Category: 2021

Security officers forcibly removed Gegham Manukyan from National Assembly podium

Garnik Zakarian
Panorama, Armenia
Oct 26 2021


POLITICS 14:07 26/10/2021 ARMENIA

Tensions went high in Armenia’s National Assembly on Tuesday after the Deputy Speaker of parliament Ruben Rubinyan ordered the security officers to remove opposition deputy Gegham Manukyan from the podium where he was making a statement. 

The move came after Manukyan stated that “there are many examples of villainy but the ones who renounced Artsakh are traitors.” The opposition lawmaker hinted that one of the ruling party members have publicy refused from Artsakh in front of media. Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, who was in charge of the session chairing, reminded Manukyan about ethical rules and asked for specific names whom the opposition lawmaker accused of treason. 

The incident escalated when Rubinyan ordered to switch off the microphone and asked Manukyan to leave the podium. The latter refused to leave. After it, security officers were invited to the session hall and forcibly pulled the deputy from the podium. A 20-minute break was announced. 

Statue of "the best Armenian athlete of the 20th century" Albert Azaryan to be erected in Yerevan

Dabaghian Diana
Panorama, Armenia
Oct 26 2021


The council of elders of Yerevan, the self-government body of the capital city, approved on Tuesday a decision to erect a monument to the legendary Armenian gymnast Albert Azaryan. The statue will be put near the Youth’s School of Gymnastics of Olympic Reserve after Albert Azaryan in downtown Yerevan. The relevant proposal had been submitted by National Olympic Committee of Armenia. 

To note, Albert Azaryan is the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Champion on the still rings. Azaryan is the first gymnast to become an Olympic Champion in Rings twice. During the gymnastics competitions held in Leningrad in 1953, Albert Azaryan carried out his most famous trick on the rings called “Azarian Cross.” The exercise could almost lead him to be disqualified, however later the same tick paved him a way to the USSR team. 

Throughout his career, Azaryan has won 42 gold, 42 silver and 10 bronze medals and became USSR champion for 11 times. Azaryan was voted the top Armenian athlete of the 20th century by journalists from the Armenian Federation of Sport Journalists. 

Armenian Parliament okays cutting the New Year holidays

Boshkezenian Garik
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 27 2021
, 11:24

 Less than a minute

The Armenian National Assembly voted 53 to 16 with 3 abstentions to adopt at first reading the government-proposed amendments that will see the non-working days during New Year and Christmas holidays reduced to three.

The draft recommends setting December 31, January 1 and January 6 as days-off.

Under the current legislation, the holidays last from December 31 to January 7.

The government says long holidays affect both the gross domestic product and the output of products (services) of the main sectors of the economy, the export and import volumes, as well as the implementation of contractual relations with local and foreign partner organizations.

Armenian books, products on display at UN Bazar in Geneva

Antonian Lara
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 27 2021
, 13:25

 Less than a minute

Armenian books and products are on display at the UN Bazar in Geneva, the Armenian Embassy to Switzerland informs.

“Armenia’s stall is in full swing at the UN Bazar at Geneva. Souvenirs and books, reprocessed food products, wine and cognac are displayed and presented to the attention of the UN community,” the Embassy said in a Facebook post.

The UN Bazar creates an outstanding and inducing environment for intercultural dialogue

Armenian Ambassador, Rep. Clark discuss perspectives of bilateral parliamentary cooperation

Babken Chilingarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 27 2021
, 10:06

 1 minute read

On October 26th Lilit Makunts, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the Unites States of America, met with Assistant to the Speaker of the House Representatives, Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D – Massachusetts). Katherine Clark is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most important committees

Ambassador thanked Congresswoman for her continuous support to the issues concerning Armenia and Artsakh. In her turn, Congressman Clark highly assessed the role of Armenian-Americans in strengthening bilateral relations.

Ambassador presented the situation in Armenia due to COVID-19 and briefed about the preventive steps implemented by the Government of Armenia.

During the meeting interlocutors discussed issues aimed at further deepening of Armenian-American inter-parliamentary cooperation. In this regard Congresswoman Clark expressed readiness to make efforts towards promoting the cooperation between the legislative bodies.

HyeTech showcase brings 43 Armenian-led startups to Yerevan

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 26 2021
, 14:18

 2 minutes read

The HyeTech Showcase is the first-ever startup networking conference of its kind held in Armenia. It brings together 43 cutting-edge startups with operations in 27 countries around the world. The HyeTech network, which was founded in 2011 in Silicon Valley, has grown into a powerful community of technology entrepreneurs, leveraging the strengths and expertise of Armenians around the world.

These technology startups, all founded or led by Armenian entrepreneurs, are meeting to find new solutions to the needs of the fast-growing technology sector in Armenia. Raising more than US $1.5 billion of direct investment, this funding is now being deployed on growth, expansion and hiring.

Additionally, these world-class companies have committed to building deep technology and valuable intellectual property in Armenia.

“We are using our international network of Armenians to connect and grow our ventures,” said

Nerses Ohanyan, the founder of HyeTech. “Networking within this community is very powerful.”

Ohanyan says Armenia has a unique advantage in creating products and developing technologies that address major global needs.

“We can iterate and learn from each other faster, because we’re testing things on a small scale in a tight and collaborative community,” he said. The tight-knit community of the global Armenian tech sector has proven to be an advantage in connecting people and ideas.

Creating access and scaling talent in the tech sector by focusing on attracting, developing and managing talent globally is the major theme of the conference. The lessons learned across dozens of fast-growing startups can be leveraged to enable the entire ecosystem to be more efficient. One of the initiatives is to build a tech bridge to India. This bridge will connect the Armenian tech ecosystem with top technical and business talent in India and accelerate the growth of products and services developed in Armenia and its global ecosystem.

Lara Setrakian, journalist, entrepreneur, impact investor and partner at Fresco Capital, will be hosting a panel with H. E. Ms. Lynne Tracy, US Ambassador to Armenia; H. E. Ms. Andrea Wiktorin, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia and H. E. Mr. Kishan Dan Dewal, Ambassador of India to Armenia. Together they will discuss trends for harnessing human capital around the world and ideas for the Armenian technology ecosystem, all in order to better enable and connect talent centers worldwide.

The Armenian tech ecosystem also sees a need for developing talent especially through investments in scientific research, including Machine Learning, Biotechnology and Space research. Deep technology drives disruption and is necessary to build the next set of successful technology ventures. Prime example of this is SkyRoot from India that is fueling Space technology and working with India’s Space Research Organization.

Pawan Chandana Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO at SkyRoot will be sharing his experience on building high growth, research-driven startups on the Keynote Panel of HyeTech Showcase 2021: Talent Matters. The panel also includes Vahe Kuzoyan, Co-Founder and President of ServiceTitan, and Tigran Sloyan, Co-Founder and CEO of CodeSignal.

Gituzh is also featured, which aims to promote greater investment into research and science across Armenia, and highlights the critical business need to create powerful connections for talent, IP exchange, innovation and disruptive technology development.

The HyeTech Showcase takes place over two days, held in Yerevan on October 27 and Gyumri on October 28 as part of DigiWeek 21.

Ombudsman is the only senior official standing up for Armenia’s interests, says opposition MP

Liana Toganian
Panorama, Armenia
Oct 26 2021

MP Artsvik Minasyan, the secretary of the opposition Armenia faction in the parliament, says even a pro-government deputy indirectly blames the authorities for misconduct and “he is right”.

Speaking at a parliament sitting on Tuesday, Minasyan said “it would be nice if the executive power was in its place” and the Defense Ministry and the National Security Service (NSS) provided updates on the border situation, instead of “attacking” the ombudsman, who is the “only high-ranking official clearly standing up for the interests of Armenia and the Armenian people.”

