Thursday, January 11, 2017

Tsarukian Bloc To Stay Away From Opposition Protest


 . Sisak Gabrielian


Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian campaigns in Masis, 24Mar2017.

Businessman Gagik Tsarukian's political alliance made clear on
Thursday that it will not join a demonstration against the latest
consumer price hikes in Armenia which is planned by another opposition
group.

The Yelk bloc said earlier this week that it will rally supporters in
Yerevan on January 19 to protest against the increased prices of fuel
and some foodstuffs. It blamed the Armenian government for rising
inflation.

"We respect decisions taken by partner political forces and their
methods of struggle," Mikael Melkumian, a leading member of the
Tsarukian Bloc, said of the planned protest. "It's up to them to do
that. But we have our own style of work."

"We believe that a lot can be done in the parliament," he told
RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

Melkumian, who is also a deputy speaker of the parliament, said the
Tsarukian Bloc will be seeking to counter the price hikes with
legislative initiatives. In particular, he said, it will press the
pro-government majority in the parliament next week to agree to
sweeping tax cuts that have long been championed by Tsarukian.

The tycoon's political force controls 31 seats in the 105-member
National Assembly, making it the second largest parliamentary
force. By comparison, Yelk has only 9 parliament deputies.

One of those deputies, Lena Nazarian, said on Thursday that the
upcoming Yelk rally may mark the beginning of sustained street
protests. "After all, the street is a political environment and people
protesting on the street can influence policy and decisions made by
the National Assembly," she said.


Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian visits a new leisure center built
by businessman Gagik Tsarukian (R) in Tsaghkadzor, 20Dec2017.

Although the Tsarukian Bloc claims to be in opposition to President
Serzh Sarkisian, political analysts continue to question its
opposition credentials.

Tsarukian, who is one of the country's richest men, was forced to
leave the political arena nearly three years ago after challenging
Sarkisian's hold on power. He returned to active politics ahead of the
April 2017 parliamentary elections. The tycoon and his allies
criticized government policies but avoided personal attacks on the
president during the election campaign.

Sarkisian has regularly attended the inaugurations of new businesses
set up by Tsarukian in the last two years.



World Bank Again Upgrades Armenian Growth Forecasts


 . Artur Khachatrian


Armenia - Workers at a textile factory in Yerevan, 5Oct2017.

The World Bank has again improved its short-term outlook for Armenia,
saying that the Armenian economy will grow by around 4 percent
annually in the coming years.

In its latest global economic report released this week, the bank said
economic growth in the country was on course to accelerate to 3.7
percent in 2017. It will reach 3.8 percent this year and 4 percent in
2019 and 2020, according to the report.

A similar World Bank report issued in May forecast growth rates of 2.7
percent, 3.1 percent and 3.4 percent for2017, 2018 and 2019
respectively. It cited "the sustained expansion of the tradable
sectors and a modest recovery in domestic consumption."

Faster growth anticipated by the Washington-based institution would
still fall short of targets set by the Armenian government. According
to the latest government projections, Armenia's Gross Domestic Product
will increase, in real terms, by at least 4.5 percent this year and
over 5 percent in 2019.

President Serzh Sarkisian and other senior officials in Yerevan said
late last month that the Armenian economy is on track to expand by
more than 6 percent in 2017.

Commenting on the differing forecasts, Deputy Finance Minister Armen
Hayrapetian said on Thursday that the Armenian government believes in
a more optimistic macroeconomic scenario because of ongoing "reforms"
implemented by it. Hayrapetian also argued that the international
rating agency Fitch upgraded Armenia's economic outlook from "stable"
to "positive" last month.

The World Bank's May 2017 report also predicted that faster growth
will slightly reduce poverty in Armenia. "The poverty rate [measured
by the World Bank] is projected to fall from 23.8 percent in 2017 to
22.2 percent in 2019," it said.

However, Artak Manukian, a Yerevan-based economist, insisted on
Thursday that living standards in the country will actually worsen
this year due to the latest increases in the prices of some essential
products. Manukian singled out the increased cost of fuel, tobacco and
alcohol resulting from higher excise takes that took effect on January
1.



Former Oppositionist Wins Lawsuit Against Armenian State


 . Sargis Harutyunyan


Armenia - Opposition lawmaker Alexander Arzumanian speaks at a
parliament session in Yerevan, 26Oct2016.

