Author: Babajanian Karo

DRAFTING OF PEACE TREATY FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT POSSIBLE ONLY AFTER RECONCILIATION OF BASICS PRINCIPLE- ARMENIAN FM SAYS

EREVAN, February 17. / ARKA /. Drafting of a peace treaty for the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is possible only after
reconciliation of the basic principles, Armenian Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian told Tuesday the visiting OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmen Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (USA) and Pierre
Andre (France), as well as the personal representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

“When all the basic conflict settlement principles are reconciled
and Nagorno-Karabakh also agrees to them then it will be possible to
begin negotiations between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia
for drafting a comprehensive peace agreement,’ Nalbandian was quoted
as saying by the foreign ministry’s press office.

Nalbandian drew the attention of the co-chairs to the fact that even
after their statement made on January 27, as well as the statements
made by the OSCE president and the mediators on February 7 Azerbaijan
continues to violate the ceasefire together with provocations and
unacceptable rhetoric, criticized earlier by the co-chairs.

Armenian foreign minister said Azerbaijani leadership actually seeks
to reverse the progress made in the negotiation process over the
years. According to him, Baku is trying to take advantage of the
unresolved conflict which is to blame only on itself to justify
trampling of human rights in the country and pressurize its opponents.

On Azerbaijan’s attempts to portray two Azerbaijani commandoes
sentenced by a court in Nagorno-Karabakh to lengthy prison terms as
“innocent lambs gone astray,” Nalbandian said these steps are not
effective.

In late December 2014 a court in Stepanakert, sentenced two citizens of
Azerbaijan – Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilhamu Askerov – who were accused
of sabotage and murder – to 22 years in prison and life in prison
respectively.

“Their crimes are documented and proven. They were accused of
committing a kidnapping, torture and brutal murder of a 17-year-old
boy,” said Nalbandian.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the
collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly
Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from
Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by succeeding
referendum. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no
permanent peace agreement has been signed.

Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been
under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh
is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued
to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with
snipers causing tens of deaths a year. – 0-

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT HALTS RATIFICATION OF AGREEMENT MEANT TO RESTORE TIES WITH TURKEY

Fox News Network
Feb 16 2015

YEREVAN, Armenia – The Armenian president says he has asked the
country’s parliament speaker to withdraw his signature from a
groundbreaking 2009 agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties
between the two nations.

President Serge Sarkisian said in a statement on Monday that Armenia
would not ratify the agreement because of the “preconditions” that
Turkey is putting in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.

The agreement aims to restore diplomatic ties between the countries
as well as re-open the common border, which has been closed since 1993.

It was brokered by the United States and other nations.

In another sign of tensions between the countries, the Turkish
foreign minister recently urged Armenia to pull out its forces from
Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region between Armenia and Turkey’s
ally Azerbaijan.

CATHOLICOS ARAM I SENDS LETTERS TO EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT AND SPIRITUAL LEADER OF THE GHPTI CHURCH

21:34, 17 February, 2015

YEREVAN, 17 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos
has sent condolence messages and letters of support to President of
Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and leader of the Ghpti Church Patriarch
Tavatros II on the death of 21 Ghpti Egyptians who were killed by
Islamist extremists in Libya, as “Armenpress” reports, according to the
official website of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia.

After expressing condolences, the Supreme Patriarch reminded the
people of Egypt about the dangerous consequences of extremism that
is disturbing the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims.

In his letter addressed to Patriarch Tavatros II, Catholicos Aram I
expressed his condolences on the death of 21 innocent followers of the
Ghpti Church, referring to them as martyrs of the 21st century.”Those
who die for the Christian Church have a special place. The 21 Ghptis
who shed their blood, need to give us strength to stay true to our
faith,” as stated in the letter.

At the end of the letters, His Holiness expresses support to the people
of Egypt and the Sister Ghpti Church on behalf of the Catholicosate
of the Great House of Cilicia.

