Category: News

The bill on introducing a unified system for registering mobile phones’ International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which the Cabinet approved in June, will be revised. The government intends to submit a more finalized version to the National Assembly for discussion within two months, Minister of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence of Armenia Davit Tadevosyan has said.

“Let me probably start by explaining why we are postponing it,” he told lawmakers at a session of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday.

“The main issue the government wants to address through this initiative is combating the shadow economy. In other words, we see a need to address a fiscal issue,” the minister said.

According to Tadevosyan, the bill needs to define the terms used and the technical aspects of the regulation more clearly. He said he would consider the lawmakers’ comments.

“Thank you for this opportunity to work on the draft law for another two months. I am confident that the next version we present to you will be significantly clearer and more applicable to addressing the issue that the law is intended to address,” he said.

The minister also presented the initiative’s main concept. An organization involving mobile network operators is planned to be established to manage the database of phones’ IMEI numbers. These numbers will make it possible to identify devices and distinguish phones imported through legal channels. Tadevosyan reiterated that the conditions for applying possible restrictions still need to be clarified.

The Juventus Academy Armenia officially opened its Avan branch in Yerevan. The opening ceremony was attended by Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia Zhanna Andreasyan, Football Federation of Armenia President Armen Melikbekyan, UEFA Secretary General Theodore Theodoridis, Juventus Chief Business Officer Peter Silverstone, and former player of the Italian club, football star Fabrizio Ravanelli.

The opening ceremony began at the academy’s Avan training facility. Academy founder Alfred Sadoyan ceremonially cut the red ribbon together with senior Yerevan officials. The guests toured the training facility, familiarized themselves with the work carried out and the infrastructure, and watched the children’s training sessions.

The Avan training facility includes accommodation for coaches and children, a gym, medical examination and rehabilitation areas, an analysis room equipped with the latest technologies, a shop, and other infrastructure. The building was constructed in accordance with modern “green building” standards.

The officials and guests then visited the community of Nor Hachn in Kotayk Province, where construction work also began on the academy’s third branch and a sports district.

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan highlighted the significance of the opening of the Juventus FC academy. “For the first time in the Republic of Armenia, an academy of a major European club is opening, creating broad opportunities for our children,” Avinyan emphasized.

According to Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan, the establishment of academies is a cornerstone of football development. “We cannot achieve success in major sports if we do not have a foundation, one of the pillars of which is the establishment of academies. It is clear that bringing international experience to our country and making international football education accessible to our children should be one of the most important strategies. I am glad that with the opening of the Juventus Football Academy, we essentially have such an opportunity,” Andreasyan said.

The project and large-scale construction work began in Yerevan on May 29, 2025. Around $20 million has already been invested, and two modern training facilities are currently operating in Yerevan’s Avan and Kentron administrative districts.

The training facilities feature high-quality pitches with natural and artificial turf, artificial-turf pitches filled with organic materials for younger children, as well as an indoor pitch.

The multifunctional Freedom Arena at the Kentron branch meets UEFA Category 2 standards and, in addition to football matches, will be able to host sporting and other events. The stadium will have around 2,000 seats. The sports complex will also house Armenia’s first specialized sports medicine clinic and rehabilitation center, Medicina Dello Sport. All training facilities are also equipped with modern nighttime lighting systems.

Armenia’s Minister of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence Davit Tadevosyan has dismissed comments by a Russian military expert aired on Russian television claiming that the Firebird AI data center in Hrazdan could serve U.S. intelligence interests.

Asked at a press briefing to comment on a Vesti program during which Russian military expert Alexey Leonkov made the claim, Tadevosyan said he considered the assessment politically motivated.

“I think it is a politically motivated assessment,” the minister said.

Asked whether the center could be used for intelligence purposes, Tadevosyan responded with an analogy involving a car, saying that a “car could also be used to commit a crime, but this is not a reason to ban the use of cars.”

The minister also invited those raising concerns about possible risks to submit specific information in writing to the ministry.

“Any such speculation is possible, but it is politically motivated; it is not serious. If there are any facts, present them, and we will be happy to sit down, discuss them and understand,” Tadevosyan said.

Asked how much the United States has invested in the project, the minister said that a consortium of Armenian financial institutions had participated in its financing.

Armenian authorities have sent former Ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan a summons to appear as part of an examination into the origins of property linked to him.

A notice published on the official Azdarar website says that the Prosecutor General’s Office has invited Minasyan to appear before the Department of Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Assets on October 9.

According to the notice, a preliminary summary has been prepared based on the examination of the origins of property linked to Minasyan.

From the date of receiving the notice, Minasyan has one month to review the materials collected during the examination, including relevant materials from the underlying criminal proceeding, as well as to submit his position and declaration.

If he is unable to appear at the specified time, he is invited to agree in advance on another date and time.

Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia Anna Vardapetyan participated online in the 36th session of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the CIS member states.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said in a press release that, within the framework of the first agenda item, Prosecutor General Vardapetyan delivered a speech on the topic “Modern Challenges and New Solutions in the Field of Recovery of Illegally Acquired Assets from Abroad.”

Vardapetyan noted that the transnational nature of modern crime creates new challenges for states: assets acquired through illegal means may be transferred to different countries, registered in the names of affiliated persons, and transformed into other types of property.

“Under these conditions, asset recovery should be viewed as a comprehensive process, from their identification and tracing to freezing or seizure, judicial examination, forfeiture, management and actual return,” the Prosecutor General of Armenia emphasized, adding that the impossibility of criminal prosecution should not automatically mean the impossibility of recovering illegally acquired assets. In this context, the Prosecutor General of the Republic addressed the mechanism of non-conviction based asset forfeiture.

Anna Vardapetyan presented Armenia’s experience, noting that the adoption of the Law “On Forfeiture of Property of Illicit Origin” in 2020 established a legal basis for applying an independent civil-law mechanism for the recovery of illegally acquired property.

In this context, emphasizing the effectiveness of international legal assistance, the Prosecutor General of Armenia stressed that international cooperation should begin as early as the asset identification and tracing stage, making it possible to promptly freeze, seize and preserve it until the completion of national judicial proceedings.

Anna Vardapetyan also addressed the significance of the Council of Europe’s Warsaw Convention and its additional protocol adopted in 2026, emphasizing that representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia directly participated in the drafting of the protocol.

The Prosecutor General of Armenia also presented problems arising in the course of international cooperation, related to differences between the legal systems of various states, the absence of analogous mechanisms for civil-law forfeiture, as well as limitations on the subsequent use as evidence of information obtained through unofficial means.

In this direction, Vardapetyan emphasized the importance of further developing international cooperation, highlighting the rapid exchange of information on assets, improvement of mechanisms for the prompt freezing and seizure of property, ensuring the possibility of international legal assistance before a final judicial decision is made, mutual recognition and enforcement of judicial acts, as well as effective management of forfeited assets.

Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetyan noted that asset recovery today is no longer merely a matter of forfeiting property after the completion of criminal proceedings.

“This is a comprehensive process that begins with the identification of an asset, locating its whereabouts and tracing it, and ends with the actual return of the asset. Our common goal is to ensure that no legal vacuum arises between the identification of an asset and its actual return,” she said.

As part of events marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Yerevan History Museum, the international scientific conference “Yerevan: City and History” will be held in Yerevan from October 1 to 3.

Speaking at a press conference, Yerevan History Museum Director Gevorg Orbelyan said that the conference has a rich program and broad participation.

“Ninety speakers from Armenia and various countries around the world will deliver presentations as part of the conference. More than 30 educational, cultural and state institutions will be represented. Among our international partners, we have participants from Germany, Russia and the United States. In particular, these include the University of Tübingen, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, RUDN University, and the prelacy of the Eastern Diocese of America,” Orbelyan said.

The director of the Yerevan History Museum noted that this is a very good opportunity to present new works and research that will help reveal different historical layers of the capital. The presentations will address the history of Yerevan, urban planning, architecture, archaeological work, museology and other topics.

“New approaches to the study and discovery of urban heritage will be presented at the conference, including such topics as the newly discovered archaeological layers in the Silikyan district, which our specialists will present from engineering and historical perspectives. Another focus of the presentations will be the excavations in Kond [district]. Our international partners from Russia will present a paper on the history of Yerevan’s manholes, while our partners from Germany will speak on the topic ‘Sustainable Tourism in Yerevan,’ presenting the economic and sociocultural impacts of tourism,” Orbelyan said.

In addition to these topics, the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography will organize a presentation on Yerevan confectionery in the 1900s, while the Karin Scientific Center will present on Armenian traditional dance in the first quarter of the 21st century. Orbelyan expressed confidence that the presentations will shed new light on the history of the capital.

“As a result of the conference, we expect to expand international cooperation in the study of Yerevan’s history and heritage, establish new academic and professional ties, as well as promote the development of research and publications on Yerevan’s historical and cultural heritage,” Gevorg Orbelyan said.

The director of the Yerevan History Museum noted that a film dedicated to the museum’s 95th anniversary will be presented at the opening of the conference. He also said that, as part of the museum’s 95th-anniversary celebrations, Armenian culture is being presented in China. Around 134 valuable items selected from the museum’s collection—including traditional Armenian costumes, jewelry, carpets, exceptional examples of carpet weaving and embroidery, and national musical instruments—have been on display in Shanxi Province for three months already, and the exhibition will next be held in Hebei and Shandong provinces.

On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia, the famous fountains at Omonoia Square in Athens were illuminated in the colors of the Armenian flag during the night of September 29-30, as a result of cooperation between the Athens City Hall and the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Greece.

The Embassy of Armenia in Greece said that, as a result of cooperation with the municipalities of Komotini and Ioannina, Komotini’s Peace Square and the building of the Ioannina City Hall were also illuminated in the colors of the Armenian flag on September 29 to mark the occasion.

Armenian lawmakers from the parliament’s Defense and Security Affairs Committee have held a meeting with representatives of UN Women.

The committee said in a press release that the meeting was attended by Committee Chairman MP Vilen Gabrielyan, Deputy Chairman Vaghinak Vardanov, committee member Anush Mirzoyan, as well as Kaori Ishikawa, UN Women representative in Georgia and liaison officer for the South Caucasus, and UN Women representatives in Georgia and Armenia.

They discussed possible areas of cooperation concerning women, peace and security.

The sides addressed issues concerning women and further steps to address them within the framework of Armenia’s third National Action Plan for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. They also discussed parliamentary oversight, experience-sharing and gender policy issues.

Members of the parliamentary Defense and Security Affairs Committee met with representatives of the Pan-Armenian Association of Relatives of Missing Persons on September 30.

The sides discussed a number of issues related to missing persons, according to a readout issued by the committee.

The meeting was chaired by Committee Chairman Vilen Gabrielyan. Deputy Chairman Vaghinak Vardanov and committee members Garnik Davtyan, Gegham Manukyan, Anush Mirzoyan and Hakob Simidyan also participated.

The sides agreed to continue cooperation through regular meetings and, based on the proposals presented, develop a more substantive agenda.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a regular meeting of the Security Council, his office said Wednesday.

In addition to members of the Security Council, the meeting was attended by President Vahagn Khachaturyan and Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the meeting discussed issues within the jurisdiction of the Security Council.