Tuesday, Tsarukian Bloc `Undecided' On Next Armenian President . Tatevik Lazarian Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian speaks at an election campaign rally in Yerevan, 28Mar2017. A senior representative of businessman Gagik Tsarukian's alliance said on Tuesday that it has not yet decided whom to nominate or endorse for the post of Armenia's next president who will be elected by parliament in March. "The Tsarukian Bloc does not support anyone at the moment," Gevorg Petrosian told reporters. "The issue is not on its agenda yet." Under the Armenian constitution controversially amended in 2015, the next head of state must be chosen one month before President Serzh Sarkisian completes his second and final term in early April. The end of his decade-long rule will be followed by the country's transition to a parliamentary system of government. It means that Sarkisian's successor will have largely ceremonial powers. The opposition Yelk alliance announced last week that it wants to nominate one of its senior members, Artak Zeynalian, for the job and will try to secure the Tsarukian Bloc's backing for his candidacy. The constitution stipulates that only those individuals who are backed by at least 27 members of the 105-seat National Assembly can run for president. Yelk holds only 9 parliament seats, compared with 31 seats controlled by the Tsarukian Bloc. The latter also claims to be in opposition to Sarkisian. Petrosian said that Tsarukian and his political team have not yet discussed Yelk's proposal. "Have they found out whether or not we have our own candidate?" he said. "If we do have a candidate the public will naturally be informed about that," he said. "We may not have one. But just because we don't have a candidate would not mean that we are obliged to back the Yelk candidate." Petrosian also pointedly declined to rule out the possibility of the Tsarukian Bloc endorsing the presidential candidate to be fielded by Sarkisian's ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The HHK, which controls the parliament majority, has still not clarified whom its wants to succeed Sarkisian as president of the republic. Meanwhile, one of Yelk's leaders, Aram Sargsian, insisted that his bloc is not challenging Tsarukian to prove his opposition credentials questioned by many Armenian commentators. "We just want to show that we deserve to replace the authorities," he said. "As for whether or not others are in opposition it's up to them to prove that." Another Yelk leader, Nikol Pashinian, acknowledged last week that the Yelk candidate is extremely unlikely to get elected. He said Yelk is primarily keen to show many Armenians that they were wrong to vote for the HHK in the April 2017 general elections. NATO Official Sees No Russian Pressure On Armenia . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian meets with NATO's Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller in Yerevan, 18Dec2017. NATO's Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller insisted on Tuesday that she has seen no indications that Russia has tried to prevent Armenia from forging closer ties with NATO. In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Gottemoeller also again praised the "good and appropriate level of cooperation" between Yerevan and the U.S.-led alliance. "I am really quite impressed with what Armenia has done over the years in terms of partnership with NATO," she said during a visit to Yerevan. Gottemoeller singled out the continuing participation of some 155 Armenian soldiers in the NATO-led security missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Armenia contributes more troops to those missions than any other member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), she stressed. The deployments in Afghanistan and Kosovo have been part of Armenia's broader efforts to step up military cooperation with NATO -- and the United States in particular -- while remaining allied to Russia politically and militarily. Yerevan pledged to continue deepening ties with NATO with a fresh Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) launched in April. Asked whether she has felt any Russian pressure exerted on the Armenian leadership in connection with its dealings with NATO, Gottemoeller said: "No. That's the short answer and that's the true answer." Commenting on the possibility of such pressure in the future, she said: "It's up to the Kremlin. Of course, they always have their own opinions about things but I really think it is important to stress that NATO is guided by decisions made by Armenia." "There is no zero sum game there from our perspective," she added in reference to Russia's and NATO's ties with the South Caucasus state. But she also stressed: "It is completely up to Armenia to decide the speed and intensity of your relationship with NATO." Gottemoeller met with President Serzh Sarkisian, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian on Monday. Sarkisian praised the "developing" Armenia-NATO ties and thanked the alliance for its "assistance provided to Armenia." "We will be working together more closely on interoperability, defense education and defense reform," Gottemoeller said after her talks with Nalbandian. First-Ever Farmer Insurance Planned In Armenia . Anush