The Ministry of Transportation and Communications received a message
yesterday which affirmed that there had been a decision made to open
the border coming to Armenia as a result of the successful negotiations
between Kocharyan and Putin. However, these “high level” negotiations
had no result. The cargo vehicles are still on the border and according
to the message received by the Ministry of Transportation, currently
there are negotiations being led with Georgia to allow the exchange of
cargo to Armenia and to organize the flow of cargo at a rapid pace.
Vice Minister of the Coordination of the Transportation Infrastructures
of the RA Gagik Aslanyan affirmed yesterday that the road is already
open and that the vehicles are moving, but that information had not
reached the Ministry of Transportation: “The agreement is made, there
is a resolution and Russia has come to terms. What has happened after
that, I have no idea,” said press secretary for Andranik Manukyan and
he recommended asking the State Committee of Customs.
We received another piece of advice from Head of the Customs
Headquarters for Transportation Resources Armenak Movsisyan: “To tell
you the truth, I don’t know. Ask “Armenia Lada. They are the ones most
interested.” We informed “Armenia Lada” that the road is closed and
received the following response: “Well, if they say it’s closed, then
it’s closed.”
It turned out that the “Ararat-Lada” Russian Armenian closed-joint
stock company had suffered the most from the closing of the Lars
border. “168 hours” weekly tried to find out from president of the
company Rafael Shahmuradyan just how the closing of the border reflects
on the economy. He responded: “It affects the economy tremendously. We
have lost a lot financially. There are products worth $5,500,000
dollars on the border of which $1,150,000 belongs to the state budget.
At the present, we can not give neither the salaries for the workers
nor solve other issues. We are in a terrible situation. It is already
the 17th day and we have 510 vehicles on the border. People have
nothing to eat, they are hungry and thirsty. To make matters worse, it
is cold. In a word, it is horrible.” R. Shahmuradyan sees no solution
to the problem: “I don’t know what we will do. They told me that the
border would be opened yesterday, then they said today, I don’t get it:
is it opening today or not?” According to him, he has discussed with
the Prime Minister, the National Assembly and the presidential staff:
“On Monday, all of them said that it had to be opened yesterday, but it
didn’t,” he said. Is “Armenia-Lada” still piling up new cargo on the
border? Is there going to be a rise in prices? In response, R.
Shahmuradyan said: “How can we bring the cargo? It is impossible. As
for the prices yes, this will affect the prices. They will go up.”
According to Head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Hamlet Gasparyan, the border continues to be closed due
to the fact that “there are problems there with Russians and Georgians.
Both sides are negotiating. The fact that our country has negotiated
and presented a list of the damages caused is another side of the
story. Putin has promised to talk with both sides. We have simply told
both Russia and Georgia that this harms us and that we wish for it to
open,” said H. Gasparyan.
Businessman of the National Assembly Khachatur Sukiasyan believes that
the closing of the border reflects badly upon our economy because that
is the one road which serves as an alternative to other roads. “The
Lars road is often closed in winter and there is a working field which
can not be substituted. But it forms only 20-25% of the exchange of
cargo,” says Khachatur Sukiasyan and added: “I think that we will pull
ourselves together and if the ferries work without any flaws, then our
businessmen will start to work with ferries. It was too bad that they
didn’t warn us before closing the border so there would not be an
accumulation of cargo on the border. As a result of that, many
organizations lost much.” In regard to the increase in prices as a
result of the closing of the border, Sukiasyan affirmed that “one or
two products will be more expensive, but that will not largely affect
the rest of the products.”
P.S. Last week, Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan stated that he had
led negotiations with the Presidents of Russia and Georgia in letting
the fueled cargo belonging to the atomic nuclear power station pass.
Andranik Markaryan confirmed that both presidents have agreed and are
currently trying to look for the fueled cargo. That cargo vehicle has
been at the Lars border until yesterday, and they finally decided to
transfer it to Armenia and install it in the nuclear power station in
order to not arouse any arguments.