Levon Zurabyan, the vice-chairman of the “Armenian National Congress” (ANC) party, writes: “ANOTHER ANTI-PEOPLE DEAL BY NICOLE

With his call to support Nikol Pashinyan, Trump does not even hide that he is doing it exclusively for one purpose. is to “give our wonderful American Oil Companies access from Central Asia all the way to the United States.”

In other words, the flagrant violation of the principles of democracy, the gross foreign interference in the free expression of the people and the imposition of a foreign puppet on the neck of the Armenian people is CLEARLY justified for the FIRST TIME exclusively for the purpose of achieving American geopolitical interests and huge oil profits.

Nikol Pashinyan actually went to a deal. he is building TRIPP, drawing Armenia into a geopolitical conflict between the West and Russia and Iran, in which we can literally fall under our feet, instead receiving the anti-democratic support of the West for the anti-popular illegitimate regime in Armenia.

As always in such situations, Armenia will receive only destruction and loss, it will receive a dictatorship, in the best case becoming a raw appendage of the world economy, whose owner and ruler will be Azerbaijan, with all its consequences for our national identity.

But there is another way, Armenia’s Wise Way, which refuses to become an affiliate of any camp, including Russia, and considers Armenia as a sovereign independent country. Our formula for peace and development, TRIP BRICS is a plan to harmonize the interests of the superpowers, which will bring stable and lasting peace and development to our country.”

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Prospects for the development of the “Middle Corridor” became the central topic of the webinar of the Edinburgh Business School, according to the correspondent of the Kazinform agency in London.

During a webinar entitled “The Middle Corridor and the Future of Trade between Great Britain and Central Asia” held on Wednesday, representatives of the academic community, expert circles and business discussed the potential of the route connecting Asia and Europe through the territory of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s gas and oil supplies pass, once again exposed the vulnerability of global energy chains. Markets are bracing for a prolonged period of volatility amid the ongoing standoff between the US, Israel and Iran.

Additional risks are created by the activity of Yemen’s Houthis, who threaten the security of the Bab el-Mandeb strait. it is the key route between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Instability in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, only exacerbates the threats to global trade and shipping.

“The crisis around the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting the vulnerability of traditional routes, has drawn renewed attention to the risks of dependence on narrow transport hubs and alternative and emerging routes such as «Middle corridor», to the need to pay more attention,” said Arzu Abasova, a researcher at the British Defense Research Institute, in her speech.

John Easton, professor of sustainable transport at the Edinburgh Business School, noted that the main problem of the “Middle Corridor” is not related to the infrastructure of the central sector, but to the final, first of all, congestion of the European networks. According to him, this factor may limit further growth.

He pointed out the difficulties of implementing the unified European system of train traffic management, which is designed to speed up the movement of rolling stock on the territory of Europe. However, in practice this model is still far from working perfectly, although in the long run it should significantly simplify logistics.

“The problem is that the introduction of a single European rail traffic management system in Europe is significantly behind schedule. Currently, only about 10-20 percent of the continent’s rail network is equipped with this system, while the target date of 2030 is fast approaching,” John Easton emphasized.

According to him, the increase in the price of rolling stock also becomes an additional challenge. The introduction of new technologies increases the costs, which mainly fall on the shoulders of freight transport operators.

Today, the European Union remains the largest external contributor along the Middle Corridor, supported by a €10 billion investment commitment to strengthen Central Asia’s connectivity.

UK interest is also gradually increasing. Policymakers and think tanks are increasingly paying attention to the route’s strategic importance, and British expertise in infrastructure financing, regulatory standards and export mechanisms is seen as a potentially important resource for future trade interactions.

“Its long-term success will depend not only on infrastructural investments, but also on coordination, institutional trust and operational reliability,” said Dr. Asilbek Nurgabdeshov of Edinburgh Business School, who moderated the discussion.

In his estimation, during the coming decade, the “Middle Corridor” is able to significantly expand the economic interaction of Great Britain and the European Union with Central Asia and the South Caucasus in several strategic areas at once.

 Earlier, the European expert told how Central Asia is strengthening its position in global logistics.

TIMUR DUSEKEYEV

Source: Kazinform

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Military expert Karen Vrtanesyan writes on her Facebook page. “The subtle art of bringing troops into the capital on the eve of the elections…

Everyone is discussing the parade, the weapons on display, the strange colors of the camouflage. They rightfully discuss the fact that this is Nikol’s pre-election campaign (there was no military parade for 8 years, and before the elections they suddenly decided to do it), the fact that the city was paralyzed again.

But Nikol’s strange statement made on May 12, that the troops may not be withdrawn from the city after the military parade, is not discussed.

“… I ordered that the military parade’s weapons should not come and go through the square, but I said that the weapons should enter the Republic Square, go along Tigran Metsi avenue, probably, it will stretch to the railway station… And I ordered that the citizens should be allowed to come, see and evaluate.”

Even if he has no plans to keep the army in the city until the election day, in any case, it is surprising that the opposition is silent on this topic, in any case, it was worth raising this concern, demanding explanations, because we know what a treacherous and cunning dictator you are dealing with.”

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Vahe Davtyan, doctor of political sciences, professor, energy security specialist, writes: “Russia will limit the import of fruit and vegetable products imported from Armenia from May 30, Rosselkhoznadzor said.

Are you going to Turkey to export agricultural products through the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is operating with great difficulty?
ok

Let me just remind you that Turkey is the absolute leader in Europe in the volume of agricultural production. In 2023 according to data, it amounted to 68.9 billion US dollars.

Agriculture accounts for about 7% of Turkey’s GDP and provides about 20% of the labor force.

2002-2024 Turkey’s agricultural GDP increased from 25 to 74 billion US dollars, and exports from 3.8 to 32.6 billion. According to the World Bank, by the volume of agricultural production in 2023, Turkey will take the 8th place in the world, and the first in Europe, ahead of Russia and France.

Do you know what this means?

We will eat good cheap fruits and vegetables this summer. And then the most interesting will begin.

Armenia’s agriculture, having lost its commercial bases of export and sale, will cease to be a competitive economic sector, moving to a stable import regime.

It’s not difficult to guess from where.”

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Armenia has unofficially announced the undesirability of including a number of Russian citizens in the lists of the observation mission of the June elections, without explaining the reason. said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, during a briefing today.

Zakharova called this event deeply painful and incomprehensible.

“Moscow will take this into account in its relations with Yerevan,” he noted.

“The decision to reject the accreditation of the Russians is deeply painful and incomprehensible to us. But, regardless of all this, apart from regret and incomprehensibility, we are not ready to accept this logic and will have to take it into account in our future work with Yerevan,” said Zakharova.

According to him, it is impossible to even imagine why such unfriendly actions were taken against them.

Zakharova also noted that the Armenian society is against the plans to demolish the monument to the heroes who died in the Great Patriotic War in the city of Artik, but the leadership of the republic does not respond to these “calls for help”.

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A military parade dedicated to the Republic Day was held in Yerevan’s Republic Square. Nikol Pashinyan announced earlier that on May 28, there will be not so much a military parade as a report to the citizens, and only the weapons acquired after 2022 will be shown.

“The military parade is a very subtle phenomenon and can also give the impression of a deviation and abandonment of the peace agenda. We are working and will continue to work with our partners in the international community, including the countries of the region, so that they do not in any way perceive this as a rejection of the peace agenda,” Pashinyan said.

And as a proof of what was said, the term “conditional opponent” came to replace the words “enemy” and “adversary” during the event today.

Military expert Davit Jamalyan generally has reservations about this military parade.

