Category: 2019

The delegation led by the Speaker of the RA National Assembly, Ararat Mirzoyan, who is on an official visit to Germany on March 18-21, had a meeting with the Vice President and members of the Berlin House of Representatives on the morning of March 18.

As reported by RA NA media and public relations department, during the meeting, Ararat Mirzoyan once again presented the changes that took place in Armenia and the agenda of expected reforms. Members of the delegations exchanged information on a number of areas related to the work of legislators.

Among other issues, Ararat Mirzoyan discussed with his colleagues the issue of including didactic materials referring to the Armenian Genocide in the textbooks of Berlin schools.

The Armenian delegation met with Johannes Kars, the head of the Germany-South Caucasus Group of the Bundestag, members of the group Albert Weiler, Stefan Kotne, Helin Evrim Sommer, Mark Heinrichmann, Anton Friesen and Waldemar Herdt. The representatives of the German side noted that after the Velvet Revolution, interest in Armenia increased among the Bundestag deputies, which was also helped by the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Armenia.

During the conversation, Ararat Mirzoyan once again reaffirmed Armenia’s foreign policy priorities, noting that in the context of deepening relations with the European Union, the ratification of the RA-EU Comprehensive and Extended Partnership Agreement by the EU member states, which will be discussed in the second reading in the German Parliament on April 4, plays an important role.

The member of the delegation, Ruben Rubinyan, referred to the Karabakh problem, presenting the position of the Republic of Armenia regarding the situation and reaffirming the position of Armenia to settle the conflict peacefully within the framework of the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Speaking about the resolution of the conflict, MP Edmon Marukyan emphasized the importance of democratization processes in the South Caucasus, expressing hope that the German partners will be more attentive to the manifestations of human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

Referring to the possibilities of deepening the economic relations between the two countries, the German partners were presented with the expected economic reforms in Armenia, which will increase the economic attractiveness of our country.

After the working lunch, the delegation headed by Ararat Mirzoyan placed flowers at the memorial monument dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Armenian human rights defender Arman Tatoyan visited today Elvin Arif oglu Ibrahimov, who was arrested for illegally crossing the state border of the Republic of Armenia, who is in the hospital.

The following was found out during the visit.

1) At the time of the visit to Elvin Arif oglu Ibrahimov by the human rights defender of Armenia, the lawyer and the investigator were present, and at that time they carried out actions provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Defender discussed E. with them. Issues related to Ibrahimov’s rights.

2) A licensed translator of the Azerbaijani language is involved in the criminal proceedings.

3) A lawyer from the Public Defender’s Office of Armenia is involved in Elvin Ibrahimov’s case. At the time of the human rights defender’s visit, the lawyer had already met with E. with Ibrahimov, explained to him his rights and presented the circumstances related to the initiated criminal case.

4) The private conversation of the Ombudsman of Armenia with Elvin Ibrahimov took place with the participation of an Azerbaijani translator.

Human rights defender Elvin Arif presented to Ibrahimov the rights to receive information in a language he understands and to communicate through an interpreter, to receive legal assistance, to contact the outside world, including his family, etc.

E. It was explained to Ibrahimov that if necessary, he can directly call the hotline number 116 of the Defender’s Office, which is active 24 hours a day, regardless of working days.

5) During a private conversation with the human rights defender of Armenia, E. Ibrahimov expressed his desire to meet his family members – his son, father, mother, brother and sister – or to talk with them and asked for the Defender’s support in this matter.

Arman Tatoyan discussed the issue with the director of the National Security Service of Armenia, taking into account the importance of contact with the family. The service has expressed readiness to ensure the communication of Elvin Arif oglu Ibrahimov with the members of the latter’s family by means of paper, telephone or video communication. Moreover, the Service expressed its readiness to organize the meeting of Elvin Arif Oglu Ibrahimov and his family members in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and to guarantee their safety in the country.

The human rights defender of Armenia, as an independent official, is ready to support E. His contact with Ibrahimov’s family, including the organization of the meeting.

6) The doctor of the Defender’s staff was also involved in the visit of the Human Rights Defender. E. were studied. Ibrahimov’s health condition and medical documents regarding him.

It was recorded that his state of health is satisfactory, he was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the lower third of the calf of the right lower limb. Primary surgical treatment of the wounds on his lower limb and extraocular osteosynthesis were performed in the hospital.

