Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Karabakh President sends congratulatory address to President of
Abkhazia

21:34, 28 September, 2013

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. On 29 September Artsakh Republic
President Bako Sahakyan sent a congratulatory address to President of
the Republic of Abkhazia Alexander Ankvab.

The Central information Department of the Artsakh President’s Office
informed “Armenpress” the address runs as follows:

“`On behalf of the Artsakh Republic people, authorities and personally
I cordially congratulate You and the whole people of fraternal
Abkhazia on the 20th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War
of 1992-1993.

The patriotism of the people of Abkhazia, having defended the freedom
and independence, dignity and honor of their country, is a vivid
manifestation of heroism and selflessness.

The best sons of Abkhazia sacrificed their lives for this great
victory. Everlasting glory and honor to all the perished heroes!
Today, continuing the work of their brothers and fathers, the citizens
of Abkhazia look into their future confidently, develop their country,
reliably provide security for it and strengthen its independent
statehood.

I congratulate You once more, respected Mr Ankvab, and the whole
people of the Republic of Abkhazia with this memorable holiday. Peace
and prosperity to the fraternal Abkhazia!”

Baroness Cox: Hakob Injighulyan’s being in Azerbaijan is very serious

15:57 28/09/2013 » SOCIETY

Member of the British House of Lords Baroness Caroline Cox does not
have detailed information about Armenian POW Hakob Injighulyan’s case
but believes that his being in Azerbaijan is very serious.

`I hope the international community will demand justice and freedom
from Azerbaijan,’ she told reporters in Yerevan.

On the night of August 7, Hakob Injighulyan, an Armenian citizen and
an army conscript, crossed the Azeri border and was subsequently
captured by Azeri soldiers. According to preliminary information,
Injighulyan had lost his bearings on the terrain and inadvertently
crossed the line of contact.

Source: Panorama.am

Serzhik Srapionyan appointed deputy Diaspora minister

YEREVAN, September 28. / ARKA /. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan appointed today Serzhik Srapionyan as a deputy Diaspora
minister, the government said.

Srapionyan was born in 1957. In 1983 he graduated form the department
of Armenian language of Yerevan State University. Since 1989 he was
professor at the faculty of history of Armenian literature. He is no
party-affiliated. Married and has two children. -0-

New deputy governor of Syunik province appointed

Saturday, September 28, 2013

By a decision of Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Ashot
Mardian has been appointed deputy governor of Syunik province of
Armenia, the press service of the Armenian government reported.

TODAY, 16:46
Aysor.am

`If it goes like this, Gyumri will definitely become Putinograd.’
Vahan Tumasyan

September 28 2013

It has been a few days since the inhabitants of Russian dwelling place
Petushok, Gyumri, or the same as the 8th district (Gyumri people call
it Vosmoy garadok) receive a note from the Russian 102nd military base
responsible persons saying to immediately leave their apartments
within 10 days. Yesterday, over the Gala TV, utterly surprised
inhabitants were expressing their outrage with regard to this fact,
emphasizing that they did not get their flats from the air, but they
have family members working in the Russia 102nd military base.
According to their information, there are deported to expand the
Russian military base for recruitment of new Russian servicemen. The
matter is about non-privatized apartments, in which the Armenian
families have spent a lot of money; they had applied for privatization
on time but they were rejected. However, the inhabitants facing the
danger of becoming homeless were angry about the fact that the
Russians treat them as they want on the Armenian ground. Aravot.am
asked for the opinion regarding this issue from Vahan Tumasyan,
President of `Shirak Center’ NGO, which is engaged in the issues of
Gyumri homeless. `I still told a year ago that so many people will
migrate from Gyumri that just as many people will be left as needed to
serve the Russian military base, making it work,’- reminded Vahan
Tumasyan in the beginning of the conversation. To our observation
whether the Armenians serving for the Russian military base are
actullay moved out of their apartments, the head of the NGO said,- `If
I’m not mistaken, in 1991, when the contract was signed, then several
new contracts were re-signed, the Armenian side should have taken into
account the risks, that some monetary compensation to the border
troops was to be expected, as well as who was going to solve the
issues of housing and domestic with regard to recruitment of Russian
troops, and so on. They must have understood that they would encounter
such challenges, and now the Customs Union and so on … Of course, it
is sad, that there is a huge army of homeless in Gyumri, and we are
adding the number of homeless families in the city year-after-year,
this definitely will have a grave consequences: it will increase the
migration from the city, will increase the poverty. Of course, the
matter over there is a little different, if I’m not mistaken, this
district was originally built and envisaged for the Russian military
officers, later Armenians were also living there, resale took place.
But, before that, Armenian families who were serving in the Russian
military base, were living there and they all had Russian citizenship.
The sad part is that we refused many to get apartments because they
had Russian citizenship, and the Russian side moves out its citizens
from, naturally, service apartments, if the apartments were
privatized, nothing could have happened. To note that many of those
citizens of Armenia were much more dedicated to Russia than the
original Russians who live in the RF. What can you do, it is their own
property,’- said Vahan Tumasyan. In response to the question whether
it is possible that one day Gyumri will be again renamed to
Alexandrapol due to the fact of increasing the number of Russians and
such mastering pose of the Russians, our interlocutor said, `I want to
approach this issue optimistically, and hope that a normal solution
will be found, but if you jokingly approach to what said, then why we
should call Gyumri with the female name of old tsars, Alexandrapol,
instead of renaming with the name of the modern one, Putinograd. Not
until the knife reaches the bone, we understand that you can not live
with the status of a vassal, if our authorities keep with the
Armenian-Russian relations as such, definitely our city will become
Putinograd, but I am sure that we will not allow it,’ said our
interlocutor.

