17:26,
YEREVAN, 20 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 20 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.99 drams to 386.29 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.65 drams to 432.76 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 4.26 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.09 drams to 498.16 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 58.52 drams to 24532.88 drams. Silver price up by 0.82 drams to 310.67 drams.
12:56,
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Members of Parliament of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) initiated an emergency session due on July 21.
The press service of the Nagorno Karabakh parliament did not provide further details on the agenda of the session.
13:24,
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is carrying out active construction work in the Margara checkpoint of the Armenian-Turkish border, the Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Rustam Badasyan told reporters on July 20.
He said the construction will be completed soon. “I can’t mention a concrete date, but soon,” he said when asked about the timeframes of completing the construction.
Armenia and Turkey had previously agreed to open the land border for citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders.
The border was to be opened in June but the process has been delayed.
“This question is beyond the jurisdiction of the State Revenue Committee,” Badasyan said when asked whether or not the border would be opened for citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders after the completion of the construction. “Our job is to ensure the conditions for customs control at the border crossing point, and that’s what we are doing,” he added.
Workshop participants with their handwoven kilims during the exhibit at Haigazian University
BEIRUT—On Wednesday, July 19, an exhibit was held in the Haigazian University (HU) Arthur Matossian Gallery featuring the handwoven kilims of 35 students from various Lebanese Armenian schools. The event was attended by the students, along with parents, teachers and principals.
The kilims were the product of a nine-day-long “Weave your own kilim” workshop held at HU and organized by the Student Life Office in collaboration with the Hovhannes Sharambeyan Folk Arts Museum in Armenia.
Between July 5 and 18, students from the Armenian Evangelical and United Armenian Colleges, Armenian Evangelical Shamlian-Tatigian, Armenian Evangelical Central High, Armenian Catholic Holy Cross, AGBU and Vahan Tekeyan schools participated in the workshop. They learned the skills of weaving the kilim and actually wove the pieces which were featured in the exhibition.
During the nine three-hour sessions, the students eagerly connected with carpet weaving and wove more than one kilim. Some even started their third kilim. Others created their own designs and chose the colors of the Armenia-made wool, while some began to weave their own names. The weaving process also continued after the sessions, as the students excitedly took their unfinished works to their homes.
Some of the handwoven kilims created by the workshop participants
Alongside the student sessions in the morning, a five-session weaving workshop was organized in the afternoons where 13 adults participated. Some of their kilims were also displayed.
In all, 75 kilims by all age groups were exhibited as products of the workshops.
Thursday,
Armenia Building Checkpoint On Turkish Border
• Nane Sahakian
Turkey/Armenia - An Armenian truck loaded with humanitarian aid for earthquake
victims crosses a Turkish-Armenian border bridge near Margara, February 11, 2023.
Armenia is building a checkpoint at its closed border with Turkey despite what
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has described as a “pause” in efforts to
normalize Turkish-Armenian relations.
The Armenian government contracted recently a private company to construct the
checkpoint in Margara, a border village 40 kilometers southwest of Yerevan, in
preparation for a planned opening of the Turkish-Armenian border for diplomatic
passport holders and citizens of third countries.
Ankara and Yerevan reached an agreement to that effect in July last year
following a series of negotiations held by their special envoys. The Armenian
negotiator, parliament vice-speaker Ruben Rubinian, said earlier this year that
it is due be implemented “at the beginning of this summer.”
However, the Turkish government gave no such indications even after Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s June 28 phone call with Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. The issue was reportedly on the agenda of the call.
“We have had a certain pause in this process, which I think was due to the
[presidential] election campaign and the elections in Turkey,” Mirzoyan said
during a visit to Austria on Tuesday. “Now it’s time to continue the
normalization talks.”
Armenia- A view of the ruins of a medieval Armenian bridge over Akhurian river
marking the Turkish-Armenian border, May 10, 2023.
Erdogan and other Turkish leaders have repeatedly made clear that further
progress in the normalization process is contingent on the signing of an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord sought by Baku.
The head of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee, Rustam Badasian, said on Thursday
that work on the Margara checkpoint is in full swing and will be complete
“soon.” “I can't give a specific date,” he told reporters.
Badasian, whose agency comprises the national customs service, did not comment
on prospects for the functioning of the Margara facility.
