Author: Badalian Vardan

AFTER EU TALKS, ARMENIA SWINGS BACK TO MOSCOW

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #701
Sept 13 2013

Opposition parties attack plans to join Russian-led trade bloc.

By Arpi Harutyunyan – Caucasus

President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement that Armenia wants to join
the Customs Union, a free trade bloc led by Russia, seems to fit
with the country’s longstanding ties with Moscow. But it has caused
consternation among those who fear the deal will derail plans for
closer ties with the European Union.

Sargsyan made the announcement after meeting his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin in Moscow on September 3. He also said Armenia would
like to be part of the Eurasian Economic Union, a more ambitious
Moscow-led grouping that is still at the planning stage.

The Customs Union’s current members are Russia, Belarus and Kazakstan.

Kyrgyzstan is expected to join next year.

At a discussion held at the Media Centre in Yerevan, Samvel Nikoyan,
а member of the ruling Republican Party, said the idea of joining
the free trade bloc was the Armenian government’s own initiative,
not something that had been imposed on it.

The idea of joining was first floated by Energy Minister Armen
Movsisyan in late June. (See Armenia Weighs Foreign Economic
Partnerships.) Previously, government officials had dismissed the
possibility. In April 2012, for example, Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan told a Russian newspaper that joining would be “senseless”
because Armenia did not share a land border with any other Customs
Union member.

As late as August 21 this year, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh
Kocharyan said on a local TV station that entering the bloc would mean
“saying goodbye to one’s sovereignty”.

On September 5, however, Kocharyan retracted the remark in an interview
for RFE/RL, saying instead that “Customs Union membership means a
reduction in sovereignty in making independent decisions. That applies
to any customs union, and it concerns customs policy and tariffs”.

Kocharyan insisted that the decision had not been forced on Armenia
by the Kremlin.

“That is not the case. You’re missing the entire point,” he told his
interviewer. “There were many matters that needed resolving….But
after comprehensive talks, you ultimately weigh everything up, for
and against, and in sum, it is to our advantage”.

Nevertheless, the decision caused some consternation since it
followed closely on the successful conclusion of negotiations with
the European Union on an “association agreement” which will give
Armenia preferential terms of trade. (See Armenia Takes One Step
Towards Europe.)

The question as yet unanswered is how the different sets of trade
tariffs can be reconciled.

Speaking on September 5, the EU commissioner for enlargement and
neighbourhood policy, Å tefan Fule, questioned whether Armenia’s
association agreement with Brussels would be compatible with
membership of the Customs Union. Elmar Brok, who chairs the European
Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that trying to be part
of both free-trade systems was “really impossible”.

Meanwhile, Vigen Sargsyan, head of the presidential administration,
insisted that plans to enter the Customs Union would neither block nor
delay progress towards the association agreement, which is expected
to be signed in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in November.

Republican politician Nikoyan said it should be possible to do both,
given that free access to European markets would only come after ten
to 15 years.

“In any case, Europe mustn’t slam the door shut,” he said at the Media
Centre debate. “Armenia believes that it needs to combine both these
directions as far as is possible.”

The Republicans’ coalition partner, Rule of Law, issued a statement
backing the decision to join the Customs Union, in light of Armenia’s
strategic partnership with Russia. At the same time, it indicated
that the EU was ultimately the better bet as a trading partner. The
statement noted that Armenian exports to Russia, Belarus and Kazakstan
combined added up to 290 million US dollars last year, compared with
revenues of 560 million from sales to EU members.

Opposition parties slammed the president’s announcement, saying
they believed it had done serious harm to future trade relations
with Europe.

The Free Democrats, for example, warned that “Armenia will lose
important facets of its independence such as the opportunity to pursue
an independent foreign policy and to function autonomously on financial
and economic matters”.

The Dashnaktsyutun party concluded that the only reason the government
had gone for the Customs Union membership must have been to secure
pledges of Russian support for its own security and that of Nagorny
Karabakh. Ever since becoming independent, Armenia has maintained
strong security ties with Moscow because of its hostile relationship
with Azerbaijan.

Within hours of Sargsyan making his comments in Moscow, a Facebook
group had formed calling itself “We are against Customs Union with
Russia”. A few hundred members gathered outside the president’s
offices in Yerevan to make their concerns heard on September 4 and
again on September 10.

In Armenia, few analysts saw Customs Union membership as unambiguously
good news.

“This was a strategic mistake, an important opportunity that has been
lost,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre
in Yerevan said. “A major foreign policy error has been committed
that places the entire future of reforms in doubt.”

Giragosian believes that the door to the EU is now “closed but not
locked”.

