Category: News

Huge amounts of money have been accumulated in the pension funds of Armenia. They do not reach the banking system, but they are not small amounts either. They yield half to the state budget. We are talking about almost 1.5 trillion drams, which is equivalent to more than 4 billion dollars at today’s exchange rate.

By the standards of our economy, this is a huge amount. Any government would dream of having the opportunity to manage such free funds and use them for the implementation of economic as well as infrastructural projects. But what are the current rulers of Armenia doing? Pension funds have become a purse from which they borrow money for the budget. Instead, they should think about directing this opportunity to the implementation of serious economic programs.

In the form of pension funds, we are dealing with large financial resources, which hardly serve the development of the economy. Even if these funds enter the economy through different channels, their economic result is very low. There are almost no direct injections into the economy.

Why is it like that, you have to ask the authorities, who are still unable to create favorable conditions so that those huge sums formed at the expense of the citizens’ pockets and the state budget effectively serve the economy.

At the time, when the cumulative pension system was introduced, the goal was to use these funds for the development of the country, to ensure economic results. Years pass, money increases at a fairly active pace, but their economic result is not noticeable. After the legislative changes implemented last year, the funds were allowed to invest 10 percent of the money in the real economy. Currently, only one such program is known. We are talking about financial participation in the construction of an artificial intelligence and data processing factory in Hrazdan through a syndicated loan with the banking system.

Instead of investing directly in economic programs, most of the money in pension funds is deposited in banks or loaned to the government to finance budget deficits.

As much as the chairman of the Central Bank considers that the money of the funds is spent so efficiently and purposefully, in reality their effectiveness for the economy is extremely low.

“There are more than 1 trillion drams in the accumulated pension funds of Armenia, at least 60 percent of which are invested in the economy of Armenia.

I think that, yes, these funds serve the economy,” the Central Bank President announced recently in the National Assembly.

Indirectly, those sums may enter the economy, but after a significant price increase.

More than 25 percent of the funds of the pension funds are deposited in banks, mainly dram deposits. It is known that the price of dram deposits today reaches 9-10 percent. This means that before entering the economy, that money becomes significantly more expensive in the banking system. And when it enters the economy through loans, the price sometimes reaches 15-18 percent. Then we wonder why loans are so expensive in Armenia. Funds, in turn, make money on that money, banks on themselves.

Instead of becoming expensive loans in banks, these funds could reach the economy in a much cheaper form, if there were necessary funds and channels for this. But these means and infrastructures in Armenia are very weak or do not work efficiently.

One of the reasons is that there are no reliable programs.

“We need real good projects, which will be financed by pension funds with pleasure,” says the President of the Central Bank.

Pension funds may be happy to finance such projects, but where in our country are prospective, and even more so, large projects to be invested in? The construction of the artificial intelligence factory, which “fell from the sky”, was more of a political than an economic project.

The authorities should be asked why there are no “real good projects” in Armenia. They did it in such a way that they do not come close to the existing projects, let alone implement new projects. Who should implement an investment project in a country where investment security is almost zero? They can enter into an agreement with the investor or simply take away the property. In such conditions, it is not the pension funds who want to be, no matter how much free funds they have, they have not eaten their brains with bread to invest in the economy.

And since it is so, the money of the pension funds goes to the bank and becomes an expensive credit instrument. Another part is lent to the government through bonds. No matter how absurd it is, the government, on the one hand, gives the funds from the state budget to the funds, and on the other hand, takes it back with interest through bonds, so that it can finance the same budget deficit.

It is difficult to imagine such an inefficient expenditure of budget funds. But this is what it is.

It turned out that almost 42 percent of pension fund funds are invested in bonds. It is about 1.7 billion dollars.

The main part of that amount, almost 1.5 billion, is invested in government bonds. In other words, a loan was given to the government.

The internal debt of the government, which has increased several times in recent years, has also increased due to these amounts. At the moment, the government owes 1.5 billion dollars to the pension funds.

Almost 1.3 billion dollars of the fund’s funds are invested in the so-called collective investment instrument. This is the real and effective investment. But those funds are not invested in the economies of Armenia, but of other countries. In Armenia, even if there are such investments, they are too few.

