ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia Saturday Kuwait sheikh will bring several large-scale investment programs to Armenia Yerevan September 16 David Stepanyan. Sheikh from Kuwait Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah will bring several large- scale investment programs to Armenia According to Jamanak newspaper, Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah will arrive in Armenia at the invitation of the head of the parliamentary group "Tsarukyan block" Gagik Tsarukyan. The visit of the chairman of Olympic Council of Asia and the Asian Handball Federation will be held in the coming days. Within the framework of the visit, sheikh's meetings with President Serzh Sargsyan and other high-ranking officials are envisaged.
Author: Jalatian Sonya
The Armenian army is well acquainted with new military technologies. Ashotyan
- 29.08.2017
- Armenia:
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Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and other countries are obliged to further investigate the letter containing the concerns of famous people to the United Nations, in which it is stated that the development of technology could become another trap for the destruction of humanity. Armen Ashotyan, chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the RA National Assembly, announced this during the conference entitled “International Day Against Nuclear Tests” organized by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in RA.
According to the latter, the 21st century has not yet neutralized the challenges of the 20th century – nuclear weapons. And this problem, according to Ashotyan, is not just political publicity.
“Especially in this situation, when both Armenia, Kazakhstan, and other countries that can, should take the initiative to prevent the creation of new weapons, new weapons of human destruction, which are also the result of the scientific and technical crisis, but on the other hand, the restraint of human greed and unbridled ambitions,” he said.
Ashotyan emphasized, by whom, but the RA army and the people know very well the destructive effect of those scientific and technical telecommunication means at first glance: unmanned aerial vehicles, robotic, automated means, which are no less destructive than nuclear weapons.
“The Armenian Army is well acquainted with new military technologies,” added the chairman of the NA Standing Committee.
The article in an anti-Armenian fake website created by Azerbaijan has become subject for intense discussions on the social networks of Kyrgyzstan
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia August 12, 2017 Saturday The article in an anti-Armenian fake website created by Azerbaijan has become subject for intense discussions on the social networks of Kyrgyzstan YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS. The article of the clearly fake website armenianreport.com is intensely discussed on the social networks of Kyrgyzstan. Director of “Armenpress” news agency Aram Ananyan, referring to the inquiries about the article in the fake website intensely discussed on Kirgiz social networks, stated that it’s not an Armenian source. “Moreover, it’s an anti-Armenian website the aim of which is implementing informational operations against Armenia like this one. We exposed them long before. By pretending that they are Armenians, the Azerbaijani resource pursues specific goals”, Aram Ananyan said. This fake website with fascistic inclinations activated anti-Armenian moods on the social networks of Kyrgyzstan following the stir over the participation of Armenian Susanna Yegoryan in “World Next Top Model 2017” international contest in Lebanon. Susanna Yegoryan, who represents Kyrgyzstan, has become the winner of the international contest in Lebanon and came to the podium during one of the shows with a ribbon reading “Armenia”. After that there were calls in Kyrgyzstan to deprive the ethnic Armenian of citizenship. The model clarified in her Instagram page that she has not betrayed Kyrgyzstan, but implemented the demands of the contest that took place in Lebanon. “The rules of the contest were the following: In one case going to the podium we had to present our country, in another case – the nationality mentioned in the passport. I and many other girls were given two ribbons. I can’t understand what this stir is for. I have not betrayed my country”, Susanna wrote. Using the stir over the step of Susanna, armeniareport.com presenting itself as an Armenian website, has published articles with insulting accents, trying to make the situation worse. After those anti-Kirgiz publications anti-Armenian moods and comments are still found on the Kyrgyzsocial networks.
Azerbaijan is new player in world arms market
Vestnik Kavkaza
Aug 11 2017
The protracted armed conflict with Armenia has pushed Azerbaijan towards significantly improving its defense industry. According to a senior advisor to the Ministry of Defence Industry of Azerbaijani Republic (MODIAR) chief, Azer Mammadov, efforts have been made to not only outfit an increasingly powerful national armed force – rated 59th against Armenia’s 95th in the Global Firepower Ranking – but also to export arms and equipment in greater number.
According to the results of the Defense IQ study, given in the article ‘Azerbaijan sets plans for sniper rifles, vehicles and UAVs’, customers include not just the US and Russia, but also Georgia, Iraq and at least eight other states. While much of the country’s military development must be attributed to numerous joint ventures – foremost with Israel, Turkey and South-Africa – Mammadov pointed out that 31 production sites are currently working throughout Azerbaijan as subordinating entities, making 1,100 articles of defence products. “Azerbaijani-made weaponry meets the standards of NATO,” Azer Mammadov said, adding that the MODIAR is working on producing a long-range missile system and an electromagnetic weapon capable of destroying enemy military equipment.
Defense IQ was able to assess the full variety of ammunition for small arms, mortars and artillery, as well as air-launched bombs, of which some are exported to Turkey, Georgia and Iraq.
In 2016, Baghdad requested 500 RPG-7V2 grenade launchers, 500 60mm mortars and the relevant ammunition. In the US and Russia, Azerbaijani optical instruments and sights have became increasingly popular. In total, ten nations were mentioned as customers of Azerbaijani arms and equipment. “At one point the ministry has even been forced to refuse orders of some countries, since we were not able to fulfill the size of the order within the short, requested timeframe,” Mammadov said.
Long-range sniper rifles
Azerbaijan’s obvious obsession with long-range sniper- and heavy anti-materiel rifles was explained as “the logics of 23 years of anachronistic WWI-style trench-warfare”. While most other armies would call 12.7mm or .50 BMG the limit to man portable small arms, the latest product in service with the Azerbaijani Army – and offered for export – is the 14.5mm ‘Isitigal-T’ rifle. It is said to have corrected certain accuracy problems with 2009’s Istigal rifle that many large calibre semi-automatic rifle manufacturers have encountered.
It is now magazine-fed and has a new bolt-action. Weighing 20kg, Mammadov claimed it to have a maximum-range of 2,000m with a maximum effective range of 1,600m. Exports have gone to Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan.
Another precision rifle presented was the bolt action .308 Winchester/.338 Vashaq (Lynx). It can be seen as an Azeri response to the success of the PSR competition in the US, albeit without the .300 Win Mag conversion ability. Before Vashaq there was the similar Yalguzag (Steppenwulf), only available in .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm) with a folding front sight and picatinny rails.
According to Mammadov, Yalguzag sniper rifles have begun to be exported to customers. In 12.7mm, the heavy sniper rifle available is called the Mubariz. It is a 5kg lighter version of NST with a five-round magazine.
Defence IQ was invited to try out the latest Zafar-P 9x19mm pistol, one of three models manufactured by MODIAR under license from Turkish TİSAŞ’ Zigana designs. 17 parts of these are now produced in Azerbaijan and 42 in Turkey. Zafars are now equipping Azeri specialforces, and various add-ons like strobo-lights or lasers are available. In 2010, a licence was given by Russia’s Kalashnikov/ Izhevsk to MODIAR for production of 120,000 AK-74M assault rifles. While demonstrating a 2017 model to us, Mammadov explained that current production will run until 2021.
Protected vehicles
While at an OCC (Operation Capability Concept alongside Nato evaluation) rapid battalion demonstration, Defence IQ encountered some of the 85 delivered EVM licence-produced Paramount (of South Africa) Matador and Maurauder MRAPVs with locally adapted transmissions and 14.5mm RWS-turrets. However, Mamamdov preferred to highlight the first fully domestically produced vehicle – the Tufan.
This 4×4 MRAP vehicle was designed by the National Aerospace Agency and will be assembled at the AGREGAT factory near Baku. It features a STANAG 3/3A level of armour, weighing 14.7 tons with a payload of 2.3 tons. A 360 hp turbocharged diesel enables a maximum road speed of 85 km/h. Tufan is completed by a stablised RWS with a 12.7mm NVS machinegun, 10 smoke-grenade launchers, a hydraulic rear-door and 360° cameras.
Together with modular multi-calibre RWS for 12.7/14.5 mm or 20/23 mm by MIDAR’s Jihaz PA (project is being finalised) Mammadov said that Tufan will be produced from 2018 in variations of medical evacuation, air-defence/ anti-armour, anti-riot and basic APC, and will then also be available for export.
