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The authorities and Armenian President are ready for holding discussions with participants of the rallies against the power tariff hike in Armenia, Hovhannes Sahakyan – a lawmaker of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Party’s faction, Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on state and legal affairs – told a press conference today.

As was reported, a sit-in protest is underway on Bagramian Avenue in central Yerevan. The protest is staged by supporters of ‘No to Robbery’ civic initiative against the rise in electricity tariffs. Participants stress the protests they have been staging since June 19 are exclusively social by nature. They demand that the head of state revoke the decision of Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission of June 17 to raise electricity tariffs by 6.93 drams.

Deputy of ‘Heritage’ faction Tevan Poghosyan who as part of ‘Live Wall’ initiative regularly went to Bagramian Avenue to stand between protesters and police, said for his part that if members of Public Services Regulatory Commission had earlier met with demonstrators in Liberty Square of Yerevan, the situation would likely have taken a different turn.

“Unfortunately, the young activists failed to find another way of attracting attention to their demand and went to Bagramian Avenue. I am glad that authorities offered to discuss the existing problems. Yet there are concerns under conditions when one side made clear demands, while the other offers a discussion without specifying what problems will be considered,” he said.

Tevan Poghosyan considered as natural the reaction of protesters to the Armenian government’s decision released yesterday, on June 25. In his words, the steps proposed by the government do not ensure an efficient resolution to the problem. “It does not necessarily mean that Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company will start to work better and corruption practices will be ruled out,” he noted.
It should be noted that Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said, when opening the government session on June 25 that the power tariff rise in Armenia has objective reasons. “There is a widespread opinion in our society that abuses in the distribution networks - or to put it simply - robbery is the cause of the rise in electricity tariff. But I want to state with full responsibility that regardless of what abuses were recorded at ENA company, no dram out of this sum was taken into account in the calculation of the new tariff,” the PM said. He also said that Armenian government plans to subsidize electricity costs for 105,000 vulnerable families or 400,000 people.