Wednesday,
Armenian Lawyers Go On Strike
. Artak Hambardzumian
. Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Lawyers hold a roundtable discussion in Yerevan, 13Sep2017.
More 180 Armenian lawyers went on strike on Wednesday to protest
against controversial security checks on attorneys representing
radical opposition members in three ongoing trials.
The defense lawyers have been required to walk through metal detectors
and have their bags checked before entering courtrooms. They say this
procedure amounts to searches not allowed by Armenian law. Many of
them have refused to attend court hearings in the trials of Zhirayr
Sefilian, the jailed leader of the Founding Parliament movement, and
his three dozen loyalists who seized a police station in Yerevan last
year.
"We hope that this one-day protest will be enough for state bodies to
look into the problem more thoroughly and find a solution acceptable
to everyone," one of the protesting lawyers, Tigran Atanesian, said at
a roundtable discussion in Yerevan. Or else, he warned, they will
continue to fight against the practice.
Armenia's Judicial Department insists that the security "inspections"
do not constitute searches and are therefore legal. The leadership of
the Chamber of Advocates, the national bar association, has sided with
the department.
The chamber's newly reelected chairman, Ara Zohrabian, reaffirmed that
position when he spoke during the discussion. "When nobody touches a
lawyer's bag there can be no talk of a search," he said.
Mushegh Shushanian, one of the lawyers representing the arrested
opposition gunmen, denounced that stance. "One has the impression that
the chairman of the Chamber of Advocates is tasked with campaigning
against independent lawyers," Shushanian charged.
The one-day strike disrupted the latest hearing in one of the two
trials of the gunmen. It was scheduled for Wednesday.
The presiding judge, Artush Gabrielian, cited the absence of 15
lawyers who joined the strike. "The court does not regard as positive
the lawyers' failure to attend today's hearing because they were
obliged to show up," Gabrielian said, adding that he could take fresh
disciplinary action against them.
Armenia Encouraged To Boost Exports To U.S.
. Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Armenian businesspeople are briefed on ways of capitalizing
on Armenia's mostly tariff-free access to the U.S. market, Yerevan,
13Sep2017.
A senior U.S. official encouraged Armenian businesspeople to take
greater advantage of Armenia's mostly tariff-free access to the
U.S. market during a visit to Yerevan on Wednesday.
Assistant Trade Representative Ed Gresser advised them on the
U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) at a meeting organized by
the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia (AmCham) and the
U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.
Armenia is among 129 countries and territories included in the GSP
program, which fully or partly exempts many goods manufactured by them
from U.S import duties. Despite these trade preferences, Armenian
exports to the United States have been quite modest to date.
According to official statistics, Armenian companies exported only
about $39 million worth of goods -- mostly aluminum foil, jewelry
items and some foodstuffs -- to the U.S. last year. Those exported
jumped by 62 percent year on year, to almost $35 million, in the first
seven months of 2017.Sixty percent of them were covered by the GSP.
Gresser said that the preferential trade regime gives Armenian
exporters a significant competitive edge in the United States. "No
country in the European Union is eligible for GSP," he said. "Russia
is not in the GSP system, China is not in the GSP system, Iran is not
in the GSP system."
"So when buyers are choosing between Armenia products and those of
some neighboring countries or those of some very large exporters, the
savings GSP offers can be a pretty compelling argument for buying the
Armenian product," argued the U.S. official.
Armenia is already the world's fourth largest exporter of cherry jam
to the U.S., he said.
"One of my top priorities as ambassador for the last two years has
been to improve economic ties and trade between Armenia and the United
States," Richard Mills, the U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, told reporters
after the AmCham meeting. "That's why I am very happy to be welcoming
to Yerevan this week two senior members from the United States Trade
Representative's office."
"These two visitors are here to talk about the potential for expanding
Armenia's business community's use of the Generalized System of
Preferences that the United States has in place," he said.
The U.E. Embassy and the Armenian Ministry of Economy already
organized a seminar in March 2016 for Armenian manufacturing firms
interested in capitalizing on the GSP. Another senior official from
the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) was on hand to
present business opportunities stemming from the trade scheme and
legal procedures for qualifying for it.
Gresser met on Tuesday with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian and Deputy Economy Minister Garegin Melkonian. Official
Armenian sources said the talks focused not only on GSP-related issues
but also broader commercial ties between the two nations. In
particular, the two sides discussed preparations for a second session
of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Council.
The council was set up in line with the Trade and Investment Framework
Agreement (TIFA) signed by U.S. and Armenian officials in Washington
in May 2015. It is tasked with addressing obstacles to bilateral
trade.
Karapetian Defends Track Record
. Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian speaks in the National
Assembly in Yerevan, 13Sep2017.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetian insisted on Wednesday that the
macroeconomic situation in Armenia has improved during his one-year
tenure.
Karapetian pointed to faster economic growth recorded this year when
he was asked about the impact of his government's policies on the
lives of ordinary citizens during a question-and-answer session in the
Armenian parliament.
"As for how our fellow citizens feel, we have presented you with
macroeconomic indicators that are -- I'm sorry if this sound immodest
-- are the best in the region, in the Eurasian Economic Union and the
CIS," he said, answering a question from a deputy from President Serzh
Sarkisian's Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
"Does that mean that we have solved all our problems? Of course not,
because we have practically no people who don't want to improve the
quality of their life. So it's not that we will have lived up to
everyone's expectations within a year."
"But I think that the overall trend, the direction in which we are
moving satisfies us to a certain extent," added Karapetian.
Karapetian was tasked with easing socioeconomic hardship in the
country when Sarkisian appointed him as prime minister in September
last year. He pledged to do so through reforms that would improve the
domestic business environment and attract more foreign investment in
the struggling Armenian economy.
According official statistics, economic growth accelerated from 0.2
percent in 2016 to around 5 percent in the first half of this
year. Also, the government's tax revenue has risen by almost 7 percent
in the past year.
Opposition politicians and other critics of the government dismiss
these figures, saying that they have had no real tangible impact on
the population. They also remain highly skeptical about Karapetian's
reform pledges.
Karapetian has repeatedly indicated his desire to stay on as prime
minister after Sarkisian serves to his final presidential term in
April. The president has not yet clarified whether he plans to become
prime minister or replace Karapetian with someone else.
Press Review
"Zhoghovurd" blasts what it sees as a thuggish behavior of some
members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) at Tuesday's
session of Yerevan's municipal council. "Instead of holding debates
with their opposition colleagues, they were making offensive remarks,"
the paper says. It says Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian, who chaired the
session, did not even attempt to rein in them, meaning that he tacitly
supported them. "This is nothing but a disgrace," it says.
"Hraparak" says that when Karen Karapetian took over as prime minister
a year ago he made a grim assessment of the economic situation in
Armenia. "It was evident that Karapetian was invited to get the
country's economic out of a pit," writes the paper. "A pit into which
it was plunged by the HHK, its governments and their policies." It
claims that President Serzh Sarkisian and his entourage no longer
allow him to "single-handedly make decisions on important issues,
appoint or fire high-ranking officials." "Even on his political future
nothing explicit is being said right now, unlike in the initial period
of his tenure," it says.
"Haykakan Zhamanak" ridicules the minuscule volume of trade between
Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, a fellow member of the Russian-led Eurasian
Economic Union (EEU). Imports of Kyrgyz goods to Armenia stood at less
than $10,000 in the first half of this year, official data shows. "It
must be noted that Armenia's exports to Kyrgyzstan are much greater:
about $424,000," the paper says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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