Author: Ekmekjian Janet

                                        Friday, 
Sarkisian `Satisfied' With Armenian Military Arsenal
 . Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at a meeting with Defense
Minister Vigen Sargsian (L) and other officials in Dilijan, 13Jul2017.
President Serzh Sarkisian has insisted that the Armenian military has
enough modern armaments to cope with security threats to Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Meeting with military personnel, government officials and public
figures in the resort town of Dilijan on Thursday, Sarkisian clarified
his controversial 2016 remark that Armenian soldiers are "fighting
with weapons from the 1980s."
"Firstly, the context [of the statement] was a bit different," he said
in televised remarks publicized by his office on Friday. "Secondly,
there is not a single army in the world that possesses all modern
types of weaponry. Neither the American army nor the Russian army nor
any other army can claim to have all the modern weapons because no
army, no state can gain them [at once.]
"But every army needs to have sufficient weaponry in order to be able
to accomplish its tasks. That is evaluated in its entirety. On top of
that are soldiers' skills. Today our army possesses not the most
advanced armaments # but sufficient weaponry and ammunition to achieve
objectives set for it."
"A sufficient quantity and quality of weapons and ammunition plus
intelligent and resilient fighters: this is the formula for success
which I don't doubt," added Sarkisian. He did not disclose news types
of weapons which Armenia has acquired in recent months.
Armenia - The Armenian army demonstrates Buk air-defense systems
recently acquired from Russia as well as S-300 surface-to-air missiles
during a parade in Yerevan, 21Sep2016.
Two years ago, Russia allocated a $200 million loan to Armenia which
is being spent on the purchase of more Russian weapons at internal
Russian prices that are below market-based levels. The Russian
government subsequently publicized a long list of items which the
Armenian side is allowed to buy with that money. It includes, among
other things, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket system, TOS-1A heavy
flamethrowers, anti-tank weapons and shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles.
The arms supplies envisaged by the loan agreement appear to have begun
last year. According to the United Nations Register of Conventional
Arms, Russia delivered 300 air-defense systems to Armenia in
2016. Those most probably were shoulder-fired Igla and Verba systems.
In late 2015 or early 2016, the Armenian military also acquired
advanced Russian Iskander missiles. The acquisition was apparently not
covered by the low-interest Russian credit.
Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian said in January that Yerevan is
planning more arms acquisitions in addition to the $200 million
defense contracts signed with Moscow. He gave no details.
Russia has long been Armenia's number one arms supplier, reflecting
close militaries ties between the two states. Membership in the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has enabled
Armenia to receive Russian weapons at discounted prices or even for
free.
IMF Lauds Armenian Reform Efforts
U.S. - The International Monetary Fund logo is seen inside its
headquarters at the end of the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in
Washington, U.S., October 9, 2016.
The International Monetary Fund has praised the Armenian government's
efforts to improve the domestic business environment, reform tax
administration and attract more foreign investment, saying that is
essential for speeding up economic growth.
In a statement released late on Thursday, the IMF reported details of
a June 23 meeting of its Executive Board that discussed the
macroeconomic situation in Armenia and reforms announced by Prime
Minister Karen Karapetian's cabinet.
"[IMF] directors called for continued efforts to advance structural
reforms to foster sustainable and inclusive growth," read the
statement. "They underscored the need to promote private sector
development and diversify the economy by attracting [foreign direct
investment.] In this context, they welcomed the authorities'
growth-promoting initiatives to improve the business environment,
encourage competition, and strengthen governance."
The IMF board also praised government efforts to combat tax evasion
and improve tax administration, saying that they have already
translated into a sizable rise in tax revenue.
Its overall assessment of government policies is in tune with
statements made by an IMF team that visited Yerevan on a two-week
mission in April. The mission chief, Hossein Samiei, told reporters
that Karapetian's cabinet is "reform-minded and committed to improving
the structural environment."
Karapetian has repeatedly pledged to create "equal conditions" for all
business since he was named prime minister in September. Opposition
politicians dismiss the premier's ambitious reform agenda,
however. They say, in particular, that wealthy businesspeople close to
the government continue to enjoy a monopoly on lucrative imports of
essential goods and commodities.
The IMF board stood by higher economic growth rates that were forecast
for Armenia by the Washington-based Fund earlier. "With improving
outlook in major trading partners and a pickup in private sector
activity, real GDP is projected to grow by around 3 percent in 2017,
while inflation would reach around 2 percent by end-2017," it
said. "Medium-term growth is projected at 3.5-4 percent."
"Nevertheless, there are risks: the recent recovery in remittances and
copper prices may not endure, and growth in key trading partners could
be weaker than expected," it warned.
The government expects that the Armenian economy will expand by at
least 3.2 percent this year. In its policy program approved by
parliament last month, it committed itself to ensuring that annual
growth accelerates to around 5 percent in the following years.
