Category: 2018

Asbarez: U.S. Screwing Kurds Again

Elizabeth Jabejian
  • By Any Means

    •  

  • Columns

    •  

  • Latest

    •  

  • Top Stories

December 21, 2018

Garen Yegparian

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

On Wednesday, December 20, 2018 President Donald Trump issued an order as commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces to withdraw the 2000 U.S. troops in Syria, via a Tweet!

These forces have been fighting Daesh/ISIS jointly with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) based in northern Syria.

The ramifications of this action are many, with lots of beneficiaries (alphabetically – Daesh/ISIS, Iran, Russia, Syria, Turkey) since the U.S. will be out of the way with no ground presence, even though it is possible American air power may still be used. But only one group will bear the cost – the Kurds. I will only address the Kurdish angle, though that runs through Turkey. I won’t even join the mob of speculators wondering why Trump did this.

The U.S. has been arming, training, and otherwise supporting the Kurds of Syria. The primary reason has been to use them, as very able and committed fighters, to eliminate Daesh/ISIS in Syria. Now, Trump has declared “victory” over that murderous entity, despite an August report that estimated 30,000 of those extremists remained in Iraq and Syria. This reeks of George W. Bush’s premature and utterly inaccurate “mission accomplished” declaration about the Iraq invasion.

This announcement by Trump seems to have surprised the various agencies in Washington, D.C. that would ordinarily have a stake and say in such matters. Interestingly, and perhaps tellingly, Turkey’s Erdoğan was among the first to learn of this by phone after he “assured” Trump that Turkey could mop up the remaining Daesh/ISIS forces (a very dubious assurance since Turkey helped them and got them into Syria).

This brings us to the Kurds, who are Erdoğan’s boogeymen, bêtes noire, demons, nightmares… (you get the idea) and he considers those in Syria to be an extension of the PKK which has been fighting for Kurdish liberation in Turkey. Washington’s cooperation with the Kurds in Syria has stuck in Erdoğan’s craw. It has been a major contributor to tense Turkey-U.S. relations in the last few years.

Erdoğan has tried everything to dissuade Washington of its Kurdish cooperation. Nothing worked. Then, Erdoğan got himself in a serious jam when he shot down a Russian plane. He had to make amends by kissing up to the Kremlin, which gave him an idea. He could kill two birds with one stone. By pretending to cozy up to Putin, he could purchase missile systems from Russia, or at least pretend to do so. This seriously ruffled NATO feathers since it might lead to security breaches, but, Erdoğan didn’t care. And now we know why. Just a few days ago, the U.S. State Department approved a $3.5 billion Patriot missile sale to Ankara. Though this has not yet received final approval, it makes very clear what has been going on. Erdoğan has gotten what he wants… again.

The Kurds are now royally screwed. Regardless of how able they are as fighters, the sheer preponderance of numbers and military equipment that Turkey has over them makes the outcome a foregone conclusion. Once the 2000 U.S. troops have been withdrawn (which will take roughly three months), the potential for Turkish troops fighting and or killing any of them will be eliminated. How would such a clash come about, you might wonder? Erdoğan has been threatening to enter northern Syria to eliminate the Kurdish forces he dreads. With Americans in their midst, that could have been a real problem. Now, once they’re gone, Erdoğan will have a free hand. Turkish forces are already being mobilized north of the Syrian border and Hulusi Akar, Turkey’s defense minister, has threatened to “bury” Kurdish forces in Syria, according to the “Washington Post”.

The Kurds usefulness to the U.S. now being largely (if not completely) finished, they are being turned over to the tender mercies of Ankara. This resembles what Washington did to the Kurds of Iraq in in 1975. After supporting and arming them through Iran and Israel to extort concessions from Iraq, the Kurds were left to the tender mercies of Baghdad and its Arabization policies.

Now, the Kurds have few options. They can fight to the death, providing Turkey with an excuse to massacre non-combatant Kurds (something it may well do anyway). Their fighters could try to blend in with the general population by laying down their arms – either turning them over to the Turks, hiding them, or giving them to their compatriots in Iraq and Turkey. Most likely, they will cut a deal with the Syrian government. Of course Damascus has no love for the Kurds. But, they were allowed to go their own way, without much rancor, when the Syrian army had its hands full fighting various anti-government forces. This suggests that the two sides might be able to come to some accommodation, despite Damascus’s lack of interest so far. After all, President Assad and the rest of Syria’s leadership must know that if Turkey expands its already significant presence on Syrian soil, it will be a long time before Ankara withdraws its occupying forces.

So what should Armenians do in this mess? Some of our compatriots will be directly affected since they live in the Kurdish controlled zones of Syria. Otherwise, short of a few volunteers going to help fight Turkey, there’s not much we can do except to keep developing and expanding our relationships with our closest, and potentially friendliest neighbors, the Kurds.

Asbarez Contributor Paul Chaderjian Debuts New Novel

Emil Lazarian
  • Arts & Culture

    •  

  • Books

    •  

  • Latest

    •  

  • News

    •  

  • Top Stories

1 day ago

“Letters to Barbra” is the latest novel from Paul Charderjian

A new novel entitled ‘Letters to Barbra’ by Asbarez columnist Paul Chaderjian was published on December 7. The novel explores the Armenian identity through the story of an outsider, and it’s told in disjointed, Facebook-like timeline, spanning from the aftermath of World War I to the Soviet Union, from the Lebanese Civil War to a futuristic segregated dystopian society 300 years from now.

LTB’s non-traditional narration style is cinematic, influenced by Micheline Aharonian Marcom and Atom Egoyan; Egoyan calling it “stirring and extremely moving.” LTB depicts the protagonist, Adam, in his boyhood writing letters to his idol Barbra Streisand in war-ridden Beyrouth.

LTB’s fictional epistolary offers readers rare insight into the mind of a 9-year-old experiencing a devastating civil war and finding solace by writing fan letters to a Hollywood legend. It is an homage to all the frightened little boys and girls caught in inhumane situations as adults kill each other over real estate, financial gain, power, ego and religion. It is also a requiem to the millions of lives lost and generations of survivors traumatized by man’s inhumanity against man.

Because wars and their consequences do not exist in a vacuum, LTB offers readers hope and context by chronicling the life of the young letter writer, Adam, through adulthood. As he grapples with his extrication from the land of his birth, a mere 50 years after his grandparents’ displacement from their centuries-old ancestral homeland, Adam continues writing one of the brightest stars of the 20th century about his experiences.

LTB takes readers from the dark days of the Word War II-era Soviet Union to the star-studded parties of Hollywood, from the streets of the City of Lights, Paris, to the post-Civil War and newly rebuilt Paris of the Middle East, Beirut. This work of words captures that which is universal but tells it from the perspectives of newly-birthed characters: young Armenian medical students boasting about their conquests in bed, brooding New York filmmakers hoping to find validation for their unique visions of the world, defeated, broken slaves, laboring in a grim, future megalopolis, and a songstress, a modern-day minstrel, singing her people’s songs while making a name for herself through CNN, the New York Times and at concert venues in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

“It’s a world in which the past, the present, and the future co-exist in conflict, never in harmony, a world that is marked with the trauma our parents and grandparents lived and unwillingly transmitted to us to shape our identity that we have to live with tragically, in conformity, if we object, if we turn away, we are doomed; we cannot find peace. The sense of belonging is displaced, meaningless, only a source of pain and compunction an anxiety,” writes Armenian language and literature lecturer and researcher Dr. Rubina Peroomian.

Paul Chaderjian is a broadcast journalist, who has been with the Al Jazeera Network in Doha, Qatar for the past five years. He has worked at ABC News and Armenia TV. He’s also one of the hosts of the Armenia Fund Thanksgiving Day Telethon.

LTB is available on Amazon and will soon be available at local bookstores.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 12/24/2018

Emil Lazarian 
                                        Monday, 

Pashinian Reaffirms Commitment To Closer Ties With Iran

        • Karine Simonian

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian inspects a car assembled by an 
Armenian-Iranian joint venture in Vanadzor, December 22, 2018.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has reaffirmed his government’s intention to 
deepen Armenia’s relations with neighboring Iran despite U.S. economic 
sanctions re-imposed on the Islamic Republic.

