news.am, Armenia
Feb 13 2010
Armenian President’s trip to London, Ankara’s moans and groans¦:weekly review
09:00 / 02/13/2010
Domestic policy
This week a number of top-ranking officials and the government
agencies headed by them have had to refute the media reports on their
resignation. A number of opposition newspapers published articles on
an imminent government reshuffle. Some of the officials have hurried
to refute the reports. Chief of the RA Police Alik Sargsyan flatly
refuted the report and accounted for them by the `crafty designs’ by
those seeking to replace him. Mr. Sargsyan’s arguments, however, seem
to be plausible ‘ Chief of the RA Military Police Vladimir Gasparyan’s
desire to become Chief of the RA Police has continuously been talked
about for the last three years. The press service of the RA Ministry
of Nature Protection flatly refuted the reports on the minister’s
resignation. RA Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan stated that his agreeing
to fill the post of RA Prosecutor General would mean bringing all his
previous work to nothing. We find it difficult to make any forecasts
about accuracy of media reports now, but experience shows they are not
too far from the truth ` at least in part.
At his meeting with journalists, Armen Harutyunyan addressed the
tragic consequences of post-election processes in March 2008.
According to him, one has to `try hard’ to see the Armenian
authorities’ political will to deal with them. `If I want to see this
political will very much, I can see some of its manifestations. In
this case, however, I will turn into a pro-governmental political
figure,’ Harutyunyan said. He pointed out that the Armenian
authorities should not `feel hurt’ by international agencies’
strongly-worded resolutions, as they have not so far answered numerous
questions concerning the 2008 post-election processes.
The Yerkrapah volunteer union, which does not consider itself a
political organization, is likely to finally decide on its political
preferences soon. On the threshold of Yerkrapah’s regular congress
scheduled for February 16, the Yerkrapah leader Manvel Grigoryan’s
return to the government camp is being much talked about. Although
Yerkrapah does not admit the fact that, as a result of Manvel
Grigoryan’s actions coordinated with President Serzh Sargsyan, persons
holding opposite views may become Yerkapah Board members, General
Grigoryan, for more than a year and a half, has been `expressing his
loyalty’ to the authorities, and `showing tolerance’ to a number of
his companions-in-arms being under arrest. It should be noted that
Manvel Grigoryan had never made open statements in the Opposition’s
favor, but, during the 2003 and 2008 presidential elections, many of
the Yerkrapah members supported the opposition candidates, Stepan
Demirchyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan respectively. The disagreements
between General Grigoryan and the Armenian authorities during the most
crucial phase of the 2008 presidential campaign resulted in his being
`granted a leave’ and later relieved of the post of RA Deputy Minister
of Defense. Now, however, we can expect fundamental disagreements
between the two wings of Yerkrapah, the radical opposition and soft
liners.
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and region
This week has been an eventful one with respect to the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. Despite the statements that `the ball
is in the Turkish part of the field,’ made in Yerevan, the Armenian
authorities took a number of steps.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has taken advantage of his three-day
visit to Great Britain to give new impetus to the Armenian-Turkish
normalization process. The Armenian leader addressed an open letter to
his Turkish counterpart and later delivered a lengthy speech at the
Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, in London. He
made a number of all-important statements. Part of the Armenian
President’s speech must have been addressed to the Armenian people `
Serzh Sargsyan thus reaffirmed his commitment to the policy of
normalizing relations with Turkey. The Armenian leader once more made
it clear to his opponents in Armenia and in the Diaspora that he has
no intention to revise his foreign policy. `If the clock of history
could be turned back, I would have initiated the process again,’ Serzh
Sargsyan said.
As regards his decisive steps to ensure progress in the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process, Serzh Sargsyan made a second
step during the last few days ` standing on a high platform in London
he announced his intention to send the Armenian-Turkish protocols to
Parliament for ratification. Speaking in behalf of the parliamentary
majority led by him, the Armenian President expressed the confidence
that the Armenian Parliament would certainly ratify the documents. He
asked a pertinent question: `We should ask Turkey if it is ready to
continue the process.’ Speaking of the absence of any preconditions in
the Armenian-Turkish protocols and expressing surprise at official
Ankara hysteria over the RA Constitutional Court’s verdict, the
Armenian leader clarified the Armenian authorities’ position on the
Armenian Genocide: `There are no preconditions. If Turkey thinks we
will give up the Armenian Genocide problem or agree to unacceptable
concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh ` we did not promise that.’
Official Yerevan’s constructive position, particularly its foreign
policy in harmony with the new geopolitical processes in the region,
makes top-ranking Turkish officials show inconsistency in their
positions. Early this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
made strongly-worded statements against Turkey’s principal military
and strategic ally, United States. He issued threats, stating that the
pressure exerted on Ankara, including a draft resolution on the
Armenian Genocide that may `come up’ at the U.S. Congress, may prove
fatal to the Armenian-Turkish process. That must have been a step of
despair that had to be `smoothed over’ later.
