Month: June 2017

Winners of Armenian startups competition get 10 million drams each

Jane Topchian
Arka News Agency, Armenia


YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. AR magic and Web Pro by Game startups were named the winners of a competition of innovative startups in Armenia, which kicked off on March 23, attracting 30 projects. The purpose of the competition was to support innovative ideas by investment.

Both projects will receive 10 million drams each from Global Credit universal credit organization and Renesa investment company. The companies, in turn, will receive almost 9.99% in the projects.
AR magic is a project for creation of children's coloring on the basis of Armenian fairy tales by using the augmented reality technology.

"With the help of modern technologies, we want to revitalize the educational process and make it more exciting. As for the competition, it is an example for other companies in Armenia in terms of supporting start-ups," said Hayk Varosyan, co-author of the AR magic project.

Web Pro by Game project manager Hayk Arakelyan, in turn, said that his goal is to teach children the basics of programming.

"By playing one may become a professional programmer and get real work offers. We have been producing highly successful personnel for eight years, but this project is  for the foreign market," he said. -0-

Armenian start-up OnQuark to showcase its product in Latvia

Lilit Nahapetian
Arka News Agency, Armenia


YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. Armenian start-up OnQuark, which is a customs service solutions provider, will travel to Riga, Latvia, early in 2018 to participate in Techchill. 

The Microsoft Innovation Center in Armenia said today that in Riga the startup will meet with professional mentors, as well as present its product to investors from the Balkan and European countries.
Another Armenian startup LifeBoard, which developed a multifunctional interactive blackboard, earned admission to Startup Wise Guys accelerator’s selection in Latvia.

Wise Guys Investments OÜ (Wise Guys) is an investment company founded by private Estonian investors together with VC fund SmartCap in 2012. The core activity of Wise Guys is to invest in early stage technology companies. To enhance the investment potential, it runs accelerator program called Startup Wise Guys. 

The Microsoft Innovation Center in Armenia said also that interest in the Armenian start-ups in Europe and the US is high with many investors and accelerators trying to get acquainted with their products during various events.

On June 27, the Microsoft Innovation Center hosted Investor and Mentorship Day for start-ups at the initial stage of development.  The event was organized by Startup Wise Guys accelerator (Estonia), Paris-based StartDoon investment initiative, and Microsoft Innovation Center with support from smartgate.vc and Inapptics. Their representatives worked throughout the day with 13 selected startups. -0-

Armenia: This Time, EU Deal Meets Russian Approval

Emil Lazarian
EurasiaNet.org
– 12:55pm, by Joshua Kucera

     

European Council President Donald Tusk (right) meets with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Brussels in late February. Brussels and Yerevan have gone back to the drawing board and worked out a new partnership agreement, expected to be signed in November. (Photo: European Council)

The last time Armenia negotiated closer ties with the European Union, in 2013, Russia swooped in at the last minute with a better offer to join the rival Customs Union and persuaded President Serzh Sargsyan to abandon the EU deal. The affair dealt a seemingly fatal blow to Yerevan’s hopes for substantive integration with the EU and cemented Russia’s position as the dominant player in Armenia.
 
But now Brussels and Yerevan have gone back to the drawing board and worked out a new deal. And by all accounts, this new agreement is likely to be signed without the drama seen four years ago, primarily because the deal is watered-down enough to not threaten Russia’s position in the country.
 
The new agreement, called the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, has been tentatively approved by Brussels and Yerevan and is expected to be signed in November, at a summit of the EU Eastern Partnership program. The document has not been made public, but Armenian and European diplomats say it is very similar to the agreement reached in 2013, minus the provisions on free trade that would now conflict with Armenia’s obligations to the Eurasian Economic Union, the successor organization to the Customs Union.
 
Russian officials have not publicly commented on the deal, but behind the scenes “Lavrov has given his green light,” a European diplomat in Yerevan told EurasiaNet.org, referring to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
 
“Through the process of consultations with all interested parties, including Russia, we explained that there’s not any more the issue of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement,” said Armenia’s deputy foreign minister and chief negotiator of the new agreement, Garen Nazarian, in an interview with EurasiaNet.org. That free trade component “was the main obstacle of signing the Association Agreement, because of our decision to join the then-Customs Union,” Nazarian said.
 
As modest as the deal is, it does provide Armenia with a somewhat weightier counterbalance to its close ties with Russia. “For a long time we’ve been conducting a multivector foreign policy, and it’s our goal to maintain a very balanced dialogue between our important partners, Russia, the European Union, and the United States,” Nazarian said.
 