Speaking about the government-drafted bill to limit the validity of Armenian passports in foreign countries to two years, Minasyan noted that it has caused a lot of dissatisfaction and complaints from citizens.

“It turns out that you limit the validity of passports in foreign countries to two years, but what about those, who, for example, have a passport valid for 4 years?” Minasyan said. “My passport has expired, and I can’t get either an old-style passport or a biometric passport, because there are no biometric passports.”

He urged the authorities to issue biometric passports before initiating such restrictions.

Earlier, presenting the bill on making amendments and supplements to the law “On Citizenship of the Republic of Armenia”, Deputy Chief of Police Ara Fidanyan said: “The draft law is aimed at resolving the practical problems arising in the course of application of the law, properly implementing the commitments under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, as well as further simplifying the citizenship-related redtape.”

He noted that in addition to passports valid for two years, the draft law proposes to extend the deadline for citizenship applications for ethnic Armenians and other citizens of former Soviet republics permanently living in Armenia until 31 December 2023.

Istanbul changes name of street named after famous Armenian engineer again

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
Oct 26 2021
23:40, 26.10.2021

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has changed the name of the street named after famous Armenian engineer Hovhannes Dadyan in Bakirkoy again.

According to the Turkish Medyascope, since 2008, the Municipality of Bakirkoy has been referring to the street as Dadyan Street, but after a while, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is changing the name again.

The residents of Bakirkoy stressed that they are in favor of naming the street after Dadyan since he was a famous engineer in the Ottoman Empire and did a lot for the country.

Hovhannes Dadyan was born in 1799. In his prime, he started making gunpowder, became a famous engineer and held major positions in the Ottoman army. He also built the St. Mary’s Church and Dadyan School, which still exist on Dadyan Street, a street that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is constantly changing.

Newspaper: Armenian ambassador is spreader of US Influence?

Chatinian Lara
News.am, Armenia
Oct 26 2021
08:08, 27.10.2021

YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: On October 22, RA Ambassador to US Lilit Makunts attended a strange event. It is about the event of the Meridian organization which aims to expand US influence and strengthen its role around the world.

It seems that the RA ambassadors accredited abroad should have been engaged in spreading the role and influence of their [own] country, and should have done everything to create a favorable situation for Armenia in the foreign policy field, as well as contributed the development of bilateral relations. But the ambassador of Armenia participates in spreading the influence of another state in the world.

And, in general, our ambassadors have a minimal role abroad: they have almost no meetings with the officials of the given countries, they do not come up with initiatives, they do not solve problems. The impression is that they do not realize what their main function is and why they came to this position.

Azerbaijan adds Serbian made anti-aircraft guns seized from Armenia to national armament

Ekmekjian Janet
Euractiv
Oct 26 2021

betabriefing.com and EURACTIV.rs

Anti-aircraft guns made in Serbia’s arms factory Zastava Oruzje in Kragujevac, which Azerbaijan seized during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian forces, have been added to Azerbaijan’s national armaments. [zef art/Shutterstock]

Anti-aircraft guns made in Serbia’s arms factory Zastava Oruzje in Kragujevac, which Azerbaijan seized during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian forces, have been added to Azerbaijan’s national armaments and displayed at a recently held joint military drill with Turkey.

According to the website Balkan Security Network, the video footage of the exercise includes a Soviet multi-purpose fully amphibious auxiliary armoured tracked vehicle MT-LB with Zastava manufactured 20 mm triple-barreled automatic anti-aircraft guns M-55A4.

The video shows the MT-LB had been repainted before being delivered to the units deployed in the isolated enclave of Nakhchivan, where a joint military exercise of Azerbaijan and Turkey armed forces, titled ‘The Steadfast Brotherhood-2021’, was held from 5 to 8 October,” according to the website.

(EURACTIV.rs | betabriefing.com)

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/azerbaijan-adds-serbian-made-anti-aircraft-guns-seized-from-armenia-to-national-armament/