Nune AREVSHATYAN
Read more at:

Armenia’s government expects next year’s GDP to expand by 5.2%

YEREVAN, September 28. / ARKA /. Armenia’s government expects next
year’s GDP to grow by 5.2%, Finance Minister David Sargsyan said
today, adding that this figure is projected by the draft budget for
2014.

“The nominal GDP is expected to reach 4.723,700 trillion drams,” he
said Saturday during an extraordinary session of the government,
convened to discuss the draft budget.

In comments on these numbers Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said this
means the government will have to work very hard next year because of
a string of factors that may have a negative impact on Armenia’s
economy.

According to him, the first factor is the anticipated economic
slowdown in developed countries. `In particular, the IMF has revised
downward its outlook for Russia’s GDP,’ he said.

On September 24 the International Monetary Fund slashed its growth
forecast for Russia for 2013 and 2014 for the third time this year,
urging the government to pursue structural reforms and improve the
investment climate in order to boost growth. The IMF said it saw the
economy growing at 1.5% this year and 3% in 2014, held back by weak
investment and low demand for its exports. In June, the Fund cut its
outlook for 2013 to 2.5%, after an earlier cut in April to 3.4% from
3.7%. In April, the Fund saw Russia’s economy growth in 2014 at 3.8%.
The IMF outlook for this year is even more pessimistic than that of
the Russian government, which sees 2013 growth at 1.8%, down from the
3.6% forecast at the start of the year.

Another factor, according to Sarkisian, is the downward trend in the
amount of private investment, which makes the government improve the
business climate and distribute the tax burden evenly.
The total amount of foreign investment in the real sector of the
economy in the first six months in 2013 slashed by 35 percent to $293
million from the year before.

“The peculiarity of the next year’s budget is that we do not increase
the tax burden. The ratio of taxes to GDP each year increased by 0.3,
0.4 pp. We decided not to increase this ratio this year to avoid
excessive pressure on the business,’ he said.

“It is also clear that a membership in the Customs Union will create a
new environment for businesses and we must do everything possible to
make this transition gradual,” he said. -0-
– See more at:

Will Armenia Get Rid of FSB Agents?

The Russian mass media lament that Ukraine is going to dismiss the
potential agents of the Russian FSB from its Security Service.
Afterwards the Security Service of Ukraine will undergo reforms to
comply with the EU standards. The National Security and Defense
Council has finalized the concept of the Security Service of Ukraine,
the Forbes wrote.

The Russian mass media note that thousands of people will be dismissed
from the security service and the ministry of internal affairs. It
means that there are about this many potential agents of the Russian
FSB in Ukraine. Apparently, Yanukovich wants to uproot Russian
imperialism, and the roots are the special agents, open or undercover.

