Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARTAK KHACHATRYAN REJECTS THE HYPOTHESIS THAT HE WAS BEATEN AT THE BASE BELONGING TO BHK MEMBER (VIDEO)

12:25 | February 17,2015 | Politics

“Kasetsum” movement member Artak Khachatryan claims that nothing has
been changed in his life and he continues to be a fighter for freedom
and justice.

“If there are laws on “Turnover tax” I will continue fighting. Let
small and medium-sized entrepreneurs know that I will continue
fighting if necessary. I continue to be a member of the party and as
a person I am standing by Gagik Tsarukyan,” today Artak Khachatryan
told the reporters.

Yesterday he was discharged from the hospital. It should be reminded
that on February 7 Artak Khachatryan was abducted and beaten.

The member of Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) hopes that the law
enforcement authorities will reveal the crime as soon as possible.

Touching upon the news that his beating and abduction were ordered by
BHK deputy Abraham Manukyan, he noted that inspections had been carried
out, he personally participated in the inspections and rejected that
he had been at that place.

“Most part of the case is unknown, and in such case making assumptions
isn’t correct. Hypothesis will be brought forward and checked. It is
a serious crime and it must be punished,” he said.

The activist is sure in one thing that his beating and abduction are
connected with his political activities.

VISHY ANAND BEATS ARONIAN TO JUMP TO JOINT LEAD

Press Trust of India
Feb 16 2015

By Our Chess Correspondent

Zurich, Feb 16 (PTI) Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand
celebrated the Indian World Cup victory with a crushing win against
Levon Aronian of Armenia in the second round of Zurich Chess Challenge,
here.

Under tremendous pressure to perform like the Indian cricket team,
Anand delivered the goods thanks to a remarkable piece of homework
and gave no chance to Aronian who had beaten the Indian ace just a
few days back during the Grenke Chess Classic.

RPA: INSTEAD OF COMING FORWARD WITH IRENIC STATEMENTS NOW, KOCHARYAN HAD TO THINK ABOUT IT EARLIER

by Tatevik Shahunyan

Monday, February 16, 22:51

Instead of coming forward with irenic statements now, the second
president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan had to think about it earlier
and not to lead the situation to such an extent, the head of the
RPA faction, Vahram Bagdasaryan, told Arminfo correspondent when
commenting on today’s statement by Kocharyan regarding the domestic
political situation in Armenia.

‘They had to think about it earlier and not to push that man (the
leader of the PAP Gagik Tsarukyan edt.) towards the big politics,
as he did not have such intentions and did not want to become a
radical oppositionist. First,they made of him an “alternative”,
then an oppositionist, and now they suggest us not to do anything
and allow Tsarukyan to do what he wants and try to implement coup
through rallies, don’t they?”, – Bagdasaryan said.

He also emphasized that the RPA has been always trying to establish
the relations with Tsarukyan via the dialogue. “He seemed to be ready
to the dialogue, but his advisers have directed him to the other way”,
– he said.

To recall, the Armenian authorities still have resources to stop
radical processes in the political life of the country through
abandoning of any active administrative actions against the leader of
Prosperous Armenia Party, Gagik Tsarukyan and returning to the field
of political confrontation with opponents, the second president of
Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, said in an interview with the 2rd.am portal,
when touching on confrontation between the Prosperous Armenia Party
and Republican Party of Armenia after the RPA session, when President
Serzh Sargsyan sharply criticized the PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan.

Commenting on the internal political developments of recent days,
Kocharyan, in particular, said: “I cannot explain why the president
needed that. If the calculation was that pressure on the Prosperous
Armenia Party (PAP) leader Gagik Tsarukyan will disintegrate the
PAP, then this effect has not been achieved. On the contrary, there
are clear signs of consolidation in the opposition field, a sharp
radicalization of vocabulary and objectives.”

Kocharyan described the arguments of President Serzh Sargsyan voiced
in his February 12 speech as “unconvincing”. “Any action against the
PAP leader will be now regarded by everyone as political persecution,
which lacks any legitimacy. And taking into account the degree of
social tensions and discontent in the country, as well as the PAP’s
and its leader’s wide popularity, the more vigorously the government
tries to “clean up” the political field, the stronger will be the
consolidation against the government and the more so real will be the
prospect of political upheavals. It is not hard to predict how this
all will affect the economy, the situation on the Line of Contact in
Karabakh and the holding of events marking the 100th anniversary of
the Genocide,” Kocharyan said.

Answering the website’s question on whether the government has a
way-out of this situation, the former president said. “I think it
still has. To stop and not to take any administrative action against
the PAP leader, to remain solely within the limits of a verbal duel,
to return to the political dimension of dealing with opponents.”

Kocharyan also expressed the opinion that the intentions expressed
at the ruling Republican Party council meeting “do not fit into the
framework of the Constitution” and “the PAP and the opposition are
literally forced to organize mass street actions, the consequences
of which are unpredictable.”

“Our country is already overloaded with serious problems and their
solution is possible only through the greatest possible consolidation
of society, on the basis of restoring people’s faith in the future
of the country.

What has happened, unfortunately, has become a strong signal in the
opposite direction,” said Kocharyan.

ARMENIA DELAYS NEW TAX RULES AGAIN

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #767
Feb 16 2015

Small business owners continue to oppose legislation that they say
will ruin them.

by Arshaluis Mghdesyan

The Armenian government has delayed enforcing new tax legislation
for a second time, as owners of small businesses across the country
continue to object to changes they say will leave them much worse off.

The new rules were introduced in October 2014, but following widespread
protests by owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the
government postponed enforcing them until February 1 this year. It
has now delayed them again until July 1.

At first sight, the legislation would appear to benefit SMEs as it
reduces the tax rate payable on turnover from 3.5 to one per cent. The
one per cent rate will apply as long as their annual turnover falls
below the threshold at which companies must pay value-added tax,
set at 58 million drams (about 120,000 US dollars).

But the downside is that under the new law, small businesses will have
to document and declare every commercial transaction, in particular
purchases from their suppliers. (See Taxing Times in Armenia.)

Many SME owners say they would rather avoid doing this and carry on
paying tax at the higher rate of 3.5 per cent.

The government has said that the reason for the latest delay is
that it wants time to develop new regulations to help SMEs meet the
requirements before it enforces the rules.

“As a result of discussions, it was decided to use this period
to develop regulations that create more favourable conditions for
businesses with an annual turnover of up to 58.3 million drams,”
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

Armenia’s parliament, which is dominated by the Republican Party,
supported the postponement.

Traders say the new rules will make their lives more difficult,
even impossible.

“We will now have to document every item so that we look honest when
the tax service inspects us, otherwise we will be fined,” said Karine,
who sells sweets at a market in Yerevan. “To do that, we need to hire
a qualified accountant to document our turnover on an ongoing basis.

There are additional costs to this, and small businesses cannot afford
to operate at close to a loss.”

Arsene, a small business owner who has been involved in protests
against the law, said that the way some companies did business would
make it hard to document purchases.

“Many of us get goods on loan and pay for them only after we’ve sold
them on,” Arsene said. “How are we supposed to document that?”

WHO IS THE LAW AIMED AT?

There are no official figures on the size of the shadow economy
in Armenia, but economists and tax officers estimate that it is
equivalent to between 20 and 35 per cent of gross domestic product,
and comparable to the government budget.

While the bill seems designed to catch SMEs that are cheating on their
taxes, officials say that is not its main thrust at all. Instead,
they say, the main reason for changing the taxation legislation is
to tackle big businesses

According to official data, 15,000 large businesses account for about
98 per cent of tax revenues in Armenia. But these larger companies
are also seen as the worst offenders for tax evasion.

The law is meant to track the income of large import and wholesale
companies by getting the SMEs that trade with them to note down all
their transactions.

