Author: Antranik Varosian

Yelk bloc will run for parliament under the slogan “Election, change, victory.” They pledge to be innovative, to offer new solutions in the campaign, to be open and transparent.

The alliance has decided to campaign in different regions of Armenia simultaneously. Edmon Marukyan, who leads the party list, will campaign in the northern provinces of Aragatsotn, Lori, Tavush and Shirak, Aram Sargsyan will work in the southern provinces of Armavir, Ararat, Vayots Dzor and Syunik. Nikol Pashinyan will mostly be in Yerevan, while Sasun Mikayelyan will travel to Gegharkunik and Kotayk.

Free Democrats have chosen the slogan “We can.” At a convention that marked the start of the campaign the party presented its election platform.

Ex-Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan, who sits second in the proportional list, referred to the hard social-economic conditions in the country, which ‘have led to large-scale migration.’

“Don’t rely on someone to come, invest in the country and develop its economy. You have to develop Armenia. China’s example is instructive,” Bagratyan said.

The Armenian Renaissance Party urges to “Vote for change, vote for renaissance.” the party chose to start the campaign with a press conference.

The party will present the provisions of its platform to voters separately. The Armenian Renaissance has prepared videos that will introduce to the 30 points of the party’s program.

Tsarukyan alliance says it’s “Time to change and build.” The bloc started the campaign from the borderline Tavush province. Divided into ten groups, members of the alliance traveled to different settlements of Tavush to deliver their messages to people.

Before the start of the campaign member of the bloc Varuzhan Babajanyan had reported pressures against their activists. Speaking to Public Radio of Armenia, Babajanyan said “all issues have been settled.”

The Congress-People’s Party bloc started the campaign without Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Presenting the platform, Congress’ Vice-President Levon Zurabyan said “it’s a program of telling people the truth.”

Addressing the public, member of the Armenian National Congress, economist Zoya Tadevosyan attached importance to eliminating monopoly in Armenia, attracting foreign investors.

The Republican Party of Armenia says it has the answers to the issues people are concerned with. “Elections meeting the letter and spirit of law will be the victory of all of us,” Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said at the start of the campaign.

The party, which has chosen “Security and Progress” as its slogan, considers they will be able to present their programs and outlook to people during the campaign.

The Communist Party of Armenia, which has chosen the “Motherland, labor, socialism” as its slogan, started the campaign from Tavush province.

The party aims to restore socialism in Armenia and intends to deepen the political, economic and cultural ties with Russia.

The Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian alliance will campaign under the slogan “Heritage, unity, victory.” Ex-Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan says they are coming to form a new-quality leadership and restore the faith of the public. He also promises to fight all problems.

The alliance has already published the election platform titled “365 days: everyday change.”

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation started the campaign under the slogan “New beginning, fair Armenia.”

Head of the ARF faction Armen Rustamyan, who heads the party list, says the upcoming elections will be unprecedented in Armenian history.

“While others are speaking about changes, we’re bringing about these changes,” ARF faction secretary Aghvan Vardanyan said at the start of the campaign.

Photo: AFP

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday rubber-stamped controversial constitutional changes that will boost his own powers, paving the way for a referendum on the legislation in April, AFP reports.

The government says the proposals to create an executive presidency will simplify the government structure, but opponents fear they will lead to one-man rule in Turkey.

“People will have the final say,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said in comments carried by the Anadolu news agency, announcing that the referendum would take place on April 16.

Parliament in January approved a new 18-article constitution to create an executive presidency in the NATO member state along the lines of the system in France and the United States.

Brawls erupted between lawmakers during debates over the bill, highlighting the divisive nature of the changes, the most far-reaching constitutional shift since the creation of modern Turkey in 1923.

Erdogan approved the legislation six months after an attempted coup against him by a rogue military faction in July last year.

Under the new constitution, the president will have strengthened executive powers to directly appoint top public officials including ministers.

