Author: Kalantarian Kevo

GEORGE TARKHAN-MOURAVI: LAUNCH OF ABKHAZIAN RAILWAY MEETS INTERESTS OF ARMENIA AND RUSSIA, NOT GEORGIA OR ABKHAZIA
by David Stepanyan

arminfo
Wednesday, November 14, 17:40

ArmInfo’s interview with Director of the Institute for Policy Studies
(Georgia) George Tarkhan-Mouravi

Mr. Tarkhan-Mouravi, has the change of regime in Georgia brought any
new priorities in the geo-political situation in the South Caucasus?

Yes, it has in some way. But the fact is that Mikhail Saakashvili
was a better option for Russia as he fit better into its national and
geo-political priorities. What the Russians needed was an enemy and a
scapegoat, now they are waiting to see how the new regime will behave.

I see certain contradictions between the political interests of Georgia
and Russia: Georgia wants to be with the West, Russia does not want
this, just like Armenia; Russia has recognized the independence of
the territories Georgia regards as its own. These contradictions will
hardly be solved shortly, so, one should not expect serious long-term
improvement in Georgian-Russian relations. If anybody in Armenia or
elsewhere still hope otherwise, they should stop doing it.

The change of regime has made a new Georgian-Russian conflict less
possible, but it is hard to say what will happen after the Olympic
Games in Sochi. The victory of consolidated opposition in Georgia
may inspire oppositionists in Armenia, Azerbaijan or somewhere else
and may lead to certain instability in region.

Can the restart of the Abkhazian roads become a bridge for Russia
and Georgia to improve their relations?

I don’t think so. If we look at the situation from the outside, we see
that the launch of the Abkhazian sector of the railway certainly meets
the interests of Armenia and Russia, but not Georgia or Abkhazia,
strange though it may appear. It does not stem from Abkhazia’s
interests, because this formation does not want to depend on Russia
too much. However, pressure will be exerted on Abkhaz people, and
probably they will have to yield. But Russia will be unable to press
Georgia to the same extent. He said that this idea was expressed only
by Georgian Minister for Reintegration Paata Zakareishvili, whom it
does not concern at all. As for Bidzina Ivanishvili, in his election
campaign he expressed a lot of ideas he has already managed to give up
or even to express the opposite opinion. There are many such examples.

Then what sense does it make for Georgia to keep its borders closed?

No sense. Moreover, these borders should be open as much as possible
in order to establish mutual relations between

Abkhaz and Georgian peoples at the mundane level at least. However,
it would be unreasonable for Tbilisi to strengthen Russia’s presence
in the region amid the unresolved strategic discrepancies with Georgia.

What can Moscow promise to Tbilisi in exchange for unblocking the
borders?

Moscow may promise nothing of what it really can promise and carry out.

What are Turkey’s interests in this geo-political scenario?

The restart of the Abkhazian railway will be both bad and good news
for Turkey. The bad news, according to the Georgian expert, is that
this will strengthen Armenia, first of all, in military terms, the good
news is that this may increase the Turkish exports to Russia. But there
are certain but’s: first, there is no railway from Turkey to Russia;
second, there is the Black Sea between the countries; and, third, even
if restarted, the railway will have capacity for Armenian cargoes only.

Georgia is a transit center for both Armenia and Azerbaijan and is
vital for the two countries. Keeping this in mind, what steps can
the new Georgian regime take with respect to Yerevan and Baku?

When crossing the Armenian-Georgian border, we see a column of Turkish
lorries, naturally, the drivers of which cannot have a stamp in their
passports which is evidence of crossing the border. Even with an armed
eye we see that commodity circulation between Armenia and Turkey is
rather big – hundreds of millions, just the same way, as commodity
circulation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. One can find narsharab
made in Azerbaijan in any Armenian restaurant, just the same way, as
Armenian brandy produced in Armenia, may be found in any Azerbaijani
restaurant. In this context, Georgia could lighten this commodity
circulation at the non-official level. Such steps could result in
reduction of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan. For this reason,
one should look for common interests separating them from policy.

Undoubtedly, there are such interests between the Armenians,
Azerbaijanis and Georgians.

In other words, there will be no changes in Georgia’s relations
towards Armenia and Azerbaijan?

One should not expect crucial changes as there is no appropriate
context for this. Georgia is not a so much important player to affect
the positions of the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

They in Moscow are rumoring that if the United States starts a war
against Iran, Georgia may be used as a springboard. What do you think
about this?

I don’t think that Georgia will be used as a springboard against Iran.

