President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, accompanied with His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and National Assembly Speaker Ara Babloyan visited Yerablur Military Pantheon, President’s Press service reports.
They paid tribute to the memory of sons of homeland who sacrificed their lives for Armenia’s independence.
Government to cut loans of few thousand military personnel in half in massive support program
11:18,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The government is planning to cut in half the bank loans that have been previously taken by military personnel. A few thousand servicemen, officers and corporals, will benefit from the move, caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Facebook.
“The meaning of the decision is to cut the interest rates of the loans up to by half and to extend the deadlines,” he said.
“As a result, for instance if a military serviceman is paying 50,000 drams monthly in interest rates, after the planned changes the serviceman will start paying for this same but reconfigured loan 25,000 a month. Less by half,” he said.
Pashinyan said that the government will soon also address the issue of assistance for housing matters of former military.
“This, certainly will not be a complete solution, but the issue will begin to move from the deadlock. We will soon also make decisions about the acquisition of apartments of active military personnel,” Pashinyan said.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
ArmInfo. “President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko voiced only what he said, but did not say what I said to him in response”, Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan told reporters on December 19th.
According to Pashinyan, immediately upon arrival from St. Petersburg, where the meeting of the Supreme Economic Council of the EAEU was held, he told reporters that he had discussed all the issues with Alexander Lukashenko and was generally satisfied with the answers received. At the same time, as Pashinyan recalled, he did not want to reveal the details of the conversation, noting that at the moment it’s incorrect to make public the content of the closed meeting. “Even today I can confirm that I am satisfied with this conversation and I don’t consider it necessary to continue the discussion of this conversation. Perhaps there are people who are not satisfied with the conversation, but this is a different question,” the Acting head of government stated.
Referring to the statement of the Belarusian leader that Pashinyan did not raise the issue of arms sales to Azerbaijan before the head of Russia Vladimir Putin, the Armenian Acting Prime Minister recalled that after this, Armenian ActingbPrime Minister’s spokesman Arman Yeghoyan denied the statement, stressing that Pashinyan constantly raised the issue during meetings with Putin sales of Russian weapons to Azerbaijan. As Nikol Pashinyan said, all the questions raised by Lukashenka were given exhaustive and very specific answers. “To be honest, I and the others present had the impression that Lukashenko was also satisfied with the conversation. What happened next is unknown to me,” he said.
Earlier, it was reported that on the sidelines of the informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg, Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan demanded an explanation from the head of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko that he had discussed the details of the closed meeting of the CSTO leaders with the Azerbaijani Ambassador that the AR is not a member of the organization. “Everything that he promised to do was done,” – told reporters. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on December 7 in the city of Gyumri, speaking about the correspondence controversy with the leader of Belarus over the appointment of a new CSTO Secretary General. On Wednesday, December 5, Nikol Pashinyan said that on December 6 in St. Petersburg, he would demand clarification from Alexander Lukashenko.
To note, after the recall of the CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev spoke in favor of early termination of the powers of Armenia as the chairperson of the organization of the country and the transfer of the post of Secretary General on the rotation order to Belarus. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko subsequently discussed the situation with the ambassador of Azerbaijan, telling him the details of the closed meeting and supporting the position of Nazarbayev. In response to this, RA Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that he would demand explanations from the Belarusian and Kazakh presidents.Minsk through the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Glaza reproached Pashinyan for violating the norms of the international protocol. Yerevan responded to this statement at the level of a deputy from the ruling party, Alain Simonyan, who stressed that it was not Minsk to teach Pashinyan the etiquette and rules of international politics, since Minsk itself constantly violates them.
Meanwhile, after the St. Petersburg meeting, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview with journalists, in particular, stated that Minsk is the fifth arms supplier to Azerbaijan. “There are countries that sell weapons of Baku on a large scale, for example, Israel, Russia, Turkey. I told Nikol Pashinyan why he takes offense at Minsk because of the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan. Russia sells them on a much larger scale, why he scored in the mouth, why does not he raise this question before Putin, why does he not criticize him, or is he afraid? ” – Lukashenka said, adding that during the conversation with Pashinyan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was also present there.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has issued congratulatory message to the three political forces that entered the Armenian National Assembly as a result of early parliamentary elections on December 9.
On a written statement, released by the President’s Press Office, Sarkissian thanks also to all parties and alliances which participated in the elections, as well as all citizens of Armenia who have expressed their position regarding ‘the future of the country.’
“These elections, as a statewide political process, were the first since the changes that had taken place in our country last spring. The newly elected National Assembly and the government will be working in the realm of great responsibility. I wish them tenacity and vigor in the implementation of their programs,” reads the message of the President in part.
“Fatherland is becoming stronger, while its history is being written through our daily hard work. We all have to contribute with all abilities to the benefit of our country and people, for the powerful Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, the entire Armenian nation and all citizens of Armenia,” the message concluded.
ArmInfo. The third President of Armenia, retired Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, together with his wife Rita Sargsyan, fulfilled their civic duty and refused to talk with journalists silently leaving the polling station.
Citizens of Armenia will never know for whom Sargsyan voted, who for more than 10 years led the country. However, a curious case occurred during Serzh Sargsyan’s voting – the electronic equipment did not recognize his fingerprints. A similar situation was recorded on May 14, 2017 at the elections to the Council of Elders of Yerevan. Someone handed a bouquet of flowers to former first lady of the country in the polling station.
Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan informed during the meeting with residents of Vardenis that the contract soldier was found dead under an avalanche near Kakhakn village of Gegharkunik marz. He suggested the gathered to honor the memory of the serviceman with a minute of silence.
“There was talk about a contract serviceman who got stuck in the snow three days ago. I have bad news: the soldier has been found dead. I express my condolences to all his relatives, friends and loved ones,” said Pashinyan.
Let us remind that on November 27, at 14:58, information was reported to the “911” service that citizen M. H. (1994) was left under an avalanche. the help of rescuers is needed. One combat unit from the fire-rescue squad of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications went to the scene of the incident.
Search and rescue operations were suspended due to darkness and bad weather. On November 28, at 06:55 a.m., two combat units (10 rescuers) departed from the special purpose rescue operations center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and carried out search and rescue operations.
Menk (We) bloc, Sasna Tsrer prioritize gender equality in politics
15:58, 29 November, 2018
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Candidate for parliament from the “Menk” (We) bloc Lusine Zakalashvili argues that women’s involvement in politics should be non-artificial.
Speaking at a press conference today, she said that the Vice President of their bloc is a woman, and that they view women’s participation in the political life to be positive. Highlighting the fact that they have three women as candidates, she said that this shows that the bloc attaches importance to gender equality.
In turn, candidate for parliament from the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) Pan-Armenian Party Alek Yenikgomshyan said that women’s issues shouldn’t be isolated from the society and viewed separately.
“Women’s representation in political processes is important. In our brief campaigning program, we didn’t specially address women’s rights, but this doesn’t mean that we don’t attach importance to it,” he said.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan