Tag Archives: Armenia

Armenia cuts interest rates again

JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by 0.25% for the third time this year because of continued falling inflation.

The new 7% interest rate is the lowest set by the Armenian Central Bank for four years, reflecting concern over an economy that is bouncing along the bottom of economists’ forecasts.

Like other parts of the former Soviet Union, the unrest in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia have impacted Armenia and slowed its economic prospects.

The Central Bank was succinct.

“There was 0.8 percent of deflation in May of 2014,” it said.

“In the coming months, the Board considers, that the inflation rate will keep on easing as the impact of energy prices, increased in July 2013, phases out, and it will further pace down (to) the lower boundary of the confidence band most probably during the third quarter.”

In other words, Armenia’s Central Bank is gently warning that its economic indicators will worsen further before there is any sign of improvement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Sargsyan visits Georgia

JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan concluded a two day trip to Tbilisi by saying the two countries’ different strategies towards Russia and the EU could strengthen their relations. Georgia has chosen closer ties to the EU while Armenia has looked to Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Selective abortion growing in Armenia

YEREVAN/Armenia, JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — This was the third time that 34-year-old Anoush, who was pregnant, and her mother-in- law had taken a bus from their village to Yerevan.

They wanted to find out if Anoush would keep the baby and this depended on what medical staff would say.

“My husband and his family want a boy. They want a boy to inherit their family name,” said Anoush.

This is Anoush’s fifth pregnancy, she has two daughters already. If medical staff told her that she was expecting a boy she would keep the baby. If it was a girl she wouldn’t.

Selective abortions are still relatively commonplace in Armenia for women from the villages. There, the pressure is on to produce a son as an heir.

A project prohibiting sex selective abortion will be introduced by the Ministry of Health as it has become a major concern to the government.

A recent UN-sponsored said selective abortion was damaging the normal demographic make-up of Armenia. According to research in 1993 the ratio of male to female newborns was 106 to 100. In 2012 the ratio has widen to 114 boys for every 100 girls.

Donara, a 50-year-old doctor, said that many women were being forced into abortions by their husbands or the family of their husbands.

“Today couples are parenting to one or two children and they want one of them be a baby boy. Perhaps the problem would be solved if they had better social conditions,” she said.

Some of the debate in Armenia has focused around not telling mothers what sex their baby is expected to be until after 30 weeks of pregnancy.

For Anoush, though, there was joy and relief as the doctors confirmed that she was finally expecting a son.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Police shot at in Armenia

JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A supporter of Armenia’s nationalist party Tsegakron opened fire at police with an air pistol outside a courthouse in Yerevan where the party’s leader was standing trial, media reported. The leader of Tsegakron, Shant Harutiunian, was arrested in November after clashes with police.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Armenia looks to China

JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia is looking to build and launch its first satellite, all with Chinese support, media reported. The deal highlights the increased reach of China across the South Caucasus and Central Asia. It is increasingly turning to soft power — building roads and helping with technology — to win favour.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Armenians argue over statue to Stalin official

YEREVAN/Armenia, JUNE 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia intends to honour Anastas Mikoyan, a senior member of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s government, by erecting a statue of him in the centre of Yerevan.

Many Armenians, though, are appalled by the decision to build a statue to Mikoyan — a man accused of signing the death warrants of hundreds of his countrymen in the 1930s during the so-called purges. They suspect it is part of a wider plot to curry favour with Russia where Stalin and his associates have experienced something of a resurgence in popularity.

Armenia views Russia as a key ally, ensuring that there is a military balance with Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus and offering the sugar-sweet potential of joining its Eurasian Economic Union, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus.

With a hint of dry irony, Alina Abrahamyan, a 35-year-old historian, said: “This is another brilliant example of crawling under Moscow’s feet. Or it is just Moscow’s decision to erect Mikoyan’s monument in its Armenian suburb?”

Mikoyan was a Bolshevik and Soviet statesman who served under Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev. Mikoyan was the only Soviet politician to remain at the highest levels of power within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and some revere him for this.

Some others also say that Mikoyan was an adept politician who was able to argue the Soviet Union’s position among the top statesmen of the day.

“Mikoyan was a politician equal to Churchill. It was due to him that the world escaped a third World War, as he was the famously able to calm the Caribbean tensions down,” 70-year-old Maya Manouelian said. “But at the same time we know that he signed executions of so many Armenians. He, though, did not have an alternative as his political status forced him to do it.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)

Armenia-Azerbaijan relations heat up

JUNE 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing two of its soldiers along the border of the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh, raising tension around one of the South Caucasus most delicately-balanced flash-points.

Shootouts are common between the two countries around Nagorno-Karabakh, where a barely discernible peace is held together by a fragile 1994 UN-negotiated cease-fire, but the heightened war-mongering rhetoric from Armenia alarmed international observers.

Azerbaijan denied the accusations.

Both sides are playing to their internal audience. The problem for Armenia is that the rhetoric has serious geopolitical implications.

It wants to join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union which also counts Belarus and Kazakhstan as members. Armenia has the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Its dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has, though, caused some consternation. Media reported that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev raised objections to Armenia’s membership because of its dispute over Nagorno- Karabakh a the signing ceremony last month.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)

Armenia’s parliament ratifies road loan

JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament ratified a $100m loan from the Asian Development Bank that will be used to finance the construction of a road that will improve transport links between the north and the south of the country. The road, linking Talin and Lanjik, is considered an important part of the general infrastructure upgrade.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)

Karimov criticises Eurasian Economic Union

JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek president Islam Karimov has criticised the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union as a thinly disguised effort to create a broader political group.

Mr Karimov is, perhaps, the first leader from Central Asia to offer such brazen criticism of the Eurasian Economic Union, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pet projects.

Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reported Mr Karimov saying that joining the Eurasian Economic Union would mean losing national independence.

“They say that they will only create an economic market and it won’t relinquish sovereignty and independence. Tell me, can political independence exist without economic independence?” Mr Karimov said according to 24.kg.

Of course, Uzbekistan is the most unilateral of the Central Asian countries and criticism from Tashkent of the Eurasian Economic Union is not unexpected but Mr Karimov’s comments are particularly barbed and the timing poignant.

Alongside Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are also members of the Eurasian Economic Union which was signed into existence last month at a ceremony in Astana. But Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are all eager to join.

Many Western analysts have said that despite assurances from Mr Putin, the Eurasian Economic Union is little more than a thinly veiled effort by the Kremlin to extend its political power. Clearly Mr Karimov shares these views.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)

Armenia to relax visa regime

MAY 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia is considering dropping visa requirements for US citizens, media quoted deputy foreign minister Sergey Manasarian as saying. Earlier this year Armenia allowed EU citizens to stay 90 days without a visa after the EU relaxed rules for Armenians.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on June 4 2014)