In Georgia the process of cutting from the Russian empire became
officially irreversible after the government declared lustration and
removed the Soviet KGB agents from the government. However, Ukraine
has gone far ahead to the modern FSB of Russia.

The bill on lustration put forth a few years ago was not given due
consideration. What is the point of considering this when the Russian
FSB guards the Armenian border under an international agreement? How
can Armenia lustrate FSB agents when Russia is officially the
guarantor of security of Armenia? Lustration was meaningless because
the Armenian National Security Service, as some experts say, is
directly supervised by the Russian FSB, while the heads of our special
services receive their pension from Russia.

Apparently, declining the services of the Russian FSB and its border
guard service was one of the stipulations of Armenia’s European
integration which is now obsolete. It is possible that the stipulation
was not for a short term but was mandatory so Russia accelerated
Armenia’s membership to the Customs Union.

However, the problem is not Europe but the independence of Armenia.
Armenia cannot be even partly independence when the special services
of another state are guarding its border.

These special services feel like home. They can stop the car of the
member of Armenian parliament in broad daylight, at 30 km from the
border and ask where she is going. They are free to allow or prevent
anyone from entering Armenia. They can do whether they want, and
nobody will say anything because this is the zone of FSB influence.

The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine has announces that in case Russia takes
steps against Ukraine’s European integration, the United States and
the EU will rebuff. However, they should first take preventive actions
and dismiss the FSB’s agents.

Naira Hayrumyan
16:13 28/09/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Ministry Lifts Ban on Turkish/Azerbaijani Food Imports: Winners and Losers

Vahe Sarukhanyan

13:46, September 28, 2013

On June 7 of this year, Armenia’s Minister of Agriculture Sergo
Karapetyan lifted a ban on the importation of food products from
Turkey and Azerbaijan that had been decreed in 2009 by his
predecessor, Gersim Alaverdyan.

That ban, on meat, fruits and vegetables, was ostensibly for health
and safety reasons.

Surprisingly, the Ministry never publicized the lifting on the ban as
prescribed by law.

When Hetq wrote to the Ministry regarding this omission, they
responded by citing Article 61 of the Law of Individual Legal Acts in
an attempt to justify their concealing the lifting of the ban.

As the Ministry interpreted the law, they are only obliged to inform
those agencies and officials, or citizens, affected by the law and
that it is up to those agencies/officials to publicize the new
decision to a wider audience; i.e. the public.

The Ministry even failed to publish news of the lifting of the ban in
its own website. In fact, it was only on September 20, after the press
got hold of the story, that the Ministry saw fit to publish an
explanation as to why the 2009 temporary ban had been lifted.

In its explanation of September 20, the Ministry argued that the 2009
ban proved ineffective and that even more Turkish and Azerbaijani
products were illegally entering the country. The Ministry also noted
that Armenia and Turkey are members of the World Trade Organization
and that no member state can unilaterally place trade restrictions on
another.

In essence, the Ministry said that the 2009 ban not only didn’t have
any teeth, because it was merely a ministerial decree, but that it was
illegal as well since it restricted the rights and freedoms enshrined
in Armenia’s Constitution.

The Ministry also argues that only a government sponsored law could
have effectively placed a restriction on certain imports. So why
didn’t the Ministry, in collaboration with the government, draft such
a bill and introduce it to the National Assembly for passage?

The question naturally arises, so why did it take the Ministry four
years to recognize the errors of its way.

The Ministry now claims that absent the ban its Food and Safety
Inspectorate (FSI) has the resources to effectively test imported food
and food products according to the highest safe and health standards.

But the Ministry itself has confessed that even under the ban the FSI
failed to halt the importation of banned food products from Turkey
and Azerbaijan. The Ministry fails to state what has changed within
the FSI to make it an effective watchdog agency today.

This is an issue of national security.

We have Turkey and Azerbaijan, two countries with which Armenia has,
to put it mildly, less than amicable relations, whose produce can
theoretically be imported into Armenia.

Other than the FSI, an agency already proven to be ineffective food
safety watchdog, who can assure the Armenian public than imports from
these two countries are indeed fit for consumption?

Put more correctly, what if, by accident or design, such produce poses
a dire safety risk to Armenian consumers?

The Armenian government appears unconcerned with such matters.