Economic activity in Armenia was largely stagnant last year amid a
continuing recession in Russia, the country's leading trading partner
and the main source of multimillion-dollar remittances from Armenian
migrant workers.
Yerevan `Still Wants' New Nuclear Plant
 . Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A general view of the Metsamor nuclear plant, 20May2013.
The Armenian government has not abandoned its ambitious plans to build
a new nuclear power station in place of the aging plant at Metsamor,
Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian claimed on Friday.
President Serzh Sarkisian pledged to replace Metsamor, which generates
roughly a third of Armenia's electricity, by a modern and more
powerful facility meeting safety standards shortly after taking office
in 2008. The project never got off the drawing board as his government
failed to attract an estimated $5 million needed for the new plant's
construction.
The government decided instead to extend the life of Metsamor's
420-megawatt reactor by 10 years, until 2027. Russia is playing a key
role in this endeavor, having provided Armenia with a $270 million
loan and a $30 million grant in 2015. The money is due to be mainly
spent on the purchase of Russian nuclear equipment and additional
safety measures that will be taken at the Soviet-era facility located
35 kilometers west of Yerevan.
"If we start the new nuclear plant's construction now it will not be
timely," Gabrielian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).Work
on the plant might only get underway in 2022 or 2023, he said.
The government initially planned that the new plant would have a
design capacity of 1,000 megawatts. In Gabrielian's words, it now
believes that 600 megawatts is a more realistic and cost-effective
target.
"In the coming years much smaller and cheaper nuclear plants will
start going into service [around the world] in 50-megawatt blocks,"
the vice-premier went on. They could represent an even cheaper option
for Armenia, he said.
Visiting Armenia in April 2016,the first deputy head of Russia's state
nuclear energy agency Rosatom, Kirill Komarov, said that the
authorities in Yerevan have yet to come up with convincing "economic
grounds" for implementing the expensive project.
Two Armenians Wounded In Egyptian Beach Resort Attack
Egypt - The entrance to one of two beach resorts in Hurghada where a
stabbing attack occurred on .
Two Armenian nationals were wounded on Friday in a mass stabbing in
Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada which left two other foreign
tourists dead.
News reports said an Egyptian man stabbed two German women to death
and wounded two other tourists at a local hotel and then swam to a
neighboring beach to attack at least two more people at the Sunny Days
El Palacio resort before he was arrested. The motive for his attack
was not immediately known.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry said that the wounded tourists were
rushed to a local hospital. The security manager at the El Palacio
hotel told Reuters that two of them are Armenians.
Armenia's Foreign Ministry confirmed that, citing information received
from the Armenian Embassy in Cairo. "The Embassy has contacted the
injured Armenian citizens," it said on its Twitter page. "Their life
is not in danger. Medical aid is provided."
The ministry spokesman, Tigran Balayan, tweeted separately that "the
attacker was neutralized with the help of our wounded citizen."
The stabbings came hours after five Egyptian police officers were shot
to death in Cairo's twin city of Giza. Twenty-three Egyptian troops
were killed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula a week ago, in an assault
claimed by the so-called Islamic State militant group.
The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan urged Armenians to refrain from trips
to Egypt following the October 2015 bombing of a Russian plane over
the Sinai. The ministry repeated the warning in January 2016.
Press Review
"Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that a senior Georgian official, Zurab
Abashidze, has refuted reports that Georgia and Russia have finalized
an agreement on the opening of two transport corridors that will pass
through Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Armenia welcomed those reports
earlier this week, with Transport Minister Vahan Martirosian
expressing hope that Armenia will get more reliable trade routes to
Russia. Abashidze said, however, that the Russian and Georgian
governments are only negotiating on a "monitoring of cargo turnover"
between.
According to "Zhoghovurd," the French ambassador in Yerevan,
Jan-Francois Charpentier, has complained about the modest volume of
Armenia's trade with France which amounted to roughly $50 million last
year. The paper recalls in this regard that President Serzh Sarkisian
held a special meeting with senior Armenian officials and called for
closer commercial ties with France in March last year. It says that
the Armenian government has since taken no "serious steps in that
direction."
Davit Ishkhanian, a leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh branch of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), assures "Hayots
Ashkhar" that Nagorno-Karabakh's image abroad will not suffer after
its president, Bako Sahakian, extends his rule by at least three
years. "Artsakh must never be compared with Azerbaijan," Ishkhanian
tells the paper. "Such statements are wide of the mark. Democracy is
very important for us. We have no right or desire to register a
setback in that area." He argues that Sahakian will govern Karabakh
until 2020 only as an interim president. "What's the point of
exploiting that?" he complains.
"Hraparak" quotes a food and agriculture expert as saying that
agriculture is one of the few sectors that has already benefited from
Armenia's accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU). He points to rising exports of Armenian agricultural products
and prepared foodstuffs to Russia. "All you have to do is to produce
and deliver them to the Russian market," he says.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org