The post of prime minister, currently held by Erdogan loyalist Binali Yildirim, would be replaced with one or more vice presidents.

Erdogan’s supporters say the changes are necessary for effective government and to avoid fragile and unstable coalitions that were a feature of Turkey’s political scene in the past.

The bill also calls for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held at the same time, with the draft giving November 3, 2019 as the date of the next ballot.

The Azerbaijani side used firearms of different calibers as it violated the ceasefire more than 20 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.

Karabakh Defense Army reports about 130 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

Besides, as it was reported earlier, the in the northeastern direction of the line of contact at about 15:00 yesterday.

The NKR troops were quick to thwart the attack, capturing one Azeri soldier.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep full control of the situation at the frontline and confidently continue with the protection of the military positions, the Defense Ministry said.

During his official visit to the Russian Federation, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan called at the Armenian Embassy in Moscow, where he met with representatives of the Armenian community. In addition to the members of the Prime Minister-led delegation, the meeting was attended by the primates of the New Nakhichevan and Russia Dioceses, Armenians engaged in business activities in Russia, political, public and cultural figures.

In his speech, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan summed up the results of his first meeting with the Russian Prime Minister, gave details of the talks, expressing satisfaction with the achieved agreements. The Premier took the opportunity to summarize his government’s 100-day activities. “I would like to be accountable before you, raise your awareness of what the Government has done in the past 4 months. You have the 100-page summary of our past activities. I think we have presented a pretty serious document. It consists of four parts. The first part features the per-sector diagnosis of problems, in the second part, we have provided information on what the problems are and what solutions have been proposed in this area and what are the measures to take. The third part summarizes what we have done during these 100 days, and the fourth part relates to the public-private partnership based on the Center of Strategic Initiatives,” Karen Karapetyan said.

Introducing his vision for the country’s development, the Prime Minister reminded the four main components as mentioned before – independence, security, as well as a fair and intellectual environment.

“We have no other options left: we need to abide by intelligent management in all spheres. Human capital is the supreme value in our country. I have had several occasions to state this on different platforms. Nations do not become any happier for their oil, gas deposits and other natural resource, instead favored are those countries where there are most favorable conditions available to creative people,” the Prime Minister pointed out, adding that the Government is set to provide fair and transparent conditions for all hard-working, thoughtful and creative individuals.

Coming to Homeland-Diaspora relations, Karen Karapetyan pointed out that the Diaspora is an asset for our country, and one can long talk about the importance of Armenia-Diaspora relations. “We need to understand that these are two parts of one whole. I personally see a huge potential in the Diaspora’s involvement in the construction of our country. First of all, I would like to see Armenia-Diaspora relations apart from the erroneous idea that Armenia is only interested in having charity and investments from the Diasporas. We need to bring in good management practices and a culture of communication,” the Premier underscored.

As a success story, the Prime Minister cited the repatriation of Syrian Armenians who specifically went a long way toward improving the quality of restaurant services. “I think we need to raise your awareness of the new rules of the game and the more favorable conditions in the business environment. If we do so, each Armenian will find a niche of his own and will come to work in the Motherland. I am confident that we will succeed,” the Head of Government said.

Asked about what is being done to restore and develop the earthquake-hit Gyumri, the Premier noted that in addition to the regional development programs, serious attention is being paid to the promotion of business projects submitted by the local business community in the public-private cost-sharing format.

“Following the visits paid to Shirak Marz, we approved 7 of 8 such business projects,” the Prime Minister stated, adding that serious discussions are underway to develop as a tourist network in Gyumri. “Should the Government have a commitment for Gyumri? Yes, of course. The Kumayri program provides for the reconstruction of two old streets, which may not only turn into a tourism destination, but also change the atmosphere and the mood in the town,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

In his closing remarks, the Prime Minister said that meetings like that provide a platform to exchange views and new ideas. “I was one of you not so long ago. I know very well that you all live in thoughts, looking back and taking interest in what is going on in the country. You may rest assured that Armenia will be the best country for all Armenians. I know that the sense of pride and dignity depends on how well Armenia is. I promise that our team will do everything possible,” Karen Karapetyan concluded.

