Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

ARMENIAN LEADER SLAMS PM

Vestnik Kavkaza
Sept 25 2012
Russia

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has criticized structures regulating
state purchases. Sargsyan made harsh orders to resolve the problem
of Armenians arriving from Syria.

The president promised to repeat such activities, noting that
many violations have been uncovered by the Control Service for
state purchases. Sargsyan ordered the heads of ministries and other
structures to explain to their employees that further violations will
be punished with dismissals. In response, the prime minister said,
“Your evaluations, Mister President, are sobering, they make us all
introduce major changes to our work and we will doubtlessly make them”.

The president’s council for slamming the government was viewed
skeptically by society or as a PR step for the upcoming presidential
polls and the resignation of government. But emphasis was put on the
prime minister’s possible responses after the president’s criticism.

The Republican Party of Armenia says that the president is forcing
the PM to take further steps to limit the despotism of the oligarchy.

Unable to fight the oligarchs using political instruments, the
president probably hopes that the prime minister will use economic
ones. In any case, the president’s criticism had a sobering effect
on the government, which has not taken a single step to strengthen
the Armenian economy in the last four years. In fact, the president
accused the prime minister of bribe-taking and money-wasting and
now the latter has nothing to do but announce the names of people
responsible for the violations. But the prime minister continues to
remain silent and does not plan to give names. The political class
of Armenia is not used to responsibility for words and actions, an
open fight with bribery by giving out names is unlikely. Thus, the
well-staged slamming seems like the first explanation of developments.

This version is strengthened by the fact that similar reproaches and
accusations of violations and the existence of political and economic
monopolies of the government have been numerous. But action has never
been taken afterwards. This is because most of the bribers among the
oligarchs are sitting in parliament or some other branches of power.

The Control Chamber traditionally unmasks such thefts from the budget,
but there is never a punishment for such violations.

Lack of political, social, legal institutions in Armenia and a poverty
level of 38% demonstrate that the republic cannot be called a social
state. Apart from the president’s evaluation, the public would like
to see solutions. These solutions form a logic, especially taking
into account the fact that the government has been facing a budget
deficit in the last few months. This is why mass media are filled
with rumours that the government is trying to receive a loan worth
a billion from Russia.

The appearance of the will to punish oligarchs and their interests
is not surprising. The oligarchs have become the foundation of the
shameful political and economic system of Armenia since 1998. But
after the resignation of Robert Kocharyan, some oligarchs got out of
governmental control, which was a major blow. The government strikes
at disobedient rich people from time to time. But President Sargsyan
cannot establish full control over them. The president would like
the premier to shake them a little, for example, by accusing them
of economic crimes. But Sargsyan has either failed or never wanted
to take the mining industry and other large markets under control in
four years. The prime minister should either shake up a few oligarchs
or admit that it is impossible.

This is why the president’s meeting casts doubts as to whether the
government will be dismissed before the presidential polls.

Dissolution of the government was logical earlier, but it may now
happen much earlier than February 2013. The PM’s resignation could
satisfy and inspire many to support the president in February.

The president’s criticism may also be considered a step towards
Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia. But it may also be viewed at a
different angle, because the president did not dismiss the government
and was satisfied with promises of improvement. Thus, the president
has taken responsibility for the government and made it clear that
he does not plan to make a scapegoat out of the premier. Changing
the PM would become a new pillar in the pyramid of power, especially
taking into account the fact that replacing Sargsyan with Kocharyan
as Prime minister would hardly cause a socio-economic effect. Keeping
the prime minister in power benefits Prosperous Armenia. Tsarukyan
is avoiding any criticism of the president.

The problem of Armenia is not lack of criticism of the government.

Criticism is acceptable. Some functionaries unfavourable in the
government are losing their positions and resigning. But their
resignation does not change the system. People willing to replace
a certain official (minister or prime minister) should think about
what they would gain. Economic development has never been a topic
of public discussions in Armenia. Agriculture, IT, tourism are the
main priorities officially, but in reality, the economy exists only
thanks to sales of natural resources and financial operations. Banks
are the most profitable area in Armenia. Non-ferrous metals are the
main exports. The fact that the government has little part in this
profitable sphere proves that it is prone to bribery.

The banksthat the authorities are so proud of are not far behind the
mining operations. They speculate on currencies, financial operations
and high-interest loans. Despite the population’s reduction of income,
banks have sustainably high profits, even against the background
of the global recession. The real owners of the shares of the 21
commercial banks in Armenia are usually unknown to the public.

Bribes in the mining industry and banking have become unofficial
priorities of “economic development” in Armenia, while the concept
of economic development of the social state should be based on the
spheres that are increasing the income of as many people as possible.

This concerns agriculture, light industry, information technologies,
tourism and the IT industry. Opening the Armenian economy to
investments requires non-interference in people’s affairs. This is
what the president should have discussed with the prime minister,
because bribes are a symptom, not the root of the problem.

David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for VK

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA TO PARTICIPATE IN INDESTRUCTIBLE BROTHERHOOD-2012 CSTO DRILLS

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 25, 2012 – 19:13 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia will participate in Indestructible
Brotherhood-2012 joint CSTO drills to be held on October 8 through
17 in Kazakhstan.

The military exercises aim at the exchange of experience in countering
mass riots.

The participants will also share expertise in separation of conflicting
parties, control of ceasefire terms, escorting of humanitarian cargos
and repulsing terrorist attacks.

According to the representative of Russian armed forces, lieutenant
colonel Nikolay Donyushkin, the drills will host over 1000 officers of
the armed forces of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan.

From: Baghdasarian

FOREIGNERS COME TO ARMENIA FOR BEZOAR GOAT HUNTING

2012-09-25 22:18:34

There is an announcement on Russian “IBEX” hunting club website, which
offers Bezoar goat hunting in Armenia. Below is the announcement in
Armenian: “Hunting in Armenia “IBEX” club offers hunt on Bezoar goat
in the best hunting farms in Armenia- Urtsasar Mountains, on 120
km from Yerevan. The hunt for Armenian Mouflon is conducted in the
mountains of Meghri, on 500 km from Yerevan. The entire hunt is held
on 2000-2500 meters above sea level. Often only 3-5 days of hunting
are enough to get a good trophy.

Hunting season- all year round, the best period is March-November.

Location – a small hunting house with toilet and shower or a tent
camp during the mouflon hunt: Tour cost

a 6-day tour, 5 days for goat hunt a 6-day tour, 5 days for mouflon
hunt.

The Cost includes meeting at Yervan airport (guiding), the cost for
the entire transportation, permit for the hunt, 3 times meal a day,
Jaeger service, primary processing of the trophy.

The cost doesn’t include airplane tickets, rental of weapons, including
bullets, hotel in Yerevan, the cost of the trophy, the cost for an
additional day of hunting, permits for the goat, mouflon and bear
hunt, the governmental tax- per every animal for the development of
nature, alcoholic drinks, documents for weapon export- separate for
each weapon, excursions, tips to the personnel.

Trophet cost:

Bezoar goat

Armenian mouflon

Caucasian Bear

Wounded and not-found animal should be compensated for the 100%
of the cost

We wish you a successful hunt.”

It is interesting whether the Ministry of Environmental Protection
is aware of this or not and what measures are being initiated against
this, or…?

From: Baghdasarian

BAKU SEEKS $431,5 BN. IN “DAMAGES” FROM KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 25, 2012 – 16:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Azeri Ministry of Economic development assessed the
“total damage” inflicted to Azerbaijan as a result of a so-called
Armenian “occupation,” or rather, liberation of historical Armenian
lands.Azeri calculations boiled down to an astronomical sum of $431,5
bn. Azeri Ministries of Ecology and Economic Development, as well as
a State Committee on Refugee and IDPs Affairs had a hand in cooking
up the figure. Moreover, as Baku assures the damage assessment is
still in progress.

Clearly, the “assessment” came as a result of Astana-hosted
international congress of appraisers where Baku was instructed
to develop the standards of assessing the damages suffered in the
international conflict.

Moreover, calls to sue Armenia in international court for economic
damages are becoming louder in Baku.

One may suppose, the “total damages” will be growing in proportion
to the frequency of those calls.

Back in 2005, Azeri assessed a similar damage at $26,5 bn, with the
figure having magically swollen up by over 16 times in 7 years.

Obviously, Baku has finally realized that the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
will never become a part of the country propagating hatred towards
Armenian nation and bringing up a generation of axe-killers.

So, to have something to show for it, Azerbaijan, with over a $22 bn
state budget, is trying to make a market of Karabakh.

Marina Ananikyan / PanARMENIAN News

From: Baghdasarian

GEORGIAN EMBASSY IN AZERBAIJAN HAS NO FORMAL INFORMATION ON SIX DETAINEES

news.am
September 25, 2012 | 15:35

BAKU. – The Georgian Embassy in Azerbaijan has no official information
on the detainment of six citizens of Georgia who are charged with
illegally crossing the national border, an Embassy representative
informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“We have not received any formal information from Azerbaijan’s
authorities,” the Embassy representative stated.

To note, Azerbaijani media disseminated information that Azerbaijan
State Border Service officers have “caught” six border-trespassing
citizens of Georgia on September 23. And some of them are said to
be Armenian.

In line with preliminary date, the names of those citizens of Georgia
who illegally crossed the border are as follows:

Zurab Hihitashvili (born in 1962), Nodar Gogiladze (born in 1954),
Valery Zabiev (born in 1976), Eduard Arzumov (born in 1943), Sergey
Lehandyan (born in 1948), and Misha Sargsyan (born in 1948).

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA’S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT NOT GOOD FOR FOREIGN INVESTORS – LAWYERS

25.09.12

Investment policies should be very important for Armenia, according
to Nikolyay Baghdasaryan and Lernik Hovhannisyan, the director and
a lawyer of the Armlegal school of attorneys.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Baghdasaryan said that the Armenia’s
investment environment is not attractive for big businessmen.

“I personally have served ten big investment companies, and later
they really left Armenia. I lost my job together with lots and lots
of Armenian citizens,” he said, adding that his business later moved
to Georgia where he continued serving clients.

Baghdasaryan, who protected the interests of US-Armenian investor
Edmond Khudoyan, in Armenia, said he was very much surprised when a
Georgian official gave him his visiting card, asking him to let him
know about possible businesses obstacles.

Asked why they have focused especially on Diaspora-Armenian investors,
both lawyers noted that the Diaspora-Armenians, unlike the local
businessmen, never give in amid a civil struggle.

It is noteworthy that Khudoyan and his US attorney followed the news
conference via Skype. Another Diaspora-Armenian attending the meeting
said many of them often have difficulty selling their apartments in
Armenian due to spelling differences between the names appearing in
passports and notarial certificates.

Khudoyan’s investments in Armenia’s property market were spent for
purchasing a land lot which was later used for the construction of
a 10-storey building.

Vladislav Mangasaryan, the owner of several construction companies
who became Khudoyan’s chief business partner, was later accused by
the US Armenian businessman for appropriating $7 million and forcing
the company into bankruptcy.

Noting that Mangasaryan is not the kind of person who could have
committed and digested the above frauds, the lawyers asked journalist
to launch an independent inquest in an attempt to reveal many
well-known names.

From: Baghdasarian

GEORGIA’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION BALLOTS TO BE IN ARMENIAN AS WELL

2012-09-25 17:51:32

Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has started printing the
ballots for the parliamentary elections, which will be held on October
1. The printing of the ballots got underway on September 23 and this
process will come to an end in the coming days, CEC Spokesperson Eka
Azarashvili informed.

In the spokesperson’s words, the ballots are printed in Georgian,
Armenian, and Azerbaijani. Several NGOs and observer organizations are
following this process, Gruzia Online news agency of Georgia reports

From: Baghdasarian

COUNCIL OF EUROPE CALLS FOR ARMENIAN POLITICAL PARTIES TO BACK LOCAL DEMOCRACY

hetq
18:19, September 24, 2012

The mission of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the
Council of Europe calls for a strong commitment of political parties
to local democracy in Armenia.

“Our satisfaction with the fact that these elections take place
according to international standards is mitigated by the lack of
engagement of political parties with local governance,” said Henry
FERAL (France, EPP), head of the delegation for the observation of
local government elections in Armenia.

Following the observation of part of local elections conducted on
9 and 23 September 2012 * the Congress noted with satisfaction that
the voting took place in a serious and calm atmosphere and the level
of participation was satisfactory. No observer detected any obvious
fraud though the issue of possible vote buying was raised by many
stakeholders.

However, the delegation noted the lack of commitment of political
parties with regret. While recognizing that this is due to various
reasons, such as lack of financial resources, staff and candidates,
it believes that political parties do not pay enough attention to
democracy and governance at the local level.

Moreover, while acknowledging the existence of initiative from citizens
who have participated in the electoral process, the Congress calls
for greater involvement of all of civil society.

The Congress was the only international observer to follow part of
the local elections. The mission took place from September 6 to 10
and 19 to 25 September 2012. The Congress delegation comprising of
14 members plus four members of the Committee of the Regions of the
European Union, met with representatives of the Government, members
of Parliament, representatives of political parties, members of the
diplomatic corps, representatives of the international community as
well as representatives of the media and NGOs.

* On September 9, 2012 the Congress mission worked in the marzes of
Armavir, Ararat, Lori, Shiraz; on September 23, 2012 they worked in
the marzes of Gegharquniq, Aragatsotn, Kotayq, Tavush, Vayots Dzor.

From: Baghdasarian

NEWSPAPER REPORT SAYS OSKANIAN TO BE STRIPPED OF PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY, PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE, MP’S ASSOCIATES UNAWARE
By Gohar Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow
25.09.12 | 15:54

Officials in the Prosecutor’s Office do not confirm an opposition daily
report that a motion will soon be brought in the National Assembly to
strip Vartan Oskanian, a former foreign minister and current lawmaker
with the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), of his parliamentary immunity
as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation involving a
think tank that he formerly headed.

The Hraparak daily reported on Tuesday, citing its sources “close to
the leadership in the National Assembly”, that the parliament may
be called to discuss at the next session Prosecutor-General Aghvan
Hovsepyan’s motion to strip Oskanian of his parliamentary immunity
and involve him as a ‘defendant’ in the case being investigated by
the National Security Service (NSS).

“This, however, does not mean that Oskanian will be arrested. At this
stage they just want to strip him of his parliamentary immunity so that
he may go to the NSS as a ‘defendant’, but remaining an MP. In actual
fact, the authorities are attempting to resolve this and remaining
matters in phases, and without burning all bridges,” the report said.

But neither the Prosecutor-General’s Office, nor Oskanian confidants
have confirmed the newspaper report to ArmeniaNow.

Sona Truzyan, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office,
told ArmeniaNow that they did not possess any such information. And
Oskanian’s assistant, Civilitas Foundation public relations officer
Mane Gevorgyan said they, too, learned about it from the media and
would provide a reaction to it later on.

PAP lawmaker and spokesman Tigran Urikhanyann said that “there is no
legal process” in this regard.

The criminal investigation against Civilitas, which was founded
by Oskanian in 2008 and was led by him until last February when he
joined the PAP, was launched in late May, shortly after parliamentary
elections.

Oskanian said then that the criminal case was politically motivated
and in fact was a retribution for his hard-hitting criticism of the
government in the lead-up to the legislative polls. It was in May that
the PAP refused to renew a coalition with the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia (RPA), which lead to speculation that Gagik Tsarukyan,
the PAP leader, would also refuse to throw his political weight
behind the RPA leader and current president Serzh Sargsyan in next
February’s presidential vote, while the party will choose to field
its own candidate, possibly Oskanian.

Oskanian, who served as foreign minister during Robert Kocharyan’s
10-year presidency in 1998-2008, is also believed to be a close
associate of the ex-president who is also said to be contemplating
a possible political comeback using the PAP as his support base.

From: Baghdasarian

ALEPPO ARMED CLASHES FAR FROM ARMENIAN DISTRICTS (PHOTOS)

25.09.12

The on-going military operations in Aleppo are far from the Armenian
districts, according to Zhirayr Reissyan, a spokesperson for the
city’s Armenian prelacy.

As he told Tert.am on Tuesday, the gunshots heard from neighboring
districts often cause material damages.

Reisyan said that the Armenian districts face predominantly economic
and employment-related difficulties.

As for the material damages and the reports that the Armenian churches
also incurred losses, Reisyan recommended considering the situation
from the general perspective.

“There are buildings that were leveled to the ground and mosques
which were fully destroyed. Their bullets can cause harm but people
are taking precautions,” he added.

Addressing the water shortage and the periodic electricity cuts,
Reissyan said everything possible is now being done to eliminate
those problems.

From: Baghdasarian