HOW ARMENIA SHAPED THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN SKYLINE

Jakarta Globe, Indonesia
Feb 16 2015

By Antony Sutton on 11:28 am Feb 16, 2015

As long as there has been cross-border trade there have been expats.

Be they Chinese from poor coastal villages in search of a better life,
or unskilled laborers from India dragooned by colonial overlords;
soldiers of fortune from the Japan or sons of the British Empire
brought up on boys’ own tales of pomp and riches, people have bid
farewell to their own shores and traveled in search of a brave
new world.

Expats come and expats go, but their legacy varies. Jakarta’s historic
Old Town is a testament to centuries of Dutch colonialism, India’s tea
plantations legacy to Europeans love of tea. And the Chinese influence
lives on in boardrooms of some of the wealthiest conglomerates in
the region.

And then we have the Armenians. As trade opened up the East and brought
yet more opportunities for the opportunistic, others followed in
the footsteps of the hardy pioneers, including people from an often
overlooked nation sitting at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

Little remains of the Armenian presence in Southeast Asia beyond the
odd church, road name and hotel. But what hotels?

Tigran Sarkies was his name, a precocious 23-year-old, and in 1882
he was working as an auctioneer in Georgetown, Penang. He must have
tired of banging the gavel because a couple of years later he opened
the Eastern Hotel and two years after he launched the Oriental Hotel
with his brother, Martin.

Another brother, Aviet, was brought in to manage the Eastern, while
Tigran and Martin extended the Oriental, which they reopened in 1889 —
renamed as the Eastern & Oriental, or E&O as it was know by generations
of planters and officials during those colonial times.

In just a few short years the name Sarkies became so synonymous with
hotels that Sir Frank Swettenham, who has more than left his own
imprint on the peninsula, first related an oft-told joke.

“A little boy at school was asked by his teacher who the Sakais
[indigenous Malay peoples] were, and he replied they were people who
kept hotels!”

In 1891 a fourth brother, Arshak, arrived on the scene and his industry
led to the constant reinvention of the E&O until it acquired its
moniker of the premier hotel east of Suez. Quite a character was
Arshak who could often be seen waltzing round the ballroom of his
hotel with a whiskey soda on his head.

Buoyed by the early success of the island-based hotel, Tigran and
Martin looked into opening a hotel in Singapore. A suitable premise
was found on the corner of Beach Rd. and Bras Brasah Rd.

The bungalow had been a boarding house for students at the Raffles
Institution and needed little renovation. By December 1887, Tigran
opened Raffles with the guarantee of “great care and attention the
comfort of boarders and visitors.”

Again the brothers had backed a winner. Extensions in 1889 increased
the capacity but the demand was still outstripping supply.

Martin returned to Persia in 1890, leaving Tigran to oversee the
construction of Palm Court Wing in 1894, which brought the total
numbers of rooms to 75.

Another wing was opened in November 1899, which led the somewhat stuffy
Straits Times to gush “palatial building with excellent ventilation,
and the vast airy dining room would make Raffles one of the largest
and handsomest hotels in the East.”

Now, with 100 suites, Raffles also was the only hotel in the area
lit by electricity and with a 10,000 gallon water tank!

The last tiger to be killed in Singapore was taken out in the Bar &
Billiard Room. I’m not sure what the patrons’ reaction was to having
their game interrupted by a great cat taking refuge under their feet.

As was common in many buildings at that time, the bar was raised off
the ground to prevent flooding and the tiger had hidden in the recess.

Given the popularity of tiger hunting, no doubt a few of the worthies
would have been disappointed they hadn’t pulled the trigger.

Today it is peaceful and makes for a nice stroll, taking in Chinese
temples and a house used by Dr. Sun Yat Sen as he plotted to
overthrow the Chinese government but in the past has been the scene
for disturbances between various secret societies.

