Category: 2018

Speaking about the CSTO summit held in Astana on November 8 and the fact of not electing the general secretary of the organization, the spokesman of the Republican Party of Armenia, NA deputy speaker Eduard Sharmazanov, stated that it is “another clear failure of Pashinyan’s government”.

“In fact, November 8 passed, but Armenia did not have a general secretary in the CSTO. One thing becomes clear. During Pashinyan’s rule, Armenia is consistently losing its security positions. Moreover, it is openly stated that the post of Secretary General will be given to Belarus.

And what will happen? Let me say, to cover up our own failure, I think we will witness, so to speak, a fight against corruption, new revelations or another division of blacks and whites. Mr. Prime Minister, fight again against corruption and any illegality, but not at the expense of the security of Armenia and Artsakh,” the statement said.

The statement states that the number one challenge of Armenia was and remains the strengthening of the security of Armenia and the fair and pro-Armenian solution of the Artsakh issue.

“Having given that normal and educated impression, Aliyev once again talked about returning some territories, Artsakh being Azerbaijani land, extracting concessions from Armenia. I was waiting for your response, but instead of your bold and decisive speech, I got silence. It is worrisome,” said the RPA deputy’s statement.

At the CSTO summit held in Astana on November 8, it was not possible to choose a secretary general: RA insisted that its candidate continue to serve, some of the members that Belarus should take over the position. Therefore, the matter was postponed until December 6. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev believes that the representative of Belarus will become the Secretary General of the CSTO.

“A collision arose due to the fact that the RA representative Yuri Khachaturov, who was the general secretary of the organization, was recalled. According to the charter, Armenia is followed by Belarus,” Nazarbayev told reporters in Astana at the end of the CSTO summit.

“Veolia Water” company issued a statement regarding the allegation of abuse of dominant position.

It is said in the statement.

“Veolia Water, as a branch of the Veolia Group with 160 years of experience, implements a clear policy in order to ensure the quality of services provided to its customers and high safety standards and procurement rules, establishing contractual relations with such reliable and established companies that can demonstrate the required experience in the relevant fields and provide convincing evidence of a rich history of activity.

“Veolia Water” CJSC, which is part of the world’s leading operator, is expected to use international best practices as widely as possible and provide existing technologies. Due to this, the company aims to use the highest class products and modern technologies in its activities for the benefit of the country and its customers.

“Veolia Water” company has assumed the highest responsibility towards its subscribers and that is why it will never make concessions in matters related to the safety of water supply and drainage services and water quality assurance in the Republic of Armenia.

The decision of the RA State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, according to which “Veolia Water” company “abuses its dominant position”, is a surprise for us. The accusation against “Veolia Water” company is false and unfounded.

“Veolia Water” company is always guided by the requirements of RA laws in its activities. The company regrets that the given decision was made by the RA State Technical University without the presence of the company or any of its management.

“Veolia Water” company will appeal this decision, taking advantage of all opportunities provided by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

To remind, at the meeting held on November 7, the State Technical Committee of Ukraine fined Veolia water company 20 million drams for abusing its dominant position.

Necessary investigative actions are being taken in the criminal case being investigated in the proceedings of the investigative department of the city of Yerevan of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia in order to find out all the circumstances of the case of apparent abuses recorded in the “Selena” SP company.

The RA Investigative Committee informs that as a result of the multi-faceted investigation, sufficient data has been obtained, especially regarding the evasion of tax obligations in large amounts.

Earlier, we informed that in 2017, the management of “Yans” restaurant complex, owned by “Selena” LLC. internal checks were carried out, as a result of which materials on financial abuses, apparently allowed by the company’s accountant and manager, were sent to law enforcement agencies. A criminal case was initiated in connection with the incident, with which the preliminary investigation is carried out in the proceedings of the investigative department of the RA Criminal Investigation Department of Yerevan.

As a result of large-scale investigative operations carried out in order to ensure a comprehensive, objective and complete investigation, data was obtained regarding other criminal manifestations, as a result of which the damage caused to the state, according to preliminary calculations, is 1 billion 163 million 516 thousand 352 AMD.

In particular, “Selena” SP company, registered in department #1 of the RA SRC HSA, implemented a profit-seeking commercial activity at #76 (74) Teryan street in Yerevan city, that is, in the “Yans” complex operating at the mentioned address, it implemented a public catering activity, which included a restaurant, a music club and a seasonal open-air cafe, the area of ​​which is the actual service hall, since 2013, has exceeded 600 square meters.

