KARABAKH COMPLAINS OF LOSING MONEY ON RELATIONSHIP WITH ARMENIA
by Anna Israelyan
Aravot, Armenia
Nov 22 2006
"The NKR gives more money to Armenia than gets"
The speaker of Nagornyy Karabakh’s parliament, Ashot Gulyan, is not
happy with the size of the credit allocated from the Armenian budget
to the Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR]. When Robert Kocharyan, former
NKR president, became the president of Armenia in 1998, an office
of the State Customs Committee which had been working on the border
between the NKR and Armenia for seven years was closed. The decision
was logical from the political standpoint, for states which aspire
to unite should not have points that separate them. But whether or
not the move was economically justified remains at least disputable,
at least in terms of the interests of the NKR.
All the goods that enter Nagornyy Karabakh have passed through
Armenian customs and Armenia has kept sizable funds which should
be given to the NKR. According to estimates of the NKR government,
the customs fees transferred to the Armenian budget amount to some
5bn drams [more than 13m dollars] a year. For this reason the NKR
officials have repeatedly said that this sum should really be passed
on to Nagornyy Karabakh immediately and could form the bulk of the
money given [by Armenia] to the NKR.
The leader of the parliamentary commission on finance, budget and
economic issues, Gagik Minasyan, told us that 4.4 per cent of the
Armenian budget is given to Karabakh through the inter-state credit
every year. And he confirmed the current state of affairs. "I can say
that if any other state includes customs fees in its state funds,
then Karabakh does not have such an opportunity, I think that this
money fully compensates the inter-state credit which we give to the
NKR," Minasyan said.
Let us note that by means of the inter-state credit Armenia supplies
about 65 per cent of the NKR budget. People in Karabakh think that
it is necessary to specify that the sums of the inter-state credit do
not come 100 per cent from Armenia and its state budget. One top NKR
official even told us that actually they leave bigger sums in Armenia
when performing customs clearing than the Armenian budget allocates
to them. Asked about this, NKR parliament speaker Ashot Gulyan smiled
and replied in a diplomatic way: "There are various calculations. I
cannot say if these sums are really bigger than those given to us.
But I think they need to be specified. Anyway, it is more correct to
have bigger demand as in the economic development sense today the NKR
needs more investment, and this applies to foreign investment as well
as to the inter-state credit."
For several years now the NKR has proposed establishing finance and
economic specifications between Armenia and Karabakh. The dignity
of proud Karabakh residents will not be insulted and they will be
pleased if it becomes a fact that they acquire the [customs] sums
that should have reached them anyway. They want a separate line [in
the budget accounts] to say how much NKR money from the inter-state
credit is left at customs points [in Armenia].