Month: February 2015

HYPERTOPIA OF THE ARMENIAN LOBBY

The Hill, DC
Feb 16 2015

By Denis Jaffe

If one is to believe the Armenian lobby’s cliche narrative, Azerbaijan
is an appalling country, whilst Armenia is the land of the free and
the brave, the land of hope and democracy. The dystopian Armenian
reality is actually a classic case of hyperopia (farsightedness).

Armenia has a real moral and ethical deficit, putting it in no position
to point fingers at its neighbors such as Azerbaijan when discussing
international law and human rights.

What is the causal link for problems in the South Caucasus? Let’s
examine closely: Azerbaijan was militarily attacked by Armenia, all
the war fighting took place on the territory of Azerbaijan, about
16 percent of Azerbaijani territory is still occupied by Armenia,
with some 600,000 Azerbaijani residents of those 16 percent of the
country becoming internally displaced in their own nation in 1992-1994
(that’s in addition to the 200,000-240,000 Azerbaijanis and Kurds who
were ethnically cleansed from Armenia and had to flee to Azerbaijan
in 1987-1990. Compare this to 230,000 Armenians who left Azerbaijan,
whilst 30,000 Armenians stayed in large cities and some 120,000 in
occupied NK). What about the human rights of nearly a million people
that Armenia violated – and Armenian propaganda is trying to whitewash?

ADVERTISEMENT Armenia also conducted the largest human rights abuses
in the entire post-Soviet history, such as the war crime of Khojaly,
where in one night over 600 Azerbaijanis, Kurds and Meskheti Turks
were brutally massacred (and the people who participated on the
Armenian side are now the president and the defense minister of that
country). The Armenian propaganda tried to clumsily whitewash that
war crime, but its bluff was called out by the Human Rights Watch. How
can anyone in Armenia speak loudly about “human rights” or “democracy”
after this?

All these actions caused by Armenian military aggression not just
overwhelmed Azerbaijan, which in 1918 was world’s first Muslim
democracy, a country that had a slew of typical post-Communist
development challenges (hyperinflation, outdated laws, unsophistication
of the bureaucracy, rising crime, etc.), but forced it to spend
disproportionally more on defense, on demining, on humanitarian
aid (food, medicine, clothes) to hundreds of thousands of people,
overwhelms its hospitals, schools, kindergartens, arable lands and
water resources, criminal justice system. Azerbaijan received about
$1 billion in U.S. aid since 1992, whilst Armenia received almost
$3 billion in the same time. Not content with this, Armenia also
illegally develops Azerbaijan’s natural resources, such as gold
mines in occupied Kelbajar district, as well as selling virtually
all real estate and property that belonged to 600,000 Azerbaijanis,
who are now displaced for over 20 years, to scrappers from Iran.

The current Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan, set something of a
dubious record in 2008 – ordering the largest beating and killing of
civilian protesters. As a result, ten Armenian civilian protesters were
killed – more than anywhere else in the former USSR. And just a few
weeks ago, a motorcade of 30 cars with Armenian opposition activists
driving from Armenia into the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region got
severely beaten and cars damaged by the Armenian riot police and
secret service – much of it caught on camera. It’s a hard to take
seriously Armenian apologists trying to talk about human rights and
democracy in Azerbaijan, when they have such incidents take place in
their own backyard.

Armenian government and society are violating human rights of not
only Azerbaijanis, Turks and even some Armenians, but of the few
hundred Jews who have the misfortune to stay. Rabbi Israel Barouk
lists some eye-opening facts: “Knowing the historical background of
Armenian anti–Semitism, perhaps it is less surprising to analyze a
2014 international survey on current trends in anti-Semitism, conducted
by ADL. The survey showed that 1.3 million out of 2.2 million adults
in Armenia share anti-Semitic beliefs. Armenia actually took first
place as the most anti-Semitic country in Eastern Europe, and held
for 3rd place across all of Europe. To demonstrate the fever, Armenia
tallied in as 2 percent more anti–Semitic than Iran. Considering
the level of anti–Semitism in Armenia, one can understand why Iran
and Syria are two of Armenia’s most important allies today.”

Finally, it is truly dystopian to accuse Azerbaijan, with a straight
face, of “blatant disregard to international law”, for shooting
down an Armenian military helicopter, with three uniformed Armenian
soldiers, that was illegally conducting drills and maneuvers deep
inside the Azerbaijani airspace, in the Armenia-occupied Aghdam
region of Azerbaijan (which is not even part of the Armenia-occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan). All Armenia needs to do is
remove its military from Azerbaijan – and peace will immediately
follow, together with improved democratic climate and stronger human
rights protections for all.

Jaffe is the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) military analyst.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT WITHDRAWS PROTOCOLS ON RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

Big News Network.com
Feb 16 2015

RFE Monday 16th February, 2015

YEREVAN — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has recalled from
parliament protocols on the normalization of ties and the establishment
of diplomatic relations with neighboring Turkey.

In a statement issued on February 16, Sarkisian said he had asked
parliament speaker Galust Sahakian to return the protocol to him since
“the Turkish government has no political will, distorts the spirit
and letter of the protocols, and continues its policy of setting
preconditions.”

Sarkisian also said that on the eve of commemorating the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian “genocide” in Ottoman Turkey during World
War I, “the policy of denial and rewriting history” is getting a
renewed impulse in Ankara.

Relations between Turkey and Armenia have been strained for years
over their differing accounts of mass killings of Armenians.

The protocols to normalize Yerevan-Ankara ties were signed in Zurich
on October 10, 2009.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESSURE ON ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER MOUNTS

Big News Network.com
Feb 16 2015

RFE Monday 16th February, 2015

Scores of police officers hired to provide security for an embattled
opposition leader and his property have been dismissed from work in
recent days.

The press service of Armenia’s National Police on February 16 confirmed
200 such dismissals since last week.

Supporters of Gagik Tsarukian and his Prosperous Armenia Party say
the authorities have launched a campaign to sideline him from politics
that has gathered speed since President Serzh Sarkisian told leaders
of the ruling Republican Party on February 12 that Tsarukian is “evil”
and should not be allowed to participate in politics.

Shortly after Sarkisian’s statement, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian
ordered officials to probe allegations that Tsarukian owes large sums
in back taxes.

Police told RFE/RL that the firings were not politically motivated
and were part of “ongoing reforms in the police.”

The Prosperous Armenia Party is the second-largest party in Armenia’s
parliament.

On February 20, the party and its key allies, the Armenian National
Congress and Heritage, plan to hold a joint rally in Yerevan to
protest the pressure on Tsarukian.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA WITHDRAWS PEACE ACCORDS WITH TURKEY FROM PARLIAMENT

Reuters
Feb 16 2015

By Hasmik Lazarian

(Reuters) – Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said on Monday he
withdrew from parliament landmark peace accords with Turkey, setting
further back U.S.-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility
between the neighbors.

The two countries signed accords in October 2009 to establish
diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying to overcome the
legacy of the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The process had been deadlocked by nationalists on both sides,
and Ankara and Yerevan have accused the other of trying to rewrite
the texts and setting new conditions. Many Armenians want Turkey to
recognize the 1915 mass killings as genocide and pay reparations,
proposals Ankara balks at.

Neither parliament has approved the deal, which would bring huge
economic gains for poor, landlocked Armenia, burnish Turkey’s
credentials as an EU candidate and boost its clout in the strategic
South Caucasus.

“We were ready for a fully-fledged settlement in our relations
with Turkey by ratifying these protocols, but we were also ready
for failure,” Sarksyan said in a letter that had been sent to the
parliament, his press service said.

He blamed Turkey for “absence of the political will” in finding
solution.

“We have nothing to hide and it should be clear for the international
community whose fault it was that the last closed European border
was not open,” he said.

Armenia, a country of 3.2 million, is approaching the 100th-anniversary
of the killings, when tens of thousands lay flowers at a hilltop
monument in the capital on April 24th.

U.S. President Barack Obama will issue a statement to mark the
anniversary of the massacres, a defining element of Armenian national
identity and thorn in the side of Turkey.

Muslim Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians died in partisan
fighting beginning in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were
killed and that it amounted to genocide — a term used by some Western
historians and foreign parliaments.

(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

GAGIK TSARUKYAN MIGHT BE STRIPPED OF PARLIAMENTARY SEAT

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 16 2015

16 February 2015 – 2:52pm

The chairman of the Armenian Parliament, Galust Saakyan, has allegedly
applied to the Central Electoral Commission, asking the CEC to strip
lawmaker Gagik Tsarukyan of his seat.

“This is an unexpected development, because everybody expected the
issue to be put to a vote at the plenary session of the National
Assembly – something stipulated by Article 99 of the NA Regulations,”
armtimes.com cited its source.

The Haykakan Zhamanak daily has a document showing that Gagik
Tsarukyan’s absences from the previous fall session were considered
to be excused absences. It turns out that Galust Saakyan will have
to annul his own decision to consider Tsarukyan’s absences from NA
sessions as excusable.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT DISMISSES LEADER OF NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 16 2015

16 February 2015 – 5:18pm

Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party, has lost
his post as a member of the National Security Council of Armenia
and chairman of the council of the Physical Education and Sports
Institute aftet being condemned by President Serzh Sargsyan. Speaker
of Parliament Galust Saakyan has filed a note to the CEC demanding the
party leader’s dismissal from the parliament. Armen Ashotyan, deputy
head of the Republican Party, the minister for education and science,
has accused Tsarukyan of declaring war on the country and called him an
oligophrenic, a threat to the country, a project created in 2004-2005.

Andrey Areshev, the editor-in-chief of Kavkazoved.info, an expert of
the Strategic Culture Foundation, noted that the internal political
struggle in Armenia was escalating. He reminded that the Prosperous
Armenia Party had organized a series of mass protests in October 2014.

The expert doubts that Tsarukyan’s case will have any serious
repercussions.

Alexander Markarov, the director of the Armenian branch of the
Institute of CIS Countries, said that the Republican Party was trying
to determine the development of events in light of the upcoming
elections. He reminded about proposals to start constitutional reform
that would switch to the parliamentary republic, the Prosperous
Armenia Party is opposed to the reform. Markarov considers the attack
on Tsarukyan an attempt by the Republican Party to influence the
political process as a whole.

Aram Manukyan, an MP of the Armenian National Congress, associates the
case with the tense political, economic and social situation. Manukyan
admitted that the Armenian National Congress will encourage the
population to demand early elections. Concerning rumours that Sargsyan
is actually struggling with second President Robert Kocharyan, backed
by Tsarukyan, Areshev proposed waiting for an official response from
Kocharyan. He reminded that the ex-president was not a member of
any party, though many agreed that he was one of the people standing
at its origins. The expert added that it was too hasty to speculate
about Kocharyan’s return to politics. Manukyan believes that Kocharyan
plays absolutely no role in the current internal political situation
and has nothing to do with the current developments.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘IRAN ALWAYS READY TO AID RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT’

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Feb 16 2015

BAKU, Feb. 16 (MNA) – Iranian FM has announced the country is always
ready to play a role in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
and the development of peace and stability in the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is on a visit to
Baku, made the remarks on Monday at a joint press conference with
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

During the press conference, Zarif stressed the deepening of bilateral
relations with Azerbaijan in various fields of economy and defense,
and highlighted the significance of the two countries’ cooperation
in combating extremism and terrorism in the region.

Zarif called the Caspian Sea region as a region of friendship and
cooperation, maintaining Iran would attend the meeting of deputy
foreign ministers of the Caspian littoral states in March in earnest.

Zarif also extended his thanks to Azerbaijan for their continued
support of Iran’s nuclear rights in the course of negotiations
with 5+1.

On Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iranian FM said 100-kilometer border
of Iran was located in the territory of the conflict zone, adding
Iran was in favor of a peaceful resolution of the conflict within
the international law.

“We want security and stability in our neighboring countries which
are important for us. Azerbaijan is our most important neighbor. We
are close to this country, and this conflict hurts us. Iran has
significantly contributed to Azerbaijan regarding this issue. We have
always wanted the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group to be completed
successfully, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be resolved within
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Zarif asserted.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, for his part, stressed
the importance of boosting bilateral cooperation with Iran. He noted
that in addition to these ties, trilateral negotiations with Iran and
Turkey were also under way and they would continue the talks in Iran
in the upcoming days.

