AUG. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government will use cash generated by the $180m sale of the Vorotan Hydro Cascade hydropower plant earlier this year to subsidise a 16% increase in power prices, media quoted PM Hovik Abrahamian as saying. The announcement appears to be a climbdown as the power price rise had sparked protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will loan $300m to Armenia to weather tough economic conditions, media reported quoting Russia’s deputy economy minister Sergei Storchak. The ADB was set up by Russia and Kazakhstan. It supports members of the Eurasian Economic Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French telecoms company Orange is considering selling its Armenian subsidiary to Ucom, an Armenian fibre optic cable. Orange has been operating in Armenia since 2009 and has 650,000 subscribers.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A core group of activists opposed to electricity price rises have called for a series of rallies in Yerevan between July 27 -31 ahead of the Aug. 1 start date of the increases. Momentum behind the rallies protesting against the price rises has fizzled out.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – YEREVAN — Armenia’s opposition accused President Serzh Sargsyan of trying to fiddle with the constitution so that he can run the country from parliament after he leaves the presidency in 2018.
Last week, Armenia’s Constitutional Court unveiled plans for a transition to a parliamentary democracy. Armenians are due to vote on the reforms in December.
The government has said a new system would strengthen democracy.
The opposition disagree.
“Serzh Sargsyan is carrying out the reform with one purpose only: to circumvent the constitutional ban on seeking a third term as president and thus extend his own power, Levon Zurabyan, the head of the ANC parliamentary faction,” said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Armenia’s constitution currently concentrates power with the president. It limits him or her to two terms of five years, a ceiling that Mr Sargsyan will hit in 2018.
David Harutyunyan, an MP from the ruling Republican Party, defended the constitutional changes.
“The basic idea of constitutional reform is to prepare the country for a peaceful change of power, he told journalists at a press conference.
“The current constitution with a semi-hybrid form of government has brought some countries to a dangerous situation. For Armenia, it may have even more damaging consequences.”
There is precedent for reducing the power of the president and switching to a parliamentary democracy in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region.
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people continued to protest in central Yerevan against a potential price rise for electricity, although a Bulletin correspondent at the demonstration said that the numbers and the intensity have dropped off.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A special commission on constitutional reforms started consultations to shift Armenia’s constitution towards a parliamentary democracy, media reported. Executive power, it is envisaged, would be held by the PM rather than by the president. A referendum is due at the end of 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – India’s government ratified an agricultural deal with Armenia which should boost trade between the two countries, media reported. India is looking to boost relations with Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
YEREVAN, JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia welcomed the announcement from Vienna, perhaps with even more gusto than its neighbours, that Western powers had agreed a deal with Iran that should see sanctions on it lifted.
As a landlocked country surrounded mainly by enemies, Armenia has viewed its southern neighbour as a necessary trade partner over the past few years. A sanction-free Iran, it is hoped in Yerevan, will also give Armenia a boost.
“Naturally, if we consider Armenia and Iran as not only neighbours with friendly relations but also having partnership relations, then the lifting of sanctions against Iran and growing regional role of Iran will benefit us in terms of Iran’s developing economic relations,” said Armenian orientalist Vardan Voskanyan on Shant TV.
Both countries have been forced to improve bilateral relations — both diplomatic and trade — over the past few years. Iran has experienced years in the international wilderness. Armenia’s neighbours include Turkey and Azerbaijan, its enemies.
Armenia supplies electricity to Iran in return for gas and there is a programme to build a joint hydro-electricity generating plant along the border on the Arax River.
Various other projects are planned, including a railway.
The Zhamanak newspaper wrote that Armenia can now become a transit country for Iranian goods heading to Europe.
“We just have to welcome the achievement of the agreement, hoping that the positive effects of this situation will impact us as soon as possible,” it said.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Governments across Central Asia and the South Caucasus welcomed a deal between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme that will allow sanctions on Tehran to be lifted, boosting their southern neighbour as an important trade partner once again.
Sanctions have weighed down Iran’s economy since 2002, stunting demand and undercutting its value to the region.
Central Asian and South Caucasus countries have legally been able to trade with Iran during the Western-imposed sanctions, but Iran’s economy had faltered. They now hope that, unshackled, Iran can generate wealth and demand throughout the region once again.
“It will have a positive impact on the economic and social development of all countries in the region, and will further strengthen the cooperation between Kazakhstan and Iran,” Kazakh foreign minister Erlan Idrissov said of the deal with Iran.
From Dushanbe to Yerevan, these sentiments were echoed across the region.
Georgia’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “(This) deal brings about normalisation of relations between Iran and Western countries, which will create new economic opportunities for countries both in the region and in the entire world.”
Iran has, over the past few years, been increasing links with both Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
In Azerbaijan it patched up a row over spying, in Georgia new regulations have allowed Iranians to set up businesses and Armenia has been busy making plans to increase trade with one of its few regional allies.
Its a similar story in Central Asia where ties with Iran are being improved and strengthened through new train links and product swaps.
And Iran’s economic impact on the region is significant. The ArcelorMittal steel factory at Temirtau in central Kazakhstan, for example, has long complained that sanctions on Iran severely dented demand for its steel.
With sanctions soon to be lifted and Iranian domestic and industrial demand primed to rise, Central Asia and the South Caucasus should benefit.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
