Tag Archives: Armenia

Iran drops tax on foodstuffs to Central Asia

SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran has lifted an export tax on foodstuffs being sent to Central Asia and the South Caucasus, media quoted Abdollah Mohajer, the head of Mazandaran Province Chamber of Commerce, as saying. The export tax had covered a range of products including pistachio nuts, cabbages, dates and raisins. Ditching the export tax is likely to drop the price of sending foodstuffs to Central Asia by up to 20%. Iran is increasingly trying to tap into Central Asia and the South Caucasus as natural export markets for is various products.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

China considers building $300m smelter in Armenia

Leave a Reply

AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia is discussing a potential $300m investment with China to build a copper smelting plant, media quoted Armenian economic development minister Suren Karayan as saying. China has been increasingly busy in pushing its investment portfolio in Armenia. It wants to boost its presence across Central Asia and the South Caucasus as part of its “Belt and Road” trade strategy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Israeli drone-maker may have attacked Armenian soldiers

Leave a Reply

AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) –The Israeli government has suspended the licence of weapons manufacturer Aeronautics Defense Systems for allegedly showing off a new drone weapon to Azerbaijani clients by attacking Armenian forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The case shows both the growing military partnership between Israel and Azerbaijan and also the lengths that Israeli defence companies will go to win contracts with their Azerbaijani counterparts.

Aeronautics Defense Systems made the disclosure to the Israeli stock market.
“The Defense Ministry’s Defense Export Controls Agency informed the company that it was suspending the marketing and export permit for the company’s Orbiter 1K model UAV to a significant customer,” it said in a statement.

A couple of weeks earlier, Israeli newspaper had reported on a leaked complaint made to the Israeli defence ministry. It said that officials from Aeronautics Defense Systems had travelled to Azerbaijan in July to show off their Orbiter 1K suicide drone that is packed with explosives and deliberately flown into an enemy position.

During the demonstration, the reports said, Azerbaijani officials asked Aeronautics Defense Systems to attack an Armenian position in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The two controllers of the drone refused but two other members of the Aeronautics Defense Systems team took the controls and attacked the Armenian position.

The alliance between Azerbaijan and Israel has been growing. Azerbaijan is one of the biggest importers of Israeli military kit and in 2012 Israel also reportedly made a deal with Azerbaijan to use its airbases in a preemptive attack on neighbouring Iran.
Armenia-backed forces currently control the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh which hey fought over in the 1990s.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Armenia scraps visas for Japanese

Leave a Reply

AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia lifted visa requirements for Japanese citizens, two years after Japan opened an embassy in Yerevan. Armenia has had an embassy in Tokyo since 2010. Previously, like EU citizens, Japanese citizens had to apply for a visa on arrival at an Armenian border.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Fire destroys chemical factory in Armenia

Leave a Reply

AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — An explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant in Nairit, Armenia, ignited a fire that raged for at least two days. The chemicals plant has been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years, with management sacking two-thirds of the staff en mass in 2015. The plant is currently owned by Samvel Karapetyan, one of Armenia’s richest men, through his company Electric Networks of Armenia. It is unclear if anybody was hurt in the explosion and what caused it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Two Canadian MPs banned from Azerbaijan

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued an official complaint to the Canadian foreign ministry after two Canadian MPs visited Nagorno-Karabakh as guests of Armenia. Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper said that Tony Clement and Rachael Harder had also been banned from travelling to Azerbaijan. They said that they had accepted an invitation to help make a documentary about the disputed region by a Toronto-based group called One Free World International.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

EBRD extends financing in Armenia

Leave a Reply

SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Armenia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it was extending its scheme aimed at boosting lending to women and small and medium-sized businesses. It will lend Araratbank, one of the larger banks in the country, the equivalent of $10m in local dram currency, media reported.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Iowa recognises Armenian genocide

Leave a Reply

AUG. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US state of Iowa issued a proclamation recognising the killing of up to 1.5m Armenians at the end of the First World War by Ottoman Turks as “the first modern genocide”. Turkey has always denied the genocide and said that Armenians were killed in the general chaos at the end of the war.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Fire damages forest in Armenia

Leave a Reply

AUG. 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — A fire destroyed up to 2,750 hectares of ancient forest in Armenia, Russian news agencies quoted ecologists as saying. Firefighters and military water-carrying planes took four days to control the fire that spread quickly because of the unusually dry conditions. Much of the Khosrov forest, reportedly planted in the 4th century, is made up of oak trees.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 340, published on Aug. 20 2017)

Turkey says it is interested in joining Eurasian Economic Union

Leave a Reply

AUG. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkey’s economy minister, Nihat Zeybekci, said that the country was interested in joining the Eurasian Customs Union, the customs-free zone that includes the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The comments underline Turkey’s drift away from Europe towards Russia and Central Asia. The Eurasian Economic Union is led by Russia and also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Importantly, Turkey did not say it wanted to join the EEU.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)