CHALLENGE: CONCERN LINGERS OVER MILLENNIUM ACCOUNT FUNDING
Among concerns since the February 19 presidential election has been whether Armenia can meet requirements of the Millennium Challenge Account and earn the balance of $235 million earmarked for Armenia pending qualification. The US-designated funds would be applied to programs aimed at reducing poverty and improving living conditions in rural Armenia. But as has been widely reported and infamously commented on by former president Robert Kocharyan doubts have arisen over whether the funds will ever be released to Armenia, due to questionable impositions on human rights during the 20-day state of emergency in March and other reasons. (See: Reform and Rebuilding) “The program is seriously threatened and the damage will be quite significant. The problem is that because of the closure of the program Armenia will both be deprived of millions of dollars and of a unique opportunity to develop agriculture. It will also be defamed because of falling short of meeting those not so big requirements,” member of the program beneficiaries’ council and the chairman of the Gyumri Asparez club Levon Barseghyan told ArmeniaNow. Three of the program beneficiaries’ council members Levon Barseghyan, Seyran Martirosyan and Artur Sakunts have disseminated a statement expressing their concerns over the future of the program. They underline they have been concerned since the end of the last year “with the 17 items of the index of the situation in the Republic of Armenia that the Millennium Challenge Corporation takes into account when financing countries: 9 of the 17 items are on the level of ‘threatened’.” The program became a matter of speculations before the parliamentary elections as the American side threatened with its closure, and the opposition called for holding clean elections not to deprive the people of the program. However, the program that overcame the challenge of the parliamentary elections and the dram appreciation faced a challenge one after the latest election. Defiantly, in response to an official “warning” that the funds were in jeopardy Kocharyan said, “We have much bigger programs aimed at the development of provinces, rural areas; the Challenge is only part of them.” However, at the meeting with Ambassador Danilovich on June 12 on the program launch occasion, the former President stated: “The scale and efficiency of this program is unprecedented among the list of programs supporting agriculture in Armenia.” Barseghyan questions the argument saying if there were money, why didn’t authorities realize programs to achieve the aims set out by the Challenge funds? “If Armenia had alternative means, why would it wait for (Challenge Ambassador) Danilovich or anyone else to impose pressure on it?”, says Barseghyan, underlining even if there are other means and the program is temporarily suspended, a year or two are enough to harm the already realized programs. In reality, though this is the largest grant program providing a large-scale development plans for rural communities like this. Experts say this program is the most specialized and will both give an opportunity to raise the agriculture industry deteriorated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and significantly improve the life of the rural population. The US State Department has said it will withhold a decision on whether to disperse the funds, pending Armenia’s new government’s behavior during it first 100 days in office (a traditional grace period that will expire around the middle of July). “If the program is suspended, the rural population will once again feel disappointed giving way to a new wave of emigration,” says Shoghik Arustamyan, expert of social monitoring and analysis of the Ararat province administration “The reason is people from rural areas who used to leave their homes because of the lack of irrigation water and lack of any perspective in agriculture, are at least hopeful today they will be able to cultivate soil and provide for themselves in several years.” About three-fourths of the rural areas of Armenia would be beneficiaries to the program. It plans to restore 943 kilometers of rural roads, 200 kilometers of main water canal, and 30,000 hectares of irrigation territory, 18 gravity flow systems, 7 reservoirs, and organizing special trainings for about 60,000 farmers. Farming entities will get $8.5 million loans, as well as other support. “The threat of droughts grows every year. Drought is expected also this year, which means the program is very important, because the major part of the irrigation system in the republic was built in the Soviet times and is so exhausted that it causes about 50 percent loss of water,” says member of the program council and chairman of the National Association of Farmers Vanik Soghomonyan. Rights activist Artur Sakunts qualifies the possibility of the program continuation 50/50. He underlines if the authorities do not undertake real changes, do not meet the requirements of the PACE resolution (see In Review), the suspension of the program will be inevitable harming the people first of all. The authorities are more optimistic. Gagik Minasyan, the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee for Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs believes the program will not be withdrawn. “The US is highly motivated to have a stable partner in the South Caucasus like Armenia. On the other hand, Armenia is highly motivated to have normal relations with the US that stems directly from our principle of complementary [politics] and I think this mutually beneficial cooperation will have its development.” National Assembly member and former ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdyan, however, does not share this optimism: “the authorities threaten the realization of the program and that may bring to serious losses, depriving the agriculture and the rural population of a unique opportunity for development.”
- Gayane Abrahamyan
REMEMBRANCE DAY: NOT JUST GENOCIDE
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POLITICAL INTRIGUE: IS ARMENIA ON THE AGENDA FOR VISIT OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO TURKEY?
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JUDGE ORDERS RESUMED INQUEST INTO APPEAL IN DISMISSED “DEATH IN POLICE CUSTODY” CASE
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Suren MusayelyanAN APPEAL TO “NEVER FORGET”: A JEWISH LEADER SPEAKS OUT ON THE NEED TO REMEMBER THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
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Sara Khojoyan
- 1219 Death of Armenian King Levon the Second (Kingdom of Cilicia).
- 1817 General Yermolov, Commander of the Caucasian forces and Governor of the Caucasus, stops in Echmiadsin on his way to a mission in Persia.
- 1869 Death of the Armenologist Victor Langlois. He translated Armenian historical sources into French under the sponsorship of Noobar Pasha.
- 1900 Death of Hovhannes Aivazovsky (seascape artist) in Feodosia (the Ukraine). He was born in 1817.
- 1916 The "France-Armenie" committee is organized in Paris. Members of the Academy and other political figures are members.
- 1917 The First Assembly of Western Armenians opens in Yerevan under the Presidency of General Andranik.
- 1919 The Publication of Constantinople's Extraordinary Military Tribunal's decision about the perpetrators of the deportations of Booyook Dere's (Constantinople's district) Armenian population.
- 1930 Creation of the Kanaker Power Station.
- 1965 Death of Hrachia Kochar (writer and public figure). He was born in 1909.
- State Dept.'s David Kramer Owes an Apology for Misusing "Anti-Semitism" Card Against Armenia
- Ter-Petrossian had a meeting with the neo-fascist Turkish leader Alparslan Türkes
- levon ter petrosyan : a foreign agent
- The strategic research centre makes sensational revelations
- Open Letter to John Hughes who is the "agent in chief of the supposed "information" media armenia now which is 100% financed by the CIA.
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