Free trade zone to be established near Gyumri airport
20:29,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet will discuss the draft decision on establishing a free trade zone in Gyumri, recognizing “Eurasian Logistics Park Free Economic Zone” LTD as the organizer of the free trade zone, ARMENPRESS reports the draft decision is included on the agenda of August 29 Cabinet meeting.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Western Prelate Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian
With Christian love and fatherly blessings I extend my greetings to you all, principals, administrators, educators, students, parents, and all devotees of the Armenian School at the commencement of the 2019 – 2020 academic year. It is my prayer and wish for this, and every, school year to abound with the Lord’s blessings, with success, productivity, and fruitfulness, for the instruction and enrichment of the minds and spirits of our youth.
After a restful summer, today, the heart of our communities—our schools—pulsate once again with the energy of our youth. Our schools are astir for a new year, which we welcome with high and hopeful expectations.
Let us thank the Lord for granting us the blessing of a new year and new opportunities to shape the minds of our youth with knowledge and wisdom and their hearts and souls with the values of our faith and heritage.
Dear students,
Your presence and vivacious spirit enlivens our schools. Always remember and appreciate the privilege of attending an Armenian school, which is not an ordinary place of learning but a distinctive institution where you grow and develop in your identity as Armenians. Take advantage of the unique instruction you are fortunate to be offered; learn our uplifting prayers and our language, learn about our rich history and heritage, our ancient faith and homeland, and think of how you can contribute to the advancement of our nation.
In the eloquent words of Moushegh Ishkhan, “The Armenian language is the home of the Armenian, in the four corners of the world, where every Armenian can enter as the landlord.” Our churches, schools, and language are our bastions throughout the Diaspora, through which our history and Armenia live on. Let us remain true to our rich and ancient heritage.
We commend all those who play a part in the continued success of our schools, the members of the Board of Regents, local school boards, principals, directors, faculty, and volunteers. May God pour His abundant blessings upon you all and upon our dear students.
Welcome back to school.
Prayerfully,
Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian
Prelate, Western United States
2019 – 2020 School Year Opening
Today’s Armenia has found itself in an ideological impasse. The current government, represented by the Prime Minister, declares that they do not have “isms”, that is, they do not profess any ideology. During the elections of the new board of the “Civil Contract” (CP) party on June 14 of this year, he said:
“We are very often called liberal or centrist, but this is a misunderstanding, because we are a party that has rejected “isms”, because hardened ideologies no longer exist in the modern world. In the political sense, we are not liberal, we are not centrist, we are not social-democratic, we are a civil party. What does this mean in practice? This means that we put ourselves outside the ideological standards and form a new ideological dimension, which is based on 4 key pillars: statehood, citizenship, national identity, individuality.
The four “pillars” mentioned by the Prime Minister can be a support for the right, and the left, and the greens, and nationalists, even pacifists, depending on who interprets those “pillars”. Simply put, pointing to “pillars” still means nothing.
After last year’s change of power, political parties that have not even recovered or those that still show signs of life criticize the prime minister, saying that not having “isms” means not having a political line along which the government should move. There are also other opinions according to which the current government still has an “ism”, that is populism. Our goal is not to get involved in that dispute, but let’s try to understand whether political ideologies, even if not in a “hardened” form, have exhausted themselves or not.
If we look at the parties registered in the European Union, we will see that “isms” are present there.
The list can be continued: there are centrists, nationalists, Eurosceptics and others.
By the way, CP party, having no ideology, cannot decide which union of European parties to become a partner.
Political ideologies are considered in two dimensions.
As we have shown, social ideologies still exist in the modern world, moreover, not having an ideology, we are talking about Europe in particular, means not having ideological partners, which is problematic for Armenia. But this is a topic for another discussion.
In the new round of the Armenian political struggle, which is about to begin, the central debate will, as a matter of fact, be about the direction of the country’s development. How do we imagine the way society will be organized in Armenia in the future and what will be the way to achieve it, that is, what will be the plan of the future government, the ways of development, the road map? If the ruling party continues to adopt a political course of abandoning “isms”, then that debate will take place without its participation, however unusual such a situation may be.