Those in Russia who are saying this are just seeking to make an enemy
of Georgia. I don’t think that the Americans need our air bases,
they have air carriers for this. The United States and NATO may use
the Georgia bases for evacuating their troops from Afghanistan and
for some other purposes but not for attacks on Iran. Georgia has good
relations with Iran, why should we spoil them?

ANC AUSTRALIA BANQUET RAISES $75,000 AS ADVOCACY WEEK CONCLUDES

19:28, 15 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian National Committee
of Australia (ANC Australia) completed its most successful Advocacy
Week to date by raising $75,000 at its Annual Banquet. During a week
which included high profile events featuring international guest of
honour, Turkish-born Professor Taner Akcam, ANC Australia made further
major advancements within Australia, reports Armenpress citing ANC
Australia. On Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th October, Akcam joined a
delegation from ANC Australia for a series of meetings in Canberra.

The meetings, mostly conducted within Parliament House, educated
legislators and government departments on Akcam’s latest research
of Ottoman Archives, which reveals new details about the meticulous
planning of the Armenian Genocide. The trip to Canberra raised further
the importance of Armenian Genocide recognition, resulting in Members
of Parliament Michael Danby and Waren Entsch making statements in
support of the cause. Events were held at the prestigious Sydney
Institute, the University of Sydney, Deakin University and the Jewish
Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, before over-capacity audiences. ANC
Australia secured interviews with Akcam on the Philip Adams Late Night
Live program on ABC Radio, along with Jon Faine~Rs The Conversation
Hour also on ABC Radio. The signature event to conclude the week was
the ANC Australia Annual Banquet, held at Miramare Gardens with over
250 guests and supporters in attendance. Throughout the evening, over
$75,000 was raised to help fund the activities of the community’s
peak public affairs committee throughout 2013. On the night, the
ANC Australia Professionals Network was launched, a body tasked with
uniting Armenian professionals around the ANC Australia banner for the
purposes of networking and advocacy. The inaugural committee members
of the ANCA-PN were presented to the audience. Akcam delivered the
keynote address to a standing ovation and was presented with an
honorarium from ANC Australia to allow him to continue his vital
research. ANC Australia bestowed the Armenian-Australian Community’s
Friend of the Year Award to Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Walt
Secord for his tireless efforts in advancing issues of importance to
the Armenian-Australian community, which culminated in him becoming
the first Australian legislator to visit the Republic of Nagorno
Karabakh. Nagorno Karabakh was a key theme of the evening, with
ANC Australia and the community paying tribute to Member of the NSW
Legislative Council, Marie Ficarra and her colleagues for recognising
the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and its Armenian people’s right
to self-determination. At the conclusion of the week, ANC Australia
Executive Director Vache Kahramanian remarked: “This evening brings
the end to one of the most successful Advocacy Weeks held to date.

Professor Akcam’s visit to Australia will have a lasting impact on our
advocacy efforts throughout the country.” ANC Austalia’s Community
Relations Director, Stephen Abolakian said: “Tonight is a clear
testament to the strength of the community and its full-fledged
support of the ANC. We are deeply humbled by the ongoing support
which is vital for our continued success.”

EDWARD NALBANDIAN URGED NOT TO TAKE FOR SERIOUS AZERBAIJANI STATEMENT ON CREATING A NEW ROAD MAP

18:35, 15 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMEBR 15, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian has referred to Azerbaijani suggestion to create a “new
road map” during the interview with journalists on November 15. As
reports Armenpress Armenian Minister declared that it seemed like
the author of the statement has been stuck in 1990.

“He is trying to present Azerbaijan’s position saying it is what it
was in 1995. 17 years have passed after 1995, the train has already
moved but some people in Azerbaijani are stuck in station. I guess
they have to run, because the train is moving forward” Nalbandian
noted. Minister underlined that international community has been
already presented a road map which was suggested in Kazan. It is about
the main principals of settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which
have been suggested by Co-Chair countries.

Edward Nalbandian reminded that in Deauville right before the
Kazan summit USA, Russia and France urged the sides to accept the
suggestions, therefore Azerbaijan denied them.

Minister considered the 17 years old suggestion to be unreasonable and
urged to be more realistic and move forward based on the suggestions
which earlier had been made in Los Cabos, Deauville, Muskoka and
L’Aquila.

GERMANY DONATED TO ARMENIA 400 MILLION EUROS IN 20 YEARS

Business – Thursday, 15 November 2012, 16:18

Today, vice-minister of finances Atom Janjughazyan, and the head of
department at Germany’s economic cooperation and development ministry,
Andreas Gis signed a cooperation memorandum – Caucasus Protected Area
Fund, III round, 4 million 250 thousand Euros.