During the visit, it was recorded that he receives the necessary medical care and an X-ray examination was assigned to him in order to ensure the effective course of treatment.

7) At the end of the private interview, the Defender provided Elvin Arif oglu Ibrahimov with the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Azerbaijani, English and Russian, as well as the Constitution of Armenia in English and Russian.

8) After the visit, the Ombudsman of Armenia also spoke with the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Armenia. He presented information about Elvin Ibrahimov’s health condition, as well as his willingness to ensure contact with his family.

Reminder: Elvin Ibrahimov He crossed the border of the Republic of Armenia near the village of Barekamavan, Tavush region, on March 16, 2019, around 01:00-01:30. According to the documents found in his possession, he is a citizen of Azerbaijan.

In connection with the fact of illegal crossing of the guarded state border of the Republic of Armenia by Elvin Ibrahimov, a criminal case has been initiated under the features of Article 329, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

On March 18, 36-year-old Hayk Sargsyan was taken into custody by the main department of criminal investigation of the police near the “Dalma Garden Mall” trade center in Yerevan.

According to Shamshyan.com, the latter is Hayko from Astrakhan, known in the criminal world, “thief in law”, and a gun was found in his possession.

Materials are being prepared in the investigative department of the Malatia police department. The found gun has been confiscated, an expert examination has been ordered in order to find out the legality of the gun.

According to the source: Hayk Sargsyan was arrested.

 

The Armenian “Taron-Avia” airline appealed to the RA State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition months ago, complaining about the differentiated pricing policy of Russian airports.

The RA State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition informs that according to the complaint, although Armenia and Russia are EAEU member states, the Russian airports consider Armenian carriers as foreign and apply higher prices to them for maintenance and other services than to local air carriers. This situation does not allow the Armenian airline to compete with the Russian ones with its price policy.

“Taron Avia” informed the Commission that the price policy applied to them by the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation), which provides air navigation services, is also problematic. There are also differentiated approaches here, in particular, non-local companies in Russia are charged 95.2 dollars for air navigation service for every 100 km, while local, that is, Russian airlines pay about 3 times cheaper for the same service – 35 dollars for 100 km.

According to the Commission, the creation of unequal conditions at the airports for the airlines of member countries in the EAEU territory contradicts the principles and rules of healthy competition in the EAEU. As a result of such an approach, Russian airlines are able to gain a serious competitive advantage over Armenian airlines.

The created situation leads to the fact that, in the case of Taron Avia, the business operator who submitted a specific complaint, the destinations to various Russian cities considered as targets become uncompetitive for the company.

The latter incurs additional costs, which significantly affects the price of the air ticket. 

The commission discussed the issue for a long time with EAEU partners, involving them in the process, in order to achieve a quick and complete settlement of the issue. As a result of the work done, a schedule was recently set to remove the existing differential tariffs at all Russian airports within the next 2 years and review them. In other words, a unified decision on the equalization of tariffs was adopted in the territory of all member countries. It should also be noted that practical steps are already being taken and two airports operating in the territory of the Russian Federation have reviewed their tariff policies and differentiated approaches for Armenian airlines. are not available.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications adds that in our country there is no such difference in the prices of service and air navigation services for both Armenian and foreign companies, which means that air carriers of all countries have the opportunity to compete equally.

The RA government is currently discussing 89 investment projects with a volume of 2.7 billion dollars. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this during the press conference.

According to him, 42 of these projects, with a volume of 774 million, are in various stages of implementation, while others are being discussed. 

Pashinyan also stated that in February of this year, compared to the same period in 2018, the volume of mortgage lending in Armenia increased by 100 percent, which Pashinyan connects with the programs implemented by his government.

“Within the framework of these programs, the increase was 145 percent, and as of today, the volume of lending in the country has increased by 30 percent. According to experts, this is a huge increase,” he said.

Pashinyan predicted that in the near future there will be an increase in the construction sector, which in turn will lead to the creation of new jobs.

“This is a very important index that will lead to the reduction of unemployment and the opening of new jobs,” the RA Prime Minister added.

Armenia is interested in the implementation of the idea of ​​transiting Iranian gas through its territory, but now it is not about the construction of a new pipeline. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this during his big press conference on March 19.

During Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Iran, the transit of Iranian gas through RA territory was announced. “Armenia is ready to develop transit cooperation with Iran and be a transit country for Iranian gas. The creation of an energy corridor is also important both bilaterally, regionally and more broadly. The political will to solve these issues is present, we should express hope that the process of implementation in the negotiations will be successfully implemented,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in Tehran.

