Author: Badalian Vardan

Verelq: The pre-election campaign is starting in Armenia

Badalian Vardan
  • 26.11.2018

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The pre-election campaign, which will last 12 days, starts today.

11 forces will compete for representation in the National Assembly: 9 parties and 2 alliances. During the next 12 days, “My Step” and “We” alliances, “National Progress”, “Prosperous Armenia”, “Enlightened Armenia”, “Armenian Revolutionary Federation”, “Republican of Armenia”, “Sasna Tsrer” Pan-Armenian, “Citizen’s Decision” social-democratic, Christian-People’s Revival, “Land of Law” parties will weigh promises, present their plans. will debate, in short, we will not be bored.


According to the latest data, 2,574,916 citizens have the right to vote in RA. The election will be held in 13 constituencies. In each constituency, the political force must nominate at least 5 candidates, each with 15,000 voters.

The elections will be held on December 9.

Armenian team participates in World Robot Olympiad final

Badalian Vardan
iTel.am, Armenia
Nov 27 2018

Arm Cyber Kids represented Armenia in international stage of World Robot Olympiad, held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The members of the team are brother and sister 12-year-old Iren and 11-year-old Ashot Gasparyans, the winners of the national stage of the competition in Armenia.

The team took the 32nd place among 104 teams in their age group, introducing a robot which can sort fruits in accordance with quality and appearance.

This has been Armenia’s second participation in this international competition. The organizers of the competition and the judges highly appreciated the readiness of the Armenian team, their knowledge and independent working abilities.

The national stage of World Robot Olympiad has been held in Armenia since 2016. The official organizer of the competition is Ayb Educational Foundation. Rostelecom is the sponsor of the competition, and Creativе Educational Technologies (CET) is the partner.

Republican candidate challenges Nikol Pashinyan for a debate

Badalian Vardan
Panorama, Armenia
Nov 28 2018

The first vice-president of the Republican Party of Armenia, Vigen Sargsyan, who heads the RPA electoral list, has invited the Acting Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the leader of “My Step” bloc to a debate. He mentioned several conditions.

“Taking into account the fact that for the third consecutive day you are building your campaign against the Republicans, deepening your vicious policy of dividing the society into blacks and whites, as well as the fact that during the campaign you allow the worst and indecent flow of the electoral process, I consider it necessary to have a bilateral debate of the electoral list leaders on RPA – My step format by preserving my commitment to participate in a public debate of the candidates leading the electoral lists of the parties.

I propose to debate through three TV channels (public and one of your and one of my choice), with two presenters (one of your and one of my choice), on 4-6 topics (the half by your, and the half by my choice) with the opportunity to ask each other questions. Taking into account your work overload, I leave the choice of the debate day toyou,” Vigen Sargsyan wrote on his Facebook page.

Asbarez: Diaspora Ministry May Close

Badalian Vardan
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Diaspora Minister Mkhitar Hayrapetyan speaks during the a luncheon while visiting Los Angeles in July, 2018

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The government is considering closing Armenia’s Diaspora Ministry or downgrading its status, Diaspora Minister Mkhitar Hayrapetyan said on Thursday.

The ministry was set up in 2008 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. It is tasked with maintaining and strengthening the country’s cultural, educational and other ties with the worldwide Armenian Diaspora.

Hayrapetyan said the future of his ministry is now under review in line with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s plans to downsize the entire government.

“We are continuing to discuss [its future] right now,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “There are two options: the closure of the ministry or its reinforcement. I personally have proposed the latter option: an agency with greater functions and levers.”
The 28-year-old minister admitted that the ministry employing about 90 people has until now played a largely “symbolic” role. The government must set much more “ambitious” objectives for it, he said without elaborating.

In Hayrapetyan’s words, if the government does not accept his ideas it will likely decide to incorporate the Diaspora Ministry into another ministry or downsize it and lower its status.
Hayrapetyan is the youngest member of Pashinyan’s cabinet formed after the latter swept to power in May in a wave of mass protests. He is running as a candidate of the premier’s My Step alliance in parliamentary elections scheduled for December 9.

Azerbaijani Press: Why was not Azerbaijan invited to the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum?

Badalian Vardan
Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijani Opposition Press
Thursday
Why was not Azerbaijan invited to the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum?
 
 
Baku / 22.11.18 / Turan: The 10th annual meeting of the EU Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum program will be held in Tbilisi December 10-12. According to media reports, representatives of the government of Azerbaijan are not invited to the forum, while participation of state delegations from other Eastern Partnership partners is scheduled for it. On November 22, neither the representatives of the Azerbaijani government, nor the EU mission in Baku brought any clarity on this issue. One of the members of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum from Azerbaijan, the head of the Society for Humanitarian Research Avaz Hasanov, commenting on the situation at the request of Turan, said:
 
“Representatives (governments) of the Eastern Partnership countries of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova have always participated in meetings of the Civil Society Forum. Representatives of the three other states – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus – participated when their questions were discussed. They did not participate in many other meetings.”
 
According to Hasanov, Azerbaijan and Belarus have not been invited to the meeting, which is scheduled for December 10-12, the other 4 states have been invited. At the same time, Armenia is going to participate for the first time at the level of the Foreign Minister.
 
“Apparently, the organizers considered that Azerbaijan had not previously participated in these events, and this time it will do the same, and did not send invitations,” Hasanov said.
 
