The Armenian National Assembly will hold a special session on June 9.
Over a dozen items, including amendments to the laws on Armenia’s administrative territorial division, the rights of disabled people, the government structure and activities and the Land Code, are on the agenda.
The emergency session has been requested by the government.
17:16,
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan declared its former ambassador to Ukraine Talat Aliyev wanted on charges of embezzling state funds, Azeri media reported.
Talat Aliyev served as Baku’s envoy to Ukraine from 2001 to 2010.
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YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved today a $25 million loan for Additional Financing of the Education Improvement Project (EIP) in Armenia, the World Bank said in a press release.
The project will further assist the Government in improving school readiness of children entering primary education, the physical condition and availability of educational resources in general education, and quality and relevance in higher education institutions in Armenia.
Quality of education is a key challenge causing a mismatch between the formal qualifications of graduates and the skills sought by employers, therefore slowing overall productivity, and hampering economic growth in Armenia. The project, which spans three education levels, will help strengthen the education trajectory and the human capital of Armenian children and is aligned with mid- to long-term government and sectoral strategies.
“Establishing an equitable and high-quality education system is key not only for growth but also in providing hope for a brighter future for the youth of Armenia,” says Carolin Geginat, World Bank Country Manager for Armenia. “With this project, the Government aims to improve the relevance and quality of, and access to, educational services at all levels, including in the early years of a child and for higher education. The project contributes in important ways to strengthening Armenia’s human capital and to enhancing the competitiveness of the economy.”
The project has two main components. The first component will focus on enhancing the quality of general education by financing 80 additional community-based preschools in early education for children aged four to six, as well as the training of teachers and principals assigned to new preschools. Four upper secondary schools that are in poor seismic condition and located in areas of climate risk will be rehabilitated and refurbished.
Furthermore, under this component, data-driven evidence-based policy making for improving managing, teaching, and learning will be promoted. 200 school laboratories in general education will be equipped and furnished and will be provided with resources to help teachers deliver a project-based learning approach in the context of the revised science, technology, engineering, and mathematics STEM curriculum.
The second component will finance higher education institution (HEI) projects to improve labor market relevance, organizational efficiency, and equity in enrollment and other opportunities. A call for proposals under the Competitive Innovations Fund (CIF) will welcome projects that aim to develop innovative approaches to strengthen STEM education in both universities and basic education.
“This project will incentivize HEIs to attract more female students into STEM fields of study and jobs, and have more female teaching staff working in programs,” says Renata Freitas Lemos, World Bank Task Team Leader of the project. “Frequent community roundtables with teachers, parents, and students at any stage of the proposed activities will improve citizen engagement and participatory monitoring of education outcomes.”
The original EIP project has delivered strong results to date. 136 preschools have been established and around 3,500 five- and six-year-old children have been enrolled across the country. 13 schools have been fully rehabilitated and refurbished, while 107 high schools have been equipped with laboratory equipment and furniture for STEM subjects along with E-learning materials.
An education management information system (EMIS) which captures the developments at all levels, has been established and is fully operational and expanded nationwide. 4,475 teachers and administrative staff have been trained in information and communication technologies usage. Grants for 18 research projects were awarded to 15 universities across Armenia.
The World Bank will provide a $25 million IBRD loan of variable-spread, with a 14.5-year grace period and a total repayment term of 25 years. The Government contribution is $6.25 million. Since joining the World Bank in 1992, and IDA in 1993, commitments to Armenia have totaled approximately $2,502,870 million.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan Aziz Abduhakimov, Azernews reports, citing Azertac.
The meeting underscored the successful development of friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan in the political, economic, and transport sectors, and highlighted the importance of reciprocal visits.
During the conversation, they touched upon the importance of the selection of Shamakhi as the Tourism Capital of the Turkic World by the Organization of Turkic States and the holding of the 7th meeting of the Ministers of Tourism of the member countries of the organization there. The sides expressed confidence that this event would contribute to the expansion of cooperation in the field of tourism between the member states of the organization.
President Ilham Aliyev praised the initiative of the Uzbek president to have a school built in Fuzuli District liberated from Armenian occupation.
