Author: Kanayan Tamar

GHN News Agency, Georgia
November 7, 2014 Friday

The Minister of Transport of Armenia: there are going on negotiations
behind the closed doors about opening of railway on Abkhazian section

The first deputy of the Minister of Transport and Communications Artur
Arakelian states while talking with journalists that concerning
opening of the railway of Abkhazian section there are going on
negotiations behind the closed doors. In the negotiations also takes
part so called Ministry of Transport of occupied Abkhazia, reports
GHN.

Arakelian marked that it is more political issue than economic and in
last period there are some encouraging trends in this issue.

“Armenian, also Georgian and Russian sides pay big attention to the
opening of Abkhazian sector of the railway. In this direction last
time chances grew because the President of JSC “Russian Railway”
Vladimer Iakunin made statement that there are encouraging sings in
this direction. Because of the fact that the issue has more political
implication than economical that’s why negotiations are going on
behind the closed doors. The main thing is to reach agreement between
Georgian and Abkhazian sides. May be you imagine what kind of tough
knot to be opened to decide this question. In these processes also
takes part the Ministry of Transport of Abkhazia and we hope that soon
we will reach very important decision,” stated Artur Arakelian to the
journalists.

Zareh & Lucik Misserlian donate $250,000 to KZV School in San Francisco

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

Zareh & Lucik Misserlian

34th Annual KZV Banquet raises over $350,000

SAN FRANCISCO–On Saturday, November 1 more than 250 supporters from
the San Francisco Armenian community gathered to celebrate the
accomplishments of Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan School at
Khatchaturian Armenian Community Center, Saroyan Hall. The total
contributions for the event exceeded $350,000.

KZV Alumni and School Board Member, Garin Kantarci, welcomed attendees
and presented the School Board’s current mission, as well as its six
year strategic plan. “As a board we are very excited about the
prospect of ushering KZV into the next phase of its service to the
community,” stated Kantarci. “As is always the case, the second
generation is expected to carry the torch further than their
predecessors and we feel we have begun that journey. This banquet was
a great springboard.”

Grace Andonian, Principal of KZV Armenian School, welcomed guests and
thanked them for their continued steadfast support to KZV. “As we
started our 35th academic year, one more link is added to the chain
that symbolizes the continuity of KZV as a bastion of enlightenment
for the greater Bay Area’s Armenian-American youth,” stated Andonian.
“We are grateful for the partnership with everyone that makes up our
KZV family: parents, students, faculty, alumni, school board, friends
and community members. As we continue on our journey, I thank you all
for your presence here today, but more importantly for your trust and
confidence in our shared mission.”

For the third year, the KZV Alumni Association presented its Alumni of
the Year Award. The recipient this year was Mrs. Ani Vartanian
Boladian. A Stanford and Harvard Business School Graduate, Ani has
worked with the United States Department of Treasury and currently
runs a commercial real estate company with her husband.

The keynote speaker for the evening, Dr. Yerem Yeghiazarians focused
his presentation on the advancements in cardiac stem cell research. In
his presentation, he spoke about how he was proud to be a new parent
at KZV making his family part of the bigger KZV community. Dr.
Yeghiazarians was also proud in mentioning that two young alumni
students interned in his lab at UCSF over the summer and was able to
see the strong educational foundation that KZV had instilled in these
students.

The highlight of the evening was a surprise donation from longtime
community members, Mr. and Mrs. Zareh and Lucik Misserlian, in the
amount of $250,000.00 to KZV. Mr. Kahren Arzoumanian, School Board
chairman, announced the creation of the Zareh and Lucik Misserlian
Education Fund. “The establishment of the Zareh and Lucik Misserlian
Educational Fund will ensure the long term sustainability of the
school as the proceeds from the fund will help families receiving
financial assistance,” stated Arzoumanian. “Mr. and Mrs. Misserlian
believe in the mission of the school and want to set an example for
others to follow in their footsteps in investing in the future of our
youth and school.”

The KZV School Board would like to thank the attendees and supporters
of the 34th Annual KZV Banquet. The committee is already in the
process of planning the 35th Anniversary Gala Celebration that will
take place in November of 2015.

International Corruption Through Russian Pipes

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 08 November 2014, 16:22

The minister of energy has evaluated the financial and economic state
of his sector as bad. If the minister says the state of the sector is
bad, one can only imagine how bad it is. In addition, bad is the state
of a sector the line minister of which was the longest-serving
minister during the history of the Republic of Armenia. Armen
Movsisyan who left at the time of the April reshuffle was minister for
about a decade and a half.