Further south in Singapore stands the Armenian Church, the oldest in
the country. Today it is surrounded by high rises, while a busy road
provides a non-stop symphony of sounds; hardly the place of relaxation
and contemplation.

The neatly manicured gardens have a handful of tombstones, many
featuring the name Sarkie. It is tempting to try and lose yourself in
the moment and imagine Martin and Tigran taking time out from running
a hostelry and seeking solace within the walls of the small church,
but the 21st century is just too close, as is a busy intersection
and a bus stop.

Closer to home Lucas, son of Martin, eschewed the Sarkies successful
practice of setting up in the wake of the British colonials and headed
south east, to Surabaya, a city famous on the maritime maps of the
day but also home to a fair-sized Armenian community.

He opened the Oranje Hotel in 1910, named after the Dutch colonials
in the East Indies. That the Sarkies had opened a hotel was enough
to tempt people to visit the hot and sweaty town in East Java.

Charlie Chaplin, a familiar figure on the screen and at Raffles
attended the opening ceremonies of a refurbishment in 1936.

The Japanese arrived with the invasion of Java and used the hotel as
a barracks, changing the name to Hotel Yamoto.

The Indonesians declared their independence after the war on Aug. 17
but that didn’t stop the Anglo Dutch Country Section Office moving
into the hotel, room number 33 to be precise. On Sept. 19 at 6 a.m.

the officials raised the Dutch flag atop the hotel.

The Surabayans, angered by this arrogance, attacked the hotel, climbed
on to the roof and pulled down the symbol of oppression. They tore
off the blue band on the flag leaving just the red and white, merah
putih, the colors of the independent Indonesia.

ARMENIA-TURKEY PEACE ACCORDS WITHDRAWN

The Daily Star, Lebanon
Feb 17 2015

Reuters

YEREVAN: Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said 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 I 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 a
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 April 24th.

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

Turkey accepts many 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.

GRANDAD KILLED IN A ‘GENOCIDE’ MASSACRE

The Sun (England)
February 16, 2015 Monday
Ireland Edition

by MICHAEL McHUGH

AN Irish man who believes his grandfather was killed and buried in an
Armenian mass grave has called on the British and Irish governments
to recognise the deaths as genocide.

Paul Manook said his grandfather was lined up alongside other men in
a village in eastern Turkey by Ottoman Turkish soldiers a century ago.

He was never seen again.

Turkey has apologised for the killings but denies Armenian claims
that up to 1.5 million people died in an act of genocide during the
First World War when troops targeted the Christian minority.

Mr Manook, 64, from Millisle in Co Down, said: “I have a strong
feeling they must have killed them and buried them in mass graves.”

The dispute between the two sides centres on the definition of
genocide.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 17, 2015
Contact: Taniel Koushakjian
Telephone: (202) 393-3434
Email: [email protected]
Web:

ASSEMBLY TO HOLD ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SYMPOSIUM AT ANNUAL MEMBERS MEETING IN
FLORIDA

Symposium Will Take Place in Boca Raton on Saturday, March 14, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) is pleased
to announce the speakers for the Armenian Genocide Symposium that will take
place during the Annual Members Meeting weekend in Boca Raton, Florida,
March 13-14, 2015. Entitled `A Century of Genocide: The 1915 Armenian
Genocide & Its Lasting Impact,” the symposium will feature Dr. Rouben
Adalian, Dr. Rosanna Gatens, and Hannibal Travis.

Dr. Adalian will present on the topic `The Armenian Genocide as a Prototype
of 20th Century Mass Killings.’ Dr. Gatens will discuss `The Impact of the
Armenian Genocide on Holocaust Education,’ and Hannibal Travis will present
`The Armenian Genocide as a Political & Illegal Crime.’ Assembly Trustee
Marta Batmasian will moderate the discussion.

The Symposium will take place on Saturday, March 14, 2015 from 1:00 PM to
3:00 PM.

Dr. Rouben P. Adalian is the Director of the Armenian National Institute
(ANI) in Washington, DC. He is the editor of The Armenian Genocide in the
U.S. Archives 1915-1918 and its accompanying Guide and associate editor of
the Encyclopedia of Genocide. Adalian is also the author of From
Humanism to Rationalism: Armenian Scholarship in the Nineteenth Century
and Historical Dictionary of Armenia and has contributed to Genocide in
Our Time; Studies in Comparative Genocide; America and the Armenian
Genocide; and Centuries of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness
Accounts. He is a specialist on the Caucasus and the Middle East, and has
taught at a number of universities, including George Washington University,
Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University. He received a Ph.D. in
history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Rosanna M. Gatens is the Director of the Center for Holocaust and Human
Rights Education (CHHRE) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca
Raton, Florida. Dr. Gatens is a specialist in the social and intellectual
history of Germany, especially during the era of the Weimar Republic and
the Third Reich. Dr. Gatens has written about the collapse of academic
freedom in German universities during the 1920s, the anti-fascist and
anti-militarist campaigns of the German League for Human Rights during the
interwar years, and racism as a component of National Socialism. Her
research and writing in the area of Holocaust education focuses on the
effectiveness of particular teaching and learning strategies for high
school and college students. Dr. Gatens is a member of the Florida Task
Force on Holocaust Education and a member of the Save Darfur Coalition of
South Palm Beach.

Hannibal Travis is a Professor of Law at Florida International University
(FIU) College of Law in Miami, Florida. He has published widely on Ottoman
Turkey’s Christian genocide, freedom of expression, religious freedom in
the contemporary Middle East, and human rights in Africa. Travis wrote the
first comprehensive legal history of genocide in the Middle East and North
Africa, entitled Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq,
and Sudan. His second book, entitled Genocide, Ethnonationalism, and the
United Nations: Exploring the Causes of Mass Killing Since 1945,
undertakes the first in-depth exploration of the causes of genocide and
politicide using the U.N. archives.

The Assembly’s Armenian Genocide Symposium will be held at the Marriott
Hotel at Boca Town Center, 5150 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33486 on
Saturday, March 14, 2015 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Guests that are travelling
from out of town should call (561) 392-4600 to reserve a room at the
Armenian Assembly’s reduced rate of $169.00 per night.

To register for the Symposium or additional information please contact
Assembly South Florida Regional Council Chair Carol Norigian at
[email protected].

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and
awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3)
tax-exempt membership organization.

###

NR: # 2015-009
Available online at:

ARMENIA ‘S POLICE DETAIN PROSPEROUS ARMENIA PARTY REPS

by Ashot Safaryan

ARMINFO
Tuesday, February 17, 10:26

Police of Armenia Prosperous Armenia opposition party reported late
on Monday that several of its members had been detained amid what
it described as a continuing crackdown ordered by President Serzh
Sarkisian last week, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) reports.

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) lawmaker Elinar Vartanian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service (Azatutyun) that Artur Mamoyan, the leader of the
party’s chapter in Yerevan’s Nor-Nork district, had been taken to
a police station on unspecified grounds earlier yesterday. She said
they also had information about detentions of PAP activists elsewhere
in the city.

Later the police reported that Mamoyan was detained on suspicion
of illegally keeping weapons and said that his detention was not
politically motivated.

Vartanian, however, said that after the government labeled PAP leader
Gagik Tsarukian as “evil” and launched a campaign to essentially
exclude him from the political process it has been easy for the police
to detain opposition activists on fabricated grounds.

“I have the impression that we are back in 1937,” said Vartanian,
drawing parallels with the peak of Stalin’s purges in the Soviet Union.

“The methods of repression that were used at that time have become
very relevant [for the Armenian government] today,” she added.

Vartanian unequivocally linked the crackdown against the PAP with the
recent speech delivered by President Serzh Sarkisian. Addressing senior
members of his ruling Republican Party of Armenia on February 12, the
head of state effectively ordered tax audits of the businesses owned by
Tsarukian’s extended family and recommended that the opposition figure,
who hinted at his presidential ambitions last year, be dismissed from
his state posts and be stripped of his parliamentary seat.

Tsarukyan made a response speech explaining the president’s anger and
“the persecutions” against him with his refusal to assist the country’s
leadership to retain power through constitutional reform.

As for the tax evasion allegations, he called them groundless, saying
taxation agencies regularly inspect his enterprises. “Meanwhile,
the people are well aware who robs the country at the government
level and who enjoys “kick-backs.”

Reports on Monday said that about 200 police officers hired to provide
security for Tsarukian and his property had been dismissed from work.

Authorities said that the firings were not politically motivated and
were part of “ongoing reforms in the police.”

The Parliament is currently discussing the possibility of depriving
Gagik Tsarukyan of his deputy mandate. Meanwhile, a local newspaper
“Zhamanak” (“Time”) reports that another 4 parliamentarians
representing PAP, including Karapet Guloyan – Tsarukyan’s relative –
will be deprived of their mandates.

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

TURQUIE : LA COLORE MONTE APROS LE MEURTRE SAUVAGE D’UNE ETUDIANTE

TURQUIE

Pour de nombreux Turcs, c’est le crime de trop. La mort d’Ozgecan
Aslan, une etudiante de 20 ans violee, assassinee puis brûlee,
a souleve en Turquie une vague d’indignation qui tourne au procès
contre le regime islamo-conservateur accuse d’incurie.

Depuis la decouverte du corps de la victime vendredi près de Mersin
(sud), des milliers de personnes, femmes et hommes confondus, sont
descendus dans les rues des grandes villes de Turquie pour exprimer
leur colère et surtout denoncer la recrudescence inquietante dans
leur pays des violences contre les femmes.

Lundi, un millier de manifestants ont defile a Mersin et 3.000 avocats
qui denoncaient un projet de loi controverse renforcant les pouvoirs
de la police, ont rendu hommage a l’etudiante a Ankara en brandissant
ses photos.

Les associations feministes ont appele les Turques a porter le deuil
et les reseaux sociaux debordent de messages de revolte exhortant les
victimes a sortir du silence regroupes sous le mot-cle “#sendeanlat”
(“#toi aussi raconte” en turc).

“Cela ne peut plus continuer. L’agression et le meurtre des femmes sont
devenus une banalite en Turquie”, a regrette a l’AFP Bilge Dinler, une
architecte d’Ankara portant un deux pièces sombre et des gants noirs.

Portee disparue le 11 fevrier, Ozgecan Aslan a ete retrouvee morte
deux jours plus tard dans une rivière de sa ville natale de Tarsus
(sud). Selon le recit de la presse locale, la jeune femme a ete violee
puis tuee a coups de barre de fer par le chauffeur du minibus qui la
ramenait de l’universite a son domicile.

Aide de deux complices, dont son propre père, le violeur presume,
Ahmet Suphi Altindoken, a ensuite coupe les mains de sa victime et
mis le feu a son corps pour faire disparaître toute trace d’ADN.

Rapidement identifies, les trois suspects ont ete interpelles par
la police et sont passes aux aveux. Ils ont ete inculpes et ecroues
dimanche.

Depuis l’enterrement vendredi de l’etudiante, les manifestations
d’indignation ont pris un tour très politique.

‘Plaie ouverte’ –

Le chef du principal parti d’opposition a attribue la hausse
des violences faites aux femmes a la “morale” et la “mentalite”
religieuses du Parti de la justice et du developpement (AKP), qui
règne sans partage sur le pays depuis 2002.

“L’AKP est arrive au pouvoir en arguant que la moralite avait subi de
gros coups (…) mais la democratie et la morale ont perdu beaucoup
de sang toutes ces annees”, a deplore dimanche Kemal Kilicdaroglu,
le president du Parti republicain du peuple (CHP, social-democrate).

