Author: Kajoyan Gevork

WILL ARMENIA SIGN THE ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT WITH THE EU IN NOVEMBER OR IN LATE 2013?

Wednesday 23 January 2013 14:50

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Today’s two official press releases can indicate
that Armenia and European Union won’t manage to complete the talks
on the Association Agreement before the Eastern Partnership Summit
in Vilnius.

First of all, the press release on Deputy Armenian Foreign Minister
Zohrab Mnatsakanyan’s visit to Lithuania reads that “the sides
expressed the hope that Armenia’s substantial achievement on the
Association Agreement will be registered at the Vilnius Summit due
to be held in November”.

It was registered at the session of the Interdepartmental Commission on
Coordination of Cooperation with European Structures held in Yerevan
today that “as for the signing of the Association Agreement, there
is substantial progress and the works are realized at normal paces
which makes us suppose that the Agreement will be signed in late 2013”.

It should be noted that during the Eastern Partnership senior
officials’ meeting in Brussels in December 2012, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan
reiterated Armenia’s readiness to complete the talks on the Armenia-EU
Association Agreement including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade
Area before the Vilnius Summit.

870 NEWLYWED COUPLES RECEIVED ONE-OFF BENEFITS

Wednesday, 23 January 2013 18:20

Last year by the programme “One -off benefit allocation to newly-wed
couples” one-off benefits at an amount of AMD 261 mln were granted
to 870 families, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs informs.

Within the framework of the programme aimed at promoting the birthrate
and the families of dependent children the allocation of one-off
benefits in connection with the child’s birth as well as opening
purpose and term deposits on the name of the third and each next child
continues. / 500 thousand drams on the name of the third child and
700 thousand drams for the fourth and each next child /. The benefits
allocated in connection with 2698 children’s births totally amounted
to 734.1 mln drams, besides 783 term deposits to the sum of 454.1
mln drams were opened.

According to the same source of information the allocation of one-off
benefits in connection with the birth of the children of the couples
married during the Artsakh big wedding in 2008 still continues. By
January 1, 2013, in connection with the birth of 629 children 542
families got 2000 US dollars for the birth of the first child, 3000 US
dollars for the second and 5000 US dollars for the third child’s birth.

CALLS OF PM REMAIN UNANSWERED

12:36 – 23.01.2013

At least journalists know about the great patience RA Prime Minister
has and how well-balanced he is. Neither the sharpest questions and
discoveries of journalists, nor the worst actions of his opponents
cannot make his lose control.

According to the information Yerkir.am has, PM has changed a great
deal. Our sources of the Republican party inform that Tigran Sargsyan
gets upset and nervous even from the lightest things and takes not
estimated steps. Moreover, according to our sources, he does not
even hide his aversion towards any official and expresses it in
popular ways.

Relations between PM and many high ranking officials of the Republican
party became tense. We were told that even these officials do not
answer calls of the PM in order to hear his justifications.

TOP AZERBAIJANI RULING PARTY OFFICIAL: WE ASSASSINATE ONLY OUR IMPORTANT OPPONENTS

BAKU. January 23, 2013. “Who is he, to be assassinated by us? He does
not have such an important statue…”. This is what deputy secretary
of Azerbaijan’s ruling YAP party and one of the leading members of
national parliament Siyavush Novruzov said about one of the critics
of the Aliyev regime in his interview to APA news service yesterday.

He was responding to the allegations of former president of Federal
National-Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Russia “AzerRos”,
Soyun Sadigov, who stated that the Azerbaijani authorities intend to
assassinate him. Mr. Sadigov has recently resigned from his post as
the leader of “AzerRos”, so that he can concentrate on political
activities. He then directed sharp criticism at Azerbaijan’s
ruling Aliyev regime and its policies. Interestingly enough,
the pro-government APA news portal removed Siyavush Novruzov’s
interview from its website shortly after posting it, perhaps after
the higher-ups in the Aliyev regime realized the damaging nature
of Mr. Novruzov’s statement. The original link to APA’s Azerbaijani
language news story on the interview now simply times-out. However,
another news portal FoxNews.az still had the story listed later in
the day. It is not clear whether Mr. Novruzov’s comments about Soyun
Sadigov’s qualifications for an assassination were a rare burst of
honesty on the part of the Azerbaijani government, a simple gaffe, or
a calculated threat against Mr. Sadigov. Aliyev regime of Azerbaijan
had been frequently accused by rights groups in being responsible
for the murders of journalists, political opponents, key witnesses
in high-profile cases and the deaths of dissidents in police detention.

(Azeri Report)

THE POLICE OFFICER IS CHARGED WITH RAN OVER OF A MINOR

Factinfo
Wed, 01/23/2013 – 15:58

The Special Investigation Service of RA Police finished the
investigation of the criminal case charged against the police officer
Knyaz Barseghyan on the grounds of ran over of a minor.

The investigation found that on June 26, 2012, on the Armavir-Yerevan
highway the police officer, riding a Volkswagen – Golf , breached
the traffic rules and having an opportunity to prevent the accident,
did not slow down the car and ran over a 12 years old Levon Tadevosyan.

The child died of the received injuries.

Knyaz Barseghyan is charged with Article 242.2 of RA Criminal Court
and the case is under the jurisdiction of the Armavir District court
of first instance. The next court hearing will be on January 31.

SERZH SARGSYAN AND HIS OLIGARCHY
Naira Hayrumyan

13:25 23/01/2013

Either Serzh Sargsyan is not aware of the essence of a country’s
economic policy or he intentionally misleads voters.

