Category: 2022

ArmInfo.The current Armenian-Azerbaijani problems are not limited to Armenia, Azerbaijan or even the South Caucasus. They are a small element of the Big Game  component.  Hrachya Arzumanyan, an expert on national security and  defense issues, Doctor of Political Sciences, expressed a similar  opinion to ArmInfo.

“One can come to such a conclusion even with a superficial analysis.  And I absolutely do not understand for what reasons, based on what  realities, our negotiators consider themselves able to separate the  problem of Artsakh from the “Armenian issue.” The latter, by the way,  has not gone away and continues remain part of the international  agenda. But in Yerevan, for some reason, they think that it can be  separated from the processes taking place in the Greater Middle  East,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, according to Arzumanyan, geopolitical realities leave  absolutely no room for the realization of Armenian bureaucratic  dreams, namely, to achieve peace with excessively aggressive  neighbors in the conditions of the transformation of all surrounding  regions into a theater of military operations, albeit with varying  degrees of intensity.

The expert considers the latest murder of an Armenian soldier, as  well as Aliyev’s threats, as a continuation of the logic of  Azerbaijan’s military pressure policy on Armenia over the past two  decades. And the fact that Yerevan stubbornly tries not to understand  the essence of this policy, preferring to be in a state of hopes for  peace separated from the realities, in his opinion, is exclusively   Yerevan’s problem.

Referring directly to the Artsakh case of the Armenian-Azerbaijani  conflicts, the expert noted that there is no lowering of the  international bar on the issue of the status of Artsakh, and there  has not been. Moreover, after the peculiar resolution of the Artsakh  problem by Russia and Turkey in the fall of 2020, it was the  geopolitical processes performed by other international players that  demonstrated completely different realities. The realities from  which, according to Arzumanyan, Putin and Erdogan were cut off in  their assessments of the situation. Realities within which it  suddenly became clear that neither the problem of Artsakh nor the  “Armenian issue” is closed, and Artsakh is still waiting for its  status.

“And it is precisely within the framework of these geopolitical  realities that Ankara, Moscow and, accordingly, Baku are forced to  act. Hence, Aliyev’s next manifestations of the threat of the use of  force, and its use in the form of the murder of our serviceman. They  do so in order to persuade Yerevan to abandon the approaches that the  international community is already ready to form and accept, and  which have nothing in common with the approaches of Turkey and the  Russian Federation,” the expert summed up.

ArmInfo.The salaries of all civil servants of Artsakh in 2021 were paid from taxes paid by the people of Armenia. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated this on  May 31 during the discussion of the report on the implementation of  the state budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2021.

Pashinyan recalled that after the end of the 44-day war, from  November 2020 to the end of 2021, Armenia allocated a total of 136  billion drams ($280 million) to Artsakh and does not intend to stop  there. Within the framework of the financing, the costs of utility  bills for the population of Artsakh were covered. All salaries of the  Artsakh state employees were also paid by the Government of the  Republic of Armenia. “This means that in 2021 the salaries of all  civil servants, from the members of the National Assembly to the  government of Artsakh, teachers and others, were paid by the  government of the Republic of Armenia, including healthcare expenses  of Artsakh, at the expense of taxes paid by the people of the  Republic of Armenia”, the prime minister said.  

In 2019, the state budget of Artsakh amounted to about 118 billion  drams (about $250 million), of which about 58 billion was transferred  from the Republic of Armenia. In 2021, the revenue part of Artsakh’s  budget amounted to 174 billion drams, of which 128 billion drams was  also received from Armenia. “That is, the support of the Republic of  Armenia to Artsakh in 2021 increased by 122% or 70 billion drams,  while the budget of Artsakh as a whole increased by 48% or 45 billion  drams. 73% of Artsakh’s budget for 2021 was transferred by the  Government of the Republic of Armenia”, he noted.  

In accordance with the budget for 2022, financial assistance has been  increased to 144 billion drams (about 300 million US dollars). In  addition, Armenia will provide Artsakh with an additional 50 billion  drams (over $100 million) for housing construction programs. Of  these, 20 billion drams (slightly more than 40 million dollars) in  2022, the RA Prime Minister said.  

ArmInfo.Armenia has the potential to counter geopolitical challenges and threats; But not with this power. A member of the Council of the Republican Party of Armenia,  former Deputy Minister of Defense Artak Zakaryan expressed a similar  opinion to ArmInfo.

“We, you know, have our own calculations based on the current  situation in international relations and related, including regional  trends. I can say that another month and a half of the implementation  of Pashinyan’s “peace agenda” and we will find ourselves in a state  of a new war. In this light, only stopping all these stupidities of  the authorities will allow Armenia to avoid such dangerous prospects.   The latter is possible only if they are removed from power,” he  noted.

The Republican is convinced that there is no agenda for peace, not  only in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, but also in the world, in  international relations, in general. In this light, the very fact of  the presence, voicing of such a falsified agenda by the leadership of  Armenia, according to his estimates, is surprising not only among the  Armenian opposition, but also among the leaders of Armenia’s partner  countries.

Zakaryan is convinced that the achievement of peace is possible only  through struggle, and not through falsified political principles,  especially those containing defeatism and the desire to achieve peace  through more and more concessions to the enemy. According to the  Republican, such a policy is a priori doomed to failure and devoid of  any prospects. Moreover, in his opinion, this is already understood  even in the ruling party itself.  ” Even if we put aside the agenda  and plans, but we cannot and will not allow the implementation of  this classic political idiocy. The opposition will not allow the  achievement of a fantasy world by surrendering our real territories  and interests. We will not allow them to give up our potential  development opportunities in the future. Because these opportunities  are the basis for preserving the Armenian statehood, sovereignty and  independence,” Zakaryan concluded. 

