Cello Concerto “Ubi est Abel frater tuus?” (Where is Your Brother, Abel?) by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian will be performed in Armenia for the first time. The concert which is held as part of 13th Yerevan International Music Festival will be played by Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra under baton of Andrey Boreyko who will visit Armenia on that occasion. The concert will take place on September 27 at Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall and is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of maestro Mansurian.
As the Philharmonic Orchestra reports in a press release, throughout his career, Boreyko has served as Principal Conductors of world-known Orchestras, among them the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, General Music Director of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium. He serves as principal guest conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. In April 2013, Boreyko was named the next Music Director for the Naples (Florida) Philharmonic, as of the 2014-2015 season, his first appointment with an orchestra in the United States. In September 2018, the Warsaw Philharmonic announced the appointment Boreyko as its next artistic director and music director.
Cellist Sevak Avanesyan will act as soloist. The Belgium-based musician has gained a world recognition through his work with many famous orchestras and conductor around the world.
Concerto “Ubi est Abel frater tuus?, is one the three works written by Mansurian commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide. The Concerto for Cello was premiered on April 23 in 2010 in Cologne and later played in Venice on the same day when Pope Francis celebrated a Mass in Vatican to commemorate a century since the Armenian Genocide.
The second part of the September 27 concert features Dvorak: Symphony No.9 “From the New World” .
ArmInfo. "The head of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Hrayr Tovmasyan is not the light of my eyes, but this does not prevent me from telling the truth," such an opinion at a briefing at the National RA Prosperous Armenia faction member Gevorg Petrosyan expressed the RA meeting /.
Answering the question of how the faction relates to the initiative of the My Step parliamentary faction to terminate the powers of the head of the Constitutional Court and whether the PAP will join this proposal, Petrosyan explained that according to the Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court, there are exhaustively listed reasons sufficient to so that the COP decides to terminate the authority of its member. "And if the faction of power decided to start the initiative, then it can hold it in the National Assembly, but the Constitutional Court itself must decide the issue of dismissal," he explained.
According to the deputy, the PAP is not a political force that will mechanically join this or that initiative without understanding its tasks. "Now all those who come forward with such initiatives, according to the current legislation of the Republic of Armenia, are obliged 3/5 of the total number of deputies to present this initiative, what decision the COP will take, we do not have the right to express a biased opinion. I regard these opinions more as pressure on court. Let the court decide>, said Petrosyan.
He noted that at the moment the PAP does not see such a task, and in the Constitutional Court there is no such situation that would be uncontrollable. <The authority is acting, another problem is that individuals are not present at meetings, are not involved in decision-making, but are reminded differently of their existence>. On the eve the parliamentary faction "My Step" announced the beginning of the process to terminate the powers of the President of the Constitutional Court (CC) Hrayr Tovmasyan.
Recall, on September 4, the Constitutional Court of Armenia granted the defense claim of Robert Kocharian – Article 35 of the RA Criminal Code is recognized as unconstitutional, since it does not provide for the functional inviolability of officials who are specially protected by the Constitution, including circumstances that exclude criminal proceedings or criminal prosecution. "This article is found to be contrary to clause 4 of part 1 of article 27, part 1 of article 61, part 1 of article 63, articles 75 of the Constitution," the Constitutional Court said. On the second appeal of Kocharyan's defense on the review of compliance with the Constitution of Part 2 of Article 135 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, the Constitutional Court recognized it as complying with the country's main law. Thus, the Constitutional Court ruled that the verdicts adopted today, in accordance with part 2 of Article 179 of the Constitution, are final and come into force from the moment they are published. It should be noted that Robert Kocharian was arrested on charges of overthrowing the constitutional order.
Artsakh president Bako Sahakyan referred in Stepanakert today to the statement of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that there are disagreements with the Artsakh authorities and to the comment that he spoke about the necessity of harmony between the governance systems.
“This harmony is classified among our everyday priorities and we will continue carrying out corresponding works with our colleagues,” Sahakyan said.
As to disagreements, Artsakh president said the disagreements should not be qualified as tragedy.
“Naturally we have our viewpoints and in the issues where the viewpoints do not coincide I ascribe them to our working relations,” he said.
An Armenian priest enters a church at the monastery compound in the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City June 8, 2010. The Armenians in Jerusalem now fear their 1,500-year-old Christian presence may disappear. Their society and extensive landholdings risk becoming collateral damage in a demograp. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Wednesday,
Armenia Reports Continuing Rise In Tourist Arrivals
Armenia - Tourists at the 13-14th century Noravank monastery in Vayots Dzor
province, August 20, 2016.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia increased by 12 percent in the
first half of this year, a senior government official said on Thursday.
Susanna Safarian, the head of the Economy Ministry’s depart on tourism, told
the Armenpress news agency that Russian nationals accounted for the largest
share of 770,000 tourist arrivals recorded in that period, followed by citizens
of Georgia, the United States and Iran. All four countries have large ethnic
Armenian communities.
Safarian said her department is now striving to attract more European tourists
to Armenia.
Armenia already unilaterally abolished visas for citizens of the European Union
member states and the U.S. in 2012 and 2014 respectively. In 2017, it also
lifted visa requirements for citizens of Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar
and several other nations and allowed Russians to visit Armenia with Russian
internal passports.
Official Armenian statistics shows that the number of foreigners visiting
Armenia has grown by roughly 9 percent annually since 2012. It reached a new
high of almost 1.5 million in 2018. The last several years have also seen a
major rise in new hotels and guesthouses across the country.
This growth appears to have been facilitated by the former Armenian
government’s decision in 2013 to liberalize the domestic civil aviation sector.
The average cost of air travel to and from Armenia has fallen considerably
since then.
The government’s Civil Aviation Committee reported recently a 9.4 percent rise
in the total number of passengers processed by the country’s two international
airports in the first half of 2019.
Former Yerevan Mayor Under Corruption Investigation
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Energy Minister Yervand Zakharian at a press conference in Yerevan,
January 14, 2015.
An Armenian law-enforcement body has launched a criminal investigation into a
former energy minister and mayor of Yerevan suspected of illegally privatizing
municipal land.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said on Wednesday that it has “factual
data” suggesting that in 2008 then Mayor Yervand Zakharian made a “baseless and
illegal” decision to sell a 10,000-square-meter green area to the owners of a
luxury hotel.
The area was then part of Yerevan’s largest and most popular public park. It
was “not subject to privatization,” the SIS said in a statement.
The SIS also said that the land was sold at a suspiciously low price of about
165 million drams ($346,000). It noted that the hotel owners subsequently used
the plot as collateral for obtaining a commercial bank loan worth as much as 12
billion drams.
The statement added that the SIS is holding an investigation into abuse of
power. It said investigators are taking necessary measures to “fully establish
the circumstances of the matter and identify the guilty.”
A spokesperson for the law-enforcement body declined to clarify on Thursday
whether Zakharian has already been formally charged or at least questioned as
part of the probe. For his part, Zakharian did not answer phone calls.
Zakharian was Yerevan’s government-appointed mayor from 2003-2009. He went on
to run the Armenian government’s Real Estate Cadaster Committee before being
appointed as energy minister in 2014 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. He held
that post until 2016.
Government Funds Pay Rise For Teachers
Armenia -- A primary school teacher in Yerevan welcomes students at the start
of a new academic year, Yerevan, September 1, 2019.
The Armenian government allocated on Thursday 1.7 billion drams ($3.5 million)
for financing this year a 10 percent increase in the salaries of schoolteachers
effective from September 1.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian promised the pay rise in March when he touted
additional tax revenues collected by the State Revenue Committee (SRC).
The measure will affect the nearly 38,000 teachers of Armenia’s public schools.
Their monthly salary has averaged approximately 80,000 drams until now.
The average monthly wage in Armenia currently stands at over 187,000 drams
($392), according official statistics.
“We certainly don’t regard this pay rise as revolutionary,” Pashinian said at
the latest cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “On the other hand, this is the
beginning of a process which will continue if we manage to put in place the
right mechanisms.”
Education Minister Arayik Harutiunian said in this regard that his ministry
hopes to raise the teachers’ minimum wage to 108,000 drams already next year
through the introduction of a “new formula for financing schools.” He denied
“false” reports about ongoing massive staff cuts in the chronically underfunded
schools.
“The staff cuts have been ordinary, just like they were in the past,” said
Harutiunian. “They are mainly to do with [teachers’] retirement age.”
