Category: 2017

                                        Monday, 
`Upcoming' Armenian-Azeri Summit Discussed In New York
US - The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and international
mediators meet in New York, 23Sep2017.
Armenia's and Azerbaijan's presidents will likely meet soon,
international mediators indicated after holding fresh talks on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the foreign ministers of the two
countries over the weekend.
The U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk
Group met separately and then jointly with Foreign Ministers Edward
Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov on the margins of the UN General
Assembly in New York.
"The main aim of the consultations was to discuss the current
situation in the conflict zone, to explore ways to reinvigorate the
negotiation process, and to prepare for the upcoming summit between
the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan," they said in joint
statement.
They said they hope that the summit will help the conflicting parties
eventually "find compromise solutions to the remaining key settlement
issues." "The Ministers expressed their commitment to work with the
Co-Chairs to prepare for a successful summit in the near future,"
added the statement.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministries confirmed that the New
York talks focused on preparations for the planned meeting of
Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev. But like the co-chairs,
they gave no possible dates for it. It was announced instead that the
mediating troika will again tour the conflict zone early next month.
Also, Mammadyarov was reported by Azerbaijani news agencies to voice
support for "some interesting proposals put forward by the co-chairs
for continuing substantive negotiations" on a Karabakh settlement. He
did not elaborate.
Aliyev and Sarkisian traded fresh recriminations when they addressed
the UN General Assembly last week. In particular, Aliyev described his
Armenian counterpart as a "war criminal." He also blasted the
international community for not helping Azerbaijan regain control over
Karabakh.
Sarkisian announced in July a "preliminary agreement" on the conduct
of his face-to-face talks with Aliyev this fall. "My expectations from
the meeting are not big," he said.
The two presidents most recently met in May and June 2016 shortly
after four-day deadly hostilities around Karabakh that nearly
denigrated into an all-out war. They agreed to allow the OSCE to
deploy more field observers in the conflict zone and investigate truce
violations occurring there. They also hinted at progress towards a
peaceful settlement.
The peace process again stalled in the following months, however. The
Azerbaijani government has since been reluctant to implement the
agreed safeguards against renewed fighting, saying that they would
cement the status quo.
Armenian Government Upgrades Economic Growth Forecast
 . Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia - A worker at a cannery in Ararat province, 19Apr2014.
Armenia's economy is on course to grow by 4.3 percent this year after
stagnating in 2016, Finance Minister Vartan Aramian said on Monday.
The Armenian government had forecast an economic growth rate of 3.2
percent for 2017 in its budget proposal approved by parliament just
over a year ago. According to official statistics, the country's Gross
Domestic Product beat that expectation in the first half of 2017,
increasing by roughly 5 percent in real terms.
"Expert analysis shows that by the end of the year we will have faster
growth than the 3.2 percent [rate] projected by the state budget,"
Aramian told a news conference. "We expect a real growth rate of 4.3
percent this year."
Data from the National Statistical Service (NSS) shows that first-half
growth was driven in large measure by a nearly 13 percent rise
industrial output. The NSS also reported a more than 5 percent
increase in retail trade.
The Armenian economy expanded by only 0.2 percent in 2016 not least
because of a downturn in agriculture which the government blamed on
bad weather. The agricultural sector continued to contract in the
first half of 2017 due to an unusually harsh winter and a summer
drought.
In its five-year policy program approved by the National Assembly in
June, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's cabinet pledged to ensure that
economic growth in Armenia averages 5 percent annually. The government
is supposed to meet this ambitious target by promoting exports and
improving the domestic business environment.
Aramian also said on Monday that despite faster growth Armenia's total
public debt will reach 58.8 percent of GDP at the end of this year.The
proportion stood at 56.6 percent in December 2016.
The minister defended continued government borrowing from mainly
external sources. "We have borrowed from abroad to make investments,"
he said.
Armenian Highway Project Faces Uncertain Future
 . Harry Tamrazian
Armenia - The Yerevan-Ararat highway is upgraded as part of the
North-South transport project, 2Feb2014.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Sunday that the Armenian
government has not yet asked it for additional multimillion-dollar
funding needed for completing an ambitious project to upgrade
Armenia's main highways stretching over 550 kilometers to Georgia and
Iran.
The North-South transport project worth an estimated $1.5 billion is
aimed at facilitating the landlocked country's access to the Georgian
and Iranian ports. It was also meant to enable Iran to use Armenian
and Georgian territory for large-scale freight shipments to and from
Europe.
In 2009, the (ADB) agreed to lend Yerevan up to $500 million for the
first phase of the road upgrades.
Only two highways connecting Yerevan to the towns of Ararat and
Ashtarak have been expanded and repaved to date, costing $60
million. Their total length of is just over 30 kilometers.
Work on about 120 kilometers of other roads running further southeast
and northwest of the Armenian capital is due to be finished in
2019. It is financed not only by the ADB but also the European
Investment Bank, the European Union's lending arm. In 2015, the
government also borrowed $150 million from the Kazakhstan-based
Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) to rebuild a 20-kilometer road running
through Armenia's highest mountain pass close to the Iranian border.
Armenia - A highway west of Yerevan is expanded and upgraded by a
Spanish firm, 15May2015.
According to Shane Rosenthal, the head of the ADB office in Yerevan,
the Manila-based multilateral lending institution has so far disbursed
$330 million in loans for the ongoing roadworks.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am),
Rosenthal said the government has not yet made plans for
reconstructing the national highways that mainly pass through the
mountainous Vayots Dzor and Syunik provinces in southeastern
Armenia. It is therefore not known when the project could be fully
implemented, he said.
"The government has a lot of priorities and it's going to have to
decide which is a higher priority: completing this road corridor or
investing in education or public services provided in other areas,"
argued Rosenthal.
Speaking in March, Transport and Communications Minister Vahan
Martirosian also could not say when the expensive project will be
completed. Martirosian, who joined the government in October 2016,
admitted that some of the planned roadworks have fallen behind
schedule due to poor management. He insisted, though, that the project
as a whole has not been a failure.
Some Armenian media and civil society groups have alleged corrupt
practices during its slow implementation. Rosenthal insisted that the
ADB has seen no evidence of corruption among relevant government
officials or contractors.
Press Review
(Saturday, September 23)
"Haykakan Zhamanak" says that of all leaders of major world powers
Russia's President Vladimir Putin sent the "weakest" congratulatory
message to Serzh Sarkisian in connection with the 26th anniversary of
Armenia's independence marked on September 21. "Unlike the Russian
president's message, U.S. President Donald Trump's message not only
did not repeat last year's congratulation but also had an
unprecedentedly detailed content," comments the paper. It speculates
that by praising Armenia's cooperation with NATO Trump urged Armenia
to "come out of Russia's zone of influence."
"Zhoghovurd" comments on controversy caused by Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian's statement that Armenian territorial concessions to
Azerbaijan are a key issue on the agenda of ongoing peace talks on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The outcry caused by Nalbandian's
statement is not surprising for a number of reasons," writes the
paper. "First of all, within the county and in the Armenian Diaspora
there is a lack of trust in Serzh Sarkisian's administration. People
are rightly convinced that he is unable to defend Armenia's interests,
including on the Karabakh issue, in the international arena. Besides,
in the last 20 years the authorities have never tried to engage in a
dialogue with the public and to honestly and openly talk about the
essence of the Karabakh conflict and variants of its resolution. They
have not presented the real picture."
"Zhamanak" says that the main result of the latest Armenia-Diaspora
conference in Yerevan is the official start of preparations for the
establishment of a "pan-Armenian council." "This is Serzh Sarkisian's
idea which has several political subtexts connected with Sarkisian's
political plans or scenarios," the paper says. "One of those apparent
subtexts is that with the creation of the pan-Armenian council Serzh
Sarkisian will essentially dissolve his coalition with Dashnaktsutyun
... The pan-Armenian council will most probably be a supranational body
that will at least morally dictate actions to both national and state
organizations." That, the paper claims, will make his power-sharing
agreement with Dashnaktsutyun meaningless.
(Sargis Harutyunyan)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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