“We intend to deepen not only economic but also political relations with Iran. 
All prerequisites for that exist in Armenia,” he told reporters during a 
weekend visit to Vanadzor.

Pashinian spoke while attending the official opening of an Armenian-Iranian 
joint venture that will manufacture pressurized gas cylinders in Armenia’s 
third largest city.

Top executives of the Iranian company Rad Sane and its Armenian partners that 
have built the plant also announced other investment projects when they met 
with Pashinian before the ceremony. In particular, they are planning to 
assemble Iranian-designed cars in Armenia.

“Our cars could enter the Armenian market already in March,” said Arayik 
Asrian, a co-owner of the new plant.

“I said during our conversation that we are very interested in having new 
investments flow in from Iran and more Iranian tourists visit Armenia,” 
stressed Pashinian.

The Armenian leader already pledged last month to “develop relations with Iran 
very intensively.” He said the United States “understands our situation and 
policy.”

Earlier in November, a team of officials from the U.S. state and treasury 
departments visited Yerevan to explain the sanctions Armenia’s government and 
private sector. Iran was also high on the agenda of U.S. National Security 
Adviser John Bolton’s October trip to Armenia.

Bolton said he hold Pashinian that Washington will enforce the sanctions “very 
vigorously.” Commercial and other traffic through the Armenian-Iranian border 
is therefore “going to be a significant issue,” he said.

Pashinian said his government is doing its best to minimize the negative impact 
of the sanctions on Iranians doing business in Armenia. He again acknowledged 
that in the last few months Armenian commercial banks have closed the accounts 
of Iranian citizens living in the country.

Pashinian insisted that the U.S. administration “has no problem” with 
law-abiding Iranian nationals having bank accounts in Armenia. Armenian banks, 
he said, are simply afraid of being blacklisted by Washington.

“Some banks have already realized that there won’t be problems with the 
accounts of private individuals [from Iran] who have not been sanctioned,” he 
went on. “This is not a state problem but we are now very closely cooperating, 
discussing and talking to solve that problem.”




Prosecutors Move To Arrest Ex-General Again

        • Anush Muradian

Armenia - Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian (R) addresses protesters outisde his 
office in Yerevan, .

Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian said on Monday that his office will appeal 
against an Armenian court’s to decision to release Manvel Grigorian, a retired 
army general prosecuted on corruption charges, from custody on bail.

The district court in Yerevan ordered Grigorian’s release on health grounds on 
Friday. The 62-year-old suffers from a number of serious illnesses, reportedly 
including cancer.

The court order provoked angry protests in the town of Echmiadzin, Grigorian’s 
place of residence until his arrest in June. Hundreds of local residents 
blocked a nearby highway over the weekend.

Several dozen people gathered outside the prosecutors’ headquarters in Yerevan 
on Monday, demanding Grigorian’s renewed arrest. Davtian addressed the crowd, 
saying that his office will ask the Court of Appeals to overturn the lower 
court ruling. The appeal will be filed by the end of the day, he said.

Davtian insisted that Grigorian’s illnesses are “not incompatible with 
incarceration.” The once powerful general should be kept behind bars because he 
could obstruct justice if he remains at large, added Armenia’s chief prosecutor

Davtian also told the protesters: “I want you to understand one thing: these 
are legal processes, the court is independent, and any pressure on the court is 
unacceptable.”

Grigorian was arrested when security forces raided his properties in and around 
Echmiadzin. They found many weapons, ammunition, medication and field rations 
for soldiers provided by the Armenian Defense Ministry. They also discovered 
canned food and several vehicles donated by Armenians at one of Grigorian’s 
mansions.

Grigorian, who served as deputy defense minister from 2000-2008, denies the 
accusations of illegal arms possession and embezzlement leveled against him.