UAVs
Daily incidents of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over recent years have heavily involved various UAV activities from both sides. For Baku, this means acquisitions and joint developments from and with Israel. While the Azeri Forces are using Herons and local manufacturer AZAD is producing Aeronautic’s Aerostar.
Mammadov also revealed that AZAD’s current work is concentrated on Zarba-1K, the local derivative of Aeronautics’ Orbiter-K. The loitering/suicide-type craft, he said, has a high-explosive cumulative warhead that’s already been adopted and was handed over to the MoD. “There also is a launching-vehicle outfitted with a catapult and we expect to complete test work within a few months, after which we plan to field 100 of them. Due to its very low acoustic signature it is not detectable until two seconds before diving into attack,” Mammadov said.
It can however fly for up to three hours, carrying a multi-sensor camera with day/night channels and, if no target is designated or located, it returns to base via parachute and airbag.
***
The Azerbaijani Air Force detected and destroyed a tactical UAV near Azerbaijan’s Agdam region on 2 March. A week earlier, Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed an Armenian UAV near Talish, one month after another was destroyed on 22 January near Tovuz. Meanwhile, Armenian press agencies are claiming that Azerbaijan lost 14 UAVs of various types since operations began along the NKR LoC. Three UN Security Council Resolutions (853, 874 and 884), and UN General Assembly Resolutions 19/13 and 57/298 refer to Karabakh as being part of Azerbaijan. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe refers to the seven regions around Karabakh as being occupied by Armenian forces since 1994.
Author’s comment
Azerbaijan’s military budget for 2016 was around US$1.46bn, a sharp drop compared to the $3.1bn in 2011, thanks in large part to wilting oil prices. Nevertheless, the country’s defence spending still exceeds the overall state budget of occupant Armenia by more than $1bn. From 2011, the state budget began including a category for “private defence-oriented projects and events” and, up to last year, an additional $ 6.1bn was allocated towards this fund.
Religion: The Armenian Church: Questions and Candles
The Armenian Weekly
Aug 9 2017
Special to the Armenian Weekly
“So, do you believe in God these days?”
It’s a Wednesday afternoon in January, and my mother asks me this. I’m home from school for winter break. We’re in the car, on our way to the yoga studio across town. We’ve just been talking about grocery shopping, about whether we have time to stop for gas, about everything mundane and nothing holy.
“So, do you believe in God these days?” (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)
“Um, what?”
For me and for many of my friends, questions of God and religion are complicated. Whether by popular opinion, education, or most often the strange combination of maturity and naiveté, we’re skeptical. In our twenties, we’re old enough to be jaded, disillusioned, but we’re too young to have lost the sense of invincibility that comes with youth. We’re able to shrug at miracles, destiny, or any sort of higher power because we don’t need one—and don’t particularly want one.
I relay my skepticism to my mother and I feel guilty. I was confirmed when I was 14. Being confirmed at Central Congregational Church means you attended Sunday School since you were little, showed up for Confirmation Class once a month for a year, and wrote a Statement of Faith. You stood in front of the entire congregation on a Sunday morning in May and accepted Jesus as your savior. The pastor placed a cross around your neck, and everyone clapped. I can’t say for sure whether I believed then, or whether I just wanted to believe, but for the next few years I wore that cross every day.
Since then, I’ve read Joseph Campbell’s Thou Art That, compared world religions, and taken enough courses in biology and physics to put stock in medicine over miracles. Besides, even deciding where God does or doesn’t have a hand is a question with enough answers that accepting any one of them makes me feel like one of the selectively faithful. Does He decide who lives and dies? Does He control natural disasters? Or is He really all about free will?
When my mom and I pulled up to the yoga studio 20 minutes later, she surprised me with how unperturbed she was by my confession.
“Lots of people drift away from the Church at your age,” she says, turning the car off, “I suspect you’ll come back one day.”
I can’t say definitively that I don’t believe, either, and not just because of the millions upon millions of people in the world who are devout. It’s more because the Church has always been a part of my life in ways that I can’t seem to ignore.
Like when I was five and my family left New Hampshire for Massachusetts, and just happened to move across the street from the gold dome of Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church. Upon discovering the church’s existence, my dad and his third-generation nostalgia for our Armenian heritage insisted we attend a service.