The aforementioned open letter addressed by the Armenian President to
his Turkish counterpart proved to be an occasion for Turkey to show
its willingness to normalize its relations with Armenia. In his open
reply letter to Serzh Sargsyan, President Abdullah Gul called on the
Armenian leader not to doubt Turkey’s determination to normalize its
relations with Armenia, `provided that this resolve and commitment
remains reciprocal.’ `I will remain personally engaged in this process
hoping to see it reach a satisfactory conclusion for both of our
countries,’ the Turkish leader’s letter says. The most significant
fact is that the letter does not contain any mention of Azerbaijan or
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.
This fact, however, should not be overestimated. Ankara is unlikely to
be able to get rid of the `firm friendship’ with its `small brother’,
Azerbaijan, right now. The fact remains: Washington turned a deaf ear
to Ankara’s moaning and groaning about the RA Constitutional Court’s
verdict. RF Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in turn, clearly stated
that it would be wrong to link the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation to
other problems, namely, the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. So the
Turkish authorities have to spend less and less time on fussing over
its fractious `small brother’, Azerbaijan.
As regards international pressure on official Ankara, the following
should be noted. Turkish leaders, of course, have the right to state
that no one can blackmail them. But, in any case, Turkey will have as
many problems as it has now. At the end of this week, Ankara was to
receive another strong blow from the West. Specifically, the European
Parliament demanded that Turkey withdraw its troops from Cyprus.
European parliamentarians also urged Ankara to take specific measures
to successfully complete the negotiations over the Cyprus problem.
They underlined the necessity for creating acceptable conditions for
negotiations by immediately launching a process of withdrawing Turkish
troops from the northern part of Cyprus. Moreover, the European
parliamentarians stressed that in 2009 Turkey did not actually make
any appreciable progress in domestic reforms, which is necessary for
further negotiations over the country’s admission to the European
Union (EU). In its resolution the European Parliament pointed out to
the Turkish authorities the necessity for reforms in the fields of
democracy and human rights, media freedom and protection of national
minorities’ rights. In short, the EU once again made it clear to
Turkey that it is not going to make any concessions in further
negotiations.
Azerbaijan, in turn, encountered problems with European agencies.
After Euronews, which informed the world of Ilham Aliyev’s commitment
to totalitarian methods and of Azerbaijan’s actually not meeting the
CE standards, official Baku decided to `deal with’ PACE Co-Rapporteurs
Andres Herkel and Joseph Debono Grech. The two paid a visit to
Azerbaijan, and the results proved to be `promising.’ Despite all the
efforts of the authorities-controlled mass media to present the
co-rapporteurs’ visit in a favorable light, the real picture was
available on Internet. Specifically, Andres Herkel stated that a
report, which is to be ready this June, will deal with Azerbaijan’s
progress and problems. Expressing his personal opinion, one of the
co-rapporteurs pointed out media freedom problems. He stated that the
report will deal with other problems as well.
Economy and social life
RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan held a meeting with representatives
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Premier informed the IMF
delegation of the economic situation in the country, as well as of
prospects of the Armenia-IMF cooperation.
The Deno Gold Mining Company began dismissing the employees that
participated in recent strikes. Press Secretary Norair Aghayan told
NEWS.am that 17 employees have been dismissed and this number may
reach 50-55. The official reason for the dismissal is low-quality work
and absence from work. Speaking of the strikes, Aghayan pointed out
that the company decided to raise wages, but some of the employees
expressed their discontent. About 200 employees went on strike, and
the dismissed workers intend to go to law to defend their rights.
Private transfers to Armenia amounted to U.S. $1.576bn AMD in 2009 ‘ a
30.6% decrease as compared with 2008. Private transfers from Russia
amounted to U.S. $950m ` a decrease of 35%. Bank transfer from Armenia
totaled U.S. $752m ` a 33% decrease as compared with 2008.
In his interview with NEWS.am-Innovation, Gurgen Gasparyan, IT and
Publishing Advisor to the Director of the Institute of Ancient
Manuscripts Matenadaran, reported that 1,200 manuscripts have been
digitized. He pointed out that the work started three years ago and
about one million of 12m pages kept in Matenadaran have been
digitized. More work is expected to be done this year. Galust
Gyulbenkyan charity foundation has provided funds for two more pieces
of digitizing equipment. Gasparyan reported that, after the
manuscripts have been photographed and cataloged, all the information
will be available to the scholars that have already studied the
manuscripts. He pointed out that scholars prefer time-saving digitized
information now.
T.P.