Another interim agreement reached by Rubinian and his Turkish opposite number,
Serdar Kilic, called for air freight traffic between the two neighboring
nations. There have been no signs of its implementation either, even though the
Turkish government officially allowed cargo shipments by air to and from Armenia
in January.
In the words of Gagik Musheghian, an Armenian businessman who splits his time
between Yerevan and Istanbul, such shipments are possible only “on paper.” He
said that as recently as on Monday he inquired about Turkish customs clearance
for airlifting a consignment of goods to Armenia.
“They said … it’s not possible to do as a normal [commercial] shipment because
they don’t recognize Armenia,” Musheghian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Russia Responds To Turkey Over Karabakh Peacekeeping Mission
• Aza Babayan
LITHUANIA - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a press conference
during the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 12, 2023.
Turkey has no business deciding how long Russian peacekeepers should remain
stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, responded to Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, who said last week that the peacekeeping contingent must leave
Karabakh in 2025 in line with a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020
Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Under that agreement, the 2,000 or so Russian soldiers, deployed along the
current Karabakh “line of contact” and in the Lachin corridor right after the
six-week war, will stay there for at least five years. The peacekeeping
operation can be repeatedly extended by five more years if Armenia and
Azerbaijan do not object to that.
Speaking at the end of a NATO summit in Vilnius on July 12, Erdogan expressed
confidence that Moscow will honor the truce accord and the five-year timeline
set by it.
“Ankara is not a party to the statement of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan dated
November 9, 2020,” Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow.
“It was on the basis of this document that the Russian peacekeeping contingent
was deployed in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” she said. “And it is
in this document that both the terms of stay of the contingent and the
parameters of its possible extension for the next five-year period are laid out.”
Nagorno-Karabakh - Russian peacekeepers check their weapons at a checkpoint on
the road to Shushi, November 17, 2020.
Azerbaijan regularly emphasizes that the peacekeeping forces are deployed in the
conflict zone on a “temporary” basis. It has increasingly criticized them during
its seven-month blockade of the Lachin corridor condemned by Armenia and
Karabakh as a gross violation of the ceasefire.
Baku accused the peacekeepers of supporting “Armenian army units” in Karabakh
when it rejected on July 16 Moscow’s latest calls for an immediate end to the
blockade. A senior Russian diplomat strongly denied the claim.
The Russians have also been criticized by Armenia for their failure to ensure
unfettered traffic through Karabakh’s sole land link with the outside world
envisaged by the 2020 accord.
Zakharova again defended the peacekeepers, saying that they are playing a
“stabilizing role” in Karabakh. “Maintaining peace in the South Caucasus is in
the interests of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, I think, all countries of the
region, including Turkey,” she said.
Karabakh’s leadership regards the Russian military presence as the Armenian
populated region’s main security guarantee. Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh
president, expressed hope last September that it will be “indefinite.”
Pashinian Admits Lack Of Progress In Fresh Talks With Aliyev
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses prosecutors in Yerevan, July
1, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday that he and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev did not achieve “concrete results” at their latest
meeting hosted by European Union chief Charles Michel on July 15.
Pashinian said they discussed mutual recognition of Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity, delimitation of the border and transport links between
the two states as well as the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh
caused by Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor. He made no explicit
mention of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, the main focus of peace talks
held by Baku and Yerevan in recent months.
“As you can see, I cannot present very concrete results from the Brussels
meeting,” Pashinian told his ministers during a weekly cabinet meeting.
“Nevertheless, the negotiation process should continue as intensively as
possible and active efforts should be made to find mutually acceptable
solutions.”
Speaking after the trilateral meeting, Michel gave no indications that Aliyev
and Pashinian narrowed their differences on the peace treaty. He said he urged
them to “take further courageous steps to ensure decisive and irreversible
progress on the normalization track.”
Pashinian said the meeting “did not yield any concrete results in terms of
opening the Lachin corridor and overcoming the humanitarian crisis in
Nagorno-Karabakh.” He again charged that “ethnic cleansing” is the ultimate aim
of the Azerbaijani blockade.
“At the moment, our task is to draw greater international attention to the
humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh through diplomatic methods and by
presenting the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in the international press and
social media as widely and objectively as possible,” he said.
Artur Khachatrian, an Armenian opposition lawmaker, dismissed the remarks. He
said Yerevan should portray the blockade as further proof that the Karabakh
Armenians cannot live safely under Azerbaijani rule.