President Ilham Aliyev said that given the existence of a large number of historical sites and historical monuments of world importance in the two countries, there was good potential for expanding cooperation in the tourism sector.
The Uzbek official pointed to the effective cooperation between relevant agencies of the two countries in the tourism sector and expressed his satisfaction with his participation in the event in Shamakhi.
15:29, 9 May, 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 9, ARMENPRESS. Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopirkin stated that Azerbaijan and Armenia should refrain from any steps that could aggravate the situation and create a danger of escalation.
“Our attitude to all such incidents is determined by this approach. Of course, we are interested in the mine operating normally, without interruptions. It is also very important for Armenia from a social point of view,” ARMENPRESS reports Kopirkin told reporters, referring to the shots fired by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of the Sotk mine, as a result of which one of the mine employees was injured.
The Ministry of Defense of Armenia issued a statement according to which on May 7, at around 1:50 p.m., the Azerbaijani troops opened fire from different caliber weapons in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as a result of which one of the employees of the mine received a gunshot wound. His life is not in danger. By retaliatory actions the fire of the Azerbaijani units was silenced.
New York, May 5, 2022 – Armenian authorities should thoroughly investigate recent attacks on members of the press by police and government officials, and ensure that those responsible are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
On Monday, May 2, at a protest in the capital, Yerevan, against the country’s policy concerning the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, security officers punched David Fidanyan, a reporter with the news website AntiFake, in the shoulder and tried to push him away as he covered police arresting and beating protesters, according to news reports, a statement by several local media groups, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.
Fidanyan said that police officers in black masks repeatedly shoved him while he covered the protests, although he clearly displayed his press card. He said they also shoved AntiFake camera operator Ishkhan Khosrovyan and attempted to detain him, but agreed not to arrest him when other journalists intervened.
Also at that protest, Nare Gevorgyan, a reporter with the local news website MediaHub, approached Sargis Hovhannisyan, head of the country’s State Protection Service security agency, and asked about the police crackdown, according to those news reports, Gevorgyan, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and video of the incident published by MediaHub.
Hovhannisyan knocked Gevorgyan’s microphone away, and a State Protection Service officer obstructed MediaHub camera operator Arman Gharajyan, demanded he turn over his camera, and then hit the device; the pair refused, and Hovhannisyan kicked Gharajyan in the leg, according to those sources.
“The use of force against journalists who are doing their jobs is entirely unacceptable, all the more so when perpetrated by police officers and senior officials who have a duty to set an example in their treatment of the media,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Armenian authorities must swiftly investigate all uses of force against journalists covering the ongoing protests and ensure that media workers can do their jobs safely.”
Gevorgyan told CPJ that Gharajyan sustained a minor scratch to his leg during the scuffle and that his camera was slightly damaged. The other journalists were not seriously injured, Gevorgyan and Fidanyan said.
The Armenian prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into Hovhannisyan’s alleged assault of Gharajyan, according to news reports.
CPJ emailed the police and the National Security Service of Armenia, which oversees the State Protection Service, for comment from the agency and from Hovhannisyan, but did not receive any replies.
Previously, on April 26, police officers in Yerevan shoved Tigran Petrosyan, a correspondent with the regional news website Caucasian Knot, as he attempted to film a protest over Nagorno-Karabakh, and prevented him from recording, the journalist told CPJ in a phone interview.
Also, on Wednesday, May 4, Parliamentary Deputy Hayk Sargsyan, with the ruling Civil Contract party, snatched the cell phone of Suzy Badoyan, a reporter with the news website Yerevan Today, when she attempted to interview him in parliament, local media reported.
Sargsyan slightly scratched Badoyan’s hand when he grabbed her phone, and returned it to her shortly afterwards, according to those reports. Last June, Sargsyan similarly grabbed the phone of another journalist attempting to interview him, returning the phone an hour later after deleting the video, according to news reports and a statement by local media rights groups.
CPJ emailed Sargsyan for comment but did not receive any reply.
