Category: 2019

Yerevan to have Europe Square

15:02,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. The city of Yerevan will have a Europe Square.

The City Council of the Armenian capital unanimously approved the proposal made jointly by the foreign ministry and Ambassador Paruyr Hovhannisyan, Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, on naming a square after the Council of Europe or Europe in downtown Yerevan.

City Hall official Armine Vardanyan noted that 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of establishment of the Council of Europe.

She said the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will visit Armenia in March 26-28, and the inauguration of the square will take place during the visit.

An area within Northern Avenue has been chosen as the location for the new square.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

President Sarkissian hosts Dean of Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University

15:11,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian on March 19 hosted Elena Vartanova, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism at the Moscow State University, and Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

At the meeting President Sarkissian said the Moscow State University is a familiar educational center for him where he had and has many colleagues and friends. The Armenian President informed that during his scientific and teaching activities he had numerous working contacts and mutual visits with his university colleagues.

Armen Sarkissian attached importance to the presence of the Moscow State University in Armenia and highlighted the need to expand the activity of the University’s Yerevan branch, implement joint scientific-educational programs and expand the ties.

Introducing the purpose of the visit Elena Vartanova said she delivered a number of public lectures relating to journalism in the University’s Yerevan branch.

The meeting participants also exchanged views on the future of journalism, the current challenges in the digital technologies era, reliable and professional news, as well as on matters relating to raising the teaching level of journalism.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

‘Your each victory is pride for us’ – Armenian President hosts chess player Levon Aronian

15:15,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian today hosted leading chess player of Armenia, three-time winner of the World Chess Olympiad, Levon Aronian, the President’s Office told Armenpress.

Aronian introduced the President on his upcoming plans and tournaments, noting that quite a busy year is expected.

President Sarkissian in his turn wished success to the chess player and stated: “Your each victory provides wonderful moments of pride to our people”.

The President expressed confidence that they will have similar moments in the near future. 

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Pashinyan is confident upcoming presidential election in Artsakh will be free and competitive

15:44,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is convinced that the upcoming presidential election in Artsakh will be free, independent and competitive, reports Armenpress.

“I am convinced, and I think that all understand that the upcoming presidential election in Artsakh should be fair, free, democratic and competitive. I am sure that will be so”, the PM told reporters during today’s press conference in Matenadaran.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Azerbaijan deploys new military base at Armenia border

15:56,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan has deployed a new military base at the Kazakh-Aghstafa section of its border with Armenia, Azerbaijani media reported.

The Kazakh-Aghstafa section faces Armenia’s Tavush province.

Head of Azerbaijan’s Border Patrol Elchin Ghuliyev told local reporters about the deployment.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

‘My respect for CSTO, EEU has grown significantly’- Pashinyan

16:03,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. A new secretary general cannot be appointed at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) without taking into account Armenia’s opinion, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a news conference today.

He noted that Armenia’s stance at the CSTO is very clear. “We believe that the term there is ours, however our colleagues disagree with us because they say this issue isn’t regulated and there’s space for comment. Therefore we are saying let’s bring clarification in the charter before appointing a new secretary general. If for some reason the term in office of the secretary general remains incomplete, we will know how the issue gets regulated. It seems we have reached an agreement over this issue”.

He reminded about the harsh pessimistic comments from certain segments of the society when the government recalled Yuri Khachaturov from the post of Secretary General of the CSTO.

“Very apocalyptic assessments were being voiced on what happened. However, actually nothing happened. We were saying that everyone is equal before the law, and we proved this. In this process Armenia’s interests have fully been protected. The talks that we had in the CSTO format were very useful, these types of conversations have never taken place during the entire period of the CSTO’s existence,” he said.

The Armenian PM highly assessed the atmosphere in both the CSTO and the EEU.

“Unfortunately, the big part of work in these organizations takes place behind closed doors, and the public doesn’t have the opportunity to see in what spirit discussions happen there. I have to say, these are very substantive, deep, interested, sometimes heated discussions, which has significantly increased my respect for these organizations. I think this is an objective and accurate assessment,” Pashinyan said.

Armenian general Yuri Khachaturov was sacked as CSTO Secretary General in November of 2018 after Armenian law enforcement agencies pressed criminal charges against him over the March 1 case. Then the Armenian government recalled Khachaturov from the post.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 19-03-19

17:11,

YEREVAN, 19 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 19 March, USD exchange rate down by 0.25 drams to 486.27 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.09 drams to 552.06 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.04 drams to 7.57 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.59 drams to 645.47 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 22.35 drams to 20411.67 drams. Silver price up by 0.27 drams to 240.45 drams. Platinum price down by 6.68 drams to 12991.81 drams.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns

17:21,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation on March 19, reports Armenpress.