Armenian Government To Scrap Five Ministries

        • Naira Nalbandian

Armenian - Protesting employees of the Armenian ministrties of Diaspora and 
culture hand a petition to an official from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's 
staff, Yerevan, December 21, 2018.

The number of government ministries in Armenia is due to be slashed to 12 from 
17 in line with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s pledges to downsize the state 
bureaucracy.

A relevant bill publicized by the Armenian government would also abolish the 
post of first deputy prime minister introduced shortly before this spring’s 
“velvet revolution.” Pashinian would have only two deputies after forming a new 
cabinet next month.

Armenia’s newly elected parliament controlled by Pashinian’s My Step alliance 
will likely pass the bill. The National Assembly is expected to hold its first 
session on January 14.

The bill calls for abolishing the Ministry of Diaspora and merging four other 
ministries with different agencies.

In particular, the ministries of agriculture and economic development would be 
turned into a single ministry, as would the ministries of education, culture, 
and sports and youth affairs. A similar merger of the ministries of energy and 
local government would lead to the creation of a new Ministry of Territorial 
Administration and Infrastructures.


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 18 
October 2018.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications would be renamed and presumably 
expanded into a new agency called the Ministry of Technologies and Defense 
Industry.

The government has not yet specified how many of its employees will be laid off 
as a result of the planned restructuring. Nor is it clear how much budgetary 
money it expects to save.

Hundreds of employees of the ministries of culture and Diaspora demonstrated in 
Yerevan on Friday in protest against the impending closure of their agencies. 
They denounced the government plans as hasty and ill-thought-out. They also 
faulted Pashinian and his young political team for not consulting with civil 
servants.

Pashinian defended the plans on Saturday. He argued that he has repeatedly said 
since coming to power in May that the state bureaucracy is bloated and 
inefficient. He said My Step’s landslide victory in the December 9 general 
elections means that he has a mandate to shrink it.

“The common practice around the world is for 9 to 11 employees to have one 
leader,” Pashinian told reporters. “In our state bureaucracy there is one 
leader per 3.5 workers.”

Some analysts question the wisdom of reducing the number of government 
ministries. Serob Antinian, a public administration expert, said on Monday that 
the new “super-ministries” would actually slow down the work of the state 
apparatus.


Armenia - Serob Antinian (L), a public administration expert, speaks at a news 
conference in Yerevan, .

“If we unite ministries it will mean that while a minister has until now taken 
one or two days to sign a state document because of busyness they would take 
ten days after that [restructuring,]” Antinian told a news conference.

The planned downsizing was also criticized as “arbitrary” by the Armenian 
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which had two ministerial posts in 
Pashinian’s government until recently. In a statement, the opposition party 
warned of “very serious consequences” of the measure.

Artur Khachatrian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader who served as agriculture minister 
from May through October this year, was especially critical of the proposed 
merger of the ministries of agriculture and economy.

“I think that the Ministry of Agriculture should have on the contrary been 
strengthened,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “After all, 
agriculture accounts for about 15 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. 
Another 10 percent of GDP comes from food processing.”




Press Review



(Saturday, December 22)

“Zhoghovurd” says that disagreements between Armenia and other members of the 
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) over the choice of the next 
secretary general of the Russian-led alliance seem to be deepening. The paper 
reports that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a draft CSTO 
decision to appoint a senior Belarusian official, Stanislav Zas, to the vacant 
post. “Presumably Armenia will veto Zas’s appointment if Belarus insists on its 
desire,” it says. It quotes Zas as implying on Friday that his appointment does 
not necessarily require unanimity by all CSTO member states.

“It is already clear that important developments on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue 
are expected next year,” writes “Aravot.” “We must again stress that no 
Armenian leader has deliberately taken or will take any steps that would put 
Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh) in danger. We, the citizens, have to try to get 
answers to a number of important questions.” One of those questions, the paper 
says, is whether international mediators are currently making any peace 
proposals that do not call for Armenian withdrawal from five districts around 
Karabakh. “Does Azerbaijan agree to such a solution extremely favorable to us?” 
it goes on. But if the mediators are pressing for major Armenian territorial 
concessions to Azerbaijan then Armenians must know what they would gain in 
return, according to the paper. “If that only includes a lifting of the 
blockade and an uncertain promise of some unclear referendum then that is 
certainly not good enough,” it says.