“Our target is not small businesses, it’s the large ones where the
risks lie,” Abrahamyan said. “We have therefore provided tax incentives
for small and medium-sized businesses….. In exchange for tax breaks,
we are requiring them to document their purchases from big businesses.”

Vardan Ayvazyan, chairman of the parliamentary committee for economic
affairs, explained why this route had been chosen. “The large
businesses sell their goods and the small ones take them and sell
them in the marketplace,” said. “It’s impossible to identify where
turnover is happening within this chain so that it can be taxed. Hence,
the system needs to be reformed.”

SME owners argue that the government should not be using them as a
tool to fight big businesses.

Privately, though, some admit that the requirement to account for
purchases and sales properly will show up past underreporting of tax
liabilities in the SME sector. When the true scale of their businesses
becomes apparent, they will be bumped up into the higher tax bracket
that requires them to pay VAT at 20 per cent.

Official statistics show about 45,000 SMEs with an annual turnover of
under 120,000 dollars, and the tax service says the vast majority of
them declare an annual turnover of ten million drams, about 20,000
dollars.

Tax and finance officials suspect these reported income levels are
well below the real average.

“It is strange and unrealistic for the annual turnover of tens of
thousands of entrepreneurs to amount to only ten million drams,” Deputy
Finance Minister Armen Alaverdyan said at a recent press conference,
adding that only by reducing the size of the shadow economy could
the government start building up its budget revenues.

Opposition parties have criticised the focus on SMEs.

“By taxing small and medium businesses the government will achieve
nothing. These people [in this sector] are simply surviving,” said
Vahagn Khachatryan, an economist and a member of parliament from
the opposition Armenian National Congress party. “In reality, it is
big business, first and foremost, that needs to be brought into the
tax system…. It isn’t small businesses that set the rules of the
marketplace; the big businesses impose the rules on them.”

Khachatryan suggested that one reason why the government was reluctant
to tackle big companies head on was that business and politics were
closely intertwined in Armenia. Instead, it was going after the small
fry – and this could lead to numerous job losses in the SME sector.

The government has started work on the regulations it says will help
SMEs comply with the law. The opposition has submitted recommendations
on them and asked for an extended parliamentary debate on the issue.

Small business owners have warned that they will not stand down.

“If the government doesn’t listen to us and if this is just a
‘time out’ designed to dampen our protests, we will start to strike
again,” said Stepan Aslanyan, who heads the Union of Small Business
Entrepreneurs. “We will go all the way.”

Arshaluis Mghdesyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.

POLICE ARE BEHAVING OUTSIDE THE FRAME OF THE LAW: WHAT COULD HAPPEN DURING OPPOSITION RALLIES

02.16.2015 21:07 epress.am

The parents of dead soldiers, who were subject to violence by the
police during a peaceful protest in front of the Presidential Palace
on February 11, were told at the police that the officers present had
acted properly and “could have used their batons as well,” said Gohar
Ohanjanyan, mother of late Tigran Ohanjanyan, during a Media Center
discussion today. According to the woman, they wished to meet with
Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan, however after they received such an
answer from a police representative named Hakobyan, they decided to
leave the building.

Referring to the incident on February 11, Defense of Rights Without
Borders NGO president Haykuhi Harutyunyan said that no such law can be
cited to justify the police for hauling demonstrators from one sidewalk
to another. “The republic’s president made a statement just a few days
earlier about fighting against violence, eliminating illegalities,
and the will to fight against all types of violations that appear. I
don’t think we’ve had a more obvious and appropriate case lately
where these words could be turned into action,” said Harutyunyan,
adding that those who made the command needed to be held accountable.

During the discussion, Helsinki Committee President, human rights
defender Avetik Ishkhanyan expressed conviction that because the
command giver and punisher was the same person, no police officer would
be held responsible. “You think that police officers are violent from
birth? No. This was a command,” said Iskhanyan.

