Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Armenian Government Reports Strong Growth In 2023
Armenia - Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian speaks with journalists during a
Russian-Armenian business forum in Yerevan, September 20, 2021.
Armenia’s economy grew by more than 8 percent in 2023, according to preliminary
government estimates cited by Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian.
“We assume that economic growth in 2023 was in the 8.3-8.5 percent range,”
Kerobian told a news conference on Monday.
The government recorded even faster growth in 2022: 12 percent. It was driven,
in large measure, by re-exports of various goods to Russia sanctioned by Western
nations for its invasion of Ukraine. The same factor appears to have been the
main driving force behind the Armenian economy’s continued rapid expansion last
year.
Data from the Armenian government’s Statistical Committee shows that the
country’s industrial output rose by only 2.1 percent in January-November 2023,
compared with more than 41 percent surges in its exports and imports.
Second-hand cars, consumer electronics and other goods manufactured in Western
countries and their allies and re-exported from Armenia to Russia accounted for
most of this sharp gain. Armenian exports to Russia rose by 63 percent, to $2.9
billion, in January-October 2023, generating half of the South Caucasus nation’s
overall export revenue.
The re-exports prompted concern from European Union and especially U.S.
officials in early 2023. They pressed the Armenian authorities to comply with
the Western sanctions. The authorities introduced in May mandatory government
licenses for shipments of microchips, transformers, video cameras, antennas and
other electronic equipment to Russia.
Kerobian said that his government is trying to “diversify” the exports. “We are
working on India, China, Japan and many other directions,” the minister said
without elaborating.
Although China remained Armenia’s second most important trading partner after
Russia last year, Armenian firms exported less than $350 million worth of goods
to the country in January-October.
Armenian Opposition Leader’s Arrest Extended
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Armen Ashotian, deputy chairman of the opposition Republican Party of
Armenia.
A court in Yerevan has extended by three more months the arrest of Armen
Ashotian, a prominent opposition politician facing what he calls politically
motivated charges, ignoring an appeal for his release signed by other
oppositionists.
Ashotian, 48, was an influential figure during former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s rule, serving as education minister from 2012-2016 and subsequently
heading the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations committee. He has been a
vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian ever since the 2018 “velvet
revolution” that toppled Sarkisian.
Ashotian was charged in November 2022 with abuse of power and money laundering
in connection with his past chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of Yerevan’s
Mkhitar Heratsi Medical University. The accusations, strongly denied by him,
stem from a number of property acquisitions carried out by the university
administration on his alleged orders. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims
that those deals caused the state-run university substantial financial damage.
The law-enforcement agency also charged Ashotian with “waste” of public funds
following his arrest in June 2023 which it attributed to his alleged attempts to
obstruct its investigation. The oppositionist, who is a deputy chairman of
Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK), denies this accusation as well.
Vahe Dolmazian, the judge presiding over Ashotian’s ongoing trial, on Monday
allowed the investigators to continue holding him in detention until April 15.
Accordingly, the former police officer and prosecutor, who took the bench only
17 months ago, rejected the defense lawyers’ petition to free Ashotian on bail
or move him to house arrest.
The petition was backed up by a “guarantee” signed by about a dozen
parliamentarians and other opposition figures. They pledged in writing that
Ashotian will demonstrate “proper behavior” and not go into hiding or obstruct
justice if set free.
Armenia -- Levon Zurabian.
Surprisingly, the signatories included Levon Zurabian, the deputy chairman of
the Armenian National Congress (HAK) party led by another ex-president, Levon
Ter-Petrosian. The HAK was in opposition to Sarkisian during his 2008-2018 rule.
Speaking during Monday’s court hearing in Yerevan, Zurabian described Ashotian
as a political prisoner who is prosecuted for denouncing Pashinian’s policies on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and other issues.
“I have no doubts that the purpose of this criminal case is to silence a critic,
rather than expose and punish corruption,” Zurabian told the court.
Sarkisian’s HHK has likewise condemned Ashotian’s arrest as government
retribution for his harsh criticism of Pashinian’s Karabakh policy. Pashinian’s
government and political allies say that he did not order the investigators and
courts to prosecute his outspoken critic.
U.S. Keeps Pushing For Armenian-Azeri Talks In Washington
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (right) meets U.S. envoy
Louis Bono, Yerevan, January 8, 2023.
The United States keeps trying to host fresh talks between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers that had originally been scheduled for November, a
senior Armenian official said late on Monday.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, told Armenian
Public Television that this was the main focus of U.S. special envoy Louis
Bono’s meetings with him and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan held earlier in
the day. He did not say whether Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has
agreed to meet with Mirzoyan in Washington anytime soon.
Baku cancelled Bayramov’s November 20 trilateral meeting with Mirzoyan and U.S.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in protest against what it called pro-Armenian
statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for
Europe and Eurasia. O’Brien visited Baku in early December in a bid to convince
the Azerbaijani leadership to reschedule it.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev,
said afterwards that Washington must reconsider its “one-sided approach” to the
conflict before it can mediate more peace talks. Later in December, Bayramov
said he has offered to meet with Mirzoyan on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
without third-party mediation.
Despite holding no face-to-face negotiations in recent months, Baku and Yerevan
have exchanged more written proposals on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty
discussed by them. According to Grigorian, the Armenian side responded to the
most recent Azerbaijani proposals on January 4.
The official did not disclose that reply. He indicated only that Baku has
toughened its position on some key points of the peace accord.
“There are issues that were agreed upon during verbal negotiations, but we have
seen some steps backwards in the [Azerbaijani] text of the peace treaty,”
Grigorian said without elaborating. “But there are also points on which we made
progress.”
Azerbaijani officials said last month that the two sides should sign the treaty
before delimiting the long Armenian-Azerbaijani border, raising more fears in
Yerevan that Baku remains reluctant to formally recognize Armenia’s territorial
integrity. Mirzoyan insisted that the treaty should contain a concrete mechanism
for the border delimitation.
In recent weeks, Baku has also renewed its demands for the opening of an
extraterritorial corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan
exclave via Armenia. Yerevan has repeatedly rejected such demands before.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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