A great step has been taken for the establishment of the Bar Institute in Armenia. About a hundred lawyers made their choice in favor of establishing an independent judicial system. They should be thanked.
It’s the turn of the judges. If the judges can also unite to protect their independence, it will be a huge step in establishing an independent judicial system.
Special thanks should be given to Nikol Pashinyan, who with his unprecedented anti-constitutional actions against the judicial system contributes to the establishment of the legal and judicial system. It is his only promise, for the fulfillment of which he takes concrete and consistent steps.
Thanks also to Gagik Jhangiryan and Vahe Grigoryan for blurring the halal-zulal separation of “black and white”, thanks to which people began to perceive life not in an emotional-instinctive way, but to judge by principles.
Hunters of Armenia gathered again today to complain about the government’s decision that hunters have to pay 17,040 drams instead of the previous 8,000 for hunting licenses. Also, hunting days are reduced, as a result of which only on weekends are allowed hunting.
The hunters met with the Deputy Minister of the Environment today but did not receive a clear answer.
As for the reduction in hunting days, hunters complain that it is a restriction of their rights. There are people who are busy these days.
Vahram Harutyunyan missed his daughter’s fourth birthday party in Galway on Thursday because they have been separated for almost a year.
On August 15th last year the Armenian-born barber, who has lived in Irelandfor almost 13 years, was deported, leaving his wife, Viktoria Gagkaeva, and their Irish-born daughter, Alina, behind .
He had gone to Dublin for a regular appointment at the offices of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service but shortly after arrival was arrested and within 24 hours was on a flight to Armenia.
Gagkaeva says apart from a five-minute phone call when he was surrounded by gardaí, he never got a chance to say goodbye to his family. After being detained, his phone was taken from him, he was put in prison and then put on a flight in the early hours of the following morning, she says. “I got a voicemail at 4am saying he was on the flight. There were four gardaí with him, sitting alongside him in the back of the plane. He said he felt like a murderer.”
She breaks down when she recalls how she tried to make sense of that five-minute call when her world fell apart as her husband apologised for having to leave her alone with their child.
“We didn’t say a proper goodbye that morning as he was late and ran out the door, saying ‘My God I will miss the bus’ ”, she recalls. Her husband had for three years regularly signed on at the immigration service office on Burgh Quay in Dublin, having sought legal advice about how to regularise his situation.
Vahram had spent a short while in direct provision after arriving in Ireland in 2006, but hated it because he wanted to work and help his family, so he just left. “He always worked. He never applied for social welfare here. He was shamed by it.”
Gagkaeva acknowledges a deportation order was issued against her husband before she met him. After they became a family he wanted to sort out his situation and so made contact with the authorities, she says.
“He was hoping that the Government would understand we are a family. We have done nothing bad for this country. We always worked,” she says. The couple got married in Salthill in 2015.
Gagkaeva was born in Russia and spent eight years in direct provision here, from the age of 14. She and her family have been granted leave to remain and will be eligible to apply for Irish citizenship next year. Her parents live in Cork, and she says since her husband’s deportation she feels alone.
Alina spent weeks waiting every evening at the door of their apartment in Renmore, thinking her father would return , according to her mother. “I said, ‘He is not coming’. It was so tough. Nobody knows how much she misses him. I think she sees him in her dreams and when she wakes and he is not there, she cries and says ‘Why is he not here?’ ” Gagkaeva says Alina was so traumatised she was forced to give up work.
Gagkaeva worked as a beautician in Galway city and Harutyunyan usually picked their daughter up at the creche. “Her eyes used to light up when she saw him ,” recalls Tracy Lee, who looked after Alina there. “She was obviously Daddy’s girl and she was very bright and bubbly, but when he left she seemed sad and lost”. Remzi Ozdiner, who employed Harutyunyan for more than five years at his Turks Barbers in Renmore, says he was “a good guy who always worked hard”.
Gagkaeva and Alina went to visit Harutyunyan some weeks ago but she says Ireland is their home and she is pleading for her husband to be allowed return. “He is sleeping on a couch in his parents’ kitchen. When we got back I was very sad but I was also relieved because I was always worried Alina got sick in Armenia.”
Yesterday on Facebook, Harutyunyan sent birthday greetings to “my sweet princess Alina”, and the mother and daughter made a birthday cake and wished for him to come home.
In a statement the Department of Justice said for reasons of confidentiality neither the Minister nor his officials in the immigration service could comment on individual cases.
It said decisions to repatriate were not taken lightly and were open to judicial review. Enforced repatriation was only carried out as a last resort, it added, and it was open to anyone with a deportation order to make a request to have that revoked. “A request for revocation needs to be based on new information or changed circumstances, which were not part of the original application when the order was made,” the statement said.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/a-family-divided-we-didn-t-say-a-proper-goodbye-that-morning-1.3974621
We will always remember Amano as sincere friend of our country – Pashinyan offers condolences
19:48,
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan extended condolences on the occasion of the death of Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office f the Prime Minister of Armenia, the condolence letter runs as follows,
“It was with deep grief that I learned about the death of director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano.
As an experienced leader, director general Amano recorded many achievements leading the International Atomic Energy Agency in this period full of challenges with great prudency and devotion.
I recall with warmth our recent meeting in Yerevan, during which we discussed key issues of bilateral interest. In Armenia we will always remember Amano as a sincere friend opf our country, who had a significant contribution to the strengthening of partnership between the Republic of Armenia and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
I offer my deep condolences on behalf of the people of the Republic of Armenia and the Government and solidarity to the family and friends of Yukiya Amano”.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Կրթաթոշակ հայ ուսանողների համար. ԱՄՆ դեսպանությունը մինչև 6 հայ ուսանողի կտրամադրի Վրաստանի հանրային կապերի ինստիտուտի (GIPA) մուլտիմեդիա լրագրության և մեդիա կառավարման բաժնի մագիստրատուրայում անվճար ուսանելու հնարավորություն: Շտապեք հայտ ներկայացնել, քանզի տեղերը սահմանափակ են: Հայտերի ներկայացման վերջնաժամկետը երկարաձգվել է մինչև հուլիսի 8-ը: Մանրամասների համար տես՝ ttps://www.usa.am/announce/gipa.zip: Դիմումի ձևն այստեղ է՝ : An exciting scholarship opportunity for Armenian students! The U.S. Embassy is happy to sponsor up to six students interested in receiving a master’s degree in multimedia journalism and media management from the prestigious Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (#GIPA). Hurry up! Limited Seats Available for deserving students! The application deadline has been extended through July 8. More details can be accessed here: (ZIP 111KB) Application form is here . _______________________________________________ Press mailing list [email protected]
Georgian businessmen interested in cooperation with Armenian counterparts in all sectors
15:03, 28 June, 2019
DILIJAN, JUNE 28, ARMENPRESS. Georgian businessmen are interested in finding partners in Armenia and are ready to invest in Armenia, Georgia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Nino Chikovani told reporters during the Armenia-Georgia Business Forum in Dilijan.
“There is interest for cooperation in all sectors. This opportunity must be maximally utilized today because Georgian businessmen are also interested to cooperate,” she said.
Chikovani said Georgian businessmen have come to the forum in order to find business partners for starting businesses in both Armenia and Georgia. She said the Georgian entrepreneurs are ready to make investments in Armenia.
She said Armenians and Georgians are traditionally cooperating in trade and investments, and their activities are aimed at the growth of turnover volumes.
Chikovani mentioned that there are results in the medicine and trade sectors.
The business forum, in her words, will greatly help to get to know each other’s potential, to increase investments and develop cooperation.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan