Author: Ani Kharatian

168: Armavir, Syunik get new governors

Ani Kharatian
| 12:44 | June 8 2018
Category
Politics

New governors were appointed today for the provinces of Armavir and Syunik.

Gagik Mirijanyan will serve as governor of Armavir, while Karen Hambardzumyan will lead Syunik.

The appointments were made during today’s Cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated the new governors and wished good luck.

[Press] Fwd. From the US Embassy. press release

Ani Kharatian 
NEWS RELEASE:
June 4, 2018 The US Embassy's screening of American films encourages, empowers and inspires
After last year's sold-out movie screenings in the US 
Embassy is proud to return again with a screening of American films. 2018 the motto of the festival is "Encourage, empower, inspire" and will be presented a 
a series of documentaries that showcase the power of the individual to change the world 
request. Film screenings will be from June 4 to 10. entry is free.
Movies have an indescribable power. they open people's eyes to the show 
putting the stories of others. I think these documentaries are Armenian 
will transport the audience to the United States, help to better understand American 
culture, and more importantly, these films will show the universality of the individual 
power and influence and will encourage and inspire us all to become 
better and make our surroundings and society better," he said 
US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills.
Free movie screenings
A screening of American films during 2018, which takes place under the heading "Courage, 
13 documentaries will be screened under the motto "strengthen, inspire". 
The festival starts with the screening of the film "The Melody of Strangers". on June 4 
at 19:00 at "Moscow" cinema. The film shows an American celebrity 
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma's daring musical experimentation when he different 
"Silk 
road" band, whose members strive using music 
to lift the bonds that unite humanity.
Next, from June 4 to 10, every day at 17:00 and 19:00 "Moscow" 
free movie screenings will continue in the cinema. The following screen will appear: 
the movies. "Melee Murals", "Floyd Norman. Animated Life", "Swimming Team", 
Ataxia, Switched Roles, The If Project, The Event, The Farmer, 
Farmer, Fisherman," "The Empowerment Project," "Supergirl," "High School 911" and "Aravel 
than the grade." The detailed program is posted on our website, see: 
The program also plans to screen the film "Melody of Strangers" in Gyumri. 
on June 9 at 16:00 at the "October" cinema, and in Vanadzor on June 10 
at 16:00 at "Lori" cinema club. Both places are free to enter.
“These documentaries are compelling stories where individuals are the steps 
undertaking in the direction of environmental protection, the schoolchildren themselves 
in villages trying to save lives or are depicted with female prisoners 
rehabilitation works being carried out. They show American 
good and bad aspects of society and hope. So I think these movies 
After watching, the audience will leave American culture and American 
with a deeper understanding and knowledge of psychology". said Ambassador Mills.
Video effects master course
This year's Americana is under the motto "Encourage, Empower, Inspire". 
the exhibition of films is not limited only to cinema screenings. happened last month 
had a master class on the latest approaches to video effects which 
conducted by Dariush Derakhshan, an award-winning video effects specialist from the USA, 
as well as a discussion about the art of filmmaking that led to editing 
award-winning expert Jason Zelds.
In the framework of the exhibition of American films, Dariush Derakhshan, who is a video effects and 
is a specialist in computer graphics and is known for "Apocalypto", "RED", "Fantastic 
The Four” and several other feature films and the TV show “South Park”. 
with his work around, conducted a week-long workshop 
on video effects and also worked with TUMO students. Jason: 
Zelds, who edited the film "The Stranger's Melody", 
presented his experience in editing and directing to filmmakers 
and knowledge.
"We want to encourage the presentation of Armenian stories in Armenian 
by filmmakers for both local and overseas audiences. That's it 
for this purpose we invite the best American figures so that they 
To present the best experience of the field to the next generation of Armenian filmmakers and 
to share their ideas and inspiration," said Ambassador Mills.
[usa 25 logo without text]


AFS 2018_ARM_ENG_ June 4 2018.doc
AFS 2018_ARM_ENG_ June 4 2018.doc

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Sports: Armenia rivals at Lebanon Int’l Basketball Championship revealed

Ani Kharatian
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
Wednesday
Armenia rivals at Lebanon Int’l Basketball Championship revealed
 
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. The schedule of the Armenian national basketball team for the International Championship of Lebanon has been published.
 
