Category: 2017

On September 29, the RA NA Speaker Ara Babloyan received the OSCE PA Special Representative on the South Caucasus Kristian Vigenin.

Ara Babloyan welcomed Kristian Vigenin’s visit to Armenia, highlighting it within the framework of the visit to the South Caucasus countries. The RA NA Speaker expressed conviction that the OSCE representatives’ visits to the region would give an opportunity to get acquainted with the regional problems, and get an unbiased picture about them. In Ara Babloyan’s word, Armenia supports the OSCE position and called on his all colleagues to act according to the OSCE principles and international norms. The RA NA Speaker expressed regret that the OSCE Office terminated its activities in Yerevan, expressing hope that the organisation would find new ways for closely contacting and cooperating.

Touching upon the NK conflict settlement, the RA NA Speaker reaffirmed the position of Armenia, noting: “To us human being is a greatest value: everything is created around human being. The protection of human rights is also important. As a doctor, who has fought for saving the human lives, I am equally sorry for the young people from the both Armenian and Azerbaijani sides.”

The RA NA Speaker highlighted the right of the human beings to live secure and in peace, opining that the two peoples would like to establish peace and not to have victims on the line of contact. According to the RA NA Speaker, the NK conflict should be observed not only with respect of the regional, but also the human rights view, honouring Artsakh people’s right to self-determination and to live free.

Touching upon the ongoing reforms in Armenia, Ara Babloyan has noted that Armenia is the bearer of the European values, and ready to negotiate and have dialogues over the problems of the region.

The RA NA Speaker has noted that Armenia is ready to continue the cooperation with the OSCE and reopen the Office in Yerevan.

Kristian Vigenin thanked Ara Babloyan for the reception and also expressed regret with the relation to terminating the activities of the OSCE Offices. Mr Vigenin highly assessed the activities of the RA NA Delegation in the OSCE PA.

In the word of the OSCE PA Special Representative, the goal of his mission is to promote the dialogue between the countries of the region, the establishment and preservation of peace. He highlighted the role of the parliamentary diplomacy in the solution of the conflicts.

According to Mr Vigenin, the conflicts shall be solved through peaceful means, because not only the countries, but also the ordinary citizens pay high price for them.

Regarding the ongoing reforms in Armenia, Kristian Vigenin has noted that one of his goals must be to make Armenia recognizable not only by the NK conflict, but also as a country, where there is democratic progress, and constitutional reforms have been held.

At the end of the meeting Kristian Vigenin expressed hope that in the course of time it would be possible to restore the OSCE presence in Armenia, noting: “It will be fine to be created a situation, where it will not be necessary to have the OSCE presence in the region.”

During the discussion with the members of the Public Council of Armenia today, Levon Mkrtchyan, Minister of Education and Science spoke about the concept of the Russian language developed by the Ministry, which has been criticized by the public and experts.

Levon Mkrtchyan clarified that studies have shown that for the development of natural sciences it is necessary to pay attention to the teaching of foreign languages and to apply a new methodology in the general education system, as the current methodology is insufficient. Levon Mkrtchyan mentioned that in European countries, for example, foreign languages are studied from the first grade, and in Armenia only the mother is taught in the first grade.

The Russian language study begins with the second grade. “The specialists found that foreign language could be taught from the second grade, but not in terms of studying letters, but rather games. Thus, the need of a foreign language development concept has arisen.” Levon Mkrtchyan noticed that the concepts of English, French and German were elaborated on this issue, but the issue of the Russian language was politicized by the media. “There is no need to politicize. A normal process was artificially politicized. By law the only state language of the Republic of Armenia is Armenian and other languages cannot have any other notion or status.”

The whole article is available here

A structure that has been able to make its voice heard in all state agencies. This is how the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia (RUEA) characterizes the results of its activity.

‘We are actively involved in all reforms. We can say that no document is sent to the government without our opinion. We have provided serious representation in the country,” says RUEA President Gagik Makaryan.

During the ten years of its activity the Union has increased the number of its members from 160 to 13.000. About 45 percent of them work in the private sector. Gagik Makaryan says this is a serious number for ‘having a final say.’

“We quickly respond all the changes. I can say that we are always on the alert. We say, ‘You haven’t done this or that, or you have done it wrong and it is not important that we mostly were not heard [in the past], the important thing is that we say and now it starts to influence.”

