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  • Armenia: Anger at Land Deal With Iran

    Armenia: Anger at Land Deal With Iran

    http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/11901
    July 2, 2013

    >From politicians to environmentalists, a wide range of people in
    Armenia have expressed concern at plans to lease farmland in the south
    of the country to farmers over the border in Iran.

    Opponents of the deal warn it will undermine national security, for
    minimal gain. Others argue that if the farmers who come are ethnic
    Azerbaijanis from Iran, that will pose an additional threat to
    Armenia.

    The agreement was signed in January, but only became widely known when
    the Ecolur environmental group revealed it the following month.

    Under the agreement, the local government in Syunik district will
    lease out 520 square kilometres of farmland for ten years, earning 1.3
    million US dollars annually.

    The head of agricultural in Syunik region, Samvel Tangyan, said the
    deal would allow some 50 to 60 villages to earn income from grasslands
    that had lain unused for two decades.

    `Of course, the final decision will be taken by each village council,'
    Tangyan said. `If they don't want to do it, then the land won't be
    rented out. No one is going to force them. If it is rented out, then
    the money will go to the villages' budgets,' he said.

    In the capital Yerevan, opposition to the scheme was fairly universal.

    Ashot Hovhannisyan, head of the livestock department at the
    agriculture ministry, expressed strong reservations about it.

    `We are categorically opposed to leasing out pastureland to foreign
    farmers. The pastureland in Syunik region must be used to develop
    livestock farming there,' Hovhannisyan said.

    He said it would be a better idea to help the farmers in Syunik to
    raise more sheep, which could then be exported to Iran.

    Armenia's justice minister, Hrayr Tovmasyan, said the deal was invalid
    on two counts. First, only national government was allowed to lease
    out land without holding an open tender; and second, this was an
    agreement between two states and would thus need to go through
    parliament and be signed off by the president.

    `These procedures have not been followed, and the document we're
    talking about is not a legal or valid inter-state agreement. It
    therefore places no obligation on either side,' the minister said.

    Aghvan Vardanyan of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party raised the
    issue in parliament, condemning the secrecy of the deal.

    `If renting is profitable for the Iranians, and we have that much
    spare pasture, why don't we subsidise [its use] ourselves or offer
    cheap loans to our farmers?' he asked. `Why are our own farmers and
    businessmen incapable of developing livestock farming?'

    Sarman Shahijanyan, an environmental activist who is an Iranian-born
    ethnic Armenian, warned against the deal for a different reason.

    Syunik borders on Iran's East Azarbaijan province, where the local
    population belongs to the same ethnicity and speaks the same Turkic
    language as Armenia's old enemy, Azerbaijan.

    `We are giving 11 per cent of Syunik region's territory to Turkish
    speakers. After the ten years are over, they won't leave,' he claimed.

    Vahram Mirakyan, a researcher in the Centre for Strategic Studies at
    Yerevan State University, expressed concern in more general terms.

    `That's 50,000 hectares of land, 10,000 sheep and 2,000 Iranian
    shepherds,' he said. `Since these Muslims will move here with their
    families, there will be some 10,000 Iranians settled in Syunik for an
    unspecified period of time,' he said.

    The Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Mohammad Raesi, said opponents of
    the deal were exaggerating.
    `This is not going to harm Armenia. I propose that we go forward with
    this project,' he said.

    The village of Brnakot is fairly typical of those that will gain the
    right to lease out their land. It has ten square kilometres of land
    that it cannot use because it lies too close to the border with
    Nakhichevan, a region of Azerbaijan separated from the rest of the
    country by Armenian territory.

    Armenian-Azerbaijani relations remain hostile because of the
    unresolved dispute over Nagorny Karabakh. The war ended in 1994 with a
    truce but no formal settlement, and borders between the two states
    remain tense, with sporadic shooting incidents.

    The village head, Atom Arakelyan, was optimistic about the plan.

    `Let them bring their livestock and pasture it here. Afterwards, they
    will leave again, but at least our village budget will earn something
    and we will be able to fix other problems,' he said. `Whatever
    happens, this land is lying empty.