“They [the Armenian government] don’t talk about that because they are scared,”
he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Echoing statements by other opposition leaders, Khachatrian claimed that the
blockade is the result of Pashinian’s decision to stop championing Karabakh’s
right to self-determination and to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the
Armenian populated region.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
15:59,
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has held a meeting with Swiss-Armenian businessman Vahe Gabrash and the AGBU Armenia President Vasken Yacoubian.
Gabrash and Yacoubian presented the project on opening a branch of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne – EHL Hospitality Business School of Lausanne – in Gyumri, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout.
PM Pashinyan commended the initiative and expressed the government’s support in effectively implementing the project. The Armenian Prime Minister mentioned that the government is carrying out large-scale reforms in education for improving both physical infrastructures and the content.
A certification process of teachers is underway, and the development of the Academic City is also in process.
The Prime Minister attached importance to establishing a branch of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne in Gyumri in terms of ensuring high-quality professional education and development of skills.
Gabrash and Yacoubian thanked the Armenian Prime Minister for supporting their initiative and presented details on the course of the work.
16:20,
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. Amundi-Acba made an investment from the assets of Balanced and Conservative pension funds in the first EU-Armenia SME private equity fund that invests in the equity capital of companies operating in various sectors of the RA economy.
The fund is managed by Amber Capital Armenia, the assets are about 60 million USD and the investment of Amundi-Acba is 6 million USD making 10% of the fund’s assets.
The fund made one of its investments in Walnut farms. Amber Capital Armenia has invested 3 million US dollars in Walnut Farms, Amundi-Acba’s share makes about 300,000 US dollars.
The company Walnut Farms has been engaged in walnut processing for 6 years and a new Armenian future brand the Nut is created on 100 hectares of land in Armavir marz.
The founding director of the company, a Lebanese-Armenian Samuel Samuelyan, noted that this is an investment that looks to the future, the result of this business will be visible after years, it is a long-term and prospective work, which will foster the creation of the Armenian industry of nuts and pulses.
Jean Mazejian, the CEO at Amundi-Acba Asset Management, said: “We made an indirect investment from the assets of pension funds in Walnut Farms through Amber Capital. Agriculture is a priority for Armenia’s economy. The activity carried out by Walnut Farms is an innovation, which will soon create a new industry in the country and the vision of development foresees the products be exported abroad. In addition to creating jobs, developing the local market and economy, Walnut Farms, creates an ecosystem in the country that contributes to Armenia in becoming a part of the global economy by introducing the latest technologies into business processes”.
Hrayr Aslanyan, the Deputy Executive Officer at Amundi-Acba Asset Management, fund manager emphasized: “The company will have the opportunity to significantly enlarge the walnut orchards and build a new factory with this investment. Besides, it promotes the creation of jobs especially in rural communities. In addition, in the context of investing from pension funds the most important factor is the partner’s experience, which meets Amundi-Acba’s standards.
“The business founders have two sources of financing, one is the loan instruments – the bank, and the other source is the equity capital. The banking sector in Armenia is quite saturated and functions effectively, however, there was a lack of equity capital. Apart from money, Amber Capital was able to provide a number of other advantages to the company, mainly in the field of corporate management. After the investment, a board of directors was established where we have our representative, a financial director was appointed and an external audit institute was introduced. This fosters the culture of the company since it moves from a small institution to a corporate stage. The role of Amundi Acba Asset Management is very important, they have been with us since the first day, the total investment of 60 million AMD would not have been made if it was not for the first investment” said Grigor Harutyunyan, the Investment Director at Amber Capital Armenia.
Walnut Farms wants to create a community where all pulse producers can share experiences how to plant orchards, cultivate them and implement technologies.
Amundi-Acba Asset Management was established in Armenia by the French Amundi and ACBA Bank in 2013. Amundi-ACBA asset management manages three pension funds, benefiting from the Amundi advanced know-how, expertise and technical support. As of June 30, 2023, the assets under the management of Amundi-Acba made about 351 billion AMD.
Back in 2020, Amundi-Acba invested a certain part of the pension funds in the EU-Armenia Small and Medium Enterprise Fund managed by Amber Capital Armenia. The fund invests in various companies operating in the real sector of the economy.
Amber Capital Armenia is the first institutional private equity fund manager in Armenia. The fund is registered in Luxembourg and its assets are about 60 million US dollars. The investment in Walnut Farms is 5% of the total fund.
The company Walnut Farms operates in the field of growing high-value agricultural products in Armenia. The company processes and exports walnut from ecological regions of Armenia.
19:11,
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin, ARMENPRESS was infomred from teh Office of teh Prime Minister.
The interlocutors discussed issues on the Armenian-Russian economic cooperation agenda and current programs.
Issues related to cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union were also addressed.
The sea in Russian strategy
Edited by Andrew Monaghan and Richard Connolly
Publisher: Manchester University Press (August 2023)
272 pages, English
$21.95
Understanding Russia’s foreign policy or strategy in the post-Ukraine war era may be complex to most of us. Reading a few articles in western media on Russia, or traveling a few times to Russia, won’t make us experts on Russian politics. Andrew Monaghan and Richard Connolly are two of the few western experts who write objectively on Russia by analyzing reports and literature published by Russian political and military experts. In their recent edited volume, The sea in Russian strategy, they provide a very timely contribution regarding Moscow’s maritime capability and intent.
For those who are interested in Russia’s foreign policy, the book is valuable for two reasons. First, it helps us to compare Russian strategy and shipbuilding plans within the context of the war in Ukraine. Second, while it argues that Russia’s land and air forces received a heavy blow in the Ukraine war, its naval force is stronger than ever.
The sea in Russian strategy is also the first well-written examination of Russia’s maritime power after the fall of the Soviet Union. The book brings together leading experts (with history, military and security backgrounds) to reflect on historical and contemporary aspects of Russia’s naval strategy and capacities. The authors also provide special attention to the Arctic region at a time of mounting tensions between Russia and NATO which some experts call the “Fourth Battle of the Atlantic.” The experts also sketch a trajectory of Russia’s power at sea and consider current capabilities and problems, as well as the Kremlin’s strategic planning for the future.
In the book, the term sea power, which is relatively used to encompass military and non-military dimensions, is a significant component of Russia’s wider strategy and is likely to rise in importance. The sea is seen as vital to domestic industrial and regional development. To develop Russia’s Arctic and offshore natural resource base, huge investment is being made in Russia’s domestic shipbuilding industry and in building capabilities to extract and transport oil and gas.
By the year 2000, as the experts mention in the book, there were debates in Moscow that “Russia may lose its status as the world’s second strongest naval power,” where in the Baltic, Russia would become inferior to Germany and Sweden, and in the Black Sea region, it would be inferior to Turkey. However, this has changed in the last two decades as President Putin heavily invested in Russia’s naval forces.
According to the authors, it is increasingly important to have a nuanced grasp of the sea in contemporary Russian strategy for three interconnected primary reasons. First, there is a wider “maritime turn” in international affairs of which Russia is a part. Second, the sea is more significant in the Russian leadership’s thinking and activity—the Russian naval activity in the Black, Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, in addition to the Arctic Ocean reflects this thinking. Finally, throughout the ages, Russia’s perception of the sea has changed based on certain geopolitical and geo-economic developments. One needs to explain these three reasons.
First, the sea serves as a connective fiber of global power, with growth in global trade by sea. Analysts suggest that some 80 to 90-percent of global trade by volume is seaborne. This has led to a dramatic increase in spending on navies. In Asia, China, India, Japan and Australia started upgrading their naval forces and investing in key ports. This fact has led to a “paradigm shift” in naval matters with the development of new submarines and carrier-killer missiles. For this reason, Russian ports are used as “secure hubs,” not only to prevent long-ranged attacks against the Russian navy or key coastal cities, but also to secure maritime trade routes as an alternative to land routes that can be easily exposed and vulnerable to security risks (sanctions, terror attacks, wars, etc.).
Second, the sea has economic importance to the Russian leadership. While Russia’s imports from Asia have grown since 2014, largely by sea, the Russian economy depends on the ability to exploit and export hydrocarbons and agricultural products by sea. Logistical and transport infrastructure is being built to support this. For this reason, Russia is developing its infrastructure in the North to facilitate the Northern Sea Route (NRS) and the Black Sea to export grain to the Middle East and North Africa. The linking of railways and highways to ports aiming to create a cross-continental bridge between seas and oceans is a prominent feature in speeches by senior Russian officials who are concerned about their country’s geo-economic interests. This is why when the Suez Canal was blocked (March 2021), Moscow seized the opportunity to emphasize the advantages that the NRS would bring to global trade.