He noted that the upcoming meeting is of a kind of strategic importance, since it will discuss the implementation of the Eastern Partnership program by the participating countries.
 
“If Armenia participates at the level of the foreign minister, then Azerbaijan should be invited at that level, or should be represented by the head of the presidential administration,” Hasanov said. -05B06-

Pashinyan: Now do we agree to return two more Ramil Safarovs to Azerbaijan?

Badalian Vardan
Panorama, Armenia
Nov 20 2018

The Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference Tuesday that he was planning to meet with parents of Karen Ghazaryan who is held captive in Azerbaijan.

“My wife has already visited his family twice, which means the issue has always been central to us. But the action which took place recently, frankly speaking, was surprising to me. Who was this action against? If it was against the actions of the Azerbaijani authorities, why would they close the road, which, in general, is one of the strategic goals of Azerbaijan? If this action was against us because we did not pay enough attention to the problem, why has the prime minister’s wife paid a visit to the family twice and have we had such a precedent when the family in a similar situation has received so much attention? If it refers to Armenia’s efforts towards return or exchange of captives, of course, it should be implemented, but should the process not be in line with the interests of Armenia or do we mean we should return him at any cost no matter what reactions it might receive from the society,” Nikol Pashinyan said.
According to him, this is not an easy issue.

The Acting Prime Minister mentioned that there is another guy besides Karen Ghazaryan, who is in captivity as well. “Why do not they block roads block for him? Because he is an orphan? Are we being guided by this logic, he is an orphan, let him stay there?”
Nikol Pashinyan said that now Azerbaijan offers to exchange everyone with everyone, but should we take that way?

“One of the two Azeris in Artsakh was sentenced to death and another to 20 years of imprisonment because they killed two people, including a young man, and wounded another person. Now do we agree to return two more Ramil Safarovs to Azerbaijan, do we agree with this option? I understand and treat the grief of this family with great respect but I cannot understand the closing of the Armenian-Georgian road,” he said.

 According to Nikol Pashinyan, if someone thinks that something could have been done and has not been done, then they are misinterpreting the situation. “I will meet with Karen Ghazaryan’s parents and will have a sincere conversayion with our compatriots,” said the Acting Prime Minister.

168: Gazprom Armenia under criminal investigation for major tax evasion involving ‘billions’

Badalian Vardan
| 12:41 | November 14 2018
Category
BUSINESS & ECONOMY

The State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia says it has revealed fraud at Gazprom Armenia.

SRC said it has inspected Gazprom Armenia as part of ongoing anti-fraud operations of the agency and discovered a number of violations and major tax evasion cases.

SRC said that in 2016 and 2017 Gazprom Armenia has reported fake data in its VAT and profit tax calculations to taxation authorities which resulted in ‘several billions drams less calculated tax obligations’.

The State Revenue Committee said that the research data on the volumes of supplied natural gas to filling stations (natural gas stations) also prove fraud. SRC said that Gazprom Armenia’s volume of loss in the distribution network reduced on an average of more than 3 times in June-July 2018 compared to January-May of the same year. At the same time, according to the SRC, the volumes of Gazprom Armenia’s supplies to the filling stations in June-September 2018 has increased nearly 37% as compared to the first five months of the year.

The SRC said it has launched a criminal investigation on major tax evasion based on the findings.

Jirair Sefilian denied Armenia citizenship, PM’s office suggests filing a lawsuit

Badalian Vardan
News.am, Armenia
Nov 10 2018
Jirair Sefilian denied Armenia citizenship, PM’s office suggests filing a lawsuit Jirair Sefilian denied Armenia citizenship, PM’s office suggests filing a lawsuit

11:16, 10.11.2018
                  

YEREVAN. – Political activist Jirair Sefilian was denied Armenia’s citizenship, spokesperson for Sasna Tsrer party Hermine Mkrtchyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In August Sefilian, a Lebanese-born Karabakh war veteran, addressed PM Nikol Pashinyan with a request to grant him the citizenship of Armenia in a short period of time, however, PM’s chief of staff Eduard Aghajanyan said the issue can be solved through court.

The party released a statement saying the Armenian government’s chief of staff in fact stated “there is no desire and will to grant citizenship to Jirair Sefilian. And, if Sefilian does not agree with the decision, he is free to file a lawsuit”.  

Sefilian has also applied for the citizenship of Armenia according to the normal procedure, but there have been no response as well. Most likely Sefilian will not be able to run in the early parliamentary elections, since he will not manage to get citizenship by that time.

168: U.S. governmental agencies haven’t yet contacted Armenian authorized bodies on Kim and Kanye baby adoption as required by Hague Convention

Badalian Vardan
| 14:41 | November 9 2018
Category
Society

A day after the news broke on Kim Kardashian willing to adopt a baby from Armenia, ARMENPRESS contacted the ministry of justice for details. However, the Armenian-American reality TV star and her hip hop artist husband Kanye West have not applied to Armenian governmental bodies for adopting a child, justice ministry spokesperson Lusine Martirosyan said.

She said that adoptions between USA and Armenia are carried out exclusively within the framework of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (or Hague Adoption Convention).

“Within the framework of the convention, the central authorized body is the Armenian justice ministry, which hasn’t at this moment received an application of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West from authorized US bodies. In the event of receiving it from our American partners, procedures will be launched as required by the convention and Armenian legislation,” she said.