Tag Archives: Armenia

Kyrgyzstan and Armenia prepare roadmaps to Customs Union

NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — So-called roadmaps for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia to join the Russia-led Customs Union will be ready at the start of 2014, media quoted an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying. Currently only Belarus and Kazakhstan are members of the trade bloc. Analysts have said that Russia is using the Customs Union to expand its sphere of influence.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Azerbaijan and Armenia meet over Nagorno-Karabakh

NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s taken 2-1/2 years but it finally appears that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will meet again to discuss their differences over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The announcement was made late on Nov. 5 by representatives from the United States, France and Russia who have been pushing for negotiations. The media reported the announcement the following day.

This is major news on an issue that has been threatening to damage peace in the region. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Only a shaky 1994 ceasefire keeps the two sides apart. There are sporadic fire-fights along the border of Nagorno-Karabakh, now controlled by Armenian-backed rebels, though.

Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan last met to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh in June 2011 in the Russian city of Kazan. Those negotiations flopped over disagreements about a proposed referendum in the region. The Armenian side wanted only the current residents of the region, almost entirely pro-Armenia, to get a vote, while Azerbaijan wanted the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s to all have a vote.

There are plenty of hurdles ahead but even the prospect of Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan’s meeting is progress.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Armenia cuts interest rate

NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Central Bank lowered its interest rate to 8% from 8.5% after data showed that inflation had dropped. Annualised inflation dropped to 7.1% in October from 8.2% in September, still well above the Central Bank’s target range between 2.5% and 5.5%.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Azerbaijan and Armenia’s leaders agree to meet

NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a 2-1/2 year hiatus, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to meet to discuss the thorny issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still, officially, at war over the region although a 1994 cease-fire keeps the two side apart.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Azerbaijan-Armenia tension rises over Nagorno Karabakh

NOV. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — If proof was needed that a cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh was increasingly fragile, Russia may have given it.

Colonel Andrei Ruzinsky, commander of the Russian forces based in Armenia, said that Russia’s military would back Armenia if Azerbaijan ever tried to take back control of the province.

His intervention was interesting and, perhaps, well timed. Over the past few weeks there have been a number of small fire-fights between the two sides, more, it appears, than normal.

A shaky 1994 cease-fire keeps Armenia and Azerbaijan apart around Nagorno-Karabakh. The region is controlled by Armenian-backed rebels but Azerbaijan has said it wants to reclaim the region.

And it has built up the military firepower to do this.

Armenia’s military is far smaller than Azerbaijan’s but it has the backing of Russia.

While Azerbaijan has steered towards Europe and the West, Armenia has looked to Russia for support. It is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation and pledged to enter the Customs Union. Russia is the main driver and backer of both groups.

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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)

Police crushes protest in Armenia

NOV. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police clashed with anti-government protesters armed with sticks in central Yerevan, media reported, raising the spectre of instability in Armenia. Reports said police arrested 20 people after the small-scale scuffles petered out. Protesters were complaining that a presidential election in February was unfair.

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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)

Air Armenia starts flying to Moscow

OCT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Six months after the bankruptcy of Armenia’s national airline Armavia, Air Armenia began to service its first scheduled route between Yerevan and Moscow. Air Armenia, set up in 2003 as a private air transport company, is looking to fill the void that Armavia’s bankruptcy left.

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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)

Azerbaijan accuses Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh

OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s envoy to the UN, Agshin Mehdiyev, accused Armenia of using refugees from Syria to bolster its hold on Nagorno-Karabakh, the sliver of land that the two countries dispute. Roughly 10,000 ethnic Armenians have fled a civil war in Syria. Reports have said that Armenia has resettled some of them in Nagorno-Karabakh.

(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Inflation continues to go up in Armenia

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Inflation in Armenia continued to climb in August, bucking the Central Bank’s forecast. Media reported that in August prices were 9.3% higher than the same time last year. In July annualised inflation had been 8.5%. This is double the Central Bank’s target. It has increased interest rates to 8.5% this year.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Armenians welcome the Customs Union

YEREVAN/Armenia, OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement last month that Armenia will join the Russia-led Customs Union was a surprise both for officials and local people.

Armenia has been negotiating to join the EU for four years and a document representing progress was expected to be signed in November in Vilnius, Lithuania. Still, 14 of the 20 people interviewed by The Conway Bulletin on a mild September evening in central Yerevan supported the move.

Importantly, though, they backed Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, not to improve their economic prospects but because they considered Russia the best defender of peace from perceived Azerbaijani aggression.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia maintains a large military base in Armenia.

“We’re living in very dangerous times. Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iran, war. We’ve no other alternative,” said 33-year-old Minasyan Levon.

Liana Gevorgyan agreed. “We’ve no choice,” she said. “It’s better than feeling insecure.”

Some also said Russia’s traditional Christian Orthodox values were important.

“The EU is not only about trade, it’s also about homosexuals, feminism and a range of Western moral norms which ruins our country and its identity,” said Davit, 40.

(Correspondent’s Notebook from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)