Category: 2018

Actor Hayk Marutyan will head the proportional list of the “Civil Contract” party in the Yerevan Council of Elders elections. 

As the candidate for CP told the journalists Alen Simonyan, the election took place in two stages. Hayk Marutyan and Alen Simonyan went to the second round, and according to the results of the voting, the members of the CP Board gave preference to Marutyan.

Simonyan said that at the meeting of the board, which was also attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, only this issue of the slope was discussed, the issue of participation with “Yelk” was not discussed.

The election of the Yerevan Council of Elders is scheduled for September 16.

The criminal prosecution against the second president of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharyan in the “March 1” case has nothing to do with democracy, the rule of law and will deeply harm the internal political developments of the Republic of Armenia. This is stated in the statement issued by the faction of the Republican Party of the RA National Assembly.

Prior to that, the Republican Party of Armenia made a statement regarding the criminal case against Kocharyan and his arrest within the same case, stating that the charge presented only gives the impression of political persecution, and is absurd from a legal point of view. Why after that statement the RPA decided to make another statement on the same case, but now on behalf of the NA faction, is not said.

Yerevan Court of Common Jurisdiction has satisfied the petition to detain the 2nd President of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan. Kocharyan was detained for 2 months. As an accused, Kocharyan is involved in the crime of clashes following the 2008 presidential elections, which resulted in the murder of 10 people. He, AKP General Secretary Yuri Khachaturov and former Minister of Defense Mikayel Harutyunyan are accused of subverting the constitutional order.

Unlike the party’s statement published earlier, the text written on behalf of the faction refers to the issue point by point. In the statement of the RPA faction consisting of six points, it is said that in the “March 1” case Robert Kocharyan the process of impeachment has nothing to do with democracy, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

According to the RPA faction, the raised case will deeply harm the internal political developments of the Republic of Armenia. “With such baseless accusations, the tendencies of public division are encouraged in the country, which become more dangerous in the background of the very worrying challenges formed around Armenia and Artsakh,” the statement said.

According to the deputies of the RPA faction, the initiated criminal case is problematic from the point of view of legality, especially from the point of view of constitutionality, which can lead not only to the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, but also to reduce the ranking and authority of the Republic of Armenia in international, including legal instances.

“The Special Investigative Service of the Republic of Armenia, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia and the Courts of the Republic of Armenia are obliged to properly guarantee the provisions of the Republic of Armenia and to be guided exclusively by the requirements and regulations of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the laws of the Republic of Armenia and international treaties,” the text distributed on behalf of the RPA faction states, and it is added that the deputies of the faction will also speak out about this issue and the developments surrounding it through the channels of parliamentary diplomacy, on appropriate international platforms and formats.

It is noteworthy that the statement issued on behalf of the RPA faction does not mention the attempt to silence the opponents of the government in the Artsakh issue, which is exactly half of the text of the party’s statement.

“We view the imposition of fabricated and artificial accusations that have nothing in common with the principle of legality against the former commander-in-chief, who showed unquestionable determination in the Artsakh conflict and one of the decisive actors in the victory of the Artsakh liberation war, as an attempt to silence the opponents of possible developments that are radically different from the existing approaches to the Artsakh conflict for years,” the RPA statement said.

Serzh Sargsyan tried to sit on two chairs. And Nikol Pashinyan activated the movement towards the West. RA is a member of EAEU, but also has an agreement with the EU. Being a CSTO member, Yerevan also cooperates with NATO and the USA. This was announced by expert Vladimir Yevseyev.

According to him, the largest US embassy in the South Caucasus is located in the territory of Armenia. According to him, during Sargsyan’s reign, the main landmark of RA was Russian, which was complemented by a western landmark. However, Pashinyan wants to sit on the western seat. According to him, Pashinyan wants to go to the West, but to get cheap gas from Russia, weapons on credit terms, and for Russia to ensure Armenia’s security from Turkey.

According to him, if you want to receive the support of the West, then let the West protect Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as ensure your security from NATO member Turkey.

A consultation was held in the government under the leadership of RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during which issues aimed at preventing abuses in the activities of companies with monopoly positions in various fields, and ensuring fair and honest competition were discussed.

