APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia signed a deal with Russia that will ease Armenian migrant workers’ permits in Russian cities, media reported. The deal is another sign of the economic benefits that Armenia is in line to receive after agreeing to join the Russia-led Customs Union. Remittances from Russia are an important part of Armenia’s economy.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan named the speaker of the parliament, Hovik Abrahamyan, as the new PM.
Mr Abrahamyan’s brief is a tough one.
His predecessor quit abruptly at the start of the month the day after the Constitutional Court ruled that the government’s landmark pension reforms were illegal.
The reforms have been deeply unpopular, as are pension reforms throughout the world which try to make people work for longer and accept a smaller payout.
That mess, essential for sorting out Armenia’s damaged social security system, has to be sorted out.
There’s also the small matter of a vote of no confidence to deal with later this month. Armenia’s economy is stalling and its foreign policy at times feels adrift from its people — it has lurch towards Russia’s Customs Union at the expense of greater EU integration.
Mr Abrahamyan, a 56-year-old economist who has been speaker of parliament since 2008, is going to have to prove a tough operator in his new job.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said that he would not stand for a third consecutive term. His announcement comes just as his government are at a low ebb. Mr Sargsyan is facing low opinion poll ratings and had to appoint a new PM after his ally of six years. Tigran Sargsyan resigned this month.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A landmine killed three Azerbaijani soldiers on the border between Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region controlled by Armenia-backed separatists, and Azerbaijan, media reported. The deaths highlight the fragile cease-fire that covers Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
YEREVAN/Armenia, APRIL 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was a mild Saturday evening in mid-March in a French café in central Yerevan. A group of young friends, well young-ish, had sat down to discuss the biggest news topic of the week — the revolution in Ukraine.
“We should take lessons from the young Ukrainians who are fighting for their independence, for democracy, for human rights,” said Ani Kirakosyan, a 30-year-old human rights defender.
Jazz music floated across the room.
This sort of political conversation in Armenia is important. Last year, at the same time as Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovich chose to side with Russia over the European Union, Armenia’s leadership was doing the same. Since then Armenia, which hosts a large Russian military base, has supported Russia in the UN over its annexation of Crimea. Russia’s other supporters include North Korea and Syria.
“They (Ukrainians) have now chosen the EU,” Kirakosyan continued with a hint of anger in her tone. “At first we were also angry but we did not follow our dream. We stopped at some point.””
Lusine Baghdasaryan, a 32-year-old economist nodded. She said apathy was the problem. “I just don’t believe we can do it. It seems nothing now makes us angry,” she said.
But, said 28-year-old Syrian-Armenian Hayk Ghukasyan, can the US and the West be counted on to help out? “There are no guarantees. Just look at what the US did with Syria,” he said.
Ghukasyan fled from Syria’s civil war and is now struggling to find a job in Armenia.
“We are a small country with the tough and unresolved territorial problem of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),” he said. “If Azerbaijan smells fear they could resume war.”
People in Armenia are frustrated with their leaders but they also feel that they have few options. Geo-politically Armenia needs friends, and, for most, that means siding with Russia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Consumer prices in Armenia were 4.6% higher in March compared to the same period in 2013, media quoted the state’s statistics centre as saying. Food prices rose by 2.6%, tobacco and alcohol by 7.3% and non-food items by 3%.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan flew to Ashgabat for talks with his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. At the end of their meeting, they agreed to deepen bilateral relations. This is important for Armenia which needs to build more allies and for Turkmenistan for building its international profile.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Stubbornly high unemployment is a major problem for Armenia’s economy, media quoted the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as saying in an annual reported. Unemployment last year in Armenia measured 16.8%, the ADB said. It said GDP growth in 2013 slowed to 3.5% from 7.2% in 2012.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tigran Sargsyan, 54, resigned as Armenia’s PM without giving a clear explanation as to why. Mr Sargsyan, no relation to Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, had been PM since 2008. He had previously been head of the Central Bank. His government had grown increasingly unpopular over pension reform.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the government’s flagship pension reforms were illegal, triggering a fresh crisis at the top of the Armenian political spectrum.
The ruling was a major blow to the government which has stubbornly stuck to its pension reform agenda despite increasing levels of public discontent. It also appeared to come as a surprise.
The following day Tigran Sargsyan resign as Armenia’s PM, although he did not link his resignation explicitly with the Court’s ruling. There have been perpetual rumours about his health and other job offers.
Later this month, the government also faces a vote of no confidence in parliament. Opinion polls have shown that its popularity has sunk to fresh lows.
And most of this unpopularity stems from the pension reforms.
Thousands have marched against changes which were introduced at the start of the year. The reforms stated that everybody born after Jan. 1 1974 would have to pay 5% of their salary into a state pension fund. The state has promised to match private contributions to the pension fund up to a maximum of $61 per month.
But now the Constitutional Court has ruled that the pension reforms introduced by the government restrict the rights of its citizens.
The problem for Armenia is, similarly to other countries in the former Soviet Union, it simply has to reform its state pension system to pay for its aging population and to compensate for the large grey economy.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