Speaking of the police actions during the protests in recent years,
the human rights defender noted that the situation had become tense
especially after 2013; while the peak was reached when the Russian
president visited Armenia, when hundreds of people were detained.

Ishkhanyan said that such behavior was probably the result of a
political orientation.

“Armenia was relatively restrained in regards to human rights, because
Europe’s opinion was very important. Probably, one of the reasons
for the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) membership is that these those
values are entirely missing from those states,” said Ishkhanyan.

According to him, another reason is the current situation in Ukraine;
“When the civilized world’s attention is on a hot spot, they don’t
take into consideration the law and act violently.”

According to Ishkhanyan, both Armenian and international law state
that if a demonstration is peaceful, even if it’s restricted, the
police do not have the right to intervene, but rather have to be the
peace keepers of the peaceful protest.

The human rights defender expressed concern over the opposition rallies
in the coming days, noting that if during simple public demonstrations,
which do not present any threat to the authorities, the police behave
outside the frame of the law, then the opposition rally can result in
serious consequences, including the existence of political prisoners.

MARIO BALOTELLI: LIVERPOOL STRIKER SPARS WITH PROFESSIONAL KICK-BOXER ON TRAIN – WATCH

His feared opponent has a pro record of 77 wins from 82 fights

JAMES ORR

Monday 16 February 2015

Have you ever wondered what Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli does
on a train journey?

He spars with a professional kick-boxer of course.

Balotelli uploaded this video to his Instagram account over the
weekend, of him sparring with Giorgio Petrosyan, the Armenian-Italian
kick-boxer with a record of 77 wins from 82 fights.

The video was uploaded the day after Valentine’s Day, the previous
day Liverpool defeated Crystal Palace 2-1 in an FA Cup fifth-round
tie at Selhurst Park, but for Balotelli it was more of glovely weekend
than a lovely one it seems.

WATCH: BALOTELLI SPARS ON A TRAIN

ARMENIA HALTS RATIFICATION OF AGREEMENT WITH TURKEY

Associated Press Online
February 16, 2015 Monday 3:14 PM GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – The Armenian president has asked the country’s
parliament speaker to withdraw his signature from a groundbreaking 2009
agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties between the two nations,
his office said on Monday.

President Serge Sarkisian said in a statement on Monday that Armenia
would not ratify the agreement because of the “preconditions” that
Turkey is putting in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.

The agreement aims to restore diplomatic ties between the countries
as well as re-open the common border, which has been closed since 1993.

It was brokered by the United States and other nations.

In another sign of tensions between the countries, the Turkish
foreign minister recently urged Armenia to pull out its forces from
Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region of Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region and some adjacent territory have been
under the control of Armenian soldiers and local Armenian forces
since a 1994 cease-fire that ended a six-year war.

ARMENIAN FISH PRODUCTS ARE UNCOMPETITIVE ON RUSSIAN MARKET, ARTUR ATOYAN SAYS

by Arthur Yernjakyan

Monday, February 16, 23:14

Armenian fish products are uncompetitive on the Russian market and
the republic’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union does not
solve this problem, Artur Atoyan, Head of the Union of Fish Breeders
of Armenia, told media on Monday.

He said that the fish output in the republic and the fish exports to
the Russian market have dropped. Armenia’s competitors in Russia are
Turkey and Karelia, whose fish prices are lower. Atoyan added that the
domestic sales have also dropped due to the falling demand. Moreover,
he assured that due to the low demand, the producers have to sell the
fish at lower prices than the prime cost. Today 1 kg of trout is sold
for 1,400 AMD versus 1,800 AMD in the similar period of 2014. Atoyan
pointed out that the fish prices rise in winter and drop in summer,
as a rule. In this light, one should expect the producers to suffer
even more losses in summer. He said that the producers are unable to
reduce the prime cost of their products without the state support,
because the fish food prices have grown since early 2014 and the
Armenian authorities have toughened the requirements to the use of
water resources for fish breeding.

