Month: October 2019

The RA National Security Service, being committed to the principle of being as open and transparent as possible to the public, considers it necessary to inform that in the investigation department of the RA National Security Service on July 2, 2018, as a result of the criminal case initiated under Article 214, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code, with the combination of numerous investigative operations and sufficient evidence obtained as a result of operational-investigative measures, on 08.10.2019 Ara Vardani Vardanyan, the former executive director of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, was charged under Article 214, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code, amended and charged again under Article 214, Part 1, Article 179, Part 3, Clause 1, and Article 325, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code.

According to the press service of the NSS, according to factual data, he, after reaching a preliminary agreement with the director of the SP company, which is 100 percent owned by the foundation, signed a contract on October 26, 2017 to supply AMD 149,474,540.00 worth of property to the education departments of the Askeran, Shahumyan, Martakert, Hadrut, Kashatagh and Martun regions of the Artsakh Republic. about, but the property in question was not delivered, and in order to appropriate the mentioned amount written off from the fund for that purpose, official false documents were drawn up – acts of handover and acceptance of materialistic values.

On October 9, 2019, the Court of General Jurisdiction of the city of Yerevan, satisfying the petition of the body implementing the proceedings, changed the bail previously chosen as an alternative preventive measure against the accused and chose detention as a preventive measure.

The National Security Service urges you to use an official source when publishing material on its activities to verify the credibility of the information received.

Earlier, we reported that by the decision of the court of general jurisdiction of the city of Yerevan, the former director of the Hayastan Hamarmeni fund Ara Vardanyan bail was canceled as a preventive measure against him and detention was applied to him as a preventive measure.

Armenia’s military development budget next year will be doubled. This was announced today by RA Minister of High-tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan during the “Unification of Science and Technology” conference in Yerevan.

He noted that Armenians have always been good scientists and researchers, and in Soviet times Armenia was famous for its scientific institutes. 

“We had not only talented scientists, a favorable environment for scientific research was created here,” he stressed.

The minister assured that efforts are being made to restore the former Armenian scientific reputation.

“We want to recreate this environment. It will help both our economy and our defense,” Minister Arshakyan said.

On October 11, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Turkmenistan on a working visit, had a meeting with the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that he is happy to meet the President of Uzbekistan and discuss the prospects of strengthening ties between the two countries and friendly peoples. According to the Prime Minister of Armenia, the fact that this is the first meeting of the leaders of Armenia and Uzbekistan in such a format since the day of our country’s independence, testifies to the bilateral political will and willingness to give completely new momentum to Armenian-Uzbek relations. Prime Minister Pashinyan expressed the readiness of the Armenian side to contribute to the formation of a new agenda of bilateral relations and its quick and effective implementation.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, welcoming Nikol Pashinyan, emphasized that Uzbekistan also attaches importance to the development of relations with our country, and the occasion of such a meeting should be used in order to continue the high-level political dialogue, fully realize the existing potential in bilateral relations, and give new breath and quality to cooperation. In this context, the President of Uzbekistan proposed to discuss the possibility of forming an intergovernmental commission.

Agreeing with Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s proposal, Nikol Pashinyan expressed confidence that the commission will be formed in the near future and, as a result of quick and effective activity, will develop an appropriate legal contract framework. The Prime Minister of Armenia expressed his satisfaction for the caring attitude of the Uzbek government towards the Armenian community in Uzbekistan, the respect and friendly attitude of the Uzbek people towards the local Armenians.

Reaffirming the bilateral willingness to develop the Armenian-Uzbek partnership in the political, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres, the interlocutors discussed the possibilities of initiating joint projects in these directions. The development of cooperation in the fields of light industry, banking, information technologies, and agriculture was considered promising in terms of the activation of economic ties.

There was an exchange of views on the developments taking place in both countries. Sharing his positive impressions regarding the ongoing large-scale reforms in Armenia, the President of Uzbekistan made extensive references to the process of changes in agriculture, foreign trade, and other branches of the economy in Uzbekistan. The interlocutors emphasized the need for mutual visits at a high level, expressing readiness to take concrete steps in that direction in the near future.

“ReAnimania” 11th International Festival of Animation Films and Painting Art will be held this year on October 24-29.

The opening ceremony of the festival will take place on October 24 at the “Moscow” cinema. Special guests of the festival will also participate in the ceremony. Films will also be shown in other areas.

This year, the film festival received more than 350 full-length and short animated films from around the world, from which more than 100 will compete in the festival’s five main categories. In particular, feature and short films from USA, UK, Russia, France, Germany, Spain and other countries are presented.
A jury made up of professional experts from abroad and Armenia will consider them and at the end of the festival will award prizes in different categories.