Third, geography and history mean there are a number of noteworthy specificities in the way Russia looks at the sea. Geography imposes significant challenges on the way Moscow determines strategy at sea, creating specific ambiguities in the heat of thinking about power at sea. While Russia is usually known as a continental (Eurasian) power, it also has the longest seaboard in the world. It is worth mentioning that within the Russian collective historical memory, it is always emphasized that most military defeats have been brought from the sea, such as the Crimean War (1854-1856) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Hence, historically, Russia has been challenged by power projected from the sea; therefore, it prioritizes its ground forces. Meanwhile, the navy is a junior service and used as a deterrent force.
Moreover, despite its long seaboard, as the book argues, Russia has few outlets for its own naval deployment. Its bases are separated by thousands of miles, and access to the seas and oceans is only possible through narrow exits and choke points. This is what drives the Russian navy’s division into four fleets and a flotilla and automatically puts it at a serious disadvantage compared to other major powers, since it generates logistical problems and difficulties in reinforcement.
Hence, Russia’s strategy at sea illuminates a key feature of contemporary national power and long-term trajectory of growth, and, within this, Moscow’s priorities and choices as well as the concepts that underpin its activities. Importantly, as the authors of the book mention, as Russia’s maritime economic interests grow, and with it the importance of the sea to its grand strategy, the need to guarantee sea lines communication and to bolster Russia’s military presence abroad will increase.
Dr. Bruce Boghosian Appointed AUA President
YEREVAN, Armenia — After a meticulous and intensive search process, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Bruce Boghosian as the next University President, effective September 1, 2023.
Dr. Bruce Boghosian was selected by the Board of Trustees from a deep, diverse, and excellent pool. Currently a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Tufts University with secondary appointments in the Departments of Computer Science and Physics, he previously served as President of AUA from 2010 to 2014, leading the University through rapid expansion, including the creation of undergraduate programs. He received the “Order of the Republic of Armenia,” awarded by the Prime Minister, for his service as president and continued to be involved in the AUA community following his departure, including attending graduation ceremonies, and collaborating with faculty on different projects and initiatives.
An award-winning teacher, Dr. Boghosian has been a professor at Tufts University since 2000. He has served in a variety of leadership roles at Tufts, including Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Co-Director of the Master of Arts Program in Data Analytics. He was elected to Fellowship in the American Physical Society in 2000 and named a Distinguished Scholar of Tufts University in 2010, a Fellow of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life in 2018, and a Fellow of Tufts’ Data Intensive Studies Center in 2019.
Dr. Boghosian earned his degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Davis, including a Bachelor of Science in physics, a Master of Science in nuclear engineering, and a Ph.D. in applied science and engineering. His research spans the areas of applied dynamical systems, applied probability theory, kinetic theory, mathematical models of the economy, and complex systems science, among others.
Chair of the AUA Board of Trustees Dr. Lawrence Pitts is delighted to welcome Dr. Boghosian back to AUA. “The University is expanding its facilities and student body to help Armenia meet its needs for growth and prosperity,” he said. “The AUA Board believes that Dr. Boghosian is ideally suited to help us achieve AUA’s expansion and to guide and enhance AUA’s excellent education of its students. There is much to do, and Dr. Boghosian’s love for and commitment to Armenia and his extensive background in higher education make him the right person for this position.”
Since December, the leadership has been occupied by Interim President Dr. Der Kiureghian, who graciously accepted the temporary role following the resignation of Dr. Karin Markides. His prior experience as AUA President from 2014 to 2019 allowed him to deftly steward the University through a critical period of transition, allowing the Board of Trustees the time and latitude necessary to successfully search for a new President.
“The AUA Board of Trustees and indeed the entire AUA community are endlessly grateful to Dr. Der Kiureghian for stepping in again as the University’s President on short notice,” said Dr. Pitts. “His experience and dedication has allowed AUA to continue to grow and function exceedingly well while we appointed Dr. Boghosian. Thank you, Armen, for your dedicated service to AUA.”
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.
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Narek Ghazaryan| Chief Communications Officer (CCO)
+374 60 612 513
narek.ghazaryan@
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40 Baghramyan Avenue, Yerevan 0019, Republic of Armenia
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