“This was a military parade house. I say it with pain, because, in any case, the progress of the army, the success of the army will be perceived by any Armenian as a great achievement, regardless of everything, but here we see a cheap joke. 168․am– the expert mentioned in a conversation with and explained why he came to such a conclusion, – It is obvious to everyone that the government, which has been afraid since 2020 and has not organized any military exercises for fear of Aliyev, is suddenly trying to steal votes before the elections by using fearful wordings, rather than really showing the dubious weaponry acquired as a result of its very dubious military-technical activity.

And why is it doubtful, for example, the number one problem for our country in case of acquiring weapons is to solve the issue of delivering those weapons to the place. In other words, objectively, we have the problem of delivering the weapons, and also the munitions of those weapons. For the latter, there are 2 roads: through the territory of Georgia and through the territory of Iran. Everything that was purchased from France, and the CAESAR purchased from France is a quality weapon, can only be delivered through the territory of Georgia. But we know, don’t we, that Georgia closed its airspace for us in 2020.

Therefore, taking into account the very large influence of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem in Georgia, we can say with certainty that in the event of a possible confrontation with Azerbaijan, Georgia will close its airspace, and this means that the weapons purchased from France will not be supplemented with ammunition, that is, there will be no shells for that artillery system.

French munitions and weapons cannot come through the territory of Iran, because the Iran-NATO-USA conflict has a perspective.

Aliyev simply allowed this batch to arrive, so that Nikol could try to correct the rating, nothing else.”

Although the military expert assessed the quality of several examples of French weapons, he considered the price problematic. according to him, the equivalent of that armament could be obtained from Russia much more affordably.

Davit Jamalyan also questioned the quality of Indian weapons, noting: “For example, they bought weapons that the Indian army and the Armenian armed forces invested in their armed forces at the same time. We are talking about air defense systems. And what is interesting is that these air defense systems were used by India in the last clash of this tension against Pakistan, they announced that the use was effective, but after a long search I did not find a single confirmed fact that what was officially announced was proven by facts. There is no evidence or fact that these anti-aircraft systems hit any target.”

The expert responded to the observation that, according to RA officials, the Russian alternative you mentioned is also problematic, and it was announced, for example, that the money was given to the Russian Federation, but the weapons were not received. “It is a blatant lie, because about a year ago they themselves announced that the shipment of weapons from Russia had arrived. Apparently, it was about air defense systems.

Yes, the Russian military-industrial complex was overworked due to the Ukrainian events, and there may be a delay in terms of technical issues, but such technical issues have always existed, and sooner or later, we received the weapons we ordered. They received and announced that the Russian weapons have arrived, and it is a false theory that they gave the money and did not receive weapons.

I should also mention that TOS missile systems were shown in the square today, and there are 2 options here: either these systems are from the batch received before Nikol came to power, that is, from the supplies that were shown to us during Sargsyan’s time, or they arrived recently. If it happened recently, already during their rule, it means that this very fact refutes the lie that they gave money and did not receive weapons.”

In response to our questions about the need for diversification of the armed forces, Davit Jamalyan said: “Naturally, any state should have several reliable sources of military equipment acquisition, and cooperation with the Russian military-industrial complex, military-technical cooperation with Russia, naturally, should not exclude diversification. It happened before. for example, in the past, parallel to that military-technical cooperation with Russia, we had cooperation with NATO member-country Poland through the company “Lyubava-Armenia” in the context of modernization programs. That company was closed under Nicol.

What are they doing now? in the name of diversifying the field of military-technical cooperation, they are breaking ties with Russia, which they have the order and instruction from their Western masters. What do they do instead? They are constantly trying to get weapons from here and there. Yes, we should have different sources to acquire weapons, but they should be complementary, not antagonistic.

According to him, in the future, the future authorities will move with the logic of filling. After bringing the allied relations with Russia to a new quality, they will ensure stable, reliable supplies and, in the logic of complementing it, they will establish relations with other countries.

