VERELQ presents the most notable publications of the Armenian press.
“168 hours” the newspaper writes. “On November 24, the 5th summit of the Eastern Partnership program of the European Union will be held in Brussels, which promises partners a completely different quality, because in 2015 from the summit held in Riga in May and 2016 after the ministerial meeting, the European Commission set new goals and priorities for the program, with 2020 as the starting point. “2020: 20 Key Results”.
“The Eastern Partnership is entering a phase in which, with all our partners, without exception, we have a specific agenda, which consists of specific measures and programs that benefit the citizens. Therefore, partnership relations between us are no longer a key factor. In the foreground are the concrete results that we can achieve, be it in trade, mobility or other areas”, said the EU High Representative recently. Federica Mogherini:
The European Commission decided that in order to achieve visible results for the citizens, a targeted approach is needed, based on the obligations undertaken by the European Union and the Eastern Partnership. In all of this, two circumstances are important for Armenia: the signing of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Expanded Partnership Agreement, the dates of which are still uncertain, but the parties do not rule out that the agreement be signed within the framework of the Brussels Summit, and the final declaration of the “Eastern Partnership”, about which the “168 Hour” reporter talked to experts.
In a conversation with our reporter, Russian political scientist Vadim Dubnov, addressing the question of how the agreement to be signed will affect Yerevan-Moscow relations, answered that everything has been clear for a long time: Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union do not consider this agreement a challenge, as in 2013, when Armenia was preparing to sign an agreement of a completely different quality with the European Union – the Association Agreement.
“168 hours” the newspaper writes. “The Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center publishes data on the public’s perception of corruption in our country every year on December 9, the International Anti-Corruption Day. A similar report is being prepared this year as well. It will also reflect the change in the perception of corruption in the past year of Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan’s government. This was mentioned in the conversation with “168 Hours” by the head of the National Security Agency, Varuzhan Hoktanyan, refusing to give any preliminary assessment. “At that time, we will specially prepare and present it,” he said. V. Hoktanyan noted that previous researches have shown that the most corrupt people in Armenia are government officials, in particular, appointed officials, as well as the staff of the president of the state and the president. “Policemen and elected officials are also among the most corrupt,” said the head of the THC.
“Publication” the newspaper writes. “Our RPA sources do not rule out that PAP will also be part of the coalition on the 18th. In turn, Gagik Tsarukyan said in a narrow environment. “If Serzh Sargsyan will offer to join the coalition, we will join, if he does not offer, we will not disagree. Regardless of everything, apart from Serzh Sargsyan, I don’t see a second person who will be able to lead the country and keep Karabakh.” By the way, on Friday evening, Serzh Sargsyan went to Yeghvard for the funeral of Aram Harutyunyan’s sister, after which he was “hosted” in Tsarukyan’s famous Arinji Park. That is why the session of the General Assembly of the RPA scheduled for Friday did not take place. Nobody knows what Serzh Sargsyan and Gagik Tsarukyan talked about. “A meeting would not have taken place just like that, in Arinj, the very fact and place of the meeting is a message addressed to some,” said our source of the RPA GM.
“time”The newspaper writes, “According to the information of “Zhamanak”, the employees of the tax service performed inspections at the gas stations belonging to the former Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan and imposed a fine of 140 million drams based on the violations found. Abrahamyan personally asked Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan to reduce the amount of the fine, as a result of which it dropped sharply to 3 million. But the information about this agreement of the former and current prime ministers became available to President Serzh Sargsyan, who ordered to carry out double inspections at Abrahamyan’s gas stations, and this time the amount of the fine became 160 million. That’s how much fine he has to pay Hovik Abrahamyan to compensate the damage caused to the state”.
“time” the newspaper writes. “The amount of money charged for Hermine Naghdalyan’s telephone conversations and its consequences have started to concern the staff of the National Assembly. The staff found out that if the amount of Naghdalyan’s telephone conversations in May was 2 million, then the expenses of the other months were not less. Other NA officials, whose names are not published, subjected the NA budget to such a telephone racket. The staff of the National Assembly are afraid that as a result of this they will once again not receive the gratuity given on the occasion of the New Year holidays, and they intend to start a signature collection, demanding that the amounts used in excess of the prescribed amount be charged from the salaries of the deputies, so that it does not happen that once again the ordinary members of the nation suffer from the results of the activities of the elected officials.
“People” the newspaper writes. “Zhoghovurd” was informed that the RA government considered the controversial draft law “On prevention of violence in the family, protection of persons subjected to violence in the family and restoration of solidarity in the family” urgent and sent it to the National Assembly. The draft, which has passed several hearings, is already included in the parliament’s agenda. And since the controversial project was deemed urgent, it will be discussed in the next four days, on December 5. The interesting thing is that this project was authored and presented to the National Assembly by the national conservative RPA government (although the real author is the Europeanized wing of the RPA, headed by Justice Minister Davit Harutyunyan). But the NA RPA MPs initially declared that they were against the project, and even had an internal decision to vote against it at any cost. I wonder what the government will do in this regard and what concessions it will make in the near future.”
“People” the newspaper writes. “Revelations of various abuses committed by officials of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia continue. It became known to “Zhoghovurd” daily that Artak Matevosyanwas accused of wanting to embezzle some of the diesel fuel belonging to the military unit, being the deputy of the commander of the “Osa-AK” anti-aircraft missile division of the N military unit of the RA Defense Ministry. As a result, he deliberately made obvious false entries in invoice No. 4, which is an official document, to write off 140 liters of diesel fuel from the division’s fuel storage service for engineering work. However, everything did not end there. Matevosyan, using his official position, made an embezzlement attempt by filling 7 plastic containers from the service warehouse and placing 140 liters of diesel fuel assigned to the military unit from the territory of the division, placing it in the “Nissan Tida” car he was driving, and transporting it to the gas station operating on the Sevan-Martun highway, but he could not finish the job, because it was found on the road by the employees of the RA Department of Defense of the Republic of Armenia in Martuni. For this act, Matevosyan was charged under article 314 of the RA Criminal Code – official forgery, embezzlement and embezzlement under article 34-179. A restraining order was chosen against him with a signature not to leave.”
“People” the newspaper writes. “It would be naive to call the latest developments around the Vanadzor council a surprise. It was even more surprising that the party “Armenian Revival”, aka “Land of Laws”, was able to remain in the image of the opposition for so long after the NA elections, about half a year. They have already signed a memorandum of political cooperation with the ruling RPA, receiving the position of deputy mayor of Vanadzor in return. Now a quorum will be ensured at the meetings of the Vanadzor Council of Elders. But no matter how much the participation of the members of the Vanadzor Council of Elders of the renamed OEK makes the current activity of that body legal, it will not change the essence of the problem, and the previous year’s inactivity and unconstitutionality will not disappear.
And when the well-known decision of the CC comes into effect on March 31, 2018, the decisions made by the Vanadzor Council of Elders until November 10 of this year will be invalidated. As a result, it will turn out that the Vanadzor Council of Elders has not functioned since October 10, 2016, since the activity of the Council of Elders is expressed through decisions. Accordingly, the RA government will be forced to hold extraordinary elections, of course, if elections have not already been scheduled and held before then. By the way, “Zhoghovurd” daily received news about what happened recently Serzh Sargsyan and: Artur Baghdasaryan the meeting. According to reports, Serzh Sargsyan promised to appoint Artur Baghdasaryan as the president of the CC after Gagik Harutyunyan’s term of office expires in April next year. Time will tell if he will fulfill his promise or not.”