Armenian News Network / Groong

 

Conversations on Groong:

Aleksandr Khachaturyan on the 2021 Armenian Elections

 

ANN/Groong

June 18, 2021

Guest

●     Aleksandr Khachaturyan

Hosts

●     Hovik Manucharyan

●     Asbed Bedrossian

Introduction

 

Hello and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong. In this Conversations on Groong episode, we’ll be talking about the Armenian parliamentary elections coming up on June 20th.

 

This episode was recorded on Thursday, June 17, 2021.

 

 

Aleksandr Khachaturyan on the 2021 Armenian Elections

Overview

Different political forces have coalesced and are geared up to participate in what could be the most competitive elections in Armenia’s recent 25 year history.  We’re interviewing representatives of the various contending parties in the elections to discuss and understand not only their strategy in the elections, but also how they plan to meet the immediate challenges facing Armenia in the post-war period.

Guests

Today we’re talking with the Hayastan Dashinq alliance, and we are joined by:

Aleksandr Khachaturyan who is a Managing Partner at TK & Partners, in Yerevan. In 2016 he served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Karen Karapetyan, and was CEO of the Center for Strategic Initiatives, advising the government on key economic and public administration reforms and strategies. He serves as a board member at ID Bank and various non-profits, and lectures on corporate finance law at the French University of Armenia (FUA). He holds law degrees from Boston University, FUA, and Jean Moulin Lyon 3.


 

 

 


Discussion

 

After the war ended an opposition came together that demanded Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation. Soon the group of 17 or sometimes 16 parties became known as the Homeland Salvation Movement, headed by Vazgen Manukyan. After months of protesting, they were not successful in forcing Pashinyan’s resignation, however the Homeland Salvation Movement takes credit for forcing the Pashinyan administration to agree to snap elections.

 

Many of the members of the HSM are now running in the elections separately, including the ARF which joined forces with the Reviving Armenia party to form the Hayastan Dashink (Armenia Alliance) and our guest is a core member of the team and on the list of parliamentary candidates the alliance.

 

  1. Can you briefly discuss the top 5 priorities of Hayastan Dashinq’s platform; your plan to put Armenia back on its feet?
  2. How do you assess the state of our economy?
    1. What are the strengths and the weaknesses?
    2. Your opponents in this campaign claim that one of their economic successes was the increase of the national budget by $1B in 2019. They claim that if it weren’t for COVID-19 and the war, Armenia’s economy would be in a terrific shape. How would you respond to these claims?
    3. What is Hayastan Dashinq’s economic plan and can you describe it at a high level for us?
  3. Everybody talks about reforming the Armenian armed forces. What’s your assessment of our armed forces?
    1. What are its strengths? Its weaknesses? How will you address them?
    2. Vache Gabrielyan, former Deputy PM, argues that in order to meet future security challenges, Armenia needs to increase its defense spending to 35% of the budget from the current 16%. What do you think about his suggestion and how can we build an economy that can sustain such a heavy load?
  4. Are you satisfied with the level of Armenia-Diaspora relations? How would you change things? What’s your vision for where these relations should be?

 

  1. Many Armenians in the diaspora want to invest money in Armenia but don’t know where to start and don’t necessarily want to start their own business. Where can a diasporan not donate, but for example invest a $100 month out of their salary, to help Armenia but at the same time expect returns?

  2. Armenians frequently take pride in Armenia’s IT sector. There are several companies that got their start in Armenia, such as PicsArt that made it big internationally. At the same time, we’ve seen some large foreign companies open up outsourcing branches in Armenia. How would you assess the state of Armenia’s high-tech industry? Is there sufficient innovation and capacity for growth to really meet our future challenges, whether it is to be the power-house of economic growth or to fuel innovations in defense technology, or in renewable energies that could lead Armenia towards energy independence. What changes are needed in this area and does Hayastan Dashinq’s platform enable these changes?

  3. Do you foresee the border with Turkey opening any time in the near future?

 

Wrap-up

 

That concludes this Conversations On Groong episode. We hope it was helpful in your understanding of some of the issues involved. We look forward to your feedback, including your suggestions for Conversation topics in the future. Contact us on our website, at groong.org, or on our Facebook Page “ANN - Groong”, or in our Facebook Group “Groong - Armenian News Network”.

 

Special thanks to Laura Osborn for providing the music for our podcast. On behalf of everyone in this episode, we wish you a good week. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channels, Like our pages and follow us on social media. Thank you for listening and we’ll talk to you soon.

 

 

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Keywords

Aleksandr Khachaturyan, Robert Kocharyan, Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia Alliance, Hayastan Dashinq, Armenia, Economy, IT Sector, Diaspora, Armenia-Diaspora, Azerbaijan, Military Industrial Complex, Vache Gabrielyan, Foreign Direct Investment, Armed Forces