APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan flew to Ashgabat for talks with his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. At the end of their meeting, they agreed to deepen bilateral relations. This is important for Armenia which needs to build more allies and for Turkmenistan for building its international profile.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Stubbornly high unemployment is a major problem for Armenia’s economy, media quoted the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as saying in an annual reported. Unemployment last year in Armenia measured 16.8%, the ADB said. It said GDP growth in 2013 slowed to 3.5% from 7.2% in 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tigran Sargsyan, 54, resigned as Armenia’s PM without giving a clear explanation as to why. Mr Sargsyan, no relation to Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, had been PM since 2008. He had previously been head of the Central Bank. His government had grown increasingly unpopular over pension reform.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Less than a week after US President Barack Obama said NATO would not invite Georgia to join, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described Georgia as a “special partner”. Georgia is desperate to join NATO and Mr Rasmussen’s comments will have given its leaders hope that one day it will be a NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the government’s flagship pension reforms were illegal, triggering a fresh crisis at the top of the Armenian political spectrum.
The ruling was a major blow to the government which has stubbornly stuck to its pension reform agenda despite increasing levels of public discontent. It also appeared to come as a surprise.
The following day Tigran Sargsyan resign as Armenia’s PM, although he did not link his resignation explicitly with the Court’s ruling. There have been perpetual rumours about his health and other job offers.
Later this month, the government also faces a vote of no confidence in parliament. Opinion polls have shown that its popularity has sunk to fresh lows.
And most of this unpopularity stems from the pension reforms.
Thousands have marched against changes which were introduced at the start of the year. The reforms stated that everybody born after Jan. 1 1974 would have to pay 5% of their salary into a state pension fund. The state has promised to match private contributions to the pension fund up to a maximum of $61 per month.
But now the Constitutional Court has ruled that the pension reforms introduced by the government restrict the rights of its citizens.
The problem for Armenia is, similarly to other countries in the former Soviet Union, it simply has to reform its state pension system to pay for its aging population and to compensate for the large grey economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, met in Moscow under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group to discuss setting up talks between their presidents on the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. All incremental moves towards high-level talks over Nagorno-Karabakh are important.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It may not sound like much but it is, in fact, important. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met on the sidelines of a summit on nuclear security in the Hague between March 24/25, media reported quoting the OSCE. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The grey economy in Armenia generates roughly 40% of GDP, media quoted human rights activist Karen Andreasyan as saying. Mr Adreasyan said that the high proportion of GDP generated by the grey economy creates problems in tax and customs areas.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia firmly staked out its position on international affairs when it voted against a motion in the UN General Assembly to reaffirm the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
It was join by a dubious list of 10 other countries that also voted against the motion which asked for Crimea to be restored to Ukraine after the de facto annexation last month by Russia.
The list is telling. Armenia now, it appears, keeps company with a range of countries variously described as eccentric, awkward and anti-capitalist. It includes North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Syria.
For Armenia, this feels like a watershed. It has increasingly leaned towards Russia over the past few years. Moscow gives Armenia much financial and military support. And it needs both. Armenia is wedged between two enemies — Turkey and Azerbaijan and needs as many allies as it can gather.
Last year Armenia turned its back on further EU integration in favour of the Russia-led Customs Union.
But Central Asian countries have also chosen a pro-Russia agenda. Yet they were able to abstain from voting during the Ukraine UN Assembly debate.
If there was ever any doubt on where Armenia’s loyalty lies, there isn’t any more. Armenia’s UN Assembly vote underlines its trajectory.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Arman Sahakian, an Armenian MP, said that roughly 600 Armenian families fled from Kessab, a town in Syria, last month after Islamic extremists captured it, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Armenia’s government has said it’s concerned about the fate of Armenians living there.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)