Georgia on Wednesday reported the first case of coronavirus in the country.
Health minister Ekaterine Tikaradze said an infected Georgian citizen, who was traveling from Iran, crossed the border from neighboring Azerbaijan, Reuters reported.
“He was immediately taken to hospital from the border check-point,” she said.
Tikaradze said the infected man, who traveled by mini-bus with other 12 passengers, crossed the Georgian border with Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
All of them had been checked by bodyguards and taken to hospital, the minister said.
“Coronavirus positive was only in one case,” Tikaradze said.
Other members of the group tested negative, but remain in a quarantine, she said
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has created a group to coordinate actions to try to prevent a disease outbreak in the country, the premier’s press service said.
The group has decided to suspend travel between Georgia and Iran for two weeks.
The novel coronavirus originated in China late last year and has infected about 80,000 people, killing more than 2,700, the vast majority in China.
Today, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Lia Miller, alongside the Governor of the Province of Tavush, Hayk Chobanyan, and Country Director of Project Harmony International Armenia Office, Mariam Martirosyan, officially opened an American Library and Training Center – a new learning hub in Ijevan supported by the U.S. Embassy and housed at the Ijevan Branch of Yerevan State University.
The American Library and Training Center is the largest component of the Tavush Outreach Project, implemented by Project Harmony International using U.S. government funds. The purpose of the Tavush Outreach Project is to deliver concentrated U.S. government outreach by offering English language and other instruction to Tavush youth and young adults, by providing diverse capacity building programs, and offering resources to increase understanding of U.S. society.
The American Library and Training Center will offer diverse training programs for local community members to develop skills that are vital for practicing democratic values and active citizenship. The training programs will include, but are not limited to, English language skills, media literacy, project design and management, leadership skills, and communications skills.
The American Library and Training Center is equipped with relevant technical equipment and a diverse collection of American books and materials. The outreach program will also include film screenings, book clubs, and guest speakers.
Los Angeles City College will be hosting an Armenian Cultural Day on Feb. 20
LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles City College has announced that it will be hosting an Armenian Cultural Day. The event will be held on Thursday, February 20 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on the 3rd floor of the Student Union Building at L.A. City College, located at 855 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029.
Outstanding guest speakers of the cultural day include Professor Siobhan Nash-Marshall and L.A. County Chief Deputy Anna Mouradian. Featured guests include Hratch Demiurge from Rose & Alex Pilibos Armenian School and Rev. Serop Megerditchian of the Armenian Cilicia Evangelical Church.
Professor Siobhan Nash-Marshall has been part of efforts to support Armenians in Artsakh by sending American educators to lead courses in English, Logic, and Ethics. An experienced educator, Dr. Siobhan Nash-Marshall holds the Mary T. Clark Chair of Christian Philosophy at Manhattanville College and degrees from Fordham University, Universita Cattolica di Milano, New York University and Universita di Padova.
Anna Mouradian is Chief Deputy to L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. With the Supervisor’s involvement, she recently visited Armenia with an official California state delegation, helped raise $1 million in support of Glendale’s Armenian American Museum, and helped host the official visit of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Los Angeles.
Hratch Demiurge will present his published translation of “Pagan Songs” by Daniel Varoujan. Varoujan was brutally murdered following his arrest on April 24, 1915.
Rev. Serop Megerditchian, who pastored an Armenian church in Aleppo, Syria from 1997 to 2015, will give a presentation on Vartanantz Day and its modern meaning.
17:48,
Converse Bank has been announced the “Best Trade Finance Provider 2020 in Armenia” by the prestigous Global Finance Magazine at the 13th BAFT Global Annual Meeting in London.
Presentation of the award speaks of Converse Bank’s outstanding achivements in the sphere of trade finance evidenced by the remarkable growth in the volume and quantity of transactions and the broad geographical coverage.
Among winners of “Best Trade Finance Provider 2020” award are Commerzbank AG (Germany), Raiffeisen Bank International (Austria), KBC Bank (Belgium), Citibank (USA), Societe Generale (France) and other leading banks. To see the full list of banks awarded by Global Finance visit https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/february-2020/2020-worlds-best-trade-finance-providers .
It is worth mentioning that during the recent years Converse Bank has been presented with several honorary awards in this sphere: the “Deal of the Year-Green Trade” by the EBRD and the “Trade Finance Award 2018” by Commerzbank AG, among others.
The consequences of the constitutional changes will be fundamental for overcoming them decades are necessary, consultant to the CC chairman Grigor Muradyan said at the Constitutional Security: Challenges and Solutions discussion held today.
“Unfortunately the jurisdiction has finally collapsed in our country,” he said.
“In reality the extreme populism and the Constitutional state are incompatible, the CC as the supreme preserver of the Constitution must protect the constitutional system of values from all the encroachments,” the consultant said, adding that he has an impression as if Armenia is being thrown back not even not the constitution of the Soviet Armenia, but the 30s.
Grigor Muradyan noted that the constitutional stability is being breached.
“Armenia has stopped being a legal state as one of the grounds of the legal state, without which it is impossible to imagine a legal state, is the independence of judges, immutability and safe tenure,” he said.
13:25,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on February 8 held a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of Greece Nikos Dendias, the Armenian MFA told Armenpress.
During the phone talk the two FMs discussed broad range of issues of mutual interest relating to the Armenian-Greek agenda.
They highlighted the importance of Armenia-Greece-Cyprus trilateral cooperation in terms of strengthening the partnership and the regional cooperation, as well as discussed the preparations of the upcoming summit at Cyprus-Armenia-Greece format in Yerevan.
The Armenian and Greek FMs also exchanged views on a number of urgent international and regional issues.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Armenia’s economic activity index highest since 2011
10:51, 1 February, 2020
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. The economic activity index of Armenia amounted to 7.8% in 2019. This is the highest record since the index started to be calculated in Armenia, year 2011, Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan told ARMENPRESS.
“It’s good news that the growth of industry effected economic activity. The growth of industrial output amounted to 9%”, the Minister said.
According to Tigran Khachatryan, this growth is mainly conditioned by exports. Increase of export of cognac surpassed 26% in 2019. The export growth of wines is also impressive – 75% for fruit wines and 26% for grape wines. Chocolate is one of the most rapidly developing directions, the export of which rose by 14.2%.
The Minister of Economy also presented other economic indexes, particularly, he noted that construction has grown by 4.6%, services have grown by 15%, tourism gas grown by 15% based on preliminary examinations.
Speaking about the GDP for 2019, the Minister noted that they have not summed it up yet, but according to their assessments, it will exceed the recent forecasts, which means that economic growth of 2019 will be around 8%.
To the question what forecasts he can make for 2020, Minister Khachatryan said, ”I will refrain from making forecasts now, but I will reassure that our Government is committed to do its best in the framework of its economic policy in order we record economic results in 2020 that will be in line with the results of 2019, continuing to secure predictable, stable and equal environment for all participants in economic life”, he said.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Former Director of Armenia’s National Security Service, Major-General Artur Vanetsyan was questioned at the Investigative Committee on Thursday, its spokesperson Nairia Harutyunyan confirmed to Panorama.am.
According to her, Vanetsyan, who also headed the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA), was questioned as a witness as part of the criminal investigations into alleged abuses in the FFA and the 2018 wiretapping case involving him and Special Investigative Service Head Sasun Khachatryan.
“Vanetsyan’s mobile phone has been examined as part of the wiretapping case,” she said, refusing to elaborate on the results.