Now it has become known that the financial and economic situation in
this sphere is bad. And who ever cared about it during the years when
the sector was headed by Armen Movsisyan? How could the minister who
has led the energy sector into a financial and economic crisis be the
most long-served minister?

On the other hand, the position of a minister of energy was created
for the sake of the signature that were needed under the documents on
transfer of most facilities of the sector to Russia, including the 2
December 2014 gas deal with Gazprom. All the other decisions are made
by Russia, or rather the Russian companies which handle the strategic
sector of Armenia.

Of course, Armen Movsisyan alone would not be able to carry out this
mission unless Robert Kocharyan, then Serzh Sargsyan approved it.
Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan are responsible for the current
state of the energy sector for which Robert Nazaryan’s Public Services
Regulatory Commission forced the citizens to pay. Robert Kocharyan and
Serzh Sargsyan who made the political decision for Armen Movsisyan to
transfer this strategic sector to Russia step by step.

In fact, there is international corruption in Armenia’s energy sector
because only in this case could the sector face financial and economic
crisis for which eventually the ordinary consumers of Armenia have to
pay as electricity prices soar, not the Armenian and Russian companies
and state regulators who are responsible for the gap in the sector.

Since the energy sector is one of the strategic poles of Armenia,
international corruption in the sector is, in fact, one of the
important pillars of systemic corruption in Armenia without which the
Armenian systemic corruption will face complications in general with
its international, or rather Russian feeding pipes.

Besides, this is one of the reasons why a systemic offensive was
launched on Armenia against selling the Cascade of Vorotan to the
American Contour Global. The point is that this deal, involvement of
American capital and operator in this sector may disrupt the
corruption chain because irrespective of the technological type, water
power plant, thermal power plant or nuclear power plant, the energy
sector is a whole which is integrated. Hence, the presence of alien
capital, especially from an environment where corruption is not a
normal way, may slow down the systemic corruption mechanism.

Armenia needs new opposition to change government – Hayazn party

15:21 * 08.11.14

To achieve a government change in Armenia, it is first of all
necessary to change the opposition, an activist of the Hayazn party
said today, addressing the political force’s second board meeting in
Yerevan.

“Hayazn is confident that efficient can be only the opposition, which,
apart from a coup plan, will propose also national goals, and
clear-cut programs to achieve them. Efficient can be the opposition
which will be led by a team, not an individual,” Armen Aghayan said,
warning against adopting self-declared principles.

The activist said their party is not inclined to join any alliance,
adding that they would instead be pleased to welcome co-thinkers
wishing to join their ranks.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Armenian President and Russian Health Minister discuss cooperation prospects

16:03, 08 Nov 2014

President of the Rpublic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received on
November 8 Russian delegation headed by the Minister of Health of
Russian Federation, Veronika Skvortsova, who is in Armenia to
participate at the first Armenian-Russian health forum.

As reported by the press and information office of Armenian President,
welcoming the guests, President Sargsyan stressed the importance of
the forum and voiced hope that the latter will be effective and useful
for both sides. According to Sargsyan, the forum will enrich allied
relations between Armenia and Russia, and will contribute to further
strengthening of the strategic relationship between the countries. He
stressed that there is a number of health problems which refer to each
person and embraces all aspects of social and economic life of peoples
and countries. The President expressed conviction that those problems
do not have borders, so their solution is extremely important to unite
all States – large and small, developed and developing. “One of such
examples is Ebola virus, which has become a major challenge not only
for African countries,” Sargsyan said.

Sharing the opinion of the President, Minister Skvortsova thanked
Serzh Sargsyan for the reception and for always keeping the health
issues in the center of attention. She noted that all the participants
thoroughly prepared for the forum and the results were visible. In
particular, a number of promising documents were signed that are too
important for the development of the sphere, also close ties were
established between the Ministry of Health of Armenia and the leading
Professors of Yerevan State Medical University. It was also agreed
that such forums should be conducted periodically, contributing to the
deepening of cooperation between the two countries in the field of
health. The next forum is scheduled to take place in Moscow.

The Australian
Nov 7 2014

Appalling silence over Turkey’s 1915 genocide against Armenians

by: GEOFFREY ROBERTSON

JUST before the invasion of Pol-and, Adolf Hitler urged his generals
to show no mercy towards its people — there would be no retribution
because “after all, who now remembers the annihilation of the
Armenians?”

