Wednesday,
Armenia Aims To Phase Out Use Of Gas For Electricity Consumption
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A newly built solar power plant in Tsaghkadzor, 29Sep2017.
Armenia will likely stop using natural gas and rely only on nuclear energy,
hydropower and other renewables in meeting its electricity needs by 2030, a
senior government official said on Wednesday.
“Our goal is to have by 2030 only nuclear and renewable sources of internal
[electricity] consumption, which means that gas-powered thermal power plants
will operate only for the purpose of exports,” Deputy Energy Minister Hayk
Harutiunian told a news conference.
Harutiunian argued that the nuclear and renewable sources of energy are
considerably cheaper than electricity generated by the plants using mainly
Russian gas.
According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), thermal plants accounted
for 37 percent of Armenian electricity production last year. By comparison, the
Metsamor nuclear power station had a roughly 33 percent share in the total. The
remaining 30 percent came from hydroelectric plants, NSS data shows.
Energy Minister Ashot Manukian said earlier this year that his ministry is
aiming to ensure that renewable sources meet at least half of Armenia’s energy
needs within the next few years. That is essential for boosting the country’s
“energy security,” he said.
Hydropower provided only one-fifth of the country’s electricity a decade ago.
Its output will rise further following the planned construction of a
76-megawatt plant on the Debed river flowing through the country’s northern
Lori province.
The success of the government’s ambitious strategy will greatly depend on a
rapid spread of solar energy. In Harutiunian’s words, its presently negligible
share in national electricity production should reach at least 20 percent by
2030.
The Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources announced on March
30 that a consortium of Dutch and Spanish companies has won an international
tender for the construction of Armenia’s first large solar power plant.
Harutiunian said work to build the 55-megawatt plant near the eastern coast of
Lake Sevan is due to be completed by the end of 2019. The state-of-the-art
facility will have more than 170,000 solar panels, he said.
The deputy minister stressed the significance of the $50 million project which
will be mostly financed by the World Bank. “It can be said that this project
has broken all kinds of stereotypes about solar technologies: that they are
expensive, that a lot of time is needed to introduce them in Armenia,” he said.
The winners of the tender have pledged to set a “very low tariff” for
electricity to be produced by the Masrik-1 solar plant, added Harutiunian.
Harutiunian’s ministry has also pledged to facilitate the construction of five
other large or medium-sized solar plants in the coming years. They would
increase Armenia’s combined solar capacity to at least 120 megawatts.
Pashinian Admits Discord With Opposition Ally
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is interviewed by RFE/RL during a
political march through Shirak province, 1 April 2018.
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian acknowledged on Wednesday growing differences
with his key political ally, while saying that he hopes to prevent the collapse
of their Yelk bloc, the third largest force in Armenia’s parliament.
“There has never been a stale atmosphere of total accord in the Yelk alliance,”
Pashinian told reporters. “We have had heated debates right from the beginning
and those debates in no way reduce the difference between opinions and my
respect for our partners.”
“Unfortunately, those differences are becoming more pronounced by the day,” he
said. “But our position has always been constructive and will remain
constructive.”
“I think that the Yelk alliance needs to overcome the differences,” he added on
the fifth day of his 200-kilometer-long march through Armenia’s northern and
central regions.
Pashinian and a group of activists of his Civil Contract began the unusual
walking tour in advance of their demonstrations in Yerevan against President
Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent plans to stay in power after completing his second
term on April 9. The first such rally is scheduled for April 13.
Amenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian (C) and his supporters pose for a
photograph outside Vanadzor, 3 April 2018.
The two other parties making up Yelk have refused to join the campaign, saying
that it will not draw strong popular support. One of them, Bright Armenia, has
been particularly critical of Pashinian’s tactics. Edmon Marukian, the Bright
Armenia leader, called it “reckless” on Tuesday.
In a newspaper article, Marukian said that instead of trying to unseat the
outgoing president by street protests Yelk should gain more levers to hold the
government in check. In that regard, he suggested that the authorities allow
the opposition and civil society to name the chairpersons of two standing
committees of the Armenian parliament, a member of the Constitutional Court and
the country’s human rights ombudsman.
Pashinian dismissed the idea. “My march is not aimed at securing any state
posts for the opposition and in this context we cannot even consider that,” he
said.
Pashinian again insisted that his fight against Sarkisian’s continued rule
reflects the views of the vast majority of Armenians who voted for Yelk in the
April 2017 parliamentary elections.
“We are ready to stay patient so that pessimists reconsider their views and
believe that the people can win,” the Civil Contract leader said in a live
video message aired through Facebook later in the day. He claimed that his
ongoing march has already created an “atmosphere of optimism” among opposition
supporters in the country.
New Armenian Anti-Graft Body To Be Set Up Soon
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - The Prime Minister's Office and Finance Ministry buildings in
Yerevan, 30Sep2017.
A new and more powerful body tasked with tackling corruption in Armenia will be
formed before the end of next month in line with a government bill passed by
the parliament last year.
The Commission On Preventing Corruption will be tasked with deterring and
detecting corrupt practices among senior Armenian officials. It will replace
the existing State Commission for the Ethics of High-Ranking Officials that has
received mandatory income and asset declarations from the country’s 600 most
high-ranking state officials, including ministers and judges, for the last six
years.
The new commission will be empowered to not only scrutinize those financial
disclosures but also investigate possible conflicts of interest or unethical
behavior. It could ask law-enforcement bodies to prosecute officials suspected
by it of engaging in corruption or even submitting false declarations.
The commission will consist of five members to be named by a special council
that will also comprise five individuals. Each of them will be chosen, starting
from April 10, by the opposition minority in the Armenian parliament, the
Constitutional Court, the state human rights ombudsman, the presidential Public
Council and the national bar association.
Karen Zadoyan, who heads the Armenian Association of Lawyers, said that unlike
the outgoing commission the new anti-graft body will have “very serious powers”
that will allow it to combat corruption. But he said it could make a difference
only if its members are reputedly honest individuals ready to resist pressure
from the government or other state bodies.
The same is true for the council that will pick those members, according to
Zadyoan. “It is essential to focus attention to the formation of the council so
that it consists of spotless, honest and professional people,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Wednesday.
Daniel Ioannisian of the Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens was skeptical
on that score. “You have to be a bit naïve to think that a truly independent
council will be formed to choose members of the commission,” he said.
Armenia ranked, ranked, together with Macedonia, Ethiopia and Vietnam, 107th
out of 180 countries and territories that were evaluated in Transparency
International’s 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released in February.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” describes Russia and Turkey as “brothers in trouble” in a commentary
on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest visit to Ankara. “As well as
having serious problems with the West, they have serious problems with one
another,” writes the paper. “They have to forget about [those problems] for now
for purely tactical reasons … [Warm] Russian-Turkish relations have always
caused Armenia fairly severe losses. But one should not take a fatalistic look
at these processes. The situation now is totally different from what it was in
the past.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” continues to comment on the Armenian government’s
controversial decision to grant President Serzh Sarkisian ownership of his
official residence in Yerevan where he has lived since becoming president in
April 2008. At issue, the paper says, is not the vast size of the property and
adjacent land privatized by Sarkisian. The problem, it says, is that he will
own a property that has long been reserved for Armenia’s presidents. “To say
that this happened by accident would mean not realizing the whole essence of
Serzh Sarkisian and his boundless lust for power,” it says. “The handover to
him of ownership of his official residence is a vivid manifestation of that
lust for power.
“The authorities have decided to do everything to make the people believe that
not only there is economic growth but that they can feel the effects of that
growth on their skin,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper points to comments made
this week by Gagik Minasian, the chairman of an Armenian parliament committee
on budgetary issues. “The authorities have yet to ensure steady growth,
something which nobody has guaranteed,” it says.
“Aravot” discusses a recent increase in infectious diseases among Armenian
children which has resulted in a number of deaths. “The reason for that is
clear: propaganda against vaccination has intensified,” editorializes the
paper. “Parents have started trusting in that propaganda and refusing to have
their children vaccinated.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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