The Armenian team will have their first game on June 21 against their Qatari counterparts.
 
A day later the Armenian team will play against the Egyptian team, and the last match will take place June 23rd against the host – Lebanon.
 
The championship will be held in Beirut.
 
After the championship, the Armenian team will depart for Copenhagen for the June 28 Denmark-Armenia game – the last game of the Euro 2021 qualifier.
 
ENGLISH: Editor/Translator -Stepan Kocharyan

Alternative shipping routes through South Ossetia

Ani Kharatian
  • 11:04 | May 25,2018 | Official
  • Armenian:
  • Rus

RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan wrote on his Facebook page the following:

“Dear Compatriots,

“We can record another positive shift for economy and transport.

“Yesterday representatives of the Russian Federation and Georgia met in Prague and discussed the implementation of the agreement “On basic principles of customs administration and commodity trade monitoring mechanism” signed in 2011. The parties have agreed that a tripartite commission from Georgia, Russia and the Swiss company SGS should be formed for the customs control of cargo in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“In case of the implementation of the agreement, we will have alternative ways of transportation, in cases where the Upper Lars highway is closed.

“We also talked about the implementation of the agreement with RF President Vladimir Putin during meeting in Sochi on May 14.

We highly appreciate the readiness and efforts of the parties to implement this contract, which is extremely important for us.”

Council of Europe bans ex-president from top posts over vote rigging

Ani Kharatian
The Guardian(London)
Wednesday 2:47 PM GMT
Council of Europe bans ex-president from top posts over vote rigging
Pedro Agramunt banned from senior roles for 10 years after probe into vote-rigging
 
by  Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Sam Jones in Madrid
 
 
A former president of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly will be banned from holding any senior post in the human rights body for 10 years, after a major corruption inquiry into vote-rigging.
 
The unprecedented punishment has been handed down to the Spanish senator Pedro Agramunt, who has ignored calls to resign. He is backed by Spain’s governing conservative party – itself mired in domestic corruption scandals – to which he belongs.
 
The assembly (Pace) of the body set up after the second world war to safeguard democracy on the continent announced on Wednesday that Agramunt would be banned from chairing committees or taking part in election observation missions.
 
It was the latest response to a 10-month judge-led inquiry into cash for votes in favour of Azerbaijan’s autocratic government, a scandal that has plunged the Council of Europe into turmoil. Published last month, the inquiry stated that 15 past and former members had broken the ethics code, while four were “strongly suspected” of corruption.
 
Three other deputies, who were named in the report, have also been banned from taking senior positions for two years. Jordi Xuclà of the Catalan separatist party PDeCAT, which has also faced corruption allegations in recent years, was the leader of the liberal group until he stood down last October. Cezar Florin Preda of Romania resigned as head of the European People’s Party, the largest in the assembly, while insisting he was not guilty of any offence. Samad Seyidov is the head of Azerbaijan’s delegation. All, including Agramunt, have denied any wrongdoing.
 
The fall from grace is most spectacular for Agramunt, who was president of the assembly until October 2017, when he was forced out after joining a Russian-government trip to meet the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad. The Spanish politician has been strongly criticised for refusing to give evidence to the corruption inquiry, which said it “strongly suspected” he was party to “corruptive behaviour”.
 
The four men will be barred from representing Pace in other international bodies, but will retain the right to speak in the assembly, which is unable to force them out.
 
In a resolution passed last month, Pace called on national political parties “to each draw the consequences of any allegations against their members”, while calling on individuals to consider resignation.
 
But Spain’s People’s party concluded last month that the inquiry had “no legal consequences”. According to El País, Agramunt has the support of a large majority in the PP.
 
The party, led by the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has been mired in corruption scandals over recent years.
 
In July last year, Rajoy became the first serving Spanish premier to testify in a criminal trial after he was called to give evidence in the Gürtel case, in which 37 business and political figures are accused of involvement in a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.
 
Rajoy, who was the PP’s vice secretary general between 1990 and 2003, emphatically denied any knowledge of an illegal funding racket within the party.
 
Meanwhile, the fall-out from the Council of Europe corruption inquiry continues, with the prospect of further sanctions, including for two British ex-MPs.
 