HAKOB KOCHARYAN

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In a briefing with journalists, the head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces once again urged them not to ask him questions about Nikol Pashinyan’s targeting of Artsakh citizens, reminding him of his military position.

“The Prime Minister of RA did not say something like that: you are from Artsakh, I am Armenian, I hold a responsible position, head of the RA Armed Forces General Staff, and I fulfill the tasks set before me,” he emphasized.

Referring to the demarcation and demarcation process, Edward Asryan noted that these works have a basis – the corresponding map.

“The main headquarters has this map, and we carry out our work according to its requirements. There is also a representative of the Armed Forces in the commission, who knows military cartography very well, knows all the requirements of that map,” he said, stressing that the territory of Armenia is 29,743 square meters.

“Not an inch of ground will be surrendered. If these enclaves are included in the 29743 square kilometers of RA, not a millimeter of land will be handed over,” stressed the head of the General Directorate.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia announced on one occasion that “the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia is guided by the 1975 topographical map of the USSR on a scale of 1:100,000, which has legal force.”

168.amtoo had written, that the actual area of ​​RA is not 29,743 sq km, because, according to Pashinyan’s article, it also includes the occupied 200 sq km, which has not been restored, which Edward Asryan does not talk about. Instead, he says that if the “enclaves” enter it, they will not surrender, knowing full well that Pashinyan has announced that the 3 villages of Tavush and Tigranashen will surrender. In other words, Edward Asryan says the same thing in an indirect way.

Details in the video

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There are currently no concrete dates for the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border, further steps will depend on the progress of the process of normalization of relations between the two countries, a Turkish government source told RIA Novosti.

Ankara and Yerevan completed preparations for the start of direct trade between the two countries in mid-May, Turkish Foreign Ministry official Onju Keçeli said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told journalists earlier that Turkey will start supplying its goods to Armenia without reformulating them in third countries. “At this stage, there are no specific dates for opening the border. The dynamics of the process will depend on the development of relations between Turkey and Armenia“, the interlocutor of the agency informed.

The source added: Ankara expects the continuation of constructive dialogue, which will contribute to the strengthening of stability in the South Caucasus and the development of neighborly ties.

There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, the border has been closed since 1993. In January 2022, the first meeting of the special representatives of the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey, Ruben Rubinyan, the Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, and Serdar Kılıç, the former ambassador of Turkey to the USA, took place in Moscow.

During the meeting between Rubinyan and Kilic in Vienna on July 1, 2022, an agreement was reached to ensure the possibility of crossing the Armenian-Turkish land border by citizens of third countries and holders of diplomatic passports as soon as possible. However, this agreement has not yet been implemented.

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

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Violations, use of administrative resources, targeting of the opposition. similar records were made not only by the opposition circles, but also by various representatives of the observation missions monitoring the elections in Armenia.

On June 14, the Central Electoral Commission will publish the final results of the elections, and before that, we were informed that the PAP, “Wings of Unity” and “Armenia” bloc applied to the CEC for a recount.

After June 14, a five-day period for appeals has already been planned, and on June 19, political forces can apply to the Constitutional Court. After the absence of an appeal or the approval of the Constitutional Court, the process of allocating mandates will begin, ahead of the first session of the Parliament.

Human rights defender, lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan recorded obvious violations in the pre-election and electoral process. 168:․am-in the conversation with, he specifically mentioned:

“The elections were not fair, objective, obviously, because even before the pre-election campaign, double standards were used, the government constantly gave charities outside of budget planning, forbade others to do so, they eavesdropped on everyone, many people were arrested on frivolous charges. There was a total abuse of administrative resources and in the background of all this, these results that we see also suggest that.

And the CEC turned a blind eye to the shortcomings. During the examination of Aram Sargsyan’s application, we learned that, for example, similar applications were also submitted by the “Strong Armenia” party, but they were not examined urgently and even today they have not been examined, but other complaints were examined as a matter of urgency.”

In any case, according to Hovhannes Khudoyan, the opposition, regardless of any emotional reactions, should not give up those tools that may be suitable for further struggle.

