Thursday,
Pashinian Orders Strict Enforcement Of Vaccination Measure
Armenia - A medical worker holds a vial of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus
vaccine at a policlinic in Yerevan, April 28, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told relevant authorities on Thursday to properly
enforce an administrative measure designed to accelerate the slow pace of
COVID-19 vaccination in Armenia.
A controversial directive signed by Health Minister Anahit Avanesian last month
obligates virtually all public and private sector employees refusing vaccination
to take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense.
Pashinian and other senior officials discussed its enforcement at a meeting in
Yerevan that also touched up the broader epidemiological situation in the
country.
“The prime minister instructed relevant state structures to do their part to
ensure compliance with the directive effective from October 1,” the Armenian
government’s press office said in a statement on the meeting.
The requirement has been condemned as illegal by some critics of the government
and individuals opposed to any vaccination. Avanesian has defended it, saying
that vaccines are the most effective way to minimize coronavirus infections.
The minister spoke at Thursday’s meeting of a “positive dynamic” in the
vaccination process. She said a record 9,900 people were inoculated against
COVID-19 in Armenia on Wednesday.
According to the Ministry of Health, nearly 367,000 vaccine shots were
administered in the country of about 3 million as of September 19. Just under
130,000 of its residents were fully vaccinated.
The daily number of officially confirmed coronavirus cases has been slowly but
steadily rising since June. The Ministry of Health reported on Thursday morning
939 new cases and 19 coronavirus-related deaths.
Avanesian said that Armenian hospitals treating COVID-19 patients are
increasingly overwhelmed by the latest resurgence of the disease. The
hospitalized patients include 25 children and 30 pregnant women, she said.
Local Officials Slam Government Plans To Merge Armenian Communities
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Lawmakers, local and central government officials and experts attend
parliamentary hearings on government plans to consolidate Armenia's local
communities, Yerevan, .
Local officials from various regions of Armenia have denounced government plans
to merge virtually all cities and villages into much bigger communities.
The Armenian parliament will start debating on Friday a government bill that
would reduce from 441 to 37 the number of the country’s local communities. Most
of them already consist of multiple villages and/or small towns consolidated by
the former government.
The new administrative units would essentially match Soviet Armenia’s districts
that were dissolved and merged in the mid-1990s into ten provinces run by
governors appointed by the central government. The provinces comprise
communities with elected mayors and local councils.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet drafted the bill this summer, saying
that it will improve local self-government and make budgetary spending on
communities more efficient. Pashinian said the measure is the result of a
“political decision” made by his administration and will not be reversed if it
sparks protests.
Such protests have been staged in recent weeks by residents of some mostly small
and rural communities across Armenia.
“Enlarged communities have more possibilities and resources to organize
themselves and address local self-government issues more effectively,” Deputy
Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Vache Terterian
insisted during parliamentary hearings on the bill held on Wednesday.
Local government officials attending the hearings strongly disagreed, saying
that the new administrative division sought by the government is illogical. They
also criticized the government for not consulting with local residents and
administrations and demanded that the bill be put on hold.
One of the disgruntled officials, Emilia Martirosian, represented the
administration of Margahovit, a village in Lori province. The government wants
to make it part of a Lori community centered around the larger village of Pambak.
Martirosian argued that Margahovit and Pambak have no common administrative
boundary or a road directly connecting them. “On what grounds are you going to
unite Margahovit with Pambak?” she asked.
In Gegharkunik province, the government wants to merge the village of Tsovagyugh
with Sevan, a town located 17 kilometers south of it. The Tsovagyugh mayor,
Armen Amiraghian, claimed that fewer government-funded infrastructure projects
would be implemented in his village as a result.
“Tsovagyugh will not develop, but Sevan and other towns will,” Amiraghian said.
“There won’t be any development in villages.”
Other community heads saw political motives behind the community consolidation
which would require the conduct of fresh local elections.
One of them, Hakob Avetian, runs Geghamasar, a Gegharkunik community comprising
several villages close to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Under the
controversial bill, they as well as three dozen other villages would be
incorporated into the nearby town of Vartenis.
Avetian said during the hearings that the government wants to oust him in this
way because he supported the main opposition Hayastan bloc in the parliamentary
elections held in June.