In one of his recent campaign rallies he stated that ratings of
authoritarian international organizations are objective indicators
of the effectiveness of an economic policy. According to him, another
indicator is the attitude of businessmen to the tax service. He says
he can see how hostility between these two layers is diminishing. He
expressed confidence that one day the businessmen will realize the
need to pay taxes.

Is there nobody to explain to the philologist Serzh Sargsyan that
the main criterion of an economic policy is the wellbeing of people
and opportunities for self-actualization? Ratings can be bought with
money, businessmen can be forced to pay taxes but the dropping quality
of life cannot be hidden.

It is impossible to hide that the economic reforms will leave
accountants, dentists, realtors and others without jobs and income.

They do not refuse to pay taxes but they want reasonable taxes which
would leave them with some income.

Serzh Sargsyan says there is no shortage of jobs, there is a shortage
of high-paid jobs. He says people need to work better to earn more.

Meanwhile, his party refused to boost the minimum salary, and
oligarchs continue to pay 60-80 thousand drams to their employees
which is hardly enough for daily bread.

Serzh Sargsyan says not everyone in Armenia can run a business but
he is mistaken. People would run businesses if Serzh Sargsyan and
his oligarchic government did not disturb them.

Naira Hayrumyan 13:25 23/01/2013

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING INSTITUTED AGAINST “ROBERTO” SHOP AND THREE ARMENIAN COMPANIES

YEREVAN, January 23./ARKA/. Armenia’s state commission for economic
competition instituted administrative proceeding against “Roberto”
shop selling clothing, shoes and bags for misleading consumers,
the commission’s website reported.

The proceeding was instituted based on complaints from consumers and
dissatisfaction expressed in social networks. Hundreds of consumers
received sms messages about 50% discount on the whole range, whereas
the inspection showed that the discount was offered only on part of
the goods.

The commission will carry out an additional investigation and will
announce its decision later.

Yesterday’s meeting of the commission presented also the results
of the investigation on procurement of foodstuffs, implements and
household goods for orphanages and elderly homes.

In this connection, administrative proceeding was instituted against
Yereknuk, Amaras-Yus and Sear-Group for violations of procurement
procedures. The monitoring showed that the companies were involved
in collusive tendering in public procurement. The commission reviewed
over 200 tenders held by 88 organizations during its monitoring.

Yereknuk, Amaras-Yus and Sear-Group play a significant role in public
sector procurements and in most cases are the main food suppliers.

Earlier the companies were fined about 15mln drams. ($1=406.39drams).

-0-

MORT DE GRAND PERE HASSAN
Stephane

armenews.com
mercredi 23 janvier 2013

Mercredi 16 janvier en debut d’après-midi, Aslan Oussoïan, dit “Grand
père Hassan”, le plus puissant parrain de la mafia sur le territoire de
l’ex-URSS, a ete tue de plusieurs balles dans une rue du centre de la
capitale russe, selon le quotidien en ligne russe Gazeta.ru. Le sniper,
poste dans un immeuble en face du restaurant armenien Le Vieux Phaeton,
où se rendait Aslan Oussaïan, aurait egalement blesse une femme.

Selon le titre, de nombreux “voleurs dans la loi”, comme on nomme les
parrains russes, voulaient eliminer Grand père Hassan, un homme de 75
ans natif de Tbilissi, en Georgie. Très influent a Saint-Petersbourg
dans les annees 1990, il prit ensuite le contrôle des casinos de
Moscou et de la region de Krasnodar, et fut plusieurs fois arrete
par la police sans jamais etre inquiete.

Selon les premières hypothèses, il s’agirait d’un règlement de
comptes entre bandes rivales. En 2009, un proche Grand père Hassan,
Viatcheslav Ivankov, chef mafieux connu sous le nom de Iapontchik
(Le petit Japonais), avait ete assassine a Moscou par un sniper en
sortant d’un restaurant.

PATRIOTISM SAVED FAMILY OF SYRIAN-ARMENIAN REPATRIATE

10:39, 22 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Syrian-Armenian hairdresser Sargis
Berberyan visited Armenia for the first time in 2008. After the first
visit Sargis made up his mind to come back and live in Armenia. In
a conversation with “Armenpress” Sargis Berberyan stated that his
brother used to study here and he made that decision after paying a
visit to him. Sargis stated: “Notwithstanding I was unemployed and it
was rather difficult I decided to stay here. Here I felt myself much
stronger and safer than in a foreign country. My family had removed
to Armenia much earlier. We did not manage to see the inter-political
war. That’s why I always repeat that patriotism saved us.”

Armenia gave more to Sargis, than he had expected. What he has seen
here differed from what was displayed on TV. The Armenian hairdresser
stated: “It’s much easier to live in Syria from financial point
of view, although no matter how long we stay there we will remain
foreigners, it’s not our homeland, our soil. In this respect it’s
much easier to live in Armenia. Everybody is Armenian here, they
understand each other and they are free and peaceful.”

FIRE DAMAGES BUILDING DESIGNED BY ARMENIAN ARCHITECT IN ISTANBUL (PHOTOS)

23.01.13

The fire burst in the historic building of Istanbul’s Galatasaray
University has essentially damaged it. Turkish Hurriyet writes the
university was built by Armenian architect Sargis Palyan in 1871.

The blaze burst at about 7 pm was taken under control late at night
but the building was already damaged.

According to initial information, the fire was caused by problems with
electricity wires. The roof of the building has partially collapsed.

In 1871 the building was designed to serve as a palace and was given
to Galatasaray University in 1992.