Thursday, Armenian, Azeri FMs To Meet Again • Astghik Bedevian U.S. -- Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia and Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and international mediators meet in Washington, June 20, 2019. Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian said on Thursday he will meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov again soon for fresh talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Our objective is to continue the dialogue at the level of the foreign ministers,” he told reporters. Mnatsakanian did not specify the date or venue of the talks. But other sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that they are likely to be held in New York in September. The two ministers most recently met in Washington on June 20 in the presence of the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry described that meeting as “positive.” The mediators said it focused on recent armed incidents around Karabakh and “core issues of the settlement process.” In a joint statement, they said they urged the conflicting parties to “restore an atmosphere conducive to peace and favorable to substantive talks.” Mnatsakanian and Mammadyarov have met on a regular basis over the past year. There have also been a series of face-to-face negotiations between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Deadly truce violations along “the line of contact” around Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border decreased significantly following the first Aliyev-Pashinian talks held in September 2018. According to Mnatsakanian, another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit is not being “planned” yet. In a speech delivered before senior Armenian diplomats on Tuesday, Mnatsakanian charged that “Azerbaijan’s unchanged policy of Armenophobia continues to threaten the existence of the Karabakh people.” He also said that Yerevan will never accept a peaceful settlement limiting the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned these remarks on Wednesday, saying that they could reignite tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone. “The Armenian authorities must finally decide whether they want peace or an escalation of the situation,” it warned in a statement. Mnatsakanian shrugged off Baku’s reaction. “I don’t want to pay much attention to that because it would mean entering a field which is not interesting for me,” he said. Former Tax Chief Faces More Corruption Charges • Naira Nalbandian Armenia -- Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian speaks in the parliament in Yerevan, March 16, 2016. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) formally charged former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian with abuse of power and misuse of public funds on Thursday two days after arresting him. He was already indicted shortly before his arrest as part of a separate corruption investigation conducted by another law-enforcement body, the Special Investigative Service (SIS). The SIS revealed the indictment on Tuesday as NSS officers searched Khachatrian’s and his relatives’ homes and offices. The once influential ex-minister and his nephew Karen were taken into custody a few hours later. Karen Khachatrian used to run an internal security division of the State Revenue Committee (SRC). The government agency comprising Armenia’s tax and customs services was headed by Gagik Khachatrian from 2008-2014, during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule. According to one of Khachatrian’s lawyers, Yerem Sargsian, the NSS has asked a court in Yerevan to remand both men in custody pending investigation. It was not yet clear whether they will plead guilty to the charges brought by the NSS. The lawyer on Wednesday appealed against his client’s detention. The NSS has so far released very few details of the high-profile criminal case. The head of the powerful security service, Artur Vanetsian, said on Tuesday that the former tax chief is suspected of misusing “millions of dollars” worth of taxpayers’ money while in office. He did not elaborate. The current SRC chief, Davit Ananian, told reporters on Thursday that his agency has provided “some documents” to NSS investigators. But he refused to shed light on them. Khachatrian, 53, had held various positions in the Armenian tax and customs services before being appointed as SRC chief in 2008. He served as finance minister from 2014-2016. Armenian media outlets have long regarded Khachatrian as one of the country’s richest men. He has always denied illegally enriching himself and his family. Pashinian Aims For Faster Economic Growth • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits a newly refurbished textile factory in Maralik, August 10, 2019. Economic growth in Armenia could reach double-digit rates in the coming years, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed on Thursday. The Pashinian government’s comprehensive policy program adopted by the parliament early this year envisages that the Armenian economy will grow by at least 5 percent annually for the next five years. The World Bank forecast in January slightly lower growth rates for 2019 and 2020. The government recorded a growth rate of 5.2 percent last year. Official statistics shows growth accelerating to over 6.5 percent in the first half of this year. Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, Pashinian cited “good” macroeconomic indicators registered in July. Those include a 16 percent year-on-year surge in industrial output. “What does analysis of this year tell us?” he told government ministers. “My personal conclusion is that recording double-digit economic growth is not a science fiction thing.” Pashinian said that GDP would have increased more rapidly this year had the government’s major capital spending projects not fallen behind schedule because of delays in the selection of contractors and signing of contracts with them. He said government agencies should therefore do a better job of organizing this infrastructure spending next year. The Armenian economy grew at double-digit rates for seven consecutive years in the 2000s. That growth came to an end with the onset of a global financial crisis in 2008. It averaged 2.7 percent per annum from 2008-2018. Economy Minister Tigran Khachatrian sounded cautious about chances of renewed double-digit growth in the country. “Bear in mind that everything will depend on the introduction of new technologies and the volume of investments in various sectors of the economy,” he told reporters after the cabinet meeting. Press Review “Haykakan Zhamanak” is disappointed with opposition and media reactions to the arrest of Gagik Khachatrian, a former finance minister accused of corruption. In particular, the pro-government paper laughs off claims that Khachatrian’s arrest is a ploy designed to distract the public from government plans to allow mining operations at the Amulsar gold deposit and that more such “scandalous” arrests will be made if the situation becomes more tense. “The most pathetic thing is that the authorities are faulted for taking positive steps,” it says. “Exposing abuses committed in the past and recovering damages caused to the state are definitely positive steps from the standpoint of both state and public interests.” “Zhoghovurd” reports on Wednesday’s meeting of the parliamentary group of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance. The paper says that My Step lawmakers disagreeing with some government policies were warned that they have to be “guided by the majority’s views.” “In other words, if the majority decides something the few dissenting parliament deputies [from My Step] must vote for it,” it says. “In other words, they are attempting to pressure dissenters within the parliament faction.” “Past” says that Pashinian has turned down an invitation to participate in an upcoming international economic forum in Poland. “The aim of the forum is to create a favorable environment for developing political and economic cooperation between the European Union’s member and partner states,” writes the paper. “It is not clear why the invitation was declined.” It notes in this regard that the Russian government will host a similar gathering at around the same time. “Zhamanak” reports that it is still not clear whether Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will accept Pashinian’s invitation to attend a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states that will be held in Yerevan in October. The paper says that Rouhani’s presence would give the summit an “unprecedented significance.” It speculates Rouhani will travel to Yerevan only if “very concrete economic” issues are on the summit agenda. “Will Yerevan manage to set it?” it asks. (Anush Mkrtchian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org