SEPT. 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russia-lead security organisation involving most Central Asia states and Armenia started a week of military manoeuvres. Russia’s most senior general, Nikolai Makarov, told the Vedemosti newspaper that stopping any potential Arab Spring-style uprising was one of the main aims of the manoeuvres by the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
SEPT. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – As many as 6,000 people gathered for the first opposition street demonstration in Yerevan for months, local media reported. Talks between the government and the opposition alliance (HAK) have stalled since Aug. 26 over the detention by police of a HAK youth activist. More protests are planned.
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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)
SEPT. 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s opposition coalition (HAK) suspended talks with the government and threatened to organise protests, local media reported. The talks, important for Armenia’s stability, started in July. HAK complained police had unfairly detained one of their activists.
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(News report from Issue No. 55, published on Sept. 6 2011)
AUG. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – It may have been a formality but it was a symbolically significant one. On Aug. 22 2011, Turkey’s new parliament nullified 898 draft laws the previous parliament had failed to ratify. Among these were two on improving relations with Armenia.
Both these draft laws had languished in Turkey’s parliament since Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Turkish President Abdullah Gul shook hands in Zurich in Oct. 2009 and pledged that after years of animosity the neighbours would finally make up.
Officially scrapped now, the draft laws have little chance in the short term of making their way back on to the Turkish Parliament’s agenda. In Armenia, the laws hadn’t even made it that far. So much for the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, then.
And there had been such high hopes. But, though the countries’ leaders had shaken hands, spoken in public about the need for improved relations and watched football matches together, in reality rapprochement drifted off after only a few months.
The issues are so entrenched. At its heart is an argument over whether the Turkish Ottoman Empire at the end of the World War I committed genocide against Armenians. The Turks say thousands died on both sides of the fighting. The Armenians say Turks killed Armenians systematically.
Turkey is also a natural ally of Azerbaijan which is still officially at war with Armenia over the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Always complex, the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement is now also officially off.
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(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s opposition alliance, the Armenian National Congress (HAK), threatened to quit talks with the government after the arrest of seven of its activists for allegedly attacking policemen, local media reported. The activists deny the charges and say police beat them. The talks are considered key to maintaining stability in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 53, published on Aug. 17 2011)
JULY 29 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s chess team returned home to a hero’s welcome after winning the World Team Chess Championship in China three days earlier. Victory is important to Armenia where chess is played widely. The Team Chess Championship is one of the world’s most prestigious chess tournaments.
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(News report from Issue No. 51, published on Aug. 2 2011)
JULY 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia and the US plan to hold their first joint military exercise by 2013, local media quoted Armenia’s defence ministry as saying, bolstering the two countries’ links. This year Armenia has signed a deal with Russia to extend a lease on a military base in and bolstered economic ties with Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 50, published on July 27 2011)
JULY 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia formalised a deal with Armenia to extend a lease on perhaps its most important military base in the South Caucasus until 2044, Russian media reported. Thousands of Russian soldiers, aircraft and missiles will remain in the base at Gyumri, about 100km north of Yerevan. In the deal, Russia will supply military equipment to Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite promising signs before the summit in Kazan, central Russia, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to agree on a peace deal over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. A 1994 ceasefire has maintained a shaky peace over Nagorno- Karabakh although soldiers from both sides die in shootouts every month.
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(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)
JUNE 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with the BBC’s Russian service, Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan said he wanted to restore links with Turkey without any pre-conditions. Mr Sargsyan’s comments could be an important trigger to re-start negotiations on establishing ties between the countries. Talks have stalled since a 2009 deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 45, published on June 21 2011)