The former Conservative MP Robert Walter was found by the inquiry to have broken the assembly’s code of conduct, by failing to declare a conflict of interest linked to his wife’s trade lobbying activities in Azerbaijan. Giving evidence, he strongly denied any conflict of interest.
 
Walter had led an election observation mission for Pace in Azerbaijan and carried out an investigation into the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.
 
The former MP Mike Hancock, who was expelled from the Liberal Democrats, was censured for failing to give evidence. During his time at Pace, Hancock was a frequent guest in Baku and once praised its electoral process. He declined to attend the inquiry, citing his health and the fact he was no longer an MP.
 
Both men face being stripped of the prestige title “honorary associate” of the assembly, as well as use of the buildings.
 
The report has been sent to the speakers of all 47 parliaments that send MPs to the Strasbourg assembly.
 
Pieter Omtzigt, a Dutch MP, who led calls to launch the inquiry, said: “I am very interested to see what the House of Commons will decide to do.”
 
A spokesperson for the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, declined to comment. The parliamentary commissioner for standards has the power to investigate ex-MPs, an exceptional measure that takes place only following consultations with the Commons committee on standards.

It’s time to learn some new languages!

Ani Kharatian
Plus Company Updates(PCU)
Friday
It’s time to learn some new languages!
 
 
BEIJING: Sogou has issued the following news release:
 
Typany now supports more language than ever before!
 
Hebrew, Urdu, Persian, Armenian, Slovak, Swahili, Serbian and Romanian–what is the common characteristic of all these languages? Well133; of course they are all common languages around the world133; but the most important thing is that Typany supports all these languages NOW!
 
No matter you are native speaker of these languages or currently just a starter, our newly update version of Typany Keyboard allows you to communicate with friends who speak these languages freely and without boundary. Wait133; maybe you are not that familiar with some of the listed languages? No worries folks, let’s grab some brand new knowledge today!
 
Speaking of Persian133; already feel some mysterious huh? Yep, as one of the most important Western Iranian languages which belongs to the great Indo-European language family, it is widely spoken in countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Dated back to 1500 BCE, Persian has been known as one of the oldest languages in Middle East. For those funs of archeology and history, this is your time to learn Persian!
Hebrew is one of the most influential languages in the world. As a Semitic language native to Israel, it is estimated that over 9 million people speak the language worldwide from Europe to North America. Actually, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. So if you’re eager to know or investigate more into Jewish culture and society, Hebrew is a must-know language for you!
 
Urdu, another Indo-European language widely spoken in India and Pakistan, is also quite influential not only in South Asia but also around South Asian communities around the world, especially in Europe and North America. Written right-to-left in an extension of the Persian alphabet, Urdu literature has boasted of some world-recognized artists and considerable corpus.
 
Armenian is spoken primarily by the Armenian people in Armenian. Unlike its neighbor—Azerbaijani and Georgian, Armenian is the only major Indo-European language in the south Caucasus region. You may be amazed by its distinctive alphabet, which was introduced around AD 405 by an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader.
 
Serbian and Romanian are both common languages spoken in Balkan Peninsula, or to a greater extent, East Europe. Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic as well as Latin script, which makes it a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing system available to them. Because of that, Typany supports both Cyrillic and Latin keyboard for Serbian in order to advance your typing experience! As for Romanian, a language that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin, it is predominately spoken in Republic of Moldova and Romania. If you want to explore the exotic beauty of castles and fortresses in Romania, pick up the language now!
As the lingua franca of eastern Africa, Swahili has an estimate number ranging from 50 million to over 100 million all across Africa. Heavily influenced by Arabic, Swahili could be considered as a mixed language to some degree. However, the grammatical and syntactic structure of the language is typically Bantu though Arabic influences its lexical items. Many of us are fascinated by the authentic African Savanna. By communicating with local people in Swahili, we’re sure that you would have better understanding about the great homeland of humankind!

May 8 — The Judgment Day for Armenia?

Ani Kharatian
IndraStra
May 7 2018
 
 
May 8 — The Judgment Day for Armenia?
 
 Monday,   
By IndraStra Global News Team
 
 
 
After weeks of mass street protests, arrests and the resignation of the prime minister — Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia’s on the brink of ushering in a new leader.
 
