Author: nina hovnanian

U.S.-ARMENIA COOPERATIVE EFFORT TO ESTABLISH AN ARMENIAN NUCLEAR FORENSICS LAB

12:20 18.01.2013

On January 18, Ambassador John A. Heffern joined officials from the
Armenian Ministry of Energy and National Security Service to open the
Armenian Nuclear Forensics Laboratory at the Armenian Nuclear Power
Plant (ANPP). The U.S. Department of State’s Preventing Nuclear
Smuggling Program (PNSP) partnered with the ANPP to establish a
Laboratory for Technical and Forensic Analysis of Nuclear and
Radioactive Materials as part of a joint effort to strengthen
Armenian capabilities to respond to the transnational threat of
nuclear smuggling.

The laboratory will allow Armenia to collect nuclear and radiologically
contaminated evidence at crime scenes and perform technical analysis
necessary to support the prosecution of smugglers.

New opportunities will arise for Armenia to cooperate with governments
investigating illicit uses of nuclear material. Additionally, the
facility will advance aspects of the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit
work plan discussed at the 2012 summit in the Republic of Korea.

PNSP is a U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Security
and Nonproliferation, Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism
(ISN/WMDT) program. PNSP is working globally to counter nuclear
smuggling. Improving nuclear forensics best practices and cooperation
enables countries to counter nuclear smuggling by furthering their
ability to determine material origin and prosecuting smugglers.

L’ARMENIE EST UN MARCHE PRIORITAIRE POUR LE GROUPE VTB
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 18 janvier 2013

L’Armenie est l’un des marches les plus prioritaires pour le Groupe
VTB a declare le vice-president senior chez VTB Bank Mikhail Yakounine.

“La banque detient des positions fortes ici, et nous avons l’intention
de continuer a les ameliorer en Armenie” a-t-il dit aux journalistes.

Il n’a pas revele de details, toutefois, sur le volume des
investissements pour l’annee 2013 en notant que des pourparlers sont
toujours en cours.

“D’ici peu, nous aurons confirmer tous les chiffres necessaires,
et serons en mesure de devoiler l’information pour l’annee 2013”,
a-t-il ajoute.

vendredi 18 janvier 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

LE PROGRAMME DE MIGRATION RUSSE ” PAS SUSPENDU ” EN ARMENIE
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 18 janvier 2013

Un diplomate russe a dementi jeudi les informations publiees par les
medias que la Russie a suspendu un programme controverse qui encourage
et facilite l’immigration de l’Armenie.

Lance en 2006, le programme du gouvernement russe et intitule ”
compatriotes ” offre des avantages d’emploi, de logement et des aides
financière aux residents des anciennes republiques sovietiques qui
souhaitent s’installer en Russie. Il est concu pour s’attaquer aux
graves problèmes demographiques du pays.

Le programme a suscite un tolle parmi les politiciens armeniens, les
personnalites publiques et les medias s’inquiètent de l’exode continu
des armeniens du pays. Le gouvernement armenien a ajoute sa voix a
ces preoccupations, le Premier ministre Tigran Sarkissian qualifiant
a plusieurs reprises sa mise en ~uvre en Armenie ” d’inacceptable “.

Tigran Sarkissian a souleve la question lors d’une reunion a Erevan
en octobre d’une commission intergouvernementale russo-armenienne de
cooperation economique. Les autorites russes ont continue a rejeter
les preoccupations armeniennes. Mais dedias armeniens et russes ont
declare que Moscou a accepte de cesser la mise en ~uvre du programme
d’immigration en Armenie.

Le consul general russe a Gyumri, Vasily Korchmar, a nie ces
affirmations. ” Les affirmations selon lesquelles le programme sera
suspendu ou interrompu ne sont pas fondees ” a-t-il declare au service
armenien de RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am).

Vasily Korchmar a indique que la Russie pouvait que fermer les bureaux
de son Service federal des migrations (FMS) en Armenie. ” Quel que
soit la representation du FMS ou pas [en Armenie], la situation ne
changera pas, en tout cas ” a-t-il dit. ” Les consulats ou d’autres
services diplomatiques mettront en place [le programme] “.

Le diplomate a souligne que tous les ressortissants armeniens ne
sont pas admissibles au regime. ” Seuls certains de vos compatriotes
peuvent en faire la demande ” a-t-il dit. ” Plus precisement, les
personnes qui ont des racines russes ou ont vecu en Russie, ainsi
que dans d’autres parties de l’URSS dans le passe “.

