| February 1 |
Prime Minister Andranik Markarian
announces that the government's new tax collection efforts have resulted
in an increase of 47 percent compared to the same period last year.
Recently appointed Minister for State Revenue Andranik Manukian reports
that his ministry collected 9.4 billion drams ($17 million) in taxes
in January and has set a target of 168.4 billion drams in tax collection
for this year. |
| February 2 |
Representatives of the World Bank
meet with Finance and Economy Minister Vardan Khachatrian to formally
sign a new agreement on a $50 million World Bank loan package which
will finance fifty percent of Armenia's expected budget deficit. There
are several preconditions tied to the loan package, including the
privatization of major segments of the country's energy sector, an
improvement in the overall investment climate and a thorough reform
of the state pension and entitlement programs. |
| February 4 |
The opposition National Democratic
Union (NDU) concludes its 12th party congress in Yerevan and elects
a new leadership. The party congress is split between followers of
David Vartanian, currently serving as Minister for State Property
in the Kocharian cabinet, and another group demanding a more aggressive
platform to oppose President Kocharian. The other camp, led by Shavarsh
Kocharian, loses the election for party leadership and announces plans
to form a new political party, to be called the National People's
Party. The new leadership is dominated by Vartanian loyalists who
win seven of the nine seats on the leadership board. The new board
does not include long-time NDU leader, former Prime Minister and presidential
candidate Vazgen Manukian. |
| February 5 |
Former Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian
resigns from the Republican Party, which together with the People's
Party comprises the dominant Unity bloc. Former Yerevan Mayor Albert
Bazeyan joins Sarkisian in denouncing the Republican Party after its
leadership failed to criticize his dismissal by the Kocharian government.
Sarkisian and Bazeyan state that they are forming a new "conservative
opposition political party" and pledge to unite the country's
opposition. A group of eight former members of the Republican Party
who resigned last year and formed the "Haiastan" opposition
parliamentary bloc announce that they will align with the new party. |
| February 6 |
Officials from the Prosecutor-General's
Office announce the arrest of Ashot Safarian, the former Minister
of Industry during the Ter Petrosian government, on charges of corruption,
fraud and embezzlement. The charges focus on Safarian's settlement
of $6.2 million in arrears owed to Armenia by a Georgian chemical
firm.
A set of proposed amendments to the Armenian Constitution is released
by the presidential commission empowered to study constitutional reform.
The commission, led by Armenian Constitutional Court Justice Felix
Tokhian, was formed last summer to advise the president and offer
specific proposals seeking to modernize the constitution. The constitutional
amendments include changes to nearly half of the current constitution's
articles and would grant a greater degree of independence to the executive
and judicial branches of government while ensuring the official neutrality
and non-partisan nature of the military. The proposals are not expected
to be put to national referendum for many months due to the sweeping
scope of the proposals. |
| February 7 |
Energy Minister Garen Kalustian reports
that recent negotiations with Russian officials have led to a new
agreement rescheduling Armenia's $23 million debt for natural gas
and nuclear fuel for the Medzamor nuclear facility. This latest rescheduling
of debt allows for the restoration of planned shipments of nuclear
fuel six months from now. Kalustian adds that the Medzamor plant is
scheduled to be shut down for a two-month period of routine maintenance
and safety inspections during May and June. |
| February 8-9 |
French President Jacques Chirac signed
into law the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide earlier
this week. The presidential endorsement of a parliamentary initiative
came amid praise from the Armenian community of France, Armenia, and
the Nagorno Karabagh Republic (NKR), and renewed Turkish threats.
The Speaker of Armenia's National Assembly Armen Khachatrian conveyed
the gratitude of all members of the Armenian parliament for the French
action. The NKR Foreign Ministry called the vote "evidence that
human rights of individuals and nations are becoming a priority in
the new century."
Turkish officials condemned both Chirac's move and the unanimous decision
by the Paris municipality to construct a memorial to the victims of
the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said
that with the passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution, Turkey
has lost all confidence in France and cannot rely on French weapons.
A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said his country would
like to continue cooperation with Turkey, both bilaterally and in
the framework of Turkey's accession talks with the European Union.
The Turkish government has already announced that it will cancel a
spy satellite contract with Alcatel and an F-16 fighter aircraft upgrade
deal with Dassault, exclude Giat from a tank tender, and scrap purchases
of Aviso submarines and joint production of Eryx anti-tank missiles.
French companies were also reportedly excluded from grain and highway
improvement tenders, and Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek said he will strip
the Turkish capital city of French street names and order construction
of a memorial to Algerian victims of the war of independence against
France. Amid these threats, however, Turkish media reported that Alcatel
was this week awarded a $30 million contract to upgrade Turkish communications
infrastructure, while Dassault denied it ever had the F-16 contract.
It remained unclear if the military, which dominates Turkish politics,
would endorse the sanctions.
Also this week, in an interview with a Turkish TV channel, President
Robert Kocharian explained to Turkish viewers that affirmation of
the Armenian Genocide does not necessarily translate into territorial
demands. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide is primarily a matter
of honoring the victims, he said. |
| February 10 |
A group of Armenian rescue and relief
workers carrying humanitarian aid left for India this week, following
a devastating earthquake that hit the country's western-most state
of Gujarat. The group consists of civil engineers, doctors, psychologists,
seismologists, and geologists and will assist Indian seismologists
investigating the earthquake, as well as in overall relief operations. |
| February 11 |
President Kocharian formally accepts
the resignation of Prosecutor-General Boris Nazarian. Despite varied
speculation, the reasons for Nazarian's departure remain unclear.
At the same time, officials in the prosecutor-general's office announces
plans to fight the decision by a review court to release former Industry
Minister Ashot Safarian from pretrial detention after his recent arrest
for corruption. Nine days later, Kocharian appoints career law enforcement
official and Yerevan City Prosecutor Aram Tamazian to replace Nazarian. |
| February 12-13 |
Finance and Economy Minister Vardan
Khachatrian announces that several foreign governments and organizations
have pledged assistance totaling $1 million to help the Armenian government
fund a national census this fall. The census was delayed after insufficient
funds had been set aside in the state budget. |
| February 12-17 |
President Kocharian embarks on a five-day
state visit to France to meet with President Jacques Chirac and other
senior officials. Kocharian welcomes last month's passage of a resolution
recognizing the Armenian Genocide of 1915 by the French Parliament.
The Armenian and French leaders discuss measures to expand bilateral
trade and cooperation and review the ongoing mediation effort by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of
the Nagorno Karabagh conflict. France, as a co-chair of the OSCE working
group on Karabagh, presents several plans to restart the stalled negotiations.
French President Chirac also hosts a special meeting between the Armenian
and Azerbaijani presidents. |
| February 14 |
Workers at the Medzamor nuclear power
plant implement emergency shutdown procedures after discovering damage
to the high-voltage power line connection running between the reactor
and the national power grid. The workers were alerted to a dangerous
buildup of power stemming from the damaged connection and acted quickly
enough to prevent any release of radiation. |
| February 15 |
The long awaited trial of the group
of gunmen that attacked the Armenian Parliament in October 1999 and
assassinated several senior government officials, including then Prime
Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, Parliamentary Chairman Garen Demirchian
and others, begins in Yerevan. The defendants in the case include
the five actual gunmen, led by Nairi Hunanian, and eight others charged
with complicity in the attack. Trial Judge Samvel Uzunian adjourns
the trial only two hours after its opening due to the absence of defendant
Misak Mkrtchian and two defense attorneys. The trial is slated to
resume one week later. Justice Minister David Harutiunian states that
his ministry is imposing new restrictions on the media to ensure the
trial's impartiality. These restrictions include limited access to
the courtroom and a ban on any publication of verbatim testimony,
allowing only summaries to be printed instead. A group of over 200
friends and relatives of the victims in the attack stage a demonstration
outside the court demanding the death penalty for the accused. |
| February 17 |
A Georgian delegation led by Minister
of State Gia Arsenishvili arrives in Yerevan and meets with President
Kocharian and Prime Minister Markarian to discuss bilateral relations
and plans for Tbilisi to meet the outstanding $25 million in debt
for Armenian energy supplies. Among the Georgian delegation are two
district officials from the Armenian-populated region of Javakhk,
who discuss conditions there and brief the Armenian leaders on the
Georgian government's plans to address the economic needs of Javakhk. |
| February 19-20 |
Over 10,000 demonstrators stage a
march on the parliament to protest the government's new requirement
for street vendors to use cash registers as part of the administration's
new anti-corruption and tax evasion campaign. The vendors favor the
continuation of the current flat tax based on the size and location
of the business premises. The political influence of the vendors,
allied with the "Orinats Yerkir" party, enables them to
force the parliament to revoke the government's cash register requirement
in a special session the next day. |
| February 23 |
Commenting on the recent publication
of leaked OSCE mediation documents, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
reports that there are no official plans for signing any agreements
during the planned meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents
on March 4-5 in Paris. Oskanian also dismisses any optimism for a
sudden improvement in the peace talks and states that a "final
agreement" has not yet been reached. |
| February 24 |
The Armenian economy grew by an unprecedented
12% in January of this year, President Robert Kocharian told reporters
this week. Last year's GDP growth amounted to half that, the State
Statistics Committee reported earlier, and the government projected
this year's growth to be "at least 8%." The 21% rise in
the industrial output accounted for much of January's growth. In other
indicators for the same month, exports were up by almost 42%, with
imports down 15%. Speaking at a cabinet session this week, President
Kocharian praised the Armenian government for the progress. |
| February 27-28 |
Amid spreading media speculation that
a secret peace deal for the Nagorno Karabagh conflict is looming,
the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE), Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana arrives
for a series of meetings with Armenian officials in Yerevan. The OSCE
official makes few public comments and holds only closed door meetings.
Armenian officials only stress that the OSCE is working hard to prepare
a workable draft peace plan to restart negotiations with Azerbaijan. |