Author: nina hovnanian

MYASNIKOVICH: BELARUS, ARMENIA HAVE POTENTIAL FOR INCREASING MUTUAL TRADE

Belarusian Telegraph Agency, Belarus
May 31 2013

MINSK, 31 May (BelTA) – Belarus Premier Mikhail Myasnikovich met with
his Armenian counterpart Tigran Sargsyan on 31 May, BelTA has learnt.

The parties talked over the prospects for developing bilateral
relations and joint projects. According to Mikhail Myasnikovich,
trade, economic and political ties between the two countries have
been steadily developing. The decisions of the two heads of state
have added a huge impetus to the expansion of bilateral cooperation.

With this, Mikhail Myasnikovich emphasized that the potential for
partnership between the two states was still hugely untapped. In his
words, the countries have every opportunity to increase mutual trade.

Tigran Sargsyan thanked Mikhail Myasnikovich for a warm welcome. He
echoed the Belarusian Premier’s opinion on sustainable development of
the bilateral relations and that there was potential for trade growth.

He added that the decisions the two heads of state had made should give
a considerable impetus to the expansion of economic ties. Armenia is
interested, first of all, in developing cooperation in agricultural
mechanical engineering and the supplies of the Belarusian agricultural
equipment. According to Tigran Sargsyan, farm equipment of the
Belarusian manufacture has been widely recognized on the Armenian
market.

AZERI PRESIDENT BLAMES LOW LEVEL OF MULTICULTURALISM FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT

Interfax, Russia
May 30, 2013 Thursday 11:03 AM MSK

Support of multiculturalism and its further development are among
the priorities of the international community today, Azerbaijan’s
President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of the 2nd World Forum on
Intercultural Dialogue in Baku on Thursday.

“Multiculturalism has no alternative because any alternative would
mean discrimination, xenophobia, racism and fascism. I believe that
in the 21st century the international community needs to vigorously
combat such negative phenomena,” he said.

The low level of multiculturalism provoked the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh and the subsequent occupation of Azerbaijan’s
territories by Armenia, the president said.

“Azerbaijan must restore its territorial integrity,” Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan where representatives of different ethnic groups and faiths
have lived side-by-side peacefully for centuries is an example of
multiculturalism, he said.

TUITION FEES INCREASED BY 200 000 DRAMS IN SOME UNIVERSITIES

02:58 pm | Today | Social

State institutions of higher education in Armenia will start the new
academic year with raised tuition fees.

Although Minister of Science and Education Armen Ashotyan has announced
that tuition fees in Armenian universities will increase by 20-100
thousand drams depending on university and faculty, tuition payment
in some universities has gone up by 200 thousand drams, says the
National Students Association of Armenia.

“For example, students of the Vocal Department in Yerevan State
Conservatory after Komitas, will have to pay 700 000 drams against the
former 500 000 drams. The same picture has been observed at Yerevan
State University of Economics where students will have to pay 600 000
drams instead of 400 000,” says Sargis Asatryants, Deputy Chairman
of the Association.

“In Yerevan State University and State University of Economics tuition
fees have been increased by 28 and29 percent respectively. On the
whole, tuition fees have increased by an average of 15%,” he continued.

Increase in tuition fee implies good and quality education, say the
members of the Association.

“But today we can state that our universities are impotent and do
not give products,” adds Sargis Asatryants.

The Association wants to prevent sharp hikes in tuition fees as long
as it finds an alternative option.

“We need to establish a fund with the participation of all
stakeholders, government officials, universities, philanthropists
who will assist in providing free education, as enshrined by the
Constitution,” Asatryants said in conclusion.

DEADLOCK FOR BOTH ARF-D AND ARMENIA – MP

18:06 ~U 31.05.13

It is not the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D),
but the country, that has reached a stalemate, Armen Rustamyan, a
member of the ARF-D Supreme Body in Armenia, told Tert.am following
the PACE Standing Committee’s plenary meeting in Yerevan.

He does not deny certain decline in the opposition forces’ activities.

“The second reason is that the opposition forces are unable to unite.

