Arno Babajanyan’s wax statue and personal collection exhibits displayed at Armenian Parliament

ArmenPress, Armenia
July 3 2018
Arno Babajanyan’s candle statue and personal collection exhibits displayed at Armenian Parliament


YEREVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS. Renowned Armenian composer Arno Babajanyan’s candle statue and exhibits of photos as part of the personal collection were displayed at the Parliament of Armenia, reports Armenpress.

The event was attended by Ara Babajanyan, son of Arno Babajanyan, who said holding such event at the Parliament is a great honor and pride for him. “It’s a great honor, a great happiness for me that today we are participating in this exhibition at the Parliament of Armenia. It’s a great honor for me since my father loved very much his homeland, Armenia, the Armenian people and especially Yerevan where he was born”, Ara Babajanyan said.

He remembers that when his father was asked where do you live, he stated: “I reside in Moscow, but I live in Armenia”. “Thus, today is a great holiday for me that this exhibition is being held here”, the composer’s son said.

Gagik Manasyan, director of the Armenian state philharmonic and the Arno Babajanyan Memory Fund’s Armenian branch, said after the exhibition the candle statue will be transported to the concert hall named after the composer where Babajanyan’s music will be performed every day at working hours.

Gagik Manasyan informed that in 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the renowned composer, and a number of events are being held in Armenia and Russia ahead of it.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

European Parliament will ratify Armenia-EU Agreement next month – EAFJD chairman

ArmenPress, Armenia
European Parliament will ratify Armenia-EU Agreement next month – EAFJD chairman



YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. The trust towards Armenia by the European Union has reached a new level, Gaspar Karapetian – chairman of theEuropean Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), said in an interview to ARMENPRESS.

-Mr. Karapetian, how the recent political changes in Armenia are perceived by the European and the international community in general? What are the moods among political, public circles?

-The recent events, developments in Armenia were a progress of people’s values. The reactions of Europe and the international community in general were, of course, positive and welcoming. During numerous meetings, closed-door discussions Europe has repeatedly touched upon the developments in Armenia, gave a positive assessment and stated that the democratic, human rights values are respected in Armenia and more developed civil society is being formed. This fact is welcomed as the EU’s trust towards Armenia reached a new level for the implementation of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), and the Agreement must be ratified by the European Parliament within the next month. Moreover, recently the European Commission and earlier the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament have made a quite positive statement on the new situation in Armenia.

-Mr. Karapetian, in the recent period the Artsakh authorities state that movements of the Azerbaijani military equipment are taking place in the frontline. Is there a concern in terms of the escalation of the situation? In your opinion, what is the reason of Azerbaijan’s such activeness at this stage?

-Yes, in the recent period there are many statements on Azerbaijan’s activeness, but it doesn’t mean that accumulations of the military equipment didn’t happen during the past months, which requires a great vigilance. Today Azerbaijan’s activeness is quite often linked with the recent events in Armenia. During that days Azerbaijan perhaps wanted to see the loss of the unity of the Armenian people, who were mainly engaged in domestic problems and would forget about the external threat. But the Armenian people, in particular, the Armenian Army proved the contrary: by feeling the seriousness of the moment, they never yielded their positions. Azerbaijan needs to understand that in such situation when Armenia took one more step towards democracy, the Armenian Army is more willing in its mission.

-Did theEuropean Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy voice issues over Azerbaijan’s activeness in different European circles?

-As the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy, we not only voice about Azerbaijan’s activeness for different occasions, but also provide important information about the ongoing ceasefire violations in the line of contact and the human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

-In your opinion, what steps should the international community, the mediators take to prevent the escalation of the situation?

-The international community, as during the April war, is well informed about the situation, Azerbaijan’s intentions since Azerbaijan itself makes its actions known to the external field. The European circles, of course, support the principles adopted by the OSCE Minsk Group which are also reflected in the Armenia-EU Agreement. The mediator side should take measures to apply investigative mechanisms for the situation in the border.

Today the new leadership of Armenia makes statements on bringing Artsakh to the negotiation field which is welcomed by the EAFJD, being considered as of the key preconditions for the peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict. Taking into account this the recent visits of the OSCE Minsk Group to Armenia can put a base for the new quality of negotiations. Moreover, the European Union should officially take steps to send its representatives to Artsakh and get first-hand information.

-What are the upcoming programs of the EAFJD? Is the visit of the European lawmakers to Artsakh expected?

-One of the main program priorities of the EAFJD is to continue raising the Artsakh issue and the protection of the principle of the Artsakh people’s right to free self-determination among the European political circles. With its daily activities the Office contributes to deepening and developing the Armenia-EU ties, as well as provides support to the Armenian delegation these days in Brussels on the sidelines of the session of the EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly.

We will continue to organize the visits of the European lawmakers and MEPs to Artsakh in coming months, by this contributing to the failure of Azerbaijan’s policy to keep Artsakh in isolation.

Interview by Anna Gziryan

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

PM aide not ruling out role for ex-President in Karabakh process (video)

PanArmenian, Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net – An aide to the Armenian Prime Minister has not ruled out that the country’s 3rd President Serzh Sargsyan may one day become a special negotiator in the process of the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Sargsyan was forced to resign one week after his election as the country’s PM following a massive disobedience campaign launched by tens of thousands of Armenian citizens who blocked the streets across the entire country.

Speaking on Armenia’s Public TV, Arsen Kharatyan said he doesn’t rule out the involvement in the issue of any person for Armenia’s interest if there is public consensus and if one particular person proves to be “very useful” in that particular position.

“Just like [former Prime Minister] Tigran Sargsyan who heads the Eurasian Economic Commission or [former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia Yuri] Khachaturov, who serves as the Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO),” Kharatyan said.

According to him, not many in Armenia know the Karabakh process inside out.

Asked whether Serzh Sargsyan may one day accompany Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to a meeting, Kharatyan said “no one can say what will happen in a month or in the next one to five years.”

“The knowledge and skills of those people may come in handy in some situations,” Kharatyan said, adding that no meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents is planned for the moment.

Official representative of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Hikmet Hajiyev said Friday, June 22 that Armenian and Azeri Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov have agreed to hold a meeting in the near future with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan, however, did not confirm that such an agreement has been reached.

Armenian return conversions in Turkey

SSRC.org
 
 
Armenian return conversions in Turkey
 
by Ceren Özgül
 
Since the early 2000s, hundreds of officially Muslim Turkish citizens embarked upon return journeys to the religion and ethnicity of their ancestors, Christian Ottoman Armenians. Their ancestors had to adopt Islam in the context of the massacres that culminated in the genocide of 1915. Without parents or relatives to claim them, and their ties to the surviving Armenian community severely mutilated by the preceding violence, they were subsequently immersed into the Muslim majority of the Turkish Republic that succeeded the Ottoman Empire in 1923. The Turkish state denies the Armenian genocide, and instead calls the annihilation of Ottoman Armenians tehcir (deportation).
 
Here, Maryam, a young female convert, puts the key moments of these conversions in a linear chronology:
 
When I was a teenager my mother told me that we were Armenians. My father used to say that after tehcir (deportation) they were forced to pretend to be Muslim Turks. I married an Armenian. I have also decided to return to my roots and got baptized [in the Armenian Church].
 
What is a return conversion? What possibilities do these converts’ experiences offer us to understand minority difference beyond the juridico-political language of secularism that paradoxically locates it in interiorized belief? I argue that Armenian return conversions create ethnic and religious difference by forging new links among the key concepts of this language: belief, kinship, belonging, subjectivity, genealogy, and truth.
 
The politics of Turkish secularism does not only impose a radical break with the multi-religious Ottoman past, but simultaneously aims to deny the political violence—Armenian genocide—that constituted Turks and Armenians as majority and minority respectively. This politics also aims to erase and penalize practices of ethnic and religious minority difference that evoke the genocide.
 
In Maryam’s short account lies just the kind of material that has fueled continuing debate over the authorized version of national history and the governance of minority difference in Turkey. Her account starts with a claim to Armenianness located in the violent past of the country. The initial conversion of her grandparents was a way to survive the genocide as individuals and families. Maryam’s words “pretending to be Muslims” reveal the existence of, in Yael Navaro’s incisive wording, “human remnants” of the genocide who were living as Muslims in the midst of the Sunni-Muslim Turkish nation. This “pretense” was not only allowed but also demanded by a Turkish secularism that rests on the idea of rejecting violence that created the ethnically and religiously ‘homogeneous’ Turkish nation. Thus, when officially Muslim citizens claim Armenian identity, including Christian belief, their claims interrupt the linear temporality of political secularism in Turkey. Maryam’s account of her family’s Armenian history performs as unauthorized history that “dislocates the present from the past and calls for their revision and reconnection.” In these conversion stories, Armenian ancestors of Muslim Turks challenge the Turkish secular nationalist project that aims to erase difference and violence.
 
It is not coincidental, then, that the Armenian return conversions are simultaneously circumscribed by the debates on ethnic and religious pluralism that dominated the Turkish political scene in the 2000s during a brief period of democratic reforms. In the changing political geography, the emergence of these conversions on the Turkish public scene were interpreted as courageous acts of a hidden minority now embracing its real identity despite the longstanding national sensibilities against a mentioning of the Armenian genocide. The proponents of pluralism challenged national homogeneity and argued for the Turkish state’s proper acknowledgment of the Armenian identities of the converts. Thus Armenian return conversions are included into the discourse of pluralism as an important case for recognition of “real” identities, and protection of minority difference, as such.
 
Crucially, however, what is left unattended by a historicist or pluralist understanding of return conversions are the ways of creating that minority difference in the present—ways of claiming, establishing, and embodying it. To follow the complexity of return conversions to its ethnographic and analytical limits, let us reconsider Maryam’s conversion narrative. She does not convert to an Armenianness that waits simultaneously “out there” and “in her.” Return conversion is not a synonym for an emergence of essential or real identities per se. Rather, she relates to this identity through an account of the past and Armenian ancestors through her parents. Thus, Armenian family genealogy does not simply represent unchanging individual identity over time, but emerges as a “meaningful way of thinking” about religious and ethnic difference in the present. As such, genealogy is not simply a marker of minority difference but a way to actively create ethnic and religious identity.
 
Nevertheless, genealogy is not the only way to build these connections; they take multiple forms. As converts claim Armenianness through ancestors in the past, they also strive to establish it through creating relations with Armenians in Turkey and elsewhere today. They search for distant relatives in Armenia and in the Armenian diaspora, marry Armenians, and join a church, baptizing their kids and creating new extended families with their godparents.
 
A second issue these conversions raise is the way they re-link belief with relations that were presumed to be external to the individual. Maryam’s last two statements, “I married an Armenian (…) and got baptized” point to this reconnection of two categories, kinship and belief, that secular modernity ostensibly sets apart. In this particular employment, ethnic and religious belonging goes beyond—even contradicts—the effort to isolate religion in the realm of individual belief. It destabilizes the central status of the autonomous individual believer of secular modernity, and renders it simultaneously relational. In both these instances of relating convert’s interiority and exteriority, these conversions invite us to reconsider the subject in the totality of its relations, as part of a genealogy, an ethnicity, a family, a religious minority, and the nation-state. The converts and the greater political frame, in interaction with each other, construct and link interiority and exteriority as embedded in these relations.
 
Yet, Maryam’s conversion narrative could be read as a return to pre-secular forms of minority existence and experience of religion, and thus as a paradox for the Turkish secularism borrowed from a multiethnic, multi-religious Ottoman past. In this regard, Armenian return conversions do not squarely fit contemporary anthropological analysis of religious conversion as a constitutive moment in the formation of secular modern subjectivity and religion as interiorized belief. However, I suggest these return conversions rise out of and contribute to some central discussions of anthropology and beyond over the subject, its interiority and relations, and the larger political framework. They invite us to ask questions about the changing roles genealogy, religion, and belief, as well as violence, consent, freedom, and pretense play in the formation of new subjectivities and political regimes of truth. Further, the unique perspective they provide for ethnographic scrutiny is not limited to an analysis of periods of democratization and pluralism, during which claims for difference challenge the established forms of secular governance of minorities. More urgently, today we witness the formation of neoliberal and authoritarian regimes. Furthering this analysis of return conversions in one such regime also offers a glimpse into the emerging struggles over proper moral, political, and religious subjectivities in Turkey and beyond.

He gets money by threatening to disseminate damaging information

On June 11, at 22.40, the officers of the Police Department of Yerevan detained Narek O. at the Northern Avenue No. 3 and invited Susie K.
Susie K. reported that Narek O. demanded money from her and threatened to disseminate damaging information about her. He demanded and received 50,000 drams from March to May.

An investigation is under way.

Armenia denies media claims that Azerbaijani army retook large area

JAM News

A video shows Azerbaijani citizens visiting family graves in Günnüt

On 8 June Azerbaijani media reported that Azerbaijani forces regained control over Günnüt village and the surrounding Sharur areas. The source making the claim called the press service of the armed forces in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. The information was later confirmed by the Azerbaijan Press Agency.

Günnüt is located in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic but is, or was until now, a no-go zone for either parties of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Nakhichevan is an exclave of Azerbaijan, bordered by Iran, Turkey and Armenia. Günnüt is a kilometre away from the Armenian border.

A Youtube video shows a report from Naxcivan TV channel wherein it is said that the relatives of Azerbaijanis buried in a Günnüt cemetery was finally able to visit the graves.

The Azerbaijani press said that Azerbaijan gained control over 11 thousand hectares of land.

At present, the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan has not made any statements.

The Armenian press refutes this report.

Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the Press Secretary of Armenia’s Ministry of Defence, made a statement on his Facebook page in response to the claims:

“On 6 and 7 June this year, the Azerbaijani side appealed to the Armenian Armed Forces command to allow some citizens to visit graves on the southern outskirts of the ruined settlement of Günnüt. This is the first time Azerbaijan made such a request. The Armenian side, being committed to humanitarian norms and permanently taking measures aimed at deescalating the situation, agreed to allow peaceful civilians to pay a short visit to the graveyard.”

Press: A new situation to demand the resignation of Babloyan, Sharmazanov and Hovhannisyan

  • 06.06.2018
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  • Armenia:
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VERELQ presents the most notable publications of the Armenian press.


“People” the daily writes. “The RPA faction of the National Assembly is on the verge of losing its stable majority in the parliament, and accordingly, also losing its legislative power. These days, six MPs have announced their withdrawal from the RPA faction. In the coming days, several more will make such a statement. As a result, if today there are 53 people left in the faction of 58 people, then their number will decrease even more in the coming days. In the fourth chapter of the NA regulation-law, it is defined that a faction or alliance of factions is considered to be governing if it includes 54 percent of the total number of deputies of the parliament. In this case, 58 deputies, as the National Assembly consists of 105 people. This means that even at this moment, when there are only 53 deputies in the RPA, it is no longer a governing party. The NA regulation-law also stipulates that the head and deputies of the parliament are appointed and recalled by the majority of the votes of the total number of deputies. That said, legal grounds have been created for the RPA leadership of the parliament, the NA president Ara Babloyani, vice presidents Eduard Sharmazanov and: Arpine Hovhannisyan to raise the issue of demanding resignation. at least Nikol Pashinyan the government has enough votes to solve the problem if it makes such a decision. In the end, even if new people do not leave the RPA faction, it is still possible that some will vote without agreeing with the RPA faction, even against the decisions of the RPA faction. Let’s wait for new developments.”


“People” the daily writes. “The investigation of the March 1 case gained new momentum after the Velvet Revolution. It became known to “Zhoghovurd” daily that new examinations have been appointed, not only in RA, but also abroad. “Taking into account that the previous examinations in the case of March 1 were carried out about 10 years ago, and during that period the scientific and technical means and methods developed, new ways of conducting examinations appeared, so in order to find out the issue of conducting research using the new equipment used during a number of examinations, requests were sent to expert institutions, both in Armenia and abroad,” they informed in response to the question of “Zhoghovurd” daily. From SIS. Let’s remind that even before the victory of the Velvet Revolution, on the instructions of the General Prosecutor’s Office of RA, the CSI began to study the report of the former Fact-Finding Group on the involvement of the army in the events of March 1.


“time” the newspaper writes. “President of NKR Bako Sahakyan, who holds that position for the third term in a row and wanted to be re-elected in 2020. in the presidential elections, now he understands that he must find a successor. Sahakyan lost his old influence not only in Stepanakert, but also in Yerevan. If previously he actively intervened in the internal political developments of Armenia, solving the most important issues for the government, after the Velvet Revolution he expects the intervention of the Armenian government in order to strengthen his position.”


“Fact” the daily writes. “According to the reliable information we have, what is happening in the RPA these days is actually not only a surprise, but the president of that party Serzh Sargsyan is part of the program. Moreover, the continuous part. Except Shirak Torosyan and: Felix Tsolakyan, all other members of the RPA, who leave and will leave the faction, do so exclusively with Serzh Sargsyan’s knowledge, moreover, on his instructions. The point is that the head of the RPA had a goal with the May 8 vote Nikol Pashinyan secure the prime ministership exclusively with the votes of business MPs. As a continuation, it was decided to withdraw the business sector from the RPA faction, so that they could vote in favor of the projects brought by the government as independent deputies. Thus, several issues are resolved. those businessmen keep their businesses, there will be no need to make a decision every time in the RPA faction, who should vote for and who should vote against, so that the legislative initiatives are not defeated, and the two most important issues, that is, Serzh Sargsyan’s plan to cleanse the party of such faces, leaving only the so-called politicians, and here to make the businessmen the actual support of Pashinyan. This party, in fact, fits into the logic of preparing for early elections.”


“Publication” the newspaper writes. “Chief of police Valery Osipyan, how Raffi Hovhannisyanwould say, he is no less a “God-fearing general” than his predecessor. They said that Vova Gasparyan he had a small “chapel” with icons and a Bible in the corner of his office, so that he could communicate with the Most High at any time. Our journalist inquired from Osipyan whether Gasparyan’s “chapel” was preserved, or whether the revolution wiped out that corner as well. “I have mine and I think every Armenian Christian should have one,” said Osipyan, clarifying that his is not a “chapel” but a corner with icons and a Bible.


“time” the newspaper writes. “Union of Earth Guard Volunteers, which in 1993 has been created Vazgen Sargsyan on the other hand, now found himself in a very unusual situation. The EUM, which has always been with the authorities and the support of the government, has nothing to do with the new government of Armenia. Although the president of the EUM Manvel Grigoryan to the statements that he is not a republican, Grigoryan is considered as a representative of the previous government. Meanwhile, the EMU-government relationship should be restored, because it is necessary on both sides. It can happen if the “Ogu Pesutun” organization, which was previously separated from the ECM, reunites with the ECM, and the vice president of the “Ogu Pesutun” NGO board Sasun Mikayelyan to be elected the President of the European Union. This is only one of the options, but not the only one.”


“Publication” the newspaper writes. “Among the judges, there is a growing dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court of Justice. They state that the Central Committee has assumed the role of punishing and controlling them, they do not discuss anything, they support it. At the same time, they note that as a result of the velvet revolution Gagik Harutyunyan the positions have weakened a bit, instead, now an advocate member of the BSC is active Hayk Hovhannisyan: He is quite active during the meetings, argues, tries to create an opposition in the Central Committee and suppress the sponsored members of the RPA. Dissatisfaction has also grown around the Supreme Court in connection with not appointing the candidates who graduated from the Academy of Justice and scored the highest points as judges. They decided not to appoint those who got the highest points.”


“Publication” the newspaper writes. “Chairman of the Court of Cassation Arman Mkrtumyan there have been talks about changing it in recent years. They said Serzh Sargsyan does not find a suitable candidate, that is the reason for Mkrtumyan’s longevity. He submitted his resignation yesterday, and the Supreme Judicial Council must appoint him to this important position. But in Armenia, according to accepted tradition, such appointments are coordinated with the executive power. It is not yet clear who will be appointed as the president of the cassation court. To date, there have been 2 presidents of the Civil Chamber of Cassation Yervand Khundkaryan and a judge of the same chamber Gor Hakobyan nominations”.


“time” the newspaper writes. “The peasantry of Armenia complains that it was not possible to harvest cherries this year, because the largest export company “Spayka” seems to be boycotting the peasantry. Unlike previous years, this year “Spayka” decided not to engage in the purchase and sale of agricultural products, which causes stagnation in the market and a drop in prices. In recent years, Spyka has completely taken over the purchase and sale of Armenian agricultural products in Russia. According to our information, “Spayka” company has decided to concentrate all its potential in Abkhazia.”


“People” the daily writes. “Minister of Education and Science Araik Harutyunyan, assuming the position, announced the de-partisanship of the education system and the elimination of corruption there. He has already managed to apply to the NSS in one case. But there is an opinion that if the practice of contacting the law enforcement officers continues, it will become a problem in itself. In response to the question of “Zhoghovurd” daily about this, the minister commented yesterday. “For us, it is not a goal in itself to bring the National Security Service and the police to schools. Eliminating corruption is not an end in itself for us. If there are relevant facts, of course, the law enforcement officers should deal with them. But everyone should know that from now on the law will be strictly followed.” At the same time, he said that corruption should be fought by raising salaries in the education system. “But it will already be related to next year’s budget,” he said.


“Fact” the daily writes. “Head of the staff of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Artak Grigoryan In 2017, he submitted to the ethics committee of high-ranking officials. annual statement. According to the declaration, last year Grigoryan bought two new real estates: a garage and an apartment building. Before that, the official already had one apartment and two plots of land. The garage was bought for 1 million 710 thousand AMD, and the apartment building – the building with more than one apartment, non-residential and common areas – for 31 million 134 thousand AMD. He had money denominated in four different currencies in his bank accounts. Thus, in 2017 last time he had 16 million 800 thousand drams, 28 thousand 500 US dollars, 7200 euros and 124 thousand Russian rubles. By the way, at the beginning of the year, he also had 1,500 UAH, which was completely spent. Annual incomes amounted to 8 million 211 thousand drams, of which 44 thousand drams are received loans, and the rest are salaries.”

‘Javakheti is a bridge in Armenian-Georgian relations’ – expert on PM Pashinyan’s visit

ArmenPress, Armenia
‘Javakheti is a bridge in Armenian-Georgian relations’ – expert on PM Pashinyan’s visit



YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. The agenda of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Georgia is rather busy, with important emphases, expert Joni Melikyan told ARMENPRESS.

Melikyan noted the rather expanded delegation of the PM, suggesting a comprehensive and effective visit.

“This visit also bears a courtesy nature, but in addition to getting to know each other issues of bilateral interest will be raised during a number of planned meetings,” he said, adding that a new phase of development in the Armenian-Georgian ties can be expected after this visit.

The Armenian PM is also expected to visit Javakheti.

Only two official visits from Armenia were made to Javakheti in the last 15 years – one by Serzh Sargsyan who was serving as defense minister at the time, and the other by PM Andranik Margaryan.

“The visit to Javakheti is very important. Firstly it is agreed with Tbilisi, which is a bilateral message – both to certain external powers and certain internal political circles. The message is the following: Javakheti is not a disconnecting, but a connecting area in the Armenian-Georgian relations. It is a bridge in the Armenian-Georgian ties,” Melikyan said.

The one-on-one meeting of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili has kicked off in the governmental seat of Georgia in Tbilisi.

The Armenian PM was welcomed outside the governmental seat in Tbilisi in an official welcoming ceremony.

The one-on-one meeting will be followed by an expanded format meetings of delegations.

The Prime Ministers will deliver a joint press conference afterwards.

Later the Armenian PM will have meetings with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Speaker of Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze, and President Giorgi Margvelashvili.

The Prime Minister will lay flowers at the tombs of Hovhannes Tumanyan, Raffi and Gabriel Sundukyan and Sayat Nova in the Khojivank pantheon.

As part of the two-day visit, PM Pashinyan will also visit Javakheti and meet with the Armenian community.

The delegation of the Armenian PM includes his deputy Tigran Avinyan, defense minister Davit Tonoyan, foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, education and science minister Arayik Harutyunyan, culture minister Lilit Makunts, minister of diaspora Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, minister of transportation, communication and IT Ashot Hakobyan and other government officials.

The Armenian PM arrived in Georgia on May 30.

English –translator/editor:Stepan Kocharyan

2 Armenia prostitutes arrested in Turkey

News.am, Armenia
2 Armenia prostitutes arrested in Turkey 2 Armenia prostitutes arrested in Turkey

09:47, 11.05.2018
                  

Citizens of various countries, and who were engaged in prostitution, were arrested as a result of respective police operations in two provinces of Turkey. 

In Aydın Province, police caught women without Turkish citizenship “in the act,” according to Hürriyet newspaper of Turkey. It was found out that one of these arrestees was an Armenian citizen. 

And in Tekirdağ Province, police arrested nine women accused of prostitution, and one of them also was an Armenian citizen. 

It is noted that these arrested prostitutes will be deported from Turkey.

Song dedicated to “My Step” movement (video)

Legendary “36,6” rock band presented a song about the events taking place in Armenia these days.

It is devoted to  Armenians and the “My Step” movement.

The song was written before the end of the event.

The song urges not to step back.

The group is active in Poland and it is interesting that not all members of the group are Armenians.