Sergei Minasyan, deputy director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan,
was more optimistic, saying that Sargsyan’s meeting with Putin did
not amount to a “watershed in Armenia-EU relations”.

Arpi Harutyunyan is a correspondent for the Armnews website.

OSCARS: UKRAINE ENTERS ‘PARAJANOV’ IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE RACE

hollywoodreporter.com
September 16, 2013 Monday

Vladimir Kozlov

MOSCOW — Ukraine has nominated a biopic on Soviet-era director Sergei
Paradjanov for the Academy Award in the foreign language film category.

Paradjanov, directed by first-time feature directors Olena Fetisova
and Serge Avedikian, who starred as the renowned director, was made
as a co-production between Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia – the three
countries in which Paradjanov worked – and France.

The Euro2 million biopic had its world premiere as part of the Karlovy
Vary Film Festival’s program East of West last July. It was later
screened at the Odessa International Film Festival and collected
the Golden Duke award for the best Ukrainian film. It had a general
Ukrainian release on Sept. 12.

“I believe that Paradjanov is more than a worthy Ukrainian entry in
the Oscar race,” Denis Rzhavsky, a member of the Ukrainian Committee,
said in a statement. “However, what made me glad was not the selection
of that film, but the quality and quantity of its competitors. It is
already clear that in 2014, we will have premieres that will change
audiences’ perceptions of the Ukrainian cinema.”

Paradjanov, an ethnic Armenian born and raised in Georgia, came
to prominence with his 1965 historic drama Tini zabutykh predkiv
(Shadows of the Forgotten Ancestors), which collected the Critics
Grand Prize and the Special Jury Award at the Mar del Plata Film
Festival and was released in more than a dozen countries.

However, despite the international success, Paradjanov was soon banned
from filmmaking by Soviet ideologues and later thrown into prison on
what is widely believed to be fabricated charges and spent several
years behind bars.

After being released, he made three more features, Ambavi Suramis
tsikhitsa (The Legend of the Suram Fortress) and Ashug-Karibi (The
Hoary Legends of the Caucasus), and died in 1990.

YEREVAN IN THE GRIP OF GEOPOLITICAL POLES (THE FIRST ROUND OF THE FIGHT)

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Sept 17 2013

17 September 2013 – 12:35pm

Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Serge Sargsyan’s statement on Armenia’s intention to join the Customs
Union (CU) didn’t halt the geopolitical process over Armenia.

Discussions on the course of development continue there.

According to the head of the Institute of the Caucasus, Alexander
Iskandaryan, Armenia cannot really join the Customs Union and the
absence of borders is not the main problem: “The CU was established
for Kazakhstan and Russia, and their interests and demands contradict
Armenia’s needs. For example, Kazakhstan and Russia produce and export
energy products; Armenia imports them. Moreover, the countries of the
CU and Armenia not only have no common borders, but also between us
there is Georgia, which is a very specific country for Russia.

Furthermore, these are thousands of pages of texts which have been
developing for years. All these norms cannot be simply applied to
Armenia.”

The question of the possibility of combining membership of Armenia
in the CU and initialling of the association agreement within the EU
program of the Eastern Partnership is in the focus of attention. The
European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood
Policy, Stefan Fule, has already stated that in the context of
Armenia’s statement on joining the CU, it is difficult to imagine the
association agreement with the EU being initialled on November 29th
in Vilnius. According to him, there is a problem of compatibility
between obligations to the CU and the free trade area with the
EU. “For example, you cannot simultaneously reduce customs rates, as is
required by the Agreement on a deep and comprehensive free trade area,
and increase them as a lresult of membership in the Customs Union,”
Fule thinks. The possibility of the other document – the Association
Agreement – being initialled by Armenia is also excluded.

However, considering the fact that the geopolitical competition
between Russia and the West for the post-Soviet space won’t stop
due to the decision of Yerevan to join the CU, and Armenia wasn’t
included in the program of “Eastern Partnership” accidentally,
it could be predicted that the Europeans will try to find another
option for settlement of the problem that has occurred. For example,
in the future a new document for Armenia can be developed.

A small country with numerous problems in the economic sphere,
constant migration, having a conflict with Azerbaijan and difficult
relations with Turkey is involved in an argument between two leading
centers of political force – Russia and the West. In the first round
of the fight Moscow won, which has such trump cards as providing the
security of Armenia, exporting gas to Armenia and the presence of a
million Armenian migrants in Russia. The EU, and the West in general,
has never been interested in the security problems of Armenia.

To be continued.

