Tuesday, December 17, 2013
New Details Of Russian-Armenian Gas Deal Emerge
Armenia – Energy Minister Armen Movsisian (R) and Gazprom Chairman
Alexei Miller (L) sign a Russian-Armenian gas deal in the presence of
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sarkisian, Yerevan, 2Dec2013.
Astghik Bedevian
17.12.2013
An agreement signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin?s
recent visit to Yerevan bars Armenia from changing for the next 30
years the regulatory environment for its domestic gas distribution
network controlled by Russia?s Gazprom giant, it emerged on
Tuesday.
More details of the agreement signed by Energy Minister Armen
Movsisian and the Gazprom chairman, Alexei Miller, on December 2 came
to light during hearings held in the Armenian parliament. Opposition
lawmakers attending them accused the Armenian government of having
withheld crucial information about its energy dealings with Moscow
from the public for political purposes.
The deal in question formalized the transfer of the government?s
remaining 20 percent share in Armenia?s gas distribution network to
Gazprom in payment for its hitherto unknown debt worth $300
million. The government has run up the debt while secretly subsidizing
the price of Russian gas raised by Gazprom in April 2011.
The price hike was acknowledged by the Armenian authorities only after
a presidential election and municipal polls in Yerevan held in
February and May respectively. Official vote results, rejected as
fraudulent by the Armenian opposition, gave victory to President Serzh
Sarkisian and his Republican Party (HHK).
Opposition deputies condemned the secret subsidy, saying that it was
illegal and aimed at helping Sarkisian hold on to power. ?This is a
crime for which this government must be prosecuted,? Levon Zurabian
of the Armenian National Congress (HAK) charged during the hearings.
Armenia — Opposition Alexander Arzumanian at a press conference in
Yerevan, 28Mar2013
Gurgen Arsenian, a wealthy lawmaker representing the Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK), claimed that the election outcome would have been
different had voters been aware that Russian gas has become far more
expensive.
Movsisian, who also spoke at the hearings, denied any wrongdoing on
the part of his government. He argued that the 20 percent share in the
Armenian gas network covered only half of the debt to Gazprom and that
the rest of it was forgiven by the Russian gas monopoly.
?On top of that, no gas price rises are expected for the next five
years. I consider this a good deal,? the minister said. He also
claimed that the government has never lied to the public about the gas
tariff.
Movsisian repeatedly denied any increase in the cost of Russian gas in
2012 and earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Alexander Arzumanian, another opposition deputy, decried
other, hitherto unknown provisions of the latest Russian-Armenian gas
deal. Under one of them, Armenia cannot enact any legislation
affecting Gazprom?s tight grip on its gas network until December
2043. The Russian energy conglomerate will be able to challenge any
relevant change in Armenian laws and regulations at an international
arbitration body.
?This contract totally restricts the rights of one of the
signatories and runs counter to our constitution,? raged
Arzumanian. ?It only serves the interests of the other side. Such
agreements are called capitulation acts.?
The disclosed clause could make it even harder for the Armenian
government to significantly boost the presently modest volumes of gas
imports from neighboring Iran. Armenian officials and Movsisian in
particular have repeatedly claimed that Iranian gas is more expensive
than the gas supplied by Gazprom.
The Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Mohammad Reisi, publicly questioned
these claims earlier this month. Reisi hinted that Iran is ready, in
principle, to sell gas to Armenia at prices well below international
market levels.
Movsisian on Tuesday dismissed Reisi?s statements. He said the
government will consider buying more Iranian gas if Tehran offers a
?good price.?
Pension Reform Challenged In Court
Armenia – Workers demonstrate against controversial pension reform,
Yerevan,17Dec2013
Anush Mkrtchian
17.12.2013
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Yerevan on Tuesday as the
opposition minority in Armenia’s parliament asked the Constitutional
Court to scrap a controversial pension reform that would force them to
pay more taxes.
The three opposition parties represented in the National Assembly as
well as the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) lodged the appeal after the
crowd joined by their senior representatives marched from the city’s
Liberty Square to the nearby court building.
The four parties challenged the legality of the reform two weeks after
the parliament’s pro-government majority rejected their proposal to
postpone the upcoming entry into force of a corresponding government
bill. They claim that the bill breaches, among other things, citizens’
property rights guaranteed by the Armenian constitution.
`Many young people are unemployed, while many of those who have jobs
do not earn enough to meet their basic needs. They are now being told
to pay more,’ Armen Rustamian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, told the protesters during a rally in Liberty Square.
`For once, the highest tribunal in our country must not play political
games and must make a decision for the Republic of Armenia,’ said the
BHK’s Naira Zohrabian.
The bill, effective from January 1, will require Armenians under the
age of 40 to pay more social security taxes. The unpopular measure
stems from Armenia’s transition to a new system whereby the amount of
pensions will depend on workers’ lifelong contributions to pension
funds.
Hundreds of people, most of them young professionals, have
demonstrated against it in recent weeks. `We are convinced that the
law is unconstitutional,’ one of them Davit Khazhakian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Tuesday.
President Serzh Sarkisian strongly defended the reform in televised
remarks on Friday. Sarkisian told his government to be `much more
active’ in explaining its merits to the population.
The Constitutional Court has rarely struck down decisions made by
Armenian state bodies. Parliament minority leaders as well as
representatives of the protesting workers said they will continue
campaigning against the controversial measure even if the court
rejects the appeal.
Armenian Genocide Denial No Crime, Says European Court
France — Judges of the European Court of Human Rights hold hearings
in Strasbourg, December 3, 2013
17.12.2013
( Reuters) – Denying that mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey
in 1915 were genocide is not a criminal offence, the European Court of
Justice ruled on Tuesday in a case involving Switzerland.
The court, which upholds the 47-nation European Convention on Human
Rights, said a Swiss law against genocide denial violated the
principle of freedom of expression.
The ruling has implications for other European states such as France
which have tried to criminalize the refusal to apply the term
“genocide” to the massacres of Armenians during the breakup of the
Ottoman empire.
A Swiss court had fined the leader of the leftist Turkish Workers’
Party, Dogu Perincek, for having branded talk of an Armenian genocide
“an international lie” during a 2007 lecture tour in Switzerland.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning
in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that it
constituted an act of genocide – a term used by many Western
historians and foreign parliaments.
“Genocide is a very narrowly defined legal notion which is difficult
to prove,” the court said. “Mr Perincek was making a speech of a
historical, legal and political nature in a contradictory debate.”
The court drew a distinction between the Armenian case and appeals it
has rejected against convictions for denying the Nazi German Holocaust
against the Jews during World War Two. “In those cases, the plaintiffs
had denied sometimes very concrete historical facts such as the
existence of gas chambers,” the court said. “They denied crimes
committed by the Nazi regime that had a clear legal
basis. Furthermore, the facts they denied had been clearly been
established by an international tribunal.”
The judges cited a 2012 ruling by France’s Constitutional Council
which struck down a law enacted by then President Nicolas Sarkozy’s
government as “an unconstitutional violation of the right to freedom
of speech and communication”.
Switzerland has three months to appeal against the ruling.
Press Review
17.12.2013
`Haykakan Zhamanak’ says Armenia’s pro-government broadcasters are
turning a blind eye to anti-Armenian protests in the Russian city of
Arzamas that were provoked by a violent dispute at a local
restaurant. The paper says their participants are demanding that all
ethnic Armenians be expelled from their community. `Many Armenian
families have already fled Arzamas. It Is not the first time that such
events take place in Russia,’ the paper says. `What is important here
is not the events themselves but the behavior of the Russian
authorities. It is probably no secret to anyone that they provide
covert support to Russian extremists.’ In these circumstances, it
says, the Armenian government’s decision to join a Russian-led
Eurasian Union is all the more irresponsible.
`Hayots Ashkhar’ speculates that Turkey has `prematurely’ started
using against Armenia its propaganda ploys that were originally
reserved for the 2015 commemorations of the centenary of the Armenian
genocide. The paper says Ankara is doing this under pressure from
Western powers that feel that Turkey is also responsible for Armenia’s
decision to join the Russian-led customs union because its refusal to
ratify the 2009 Turkish-Armenian protocols left Yerevan with no other
alternative.
`Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun’ says many residents of Yerevan suspect
that the rise in the price of natural gas supplied to their apartments
has been even steeper than was officially declared. They feel that the
gas generates less heat than before. `People are furious,’ writes the
paper. `They realize that they are being cheated but they can’t prove
anything. Pinning hopes on the state is pointless.’
Henrik Navasardian, the head of the transport department at the
Yerevan Mayor’s Office, assures `Zhamanak’ that the municipal
administration has still not made a final decision to raise bus fares
in the capital. He denies reports that the fares will soar in
January. The paper believes that the decision will be a political one
made at the highest level given its socioeconomic impact on the
population. `Armenians are already meeting the winter with more
expensive gas and electricity,’ it says. `Some basic products have
also become more expensive. It is therefore evident that the cost of
public transport could have serious consequences in the form of social
protest.’
(Tigran Avetisian)