The president of Iran opened the brackets a little more, noting that during the negotiations, from the point of view of cooperation in the field of electricity between Iran and Armenia, we also considered the cooperation in three-way formats with Georgia and four-way with Russia. “In the direction of cooperation in the gas sector, we expressed the readiness of the Iranian side to increase the volumes of supplies. We are also ready to develop trilateral cooperation to export gas to Georgia,” Rouhani said.

After the meeting between President Rouhani and Prime Minister Pashinyan on February 27 in Tehran, it is quite interesting about the readiness of gas transit through the territory of Armenia, taking into account the technical limitations for its implementation. Lack of a pipeline of adequate capacity to become a transit country. There is no pipeline from Armenia to another country. There are two pipelines in operation, one is for gas from Iran in exchange for electricity, and the other is for the delivery of Russian gas to Armenia through the territory of Georgia.

Here, Nikol Pashinyan opened the brackets at the press conference, noting that for now we are not talking about a new gas pipeline through the territory of Armenia. “Operating pipelines enable not only gas import but also export. Gas pipes have a peculiarity: they go in and out,” said the Prime Minister, adding that it is not about the construction of a new gas pipeline. He also emphasized that before leaving for Iran, he had discussions with the leadership of Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan regarding gas transit and the formation of the North-South energy corridor. There is interest in this issue, the Prime Minister said and added: “We will continue these discussions until we reach a positive or negative conclusion.”

Believe me, if there was a mood for revenge, then there was both the opportunity and the time. And in general, accountant is an incompatible vocabulary for a government of love and solidarity. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this during the press conference, referring to the case against the RA’s second president, Robert Kocharyan.

“No action should ever be viewed within the framework of personal perceptions,” he said.

According to the Prime Minister, their task is to have such a court in the country that both the issue of Robert Kocharyan and the issue of any conditional citizen will be discussed in the framework of legality. And personally, he is 100 percent committed to that policy.

Continuing the theme of March 1, he said that there is no need to initiate a new criminal case at this time. According to him, the March 1 cartridges, with which the murders were committed, were changed. The Prime Minister explained this by the fact that the examination of those capsules could provide answers to many questions, including identifying the specific perpetrators of the murders. He also assured.

“There can be no doubt that everything will be done in terms of the disclosure of the March 1 case.”

A huge amount of money is spent on black anti-propaganda against the Armenian government. This will not give any result, because the train of the previous regime has gone. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this at a press conference on March 19.

According to him, this is not the case that the Prime Minister does not know the reality of the country, because “I am often in direct contact with people”. In this context, Pashinyan addressed the criticisms of the government’s activities.

“What they are trying to say, they write, is that there is some instability in the country, turbulence… the cycle starts again: hot spring, hot summer, hot autumn, hesa, see what will happen. Nothing will happen,” responded the Prime Minister and added that there are people who should understand that their train left a long time ago, and if they try to get there with a Ferrari, they will not be able to catch their train. Their page is closed.”

“And they have one way: to stand in front of the people and apologize and ask for forgiveness from the people. They have nothing else to do with the Republic of Armenia. Although I say, we will guarantee all their wishes – political, social, “he said.

According to the Prime Minister, a huge amount of money is being spent on black anti-propaganda against the government. “The fact is that millions of dollars are spent every day to make black counter-propaganda against the government and the government does not take any action against it, because for us freedom of speech is an absolute value.”

According to him, those circles should understand that they cannot have anything of that kind to do in Armenia, they cannot have support among the people of Armenia. “They want to spend a million, they want to spend a billion,” he said and added that the news about instability and turbulence in the country is created in three rooms, the location of which he knows. “I know the location of those three rooms. They come from there every day and tell us what they are doing,” said the Prime Minister.

Referring to the social situation, Pashinyan noted that the social allowances and pensions of 85,000 people and the salaries of 200,000 people were increased. “In January 2019, gross trade in the country recorded a 19 percent increase. Is it an indicator or not? Yes, there are people in Armenia who do not live better, but the question is: are there people who live worse? We have to create opportunities for people.”

He also assured that the authority of the ruling power is very high among the public and expressed his conviction. “If there are elections tomorrow, our force will get more votes than in the parliamentary elections.”