Edgar Ghazarian, a former governor of Vayots Dzor province very critical of
Pashinian, said the government is seeking to unite the provincial town of Vayk
with Zaritap, a nearby rural community, for the same reason. He pointed out that
the mayors of both communities also supported the opposition during the
parliamentary race.
Sergei Bagratian, a pro-government lawmaker from Vayots Dzor, dismissed
Ghazarian’s claims. He said that the current authorities are on the contrary
trying to “correct” politically motivated mergers carried out by their
predecessors.
The former government consolidated and enlarged local communities in 2016-2017
on a smaller scale. It too met with resistance from many of their residents.
Armenia, Azerbaijan ‘Not Negotiating’ On Border Demarcation
• Astghik Bedevian
ARMENIA -- Azerbaijani (L) and Armenian outposts at the Sotk gold mine on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, June 18, 2021
Armenia and Azerbaijan have still not started negotiations on demarcating their
long and contested border, a senior Armenian official said on Thursday.
Tensions have run high in recent months at several sections of the border where
Azerbaijani troops reportedly advanced a few kilometers into Armenian territory
in mid-May.
Responding to a continuing military standoff there, Russia, the United States
and the European Union have repeatedly called on Baku and Yerevan to start
delimiting and demarcating the frontier. Moscow has offered to act as a mediator
in such talks.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated later in May that the talks are
conditional on an Azerbaijani withdrawal from Armenia’s “sovereign territory”
and the release of dozens of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan one year
after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. But he indicated in early August that his
government is ready to negotiate without any preconditions.
Eduard Aghajanian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament
committee on foreign relations, confirmed that Yerevan now stands for the
unconditional start of demarcation talks. He said the Azerbaijani troop
withdrawal and release of the Armenian prisoners would create a “positive
background” for them.
Aghajanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the talks have not started yet.
He said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is linking them to a “peace treaty”
that would commit Armenia to recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
“Naturally, this cannot be acceptable to us,” added the former chief of
Pashinian’s staff.
Tigran Abrahamian, a lawmaker representing the opposition Pativ Unem bloc,
criticized the Armenian government’s negotiating strategy.
“They are trying to make people believe that the demarcation process will
quickly solve all contentious issues,” said Abrahamian. “In fact, it will never
solve those issues. We are well aware what the negotiations conducted by these
authorities for the past three years led to and what tragic consequences they
had.”
Opposition politicians and other critics of the government have for months been
alleging that Pashinian is ready to cede more Armenian territory to Baku as a
result of the planned demarcation process. The prime minister and his allies
deny that.
Armenian, Russian Officials Discuss Azeri Roadblock
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian (R) meets with Russian Ambassador
Sergei Kopyrkin, Yerevan, .
Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian on Thursday discussed with Russia’s
ambassador in Yerevan continuing disruptions in Armenia’s trade with Iran caused
by an Azerbaijani checkpoint set up on the main highway connecting the two
neighboring countries.
The road runs from Goris, a town in Armenia’s Syunik province, to the provincial
capital Kapan and further south to the Armenian-Iranian border. The Armenian
government controversially ceded a 21-kilometer section of it to Azerbaijan last
December, saying that it is located on the Azerbaijani side of the Soviet-era
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The government said at the time that travellers in Armenia will continue to use
the strategic highway without any road checks. Russian border guards deployed in
Syunik following last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war were supposed to guarantee
their safety.
They reportedly began escorting Armenian cars driving along the
Azerbaijani-controlled stretch one week after Azerbaijani authorities set up the
checkpoint on September 12 to stop and tax Iranian trucks. Many of the truck
drivers have refused to pay hefty “road taxes.”
Armenia - Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin talks to Russian
soldiers deployed in Syunik, June 3, 2021
The disruption was on the agenda of Papikian’s meeting with Russian Ambassador
Sergei Kopyrkin which the government said focused on a wide range of issues of
mutual interest, including defense, security and energy.
“We also discussed the situation at the Goris-Kapan highway section, emphasizing
Russia’s important and constructive role in terms of reducing tensions and
finding solutions to arising problems,” Papikian wrote on his Facebook page. He
did not elaborate.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said last week that
the road crisis underscores the need to demarcate the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border. She said Moscow submitted relevant proposals to Baku and Yerevan and is
awaiting their responses.
“In the meantime, we will continue joint efforts to unblock transport and
economic links in the region in line with the implementation of
[Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] agreements reached at the highest level,” added
Zakharova.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.