    >From politicians to environmentalists, a wide range of people in
    Armenia have expressed concern at plans to lease farmland in the south
    of the country to farmers over the border in Iran.

    Opponents of the deal warn it will undermine national security, for
    minimal gain. Others argue that if the farmers who come are ethnic
    Azerbaijanis from Iran, that will pose an additional threat to
    Armenia.

    The agreement was signed in January, but only became widely known when
    the Ecolur environmental group revealed it the following month.

    Under the agreement, the local government in Syunik district will
    lease out 520 square kilometres of farmland for ten years, earning 1.3
    million US dollars annually.

    The head of agricultural in Syunik region, Samvel Tangyan, said the
    deal would allow some 50 to 60 villages to earn income from grasslands
    that had lain unused for two decades.

    `Of course, the final decision will be taken by each village council,'
    Tangyan said. `If they don't want to do it, then the land won't be
    rented out. No one is going to force them. If it is rented out, then
    the money will go to the villages' budgets,' he said.

    In the capital Yerevan, opposition to the scheme was fairly universal.

    Ashot Hovhannisyan, head of the livestock department at the
    agriculture ministry, expressed strong reservations about it.

    `We are categorically opposed to leasing out pastureland to foreign
    farmers. The pastureland in Syunik region must be used to develop
    livestock farming there,' Hovhannisyan said.

    He said it would be a better idea to help the farmers in Syunik to
    raise more sheep, which could then be exported to Iran.

    Armenia's justice minister, Hrayr Tovmasyan, said the deal was invalid
    on two counts. First, only national government was allowed to lease
    out land without holding an open tender; and second, this was an
    agreement between two states and would thus need to go through
    parliament and be signed off by the president.

    `These procedures have not been followed, and the document we're
    talking about is not a legal or valid inter-state agreement. It
    therefore places no obligation on either side,' the minister said.

    Aghvan Vardanyan of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party raised the
    issue in parliament, condemning the secrecy of the deal.

    `If renting is profitable for the Iranians, and we have that much
    spare pasture, why don't we subsidise [its use] ourselves or offer
    cheap loans to our farmers?' he asked. `Why are our own farmers and
    businessmen incapable of developing livestock farming?'

    Sarman Shahijanyan, an environmental activist who is an Iranian-born
    ethnic Armenian, warned against the deal for a different reason.

    Syunik borders on Iran's East Azarbaijan province, where the local
    population belongs to the same ethnicity and speaks the same Turkic
    language as Armenia's old enemy, Azerbaijan.

    `We are giving 11 per cent of Syunik region's territory to Turkish
    speakers. After the ten years are over, they won't leave,' he claimed.

    Vahram Mirakyan, a researcher in the Centre for Strategic Studies at
    Yerevan State University, expressed concern in more general terms.

    `That's 50,000 hectares of land, 10,000 sheep and 2,000 Iranian
    shepherds,' he said. `Since these Muslims will move here with their
    families, there will be some 10,000 Iranians settled in Syunik for an
    unspecified period of time,' he said.

    The Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Mohammad Raesi, said opponents of
    the deal were exaggerating.
    `This is not going to harm Armenia. I propose that we go forward with
    this project,' he said.

    The village of Brnakot is fairly typical of those that will gain the
    right to lease out their land. It has ten square kilometres of land
    that it cannot use because it lies too close to the border with
    Nakhichevan, a region of Azerbaijan separated from the rest of the
    country by Armenian territory.

    Armenian-Azerbaijani relations remain hostile because of the
    unresolved dispute over Nagorny Karabakh. The war ended in 1994 with a
    truce but no formal settlement, and borders between the two states
    remain tense, with sporadic shooting incidents.

    The village head, Atom Arakelyan, was optimistic about the plan.

    `Let them bring their livestock and pasture it here. Afterwards, they
    will leave again, but at least our village budget will earn something
    and we will be able to fix other problems,' he said. `Whatever
    happens, this land is lying empty.

    By Gayane Lazarian

    CRS Issue 692,23 Jun 13

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