Author: Jalatian Sonya

Asbarez: Pashinyan Meets With ARF Leaders

Jalatian Sonya
March 4, 2020

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with ARF Bureau chairman Hagop Der Khachadourian

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday met with Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau chairman Hagop Der Khachadourian and ARF Supreme Council of Armenia chairman Ishkhan Saghatelyan. Armenia’s High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan also attended the meeting.

According to the press services of the ARF and the prime minister’s office, the sides exchanged views on regional issues and national concerns.

Healthcare minister advises to follow preventive methods, stop handshaking and kissing-greetings

Jalatian Sonya

Healthcare minister advises to follow preventive methods, stop handshaking and kissing- greetings

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 12:44, 1 March, 2020

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Respiratory diseases retreat at warm seasons, Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan said at a news conference on the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) in Armenia.

“Thanks to the preventive measures, we, persevering these 40 days, can say that we are in a favorable condition. We see that the weather is getting warmer, and in this case viruses can’t survive in open environments, and by ruling out mass gatherings the spread will be prevented,” he said.

Torosyan called on the general population to avoid coming in direct contact with people who have flu-like symptoms, to wash hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers and frequently ventilate closed areas.

He also noted a “cultural” preventive method.

“I have another recommendation, let’s stop greeting each other by kissing, we will greet each other so warmly when the weather will become warmer. Reduce handshaking also,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Make Armenia Green Again – Foreign Policy refers to forest restoration program in Armenia

Jalatian Sonya

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 21:23,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. The “Foreign Policy” has published an extended Article about Armenia, headlining it “Make Armenia Green Again”.  ARMENPRESS reports the author of the article visited one of the villages in Ararat Province, talked with its residents, who told about their living conditions, the regular shooting coming from the Azerbaijani side, as well as about making their country green again.

“Riding high on the heels of a peaceful revolution that swept out years of corrupt oligarchy, Armenia’s new reformist government, led by the former journalist Nikol Pashinyan, has pledged to double the country’s tree cover by 2050 as part of Armenia’s commitment to the Paris climate agreement goals.

Since 1994, the Armenia Tree Project (ATP), a Massachusetts-headquartered nonprofit staffed by Armenians and Armenian Americans, has led the country’s reforestation efforts. ATP nurseries, greenhouses, community forests, and planting sites dot virtually every corner of Armenia, from the lush, leafy Georgian border down to disputed Nagorno-Karabakh. Their forests often memorialize; they’re named for genocide survivors or are dedicated to patriotic themes. In 2001, ATP planted the poplar and fruit trees skirting the roads around the 13th-century Noravank monastery to honor Armenia’s 1,700-year anniversary as the world’s first Christian nation.

Scaling up that model, in October at the country’s inaugural forest summit—Forest Summit: Global Action and Armenia, convened by ATP and the American University of Armenia—Pashinyan announced that doubling the tree cover would begin with 10 million trees planted by Oct. 10, 2020—representing the global population of Armenians. To put that number into perspective, after 25 years on the ground, ATP celebrated its 6 millionth tree planting only late last year”, reads the article.

Economist: One should not expect major investments in Armenia until 2024

Jalatian Sonya
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 19 2020

14:42, 19.02.2020

YEREVAN. – Armenia is not ready for major investments today. Former governor of the Central Bank of Armenia, economist Bagrat Asatryan, said this during a press conference today.

“This is not an issue for today,” he added. “The last decades of Armenia’s development were such that the flow of investments had to be reduced.

The growth of investments in Armenia was conditioned by specific transactions. Institutional solutions are needed here; in general, the environment is not like that. Of course, I understand that the authorities want to see greater investments every year, but much more needs to be done for it, to create that environment.”

Asatryan noted that Armenia is not ready for large-scale institutional investments, especially if it is regarding direct foreign investments. “There is no need to wait for it until 2024,” he said. “Here the state has to take responsibility, starting from developing specific small projects and presenting them to the international community, to contributing to the implementation of those programs; in that case, one can expect a positive trend.”

“Develop the judicial system, and I promise you that the flow of investments will increase qualitatively,” Bagrat Asatryan added. “I also promise that the interest rates will considerably reduce in the banking system. There is also the issue of protection of property rights.”

Taron Simonyan: The highest-level agitation campaign has already begun on the referendum issue

Jalatian Sonya
Arminfo, Armenia
Feb 10 2020

ArmInfo.The President of Armenia could appeal to the Constitutional Court on the issue of referendum, but did not use this option. On February 10, MP from  Bright Armenia faction Taron Simonyan stated this in a conversation  with reporters.

According to the MP,  Bright Armenia  expressed tits position on this  issue during a vote in parliament.  “We convened a special meeting to  discuss the matter regarding our future tactics before the  referendum. I don’t know exactly when this meeting will take place,  but we will make a statement on this issue in the near future,”  Simonyan emphasized.  He also emphasized that the highest level  campaign  had already begun. “The campaign has not only begun, but  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a corresponding statement on his  Facebook page. This means that the campaign has already begun and is  taking place at the highest level,” the MP noted.

When asked whether it is possible at the level of judges of the  Constitutional Court to appeal the appointment of a referendum,  Simonyan replied that the President and one fifth of the MPs can  appeal to the Constitutional Court, “he concluded.

It should be noted that on February 6, the Armenian parliament  decided to submit draft amendments to the Constitution to the  referendum. 88 MPs voted for this decision, 15 MPs – against , and  abstained-0. Many deputies and human rights activists said that this  decision is unconstitutional, since initially the deputies had to  send their proposal to the Constitutional Court. To recall, even  before the vote, the Prosperous Armenia faction stated that it would  not take part in the vote.

