Tag Archives: Armenia

EU aid still flowing to Armenia

NOV. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Although Armenia has agreed to join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, currently called the Customs Union, in 2015, the EU approved a 140m – 170m euros tranche of aid. The aid will be used to bolster the private sector, the justice sector and reform government institutions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)

Armenian airline cancels flights

OCT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Air Armenia, the only Armenian-owned passenger airline, suspended all passenger flights until at least Dec. 20 because of financial problems.

Privately owned, Air Armenia has been flying to Russia and a handful of other destinations for a year. It was set up as a freight airline in 2003 but branched into passenger flights after the collapse of Armavia in 2013.

Air Armenia’s financial problems highlight just how difficult the business environment in Armenia is currently.

Armenia has been hard hit by the financial problems facing Russia, its main ally and sponsor. Remittances from workers in Russia have dried up as has financial support and investment. Economic growth rates have been slashed, currency warnings have been put out and inflation is creeping up. These are difficult times for Armenian businesses, more so in the aviation sector.

It looks increasingly likely that Armenians will now be without a national airline.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)

Armenia’s President says talks useful

OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan, described talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as “constructive, useful and sincere”, media reported.This is the most upbeat assessment of the talks hosted by French president Francois Hollande.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)

Armenia denies Crimea flight

OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia has denied that it has given permission for a commercial flight between Yerevan and Simferopol, the capital of Crimea.

As reported by the Bulletin last week, Grozny Avia, a Chechen airline, has floated plans to fly between the two cities twice a week. If the flight route did materialise it would be the first air route into Crimea, other than from Russia, since Russian forces annexed the Ukrainian province earlier this year.

News of the planned flight angered the Ukrainian government. It has also been suggested that Armenia had been coaxed into allowing the flight to appease Russia. Armenia needs Russian economic support to keep its finances in order and Russian military support to balance the threat posed by Azerbaijan which wants to re-take the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia-back rebels.

But Armenia’s civil aviation authority has said that an earlier statement from Crimea’s transport minister about the planned flight was simply wrong.

“The Head Department of Civil Aviation did not receive, and therefore has not examine, a bid for operation of direct flights from Yerevan to Simferopol,” media quoted spokesman Ruben Grdzelyan as saying.

This is not a categorical no, then. It does suggest that this issue may have further to run.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)

EU wants better Armenia-Turkey ties

OCT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU is strongly in favour of improved ties between Armenia and Turkey, media quoted a member of the EU delegation to Ankara, Bela Szombati, as saying. Armenia-Turkey ties are strained because of a row over the alleged genocide in eastern Turkey towards the end of the First World War.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)

Azerbaijan and Armenia to talk Nagorno-Karabakh

OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met to discuss the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in talks mediated by French president Francois Hollande.

The official outcome of the talks — agreeing to more talks — may appear inconsequential but meetings between President Serzh Sargyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan are rare.

“Status quo is not sustainable,” Mr Hollande’s office said after the meeting. “(Azerbaijan and Armenia) have agreed to continue the dialogue, in particular with a new meeting in September 2015 in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.”

Nagorno-Karabakh has been described as one of the world’s most dangerous frozen conflicts. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over the region in the early 1990s and only a shaky 1994 UN-brokered ceasefire keeps the two- sides apart. Recently, though, there has been an increase in the amount of fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia-back rebels now control the region but there is a constant background noise of sabre rattling. Azerbaijan has been re-arming its military, buying top-of-the-range kit from Israel. Armenia has quietly been rehousing Armenians chased out of Syria in Nagorno-Karabakh.

This was the second meeting this year between Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting in August.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)

Armenia to receive more gas from Iran

OCT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian energy minister Yervand Zakharyan flew to Tehran for another round of talks with his Iranian counterpart on increasing gas supplies. Marginalised by their neighbours, Armenia and Iran have been trading gas and electricity since 2009.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Crimea-Armenia air route opens

OCT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A direct air route is opening up between Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, and Yerevan, making Armenia the only country other than Russia since the Kremlin annexed the Ukrainian region earlier this year to set up a connection.

Media reported that the airline, Grozny Avia would run the once-a-week flight from Simferopol from Nov. 16.

Perhaps this is the price that Armenia has to pay for Russian economic and military support. The West has levied sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea. Russia has said that Crimea voted to join Russia in an independence referendum and that its actions were legitimate.

And what it craves is international recognition. Russia has had the same problem with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, rebel Georgian states whose independence it has recognised to the chagrin of most the international community.

The only countries which have followed Russia’s lead are small countries from Central America to the Pacific Ocean looking for economic support.

Armenia may be falling into that category over Crimea. It will join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2015 and looks to Russian forces in Armenia to act as a counterbalance for any Azerbaijani aggression over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Grozny Avia likely to be linked to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-supported leader of Chechnya, provides another link between Russia and its semi-vassal states.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Russia army exercises in Armenia

OCT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 3,000 Russian soldiers stationed in Armenia staged a week- long military exercise. The exercise is a reminder of Russia’s presence in the region and the fragile peace in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan has made it clear that it still wants to re-take the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh currently run by pro-Armenia forces.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Armenia signed EaEU deal

OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, Armenia signed a deal in Minsk with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to join the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union will come into effect from Jan. 1 as the successor of the Customs Union. The Kremlin sees the Eurasian Economic Union as a counterbalance to the EU.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)