Armenia: Protesters relax as government suspends electricity price hike

The streets of Yerevan remained quiet on Sunday, after Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced on Saturday that he had suspended the electricity price hike in a bid to bring several days of protests to an end. Sargsyan stated that citizen's utility bills would still rise, but instead of the public covering the cost, tax revenues would be used to raise the capital to pay the energy companies until an independent audit of the decision to raise prices takes place. Residents were playing football, some vendors set up stalls and children were playing in the streets in the sunshine. However the barricades on Yerevan’s main street remained firmly in place, as protesters called for the price hike to be reversed. The demonstrators have said they will respond to Sargsyan’s offer at 18:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Sunday. The protests started on June 19 after the government announced that there would be a 16 to 22 percent increase in electricity prices, the third price hike within three years. Residents took to the streets every day for more than a week, even after around 200 people were detained and police started to deploy water cannons.