the No To Plunder civil initiative think that the sit-in in Baghramyan Avenue is no longer appropriate and new platforms for the resolution of their demands should be found.

The group that initiated protests against rising electricity prices earlier this month told media on Tuesday that it will still be present at the demonstrations in Baghramyan Avenue, but not as coordinators but as Armenian citizens.

On June 28, No To Plunder largely accepted the compromise plan offered by President Serzh Sargsyan to defuse the current crisis and called its supporters to unblock Baghramyan Avenue that remains closed for traffic because of the nonstop protests since June 23. However, the greater part of the protesters stayed there continuing demonstrations. They remain in the area even today.

“Vaghinak [Shushanyan] didn’t manage to read out our decision till the end and it implied that part of the group would stay in Baghramyan Avenue together with the protesters while others would go with those who do not see their struggle here. At this time many people tried to discredit people in Baghramyan Avenue on our behalf, but all of them are our friends and we support them,” Arthur Kocharyan, a member of the initiative, said.

The group members said that their demand didn’t change but No To Plunder would meet different specialists to discuss the president’s proposals.

On Saturday, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced that the government will take upon itself the burden of compensating for the electricity price hike from August 1 and suggested commissioning an international audit for Armenia’s power grid. The president also noticed that the initiative members might be included in the process.

“We had stayed in Baghramyan Avenue for quite a long time and our next step would be blocking streets. However, being at the same area all the time proved quite difficult. We cannot succeed by just blocking streets, we need concrete professional help,” Sofya Hovsepyan, the coordinator of the group, said at today’s press conference.