AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s GDP grew by 4.4% in H1 2015, media quoted PM Hovik Abrahamyan as saying. This is better than analysts had predicted. Mr Abrahamyan said an increase in agriculture exports had helped offset a drop in economic conditions triggered by the fall in the dram currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 protesters scuffled with police in Yerevan over electricity price rises for businesses. Activists said they believe President Serzh Sargsyan has reneged on his promise to protesters in June to subsidise planned electricity price rises by omitting businesses from the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
AUG. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Arsen Avetisian, majority shareholder in Air Armenia, said he was beaten up in central Yerevan after meeting with Ruben Hayrapetian, another wealthy Armenian businessman. Mr Avetisian declined to give media full details of his row. Air Armenia is Armenia’s largest private airline. It has not flown since last year when it was declared bankrupt.
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(News report from Issue No. 244, published on Aug. 21 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russian military court sentenced soldier Valery Permyakov to 10 years in jail for desertion and then handed him over to Armenian officials who are building a case to try him for the stabbing to death of an entire family earlier this year. Permyakov had been serving at the Gyumri military base in Armenia, one of Russia’s largest overseas bases.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government will use cash generated by the $180m sale of the Vorotan Hydro Cascade hydropower plant earlier this year to subsidise a 16% increase in power prices, media quoted PM Hovik Abrahamian as saying. The announcement appears to be a climbdown as the power price rise had sparked protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will loan $300m to Armenia to weather tough economic conditions, media reported quoting Russia’s deputy economy minister Sergei Storchak. The ADB was set up by Russia and Kazakhstan. It supports members of the Eurasian Economic Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French telecoms company Orange is considering selling its Armenian subsidiary to Ucom, an Armenian fibre optic cable. Orange has been operating in Armenia since 2009 and has 650,000 subscribers.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A core group of activists opposed to electricity price rises have called for a series of rallies in Yerevan between July 27 -31 ahead of the Aug. 1 start date of the increases. Momentum behind the rallies protesting against the price rises has fizzled out.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – YEREVAN — Armenia’s opposition accused President Serzh Sargsyan of trying to fiddle with the constitution so that he can run the country from parliament after he leaves the presidency in 2018.
Last week, Armenia’s Constitutional Court unveiled plans for a transition to a parliamentary democracy. Armenians are due to vote on the reforms in December.
The government has said a new system would strengthen democracy.
The opposition disagree.
“Serzh Sargsyan is carrying out the reform with one purpose only: to circumvent the constitutional ban on seeking a third term as president and thus extend his own power, Levon Zurabyan, the head of the ANC parliamentary faction,” said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Armenia’s constitution currently concentrates power with the president. It limits him or her to two terms of five years, a ceiling that Mr Sargsyan will hit in 2018.
David Harutyunyan, an MP from the ruling Republican Party, defended the constitutional changes.
“The basic idea of constitutional reform is to prepare the country for a peaceful change of power, he told journalists at a press conference.
“The current constitution with a semi-hybrid form of government has brought some countries to a dangerous situation. For Armenia, it may have even more damaging consequences.”
There is precedent for reducing the power of the president and switching to a parliamentary democracy in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region.
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people continued to protest in central Yerevan against a potential price rise for electricity, although a Bulletin correspondent at the demonstration said that the numbers and the intensity have dropped off.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)