Export of Gold Raw Materials Worth $20 Million to Turkey from Armenia in the First Half of 2022: Vardanyan

Kristine Vardanyan, a member of the 'Armenia' faction, writes on her Facebook page: Perhaps you have already seen today’s meeting of the Economic Issues Permanent Committee in the National Assembly, where a heated debate arose when discussing the structure of goods exported to Turkey. A part of the debate was shared online, but the issue under discussion went unnoticed, while it is indeed important.

Member of the Armenian National Assembly Tadevos Avetisyan investigated the trade relations between Armenia and Turkey during the years of independence under conditions of closed borders and recorded the following: Importing from Turkey exceeds exports by an average of about 150 times annually, meaning that even with closed borders, the Armenian market is flooded with Turkish goods, while Armenia is unable to offer attractive products for the Turkish market. The problem is not simply about borders being open or closed (as some are trying to convince us now) but rather the non-competitiveness of Armenian products in the Turkish market.

On the contrary, Tadevos Avetisyan discovered a very intriguing deviation in the structure of exports to Turkey in the first half of last year. It turns out that in the first half of 2022, Armenia exported $20 million 167 thousand (353.1 kilograms) of gold raw materials to Turkey, not jewelry, which accounted for 99 percent of total exports from Armenia to Turkey (source: PetekaMutner).

It is evident that a simple citizen or an average trader in Armenia could not carry out such a transaction. Therefore, we are confronted with the interests of large businessmen, for whom it would even be impossible to successfully carry out such transactions with a country having closed borders and hostile relations without state patronage.

How such a large transaction was executed, who benefitted, and what revenues were derived from it remain unknown to the Armenian public. However, when the circumstances and beneficiaries of the transaction become clear, I am confident we will find among the names the local lobbyists of 'Armenian-Turkish friendship', who, while talking about Turkey, seem to 'forget' to mention the threats that come from Turkey for Armenians. In cases like this, it becomes evident they forget to do so in the face of specific profits.

Today, at the meeting of the Economic Issues Committee, Tadevos Avetisyan raised precisely this question. You can watch the ruling force's response to the raised question in the video available.