Pashinian Aide Rules Out Kocharian’s Return To Power
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's spokesman Vladimir Karapetian
speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, March 15, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s press secretary shrugged off the arrested
former President Robert Kocharian’s stated political comeback on Thursday,
saying that he stands no chance of returning to power.
Vladimir Karapetian said that Armenians “with normal consciousness” will have
access to shocking information about Kocharian’s role in the 2008 post-election
violence in Yerevan after his trial resumes on September 12.
“In light of that, I exclude that any serious political force or figure can
stand with that person,” Karapetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
He claimed that Kocharian can count only on the backing of “those people who
are paid” to stage rallies in support of the man who ruled Armenia from 1998 to
2008.
Kocharian announced his return to active politics shortly after being first
arrested and charged in July 2018 with overthrowing the country’s
constitutional order in the wake of a disputed 2008 presidential election. He
subsequently called on opposition groups and individuals to rally around him in
challenging the current Armenian government.
Kocharian, who was arrested again in June this year, denies the coup and
corruption charges brought against him as politically motivated.
Kocharian’s official Facebook page posted on Wednesday a picture of the
ex-president and the following quote from him: “I have unique experience in
state and army building and implementation of large-scale socioeconomic reforms
as well as understanding of applying mechanisms of contemporary business.”
Press Review
“Zhamanak” says that Wednesday’s ruling by Armenia’s Constitutional Court means
that the latest legal battle between former President Robert Kocharian and the
Armenian authorities ended in a “draw.” The paper says the ruling at the same
time intensified conflicting interpretations of the Kocharian case and left “no
clues for the settlement” of this legal conundrum.
“Hraparak” says that the ruling triggered a new “wave of emotions” in Armenia.
“Some are delighted while others see a tragedy, even though there seems to be
no reason to be ecstatic or suffer,” comments the paper. “Especially given that
it is still not clear whether or not the country’s most important prisoner will
be freed as a result of this decision.” It says that “the society would not
gain anything” from Kocharian’s remaining behind bars or being released.
Lragir.am dismisses growing concerns over Russian-Armenian relations voiced by
opposition figures in Armenia. The pro-Western publication insists that “by and
large nothing has changed” in those relations and that “Russia is continuing
its traditional policy towards Armenia.” “Only some circumstances have
changed,” it says. It argues that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government
is sticking to Russian-Armenian treaties. “It’s just that unlike the former
[Armenian] authorities, Yerevan has started bringing up problems that had
always existed,” concludes the publication.
“Aravot” sees growing signs of discord within Armenia’s ruling political team.
The paper points to conflicting views expressed by various government officials
and pro-government lawmakers on at least two major issues: the Amulsar mining
project and ratification of the controversial Istanbul Convention. “In effect,
[government decisions on] both issues have been postponed but, as they say, the
fallout is lingering on,” it says in an editorial. “The issues are different in
the procedural sense. The former is not in the parliamentarians’ domain while
the latter requires a vote by the National Assembly.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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ArmInfo. The Minister of Health of Armenia Arsen Torosyan revealed the real reasons for the disruption of his press conference today by oncologist Gevorg Tamamyan. According to the minister, the actions of Tamamyan were directly coordinated and controlled by the rector of Yerevan State Medical University named after Heratsi Armen Muradyan.
<Muradyan, who received the post of rector of the university in the blat from the previous authorities, was very worried after the change of power. He is afraid of losing this position, and began a campaign against me, which has been going on for a year now. It all started with the fact that we tried to change the composition of the Board of Trustees of the university. In addition, as a result of inspections of the State Inspection Service, various abuses were revealed in the activities of the university. In particular, it turned out that the university purchased stents for the heart for 250 thousand drams apiece, while their market value was 110 thousand drams. In addition, cases of making inappropriate purchases, bonuses to high- ranking university employees in the amount of 8-9 million drams were revealed. Probably worried that the revealed abuses would lead to his resignation, Muradyan launched a campaign against me, part of which was today's show with the participation of oncologists Tamamyan>, the minister explained.
It should be noted that today a children's oncologist, former adviser to Torosyan, Gevorg Tamamyan, with his presence, disrupted the minister's press conference. He began to ask him questions, in response Torosyan left the conference hall. After that, Tamamyan himself took the chair intended for Torosyan and voiced a series of accusations against the minister.