“Hraparak” reports on the resignation of the director of the Armenian Public 
Radio, Mark Grigorian, which was demanded by some employees of the state-run 
broadcaster. The paper says other radio workers believe that Grigorian should 
not have quit so easily. “They believe that this resignation was orchestrated 
by the head of the Public Television and Radio, Ruben Jaghinian,” it says.

(Tatev Danielian)

 
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

Armenian president offers condolences to Indonesia on deadly tsunami

Garnik Tadevosian

Armenian president offers condolences to Indonesia on deadly tsunami

Save

Share

16:44,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has extended condolences to his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo on the deadly tsunami that hit after a volcanic event in the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java.

On Saturday, giant waves crashed into coastal towns on the islands of Sumatra and Java, killing at least 281 people and injuring 1,016.

Sarkissian expressed his condolences and support to Widodo and the people of Indonesia, wishing speedy recovery to the injured victims and endurance and courage to the families of the fatalities.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Sports: Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s Christmas message

Ani Kharatian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 25 2018
Sport 12:59 25/12/2018 Armenia

Arsenal midfielder and Armenian national team captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan has sent a message to all fans celebrating the Christmas today.

“To all my fans who celebrate, I hope you’re all making this a Christmas to remember! Merry Xmas & all the very best,” the message posted on the player’s official Facebook account reads.

To note, Mkhitaryan expected to be sidelined for six weeks with a fractured metatarsal in his right foot. Mkhitaryan last featured for Arsenal in their 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup on December 19, in which he was withdrawn at half-time.

’s-Christmas-message/2052343

Azerbaijani Press: Armenia in hysteria: CSTO becomes "pro-Azerbaijani" bloc

Emil Lazarian
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Dec 25 2018
15:55 (UTC+04:00)

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The state of hysteria for Armenia becomes chronic. The appointment of Stanislav Zas as Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has become a real concern for this small nation in the South Caucasus region. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed a draft decision of the Collective Security Council on December 21.

Zas has already visited Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Russia in order to coordinate his appointment, but the concerning milestone is that he is not planning to visit Armenia. The State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus voiced his readiness to arrive in Armenia at any time convenient for the Armenian Prime Minister and to meet with the head of the government, the foreign minister and the defense minister.

What is clear for now the decision has been made and any meeting with Pashinyan will hardly matter much.

Armenia has very sensitive approach to the issue. Following Pashinyan's failure on te issue of the Secretary General in Astana, many still believed that the Armenian PM would be firm on his ground and achieve the same decision in favor of the Armenian candidate. But now the Armenian media have begun talking about a conspiracy against Armenia.

The post of secretary general of the “pro-Azerbaijani” CSTO will be taken by a graduate of the Baku Higher All-Arms Command School, Stanislav Zas, an activist who supports the deepening of military-technical cooperation between Minsk and Baku. That's what annoys the Armenian society even more.

For many years, Armenians have demanded the cessation of modern weapons supplies to Azerbaijan, citing the fact that this contradicts allied relations between the CSTO countries. However, none of the CSTO member countries considers the so-called separatist regime in occupied Karabakh to be its ally.

Moreover, when Armenia joined the CSTO and the EEU, there was a clear condition for it. Armenia entered the organization without Nagorno-Karabakh. Therefore, the obligations of the CSTO countries to an unrecognized entity is a wet dream of Armenia. Besides, the fact that mainly the citizens of Armenia serve in the occupied Karabakh is a hard problem for Yerevan.

Some journalists in Yerevan consider that the actions of the CSTO are more and more openly responding to the interests of Azerbaijan, which is not a member state. They openly accuse Putin and Lukashenko of attempts to earn as much as possible on the desire of Azerbaijan to wipe Armenia and occupied Karabakh off the face of the earth.