As the centenary of the Armenian genocide approaches — it began on
April 24, 1915, the night before the Gallipoli landing, with the
rounding up and subsequent “disappearance” of intellectuals and
community leaders — remembrance of the destruction of more than half
of the Armenian people is more important than ever. Yet, as Hitler
recognised in 1939, the crime the Ottoman Turks committed against
humanity by killing the major part of this ancient Christian race has
never been requited or, in the case of Turkey, been the subject of
apology or reparations.

The Young Turks who ran the Ottoman government did not use gas ovens
but they did massacre the men and sent the women, children and elders
on death marches through the desert to -places we hear of now only
because they are overrun by Islamic State. They died en route in their
hundreds of thousands from starvation or attack, and many survivors
died of typhus in concentration camps at the end of the line. The
government ordered these forced deportations in 1915, then passed laws
to seize the Armenians’ lands, homes and churches on the pretext that
they had been abandoned.

The destruction of more than a million Armenians was declared a “crime
against humanity” by Britain, France and Russia in 1915, and these
allies formally promised punishment for what a US inquiry at the end
of the war described as “a colossal crime — the wholesale attempt on a
race”. But the Treaty of Sevres, designed at the end of World War I to
punish the Young Turks for the colossal crime — now called genocide —
was never implemented.

Modern Turkey funds a massive genocide denial campaign, claiming that
the death marches were merely relocations required by military
necessity and that the undeniable massacres (the Euphrates was so
packed with bodies that it altered its course) were the work of a few
“unruly” officials. In Turkey today, you can go to jail — and some do
— for affirming that there was a genocide in 1915: this counts as the
crime of “insulting Turkishness” under section 301 of its penal code.

Ironically, in some European countries, it counts as a crime to deny
the Armenian genocide. The parliaments of many democracies — France,
Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Russia, Greece and Canada, for
example — recognise it explicitly, as do 43 states of the US. The
problem is that Turkey, “neuralgic” on the subject (the word used
privately by the British Foreign Office to describe its attitude), has
threatened reprisals and is too important geopolitically at present to
provoke by stating the truth, lest it carries out threats to close it
air bases to NATO and its borders to refugees.

Thus Barack Obama, who roundly condemned the Armenian genocide in 2008
and promised to do so when elected President, dares not utter the
G-word. Instead, he calls it Meds Yeghern (Armenian for “the great
crime”) and asserts that his opinion has not changed.

The same double standard has been adopted by the Australian
government. Tony Abbott, when opposition leader, did not hesitate to
condemn the Armenian genocide. But when the NSW parliament formally
recognised it, Turkey threatened to ban MPs from Gallipoli for next
year’s Anzac centenary.

That doubtless explains Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s bizarre
statement in June that the events of 1915 were “a tragedy” but “we do
not recognise the events as genocide”. She added: “The approach of the
Australian government has been not to become involved in this
sensitive debate.” A sure-fire way of becoming involved in the debate
is to refuse to recognise the genocide, and she was duly hailed in
Turkey as a genocide denier. “Australian Foreign Minister: Armenians
not victims of genocide” screamed the newspaper headlines in Istanbul.

Telling the truth about this genocide has, for the Australian
government, never been more inconvenient. Although many of its members
will be at the dawn service at Gallipoli on April 25 next year, nobody
has yet been appointed to represent Australia at the international
commemoration in Armenia’s capital Yerevan on the day before.

This is shameful because the Dardanelles landings were the trigger for
the start of the genocide, and (together with Russian military
activity on Turkey’s eastern front) were used as an excuse for the
destruction of the Armenians, on the pretext that they might support
the allied invasion.

Even today, Turkey defends the death marches on grounds of “military
necessity”, as if the destruction of civilians far from the front, and
the ethnic cleansing of women, old men and children, could ever be
necessary to gain a military advantage.

The evidence of the government’s genocidal intent, in any case, is
overwhelming, coming as it does from appalled German and Italian
diplomats and neutral Americans, to whom the Young Turk leaders
admitted that they were going to eliminate “the Armenian problem” by
eliminating the Armenians.

There can never be justification for genocide. This was understood by
Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who coined the word and worked
tirelessly between the wars to have the annihilation of the Armenians
recognised as an international crime. The Holocaust soon provided
another example of the need for a convention to bind the world to act
against governments that seek to destroy racial or religious
minorities.

