Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

                                        Wednesday, 
Armenian, Azeri Officials Hold More Talks In Moscow
        • Aza Babayan
Russia -- A Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group on cross-border transport 
issues meets in Moscow, January 30, 2021.
Senior government officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan began on Wednesday a new 
round of Russian-mediated negotiations on restoring economic links between their 
countries.
They met for the latest two-day session of a trilateral working group set up by 
the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian governments in January. It has been 
discussing practical modalities of opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border for 
commercial traffic in line with the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 
war in Nagorno-Karabakh last November.
A source privy to the talks told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Yerevan and Baku 
have still not reached an agreement on the key issues on the agenda of the task 
force co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states. Their discussions 
are focused on legal aspects of opening Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links, 
said the source.
Speaking to reporters in Yerevan on Tuesday, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher 
Grigorian said the two sides have made progress towards restoring their 
Soviet-era rail links. But he did not elaborate.
The ceasefire agreement specifically commits Armenia to opening rail and road 
links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should be able, 
for its part, to use Azerbaijani territory as a transit route for cargo 
shipments to and from Russia and Iran.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal 
envisages a permanent land “corridor” that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest 
of Azerbaijan via Armenia’s Syunik province. He has threatened to forcibly open 
such a corridor if Yerevan continues to oppose its creation.
Armenian leaders have denounced Aliyev’s threats as territorial claims, saying 
that the truce accord only calls for transport links between the two South 
Caucasus states.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk insisted last month that the 
trilateral group has not discussed possible transport corridors.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke on Wednesday of 
“positive messages” coming from Yerevan of late. Bayramov did not specify those 
messages. He said only that Baku hopes that they will translate into “concrete 
results” soon.
Armenian Government To Hold Fugitive Ex-Minister’s Funeral
        • Astghik Bedevian
        • Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Former Interior Minster Vano Siradeghian.
The government said on Wednesday that it will form an ad hoc commission to 
organize the funeral of Vano Siradeghian, a prominent politician and former 
interior minister who died late last week more than two decades after fleeing 
Armenia.
The government’s press service did not say who will head the commission or where 
Siradeghian will be buried. It told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that details of 
the planned ceremonies will be made public after a date is set for his funeral.
Neither Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian nor any member of his government has 
issued so far statements of condolence to the family of a man who is still 
technically wanted by Armenian law-enforcement bodies for grave crimes allegedly 
committed by him in the 1990s.
The death of the 74-year-old Siradeghian was announced by his wife and son at 
the weekend. They did not specify its cause or reveal his last place of 
residence.
A former novelist, Siradeghian was one of the leaders of a popular movement for 
Armenia’s unification with Nagorno-Karabakh who came to power in 1990. He became 
one of the newly independent country’s most powerful men when serving as 
interior minister in the administration of its first President Levon 
Ter-Petrosian from 1992-1996.
Siradeghian was dogged by opposition allegations of corruption and police abuses 
during and after his tenure. He denied them.
One year after Ter-Petrosian resigned in 1998, Siradeghian was charged with 
ordering a string of contract killings. State prosecutors claimed that he set up 
in the early 1990s a death squad to terrorize opponents of the Ter-Petrosian 
administration.
In July 2000, two members of the alleged gang were sentenced to death while 
seven others got jail terms ranging from 4 to 11 years. One month later, eleven 
former officers of Armenian interior troops were given lengthy sentences after a 
Yerevan court convicted them of murdering two men in 1995.
Siradeghian strongly denied ordering those killings. The former interior 
minister and his supporters insisted that the charges were fabricated as part of 
then President Robert Kocharian’s efforts to neutralize his political foes.
Siradeghian fled Armenia in April 2000 ahead of the Armenian parliament’s 
decision to allow law-enforcement authorities to arrest him. Although the 
authorities had Siradeghian placed on Interpol’s wanted list, his whereabouts 
always remained unknown to the public.
Siradeghian lived abroad under a new and false name, according to Khachatur 
Sukiasian, a wealthy businessman and pro-Pashinian parliamentarian who has long 
been close to the ex-minister.
This is why, Sukiasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday, repatriating 
his body is now fraught with some “difficulties.” “There are technical and legal 
issues,” he said.
The tycoon did not deny having kept in touch with Siradeghian for the past two 
decades. He too did not name the country where the latter lived.
Throughout his exile Siradeghian continued to enjoy the strong backing of 
Ter-Petrosian and members of the ex-president’s entourage. In a weekend 
statement, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party praised 
Siradeghian’s literary and political legacy and deplored the “trumped-up” 
charges brought against him during Kocharian’s rule.
Armenian Regulators To Limit Water Price Hike
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - A sign outside the Yerevan headquarters of the Veolia Djur company, 
September 2, 2018.
A French company managing Armenia’s water distribution network should scale back 
a significant increase in the price of drinking water sought by it, the head of 
a state body regulating public utilities said on Wednesday.
The price has stood at 180 drams (37 U.S. cents) per cubic meter ever since the 
Veolia utility giant took over the network in 2017 after signing a 15-year 
management contract with the former Armenian government.
The company’s Armenian subsidiary, Veolia Djur, requested in August permission 
to raise it to almost 224 drams per cubic meter. It cited, among other things, 
higher-than-expected inflation and the increased cost of electricity in the 
country.
Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission 
(PSRC), said the commission has looked into the application and believes that 
the water tariff must remain unchanged for low-income households and be set at 
200 drams for other consumers.
Baghramian told reporters that the PSRC will “propose” this solution at an 
upcoming meeting with Veolia Djur executives. It will make a final decision on 
the new tariff after that meeting, he said.
In his words, the regulators are also seeking a 10-year tariff agreement with 
the water operator. “That presupposes a certain increase in the price, which 
will remain, nonetheless, stable in the next 10 years,” added Baghramian.
Under Armenian law, the PSRC has to fully or partly approve the Veolia Djur 
application or reject it by December 1.
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.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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