According to the investigation, in order not to pay particularly large amounts of taxes paid to the state budget in accordance with the law, the SP company, instead of operating in the field of general taxation, actually operated as a patent tax payer, not being a patent fee payer in accordance with the 4th point 1.1 of the RA Law “On Patent Fees” Annex No. 4 of the RA Law “On Patent Fees”. 2014 from April to 2018 including the month of May, the company submitted incorrect data to the tax authority regarding the public food service area, that is, statements about being a license fee payer for less square meters and, violating the requirements of the tax legislation, entering an obviously false data in the 2014 profit tax calculation, not submitting the profit tax calculation for 2015-2017 in accordance with the law and within the time limits, 2014-2018. 2014 for entering obviously false data in the income tax calculations submitted for from January to 2018 May including monthly VAT calculations and 2015-2018. Avoid paying particularly large tax liabilities by not submitting annual VAT statements. According to preliminary calculations, the state suffered a loss of AMD 1,163,516,352.

On the basis of the new factual data obtained in the criminal case, a new criminal case was initiated today regarding the case of tax evasion in particularly large amounts, according to part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

It should be noted that as a result of the multi-faceted investigation conducted in the criminal case being investigated by the investigation department of Yerevan regarding the case of apparent abuses recorded in “Selena” SP company, earlier data were obtained regarding other apparently criminal manifestations as well. In particular, in the area of “Yans” restaurant complex, in the residences of S. Karapetyan, the director of “Selena” SP company, and R. Beglarian, the actual owner of “Selena” LLC, as a result of searches in the latter’s garage, among other valuable items, a particularly large amount of cash was found: 1,110,400 US dollars, 35,000,000 AMD, 230,500 euros, which was handed over to the Central Bank, until the investigation will clarify their origin.

Bearing in mind that R. Beglaryan’s husband, V. Ghazaryan, according to the official website of the ethics committee of high-ranking officials, from June 19, 2008 to June 2018. On May 17, he became a high-ranking official, therefore, according to the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On Public Service”, he was obliged to submit property and income declarations to the ethics committee of high-ranking officials in accordance with the law. However, in the declarations of both V. Ghazaryan and his wife, R. Beglaryan, there were no notes regarding the particularly large amounts of cash and valuables found during the search, and based on the obtained data, a criminal case was initiated by the decision of the SCR investigator of the Investigation Department of Yerevan city, under Article 310.1 and Part 2 of Article 314.3 of the RA Criminal Code, which, according to the investigative authority, sent RA special investigative service.

The preliminary investigation of the criminal case being investigated in the investigation department of the city of Yerevan of the RA Investigative Committee continues. We will inform you additionally about the procedural decisions made in the criminal case based on the combination of factual data and evidence.

Disseminated information that the Constitutional Court on the basis of the application of the President of the Republic adopted on October 2 the constitutional law “Regulations of the National Assembly” recognized the amended provisions as unconstitutional, inconsistent with reality. This was reported by the CC.

Earlier it became known that the RA President’s application was submitted to the Constitutional Court and is in the preliminary study stage. The Constitutional Court also informs that in these cases, the Constitutional Court makes a decision no later than three months after filing the application.

With the reasoned procedural decision of the Constitutional Court, the period of examination of the case can be extended, but not more than three months.

To remind, the “Regulations of the National Assembly” adopted at the special session of the National Assembly on October 2, 2018 “On Amendments and Amendments to the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Armenia” caused various comments and discussions. On October 24, President Sargsyan appealed to the Constitutional Court to decide whether the submitted law meets the requirements of the Constitution.

Simon Martirosyan, representative of Armenia, 109 kg weightlifter, became the world champion at the world weightlifting championship in Turkmenistan with a record result of 435 kg. 

In the push exercise, the Armenian weightlifter recorded a result of 230 kg in the first approach, becoming the world record holder, in the second approach, Martirosyan already pushed 240 kg as a champion, setting a new world record. 

To remind, the Armenian weightlifter won a silver medal in the snatch exercise, holding 195 kg above his head.

In the third approach, the 21-year-old weightlifter lifted a 197 kg barbell, but the referees did not count his approach and did not register a new world record.

To remind, Simon Martirosyan is the silver medalist of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the champion of the 2017 European Championship, as well as the 2018 European Youth Championship.