“I made a decision to resign as president. This year marks the 30th anniversary of my term in office. People provided me a chance to be the first president of Kazakhstan”, Nursultan Nazarbayev said in a TV address.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenian Government discusses 89 investment projects of 2.7 billion USD  – introductory speech of Nikol Pashinyan at a press conference

18:01,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. 89 investment projects of 2.7 billion USD are under discussion with the Government of Armenia. 42 out of the 89 projects (774 million USD) are in fact in various stages of implementation, the others are under active discussions, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced during his introductory speech at a press conference.  

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan particularly said in the introductory speech,

”Good day dear colleagues,

I am glad to meet you.

This is our 3rd press conference, meeting in this format, if I am not mistaken, and during this period I avoided answering questions in order to make our meeting more demanded. Before I start answering your questions, I would like to make 2 brief observations and share with you information that I received this morning.

In February of 2019 the volume of mortgage lending of the Republic of Armenia rose by 100% against February of 2018. The increase of mortgage lending in the sidelines of the projects implemented by our Government amounted to 145%, the comparison is again between February of 2019 and February 2018. By now, the mortgage portfolio of our country has increased by 30%, and according to experts, this is a great increase. I want to describe the chain by which these numbers will have an impact on the real life. This means that in the near future we will have demand for construction. This will lead to the creation of new jobs not only in the sphere of construction, but also in the sphere of the production of construction materials, and generally, in the sphere of service and so on. I think this is a very important index, which will lead to decline of unemployment and creation of new jobs.

I want to inform you that at the moment there are, at least are discussed with the Government 89 investment projects totaling 2.7 billion USD. 42 out of the 89 projects (774 million USD) are in fact in various stages of implementation, the others are under active discussions. This means that we also have some rise in investment interests in our country.

The next thing I would like to tell you is that you know that March 23 is declared a nation-wide clean-up day and I hope that we all will participate in that event. Naturally, I will participate too, and will try to participate in a place not announced in-advance. I hope our citizens will also be active. I want to say that visually the main problem of our country is waste. Once I had the chance to say during a Cabinet meeting that I will assess that really revolutionary changes have occurred in our country, of course, it will be the visual side of the issue, when we manage to free our country, our beautiful country from waste. I am glad this process has kicked off.

In general, you will have the opportunity to refer to the details of the activities of the Government during the discussion of the report on the implementation process of the Government’s Action Plan at the National Assembly. For that reason today I do not refer to those details and I am happy for this opportunity.

I want to say that I have come here to answer the questions of all of you and I hope all the possible questions will be asked during today’s meeting because I know based on the previous press-conferences that there are cases when there are stormy issues that go viral on the internet but I do not know why no questions are asked about those issues during the press conferences. I hope you will ask all the possible questions referring foreign policy, domestic policy, private or non-private because the key goal of this format of press conference is to make personally me, the Government, all of us including my family 100% transparent and accountable before our public.

I assure you, there is no question that I would prefer not to be asked and there is no question, I am confident, that I have no answer to it. So if there is someone who does not ask his question thinking that I have no answer to it, please do not worry, freely ask your questions.

Thank You”.

Afterwards the PM answered the questions of the journalists.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Armenian parliament Speaker suggests President of Bundestag to consider the issue of establishing Armenian-German University in Armenia

18:50,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by the Speaker of the National Assembvly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, which is in Germany on an official visit from March 18 to 21, met with President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble on March 19.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the parliament of Armenia, the President of Bundestag noted in his welcome speech that they followed the Velvet revolution of Armenia in April-May 2018 with great enthusiasm, underlining that no similar tevolution has ever taken place in the world.

Thanking for the reception, Ararat Mirzoyan noted that this is his 1st official visit to Europe in the position of the Speaker of the National Assembly. The Head of the legislative of Armenia presented the incentive for the Armenian revolution to his German partner, the post-revolutionary period and the early parliamentary elections, that were highly assessed by the international observers.

Highlighting the parliamentary traditions of Germany, Ararat Mirzoyan noted that the experience of the Bundestag can be very useful for the National Assembly of Armenia. In this context the sides expressed readiness to make mutual visits more frequent.

During the conversation the members of the Armenian delegation and Wolfgang Schäuble discussed a range of issues referring to the Armenian-German agenda, the ratification of the Armenia-EU agreement, visa liberalization, assistance of the European countries in the development of infrastructures in Armenia.

Referring to the cultural and educational links between Armenia and Germany, the Speaker of the parliament of Armenia suggested his German colleagues to consider the issue of establishing an Armenian-German university in Armenia, which will further deepen the relations between the citizens of the two countries.

Ararat Mirzoyan and Wolfgang Schäuble agreed to continue the constructive dialogue and the discussion of the issues of mutual interest in the evening, during the official dinner on behalf of the President of the Bundestag in honor of the head of the Armenian parliament.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan