Month: February 2020

 14:42,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan’s State News Agency – AZERTAC – has attempted to fix President Ilham Aliyev’s extraordinary gaffe during the panel discussion with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

When Aliyev began his introductory remarks, at one point he said in an apparent faux-pas “more than 10 countries recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh”. Perhaps the blunder was caused by Aliyev’s nervousness since this was an unprecedented discussion. But this error would’ve gone unnoticed if not for the resolute efforts of the Azerbaijani news media to “make things right”.

AZERTAC has turned to re-voicing, or dubbing if you will, Aliyev’s words, particularly the part “the independence of Nagorno Karabakh”, and switched the words with Aliyev saying “genocide of Khojaly”. The voice is even so similar to Aliyev’s that presumably it was taken from an earlier audio recording of the Azerbaijani president mentioning those words. And so, after turning a blind eye on journalistic ethics, AZERTAC’s edited version of Aliyev’s MSC speech became “more than 10 countries recognized the genocide of Khojaly”, something he didn’t say, something that did not happen.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

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 15:22,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Consultation was held today in the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the concept of tax reforms, the PM’s office told Armenpress.

Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan introduced the goals set by the concept for which the tax reforms are going to serve, as well as the directions and principles under which these changes should be carried out. The main goal is to form a balanced approach that will contribute to creating favorable conditions for economic development, solving social issues and ensuring a balanced attitude towards environment.

PM Pashinyan highlighted the importance of the topic and stated: “We are going to make very courageous decisions in the future starting from property tax up to the next tax changes. The logic and goal of these changes is the following that the state revenues should increase with the logic to give an opportunity to the economy to develop so that they will further increase in the future. And people should change their attitude to paying taxes which exists today. So what we need to do for this purpose? Firstly, the pillar is the anti-corruption fight, in other words each citizen of Armenia should be convinced that there is a government in Armenia which doesn’t rob from them and doesn’t rob from any place, and not only the government, but also the whole public administration system. The citizen should believe that the state leadership is not robbing, and if there are cases of robbery, that people will be found and punished.

The second one is the constant increase of efficiency of maintenance costs of the public administration system, in other words, we must convince our citizens every year that we spend the money paid by them purposefully, effectively and in a right way, including also how the employees of the public administration system are paid, starting from bonuses up to other social guarantees. I think today all the necessary political conditions exist based on the results of 2019 that we should also ensure the high salaries of employees of public administration system, at the same time guaranteeing their high qualification”.

Thereafter, the consultation participants discussed issues relating to the strengthening and spread of culture of paying taxes, providing tax privileges based on sectors, introducing income declaration system, etc.

Pashinyan said the current concept should become the base for the tax reforms strategy.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

 16:57,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Head of the General Military Investigative Department Artak Krkyasharyan received today the family members of soldier Tigran Manvelyan who was killed on February 12, 2020, the Committee told Armenpress.

The ongoing investigative operations being conducted under the criminal case launched over the soldier’s death were discussed during the meeting.

Manvelyan’s relatives presented their concerns and considerations over the case.

The deputy chair of the Committee assured them that all details regarding this case will be thoroughly investigated.

Soldier of the Defense Army of Artsakh Tigran Manvelyan, born in 2000, received a fatal gunshot wound at a military position on February 12, at around 11:30.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

 17:48,

Converse Bank has been announced the “Best Trade Finance Provider 2020 in Armenia” by the prestigous Global Finance Magazine at the 13^th BAFT Global Annual Meeting in London.

Presentation of the award speaks of Converse Bank’s outstanding achivements in the sphere of trade finance evidenced by the remarkable growth in the volume and quantity of transactions and the broad geographical coverage.

Among winners of “Best Trade Finance Provider 2020” award are Commerzbank AG (Germany), Raiffeisen Bank International (Austria), KBC Bank (Belgium), Citibank (USA), Societe Generale (France) and other leading banks. To see the full list of banks awarded by Global Finance visit https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/february-2020/2020-worlds-best-trade-finance-providers .

It is worth mentioning that during the recent years Converse Bank has been presented with several honorary awards in this sphere: the “Deal of the Year-Green Trade” by the EBRD and the “Trade Finance Award 2018” by Commerzbank AG, among others.

 18:10,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. A bill on honoring the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide has been submitted to the parliament of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada. ARMENPRESS reports, citing AnalitikUA.net, the bill of MP representing the ruling “Servant of the People” Party Daria Volodina was submitted to the parliament on February 14.

Chairman of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine Vilen Shatvoryan highlighted the move, assessing it as a commitment to humanitarianism, truth and justice.

In the recent 10 years this is the 4^th legislative initiative in the Ukrainian parliament related to the Armenian Genocide

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 18:38,

YEREVAN, 18 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 18 February, USD exchange rate is down by 0.10 drams to 478.95 drams. EUR exchange rate is down by 1.06 drams to 518.37 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is down by 0.06 drams to 7.51 drams. GBP exchange rate is down by 2.23 drams to 622.40 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price is down by 14.33 drams to 24342.1 drams. Silver price is up by 1.41 drams to 274.1 drams. Platinum price is down by 80.12 drams to 14890.44 drams.

 18:21,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received Toivo Klaar, the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia.    Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Victorin was also present at the meeting.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan expressed satisfaction over the development process of the Armenia-EU relations, noting that bilateral partnership has intensive dynamics. The PM noted that at the moment Armenia is in the stage of holding a referendum on Constitutional changes and spoke about its goals.

During the meeting the interlocutors discussed issues related to the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Pashinyan noted that Armenia is committed to the peaceful settlement of the conflict in line with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ format. He highlighted the involvement of Artsakh’s civil society in the confidence building measures, which will foster the establishment of constructive atmosphere and the negotiation process.

The Armenian PM and the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia also exchanged views on other issues of regional importance.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 18:57,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met with US Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy on February 18.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office, the interlocutors exchanged views on cooperation between Armenia and the USA in various spheres. Particularly, the sides assesses promising the spheres of modern technologies, particularly, the implementation of joint projects in the sphere of artificial intelligence. In this context, the sides referred to the possible cooperation in the sidelines of the president-initiated ATOM project, the goal of which is to transform Armenia into a leading country in the spheres of artificial intelligence and mathematical modeling.

During the meeting the Armenian President and the US Ambassador also exchanged views on the referendum for Constitutional changes scheduled on April 5.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan