Category: 2020

 13:40,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is touring the streets of Yerevan and thanks to the citizens for wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The PM is also distributing face masks to the citizens for free.

In their turn the citizens thank the PM for the actions taken to combat COVID-19.

During the tour the PM visited the Armenian state institute of physical culture to see how the anti-coronavirus rules are maintained in the educational facility.

665 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been registered in Armenia in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 18,698, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said today.

746 more patients have recovered and were discharged from hospital. The total number of recoveries has reached 7,560.

7 people have died in one day, raising the death toll to 309.

The number of active cases stands at 10,728.

The number of people who had a coronavirus but died from other disease has increased by 2. The total number of these cases has reached 101.

So far, 89,992 people have passed COVID-19 testing.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 12:54,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. The Italian daily la Repubblica in an article published on June 16 titled The Station of the Future touched upon the current challenges and difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the new way of life imposed on societies and in this context also presented the opinion of Armenian President Armen Sarkissian over the matter, the Armenian President’s Office told Armenpress.

Author of the article Riccardo Luna writes that an economic decline is expected around the world, the governments are developing new systems of pensions and fees aimed at helping the vulnerable groups and the unemployed. “It seems we are helpless”, he writes, adding that he was impressed to listen to the remarks by the Armenian President on the current situation.

“The President of Armenia is a former physician, during his young age he has been one of those programmers thanks to whom Tetris game had a worldwide success. He has also served as Armenia’s Ambassador in London for many years and eventually he became the President of Armenia, a small Caucasian Republic with a population of three million and an active, but a very small economy”, the author says. “Armen Sarkissian says this crisis is the accelerator of the future that the state digital governance can change the country’s acting style, for instance, the remote learning and healthcare will gradually have a higher demand, that we should not stop the fight against the climate change. The Armenian President said something which hasn’t been stated by any other head of state, something that no one says, and the meaning of which is the exact opposite to the phrase “you are helpless”. It’s meaning is that “You can. Start swimming”. In short, Armen Sarkissian said that now the governments should deal with contributing to the creation of jobs, rather than subsidizing the dying industries. Startups, but not only. New enterprises. Action is needed. Go ahead. Pull back the clouds”.

 16:40,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin expressed a wish to meet with Vice Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan, the Vice Speaker told reporters today, asked whether the international partners have applied to him over the ongoing processes against Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan.

“I am the chair of the Armenia-Russia inter-parliamentary and friendship group. Yesterday I talked to the vice-chairman of Russia’s Federal Assembly and we have not discussed any such issue. The Russian Ambassador to Armenia expressed a wish to meet with me, the meeting didn’t take place yet. As of this moment I do not have any reaction from our remaining partners”, Alen Simonyan said.

The Vice Speaker said he doesn’t think that Armenia’s serious foreign partners will make urgent statements over the criminal case.

On June 16 the Armenian Parliament voted in favor of the Prosecutor General’s motion on stripping MP Gagik Tsarukyan of parliamentary immunity. 87 MPs voted in favor of the motion. The Parliament also approved another motion on depriving Tsarukyan of liberty.

On June 14 leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan was taken to the National Security Service for questioning. He stayed there until 23:30. Tsarukyan’s supporters organized a rally outside the NSS demanding to stop the actions against the lawmaker.

Earlier the NSS issued a statement according to which a company, that is included Gagik Tsarukyan’s Multi Group Concern, has caused tens of billions of drams in damage to the state.

In another statement, the NSS said it revealed numerous cases on giving bribes to voters by the Prosperous Armenia party members, as well as candidates to vote in favor of the party during the April 2, 2017 parliamentary elections.

On June 16 the National Security Service of Armenia issued another statement announcing about new discoveries about the activity of the Prosperous Armenia party.

According to the information collected by the NSS, during the May 14, 2017 Yerevan City Council elections, state officials persuaded nearly 100-120,000 eligible voters in Armenia, both materially or illegally, to formally move from their actual places of registration and register temporarily in different addresses of Yerevan’ administrative districts in order to include these persons to the voters lists of local self-government bodies, thus providing the necessary number of “in favor” votes during the elections.

In addition, it was also revealed that the members of the Prosperous Armenia political party, founded in 2004, distributed bribes during various elections for voting in favor of their party, candidate in order to receive their desired result.

Criminal case has been launched over the incident.

Based on the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, respective facts were collected according to which Prosperous Armenia party MP, chairwoman of the parliamentary standing committee on human rights and public affairs Naira Zohrabyan repeatedly insulted numerous citizens during her conversations with the supporters when summing up the results of the elections which were held in Armenia after the 2018 Revolution.

It was also revealed that during her talks with the same supporters Naira Zohrabyan also repeatedly accepted the fact that the Prosperous Armenia party managed to receive the necessary number of votes during the previous elections exclusively by distributing bribes to the Armenian citizens.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 14:07,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government approved today the 20^th measure aimed at eliminating the economic consequences of the novel coronavirus.

During today’s Cabinet meeting Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan said the measure aims at assisting the hired employees, employees working under civil law contract and individual entrepreneurs of the private sector.                

According to the decision, the sectors affected from the COVID-19 are the followings: hotel and guesthouse services, public food services, tourism, pre-school (private kindergartens), sports clubs, cinemas, photography, etc.

The assistance is provided in a lump sum, at the amount of the minimum salary. It will be transferred to the beneficiaries’ credit cards.

The assistance will be provided based on the applications submitted.

This measure will apply to nearly 36,800 persons, and the total budget of the measure comprises 2,5 billion drams.

The acceptance of applications will start from June 22.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 16:56,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction chaired by judge Robert Papoyan continues examining the motion on detaining Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan.

Earlier on June 17 attorney Yerem Sargsyan told reporters that the examination of the motion was postponed at the request of attorneys.

On June 16 the Armenian Parliament voted in favor of the Prosecutor General’s motion on stripping MP Gagik Tsarukyan of parliamentary immunity. 87 MPs voted in favor of the motion. The Parliament also approved another motion on depriving Tsarukyan of liberty.

On June 14 leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan was taken to the National Security Service for questioning. He stayed there until 23:30. Tsarukyan’s supporters organized a rally outside the NSS demanding to stop the actions against the lawmaker.

Earlier the NSS issued a statement according to which a company, that is included Gagik Tsarukyan’s Multi Group Concern, has caused tens of billions of drams in damage to the state.

In another statement, the NSS said it revealed numerous cases on giving bribes to voters by the Prosperous Armenia party members, as well as candidates to vote in favor of the party during the April 2, 2017 parliamentary elections.

 17:49,

YEREVAN, 18 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 18 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.40 drams to 479.93 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.36 drams to 539.87 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.05 drams to 6.93 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.71 drams to 599.38 drams.

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

Gold price up by 47.31 drams to 26606.9 drams. Silver price up by 0.70 drams to 269.56 drams. Platinum price down by 72.30 drams to 12637.26 drams.

 17:39,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. The Criminal Court of Appeal approved the appeal of attorneys of 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan on changing the precautionary measure selected against the ex-President.

Kocharyan will be released on bail in the amount of 2 billion drams.

Robert Kocharyan has been remanded into custody on June 25, 2019. Kocharyan is charged with overthrowing the Constitutional Order during the 2008 March protests in Yerevan.

 18:02,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a letter to former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev who has tested positive for coronavirus, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office.

Armen Sarkissian wished him health and speedy recovery.

 18:43,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the European Union to quickly agree a multi-year budget and get a recovery fund for weaker EU economies under way, reports Armenpress citing BBC.

In a speech to Germany’s parliament, Merkel said it was crucial that EU states act in solidarity to survive the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The pandemic has revealed how fragile the European project still is,” said the chancellor. “Cohesion and solidarity have never been as important as they are today.”

She continued: “To make it very clear: the pandemic, and the economic downturn it brings, are the biggest challenges in Europe’s history.”

Germany begins a six-month stint as EU president on 1 July.