The fate of the 30 newspapers printed at the “Tigran Mets” printing-house is undecided. The ferry bringing the paper imported from Ukraine is still at the Ilyicheyevisk harbor. Director of the “Tigran Mets” printing-house Vrezh Markosyan has announced that the papers printed at “Tigran Mets” will stop being printed on December 8 and will restart on December 16.
President of the Journalists’ Association Astghik Gevorgyan, however, can’t imagine how the country can survive without information for even one day. During a press conference, she said that despite where the paper is imported from and the problems, everything must be done to solve the issue at hand.
“Each mass media representative has the right to demand the state top provide printing paper,” said A. Gevorgyan, reminding that paper was provided in Armenia even back in the dark days of the early 1990s at a high price. She opposed the fact that this could be a trick played by the Armenian authorities on the threshold of the parliamentary elections.
“I think that there is something amiss here. There is always a similar situation in monopoly,” said the president of the Journalists’ Association.
Chief Editor of “Azg” daily Hakob Avetikyan disagreed with Gevorgyan on this last opinion and recalled that “Tigran Mets” is not the only printing-house importing printing paper.
“If we look at the issue from the business perspective, then each newspaper edition must have its source of paper,” said H. Avetikyan. However, he is of the opinion that that is impossible in Armenia because it all depends on a matter of financial issues and investments.
“Of course, there is a political perspective too because printing paper (at least in Armenia’s neighboring countries) has a strategic goal. So, the corresponding bodies had to think about this beforehand,” said the chief editor of “Azg”. He also mentioned that this is not a major issue for the press. He believes that newspaper editions may have problems with those spreading the newspapers because those companies owe huge amounts of money to the editions. According to H. Avetikyan, the bankrupt “HyeContact” (Armenian Contact) company owes 6.5 million drams to “Azg”.
Although the “Haykakan Zhamanak” (Armenian Times) daily is not printed at “Tigran Mets”, however chief editor Nikol Pashinyan is worried for his colleagues. This story “emotionalized him from the thinking perspective”, in other words, the fact that Vrezh Markosyan didn’t talk about the paper deficit with the editors directly, rather by making an announcement in the “Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” (Republic of Armenia) daily. N. Pashinyan called this “sickness of mind”. Touching upon the paper import monopoly, the chief editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak” (Armenian Times) mentioned that although there are other companies importing paper, however “Vrezh Markosyan is a de facto oligarch and takes quota offers.”
Head of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan mentioned that there is no colleague in the Armenian press that fulfills his duties of the presses with a sense of responsibility. According to Navasardyan, there is no mechanism that will prevent this. He believes that the main issue is the cooperating organizations are not interested in fulfilling their responsibilities. H. Avetikyan didn’t agree with the opinion that the printed press depends on “Tigran Mets” and the ferry. According to him, Armenia has an alternative: for example, the “Gind” or “Noyan Tapan” printing-houses. Based on the data of the chief editor of “Azg”, “Tigran Mets” consumes 120 tons of paper monthly for printing papers, while “Gind” consumes 10 tons.
“Perhaps this will be of advantage to other printing-houses to come into the light and work with the printed press,” said H. Avetikyan. He worries over the indifference of the “corresponding bodies”.
“For example, no government official has talked to me, or asked me if he could help me,” mentioned H. Avetikyan, predicting that it’s even better for many officials to not have the presses print their editions and relieve themselves from the “headache”. N. Pashinyan said that the authorities could have rented an airplane and import printing paper.
“When it was necessary, the authorities quickly rented a plane and brought guns, helmets, and other items to Armenia,” said the chief editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak”.
Touching upon the fact that many newspaper editions will be forced to have their papers printed in other printing-homes starting from December 8 for an undecided time, H. Avetikyan said that, for example, “Azg” daily will double its price by 2.5, but the actual price of the newspaper will stay the same.
“We’ll feel the consequences, but this won’t take long,” said Avetikyan, hoping that the issue will be solved by the end of the year.
“May this event be a call to not have this happen again in the future,” said Astghik Gevorgyan.