Category: 2017

The American Armenian Caucus continues to advance the idea of ​​opening a direct flight between Los Angeles and Yerevan with government, business and civil society stakeholders in Armenia and the United States. This is reported by the committee.

Leading the committee’s efforts Zangu Armenian and a member of the Glendale City Council Zareh Sinanyan recently arrived in Yerevan to discuss with the officials the practical steps of opening the corresponding flight. During the same period, Pasadena Mayor Terry Thornek was also on an official visit to Yerevan. Thornek and Sinanian are the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Hollywood-Burbank Airport Commission.

Earlier this year, ANCA members had discussions with Los Angeles International Airport Chief Executive Officer Deborah Flynt on the matter.

“We see interest from officials in exploring this initiative because connecting the largest Armenian-American community in the United States with Armenia will contribute to the development of tourism and business opportunities in both Los Angeles and Armenia,” said Zangu Armenian. tert.am:

VERELQ presents the most notable publications of the Armenian press.

“168 hours” the newspaper writes. “I think that Trump’s staff does not pay attention to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the highest level. This is happening because President Trump is trying to reduce the role of US leadership in the world, including through severe budget cuts at the State Department. In the end, most likely, the staff will accept that the negotiation of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the Minsk Group provides a concrete plan on which the USA and Russia can work together for the sake of peace,” the former assistant to the US Secretary of State for the South Caucasus, former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, director of the International Center for Defense Studies in Tallinn told “168 Hours”. Matthew Bryzareferring to the position of the White House on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

According to him, reducing the position of the US co-chair in the Minsk Group is a reckless and even dangerous step, because it can create a vacuum, as a result of which the Minsk Group process can fail, the result of which will be a spiral increase in tension, the peak of which can be another war. “Furthermore, from the budgetary point of view, this step makes no sense, because the expenses of the US co-chairman’s post are covered by the OSCE, and not by the US government,” said Bryza. By the way, in his opinion, in Geneva, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, resumed real negotiations on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

“People” the newspaper writes. “According to the news that reached us, Baghramyan 26 has been strengthened again, especially Serzh Sargsyan security control. All of this became more evident during Serzh Sargsyan’s visits to several state departments in recent days. For example, during the last visit of Minister of Defense Serzh Sargsyan, it was ordered to close the windows of the ministry, so that the room of the ministry could not be seen from the outside. Head of the RA State Security Service Hrachya HarutyunyanIn a conversation with “Zhoghovurd” daily, however, he noted. “These are just normal interceptions, which are carried out in order to ensure the safety of such high-ranking officials. You can see what kind of geopolitical processes are going on in the region, and we organize our events accordingly. There is nothing to worry about, we are doing our current work.”

“Realist” the newspaper writes. “PAP has already decided to join the coalition in 2018. In addition to the ministry of sports and youth affairs, they hope to take over the ministries of social bloc and culture. as well as the portfolio of their “pay” deputy prime minister, for which they are circulating Ishkhan Zakaryan, Mikael Melkumyanthe names And not only. There is a point of view that Ishkhan is personally lobbying Zakaryan, not unknown Khachatur Sukiasyan: According to our PAP sources, this is not so. “Khachik personally will not mind being the deputy prime minister. by the way, recently his “inner glow” is precisely on that occasion. And Hovik Argamic, we asked? “His time is over. Kocharyan didn’t want to either, but he had to adapt to the status of a young pensioner,” they said. By the way, according to the same sources, there is also a fourth candidate for deputy prime minister. it’s him personally Gagik Tsarukyan: “Don’t rule out his version either,” whispered our source with deep respect.

“Realist” the newspaper writes. “They say that it surprised many people Samvel Aleksanyan Samvel Karapetyan’s investment participation in “Alex Textiles” is explained not only by the latter’s desire to provide his son-in-law with foreign markets, but also by “Karapetyans vs. Tsarukyan” configurations. They also say that the Karapetyans want to reformulate the Armenian oligarchic field and “raise” Tsarukyan as a counterweight oligarch. “If Tsarukyan was the number one oligarch during Kocharyan’s time, now the tide will turn to Aleksanyan. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that the total inspections of the SRC, “very close” to Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, in Tsarukyan’s and Aleksanyan’s companies make Tsarukyan very nervous, but not Aleksanyan.

