Author: Hambik Zargarian

                                        Tuesday, 
Pashinian Upbeat On Armenia’s Investment Prospects
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at a press conference in Yerevan, 19 
March, 2019
The Armenian government is currently discussing 802 investments projects worth 
a total of about $2.7 billion, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said at a press 
conference on Tuesday.
“Forty-two of these projects worth a total of $774 million are, in fact, 
already at different stages of implementation, others are at the stage of 
active discussions. This means that we have a certain increase in investment 
interest in the country,” Pashinian said.
The head of the Armenian government also presented some other data testifying 
to some growing interest in unfolding economic activities in Armenia.
Thus, according to him, in February 2019 the volume of mortgage lending in 
Armenia grew by 100 percent, with the growth of mortgage lending within the 
framework of government programs making 145 percent as compared with the 
relevant data for last year’s February.
“In general, at present the volume of mortgage loans in the country has grown 
by 30 percent. According to experts, this is a huge increase. This means that 
in the near future we will have demand in the construction market, which in its 
turn will create new jobs not only in construction, but also on the building 
materials market, in the service sector and so on. This is a very important 
indicator, which in its turn will lead to the reduction of unemployment,” 
Pashinian said.
The Armenian premier also spoke about expected financial assistance from the 
European Union concerning major infrastructure programs. He said that the EU is 
ready to provide funding, including in the form of grants, for some major 
projects, but expects Armenia to co-finance these projects. According to 
Pashinian, this, in term, raises the issue of whether Armenia should raise the 
ceiling for its foreign debt level in order to borrow more for the co-financing 
of these projects.
“Now we should discuss whether we are ready to go this way, and in the next 20 
days we are going to have a joint discussion with the Central Bank that will 
also involve representatives of the expert community in order to make a 
decision on this matter,” the Armenian premier said.
Armenia Will ‘Attentively’ Listen To Azerbaijan’s ‘Counterarguments’
Switzerland - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and Azerbaijan's 
President Ilham Aliyev meet in Davos, January 22, 2019.
Armenia’s proposal for Nagorno-Karabakh’s full engagement in negotiations with 
Azerbaijan is no challenge, but an invitation to dialogue, Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian said on Tuesday, stressing that Yerevan is ready to listen 
attentively to Baku’s counterarguments.
At a press conference in Yerevan, Pashinian repeated what he already told 
senior Armenian and Karabakh security aides in Stepanakert a week ago that 
Nagorno-Karabakh’s becoming a full party to the peace talks “is not a whim or a 
precondition” on the part of Armenia, but a necessity for an effective 
settlement process.
Azerbaijan has opposed Nagorno-Karabakh’s participation in the talks as a 
separate party, insisting that the region is “occupied” by Armenia and 
negotiations should be held only directly with official Yerevan.
Last week, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev rejected the latest Armenian 
proposal on the change in the format of the talks by way of involving 
Nagorno-Karabakh as a party to the process.
“It is unacceptable, and it is an attempt to block the negotiations process,” 
Aliyev said at a forum in Baku on March 14, again calling on Armenia to 
withdraw its forces from the region.
Pashinian today insisted that his statements on the need for Stepanakert’s 
engagement in the talks that he has repeatedly made since being first elected 
prime minister in May 2018 “are not a challenge, but an invitation to 
dialogue.” He further argued that he had already raised the issue during his 
informal meetings with Aliyev on the sidelines of different international 
events during the past months.
Earlier this month the American, Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk 
Group, an international format set up to mediate a solution to the conflict, 
announced that Pashinian and Aliyev had agreed to have their first formal talks 
soon under the umbrella of the international mediators.
No date and venue of such possible talks have been announced yet.
Ahead of his possible talks with the Azerbaijani president Pashinian said: “We 
will continue discussions on this subject with our partners and will try to 
continue this discussion in the field of arguments, because negotiations are 
negotiations only when we listen to each other. At least Armenia has shown its 
ability to listen to its opponent, try to understand the other side, and we 
expect the same from them. Where our partners consider that our position can be 
viewed as excessively tough, we can soften this position, but we would expect 
the same from our partners, because otherwise no conversation will take place.”
The Armenian leader said that “we do not imagine a regime when one of the 
parties to the talks says that it refuses to have a dialogue.”
“It will not be a logical approach. Naturally, we will not refuse to have a 
dialogue and during this dialogue we will put on the table our arguments and 
will attentively listen to the counterarguments of our partners. I think that a 
constructive and effective solution or continuation should be within the 
framework of this logic,” Pashinian said.
Asked whether a possible exchange of prisoners between Armenia and Azerbaijan 
could be discussed at his upcoming meeting with Aliyev, Pashinian said: “The 
Armenian side is ready to exchange Azerbaijani citizens who strayed into 
Armenian territory with Armenians who strayed into Azerbaijani territory.”
The Armenian leader stressed, however, that such an exchange cannot concern 
Azerbaijanis who penetrated into Armenian or Karabakh territory and committed 
murders.