During the last 20 years, the German assistance to Armenia amounted
to 400 million Euros.

LATVIAN FM: RIGA ALSO CONDEMNED RELEASE AND HEROIZATION OF MURDERER BY AZERBAIJAN

Panorama.am
14:36 15/11/2012

Latvia is not ready to make any other decision on Karabakh issue: Riga
shares the stance of international structures dealing with the issue,
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars RinkÄ”viÄ~Ms told a news conference in
Yerevan while commenting on whether Latvia could recognize Artsakh’s
independence.

“We will support the structures that deal with this issue. I believe
recognition of Artsakh’s independence will not lead to conflict
resolution. I don’t think it’s necessary to speak of independence
until the negotiations have reached such a point which is acceptable
for all sides,” he said.

Referring to Safarov’s case, the Latvian diplomat noted that Riga also
condemned the release and heroization of the murderer by Azerbaijan.

“We spoke at the Summit of Scandinavian and Baltic States being held
in those days in Vilnius. Besides, the relevant structures of the
European Union issued a joint statement. I would like to say that
eight Scandinavian and Baltic states join their voices when it regards
foreign political cooperation.

“Such steps of Azerbaijan do not contribute to dialogue in this
complicated situation. We regarded very seriously this fact,” said
Edgars RinkÄ”viÄ~Ms.

YEREVAN PREMIERE OF THE “LOST AND FOUND IN ARMENIA” ON NOVEMBER 22

ARMRADIO.AM
15:37 15.11.20120

The Lost and Found in Armenia, starring Jamie Kennedy and Angela
Sarafyan, will be screened in Yerevan. It premiere will take place
on Thursday, November 22nd at the Moscow Cinema. The film has been
directed by Gor Kirakosyan and produced by Maral Djerejian and
Valerie McCaffrey.

Lost & Found in Armenia is the story of Bill (Jamie Kennedy), an
American tourist who vacations to Turkey to get his mind off a bad
break up. In a comedic and dangerous turn of events, Bill unknowingly
ends up in a small village in Armenia, where he is accused of being
a Turkish spy. It is in that small village, he meets a beautiful
Armenian girl (Angela Sarafyan), who helps him escape from misfortune.

IT WASN’T HARD TO FORESEE THAT IT WOULD BE SECONDARY, LILIT GALSTYAN SAYS ABOUT THE EDUCATION BUDGET

NOVEMBER 14, 2012 16:57

inquired of Lilit Galstyan, the chairman of the Armenian
National Educational and Cultural Union and a member of the education,
science and culture issues standing committee of the former parliament,
how she would assess the culture budget draft of year 2013.

Ms. Galstyan noted that it hadn’t been hard to foresee that the culture
would be secondary this year, as it had been in previous years: “The
spending on the field of education in the 2013 budget is absolutely
far from being a development budget, taking into account the problems
we have in the field. As for cultural dialogue, preservation of our
cultural heritage and internationalization of the Armenian culture,
the money to be spent on this is enough for a mere preservation budget
copied and pasted from the previous year’s budget.

I have always been sorry that employees of the field of culture are
the most socially vulnerable group in the Republic of Armenia and
their average wage continues to be at the same level as last year
and if we add to this the inflation, crises and social challenges,
we should assert that the situation is unacceptable.”

Lilit Galstyan is convinced that no reform can be carried out and no
strategic problem can be solved, if an appropriate cultural policy is
not pursued in the country, “The laws of the country will be in force,
only if the moral foundation is ensured. And the aim of the cultural
policy should be that.”

The chairman of the National Union put forward digital data – for
example, the financing in the category Leisure, Culture, Religion has
been reduced to 18.045.2 million drams in 2013, whereas last year it
was 22.779 million.

Lilit Galstyan is sorry that reconstruction or construction of houses
of culture and clubs are not planned for 2013. In this sense, the
picture is negative by 94.9 percent.

Gohar HAKOBYAN

“In Armenia, A Task Is Undertaken To Make Certain People Rich,” About The Shadow Economy In The Republic Of Armenia

NOVEMBER 14, 2012 17:27

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report entitled
Caucasus and Central Asia: Regional Economic Outlook the other day,
according to which the level of shadow economy in Armenia was one
of the highest not only in the South Caucasus region, but also among
the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia even in accordance
with the research conducted as early as in 2008. According to the
report, the shadow economy in Armenia accounts for 35 percent of gross
domestic product. inquired of Armenian experts whether
he IMF report reflected the objective reality in the mentioned field
of Armenia.