It is sometimes forgotten that Australia was first to take up Lemkin’s
cause, through the foresight of Doc Evatt, who bonded with Lemkin and
introduced the Genocide Convention in 1948 during his presidency of
the UN General Assembly. Its definition of the crime, applied to the
undisputed facts of 1915, produces a verdict of guilt that is beyond
reasonable doubt.

It was, of course, a century ago: does it still matter? A century is
just within living memory: this year a 103-year-old woman, once a
small child carried by her mother across burning sands, took tea with
Obama and the world’s most famous Armenian (Kim Kardashian). The
mental scars and trauma for the children and grandchildren of
survivors throughout the diaspora will continue until Turkey makes
some acknowledgment of the crime and offers an apology.

International law may provide some assistance: there are assets
expropriated in 1915 that can still be traced, and many ruined
churches that can be restored and returned. Armenians want restoration
of their historic lands in eastern -Turkey, which is asking too much
-(although I have suggested that the majestic Mount Ararat,
overlooking Yerevan, could be handed over by Turkey as an act of
-reconciliation).

But what they want most of all is what they are plainly entitled to
have: an acknowledgment from Turkey, and for that matter from the
Australian government, that what happened to their people in 1915 was
not a tragedy but a crime.

Geoffrey Robertson QC is author of An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now
Remembers the Armenians?, published this month by Random House.

Armenian PM discusses water supply issues with villagers

14:53 08/11/2014 >> SOCIETY

Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan received representatives of
Yeghnik and Shgharshik villages of Armenia’s Aragatsotn province, the
press service of the government reported.

During the meeting, the villagers presented the water supply problems
of their communities and offered to set up a commission to examine
those problems.

Mr Abrahamyan instructed to create a commission to examine the demand
for drinking water in those villages and brief him on the results.

Source: Panorama.am

London Bonhams Auction to Present Aivazovsky’s Works

By MassisPost
Updated: November 7, 2014

Aivazovsky’s “Arrival of the Columbus flotilla to the American coast” (1892)

Aivazovsky-Self-portrait-1874

LONDON — The works of Ivan Aivazovsky and Nicholas Roerich will be the
main lots of the Bonhams auction taking place in London on November
26. One of the key lots will be Aivazovsky’s “Arrival of the Columbus
flotilla to the American coast” (1892), evaluated 700-900 thousand
pounds according to RIA Novosti that the press service.

This work of the great Armenian marine painter is from the series of
the five works, devoted to the life of Columbus and was launched in
1888. The work is considered to be one of the most outstanding works
of this series.

In 1892, the celebrated artist Ivan Aivazovsky embarked on a trip to
the United States for the first and only time in his life. Invited to
represent fine art at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in
Chicago, the seventy year old artist embraced the opportunity to
showcase twenty of his finest paintings. His participation was well
received and ensured the success of his contribution to the Columbian
Exposition. The present masterpiece was among the most celebrated
works exhibited at the Exposition. Arrival of the Columbus flotilla to
the American coast belongs to a series of monumental paintings on the
life of Christopher Columbus that Aivazovsky began as early as 1888.
It is among the grandest and most beautiful of the paintings in the
series, depicting the final and most significant stage of Columbus’
challenging journey to the New World: the moment at which the flotilla
finally arrived on the shore of America.

Nearly a decade prior to beginning work on his Columbus series,
Aivazovsky travelled to Genoa and Florence to research the explorer’s
discovery of the New World. Taking note of the master Karl Briullov’s
technique of extensive preparatory study of the scenery depicted in
his legendary painting The Last Day of Pompeii, the artist closely
studied Fifteenth Century ship design, as well as costumes and weapons
from the era of Columbus, in preparation for his series of paintings
on the subject of the eminent explorer. It is suggested that even as
Aivazovsky embarked on his trip to Genoa and Florence in 1879, he was
already dreaming of making a future trip to the United States.

Aivazovsky finally completed five large scale paintings on the life of
Christopher Columbus in anticipation of the opportunity to exhibit
them at the 1893 Columbia Exposition.

Arrival of the Columbus flotilla to the American coast is a splendid
example of the artist’s masterful composition and skillful rendering
of atmospheric effects. The sky is depicted with remarkable lightness;
the airy, transparent clouds add depth to the pastel blue expanse,
glowing as if lit from within the center of the canvas. The light
plays off the calm waters of the ocean creating a sense of stillness
in contrast to the gentle motion of the foamy waves crashing on the
sandy coast. To the right, mountainous forms descend into atmospheric
perspective past a green stretch of palms, drawing our eyes to the
rocky formation in the center of the painting. Two groups of Native
Americans pause to look and point at the approaching flotilla; two
ships, only their outlines discernible in the distance, stand anchored
while two smaller boats carry Columbus’ explorers to the shore of the
New World for the first time.

Aivazovsky achieved the remarkable lightness and transparency of his
backgrounds by using thin applications of semi-transparent color
washes. Consistent with his technique, the sky in the Arrival of the
Columbus flotilla to the American coast is the most delicately
rendered part of the composition. Working quickly, Aivazovsky would
evenly apply a thin wash of color over the prepared ground of the
canvas without waiting for it to dry, in order to seamlessly blend the
colors to create this stunning effect of airiness. In contrast, the
rocky coast is heavy, massive and dark against the pale water and sky.

The work Columbus, encircled by his retinue disembarks at the shore in
San Salvador Island’ (originally the largest of these monumental
works), was later cut into two parts and sold as two separate
paintings by an international auction house in 2006 and 2008. When the
second part of the painting was offered at auction, it was incorrectly
given the title ‘Arrival of the Columbus flotilla to the American
coast.’ It is evident that more accurately, this title as it appeared
on Aivazovsky’s handwritten list refers instead to the present
painting, recently discovered in a private American collection.

At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Arrival of the Columbus
flotilla to the American coast was exhibited at the Russian Pavilion,
a monumental architectural masterpiece in itself. Designed by I. Ropet
to resemble traditional Russian wooden architecture, it was one of the
largest and most impressive structures at the Exposition. Occupying
nearly an acre of space, the Pavilion demonstrated a marvel of
traditional carving technique and the fanciful decorativeness of
Russian architecture. ‘The Official Directory of the World’s Columbian
Exposition’ described the Russian contribution to the Fine Arts
pavilion as ‘what is probably the best collection of Russian paintings
ever shown at a foreign Exposition.’ Aivazovsky’s paintings were
exhibited among the ‘great works’ of his contemporaries – Ilya Repin,
Henrik Semiradsky and Konstantin Makovsky (Moses P. Handy, The
Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago.

In addition to attending the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Aivazovsky
planned to travel around the United States for approximately five or
six months. On October 13, 1892, he arrived with his wife in New York,
the first stop on his tour of the United States. The couple then
visited San Francisco and Washington, D.C., among other cities.
Everywhere they travelled, the artist was greeted with enthusiasm and
great public interest. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short and
Aivazovsky had to return to Russia before the Exposition opened.
Nevertheless, the display of Aivazovsky’s paintings at the Columbian
Exposition became one of the most successful international exhibits of
his life. The present painting, with its spacious composition, nuanced
color palette and detailed scenery brilliantly demonstrates the
remarkable imagination and painterly talent of the celebrated Russian
master.

EUROVISION JUNIOR 2014
Betty (11 ans) avec sa chanson > représentera
l’Arménie à l’Eurovision Junior 2014

C’est la chanteuse Betty (Elizabeth Danielyan, 11 ans) avec sa chanson
“People of the Sun” qui représentera l’Arménie à l’Eurovision Junior
2014 qui se déroulera le samedi 15 novembre à Malte.

16 pays participeront à ce concours de l’Eurovision Junior 2014. Il
s’agit de l’Arménie, le Belarus, la Bulgarie, la Croatie, Chypre, la
Géorgie, l’Italie, Malte, le Montenegro, la Russie, San Marin, la
Serbie, la Slovénie, la Suède, les Pays Bas et l’Ukraine. > dit Betty aux journalistes lors d’une
conférence de presse à Erévan. Très à l’aise face aux caméras Betty
est déjà très célèbre en Arménie. Sa chanson > est
écrite par Avet Barseghian et l’arrangement musical est de Martin
Mirzoyan. La chanson, placée sous Youtube a déjà plus de 50 000
visites en une semaine.

Ce sera la 8e participation de l’Arménie à l’Eurovision Junior. En
2010 l’Arménie ayant gagné le concours grce à Vladimir Arzumanyan
avec sa chanson >.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 8 novembre 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

Incumbent authorities must leave – Bagrat Asatryan

17:00 / 07.11.2014

On October 10 Armenia signed the agreement on membership to the
Eurasian Economic Union. Nyut.am conducted an interview with the
former chairman of the Central Bank, economist Bagrat Asatryan on what
to expect from economically declining Russia, what Armenia will
benefit or what difficulties it will face.

