Monday, June 6, 2022
Government Hints At Delay To Health Insurance Plan
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - A newly built hospital in Vanadzor, November 10, 2018.
Citing financial constraints, the Armenian government signaled on Monday that it
will put on hold plans to introduce a system of national health insurance that
would cover the country’s entire population.
The Ministry of Health announced in January that it has drafted relevant
legislation and submitted it to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet for
approval. Ministry officials indicated that it can be put into practice already
next year.
Under the proposed bill, free healthcare would be financed by a 6 percent
personal income tax. Public and private employers would pay half of the new tax
to be levied from their workers.
Finance Minister Tigran Khachatrian said the insurance plan would still require
the government to more than double in 2023 public spending on healthcare
projected at up to 140 billion drams ($310). The government cannot ensure such a
drastic increase, he said, adding that the new system should be introduced
gradually and slowly.
“We have asked our colleagues [from the Ministry of Health] to present an action
plan on how they can follow that reform path by steadily and consistently
increasing funding volumes in the coming years,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Deputy Health Minister Lena Nanushian acknowledged that the government could
delay the new system or opt for its phased introduction. She also did not rule
out other changes in the proposed plan.
Armenia’s former governments too promised to put in place mandatory health
insurance for all citizens. But they eventually backed away in the face of
financial difficulties.
Public access to healthcare in the country declined following the collapse of
the Soviet Union as cash-strapped Armenian hospitals were allowed to charge
their patients. Most of those hospitals were privatized in the 1990s.
Only state-run policlinics are now required to provide medical services to the
population free of charge. Healthcare, including surgeries, is also supposedly
free for children aged 7 and younger. Also, over the past decade the state has
partly covered healthcare expenses of civil servants, schoolteachers and other
public sector employees.
Armenian Authorities, Opposition Blame Each Other For Clashes
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Police detain demonstrators during an opposition rally in Yerevan,
June 3, 2022.
The Armenian authorities and opposition groups continued to blame each other on
Monday for violent clashes between security forces and demonstrators demanding
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation.
The clashes broke out late on Friday after riot police did not allow thousands
of opposition supporters to approach the parliament building in Yerevan on the
34th day of nonstop anti-government protests.
The police fired stun grenades as some of the protesters tried to break through
a police cordon in chaotic scenes that left at least 60 people injured. One of
them, a protester, suffered a severe head injury and underwent surgery.
According to law-enforcement authorities, 40 police officers received medical
assistance in hospitals after being pelted with bottles, stones and other
objects and assaulted by demonstrators.
The Investigative Committee launched a criminal inquiry into “mass disturbances”
which it said were provoked by unnamed opposition leaders. It did not say
whether it will prosecute any of those leaders.
The committee brought instead criminal charges against most of at least 13
protesters arrested during or after the clashes. It said that they did not obey
police orders and resorted to violence.
Armenian courts freed several detainees, including opposition activist Vahe
Harutiunian, over the weekend and on Monday, citing a lack of incriminating
evidence.
Vahe Yeprikian, a lawyer representing Harutiunian and two other protesters, who
remained under arrest, said investigators did not present any video evidence
corroborating the accusations leveled against his clients.
Armenia - Riot police clash with opposition protesters in Yerevan, June 3, 2022.
Opposition leaders condemned the use of force as excessive and unjustified. They
singled out the use of stun grenades, saying that policemen mishandled them and
wounded their own colleagues.
“Those who fired [the stun grenades] and their commanders should be tried or
beaten up by other policemen for the fact that they are so unprofessional that
they didn’t learn how to use those special means,” said Gegham Manukian of the
main opposition Hayastan alliance.
The police insisted that only two officers were injured by stun grenades and
that other dozens of others were attacked by angry protesters. They also
released on Monday a fresh video of the clashes meant to justify the crackdown.
The police did not comment on other videos posted on social media which showed
several policemen punching protesters as the latter were dragged away and
arrested by other officers. None of those policemen was placed under
investigation as of Monday evening.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said it has ordered an
inquiry into the use of stun grenades and other instances of police brutality
alleged by the opposition.
Opposition leaders demanded such an inquiry as they again rallied thousands of
supporters in the center of Yerevan. One of them, Ishkhan Saghatelian, said the
protests will continue in the days ahead. He said their organizers are now
discussing “tactical changes” designed to “give us new impetus and expand our
movement.”