VERELQ presents the most notable publications of the Armenian press.

“Publication” the daily writes: “Member of the National Assembly Seyran Saroyan, who closed the doors of his house, left, has been in Armenia for 3 days. Why did he come? “He must undergo a certain course of treatment and analysis here and return to Moscow again,” they told us. According to our sources, Saroyan will also meet Nikol Pashinyan. With what question? “As far as I know, Saroyan, from whom? Manvel Grigoryan He is terribly upset, he wants to talk to Pashinyan about the general’s restraining order.” He probably learned that Manvel hardly moves, his limbs do not work, he has turned into a crippled old man, to the extent that the children did not recognize him at first during the last meeting.

“People” the daily writes: “Yesterday the President of RA Armen Sargsyan visited Gyumri to see the building handed over to the Shirak Geology Museum and under renovation. And although Armen Sarkissian was welcomed by the governor of Shirak and the mayor of Gyumri near the Gyumri technopark, the president refused to use their services. “Zhoghovurd” daily interviewed the mayor of Gyumri on this occasion Samvel Balasanyan and Governor of Shirak Karen Sarukhanyan with To the question, “Didn’t you feel bad when he forbade you to accompany him?”, Balasanyan answered. “There was no problem of feeling bad, the president came with a clear investment plan.” And don’t you feel humiliated by that attitude, he said: “No, there is no problem of feeling humiliated.” And at least you didn’t entertain the president afterwards, the mayor answered. “We had coffee in the bakery-cafe, took advantage of the hospitality.”

“Publication” the daily writes: “Although the leadership of the National Assembly canceled the expenses of the business trips after the dissolution of the parliament, the Armenian deputies decided to take advantage of the last opportunity. The delegation of the RA-China friendship group was sent to Beijing on November 8-15. Hermine Naghdalyan led by They make up Gemma Baghdasaryan, Shushan Sardaryan, Karen Bekaryan, Arman Saghatelyan, from “KP” Lena Nazaryan, Aram Sargsyan, and Margarit Yesayan and Alen Simonyan they refused. Yesayan said that he refused because of the death of a relative. The deputy head of the NA staff said that the expenses are covered by the Chinese side. Usually, the costs of visits of friendly groups are settled by mutual agreement, and sometimes Armenia, in addition to air tickets, took over the remaining costs when hosting groups.

“Publication” the newspaper writes. “Member of the National Assembly Tigran Urikhanyan has already announced that he will be nominated in electoral district No. 2, which includes Arabkir, Ajapnyak, Davtashen regions, using the rating electoral system. And since the “Alliance”, which showed ambition to participate in the elections independently, announced that after the defeat of the new Electoral Code, it will no longer be possible to participate without large units, most likely, Urikhanyan will be nominated in the format as he was traditionally nominated, that is, from Tsarukyan’s team, on the list of the PAP. This information was also not denied by our source in “Alliance”, noting that “on Monday an extraordinary emergency congress of the party will be held and an announcement will be made on the spot”.

“time” the newspaper writes. “On November 8, the meeting of the OEK board took place, during which the issue of the party’s participation in the parliamentary elections was discussed. According to our source close to OEK, a decision was made not to participate in the parliamentary elections, which the party will announce in the near future. The main reason for non-participation will be the failure of EC amendments and the preservation of the rating electoral system.”

“time” the newspaper writes. “According to “Zhamanak”, the former head of Armavir marz will be nominated as a deputy candidate in the ranking electoral system in electoral district No. 6 covering Armavir region. Gagik Mirijanyan: Mirijanyan was appointed governor by the PAP quota and was fired after the popular vote of the PAP on October 2. Gagik Mirijanyan in 2017 In the parliamentary elections, he was nominated as a deputy candidate by the ARF and received about 500 votes.

 

“People” the daily writes: “The ARF will compile and publish the party’s proportional and ranked voter lists in the next few days. According to the information of “Zhoghovurd” daily, the ARF voter’s list and especially those nominated by the ranking electoral system will not undergo much changes. In particular, several names are already known. This time, he can also be nominated by ranked election system Armen Rustamyan, who will again lead the ARF electoral list. Ex-ministers will also be nominated by the ranking electoral system Artsvik Minasyan, Artur Khachatryan, Davit Lokyan, as well as the former head of the Arabkir administrative district Hovhannes Vardanyanthe Moreover, during the elections held on April 2, 2017, the ARF received 103 thousand 48 votes. For comparison, let’s note that the “Exit” alliance received 122 thousand 65 votes. However, there are candidates in the ARF list who received few votes in the previous elections. for example, MP Armenuhi Kyureghyan, who received 509 votes. It is noteworthy that in these NA elections, all the parties seem to intend to nominate their political figures, who were previously included only in the proportional voter lists, using the ranking electoral system. ARF also follows this step. It is only interesting whether the ARF, which is no longer part of the government, does not enjoy the patronage of the RPA, does not have the courage to appear in the National Assembly like before (just like the other forces participating in the elections), will be able to overcome the temporary threshold and appear in the parliament.

“time” the newspaper writes. “2015 after the well-known events, he first left the PAP, and later joined the “Alliance” party Aragats Akhoyan will be nominated in the Aragatsotn marz by the rating election system, representing the PAP. “Alliance” was conducting negotiations with “Republic” and “Free Democrats”, announcing that they can participate in the elections as an alliance, but in reality, all of that was aimed at securing their own place in PAP.”

 

“People” the daily writes: “Former Governor of Tavush Hovik Abovyan 2018 on June 1, ironically on his birthday, he was relieved of his post. And after his dismissal, he went underground, he does not perform any public actions. This is despite the fact that he is formally the president of the regional organization of RPA Tavush. “Zhoghovurd” daily learned that Abovyan is not seen in his native Koghb village, he did not even participate in relatives’ weddings. This is probably due to the criminal case initiated by “H. A. Regarding the activities of “Autotekhnnum” LLC. This company actually belongs to Hovik Abovyan. It carried out a mandatory technical inspection of vehicles with the license of the Ministry of Transport, during which abuses were allowed. He stole AMD 3500-10500. In addition, he stole money by falsifying documents and as a partial recovery of the damage caused, 6 million 700 thousand drams were transferred to the deposit account of the RA Investigative Committee.

“Publication” the daily writes: “The session of the CSTO was quite intense. The participants of the session decided not to give details to the media, they will only say that the issue of the General Secretary was moved to the agenda of the EAEU summit on December 6, but the president of Kazakhstan violated the agreement. Nazarbaev, which, as the presiding country in the CSTO, said that they are in favor of the candidate of Belarus, and during the discussion itself, he expressed his opinion that if the candidate of Armenia is approved, the new secretary will not have time to solve issues within 1 year, to “go through the countries”. “The thing is that Kazakhstan, which is obviously lobbying Azerbaijan, does not want the Russian candidate to be nominated for that position,” said our source. What will be the scenarios on December 6? “Possible scenarios are the following. Belarus and Kazakhstan remain in their positions, Armenia gives up its positions. this is unlikely. Kazakhstan and Belarus are lagging behind, which is also unlikely. According to everything, the most likely one is the interim official.” But there is another delicate issue: the CSTO observation project developed by Belarus… Was it developed for Azerbaijan? “Why not, but it also solves a common problem?” Is it possible to barter? we allow Azerbaijan to become an observer member of the CSTO, Armenia continues the position of Secretary General for a year and a half. “No, in exchange for the observer member of Azerbaijan, Armenia should at least demand that Azerbaijan undertakes not to start the war, and also that Armenia be provided with serious military equipment. Don’t forget that decisions in the CSTO are made by consensus, and if Armenia does not agree, Azerbaijan will never become an observer member.”

“Publication” the daily writes: “A lawyer Mihran Poghosyan also the former head of the investigation group of March 1 Vahagn Harutyunyan it is the defense attorney who told one of the media that when Harutyunyan’s treatment course in Moscow ends at the end of November, he will advise him to think carefully about whether it is worth coming to Armenia to seek justice. When asked why he did not give similar advice to his other client, Yuri Khachaturov, the lawyer said that, unlike Harutyunyan, in July, the court applied bail to Khachaturov as a preventive measure, and in this case, at least in terms of freedom, they are calm.

“People” the daily writes: “As of November 1 of this year, the state debt of Armenia amounted to 6 billion 724.3 million dollars. Compared to the beginning of the year, this number decreased by 50.3 million dollars. the fact is that as of January 1, the state debt was 6 billion 774.6 million dollars. This picture is probably not accidental. After the Velvet Revolution, the RA government adopted a policy of debt reduction and at the same time not adding new debt. Let’s note that the RA government has started to pursue this policy since May, when he became the prime minister Nikol Pashinyan: And that government “inherited” a huge burden of state debt. as of May 1, the debt was 6 billion 867.5 million dollars. In other words, during these months of Pashinyan’s government, the state debt decreased by a total of 143.2 million dollars.

