Monday, Opposition Bloc Condemns ‘Provocative’ Leaflets • Naira Nalbandian Armenia -- Opposition lawmaker Gegham Manukian at a news conference in Yerevan, December 20, 2020. The main opposition Hayastan alliance on Monday demanded that Armenian law-enforcement authorities identify and punish individuals who spread pro-Russian leaflets falsely attributed to it. The leaflets which appeared in various parts of Yerevan on Sunday described Crimea and other internationally recognized parts of Ukraine as well as Georgia and Kazakhstan as Russian territory. They also called for Nagorno-Karabakh to be incorporated into Russia. Gegham Manukian, a lawmaker representing Hayastan, insisted that the bloc headed by former President Robert Kocharian has nothing to do with the leaflets which he said are aimed at discrediting it. “The level of organization, the quality of printing, the use of the Hayastan alliance’s emblems shows that this is a well-organized provocation against the Hayastan alliance, its parliamentary group and the opposition [as a whole,]” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Manukian said law-enforcement bodies must launch an inquiry. “Instead of executing stupid orders of Nikol [Pashinian,] the National Security Service should deal with such dangerous provocations,” he said. The NSS did not immediately react to the demand. A spokesman for the Armenian police said, meanwhile, that they are not investigating the matter because they have not yet received any formal complaints. Manukian refused to comment on the content of the leaflets, saying that the “provocateurs” wanted Hayastan to do just that. The Armenian government has refrained from publicly criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, let alone joining Western sanctions imposed on Moscow. Armenia’s main opposition groups have adopted a similar position on the continuing conflict. The pro-Russian leaflets were disseminated by unknown individuals just days after the Russian Embassy in Yerevan sent a rare protest note to the Armenian Foreign Ministry. The embassy demanded action against Armenian fringe groups and activists that implicated Moscow in last week’s massive explosion at a Yerevan market that left at least 16 people dead. Envoy Confirms End Of EU Trade Preferences For Armenia Armenia -- Andrea Wiktorin, head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, attends a seminar in Yerevan, March 6, 2020. A senior European Union diplomat has confirmed that Armenian manufacturers no longer have tariff-free access to the EU’s common market because Armenia is now regarded as an “upper middle income” country. Armenia was covered by the EU’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+) from 2009 through the end of last year. Thanks to this preferential trade regime, the EU collected no import duties from 3,300 types of Armenian products and applied reduced tariffs to 3,900 others. In an interview with the Armenpress news agency published on Monday, Andrea Wiktorin, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, said that Armenia is not eligible for GSP+ anymore because World Bank upgraded its status from a “lower middle income” to an “upper middle income” nation in 2017. “According to the EU’s GSP regulations, the moment you are an upper middle income country for three [consecutive] years, plus a transition period of one year, you lose the status of a GSP+ beneficiary … and this means that starting from January of this year Armenia can no longer benefit from these preferential import tariffs,” she said. Armenia - Commercial trucks parked at the Bagratashen border crossing with Georgia, November 29, 2018. (Photo by the State Revenue Committee of Armenia) Wiktorin suggested that the loss of that status could be offset by Armenia’s Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the EU signed in late 2017. She argued that the CEPA, which has no free-trade component, could benefit the Armenian economy through its provisions calling for an improved business environment in the country. The diplomat also argued that the wide-ranging agreement allows Armenian companies to participate in EU procurement tenders and will make it easier for them to provide financial, transport and other services in the 27-nation bloc. Russia replaced the EU as Armenia’s number one trading partner after the South Caucasus country joined the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2015. It has solidified that status in the last few years. According to Armenian government data, Russian-Armenian trade surged by 50 percent, to $1.65 billion, and accounted for almost one-third of Armenia’s overall foreign trade in the first half of this year. By comparison, Armenia’s trade with EU member states totaled over $980 million. Despite the end of the trade preferences, Armenian exports to the EU, dominated by copper and other metals, reached $426 million in this period, up by 43 percent year on year. Dead Gunman’s Family Unconvinced By Police Claims • Nane Sahakian Armenia - The area around the Masis municipality building cordoned off by police, August 20, 2022 Relatives of a man who died after breaking into a local government building in Armenia questioned on Monday police claims that he committed suicide during a standoff with security forces. Edvard Margarian, a 36-year-old resident of the town of Masis, reportedly threw a hand grenade and fired two gunshots after entering the local municipality building on Friday night for still unclear reasons. Law-enforcement authorities say Margarian shot and killed himself inside the office of Masis Mayor Davit Hambardzumian early on Saturday as police officers tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with him. Members of Margarian’s family suspect, however, that he was killed. They include his mother Rima, who also tried to talk to him during the standoff. “For three times I asked my son, ‘Dear Edo, please respond, I’m your mother, let me come up … If he was alive [at that point,] wouldn’t he respond?” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Rima Margarian also argued that her son had no criminal record and history of psychiatric problems or drug abuse. She said that Edvard, who is a former member of the town council, had fallen out with Hambardzumian and wanted to meet with the mayor to sort out their dispute. According to the Investigative Committee, just hours before bursting into the mayor’s office Margarian phoned a police station in the small community about 20 kilometers south of Yerevan to warn that the dispute could leave him and a dozen other people dead. The law-enforcement agency has released no other details of the call. Nor has it shed light on the gunman’s problems with the municipal administration. Hambardzumian, who is affiliated with an opposition group, could not be reached for comment on Monday. Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.