The Armenian National Assembly voted 102 to 3 with no abstentions today to pass the proposed changes to RA Law on Social Security of Servicemen and their Families at first reading.
The draft proposes to make a one-time payment amounting to 10 mln AMD to the families of the servicemen killed in action or during combat duty, and 5 mln AMD to handicapped servicemen.
The amendments also envisage annual social security benefits in the course of 20 years.
Based on US President-elect Donald Trump’s speech, one can assume that the “world is going be a safer and a more peaceful place,” President of the European Integration NGO, MP Karen Bekaryan said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.
According to him, “Trump’s first messages lead to peace and prevention of conflicts.”
However, Bekaryan said “only time will show to what extent we can trust his words.”
“The first speeches and steps are more of a PR action. For real politics we have to wait a little,” he added.
“The first signs will be visible during the first 3-6 months of Trump’s presidency, when he has to react to a clear situation at some part of the world and make political decisions, ” Karen Bekaryan added.
President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree today, appointing Levon Galstyan as Member of the Council of Public TV and Radio Company of Armenia for a term of six years.
Levon Galstyan’s candidacy was approved during the sitting of the Council of TV and Radio Company of Armenia held on October 26, taking into account his experience and achievements in the field of journalism, his long-time activity in the sphere of TV and Radio.
Seventeen people had applied for the position of the Member of the Council, which had been vacant since Armen Amiryan was appointed Minister of Culture.
From March 31st 2017 onwards, Brussels Airlines will operate flights from Armenia to Brussels. The capital Yerevan will be connected once a week with Brussels Airport and in July and August this weekly service is complemented by a second flight, according to the .
So far, Armenia was not directly connected by air with the European Capital of Brussels in the heart of Belgium. People of Armenian origin who live in Belgium, the South of the Netherlands and the North of France needed to fly through connections via other airports to Yerevan. With the new direct flights, Brussels Airlines now responds to the important market demand of the Armenian diaspora. Also Belgian tour operators and travel agents will make use of the new service in order to offer guided tours and holidays in Armenia.
Flights are operated with modern Airbus A 320 aircraft and leave Brussels Airport on Saturday and Tuesday late afternoon. The return flight from Yerevan arrives in Brussels in the early morning of Wednesday and Sunday. The Saturday service will be operated all year long and starts on March 31. The Tuesday flight will be offered in summer months (July and August) only.
Schedule (Local times)
| Flight n° | From | To | Departure | Arrival | Days of the week |
| SN2899 | Brussels | Yerevan | 18:40 | 01:10 | Saturday (all year) |
| SN2899 | Brussels | Yerevan | 18:40 | 01:10 | Tuesday (Jul/Aug) |
| SN2900 | Yerevan | Brussels | 02:00 | 05:00 | Sunday (all year) |
| SN2900 | Yerevan | Brussels | 02:00 | 05:00 | Wednesday (Jul/Aug) |
Tickets can be purchased via travel agencies or via .
“We are very happy to add Armenia to our expanding network”, says Frédéric Dechamps, Brussels Airlines Vice President Sales Benelux, Europe & the Americas. “We are grateful to all the partners involved in our project. A special word of thanks goes to His Excellency, Mr. Tatoul Markarian Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium / the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg & head of the Armenian Representation to the European Union and to Mr. Varos Simonyan, Trade Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union”.
This week, Brussels Airlines Vice President Aeropolitical Affairs & International Relations Herman Carpentier pays a visit to Yerevan to further develop the cooperation with the country. “We look forward to work together with the Armenian community in order to make this new Brussels Airlines Yerevan service successful”, Herman Carpentier says.
Economies of the Europe and Central Asia region place among the top improvers in the World Bank Group’s ease of doing business report.
A total of 57 business reforms were carried out by the region’s economies in the past year, finds Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All, released today.
This year, Armenia is ranked 38 among 190 economies in Doing Business report 2017 and is 5 points up from last year’s Doing Business 2016 rank 43 (recalculated based on methodology changes and addition of one economy, Somalia). In Doing Business 2017, Armenia also shows 1.47 percentage points’ improvement in distance to frontier score –73.63 compared to the previous year’s 72.16 percentage points.
