Category: 2018

ARKA, Armenia

Aug 10 2018

ARKA, Armenia

Aug 10 2018

PanArmenian, Armenia

Aug 10 2018

Los Angeles Press, CA

Aug 10 2018

 

 

 

By Michael Livingston

Aug 10, 2018 | 6:15 PM

 

Armenian ministers bless the grapes before they are distributed to patients at Adventist Health Glendale. (Glendale Adventist Medical Center)

 

On Wednesday, Father Movses Shannakian was joined by a dozen ministers as they visited Adventist Health Glendale, formerly Glendale Adventist Medical Center, to partake in the annual Blessing of the Grapes ceremony.

 

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Armenian churches around the world recently celebrated the religious ceremony dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

 

“The main event is Sunday. Wednesday is just a tradition we have in Glendale,” said Shannakian of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America after the ceremony.

 

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Every second Sunday of August, members of Armenian churches sing, chant and pray in celebration. Priests enhance the atmosphere with incense from a censer as people eat and dance.

 

Every year on the Feast of the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God, Armenian ministers lead attendees in prayer and worship in the hospital’s chapel. The grapes are blessed and then passed around to patients.

 

Rev. Vazken Atmajian of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church officiated the ceremony with about 40 people in attendance, he said.

 

“Since grapes were the first fruits of the harvest, the Holy Spirit is called upon to make the grapes holy and those who partake of them receive healing and spiritual nourishment,” said Naira Khosrovian, marketing and communications specialist at Adventist Health Glendale.

 

Shannakian recalled telling people in attendance that at the core of God’s word is sharing love with the world.

 

“We must all make love a priority,” Shannakian said.

 

Arminfo, Armenia

Aug 10 2018

On Republic Square in Yerevan, an unknown person nailed himself to one of the benches

Yerevan August 9

Tatevik Shahunyan. Today’s meeting of the Cabinet was accompanied by no less remarkable events outside the government building.

On the Republic Square from the window of the hotel “Marriott”, located directly opposite the government building, an unknown person hung a huge poster with the inscription: “Freedom to Robert Kocharian”.

At the same time, another citizen nailed his feet to one of the benches of the square. What is the reason for such a radical step of the citizen is not yet known. But this is hardly connected with the arrest of Kocharyan. The police, Emergency Situations Ministry and First Aid came to the scene, who together try to free the citizen from the “embrace” of the bench.

Arminfo, Armenia

Aug 10 2018

View from Yerevan: Allied Russia should not have reasons for concern

Yerevan August 9

David Stepanyan. There should not be any reasons for concern among our allies, in particular, Russia. In any case, the logic of the development of our allied relations testifies to this, Advisor to the Armenian Prime Minister on foreign policy issues Arsen Kharatyan expressed his opinion to ArmInfo.

In response to journalists’ request to comment on the decisions on arresting Robert Kocharyan and Yuri Khachaturov, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated earlier that ” As an ally, Russia has always been interested in stability in Armenia. So recent developments are a cause for concern, including from the point of view of normal operations of the CIS organisations, of which Armenia is a participant”.

After the change of power in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan repeatedly noted that there are no dark corners in the Armenian-Russian relations, we openly and intensively communicate with our Russian counterparts, which is reflected in the frequency of mutual visits, the efforts of the new Government are aimed at ensuring consistency in the development of Armenian-Russian cooperation in a variety of sectors. Consequently, all our agreements with Russia are well known to everyone, there are no secrets, “the Advisor emphasized.

At the same time, according to him, the government is not at all inclined to ignore the fact that in the conditions of cardinal renewal of its membership, it will take some time to establish new communication channels. In the opinion of the Prime Minister’s Advisor, this issue will be jointly resolved in the very near future.

In this light, Kharatyan is not inclined to assess the situation related to the Secretary General of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as a scandal or crisis, emphasizing the fundamental point that this process is a domestic issue exclusively.

According to the Advisor’s estimation the Armenian government attaches special importance to the development of cooperation within the CSTO framework and to strengthening the Organization as an effective regional structure which is aimed to provide guaranteed security conditions for the development of the member states.

“By focusing on the task of excluding any influence of this process on the activities of the Secretariat, of which we have informed our CSTO partners, as well as the Secretariat itself, we initiated a number of steps, the first of which is the initiative to withdraw the powers of the current Secretary General “, he noted. Kharatyan also expressed confidence in the interest of all the member states of the Organization in the differentiation of internal factors in this issue from external factors, as well as in their support of the algorithm of work proposed by the Armenian government. In this light, according to his estimates, there is a quite legal process through which Armenia and the CSTO are currently passing.

Arminfo, Armenia

Aug 10 2018

Head of the SIS: Charges against Armen Gevorgyan are not based on Wikileaks publications

Yerevan August 9

Naira Badalian. The accusation brought against the former head of the Robert Kocharyan’s administration, Armen Gevorgyan, was not based on the publication of WikiLeaks, Sasun Khachatryan, Head of the Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia, told journalists on August 9. As Khachatryan indicated, the accusation to someone cannot be brought on the basis of publications in Wikileaks. “The basis is a sufficient comparison of the evidence of the crime committed by him,” he explained. Evidence for these, he said, is specified in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Any other factual evidence beyond the scope of the Code of Criminal Procedure cannot be considered as the basis of the charge. At the same time, Sasun Khachatryan did not disclose details and did not present the evidence.

