AND HE TRAVELLED THE WORLD

Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan has once again set off on a foreign tour to continue to pull the wool over people's eyes. He made his first stop in Paris where, at a meeting with the French President Francois Hollande, he discussed, among other things, the subject of Nagornyy Karabakh.

"In terms of my responsibility, as France is co-chairing the Minsk OSCE Group, I once again reaffirmed that Paris will do everything to ensure there is a final outcome to the talks. At one time they stalled, they must be resumed and continue to the end and on the basis of the principles of which we are aware, the Madrid principles, so that this question finds a long-term, I would say, final resolution," the French president said at a joint press conference after the talks.

The press conference was followed by a dinner, at which Hollande reaffirmed that France would still be adopting a law on the criminalization of the denial of the "genocide" of the Armenians. He stressed that a legal basis needed to be provided for a draft law in order to avoid the censorship in the Constitutional Court. In short, the intent is there, but one will have to wait.

However, it is already clear to everyone that Paris, which has become worldly wise after the bitter experience of the deterioration of its relations with Ankara, will not sacrifice economic elations with Turkey for the sake of the mercenary objectives of Armenia and France's Armenian diaspora, especially in view of the financial crisis in Europe. Therefore Hollande's statement about adopting a law on the criminalization of the "genocide of the Armenians" may be seen merely as an attempt to appease French voters of Armenian extraction.

Paris' economic promises are a different matter altogether.  At his meeting with the French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Sargsyan discussed the question of the future attraction of French companies to the construction of the new generating unit of the Armenian nuclear power station.

France is the second biggest investor in terms of size of investments in the Armenian economy, and there is no doubt that Yerevan has a vital interest in attracting more French business. However, there is considerable doubt about Sargsyan's interest in a speedy settlement to the problem of Nagornyy Karabakh, which is also holding up more investments in Armenia. At least, one could not sense the same substance in his position on this issue at the Paris talks which was evident in other questions on the Armenian-French agenda. Whilst the French president was speaking about the need to settle the conflict on the basis of the Madrid principles, Sargsyan said not a single word about his attitude to these principles. Instead he continued to accuse Baku of being destructive without anything to back it up. Azerbaijan, incidentally, on the whole approves the Madrid principles proposed by the co-chairs and has stated its readiness to turn to a discussion of a major agreement to settle the conflict.

But since the conflict has not been settled the only consolation remains the cease-fire regime and a continuation of the peace talks. That is why France has again urged the sides to avoid mutual provocations and take measures to reduce tension in the conflict zone. However, there was also a lack of substance in this issue on the French side, too. In calling for a rejection of provocative acts, Paris, as a co-chair of the Minsk OSCE Group, should have openly condemned the intentions of the Armenian separatists to carry out flights to Azerbaijan's occupied terrorists in contradiction of international norms. At least they could have advised Sargsyan not to annoy Baku with statements such as he will personally "be the first passenger in the first flight to leave Armenia for Karabakh".

At the same time there remains the big question of whether Armenia needs the costly running of the airport in the occupied Azerbaijani town of Xocali. The national carrier Armavia is already unable to meet its debts to Yerevan's Evartnots airport. For this reason the airport management was for the second time in the past month forced to stop serving Armavia. The Armenian airline owed its airport $3.4m, which is a pretty sound reason for not burdening itself even more with unprofitable fights to Xocali. What is the point of damaging itself by making one provocative flight just to tickle the nerves of the Azerbaijani air force? And the consequences for the Armenians might not be so rosy because Azerbaijan has more than once issued a warning about its sovereign right to prevent any attempts at violating its air space.

So it would be better for Armenia to save its money and the national airline's planes at least for the possibility of flights by the head of state. In the woeful economic situation which Armenia has got itself into because of its territorial claims against Azerbaijan, the country's leadership has simply been forced to travel the world with cap in hand. But this doesn't always help.

As Vardan Oskanyan, the former Armenian foreign minister and deputy of the "Prosperous Armenia" faction, wrote in the social network Facebook, "Armenia is today at an impasse." In his opinion, the Armenian authorities are not interested in carrying out reforms because this poses a threat to their political and economic monopolies. But "such important for Armenia foreign investments and aid, including aid from the Armenian diaspora" depend on these reforms. In order to substantiate his remarks Oskanyan lists the sources which have ceased, restricted or held up their injections in Armenia's socio-economic life because of the lack of reforms. They include the "Calls of the Decade" programme, as a result of the closure of which Armenia was deprived of grants of $300m, the Congress of EU Donors, which failed to take place, from which they expected up to $1bn, and so on.

Direct foreign investments have also been reduced. According to figures for the first half of this year, they were down by 40% compared with the same period last year.

The absence of reforms and the Armenian authorities' attitude to the diaspora as a mere supplier of raw materials is also leading to a reduction in financial inflows from the Armenian lobby. In particular, the Lincy Foundation, a charity which was founded by the American billionaire of Armenian extraction, Kirk Kerkoryan, closed down in February of this year.

In short, the Armenian people are paying a pretty hefty price for the policy of the criminal Karabakh clan. Even official statistics cannot hide the great exodus of the population from the country. "In Armenia today thousands of our fellow-countrymen have a suitcase mentality. They are waiting to see what developments there will be in the next few months before making a final decision," Vardan Oskanyan writes.