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They Emigrate Instead Of Punishing Thieves

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  • They Emigrate Instead Of Punishing Thieves

    THEY EMIGRATE INSTEAD OF PUNISHING THIEVES

    Interview with Ani Kaghinyan, economist, lawyer, civic activist

    It is often said that gas price increase is an economic, not a
    political issue. Why?

    The civic initiative Stop Gas Price Increase wants to believe that it
    is not a political issue but everything proves that it is. Yesterday
    the press reported that the minister of energy is in Moscow negotiating
    with Gazprom on giving the Armenian government's 20% of shares of
    ARG Company. This is already a political issue. The Public Services
    Regulatory Commission refused to publish the agreement because it was
    said to be a commercial secret. The society may lose confidence in the
    RA government and the PSRC due to such confidentiality. Aram Grigoryan,
    a member of the initiative, produced some economic calculations and
    proved that if the monitoring unit of the PSRC and generally the PSRC
    had been efficient, we would have avoided gas price increase. Besides,
    the PSRC initiated this process of increasing the electricity tariffs
    with a violation of law and passed an unlawful decision. The members
    of the initiative are going to apply to the administrative court
    and restore their rights though they know that the judicial system
    is inactive.

    Is there any progress after one month of work?

    Our initiative was launched on 16 May 2013, so it is too early to
    speak about achievements. We want to establish the culture of pursuing
    exercise of our rights. Every day we hear news about how the state
    budget is stolen. Referring to this bulk of information the society
    can express no confidence to all the government agencies. We want
    people to understand that it is possible to achieve change only by way
    of protecting our own rights and enforcement of law. The initiative
    includes people representing different professions, social groups and
    views. I think this is the key strength of this initiative. We all
    understand that our constitutional right has been violated because
    our constitution states that Armenia is a social state. We invited all
    the political parties and intellectuals who have declared themselves
    alternative or opposition to the government but very few have responded
    which causes doubt indeed.

    Why is interest in gas price low? After all we all are affected by it.

    The government and the opposition deceive people after every election.

    This time too, people were disappointed and shocked. It is hard to
    recover deceived people from this shock. They are like a patient who
    does not want to live. Now I know that few people join us because
    people are thinking about one thing - how to emigrate as soon as
    possible. However, I am sure that the people who cherish their
    homeland, their own rights will take to the streets. It will be in
    November or December, when life will be 3 times more expensive as they
    will get 3 times higher bills for heating their homes. I want people
    to understand the issue now when we could prevent it by exercising
    our rights. We all know that 35% of the economy of Armenia is in
    the shadow. Now I am asking myself a question. If this economy does
    not pay for gas and electricity, we the consumers will have to pay
    for them. Again, they steal and cheat, while we emigrate instead of
    punishing them.

    Tehmineh Yenokyan 17:06 20/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:
    http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/interview/view/30236


    From: Baghdasarian
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