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    Categories: 2018

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 04/06/2018

                                        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
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