Armenia made it easier to do business in two areas measured by the report, including Getting Credit and Enforcing Contracts. Specifically, Armenia strengthened access to credit by adopting a new law on secured transactions that establishes a modern and centralized collateral registry, and improved its credit information system by adopting a new law on personal data protection.
Armenia also made enforcing contracts easier by introducing a consolidated chapter regulating voluntary mediation and by establishing financial incentives for the parties to attempt mediation.
Four of the region’s economies, Kazakhstan (ranked 35th in DB17), Belarus (ranked 37th), Serbia (ranked 47th) and Georgia (ranked 16th),place among this year’s top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken. For a second consecutive year, Kazakhstan, with seven business reforms, led the world in the number of reforms implemented, together with Indonesia. In the region, Georgia and Belarus followed with five and four reforms, respectively. For example, Georgia strengthened minority investor protections by increasing shareholder rights and role in major corporate decisions and by clarifying ownership and control structures.
The top ranked economy in the region is the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with a global ranking of 10. Thanks to past reforms it now takes an entrepreneur in FYR Macedonia only two days to start a business, which is significantly less than the regional average of 10 days.
The government of the Republic of Armenia aims to ensure protection, dignity, improved living conditions, justice for its citizens, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said as he presented the government program to the National Assembly today. The government is obliged to reveal the obstacles on the way of reaching the goals and find optimal solutions, he added.
“We have entered a new stage of regional developments, which envisages low paces of economic growth with our immediate economic partners, thus restricting the opportunities of rapid growth due to common trends. In this environment the current structure of the Armenian economy will not be able to ensure the pace of progress, which goes in line with our challenges, if standard approaches of development are applied,” the Prime Minister said.
“Today the government is tasked with obtaining a precise diagnosis of the system of governance and the state of economy, analyzing the most important issues and proposing both short-term measures and long-term reform programs,” he added. He informed that a “Center for Strategic Initiatives” comprising the leading specialists and experts from Armenia, Diaspora and abroad has been set up under the government to address the strategic questions.
Speaking about the strategic issues, PM Karen Karapetyan stressed that “defense and security” is number one challenge. “The military threats facing our country require an efficient, permanently improving and modernizing defense system enjoying the rust and support of the society.” He assured that the government would spare no means and efforts to neutralize the military threats facing Armenia and Artsakh, creating sufficient military capacities and maintaining military balance in the region.
Among other important issues the Prime Minister emphasized the implementation of the Constitution amended in 2015. He attached importance to measures ensuring to the development of democratic institutions, creation of confidence-building measures to raise the trust in political process and institutions. The Prime Minister said “the reforms should start from the government.”
According to him, elimination of corruption is the primary condition for the effectiveness of the state governance system. “We’ll promote the state-private cooperation to ensure better governance at the local level and reduce the corruption risks,” he added.
The Prime Minister said “the government pursues the ideology of liberalized economy and sees the perspectives of economic development in the growth of exports.” “Our primary goal is to ensure a free and fair competitive environment for business,” he added.
Karen Karapetyan noted that “the improvement of the business environment is a permanent process.” In this respect he attached importance to the monitoring, exposure and elimination of legal norms and practices hindering the economic activity.
The Prime Minister said tourism, development of modem infrastructures will also be in the spotlight. “The government will pursue the deepening of cooperation with the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,” he added.
PM Karapetyan stressed that “stable economic growth is the fundamental means for fighting poverty and unemployment.” “This is the reason why we emphasize the importance of forming free, fair and competitive economic conditions,” he added.
In the field of education and science, the government will aim to ensure high-quality education and an opportunity for obtaining practical knowledge for all. Special attention will be paid to children in rural areas.
According to the Prime Minister, the government will also pursue the maintenance of national cultural values, at the same time ensuring openness for adopting the best values of other cultures. It will also strive to maintain the unique nature of Armenia.
“Together we have to undertake the honored task of creating strong grounds for the long-term development of the country. Every day we’ll work together to take steps that will bring us closer to having a competitive, economically strong and fair Motherland based on national values,” the Prime Minister concluded.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan hosted His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.
The Prime Minister expressed gratitude to His Holiness for visiting the government and noted that “he highly values the state-church cooperation.”
The Catholicos wished success and effective activity to the Prime Minister and the newly-appointed Ministers for the sake of prosperity of the country, overcoming of difficulties and reinforcement of achievements.
PM Karen Karapetyan and His Holiness Karekin II discussed a number of issues related to the further reinforcement of church-state ties and other questions.
Armenia has shown determination in fighting racism and intolerance, integrating refugees and supporting ethnic minorities. However, numerous legislation gaps, rise in hate speech and violence, and institutional shortcomings remain of concern, said the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its new report published today.
The report covering the period from December 2010 to March 2016 welcomed the efforts of the Armenian authorities to revise the Criminal Code and draft comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, integrate a large influx of refugees from Syria and increase the financial support for the ethnic minorities.
However, the criminal, civil and administrative legislation and procedures still suffer from numerous shortcomings which make it impossible to adequately combat racism and discrimination. The report notes a rise in hate speech leading to violence, main targets being members of the LGBT community and non-traditional religious groups, and the stigmatisation of these groups in the political and public discourse.
As priority recommendations to be followed up in two years, ECRI calls on the authorities to streamline the various integration strategies for all vulnerable groups, and to amend the Armenian criminal law. The list of “prohibited grounds” should explicitly include colour, language, nationality, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and gender identity. Besides, incitement to violence and to racial discrimination, as well as the public denial, trivialisation, justification or condoning of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes should be criminalised.
Other recommendations include making homophobic/transphobic motivation an aggravating circumstance; giving more powers to the Human Rights Defender to enable him/her to deal with discrimination in the private sector; establishing an independent mechanism for dealing with complaints against the police; and encouraging the adoption of a code of ethics for media and a code of conduct for parliamentarians.
On September 24, while participating in the activities of the 71st regular session of the UN General Assembly, Edward Nalbandian, the Acting Foreign Minister of Armenia, had a meeting with Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General.
The UN Secretary General expressed gratitude for the active involvement of Armenia to the activities of the Organization during his tenure and emphasized that the Armenian diplomacy has played a significant and constructive role in the international arena not only regarding its priorities, but also towards the settlement of the issues the Organization faces.
Edward Nalbandian outlined that the efficient cooperation with the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is highly appreciated in Armenia. The Minister thanked the UN Secretary General for his leadership, initiatives and exerted efforts aimed at the advancement of the UN Charter values, goals and principles.
The interlocutors discussed a number of issues on the UN agenda.
Ban Ki-moon presented to Edward Nalbandian his book, which summarizes his last ten years’ activity in the capacity of the Secretary General of the UN.
Photo: EPA
Experts in Amsterdam have concluded that troubled Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh suffered a form of repeated psychosis in his final 18 months, the repots.
However, they could not reach a definitive diagnosis on his underlying mental state.
They said the well-documented breakdown that resulted in him cutting of his own ear in 1888 could have been the result of alcohol or stress.
Van Gogh died from a gunshot wound in July 1890, in an apparent suicide.
The gathering of medical professionals and art historians weighed up evidence, including many of the Dutch post-impressionist’s letters.
Popular theories about his mental health have included bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or syphilis.
“One single thing cannot explain the entire picture of what happened to Van Gogh,” medical ethics professor Arko Oderwald told the Telegraph newspaper.
Louis van Tilborgh, a professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, told the New York Times some of the debate over Van Gogh was “fierce”.
In July, new research suggested that Van Gogh had cut off his entire ear rather than just part of it.
Later that month, The Art Newspaper named the young woman he had given the ear to with the words “keep this object carefully” as farmer’s daughter Gabrielle Berlatier.