Month: September 2013

SWEDEN : ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT WITH ARMENIA ELIMINATED FROM AGENDA

TendersInfo
September 11, 2013 Wednesday

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt considers that initialing an
Association Agreement with Armenia was removed from the agenda, noting
that he came to this conclusion together with Slovakian Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.

Bildt wrote, “We came to a conclusion with Miroslav Lajcak that the
Association Agreement with Armenia has been removed from the agenda
now. We work with Ukraine, Moldavia and Georgia.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced a decision to join the
Customs Union and take the required practical steps towards this goal
and consequently to take part in the establishment of the Eurasian
Economic Union.

Russian president Vladimir Putin backed this decision and conveyed
Russia’s willingness to completely contribute towards this process.

THE FIRST GEOPOLITICAL TEST FOR IVANISHVILI

Georgia Today , Georgia
Sept 12 2013

Print version

While Moscow was twisting Yerevan’s hands on Armenia becoming a member
of the Eurasian Union, Georgia’s Prime Minister responded twice to the
issue of joining. “Never say never” was the position of the Georgian
Prime Minister in Tbilisi, which was followed by his explanation in
Estonia of what he meant.

Once again, misunderstandings developed around Ivanishvili’s
statements: he is in a position of constant self-defense. His statement
on the Eurasian Union was no exception in this regard.

In his statement on September 5, Ivanishvili said that the evaluations
of “some politicians” were “unusual” as from the day of his entrance
to politics, he had stated several times that integration to the
European Union and NATO is the cornerstone of Georgia’s foreign policy.

“It seems that there are people who need an explanation about what
my statement meant yesterday. This is why I will state once again
that if the Eurasian Union had any compliance with our country’s
interests without contradicting Georgia’s pronounced core strategy;
we would discuss the issue in the future. And I will repeat: why not?!”

Ivanishvili writes in his statement.

On the previous day Ivanishvili was asked how interested Georgia was
in joining the Eurasian Union and the Prime Minister said: “As for the
Eurasian Union, I carefully watch and learn. On this stage we do not
have any position. If we see in the future that it can be interesting
for the strategy of our country, then why not. On the current stage,
we have no position.”

The United National Movement strongly criticized his response and
used the chance to put the government in the position of self-defense.

The United National Movement members think that overall, Ivanishvili’s
statements diminish not only the ruling coalition but Georgia as
a whole. “The fact that the Prime Minister does not have a clear
position on the Eurasian Union… I would like to remind him that
the idea of the Eurasian Union is Putin’s instrument for stopping
Euro-Atlantic integration in Russia’s neighboring countries, for
destroying the sovereignty and statehood of these countries and for
turning them into Russia’s satellites. It is alarming if Georgia’s
democratically elected government and its prime minister do not have
a clear position on an issue like that,” Georgia’s Security Council
Secretary Giga Bokeria said.

The endless process of self-defense on the side of the Prime Minister
was previously blamed on his surroundings, but now some analysts
blame it on Ivanishvili as well.

Independent political expert in Caucasus issues, Mamuka Areshidze, said
in an interview with the newspaper Qronika that Bidzina Ivanishvili
was not informed and this was due to his lifestyle.

“Somehow people think that Ivanishvili lies when he says things on
this or that topic, but he is not informed. He is truly not informed.

Unfortunately, this is not only because of the people surrounding him.

It is because of the lifestyle that he has developed during his 55
years,” the expert said.

The misunderstanding that started in Tbilisi was continued in the
Baltics when the Prime Minister confused the association agreement
and membership to the European Union with each other. “The most
interesting was what happened yesterday.

“We learned that Georgia could continue working with the same
commission after November and we might receive the signature in the
near future for joining the European Union. It is very realistic
that in May next year we will sign the EU accession document,”
Ivanishvili said.

The United National Movement would not miss such a chance and they
immediately gave it a joke qualification. According to a member of the
parliamentary minority Davit Darchiashvili, it is the Prime Minister’s
style to make such statements. “He has probably left out a few words
from the sentence. He sometimes omits words or changes them. The
Association Agreement and EU membership are totally different things.

This statement can be included in the list of joke statements. I repeat
that the association agreement is different than [EU] membership,”
Darchiashvili said.

Eurasian or European Union?

The choice between the two has been the main dilemma of Georgian
politics for the last 20 years. And it was confirmed once again.

According to Gia Volski, Chairman of the Interim Parliamentary
Committee on Restoration of Territorial Integrity, if the Eurasian
Union does not in contradiction with Georgia’s integration into
European and Euro-Atlantic structures, then this issue can be a
subject of discussion.

“One should not be categorical and speculate with politics when we want
to characterize a global process and one should not be categorical
when in the next few days the state might need to discuss a certain
issue for the sake of its national security,” Volski said.

So far three countries – Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are members
of the Eurasian Union. Recently, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan
declared his verbal consent on joining the union. However, with
certain conditions, one of them being the opening of the railway line
via Abkhazia. In other words, Yerevan is asking the Kremlin to force
Georgia and Sokhumi to negotiate on restoring the railway without
any preconditions.

It is obvious that Yerevan is giving Moscow time until November, i.e.

the Vilnius Summit. If during that period Moscow manages to talk
Tbilisi into opening the railway line, then Armenia will sign
membership of the Eurasian Union and give up Europe. Otherwise, the
Eurasian Union will remain the union of three countries. Before that,
everything will depend on Tbilisi.

Thus, the Ivanishvili government should be very careful and determined
in order to avert the approaching threat to Georgia and pass the first
geopolitical test after winning last year’s parliamentary elections.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PHOTOS: 45TH ARMENIAN OLYMPICS START IN TEHRAN

Payvand Iran
Sept 12 2013

Source: Islamic Republic News Agency (photos by Marzieh Mousavi)

The 45th Armenian Olympics opened Wednesday evening at Ararat Club
in the Iranian capital. The Armenian Orthodox primate of the diocese
of Tehran, Archbishop Sebuh Sarkisian as well as Armenian ambassador
to Iran and a number of well-known Armenian athletes were present in
the opening ceremony of the games.

During the 10-day games, 900 Armenian athletes from across the country
and also from Armenia will compete with each other in nine fields.

Iran’s Armenian Olympics is not international but regional countries
like Armenia, Lebanon and Syria can join the games if they wish.

The level of the games is very high; the rivals are moving neck
and neck. The Armenians Olympics is aimed at finding new talents in
Armenian sports and encourage the youth to turn to sports.

At the opening ceremony of this years games, Archbishop Sarkisian
described Iran as the home to Armenians. Armenians, he said, have
been living in Iran since thousands years ago.

See photos at

He said Armenians were living in a comfortable condition in Iran.

59 MEMBERS OF “ARMENIAN POWER” GROUP PLEAD GUILTY

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Sept 12 2013

12 September 2013 – 7:00pm

59 members of the “Armenian Power” group active in the US have pleaded
guilty to charges such as robbery, murder, kidnapping, extortion,
fraud, drug smuggling and illegal weapons trafficking.

In 2011, the US law enforcement authorities conducted a large-scale
operation, which resulted in the arrests of dozens of people.

All in all, 70 people found themselves in the dock, RIA Novosti
reports.

The “Armenian Power” gang included mainly immigrants from Armenia
and other republics of the former USSR. It was formed in Los Angeles
in the 1980s. The gang allegedly conssited of up to 250 people,
not counting the numerous supporters.

From: A. Papazian

REPORTS: KARABAKH HOPES TO PRODUCE FOR VERSACE

EurasiaNet.org
Sept 12 2013

September 12, 2013 – 9:28am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

Could Azerbaijan be facing encroachments on its territorial integrity
by Italian fashion brands? Armenian and Karabakhi media have it
that Versace, Armani, Prada and Moschino are considering setting up
production lines in breakaway Nagorno Karabakh, a patch of territory
that Azerbaijan claims as its own design.

According to the reports, a coterie of Italian businesspeople are
visiting Karabakh this week to check out the potential for producing
clothes in a decrepit, former textile factory, Gharmetakskombinat. The
separatist authorities hope that the abandoned factory could soon
start producing Versace outfits, among others, and have joked that
perhaps Baku would care to set up a special black list for “prominent
international brands and companies.”

While this story may sound like something out of The Onion, officials
in Baku took it seriously. Azerbaijan, which is trying to isolate
Karabakh as part of its policy to regain control of the predominantly
ethnic Armenian territory, tasked its embassy in Italy to look into
the reports. One nationalist NGO called for a boycott of Versace
clothes — an action that, conceivably, might have put Azerbaijan’s
reigning fashionista, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, in a potentially
delicate situation.

Soon enough, though, Azerbaijani media distributed alleged comments
from Versace that the company has no plans to extend production to
the disputed region.

A purported “representative” of Versace in Azerbaijan, however, told
the Azerbaijani website Virtualaz.org that the Italian clothier intends
to open a boutique, rather than a factory, in the breakaway territory.

Versace spokespeople could not be reached by EurasiaNet.org for
confirmation.

It remains unclear if energy-rich Baku was able to talk Italy’s
fashion sharks out of their alleged Karabakh ideas or if the fashion
factory was Armenian/Karabakhi wishful thinking to begin with. In a
part of the world known both for fake news and fake fashion brands,
it may take time to get a clear picture.

From: Baghdasarian

ACTIVISTS ROUGHED UP IN ARMENIA

United Press International UPI
Sept 12 2013

BERLIN, Sept. 12 (UPI) — Human Rights Watch said Thursday it was
calling on Armenian authorities to probe reports that human rights
activists were targeted by assailants.

The rights group said it documented several incidents where human
rights activists in Armenia were assaulted after taking part in
September rallies.

“The police and other Armenian authorities need to be prepared to make
clear that they are going to put a stop to these attacks, starting
with effective investigations that lead to arrests and prosecutions,”
Giorgi Gogia, a South Caucasus research at Human Rights Watch, said
in a statement from Berlin.

The rights group didn’t indicate the reason for the demonstrations.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said demonstrators rallied last week
against plans announced by President Serzh Sarkisian to join the
Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

Stefan Fule, neighborhood policy commissioner for the European Union,
said Thursday he’d lead a delegation to Armenia this week for informal
partnership talks.

“The EU remains firmly committed to moving this partnership forward
as much as possible, based on the ambitions of our partners and their
ability to implement necessary reforms,” Fule said in a statement.

The EU’s Eastern Partnership extends to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

ARMENIA SEEKING CUSTOMS UNION MEMBERSHIP

Tax-news.com
Sept 12 2013

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

12 September 2013

Lithuania’s Foreign Minister has warned that Armenia’s participation
in a deep and comprehensive free trade area within the European Union
may be incompatible with its request for membership of the Customs
Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Lithuania currently holds the EU Presidency. Linas Linkevicius met
with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian earlier this week, when
the ministers discussed the request. Linkevicius stressed that further
consultations were needed to assess the situation, and cautioned that,
were Armenia to join the CIS member states’ Customs Union, the move
would “diminish Armenia’s ambitions of integration and cooperation
with the EU.”

Linkevicius added that Armenia should not take a step that could
waste what it has achieved during its five year participation in the
Eastern Partnership Agreement.

Earlier this week, Nalbandian held talks with the European Commissioner
for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy. He reiterated
Armenia’s readiness to continue its broad cooperation with the EU
in a variety of areas, and said that this would not contradict the
country’s membership of the Customs Union.

EUROPEAN LAWMAKERS ACCUSE RUSSIA OF BLOCKING EASTERN PARTNERSHIP ON EU AGREEMENTS

The Moscow Times, Russia
Sept 12 2013

12 September 2013 | Issue 5211
The Moscow Times

Several senior European Parliament members have accused Russia
of imposing sanctions on the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries
to prevent them from signing trade and visa agreements with the
European Union.

European parliamentarians called for sanctions against Russia in light
of its bans imposed this year on Moldovan wine, Ukrainian sweets and
Belarussian pork. Russia’s alleged manipulation of energy deliveries
and its meddling in Armenia’s relations with Turkey and the breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh have also been called into question.

The calls for sanctions came on the eve of the two-day EaP Summit in
Vilnius, which started Thursday. The Eastern Partners include Belarus,
Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The European Parliament passed a resolution supported by five
political groups that proposes taking several measures against Russia,
including an embargo on the import of its spirits by EU countries,
and a complaint to the World Trade Organization about “Gazprom’s
abuse of its dominant position on the EU gas market and its price
manipulation to the detriment to EU consumers,” parliament member
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski said on his website.

