ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia July 14, 2017 Friday Italian company IDS is ready to invest 10 million EUR for research laboratory opening in Armenia Yerevan July 14 Alina Hovhannisyan. The Italian multinational company IDS together with the "Technology and Science Dynamics" within five years is ready to invest 10 million EUR for the creation of a research laboratory (NRL) in Armenia. Vahan Shakaryan, the founder of the company "Technology and Science Dynamics", told during a press conference on July 14. According to him, the work in the laboratory will be aimed at researching technologies in the domain of forensic (computer forensics - Ed.). "Initially, specialists will conduct research in the field of forensic, as this segment is dynamically growing today and has a high potential for development," he stressed. According to him, at the start, the NRL will develop in the territory of the R & D center of TSD. In particular, he noted that the first meeting of the Armenian-Italian intergovernmental commission, which took place in June this year, helped to establish cooperation in Rome. For his part, Vice President of IDS Alberico Parente noted that the company's representatives have been investigating the Armenian market for several months already. In this regard, he stressed: "A good technological basis has been formed in Armenia. And in general, the state plays an important role in the region in terms of technological development. " Earlier on February 24, the government of the Republic of Armenia and the company Technology and Science Dynamics signed a memorandum of understanding "On stimulating the information technologies, informatization, promotion of innovative and telecommunication sectors", whose goal is to raise the investment rating of the Armenian IT industry. According to the document, representatives of the ICT sector will be opened in the embassies of 15 countries. To note, according to the estimations of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, the IT sector of the economy in the result of 2016 provided about 6% of Armenia's GDP. At the same time, as the executive director of the Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) of Armenia Karen Vardanyan stated in an interview with the ArmInfo correspondent, the IT sphere of Armenia can annually provide 45-50% growth, noting that in recent years the average IT sector provides a 20-25% annual growth with a turnover of $ 500 million.
Author: Jhanna Virabian
Group of disabled tourists from Lebanon impressed with Armenian hospitality
Armenpress News Agency, Armenia July 14, 2017 Friday Group of disabled tourists from Lebanon impressed with Armenian hospitality YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. A group of disabled tourists from Lebanon are impressed with the Armenian hospitality and reception, reports Armenpress. Their trip in Armenia continues. They plan to visit Garni, Geghard, Etchmiadzin, Khor Virap within a week. The State Tourism Committee of Armenia received a request several months ago which said a Lebanese company plans to organize the visit of a group of disabled tourists to Armenia so that they can reveal Armenia with their own experience and asked the Committee for assistance. The Committee thanks Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan and the Yerevan Municipality for providing a comfortable transportation to the guests. The group consisting of 38 disabled people is impressed with the Armenian hospitality. The Committee decided to meet and communicate with the guests. They were very impressed and highlighted the attention and care of Armenians. Some of the tourists are interested in the Armenian brandy and wine. They look forward to the visit to the Ararat brandy company. The guests also mentioned the safety issue in Armenia, adding that they feel very safe here.
‘Heritage’ does not rule out street fighting in 2018, ‘The president will try to extend his power’
Aravot, Armenia
After the “Heritage” party’s conference was over, leader of the “Heritage” party, former Foreign Minister of Armenia Raffi Hovannisian, answered the journalists’ question, about his opinion on the implementation of the “velvet revolution” fixed in the congressional resolution. “It is a constitutional revolution, that is a revolution which has not yet taken place in Armenia. The constitution should be implemented with the pressure and active participation of the people since the issue is not solved through electoral processes”, said Raffi Hovannisian.
In response to the question, “May it take place next April when Serzh Sargsyan is to decide whether to stay in power or not?”, Raffi Hovannisian said, “Yes, perhaps it will take place in April. He has changed a lot… He was a freedom fighter, but what has changed in him that he is now resorting to fraud? If he does not convert to his past, and if this continues, I have no doubt that based on fraudulent elections, he will wish to extend his power”.
According to Hovannisian, people should finally gain a republic through the fight, and not a “serzh-state” or a “party-state, “Spring will be the next phase of power occupation, which gives the opportunity of raising a new civil wave”.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
Travel: : Duty of Soul publishes tourist booklets about Armenian southern province of Syunik
ARKA, Armenia
YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. An Armenian NGO called ‘Duty of Soul’ has printed 2000 copies of booklets for Russian and English speaking tourists about historical monuments of the southern province of Syunik. The booklet consists of a map and a guidebook
Shogine Hovhannisyan, the chairwoman of the NGO, told journalists on Tuesday that the main goal of the booklet is to help boost tourism in Syunik region. Similar booklets were published earlier about other Armenian provinces of Lori, Tavush, Gegharkunik and Kotayk.
