Category: 2024

                                        Tuesday, 


Gyumri Mayor Avoids Political Crisis

        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian

Armenia - A session of the Gyumri city council, December 29, 2023.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party dropped its objections to 
the 2024 municipal budget of Gyumri on Tuesday more than one month after pulling 
out of a power-sharing agreement with the city’s mayor.

Mayor Vardges Samsonian representing the Balasanian Bloc failed to push the 
budget drafted by his administration through the city council late last month. 
The bloc unofficially led by Samsonian’s predecessor and local businessman 
Samvel Balasanian does not have a majority in the council.

The draft budget was rejected by council members representing not only Civil 
Contract but also two political groups in opposition to Armenia’s government. It 
was passed unanimously on Tuesday after being amended in accordance with 
proposals submitted by all three factions. It now calls for 5.7 billion drams 
($14 million) in local government spending.

Knarik Harutiunian, who leads Civil Contract’s group in the Gyumri council, said 
it voted for the budget even though there are still “some shortcomings in the 
document.”

“We will try to give the Balasanian Bloc a chance to govern adequately so that 
the people of Gyumri do not suffer,” she said.

The bloc had teamed up with Civil Contract to install Samsonian as mayor in the 
wake of the last municipal election held in October 2021. As part of their 
power-sharing deal, two Civil Contract figures became deputy mayors of Armenia’s 
second largest city. Three dozen other members of Pashinian’s party were also 
given posts in the municipal administration.

All those officials stepped down after Civil Contract unexpectedly announced on 
December 6 the end of the deal. It said it does not want to be part of “shady 
governance,” implying that Balasanian is continuing to pull the strings in 
Gyumri. Commentators suggested at the time that the ruling party will try to 
gain control of the municipality despite holding only 11 seats in the 33-member 
city council.

Karen Malkhasian, the local leader of the opposition Aprelu Yerkir party, noted 
that the Gyumri mayor has become far more cooperative and responsive towards 
other factions after the failure of his first attempt to push through his budget 
proposal.




Yerevan Again Laments ‘Regression’ In Baku’s Stance

        • Nane Sahakian

Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan gives a press conference in Yerevan, 
.
Կիսվել


Azerbaijan has reversed in recent weeks progress made in peace talks with 
Armenia, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan insisted on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, after this positive step of December 8 [prisoner exchange] we 
saw that Azerbaijan is not continuing with its constructive stance, to say the 
least,” he told a news conference. “That manifested itself through both the 7th 
Azerbaijani proposals on the [Armenian-Azerbaijani peace] treaty and the 
Azerbaijani president’s latest interview. There was a significant regression and 
even a blow to the peace process on a number of key issues.”

Mirzoyan complained on January 10 about “some regression” in the latest 
Azerbaijani proposals on the peace treaty submitted to Yerevan. He said Baku is 
reluctant to explicitly recognize Armenia’s borders through that accord.

In televised remarks aired hours later, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev 
renewed his demands for Armenia to open an extraterritorial corridor to 
Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. He also demanded Armenian withdrawal from 
“eight Azerbaijani villages” and again dismissed Yerevan’s insistence on using 
the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian rejected Aliyev’s demands, saying that they 
amount to territorial claims. Mirzoyan likewise said on Tuesday that Azerbaijan 
wants to redraw its long border with Armenia.

“I want to stress that nobody has the authority to draw a new border,” he said. 
“We remain determined in our position that during the delimitation process our 
relevant commissions should reproduce borders drawn on legal grounds prior to 
the break-up of the Soviet Union.”

Mirzoyan made clear that Pashinian’s government remains committed to its “peace 
agenda” despite what it sees as a risk of an Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed on Monday 
serious concern about “the latest territorial claims by President Aliyev.”

“Any violation of Armenia’s territorial integrity would be unacceptable and will 
have severe consequences for our relations with Azerbaijan,” Borrell said after 
chairing a meeting of the foreign ministers of EU member states.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to reject the criticism. A ministry 
spokesman accused Borrell of “distorting” Aliyev’s statements and inciting 
“bellicose and aggressive policy against Azerbaijan.”




Armenian Car Re-Exports Hit New Record In 2023


Armenia - Car carrier trailers line up near a customs terminal outside Gyumri, 
March 13, 2023


Armenia’s re-export of mostly second-hand cars more than doubled last year as 
local traders continued to take advantage of Western sanctions imposed on Russia 
over its war in Ukraine.

Armenian government data shows the total value of those exports rising to almost 
$533 million in January-November 2023 from $217 million in the same period a 
year earlier.

This growth was particular rapid in the first half of the year when used cars 
became the country’s number one export item. It appears to have somewhat slowed 
in the following months after the Russian government imposed higher duties on 
imports of such vehicles.

The sanctions include serious restrictions on trade with Russia. Also, Western 
automakers pulled out of the Russian market following the outbreak of the war in 
Ukraine in February 2022, pushing up the prices of new cars and forcing many 
Russians to switch to cheaper used models. Car traders from other nations, 
including Armenia, rushed to capitalize on the market opportunity.

According to Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), the number of cars 
imported to the South Caucasus country jumped nearly six-fold to almost 45,300 
in 2022. The SRC has been struggling to cope with long lines of cars formed 
outside its s main customs terminal processing imported vehicles.

They include not only used cars but also brand new ones. The SRC reported sharp 
rises in taxes collected from local dealers of carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz 
and Toyota in the first-half of 2023. Both Mercedes-Benz and Toyota stopped 
directly supplying their cars to Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Armenia has also been re-exporting consumer electronics and other 
Western-manufactured goods to Russia. This is the main reason why its exports to 
Russia tripled in 2022.

The re-exports prompted concern from EU and especially U.S. officials about a 
year ago. 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.

According to the Armenian government’s Statistical Committee, exports to Russia 
rose by 50 percent to $3.2 billion in January-November 2023.

Armenia’s overall exports reached a new record high of almost $7 billion. This 
includes $2.1 billion worth of what the Statistical Committee describes as 
precious stones and metals and jewelry items. Rough diamonds imported from 
Russia and re-exported to other countries, notably the United Arab Emirates, are 
believed to account for a large part of that figure.



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