Thursday, January 11, 2017 Tsarukian Bloc To Stay Away From Opposition Protest . Sisak Gabrielian Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian campaigns in Masis, 24Mar2017. Businessman Gagik Tsarukian's political alliance made clear on Thursday that it will not join a demonstration against the latest consumer price hikes in Armenia which is planned by another opposition group. The Yelk bloc said earlier this week that it will rally supporters in Yerevan on January 19 to protest against the increased prices of fuel and some foodstuffs. It blamed the Armenian government for rising inflation. "We respect decisions taken by partner political forces and their methods of struggle," Mikael Melkumian, a leading member of the Tsarukian Bloc, said of the planned protest. "It's up to them to do that. But we have our own style of work." "We believe that a lot can be done in the parliament," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Melkumian, who is also a deputy speaker of the parliament, said the Tsarukian Bloc will be seeking to counter the price hikes with legislative initiatives. In particular, he said, it will press the pro-government majority in the parliament next week to agree to sweeping tax cuts that have long been championed by Tsarukian. The tycoon's political force controls 31 seats in the 105-member National Assembly, making it the second largest parliamentary force. By comparison, Yelk has only 9 parliament deputies. One of those deputies, Lena Nazarian, said on Thursday that the upcoming Yelk rally may mark the beginning of sustained street protests. "After all, the street is a political environment and people protesting on the street can influence policy and decisions made by the National Assembly," she said. Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian visits a new leisure center built by businessman Gagik Tsarukian (R) in Tsaghkadzor, 20Dec2017. Although the Tsarukian Bloc claims to be in opposition to President Serzh Sarkisian, political analysts continue to question its opposition credentials. Tsarukian, who is one of the country's richest men, was forced to leave the political arena nearly three years ago after challenging Sarkisian's hold on power. He returned to active politics ahead of the April 2017 parliamentary elections. The tycoon and his allies criticized government policies but avoided personal attacks on the president during the election campaign. Sarkisian has regularly attended the inaugurations of new businesses set up by Tsarukian in the last two years. World Bank Again Upgrades Armenian Growth Forecasts . Artur Khachatrian Armenia - Workers at a textile factory in Yerevan, 5Oct2017. The World Bank has again improved its short-term outlook for Armenia, saying that the Armenian economy will grow by around 4 percent annually in the coming years. In its latest global economic report released this week, the bank said economic growth in the country was on course to accelerate to 3.7 percent in 2017. It will reach 3.8 percent this year and 4 percent in 2019 and 2020, according to the report. A similar World Bank report issued in May forecast growth rates of 2.7 percent, 3.1 percent and 3.4 percent for2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. It cited "the sustained expansion of the tradable sectors and a modest recovery in domestic consumption." Faster growth anticipated by the Washington-based institution would still fall short of targets set by the Armenian government. According to the latest government projections, Armenia's Gross Domestic Product will increase, in real terms, by at least 4.5 percent this year and over 5 percent in 2019. President Serzh Sarkisian and other senior officials in Yerevan said late last month that the Armenian economy is on track to expand by more than 6 percent in 2017. Commenting on the differing forecasts, Deputy Finance Minister Armen Hayrapetian said on Thursday that the Armenian government believes in a more optimistic macroeconomic scenario because of ongoing "reforms" implemented by it. Hayrapetian also argued that the international rating agency Fitch upgraded Armenia's economic outlook from "stable" to "positive" last month. The World Bank's May 2017 report also predicted that faster growth will slightly reduce poverty in Armenia. "The poverty rate [measured by the World Bank] is projected to fall from 23.8 percent in 2017 to 22.2 percent in 2019," it said. However, Artak Manukian, a Yerevan-based economist, insisted on Thursday that living standards in the country will actually worsen this year due to the latest increases in the prices of some essential products. Manukian singled out the increased cost of fuel, tobacco and alcohol resulting from higher excise takes that took effect on January 1. Former Oppositionist Wins Lawsuit Against Armenian State . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Opposition lawmaker Alexander Arzumanian speaks at a parliament session in Yerevan, 26Oct2016. Alexander Arzumanian, a former opposition politician currently serving as Armenia's ambassador to Denmark, won on Thursday a court case against the Armenian authorities that stems from his controversial arrest in 2007. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the authorities to pay Arzumanian 2,500 euros ($3,000) in damages. It ruled that his four-month detention violated articles of a European convention relating to criminal suspects' right to get a trial within a "reasonable" time and be released from custody pending trial. Arzumanian, who served as Armenia's foreign minister from 1996-1998, declined to comment on the ruling. Aruzmanian, 58, was arrested in May 2007 on charges of being illegally financed from abroad. He consistently denied the accusations as politically motivated before being set free four months later. The high-profile case was linked by many observers with an anti-government movement which Arzumanian and several other politicians opposed to then President Robert Kocharian set up in 2006. Arzumanian went on to play a major role in former President Levon Ter-Petrosian's failed bid to return to power through a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. He was among prominent opposition figures arrested in the wake of the vote. Arzumanian spent more than a year in prison. The prominent oppositionist subsequently fell out with Ter-Petrosian and teamed up with other opposition groups challenging President Serzh Sarkisian. He held a seat in the Armenian parliament from 2012-2017. Arzumanian was most recently affiliated with the Armenian Pan-National Movement, a small opposition party. He quit the party in February 2017. Sarkisian appointed him as ambassador to Denmark five months later. Karabakh Reports Renewed Rise In Tourism Nagorno-Karbaakh - The medieval Dadivank monastery, May 19, 2015. The number of non-Armenian foreign tourists visiting Nagorno-Karabakh jumped by 41 percent in 2017 after decreasing following the April 2016 war with Azerbaijan, a senior official in Stepanakert said on Thursday. Speaking to the Armenpress news agency, Artak Grigorian, the head of Karabakh's tourism department, put their total number at more than 23,000. He said it is up by 30 percent from the 2015 total. "We compare this figure with 2015 because we had a decline in tourism in 2016," explained Grigorian. He said the number of tourists again began rising last year thanks to an "active PR campaign" conducted by the Karabakh leadership. The official figures do not include residents of Armenia, who also travel to Karabakh in larger numbers these days. Grigorian said Russian nationals continue to account for the majority of foreign tourists in Karabakh, followed by citizens of the United States, France and Iran. All those countries have sizable ethnic Armenian communities. "We anticipate a further rise in visits from Russia this year because we have targeted that market," added the Karabakh official. "We are also working in the European direction." Karabakh's main tourist attractions are mountainous scenery, medieval Armenian monasteries as well as a cave complex thought to be the site of one of the most ancient proto-human habitations in Eurasia. They are located several dozen kilometers away from the heavily militarized "line of contact" separating the Karabakh Armenian and Azerbaijani armies. The Azerbaijani authorities regard private or business trips to Karabakh not authorized by them as a breach of Baku's sovereignty over the territory. At least 600 foreign dignitaries and ordinary visitors have been declared personae no grata in Azerbaijan for ignoring these warnings. Press Review Armenia -- Newspapers for press review illustration, Yerevan, 12Jul2016 "Haykakan Zhamanak" describes as "weird" President Serzh Sarkisian's emergency meeting with senior officials held on Wednesday in connection with the latest increases in key consumer prices in Armenia. The paper argues that as recently as one month Sarkisian insisted that consumer price inflation in Armenia is low and no cause for concern. It says he is worried about the opposition Yelk alliance's decision to hold a demonstration in Yerevan on January 19 against the price hikes. The rally, "Haykakan Zhamanak" goes on, will mark the "start of a whole new political process" in Armenia. "And it is impossible to predict what that process may lead to and how it will end," it says. "Zhamanak" says Sarkisian's statements on the need to mitigate the impact of higher prices on the low-income population were "largely declarative." "And his hints about state support for eliminating consequences [of higher prices] for socially vulnerable people are rather anti-economic than economic," comments the paper. "The thing is that no matter how important subsidies and other social allocations are for the poor they are more likely to lead to waste rather than development. Especially in resource-poor economies like Armenia." In an interview with "Hayots Ashkhar," Tevan Poghosian, a political analyst and a former parliamentarian, comments on the most recent truce violations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. "The more we provide our army with new equipment the more the enemy thinks of ways of countering it," he says. "We strengthened the [Karabakh] border and [Azerbaijani] incursions stopped. But we are now again engaged in a war of snipers. It means that we need to think of new mechanisms and new steps # We have no right to stop. We must work hard every day to expand our military capabilities." (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org