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Press Review


“Although Armenia’s public debt has passed the $6 billion mark, the authorities are anxious to assure that the country has no problems with solvency,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” “What is more, the government will continue to obtain new external loans. As Finance Minister Vartan Aramian has said, this is being done for fostering economic development and cutting the budget deficit.” The paper dismisses these assurances, alleging that the authorities now regard foreign borrowing as the principal instrument of their economic policy.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” is also concerned about the debt, saying that the loans have not really changed “the quality of our economy” or laid the ground for faster economic growth. The paper argues that the debt has grown more than five times faster than the Armenian economy has. “In other words, rising debt does not lead to economic development,” it says. “We have simply been attracting more and more loans and spending them in a meaningless fashion.”

“168 Zham” quotes Alexander Tsinker, a former member of Israel’s parliament visiting Armenia, as commenting on large-scale Israeli arms supplies to Azerbaijan. “Armenia too has been offered to buy [Israeli] weapons but the former [Armenian] defense minister said that they are too expensive,” he says. “Now the ball is in Armenia’s court. We are always open. As for the arms sales to Azerbaijan, your strategic partner, Russia, sells more weapons to Azerbaijan. I wonder if you ask Russia this question.”

“Aravot” laments what it sees as an enduring culture of lawlessness in Armenia. The paper says that unruly behavior, often involving use of firearms, is regarded as legitimate and even encouraged by the country’s elite. Officials and wealthy individuals bring up their children “in the spirit of a criminal value system,” it says.

(Tigran Avetisian)

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