The latest booklet is intended for Armenian and foreign tourists who are keen on ecotourism. They will be able to get acquainted not only with the Tatev Monastery complex and the cable car, which are considered the tourism center of the Syunik region, but also with a huge number of other attractions, natural and historical monuments in Syunik.
The map not only shows the sights which one can reach by car, but also monuments located far away from roads, where one can walk along footpaths. It shows all major and minor roads, as well as all regional centers, cities and villages of the Syunik region.
The map shows the location of about 200 monuments, although the region has about 5000 of them. The booklets were created and printed by the Duty of Soul in cooperation with the Foundation for the Study of Armenian Architecture on money provided by the presidential office and the Youth Foundation of Armenia. -0-
Responsibility for further developments lies with Azerbaijan – Foreign Ministry
Panorama, Armenia
“In a deliberate provocation, Azerbaijani armed gang killed 3 soldiers of Karabakh Defense Army. Baku bears responsibility for further developments,” Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tigran Balayan tweeted on Saturday. Balayan’s comment came following the Azerbaijani ceasefire violations, resulting in killing of four Armenian soldiers since Friday evening.
To remind, on June 16, at around 18:05, the Azerbaijani forces broke the ceasefire regime across Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact applying rocket-propelled antitank grenade launchers, as a result of which 3 Karabakh Defense Army servicemen – Arayik Matinyan (b. 1997), Vigen Petrosyan (b. 1997) and Vardan Sargsyan (b. 1997) were fatally wounded.
In the morning of June 17, at around 09:40, the Azerbaijani forces undertook a fresh provocation at the northern direction of the contact line, killing another Artsakh Army soldier identified as Narek Tigran Gasparyan (b. 1997).
Joint NGO Open Letter to Interpol: Prevent misuse of Interpol in the case of Leyla & Arif Yunus
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) Monday AZERBAIJAN: JOINT NGO LETTER TO INTERPOL: PREVENT MISUSE OF INTERPOL IN THE CASE OF LEYLA AND ARIF YUNUS GENEVA, Switzerland The following information was released by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT): RE: Prevent misuse of INTERPOL in the case of Leyla and Arif Yunus We, the undersigned organisations call on INTERPOL, and all other relevant bodies and authorities to act with due diligence in accordance with INTERPOL's constitution to prevent the misuse of INTERPOL alerts against Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov, two prominent human rights defenders from Azerbaijan. The couple currently resides in exile in the Netherlands, where they were granted refugee status in 2016. Detailed information about their human rights activism can be found below. INTERPOL's constitution, prohibits the misuse of its systems for political purposes and in ways that violate human rights. Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov were arrested on 30 July and on 5 August 2014 respectively. Azerbaijani authorities prosecuted both on politically motivated charges of large-scale fraud, while also charging Leyla with bogus forgery, tax evasion, and illegal entrepreneurship offences. In August 2015, a court sentenced Leyla Yunusova to eight and half years imprisonment, and Arif Yunusov to seven, having convicted them of tax evasion and other economic crimes. Authorities also filed treason charges against them both, but later suspended the investigation. On 9 December 2015, Leyla Yunusova was released from detention and her 8.5-year prison sentence was converted into 5 year suspended sentence, following a decision by the Baku City Court of Appeal on the basis of a request from her lawyers with reference to her deteriorating health condition. Similarly, Arif Yunusov's prison term was changed to a 5-year suspended sentence. He was placed under house arrest on 12 November 2015.[1] In April 2016 the Azerbaijani government allowed the couple to travel abroad to receive needed medical treatment for conditions they had developed during their prison ordeal. Due to the politically motivated nature of their prosecution, in spring 2016 the couple received political asylum in the Netherlands. When Leyla and Arif left Azerbaijan, their cassation appeal was still pending before the Supreme Court. On 27 December 2016, the Supreme Court sent the case back for re-examination to the Baku Appeal Court. On 17 May 2017, at the hearing at the Baku Appeal Court, the Yunus's lawyer asked the court to ensure the couple's participation in the proceedings via Internet. The court rejected the petition. The same day, the court ordered the couple to return to the country to participate in the subsequent court hearings in their case. The court hearing was rescheduled from 31 May to 3 July 2017. The arrest of Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov happened against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Azerbaijan. Since 2014, several dozens of human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists and opposition politicians have been arrested and prosecuted on politically-motivated grounds. The arrests and other steps by the government of Azerbaijan have served to severely close the space for independent activism, critical journalism, and opposition political activity in the country. Azerbaijan has been ranking as Not Free in the Freedom in the World rankings of the Freedom House [2] for several years, scoring the lowest on the political rights and civil liberties. In the latest Freedom of the Press rankings Azerbaijan scored the 162nd place out of 180 countries.