“Armenian Times” the newspaper writes. “We learn from the 2017 procurement plan of RA police that in the current year the department purchased 43 2017 Toyota Corolla cars from Toyota-Yerevan company. The police paid 350 million AMD for these 43 cars to the Toyota-Yerevan company. According to the contract, the cost of each of the 27 cars is 8 million 120 thousand drams, and the 16 is 8.5 million. According to the information in the contract, the country of the car manufacturer is Turkey. “Toyota-Yerevan” company, let’s remind, is connected Robert Kocharyan eldest son Sedrak Kocharyanwith the name. Police vehicles are insured by “Nairi Insurance” company, which again belongs to the Kocharyan family. The police transferred about 7.5 million drams to this company for insurance. We asked the police for a comment regarding the 43 cars to be acquired, but they offered to apply in writing for clarification. In the near future, we will present to our readers the purpose for which the police acquires these vehicles.”

“Publication” the newspaper writes. “In the near future, another sensational project will be presented to the National Assembly for consideration. We are talking about the draft of the RA Criminal Code, which has been in effect since 2003, which has undergone serious content changes, as it is considered outdated. In particular, the “Crimes against constitutional rights and freedoms” section of the Code includes discrimination, which, in fact, has been criminalized. Article 197 of the draft, which uses the term “sexual orientation” and specifies that discrimination – direct or indirect violation of human rights, freedoms and legal interests depending on sexual orientation in particular – is punishable by a fine of up to twenty times, or public works for a maximum of 80 hours, or restriction of freedom for a maximum period of 2 years.

Discrimination committed by using governmental or official powers or the influence caused by them is punishable by a fine in the amount of twenty to fifty times, or public works for a period of 80-150 hours, or deprivation of the right to hold a certain position or engage in a certain activity for a maximum period of 5 years, or restriction of freedom for a maximum period of 3 years, or short-term imprisonment for a maximum period of 2 months, or imprisonment for a maximum period for a period of 2 years. This article has already caused a lot of backlash among some people familiar with the project. Some qualify the provision “anti-national, anti-moral” and express fear that those with “non-traditional” sexual orientation may use the opportunity and blackmail others by referring to the mentioned article.

“time” the newspaper writes. “From October 30, the parliament started discussing the 2018 budget project presented by Karen Karapetyan’s government. That project is fundamentally no different from the budgets of the last almost decade, because it is, so to speak, within the framework of the philosophy of survival. Since 2009, practically all budgets of Armenia are within the framework of the philosophy of survival. The problem is that when the government changed in Armenia a year ago, the public did not expect a bright future from that change, so to speak, verbal assurances or just new faces of folklore, but figures who, instead of folklore, would give the public practical impulses of positive expectation. For now, these impulses remain in the genre of folklore, only the government figures who deal with them continue to be sympathetic, unlike the previous government.

The mechanism of formation of power is not public, that is, the will of society is a problem in it, not a decisive factor. It is a problem that the government overcomes and overcomes with force, administrative leverage, and financial means. Of course, until now the government has been formed in this way without decisive public participation, but currently there is a peculiarity: the process called the election has passed, but the government has not been formed. Moreover, now, in fact, there is no public even formally, there is no election, and the formation of the government must take place through post-election non-governmental fermentation. And that in turn brings another feature.

The point is that when there is a public formal problem, the system, in fact, at least in that part, has to consolidate around a problem and act in the direction of overcoming it. When now the actual problem is already within the system, there is no need to solve the issue of the public, even if it is a formal factor, a problem of consolidation of the power system arises. There is no consolidation, internal contradictions and contradictions are intensifying. They are intensifying, therefore the economy also becomes the victim of these events, so to speak, because no one wants to take tangible responsibility for the economic perspective if they do not have confidence in the government’s perspective. request.

Thus, Armenia is currently in a situation when Serzh Sargsyan is going to give up responsibility Karen Karapetyanconsidering the lack of economic breakthrough as a consequence of his inefficiency, and Karen Karapetyan, on the contrary, tries to show that Serzh Sargsyan’s political support is insufficient, and that is why the system is advancing its interests rather than Karapetyan’s politics. The truth, of course, in this case is somewhere in the middle, or not at all in the Sargsyan-Karapetyan range. Practically, the reason was the same in the Sargsyan-Abrahamian plane: the issue of power was not resolved, therefore there could be no economic policy. There is an economic war within the ruling system, which, of course, is going on secretly. not in the most literal sense of the word, but in its very logic. War for economic resources, because they will also predetermine the issue of power. The peculiarity of that war is that the biggest loss is not the participants, but the society and the state. Perhaps the participants don’t even have a loss, they just either increase what they have, or in the worst case, preserve what they have.”

Seyran Ohanyan’s wife Ruzanna Khachatryan, who recently became the author of a scandalous post, continues to intrigue the public by making a new post on the social network.

It is specifically stated in the post.

“Among the many analyzes related to my post, there was an analysis by which the author assumed that my post has a political connotation, and Seyran Ohanyan, not winning the elections, is preparing for a revolution in the spring.

The electoral process is the most common form of citizens’ participation in the political life of the state, a very important institution that ensures the legitimacy of the power coming to power.

Since 1995, the results of all elections in RA have been rightly questioned by all circles of our society, always blaming the involvement of administrative resources, the use of power structures, and abuse. The political elite were accused of fraud, and the opposition and the people were accused of inconsistency.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the electoral processes in our republic could not be particularly different from the elections in any of the post-Soviet states. After the collapse of the Soviet system, we all bear the consequences of chain collapses, the demoralization of social and political institutions, and the exclusion of the poor from political processes.

All political circles in our country, ruling or opposition, are concerned (I think rightfully so) about the government proving its legitimacy and the people seeing the government they want.

The election results cannot be doubted in a situation when the demographic data presented before the elections, the number of voters and their participation in the elections will be reliable, when every citizen will have the opportunity to receive unbiased information, when the central election commission will conduct an open, public policy, when the citizen under a heavy social burden will not sell his vote. Only in this way will we find the strength to develop our country, then we will talk about who are the winners. And until the factors that ensure the legitimacy of choice are complete and sufficient, we are all losers… and inglorious.

So, according to me, there are NO winners, but I believe that there are today wonderfully trained, patriotic figures in various political parties. we communicate with them personally, respect and love them all. And we believe that the incidents and events will make us all look each other straight in the eyes and move state-political functions from the level of the show to another level, where open, impartial and true discussions are born.

My approaches are not idealistic at all. there is reasoned concern for everyone. it is only necessary to show political will.

Seyran Ohanyan, being a military figure of a warring country, cannot but give an objective assessment of the reality and see the threats to the country’s statehood. He always has the courage to speak his mind in different political circles.

Seyran Ohanyan, whether or not he will be in politics, will speak about the future form of his struggle.

And the revolutions will be in spring or autumn… and in general, whether they will be or not, I cannot predict.

Finally, maybe about the most important thing. after all, who is the person I mean… The person being described, according to the factual data provided to us (including the recordings), is believed to be one of the participants of the information terror carried out against me and Seyran Ohanyan.

PS: Some external descriptive details of the sought official: with the size of her belly, she resembles a 7-8 month pregnant woman from the front, and her lips are similar to those of Kim Kardashian. I assume that the department referred to in my post will soon start conducting anthropometric measurements and will answer journalists’ questions that a person with such an appearance does not work for them, or the size of the belly corresponds to a 5-6 month pregnancy instead of 7-8″.

To remind, the spokesperson of the RA Ministry of Defense also responded to Ruzanna Khachatryan’s last post Artsrun Hovhannisyan, and a member of the National Assembly Nikol Pashinyan had urged a careful study of the facts presented therein. The Ministry of Defense reminded Seyran Ohanyan’s wife about the perjury article.

A criminal case was initiated in the Armavir Regional Investigation Department of the RA Investigative Committee regarding the case of taking a young child hostage in a kindergarten.

On October 30, 2017, at around 4:00 p.m., the person who committed the alleged crime entered the “Manushak” kindergarten on Baghramyan street in Armavir city and took the kindergarten student hostage. to the born male child. The man held the child hostage with the threat of a knife in his possession, demanding to organize a meeting with his ex-wife in order to release the latter. The latter works in the same kindergarten.

As a result of the measures taken by the law enforcement agencies, it was possible to neutralize the person who committed the alleged crime and release the child unharmed. The child has no injuries.

A criminal case was initiated in connection with the case of taking an underage child hostage with the use of a weapon, according to the 3rd and 4th points of the 2nd part of Article 218 of the RA Criminal Code. The criminal case was initiated by the CCA investigator.

Notice: The person suspected or accused of the alleged crime is considered innocent until his guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia by a legally binding judgment of the court.

According to preliminary reports, after the police neutralization, the hostage-taker was not injured, the police have already taken him to the police department. According to preliminary information, the man injured himself, the injuries are light.

Earlier we informed that the situation in the city of Armavir, the regional center of Armavir, remains tense. A 3-year-old boy was held hostage in “Manushak” kindergarten. The hostage made a request of a personal nature, which the police do not consider appropriate to publish at this time. The name of the hostage-taker is also known, but the police, in the interests of the investigation, does not provide details.

According to the decree of the RA President Serzh Sargsyan, Yuri Vardanyan was released from the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia.

By another presidential decree, Ruben Sadoyan was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia (residence: Tbilisi).

To remind, for a long time it was rumored that Deputy Director of the Caucasus Institute, Sergey Minasyan, would be appointed ambassador, but recently the Georgian public TV reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia did not give credentials to the newly appointed ambassador by RA. The public television company contacted the foreign ministry to verify the information. “Sergey Minasyan is the deputy director of the Caucasus Institute. 

Minasyan published several articles in which “Russia’s involvement was required to solve the Javakhk issue”, says the article of Moambe, the public television station of Georgia, which does not correspond to reality.

It should be noted that Ruben Sadoyan, a former member of the National Assembly, is a former Minister of Transport and Communications Gagik Beglaryan is the protégé.

According to the circulating news, Gagik Beglaryan, who is in a patron-godson relationship with Sadoyan, who has quite close relations with the governing circles of Georgia, actively lobbied for the confirmation of his candidacy.

Those carps were especially strengthened during the tenure of minister Gagik Beglaryan. According to our information, Beglaryan has very warm relations, especially with the current Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili. The latter, as the press wrote, attended the wedding of Gagik Beglaryan’s son, Hrant Beglaryan, together with several ministers of the Georgian government in September of last year.

It should also be noted that the position of ambassador, especially in Georgia, where there are many sensitive issues related to RA and the local Armenian community, also means a certain active public activity. And Ruben Sadoyan, who was elected to the National Assembly twice in a row (2007-2017), was one of the most silent deputies.

Let’s also remind that according to press publications, Sadoyan once had large debts to Armenian banks. In 2015, the newspaper “Chorrord Samvishkhanutyun” made a publication, according to which the deputy of the National Assembly (at that time he was still a deputy) Ruben Sadoyan owed millions of debts to Armenian banks.

According to the press release, the banks, not being able to receive their money, sued the MP. At that time, Judge Gagik Khandanyan of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of RA was in the process of the lawsuit of “Ameria” bank against the National Assembly deputy.

Biography of Ruben Sadoyan.

He was born in 1968. on June 22 in Yerevan.

1989 graduated from Yerevan Institute of National Economy. Financier-economist.

1989-1990 worked in “Haybakalea” enterprise as an accountant, in 1990-1994 – in the RA State Tax Inspectorate, then in the operational department of the inspectorate – state tax inspector, in 1994-1996 – in “Vahuni” LLC – director, in 1996-2000 – in “Royal Crystal” LLC – director, in 2000-2001 – RA State Chief Tax Inspector of the Department of Analysis and Planning of Tax Revenues of the Tax Inspection of the Ministry of Revenue, 2002: Director at the “Arshakun” Branch of “Yerevan Electric Grid” CJSC, 2002-2003: Director at the “Echmiadzin Realization-Operation” Branch, 2003-2004: Deputy Director of “Kentron-Kanachapatum” CJSC.

2007-2012: Deputy of the National Assembly (constituency No. 9). Member of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs of the National Assembly.

2012 On May 6, he was elected a deputy of the National Assembly from constituency No. 9.

Married, has two children.

It’s been more than 1 hour, a tense situation has been created in Armavir marz. As photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan reports from Armavir city, a citizen entered “Manushak” kindergarten on Baghramyan Street, where he took the employees and children hostage.

As a result of police negotiations and explanatory work, all the hostages were released, only one person remained, a boy.

The person who broke into the “Manushak” kindergarten in Armavir demanded his ex-wife, who is an employee of the kindergarten, by threatening him with a knife. At the moment, the director, who is the man’s mother-in-law, and also 1 child are in the kindergarten building.

This was reported to Tert.am by former member of the National Assembly, Rustam Gasparyan from Armavir, who is currently near the kindergarten building.

“Requires a wife. They say that he hurt the director of the kindergarten, his mother-in-law, he hit him near the ear,” said Rustam Gasparyan.

At the moment, negotiations are underway with the person who broke into the kindergarten with a weapon.

It is noted that the officers of the Main Department of Criminal Investigation of the Police also arrived.

One of the residents of Armavir reported that the husband and wife had problems and broke up. The woman’s mother also works in the kindergarten, and the man who broke in there injured both the woman and the mother-in-law.

It is also known that the woman managed to escape and the man took the children hostage, demanding the woman.