Vahagn Khachatryan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC),
said during a conversation with us that those figures “will surely
be higher and not lower” and added: “In reality, they avoid doing
more concrete work. It just means to really assess the shadow economy
in the country, since they measure gross domestic product, but they
don’t want to measure the shadow economy, it is not that they cannot,
they are just not instructed to do that.”

Mr. Khachatryan mentioned that the IMF had its methodology, which
is the same in all countries. Then, he recalled the digital data of
Georgia, particularly the fact that in 2006, 2007, the shadow economy
in Georgia was more than 50 percent and the numbers are lower now.

Talking about the digital data of Armenia in the report, V.

Khachatryan assessed them in the following manner, “35 percent for
Armenia is low; the shadow economy percentage is higher in Armenia.”

In response to our question whether the measures taken by the
government of the Republic of Armenia were adequate to the worrying
picture shown by the international organization,

Mr. Khachatryan said, “Gagik Minasyan, Vache Gabrielyan and other
representatives of the government say that it is impossible to measure
the shadow economy. It is not correct to give such answers. It is very
clear – there are respective methods to measure. According to those
measurements, the shadow economy in Armenia is more than 50 percent.

And if they measure correctly, it will mean that the economic policy in
the Republic of Armenia should be pursued in a way that will eliminate
the taxation system, as a result of which one of the indexes should be
correlation between taxes and gross domestic product. To measure how
big the tax burden is in the legislature, how much money it will allow
to collect in taxes and taking that into account, to decide whether it
is collected or not. If it is 35 percent, it means that this amount
of taxes is not collected. Therefore, a task to make the Armenian
economy open, competitive and not monopolistic is not undertaken. A
task is undertaken to make certain people rich. In that case, incidents
related to buffalo meat and pensions will still take place.”

Gagik Minasyan, the chairman of the fiscal, budgetary and economic
issues standing committee of the National Assembly, didn’t wish to
make a long comment on the report. He just noted, “That report is a
bit unclear for me, since the numbers regarding the Uzbekistan shadow
economy were thrice lower than those of Ukraine. It confused me,
how can they get such numbers?”

Tatev HARUTYUNYAN

ARMENIA NOT EXPORTING SHEEP TO IRAN – NEWSPAPER

news.am
November 15, 2012 | 07:15

YEREVAN. – Sheep are not exported from Armenia to Iran for a long
time now, Hraparak daily reports.

“The reason is Iran’s national currency which depreciated fourfold.

Converting it into [US] dollar is not profitable for Iranian
businessmen, who were purchasing sheep here [in Armenia] with dollars.

As a result, Armenia’s consumer came out the winner. Instead of the
former AMD 3,500 [approx. $8.56], now, the price for one kilogram of
sheep meat is AMD 2,000 [approx. $4.89] at the [country’s] markets.

[But] Some quantity of fresh sheep meat is exported to the United
Arab Emirates by planes, [but] not in particularly large volumes,”
Hraparak writes.

URUGUAY STANDS READY TO ASSIST KARABAKH – JORGE ORRICO

news.am
November 15, 2012 | 12:11

STEPANAKERT. – A meeting was held Wednesday, at the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic-or Artsakh-National Assembly (NKR NA), with a delegation led
by speaker Jorge Orrico of the House of Representatives of Uruguay,
NA press service informs.

NKR NA Speaker Ashot Ghulyan delivered opening remarks and stressed
that Uruguay was the world’s first country which in 1965 formally
recognized the Armenian Genocide. Also, he noted that Uruguay was one
of the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia in
1992. And, finally, as per Ghulyan, Uruguay is one of those countries
that manifested an understanding and a consideration to the people
of Karabakh’s success and accomplishments in building an independent
state.

In his turn, Jorge Orrico noted that their visit to Karabakh and the
warm hospitality they received are binding. Reflecting on Uruguay’s
Armenian community, he informed that Armenians had begun immigrating
to Uruguay as a result of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. He added that
Uruguay was one of the eleven countries which in 1920 voted in favor
of Armenia’s acceptance into the League of Nations. Orrico noted that
they had arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh solely on a peace mission. “If
you need us, we will be ready to assist you,” head of the Uruguayan
parliament stated.

Subsequently, the Uruguay delegation visited Shushi city’s Khachatur
Abovyan School and then went on a tour to Gandzasar Monastery.