A solid system has been formed in Armenia which ensures repeated
reproduction of the authorities,” Rustamyan said.

“Have the opposition forces ever changed power in Armenia?”

With respect to accusations of losing the elections to Yerevan’s
Council of Elders, Rustamyan said:

“I am inclined to assess the opinions of the political forces and
figures that have worked as hard as we have. They have just involved
in this process, so let them get the right view of the situation.”

Armenian News – Tert.am

ENVIRONMENTALISTS ASK PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE TO EXAMINE MEGO GOLD’S LICENSE TO DEVELOP TUKHMANUK DEPOSIT

ARMINFO
Friday, May 31, 18:12

A group of environmentalists have asked the Prosecutor General’s
Office to examine Mego Gold’s license to develop the Tukhmanuk deposit.

Head of Ecological Academy NGO Greta Gabrielyan told journalists
on Friday that the license given to Mego Gold (subsidiary of Global
Gold Mining) in 2005 said that the company could develop Tukhmanuk
using the opencast method for just two years and then had to switch
to underground mining. But the company still uses the former method.

Gabrielyan said that Dec 28 2012 the Energy and Natural Resources
Ministry granted Mego Gold a mining allotment certificate saying that
it could use the surface mining method.

“It was an illegal decision as such an act cannot provide such a right
unless preceded by special legislative procedures. No single public or
expert discussion has been held on this matter in the last two years.

Even more no legal framework has been adopted since 2005 to allow
the deposit’s opencast development. So, we have urged the Prosecutor
General’s Office and the National Security Service to inquire into
this situation,” Gabrielyan said.

Early this year the Union of Greens of Armenia and the Public
Environmental Alliance sent Global Gold Mining CEO Van Krikorian an
open letter demanding that the company stop its activities in Armenia
and pay the damages caused by its Tukhmanuk project.

Director of the Armenian Branch of Global Gold Mining Ashot Poghosyan
told ArmInfo later that the charges were groundless and that they
monitored the area on a constant basis.

In Apr 2013 the Environment Protection Ministry dismissed Mego Gold’s
project to build a third tailing dump near Tukhmanuk.

NA VICE PRESIDENT MEETS THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC PARLIAMENT

31.05.2013

On May 31 the Vice President of the National Assembly Eduard
Shramazanov met with the Vice President of the Hellenic Parliament
Giannis Dragasakis and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador
of Greece to Armenia Ioannis Taghis .

In the course of the meeting issues of mutual relations and
inter-parliamentary relations of the two countries were discussed.

Touching upon the development of the inter-parliamentary relations, the
NA Vice President in this issue highlighted the active and effective
work of the friendship groups, within the framework of mutual visits
of the delegations the elaboration of the concrete programmes and
their consistent implementation.

Eduard Shramazanov also touched upon the problems of regional security,
assuring that Armenia has been and remains propagator of peaceful
coexistence with all peoples. To his assurances, the solution of the
Nagorno Karabakh problem is possible to solve only through peaceful
negotiations, this position of Armenia is consonant with the approaches
of the Minsk Group.

The Vice President of the Hellenic Parliament Giannis Dragasakis
highly assessed Armenia’s peace-loving and constructive policy,
especially the successes recorded in the sphere of the democratic
reforms during the recent years, which to his assessment, creates
more serious bases for the activation of further cooperation of two
brotherly peoples and states. He also assured that Greece was ready
to support Armenia on the path of European integration.

In the course of the meeting issues concerning the activation
of economic relations, the overcoming of consequences of
financial-economic crisis, the settlement of the Armenian-Turkish
and the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations were also discussed.

MILLIONS ACQUIRED FROM TOILET

2013-05-31 17:34:18

Day by day Tigran Sargsyan’s Government presents new surprises to
public, why not to the Government and the President. What was acquired
by the Government years ago, now is slowly coming out of the surface,
in particular, it appears that in the past few years bio toilets
which raised so much noise, turned out not to be bio toilets, but
just simple toilets.

Yes, just like that. The millions, which were granted to implement the
dead tourism to life, it turns out, that did not serve their purpose,
once again condemning to forever carelessness by the whole world.

