Thursday, November 29, 2018
Armenian President Visits ‘Friendly’ Germany
November 29, 2018
Germany - German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Armenian President Armen
Sarkissian in Berlin, November 28, 2018.
President Armen Sarkissian met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and called
for closer ties between Armenia and Germany on Wednesday during an official
visit to Berlin late.
“Armenia views Germany as an important political and economic partner and a
friendly country,” Sarkissian was reported to tell Merkel at the start of their
talks. He said he is looking forward to their further “discussions regarding
the expansion of German-Armenian relations.”
Sarkissian made similar comments when he met with Germany’s President
Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday. “Germany is a friend and a leading economic
partner of Armenia and an active promoter of the Armenia-European Union
agenda,” he said, according to his office.
“Germany is of interest to us also as a country with a parliamentary system of
government, and German experience in parliamentary democracy can be very
important and useful for us,” added Sarkissian, who has largely ceremonial
powers.
Germany - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) and his Armenian
counterpart Armen Sarkissian inspect an honor guard at a welcoming ceremony in
Berlin, November 27, 2018.
According to a statement by the office, Merkel spoke of her “fond memories” of
her August 2018 visit to Yerevan during which she met with Sarkissian and Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Speaking after the talks with Pashinian, Merkel praised Armenia for deepening
its relations with the EU while remaining allied to Russia. She also said
Germany would welcome closer commercial and cultural ties with Armenia and
pledged to help Yerevan implement a landmark agreement with the EU signed in
November 2017.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sarkissian had a lunch meeting with a group of German
diplomats, parliamentarians and pundits.Photographs released by the
presidential press service showed him sitting next to Cem Ozdemir, a prominent
German politician of Turkish descent. Ozdemir was a key sponsor of a 2016
resolution by the German parliament that recognized the 1915 Armenian genocide
in Ottoman Turkey.
While in Berlin, Sarkissian also met with senior executives of several large
German companies. He urged them to invest in Armenia, arguing, among other
things, that his country has tariff-free access to the vast Russian market.
Germany has long been Armenia’s number one EU donor. It is also the South
Caucasus nation’s third largest trading partner. According to official Armenian
statistics, German-Armenian trade soared by 40 percent, to $325 million, in the
first nine months of this year.
Government Raises Minimum Pension, Poverty Benefits
November 29, 2018
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A cabinet meeting in Yerevan, November 29, 2018.
The Armenian government announced on Thursday increases in the minimum amount
of modest pensions and other benefits paid to tens of thousands of people.
The measure, effective from January 1, will benefit some 85,000 elderly or
disabled persons as well as individuals who lost their sole breadwinners. They
all will be paid 25,500 drams ($53) per month.
The government said the sum will match the new extreme poverty line that will
be set by it for next year.
The total number of retired people in Armenia aged 65 and older exceeds
497,000. Nearly seven percent of them are not eligible for normal pensions
because of their insufficient work experience. They currently receive 16,000
drams each in monthly retirement benefits, compared to 21,500 drams paid to
Armenians with various disabilities.
The average pension in the country stands at around 41,000 drams.
Arsen Manukian, a deputy minister of labor and social affairs, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) the pay rises will cost the state budget around
6.7 billion drams in 2019. Manukian said the government is committed to
eventually raising regular pensions as well.
The government’s 2019 budget approved by the parliament last week projects no
such rises. It calls for 444 billion drams in total social spending.
Pashinian Accuses Karabakh Officials Of Election Meddling
November 29, 2018
• Gayane Saribekian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) is greeted by
Karabakh President Bako Sahakian on his arrival in Stepanakert, 16 June 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday lambasted senior Nagorno-Karabakh
officials who he said are “meddling” in Armenia’s ongoing parliamentary race
with their public statements.
One of his close associates, Sasun Mikaelian, said on Monday that the success
of this spring’s protest movement that brought Pashinian to power was more
important than the Armenian victory in the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan.
The remark was condemned by leaders of the former ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) as well as some Karabakh Armenian government and military
officials.
Pashinian was quick to respond to the outcry. He accused the HHK of
deliberately misinterpreting Mikaelian’s statement which he portrayed as a slip
of the tongue.
The premier also hit out at the Karabakh leadership on Thursday during a
campaign trip to the Gegharkunik province.
“Frankly, I don’t quite understand recent days’ activity of representatives of
the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” he said at a rally held there. “Why have they
become active? Why are they making various comments? And why are they trying to
meddle in and show their presence in Armenia’s parliamentary election campaign?”
“I am calling on [Karabakh President] Bako Sahakian to rein in representatives
of his government and make sure they do their job,” Pashinian went on.“The
press secretary of the Karabakh president comments on my statements every other
day. What is this?”
“Sober up and mind your business,” he said in an unprecedented warning to the
authorities in Stepanakert. “I will certainly discuss this with you, but only
after the elections.”
Sahakian did not immediately react to the criticism. Incidentally, the Karabakh
leader met on Thursday with the visiting chief of the Armenian police, Valeri
Osipian. No details of the meeting were made public.
Karabakh officials also reacted when Pashinian declared on the campaign trail
that he is the first leader of Armenia whose son performs compulsory military
service in Karabakh. He also said that some sons of unspecified “Karabakh
leaders” did not serve in the military at all.
It was not clear whether he referred to only Armenia’s Karabakh-born former
President Robert Kocharian or Karabakh’s leaders as well.
Sahakian’s press secretary, Davit Babayan, stated afterwards that the sons of
both the current Karabakh president and his predecessor Arkadi Ghukasian had
served in the local military.
Pashinian mentioned only Kocharian’s two sons when he campaigned in
Gegharkunik. He said that although they both were formally drafted to Armenia’s
armed forces during Kocharian’s rule none of them “spent a single night at any
military base.”
Press Review
November 29, 2018
“Zhamanak” reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s brother Aleksandr and a former Armenian
customs service chief, Armen Avetisian, have expressed readiness to donate $30
million in cash and an expensive hotel to the state. The paper says that in
return for that they expect an “amnesty” from Pashinian.
Lragir.am reports that the outgoing parliament speaker Ara Babloyan has urged
Armenian political factions not use the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for attacking
each other in the ongoing parliamentary election campaign. The online
publication claims that this “very important” statement is a slap in the face
of Babloyan’s Republican Party (HHK). It says HHK leaders are the ones who play
the Karabakh card the most.
“Zhoghovurd” comments on National Security Service (NSS) chief Artur
Vanetsian’s claim that investigators know who wiretapped his controversial
phone calls with the head of the Special Investigative Service (SIS), Sasun
Khachatrian, but lack the evidence to prosecute them. “Obviously, ordinary
people could not have wiretapped the phone conversations between the heads of
law-enforcement bodies,” writes the paper. That the authorities, it says, are
unable to prove who did the secret recordings means that the “situation is more
worrisome than one could imagine.” “Such things can be repeated at any moment
and in the case of any individual and criminals can hide their traces with
care,” it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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