“It’s another question, how efficiently can the tools be used,” added the human rights defender, noting, “If, for example, the PAP also passes, then the CP does not get a constitutional majority.”

According to Hovhannes Khudoyan, this is perhaps not the desired result, but it is necessary in the perspective of somehow resisting the actions against Armenia.

Will the records of international observation missions be able to change the situation and, for example, create an objective picture of the level of democracy in Armenia in their own countries – we asked the human rights defender.

In response, he recorded: “There was interference in the elections of Armenia from all possible sides, but what is the problem? those countries intervene for the interests of their countries, based on their policies, and the government is constrained by that help, because they fix these violations, but then every time they will turn those violations against the government in order to extract something from Armenia.

In other words, by committing these criminal acts, this government makes itself vulnerable. Those countries fix it, but they don’t fix it for the sake of democracy and human rights, but they fix it as a club on the head of these authorities in order to make extortions for their interests in the future.

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Doctor of political science, professor, energy security expert Vahe Davtyan writes. “Political forces continue to practice law instead of politics.

They continue to measure reality by legal norms, persistently ignoring political principles and laws.

This is the reason why the opinion that the political struggle is practically absent in Armenia is hardening among the public.

Perhaps it was also absent during the pre-election phase, when the opposition was trying to compete with the political predator with white gloves.

There was competition. There was no struggle.

And so all the announcements about elections of existential, civilizational significance were nonsense. At the conversational level, I set a frame that you didn’t fit.

Today, at this moment, the streets and squares of Yerevan and other cities should have been flooded with people. A wave of widespread defiance should have been raised. I assure you, it wouldn’t hurt your law practice. On the contrary, it would strengthen your own position at the institutional level.

But you prefer not to take off your white gloves.

Regardless of the results of the recalculation, regardless of possible rearrangements, nothing will change in the relative sense. Because you will continue to practice law, and the political predator will continue to practice his direct business, politics.”

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“Many questions were expected to be answered from the main five-year election campaign in Armenia. Will Nikol Pashinyan retain power or will he give in under the pressure of several opposition wings, who are united in their desire to break the monopoly of the “Civil Contract”? Will Yerevan follow the path of European integration or will it follow the usual Eurasian path? Will the “historic elections” bring peace with Azerbaijan and the settlement of relations with Turkey closer?

However, after the elections, we only got a new dose of questions. As it turned out, approaching the political horizon line only made it even more uncertain and unattainable,” writes Russian analyst Sergey Markedonov in the article titled “Beyond the Horizon” in the Kommersant Russian periodical.

According to him, at first glance, the success of the ruling party and Nikol Pashinyan himself does not raise doubts.

“Even if we put aside for a moment the use of administrative resources unprecedented for post-Soviet Armenia and pressures on the opposition, we must admit that regardless of the personal attitude towards the image of the Armenian Prime Minister, he has a certain amount of support and popularity, especially in villages and small towns.

“Civil Agreement”, like five years ago, will be able to form a government on its own, without forming a coalition with anyone. However, compared to 2021, the ruling party will get ten seats less, which means that the cherished constitutional majority will not be secured.

Therefore, problems will arise when making changes to the Mother Law, although Armenia is potentially faced with the prospect of holding two referendums (on amending the Constitution and choosing the integration vector). Complications for the government? Not only. The government gets a field to maneuver both within the country and in the dialogue and negotiations with Moscow, Ankara and Baku,” Markedonov makes such a comment.

He also believes that everything is not clear even in the opposition field. According to the Russian analyst, during all eight years of being in power, Pashinyan built his own legitimacy by opposing those whom he called “formers”.

But, according to the analyst, Samvel Karapetyan, the leader of the “Strong Armenia” bloc, actually fulfilled the public demand of the “third force” by implementing the “restart” of the Armenian opposition and becoming its main pillar, instead of the Kocharian “Armenia” bloc.

