Armenian
News Network / Groong
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Guests
Hosts
Introduction
Hello, and welcome to the
Armenian News Network, Groong, Week
in Review. This show was recorded on Monday, October 18, 2021.
This week we’re going to talk
about the following major topics:
●
A Flurry of Diplomatic Activity
●
Results from Tavush, Shirak
and Syunik
●
Vaccination in Armenia
●
Trust in the Authorities about Information from
Border Areas
To talk about these issues, we have with us:
Hrant Mikaelian, who is a
political scientist and multidisciplinary researcher in social sciences at the
Caucasus Institute, based in Yerevan.
Topics This Week
Flurry of Diplomatic Activity
Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen a flurry of diplomatic activity in Armenia and the region.
Timeline of events:
● Oct 4: Mirzoyan visits Iran (and Iran’s deputy transportation minister visits Armenia)
● Oct 5: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visits Moscow (and Armenia was on the agenda)
● Oct 11: Georgian PM (Irakli Garibashvili) visits Yerevan
● Oct 12: Pashinyan meeting with Putin in Russia
● Oct 13: Indian PM visits Armenia for the first time
● Oct 14: Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs meet for the 2nd time in 1 month.
● Oct 18 (today): EU Special Rep to the region is visiting all 3 countries
The sheer number of visits and the interest shown by India and Iran is unprecedented. What can we gather from all these goings on?
What are all the interests clashing with each other with the “North-South” corridor and the East-West corridors crossing in the south of Armenia?
Corridors
We were talking with Pietro Shakarian and Benyamin Poghosyan two weeks ago, and we touched upon the so-called
“Zangezur Corridor” that Aliyev talks about all the
time. The consensus was that, at least for the time being, Aliyev’s definition
of a “corridor” is unfettered access through Armenian territory between
Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. This means visa-free, customs-free, inspection-free
access for people and goods through Syunik, Gegharkunik, etc.
What goals is Aliyev’s pursuing here?
What are the threats to Armenia’s economy with
all these corridors, and uncontrolled opening of trade relations and
communications?
Results from Tavush, Shirak
and Syunik
Over the past weekend, various cities in three
Armenian provinces of Shirak, Syunik, and Tavush) held municipal elections. The
ruling Civil Contract party was only able to secure victories in some of the
small towns, such as Dilijan as well as the Tegh and Tatev communities in Syunik. That said, it lost in many of
the larger and more strategic electoral battles, specifically Armenia’s second
largest city Gyumri
as well as southern cities of Goris
and Meghri.
In Gyumri the vote was plagued by a low 24%
voter turnout, where just over 26,000 of the eligible 109,000 voters cast a
ballot:
● The
Balasanyan Alliance, supported by incumbent mayor of
Gyumri Samvel Balasanyan, won with 9637 votes
(36.59%)
● Civil
Contract garnered 7785 votes (29.6%)
● Zartonk National Christian Party received 2793 votes
(10.6%)
● Republican
Party of Armenia received 1333 votes (5.1%)
●
Aprelu Yerkir party took 1489 votes (5.7%)
In Goris,
where the voter turnout was at 50.25%, the Arush Arushanyan alliance scored a landslide victory:
● Arush Arushanyan Alliance
(60.28%)
● Civil
Contract party (34.3%)
●
Armenian National Congress (2.7%)
The alliance is named after the incumbent mayor Arush Arushanyan who is a
prominent opposition figure allied with the Reviving Armenia party in Syunik. Arushanyan is currently in pretrial custody under suspicion
of violating electoral code in the June 20, 2021
elections - the opposition rejects this charge as politically motivated.
In Meghri, with Meghri 8,572 eligible voters and 59.47 turnout:
● The
Republic Party led by Aram Zaveni Sargsyan (not to be
confused with the “Republican Party of Armenia”) won with 42.8%
● Civil
Contract party (32.8%)
● Liberal
Party (14.4%)
●
Aprelu Yerkir party (9.8%).
Who is
“The Balasanyan Alliance”?
Who are Aprelu Yerkir, who have cleared
the 4% threshold for parties in elections?
When are
the next Yerevan municipal elections?
What do the results in these two important
cities mean for the parties in their struggle against the government?
Progress with Vaccinations
We’re currently going through what may be a
seasonal up-swing globally, not just in Armenia for the virus. The most
recent data indicate the country’s vaccination stats to be
around 588,000 vaccine shots administered;185,000 people have received two
doses and around 400,000 have received a single dose so far.
In general, how is the course of the fight
against COVID, and the vaccination process in Armenia?
Topics from the Participants
- Trust
in the Information from the Authorities about the state
of affairs in the Border areas.
Wrap-up
That was our Week in Review
show, and we hope it helped you catch up with some of the issues in and around
Armenia from this past week. As always, we invite your feedback and your
suggestions. You can find us on most social media and podcast platforms, or our
website Groong.org.
Thanks to Laura Osborn for
the music on our podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel on Youtube, Like our pages and follow us on social media. On behalf of
everyone in this episode, we wish you a good week, thanks for listening and
we’ll talk to you next week.
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Keywords
Hrant Mikaelian, Armenia, Azerbaijan, East-West corridor,
North-South Corridor, INSTC, Zangezour Corridor,
Yerevan, Baku, Gyumri, Meghri, Municipal Elections,
South Caucasus, Turkey, Russia, Communication channels, Corridors, Borders,
Peace Negotiations,