Author: Jagharian Tania

This week, the first meeting of the U.S.-Armenia Council on Trade and Investment will be held in Yerevan. Following that historic session, members of the U.S.-Armenia Joint Economic Task Force will also gather in Yerevan.

“The U.S.-Armenia Joint Economic Task Force (or USATF), was created in 1999 and it meets every year. The annual meetings are an opportunity for high-level delegations from both the Armenian and U.S. governments to meet and have an opportunity to discuss ways how we can deepen our economic ties, we can further market reforms in Armenia, and how we, as the U.S. government, can best use U.S. assistance to contribute to Armenia’s long-term economic growth, create more jobs, and promote trade between our two countries,” U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills, Jr. said. “Then in addition, this past May, our two countries signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (called a TIFA). And the TIFA establishes something called the Armenia-U.S. Council on Trade and Investment. It is this newly-established TIFA Council that will hold very detailed, very deep discussions that are specifically focused on our trade relationship and what are some of the barriers to Armenians trading and investing in the U.S. and to Americans trading and investing in Armenia.”

During the first meeting of the Armenia-U.S. Council on Trade and Investment, a day-long session which will take place on November 17, technical experts from both sides will discuss a wide range of issues, including intellectual property rights, customs clearances, technical barriers to trade, sanitary measures, investment promotion efforts, private sector engagement, government procurement, WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, and environmental and labor issues.

“There will be participants at this week’s TIFA Council meeting from the U.S. government and the Armenian government, and they will discuss a number of issues that, if left unaddressed, can hinder trade between our two countries,” Ambassador Mills said. “The idea is to identify and then have both countries commit to address these very technical trade issues; and in doing so, help to improve trade and business between the United States and Armenia. The goal of all of this, and particularly of the Council, is to get more American products available to Armenian consumers. That will increase Armenians’ choice and competition. And it means easier access to the U.S. market for Armenian businessmen and women, Armenian exporters. And that should create jobs here in Armenia that will help the Armenian economy and help the average Armenian.”

On November 19, the U.S.-Armenia Joint Economic Task Force will meet here in Yerevan to discuss economic issues of mutual interest to our countries.

“The newly-established Council on Trade and Investment (the TIFA Council) is a platform to discuss very specific, very technical trade issues, while the USATF Joint Economic Task Force brings together senior officials from the U.S. and Armenian government to focus on big-picture, larger economic issues that will affect our bilateral relationship now and in the future; issues such as, tax reform in Armenia, anti-corruption efforts, Armenia’s nuclear power strategy and broader energy strategy going into the future.  As I discussed last week during my speech at the American Chamber of Commerce, my top priority as U.S. ambassador is to intensify the business and the commercial relations between our two countries.  And I think TIFA and USATF have a very important role to play as the relationship between our two countries is beginning to shift from one that has primarily been based on assistance to one that is now grounded in very mutually beneficial trade and economic partnerships,” said Ambassador Mills.

The Syrian Armed Forces have taken control over a strategically important highway in the north of the country, a military source told on Wednesday.

Terrorists controlled the highway for 10 days.

 

Armenians mourn the death of 224 passengers aboard the Russian Kogalymavia’s A321 airline that crashed over Egypt 30 minutes after takeoff in North Sinai Saturday.

People have been laying flowers and toys in front of the Russian Embassy in Armenia.

The Embassy has expressed gratitude for the heartfelt condolences, flowers, toys and candles lit in memory of the victims of the air crash in Egypt.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan earlier offered condolences to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Wreckage of the Russian plane has been found in the Hassana area. It disappeared from radar screens when travelling at 9,500m, Egyptian officials said, the BBC reports.

Egyptian officials said most on board are likely to have died.

The plane was operated by the small Russian airline Kogalymavia, based in western Siberia.

Russian authorities say it was carrying 217 passengers, 17 of them children, and seven crew. Most were Russian tourists.

Egypt rules out that the Russian plane could have been downed by militants operating in the Sinai Peninsula, Sky News Arabia reported on Saturday citing sources in security agencies.

presents the list of the passengers on board.

Less than a third of Indonesians currently have access to the web

The US has indicated a shift in its campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria, including the use of direct ground raids, the BBC reports.

Defence Secretary Ash Carter said there would also be more air strikes against “high-value targets”.

Separately, the US says Iran is being invited for the first time to international talks over Syria’s war.

“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” Mr Carter said, using an alternative acronym for IS.

“We expect to intensify our air campaign, including with additional US and coalition aircraft, to target ISIL with a higher and heavier rate of strikes,” he said.

“This will include more strikes against ISIL high-value targets as our intelligence improves.”

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs will arrive in Armenia on October 26, Spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tigran Balayan informs in a Twitter post.

The mediators are expected to meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The Co-Chairs will visit Baku on October 28, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told a press conference in Baku.

There is no need to hurry for defining the place and date of the next meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, Mammadyarov noted.

