Author: Yeghisabet Vorskanian

                                        Thursday, 

Russian Envoy Meets Serzh Sarkisian

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Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian holds a news conference in Yerevan, 
August 19, 2020.

The Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei Kopyrkin, reportedly met with former 
President Serzh Sarkisian on Wednesday to discuss political developments in 
Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armen Ashotian, the deputy chairman of the former ruling Republican Party of 
Armenia (HHK), said on Thursday that the meeting took place “at the initiative 
of the Russian side.”

He said Sarkisian thanked Russia for helping to maintain the ceasefire regime in 
the conflict zone and providing humanitarian assistance to Karabakh.

The ex-president also stressed the importance of continued Russian involvement 
in international efforts to achieve a “final peaceful settlement” of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute, Ashotian wrote on Facebook.

“At the ambassador’s request, President Sarkisian addressed issues relating to 
the internal political situation as well as new geopolitical realities in the 
region,” he said, adding that Kopyrkin presented Moscow’s positions on the 
issues discussed by the two men. He gave no other details.

The conversation came one day after Sarkisian and several other leaders of an 
Armenian opposition alliance met to discuss their joint efforts to force Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign over his handling of the recent war in 
Karabakh. Former President Robert Kocharian, another bitter critic of Pashinian, 
was also in attendance.

Two of those leaders said on Wednesday that the alliance called the Homeland 
Salvation Movement will resume anti-government protests soon.

Meanwhile, Kocharian was due to visit Moscow for the second time in less than 
two months. A spokeswoman for the ex-president said he will attend a meeting of 
the board of a major Russian company.

Kopyrkin met with another former Armenian president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, on 
January 25. A spokeswoman for Ter-Petrosian said the meeting focused on the 
current situation in the Karabakh conflict zone.



Finance Minister Downplays Armenia’s Rising Debt

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia -- Armenian Finance Minister Atom Janjughazian speaks during a cabinet 
meeting in Yerevan, February 4, 2021.

Finance Minister Atom Janjughazian on Thursday acknowledged that Armenia’s 
growing public debt is a cause for concern but insisted that the government can 
bring it to a “more manageable level.”

The debt rose by $647 million, to almost $8 billion, in the course of 2020 amid 
a steep recession primarily caused by the coronavirus pandemic. According to 
government projections, it will likely pass the $9 billion mark by the end of 
this year.

“It would be strange if the body tasked with public debt management was not 
concerned [about the rising debt,]” Janjughazian told reporters after a weekly 
cabinet meeting in Yerevan.

In his words, the debt will be equivalent to around 70 percent of Gross Domestic 
Product if the Armenian economy grows in 2021 at a 3.2 percent rate forecast by 
the government. Slower economic growth, anticipated by the country’s Central 
Bank and the International Monetary Fund, would translate into a higher 
debt-to-GDP ratio.

“As a rule, for developing countries a debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 70 percent is 
considered a high or at least medium level of risk when it is not clear … how 
the authorities plan to bring it back to a more manageable level,” said 
Janjughazian.

“We must make every effort to return to that level. We must think not about 
reducing the debt in absolute terms but about achieving faster GDP growth, which 
is part of our programs,” added the minister.

Tao Zhang, the IMF’s deputy managing director, said in December that the 
authorities in Yerevan “remain committed to taking measures to safeguard debt 
sustainability.” The Armenian debt should fall to around 60 percent of GDP “over 
the medium-term” as a result of those measures, he said in a statement.

The debt rose further last week after Armenia issued its fourth Eurobond worth 
$750 million. Janjughazian confirmed that the money will be mostly used for 
covering the government’s 2021 budget deficit projected at 341 billion drams 
($658 million), or at least 5.3 percent of GDP.

Speaking at Thursday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian touted 
the fact that the 10-year dollar-denominated bonds were sold at a record-low 
yield of 3.9 percent because of a strong interest from foreign investors.

“This is certainly a very important signal for our economy. A guarantee of 
macroeconomic stability has thus been created,” claimed Pashinian.



Pro-Government Lawmakers Seek Curbs On News Reporting

        • Robert Zargarian

Armenia - TV and radio microphones set for a news conference in Yerevan.

In a bill criticized by press freedom groups, several pro-government members of 
Armenia’s parliament have proposed restrictions on the use of anonymous sources 
in news stories reported by the Armenian media.
The bill publicized this week would specifically ban broadcasters, newspapers 
and online publications from citing websites and social media accounts belonging 
to unknown individuals.

In an explanatory note attached to the proposed amendments to an Armenian law on 
mass media, the lawmakers affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My 
Step bloc say that disseminating information from “sources of unknown origin” 
could endanger the country’s national security.

“The proposed amendments cannot be regarded as a restriction of the freedom of 
expression or an obstacle to the work of mass media,” they say.

Representatives of Armenian media associations disagree. Boris Navasardian, the 
chairman of the Yerevan Press Club, criticized the authors of the bill putting 
the emphasis on sources of news reports, rather than their veracity.

Navasardian said media outlets could thus be banned from reporting accurate 
information. “If there are no problems with the content [of news reports] then 
there must be no legal consequences whatsoever,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service.

Shushan Doydoyan of the Center for Freedom of Information said the draft 
amendments seem to be at odds with an existing article of the media law which 
essentially allows journalists not to disclose their anonymous sources to state 
authorities. “First of all, they must abandon the term ‘anonymous’ and come up 
with a different definition,” she said.

Doydoyan suggested that the authorities are primarily concerned about Telegram 
channels attacking Pashinian and his political team. Scandalous claims made by 
such social media sources are regularly cited by the Armenian press.

My Step’s Artur Hovannisian, the main author of the bill, mentioned the Telegram 
channels when he defended the proposed restrictions.

“What we are saying is: ‘Let’s not advertise those sources whose origin is not 
known to anyone,’” said Hovannisian. The former journalist insisted that media 
outlets would not be banned from quoting their own confidential sources.

Naira Zohrabian, a senior lawmaker representing the opposition Prosperous 
Armenia Party (BHK), condemned the bill as an unconstitutional attempt to curb 
press freedom and attributed it to “Nikol Pashinian’s fears” of losing power.

“Today I appealed to the president of the [Council of Europe’s] Venice 
Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, and am ready to use all possible instruments to 
fight against Nikol’s fears together with my media partners,” Zohrabian wrote on 
Facebook on Thursday.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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