“For example, I see a perspective of relations with India, but from different principled positions, complementary positions. Then, they acquired the weaponry, from 2024, this weaponry is coming to the place, but they did not hold a single military exercise to test the acquired weaponry in conditions close to the combat situation, and our personnel to gain experience in a real military exercise situation,” summed up Davit Jamalyan.

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It became clear from the military parade held on Republic Square on May 28 that the current authorities have decided to change not only the RA Armed Forces coat of arms, but also the Armed Forces the battle flag, which, as could be seen from the footage, is blue in color, because all the details could not be observed from a distance or live, and we tried to get some clarifications from the RA Ministry of Defense, but in vain, our calls and letters remained unanswered.

It should be noted that the RA Armed Forces have undergone changes The battle flag consists of a double-sided wallpaper, a rod and fringes.

The banner of the flag was rectangular, length 1450 mm, width 1150 mm.: It is sewn from double silk balerang red fabric trimmed on three sides with 85mm long gold fringe.

In the central part of the face of the poster, there is depicted the silk Coat of Arms of the Republic of Armenia with a diameter of 310 mm, in the upper half of which the inscription “FOR THE MOTHERLAND” is woven with golden silk in letters 75 mm high.

On the upper left corner of the opposite side of the poster is depicted the silk Coat of Arms of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, 180 mm high and wide.

Under the coat of arms, along the banner, the number and name of the military unit are woven with golden silk. the height of the numbers is 100 mm, the height of the letters is 75 mm. Depending on the number of letters in the nomenclature of the military unit, the sizes of numbers and letters can be reduced to 60 mm and 45 mm.

The flag pole is made of wood. length: 2500 mm, diameter: 40 mm. The 150 mm diameter metal Coat of Arms of the Republic of Armenia is attached to the upper end of the rod.

A 1350 mm and a 1425 mm long rope hangs from the upper end of the rod, and a 150 mm knotted fringe from each end.

The Battle Flag of the RA Armed Forces was considered a symbol of military honor, glory and courage. According to the RA President’s decree adopted at the time, “This is a reminder of the sacred duty of every serviceman of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia about selflessly serving the motherland, defending it bravely and skillfully, protecting every inch of the native land from the enemy, not sparing blood and even life.”

Moreover, during the battle, all personnel of the military unit are obliged to selflessly and bravely defend the Battle Flag and prevent the enemy from taking possession of it. And in the event of the loss of the battle flag, the commander of the military unit and the servicemen directly guilty of that dishonor are subject to trial by a military tribunal, and the military unit to disbandment.

Let’s return to the new battle flag and add that during the military parade the announcer mentioned. “The new battle flag of the armed forces is a symbol of military honor, glory and courage. It is a reminder of the sacred duty of every serviceman of the Army of the Republic of Armenia to serve the homeland, the Republic of Armenia, to protect it, to protect every part of the native land.

 In other words, the battle flag of the RA Armed Forces has been changed, the main idea has remained the same, but they have gone to small mitigations. And even if the established logic works – to preserve every part of the native land personally, it is even better, the problem is that the territorial integrity of RA has not been restored, and the process of demarcation and demarcation is still ahead. We would like to say that the part that is under the control of the RA Armed Forces today may not be there tomorrow.

Since the battle flag was discussed, let us add that months ago, Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of the National Assembly “I have honor” faction, announced that after the Azerbaijani aggression in September 2023, an order was given to burn the battle flag of the People’s Republic of Azerbaijan, and those who made such a decision were not held accountable.

And when Nikol Pashinyan says, “We are creating an army from scratch,” does he mean removing the symbols of the army’s victorious history? In that case, why doesn’t he remove from the army the soldiers inherited from the army of the past?

Are they at peace with it, do they not have the courage to make it clear that the political leadership of the country chooses the words carefully in the statements related to the army, maybe the Minister of Defense, in any case, will accept that such statements cannot be made, that the army is a living organism that must develop every day, that what is bought today may not be so suitable tomorrow, and in the age of modern wars, the armament becomes obsolete faster.

