Tuesday,
Pashinian Upbeat On Armenia’s Investment Prospects
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at a press conference in Yerevan, 19
March, 2019
The Armenian government is currently discussing 802 investments projects worth
a total of about $2.7 billion, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said at a press
conference on Tuesday.
“Forty-two of these projects worth a total of $774 million are, in fact,
already at different stages of implementation, others are at the stage of
active discussions. This means that we have a certain increase in investment
interest in the country,” Pashinian said.
The head of the Armenian government also presented some other data testifying
to some growing interest in unfolding economic activities in Armenia.
Thus, according to him, in February 2019 the volume of mortgage lending in
Armenia grew by 100 percent, with the growth of mortgage lending within the
framework of government programs making 145 percent as compared with the
relevant data for last year’s February.
“In general, at present the volume of mortgage loans in the country has grown
by 30 percent. According to experts, this is a huge increase. This means that
in the near future we will have demand in the construction market, which in its
turn will create new jobs not only in construction, but also on the building
materials market, in the service sector and so on. This is a very important
indicator, which in its turn will lead to the reduction of unemployment,”
Pashinian said.
The Armenian premier also spoke about expected financial assistance from the
European Union concerning major infrastructure programs. He said that the EU is
ready to provide funding, including in the form of grants, for some major
projects, but expects Armenia to co-finance these projects. According to
Pashinian, this, in term, raises the issue of whether Armenia should raise the
ceiling for its foreign debt level in order to borrow more for the co-financing
of these projects.
“Now we should discuss whether we are ready to go this way, and in the next 20
days we are going to have a joint discussion with the Central Bank that will
also involve representatives of the expert community in order to make a
decision on this matter,” the Armenian premier said.
Armenia Will ‘Attentively’ Listen To Azerbaijan’s ‘Counterarguments’
Switzerland - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliyev meet in Davos, January 22, 2019.
Armenia’s proposal for Nagorno-Karabakh’s full engagement in negotiations with
Azerbaijan is no challenge, but an invitation to dialogue, Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian said on Tuesday, stressing that Yerevan is ready to listen
attentively to Baku’s counterarguments.
At a press conference in Yerevan, Pashinian repeated what he already told
senior Armenian and Karabakh security aides in Stepanakert a week ago that
Nagorno-Karabakh’s becoming a full party to the peace talks “is not a whim or a
precondition” on the part of Armenia, but a necessity for an effective
settlement process.
Azerbaijan has opposed Nagorno-Karabakh’s participation in the talks as a
separate party, insisting that the region is “occupied” by Armenia and
negotiations should be held only directly with official Yerevan.
Last week, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev rejected the latest Armenian
proposal on the change in the format of the talks by way of involving
Nagorno-Karabakh as a party to the process.
“It is unacceptable, and it is an attempt to block the negotiations process,”
Aliyev said at a forum in Baku on March 14, again calling on Armenia to
withdraw its forces from the region.
Pashinian today insisted that his statements on the need for Stepanakert’s
engagement in the talks that he has repeatedly made since being first elected
prime minister in May 2018 “are not a challenge, but an invitation to
dialogue.” He further argued that he had already raised the issue during his
informal meetings with Aliyev on the sidelines of different international
events during the past months.
Earlier this month the American, Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group, an international format set up to mediate a solution to the conflict,
announced that Pashinian and Aliyev had agreed to have their first formal talks
soon under the umbrella of the international mediators.
No date and venue of such possible talks have been announced yet.
Ahead of his possible talks with the Azerbaijani president Pashinian said: “We
will continue discussions on this subject with our partners and will try to
continue this discussion in the field of arguments, because negotiations are
negotiations only when we listen to each other. At least Armenia has shown its
ability to listen to its opponent, try to understand the other side, and we
expect the same from them. Where our partners consider that our position can be
viewed as excessively tough, we can soften this position, but we would expect
the same from our partners, because otherwise no conversation will take place.”
The Armenian leader said that “we do not imagine a regime when one of the
parties to the talks says that it refuses to have a dialogue.”
“It will not be a logical approach. Naturally, we will not refuse to have a
dialogue and during this dialogue we will put on the table our arguments and
will attentively listen to the counterarguments of our partners. I think that a
constructive and effective solution or continuation should be within the
framework of this logic,” Pashinian said.
Asked whether a possible exchange of prisoners between Armenia and Azerbaijan
could be discussed at his upcoming meeting with Aliyev, Pashinian said: “The
Armenian side is ready to exchange Azerbaijani citizens who strayed into
Armenian territory with Armenians who strayed into Azerbaijani territory.”
The Armenian leader stressed, however, that such an exchange cannot concern
Azerbaijanis who penetrated into Armenian or Karabakh territory and committed
murders.
Soldier Charged With Killing Armenian Woman To Remain In Russian Custody
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
A Russian military base in Gyumri, Armenia
The Russian soldier charged with beating an Armenian woman to death will remain
in custody at the Russian military base in Gyumri, according to a local court.
