Author: Ani Kharatian

 15:37,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction was examining the case of invalidation of the agreement signed in 2015 between previous “Anelik Bank” and “B.M.L. Arzni” company. The court has satisfied the lawsuit of IDBank (previously Anelik Bank). On that occasion, we present Mr. Mher Abrahamyan’s interview, the Chairman of the Management Board.

-Mr. Abrahamyan, the court of first instance has satisfied the lawsuit against “B.M.L. Arzni” company, which was declared bankrupt and invalidated the agreement in case of violating the terms of which the Bank would have to pay 22 million USD penalty. Could you please comment the decision of the court?

-Sure. We need to remind the readers that the Bank has a number of cases with “B.M.L. Arzni” company, which was declared bankrupt. Due to one of them, the decision of which was made on 12^th of March, the Court of Civil appellation of RA satisfied our appellation and overturned the verdict of Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction to charge the Bank with the amount mentioned, as the lawsuit of “B.M.L. Arzni” Company was groundless according to the appellate court. However, as I have already mentioned, this company has filed a number of imaginary lawsuits against Bank, each of which refers to that agreement signed in 2015. We have also mentioned many times, that this agreement contains various problematic provisions that allow questioning the legal force of that agreement. For that reason, the Bank has appealed to the court in December 2018, to invalidate the agreement in order to end all the speculations. We are happy to state that the court has taken into account our justifications and invalidated the agreement mentioned.

-And what are the problematic provisions of the agreement?

-In order not to burden the reader with legal issues, I will only state that the agreement was not signed in compliance with the mandatory procedure and conditions established by law․ To put it more simply, it had no state registration, which is a mandatory requirement for all real estate transactions. The agreement restricted the Bank’s rights to manage the real estate transferred to him, so all the rights arising from that agreement were subject to state registration, and its non-implementation leads to the invalidation of the transaction.

-Good, and what are the future steps of the Bank?

-You know, we are already used to live in conditions of imaginary lawsuits. Moreover, it does not prevent us from accomplishing the Bank’s strategic development goals, implementing our innovative programs, promoting our digital banking ideas. Now when the epidemic is raging in our country, it’s our duty to provide our customers with the widest range of remote service tools, preventing them from visiting the Bank and contacting with cash as much as possible.

Our customers have a wide range of tools for remote transactions on the joint platform of IDBank and Idram – IDBanking.am and Idram mobile app. They can become Bank customers with remote identification, take loans, order cards, open accounts and deposits, receive money through the fast transfer system, take advantage of about a dozen non-contact payment solutions with QR and NFC technologies in more than 2,500 points of sale, do shopping in more than 300 online shops, make instant payments for more than 250 services, etc. However, this is not our limit; we will offer new innovative products to our customers in order to increase the efficiency of remote service of our customers. At the same time, realizing the importance of comfortable customer service at our branches, we continue the process of modernization and expansion of our branches. Soon we will open another modern branch in response to the numerous requests and responses of our customers in Shengavit district. Let me remind you that we started the year by opening a flagman branch of IDBank in Northern Avenue. This branch has no analogues in the region and here a number of services is combined.

However, let’s not forget current situation caused by the pandemic: I would like to encourage our customers to use the remote services, wear masks when visiting the Bank (which can be provided by the Bank if necessary), disinfect hands at the entrance, keep social distance and wait for your turn at the appropriate points. IDBank, in its turn, implements all necessary measures to maintain the health of customers and employees, all areas are regularly disinfected and ventilated, employees are provided with all security measures. We will surely overcome this situation caused by the epidemic.

Be healthy!

 16:01,

YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS. 99-year-old Mekhak Avetisyan, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, has recovered from the novel coronavirus and was discharged from hospital today.

He was diagnosed with the coronavirus, double pneumonia and was in serious condition.

“I don’t want to remember, let it be in the past, I want to thank the doctors, they are young, but work well. Let Armenia flourish and become a country of medical tourism, I say tourism, not a business”, the 99-year-old veteran said while being discharged from the hospital.

418 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been registered in Armenia in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 21,006, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said today.

1,013 more patients have recovered. The total number of recoveries has reached 10,144.

12 people have died in one day, raising the death toll to 372.

The number of active cases stands at 10,364.

The number of people who had a coronavirus but died from other disease has increased by 9. The total number of these cases has reached 126.

So far, 98,117 people have passed COVID-19 testing.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 15:27,

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS. Doctors of Yerevan’s St. Gregory the Illuminator hospital are already actively cooperating with the French doctors who arrived in Armenia to help fighting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Spokesperson of the medical center Tsovinar Khachatryan told Armenpress that the Armenian and French doctors conducted a joint visit to get acquainted with the treatment process of coronavirus infected patients. The French doctors spent the whole day in hospitals. They held discussions with the local specialists on the treatment process of patients who are in serious and critical condition.

A group of French doctors arrived in Armenia via a special flight to help the healthcare system to battle the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia said today.

“This is the first such kind of an initiative on engaging foreign doctors which became a reality by the cooperation between our Office, USAID and the ministry of healthcare. Most of the doctors, who overcame the virus in France, visit Armenia for the first time and they are sure that they will invest all their experience and knowledge in the responsible mission to save human lives”, the statement says.

Recently Lithuania, Georgia and the World Health Organization (WHO) also expressed readiness to assist Armenia in fighting the COVID-19.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 13:04,

YEREVAN, JUNE 12, ARMENPRESS. The European Commission recommends to Schengen Member States and Schengen Associated States to lift internal border controls by 15 June 2020 and to prolong the temporary restriction on non-essential travel into the EU until 30 June 2020; and sets out an approach to progressively lifting the restriction afterwards, the EU Delegation to Armenia told Armenpress.

Given that the health situation in certain third countries remains critical, the Commission does not propose a general lifting of the travel restriction at this stage. The restriction should be lifted for countries selected together by Member States, based on a set of principles and objective criteria including the health situation, the ability to apply containment measures during travel, and reciprocity considerations, taking into account data from relevant sources such as ECDC and WHO.

For countries towards which the restriction remains in place, the Commission proposes to enlarge the categories of permitted travellers to include, for instance, international students.

The Commission is also issuing guidance to Member States to ensure that the resumption of visa operations abroad is well coordinated with the gradual lifting of the travel restrictions.

Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, said: “Following the lifting of all internal border checks inside the Union, we are proposing a clear and flexible approach towards removing restrictions on travel to the EU starting on 1 July. International travel is key for tourism and business, and for family and friends reconnecting. While we will all have to remain careful, the time has come to make concrete preparations for lifting restrictions with countries whose health situation is similar to the EU’s and for resuming visa operations”.

 14:16, 5 June, 2020

YEREVAN, JUNE 5, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government is going to finance the 2020 state budget’s envisaged deficit both from external and domestic sources. There is already an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a certain sums of money, the rest is expected to be funded at the expense of domestic sources, Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan said during the joint session of the parliamentary standing committees.

The minister reminded that due to the current novel coronavirus crisis they have proposed the Parliament to fix nearly 324 billion drams instead of the envisaged 162 billion drams in deficit. “According to the data published in April it is expected that the global economic decline will be nearly 3.5%. For the EU, around 7.5% decline is forecast, for Russia – 5.5%. And this supposedly will also have an impact on our forecasts of this year. And under the conditions of these 324 billion drams in deficit we assessed that we need additional 260 billion drams for implementing the anti-crisis measures”, the minister said.

There is already an agreement with the IMF, the sums to be attracted will be used for meeting the needs of the state budget. “A total of 280 billion USD is already available. But the 35 million USD will be available based on the results of the revision of the second program expected in autumn. It’s expected we will finance the difference by issuing additional state debt in the domestic market”, the minister added. “We believe that the trust is quite deep, and our cooperation with the local investors has a history of already decades. Within this framework we expect that it would be possible to finance the difference by issuing a debt from the domestic sources”, the minister said, adding that they also consider other sources, through other international financial organizations.

Minister Janjughazyan assured that the current rating allows to think also of issuing Eurobonds in the international financial market.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 13:28, 6 June, 2020

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS.   The Azerbaijani troops violated the ceasefire regime nearly 100 times on Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line in the period of May 31-June 6, during which over 1000 bullets were fired in the direction of Armenian border guards from different caliber weapons.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Artsakh, the front line units of the Defense Army stay committed to the ceasefire regime and keep control of the situation.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 15:59,

YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s minister of education, science, culture and sport Arayik Harutyunyan addressed a congratulatory message to the school graduates, the ministry told Armenpress.

The message says:

“Dear graduates, I congratulate you on the completion of the academic year. You are graduating from school in an exclusive situation when the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus doesn’t allow to celebrate that important event together with your classmates and teachers. At the same time I am confident that the physical distance is a chance for you to deeply perceive and revalue all the values and knowledge you have got from your friends and teachers during these years.

I assure you that after the completion of the state of emergency you will celebrate together the beginning of this important stage of your life, making it more comprehensive and symbolic. I am full of hope that from the lessons you learnt in this situation you will also make unique your future, acquiring professional education and knowledge, developing your capacities and serving it for our country’s development and creation of a public good with your creative and dignified work. We are with you on this path, providing you great opportunities and conditions to develop the necessary capacities to continue your studies, get your beloved profession.

I warmly congratulate you and wish you numerous achievements at this new stage of life”.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan