The next major station on the way is the summit in Riga in May 2015. Hopefully, at that point we will be able to confirm that further progress has been made and take new steps to develop our relation. Armenia has a committed partner in the EU – we are here for the long term.
The European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) issued on May 12 its largest judgment ever against any country, ruling that Turkey had to pay $123 million as compensation to relatives of missing Greek Cypriots and residents of a Greek enclave in Northern Cyprus.
Entering the Customs Union represents something of a headache. There are obstacles. Lack of common border with any of the other Customs Union members: Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan; neither Kazakhstan nor Belarus are particularly happy about having to extend the preferential terms needed to secure Armenian membership; the process require regulatory, legislative and possibly even constitutional changes.
We have committed in Vilnius to further develop and strengthen comprehensive cooperation with Armenia in all areas of mutual interest within the Eastern Partnership.
A quarter century has passed since the devastating earthquake in Gyumri on December 7, 1988, however, 4,300 families still live in the same makeshifts they went into following the earthquake.
The fact that the State Department and some European officials reacted positively to Erdogan’s statement is an indication that this was a coordinated attempt to provide cover for the Obama administration and European countries not to deal with the Armenian demands on the genocide issue, using the excuse that Turkey’s leaders are in the process of reconciling with Armenians.
Every time that the Armenian Genocide is mentioned anywhere in the world, Turkish officials protest hysterically like children caught with the hand in the cookie jar!
After many months of silence and secrecy the details of proposed constitutional amendments were finally unveiled. In general, I was very disappointed with the details over the changes to the Constitution. But at the same time, president Sargsyan contributed something new to Armenian political history.
The economic development of the past years in Armenia has been mostly due to the mining industry as during the past five years the growth in this industry was almost doubled.
Besides analyzing the economic developments in 2013, the WB’s experts put down forecast for this and next year as well. The report forecasts that this year and in 2015 Armenia’s economic growth rate may be 5%. According to the WB, Armenia’s GDP per capita will be 3,752 dollars this year, and 4,110 next year.
