Tag Archives: Armenia

Radical Islamists attack Armenians in Syria

MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radical Islamists fighting government forces in Syria’s civil war have attacked and killed people living in a predominantly ethnic Armenian town, news reports have said.

An estimated 2,000 Christian Armenians have fled the city of Kesab in western Syria for Latakia, a nearby town, reports said.

Syria has been home to a large Armenian minority for the past hundred years but thousands have fled to Yerevan since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011.

The civil war in Syria presents president Serzh Sargsyan and his government a major headache both externally and domestically.

On a pre-planned trip to a conference in Brussels, Mr Sargsyan voiced his concern and offered help.

The attack is blamed on the Nursa Front, affiliated to Al Qaeda.

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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)

Armenia inches towards the Customs Union

MARCH 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia may be able to complete all the steps needed to join the Customs Union by the end of May, Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan said. His announcement is the clearest indication so far of when Armenia hopes to join the Customs Union.

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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)

Armenia looks to Iran for gas

MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia may quadruple its gas imports to 2b cubic metres a year from Iran, media reported quoting Armenian energy minister Armen Movsisyan. Over the past few years Armenia and Iran have improved relations. Both countries have been searching for regional allies.

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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)

Thousands protest against Armenia’s new pension plan

MARCH 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several thousand people demonstrated against the government’s new pension scheme that means that people born after 1974 have to pay 5% of their salary into a central pot. The demonstration was the biggest against the scheme for some time, indicating how passionately people feel about it. There have been several protests this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)

Pollution kills fish in Armenian lake

MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pollution and poor irrigation management have killed off much of the fish in Lake Sevan in Armenia, media quoted experts as saying. Lake Sevan is one of the world’s biggest fresh water lakes and one of Armenia’s main tourist attractions.

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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Armenia woos hi-tech firms

MARCH 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an attempt to boost its technology sector, Armenia’s government approved a law that will offer IT start-up companies a tax break. Under the package IT companies with less than 15 people will not be taxed on profit for three years. Earlier this year Armenia unveiled its version of the iPad — an Armtab.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Azerbaijan boosts arms import

MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Between 2009 and 2013 Azerbaijan increased by nearly four times the amount of arms it imported, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported. Azerbaijan has been spending profits from energy sales on re-arming. It is still officially at war with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Russia pledges new investments in Armenia

MARCH 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s transport minister, Maxim Sokolov, visited Yerevan and pledged an extra $50m investment in various joint-ventures, a sort of pre-Customs Union entry sweetener for Armenia. Pushing aside the EU’s advances, Armenia has agreed to join the Russia-led Customs Union later this year.

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Armenia hires consultants to re-brand itself

MARCH 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to boost tourism, and with its own political agenda in mind, Armenia has hired New York-based GK Brand and Toronto-based Cundari Group to re-brand its sovereign image.

The Armenian government wants to launch a new logo and business plan next year that will help draw in both businesses and tourists.

For Armenia, 2015 is an historically important year as it marks the 100th anniversary of what it has described as a genocide perpetrated against it by Turkish forces.

It says that 1.5m Armenians died when Ottoman Turks attacked them and drove them out of their homes in eastern Turkey in 1915. Turkey denies a genocide but has said that many were killed in partisan fighting.

Armenia is placing an emphasis on its culture, its churches and monasteries for its re-brand but there will also be plenty of political intent.

(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)

Armenia relaxes visa regime for Iraq

MARCH 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia has relaxed it visa regime for Iraq, less than a month after opening a consulate in the Kurdish part of the country, media reported. On bad terms with its neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia has been strengthening economic and civil relations with Iran and Iraq.

(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)