Author: Andres-Papazian

CAT: number of free places in universities 2011 is twice the number of
applicants

YEREVAN, May 4. /áRëá/. In 2011, 1209 entrants will take unified state
exam in Armenia. Number of places in the frames of state order in
state universities is 2420, said the head of development and
organizational issues of the Center of Assessment and Testing Karo
Nasibyan.

“This year secondary schools of Armenia will not have graduates due to
moving on 12-year education. Therefore, this year the majority of
entrants are those who were unable or unwilling to go to the
universities. This year, state universities allocated 2420 places for
free and 18500 paid education”, he said.

State exams will be held as usual this year: the first and main stage
will be held from June 1 to 17 and the second phase envisaged for
demobilized soldiers and foreign citizens will start from June 24.

“Eleven examination centers will be formed in Armenia and another one
– in Nagorno-Karabakh. The first exams will be held on June 1 –
Russian language and Chemistry”, said Nasibyan.

This year, along with 28 state universities of Armenia, 40 private
universities will take students by state exams.

Due to the lack of competition, the margin of positive score could be
increased. The margin will stay on the level of 7.5 scores as before.

Applications for admission to universities are accepted from May 5 to
June 5.-0–

From: A. Papazian

Japan ready to continue to support Armenia

YEREVAN, May 4. / ARKA /. Japan is ready to continue assistance
programs in Armenia, despite all the difficulties encountered, a
deputy Japanese foreign minister Hisashi Tokunaga said today during a
meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan.

“Togunaga thanked president Sargsyan for expressing condolences on the
devastating earthquake in Japan and the kind words addressed to the
Japanese people, assuring that despite all the difficulties, Japan is
ready to continue the program of assistance to Armenia”, the press
service of the Armenian president said.

Togunaga noted it is his first visit to Armenia and he was sure that
the meetings and discussions held within the framework of the visit
will contribute to further strengthening of bilateral cooperation in
various fields.

In turn, the president of Armenia once again expressed condolences
over the tragic earthquake in Japan on March 11, which has led to
numerous victims and destruction, noting with regret that in 1988 the
Armenian people also felt the terrible effects of a similar disaster.

“We admire the courage and resilience of the Japanese. Of course, we
are closely following the efforts of the government of Japan in the
aftermath of the Fukushima-1 disaster and are hopeful that you will be
able to eliminate all the consequences, ” the president said

Sargsyan expressed hope that this difficult period for Japan will not
impede the work for enhancing bilateral relations, for which Armenia
opened last June its embassy in Tokyo. -0-

From: A. Papazian

VivaCell-MTS to sponsor Renaissance international festival

17:56 – 04.05.11

Armenia’s leading mobile operator, VivaCell-MTS, has allocated 12
million drams for the organization of `Renaissance’ International
Contest-Festival, in Armenia’s second largest town of Gyumri.

According to a press release by the company, the festival will kick
off on Thursday, May 5.

`Gyumri is famous for its inimitable culture and arts from the old
times. I know from my personal experience the people in Gyumri are
amazingly creative and viable,” said VivaCell-MTS General Manager
Ralph Yirikian. “Making its modest contribution to the great cause of
preservation and development of the national identity, VivaCell-MTS
supports `Renaissance’ festival wishing, Gyumri residents creative
vigor and will to resist hardships. We are proud to contribute to the
cultural revival this kind of towns giving birth to talens,’.

Renaissance international contest-festival has been organized since
2007. It aims to develop taste and love for music among children and
organize the musical education of the younger generation.

The contest-festival is organized by the joint efforts of the Armenian
Ministry of Culture, `Pyunik’ All-Armenian Fund for the Development of
Human Resources, and the Gyumri branch of the Yerevan State
Conservatory.

The event takes place under the high patronage of the first lady of
Armenia, Rita Sargsyan.

The contests has brought together participants from different regions
of Armenia, as well as representatives from the world’s 22 countries
(US, Argentina, Belarus, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Latvia, Lithuania,
Lebanon, Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia, South Korea, Greece, Great
Britain, Moldova, Czech Republic, China, Russia, Georgia, Estonia,
France, and Uruguay)

On the occasion of the 90th birth anniversary of renowned Armenian
composer Edvard Mirzoyan, an international conference on Armenia and
the World Culture will be organized within the festival frameworks.

Tert.am

From: A. Papazian

French Government opposes the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial

armradio.am
04.05.2011 17:56

The government will not support the proposed legislation to
criminalize denial of Armenian genocide that the Senate reviews today,
saying the current legal arsenal was enough, said Minister of Budget
François Baroin, AFP reports.

“The current law allows to respond to these issues – Holocaust denial
in general and the Armenian Genocide, in particular,’ Baroin said at
the Council ministers.

“France has publicly acknowledged the Armenian genocide with the law
of 29 January 2001. French law also punishes any incitement to
discrimination, hatred or racial violence and France
still believes that the denial in all its forms is unacceptable,’ he
told reporters.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH DELIRIUMS

AZG DAILY #79, 04-05-2011

The Turkish PM touched upon problems related to Armenia and Karabakh
in Igdir, mainly populated with Azerbaijanis. In his speech he
stressed that Nakhichevan and Karabakh are Turkey’s problems:
“Azerbaijan’s sadness is our sadness and happiness is our happiness. I
reiterate my position that Armenia-Turkey rapprochement is out of the
question without Karabakh conflict resolution. We took sides with
Azerbaijan and will go on doing so. Nobody must expect anything from
us in this issue. We gave an adequate response to Armenian MPs at the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) too,” Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted.

From: A. Papazian

RA NA Speaker made a speech in EP

yerkir.am
11:31 – 04.05.2011

The EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly, bringing together MEPs with
elected representatives from the EU’s eastern neighbour countries,
held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday. The aim of the body is to
provide a parliamentary dimension to the EU’s eastern neighbourhood
policy. “We have created a powerful tool today,” said EURONEST
Co-President-elect Kristian Vigenin (S&D, BG) at the end of the
constituent meeting.

The EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly’s constituent meeting was opened
by EP President Jerzy Buzek, who observed that the democratic reform
processes of the eastern partner countries must be strengthened.
“Stable countries can only be democratic countries; democracy is the
only way to stability,” he said. He added that the Parliamentary
Assembly was crucial in bringing citizens of this region closer
together. “If we want more cooperation and more integration, we have
to start with parliamentary cooperation, because it represents
contacts between people,” he said.

The Parliamentary Assembly adopted and signed its constitutive act,
approved its rules of procedure, set up two working groups (on Belarus
and the Rules of Procedure) and formed four committees (one on
Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy; one on Economic
Affairs, legal approximation and convergence with EU policies, one on
Energy Security and one on Culture, Education and Civil Society).

It also elected its two Co-Presidents, Messrs Vigenin and Tarasyuk, as
well as 8 Vice-Presidents, to form a Bureau: Vahan Hovhannesyan
(Armenia), Elkhan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan), David Darchiashvili
(Georgia), Igor Corman (Moldova), Traian Ungurenau (EPP, RO), Ryszard
Czarnecki (ECR, PL), Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE, NL) and Jacek
Saryusz-Wolski (EPP, PL).

The EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly was devised to provide a
parliamentary dimension to the EU’s eastern partnership, as part of
the EU’s neighbourhood policy. It consists of 60 MEPs and 10 MPs from
each of the five eastern partner countries. Belarus is a special case:
although a part of the eastern neighbourhood, there was much
discussion about how to allow its participation in EURONEST without
giving legitimacy to Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. In the end, the
constituent meeting was held without any representatives from Belarus
in attendance.

From: A. Papazian

Azerbaijan is afraid of adequate answer

yerkir.am
11:56 – 04.05.2011

Azerbaijani media are busy warning that `Artsakh has brought its
snipers to the front line and ordered to cause as many losses as
possible’.

Azeri’s are probably concerned about the spread news, that RA Defense
Ministry has ordered all the army units to carry out punitive steps
along the entire line of contact. Even Azerbaijani 1news.az news has
calmed its nation down, saying that according to their reporter,
activeness is not recorded in the Armenian side and the authorities of
settlements close to the karabakh-azerbaijan contact line are not
warned of the coming danger.

From: A. Papazian

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President Sargsyan meets Japan’s First Deputy FM
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armradio.am
04.05.2011 15:06

President Serzh Sargsyan received the First Deputy Foreign Minister of
Japan, Hisashi Tokunaga, President’s Press Office reported.

President Sargsyan extended condolences on the earthquake that hit
Japan on March 11 and resulted in a number of human losses and
destructions.

President Sargsyan voiced hope that in this hard period for Japan, the
efforts towards intensification of bilateral cooperation would
continue.

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Japan noted, in turn, that despite hard
times, his county was resolute to continue its assistance programs.

Hisashi Tokunaga expressed confidence that the meetings and
discussions in the framework of his first visit to Armenia would
contribute to the further reinforcement of bilateral cooperation.

From: A. Papazian

Social security service finds 3,000 pensioners’ names invalid

16:35 – 04.05.11

The Social Security Service has removed 3,000 pensioners’ names from
the databases, the head of the service has said.

Artem Asatryan made the statement at a news conference on Monday, as
he addressed the current pension reforms in Armenia.

“Those people’s data were not identified,” he said, adding that around
37,000 names still need clarification.

“Inaccurate information is due the differences of the data exchanged.
Clarification procedures require information about an individual. What
we have on documents is to be reflected in the databases and the
missing information is to be submitted by the citizens,” he added.

Beginning May, pensions will be paid on the first day of each month.

Asatryan further spoke of the Control Chamber’s recent inspections at
the Social Security Service.

“Each body is exercising it functions. Our task is to have integrated
social services and a centralized database that will communicate with
other information bases to compare the data online.”

Inspections by the Control Chamber earlier this year had reveled
serious violations in the pension payment system. Particularly, the
pensioners list included the names of deceased individuals and people
not currently residing in the country.

Tert.am

From: A. Papazian

Kurdish media blame Turkish nationalist for killing Armenian soldier

17:33 – 04.05.11

The Armenian soldier who died recently in a Turkish military unit was
gunned down by a Turkish nationalist, the Kurdish news agency Firat
reported.

Sevak Shahin Balikci who was serving in the Turkish gendarmerie was
killed by a bullet released by Kivanc Agaglu.

According to the Kurdish news agency, no sources revealed the Turkish
soldier’s name in earlier reports.

Agaglu’s nationalistic views are seen through his Facebook posts, says
the website.

Balikci died on April 24 in a military unit of the Turkish
gendarmerie. Official death reports indicate that his death was caused
by a gunfire accidentally released by a fellow serviceman.

Tert.am

From: A. Papazian