At the end of the meeting, ex-Ambassador to Russian Georgy Ter-Ghazaryan summed up the outcome of Karen Karapetyan’s visit to Russia, noting that despite the difficult times, the Armenian community supports the new government’s approaches and stands by the Prime Minister.

– Poet and teacher Arto Vaun studied literature and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and for the past three years the Watertown native has been living in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where he’s been launching the Center for Creative Writing at the American University of Armenia.

Vaun says his primary goal is to help reinvigorate the cultural potency of the struggling former Soviet republic. “We need to champion public intellectuals,” he said. “We need to be reinvesting in and re-emphasizing the high level of literary discourse, intellectual discourse, and public discourse” in a country that, because of its size, economic woes, and isolation, has been stagnating.

In the process of developing the new program, Vaun discovered there wasn’t a high-quality English literary journal in that part of the world, so he started one. The first issue of the recently launched Locomotive (which will be available at Harvard Book Store) showcases work by writers from Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, the UK, as well as by a few local poets including Stephen Burt and Gail Mazur.

The journal’s mission is clear: “to showcase innovative writing from established and emerging global voices and eventually connect those voices with the vibrant but isolated literary community of Armenia.” It dovetails nicely with Vaun’s views “that art can change the world. Literature can change the world. Because it does that all the time.”

The situation was relatively calm at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border last night, Spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan has said.

“The situation was relatively calm at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border the night of December 30, few shots were fired. RA Armed Forces keep the situation under control,” the Spokesperson said in a Facebook post.

The Azeri forces undertook an infringement attempt early in the morning on December 29. The Armenian side injured three losses as a result. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, seven Azeri troops were killed.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

 

Engineers and employees from major tech companies — including Google, IBM, Slack, and Stripe — have pledged never to build a database of people based on their religious beliefs.

A group of employees at major tech companies have signed  refusing to help build a Muslim registry. The pledge states that signatories will advocate within their companies to minimize collection and retention of data that could enable ethnic or religious targeting under the Trump administration, to fight any unethical or illegal misuse of data, and to resign from their positions rather than comply.

The group describes themselves as “engineers, designers, business executives, and others whose jobs include managing or processing data about people.”

“We, the undersigned, are employees of tech organizations and companies based in the United States. We are engineers, designers, business executives, and others whose jobs include managing or processing data about people. We are choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies. We refuse to build a database of people based on their Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable,” the pledge reads.

“We have educated ourselves on the history of threats like these, and on the roles that technology and technologists played in carrying them out. We see how IBM collaborated to digitize and streamline the Holocaust, contributing to the deaths of six million Jews and millions of others. We recall the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. We recognize that mass deportations precipitated the very atrocity the word genocide was created to describe: the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey. We acknowledge that genocides are not merely a relic of the distant past—among others, Tutsi Rwandans and Bosnian Muslims have been victims in our lifetimes,” the signatories said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Stéphane Visconti.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue.

Edward Nalbandian noted that the “the unequivocal implementation of the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits is imperative for furthering the negotiation process.”

The parties attached importance to the statement of the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries issued in Hamburg.

On 8 December President Bako Sahakyan signed a decree appointing Masis Mayilyan Ambassador at large conferring him the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

One of the classrooms in Yerevan’s basic school #147 will be named after Artsakh Hero Robert Abajyan.

Abajyan, who fell as a hero during the four-day war in April, was a graduate of the school. He would be 20 today.

Students and teachers of the school recalled stories from Robert’s life. The schoolchildren pledged to keep his memory bright and vowed to assume the sacred mission of defending the Motherland, if necessary.

The honor of opening of the classroom was reserved for Robert Abajyan’s father.