LATEST ACT OF HANDING OVER STATE STAGED IN MOSCOW

Hakob Badalyan
Comments – Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 22:10

The Customs Union of Government and Church In Moscow the biggest
cathedral outside Armenia was opened. It has an administrative
building, a hotel, a dining hall. Whether the largeness or the Customs
Union was the reason, Serzh Sargsyan also attended the opening of the
church. The Armenian cathedral in Moscow was built with the donations
of “church-loving Armenians”. The Russia-based Armenian rich people
are meant. It is not clear what “church-loving” means. Do they love
the church as a building or as a religious institution? If the answer
is religious institution, I wonder how these “church-loving Armenians”
imagine their role in the life of the nation where the state has de
jure been the key institution over two decades. However, in the second
decade of the state opening churches continues to be treated as a
national event, and huge churches continue to be built. In other
words, in the second decade of the state the Armenian people or
their political and business elite come together around cathedrals,
not secular institutions of the state. The same thing took place in
Armenia when Gagik Tsarukyan built a huge church in Abovyan where the
government and opposition prayed side by side. This is touching indeed
but the Armenian people, the citizens of Armenia and the Diaspora, as
a potential subject of global competition, need secular institutions
providing premises for development rather than touching scenes. They
need institutions where unity is not a physical act involving
people coming together at a place and smiling to each other or at
least not swearing at each other but a process involving discussion,
criticism and opposition that leads to generation of ideas and contains
mechanisms of recognition of its result, capable of legitimacy. The
state is the most viable and competitive model of national unity,
whereas Armenians continue to subject the state, sometimes subtly,
sometimes roughly, to the church. This causes mutation of both
the state and church. As a result, neither of them develops and is
modernized to suit the time. Meanwhile, the consequences of the problem
are acknowledged. The problem has nothing to do with the modernization
of the state or the church. Or it is related to the extent when
modernization itself supposes new requirements and criteria for the
“church-loving Armenians” in Armenia and the worldwide Armenians and
the society. The “church-loving Armenians” have not reached the mental
and moral level needed for those criteria, therefore modernization
exposes them to danger because it may raise essentially the level
of society’s requirements and disturb the atmosphere of tolerance,
leading to new requirements for the elites.

The goal is to maintain the current level at the cost of stagnation of
the church and using the church as a private or group lifebelt. The
problem is clear – the society must not hinder the “church-loving
Armenians” to determine their own destinies. When the state is
attending this issue, questions occur which require answers.

Meanwhile, over the past decades or centuries the Armenian Apostolic
Church has become a mechanism of avoidance of concrete answers, which
is lying at the heart of the lucrative deal between the government
and the church. Logically, the role and importance of the belt is
growing in Moscow where the destinies of “church-loving elites” are
determined. Since the church replaces the state de facto as a leading
institution, it means adjusting itself to the de facto structure of
the state where Moscow has reiterated its role of destiny shaper. The
church is one of the key symbols of this reality, and Moscow’s role
would be psychologically weak unless it is enriched with one of the
key symbols of the reality.

RUSSIAN STATE DUMA TO DISCUSS ARMENIA’S ‘APPLICATION’ FOR CUSTOMS UNION MEMBERSHIP SOON – EXPERT

21:39 17.09.13

The Russian State Duma will soon hold a meeting to discuss Armenia’s
“application” for membership in the Customs Union, Chairman of the
Union of Political Scientists of Armenia Hmayak Hovhannisyan told
Tert.am.

According to him, the “application” is Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan’s “word” said publicly following his meeting with his
Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which is tantamount to a written
application. “A word spoken is past recalling,” Hovhannisyan said. The
rest is technicalities, he added.

According to the established procedure, the Armenian president’s
“application” is to be discussed and approved by the parliaments of
the Customs Union member-states.

“It will take several months because it has been said that Armenia
may become a Customs Union member next may. The National Assembly is
supposed to approve that package of bills, which is not a problem. The
parliamentary force led by President Serzh Sargsyan constitutes a
decision-making majority. That is, no problems can be expected. Let
alone the fact that none of the political forces, except for the
5-member Heritage parliamentary group, has spoken against Armenia’s
accession to the Customs Union,” the expert said.

With respect to the fact that Armenia has no common borders with any
of the Customs Union member-states, Hovhannisyan said: “Why should we
be concerned over the matter if your website interviewed the economist
Mikael Melkumyan, who explained the situation. I said the same as a
political scientist.”

Both Melkumyan and Hovhannisyan stressed the fact that Armenia,
Georgia, Russia and all the Customs Union member-states signed the
Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR
Carnets (TIR Convention).

“And goods cross the Georgian border without any customs clearance.

