Tag Archives: Armenia

Armenian MPs vote to allowing sacking of judges

JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s parliament voted to approve changes to the country’s constitution that will allow PM Nikol Pashinyan to fire judges he considers to be irritating, a move that his detractors have said is politically motivated. Armenia had been due to hold a referendum on the constitutional changes in April but a coronavirus lockdown forced its cancellation. Mr Pashinyan wants to fire three judges appointed to the Constitutional Court before a referendum in 2018 propelled him to power. >> See page 2 for comment

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenian courts refuse to sanction arrest of opposition leader

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YEREVAN/JUNE 21 (The Bulletin) — In a blow to the authority of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, a court in the Armenian capital turned down a request from the Prosecutor-General’s office to arrest opposition leader Gagik Tsarukyan for alleged corruption.

Prosecutors charged Mr Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia party and a well-known businessman, last week. Within a couple of days of the charge, Parliament had stripped Mr Tsarukyan of his immunity from prosecution, setting up his arrest.

But judges in Armenia have resisted PM Nikol Pashinyan, the leader of a 2018 revolution that overthrew the Republican Party from power. Many judges, appointed during the Republican Party’s period in office, have said that he has overstepped his authority.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenian court grants Kocharyan bail for $4.1m

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JUNE 18 (The Bulletin) — A court in Yerevan granted bail to former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan for $4.1m despite attempts from supporters of PM Nikol Pashinyan to block any deal. Mr Kocharyan, who is under pretrial arrest, has been accused of violating the constitutional order around the shooting of anti-government protesters in 2008 when he was president. He denies the accusations and has said they are politically motivated. The $4.1m bail is the largest ever agreed in Armenia. Mr Kocharyan has been arrested and bailed a handful of times since July 2018.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

ADB cuts growth rates for the South Caucasus

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JUNE 18 (The Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ABD) joined other international finances institutions in cutting its expected growth rates for the economies of the South Caucasus because of the impact of lockdowns imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It said that Georgia’s economy would now contract by 4.9%, Armenia’s would shrink by 3.5% and Azerbaijan’s by 0.1%.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenia reports most cases of the coronavirus

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APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — Armenia has the most reported cases of the coronavirus in any country in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region. It has now said that there are 822 cases in Armenia and that seven people have died.

The Armenia-administered territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan also claims sovereignty over, held elections despite the spread of the coronavirus (March 31). Two candidates who back Mr Pashinyan will go into a final round of voting , set for for April 14.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Assylum seekers from Armenia have dropped, says the Netherlands

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MARCH 30 (The Bulletin) — The Dutch government said that the number of asylum seekers from Armenia has dropped significantly since a revolution in April/May 2018 that propelled Nikol Pashinyan to become Armenia’s PM. According to media reports, the Netherlands now considers Armenia to be a “safe country of origin”.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus undermines region’s projected growth

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ALMATY/April 5 (The Bulletin) — The coronavirus will undermine what had looked like a strong year of economic growth in 2020 and instead knock the Central Asia and South Caucasus region into a recession.

Of the six countries in the region that have declared states-of-emergencies and infections of the coronavirus, only Kazakhstan has officially said that its economy will shrink in 2020 but analysts expect others to follow.

Kazakh economy minister Ruslan Dalenov said on April 2 that the combined impact of the coronavirus and a fall in oil prices mean that Kazakhstan’s economy will shrink by 0.9% in 2020.

Oil is Kazakhstan’s main export and with prices dropping by 40% to around $35/barrel because of a price war and a drop in demand triggered by the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Mr Dalenov said oil exports would fall.

“A decrease is also expected compared to previously approved growth rates in the manufacturing industry, agriculture, construction and the services sector, including trade,” he said.

Kazakhstan had previously predicted GDP growth of 4.5% for 2020. It last went into a recession in 2016 after a previous oil price collapse.

In Armenia, the Central Bank is still predicting GDP growth this year but only of 0.7%, down from an earlier prediction of 7.6%.

Other countries have held off giving predictions on the economic cost of the spread of the coronavirus although they have all said that their original growth estimates are likely to be heavily reduced.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Central Asia and the South Caucasus tighten coronavirus lockdowns

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YEREVAN/April 5 (The Bulletin) — Battling to stop the spread of the coronavirus, governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus intensified lockdowns that ban people from leaving their homes.

At least 17 people have died across the region with the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus, although analysts think the real figure could be many more. Health ministries and international donors are now worried that the region’s underfunded and under-resourced hospitals and health systems will buckle if there is a surge in infections.