On the contrary, by lifting the ban, Agriculture Minister Karapetyan
has lifted any remaining veil of pretense as to whose interests come
first – the consumer or the commercial oligarchs.

That flashing yellow light, which many didn’t heed to begin with, is now green.

There is great potential for cooperation between Armenia and EU `
Slovak Deputy PM

September 28, 2013 | 11:42

YEREVAN. ` There is a great potential for cooperation between Armenia
and the European Union (EU), and the relations need to be developed
based on this potential.

Miroslav LajÄ?ák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Slovakia, stated the abovementioned Friday during his talk with
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, and within the framework
of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, in New York City.

LajÄ?ák noted the aforesaid in the context of Armenia’s decision to
become a member in the Customs Union.

The interlocutors reflected on the avenues for the development of
bilateral relations between Armenia and Slovakia, informs the Armenian
MFA press service.

Nalbandian and LajÄ?ák also discussed the ongoing cooperation along the
lines of the EU Eastern Partnership initiative, and the preparations
for the Eastern Partnership summit to be convened in Vilnius,
Lithuania, in November.

Does U.S. Believe In Success More After September 3?

Clinton said and left and who will stop Putin?

Russian President Putin is trying to restore the USSR but we will not
allow taking us back in time. The U.S. ex-secretary Hillary Clinton
said so during the meeting of the OSCE foreign ministers in Dublin in
December. It was a blunt statement which many explained by Clinton’s
retirement.

However, it is hard to think whether the ex-first lady, ex-candidate
for president and the state secretary for four years did not realize
that retirement from the post of foreign minister of a country like
the United States cannot be an `alibi’ for the author of the statement
and the country that she represents.

This statement was made by the United States, not Clinton, therefore
the United States is responsible. Hence, the question is how the
United States is going to prevent return to the past, how it will
thwart Putin’s attempts to restore the USSR.

Armenia needs to know this urgently because not only is it at the
border of the former USSR, in a region of high geopolitical
importance, but has also engaged in the Russian efforts to restore the
USSR, whether voluntarily or by force.

How is the United States going to prevent Armenia’s return to the
past? It should be noted that this is the problem of Armenia, the
government and citizens of Armenia. Since power in Armenia does not
belong to the citizens, and the government has placed itself under
Putin’s ambitions with the connivance of most political parties, only
the citizens of Armenia are to resolve the problem of the ruling
system and prevent return to the Soviet past.

However, the United States has made a statement and thereby assumed
responsibility. If the citizens of Armenia had sufficient power and
resource, the steps that the United States could take would hardly
interest us. However, since the citizens have been left alone
vis-à-vis the government and the so-called political system so the
steps of the United States can be an additional opportunity for the
citizens to address the problems.

In this regard, after the Customs Union the United States displayed an
attitude that differs from the attitude of the United States. The
United States did not make tough statements expressing its
frustration. Moreover, it expressed its readiness to continue its
policy of supporting internal reforms.

In addition, over the past few days the United States has been active
in Armenia, discussing issues of modernization in different sectors of
economy and governance.

The question is what has happened in Armenia for the U.S. attitude to
the success of this initiative. Does the United States believe in
success after September 3 more or less strongly? Does the United
States think about change of balance of partnership and reduction of
the government’s share in it?

There are no answers to these question, and these questions will
hardly have a direct answer. They are from the circle of diplomatic
and political subtleties, and there are mostly hints.

Sometimes, however, these hints are quite transparent, like the U.S.
Ambassador John Heffern’s statement that there is nothing in the
Customs Union that would impede internal reforms in Armenia. In other
words, the United States announces that the Customs Union in Armenia
cannot be a hindrance to the United States. This could be a model
behavior for Europe which has been telling us since September 3 how
disturbing the Customs Union is.

If Europe did not have a plan B on Armenia, it is evidence to Europe’s problems.

By the way, the chair of the EP Committee of Foreign Affairs Elmar
Brok told Radio Liberty they did not lose Armenia but Armenia lost the
European prospect.

Brok is right, Europe has not lost Armenia, Europe is losing itself,
and this is a problem. The problem is equally unimportant whether the
USSR is restored exactly or with some differences. Europe’s role is
that of a strategic dam.

Hakob Badalyan
14:23 28/09/2013
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