“The topic of our discussion today will be what is known as a monopoly in the Republic of Armenia, de facto or de jure, in this case it is not very important. Our economic policy is as follows. we intend to establish an inclusive economic system in Armenia. What does this mean? this means that we are recording a reality according to which certain economic activities were carried out by administrative decisions in Armenia before the Velvet Revolution, de facto or de jure is not essential in this case, and the opportunities to carry out activities in these areas were distributed among a limited number of people. By an inclusive economic system, we mean that the people previously included in those fields should no longer have the opportunity to carry out activities in the given fields, but on the contrary, the part of the activities assigned to them by governmental decisions should be liberalized, so to speak, and those people and all those who wish to carry out activities in those fields. Of course, it is clear that after the victory of the Velvet Revolution, there are no political obstacles to create such a situation in Armenia, and the political obstacles have been removed, all the conditions for having an inclusive system have been created. I think we should monitor the situation from time to time in order to understand what is happening in the domains known to the public as monopolized sectors, whether we have a change in the de facto situation there or not, and if we do not have a change in the situation, what measures should we take in order to really be able to ensure real economic competition, access to markets not only de jure, but also de facto,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

Artak Shaboyan, the chairman of the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, presented detailed information about the processes taking place in recent months, the current situation in the monopolistic markets. In that regard, the President of the State University of Ukraine referred to the developments in the sugar, gasoline and banana markets. In particular, he reported that until recently, the main supplier of sugar in Armenia was one company, but in the last two months, the companies importing sugar and the batches of sugar imports have increased significantly. As a result of the competition created in the sector, it happens decrease in the price of sugar. Currently, one kilogram of sugar costs 285 drams, compared to 390 drams at the beginning of the year, that is, the price has decreased by 26 percent.

Referring to the sector of gasoline and diesel fuel, the president of the TMMPU informed that there are 3-4 large companies operating here and currently there is no ban and any businessman can carry out importation. According to Artak Shaboyan, the main problem for companies entering the market in this sector is related to infrastructure in terms of selling gasoline and diesel fuel. According to the president of the State Technical University of Ukraine, there is also a problem of underfilling in the market, which causes unequal competitive conditions, there are also problems related to diesel fuel standards.

Touching on the banana market, the President of the State University of Agriculture and Forestry emphasized that until recently 90 percent of the market was owned by one company and its affiliated companies. During the last two months, the number of banana importing companies and import batches has also increased significantly. As a result, the price of bananas in our country decreased at least twice and today it is 480 drams. Artak Shaboyan noted that the TMSU will continue studies in this area in order to highlight possible anti-competitive actions.

Artak Shaboyan he also presented details about the activities of large supermarkets, CNG companies, referred to the existing anti-competitive situation and the problems in these areas.

There was an interesting exchange of ideas around the presented information, and various recommendations were made regarding fighting possible monopolies and ensuring free competitive conditions through legislative regulations. In relation to some problems, including underfilling at gas stations and CNG stations, the implementation of appropriate steps by the Market Control Inspection Body has been highlighted.

Prime Minister Pashinyan instructed the officials to discuss the submitted recommendations once again, come to concrete conclusions and present the results to him. Summarizing, the head of the government noted. “We must not have monopolies and cases of abuse of dominant position, regardless of the instrument we use to do it. Our task is to ensure that there are no market access problems not only de jure, but also de facto. When we make a statement, we must first examine whether the settings work in real life, or whether the statements continue to be in one dimension and the reality in another. Here I expect the active cooperation of the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, the State Revenue Committee and, in general, the relevant departments of the government.”

At the invitation of President Armen Sarkisian, Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura Mattarella arrived in the Republic of Armenia on a two-day state visit.

The delegation led by Mattarella includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, and other officials.

Chairman of the Public Council, Chairman of the National Democratic Union Party Vazgen Manukyan issued a statement, expressing concern about the indictment of former President Robert Kocharyan in the case of March 1, and then the arrest and indictment of CSTO General Secretary Yuri Khachaturov.

“Our party and I personally have been a tough opposition during the ten years of Robert Kocharian’s presidency, we have blamed the authorities on many issues, we have been against many decisions.

But I categorically disagree with the charges that have now been presented to Robert Kocharyan and Yuri Khachaturov, I consider them groundless, and the decision to detain them as dangerous, which affects the security of our state. A baseless accusation against people who played an invaluable role in our nation’s greatest military victory in centuries.

However, from a political point of view, what happened in 2008? on March 1.

Since 1996, presidential elections have always been marred by numerous frauds. They were the same in 2008. the elections. According to the results of those elections, according to official data, three of the candidates received overwhelming votes. Serzh Sargsyan – 52.8%, Levon Ter-Petrosyan – 21.5% and Artur Baghdasaryan – 17.7%.

In that sense, this was different from the situation in 1996, when the fight was between two people: the opposition candidate (41%) and the government candidate (51.3%). Moreover, in 1996 we submitted a huge, voluminous evidence base to the Constitutional Court. However, we did not announce that the candidate of the opposition won, but we demanded to randomly open 3 boxes from each electoral district, and if election frauds are detected, we should go to the second round.

A similar situation was created during the presidential elections of 2003, when the main candidates were Robert Kocharyan and Stepan Demirchyan. After the publication of the results, the people indignantly surrounded the CEC building, and under the pressure of the people, after the recount, a second round was announced.

During the 2008 elections, the evidence base of the opposition was very weak, and almost nothing serious was presented to the Constitutional Court, although it was clear that fraud had taken place. But since there were quite a few votes split among the three, the best political claim the opposition could make was to go to the second round. Instead, Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced that he won, got 60 percent and should become the president, then tried to fulfill his unconstitutional demand by all means. And since a large part of the people had quite significant dissatisfaction with the authorities, not only related to the elections, they took advantage of that dissatisfaction and inflamed it, permanent rallies began. The authorities tried to disperse these rallies.

That standard situation, which existed both in our country before and in other countries, suddenly transformed into a non-standard situation and got out of control. There were casualties on both sides: both the security forces and the protesters. Either there are two sides here, and both should be assessed, or there is a third party that tried to escalate the situation.

In any case, it is necessary to find out who started shooting, on whose order it was, and I think many unexpected facts may emerge. I cannot say whether it is possible to reveal it or not, but these mysterious cases must be investigated to the end. What is important for us is not only to evaluate Robert Kocharyan or Levon Ter-Petrosyan, but to understand how the standard situation, which was always repeated in Armenia, suddenly turned into murders, burning cars, smashing shops, etc.

Dear people, I understand the indignation you have towards all the previous authorities, towards the people who oppressed us and the republic, I understand the satisfaction you feel when some of them are punished. But everything should be done legally, without pursuing political goals and revenge.

Dissatisfied with the past, sometimes justified, sometimes unjustified, we must realize that since the founding of the Republic of Armenia in 1918, first under the leadership of the Dashnaktsutyun, then under the leadership of the Communists, the Armenian National Movement, and the Republican Party, over the years, with the efforts of our people, with all the mistakes, we have had big and small victories, a powerful state machine has been created, and we should not destroy it, we should improve it and move forward.

It is worrisome that now Armenia has become a theater of one actor, the counterweights are almost not functioning: opposition parties, non-governmental organizations, press, etc. It seems everyone is scared and waiting. This path will lead us to number 37, war and isolation in the international arena.”

No matter how much the authorities try to focus citizens’ attention on internal political processes and make efforts to destroy the political field, the security environment around Armenia and Artsakh is even more tense as a result of careless policies. Armen Ashotyan, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the RA National Assembly, wrote about this on his Facebook page.

The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan satisfied the 2nd President of RA Robert Kocharyan motion to detain. Kocharyan was detained for 2 months. As an accused, Kocharyan is involved in the crime of clashes following the 2008 presidential elections, which resulted in the murder of 10 people. To him, AKP General Secretary Yuri Khachaturov and former Minister of Defense Mikael Harutyunyan accused of subverting the constitutional order.

Putting aside the legal aspect of the criminal case initiated against CSTO General Secretary Yuri Khachaturov, it is obvious to him that the form and manner in which the process was carried out damaged the CSTO’s reputation. “By the way, these risks were obvious from the very beginning of the process. The official reaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the way it was presented was also not pleasant,” he says, referring to the Prime Minister in an interview with Al Jazeera. Nikol Pashinyanto the words.

“In his interview given to Al Jazeera (published on July 27), Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan repeated his accusation against the Russian side of organizing a provocation, although before that the Minister of Defense had quite successfully settled the scandalous topic,” the deputy pointed out, speaking about the negative impulses emerging in Armenian-Russian relations to the Azerbaijani “Sputnik” agency. Maria Zakharova in the context of the interview.

“In her interview with the Azerbaijani Sputnik agency, Maria Zakharova did not distinguish between Russia’s relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan, although Armenia-Russia relations are allied and much more strategic,” the parliamentarian emphasized.

According to him, the listed bilateral negative impulses cannot help but worry, especially considering the overactive and aggressive Azerbaijani lobbying in Moscow after the change of power in Armenia. “Let’s not forget the anti-Russian front that is active in our country and partially represented in the government,” he notes.

According to Ashotyan, any desired bilateral relationship should be based on dignity, mutual respect and sovereignty, and serve the state interest of the country. “In this case, the interests of both Armenia and Russia dictate the same imperative: Armenian-Russian relations should remain strategic-alliance. The rest is a dangerous game for all parties,” he concludes.