The political optics of Sargsyan taking advantage of constitutional changes to move from his position as president to a new, more powerful role as prime minister sparked 11 days of street protests that ended up pushing Sargsyan to resign. Moscow, which normally views mass protests in neighboring countries as a direct threat, has been unusually restrained and says the political crisis is a domestic Armenian issue.
 
Though Armenia spent two decades after the breakup of the Soviet Union on a westward path, Sargsyan, a Republican, secured closer trade and political ties to Moscow. Do note, the members of Republican Party of Armenia (Hayastani Hanrapetakan Kusaktsutyun, HHK) have dominated Armenian politics since 1999. Also, Sargsyan has been in power either as President or Prime Minister since March 2007. He even amended the country’s constitution to remove a clause that would limit the number of terms he could be in power.
 
He allowed Russia to extend its military presence in Armenia and joined Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). However, not so long ago, Nikol Pashinyan, a leader of the Armenian protests (who became the sole candidate after the deadline passed without any others registering), stated that Armenia’s membership in Russia-led EEU poses a threat to the national security of the country. But, again, it’s not guaranteed Pashinyan will become prime minister.
 
As it was expected, the National Assembly (Azgayin Zhoghov) sought to halt his bid. The voting was conducted on May 1 and Pashinyan was to be elected as Prime Minister. He needed 53 votes, which included six votes from the HHK. But the ruling party voted overwhelmingly against Pashinyan’s candidacy, even though he was the only candidate to be in the field.
 
This led to a large protest on May 2 where highways and streets were blocked across the nation, with laborers striking work. At Republic Square in Yerevan, the country’s capital, around 150,000 people gathered to listen to Pashinyan speak. Another round of voting was announced and it will be held on May 8, i.e., tomorrow.
 
Last week, Vahram Baghdasaryan, the head of the HHK in parliament, told Reuters that his party would support anyone on May 8, including Pashinyan, if they enjoyed the backing of one-third of lawmakers. Pashinyan, in his Republic Square address, said that he had been informed of the ruling party’s support for his candidacy for the May 8 vote.
 
Baghdasaryan’s announcement also came minutes after opposition parties announced that Pashinyan had secured the support of the minimum 35 lawmakers needed to be nominated as a candidate in the May 8 vote.
 
The Tsarukian Alliance (Bargavatch Hayastan kusaktsut’yun, BHK), with 31 seats in parliament, announced that it would support Pashinyan’s nomination. Together with Pashinyan’s Yelk (“Way Out”) faction, which has nine seats, that gives him support from more than one-third of the legislature.
 
However, as per Armenia’s constitution, if a prime minister is not elected in the second vote on May 8, parliament will be dissolved and early general elections would be held with the HHK-led acting government in charge of the electoral process.
 
With reporting by Aljazeera, BBC, RFE/RL, The Hindu, and Reuters

Syria, Armenia agree to boost economic, political ties

Ani Kharatian
AMN Al-Masdar News
 
 
By Leith Aboufadel
 

13/04/2018




BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:55 P.M.) – The Acting Minister of Diaspora for Armenia Hranush Hakobyan hosted Syria’s Ambassador to Armenia Mohammad Hajj Ibrahim, today, to discuss several topics between two nations in the capital city of Yerevan, the Armenpress reported.

According to Armenpress’ report, the two ministers discussed during their meeting the importance of furthering their economic and cultural ties.

Ibrahim informed the Armenian diplomat on the current status of Syria’s large Armenian community, including their well-being during this brutal conflict.

The Syrian diplomat thanked the Armenian government for their assistance and continued support for Syrian-Armenians.

The two diplomats concluded their meeting by agreeing to boost their economic ties by increasing trade between Syria and Armenia.

Sports: Armenia national team to face Malta

Ani Kharatian
MediaMax, Armenia
 
 
Armenia national team to face Malta
 
 
Photo: Photolure
 
 
Armenia national football team will play a friendly match against Malta in May.
 
According to the webpage of Malta Football Association, the match will take place on May 29 in Austria, where they will hold a 9-day training camp.
 
Football Federation of Armenia announced that Vardan Minasyan was appointed as Head Coach of the national team. There is still no official information about the team’s further plans.