Some in Armenia still remain wary of Moscow’s ability to play the spoiler. “You never know, because tomorrow Russia could take a gun out of its pocket and put it on the table, as it was in 2013,” said Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute think tank in Yerevan. Then, as Armenia and the EU were negotiating the Association Agreement, Russia pointedly announced that it was selling billions of dollars worth of arms to Armenia’s enemy, Azerbaijan, and floated rumors that it could dramatically raise the price of the natural gas it provides to Armenia, Iskandaryan recalled. “It was clear, they didn’t even need to say anything,” he said.
 
Concerns about a possible scuttling of the deal were heightened recently when a controversy erupted after the EU ambassador to Yerevan criticized Armenia’s electoral commission as lacking “credibility.”
 
Officials from the governing Republican Party of Armenia responded sharply. Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian on June 15 called the criticism “an attempt to interfere in our internal political affairs,” and some in Armenia’s opposition expressed concern that Harutiunian’s comments were the result of Russian pressure aimed at undermining the EU deal.
 
But most observers believe that this time, the agreement is not in danger.
 
One reason is that the geopolitical situation has changed dramatically since 2013. Ukraine, under then-President Viktor Yanukovych, was negotiating an Association Agreement similar to Armenia’s with the EU. Russia was intent on scuttling it, and Armenia was collateral damage, used to intimidate Yanukovych. “It was never about Armenia, it was about Ukraine – it was a signal to Ukraine, look what we can do,” the European diplomat said. (Yanukovych was subsequently overthrown and the new government completed negotiations with the EU on an Association Agreement, which is scheduled to enter force in September).
 
Another is that the new deal is relatively harmless from Russia’s perspective. It commits Armenia to political reforms, many of them potentially difficult, while offering few economic and no security ties to Europe in return. “Now they [Russians] see that the geopolitical component is out,” said Tevan Poghosyan, a pro-Western Armenian politician and president of the Yerevan-based International Center for Human Development.
 
“The Russians don’t really care about Armenia,” the European diplomat said. “What they care about is their military base. They want to keep their soldiers here – they have soldiers on the border with Turkey, they have soldiers on the border with Iran, and they’re looking forward to deploying peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh. That’s what their interest is in.”
 
Armenia also was scrupulous in making sure that the deal did not conflict with its Eurasian Economic Union obligations, to the extent that it was “over-cautious” about it, the diplomat said, jokingly paraphrasing Armenia’s commitment to the EU as, “We’ll do this with you, unless Russia tells us we don’t like it.”

Editor's note: 
Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at EurasiaNet, and author of The Bug Pit.

California State Senators Portantino and Wilk Urge Senate Support for Turkey Divestment

Emil Lazarian
Armenian Weekly

By Contributor on

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California State Senators Anthony Portantino and Scott Wilk sent a letter to their colleagues in the California State Senate on June 27, urging them to support AB 1597, which calls for the divestment of California’s public pension funds from investment vehicles that are owned, controlled or managed by the Turkish government.

(L to R) California State Senators Anthony Portantino and Scott Wilk.

The State of California, through its Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and its State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS), directly invests public funds in the government of Turkey, which then reaps profits while actively denying the Armenian Genocide, funding its continued campaign of denial, at least in part, through these investments in its economy. AB 1597 will prohibit CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing in Turkey.

“We are committed to seeing this bill progress through the legislature this year. California has led efforts to recognize the Armenian Genocide and we understand the destructive and divisive consequences of denial. Now, it is the time to ensure that our taxpayer funds are no longer used to aid Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide,” Senators Portantino and Wilk said.

AB 1597 is authored by Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian. It passed the State Assembly with strong bipartisan support and is headed to the Senate Standing Committee on Public Employment and Retirement (PERS). Portantino is a member of the PERS committee. Senators Portantino and Wilk are continuing the spirit of bipartisanship by jointly authoring the support letter.

Sen. Portantino represents nearly 930,000 people in the 25th Senate District, which includes Altadena, Atwater Village, Bradbury, Burbank, Claremont, Duarte, Glendale, Glendora, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, La Verne, Lake View Terrace, Los Feliz, Monrovia, Montrose, Pasadena, San Dimas, San Marino, Shadow Hills, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, Sunland-Tujunga, and Upland.

Analyst: Flare-up at Karabakh line of contact may lead to escalation at any time

Emma Nadirian 
news.am, Armenia




Analyst: Flare-up at Karabakh line of contact may lead to escalation at any time

18:13, 27.06.2017


YEREVAN. – Flare-up along Karabakh line of contact may lead to
escalation at any time, head of the International Center for Human
Development, Tevan Poghosyan told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

ADVERTISING

According to the expert, at the moment when the sides start shooting
at each other, there are no guarantees that the firing will stop.

“The only guarantee that the shooting will stop is when the adversary
starts understanding that you are much stronger,” Armenian ex-MP
noted, adding that the correctness of this approach has been proved
during April 2016 escalation.

As the expert stressed, the Azerbaijani side must understand
beforehand that an adequate response can follow after each shot.

