The participants of the rally, which has lasted for three days, did not want to interrupt it for the night and decided to urge the president to cancel the Public Service Commission Regulations’ decision on raising the electricity tariff as of June 17.
The tendency really resembles Maidan. At first, the Ukrainian authorities also "did not hear" the indignation of several thousand people. Later this grew into multi-thousand protracted rallies and led to the overthrow of the government.
The violent crackdown on the first protests in Armenia had a mobilizing effect, so the students, young people, and the oppositionists were joined by thousands of other citizens not only in Yerevan, but also in other cities.
Just like it was in Egypt in 2011, the organizers of the rallies in Armenia are urging the citizens via their Facebook page to stage protests. And their Facebook calls have gone viral in just a few days with over 10,000 people expressing readiness to join them.
These familiar and well-known plots of the people’s revolt should lead to one thing – the change of the corrupt criminal power in Armenia, which has for many years simply strangled its own country for its own interests.
If in the next few days Armenia’s authorities concede to the people, abandon the decision on electricity price hikes and offer a plan to reform the collapsing energy sector, perhaps, the protests will whittle down – but only this time.
However, the situation in Armenia is critical both economically and morally. Even if the authorities make concessions, any subsequent step that further deteriorates the situation for the people, will lead to another rebellion. There will be a lot of reasons for this in the near future.
The main reason for the people’s discontent is that Yerevan didn’t accomplish the initiated process of European integration and decided to join Russia’s economic initiative – the Eurasian Economic Union, which won’t bring any benefits to the country.
However, it became another political bonus for Sargsyan in the negotiations with Moscow, since the policy of the authorities has long ago turned Armenia into the Kremlin’s vassal.
The current situation will only inflame the protests, since a Russian company has decided to increase the tariffs by 40 percent for the poverty-stricken people of Armenia.
Armenian energy is completely dependent on Russian one, and the Electric Networks of Armenia company (ENA) was bought by the Russian Inter RAO UES in 2005 as well.
To date, the ENA company representatives imply that improper spending, which they try to compensate at the expense of the people of Armenia, was carried out by the company according to orders of the authorities. The authorities of Armenia deny everything and are ready to make increase in tariffs look like the initiative of the company itself, which tries to cover their expenses.
The conflict of the Armenian authorities with the Russian company proves the absolute inappropriateness for the country to join the Eurasian Economic Union. Hopes that Russia will provide economic support to Armenia have crumbled into dust. Russian follows only its own interests, and is ready to state openly about this fact, especially now, when Armenia has nowhere to go.
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