Tweet
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan,
12 Jan 2007 p 2
Our sad end
Hayk Gevorkian
It is a negative historic event that Georgia has refused to buy
electricity from Armenia. It is for the first time that Georgia did
that and it will get electricity from Azerbaijan. This means that
Armenia is not Georgia's energy partner any longer. This was not a
surprise and was unavoidable.
Armenia is slowly stepping on a path at the end of which there is
absolute isolation when we shall depend on everybody but nobody will
depend on us. And this means losing independence. The saddest thing
is that Georgia's rejection of Armenian electricity was not a
purposefully organized international action against Armenia but a
natural process with its objective reasons. Georgians do not want to
buy our electricity because it is expensive, but its price is a
commercial secret although it is known that the price has doubled.
Last year Georgia bought our electricity at the price of 2.5-2.9
cents, and probably at present it became 5 cents. This is very
expensive, for this reason Georgia has preferred Azerbaijan which
does not demand money but they have made an arrangement whereby in
summer Georgia will supply electricity to Azerbaijan. This means that
their relations will become long-lasting. All this is the result of
raising the gas tariff.
The Razdan power plant's gas supplies are subsidized only for
producing electricity for the domestic market, and it gets no subsidy
for producing electricity for export. But we should take into account
that Armenia pays 110 but not 230 dollars [per 1,000 cu.m.] for
Russian gas and in this case electricity produced in Armenia is not
competitive. One may guess what will happen in Armenia after 2008
when Russia sells its gas to us at 180 or 230 dollars. And the entire
Armenian economy is in a situation which has been developing rapidly,
according to the official statistics. Georgia's refusal is just an
episode in the prospect of our state. This is not at all conditioned
by our geographical position. This is the result of the foreign as
well as domestic policy carried out by our state. And if our
authorities are sure that in case the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
is not settled, time works in favour of us, if they say that we have
the most powerful army, if they are sure that one may construct a
strong and competitive state through fraud at referendums and
elections, through populism and total control over TV broadcasting,
in that case we shall have a sad end.
12 Jan 2007 p 2
Our sad end
Hayk Gevorkian
It is a negative historic event that Georgia has refused to buy
electricity from Armenia. It is for the first time that Georgia did
that and it will get electricity from Azerbaijan. This means that
Armenia is not Georgia's energy partner any longer. This was not a
surprise and was unavoidable.
Armenia is slowly stepping on a path at the end of which there is
absolute isolation when we shall depend on everybody but nobody will
depend on us. And this means losing independence. The saddest thing
is that Georgia's rejection of Armenian electricity was not a
purposefully organized international action against Armenia but a
natural process with its objective reasons. Georgians do not want to
buy our electricity because it is expensive, but its price is a
commercial secret although it is known that the price has doubled.
Last year Georgia bought our electricity at the price of 2.5-2.9
cents, and probably at present it became 5 cents. This is very
expensive, for this reason Georgia has preferred Azerbaijan which
does not demand money but they have made an arrangement whereby in
summer Georgia will supply electricity to Azerbaijan. This means that
their relations will become long-lasting. All this is the result of
raising the gas tariff.
The Razdan power plant's gas supplies are subsidized only for
producing electricity for the domestic market, and it gets no subsidy
for producing electricity for export. But we should take into account
that Armenia pays 110 but not 230 dollars [per 1,000 cu.m.] for
Russian gas and in this case electricity produced in Armenia is not
competitive. One may guess what will happen in Armenia after 2008
when Russia sells its gas to us at 180 or 230 dollars. And the entire
Armenian economy is in a situation which has been developing rapidly,
according to the official statistics. Georgia's refusal is just an
episode in the prospect of our state. This is not at all conditioned
by our geographical position. This is the result of the foreign as
well as domestic policy carried out by our state. And if our
authorities are sure that in case the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
is not settled, time works in favour of us, if they say that we have
the most powerful army, if they are sure that one may construct a
strong and competitive state through fraud at referendums and
elections, through populism and total control over TV broadcasting,
in that case we shall have a sad end.