“People”the daily writes: “In Armenia, the production volumes of bread, one of the basic necessities, have decreased again. According to the RA Statistical Committee, in the third quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, the volume of bread production decreased by 2.4 percent. It should be noted that 199 thousand 500 tons of bread were produced in January-September of this year, compared to 204 thousand 400 tons in the same period last year. “Zhoghovurd” daily newspaper has repeatedly had the opportunity to address this topic, informing that the decline in the volume of bread production is a consequence of the decrease in the number of the permanent population and the decline in purchasing power. Accordingly, how much decreases population, the volumes of consumption and production of essential food are decreasing.

The “We” alliance will also participate in the extraordinary NA elections to be held in December. On November 10, the “Republic” and “Free Democrats” parties signed a memorandum on participating in the upcoming extraordinary elections of the National Assembly with the “We” alliance.

Chairman of the “Free Democrats” party Khachatur Kokobelyan according to him, the “We” alliance claims to be the main opponent of the authorities, which will bring new freshness in terms of content and RA vision.
“We aspire to be the political force that will support the changes that the government has initiated today,” said Kokobelyan.

According to him, a situation has been created when the people can choose both the government and a strong and substantive opposition.

Chairman of the “Republic” party Aram Sargsyan in other words, the “We” alliance will have success in the political field of Armenia and will be active as long as possible. According to him, this alliance was formed because they believe that the revolution will reach its final result and goal if a number of changes take place. The revolution, Aram Sargsyan mentioned, he did Nikol Pashinyan, but Nikol Pashinyan himself claims that the revolution was made by the entire Armenian people under his leadership, and this does not mean that after that only Nikol Pashinyan’s supporters and the “Civil Agreement” party will be in the political field.

“Naturally, we understand that after the revolution, the power that implemented the revolution will form a majority in the parliament, but the revolution was made by the people, but that revolution will have zero value if only the “Civil Pact” party is in the political field. Here, I am convinced that the diversification of the domestic political field is definitely useful for Armenia, its citizens, and the current government,” Sargsyan said.

According to him, the “Republic” and “Free Democrats” parties are supporters of Western values ​​and Western democracy, they support such governance and forming a state of such a model. However, this does not mean that they are against Russia.

Between November 4 and November 10, in the contact zone of the Artsakh-Azerbaijani conflict troops, the enemy violated the cease-fire regime more than 120 times, during which he fired around 1,300 shots from different caliber rifles at the Armenian positions.

Vanguard military units of the Armed Forces strictly observe the ceasefire regime and continue to perform combat duty with confidence.

Zhirayr Sefilyan cannot be included in the pre-election list and will not participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Hermine Mkrtchyan, the spokesperson of the “Sasna Tsrer” party, stated that Sefilyan does not have RA citizenship.

“Zhirair Sefilyan cannot be included in the pre-election list as a candidate, because he was never granted RA citizenship,” he said. Sefilyan, according to the speaker, as an honorary representative of the “Sasna Trees” party, will take an active part in the entire election process.

Zhirayr Sefilyan applied for RA citizenship on August 2. The speaker noted that he also attached a separate letter to his application to the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, taking into account his previous applications for citizenship, to resolve the issue of granting citizenship retrospectively. At the beginning of October, the head of the staff of the RA government Eduard Aghajanyan reported that this issue can be resolved in court.

“Since the authority to grant citizenship is discretionary, in this case, the law does not prohibit to consider the previous applications of Zhirayr Sefilyan respectable and to grant him citizenship retroactively. According to that, the chief of staff of the RA government, in fact, records that there is no desire and will to grant back-numbered citizenship to Zhirayr Sefilyan. Aghajanyan noted that if Zhirayr Sefilyan does not agree with that decision, he can apply to the court,” said Mkrtchyan in a conversation with Yerkir.

And to the clarifying question, if they did not grant citizenship in the last number, then they will not be granted citizenship according to the normal procedure, to respond. “Sefilyan also applied for citizenship through the normal procedure, the application is in progress, but it is being delayed for unknown reasons.”