Today we live in a society, which can not imagine life without expressing views on social media. Probably it does have certain advantages. Nevertheless, many participants of active discussions have already forgotten or do not even know about the developments, which unfolded in Armenia 5, 10 or 15 years ago.  

To fill the gap Mediamax presents 5/10/15 project, which introduce developments in Armenia 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

•    15 YEARS AGO: DECEMBER 16-22, 2004

The “positive attitude” of Erdogan

On 16 December 2004 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would be ready to open its border gate with Armenia if the latter “demonstrates positive attitude”.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2004

Photo: REUTERS

“Whatever took place in history must remain in history. We must build our new world on peace. We are positive towards Armenia. We want national borders to be respected. We have made Turkish air space available to Armenian commercial planes. There is no reason as to why we should not open the land border as well. However, we want to see the same positive attitude from the Armenian side as well. An important part of Azerbaijan is still under Armenian military occupation. This fact should not be ignored and forgotten,” he said.

“Armenia turned out to be Russia’s outpost”

On 17 December 2004 President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a statement doubting Armenia's ability to conduct independent policy.

Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin in 2004

Photo: REUTERS

“Chairman of the Russian State Duma, who has been to Armenia recently, called Armenia Russia’s outpost in the South Caucasus. We have always thought of Armenia as an independent state. In reality, it turned out to be an outpost, and we are not sure if we should hold talks with this outpost or its owner,” said Aliyev.

On December 20 Armenian parliament speaker Artur Baghdasaryan criticized the “outpost” remark by Russian State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov.

Boris Gryzlov in 2004

Photo: REUTERS

“Armenia is a sovereign state and cannot be an outpost of any country,” said Baghdasaryan, adding that the Armenian-Russian relations were developing “in a normal, natural course”.

•    5 YEARS AGO: DECEMBER 16-22, 2014

“Speculative elements”

On 17 December 2014 Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan stated that the developments in the country’s financial market at that time were “mainly accounted by global and regional developments, which are not deprived of overt speculative elements”.

“Given spontaneous developments of global trends, the Armenian government remains committed to the adopted policy of floating exchange rate, which is required for securing our economy against long-term instability,” he said, adding that the government backs the Central Bank’s efforts aimed at maintaining the stability of the financial system.

“The government maintains regular contact with its international partners and we are certain that joint efforts and common sense will enable us to ensure stability in the financial and goods markets, at the same time ruling out groundless rises of prices for consumer goods,” concluded the Prime Minister.

Ara Tadevosyan