Soldier Charged With Killing Armenian Woman To Remain In Russian Custody
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
A Russian military base in Gyumri, Armenia
The Russian soldier charged with beating an Armenian woman to death will remain 
in custody at the Russian military base in Gyumri, according to a local court.
The Shirak Regional Court of General Jurisdiction on Tuesday rejected the 
lawsuit of the killed Gyumri woman’s family, who demanded that Andrey 
Razgildeyev be transferred to Armenia’s law-enforcement bodies and be kept in 
pretrial detention in Armenian remand prison.
Razgildeyev, a 23-year-old serviceman at the Russian military base in Gyumri, 
was arrested in December in connection with the violent death of Julieta 
Ghukasian, a 57-year-old street cleaner in Gyumri.
Armenian law-enforcement bodies later charged the Russian with brutal assault 
and involuntary manslaughter. Motives for the alleged attack still remain 
unclear.
Under Armenia’s criminal law, such crimes are punishable by between five and 
ten years in prison.
Despite being charged under Armenian law, Razgildeyev has remained under arrest 
inside the Russian military base – something that has caused complaints from 
the family of the victim and a number of Armenian human rights activists.
Attorney Arayik Zalian, who represents the interests of Ghukasian’s daughter, 
says that a comprehensive and impartial investigation of the case is only 
possible if the Russian soldier is handed over to Armenian law-enforcement 
bodies.
Armenian Prosecutor’s Office representative Mihran Martirosian, meanwhile, 
insisted that keeping the Russian soldier at the base is legitimate as it is 
stipulated by provisions of an Armenian-Russian intergovernmental agreement.
“The accused was arrested in the territory of the Russian Federation’s 102nd 
base. That is, getting him out of the territory of the base is contrary to the 
Russian Federation’s legislation,” he explained.
In 2015, another Russia soldier murdered seven members of an Armenian family in 
Gyumri. The case sparked protests in the northwestern city and elsewhere in 
Armenia. An Armenian court in August 2016 sentenced private Valery Permyakov to 
life in prison.
Permyakov too was held in detention at the Russian base before and during his 
trial. He was later transferred to Russia to serve his sentence.
Armenian Human Rights Activists Call For Iranian Colleague’s Release
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- A protest near the Iranian embassy in Yerevan. 
A number of human rights activists in Armenia have joined the open letter of 
Amnesty International calling on the Iranian authorities to release Iranian 
human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Today they held a silent protest in front of the Iranian embassy in Yerevan.
Sotoudeh, the co-winner of the European Parliament’s 2012 Sakharov Prize for 
Freedom of Thought, last year represented several of the women detained for 
removing their head scarves in public to protest against the country’s Islamic 
dress code.
She has reportedly been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 
lashes after what Amnesty International called two “grossly unfair” trials.
The 55-year-old activist was arrested in June and ordered to serve a five-year 
sentence imposed on her in absentia in 2016.
And in February, the Iranian authorities allowed Sotoudeh to read the verdict 
in her most recent court case, which showed that she had been convicted of 
seven charges and sentenced to an additional 33 years in prison and 148 lashes, 
London-based Amnesty International said on March 14.
Armenian human rights activist Arman Gharibian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service 
that he did not know whether the Yerevan protest could change anything. “But 
one thing is clear: we cannot remain indifferent when this kind of repression 
against a human rights activist takes place in the neighboring country,” he 
said.
Iranian-Armenian Vardges Gaspari, who is a prominent activist in Armenia, said 
he was raising his voice to “encourage the jailed activist morally.” “So that 
she can feel that she is not forgotten, that there are people, even if few, who 
are concerned about her fate,” the activist added.
The protesters in Yerevan tried to hand over a letter, stating their protest, 
to the Iranian embassy staff, but no one came out to take it. Eventually, they 
had to put the letter into the mailbox placed at the entrance to the embassy.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” writes that the only critical political reaction to the 
municipality’s dismantling of cafes in the territory around the Opera House in 
Yerevan came from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). The 
paper links this reaction to the fact that some senior Dashnaktsutyun members 
are owners of cafes that are subject to dismantling. “One of them, Mikael 
Manukian, who was Dashnaktsutyun’s top candidate in last year’s Yerevan 
elections, founded his cafe there more than two decades ago and during his 
party’s being part of the government he expanded his business. Dashnaktsutyun 
members ran their businesses unimpeded also when the party pretended to be an 
opposition,” the paper claims.
“Zhamanak” suggests that in the months to come there will be no shortage of 
social protests in Armenia. “Like in the case with a plane that gets into a 
zone of turbulence it has nothing to do with the professionalism of the crew, 
in the case with Armenia, too, social turbulence has nothing to do with the 
quality of administration or abilities of the new government. This social 
turbulence is the vicious effect of the old system,” the paper writes.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” lambastes the view expressed by former Karabakh defense 
army commander Samvel Babayan, who has ambitions to run for Nagorno-Karabakh’s 
president in 2020, that Nagorno-Karabakh should be a “mandate territory”. The 
paper interprets this view as readiness to entrust Russia with the mandate to 
find a solution to the conflict. “The problem is not even that Russia will 
hardly use this mandate in favor of Armenians in accordance with our ideas. 
Both Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia had such an opportunity, but in both 
cases the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh was decided in favor of Azerbaijan. The 
problem is much more global. Should we give a mandate to get a solution to our 
problems to someone else and then nervously wait for the solution only to curse 
our bad luck afterwards,” the daily says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

For Immediate Release
March 4, 2019
USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact: Syuzanna Petrosyan, Associate Director
[email protected] | 213.821.3943
“New Roads” - A New Podcast Channel from the USC Institute of Armenian Studies
The USC Institute of Armenian Studies podcast channel, “New Roads”, is a new 
avenue for promoting scholarship that addresses national and global challenges 
that, in turn, impact policy, development, and progress. “These public 
discussions about history, politics, health and every other area of research 
take scholarship to the public square, where it can impact decision making and 
strategic planning within communities and especially in the Republic of 
Armenia,” said Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian. The podcast channel has a 
growing number of different series, such as Unpacking Armenia Studies, The 
Quake, and Inch by Inch. Others are planned. 
Unpacking Armenian Studies, hosted by Ghazarian, is home to interviews with 
academics, journalists and policymakers in the field of - and on the fringes of 
- Armenian Studies. It seeks to understand and make accessible the 
conversations about who these scholars are, what they do and why it matters. 
It’s an effort to humanize Armenian Studies, make it more accessible, and show 
it for the broad, varied field that it has become. It is important and relevant 
in understanding the Armenian experience today.
You will hear from Rober Koptas about running an Armenian publishing house in 
Turkey. There is Dr. Anna Ohanyan of Stonehill College talking about 
non-traditional conflicts and complicated geo-political agendas in the Caucasus 
and in the Balkans. You will hear from Dr. Kristin Cavoukian of the University 
of Toronto as she discusses Armenian-ness, identity, and exclusion as both 
personal and academic questions. Dr. Tom Catena, a Catholic missionary and the 
only resident surgeon practicing under harrowing conditions in the Nuba 
Mountains in southern Sudan, is also a guest on the show. He talks about 
humanitarian work, his work in Nuba and about his role as the 2017 Aurora Prize 
Laureate.
Dr. Houri Berberian, Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies at 
UC Irvine, who has written about Armenian involvement in Iran’s Constitutional 
Revolution, talks about everything from life in Lebanon during the Civil War to 
undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley where she came to appreciate the 
connectedness of the peoples and issues of the greater Middle East and the 
Armenian role in regional processes. 
“The people, the graduate students, the young scholars who are doing Armenian 
History now are doing it very differently. They are doing it within regional 
and global contexts, and are looking at connections, and transnationalism, and 
gender and sexuality - things that no Armenian scholars have touched until now, 
and that's very important.” said Dr. Berberian to USC Institute of Armenian 
Studies Director, Salpi Ghazarian. “Armenian studies is about 50 years behind 
in these things and we have a lot of catching up to do.”
Dr. Sebouh Aslanian talks discusses the Armenian merchants from Iran’s New 
Julfa region who operated simultaneously and successfully across all the major 
empires of the 17th and18th centuries. These merchants were the original 
transnational, global Armenians, and their legacy is visible throughout South 
and East Asia in the form of churches and cultural monuments. Their 
philanthropy bankrolled Armenian printing capacity in Venice, Amsterdam, 
Livorno, Madras, Calcutta, Lvov and New Julfa.
Dr. Christina Maranci, Professor of Armenian Art at Tufts University, is the 
author of a chapter in the Armenia! exhibit catalogue on Armenian art, 
religion, and trade in the Middle Ages. She talks about her research that 
places art, architecture, and the material objects of Armenia and Armenians 
within a critical and historical context. UCLA's Dr. Shant Shekherdimian 
discusses about Armenia's and Karabakh's health care systems and the Diaspora's 
role. Dr. Katy Pearce, a professor of communications at the University of 
Washington, talks about Armenia, Azerbaijan, social media, and the study of 
societal transformation. Dr. Georgi Derluguian of NYU Abu Dhabi, discusses 
'normal' life in the Soviet Union, Armenia's post-Soviet evolution, revolution, 
and the "New Armenia."
In The Quake, the Institute’s Chitjian Research Archivist Gegham Mughnetsyan 
explores the very personal and public history of the powerful Spitak earthquake 
that devastated the northern region of Armenia and his hometown Gyumri on 
December 7, 1988. He delves into the challenges that complicated the region’s 
recovery process and that buried the future and promise of an entire generation.
“Podcasts are like your own private radio station. You can just click and 
listen to conversations that interest you,” explains Ghazarian. You can listen 
to the podcasts by searching for New Roads on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud 
(
 or anywhere you get your podcasts or by visiting armenian.usc.edu.   
About the Institute
Established in 2005, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies supports 
multidisciplinary scholarship to re-define, explore and study the complex 
issues that make up the contemporary Armenian experience—from post-genocide to 
the developing Republic of Armenia to the evolving diaspora. The institute 
encourages research, publications and public service, and promotes links among 
the global academic and Armenian communities.
For inquiries, write to [email protected] or call 213.821.3943.