On March 26, Armenian deputy PM Mher Grigoryan appeared to betray his nervousness about whether Armenia’s health service could cope with rising infections.

“We have an obvious problem, which is outstanding everywhere else in the world and it is important to solve here in Armenia,” he was quoted as saying. “It is the modernisation and re-equipment of the healthcare system. Here, too, we must take measures.”

In the region, only Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have not reported any infections, to the derision of observers who think it is unlikely that either country has escaped the coronavirus that has been ripping across the world since it appeared in central China in December.

Armenia and Kazakhstan have been worst hit by the coronavirus, with 822 and 569 people infected by April 5, but Kyrgyzstan appears to be most vulnerable economically. Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov has already asked for emergency financial support from the IMF.

As for the intensified lockdowns, the Kazakh authorities have told people that they can only leave their homes every other day and in Azerbaijan people have to notify the police via an app or an SMS if they are going out onto the street.

In Armenia, where PM Nikol Pashinyan had only a few weeks ago said that the coronavirus could easily be beaten, the government has ordered all businesses, restaurants and cafes to close until at least April 10.

He has been criticised for holding referendum campaign rallies in March that may have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus.

“Compared to Azerbaijan and Georgia, our corona infection stats are higher. Am I the first to say that the reason for this is the referendum campaign?” said Samvel Grigoryan, a public health analyst.

A referendum on the status of the country’s top judges had been set for April 5. This has now been postponed.

Armenia’s government has said that the rate of infection is slowing, but people told The Bulletin’s correspondent that they are worried.

“We need to obey,” said Margarita Aghayan, 56, who is confined to her two-room apartment in a Yerevan suburb with her husband, her daughter and granddaughter.

“I feel very scared. I feel horror. I am scared of the people who don’t take this seriously.”

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Gazprom wants to increase price of gas for Armenia’s poorest

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YEREVAN/April 1 (The Bulletin) — Gazprom Armenia has applied to the country’s Public Services Regulatory Commission to increase the price of gas that it supplies to the poorest sections of Armenian society from August, media reported (April 1).

Any move by Gazprom Armenia to increase the price it charges Armenian households for gas will be difficult to pull off. The impact of the coronavirus has undermined households’ ability to pay higher prices and Armenian society has a reputation for resisting utility price rises. In 2015 a proposed electricity price rise in Armenia led to major protests in Yerevan and an eventual climbdown.

Reports said that from Aug. 1, Gazprom Armenia wants to charge households on social benefits 36% more for their gas and to slightly reduce the price paid by other households. The overall effect would be to equal out pricing. There is no publicly available data on the number of low-income households on social benefits.

Armenian officials lined up to criticise the proposed price increase, calling it inappropriate given the probable economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus.

“Given the current situation in the global energy market, we consider it appropriate to start new negotiations on reducing the price of thousand cubic meters of gas on the Armenian-Georgian border,” Armenia’s deputy PM Mher Grigoryan wrote in a letter to the chairman of Gazprom, Alexei Miller.

The Russian side has not responded but negotiations are expected to be fraught. When Russia has previously increased the price it charges Armenia for gas, the Armenian government has said that it will switch to buying gas from its neighbour Iran with which it has built up friendly relations over the past decade.

Media also reported that Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the proposed gas price rises. He said that gas should be priced in roubles, which has fallen in value over the past month because of a slump in oil prices and the impact of the spread of the coronavirus.

“We believe that it will be more correct and logical to pay for gas in roubles,” Mr Pashinayn was quoted as saying.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenia says the coronavirus will wipe out any potential GDP growth

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APRIL 2 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s economy minister, Tigran Khachatryan, said that the coronavirus will wipe out any previously projected economic growth this year.

Economists had been predicting another strong year of growth for Armenia with a GDP rise of around 7.5% but it has been hit hard by the spread of the coronavirus – with 822 infections, the highest in the region – and COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Armenian Central Bank has also said that economic growth will slow to 0.7% in 2020, but Mr Khachatryan, the economy minister, said that it was too early to even predict this level of growth.

“We believe that in 2020 there will be a significant reduction in economic indicators as opposed to optimistic forecasts made at the beginning of the year,” he was said.

Fitch, the ratings agency, warned that the economic fallout from the coronavirus will damage Armenia’s banking sector and increase the ratio of nonperforming loans. It also said the government’s current account deficit would increase from 1% of GDP to 5%.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin