Monday,
Armenian Soldiers, Civilian Wounded Near Azeri Border
Armenia -- Soldiers pictured during a military exercise in Tavush, March 26,
2019.
Two soldiers guarding Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and a teenage resident of
an Armenian border village were reportedly wounded on Monday evening in what
Yerevan described as Azerbaijani ceasefire violations.
The Armenian Defense Ministry reported that the soldiers sustained light wounds
as their unit repelled an Azerbaijani raid on its positions in the northern
Tavush province bordering the Gazakh district in western Azerbaijan.
A ministry statement said Azerbaijani forces also shot at two Armenian villages
located in the area: Baghanis and Voskevan. It said a boy in Voskevan was
wounded as a result.
Tavush’s governor, Hayk Chobanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the boy
was shot in the chest and rushed to hospital. His life is not at risk now, said
Chobanian.
“In order to stabilize the situation in the border zone and to counter the
brazen actions by Azerbaijani forces … taken amid the [coronavirus] pandemic the
Armenian Armed Forces will resort to actions commensurate with the situation.
Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership will be fully responsible for the
consequences,” read the Defense Ministry statement.
Another Armenian soldier deployed in Tavush was wounded on Friday, according to
the ministry.
Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard Service, whose troops protect the Tavush-Gazakh
section of the frontier, denied opening fire on the Armenian villages and said
it was the Armenian side that fired at an Azerbaijani border village from heavy
machine-guns. It said its troops shot back in response, according to the Trend
news agency.
Three Azerbaijani border guards were shot dead in the same area earlier this
year. One of them was reportedly killed on March 5 one day before the Armenian
military claimed to have thwarted a similar Azerbaijani incursion attempt. Baku
denied the alleged attack and accused the Armenian side of violating the
ceasefire.
Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border section have been on the rise in
recent months despite an overall decrease in truce violations in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone observed since October 2018.
Government To Hand Out Cash To Armenians Hit By Economic Shutdown
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia -- An empty street cafe in Yerevan, March 15, 2020.
The Armenian government approved on Monday unprecedented cash payments to scores
of people who have been hit hard by economic disruptions resulting from the
coronavirus epidemic.
The one-off payments announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet will
benefit tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of workers who have been
temporarily out of work or laid off as well as owners of small businesses forced
to halt their operations in recent weeks. The aid is meant to help them buy food
and meet other basic needs during the nationwide lockdown imposed in Armenia
last week.
Armenians who have lost their jobs since March 13 will receive 68,000 drams
($137) each, while unemployed pregnant women whose husbands were fired in the
same period will be paid 100,000 drams. Single and jobless pregnant women will
also be eligible for this aid.
Government officials gave no estimates of the number of such citizens. They
spoke instead of more than 100,000 people making up the third and largest
category of aid recipients.
Among them are the employees of hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, clothing
stores and other businesses that were closed after March 13. Depending on their
monthly wages, they will get between 68,000 and 136,000 drams in compensation.
The government will pay similar sums to small-scale individual entrepreneurs
also affected by the lockdown.
Armenia -- A cabinet meeting in Yerevan, .
Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Pashinian made clear that the
government has no intention to compensate a large number of other Armenians who
worked off the books and did not pay any taxes.
“This situation should tell us that all workers, all wages have to be registered
[with tax authorities,]” said Pashinian. “We can’t deal with unregistered cases
[of employment and self-employment] because it’s a black hole where nobody knows
what’s going on.”
Opposition politicians have expressed serious concern about the plight of people
involved in the informal sector of the Armenian economy. They have urged the
government to take care of them as well.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian did not rule out the possibility of such
assistance when he spoke at a news conference later on Monday. He stressed,
though, that the government currently sees no effective mechanisms for extending
the coronavirus relief package to the “unregistered jobs.”
The government approved last week a set of other measures designed to shore up
the economy. In particular, it said creditworthy firms and individual
entrepreneurs will receive grants worth $500 million (just over $1 million) if
they pledge to use that money to pay their workers’ wages, buy equipment or raw
materials or pay taxes. The scheme will not apply to Armenian banks, insurance
companies and casinos.
The banks will receive instead government subsidies to provide cheap credit to
small firms and farmers. The latter will be able to borrow up to 1 million drams
each and avoid paying any interest for two years.
Pashinian also announced on March 27 that the banks have agreed to suspend loan
repayments for some 100,000 individual or corporate borrowers.
Armenian Authorities Allowed To Use Phone Data To Fight Coronavirus
• Gayane Saribekian
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia -- Deputies wear face masks during a parliament session in Yerevan,
.
Ignoring strong opposition objections, Armenia’s parliament on Monday allowed
authorities to access personal data from people’s mobile phones for the purpose
of stopping the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Under a government bill passed the National Assembly in the first reading, state
bodies enforcing the coronavirus-related state of emergency will be able to
track movements, phone calls and text messages of Armenians infected with the
virus.
Presenting the bill to lawmakers, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian said this
will make it easier for them to identify and isolate those who have been exposed
to infected individuals. He stressed that the authorities will not have access
to the content of phone calls.
The two parliamentary opposition parties rejected this explanation, saying that
the extraordinary powers sought by the government constitute a politically
dangerous violation of citizens’ privacy and will not help to contain the
epidemic.
Armenia -- Justice Minister Rustam Badasian speaks in the National Assembly,
Yerevan, .
“This is a regression of democracy,” claimed Naira Zohrabian of the Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK). “Mr. Minister, withdraw this bill. What you want to do is
meaningless.”
“We are against ceding our liberties,” declared Edmon Marukian, the leader of
the Bright Armenia Party.
“This will have a zero impact in terms of stopping the spread of the epidemic,”
Marukian said during a heated parliament debate. He argued that many Armenians
use online voice and text message systems to communicate with each other.
Parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan and other senior pro-government deputies also
questioned the wisdom of the bill.
“People who have been in contact with virus carriers may have been infected in
shops or on the street,” said Narek Zeynalian, the chairman of the parliament
committee on healthcare. “Phone calls are not the only indicators of
people-to-people contact.”
Nevertheless, the parliament approved the bill by 57 votes to 24, with one
abstention. Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling My Step bloc,
said the bill will likely be amended before being passed in the final reading.
Makunts said that she and her colleagues will seek explicit guarantees that all
phone data collected by the health authorities will be destroyed after the
epidemic.
Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian at a news conference in Yerevan, March
26, 2020.
As the parliament began debating the controversial measure the authorities
reported that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia rose by 58 to
482 in the past day. According to Health Minister Arsen Torosian, all but two of
the new cases resulted from physical contact with known COVID-19 patients.
Torosian also said that 162 other citizens tested negative for the virus on
Monday, bringing to over 2,216 the total number of such outcomes. A total of
around 250 Armenians have been released from quarantine to date, he said during
a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
The Armenian authorities have reported three coronavirus-related so far.
In Torosian’s words, another patient remains in critical condition but is
showing signs of improvement and could be disconnected from a lung ventilation
device in the coming days. No other infected and hospitalized persons are now
connected to ventilators, added the minister.
Armenia To Benefit From U.S. COVID-19 Aid Package
Armenia - The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.
The United States has pledged to provide Armenia with more than $1 million in
aid designed to combat the coronavirus epidemic.
The funding will be part of a $274 million emergency aid package announced by
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late last week. Pompeo said it will help “64
of the world’s most at-risk countries” to better deal with the spread of
coronavirus.
The assistance will be provided through international aid agencies, notably the
World Health Organization.
“We are pleased that $1.1 million has been authorized for Armenia,” the U.S.
Embassy in Yerevan announced at the weekend.
The embassy told RFE/RL’s Armenian service afterwards that the assistance has
already been transferred to relevant international organizations. It is aimed at
strengthening Armenian health authorities’ capacity monitor infections and
detect the virus.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a Washington-based lobby
group, welcomed the allocation. In a statement, ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian
reiterated at the same time that some of the annual U.S. aid to Armenia
allocated by Congress should also be channeled into the fight against
coronavirus.
Armenia has already received limited amounts of coronavirus-related medical
supplies from several other countries, including China. The Chinese aid reported
by the Armenian government has included coronavirus test kits, protective
medical uniforms and ventilators.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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