In addition, Armenian journalists are hurt by the fact that Nikol Pashinyan, instead answering with dignity to Moscow, became more cautious and attentive to Russian interests and did not seem to notice hints of the U.S., ready to take "a step towards ".

In short, there are many reasons for anxiety and unpleasant unrest in Armenia. And in the coming months, they seem to grow.

Armenian media, experts mull Putin’s remarks

Suren Karakhanian
BBC Monitoring Trans Caucasus Unit
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
Monday
Armenian media, experts mull Putin's remarks
 
 
By BBC Monitoring
 
Armenian media outlets and pundits have weighed in on Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest statements about bilateral relations with Yerevan.
 
Putin called Armenia one of Russia's "closest ally" and praised the two countries' "smooth relations" during his annual marathon press conference on 20 December. He underscored that there are no major problems that need to be resolved between the two countries. Putin also noted that the strong bilateral relations that were established by previous leaders should continue to develop.
 
Putin also said he will discuss the ties during the visit of acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Moscow next week.
 
'New-generation relationship'
 
Putin's comments ushered in a "new-generation relationship" between the two countries despite the fact that the Russian leader had not congratulated Pashinyan on his bloc's victory in the 9 December parliamentary election, Lragir.am website said.
 
"This is what the Russian president is interested in now, and not [in formation of a new] Armenian parliament. That is to say, [he is interested in] what the first leader of the new generation, Pashinyan, is ready for, and what curve in the Armenian-Russian relations can be expected now and in future," the website said.
 
Though Putin made it clear that he would not tolerate any radical changes in relations with Armenia, he expressed readiness to take into consideration "the new global and regional realities", the website said.
 
'Conventional starting point'
 
Armenian pundits also noted Putin's statement that he will meet with Pashinyan in Moscow the following week.
 
Zhamanak paper described the expected Putin-Pashinyan meeting as a "conventional starting point" for the two leaders to transform bilateral relations.
 
The newspaper opined that Putin, when he mentioned "new" realties, he was signalling that Moscow was ready to take into consideration the arguments presented by the new Armenian government.
 
"The main issue, basically, refers to the boundaries of a compromise between Yerevan and Moscow in this issue. On the other hand, it is beyond doubt that there is no option but to transform relations, and this is accepted by the Russian president when he speaks about new realities. The issue is how does each side view this transformation," the paper said.
 
'First real test'
 
Zhoghovurd paper linked the upcoming Pashinyan-Putin meeting to negotiations on the gas price,noting the fact that the agreement on the Russian gas supplies to Armenia expires on 31 December.
 
"The gas price is the first real test, and based on the outcome, it will become clear in practice how solid the Armenian-Russian relations are," the paper said.
 
Sputnik Armenia website also noted that Putin and Pashinyan are most likely to discuss the gas price.
 
Expert in energy security Vahe Davtyan told the website that it is "hardly probable" that the gas price will be reconsidered.
 
Davtyan said there was a hope "to smooth over the problems" during the Moscow meeting also in relation to the gas price, noting that Putin's rhetoric demonstrated that there are "points of contact" in the gas issue.
 
Needing each other
 
Political expert Yervand Bozoyan expressed conviction that the current difficulties in bilateral relations would eventually be eliminated between the allies.
 
"Yes, there is some negative background in the Armenian-Russian relations. But it takes time for the sides to eliminate these rough edges. … Both Moscow and Yerevan understand that they need each other. And this understanding will dominate the talks between the leaders," Bozoyan was quoted as saying by Sputnik Armenia.
 
The website said that the current Armenian authorities' strategy is not quite understandable for Russia. Despite this, Russia is trying to find the "golden mean" to build a dialogue with Yerevan, realising that Armenia is its strategic partner, the website said.

Garegin Chugaszyan: In 2018, the authoritarian system collapsed, but did not disappear

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Arminfo, Armeni
Dec 25 2018
Ani Mshetsyan

ArmInfo. In 2018, the authoritarian system collapsed, but did not disappear, on December 25 at a press conference,  member of the "Sasna Tsrer" party Garegin Chugaszyan said.