The Armenian Church is strange if you’ve never been to an Orthodox Church before. At Sts. Vartanantz, the sanctuary is tiny but intricate. You walk in between the rows of old oaken pews. The floor is carpeted. I imagine my bare feet compressing the red fibers were I to take my shoes off, little tufts tickling between my toes. Images of the saints decorate the walls, and one of Mary holding Jesus tenderly is above the altar. There are always candles lit; their tiny, flame-sized shadows dance beneath her.
I think of my mother’s church—a Protestant church, which we ended up joining a year later—with its bare walls and neutral smell. It makes you wonder where it came from—its origins. At the Armenian Church, you know: The Armenian script on the ceiling reminds you; the smell of the incense takes you across an ocean and to a place where my ancestors lived until 1915.
I don’t remember the first time I learned about the Armenian Genocide. In some ways, it feels like something I’ve always known. I spent many school projects trying to understand it. I learned how Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire and how, during the First World War, the Young Turks came to power. I read about how they made promises to the Armenians, and then broke those promises on April 24, 1915.
“They [our family] never had problems until the new Turkish regime,” my Uncle Armen told me once, “and that’s when they decided they were going to make Turkey all Muslim. Got rid of all Christians—Greeks, Syriacs, Armenians.”
On that day, hundreds of leaders in the Armenian community—Apostolic, Catholic, and Protestant alike—were arrested. Most of them were killed. My great grandfather, whom we call Pa, and his father were led away that day, too, but were spared.
“They’d decided not to kill Protestants that week because they were getting heat from the Americans,” Uncle Armen tells me. He says it in a strange way: matter-of-fact, almost offhand.
A month later they took Pa’s father anyway.
At first, no one in my family attended Sts. Vartanantz regularly. But when my dad got laid off five years later, he found the church again and the Armenian community there. Now he runs the Men’s Club and makes pounds of losh kebab (my great grandmother’s recipe) for their functions each month. It fills the house with the smell of ground beef, freshly chopped vegetables, and spices like chili powder, pepper, and cumin. The Women’s Guild adores him, in part for this culinary skill. They give him kisses on both cheeks and tell my mother how lucky she is.
I think these women remind him of his Grandma Shami, my great-grandmother and Pa’s wife. She taught him how to make the losh, dolma, rice pilaf, kufta, and even baklava. In the summertime, he’ll make madzoun soup—but only for himself. The rest of us turn our noses at the watery yogurt.
For Grandma Shami and now for my dad, in true Armenian fashion, food is an _expression_ of love. In fact, most of the stories about Grandma involve food. My own grandmother—Grandma Barbara—tells the story of Grandma Shami supplying food for the men building the Assembly of God Church just down the street from their home on Bellingham Street, in Chelsea, Mass.:
Ma was going to make lunch for the workers. Grandpa was forbidding her to do that and he was arguing his reasons. So, that day, when Grandpa went out by the back door, as did everyone, and Grandma heard the bell at the front door. Two men came to pick up the food—pilaf and chicken as she had arranged. She ignored Pa and did exactly what she thought was right. That was who she was.
No one in the family can remember his reasons. I try to picture Grandma Barbara sitting at the ’50s-style, chrome kitchen table of Bellingham Street. “Grandma Shami and I were very, very close,” she told me. I imagine her smiling as she watches Grandma Shami sneak to the front hallway with the food. Pa had a reputation for being a penny-pincher, so maybe it had something to do with that. I sometimes wonder, if it’s true, whether he was that way because they lost everything in the Genocide.
There are also many stories in family lore about Grandma Shami’s devotion to the church, so maybe she imparted that to my father in a small way, too. Grandma Shami was an Evangelical Christian, which, I learned, was different from how she had been raised. Her mother was Armenian Apostolic—a denomination shared by most Armenians, and the first national church in history.
Her father’s family was Protestant. They lived in the province of Diarbekir, one of the first regions where Armenian Protestantism began to crop up in the early 19th century. Missionaries from the Church of England were sent to what was then the Ottoman Turkish Empire. At first, their presence was met with aggression from local Armenians, as the Protestant teachings were in conflict—and often critical of—the “Mother Church.”
