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    Categories: 2018

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/29/2018

                                        Thursday, November 29, 2018

Armenian President Visits ‘Friendly’ Germany
November 29, 2018

Germany - German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Armenian President Armen 
Sarkissian in Berlin, November 28, 2018.

President Armen Sarkissian met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and called 
for closer ties between Armenia and Germany on Wednesday during an official 
visit to Berlin late.

“Armenia views Germany as an important political and economic partner and a 
friendly country,” Sarkissian was reported to tell Merkel at the start of their 
talks. He said he is looking forward to their further “discussions regarding 
the expansion of German-Armenian relations.”

Sarkissian made similar comments when he met with Germany’s President 
Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday. “Germany is a friend and a leading economic 
partner of Armenia and an active promoter of the Armenia-European Union 
agenda,” he said, according to his office.

“Germany is of interest to us also as a country with a parliamentary system of 
government, and German experience in parliamentary democracy can be very 
important and useful for us,” added Sarkissian, who has largely ceremonial 
powers.


Germany - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) and his Armenian 
counterpart Armen Sarkissian inspect an honor guard at a welcoming ceremony in 
Berlin, November 27, 2018.

According to a statement by the office, Merkel spoke of her “fond memories” of 
her August 2018 visit to Yerevan during which she met with Sarkissian and Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Speaking after the talks with Pashinian, Merkel praised Armenia for deepening 
its relations with the EU while remaining allied to Russia. She also said 
Germany would welcome closer commercial and cultural ties with Armenia and 
pledged to help Yerevan implement a landmark agreement with the EU signed in 
November 2017.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sarkissian had a lunch meeting with a group of German 
diplomats, parliamentarians and pundits.Photographs released by the 
presidential press service showed him sitting next to Cem Ozdemir, a prominent 
German politician of Turkish descent. Ozdemir was a key sponsor of a 2016 
resolution by the German parliament that recognized the 1915 Armenian genocide 
in Ottoman Turkey.

While in Berlin, Sarkissian also met with senior executives of several large 
German companies. He urged them to invest in Armenia, arguing, among other 
things, that his country has tariff-free access to the vast Russian market.

Germany has long been Armenia’s number one EU donor. It is also the South 
Caucasus nation’s third largest trading partner. According to official Armenian 
statistics, German-Armenian trade soared by 40 percent, to $325 million, in the 
first nine months of this year.




Government Raises Minimum Pension, Poverty Benefits
November 29, 2018
        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia - A cabinet meeting in Yerevan, November 29, 2018.

The Armenian government announced on Thursday increases in the minimum amount 
of modest pensions and other benefits paid to tens of thousands of people.

The measure, effective from January 1, will benefit some 85,000 elderly or 
disabled persons as well as individuals who lost their sole breadwinners. They 
all will be paid 25,500 drams ($53) per month.

The government said the sum will match the new extreme poverty line that will 
be set by it for next year.

The total number of retired people in Armenia aged 65 and older exceeds 
497,000. Nearly seven percent of them are not eligible for normal pensions 
because of their insufficient work experience. They currently receive 16,000 
drams each in monthly retirement benefits, compared to 21,500 drams paid to 
Armenians with various disabilities.

The average pension in the country stands at around 41,000 drams.

Arsen Manukian, a deputy minister of labor and social affairs, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) the pay rises will cost the state budget around 
6.7 billion drams in 2019. Manukian said the government is committed to 
eventually raising regular pensions as well.

The government’s 2019 budget approved by the parliament last week projects no 
such rises. It calls for 444 billion drams in total social spending.




Pashinian Accuses Karabakh Officials Of Election Meddling
November 29, 2018
        • Gayane Saribekian

Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) is greeted by 
Karabakh President Bako Sahakian on his arrival in Stepanakert, 16 June 2018.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday lambasted senior Nagorno-Karabakh 
officials who he said are “meddling” in Armenia’s ongoing parliamentary race 
with their public statements.

One of his close associates, Sasun Mikaelian, said on Monday that the success 
of this spring’s protest movement that brought Pashinian to power was more 
important than the Armenian victory in the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan.

The remark was condemned by leaders of the former ruling Republican Party of 
Armenia (HHK) as well as some Karabakh Armenian government and military 
officials.

Pashinian was quick to respond to the outcry. He accused the HHK of 
deliberately misinterpreting Mikaelian’s statement which he portrayed as a slip 
of the tongue.

The premier also hit out at the Karabakh leadership on Thursday during a 
campaign trip to the Gegharkunik province.

“Frankly, I don’t quite understand recent days’ activity of representatives of 
the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” he said at a rally held there. “Why have they 
become active? Why are they making various comments? And why are they trying to 
meddle in and show their presence in Armenia’s parliamentary election campaign?”

“I am calling on [Karabakh President] Bako Sahakian to rein in representatives 
of his government and make sure they do their job,” Pashinian went on.“The 
press secretary of the Karabakh president comments on my statements every other 
day. What is this?”

“Sober up and mind your business,” he said in an unprecedented warning to the 
authorities in Stepanakert. “I will certainly discuss this with you, but only 
after the elections.”

Sahakian did not immediately react to the criticism. Incidentally, the Karabakh 
leader met on Thursday with the visiting chief of the Armenian police, Valeri 
Osipian. No details of the meeting were made public.

Karabakh officials also reacted when Pashinian declared on the campaign trail 
that he is the first leader of Armenia whose son performs compulsory military 
service in Karabakh. He also said that some sons of unspecified “Karabakh 
leaders” did not serve in the military at all.

It was not clear whether he referred to only Armenia’s Karabakh-born former 
President Robert Kocharian or Karabakh’s leaders as well.

Sahakian’s press secretary, Davit Babayan, stated afterwards that the sons of 
both the current Karabakh president and his predecessor Arkadi Ghukasian had 
served in the local military.

Pashinian mentioned only Kocharian’s two sons when he campaigned in 
Gegharkunik. He said that although they both were formally drafted to Armenia’s 
armed forces during Kocharian’s rule none of them “spent a single night at any 
military base.”




Press Review
November 29, 2018


“Zhamanak” reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that 
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s brother Aleksandr and a former Armenian 
customs service chief, Armen Avetisian, have expressed readiness to donate $30 
million in cash and an expensive hotel to the state. The paper says that in 
return for that they expect an “amnesty” from Pashinian.

Lragir.am reports that the outgoing parliament speaker Ara Babloyan has urged 
Armenian political factions not use the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for attacking 
each other in the ongoing parliamentary election campaign. The online 
publication claims that this “very important” statement is a slap in the face 
of Babloyan’s Republican Party (HHK). It says HHK leaders are the ones who play 
the Karabakh card the most.

“Zhoghovurd” comments on National Security Service (NSS) chief Artur 
Vanetsian’s claim that investigators know who wiretapped his controversial 
phone calls with the head of the Special Investigative Service (SIS), Sasun 
Khachatrian, but lack the evidence to prosecute them. “Obviously, ordinary 
people could not have wiretapped the phone conversations between the heads of 
law-enforcement bodies,” writes the paper. That the authorities, it says, are 
unable to prove who did the secret recordings means that the “situation is more 
worrisome than one could imagine.” “Such things can be repeated at any moment 
and in the case of any individual and criminals can hide their traces with 
care,” it says.

(Lilit Harutiunian)

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.
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