Alexander Arzumanian, a former opposition politician currently serving
as Armenia's ambassador to Denmark, won on Thursday a court case
against the Armenian authorities that stems from his controversial
arrest in 2007.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the authorities to
pay Arzumanian 2,500 euros ($3,000) in damages. It ruled that his
four-month detention violated articles of a European convention
relating to criminal suspects' right to get a trial within a
"reasonable" time and be released from custody pending trial.

Arzumanian, who served as Armenia's foreign minister from 1996-1998,
declined to comment on the ruling.

Aruzmanian, 58, was arrested in May 2007 on charges of being illegally
financed from abroad. He consistently denied the accusations as
politically motivated before being set free four months later. The
high-profile case was linked by many observers with an anti-government
movement which Arzumanian and several other politicians opposed to
then President Robert Kocharian set up in 2006.

Arzumanian went on to play a major role in former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian's failed bid to return to power through a disputed
presidential election held in February 2008. He was among prominent
opposition figures arrested in the wake of the vote. Arzumanian spent
more than a year in prison.

The prominent oppositionist subsequently fell out with Ter-Petrosian
and teamed up with other opposition groups challenging President Serzh
Sarkisian. He held a seat in the Armenian parliament from 2012-2017.

Arzumanian was most recently affiliated with the Armenian Pan-National
Movement, a small opposition party. He quit the party in February
2017. Sarkisian appointed him as ambassador to Denmark five months
later.



Karabakh Reports Renewed Rise In Tourism


Nagorno-Karbaakh - The medieval Dadivank monastery, May 19, 2015.

The number of non-Armenian foreign tourists visiting Nagorno-Karabakh
jumped by 41 percent in 2017 after decreasing following the April 2016
war with Azerbaijan, a senior official in Stepanakert said on
Thursday.

Speaking to the Armenpress news agency, Artak Grigorian, the head of
Karabakh's tourism department, put their total number at more than
23,000. He said it is up by 30 percent from the 2015 total.

"We compare this figure with 2015 because we had a decline in tourism
in 2016," explained Grigorian. He said the number of tourists again
began rising last year thanks to an "active PR campaign" conducted by
the Karabakh leadership.

The official figures do not include residents of Armenia, who also
travel to Karabakh in larger numbers these days.

Grigorian said Russian nationals continue to account for the majority
of foreign tourists in Karabakh, followed by citizens of the United
States, France and Iran. All those countries have sizable ethnic
Armenian communities.

"We anticipate a further rise in visits from Russia this year because
we have targeted that market," added the Karabakh official. "We are
also working in the European direction."

Karabakh's main tourist attractions are mountainous scenery, medieval
Armenian monasteries as well as a cave complex thought to be the site
of one of the most ancient proto-human habitations in Eurasia. They
are located several dozen kilometers away from the heavily militarized
"line of contact" separating the Karabakh Armenian and Azerbaijani
armies.

The Azerbaijani authorities regard private or business trips to
Karabakh not authorized by them as a breach of Baku's sovereignty over
the territory. At least 600 foreign dignitaries and ordinary visitors
have been declared personae no grata in Azerbaijan for ignoring these
warnings.



Press Review


Armenia -- Newspapers for press review illustration, Yerevan,
12Jul2016

"Haykakan Zhamanak" describes as "weird" President Serzh Sarkisian's
emergency meeting with senior officials held on Wednesday in
connection with the latest increases in key consumer prices in
Armenia. The paper argues that as recently as one month Sarkisian
insisted that consumer price inflation in Armenia is low and no cause
for concern. It says he is worried about the opposition Yelk
alliance's decision to hold a demonstration in Yerevan on January 19
against the price hikes.

The rally, "Haykakan Zhamanak" goes on, will mark the "start of a
whole new political process" in Armenia. "And it is impossible to
predict what that process may lead to and how it will end," it says.

"Zhamanak" says Sarkisian's statements on the need to mitigate the
impact of higher prices on the low-income population were "largely
declarative." "And his hints about state support for eliminating
consequences [of higher prices] for socially vulnerable people are
rather anti-economic than economic," comments the paper. "The thing is
that no matter how important subsidies and other social allocations
are for the poor they are more likely to lead to waste rather than
development. Especially in resource-poor economies like Armenia."

In an interview with "Hayots Ashkhar," Tevan Poghosian, a political
analyst and a former parliamentarian, comments on the most recent
truce violations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. "The more we
provide our army with new equipment the more the enemy thinks of ways
of countering it," he says. "We strengthened the [Karabakh] border and
[Azerbaijani] incursions stopped. But we are now again engaged in a
war of snipers. It means that we need to think of new mechanisms and
new steps # We have no right to stop. We must work hard every day to
expand our military capabilities."

(Tigran Avetisian)



Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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