He noted that the transition from authoritarianism to democracy cannot take place in one day; this is a very complicated process. "In order to eradicate this phenomenon in Armenia, it is necessary to destroy political and economic monopolies," Chugaszyan said. A member of the Sasna Tsrer party also noted that as a result of the early parliamentary elections, a multi-polar National Assembly was not formed, however, he found it positive that the RPA had lost its levers of government.

Chugaszyan also stated that in 2018 there were omissions, among which he pointed to the holding of elections under the unreformed Electoral Code, which caused difficulties for a number of parties to participate in electoral processes. Another omission, he considered that the authorities did not initiate constitutional reforms.

Referring to the appointment of the former head of the intelligence department of the Armenian General Staff Arshak Karapetyan to the position of advisor to the prime minister, Chugaszyan called this a state agency. He disagreed with the opinion of the. Prime Minister Pashinyan and Acting Defense Minister Tonoyan that in the days of the April war the Armenian side had intelligence. "In fact, during the April war, intelligence did not provide enough information, and the country's high command did not take the necessary steps to prevent an enemy attack. We expect the current authorities to assess all this, and it will become obvious that the events that followed the April war will have arrested Zhirayr Sefilyana and insurgency "Sasna Tsrer" were interrelated, "he concluded.

Armenian Wine and Brandy Industry Cleared of Fake Production

Janet Ekmekjian
Lragir, Armenia
Dec 25 2018

18:18 25.12.2018 | Country | Views: 17

Decline in exports is also determined by decline in the volumes of production and exports of wine and brandy. According to the Statistical Committee, in November of this year exports decreased by 12.4% compared with October 2018 and 5% compared with November 2019. On the whole, the volumes of imports this year exceeded exports. In January-November, compared with the same period last year, imports increased by 24.2% and exports 9.8%.

The chair of the National Wine Center Avag Harutyunyan told Lragir.am fake production is ousted from the wine and brandy industry which explains the decline that will continue next year. According to him, this situation will last for 1-2 years in wine and 2-4 years in brandy industries. Decline will be followed by a steep growth.

“The Armenian wine and brandy industry is being cleared of fake products. Production and exports have declined by 5-10%, next year this will continue. There will be a steep rise already starting from 2020,” Avag Harutyunyan says.

According to him, the tendency to produce fake products in this industry was mainly encouraged by the Russian side.

“The Russian side says give me cheap product and we cannot produce cheap quality products because we are not competitive with our neighbors in terms of infrastructures and carbohydrates. We were forced to fake 5-10%. Now the internal oversight is stronger. The reason of this is that formerly the wine industry was highly politicized. The wine money was spent to push people into parliament, presidents were made with wine and brandy money. Now this is no longer so, there are less political orders, and political order always supposed a percentage, they would never get you because you were performing a political order. Now there is no political order, hence the sector is not politicized. And this means two things: first, producing fake goods is meaningless, second, producing fake goods is dangerous,” Harutyunyan said.

According to him, in this situation the companies of the industry suffer losses but it is their fault.

“They could choose to enter into those games or not,” he says.

As to markets, Avag Harutyunyan says the share of the Russian market has decreased over the past 10 years. In 2007-2008 91% of the volume of production of this industry was exported to Russia while today already 71% goes to Russia. At the same time, the share of other markets is growing with small steps. “We do not have major orders yet but the market has been diversified, the United States is the second, Europe is the third,” he said.

Sports: Mkhitaryan injury moment on video

Paul Hambardsumian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 25 2018

The video above shows the moment when Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan suffered an injury during the Gunners’ English Football League (EFL) Cup quarterfinal clash against Tottenham Hotspur.

Captain of the Armenian national football squad had collided with Tottenham’s Brazil midfielder Lucas Moura, while making a shot.

After getting medical assistance, Mkhitaryan had returned to the pitch and continued playing.

The Armenia international, however, was subbed off during halftime of this match that was played on December 19.

Mkhitaryan on Monday was diagnosed with a fractured metatarsal in his right foot.

He is expected to resume training in February.

Watch the video at