ArmInfo.The satellite belongs to the Republic of Armenia, and with its acquisition, we got the opportunity to build a station in the country and train the team by  the Satlantis Spanish company. Secretary of the Armenian Security  Council Armen Grigoryan stated this in an interview with CivilNet.

“Globally, we have acquired not only a satellite, but also  capabilities, infrastructure, which will be a big push, both in terms  of the development of science and in terms of business interest,” he  said, noting the enthusiasm from young people, calling it important  from the point of view of training specialists in this field.  

Speaking about the parameters, Grigoryan noted that the capabilities  of the satellite are estimated above average. “Specialists will tell  you more about this. But in making this decision, we involved  internationally renowned Armenian experts who helped us advance this  issue. This is the first step. But I have to disappoint those who  think that this will solve all our problems”, said the secretary  of the Security Council.  The existing capabilities of the satellite,  he said, will allow to solve numerous issues, ranging from  agriculture to the demarcation process. In addition, Grigoryan noted  that the Armenian satellite has exceptional capabilities, but it will  take some time to fully reveal them. “We do not yet receive the  necessary information, but it will be later,” he assured.  At the  same time, Grigoryan urged to evaluate this issue in the context of  increasing state funding for the scientific sector by 82%.  It should  be reminded that On May 25, 2022, at 22:35 Yerevan time, Armenia’s  first space satellite was launched into the Earth’s orbit on a SpaceX  rocket from Cape Canaveral in the United States.  The satellite was  launched into space as a result of cooperation between the Armenian  state Geocosmos company and the Spanish Satlantis.  It should be  noted that part of the public reacted to the news about the launch of  the Armenian satellite with a certain skepticism. In particular,  there were accusations about the unreliability of the declared  information, that the satellite was rented, etc.  

ArmInfo.Yerevan is in vain relying on Washington for Ankara unblocking the borders, Viktor Nadein-Raevsky, Researcher of the Institute of World Economy and  International Relations (IMEMO), said in an interview with ArmInfo. 

“No doubt, the United States is attentive to the Armenian-Turkish  process. Another question is that Turkey is not at all a state under  the U.S. overwhelming influence despite its being a NATO member and  its other ties with the United States. In this context, I do not  think the Armenian leadership’s hopes are in line with the reality  and trends inside Turkey, and one of the reasons is that Turkey is  coordinating its policy toward Armenia with Baku,” he said. 

Ankara is not expected to make independent steps toward Armenia  without preconditions at least until the process of signing of an  Armenian-Azerbaijan peace agreement shows progress, and Azerbaijan is  clearly stating it is holding great expectations, Mr Nadein-Raevsky  said. 

For Azerbaijan, any Armenian-Turkish negotiations and Ankara’s steps  toward Yerevan are instruments for ensuring progress in its own  negotiations with Armenia, especially with Turkey itself not  expecting any preferences from normalizing its relations with  Armenia. So Turkey has no need to hurry. 

“The result is the present uncertainty over the prospects for  normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. See, the process has  been continuing for nearly six months, with three meetings of the  Special Envoys. But even experts and analysts do not know anything  about the results – to say nothing of the public. Moreover, to create  an atmosphere of confidence, Yerevan is not voicing any of its  demands to remedy historical injustice. In its turn, Ankara is  dragging time in Baku’s interests and can, in necessary, put forward  its own preconditions at any moment,” Mr Nadein-Raevsky said.

ArmInfo.It may sound strange, but the process of dismantlement of the Third Republic was perhaps launched when the Republic was actually in the making, Doctor of  History Hayk Demoyan said in an interview with ArmInfo.   

“It was Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan who announced  that by stating that Armenia and the Armenian nation did not need a  national ideology. It would not have been so serious if the president  had offered an alternative based on an aim – independent statehood,  free of corruption and stable, with all the conditions for further  strengthening,” Mr Demoyan said. 

It is the lack of this tradition that caused Armenian statehood to  follow various trajectories, which ruled out building up a powerful  state with a strong army as its basis. The result was a national  disaster in 2020. And the Armenian people has now reached a  stalemate, including due to misusing its own energy accumulated by  the spring of 2018. That enabled foreign forces to use this energy to  achieve goals far from Armenia’s interests. 

According to Mr Demoyan, a group of people came to power in Armenia  in 2018 after a predesigned long- term programme was carried out in  the country, which was possible due to the previous years of  distortion of the historical potential of Armenia and of the Armenian  people by Armenia’s political, economic and academic elite and – in a  broader sense – by the Armenian Diaspora.  

“And it was due to that distortion that the good intentions of our  intellectuals, the architects of the 1988 Movement aimed at building  up a powerful Armenian state, led to the formation of a cannibal  state over decades. Human rights protection gave way to capital  accumulation and a string of unsolved murders, which was the result  of transformation of some of the architects of the Third Republic,”  he said. 

From bad to worse, decisions in conflict with state interests were  accompanied by a decision on higher education and intellect not being  necessary as components of social development. As a result, the  decision- makers decided to turn the sensible people into insensible  masses by means of the major degeneration tool, the TV set.  

“And here is the main point. The people that considered the Armenian  Genocide, Tsisternakaberd [the Memorial to the Genocide victims],  Artsakh’s independence and Armenia’s sovereignty a redline and part  of the system of values only yesterday, are unwilling to discuss the  issues now for the simple reason that they had over three decades  been victims of moral terrorism by decision-makers in Armenia. And  the once impossible has not turned into the possible,” Mr Devoyan  said.