A special program dedicated to the 95th anniversaries of artist, Honored Artist of the ASSR, director Valentin Podpomogov and the 90th anniversaries of Armenian film director, screenwriter, Honored Art Worker of the ASSR Arman Manaryan will be held within the framework of the festival.

Within the framework of the festival, as in previous years, master classes and seminars will be held.

This year, master classes will be held by Roger Kupelian (USA), the visual effects manager of the film “The Lord of the Rings”, Hugh Welshman (Poland), the director of the film “Love, Vincent”, executive director of the European Animation Awards, famous producer Jean-Paul Comin (France), experts in the field, producer Ron Dines (France), producer, author of the painting book, screenwriter, director Koryunikyan (France), artist, illustrator Dan Goldman (USA), painter and animation film art director Gevorg Murad (USA), director-animator Natalya Mirzoyan (Russia), director Arup Devividi (India), animator, illustrator Zorika Geta (Germany) and producer Alan Grangerard (France)

By the way, you will notice a red round symbol in all printed materials of this year’s “Reanimania” festival, including the poster. The festival included it in memory of the burning of the Kyoto Animation company building, which took place on July 18 of this year. An unidentified 41-year-old man poured gasoline inside the office and on employees, killing 35 people. It was the largest post-war mass killing in Japan. This step of the festival is a tribute to the memory of our colleagues who became the innocent victims of this accident.

The signing of the agreement on the free trade zone between EAEU and Singapore and the participation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the Yerevan summit show the strengthening of the geo-economic potential of the Eurasian Economic Union. Arman Ghukasyan, chairman of the “For Social Justice” party and expert of the “Voice of the People” club, announced this at the press conference summarizing the results of the Yerevan Summit of the EAEU.

According to him, the development of relations with Singapore is important for Armenia, first of all, from the point of view of attracting foreign investments. As for Iran, the preservation and deepening of relations with the neighboring country is now mostly possible due to the existence of EAEU, as it helps Armenia partially overcome the pressures of the USA to stop ties with Tehran.

“In this sense, membership in EAEU has not only economic, but also geopolitical significance for Armenia. Of course, this membership brings many benefits for our country,” he expressed conviction.

Ghukasyan also emphasized the holding of the international forum “Transit Potential of the Eurasian Continent”, which, according to him, inspires hope that the idea of ​​new transport corridors in accordance with the requirements of the new digital era will soon be implemented with the participation of Armenia.

Arman Ghukasyan calls the organization of the dialogue between the leaders of Armenia and Russia on the territory of our country one of the important moments of the EAEU summit. He reminded that Vladimir Putin He has not visited Armenia since 2015, and the meetings held certainly contribute to maintaining a generally positive atmosphere in the relations between the two countries.

“The strategic nature of the relations between Russia and Armenia has recently become more important, from the point of view of Armenia sending a humanitarian mission to Syria, as well as the implementation of large bilateral projects in the military-technical and energy fields. However, the events of October 1 showed that when assessing Armenian-Russian relations today, it is necessary not so much to fix the external side of events (handshakes, selfies, etc.), but to focus on the content of the agenda and the agreements reached or to be reached,” he said. According to Ghukasyan, on October 1Nikol Pashinyan tried to show that there were full negotiations with the Russian leader, which, according to the speaker, is an exaggeration. According to him, the negotiations were divided into two meetings, besides, no solution to the key issues of the bilateral agenda was announced.

“Particularly, there is no clarity regarding the price of gas, besides this, Yerevan continues to demand from Moscow the complete unification of gas markets and the equalization of domestic prices. Tensions also remain around SCR and Gazprom Armenia, two important strategic investors in Armenia’s economy. It is worth highlighting the offer made by Vladimir Putin to Nikol Pashinyan to visit Moscow on an official visit, which can be considered as an urgent invitation to discuss the entire spectrum of existing issues.”

All these problems, the speaker added, really exist and should be solved only through negotiations and dialogue between our countries. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that there is already some progress, as the Minister of Transport of Russia and the General Director-Chairman of the Russian Railways Council arrived in Yerevan a few days after the EAEU summit. And judging by open sources, the Armenian and Russian sides are trying to find common solutions, but there are still no answers to many questions.

“Russia is our most important strategic ally and, like all partners, we also have problems that need to be solved through mutual understanding. But I do not share the assessments that there is a serious crisis in Armenian-Russian relations – they are exaggerated. Moreover, I tend to think that such statements and assessments harm our relations and mainly harm the interests of Armenia itself. What kind of crisis are we talking about, if Russia continues to supply arms to Armenia under previously signed contracts and at domestic prices, there are no issues related to the activities of the 102nd Russian base located in Gyumri problems, and no problems in other areas either. I repeat, the existing problematic moments should be resolved through a constructive dialogue within the framework of the dynamic development of Armenian-Russian relations,” stressed the leader of the “For Social Justice” party.

RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to the speech of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the meeting of CIS member-state leaders in Ashgabat and stated that he sees attempts to distort the facts on his part.

In his speech at the meeting of the leaders of CIS member states, Aliyev complained that the statue of Garegin Nzhdeh was installed in Yerevan. “Fascists are glorified in Armenia, where the former government installed them in the center of Yerevan Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan the statue that cooperated with the fascists,” Aliyev said, to which the RA Prime Minister gave a harsh answer.

“Unfortunately, we saw such attempts in Ilham Aliyev’s speech. Listening to his evaluations of Garegin Nzhdeh, to tell the truth, I remembered the famous Soviet film “Captive of the Caucasus”. when there is talk about the ruins of the ancient castle, and a question is raised: what is it, did I destroy the church as well? Ilham Heydarovich’s speech gives the impression that Hitler played a secondary role in that war, and the leader of the Nazi movement was Garegin Nzhdeh,” said Pashinyan.

And the reality, Pashinyan notes, is that Garegin Nzhdeh fought against the Turkish occupation of Armenia, fought against the genocide of Armenians, and the reality is that during the Armenian-Turkish war, Garegin Nzhdeh, along with many Russian officers, led a very important part of the front in 1918.

“I want to emphasize once again that it is important for us to know the objective assessment of history. They say that Garegin Nzhdeh died in Vladimir prison. Many Soviet figures died in that prison, Solzhenitsyn was in the Gulag. Do we think that those who were convicted in the years 37-50 are all enemies of the nation? If so, many prominent figures have been convicted and ended their lives in prison.

But that doesn’t mean we have to accept it all as fact. And I consider it unnecessary and unnecessary to use this format to distort history, to introduce some tension in the atmosphere of this quite important session,” he said.

The President of the Republic Armen Sarkissian today received Ulf Schneider, the founder of the famous German company “Schneider Group”. The company has an office in Yerevan, which provides consulting services in the field of business development to activate investment attraction.

At the meeting, Ulf Schneider presented information to the president of the republic about the initiative called “Lisbon to Vladivostok”, noting that it aims to strengthen economic ties and cooperation between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. He proposed to organize the conference of the initiative next year in Armenia.

“Armenia is a good bridge between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. I myself participated in the “Armenian Summit of Thoughts” held in Dilijan this summer, I was inspired by that conference, and I think that Armenia is a good place to host this event,” said Schneider. He informed that the meeting of the initiative group was held in Brussels the other day, in which both representatives of the European Commission and EAEU participated.

President Sargsyan welcomed such an initiative, noting that he is ready to support the implementation of the event as much as possible.

RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the book “Peace to Karabakh” authored by Vladimir Kazimirov to Russian President Vladimir Putin after the summit of CIS leaders held in Ashgabat on October 11.

The presentation of the book took place at the Moscow House in Yerevan in 2009. The author of the book is former co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russian diplomat Vladimir Kazimirov.

On the cover of the book “Peace to Karabakh” is a dove of peace in the background of the Artsakh landscape, and at the end of the book, Vladimir Kazimirov wrote a poem to Artsakh with the final hope of peace.

Vladimir Kazimirov is a Russian diplomat. He was the ambassador of the USSR and the Russian Federation in a number of countries.

In 1992, he was appointed the head of the mediation mission of Russia in the Karabakh conflict settlement negotiations, then the representative of Russia in the OSCE Minsk Group, and in 1994-1996, the co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The armistice negotiations and the signing of the armistice document also took place with Kazimirov’s direct participation.

According to information of SHAMSHYAN.com, materials are being prepared in the investigative department of Nor Nork police department regarding the theft that happened on October 9 in Yerevan.

As photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan reports, Vahe P., a resident of Yerevan city, contacted the police and reported that on the same day, between 04:00 and 04:05, the iron door of the payment terminal belonging to the Nor Nork branch of “VTB-Hayastan Bank” CJSC, located on Badal Muradyan Street, Nor Nork Administrative District, was broken using technical means and bank notes and money were stolen from there. coin vaults.

The police take the necessary measures to identify the crime, the perpetrator or perpetrators, and the theft.

It should be noted that about a month ago, an unknown person or persons, using technical means, robbed the payment terminal of “VTB-Hayastan Bank” located at 41 Komitas Avenue, Yerevan.