"JUBILEE BY CANDLELIGHT"

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has celebrated his 60th birthday. Official Armenian media diligently publish which of the world leaders congratulated his Armenian counterpart. And he himself gave an interview to Armenian Public Television, where he said that he did not prepare for his jubilee in advance and complained that not all his dreams came true. "In connection with my 60th jubilee, I cannot say that all my dreams came true, so I can do nothing but wait for the next jubilee - the 65th birthday, which I would like to celebrate with a free "Artsakh" (hereinafter the quotes are ours - editor), with a stable peace, a rapidly developing Armenia and rapidly rising immigration," Sargsyan said in the interview.

Azerbaijani political scientist Fikrat Sadiqov commented quite ironically on these birthday wishes. In an interview with 1news.az on the statement about "free Artsakh", he remarked: "Instead, he can stay for a while at the remand centre of the Ministry of National Security and then in the Qobustan prison, where we can organize a birthday party for him together prisoners. I have no doubt that the prisoners who are there will know what to do, how to thank him and what 'gifts' to present him."

However, the Armenian president's own compatriots also wished him to celebrate his next jubilee in a prison cell. In any case, according to Yerevan media, the MP from the Heritage faction, Zarui Postanjyan, sent her own "congratulatory message" to Sargsyan, where she stated: "Today you are 60 years old, seven years of which you have spent seizing the power of Armenian citizens, speaking on their behalf and acting against the national interests of the Armenian people. Of course, it is desirable for people to be honoured with kind words on their jubilee, but in your case, good has either died or, confronted with the loss of faith, chosen the path of emigration, which in turn led to a tragedy. The tragedy in the life of the Armenian people and every Armenian family is polarization, poverty, the barrier between the citizen and the state, the Armenian and the Armenian state. This is the largest degree of division and alienation, which was achieved thanks to you." And she concluded it as follows: "In connection with your jubilee, accept as a gift a card with Pablo Picasso's picture 'Tragedy'. I wish you to lose power, be prosecuted and convicted."

Of course, it is unlikely that Postanjyan meant Serzh Sargsyan's complicity in the destruction of Azerbaijani town of Xocali [Khojaly] and the accompanying massacre of civilians. In Yerevan, they give him their own very extensive list: from election fraud to the impoverishment of the people and the disastrous rise in emigration.

Apart from everything else, Sargsyan's jubilee coincided with the publication of statistical data on the economy of Armenia, which can hardly be called optimistic. Moreover, the authorities' attempts to give a cheerful figure no longer make the expected impression on local analysts. "According to official data, an ambiguous situation has come about in our industry. The overall rate has increased by a purely symbolic value - 0.2 per cent. An appreciable decline in the physical volume of production has been registered in the mining industry and in the development of open quarries (6 per cent), as well as in individual manufacturing industries," News.am notes.

In addition, the statistical service reported a decline in the production of cognac. According to it, the amount of cognac produced in Armenia in January-May 2014 decreased by 11.1 per cent compared to the same period of 2013, amounting to 5,542,700 litres.

Of course, this hardly means that the Armenian president risked remaining without cognac on his birthday. Moreover, "people in the know" claimed that Serzh Azatovich prefers 20-year-old Nairi cognac, and a year ago, the presidential administration bought 53 1.5-litre bottles of cognac. But it is not known how exactly the jubilee was celebrated - in a noisy company with music and dancing, or in a narrow circle by candlelight. But there is no doubt that in the very near future the expression "candlelight dinner" is unlikely to be associated with exquisite romanticism for many Armenian families. As Serzh Azatovich celebrated his jubilee, Yerevan officially announced: from 1 August, electricity rates are rising by 9.9 per cent for "home customers" in Armenia, which is a significant blow to the pocket of most Armenian families. Yerevan responded with protests, whose participants blocked the traffic on Saryan Street. The police tried to force them out, which predictably led to clashes.

In turn, the Yerevan newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak warns: it is very likely that in a few months, in the spring of next year, electricity tariffs will be raised again, because one of the largest facilities of the country's energy system - the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant - will be closed for overhaul for 1.5-2 years. Moreover, according to Yerevan media, the Electric Networks of Armenia published a financial report on its activities in 2013 with a conclusion by Ernst and Young, an independent auditor. According to the report, ENA closed the year with a financial loss of 4.47bn drams. The same Haykakan Zhamanak said that the independent auditor's conclusion states that "together with other circumstances all this indicates the presence of significant uncertainty, which may call into question the company's ability to continue its uninterrupted activities." "In other words, the Electric Networks of Armenia are on the verge of bankruptcy," the newspaper concludes. In turn, the Yerevan newspaper Lragir makes it clear that in this case, the authorities should not raise tariffs, but create a commission that would investigate "where the gap of 17bn drams, fraught with rolling blackouts, appeared in the energy system". So the Armenian president's "jubilee by candlelight" really turned out grim.