Muradian Armenia - A fruit orchard in Aragatsotn province, 3Sep2014. The Armenian government announced on Tuesday plans to start gradually introducing next year a national system of agricultural insurance increasingly seen as a vital necessity for struggling farmers across the country. Thousands of low-income villagers lose their crops each year due to hailstorms, droughts and other natural disasters. They receive little compensation from the cash-strapped government. According to Deputy Agriculture Minister Armen Harutiunian, the government will launch at the end of 2018 a pilot project that will insure some farmers growing fruits, vegetables or cereals against one or two types of risks. The government will subsidize insurance premiums with a special 10 million-euro ($11.8 million) fund set up for that purpose, he said. Germany's state-owned development bank KfW will contribute half of that money through a grant allocated to the Armenian Finance Ministry. The two sides signed a relevant agreement in Yerevan on Monday at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian. "During the first year the [agricultural insurance] bureau will select the main risks and the main crops for the pilot project," Harutiunian told a news conference. "In the first phase there will be [insurance coverage for] maybe one or two risks and several crops: vegetables or cereals. We will test the system within that framework and see which model works best." Armenia -- Deputy Agriculture Minister Armen Harutiunian at a news conference in Yerevan. Harutiunian said that the government is inclined to prioritize hailstorms as the number one natural risk. He also announced that the Central Bank of Armenia, which is also involved in the effort, is already "working with" private insurance firms. The latter are interested in the scheme despite the high risks involved, added the official. Harutiunian could not say which rural areas will be first covered by the agricultural insurance program and whether it will be mandatory or optional for local farmers. The insurance bureau will work out these and other details in the coming months, he explained. Some farmers cautiously welcomed the government plans while warning that agricultural insurance will not work if it places a heavy financial burden on them. They also said that it must not be mandatory. "It all depends on the amount of premiums," Haykaz Asatrian, a grape farmer from the southeastern Vayots Dzor province, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "Right now villagers finance 90 percent of their agricultural work with loans [extended by commercial banks.] If they had cash they would already be able to buy insurance." Press Review A deputy speaker of the European Parliament, Ryszard Czarnecki, tells "168 Zham" that the European Union and Armenian may start next year an official "dialogue" on the liberalization of the EU's visa regime for Armenian nationals. But Czarnecki also cautions in this regard that the Armenian government has yet to prove that it has stepped on a "path of European integration" and can create the kind of living standards that would discourage Armenians from illegally emigrating to the EU. "Visa liberalization is not only a great opportunity but also a great challenge for which a country must be prepared politically and economically," he says. "Zhamanak" describes NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller's visit to Yerevan as a "remarkable event," saying that it may herald a "new level of relations" between Armenia and NATO. The paper quotes Gottemoeller as saying on Monday that Armenia is NATO's sole partner state that "consistently" contributes troops to the NATO-led missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. "Although that participation [by Armenia] is largely symbolic it receives praise for apparently political reasons," it says. "From that standpoint, discussions on a new, military-technical component of the Armenia-NATO relationship probably reflect that praise by NATO # And that means a new situation in the region." "Zhoghovurd" reports that the Armenian parliament will debate on Tuesday yet another structural change of the judicial system which has been proposed by the government. Under the government bill, s even district courts currently operating in Yerevan will be merged into a single Court of General Jurisdiction. "Thus Armenia's judicial system will get a body that will have almost as many powers as Administrative Courts do," writes the paper. It says the main official rationale for this change is to ensure a more even distribution of criminal and civil cases among lower-level judges in Yerevan. "But there is no word on how the change will affect the independence of the courts and the quality of justice," it adds. "Haykakan Zhamanak" says that retail prices of butter and pork in Armenia have soared by over 40 percent since the beginning of this year. Government officials blame these price hikes on external market factors. "But these products have been becoming cheaper around the world for the last few months, and that does not reflect on Armenian prices in any way," counters the paper. "The reason for that is the absence of competition." (Hovannes Movsisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org