One of the newcomers of the Govenment Minister Vahram Avanesyan has
recently announced about simple toilets, probably still not managing
to get acquainted with the policy of bio toilets, formed by of the
Government.

In this case, the change of the Government becomes interesting,
particularly in the Ministry of Economy. But if we set aside the
Government’s motives and consider the rotation number and the essence
of the issue, once again we will face an absurd situation- recoil of
not 10 million, but 100 million, in short disappearing of money at the
state level, which, neither Police, nor other offices do not pursue.

So, it turns out that if the Government affords millions of recoils
for obtaining only 2 toilets, then what can be expected from the
Government’s achievements and other programs. Nothing, because the
speed with which our Government is moving, allows to fix, and then to
secure the regression of Armenia’s financial, economic and, eventually,
moral sense.

Therefore, the step of the Government, that brought 2 toilets to
Armania, instead of bio toilets, once again made the Government the
gird, but millions, which are behind that, and no one cares about how
the members of the Government appear in the eyes of people, for they
are interested in spentmillions.

This, of course, has been and is a threat for national security, and
if the Government members today, wearing apostle masks, are surprised
and offended by increase of Russia’s gas price, then, at the request
of the same masks, they are allegedly forced to subsidize the price
of gas, reaffirming their role, only demonstrates their cynicism and
national interests of unlawful activities.

And the reality, concerning bio toilets, will begin to empty Armenia,
instead of filling Armenia with tourists. Because as it is possible
to blow dust in residents of Armenia, presenting simple toilets as
bio toilets, tourist will immediately understand that there ther is
no bio toilet… They will leave and close the door them behind…

Gevorg Avetisyan

ANDRIASIAN & SIMONIAN, IN SAMOTSVETY TEAM, TAKE FIRST PLACE AT BLITZ TOURNAMENT

15:47 31/05/2013 ” SPORT

The Samotsvety team, among the members of which were Armenian GMs
Zaven Andriasian and Hrair Simonian, took first place with the total
results at the internet blitz tournament organized by the Shakhmatnaya
Planeta website.

A total of 9 teams took part in the tournament, armchess.am reported.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIA MADE CONSCIOUS CHOICE TO INTEGRATE WITH EUROPE: SPEAKER

YEREVAN, May 31. /ARKA/. The European integration process is a
conscious choice by Armenia, speaker of Armenian parliament Hovik
Abrahamyan said at the opening of PACE standing committee in Yerevan,
Novosti-Armenia reported.

The choice is made based on common values, rich cultural and Christian
heritage and fits the internal agenda, the speaker said.

Abrahamyan stressed Armenia is part of the European civilization
both in terms of its past and the present, as well as in terms of
its commitments to, rule of law and protection of human rights and
fundamental freedoms.

On July 19, 2010, Armenia started negotiations with the EU over
an association agreement to replace the current agreement about
partnership and cooperation.

The association agreement that aims at deeper relations between
Armenia and the EU in various fields is expected to be signed during
the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius November 28-29 2013. -0–

ARMENIA’S NATURAL GAS OPERATOR ALSO SHOULD BEAR BURDEN OF GAS PRICE HIKE – ECONOMIST

May 31, 2013 | 13:01

YEREVAN. – Not solely the Government of Armenia, but also the
ArmRusGazprom Company-which is the country’s natural gas transport
operator-should bear the burden of the forthcoming rise in the price
of the Russian gas being supplied to Armenia.

Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia Executive Director,
economist Gagik Makaryan said the abovementioned during a press
conference on Friday, commenting on the gas price hike that will go
into effect in Armenia on July 1.

“The Government of Armenia pledges to subsidize the price increase.

But why is the gas operator not bearing a part of the burden? The
state resources are not limitless,” Makaryan said.

As for the business, according to the economist, each employer must
be informed of the external factors, especially about a rise in the
price of gas.

“They should have promptly informed about the plans to raise [the]
gas [prices],” Gagik Makaryan added.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

News from Armenia – NEWS.am