OCT. 4-6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A visit by the mayor of a French town to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, controlled by Armenia-backed rebels but claimed by Azerbaijan, triggered an official complaint by the Azerbaijani government. Tensions are increasingly fraught around the Nagorno-Karabakh border zones.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF cut its growth estimate for Armenia to 2.6% this year from 3.6% earlier and to 3.3% in 2015, down from an earlier estimate of 4.3%.The downgrades are in line with other agencies who adjusted Armenia’s growth figures downwards because of the impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian opposition groups have launched another round of anti- government protests, media reported. Around 2,000 people gathered for the first planned protest in a town outside Yerevan. Six more rallies are planned around the country with a final rally in central Yerevan on Oct. 10.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Yerevan, Greece’s president Karolos Papoulias and Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan agreed to expand economic relations.
The statement was short on detail and mainly forgettable, if it wasn’t for the timing. The visit by President Papoulias to Armenia comes less than a month after Greece’s parliament agreed to make denial of the alleged genocide by Ottoman Turks against the Armenians a crime.
For Armenia, persuading Greece to take this line was a major success. Some countries, such as France, do formally recognise the Armenian genocide but Greece is only the third country to make it illegal to deny that the genocide took place.
Switzerland and Slovakia have also made it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide. France is considering a similar law.
Turkey denies genocide and says instead that Armenians died in fighting between the two sides towards the end of the First World War.
Relations between Armenia and Turkey and are still strained and the border between the two neighbours is closed.
Of course, relations between Turkey and Greece are also strained making a deal between Armenia and Greece natural.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Moody’s rating agency joined other analysts by downgrading economic growth predictions for Armenia because of a slowdown in Russia’s sanctions-hit economy, media reported. Moody’s said that Armenia would experience economic growth of 2.1% this year compared to earlier forecasts of 3.2%.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will join the Russia-led Customs Union on Oct. 9, Leonid Slutsky, head of Russian State Duma Committee on CIS told Interfax news agency. Armenia has previously said that it is aiming to join the Customs Union sometime this year although it has not set a date.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Each cloud, so the saying goes, has a silver lining. For Armenia’s economy, hit badly by EU and US imposed sanctions on its main trading partner Russia, this could be its cheese industry.
Last month in retaliation for EU sanctions, Russia banned most agriculture imports from the EU. One of the biggest imports was cheese. There is now a shortage of cheese in Russia, presenting its neighbours, including Armenia, with an opportunity, as Armen Gigoyan, head of Armenia’s cheese manufacturers’ union explained.
“We supply approximately 1,500 tonnes of cheese to Russia every year. Under the current vacuum conditions in the Russian market, we could export up to 5,000 tonnes, but shortage will occur on the domestic market once we exceed 2,000 tonnes,” he said according to media reports.
Russia imports around 150,000 tonnes of cheese every year, Mr Gigoyan said, half from the EU. With economists downgrading Armenia’s economic growth prospects, news of a potential gap in the market has to be welcome. The Armenian consumer, though, who may find that the price of cheese has increased in supermarkets may not agree.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An opinion poll in Armenia has highlighted support for joining the Russia-led Customs Union, despite sanctions against Kremlin-linked companies that have triggered a negative knock-on effect on the Armenian economy.
The poll carried out by Gallup last month showed that 60% of people in Yerevan still favoured joining the Customs Union later this year, media reported.
Aram Havasardyan, Gallup’s representative in Armenia, said that this was a slight drop from the 70% who favoured membership of the Customs Union in 2013.
Clearly support for Russia has held up in Armenia despite the sanctions against Russia imposed on it by the US and the EU because of its meddling in Ukraine. This is important for President Serzh Sargsyan who has been pushing for membership.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan is spearheading a publicity drive to promote the country, the BBC reported. Mr Sargsyan wants expatriate Armenians to write positive stories about their homeland in a PR drive called One Armenian, One Article.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament ratified two loan deals with the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) worth $30m to modernise the state education system, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)