Vasily Korchmar a ajoute que quelque 2000 Armeniens ont emigre en
Russie a travers le programme ” compatriotes ” au cours des six
dernières annees. Selon ses propres termes, l’interet populaire pour
le programme en Armenie a diminue au cours des 18 derniers mois.

vendredi 18 janvier 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

LE BUDGET DE LA DEFENSE AZERI TOUJOURS EN HAUSSE
Gari

armenews.com
vendredi 18 janvier 2013

Le president de l’Azerbaïdjan Ilham Aliev a annonce une nouvelle
hausse des depenses militaries pour l’annee 2013, sans faire mystère
des motivations d’une telle augmentation, puisque dans le meme temps,
il mettait une fois encore en garde l’Armenie dans le conflit qui
l’oppose a Bakou concernant le Karabagh. M. Aliev, dont les propos ont
ete publies dans les editions du mercredi 16 janvier des quotidiens
officiels, a precise que le budget de la defense allait s’elever
cette annee a 3,7 milliards de dollars, contre 3 milliards en 2012.

Cette annonce intervient sur fond de tensions persistantes aux
frontières entre l’Azerbaïdjan et l’Armenie, mais aussi a un moment
où l’armee azerie a fait l’objet de critiques sans precedent en
Azerbaïdjan. Samedi 12 janvier, des centaines de personnes ont defie
le pouvoir azeri pour manifester a Bakou, en signe de protestation
contre la mort d’un conscrit azeri âge de 18 ans dans des circontances
troubles. Le jeune appele aurait ete victime de mauvais traitements
au sein de son unite, selon les manifestants. Le president Aliev,
prenant indirectement a partie l’opposition, suspectee par le pouvoir
d’avoir orchestre cette manifestation, a mis en garde contre tentative
visant a discrediter l’armee nationale.

vendredi 18 janvier 2013, Gari ©armenews.com

GEORGIAN PM: WE ARE READY TO DEVELOP OUR RELATIONS TO MAXIMUM EXTENT

13:07 17/01/2013 ” Topic of the day

We had a very warm meeting, visiting Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina
Ivanishvili told reporters in Yerevan after his meeting with his
Armenian counterpart Tigran Sargsyan.

“I want to thank Tigran Sargsyan. We were talking the way that one
might think we have known each other since childhood. We discussed
issues related to bilateral cooperation, development of the economic
market. We are ready to develop our relations to the maximum extent,”
Mr Ivanishvili said.

Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan also described their first meeting as
warm and thanked his counterpart for his position.

“We established that there is no issue in the Armenian-Georgian
relations that cannot be solved by discussions,” said Tigran Sargsyan.

The two sides have today signed two memoranda – on cultural and
customs cooperation. The Armenian and Georgian PMs hope that their
number will increase in the future.

TOP COP: ARMENIA READY TO HOLD ‘BRILLIANT’ ELECTIONS

Vote 2013 | 17.01.13 | 11:04

Armenia will pass the upcoming election test with brilliance, said
Chief of the Armenian Police Vladimir Gasparyan speaking at the
opening of a three-day workshop for prosecutors and defense attorneys
in Yerevan on Wednesday.

The seminar held within the framework of preparations for next month’s
presidential ballot has been organized by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with the participation of
the United States Embassy and financial support from the European
Union.

At the event, Gasparyan, in particular said that each of about 2,000
precincts in Armenia will have a responsible person from the police.

“We have been practicing this method during the parliamentary election
and during elections to local government bodies. It has fully
justified itself,” stressed the chief of the national police force,
adding that while presidential elections have peculiarities of their
own, the Armenian police were ready for them.

Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, who was also attending the event,
also declared readiness to investigate all reported violations in the
electoral process.

“No complaint will remain unexamined,” Hovsepyan added, stressing the
role of the media in the process.

SUNY POTSDAM WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM TO SPONSOR ARMENIAN CHILD

Thursday, January 17, 2013 – 2:23 pm

POTSDAM –The SUNY Potsdam women’s soccer team is sponsoring an
Armenian child through World Vision, an international Christian
humanitarian organization.

The team is making monthly donations through the organization to help
support 11-year-old girl Manush. Manush currently attends primary
school where her favorite subject to study is the Armenian language.

She enjoys helping her mother with household tasks and playing soccer.