[3] The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recently concluded an official visit to Azerbaijan. In a statement issued at the end of its visit, the Working Group concluded that human rights defenders, journalists, and political and religious leaders continue to be detained on criminal or administrative charges in the country as a way to impair their exercise of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms and to silence them. The Working Group stressed that these practices constitute abuse of authority and violate the principle of the rule of law that Azerbaijan has undertaken to comply with. One of the cases highlighted by the Working Group is that of Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov. In his recent report to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Forst also drew attention to the legal persecution of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan. [4] An official request has been made to INTERPOL on by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), which represents the couple, to inquire about the existence of any alerts made against Leyla and Arif Yunus by the Azerbaijani Government and to request INTERPOL to take all appropriate steps to prevent the dissemination of such an alert. Taking into consideration the very poor human rights record in Azerbaijan and the routine practice of politically-motivated prosecutions by the authorities, any attempt by the Azerbaijani authorities to use INTERPOL alerts against Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov would violate the prohibition in INTERPOL's constitution against the misuse of its systems for political purposes and in ways that violate human rights. INTERPOL should therefore refuse any request from the Azerbaijani authorities to use the INTERPOL Information System against Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov, and we call on all relevant national bodies and authorities not to act on INTERPOL alerts against them, in case they are issued. Short biographies: Leyla Yunusova is a long time human rights defender and activist since the late Soviet era. She is the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, a human rights organization in Azerbaijan that focused on political prisoners, women's rights and other issues. For almost 30 years Leyla Yunusova and Arif Yunusov have been involved in compiling comprehensive lists of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Leyla Yunusova is a Knight of the French Legion of Honor, winner of the International Theodor Hacker award, Laureate of the Polish Sergio Vieira de Mello Award and a finalist of the 2014 Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament. Arif Yunusov is a prominent Azerbaijani historian and human rights activist. He is the chairperson of the Conflict and Migration departments at the Institute for Peace and Democracy. Throughout his career Arif has published over 30 books and several articles on the history of Azerbaijan and on Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. In his work he has promoted dialogue between intellectuals from Azerbaijan and Armenia, and for many years has advocated for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. He has supported numerous victims of torture and spoken out repeatedly against politically motivated detentions. The list of signatory organisations: 1.Amnesty International 2.Association UMDPL (Ukraine) 3.Bir Duino 4.Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights 5.Committee Against Torture 6.Crude Accountability 7.Fair Trials 8.OMCT and FIDH under the "Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders" 9.Freedom Files 10.Front Line Defenders 11.Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights 12.Human Rights House Foundation 13.Human Rights Watch 14.Index on Censorship 15.International Partnership for Human Rights 16.Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) 17.Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law 18.KRF Public Alternative 19.Legal Policy Research Centre 20.Public Verdict 21.Regional Center for Strategic Studies 22.The Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House 23.The Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims 24.The Netherlands Helsinki Committee 25.Women of the Don [1] Campaign Stand4HumanRightsDefenders, Human Rights and Democracy Network [2] Freedom in the World 2017 [3] Reporters without Borders, 2017 [4] "Human rights defenders call for action on Azerbaijan", 10 March 2017, .
Vahe Enfiajyan: Torturer and murderer has a website claiming that killing Armenian is his job
Aravot, Armenia
Member of Parliament Vahe Enfiajyan had a speech at the “The role of the national parliaments in implementing ECHR standards” second regional seminar.
The full speech below:
Dear Colleagues,
Human rights protection and regional capacity building are one of today’s urgent issues. Whatever is stated in the European Convention on Human Rights must be accepted as a law for each country and each of us. Human Rights are international moral norms yet seeking to become legal terms that must be protected anywhere, in any situation or circumstances.
The first section of the European Convention on Human rights clearly states that everyone has the right to liberty and security of person(Article 5 fifth) and no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment(Article 3).
To my big conviction, this section must have a proper explanatory procedure for some of our colleagues to build a more civilized and trustworthy country in the region. For instance, the ongoing human tortures can not be testimonies of a democracy. Even the wars and battles have their own civilization.
