Many residents of Verin Artashat, a village in Ararat Marz, are having a tough time paying off their loans. Some put their houses up for collateral, others, their land.

Most didn’t want to talk about their financial problems, but a few relented. They told me how they spent the money lent by banks and credit agencies. Some phoned on my way back to Yerevan and asked that I not publish what they had said. »»»»»

Numerous opinions have been expressed following the decision (on the 12th of January, 2010) of the Constitutio­nal Court of the Republic of Armenia on the Armenia-Turkey protocols. I believe, as I have already had the chance to say, that the decision was extremely significant. Although the decision itself does not resolve any issues in terms of international law, nevertheless, the legal position of the decision – which is mandatory for all, including the legislative and executive branches – creates serious tools for damage control with regards to the potential dangers of the proto­cols. »»»»»

Khachik Galstyan, a spokesperson for the Prosperous Armenia Party, has stated that Arthur Petrosyan will replace Armen Grigoryan as the RoA Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs.

Mr. Grigoryan, for reasons yet unknown, has submitted his resignation to President Sargsyan.

At a press conference held today, Anahit Sargsyan, head of the Armenian parliamentary monitoring mission, lambasted Armenian TV stations for not covering the parliamentary elections recently held in District 10.

“TV stations hade essentially boycotted the elections and offered no coverage of post-election developments. They also don’t cover on-going monitoring reports as witnessed by their absence here today,” noted Mrs. Sargsyan. »»»»»

David Boyajian

Meeting at the White House with a group of Armenian Americans, the chief U.S. negotiator for the OSCE peace talks on Artsakh (Karabagh) announced that the United States would be satisfied if a peace agreement were to last for only 10 years.

The official was Joseph A. Presel.  It was 1996, and Bill Clinton was president.   I happened to be at that meeting. »»»»»

In an interview to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, at the Davos Economic Forum, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated, “There is a common understanding in the region that there should be a first step by Armenia to start the liberation of the occupied territories.”

President Aliyev added fuel to the fire that the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey was in danger of collapse, when he said that he was confident Turkey wouldn’t ratify the agreement until Armenia had returned Azeri territories it had “occupied”, including the former Mountainous Karabakh Autonomous Region. »»»»»

Heritage Party MP Larisa Alaverdyan today stated that Turkey was using the Armenian-Turkish Protocols to resolve a number of historical problems, namely, those dealing with the “Armenian Question”; i.e. the borders and the 1915 Genocide. “This is the minimum that Turkey seeks to achieve. Its maximalist program is linked to Artsakh. It seeks to obtain a document that verifies the illegal ‘rights’ of Azerbaijan at the expense of Karabakh,” she argued.

Also at today’s press conference was Republican Party MP Hovhannes Sahakyan. He stated that Turkey was no looking for a way to wreck passage of the Protocols. “Ankara is now looking for any opportunity to wreck the Protocols, to the detriment of Armenia, and to show the world that Yerevan was the reason why the documents weren’t ratified,” he argued.

Following up on a “Hetq” report of January 23 that swarms of dead fish were spotted in the Hrazdan River, the RoA Ministry of Nature Protection stated today that preliminary water samples from the affected site show traces of active chlorine.

The Ministry says that the chemical could have destroyed the fish and over aquatic animals. The case has been sent to the RoA Police Department’s regional office in Kotayk for a follow-up investigation.

President Serzh Sargsyan today told visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that Armenia seeks to deepen relations with Tehran since, “bilateral relations with Iran is in our best interests.”

“You realize the importance we place on having relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and that we regard you as a reliable partner and a pivotal country in the region,” president Sargsyan told his visiting guest. »»»»»

During a press interview today, Heritage Party MP Larisa Alaverdyan retorted, “And have you forgotten about the Armenians living in Turkey”, this, in response to a statement by Republican Party MP Hovhannes Sahakyan, that if the Protocols aren’t ratified Armenian-Turkish relations will sour but that they won’t degenerate into aggression.

MP Alaverdyan was referring to a statement made by Gorbachev, before the Armenian pogroms in Baku in 1990. “Gorbachev declared, ‘Have you forgotten about the 200,000 Armenians living in Baku?’. Now, I ask if you have forgotten about the tens of thousands of Armenians living in Turkey or about their businesses.”