MARCH 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will update its definition of the term torture to meet international standards, the London-based media NGO Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) said. The update, the IWPR reported, was aimed at cracking down on police torture.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Valery Permyakov, the Russian solider who confessed to killing an Armenian family in January, will be tried in a Russian military court, the Interfax news agency reported (March 29). The murders angered Armenians who wanted Mr Permyakov tried by Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia will give Armenia $47m as a sweetener for joining the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), media reported. Armenia joined the EEU on Jan. 1 but has yet to fully embrace it. Armenia’s president, Serzh Saargsyan, ducked out of a meeting of EEU heads of state last week.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Armenia-backed government of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh said that Azerbaijani forces had killed three of its soldiers, one of the worst breeches of a ceasefire in recent months. Azerbaijan said Armenian forces had initiated an attack which it repelled.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan, visited China, signing various deals with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and pledging greater cooperation between the two countries.
Short on regional allies, Armenia is looking for cash and investment to help it out of a worsening economic situation. It is currently overly reliant on Russian business and aid.
With this in mind, Mr Sargsyan’s trip to China was an important one.
“The Chinese government will encourage domestic enterprises to participate in transportation, mining, electricity, information technology and infrastructure sectors in Armenia,” the Xinhua Chinese state information agency quoted Mr Xi as saying.
This is exactly what Mr Sargsyan wanted to hear. Armenian state media said that Chinese trade had increased in importance over the past year and now accounted for 10% of Armenia’s total trade turnover, up from 8% in 2013.
Importantly, too, Mr Xi accepted an invitation to visit Armenia. For Armenia, successfully courting China is important.
China, eager to boost its regional presence, has probably found a willing partner in Armenia.
Perhaps also linked to this general diplomatic push, Armenia said that it is opening a consulate in Ebril, the capital of Kurdish Iraq.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia issued a 10-year $500m bond with a yield of 7.5%. Governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been borrowing to offset a drop in their economies.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Unnerving its three partners, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan said he would skip a meeting of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in Astana on March 20, media reported.
His absence from the meeting has triggered questions about Armenia’s commitment to the project which it has only just joined.
The meeting between President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus is billed as an important one to navigate out of the financial crisis.
It had been postponed from March 13 to March 20. Kazakh officials initially said Mr Putin was too unwell to attend.
But Armenia — the fourth member of the economic group — has chosen not to attend. Armenia only joined the EEU, which morphed out of the Customs Union, on Jan. 1.
It has always been considered a supporter of Russia which it relies upon for economic and military support.
Armenia’s government didn’t explain why Mr Sargsyan would not fly to Astana for the meeting. Instead a senior official said the meeting had been organised to sort out problems which did not concern Armenia.
Perhaps, but it has created noise around Armenia’s potential unhappiness around the state of the region’s finances so much so that the Kremlin was bounced into releasing a press statement which said that Mr Putin and Mr Sargsyan had shared a telephone conversation during which the Russian leader had been reassured of Armenia’s good intentions.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is heading to Central Asia for his first overseas trip since re-emerging into public view.
He is due to fly to Astana for a summit with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts on March 20.
The meeting was postponed from March 13. Kazakh officials at first said that the meeting had been delayed because Mr Putin was ill. Russian officials denied this, keeping people guessing on just why he cancelled several appointments and disappeared for a few days without explanation.
And Central Asia has played a prominent role in the episode. Mr Putin used a brief video with visiting Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on March 16 to show the world that he was not hiding. He previous public appearance had been on March 5.
The summit with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has also stirred controversy, although this time not by Mr Putin.
It appeared to be a meeting of the heads of state of the Eurasian Economic Union members, except that the group’s newest member, Armenia, was missing.
This set off rumours that Armenia had grown increasingly disinterested in the Russia-led group since joining in January, especially given the context of the increasingly painful economic downturn.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has had to step in and reassure both Russia and the general public that this was not the case. Instead, he said, the meeting just didn’t include Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Carrefour, the French supermarket group, opened their first store in Armenia. The news is a boost to Armenia which has been hit hard by a financial downturn in the region. Carrefour said it had taken three years to open its new store in Yerevan.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 12 2015 (The Bulletin) – Armenia is planning a bond issue to help it through the current financial crisis, Reuters reported quoting sources. Armenia’s last bond was issued in September 2013 and was worth $700m.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
