Now we can definitely say that the demands of the movement against electricity price hike weren’t justified, President of Armenia Serzh Sarsgyan said Thursday at the discussion organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, responding to the question on how he assesses Electric Yerevan movement and which were the motives of the protests.
The script of the Q&A has been provided by the Carnegie Endowment upon the request of Panorama.am.
“I say “definitely” since we have the conclusion of Deloitte & Touche LLP. I think everyone knows this company, which was requested by the Armenian government to assess the steps of the Independent Commission and give a conclusion on whether the latter’s decision on the electricity tariff was correct. And the Commission officially concluded that, yes, the price hike was mandatory. If the Commission didn’t make that step, we would face a total collapse in the energy system,” the President said.
Responding to the question on whether the citizens’ protest was fair, Sargsyan said that everyone always wants to buy at a cheap price, and sell expensively, if they’ve got goods of their own.
“It’s anyone’s wish. No one wants to pay an additional cent for gas or electricity. But if we have no resources, if all that is objective, all of us must pay. At a recent meeting with young men, I said that I would myself wish we received gas freely. But we’ want to first receive free gas and then zero per cent loans, also wishing NATO or CSTO to ensure our security. And at the same time we wish to stay independent. But this isn’t possible.
Each of us has to pay for the independence, sometimes from our pocket, sometimes at the expense of our life, and sometimes otherwise. This is the whole logic of living independently. But I must say that, anyway, transactions were made; the owner of Armenia’s power grid has been changed and thanks to the funds of the government and the owner, it will most probably be possible to retain the same tariff paid by our consumers in August and September, until next July. Thus, there will be no change or price hike,” he said.
Before the Q&A, President Sargsyan also delivered a speech.