Russian goods come to Armenia through Georgia. What problems may
arise?”

Armenian News – Tert.am

OVER 500 COMMUNITIES IN ARMENIA CONNECTED TO GAS NETWORK IN 11 YEARS

YEREVAN, September 17. / ARKA /. Armenia’s Russian-controlled natural
gas operator ArmRosgaprom (ARG) said it has connected 546 rural and
45 urban communities to natural gas network in 2002-2013, out of the
total 998 communities.

“We have now 644,448 subscribers connected to the network – 345,547
in multi-apartment buildings and 298,901 in privately-owned homes,”
the company said.

Prior to 1993, Armenia had 388 communities with 485,000
households connected to the network. -0- – See more at:

ARF LAUNCHES “WE WILL LIVE IN OUR COUNTRY” PROGRAM

September 17, 2013 | 12:29

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party is starting
the “We will Live in Our Country” program, whose objective is to stop
emigration from the country.

ARF Supreme Body member and ARF National Assembly Faction leader Armen
Rustamyan noted the aforesaid during a press conference on Tuesday.

He stressed that stopping emigration forthwith is indispensable for
Armenia’s future.

“Proceeding from this, the ARF is working on this program for several
months; we have held serious discussions. Now, it is necessary to
start a new phase, a new stage,” Rustamyan said.

He noted that emigration is a complex problem, and the problems that
cause emigration need to be addressed. As per the opposition MP,
Armenia’s present-day political system does not enable to address
these problems immediately, and the reason is the, “similitude of
the ruling party and the state.”

“We are losing blood, and we cannot allow it to result in a complete
blood loss. And the organism is our country, our state, our homeland,”
Rustamyan stated.

He noted that it will be wrong to wait for the materialization of
the plan for a power change, and that is why it is necessary to
take priority steps. As per Armen Rustamyan, ARF Dashnaktsutyun
has summarized all this in seven points, and the latter are the
“prescription” for solving the accumulated problems.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

QUAKE IN GEORGIA FELT IN NORTHERN ARMENIAN PROVINCES

NEWS | 17.09.13 | 11:45

An earthquake registered in Georgia today was felt on a minor scale in
some northern provinces of Armenia, reports the Ministry of Emergency
Situations of Armenia.

The Seismic Protection Service of Armenia received information on
a magnitude 5 earthquake registered in the territory of Georgia at
8:09 am. The epicenter of the earthquake was 102 kilometers to the
west of capital Tbilisi (measuring 6-7 in the epicenter).

In Armenia’s territory the earthquake was felt in the towns of
Noyemberyan and Ijevan (as 3 points).

No victims or destruction has been reported.

UN EXPERTS ARMENIEN DEFEND LE PARAPHE DE L’ACCORD D’ASSOCIATION AVEC L’UE

ARMENIE

Le directeur de l’Institut du Caucase base a Erevan a defendu le
paraphe de l’accord d’association approfondi et complet de Zone de
libre-echange (DCFTA) de l’UE avec l’Armenie, en disant que cela aura
un impact positif sur l’economie de l’Armenie.

L’Armenie et plusieurs autres ex-republiques sovietiques sont censes
signes des accords en Novembre lors du sommet du Partenariat oriental
de l’UE un qui doit avoir lieu a Vilnius, en Lituanie.

S’exprimant lors d’une conference de presse Alexandre Iskandaryan a
dit que le paraphe des accords est juste une etape sur le chemin de
l’Armenie vers l’integration europeenne, et donc aucun changement
fondamental et immediat dans l’economie nationale ne doit etre prevu.

Selon l’UE, les accords permettront a l’Armenie de recevoir un
revenu annuel supplementaire de 146 millions d’euros, près de 2,3%
de son PIB. Les exportations de l’Armenie peuvent croître de 15,2%
et les importations de 8,2%. Cet accord permettra a l’Armenie de
diversifier ses exportations a des conditions favorables.

mardi 17 septembre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

RUSSIA WILL SUPPLY ANOTHER BATCH OF ARMS TO AZERBAIJAN

Kurgan Machine Construction Plant has launched production of 2C31 Vena
self-propelled artillery units for Azerbaijan, arm-expo.ru informs.

Vena System was introduced in 1997 but no clients were found then.

Azerbaijan is the first client of 18 2C31 Vena self-propelled
artillery units.

Vena is intended for infantry, artillery and mortar units, missile
systems, armored targets, fire units and control centers over a
distance of 13km. It is equipped with a tracker intended for both day
and night time, carry out super-precision fire in any weather and at
time of the day or night over long distances.

16:44 16/09/2013 Story from Lragir.am News: