“This price hike is just a reason, people are unhappy with the poor governance. And it is a political problem”, – said political analyst Petros Ghazaryan in the interview with Aravot.am. According to him, saying politics we always understand resignation, now, there is no resignation demand, but the electricity price hike is a political issue and the solution is in the political arena. Referring to ENA’s accrued debts, he continued, “If the ENA does not repay the debts, the system will encounter a crisis, we would go back to the years 1991-1992. Now, who should pay this money? It was decided that the people should pay it, but the people do not want to do it because they have no money. Now, who should give this money? Russia is not giving, the West is giving, but Russia says, do not give, Armenia’s authorities do not have money, nor they can beat the people saying to go home… When the life is getting worse and you know that it is the result of poor management, such a situation is created. Now, we do not know who is going to pay the ENA’s debts, because it turned out that the people is no longer the weak circle.”
Referring to the Prime Minister’s statement made yesterday that the electricity prices cannot but be increased, Mr. Ghazaryan said, “The Prime Minister said the same thing that I did, and who is going to give this money. Now, when the solution of the issue is extended and nothing is done, they are thinking about where to take the money from. Perhaps, negotiations are underway with Russia or the West. The situation is bad, but they caused this situation.” He said that an international independent audit should be conducted in the ENA. According to him, the citizens nowadays are in the street not for the electricity price hike, but because they are sure that the price hike is unfair. At the end, he added that it is illogical for him why only Armenia in the entire CIS region should pay so much high cost for the electricity, in the event when even by the optimistic data, the poverty rate in Armenia exceeds 30 percent.
Arpine SIMONYAN
