APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has agreed to lower the price of gas it sells to consumers in Armenia by 13%, media reported quoting Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller. Gazprom owns the gas pipelines in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Armenia blamed each other for more clashes along the border of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said that five Armenian soldiers had been killed in shootouts; the Armenia-backed government in Nagorno-Karabakh said that one Azerbaijani soldier had been killed.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taking a conciliatory approach, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey would mark the 100th anniversary of the killings of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks with a ceremony in Istanbul for the first time. This a concession by Turkey, although it refuses to call the killings a genocide.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande are among the foreign dignitaries due to fly to Yerevan on April 23, the day before the 100th anniversary of the killings of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US President Barak Obama will not describe the killing of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as a genocide, White House officials said. This will disappoint Armenia’s top officials.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -The United States has decided to cut its so-called assistance budget to Armenia which funds various social programmes run by USAID, the overseas development arm of the US government, and its embassy.
The US defended the cuts by saying that dealing with the rise of the Islamic extremist group IS, the Ebola epidemic in Africa and the civil war in Ukraine had placed extra pressure on its resources and that cuts had to be paid.
“These reductions in funding for certain of our assistance programs in Armenia were necessitated by budgetary demands and additional global priorities, and in no way reflect the quality of the programs that have been implemented, or the strength of the US-Armenia relationship,” the Voice of Armenia website quoted a US embassy statement as saying.
Sceptics, though, said the US decision may be linked to Armenia joining the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union in January, effectively turning its back on further integration with the West. Turkey and Azerbaijan have also had their US assistance aid budget cut, although these two countries are far wealthier than Armenia and are less likely to feel the squeeze.
The US did not say by how much it would cut Armenia’s assistance budget although it said that since 1992, the US had given more than $2b to Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union is considering negotiating a loose association deal with Armenia, its ambassador in Yerevan, Traian Hristea, told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This is significant as Armenia rejected a closer Association Agreement it had been negotiating with the EU in 2013 when it agreed to join the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Referring to an EU summit in Riga next month, Mr Hristea said: “After we receive the mandate from the member states (to negotiate a deal with Armenia), of course we will engage in negotiations.”
For Armenia, short on regional allies, this is vital. It had been worried that its membership of the EEU will block any further involvement with the EU. That, though, hasn’t been the case and the EU has been willing to engage Armenia despite its close alliance with Russia. Russia keeps a large military base in Armenia, it is Armenia’s biggest investor and controls the gas pipeline network.
Separately, Armenian media quoted President Serzh Sargsyan defending his decision to take the country into the EEU.
“I am convinced Armenia has made the right choice, and, I am sure, there would be many more difficulties in any other circumstances,” he was quoted as saying.
Many ordinary Armenians have said they would rather that the country had not joined the EEU.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale shook northern Armenia. There were no causalities but the earthquake was recorded in Yerevan with a strength of 2 to 3 on the Richter Scale.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Armenia raided the homes of four opposition activists they say had plotted riots during a planned memorial on the 100th anniversary later this month of an alleged massacre by Ottoman Turks of Armenians in eastern Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Argentinean news agency Telam removed from its website an article on the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijani officials complained it was biased, media reported. Azerbaijan is very sensitive over how its dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh is portrayed.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)