But by 1850, when tensions between the Apostolics and Protestants had subsided, many Armenians converted to Protestantism. My dad says they were attracted to the educational opportunities that the Protestants offered. Grandma Shami converted for different reasons.
At three years old, she and her sister, Varsenik, were sent on a death march—one of many caravan-like journeys the Turks led hundreds of Armenians on through the heat of the desert. The Armenians were starved, harassed, beaten, raped. Somehow, the two of them survived and made it to Aleppo, where they were rescued by a group of Evangelical Christians. A lot of children like my great grandmother ended up in orphanages.
She lived with the Evangelicals until she was 18 and Pa came back to rescue her. She stayed Evangelical even though Pa’s mother—who lived with them—disapproved. “She was a very religious woman,” my grandmother, Barbara, tells me, “She had Jesus, and that was all she needed.”
I don’t know whether Pa was a very religious man. His family was Protestant, but he and his mother and sister escaped the Genocide by pretending to be Muslim. He lived with them in Syria for seven years under the name Vahan Suleiman.
I imagine that surviving genocide changes the way you think about God.
In the Armenian Church, it’s customary to light a candle and say a prayer for lost loved ones—or for anyone in need of God’s attention. When I visited Armenia, we went to church after church, lighting candles everywhere we went. At 14, I still hadn’t had a lot of experience with death. I lit one for Auntie Pauline’s mother. She had passed a few years earlier, and she was the first person in my life to die whom I’d really known. I lit one for Pa, but even though I knew him I’d been too young to take much notice of his passing. I lit one for Grandma Shami, too. Even though I never knew her, I felt that having the same name connected us in some way, giving me license to light the candle.
My friend Robin told me her Armenian grandmother hated the practice of lighting candles for the dead.
“Do you believe your father is at peace? Do you believe his early suffering is over?” she would ask her children. When they would say “yes,” she’d reply, “then he doesn’t need your prayers.” Robin’s grandmother was Apostolic, too. She didn’t see the purpose of the candles.
Every time you light a candle, you are supposed to make a small donation to the church. Maybe my liberal arts education has made me doubtful, but I can’t help but wonder about that particular tradition: exchanging prayers for money. About how manipulative it seems to ingrain the congregation with this belief that lighting a candle keeps you in contact with the dead and, in that way, ensuring a steady stream of dollars into the church coffers. Maybe Robin’s grandmother’s instinct is right.
Last February, my grandfather (Pa’s son) had a stroke in the middle of the night, and by the time we got the call he was in the hospital in a coma. My dad and I left early in the morning to be with him and our family in Auburn, New York. We made three stops on the way: the Sunoco station for gas and coffee, the cleaners for my dad’s shirts, and Sts. Vartanantz to light a candle.
It was 6:30 in the morning when we walked into the church, through the backdoor and past all the Sunday school rooms. Even though the sun had started to rise, inside the building was dark, but neither of us turned on any lights.
Dad paused at the table outside the sanctuary. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, fumbling through the bills inside.
“Do you have a 10?” he asked. “In the car maybe—” “No, don’t worry.” He slid a $20 bill into the envelope in the top drawer of the desk, and pulled a candle out of the drawer beneath it. “Dad—20 bucks?” I found myself saying. He didn’t respond but gestured, after you, toward the sanctuary with the candle in his hand.
The sanctuary had fewer windows than the rest of the building and was darker.
A warm glow came from the back corner, where there is a small altar for these prayer candles. A wire rack holds the little tea candles, which are a dollar each. The big candle my dad was holding costs $10 and would burn for seven days on the altar.
My dad didn’t break stride through the entire process, knowing exactly where to find the matches and where to extinguish them once the candle was lit. I realized how often he must light candles for the people in his life—or people who have passed. I think again of the incredible capacity for love that Grandma Shami passed down to him.
He stepped back once the candle was lit, clasped his hands, and bowed his head. He looked more thoughtful than in prayer, but to me that seemed more sincere.
I folded my hands to match his, but I was too distracted to close my eyes. Instead, my gaze darted from the flickering candle to my boots on the red carpet, then to the painting of a saint on the wall above the altar.
I put a hand on my dad’s shoulder—it was an instinct, somehow, to let him know I was still here, to let him know I was supporting him. Something like that. After a few moments, my dad opened his eyes, looked at me, and returned the gesture.
“Let’s go,” he said.
I didn’t think the candle would save my grandfather. But I do remember—as we left the church, got in the car, and started driving—feeling that, without a doubt, it was the right thing to do.
Sports: Armenian boxers prepare in Yerevan for World Championship
MediaMax, Armenia
Aug 8 2017
Turkish Parliament passes the bill that bans the term “Armenian Genocide”
Public Radio of Armenia
14:20, 28 Jul 2017
The Turkish parliament passed the bill that stipulates changes in the internal rules of procedure, Diken reports. According to it lawmakers are banned from mentioning the Armenian Genocide in the parliament. As could have been expected, the AK and the Nationalist Movement Party voted in favor of the bill, while the opposition voted against.
As was reported earlier the bill stipulates a punishment for those lawmakers who break the rule by “insulting the history and common past of the Turkish people” that is using the term “Armenian Genocide” while speaking about the “events of 1915”. The ban also includes terms like “Kurdistan”, “Kurdish regions”.
Those who refuse to take an oath in the Parliament after being elected will not be able to enjoy their rights. Lawmakers are banned from bringing any text posters or placards to the Parliament.
Those Members of Parliament who break the law will temporarily be removed from the legislative body, as well as will pay a penalty in the amount of 1/3 of their salaries.
Norduz-Meghri joint operation to increase Iran-Armenia trade turnover
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia Monday Norduz-Meghri joint operation to increase Iran-Armenia trade turnover YEREVAN, JULY 24, ARMENPRESS. The main purpose of the bill of the joint operation of Norduz-Meghri gate is to launch perspective economic agreements, expert on Iran Armen Israyelyan told a press conference today. “This relates to increasing of bilateral commercial turnover volumes and implementation of various programs in the economic branch. The joint operation of the Norduz-Meghri gate is aimed at the implementation of transit cargo shipments, namely shipments en route from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea”, he said, adding that it will also increase the investment appeal of both countries for international investors. The expert said a task force will be created for rapid customer service in order to avoid double operations in border checkpoints and swiftly carry out customs procedures. “In addition, Armenia and Iran will exchange information on smuggling cases, in order to rapidly solve the problems which might occur at the border”, Israyelyan said. He said a significant growth has been seen in the Iranian-Armenian trade turnover in the recent years. In 2016, the commercial turnover (non oil products) amounted 170 million dollars, compared to the 120-130 million of 2015. “In the past couple of years a number of economic processes happened – the visa regime was lifted between Iran and Armenia, the 500 dollar insurance payment for inbound vehicles from Iran to Armenia was revises and decreased to 90 dollars etc. This also contributed to the development of tourism”, he said.
RFE/RL Armenian Report – 07/21/2017
Friday, July 21, 2017 Karabakh Leader `Unlikely' To Seek Reelection In 2020 July 21, 2017 . Hovannes Movsisian Nagorno-Karabakh - Vitali Balasanian, secretary of Karabakh's Security Council, is interviewed by RFE/RL in Stepanakert, 21Jul2017. Bako Sahakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's president, is unlikely seek another term in the next presidential election due in 2020, a retired Karabakh army general currently allied to him said on Friday. "I don't think that the current president will run in 2020," said Vitali Balasanian, the secretary of Karabakh's Security Council. "It's up to him to decide. But my personal view is that I can't imagine that," Balasanian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) in Stepanakert. Earlier this week, the Karabakh parliament controversially extended Sahakian's rule by electing him as the unrecognized republic's interim president. He will serve at least until Karabakh completes in 2020 its transition to a fully presidential system of government in line with a new constitution enacted earlier this year. The previous constitution barred Sahakian from seeking a third term. But under the current one, he can run in the next presidential election slated for 2020. The Karabakh leader has not ruled out his participation in the vote, fueling more criticism of his constitutional reform by local opposition figures. Asked whether he himself could run for president in 2020, Balasanian said: "Time will tell. It's too early say yes or no now." A former deputy commander of Karabakh's Armenian-backed army, Balasanian was the main opposition candidate in the last presidential election held in 2012. Official election results gave him around 33 percent of the vote, compared with more than 66 percent polled by Sahakian. Balasanian described the election as "free but not fair" at the time, accusing the incumbent of abusing administrative resources. He agreed to become the secretary of