Armenia: known primarily for its history and original nature and vegetation. Capital : Yerevan Official language: Armenia Currency: Armenian dram Passport and visa: A Finnish citizen needs a passport as a travel document. Armenian visa approx. 7 eur / person, available at the airport, payable in cash Time difference to Finland: +2
Agriculture and fishing
Despite the mountainous terrain, agriculture accounts for a significant portion of the gross domestic product (GDP). In the 2000s, however, agriculture’s share of GDP has decreased, as the industrial and service sectors have grown.
CountryAAH: Comprehensive import regulations of Armenia. Covers import prohibitions and special documentation requirements for a list of prohibited items.
The World Bank and the OECD calculate that agriculture and forestry and fisheries together accounted for 14.9 percent of Armenia’s GDP in 2017.
The most important agricultural areas are located in the low-lying areas along the Araks River (Araz in Azerbaijan) and around Yerevan. There are grown cotton, grapes, olives, fruits, cereals, potatoes and more. Most crops are irrigated. Livestock management is carried out at higher altitudes. More than half of the agricultural area consists of pasture land. For Armenia defense and foreign policy, please check recipesinthebox.
The former state and collective farms are now divided into small private lots. Ownership conditions are still largely unclear, but just over one third of the labor force is still employed in agriculture. The UN organization FAO emphasizes that women’s agricultural work more often than men’s belongs to a “gray” sector – their work is unpaid, and income is not recorded as theirs.
A consequence of the fact that the farms are small and often keep several types of livestock in close proximity to each other is that the control of diseases in agricultural animals is made more difficult.
Not much forest is growing in Armenia. The energy crisis in the early 1990s (see Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment) also led to trees being cut down to be used as fuel.
The large lake Sevan in the east is rich in fish, especially a kind of trout, but fishing around the lake has now become so extensive that stocks are threatened in the long run. There is also quite a significant cultivation of fish.
FACTS – AGRICULTURE
Agriculture’s share of GDP
13.7 percent (2018)
Percentage of land used for agriculture
58.9 percent (2016)
Abbreviationfinder.org: Offers how the 3-letter acronym of ARM stands for the state of Armenia in geography.
2019
December
The United States Senate supports genocide assessment
December 12
The United States Senate votes for a resolution assessing that it was a genocide to which Armenians were subjected to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War (see October 29). The decision is hailed by Prime Minister Pashinyan as “a victory for justice and truth”.
Prosecution against the president
December 4th
President Serzh Sargsyan is accused of financial crime. He was president between 2008 and 2018, but when the plan was for him to remain in power by jumping to the Prime Minister’s post, he became the object of popular protests and was forced to resign (see April 23, 2018). According to the eco-crime investigators, whose work is the basis of the prosecution, he pleaded guilty to misappropriation and misappropriation of public funds within the framework of a tavern with subsidized fuel.
November
Analysts like the reform work
November 25
Credit rating agency Fitch raises the grade for Armenia, as the analysts have a good impression of the new government’s reform efforts. There are several valuation companies that have an influence on a country’s economy, and the better the rating, the cheaper it will be for the state to borrow.
Adoption herd during investigation
November 14
The State Security Service is investigating a league that is suspected of having made illegal adoptions. New mothers must have been pressured or deceived to leave their children. Other women say they have visited hospitals to perform abortions, but instead have been forced to complete pregnancy and give birth to children who have since been abandoned. Many of the children have ended up in Italy, others in the United States. The operation is believed to have been going on for several years and crime suspicions are directed at, among other things, an orphanage and a BB. All adoptions are stopped until further notice, pending investigation. Human rights organizations have previously highlighted that poverty causes children to end up in orphanages in Armenia.
October
Recognition in the United States: Armenians were subjected to genocide
October 29th
The House of Representatives in the US Congress votes to classify the mass murders of Armenians and other Christians that occurred in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War as a genocide. Such official acknowledgments have come from some 30 countries, and now, as before, the decision provokes anger in Turkey, which usually highlights that there were both victims and perpetrators in all the groups affected by the events between 1915 and 1917. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan paid tribute the resolution as bold.
Protest action against gold mining
October 7
Villagers in southern Armenia, on Mount Amulsar, are on duty around the clock to prevent mining. They fear both polluted groundwater and damage to places that attract tourists. The population is thus also opposed to Prime Minister Pashinyan, who believes that the foreign investment in question is important, also as a signal that Armenia welcomes investment. Behind the gold mine, which the population has managed to curb for almost a year, stands British-American Lydian, who is described as the largest foreign investor in the country.
September
Security manager leaves his post
September 16th
Nikol Pashinyan’s former confidant Artur Vanetsyan leaves his post as head of the national security service. The change of boss comes surprisingly and the circumstances are unclear, especially if Vanetsyan has actually been fired by the Prime Minister.
