Wednesday,
Yerevan Reassures Iranian Envoy Over Bypass Road
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian (right) meets with
Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri, Yerevan, .
Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian told Iran’s ambassador in Yerevan on
Wednesday that Armenia will complete soon work on an alternative road that will
allow Iranian trucks to bypass an Azerbaijani roadblock set up on the main
highway connecting the two states.
Azerbaijan gained control over a 21-kilometer section of the highway last
December following an Armenian troop withdrawal from border areas along
Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province. Azerbaijani officers deployed there
began stopping and taxing on September 12 Iranian trucks delivering goods to and
from Armenia. Many truck drivers have refused to pay the “road tax” reportedly
ranging from $150 to $350 per vehicle.
Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri has since met with various Armenian
officials to discuss the resulting disruptions in cargo traffic between Armenia
and Iran. He said last week that Tehran hopes the Armenian government will speed
up the ongoing reconstruction of the alternative Syunik road bypassing
Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas.
In a statement, Papikian said he assured Zohouri that the 70-kilometer bypass
road will be fully refurbished “by the end of November.” He also reiterated that
it will be extended further north to divert traffic from a tortuous mountain
pass outside the Syunik village of Tatev.
Papikian added that he also reaffirmed the Armenian government’s plans to build
or refurbish other Syunik roads leading to the Iranian border. The government
hopes that the European Union and other international donors will finance the
ambitious project worth an estimated $1 billion.
Iran is a major trading partner of Armenia and one of the landlocked country’s
two conduits to the outside the world. Up to one-third of Armenia’s foreign
trade is carried out via the Islamic Republic and its Persian Gulf ports in
particular.
Yerevan has reacted to cautiously to Baku’s decision to levy hefty fees from
Iranian vehicles entering Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested on
September 15 the move is aimed at pressuring Armenia to open a transport
corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through
Syunik. But he stopped short of demanding an end to the serious hurdle to
Armenia’s transport links with Iran.
Gohar Iskandarian, a Yerevan-based Iran expert, also pointed to Papikian’s
recent remark that it is up to Tehran and Baku to sort out the road crisis.
“Iran and Azerbaijan are talking about the problem in a quite forceful way,
whereas Armenia is making no such statements,” Iskandarian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service. “On the contrary, [Yerevan] has adopted a very passive stance,
saying that this is beyond the scope of our powers.”
Shortly after Baku set up the roadblock the Iranian military reportedly began
massing troops and holding exercises along the Iranian-Azerbaijani border.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the drills on Monday. Iran’s
Foreign Ministry dismissed the criticism.
Armenian Officials Reject Freedom House Criticism
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party attend the inaugural
session of the recently elected National Assemnly, Yerevan, August 2, 2021.
Pro-government lawmakers dismissed on Wednesday U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom
House’s strong criticism of recently enacted legislation allowing Armenian
authorities prosecute people insulting state officials.
The amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code make “grave insults” directed at
individuals because of their “public activities” crimes punishable by heavy
fines and a prison sentence of up to three months. Those individuals may include
government and law-enforcement officials, politicians and other public figures.
Invoking the new Criminal Code clauses, the Armenian police launched earlier
this month criminal proceedings against a social media user who allegedly made
an offensive comment about Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on his Facebook page.
Freedom House deplored the development in a statement issued on Tuesday. The
Washington-based watchdog urged the Armenian authorities to stop enforcing “this
unconstitutional legislation” which it said indicates a “clear degradation of
democratic norms in Armenia, including freedom of expression.”
Vahagn Hovakimian, a parliament deputy from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and
one of the authors of the legislation, denied such a regression in the country.
He said that Pashinian’s political team criminalized grave insults, rather than
defamation.
“I am saddened to see inaccurate things in the Freedom House appeal because the
international organization was misled in this particular case,” the former
journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Another pro-government lawmaker, Zaruhi Batoyan, also defended the controversial
amendments. She said they are needed to tackle widespread verbal abuse
circulated on Armenian social media accounts.
“Maybe this should be a temporary solution, but it is necessary at this point
and our social life testifies to that,” said the former labor minister and civic
activist.
By contrast, Artsvik Minasian, a parliamentary leader of the main opposition
Hayastan alliance, echoed the Freedom House criticism.
“This law cannot contribute to Armenia’s democratic development,” said Minasian.
“On the contrary, it will help Armenia regress in the objective rankings of all
human rights organizations.”
Hayastan and other opposition groups claim that Pashinian himself has relied
heavily on slander and “hate speech” since coming to power in 2018.
All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010
during then President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.
Armenia's Water Operator Seeking Price Hike
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - A sign outside the Yerevan headquarters of the Veolia Djur company,
September 2, 2018.
A French company managing Armenia’s water distribution network has asked public
utility regulators to allow it to raise the price of drinking water in the
country by over 24 percent.
The price has stood at 180 drams (37 U.S. cents) per cubic meter ever since the
Veolia utility giant took over the nationwide network in 2017 after signing a
15-year management contract with the former Armenian government.
Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission
(PSRC), said on Wednesday that the company’s Armenian subsidiary, Veolia Djur,
requested last month permission to raise it to almost 224 drams per cubic meter.
The operator cited, among other things, higher-than-expected inflation and the
increased cost of electricity, he told reporters.
Under Armenian law, the PSRC has to fully or partly approve the tariff rise or
reject it by December 1.
Baghramian signaled the regulatory body’s intention to agree to a higher water
price. He argued that the management contract with Veolia envisages price hikes
for the coming years.
But he stressed that the tariff will likely remain unchanged for about 100,000
low-income households that already enjoy electricity and natural gas price
discounts.
The official also revealed that the PSRC and the government are negotiating with
Veolia on a deal that would set a fixed water price for the next 10 years.
Veolia managed the water and sewerage network of Yerevan from 2007-2016, phasing
out Soviet-era water rationing in the vast majority of city neighborhoods. The
2016 contract commits it to investing 37.5 billion drams ($77 million) in
Armenia’s aging and inefficient water distribution network.
It is not clear how much the company has invested so far. Veolia Djur has still
not responded to relevant questions sent by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last week.
Dozens Of Karabakh Civilians Still Missing After 2020 War
• Karlen Aslanian
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An Azeri military truck drives along a street in the town of
Hadrut, November 25, 2020
About two dozen civilian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh remain unaccounted for
one year after the outbreak of the Armenian-Azerbaijani war, according to the
authorities in Stepanakert.
“They are mostly elderly or disabled individuals who did not manage to leave
their places of residence in the Hadrut, Shushi and Askeran districts [occupied
by Azerbaijani forces,]” Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman,
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday.
“I presume that those individuals too were subjected to torture or killed, but
their bodies have not been handed over to the Armenian side to date,” he said.
“It is also possible that some of them remain in Azerbaijani captivity.
Azerbaijan does not provide any real information about their whereabouts.”
Stepanian claimed that 38 other Karabakh Armenian civilians were executed or
tortured to death after being captured by Azerbaijani forces. He said their
bodies recovered by Karabakh authorities bore traces of violence.
In December 2020, Britain’s The Guardian daily examined gruesome videos that
show men in Azerbaijani army uniforms beheading two elderly men recognized by
their Karabakh Armenian relatives and neighbors.
“The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective
villages said,” reported the paper.
“The villagers’ testimony in interviews with the Guardian corroborates
identifications by a human rights ombudsman for the Armenian-backed local
government and two prominent Armenian human rights lawyers preparing a criminal
case relating to the murders,” it said.
So far Azerbaijan has admitted detaining only three ethnic Armenian civilians
during the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November.
It has denied ill-treating them or Armenian soldiers taken prisoner.
According to Baku, 93 civilian residents of Azerbaijani towns and villages
shelled by the Armenian military were killed during the hostilities.
Stepanian’s office has reported 42 civilian deaths caused by Azerbaijani
shelling of Karabakh.
The war also left at least 3,700 Armenian soldiers dead. According to Armenian
authorities, 231 others remain unaccounted for.
Azerbaijan’s government has acknowledged more than 2,800 combat deaths in the
Azerbaijani army ranks.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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