“There are two ways: either the presidents will choose the place of a meeting, or the co-chairs will make a proposal. In all cases, we are waiting for the co-chairs’ visit to the region and we will discuss it,” he said.

The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies issued the following statement today after the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment in the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland:

“The European Court of Human Rights delivered a Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland at a public hearing today, October 15, 2015.

The lead counsel for the NGO Coalition (Turkish Human Rights Association, Truth Justice Memory Centre and International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies), Professor Payam Akhavan of McGill University in Canada, a former UN prosecutor at The Hague, emphasized that the Court’s Judgment “clearly, unanimously, and emphatically confirmed the historical truth” of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.  In a divided opinion, the majority of ten judges held that the Swiss judgment against Mr. Perinçek’s denial and minimization of these events violated his freedom of speech under the European Convention on Human Rights.  However, seven judges, including the President of the Court, held that “the massacres and deportations suffered by the Armenian people constituted genocide is self-evident. The Armenian genocide is a clearly established historical fact. To deny it is to deny the obvious.”  The majority of ten judges also confirmed “the massacres and mass deportations suffered by the Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 onwards” and only differed in its view that it “has not authority to make legally binding pronouncements” on whether these events “can be characterized as genocide within the meaning of that term under international law”.

Mr. Perinçek himself did not deny that these atrocities did in fact take place, but simply denied their characterization as “genocide” and blamed the 1.5 Armenian victims for their own fate by portraying them as “traitors” and “aggressors”.  The majority found that his statements should not have been penalized by the Swiss courts, because they did not pose a threat to Armenians in Switzerland.  Professor Akhavan noted that in doing so, “the majority did not give sufficient weight to the convincing evidence submitted by the NGO Coalition, demonstrating Mr. Perinçek’s racist motives by reference to his previous conduct in Turkey, and its impact on the vulnerable Armenian minority that has been subjected to a campaign of hate speech and violence.”  He emphasized that “this aspect of the decision is unfortunate at a time when there is an alarming increase in ultra-nationalist hate speech and violence in Turkey.  The fact that Mr. Perinçek leads the Talaat Pasha Committee (named after the “Ottoman Hitler”) that the European Parliament has characterized as a ‘xenophobic and racist’ organization, is itself the most obvious evidence of his discriminatory motives.”  Professor Akhavan regretted moreover, that the majority disregarded the Istanbul Penal Court’s finding in the Ergenekon trial that Mr. Perinçek had incited hatred and violence against Armenians, on the grounds that instead of relevant excerpts, the NGO Coalition should have produced the full 17,000 page judgment!

The dissenting opinion of the seven judges, including that of the President, is highly significant, in asking:

Why should criminal sanctions for denial of the characterization of the massacres of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 as “genocide” constitute a violation of freedom of expression, whereas criminal sanctions for Holocaust denial have been deemed compatible with the Convention?

According to Professor Akhavan, “the divided opinion of the Grand Chamber, and the alarming increase in extremist violence in Turkey, is the clearest indication that the question of racist hate speech against Armenians is far from resolved, and that it will require constant vigilance.  What is clearly established by the Judgment however, is unanimity among all seventeen judges, that the Armenians did in fact suffer massacres and mass deportations at the hands of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 onwards, irrespective of its legal characterization one way or another.”

The Zoryan Institute and its subsidiary, the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, is the first non-profit, international center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary issues with a focus on Genocide, Diaspora and Armenia.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 110 times at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

The rival fired more than 1,400 shots from weapons of different caliber in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact and resort to retaliatory measures if necessary.

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has stated that the constitutional reform “is a big mistake which will entail extremely dangerous ramifications for the future of Armenia,” reports. 

“My point of view hasn’t changed: there is no need for constitutional reforms, especially such radical ones. All the challenges and problems that the country faces  are quite solvable under the current Constitution which functionality is not questioned by anyone. The published draft has exceeded my worst expectations. The document doesn’t already stipulate the choice between semi-presidential and parliamentary systems of governance: the draft Constitution contains considerable risks of shifting to a de-facto single- party system which will lead to political monopoly and stagnation. The Soviet Constitution had a beautiful wording, but Article 6 on the ruling role of the CPSU legalized the communists’ political monopoly. Everyone knows what consequently became of the USSR. The draft Constitution is saturated with beautiful phrases on human rights and social goals of the state which, however, serve to disguise an absolutely unacceptable way of National Assembly formation emasculating the very gist of the parliamentary governance.

The draft’s Article 89 is called for ensuring dominance in the parliament and accordingly, in the power, a single party, as well. In our realities, this will be the party possessing the administrative and financial resources irrespective of its popularity.

Taking into account the absolute lack of even an implication of inner-party democracy in Armenia, the patronage governance will become a source of evil for many years to come, a source of stagnation and tool for the reproduction of the vicious system.

In fact, the proposed draft turns the political monopoly into a constitutional norm.

I don’t wish such a future for my country, which is why I am definitely against the reforms. A big mistake is made which may entail extremely dangerous ramifications for the future of Armenia”, stated Robert Kocharyan.