Though there are numerous recorded achievements, people at the RUEA say they still have a lot of work to do, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have many problems that need to be addressed. The Union promises to continually voice them until they find a final solution.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the United Arab Emirates Gegham Gharibjanyan reported to Serzh Sargsyan on the agenda of bilateral economic relations, on the work done to develop and deepen joint action in prospective spheres of cooperation between Armenia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as on the status of the agreements reached at a high level. The regular meeting on the economic component of Armenia’s foreign policy was attended by the heads of interested ministries and government departments coordinating the areas of mutual interest with the UAE.

Noting that the friendship of the Armenian and Arab peoples has centuries-old history, and the development of relations with the Arab world is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy, the President of Armenia stressed that our country has been actively developing relations with the countries of the Gulf region, especially with the United Arab Emirates, where the Armenians and their business skills are well known, which creates favorable conditions for the development of economic relations.

“We are engaged in a high level political dialogue with the United Arab Emirates, and the political dialogue has a decisive significance in the field of economic relations. The political dialogue itself does not lead to the activation of economic relations, but the existing potential can be bolstered through properly coordinated work.

Indeed, we should clearly state the achievements we have had in this field during the past two years, including the ones recorded in 2017. The comparison of the January-July trade turnover with the index of the same period in 2016 inspires optimism: the overall level of trade exchanges has increased 2.5 times.

There are great opportunities to cooperate in industry, jewelry and especially in food production. I think we have great potential for developing tourism.

Look, we have lifted the visa requirement for UAE citizens. Two of the Emirates are operating regular flights towards Armenia at affordable prices.

This year, tens of thousands of Filipinos have visited Armenia, with most of them being employed in the Emirates. We have the opportunity to host hundreds of thousands of such tourists in Armenia. I think we must use this opportunity.

Here, I would like to highlight the investment forum held in Abu Dhabi this March, which I think should be continued. Yes, we have to make efforts to represent Armenia there, and we also have to take part in similar major events. These are just those mandatory and minimum conditions that will enable us to activate our economic relations with the UAE. I want all of us to realize that the UAE is not just a State with which we want to deepen our relations. The UAE is a State of great importance to the Gulf countries due to the fact that they feed the markets in these countries.

The second point is that both the UAE Government and the business circles highly appreciate Armenia’s capabilities as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. I feel us bound by duty to double and triple the commodity turnover in a year or one and a half years. I hope that in the foreseeable future we will be back for a high-level dialogue, either in Armenia or in the Emirates, since there is sharp willingness to that effect both in the business community and among the political leadership. Now we have such an opportunity,’ Serzh Sargsyan said.

During the consultation, a number of assignments were given to the ministries and agencies concerned.

“A1 +” condemns the attack on Narine Avetisyan, “Lori” TV Editor-in-Chief. “A person who is raising his hand on a journalist, especially a woman, cannot have a place in society. The police should isolate him,” says Mesrop Movsesyan, head of A1+ TV. It should be reminded that during the professional duties, Tigran Nazaryan, the head of the “Shniplus” construction company, attacked her.

“He and his men pushed me to the ground by his order, twisted my arms and took away my phone,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

Today, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan today received Mikhail Volkov, General Director of the Russian Ingosstrakh Insurance Company. The interlocutors discussed issues related to the developments in the insurance market.

Mikhail Volkov expressed contentment with the activity of Ingosstrakh subsidiary in our country and noted that Armenia has great potential for development of the insurance market, and that the market is well-organized.

Karen Karapetyan congratulated Mikhail Volkov on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of “Ingosstrankh” activity in Armenia, noting that the government plans to introduce a mandatory insurance system in the field of health care and suggests the company to engage in this process. The Prime Minister also called for consideration of the possibility of providing insurance services in other spheres, underlining that the government is ready to discuss different proposals.

The RA Human Rights Defender considers unacceptable the hindrance of journalistic activities of Narine Avetisyan, Editor-in-Chief of Lori TV. Any person who has committed such offense is subjected to liability.

According tothe reporters information, a group of people attacked her during the shooting near Vanadzor’s Surb Astvatsatsin church, using violence threw to the ground and took away the phone.

On the basis of information on obstruction of the journalist’s activities, the defender’s staff initiated a discussion procedure on their own initiative.

T. KHACHATRYAN APPOINTED CHIEF OF OPERATIVE DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL STAFF OF ARMED FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

Guided by the 2005 amendment to Article 55, paragraph 12, of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and on the basis of Article 18 (1) and Article 22 (1) (2) of the RA Law on “Military Service,” I decide:

Major-General Tigran Khachatryan to appoint as Chief of the Operative Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, releasing him from the position of Head of the Armed Forces Military Preparedness Department of the Republic of Armenia.

President of the Republic of Armenia

Serzh Sargsyan