Exhibition on Hrant Dink’s life and struggle to open in Yerevan
09:10, 5 May, 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. An exhibition on Hrant Dink’s life and struggle will open May 7 until July 30 at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan.
The Hrant Dink: Here and Now exhibition is organized by the Hrant Dink Foundation on the 15th anniversary of the assassination of the editor-in-chief of Agos Newspaper Hrant Dink.
Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul in front of his newspaper’s office on January 19, 2007.
The former office of Agos Newspaper, where thousands gather every year on the day of his assassination to commemorate and demand justice, opened its doors to visitors on April 23-24, 2019 as the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory.
23.5 promotes the universal values embraced by Hrant Dink such as democracy, co-existence, equality, truth, peace and justice. With its exhibits, archives and public programs, 23.5 acts as a space for remembrance, reflection, dialogue, learning and mutual understanding.
The site of memory takes its name from Hrant Dink’s article ‘23.5 April’, which was published in Agos on April 23rd, 1996.
The Hrant Dink: Here and Now exhibition is an extension of 23,5, said Talin Suzme, Turkey-Armenia Programme Coordinator at the Hrant Dink Foundation.
Hrant Dink will be the narrator and the guide telling his own story and his path of righteousness. Separate corners of the exhibition will be a focus on themes such as memory, justice and minority rights in Turkey.
Hrant Dink Foundation project coordinator Armenuhi Nikoghosyan said the exhibition will make Dink’s voice heard in different parts of the world and present his path of struggle.
“In Turkey, Hrant Dink was speaking about topics which weren’t that much acceptable then. His voice was silenced, but his family is doing everything they can to make Hrant Dink’s voice heard all over the world. Democracy, freedom of speech, justice, these are the issues that concern not only Turkey but other countries,” she said.
She added that the civil society is now under pressure in Turkey, and many NGOs are working in difficult conditions, facing various formal inspections and procedures.
The Hrant Dink Foundation has also faced problems. In 2020, the Dink family lawyer received threats, but many people stood by the foundation and only then legal processes were initiated.
Armenia opposition parties on Wednesday resumed street protests in the capital Yerevan in a bid to oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over his handling of a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.
Thousands of opposition supporters have rallied daily since Sunday, briefly blocking streets in central Yerevan in a campaign to force Pashinyan to resign.
Opposition leaders have accused him of plotting to cede to Azerbaijan all of the long-contested Nagorno-Karabakh region over which the arch-foe countries fought two wars, in 2020 and in the 1990s.
On Wednesday, protesters parked cement mixers on bridges in Yerevan, briefly disrupting traffic in the capital while small groups of opposition supporters attempted to block the city’s main thoroughfares.
Police detained dozens of people, an AFP journalist witnessed. Opposition leaders have said that more than 200 people who were detained on Tuesday were released the same day.
Opposition leader and parliament vice speaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan said “protests will mount and last until Pashinyan steps down.”
He said the opposition is planning to instal an “interim government of technocrats” without party affiliation.
The ongoing protests highlight bitterness over Pashinyan’s leadership since the six-week war in 2020 over Karabakh that claimed more than 6,500 lives before ending with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
Under the deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Russia deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee the truce.
The pact was seen in Armenia as a national humiliation and sparked weeks of anti-government protests, leading Pashinyan to call snap parliamentary polls which his party, Civil Contract, won last September.
Opposition parties have accused Pashinyan of planning to give away to Baku parts of Karabakh that are still under Armenian control — after he told lawmakers last month that the “international community calls on Armenia to scale down demands on Karabakh.”
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The ensuing conflicts claimed around 30,000 lives.
https://www.macaubusiness.com/armenia-opposition-resumes-protests-urging-pm-to-quit/
17:03, 3 May, 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. On May 3, Special Representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, respectively, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kılıç held their third meeting in Vienna, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reports.
“The Special Representatives reaffirmed the declared goal of achieving full normalization between their respective countries through this process. In this sense, they had sincere and productive exchange of concrete views and discussed possible steps that can be undertaken for tangible progress in this direction.
They reiterated their agreement to continue the process without preconditions”, the ministry said.