Armenians rally to protest electricity price hike
Several thousand Armenians have staged rallies in the capital, Yerevan, to protest yet again against the rising prices of household electricity in the landlocked Caucasus country.
The demonstrators demanded on Friday that the government of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan cancel the electricity price hikes.
They blocked one of the capital’s major avenues and were trying to march further on to the presidential headquarters. However, their march was halted by police.
The Friday demonstrations reignited the unrest over electricity price hikes in June. After a weeklong standoff in June between police and protesters, the Armenian president annulled the tariff hike which put an end to the rallies.
The Armenian government had decided to increase power tariffs for households by 16 percent from August 1.
The decision to increase the power prices came following a request by the electricity distribution company for Armenia’s electricity network, a subsidiary of the Russian firm Inter RAO.
Armenia depends on its neighboring countries to supply energy and most of the raw material it needs.
With a population of over three million, the country is the second most densely populated of the former Soviet republics. Armenia’s economy relies heavily on money invested and sent in by expatriate Armenians working abroad.
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