Sahakian's Security Council last year. The 58-year-old retired general is one of Karabakh's most prominent veterans of the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He commanded Karabakh Armenians forces in the eastern Askeran district throughout the war. Armenia Needs Eurasian Union Membership, Insists Ruling Party July 21, 2017 Armenia - Eduard Sharmazanov, spokesman for the ruling Republican Party, at a news conference in Yerevan, 14May2017. President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party (HHK) has dismissed an opposition leader's calls for Armenia to leave the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Edmon Marukian, a pro-Western leader of the opposition Yelk alliance, advocated an exit from the EEU last week after Russia stopped recognizing the validity of driving licenses issued by Armenia and other countries where Russian is not an official language. A Russian law which took effect on June 1 banned foreign nationals with driving licenses issued by their home countries from working as drivers in Russia. The State Duma, the Russian lower house of parliament, passed last week another law which waived the restriction for citizens of those countries, including EEU members Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, where the Russian language has an official status. Marukian said that the Russian laws run counter to EEU regulations on a common labor market set up by the bloc's member states. The EEU's executive body has reportedly given the same assessment, telling Moscow to scrap the ban on Armenian driving licenses. Reacting to Marukian's statements, HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said late on Thursday: "If there are political forces that agitate for the exit from the EEU, they had better come up with concrete alternatives and facts, rather than speak on the emotional plane." Sharmazanov claimed that the Sarkisian administration's controversial decision to join the EEU was based on "clear calculations as to what our farmers, investors, tourism sector and the economy [as a whole] will gain." He said that the Armenian economy has already benefited from better access to the Russian and other ex-Soviet markets. "We have increased our exports by 23 percent [in 2017] and a large part of them went to EEU countries," Sharmazanov told reporters. "The number of tourists [visiting Armenia] has gone up by about 30 percent. We must not make political statements without serious corroborations." Sarkisian unexpectedly announced his decision to seek membership in the EEU in September 2013 shortly after Armenia and the European Union completed negotiations on a far-reaching Association Agreement. The foreign policy U-turn, which scuttled the planned deal with the EU, was widely attributed to Russian pressure. Marukian's stance on the EEU has not yet been officially backed by Yelk's leadership. The bloc consisting of three opposition parties holds 9 seats in Armenia's 105-member parliament. U.S. Watchdog Urges Baku To Free Russian-Israeli Blogger July 21, 2017 Azerbaijan -- Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin is escorted upon his landing in Baku after being extradicted from Belarus to Azerbaijan, February 7, 2017 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based watchdog, has again called for the immediate release of Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin, who has been imprisoned in Azerbaijan for his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh. "Aleksandr Lapshin should not be in jail for traveling to a disputed region," the CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Nina Ognianova, said after an Azerbaijani court sentenced Lapshin to three years in prison on Thursday. "We call on authorities in Baku not to contest the journalist's appeal and to release him unconditionally," a CPJ statement quoted her as saying. The court ruled that Lapshin illegally crossed Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders when he travelled to Karabakh via Armenia in 2011 and 2012. But it cleared him of making "public appeals against the state," a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison in Azerbaijan. The 40-year-old blogger, who has Israeli, Russian and Ukrainian citizenships, was detained in Belarus's capital Minsk on an Azerbaijani arrest warrant last December. The Belarusian authorities extradited him to Azerbaijan in February, prompting strong criticism from Armenia and Russia. The CPJ demanded Lapshin's release shortly before the extradition. "Writers should never be imprisoned for expressing their views," it said at the time. Azerbaijan has repeatedly rejected the international criticism. Meanwhile, the Russian Justice Ministry said on Friday that it is ready to seek Lapshin's extradition to Russia if he expresses such a desire. Russia's human rights ombudsperson, Tatyana Moskalkova, said for her part that talks on the blogger's handover to Moscow have already begun. She did not elaborate. Armenian IT Growth Hits Record High July 21, 2017 . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian visits the offices of a new IT company in Yerevan, 17Jun2017. The rapid growth of Armenia's information technology (IT) sector employing thousands of engineers accelerated to 38.2 percent last, according to government data. The tech industry had already expanded by an average of over 20 percent annually in the previous decade, making it the fastest-growing sector of the Armenian economy. According to government estimates, the country's 500 or so mostly small and medium-sized IT firms earned over $550 million in combined revenue in 2015. The sector is dominated by the Armenian branches of U.S. tech giants like as Synopsys, National Instruments, Mentor Graphics and VMware. But its steady expansion is also increasingly driven by homegrown Armenian companies. Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian visits the offices of the Armenian tech company PicsArt in Yerevan, 24Mar2017. The most successful of these startups is PicsArt, one of the world's leading mobile photo editing and sharing applications. The company now has more than 350 employees in Armenia and boasts 90 million active monthly users worldwide. Another, smaller startup founded in 2013 attracted $5 million in funding from two U.S. venture capital firms earlier this year. The company called Teamable develops special software used by businesses for hiring skilled workers. Like PicsArt, Teamable has offices not only in Yerevan but also in San Francisco. Another Armenian firm, SoloLearn, won this month the Grand Prize of Facebook's annual "Apps of the Year" event, which attracted 900 submissions from 87 countries. SoloLearn offers a free online app for people interested in learning computer programming. Karen Vartanian, chairman of Armenia's Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE), stressed the growing importance of such startups. "Our local products are increasingly emerging and proving a success in the international market," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Vahan Shakarian, the executive director of the Yerevan-based company Technology and Science Dynamics manufacturing smartphones and tablet computers, said the sector's has been rapidly developing because it is export-oriented. He also cautioned: "Booms are possible in economics. They key thing is to at least stay at the same level after they are over. It's quite a challenge." Armenia - Children at the Gyumri branch of the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, 13May2016. For Vartanian, the key challenge is a continuing lack of skilled IT personnel in Armenia. "Our growth is now stunted by a serious shortage of personnel," he said. "The education system is in tatters." Industry executives have long complained about the inadequate professional level of many graduates of IT departments of Armenia universities. According to their estimates, there are now between 2,000 and 4,000 job vacancies in the sector employing about 15,000 people. Successive Armenian governments have pledged to tackle this problem. Vartanian insisted, however, that there is still no "comprehensive, strategic cooperation" on the matter between the authorities and IT companies. In January, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian met with a team of government officials and tech executives that proposed a wide-ranging reform of engineering education in Armenia. One of those executives said only half of 1,300 IT students graduating from Armenian universities each year are qualified enough to work in the sector without undergoing further training. Press Review July 21, 2017 "Zhoghovurd" condemns the judges presiding over the ongoing three trials of radical opposition members accused of plotting or attempting armed revolts against Armenia's leadership. The paper claims that instead of administering justice they are helping the authorities to take "political revenge." It also accuses the judges of acting on government orders to create "inhuman conditions" for the defendants. In an interview with "Aravot," the parliamentary leader of the ruling Republican Party (HHK), Vahram Baghdasarian, downplays the significance of Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin's calls for Armenia to adopt Russian as its second official language. "The Russian Duma speaker was not aware that students in Armenia's schools are taught the Russian language from the second grade," says Baghdasarian. "There is no issue of making Russian a state language in Armenia," he adds. "The [Armenian] language is our national value. There can be only one official language in the Republic of Armenia: Armenian. This is our position, which was presented by us and accepted by our Russian partners." Baghdasarian goes on to dismiss calls by a leader of the opposition Yelk alliance, Edmon Marukian, for Armenia's withdrawal from the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). "We cannot harm a family that was created with great difficulties," he says. "We have made a lot of progress in that family and must stick with it." "Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that the Armenian government on Thursday granted tax breaks to a private agricultural firm whose shareholders include two sons of Vartan Harutiunian, the head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC). Each of them holds a 17 percent stake in the company called Green Farmer. The latter has pledged to invest more than $2 million in new fruit orchards to be created in Armenia's Ararat province. "Once again, the government is giving privileges to a company belonging to relatives of a high-ranking official," complains the paper. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org