Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Armenia could seek financial compensation from Russia over the operation of South Caucasus Railway CJSC, which Russian Railways (RZD) has managed under a concession agreement since 2008.

In February, Pashinyan suggested that Russia consider transferring the concession rights for Armenia’s railway network to a friendly third country, naming Kazakhstan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates as possible candidates. In April, he clarified that Yerevan would not discuss issues related to the railway behind Moscow’s back.

Pashinyan has now said Armenia could take the dispute to international arbitration. He stressed that the country’s railway infrastructure belongs to the Armenian state and that the government has the right to decide how it should be managed. He also noted that Yerevan had refrained from making financial demands on Moscow for many years.

“There may be issues for which we have asked for nothing over the past 30 years, but now we may seek as much as $2 billion a year,” Pashinyan said.

He added that the Armenian government hopes to resolve the matter through friendly negotiations.

Russian Lawmaker Urges Pashinyan to Focus on Armenia’s Economy

Andrey Krasov, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Defense, urged the Armenian prime minister to focus on his country’s economy instead of making multi-billion-dollar claims.

“He should think about where Armenia will sell its vegetables, fruit, and fish, because Russia has no need for low-quality products. Pashinyan’s statements about multi-billion-dollar lawsuits only damage bilateral relations that took years to build,” Krasov said.

The lawmaker argued that Russian support has played a major role in preserving Armenia’s sovereignty and infrastructure. He also warned that any deterioration in relations with Moscow could seriously affect Armenia’s agricultural sector, which relies heavily on exports.

Sokrat Khanyan, an Armenian poet, translator, and literary scholar whose career spanned more than seven decades, has died at 96. He passed away on July 30.

Khanyan was born on January 22, 1930, in the village of Aknakbyur, in the Hadrut region of Nagorno Karabakh. He completed his early schooling in his native village in 1944, then worked from 1947 to 1948 as secretary of the local communist organization and head of the village’s house of culture, before pursuing higher education at the Baku V. I. Lenin State Pedagogical Institute, where he studied Armenian language and literature between 1949 and 1953.

His first published poem appeared in 1950, dedicated to the memory of his elder brother, poet Suren Khanyan, who had died in the Second World War. Khanyan spent the following decade working as a journalist at the “Communist” Armenian Republican newspaper in Baku, and became a member of the USSR Writers’ Union in 1958. His debut poetry collection, “Karkach,” followed in 1959.

Khanyan returned to postgraduate study in Baku from 1962 to 1965, defending a thesis on the dramaturgy of Nairi Zaryan and earning the degree of Candidate of Philological Sciences. He moved to Stepanakert in 1969, following the closure of the Lenin Institute’s Armenian department, where he continued teaching at what became Artsakh State University. Over the following decades, he held a series of leadership positions there, including chairman of the Student Scientific Council from 1974 to 1988, dean of the Linguistic Faculty from 1978 to 1981, and head of the university’s Armenian language, literature, and journalism department from 1984 to 2007.

He also chaired the NKR Regional Committee for the Defense of Peace from 1985 to 1990. In 2002, Khanyan defended a doctoral thesis on the fate of the homeland in Armenian poetry between 1950 and 1990, earning the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences, and received his professorship in literature in 2004.

Khanyan’s honors included the NKR’s Mesrop Mashtots medal, awarded by President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan on Khanyan’s 80th birthday in 2010, along with the Vachagan the Pious medal, the Maternal Gratitude medal, and prizes named for the poets Muratsan and Yeghishe. In January 2020, he marked both his 90th birthday and 70 years of published poetry.

Khanyan is survived by his family, including his grandson, Armenian pianist and composer Hayk Melikyan.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the country’s government considers the South Caucasus Railway, which runs through its territory, to be its property. He emphasized that the country must be able to use the infrastructure at its own discretion and suggested that Armenia could demand payments from Russia of up to $2 billion per year. 

The railway infrastructure legally belongs to the Armenian government but is managed by the South Caucasus Railway (SCR), a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia’s Russian Railways (RZD). Pashinyan expressed a desire to resolve this issue amicably but left open the possibility of resorting to arbitration in the event of disagreements.

The prime minister stressed that Armenia may begin to demand compensation for the use of property that had been provided free of charge for 30 years. He stated unequivocally that this railway is the property of the republic and that there can be no other option.

Source: NEWS AM.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Russian restrictions on imports of Armenian products could lead to the de facto collapse of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). 

As a reminder, Russia banned the import of dairy products from Armenia starting July 27. The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of the Russian Federation (Rosselkhoznadzor) attributed this to alleged violations discovered during inspections of Armenian dairy processing plants.