President Kotjaryan is on trial
September 12
Trial begins against former President Robert Kotjaryan (see June 25). The case is about his responsibility for protests being stopped by violent methods in early March 2008. Eight protesters and two police officers lost their lives. One of the leaders of the protest was the current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
July
Three-year plan against corruption
July 12
Nikol Pashinyan holds the Presidency Club when his new commission against corruption is assembled for the first time. The Commission is set up on the basis of a decree issued by the Prime Minister on 24 June. Pashinyan’s three-year plan (2019-2022) includes several measures, including the National Prosecutor’s Office being given a special unit that investigates suspected corruption and the establishment of specialized courts against corruption. The plan is expected to be approved in Parliament without any problems, since it has been dominated by Pashinian supporters since the end of 2018. Previous governments have also published guidelines on mosquitoes, but the application of the objectives has not worked.
June
President in detention
June 25
Former President Robert Kotjaryan, who is under prosecution, is in custody in Yerevan, after a judge has decided – in line with prosecutors’ request – that he be imprisoned (see May 13). In August, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in which the Armenian judiciary seeks legal advice, states that there are two processes in the question of whether Armenia’s penal code complies with the country’s constitution: one against Kotjaryan and one brought by him himself.
Approaching Armenia and Georgia
June 4th
The UN General Assembly votes on the right of Georgian internal refugees to return to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Armenia (like Russia) usually votes against, but this time abstains. It is interpreted as the countries have agreed not to vote against each other. A few days before the UN vote, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan said in an interview that he hopes that in the future, rail services between Armenia and Russia will be restored via Georgia.
May
Pashinyan storms against judges
May 20
“It’s time for a surgical procedure,” says Prime Minister Pashinyan when he announces that the judiciary will be reformed. He accuses the judiciary of being biased in favor of the old rulers. Since the release of President Kotjaryan (see May 13), Pashinyan’s supporters have demonstrated in court buildings. Pashinyan is now reviewing constitutional changes and announcing that the country’s judges will be visible in the seams. In particular, he urges the judges to resign whose verdict is rejected by the European Court of Human Rights.
New tours around the president
May 13th
A lawsuit begins in Yerevan against President Robert Kotjaryan (1998-2008), who is accused of acting in violation of the Constitution to favor his hand-picked successor Serzh Sargsyan. Kotjaryan and his supporters believe that the process now underway has been staged by opponents as a “political vendetta”. Kotjaryan is released a few days later pending a final decision by the court, but he still faces up to 15 years in prison. The election of Kotjaryan’s successor in 2008 led to violent protests with the death victims. Current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was arrested for organizing the protests and sentenced to prison, but released by an amnesty decision in 2011.
Pashinyan pleased with his first year
May 8
One year after he came to power, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sums up his holdings at a press conference; one hundred good results according to his own account. He claims, among other things, that 51,000 new jobs have been created, that wages have risen and that bats have been imprisoned. Pashinian’s opinion polls are good on corruption, while combating poverty is seen as a more difficult problem.
April
Parliament of Italy: Armenians were subjected to genocide
April 10
The lower house of the Italian parliament votes to recognize the suffering of the Armenians in 1915-1916, in connection with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, as a genocide. The government of Rome is not bound to take official position, but is expected to do so. Turkey – which also states high death rates, but denies that the incidents constituted genocide – immediately requests clarification from Italy on the country’s official stance.
March
Armenia on military exercise: “Weapon rattle”
11th of March
Azerbaijan is launching a major military exercise. The exercise will last for five days and involve 10,000 soldiers, 500 armored vehicles, 20 fighter aircraft and up to 300 artillery units. Armenia states in a statement that the exercise hardly fosters peace. The two countries have long disagreed with Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave held by Armenian forces but surrounded by Azerbaijani territory. A time has been planned for the country’s highest leaders to meet, but no date has been set.
February
The new government gets the thumbs up from the IMF
February 28
The IMF believes that Armenia’s economy is developing steadily, especially in view of the revolutionary moods that characterized the country during the year. An agreement at the official level on loans – a three-year so-called SBA program – is expected to be finalized by the IMF in May. Among the bright signs the IMF sees are the new government’s measures to boost private enterprise and improve tax collection, as the tax evasion has been extensive. According to European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, the EU also plans to extend its support to Armenia.
Measles vaccine for Georgia
February 5
Armenia will provide Georgia with 30,000 doses of measles vaccine. During an outbreak of measles in Georgia, in particular, adults who were not vaccinated in the 1990s are said to have fallen ill. The spread of infection in Georgia has slowed since the authorities launched a vaccination campaign, from up to 60 to 35 new cases per day. The last time Armenia had a domestic measles case was 2007.
French Armenian Memorial Day
February 5
France faces a national memorial for the Armenian genocide, declares President Macron, thus fulfilling an election promise. The date of the annual memorial day will be April 24. France, which houses a large group of Armenians, recognized the events of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War in 2001 as a genocide. In Turkey, which believes it was not a genocide Armenian was exposed to, the reaction on Memorial Day becomes a sharp condemnation from the presidential office.
January
Pashinyan can start forming new government
January 14
The newly elected parliament is assembled. Nikol Pashinyan is named prime minister by President Armen Sargsyan after being appointed to the post since May.