“When I brought this idea to the team, they were all for it,” said
Bears Head Coach Mark Misiak. “All of us are so fortunate to do what
we love and be involved with SUNY Potsdam, so it’s important that we
give even just a little bit to people who aren’t nearly so lucky.”

The donations go help Manush and her community get access to clean
water, health care and better education. “I hope that our sponsorship
of Manush helps her to follow her dreams,” said 2013 team captain
Kate Clauss. “We get the chance to follow ours by playing a sport in
college, so it’s great to give someone the same chance.

Projects like this help to bring our team closer together, and it’s
also pretty cool that soccer is Manush’s favorite sport.”

World Vision is a global humanitarian organization with offices in
approximately 100 countries. Its staff consists of nearly 40,000 whose
skills include a broad variety of technical specialties, ranging from
hydrology to microenterprise development to public health.

The millions of people served by World Vision include earthquake and
hurricane survivors, abandoned and exploited children, survivors
of famine and civil war, refugees, and children and families in
communities devastated by AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

PROTRACTED CONFLICTS REMAIN TO BE GENERAL ISSUE FOR OSCE. U.S. CO-CHAIR OF MINSK GROUP

21:29, 17 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 17, ARMENPRESS: Works toward the peaceful settlement
of the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, under the auspices of the Minsk
Group Co-Chairs must be continued. As reports Armenpress referring
to the official web site of OSCE, this was noted by Ian Kelly, U.S.

Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group at the meeting of the OSCE Permanent
Council in Vienna.

He noted that protracted conflicts are common security problems of
the OSCE and advised Ukrainian Foreign minister, Chairman-in-Office
of the OSCE Loenid Kojara to appoint special representative to bring
added focus to these issues. The US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group,
Ambassador Robert Bradtke has completed his mission in December, 2011.

Ambassador Ian Kelly replaced Bradtke as Minsk Group Co-Chair.

Ian C. Kelly is the current U.S. Representative to the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He was sworn into the
position on March 17, 2010.

U.S. AMBASSADOR IS HOPEFUL THAT ARMENIA CAN COMPETE FOR THE MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION ASSISTANCE VERY SOON

Thursday 17 January 2013 17:32

U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern

Yerevan/Mediamax/. U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern is hopeful
that Armenia can compete for the Millennium Challenge Corporation
assistance very soon.

In his interview to the “Voice of America”, he said that the first
priority in bilateral relations would be economy and “we are always
looking for the mutual beneficial economic opportunities, trade,
investments”.

He recalled that Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan visited the
ArmTech conference in San-Francisco during his recent trip to the USA.

“The ArmTech conference was a tremendous opportunity for the US
IT industry to demonstrate with the Armenian IT industry the great
work we are doing together to build this industry in Armenia”, John
Heffern said.

In the context of Millennium Challenge Corporation assistance, US
Ambassador said that the program in Armenia is not currently eligible.

The American diplomat explained that each year, countries all over the
world compete for this assistance and the assessment in the thirteen
areas of competency such as health, education, good governance,
fight against corruption, etc is the first step.

“Unfortunately, Armenia came up a bit short in the critical indicator
which is an anti-corruption indicator and didn’t quite meet the
threshold, which was necessary to allow Armenia to compete for the
second compact of this Program last year. We are working closely with
the Armenian government, civil society and business to improve the
Armenian governance. We see some progress, for example, in elections
and a number of areas, and we are hopeful that very soon Armenia will
be able to compete for the second compact”, Heffern said.

YEREVAN AIRPORT ZVARTNOTS TRANSPORTED OVER 1.5MLN PEOPLE IN 2012

YEREVAN, January 17. /ARKA/. More than 1.69 million people were
transported through Zvartnots airport in Yerevan in January-December
2012, reports the website of Armenia’s chief department of civil
aviation.

In the reporting period, 846,115 people arrived in the country and
845,700 departed. There were 6,687 tons of freight imported and 12,251
tons exported in the period.

In 2011, over 1,600,000 people and 10,014 tons were transported
through Zvartnots.

Armenia’s Shirak airport transported 71,568 people and 32.2 tons of
cargo in 2012.

Armenia – International Airports closed joint stock company is
operating Zvartnots and Shirak airports as per the concession agreement
signed with the Armenian government in 2011 for 30 years.

The company is owned by Argentinean “American International Airports”
company belonging to Argentinean of Armenian origin Eduardo Eurnekian.

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