Another measure involves building interconnected energy and gas
grids to help deliver energy to countries being pressed by Russia,
said Saryusz-Wolski, chairman of the parliament’s delegation for
relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He also suggested
opening European markets to EaP goods, for example, wine.

Saryusz-Wolski described Russia’s economic policies toward EaP
countries as “pressure” that is “clearly in violation of WTO rules
and encroaches upon EU interests.”

In addition, Russia is “contesting” the European Union’s desire
to sign trade-liberalizing Association Agreements with the EaP,
Saryusz-Wolski said.

Pawel Kowal, chairman of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation
Committee, said that he supported Association Agreements and that it
was “necessary to lift trade and visa barriers,” with EaP countries,
Interfax-Ukraine reported.

Elmar Brok, chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee,
said in parliament Wednesday that Russia’s exploitation of “energy
prices as an instrument for blocking a country’s free choice” was
“unacceptable.”

Brok urged EaP countries to sign Association Agreements with the EU.

Libor Roucek, a Foreign Affairs Committee member, echoed his
colleague’s sentiments, saying “We don’t need new cold wars in Europe,”
Interfax-Ukraine reported.

IT’S ENOUGH TO DRIVE YOU TO CHEAPER FORMS OF DRINK

The Economist
Sept 12 2013

Jun 8th 2013 | TEHRAN

THE middle-class northern suburbs of Tehran are the wet part of Iran.

In no other place in the Islamic Republic are piety and conservatism
less evident and alcohol consumption more so. But a run on the rial
throughout 2012, set off largely by international sanctions on Iran’s
banking and oil, has made imported alcohol too expensive even for
the better-off. Absolut Vodka, long a favourite tipple, now changes
hands for three times more than it did before the currency began to
slide at the start of last year.

This has been a boon for Iran’s Armenian bootleggers, who distil arak,
a cheap and heady moonshine, from raisins. Posh drinkers of the better
brands of whisky and brandy, who would previously have been snooty
about arak, are now turning to it, because its price has stayed fairly
stable at around 100,000 rials (less than $3) a litre. “Business is
great right now,” says an arak dealer. “Many of my Armenian friends
have left for America but they all now say business is better here.”

Alcohol is strictly prohibited for Muslims in Iran. Repeat offenders
can even face the death penalty. But Iran’s Armenians, who are
Christian, are allowed to quaff booze, though those caught selling
it in large amounts are regularly thrown into prison.

Unregulated, home-brewed drinks can be dangerous. The media often carry
stories of deaths caused by imbibing industrial alcohol or the sawdust
that can get into home-made stuff. “If your dealer isn’t Armenian don’t
even think about getting it,” explains a student. This week six people
were reported to have died and more than 350 fell ill in Rafsanjan,
a city south-east of Tehran, after drinking from a bad batch.

Abbas Ramezaninejad, a prominent local imam, said that there may have
been more to the incident than meets the eye. A “plot to defame”
the city was connected, he said, to Iran’s coming presidential
poll. On the very day the victims of alcohol poisoning fell ill,
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who hails from the
place, was controversially blocked from running for the presidency.

ARMENIA CONNECTION

Illinois Times, IL
Sept 12 2013

By Cap City Illinois Times helped to sponsor a week-long workshop
for 14 early-career reporters in Armenia, an emerging democracy and
former Soviet state that is nestled between Turkey, Iran, Georgia
and Azerbaijan.

The intensive workshop, held last week, aims to develop political and
economic reporting skills and contains ethics components focusing on
fairness and accuracy. Armenia’s independent media, though plentiful,
have had to work hard to develop a base of balanced, insightful
coverage to match the country’s democratic aspirations. Journalists
labor under poor pay conditions; most are driven by a calling to the
profession and little else.

Armenia boasts a highly educated workforce but has struggled to develop
economically since independence in 1991 due to lack of competitive
industry and infrastructure and an unresolved border conflict with
Azerbaijan.

With support from IT, the workshop was organized and cosponsored by
the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Media Initiatives Center.

Thomas Atkins, who worked as an IT writer from 1988-89 and again
in 1993, led the workshop. He now works as a full-time journalism
trainer for Reuters News in Europe and the Middle East.