Mammadyarov also maintained that his country sought to restore
the railway between Azerbaijan and Iran and merge it with Russia
and Europe.

He also announced that Baku would host the meeting of deputy foreign
ministers of the Caspian littoral states in March.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA DELAYS NEW TAX RULES AGAIN

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #767
Feb 16 2015

Small business owners continue to oppose legislation that they say
will ruin them.

by Arshaluis Mghdesyan

The Armenian government has delayed enforcing new tax legislation
for a second time, as owners of small businesses across the country
continue to object to changes they say will leave them much worse off.

The new rules were introduced in October 2014, but following widespread
protests by owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the
government postponed enforcing them until February 1 this year. It
has now delayed them again until July 1.

At first sight, the legislation would appear to benefit SMEs as it
reduces the tax rate payable on turnover from 3.5 to one per cent. The
one per cent rate will apply as long as their annual turnover falls
below the threshold at which companies must pay value-added tax,
set at 58 million drams (about 120,000 US dollars).

But the downside is that under the new law, small businesses will have
to document and declare every commercial transaction, in particular
purchases from their suppliers. (See Taxing Times in Armenia.)

Many SME owners say they would rather avoid doing this and carry on
paying tax at the higher rate of 3.5 per cent.

The government has said that the reason for the latest delay is
that it wants time to develop new regulations to help SMEs meet the
requirements before it enforces the rules.

“As a result of discussions, it was decided to use this period
to develop regulations that create more favourable conditions for
businesses with an annual turnover of up to 58.3 million drams,”
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

Armenia’s parliament, which is dominated by the Republican Party,
supported the postponement.

Traders say the new rules will make their lives more difficult,
even impossible.

“We will now have to document every item so that we look honest when
the tax service inspects us, otherwise we will be fined,” said Karine,
who sells sweets at a market in Yerevan. “To do that, we need to hire
a qualified accountant to document our turnover on an ongoing basis.

There are additional costs to this, and small businesses cannot afford
to operate at close to a loss.”

Arsene, a small business owner who has been involved in protests
against the law, said that the way some companies did business would
make it hard to document purchases.

“Many of us get goods on loan and pay for them only after we’ve sold
them on,” Arsene said. “How are we supposed to document that?”

WHO IS THE LAW AIMED AT?

There are no official figures on the size of the shadow economy
in Armenia, but economists and tax officers estimate that it is
equivalent to between 20 and 35 per cent of gross domestic product,
and comparable to the government budget.

While the bill seems designed to catch SMEs that are cheating on their
taxes, officials say that is not its main thrust at all. Instead,
they say, the main reason for changing the taxation legislation is
to tackle big businesses

According to official data, 15,000 large businesses account for about
98 per cent of tax revenues in Armenia. But these larger companies
are also seen as the worst offenders for tax evasion.

The law is meant to track the income of large import and wholesale
companies by getting the SMEs that trade with them to note down all
their transactions.

“Our target is not small businesses, it’s the large ones where the
risks lie,” Abrahamyan said. “We have therefore provided tax incentives
for small and medium-sized businesses….. In exchange for tax breaks,
we are requiring them to document their purchases from big businesses.”

Vardan Ayvazyan, chairman of the parliamentary committee for economic
affairs, explained why this route had been chosen. “The large
businesses sell their goods and the small ones take them and sell
them in the marketplace,” said. “It’s impossible to identify where
turnover is happening within this chain so that it can be taxed. Hence,
the system needs to be reformed.”

SME owners argue that the government should not be using them as a
tool to fight big businesses.

Privately, though, some admit that the requirement to account for
purchases and sales properly will show up past underreporting of tax
liabilities in the SME sector. When the true scale of their businesses
becomes apparent, they will be bumped up into the higher tax bracket
that requires them to pay VAT at 20 per cent.

Official statistics show about 45,000 SMEs with an annual turnover of
under 120,000 dollars, and the tax service says the vast majority of
them declare an annual turnover of ten million drams, about 20,000
dollars.

Tax and finance officials suspect these reported income levels are
well below the real average.

“It is strange and unrealistic for the annual turnover of tens of
thousands of entrepreneurs to amount to only ten million drams,” Deputy
Finance Minister Armen Alaverdyan said at a recent press conference,
adding that only by reducing the size of the shadow economy could
the government start building up its budget revenues.

Opposition parties have criticised the focus on SMEs.

“By taxing small and medium businesses the government will achieve
nothing. These people [in this sector] are simply surviving,” said
Vahagn Khachatryan, an economist and a member of parliament from
the opposition Armenian National Congress party. “In reality, it is
big business, first and foremost, that needs to be brought into the
tax system…. It isn’t small businesses that set the rules of the
marketplace; the big businesses impose the rules on them.”

Khachatryan suggested that one reason why the government was reluctant
to tackle big companies head on was that business and politics were
closely intertwined in Armenia. Instead, it was going after the small
fry – and this could lead to numerous job losses in the SME sector.

The government has started work on the regulations it says will help
SMEs comply with the law. The opposition has submitted recommendations
on them and asked for an extended parliamentary debate on the issue.

Small business owners have warned that they will not stand down.

“If the government doesn’t listen to us and if this is just a
‘time out’ designed to dampen our protests, we will start to strike
again,” said Stepan Aslanyan, who heads the Union of Small Business
Entrepreneurs. “We will go all the way.”

Arshaluis Mghdesyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.

YEREVAN WILL HOST A MEETING OF THREE OPPOSITION PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 16 2015

16 February 2015 – 1:37pm

Yesterday there was a meeting in Yerevan of the heads of the
‘Prosperous Armenia’, ‘Armenian National Congress’ and ‘Heritage’
parties – Gagik Tsarukyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Raffi Hovannisian –
to discuss the political situation in Armenia.

During the conversation, it was decided to convene a rally on February
20 in Yerevan, Trend reports.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan told a meeting of the Council of
the ruling Republican Party of Armenia that Tsarukyan has become an
evil for the country as a politician. He also dismissed Tsarukyan
from National Security Council of Armenia, promising that a process
is beginning due to Tsarukyan’s periodic failures to appear at
parliamentary sessions.

RUSSIA HAS EXPERIENCE IN SETTLING INTERETHNIC CONFLICTS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 16 2015

16 February 2015 – 8:36pm

Veronika Krasheninnikova, the head of the Russia Today Center
of International Journalism and Studies, the director general of
the Institute of Foreign Political Studies and Initiatives, deputy
head of the Presidential Council Committee for Social Support of the
Population of the Southeast of Ukraine, a member of the Russian Public
Chamber, has visited Vestnik Kavkaza today. She gave an insight into
the Russian position on conflicts in the post-Soviet space and the
world and relations with the South Caucasus states.

Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Krasheninnikova
emphasized that it was one of the most tragic pages in the history
of the USSR, independent Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. She
called Yugoslavia an analogy of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
where interethnic tensions had sparked the tragedy. In her words,
Russian history has unique experience in solving such problems. The
USSR consisted of 200 ethnicities, according to the expert. She urged
the modern generation to use the experience to build a future.

Krasheninnikova pointed out the progress of Russia in developing
relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia, their reaching a new level in
2014. The analyst reminded about the meeting in Astrakhan and progress
in the settlement of Caspian problems. In her opinion, the authorities
of Azerbaijan have the political wisdom to make the right decisions.

Armenia, says Krasheninnikova, made the right choice by joining
the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. She
reminded that the Baltic states had joined the EU in May 2004,
their population had decreased by about a quarter or a third, their
economies entered a deep crisis. The expert noted that the U.S. and
NATO members continued paying special attention to the countries of
the South Caucasus. Not a week went by without NATO drills, visits
of defense ministers and of other military officials in July-August.

Krasheninnikova added that the Ukrainian crisis had made the region
even more topical. Russia Today prepared a report “The Trans-Caucasus
in the strategic plans of the U.S. and NATO” with “a very deep”
study of the actions of the Americans and their allies in the Caucasus.