“The Azerbaijan's policy of inciting hatred towards Armenians will
become more and more intense, and no government will be able to cope
with this,” Tevan Poghosyan added.

Armenian official at PACE: Agramunt is a missioner, defender of Azerbaijan’s interests

Meline Chalian 
news.am, Armenia



 Armenian official at PACE: Agramunt is a missioner, defender of
Azerbaijan's interests

21:03, 27.06.2017



President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Pedro Agramunt is a missioner, that is the defender of
Azerbaijan's interests, representative of the Armenian delegation to
PACE, Deputy Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly (NA) Mikayel
Melkumyan stated in his speech at the PACE plenary session on Tuesday.


''The fact that Agramunt is the defender of Azerbaijan's interests was
also confirmed by the speech of the Azerbaijani delegation
representative Samad Seyidov. Therefore, today's discussion is
directly linked to Agramunt's conduct, which is unacceptable. But he
is again absent. Thus, he should resign and leave,'' he noted.

According to Melkumyan, the struggle against corruption should be
measurable and visible, certain steps being taken by Armenia in this
direction, particularly with regard to legislation and administration:
the country has adopted laws on criminalization of unlawful enrichment
and formation of a new anti-corruption body.

''I think the international community and the governments of different
states should unite their forces for preventing this issue and its
further overcoming. But how can one work effectively in that direction
if, for instance, in a country like Azerbaijan the head of the state
himself backs development of corruption, provoking aggressive military
actions as it happened in April 2016 all along the Nagorno-Kaarbakh
and Azerbaijani border. Materials have been published in a number of
official periodicals and other media sources, including within the
framework of Panama Papers, pursuant to which Azerbaijani President
Aliyev's family and, particularly, his daughters possess enormous
wealth in different countries of the world. I had an opportunity to
voice about this phenomenon during the previous plenary sessions of
our organization. But because the topic under discussion is the
struggle against corruption, I would like to reiterate that we should
make efficient proposals and provide guarantees for overcoming this
phenomenon,'' he said.

Book: Hovhannes Tumanyan’s "Barekendan" translated into Hindi, numerous works await publication

Aram Torosian 
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
 Monday


Hovhannes Tumanyan's "Barekendan" translated into Hindi, numerous
works await publication



YEREVAN, JUNE 26, ARMENPRESS. The translation of Hovhannes Tumanyan’s
“Barekendan” into Hindi is yet another occasion to bring the two
nations closer.

The initiator of the idea, as well as the translator, is Santosh
Kumari Arora – an Indian Ambassador for Peace, lecturer at the Faculty
of Oriental Studies of Yerevan State University.

Mrs. Arora talked to ARMENPRESS on this occasion.

ARMENPRESS: Mrs. Arora, how did you decide to realize this initiative?

Santosh Kumari Arora: My goal is to serve for the two peoples, and see
them joyous. I am trying to maximally assist these two nations in
bringing them closer to each other. This was one of these steps, I
also sometimes hold master classes in Indian cuisine. I do everything
what depends on me. If I’ll be able to bring a smile to at least one
person, I’ll be happy.

ARMENPRESS: Why Tumanyan?

Santosh Kumari Arora: I think Tumanyan’s tales have features which
shape positive human values. I want these values to be known to
everybody. Hovhannes Tumanyan was very religious. I have also
translated Tumanyan’s “Akhtamar”, “The master and the slave”, and
“Sutlik Vorskan”, which haven’t yet been published. Tumanyan’s works
should be translated not only in Hindi, but also other languages.

ARMENPRESS: Is there a goal to send the books to India?

Santosh Kumari Arora: Definitely, I will personally go to India, visit
schools, talk to teachers and directors. They don’t need much
explanation. If they read it once, they will understand that Indian
schools really need this. In India, they also want to translate their
literature into Armenian. The financial issues are the only thing
which hinders it.

ARMENPRESS: What will this translation give to the Indian children?

Santosh Kumari Arora: It will shape a good person. People should read
Tumanyan from an early age. I tell my grandchildren many of his tales
as well.

ARMENPRESS: Where there any linguistic difficulties while translating it?

Santosh Kumari Arora: I didn’t have any difficulties while translating
because I live within this people, I know the Armenian people very
well, I am familiar with their mentality and way of thinking, it’s not
only the language that I know, but also what the author meant by
writing a given word. In addition, the two languages are very similar.
There are many words having the same roots in these languages.

ARMENPRESS: Is there a writer in India’s literature who you compare
with Tumanyan and his writing style?

Santosh Kumari Arora: We have many unique writers in India, for
example Premchand, Rabindranáth Tagore. Premchand’s tales are
especially close to Tumanyan’s, however I havent noticed Tumanyan’s
direct link to God in any other writer.

ARMENPRESS: Are you planning to translate other works from Armenian literature?

