Sargsyan is expected to have a tough visit to Washington DC
Armine AVETYAN | March 20, 2010
- Mr. Shahnazaryan, can we assume that after the recent developments the protocols dedicated to normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations are failed? - The Armenian-Turkish relations weren’t built on these protocols. Due to soccer diplomacy a situation is formed, by which the parties and mediators know that this process doesn’t have a future. Now the game is who’s going to carry the responsibility of failing the process. The revision of the RA law on international treaties is connected with that. The Armenian parliament will be the first to ratify the protocols. After that Sargsyan will have to decide to recall the protocols or not. Or they might as well call back the protocols indeed if there is no progress in the NKR conflict resolution. And the statements that they are going to ratify after Turkey are not convincing. In that case why had they made a legislative amendment? - Why was it necessary for the US Congress’s foreign relations committee to adopt the resolution 252 in favor of recognition... [full story]
Appreciation
March 20, 2010
Yesterday the European Parliamentary Assembly held a monitoring session in Paris, during which they discussed the timeline suggested by the Armenian government. According to the timeline written by the head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE davit Harutyunyan, the Armenian government has taken the responsibility to reform the judicial system and adopt the necessary changes in the parliament till the end of the year to provide an opportunity to get prepared for the next elections in 2011. The government is also undertaking a responsibility to make other “beautiful reforms”, about which they are speaking only in case the European institutions demand anything from Armenia. To note, on February 2 the co-rapporteurs on Armenia John Prescott and George Colombier in their statement demanded from the Armenian government to develop a timeline of reforms till the session in April for the purpose of implementing the assignments of the ad hoc looking into the events of March 1 and the corresponding resolutions...
Those united under the umbrella of the coalition’s love
Ara GALOYAN | March 20, 2010
“The government consists of a prime minister and ministers,” reads the constitution of Armenia. It is defining the provision but does not explain why. Instead of that the fifth clause of the Constitution explains the policies of the government. It is written well but there is no need to read as they have nothing to do with the reality. For example, in the fourth clause of the 55th article of the Constitution it is written that “the president appoints and dismisses the members of the government based on the recommendation of the prime minister.” It means that according to the existing laws the PM has a large scope of rights and powers. The PM has recommended a government consisting of 18 ministers and is organizing a session every month with participation of these people and they call it a “government session”. They discuss domestic and other issues of foreign policy at such sessions. All they try to overcome the impact of the world crisis. But the real picture is quite different...
Closer… to elections
March 18, 2010
The processes taking place in the governmental elite of Armenia is evidently connected with the upcoming parliamentary elections. The replacement of the ministers of the Legal State, the statement of the chair of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan addressed to Nerses Yeritsyan or in other words the government of Armenia or the RPA means that the coalition with its current composition of forces will hardly make it to the parliamentary elections. Especially it is not yet known whether those will be regular or extraordinary elections. And despite the fact that the government is pretty contemptuous about the statements of the opposition about the conduct of by-elections the government is more seriously preparing for those than the opposition....
Preparing for the elections via (within) the Legal State Party
Armine AVETYAN | March 18, 2010
Yesterday it unexpectedly became known that during a Legal State political board session the party decided to recall its two ministers of Communication and Transport, Gurgen Sargsyan, and minister of Emergency Situations, Mher Shahgeldyan. The party made this decision during its session taken place on Sunday. Meanwhile the party has also determined the names of the ones, who should be replaced by the outgoing ones. The party decided to promote the candidature of Manuk Vardanyan to the post of minister of Communication and Transport and Armen Yeritsyan- minister of Extraordinary Situations. It is interesting that Armen Yeritsyan is the deputy Chief of Police and Manuk Vardanyan, during Kocharyan’s tenure, used to be the head of Cadastre Committee. These offices are factually taken from the Legal State. Yesterday the chair of the party faction Heghine Bisharyan and party MP Hovhannes Margaryan were assuring the journalists that there is no need to be surprised of the replacement because all of this is aimed...
The nature teaches to roar like a lion, but the reality makes to mew like a cat
Lilit AVAGYAN | March 18, 2010
The famous international organizations (even those which have lost their credit along the time) deem it necessary to publish their opinion about the human rights situation every year. The US State Department’s report on March 11 on the Human Rights situation in 2009 was the latest report in the international community. It covered the human rights situation in Armenia, and this part of the report contains a lot of information and references to Armenia. It is not clear what the audience of such report is and what the goals are. If they think that this information is for the citizens of Armenia, they perfectly know what the human rights situation is in Armenia and which rights are violated or abused. However, it is another issue if such reports are for the governments of other countries to make them think twice before cutting a deal with us. The reality is that the fact of abusing and violating people’s right in Armenia is as uninteresting for the ones who are abusing and violating the rights as for the...
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The Congress will not adopt
March 9, 2010
“As an Armenian, certainly I appreciate and believe it was one step forward toward the historical truth and justice and the recognition of the Armenian genocide,” said former foreign minister Alexander Arzumanyan to our correspondent in answer to our question concerning the adoption of the 252 bill by the foreign affairs committee of the Congress. “On the other hand, we have seen the same scenario repeating in 2000, 2005 and 2007. The Congress foreign affairs committee brought up the bill, which was adopted by the majority of votes, after which the speaker refused to bring it up for a plenary session. I believe the same destiny will happen to this bill too,” he said....
Remained unchanged
March 4, 2010
Utility service regulators yesterday kept unchanged the price of electricity for Armenian households despite the increased cost of Russian natural gas delivered to the country. Robert Nazaryan, the PSRC chairman, said Armenia can sustain such a price thanks to the upcoming launch of a new and much more efficient unit at a major thermal-power plant located in Yerevan. Nazarian also noted the fact that it will mainly run on gas supplied from neighboring Iran. With natural gas used for generating roughly one-third of Armenia’s electricity, the move raised fears of a knock-on effect on energy fees that were already raised almost a year ago. However, the PSRC sanctioned only a modest rise in the cost of electricity supplied to industrial enterprises. According to the commission the Hrazdan thermal facility uses Russian gas and is owned by a subsidiary of Russia’s state-controlled Unified Energy Systems power utility. According to that about 5 kilowatt electrical power will be exposed from 1 cubic meter...
Lars re-opened
March 4, 2010
After being closed for four years, the Upper Lars checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border is again open. The checkpoint will work in March-November from 06:00 till 22:00, and in the period of November-March - from 07:00 to 19:00. Only transport means can cross the Upper Lars. The checkpoint restores a vital route between Russia and the South Caucasus and will be available only for vehicles. After the closure of the checkpoint freight transfers between Armenia and Russia were carried out through Poti checkpoint. There is no access for the pedestrians or the residents of the area to cross the checkpoint. The citizens of Russia or Georgia, who’d wish to cross the Upper Lars border will have to get permissions from the Swiss Embassy because Switzerland has taken up the role of the mediator between these countries ever since the conflict. Let us remember that the Upper Lars crossing running through a narrow pass in the Caucasus Mountains was controversially closed by Moscow in June 2006, hitting hard Armenian...
On feet
March 2, 2010
Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan did not have a meeting with Turkey' Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Kiev, RA Presidential Press Service said while commenting on Turkish media reports. Both the Armenian President and the Turkish FM attended the inauguration ceremony of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich in Kiev. During the reception following the ceremony Ahmet Davutoglu approached the Armenian President and exchanged views with him. Sargsyan stressed that political will is required to register progress, and Armenia believes that the present process needs be brought to its logical end in the shortest period of time otherwise Armenia will have to withdraw its signature from the Armenian-Turkish protocols. The Armenian President reiterated that Turkey can by no means be involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, as it is rendering unilateral military assistance to one of the conflicting parties - Azerbaijan and making regular biased statements on the settlement process. "A country dreaming of...
Getting ready for elections
February 25, 2010
According to our information, the owner of Flash company Barsegh Beglaryan has decided to found a political party. It is not Barsegh Beglaryan’s decision but the wish of the authorities. The authorities want to have many political parties to rely on before the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections, and one of these projects will be carried out by Barsegh Beglaryan. Currently he has a foundation called “Barepasht Serund”, the office of which is located in the same building at Koryun 19A address where the offices of the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Armenian National Congress are located as well. By the way, Barsegh Beglaryan has provided another party with office premises in the same building, which may join the party to be established by him. The goal of these steps is to attract the youth and students, and they have already started their work. Definitely Barsegh Beglaryan’s new party will be established based on the mentioned foundation....
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