When asked by ArmInfo to confirm his concerns about the drop in
the fish output and sales by specific figures, Atoyan said that
he has no data and even if he had some data, nevertheless, he does
not trust official statistics. He said that the Union includes 83
medium-sized and large fish farms and all of them complain about
reduction of output and sales. In 2014 Atoyan told journalists that
the Government’s intentions to save water on the fish farms would
result in closure of the farms.

Meanwhile, the National Statistical Service of Armenia says that in
2014 the gross fish output grew by 24.6% versus 2013 and totaled 28,650
mln AMD. For its part, the Customs Service says that in Jan-Sept 2014
fish exports from Armenia grew to 1,653 thsd tons versus 1,410 thsd
tons a year before. The results of the entire year 2014 have not yet
been summed up.

MANAGEMENT EXPERT WARNS OF ATTEMPTS TO DESTABILIZE ARMENIA

15:00 * 16.02.15

Last week saw changes in Armenia’s domestic politics.

Specifically, President Serzh Sargsyan spoke of Prosperous Armenia
party leader Gagik Tsarukyan at a meeting of the Council of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA).

The president’s speech was followed by Mr Tsarukyan’s statement. He
announced his intention to have an early presidential election held
in Armenia.

Management expert Harutyun Mesrobyan commented on the situation in
an interview with Tert.am.

Mr Mesrobyan., what’s your opinion if the Armenian president’s speech
and Gagik Tsarukyan’s response?

I do not view it as confrontation between the RPA and Prosperous
Armenia because they have almost equally been in power for a rather
long period. When prosperous Armenia was established it was in
power, and the RPA reached power at one moment. This suggests deep
disagreements within the ruling camp.

Foreign forces are naturally involved in the disagreements. Since
last summer foreign forces have been seeking to cause instability
in Armenia. Six months have seen a number of incidents involving our
weak points.

The first was the downing of the Armenian helicopter on the
Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijani border, which was followed by
confrontation on the border, which has been continuing until now. The
second was the Gyumri tragedy in the context of Armenian-Russian
relations. The third is the tension between the forces forming parts
of Armenia’s ruling circles. These are thought-provoking facts because
all of them are intended to weaken Armenia.

Mr Mesrobyan, what is the impact of domestic political problems on
foreign policy?

Yes, they do have their impact. One must not think that the latest
developments are merely domestic political problems. Different forces,
including foreign ones, are involved. It means a possibility of a
change in Armenia’s foreign policy or at least conceptual impact. The
global instability certainly affected Armenia.

Mr Mesrobyan, should we expect a ‘hot spring’ instead of a ‘hot autumn’
in Armenia?

I see one day that could pose a threat, March 1, 2015. Another day is
April 24. We should all be most cautious because the two days could
prove to be the ‘gunpowder’ that must not be set on fire.

Do you think Gagik Tsarukyan could come to power?

At best, a ‘name change’ can take place in Armenia, but a change of
power implies different qualities of power. But we are not going to
see a change of quality. What can change if Prosperous Armenia comes
to power? For example, who is going to act as finance minister?

If we want to change the situation, we must have a list of candidates.

The country has key government posts that require highly experienced
people.

NAIRIT PLANT EMPLOYEES TO GATHER OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT EVERY DAY

14:57 | February 16,2015 | Social

The government will consider the demand of Nairit plant employees
and answer them within a week, a senior government official said today.

Approaching the employees of the plant gathered outside the plant,
Alexander Ghazaryan, Head of the Government Department that deals
with the acceptance and discussion of citizen requests, said the
government will respond to their demand to fix a payment schedule
for their due salaries in a week.

After the demonstrators began chanting, “Now,” Alexander Ghazaryan
promised to answer them this Friday.

In reply to A1+’s question who will be charged with the task, Mr
Ghazaryan refrained from answering.

The employees decided to come to the government building every day
to remind the executive body of its promise.