To recall, on August 4 Sasun Khachatryan announced on the Public Television Channel of Armenia that the former deputy prime ministerand ex-secretary of the National Security Council of Armenia, Armen Gevorgyan, was charged with pressuring a member of the Constitutional Court. As mass media reported Wikileaks materials were used to initiate a criminal case against him. According to Wikileaks information Constitutional court member Valery Poghosyan complained to the American diplomats that Armen Gevorgyan, who at that time held the post of the head of the presidential administration, exerted pressure on him so that he did not participate in the court session on discussing opposition’s petition to review the results of the presidential elections. Under the charge Gevorgyan may be sentenced to 6 years. He was released under written undertaking not to leave the place.

After the presidential elections on February 19, 2008, a series of protests took place in Armenia, the participants of which expressed disagreement with their official results, according to which Serzh Sargsyan won elections. Street actions were organized by supporters of the first president of Armenia, Levon Ter- Petrosyan, who then also claimed a top position. During the clashes between the protesters and law enforcement agencies, eight demonstrators and two police officers were killed, 33 police officers were hospitalized. Around 230 people turned to the doctors for help.

Arminfo, Armenia

Aug 9 2018

Armenian government postponed consideration of “Armoil” company’s application until clarification of problems with environmental inspection body

 Yerevan August 9

Naira Badalian. Armenian Minister of Economic Development and Investments Artsvik Minasyan on August 9 presented the investment program of Armoil company on construction of a crude oil processing plant in the town of Yeghvard in the Kotayk region, asking to prolong the previously adopted government’s decision to grant a deferment on payment of import customs duties on technological equipment in the framework of the investment program. The government considered the draft decision, and in view of the environmental tasks, decided to postpone its adoption for a week.

As the Minister pointed out, 250 new job places will be opened in the framework of the investment program instead of the current 100. At the same time, according to the Minister, a certain unpleasant attitude towards the plant has been formed in the society, since there is a wrong opinion that instead of a plant for processing crude oil, construction of refinery is planned, which does not correspond to reality.

Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted, before the meeting of the government, he became aware that the nature protection and inspection body on mineral resources had decided to stop the construction of a small oil refinery in the town of Yeghvard, Kotayk region (on July 16, ed. note). “Do we have information related to to the assessment of the impact on the environment?” the Prime Minister asked. In response, the Minister of Nature Protection Erik Grigoryan stated that the inspection body carried out research and suspended construction of the plant. At the same time, research was carried out on the construction of an oil refinery, and not a plant for processing raw materials, in connection with which there is a legal gap. Nevertheless, the plant did not receive positive results of expertise and environmental impact assessment. As a result, even despite the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan to approve the project, and then try to solve the problem with the environmental department, Nikol Pashinyan proposed to postpone for a week the approval of the company’s application for deferment of customs payments on imported goods. “The environmental concept should be very clearly set in the core of our actions. This does not mean that there will be no refinery in Armenia, however all the actions should be exclusively within the framework of the law,” he concluded.

To recall, earlier within the administrative proceedings launched on July 10 in the inspection body, it was found out that Armoil CJSC had not carried out an environmental impact assessment in accordance with the RA Law on Examination and Assessment of Impact before the construction of an oil refinery in the Nati district of Yeghvard, Kotayk region. On the basis of the abovementioned, on July 16 head of the Nature Protection and Inspection Body on mineral resources Artur Grigoryan, decided to stop the construction of the oil refinery until a positive response based on the documents on the relevant expertise and environmental impact assessment are ensured. Almost ayear ago on October 18, 2017 the inspection body had already made a decision to stop the construction of the plant. It was that time the company was obliged to make an expertise and strategic evaluation of environmental impact.

However, on March 22 in a talk to ArmInfo’s correspondent General Director of the company Alfred Abadi stated that already in two-three months the oil refinery plant in Yeghvard wil become a reality. “The area and the capacity of the plant have been enlarged compared to the initial plan”, he said.

Meanwhile, back in March 2016, in an interview with ArmInfo, the general director of Armoil (the official representative of the Lubreks brand in Armenia and the CIS countries and importing engine oils from the UAE-ed.note) Alfred Abadi noted that the main goal of the company is the production of petroleum products with labeling “Made in Armenia“.

The investment package was supposed to be initially implemented in three stages, the total volume of investments – $ 35 million. The first stage of the project involves the construction of an oil refinery in Yeghvard. According to the business plan, the production capacity of the enterprise for the first time will amount to 15 thousand tons of engine oil and 6 thousand tons of tar per year. In the future, the plant will also have the opportunity to process used engine oil and use it as raw materials, which in turn will help maintain the cleanliness of the environment and ecology. The company intends to produce production amounting to 100 million drams for selling on the domestic market alone. The plant, whose area is 5 thousand square meters with further expansion to 15 thousand square meters, will also have underground and land bases, which are necessary for storing 4 thousand tons of diesel fuel, 2 tons bitumen, and 2-3 thousand tons of raw materials for the production of various oils, as well as 20 thousand tons of finished products. About $ 15 million were to be invested to implement the first stage of the program (it was planned to be completed in August 2016),. The whole program was planned to be completed within three years.

Prokerala

Aug 10 2018

 

 

ARMENIA-YEREVAN-FOOTBALL-UEFA-EUROPA LEAGUE-QUALIFICATIONS

 

Fri, Aug 10 2018 10:30 IST

 

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YEREVAN, Aug 10, 2018 – Jefferson (R) of Armenia’s Alashkert vies with Cristian Manea of Romania’s CFR during the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round football match between Alashkert and CFR in Yerevan, Armenia, on August 9, 2018. CFR won 2-0.

 

 

Cristian Manea (L) of Romania’s CFR competes during the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round football match between Alashkert and CFR in Yerevan, Armenia, on Aug. 9, 2018. CFR won 2-0.