Category: 2018

                                        Friday, 
Armenian Utility Said To Cut Energy Price For Poor Families
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A newly refurbished energy distribution facility in Gyumri, 13Sep2014.
Armenia’s national electric utility has promised a 25 percent reduction in the 
price of electricity supplied by it to low-income families, Energy Minister 
Artur Grigorian announced on Friday.
Grigorian said the Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA) operator agreed to the 
price cut as a result of “negotiations” held with the Armenian Ministry of 
Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources. The tariff will go down “at the 
expense of ENA’s profits” and cost the company 2 billion drams ($4.1 million) 
in annual revenue, he said.
Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, the minister told reporters 
that the discount will apply to at least 110,000 families and most probably 
take effect on July 1. He insisted that ENA was not pressurized by the 
government into cutting the tariff.
The daytime electricity price for poor households is currently set at 40 drams 
(over 8 U.S. cents) per kilowatt/hour. It will fall to 30 drams per 
kilowatt/hour, according to Grigorian.
ENA declined to immediately confirm this information. The utility is owned by 
the Tashir Group of Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian.
Tashir seems to have significantly reduced ENA’s massive losses since 
purchasing the debt-ridden company from a state-run Russian energy giant, Inter 
RAO, in 2015. It has also pledged to make substantial capital investments in 
the aging power distribution network.
During the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told Grigorian to 
continue exploring possibilities of also cutting the electricity price for the 
rest of the country’s population. It currently pays almost 45 drams per 
kilowatt/hour.
Grigorian cited “a number of risks” complicating an across-the-board price cut. 
In particular, he argued that the nuclear power plant at Metsamor will be 
brought to a halt soon for prolonged capital repairs designed to extend the 
life of its sole reactor. Armenia will have to rely on more expensive energy 
generated by natural gas during the stoppage.
The energy minister also pointed out that a Russian-Armenian agreement on the 
price of Russian natural gas supplied to Armenia expires at the end of this 
year. He thus did not exclude that the gas price will be raised next year.
Pashinian Calls For ‘New Impetus’ To Armenian-Iranian Ties
        • Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with Iranian Ambassador 
Seyed Kazem Sajjad in Yerevan, 8 June 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reaffirmed on Friday his government’s stated 
intention to maintain and even deepen Armenia’s cordial relations with 
neighboring Iran.
“We will make utmost efforts to further develop bilateral partnership,” 
Pashinian told the Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Seyed Kazem Sajjad.
“We are interested in giving new impetus to Armenian-Iranian ties on the basis 
of mutual interests,” he said in remarks publicized by his press office.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani likewise called for closer ties between the 
two nations when he phoned Pashinian a week after the latter was elected 
Armenia’s prime minister on May 8. An official Armenian readout of the phone 
call said the two leaders agreed to “further deepen mutually beneficial 
partnership in all areas.”
A statement by Pashinian’s office said the Armenian premier and Sajjad 
discussed the implementation of bilateral energy projects, including the 
ongoing construction of a new power transmission line and long-standing plans 
to build a hydroelectric plant on the Armenian-Iranian border. It said they 
also touched upon broader commercial ties, with the Iranian ambassador 
stressing the importance Iran’s provisional free-trade agreement with the 
Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) signed last month.
Pashinian was quick to hail that deal, saying that it “fully” reflects 
Armenia’s national interests. “We hope that it will stimulate our commercial 
ties [with Iran,]” he told reporters on May 17.
Iran - An Iranian honor guard displays Iranian and Armenian national flags at 
an official ceremony in Tehran, 7 August 2017.
Armenian manufacturers have long complained that the Islamic Republic’s 
protectionist policies severely limit their access to the Iranian market.
According to official Armenian statistics, Armenian-Iranian trade stood at a 
modest $263 million last year. The authorities in Yerevan hope that a free 
economic zone created near Meghri, an Armenian town on the Iranian border, last 
December will also boost it significantly.
The Iran-EEU deal was signed just days after the United States decided to 
re-impose economic sanctions on Tehran after pulling out of a 2015 
international agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. Rouhani and Pashinian 
reportedly discussed implications of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 
controversial move.
In its comprehensive policy program approved by the Armenian parliament on 
Thursday, Pashinian’s government pledged to seek the kind of “special 
relationship” with Iran which would be “immune to other geopolitical influences 
as much as possible.” The program says Armenia will at the same time seek to 
bolster its “friendly partnership” with the U.S.
Due to the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the resulting closure of 
Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey, Iran has long been one of the 
landlocked country’s two commercial conduits to the outside world. Successive 
Armenian governments have therefore been keen to maintain a warm rapport with 
Tehran.
Arrested Yerevan Protesters Set Free
        • Tatev Danielian
Armenia - Rresidents of Sari Tagh neighborhood of Yerevan clash with riot 
police, 19 July 2016
Five residents of a Yerevan neighborhood who clashed with riot police during a 
hostage crisis in 2016 have been released from custody.
The Sari Tagh neighborhood overlooks a police base in the city’s Erebuni 
district which was seized by radical opposition gunmen demanding the 
resignation of then President Serzh Sarkisian and the release of the leader of 
their Founding Parliament movement, Zhirayr Sefilian. Three police officers 
were killed before the gunmen laid down their weapons at the end of a two-week 
standoff with Armenian security forces.
During the standoff several dozen male residents of Sari Tagh protested against 
a police blockage of roads leading to their blue-collar neighborhood imposed 
for security reasons. They also voiced support for the armed oppositionists 
holed up in the Erebuni police facility.
The protesters clashed with police officers deployed in Sari Tagh in July 2016. 
Ten of them were subsequently arrested and charged with assaulting 
law-enforcement officers, a crime punishable by between 5 and 10 years in 
prison. They went on trial last year, denying any wrongdoing.
A Yerevan court on Thursday agreed to free one of the defendants pending the 
outcome of the continuing trial. Four other defendants were set free on Friday.
One of them, Harutiun Torosian, attributed their release to the recent change 
of government in Armenia. He also said that he will continue to plead not 
guilty to the accusations.
Relatives and lawyers of the five other defendants hope that they too will be 
set free in the coming days.
Ex-Aide Regrets Obama’s Failure To Recognize Armenian Genocide
        • Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - Samantha Power (C), the former U.S ambassador to the UN, visits the 
Armenian genocide memorial in Yerevan, 8 June 2018. (Photo courtesy of 
www.auroraprize.com)
Samantha Power, a former special adviser to President Barack Obama, on Friday 
expressed regret at his failure to ensure an official U.S. recognition of the 
1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey during his tenure.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) in Yerevan, Power said 
Obama did not honor a key election campaign pledge because he did not want to 
jeopardize a rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey and feared that Ankara 
could obstruct U.S. efforts to defeat the Islamic State extremist group.
Power, who advised Obama on foreign policy and human rights before serving as 
U.S. ambassador to the United States from 2013-2017, also blamed the “very 
volatile personality” of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Obama referred to the Armenian genocide as a “widely documented fact supported 
by an overwhelming body of historical evidence” when he ran for president in 
2008. He said that if elected he will officially recognize the World War 
One-era slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians as genocide.
During that presidential race, Power famously recorded a five-minute video that 
urged Americans of Armenian descent to vote for Obama because of his stance on 
the genocide issue.
“I have great regret that we did not manage to go all the way to full 
recognition in the way that we had promised,” Power told RFE/RL during her 
first-ever visit to Armenia. “I really believed going into the White House that 
we would.”
“But in 2009, which was really the year that we would have done it right at the 
beginning, President Obama made clear that his view of the facts had not 
changed and everybody knew his view,” she said. “But he felt that the 
Armenian-Turkish normalization was at a very important and very fragile stage.
“Then, I think, at the hundred anniversary [of the genocide in 2015,] when it 
would have been another opportune time to recognize, we had just been granted 
access to Turkish bases to fight ISIS (Islamic State).”
“Turkey is a very powerful and large country that’s a NATO ally and has a lot 
of weight,” added the former U.S. official. “President Erdogan of course is a 
very volatile personality. So that also meant that some of the threats that he 
made were deemed more credible frankly.”
Armenia - Samantha Power speaks at a panel discussion in Yerevan, 8 June 2018.
Power made clear that she thinks none of these factors justified Obama’s 
decisions. “There is really no excuse because, as I wrote before I became a 
U.S. government official, there really is never a good time to do it,” she 
said. “There is always going to be some set of issues and equities on the other 
side of the argument.”
Obama reportedly came very close to recognizing the genocide in an April 2015. 
While avoiding the politically sensitive word, he implicitly praised Pope 
Francis for calling the 1915 mass killings “the first genocide of the 20th 
century.” He also paid tribute to Henry Morgenthau, America’s World War One-era 
ambassador in Constantinople who tried to stop what he saw as a “campaign of 
race extermination.”
Obama’s 2015 statement followed a reportedly heated debate within his 
administration. The Associated Press reported at the time that an explicit 
recognition of the Armenian genocide was advocated by administration officials 
who deal more directly with human rights issues. Power was said to be among 
them.
Power said on Friday that the current and future U.S. administrations should 
follow the example of two dozen other nations and “defy the bullying that 
genocide deniers have done.” Asked whether she thinks President Donald Trump 
may do so, she said: “Trump is so volatile. Maybe we wake up one morning and 
there’ll be the tweet that we’ve all been waiting for: recognizing the 
genocide.”
In any case, the former Obama administration official went on, Armenians should 
keep fighting for greater international recognition of the genocide. They have 
already made major progress in that endeavor, she said, arguing that “there is 
almost nobody in any doubt around the world about the events of 1915.”
Power was visiting Armenia as a new member of an international committee that 
will select this weekend the latest winner of an annual humanitarian award 
created in memory of the Armenian genocide victims.
The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity award was established in 2015 by three 
prominent Diaspora Armenians: philanthropists Ruben Vardanyan and Noubar 
Afeyan, and Vartan Gregorian, the president of the Carnegie Corporation of New 
York. It is designed to honor individuals around the world who risk their lives 
to help others.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” comments on Thursday’s parliament debate on the policy program of 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government submitted to the National Assembly. 
The paper singles out Pashinian’s remark that he is willing to delay fresh 
parliamentary elections by several months in order to give other political 
forces a better chance of doing well in them. It welcomes this stance, while 
saying that Armenia has already entered a pre-election period.
“Zhoghovurd” notes that the debate was marred by “cruel” and “humiliating” 
verbal attacks on deputies from Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) 
launched by their colleagues from Gagik Tsarukian’s alliance. “This was 
certainly expected,” writes the paper. “The Tsarukian Bloc had old scores to 
settle with a number of Republicans. And since the HHK has lost power but is 
continuing to mock opponents Republicans got a riposte, a fairly cruel and 
humiliating.” It says that as much as they are logical such manifestations are 
“dangerous” and must be avoided by the new government.
“Hayots Ashkhar” is unimpressed with the government program, saying that it 
looks more like an election campaign manifesto. “The government program starts 
with a glorification of the ‘velvet revolution’ in Armenia and ends with a 
justification for fresh parliamentary elections needed for completing it,” 
writes the paper. “In between them there are only general slogans regarding 
everyone’s equality before the law, eradication of corruption, creation of 
necessary conditions for people’s dignified lives and other nice wishes.”
“If pre-term parliamentary elections are held then a party called the HHK will 
not be elected to the [new] parliament,” editorializes “Aravot.” “One should 
therefore not make efforts to fight against a non-existent party.” The paper 
says Armenia’s previous ruling parties collapsed shortly after losing power and 
the same fate awaits the HHK. “So the danger lies not in an HHK comeback … The 
danger is scarier. The political force that takes over the government after the 
elections, be it [Pashinian’s] Civil Contract or [Tsarukian’s] BHK, must not 
become a new HHK in terms of its behavior and methods. At the moment there are 
virtually no such indications. But … there were also no such indications in 
1990-1991.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
June 7, 2018 Thursday 4:34 PM MSK
Pashinyan ready for talks with Aliyev, but insists that Stepanakert
participate in Karabakh settlement
YEREVAN. June 7
Negotiations on the Karabakh settlement cannot be effective if the
administration of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic does
not participate in them, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"I said that the negotiations cannot be effective as long as Artsakh
[the Armenian name for Karabakh] is not involved in them. This
approach is not news. Karabakh is a full-fledged conflict party, which
was confirmed at the SCE Budapest summit in 1994. After 1998,
representatives of Armenia also conducted negotiations on behalf of
Artsakh. They probably had their reasons for that. Robert Kocharian
[who was president of Armenia in 1998-2008] was president of Artsakh,
Serzh Sargsyan [president of Armenia in 2008-2018) was one of the
organizers of the self-defense movement and they could assume
responsibility to conduct negotiations on behalf of Artsakh,"
Pashinyan said while presenting the new government's program in the
parliament.
"I cannot do the same thing. I cannot give myself the right to conduct
negotiations on behalf of the people of Karabakh. There are no legal,
moral or political grounds for that. The people of Artsakh do not
participate in the elections in Armenia, in political processes, it
does not form the administration. Artsakh has its own parliament, its
own administration," Pashinyan said.
Every time Armenia says Karabakh should participate in the
negotiations Azerbaijan says that representatives of the Azerbaijani
community of Karabakh need to participate in the negotiations in that
case, he said.
"It's a false argument. The civil status of the Azerbaijanis who lived
in Karabakh did not change as a result of the conflict. Before and
after the conflict, they stay citizens of Azerbaijan, they continue
participating in elections in this country, including presidential
elections. That is, Ilham Aliyev participates in negotiations having a
mandate and these people," the Armenian prime minister said.
Armenia is not trying to disrupt the negotiations on Karabakh
settlement, he said.
"I am ready for negotiations with Aliyev in the OSCE Minsk Group. But
before that I have to do everything to increase the effectiveness of
negotiations. It is necessary to fulfil the earlier reached
agreements. It is very inconvenient to have negotiations on new
agreements if the old ones have not been fulfilled. The conflict has
no military solution. But any provocation by the enemy will be
followed by a crashing blow from Armenia," the Armenian prime minister
said.
Av gc kf

Russia's Defense Technologies Newswire
June 7, 2018 Thursday 11:23 AM GMT
Novice pilots from Russia's airbase in Armenia to master MiG-29 fighters
MOSCOW June 7
HIGHLIGHT: Novice pilots from Russia's Erebuni airbase in Armenia will
arrive in the flight personnel training and conversion center in
Lipetsk in central Russia to master the Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting
name: Fulcrum) fighter jet, the Southern Military District's press
office said.
MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS-DEFENSE/. Novice pilots from Russia's Erebuni
airbase in Armenia will arrive in the flight personnel training and
conversion center in Lipetsk in central Russia to master the Mikoyan
MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) fighter jet, the Southern
Military District's press office said.
"Skilled instructors will give a flight training course, considering
the experience of using aircraft in various local conflicts, including
during the counterterrorism operation in Syria," the press office
said.
The novice pilots who have graduated this year will study the combat
capabilities of MiG-29 fighters during high-precision bombing with the
use of a satellite navigation system.
The pilots will undergo a 30-hour training course on special training
simulators. Then, they will practice elementary and advanced flying,
as well as aerobatics at high and low altitudes under the supervision
of their instructors.
At the end of the training course, the pilots will be permitted to
perform solo flights and then they will sharpen their flying skills in
mountainous terrain in Transcaucasia.