Friday, April 06, 2018 Journalists Barred From New Armenian President’s Inauguration Ապրիլ 06, 2018 • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Armen Sarkissian is seen in the parliament moment after being elected Armenia's next president, 2 March 2018. Journalists will not be allowed to attend the inauguration on Monday’s of Armenia’s new president, Armen Sarkissian, a senior official said on Friday. Sarkissian will be sworn in at a special session of the Armenian parliament which overwhelmingly elected him president last month. The session will be held at a large concert hall, rather than the parliament building in Yerevan. The chief of the parliament’s press service, Arsen Babayan, said parliamentary correspondents will only be able to watch a live broadcast of the ceremony from a National Assembly press room. Only the heads of 53 “leading media outlets” will be invited to attend the inauguration, he said, calling that an “additional opportunity for press coverage.” “Journalists accredited with the National Assembly have no right to enter the main National Assembly auditorium,” Babayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “They cover [parliament sessions] from special rooms. The same principle will apply to the coverage of the special parliament session.” Babayan also said that the invited media chiefs will be allowed to “freely carry out their professional activities” during the inauguration. He did not specify the news organizations whose chief executives will receive such invitations. Opposition leaders denounced these restrictions. One of them, Nikol Pashinian, said: “This is what we mean when we say that [the outgoing President] Serzh Sarkisian is building a deceitful Azerbaijani-style state.” Sarkisian is widely expected to become prime minister and thus extend his decade-long rule just days after completing his final presidential term on Monday. His successor will have largely ceremonial powers. Armen Sarkissian has repeatedly stated in recent weeks that despite the lack of executive powers he intends to play a major role in Armenia’s political and economic life. In particular, he has pledged to strive to heal what he sees as serious divisions existing within the Armenian society. Foreign Investment In Armenia Down In 2017 April 06, 2018 • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - The U.S.-based company Lydian International builds a gold mine at the Amulsar deposit, 9Dec2017. (Photo by Lydian Armenia) Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Armenia fell by 27 percent last year despite robust economic growth recorded by the government, official statistics show. According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), FDI inflows totaled nearly $246 million in 2017, down from $338 million in 2016.They stood at $178.5 million in 2015. The Armenian Ministry for Economic Development and Investments on Friday declined to comment on reasons for this sizable reduction in FDI. Vahagn Khachatrian, an economist affiliated with the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), said the drop shows that foreign investors do not trust in Prime Minister Karen Karapetian’s reform pledges and, in particular, his cabinet’s stated efforts to improve the country’s business environment. Khachatrian said that investors continue to be scared away by bureaucratic red tape, government corruption and a lack of competition. Neighboring Georgia attracted $1.8 billion in foreign investment last year because it has a more investor-friendly environment, he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Shortly after being appointed prime minister in September 2016, Karapetian pledged to help attract over $3 billion in domestic and foreign investments in the next few years. He said at least $830 million will be injected in the Armenian economy in 2017. Karapetian’s government claimed to have honored the latter pledge earlier this year. In a 12-page report, it said $856.5 million worth of various “investment projects” were implemented across the country in 2017. Private investors accounted for just over two-thirds of this figure, the report said, adding that the remaining investments were financed from the state budget as well as foreign loans and grants obtained by the government. The NSS reported last month that the Armenian economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2017 after stagnating in 2016. Opposition politicians and other critics of the government question the credibility of this growth rate. NSS figures show that the British island of Jersey was the main source of foreign investments made in Armenia last year. The tax haven is home to an Anglo-American company, Lydian International, which is currently building a massive gold mine in the southeastern Vayots Dzor province. Lydian has pledged to invest a total of $370 million in the Amulsar gold deposit. Azeri Military Buildup All But Complete, Says Aliyev April 06, 2018 • Gevorg Stamboltsian Azerbaijan - President Ilham Aliyev (L) inspects a Russian-made Smerch multiple-launch rocket system deployed in Nakhichevan, 7Apr2014. Azerbaijan has essentially completed large-scale acquisitions of weapons for its armed force which began more than a decade ago, President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday. “We have practically finished the process of rearmament of our army,” he told the official Russian TASS news agency. “Today our army is equipped with the most sophisticated and precision-guided offensive and defensive weaponry. “We buy weapons from the world’s best manufacturers. The acquired weapons make us self-confident.” “Further arms purchases will have a more selective and concrete nature and be aimed at solving one or another issue,” Aliyev added without elaborating. Baku embarked on a massive military buildup in the early 2000s as it started earning billions of dollars in annual oil revenue. Russia, Israel and Turkey have been its main suppliers. Russia alone has sold an estimated $5 billion worth of various weapons to Azerbaijan in the last several years, prompting criticism from Armenia, its main regional ally locked with Baku in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian leaders say those arms supplies contributed to the April 2016 fighting in Karabakh which nearly escalated into an all-out war. Speaking to TASS, Aliyev again blamed Armenia for the lack of decisive progress in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. He said Yerevan is “doing everything” to maintain the status quo. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian claimed the opposite in a newspaper interview published on Friday. He blamed the deadlock on Baku’s “maximalist” position on the conflict. Aliyev and Sarkisian pledged to reinvigorate the Karabakh peace process when they last met in Geneva last October. Their foreign ministers held follow-up talks in December and January. Press Review April 06, 2018 “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” scoffs at Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian’s announcement that Armenia’s next prime minister will have two offices because of wielding many more powers than the current premier. “They were saying that the parliamentary system of government will lead to a separation of powers,” writes the paper. “Now it turns out that one person will have so many powers that a single office will not be enough. But is the holder of that office enough to perform all those duties? Or does the [ruling] HHK plan to clone Serzh Sarkisian so that our long-suffering people get several such goodies? That would be useful in all respects. One [Serzh Sarkisian] would deal with foreign policy issues, another with the economy, while a third one would participate in weddings and engagement parties.” “One can presume that Serzh Sarkisian will be issuing orders relating to the police, the military, the security service and the country’s overall governance from [the presidential palace on] 26 Bagramian Avenue,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” “This is where sensitive intra-governmental processes will be masterminded. By contrast, orders to the deputy prime ministers and ministers will be given from the main government building where cabinet meetings are held. This is really pathetic. It means that the efficiency of a state official’s work depends on the number of their offices.” “Zhamanak” continues to analyze the deepening rift within the opposition Yelk alliance. The paper says that successive opposition alliances in Armenia have failed because of pursuing maximalist objectives, instead of accepting “small but institutional victories.” “As a rule, the opposition has not gained the whole thing and has only lost its main resource: public trust,” it says. “In all likelihood, lessons have not been learned because the lumpen public keeps subjecting the opposition to tests.” “Past” quotes Grigor Harutiunian, a senior member of Stepan Demirchian’s People’s Party, as criticizing other opposition forces that are planning street protests against Serzh Sarkisian. Harutiunian argues that they refused to campaign against Sarkisian’s constitutional changes which made his continued rule possible in the first place. He notes that they also refused to challenge the official results of last year’s parliamentary elections. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org