Tuesday,
Azerbaijan Accused Of Destroying Karabakh Cemeteries
• Marine Khachatrian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Satellite images of a cemetery in the Karabakh village of
Mets Tagher taken before and after the 2020 war.
Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday accused Azerbaijan of systematically
destroying Karabakh Armenian cemeteries in the disputed territory’s south
captured by it during last year’s war.
Davit Babayan, the Karabakh foreign minister, claimed that their tombstones are
being smashed and used in the ongoing construction of a new highway passing
through the Azerbaijani-controlled Hadrut district.
“According to some reports, cemeteries in Hadrut villages are destroyed en masse
and their tombstones used for road construction. This is barbarism,” he told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Babayan said Baku is seeking to erase all traces of centuries-old Armenian
presence in Hadrut whose ethnic Armenian residents fled their homes during the
fighting.
Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, said fresh satellite images
show that the graveyard of the Hadrut village of Mets Tagher has been “wiped
out” by Azerbaijani authorities.
“We can also see similar barbarism in the cemeteries of several other local
communities whose tombstones are used as construction materials in the
roadwork,” he said.
Azerbaijani forces also control part of the village of Taghavard in Karabakh’s
southeastern Martuni district, including the local cemetery. The village chief,
Oleg Harutiunian, said that it is also being destroyed.
The Azerbaijani government has not yet commented on the allegations.
Baku was accused last week of vandalizing Karabakh’s largest Armenian church
located in the town of Shushi (Shusha) also occupied by the Azerbaijani army
during the war.
Photographs taken from nearby hills showed the Holy Savior Cathedral stripped of
its conical dome and cross attached to it. Armenia said this was done for
“depriving the Shushi Cathedral of its Armenian identity.”
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denied that, saying that Azerbaijani
authorities are simply renovating the church damaged during the war.
Preparations Start For Armenian Elections
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - The Central Election Commission meets in Yerevan, .
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) began on Tuesday preparations for
early parliamentary elections one day after they were officially scheduled for
June 20.
President Armen Sarkissian set the date in a decree signed just hours after the
Armenian parliament voted to dissolve itself in line with an agreement reached
by its opposition minority and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian and his political team agreed to hold the snap elections in a bid to
end a serious political crisis triggered by Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war
in Nagorno-Karabakh. The outgoing parliament controlled by them will formally
continue to perform its duties until the formation of a new National Assembly.
The CEC approved a timetable of measures needed to prepare for and hold the
polls. In particular, it was decided that campaigning for them will officially
start on June 7 and last for only 12 days.
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and some opposition parties have already put up
campaign billboards in Yerevan, sparking allegations of foul play. The CEC
chairman, Tigran Mukuchian, insisted that this does not constitute a violation
of the Armenian Electoral Code or other laws.
Mukuchian also told reporters that as was the case during the last two
parliamentary elections held in 2018 and 2017 video cameras will be installed in
most of the 2,000 or so polling stations across Armenia. They will film voting
and ballot counting for the purpose of reducing the risk of vote irregularities.
Pashinian reiterated on Monday that his administration will do its best to
ensure that the upcoming vote is free and fair.
The deadline for the submission of documents by political parties or blocs
seeking to enter the parliamentary race was set for May 26. The CEC is due to
complete the formation of electoral districts by that day.
Civil Contract and the two opposition parties represented in the current
legislature have made clear that they will participate in the elections on their
own.
Other opposition forces and leaders have set up at least two electoral
alliances. One of them is led by former President Robert Kocharian while another
comprises former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia.
Armenia’s Food Inflation Keeps Rising
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A supermarket in Yerevan, April 29, 2021.
Food prices in Armenia rose further last month despite the authorities’ efforts
to curb inflation.
According to the Armenian Statistical Committee, they were up by an average of
8.3 percent compared with the same period of 2020. The government agency had
recorded year-on-year food price increases of 7.4 percent in March and 7.8
percent in February this year.
The committee’s latest inflation report shows particularly drastic increases in
the prices of mostly imported staple foodstuffs such as cooking oil and sugar.
They were up by more than 40 percent from April 2020. The prices of bread,
vegetables and fruits rose by over 8 percent year on year, according to the
report.
The continuing increase in the cost of food products pushed up annual inflation
to 6.2 percent in April, well above a 4 percent target set by Armenia’s
government and the Central Bank (CBA) for 2021. The CBA governor, Martin
Galstian, admitted last week that the authorities will likely fail to meet the
inflation target.
Galstian spoke to journalists after the Central Bank raised its main interest
rate for the third time in about five months, citing continuing inflationary
pressures on the Armenian economy.
The government data shows that the average monthly wage in the country grew by
only 2.1 percent in the first quarter of this year.
“This means that real incomes [of the population] are falling,” said Tadevos
Avetisian, an economist affiliated with the opposition Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). “This is a factor of impoverishment.”
Avetisian said the higher-than-projected inflation could also slow Armenia’s
recovery from a recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic by suppressing
consumer demand.
The higher food prices reflect a global trend. According to the UN’s Food and
Agriculture Organization, world food prices increased for an 11th consecutive
month in April, reaching their highest level since May 2014.
Armenian Health Minister Sees Long Vaccination Process
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - People line up at an open-air coronavirus vaccination site in Yerevan,
May 7, 2021.
Health authorities could take one year to vaccinate the majority of Armenians
against the coronavirus, according to Health Minister Anahit Avanesian.
Avanesian said that only about 12,000 people making up 0.4 percent of Armenia’s
population received a first vaccine dose as of Monday.
“This figure is definitely not satisfactory and we are trying to increase the
pace [of vaccinations,]” she said, answering questions from Facebook users at
the RFE/RL studio in Yerevan.
Asked when the country could achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 at this
rate, she said: “We will probably need one year to reach the threshold where we
can bid farewell to COVID-19.”
“Of course, that depends on a number of factors. We cannot say how many people
will be applying [for vaccine shots] in the next one or two months. We are doing
everything to make vaccination accessible,” added the minister.
The vaccination campaign was launched on April 13 weeks after Armenia received a
total of 67,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines. The AstraZeneca
jab was made available to all adults willing to take it while Sputnik V is
administered only to frontline workers and chronically ill persons under the age
of 55.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained about the slow pace of vaccinations on
April 29, telling his ministers to get vaccine shots and thus set an example to
skeptical citizens. The health authorities set up mobile vaccination facilities
at shopping malls and on major streets in Yerevan in the following days.
Armenia - Armenian Health Minister Anahit Avanesian is vaccinated against
COVID-19 in Yerevan, April 28, 2021
Avanesian said that although the daily number of inoculated people has grown
since then more time is needed to raise public awareness of the vaccination
campaign and its importance.
Armenia also received on May 1 100,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine donated by
China. In Avanesian’s words, the health authorities started on Monday
distributing them to policlinics across the country in preparation for their use.
The minister also revealed that the Armenian government is now negotiating with
the U.S. company Novavax on the purchase of its coronavirus vaccine. She did not
specify the possible volume and timeframes of its delivery.
Armenia faced earlier this year a third wave of coronavirus infections blamed by
health experts on the authorities’ failure to enforce their sanitary safety
rules. Despite the continuing lack of such enforcement, the daily number of new
cases has fallen for the last two weeks.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported 243 single-day coronavirus cases on
Tuesday morning, sharply down from over 1,000 cases repeatedly registered in the
first half of April.
The ministry has recorded just over 5,300 coronavirus-related deaths since the
start of the pandemic.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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