Santosh Kumari Arora: I am planning to tranlsate the Sasna Tsrer
(Daredevils of Sassoun) epic soon, I am working on creating a
Armenian-Indian dictionary and I want to finish it very soon. I will
also try to create a phraseology dictionary and a conversation guide,
however I dont have financial support yet. I am also thinking about
sending some translated work to India and publish it there.

ARMENPRESS: Do the books get sold in Armenia?

Santosh Kumari Arora: The books arent being sold, I donate them to my
good students as an encouragement. There are no Hindi readers here.
Hindi is currently only taught in the faculty of Oriental studies, but
only twice a week during a semester. And this period is very short for
becoming a translator. There is no other Hindi lecturer in the
University besides me.

ARMENPRESS: Mrs. Arora, how many years have passed since who settled
in Armenia for permanent residency?

Santosh Kumari Arora: I am living in Armenia since 1987. I go to India
every once in a while, however I wasn’t able to go in the last 4
years.

ARMENPRESS: Did you adapt to Armenia easily?

Santosh Kumari Arora: I didn’t have a problem of adaptation, since all
nations are one family for me. All peoples are the same, people
themselves have decided the religions and nationalities.

ARMENPRESS: Did you have any job offers from other locations?

Santosh Kumari Arora: I’ve been invited from many places, but I can’t
stay anywhere more than a week, then I run back to Armenia. I have a
family here, my friends. The Armenian spirit exists only here.

Interview by Anna Grigoryan

Sports: Three Armenian weightlifters set to participate at Summer Universiade

Emil Lazarian
Panorama, Armenia

Three Armenian weightlifters are about to participate at Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade which will officially begin on 19 August.

Head Coach of Armenian weightlifting National team Pashik Alaverdyan told a press conference on Tuesday, informing Armenia will be represented by Andranik Karapetyan (85kg), Simon Martorisyan (105kg), and Gor Minasyan (+105kg).

Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade is expected to attract around 10,000 athletes from more than 120 countries, making it the biggest international multi-sport event Chinese Taipei has ever hosted.

Sports: Mkhitaryan: Scorpion goal my “most beautiful” for Manchester United

Tambiyan Samvel
Vavel
 
 
Mkhitaryan: Scorpion goal my “most beautiful” for Manchester United
 
27-06-2017
 
The Armenia international netted the unbelievable strike against Sunderland on Boxing Day
 
                   
Matthew Brown
 
Manchester United midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has described his unbelievable scorpion kick goal against Sunderland as his “most beautiful” at the club so far.
 
The 28-year-old scored the acrobatic effort, converting with his back-heel mid-flight during a 3-1 victory over David Moyes’ Black Cats at Old Trafford on Boxing Day last year.
 
Most beautiful, but not of greatest importance
 
Asked which of his many wonderful goals for United was his favourite so far during a Q&A session on Facebook, Mkhitaryan first referred to the scorpion goal before pointing out another of his efforts as being the "most important."
 
Rather unsurprisingly, the Armenian was speaking about his vital strike in the Europa League final against Ajax last month. With another strike which showcased his acrobatics and agility, Mkhitaryan flicked Chris Smalling’s header into the net from close range for United’s second in the 2-0 win.
 
It wasn’t quite as impressive as that wonderful effort against Sunderland but it did seal Champions League football for the Red Devils in the upcoming campaign as well as cementing Mkhitaryan into the club history. The goal ensured he was the first ever United player to score in five European away games in one season.
 
In a separate question, the former Borussia Dortmund playmaker acknowledged the importance of returning to the Champions League, stating that it is a competition “where Manchester United belongs” and that the squad are “happy to be playing this great competition again.”
 
Mkhi wants more
 
Although the strike earned Mkhitaryan the club’s goal of the season award, he is keen to add more goals to his game next term.
 
One of four signings made by Jose Mourinho last summer, Mkhitaryan managed 12 goals in his debut season at the Theatre of Dreams but also said during the Q&A that he would “love to score more goals and give more assists” next season.
 
Mkhitaryan, also previously of Shakhtar Donetsk, said he wants to “help the team win as many trophies as possible” following last season’s captures of the aforementioned Europa League, EFL Cup and much more modest triumph in the Community Shield.
 
 
 

ՀՀ սփյուռքի նախարար Հրանուշ Հակոբյանն ընդունեց քուվեյթաբնակ հալեպահայ գործարար, գրող, հրապարակախոս Կիրակոս Գույումճյանին

Garik Boshkezenian 
Please find the attached press release of the Ministry of Diaspora.

Sincerely,
Media and PR Department
(+374 10) 585601, internal 805

----------------------
Հարգանքով`
Մամուլի և հասարակայնության հետ կապերի վարչություն

(+374 10) 585601, ներքին 805



application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document


IMG_9276.JPG
JPEG image