The Shirak Regional Court of General Jurisdiction on Tuesday rejected the
lawsuit of the killed Gyumri woman’s family, who demanded that Andrey
Razgildeyev be transferred to Armenia’s law-enforcement bodies and be kept in
pretrial detention in Armenian remand prison.
Razgildeyev, a 23-year-old serviceman at the Russian military base in Gyumri,
was arrested in December in connection with the violent death of Julieta
Ghukasian, a 57-year-old street cleaner in Gyumri.
Armenian law-enforcement bodies later charged the Russian with brutal assault
and involuntary manslaughter. Motives for the alleged attack still remain
unclear.
Under Armenia’s criminal law, such crimes are punishable by between five and
ten years in prison.
Despite being charged under Armenian law, Razgildeyev has remained under arrest
inside the Russian military base – something that has caused complaints from
the family of the victim and a number of Armenian human rights activists.
Attorney Arayik Zalian, who represents the interests of Ghukasian’s daughter,
says that a comprehensive and impartial investigation of the case is only
possible if the Russian soldier is handed over to Armenian law-enforcement
bodies.
Armenian Prosecutor’s Office representative Mihran Martirosian, meanwhile,
insisted that keeping the Russian soldier at the base is legitimate as it is
stipulated by provisions of an Armenian-Russian intergovernmental agreement.
“The accused was arrested in the territory of the Russian Federation’s 102nd
base. That is, getting him out of the territory of the base is contrary to the
Russian Federation’s legislation,” he explained.
In 2015, another Russia soldier murdered seven members of an Armenian family in
Gyumri. The case sparked protests in the northwestern city and elsewhere in
Armenia. An Armenian court in August 2016 sentenced private Valery Permyakov to
life in prison.
Permyakov too was held in detention at the Russian base before and during his
trial. He was later transferred to Russia to serve his sentence.
Armenian Human Rights Activists Call For Iranian Colleague’s Release
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- A protest near the Iranian embassy in Yerevan.
A number of human rights activists in Armenia have joined the open letter of
Amnesty International calling on the Iranian authorities to release Iranian
human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Today they held a silent protest in front of the Iranian embassy in Yerevan.
Sotoudeh, the co-winner of the European Parliament’s 2012 Sakharov Prize for
Freedom of Thought, last year represented several of the women detained for
removing their head scarves in public to protest against the country’s Islamic
dress code.
She has reportedly been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148
lashes after what Amnesty International called two “grossly unfair” trials.
The 55-year-old activist was arrested in June and ordered to serve a five-year
sentence imposed on her in absentia in 2016.
And in February, the Iranian authorities allowed Sotoudeh to read the verdict
in her most recent court case, which showed that she had been convicted of
seven charges and sentenced to an additional 33 years in prison and 148 lashes,
London-based Amnesty International said on March 14.
Armenian human rights activist Arman Gharibian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
that he did not know whether the Yerevan protest could change anything. “But
one thing is clear: we cannot remain indifferent when this kind of repression
against a human rights activist takes place in the neighboring country,” he
said.
Iranian-Armenian Vardges Gaspari, who is a prominent activist in Armenia, said
he was raising his voice to “encourage the jailed activist morally.” “So that
she can feel that she is not forgotten, that there are people, even if few, who
are concerned about her fate,” the activist added.
The protesters in Yerevan tried to hand over a letter, stating their protest,
to the Iranian embassy staff, but no one came out to take it. Eventually, they
had to put the letter into the mailbox placed at the entrance to the embassy.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” writes that the only critical political reaction to the
municipality’s dismantling of cafes in the territory around the Opera House in
Yerevan came from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). The
paper links this reaction to the fact that some senior Dashnaktsutyun members
are owners of cafes that are subject to dismantling. “One of them, Mikael
Manukian, who was Dashnaktsutyun’s top candidate in last year’s Yerevan
elections, founded his cafe there more than two decades ago and during his
party’s being part of the government he expanded his business. Dashnaktsutyun
members ran their businesses unimpeded also when the party pretended to be an
opposition,” the paper claims.
“Zhamanak” suggests that in the months to come there will be no shortage of
social protests in Armenia. “Like in the case with a plane that gets into a
zone of turbulence it has nothing to do with the professionalism of the crew,
in the case with Armenia, too, social turbulence has nothing to do with the
quality of administration or abilities of the new government. This social
turbulence is the vicious effect of the old system,” the paper writes.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” lambastes the view expressed by former Karabakh defense
army commander Samvel Babayan, who has ambitions to run for Nagorno-Karabakh’s
president in 2020, that Nagorno-Karabakh should be a “mandate territory”. The
paper interprets this view as readiness to entrust Russia with the mandate to
find a solution to the conflict. “The problem is not even that Russia will
hardly use this mandate in favor of Armenians in accordance with our ideas.
Both Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia had such an opportunity, but in both
cases the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh was decided in favor of Azerbaijan. The
problem is much more global. Should we give a mandate to get a solution to our
problems to someone else and then nervously wait for the solution only to curse
our bad luck afterwards,” the daily says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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