Le president Recep Tayyip Erdogan est un habitue des sorties polemiques
sur les femmes. Recemment, il a ainsi estime “contre nature” l’egalite
homme-femme.

Selon les associations feministes, les meurtres de femmes ont nettement
augmente ces dix dernières annees pour atteindre près de 300 cas
en 2014. Un autre rapport compile par le ministère de la Famille a
evalue a 40% la part des femmes victimes de violences de la part de
leur mari ou d’un membre de leur famille.

Directement mis en cause, l’homme fort du pays a fustige lundi ces
critiques qui, a-t-il dit, “prennent plaisir a la mort de quelqu’un”
et espere que les assassins presumes de la jeune femme ecoperaient de
“la peine la plus sevère”.

Le chef de l’Etat s’est egalement presente en champion de la cause
des femmes. “La violence contre les femmes est une plaie ouverte dans
notre societe (…) une rupture de la confiance de Dieu”, a-t-li dit
lors d’un discours.

Avant lui, le Premier ministre Ahmet Davutoglu a promis une “large
campagne contre les violences faites aux femmes” et meme de “briser
les mains” de leurs auteurs.

Certains de ses ministres ont meme ouvertement evoque l’hypothèse
d’un retablissement de la peine de mort, abolie en 2004.

“Non pas en tant que ministre mais en tant que femme et mère, je pense
que les crimes de ce genre peuvent etre punis de la peine de mort”,
a ainsi declare la ministre de la Famille, Aysenur Islam, la seule
femme du gouvernement.

“Si la meme chose arrivait a ma fille, je prendrais un arme et je
punirais (l’agresseur) moi-meme”, a rencheri son collègue des Affaires
europeennes Volkan Bozkir.

Une petition en ligne reclamant une “peine exemplaire” contre les
assassins presumes d’Ozgecan Aslan avait recu lundi près de 750.000
signatures.

mardi 17 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

VIEWS FROM MOSCOW: WITH INEVITABLE GROWTH OF RUSSIA’S ECONOMY, ASTANA AND MINSK WILL TURN TO MOSCOW AGAIN

by David Stepanyan

Tuesday, February 17, 12:04

With the inevitable growth of Russia’s economy in the short- term
outlook, Astana and Minsk will turn to Moscow again and learn lessons
from Kiev’s negative experience in this aspect. The statement came
from Vladimir Yevseev, Head of Caucasus Department of the Moscow-based
CIS Institute, in an online interview with ArmInfo.

“The Eurasian Economic Union as an integration tool in the post-Soviet
area will remain effective even amid Ukraine crisis. This will have
both positive and negative factors. For instance, the financial and
economic sanctions imposed on Russia have partially opened its market
for the EEU countries,” he said.

As for the latest pessimistic statements by Nazarbayev and Lukashenko
regarding the EEU’s prospects, Yevseev said the presidents of
Kazakhstan and Belarus have fundamentally different problems. He said
Nazarbayev with his multi-vector policy has got too dependent on the
West’s influence. Meanwhile, the national economy of Kazakhstan is
based on raw materials only i.e. it is fully dependent on the global
prices of gas. As for Lukashenko, Yevseeev said, he is afraid of
a color revolution. In the current situation, both them fear that
Russia will not resist the West’s pressure. This is why they hesitate
so much, he said. As regards Armenia, Yevseev is sure that the best
way for the country is to launch a bridge linking the EEU and EU in
its territory. It is necessary as long as Tehran seeks to keep the
privileges it enjoys from the EU and the current volume of exports to
Europe. In Georgia is involved in the process, the Armenian public
will no longer feel the need to chose between Russia and the West
so acutely.

The online press conference was organized as part of the project of
the “Region” Research Center “Urgent Dialogues for Armenia Media”
and is supported by the British Embassy in Armenia.