The humble thought that if the country joins a treatment or convention then it already adopts the policy stated in that paper is highly doubtful. The proof for it can be the well-known case of Azerbaijani senior Lieutenant Ramil Safarov who 16 times hit the sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an ax. With a deep sorrow, I assume that it happened in Hungary, during an international program called Partnership for Peace. No matter how was the legal solution the moral one can’t fit a human brain. Yesterday Mr. Boris Chilovich mentioned in his speech that Hungary is the capital of Human rights…Eight(8) years later he was freed and moreover, the President announced him as a national hero for killing an Armenian. The torturer and murderer and killer has a website claiming that killing an Armenian is his job and he does not regret it. We have so many cases from April’s four-day war in 2016 when the Azerbaijani soldiers tortured the Armenians, cut them into pieces, took pictures and spread through the internet.
To my high conviction, this kind of policy can be a very week proof of a civilized country which seeks to human rights protection and regional capacity building. I highly convince and ask each of us to be aware of the ongoing processes not only in parliamentary level, but also state and national policy levels. Any treatment and even any single step must get its objective assessment.International and multinational treatment must be stated concerning the human rights and fundamental freedoms. Only treating in this way we can build a secure environment for a protected citizen of the world. Thank you.
Sports: Wrestler Karapet Chalyan declared winner of international tournament in Tbilisi
Panorama, Armenia
Armenian Greco-Roman wrestler Karapet Chalyan, competing in the 75-kg weight category has triumphed at Tbilisi Grand Prix of V. Balavadze and G. Kartozia.
Armenian National Olympic committee reports, the Armenian athlete defeated the representative of Kazakhstan in the final.
Earlier another representative of Armenia Maksim Manukyan won silver in the 80-kg weight category at the international tournament, which is organized by the Georgian National Wrestling Federation.
Aleppo now in relative peace, says local Armenian editor
Tert, Armenia June 8 2017 Aleppo now in relative peace, says local Armenian editor 17:10 • 08.06.17 After months and years of heavy bombings targeting civilians in different districts, Aleppo is now facing a relative peace, according to Shahan Kandaharian, the editor of Aztag Daily (an Aleppo-based Armenian publication). “The tension still continues, but superpowers’ presence is significant, specifically in Syria. Returning to our problems, however, I should say that the situation is now relatively calm in Aleppo as we observe [an increase in the number of people] returning to the city. We see also many of our compatriots return from Lebanon,” he said at a news conference in Yerevan, Meantime, Kandaharian highlighted the continuing active efforts towards rebuilding the city, noting that many residents can now use a “long but safe road corridor” connecting Aleppo with other cities and towns. “We do not as yet see a massive influx of Armenians from Lebanon to Syria, but certain families, and businessmen go and come from time to time. Those who stay in Syria continue receiving assistance, both educational and medical, etc,” he said, admitting at the same time that an estimated 10,000 people have fled to Labanon since the eruption of hostilities.
Sports: Meeting Henrikh Mkhitaryan: How dreams come true…
Public Radio of Armenia
June 8 2017
11:04, 08 Jun 2017
Early in the morning of June 2, Nareh Galstyan, a teenager from Lernagog, was getting ready for a COAF-organized tour of the Yerevan-based Football Academy of Armenia. She could never imagine it would be not only an excursion or sports event, but a surprise meeting with her idol of 8 years…
Ten boys and girls from seven COAF beneficiary villages, aged 12 to 16,were given a wonderful chance to meet world-famous Manchester United Midfielder and Armenian National Team Captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan and talk to him about sports, education, leadership, dreams and goals.
“You might face many difficulties in life but you should never give up… You should set your goals and try to achieve them one by one,” the 28-year-old soccer legend told his fans. “There are no lucky or unlucky people – everyone gets the same opportunities but not everyone takes advantage of them.”
The kids were overwhelmed with emotions but managed to overcome their shyness by asking questions about the secrets of success, the downsides of being famous, the talismans that soccer players use.
“I am not superstitious, so I don’t use any talismans,” Mkhitaryan laughed. “There are no secrets – if you prepare well and do your job well, you’ll succeed. Otherwise, no talisman will help you. As for being famous, the only downside is that you might want more privacy at times. Actually, it’s very pleasant when people recognize you and appreciate your work. But you can achieve this only through talent and hard work.”
After the talk, the kids had more fun moments with Mkhitaryan, while he acted as a goalkeeper, trying to save the teenagers’ spot kicks…
“I could never imagine my ultimate wish would come true,” Nareh Galstyan said. “I had been dreaming of this meeting for ages, and now it became a reality.”
Emin Muradyan, a boy with cerebral palsy who wants to become a sports commentator, said it was one of the happiest days of his life. “I was constantly checking if everything was real,” he laughed.
At the end, Mkhitaryan urged the children to never underestimate their potential and to try to bring positive change to their communities. “It’s a very exciting time – Armenia is rising and I’m proud to be COAF’s International Friend,” he said.
Video at