– Mr Asatryan you have mentioned many times that the Eurasian Economic
Union will not be a viral structure, that it will not function, while
our authorities claim that it is a new big market with wide
opportunities which will promote our economic development. Which is
more realistic?

– In general the Eurasian Union still remains a political project in
case of Armenia as its economic significance for our country is tiny.
Russia and the members of the Union do not have and cannot have any
economic interest in Armenia. Take for instance the volume of
trade-economic relations. We have them with Russia but very small with
Belarus and Kazakhstan.
They claim that we will have brilliant future, but it is not so with
the simple reason that we are separated from the united territory. If
we were joined, the opportunities would have been much wider while
today the whole communication with the member states is being
implemented through narrow mountainous road which may collapse and put
us in complicated situation. The alternatives ways are very expensive.
It means that the prior thing is the communication means, the lack of
reliable land road. This issue is not being discussed today.

– Can the Armenian producers stand the competition?

– We have registered one negative factor – the high transportation
price. As to the guarantees and prerequisites for the Armenian
producers to appear in beneficial situation, this issue is rather
complicated. First, Belarus, Russia and partially Kazakhstan
essentially differ from Armenia regarding the economic principles. The
state’s participation in the economy in these countries is
significant. The state is behind Russian producer with quite serious
resources. Today, for instance, Russia’s financial system is facing
some issues and the state immediately says that it will provide
assistance. Is this possible in Armenia? Of course not, as we do not
have such opportunities.

– Which is Armenia’s hope?

– There is no serious project, division of work, establishment of new
production or restoration of old ones, moreover, there were no
investments in the enterprises handed to Russia within the framework
of Property for Debt deal. I have not heard of any program aimed at
development of the sphere. The hope probably is that the Armenian
businessmen will find their place in these markets due to their
flexibility and mainly in food market, in the sphere of reprocessing
the agricultural products, but there are some risks here too agreed
with the economic policies conducted in these countries.

– Which are they?

– For instance in the beginning of the year Russia’s national currency
devaluated by 1/3, the same happened with the national currency of
Belarus and Kazakhstan while Armenia has stabile currency. In such
conditions the Armenian producers do not have comparative competition
privileges. And there are a number of such things which must at least
give food for thought. Under the political pressures Armenia follows
this way but the authorities must solve some issues. Which is the
guarantee that the same Armenian businessman will not leave Armenia
for these countries where better conditions are created?

– What steps must the authorities undertake for solving the mentioned issues?

– Our economy is more liberate and now it will face economic system
with state’s participation and it is obvious that our system will have
some issues. It is necessary to work out approaches for economic,
currency policies which will make entrance to the new system without
losses or even with benefit.

– If to consider the reduction of living conditions of the people, the
increase of the unemployment rate, what will happen with Armenia?

– Among the domestic issues the economic one is not a priority. The
country is buried in injustice and self-willingness if not to say in
crime, starting from forming political power through wide-spread
violations of the Constitution till the governance principles. Armenia
has become a country for minorities – oligarchs, the invaders of the
political power, low-quality managers who are not even able to
understand the existing issues and moreover to propose solutions. And
all know where this situation can lead to.

– It is claimed that Armenia will have 250 million USD income from
general customs fees. Which is your forecast?

– There are issues here too. Armenia joins the union in condition of
sanctions imposed against Russia. As a result of these sanctions the
imports to Russia have reduced. That is to say the sum of the
collected customs fees will gradually reduce. How is it possible for
Armenia to benefit in such conditions? Russia is not in bad condition
but under the sanctions it is a declining economic unit and we must
realize it. Russia states that in the upcoming three years it will
have zero economic growth, its financial opportunities will
essentially reduce which already affects and will continue affecting
Armenia.

– It appears that the living conditions of people may become worse.

– We already face it. The reduction of private transfers negatively
affects people’s living conditions. We are not only going to the worse
but we do it not being prepared to it anyhow as the authorities in our
countries are weak, are of low-quality.

– What must be done to change the situation in our country?

– First of all it is necessary to restore legality.

– Do you see any prerequisites for it?

– Of course. I see the prerequisites in the square where this demand
is being put. The incumbent authorities who are buried in flaws must
leave.