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168TVof “Trigger” the guest of the program Expert of “APRI-Armenia” scientific research center, candidate of historical sciences, internationalist, Israelologist Sergey Melkonyann is:

The program discussed Armenia’s economic dependence on Russia and the EAEU, Armenia’s trade with the EAEU and the EU, the possibility of replacing the Russian market with the European one, the TRIPS Agreement and the risks to Armenia’s sovereignty, Maria Zakharova’s statement on Armenia’s approach to the EU, the Iran-Israel-USA conflict and its consequences for the region, as well as Donald Trump’s policy towards Iran.

Hayk Derzyan

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The United States is trying to quickly strengthen its presence in the region in logistics, energy and mineral directions, and the signing of TRIPP, strategic partnership and documents on mining and processing of minerals and rare minerals between Armenia and the United States should be considered in this logic.

Այս մասին «168 Ժամ»-ի հետ զրույցում մեկնաբանեց Doctor of political science, professor, energy security expert Vahe Davtyanexpressing his opinion about the documents signed between RA Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

«In general, we are dealing not only with bilateral documents, but with wider geopolitical realignments. Washington is trying to quickly strengthen its presence in the South Caucasus, especially in the areas of logistics, energy and mineral resources. This is a competition with Russia, China and Iran at the same timeVahe Davtyan commented.

According to the expert, regarding TRIPP, it should be understood that it is not only about Armenia. According to the expert, this is also an attempt to diversify the Middle Corridor with the Europe-Caucasus-Asia axis.

“Washington is trying to form such a communication architecture that will reduce the role of Iran, compete with Russia’s “North-South” project and ensure stricter control over Europe-Asia connections.

There is also a large energy settlement here. After 2022, Asia has become an important alternative energy destination for Europe. The USA is interested in Europe’s long-term dependence on American liquefied gas. That is why it is important for Washington to control not only the supply of energy carriers, but also the logistic corridors through which Europe-Asia economic ties are built. TRIPP should be considered in this logic.

There are serious risks here for Armenia. If there is no complete unblocking, if all regional communications are not opened, TRIPP may remain more of a political project than an economic one. In that case, Armenia receives a great geopolitical burden and, at the same time, a limited economic result. The figure of 15 million tons being drummed is absolutely barebones and does not have any rational calculation at its base. Let me remind you that, for example, the capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is 6 million tons, and in 2025, only 0.5 million tons were transported through it.” Davtyan mentioned.

Speaking about the framework memorandum signed on May 26 between Armenia and the United States for supply assurance in the field of extraction and processing of important minerals and rare minerals: Vahe Davtyan draws attention to the global interest in Syunik, noting that if the topic of possible uranium reserves also comes into circulation in this context, then the strategic value of the region will increase even more. However, according to the expert, the key issue here is Armenia’s sovereignty.

 “The document on minerals should be considered in the same logic. Today, there is a fierce competition for rare metals in the world. They are necessary for chips, military technologies, artificial intelligence and “green” energy. Syunik in particular, but not only, is becoming a zone of global interest in this sense. If the topic of possible uranium reserves also comes into circulation, the strategic value of the region will increase even more. But the key issue here is sovereignty.

Armenia should not turn into only a raw material annex. If we just export minerals, and the entire technological and industrial chain remains outside, the economic effect will be minimal, and the political dependencies will be much greater.” the expert thinks.

Let’s remind that on May 26, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Yerevan for a short visit. RA Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met him at “Zvartnots” airport. The Armenian Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State signed three documents after their meeting at Zvartnots airport: the framework agreement between Armenia and the United States on the TRIPP project, the Armenia-US comprehensive strategic partnership charter and the framework memorandum between Armenia and the United States on the extraction and processing of important minerals and rare minerals.

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