Temperature stress expected in Armenia

Jalatian Sonya

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 21:51, 6 February, 2020

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The temperature in Armenia will gradually decline by 18-20 degrees. ARMENPRESS reports head of the meteorological center of the Hydromet Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia Gagik Surenyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“In the upcoming days we will be subjected to temperature stress. The temperature will gradually decline by 18-20 degrees”, he wrote.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Newspaper: Armenia PM could not reach agreement with Kazakhs

Jalatian Sonya
News.am, Armenia
Feb 4 2020

10:19, 04.02.2020
                  

YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: As early as last month, alarming news came from Kazakhstan for individuals and organizations [in Armenia] engaged in car importing whose [Kazakhstan’s] citizens were the major buyers of cars imported from the US to Armenia in 2019.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan, about 95,000 cars were imported into the country only last year, most of them from Armenia, and now the country claims that thousands of transactions made and to be made are expected to be carried out under other conditions, which, in short, means the Kazakhs will no longer buy the huge number of cars accumulated in Armenia, and it is also possible to return the ones already purchased to Armenia.

One of our interlocutors engaged in car imports mentioned that some have started to bring their cars back to Armenia and are trying to demand money from the RA citizens who sold them, and the auto market is in a shameful situation now; once it’s time to pay the property tax, people have to sell brought cars for very cheap price to pay off loans and debts.

Our sources claim that RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has his share of the blame for all this, who, in short, is not perceived by the EEU leaders as a credible (…) person.

The problem, of course, is profound, and (…) real politics also requires closed, often not-so-“proud” conversations with other leaders, which Pashinyan can’t do, and [therefore] thousands of Armenians are actually suffering because of his behavior.

Pashinyan chairs consultation on police reforms

Jalatian Sonya

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 16:09,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan today held a consultation discussing the agenda and vision of the Police reforms, the PM’s Office told Armenpress.

Touching upon the topic, the PM said in particular: “In general, from the very first day of the formation of our government the Police reforms have been in our agenda, and I think this is one of our key issues. We should record that after the 2018 peaceful, velvet and democratic revolution in Armenia the Police, overall, have fulfilled its tasks and continue fulfilling them, but we all admit that we need a new Police in these new political and public realities. In general, the key goal of this process should be the establishment of a new police-citizen relationship.

During this period we had various discussions, considered different models, but overall our conclusion is the following that both in the Police case and other cases we should refrain from sectional steps and make all our actions of strategic nature”, the PM said, adding that all actions and changes should be of strategic nature. “What do I mean by saying strategic changes? In any sphere where we make a change, even a smallest one, we should take into account that that change has a certain field of mutual effects. And while discussing the change we need to consider this field of mutual effects, not that particular change in its point, and then to make respective decisions. And in this sense I do believe and hope that the Police reforms will be one of our most successful examples”.

The consultation touched upon the main directions of the Police reforms, the process of strategy development works and its implementation. The discussion, in particular, focused on the structural changes of the Police, the new content of personnel policy, technical upgrading, introduction of new educational programs, professional preparedness, etc.

The PM tasked the responsible officials to complete the development of the reforms strategy as soon as possible and submit for discussion.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Armenian FM receives new Ambassador of Ukraine

Jalatian Sonya

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 16:42,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on January 24 received newly-appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia Ivan Kuleba who presented the copy of his credentials to the FM, the ministry told Armenpress.

The Armenian FM congratulated the Ambassador on assuming office and expressed hope that his activity will contribute to further deepening and developing the Armenian-Ukrainian relations which have firm historic ties.

The officials highly valued the role of the Armenian community in Ukraine’s public-political life in terms of strengthening the friendly ties between the two states.

Both sides highlighted taking actions to strengthen the Armenian-Ukrainian political dialogue, including to hold regular consultations between the foreign ministries and boost the dialogue at all levels. In this context they attached importance to the next session of the Armenian-Ukrainian joint inter-governmental commission on economic affairs.

The Armenian FM and the Ukrainian Ambassador also exchanged views on a number of urgent international and regional issues.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Russian Embassy in Armenia has responded to the report "The presence of the Russian base in Armenia, and its impact on the human rights situation in the country"

Jalatian Sonya
Arminfo, Armenia
Nov 1 2019

ArmInfo.The Russian Embassy in Armenia responded to the presentation in the republic of the report “The presence of the Russian base in Armenia, and its impact  on the human rights situation in the country.”

So, the Embassy’s statement received by ArmInfo,in particular, said:  “We could not help but pay attention to the report presented in  Yerevan on the presence of the Russian military base in Armenia and  its impact on the human rights situation in the country. Without  questioning the importance of informing of the Armenian society about  various aspects of the activities of 102 RMBs (it is well known that  we are open to dialogue and completely transparent in this regard),  we again ask ourselves the question: why do “studies” of the  fundamental issues of bilateral relations concerning more nor less  than the security and sovereignty of our countries, are financed with  funds from Western foundations, and how, in that case, like < Research> can claim to be objective? “.

To note, the report “The Presence of the Russian Base in Armenia and  Its Impact on the Human Rights Situation in the Country” was  presented in Yerevan. The report was prepared on the platform of the  Eastern Partnership Forum, by the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki  Civil Assembly in collaboration with the Moldovan Association  Promo-LEX and the Ukrainian Foundation for Eastern European Security  Research Initiative and was prepared with the financial assistance of  the EU. The English version of the report analyzes human rights  situations in connection with the presence of the Russian military in  Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine, while the Armenian version of the  report presents the situation only in Armenia.  According to the  authors of the report, the purpose of the study is to study the legal  grounds for the presence of the Russian base and the mechanisms of  its control in terms of ensuring human rights.