EU Not Vying With Russia Over Karabakh, Says Envoy
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Toivo Klaar (R), the EU's special representative to the South
Caucasus, meets Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, June 3, 2022.
The European Union is not competing with Russia in its efforts to facilitate a
“comprehensive settlement” of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the EU’s special
representative to the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, insisted at the weekend.
Klaar’s comments contrasted with what another EU official late last week. The
official, who asked not to identified, said that the EU has replaced Russia as
the lead player in international efforts to broker peace between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. He claimed that both Yerevan and Baku are now “very scared of
Moscow” because of the war in Ukraine.
“The European Union is not engaged in any kind of competition,” Klaar told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We are solely interested in trying to help the
process along.”
“If there are other actors, who are able to help things along, then we are very
happy,” he said. “We know that the Russian Federation has invested quite a bit
in different [Armenian-Azerbaijani] meetings and most recently in the deputy
prime ministers’ meeting.
“So from our perspective there is most definitely no competition, there is no
interest in any competition. We are simply interested in a peaceful and
prosperous South Caucasus.”
The president of the EU’s decision-making European Council, Charles Michel, has
hosted three trilateral meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the last five months.
Russia has denounced the EU’s mediation efforts, saying that they are part of
the West’s attempts to hijack Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks and use the
Karabakh conflict in its standoff with Moscow over Ukraine. A Russian Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman warned Brussels last week against playing “geopolitical
games” in the conflict zone.
The EU’s peace efforts also prompted criticism from Karabakh’s leaders. They
were angered by Michel’s comments made after the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani
summit held on May 22. They claimed that he signaled support for Azerbaijani
control over the disputed territory.
A spokesman for Michel insisted afterwards that the EU’s top official did not
advocate any “predetermined outcome of discussions” on Karabakh’s future.
Klaar, who met with Pashinian in Yerevan on Friday, stressed in this regard that
Karabakh’s predominantly Armenian population should be a party to an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.
“It is clear that there are many people living in Karabakh who have a
fundamental interest in how ... a comprehensive settlement is shaped,” said the
diplomat. “I personally cannot see how we can arrive at such a settlement
without a process in which these people’s opinions and views are taken into
account.”
Russia Reports Progress In Talks On Armenian-Azeri Transport Links
Russia - Deputy Prime Ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan meet in
Moscow, January 30, 2021
Russia said over the weekend that Armenia and Azerbaijan narrowed their
differences on planned transport links between the two countries during fresh
talks held in Moscow.
A Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani commission dealing with the matter met late on
Friday for the first time in six months.
“The parties discussed and brought closer their positions on issues of border,
customs and other types of control, as well as the safe passage of citizens,
vehicles and goods on roads and railways through the territories of the Republic
of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia,” the Russian government said in a
statement.
The statement did not go into details of the meeting co-chaired by deputy prime
ministers of the three states. It said the parties “will continue to work on the
implementation” of relevant Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements that were brokered
by Russian President Vladimir Putin during and after the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian government issued a virtually identical statement on the Moscow
meeting.
Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev reported decisive progress towards opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border to passenger and cargo traffic after talks held in the Russian city of
Sochi in November. However, the trilateral commission failed to put the
finishing touches on their understandings at a meeting held in Moscow in
December.
Yerevan and Baku continued to disagree on the status of a road and a railway
that will connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia.
Aliyev said later in December that people and cargo passing through that
“corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Pashinian rejected the
demand.
Moscow moved to revive the activities of the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani
commission in April after accusing the West of trying to hijack its efforts to
make peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The accusations followed Pashinian’s April 6 meeting with Aliyev hosted by
European Council President Charles Michel. The three leaders met again in
Brussels for follow-up discussions on the transport links, the demarcation of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and a possible peace treaty between the two
South Caucasus nations.
Aliyev continued to claim after the latest summit that Yerevan will open a
permanent land corridor for Nakhichevan. Armenian leaders flatly denied that. A
spokesman for Michel likewise stated last week that the Armenian and Azerbaijani
leaders agreed at Brussels that there will be no “extraterritorial claims with
regard to future transport infrastructure.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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