“It is not necessary that the “third force” will retain its influence in Armenian politics in the future, but a serious bid for that role has already been submitted,” Markedonov notes. In his opinion, the parliamentary elections not only did not eliminate, but on the contrary, they further emphasized the fundamental problems of the Armenian national-state concept, the idea of ​​”Unification” no longer works, and the concept of “Real Armenia”, which is based on the rejection of heroism and sacrifice and consumerism, does not unite the country, but polarizes it more. “The Armenian society and the political class remain divided. their various parts do not seek compromises. Their conception of the country’s future and its place in the world is extremely different. The elections are over, but the struggle for “our own Armenia” continues, and everyone has their own Armenia,” Markedonov writes.

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After the change of power in 2018, on May 12, when Nikol Pashinyan told the staff of the Ministry of Defense and the senior officers of the Armed Forces represented at that time, the newly appointed Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyani, in particular, announced.

“The next problem that we intend to solve in the near future, and we considered that the candidacy of Davit Tonoyan is the most suitable for this, refers to the depoliticization of the army. I have already had the opportunity to express my special thanks to the representatives of our army and armed forces in the Republic of Artsakh during the last internal political crisis, the Armed Forces managed not to become part of the political process, which is provided for by the Constitution.

This testifies to the high level of institutionalization of our armed forces.

We must continue this process. During political processes, including during elections, the army should not be involved as a party to the electoral process, our task is to ensure the freedom of choice of every citizen of the Republic of Armenia, and in that sense, even more so, every citizen who is an employee of the Armed Forces should be free in his choice, because that is what is provided by the Constitution and laws, and this applies to everyone, from private to general. Nikol Pashinyan noted, adding that The RA Armed Forces should not be pro-government, oppositional and should not consider themselves a political factor.”

Let’s remind that on April 23, 2018, a group of servicemen of the Peacekeeping Brigade of the RA Armed Forces, in uniforms, suddenly joined the protest action of the “My Step” initiative against Serzh Sargsyan’s prime ministership in Yerevan, we are talking about 209 servicemen.

Of course, you can say that at that time the Acting Minister of Defense was Vigen Sargsyan, but at that time the commander of the Peacekeeping Brigade was Vaghinak Sargsyan, who was appointed as the commander of the NSS border guard troops on June 11, 2018.

And after this there were many cases when they were violated by the military political neutrality and wearing a military uniform the requirement which we have addressed in detail, moreover, we have sent written requests to RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan.

Now let’s return to the context of the elections:

On December 9, 2018, extraordinary NA elections were scheduled.

The next day was famous became that on December 9, the day of the extraordinary elections of the National Assembly, from 08:00 to 20:00, the hotline of the Ministry of Defense received 55 calls, which mainly related to the issues of organization of elections, transfer of servicemen from military units, voting of conscripts on leave. And about 35% of the calls were questions beyond the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, and citizens were directed to other departments.

How? were informed There were alerts from the Ministry of Defense that servicemen enter the polling station in line, but the on-the-spot studies revealed that such an idea was formed by misunderstanding and it refers to the organization of the process of entering the polling station one by one and in groups.

In addition, the issue of organizing the voting of mandatory conscripts on leave was raised, and it was clarified that there are some legal gaps in this regard, so the proposal was taken into account and will be discussed with the competent structures in order to find systemic solutions.

In other words, at that time, the Ministry of Defense at least addressed and informed the media about some problems, in those days there were no embarrassing pictures on the Internet related to the army, when there was still the Defense Ministry. We cannot say how many of the servicemen voted in the extraordinary elections of December 2018, and to what extent there was guidance, here we are talking about obvious shameful violations.

Let’s remind that as a result of the extraordinary parliamentary elections held on December 9, three forces passed the National Assembly: “My Step” bloc (88 seats), PAP (26 seats) and “Enlightened Armenia” party (18 seats). And how Nikol Pashinyan was հայտարարել՝  “It is the first time that their results will not be challenged in the Constitutional Court.”

Already on June 20, 2021 again during the NA extraordinary elections be recorded was a case when soldiers vote with ready-made envelopes. At that time, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia was Vagharshak Harutyunyan, he was not a member of the CP, moreover, there were various reports that it was also at that time of the Armed Forces of Armenia Arshak Karapetyan, the first deputy chief of the general staff, “also had a mixed finger”.

By the way, there was also information that the contract workers whose relatives had blocked their way during the 44-day period so that they would not go to Artsakh to participate in combat operations also “worked” for Pashinyan, and it was in Tavush that such cases occurred.

And during the National Assembly elections held on June 7, 2026, such cases related to the army received a more shameful image, including cases of voting after 8:00 p.m., moreover, there were cases when soldiers entered the precinct after 8:00 p.m., and we are talking about several dozen soldiers. “Akanets” observation mission reported that about 480 servicemen were allowed to vote after 20:00.

Of course, as it was expected, the authorities justified it without giving each other a turn, if not to say that they did not see a problem with the law.

First, CEC Chairman Vahagn Hovakimyan, referring to the information spread on the Internet that after the end of the elections, after 20:00, military personnel were brought to the polling stations for the purpose of voting, stated that this was due to the slow organization of work at the polling stations.

“Before 20:00 in the evening, the soldiers were in front of the door of the polling station, waiting for their turn, and here a problem arose: either close the door of the polling station for the military and not let them in, so that they could exercise their right to vote, or let them in,” he elaborated, stressing that those soldiers had been waiting in front of the polling stations for a long time and could not simply enter due to the queues at the polling station, and that such a problem was in only 2 polling stations.

Then the head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces spoke to journalists insist that the soldiers voted within the law. In other words, according to the requirements of the Electoral Code, “it doesn’t matter if he is a soldier or an ordinary citizen, he is in the territory of the electoral district, he is allowed to continue his constitutional duty.”

“Our servicemen were in the territory of the polling station at the appointed time, that is, no serviceman came to the polling station late,” Asryan emphasized.

In response to the objection that there is a precinct that the soldiers entered after 8:00 p.m., the head of the General Election Commission urged that the remaining questions should be addressed to the Central Election Commission and other related bodies.

It is clear, isn’t it, that the interest of the soldiers to fulfill this civic duty was not in favor of the opposition forces, and it was very painful to see the scenes and footage of the disrespectful attitude towards the army and the soldier, the confused soldiers. The supporters of the current government will say that during the previous government there were cases of targeting soldiers, we do not rule it out, nor do we justify it. We simply record that we have “improvement” of such cases in a negative sense, and this is during the rule of the force whose leader promised in 2018: “during political processes, including elections, the army should not be involved as a party to the electoral process.”

The current political and military leadership may still claim that they have not broken their revolutionary promise, but the facts speak of the opposite, and they know it well. And the army, really, should be kept away from political preferences and games, even under the previous authorities, I always said that the Ministry of Defense should not be partisan, maybe my position is subjective, especially when there can be a non-partisan head of the General Staff, who will quote or refer to Nikol Pashinyan more than the party Minister of Defense.

In this context, we cannot ignore the information circulated that immediately after the war of 2020, the head of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Onik Gasparyan, was faced with the problem of involving the army in political processes, but he did not give in to it in favor of the government. At the same time, we must remind that 2020 on October 27 after that, when same day Vazgen Manukyan had demanded The resignation of Nikol Pashinyan’s government, saying that all power should be handed over to the army, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia with a joint statement came forward, stressing that they will unconditionally fulfill the orders and decisions of the Supreme Commander of the Republic of Armenia.

“Especially in the conditions of martial law The Armed Forces of Armenia adhere to the hierarchy provided by law and will continue to unconditionally fulfill the orders and decisions of the Supreme Commander of the RA, the Government and the Minister of Defense.

RA Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces political and semi-political circles are called upon to refrain from divisive statements and actions“, stated in the statement of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Defense.

Of course, we have reservations as to whether the General Assembly should have made such a statement, whether making such a statement during the war did not interfere with the political processes in some sense.

And already on February 25, 2021, when the RA armed forces demanded the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan and the government, Onik Gasparyan was accused by Nikol Pashinyan of meddling in political processes and attempting a military coup, although here it was about the security problems facing the homeland. Of course, it might have been right for Onik Gasparyan to write an application for release and leave, making the same statement on his own behalf, especially when he claimed that the statement of the General Staff was not dictated by anyone, and that it was only necessary to warn about future security challenges, and that the cup of patience of the Armed Forces was full, even though the signatories of the statement until today they are in the armed forces and even received official promotion.

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