09:45, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. Nicolas Anelka, the French professional football manager and retired player will visit Armenia on January 16-20 at the invitation of the French-Armenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France Arménie).  

The Paris Saint-Germain F.C. ambassador will discuss, among other issues, the establishment of an international-standard football academy in Armenia, CCI France Arménie said in a statement.

 09:55, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. Lionel Messi has been crowned The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2023, retaining the title he won in 2022.

The Argentina superstar has been bestowed with the honour once again following another qualifying period where he dazzled football fans across the globe. Messi was recognised for his achievements at The Best FIFA Football Awards™ ceremony in London, having come out on top in the voting ahead of finalists Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, FIFA said in a press release.

Messi topped an incredibly closely-contested poll which was voted for by national team coaches and captains as well as expert journalists and supporters across the globe.

With the 2022 World Cup winner and Norway international Haaland locked together on 48 scoring points, they were separated by the number of first-choice nominations which Messi received in votes from national team captains, as per the Rules of Allocation (article 12). France striker Mbappe finished third with 35 points.

 10:32, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. Various reconstruction works worth over 46,6 billion drams (equivalent to $114,000,000) were implemented in the Armavir Province in 2018-2023, the government said in a statement.

In particular, 111,4 kilometers of roads, 87,4 kilometers of lighting, 143,5 kilometers of gasification, 336,2 kilometers of water lines and 28 kindergartens were either built, reconstructed or repaired.

 10:50, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. The contentious legislation seeking to introduce several options for draft evaders for exoneration was adopted by parliament on Tuesday. The bill passed with 61 votes in favor, 27 against and 6 abstentions.

The legislation is authored by MP Hayk Sargsyan from the Civil Contract party.

Men who’ve evaded mandatory military service and are above the conscription age limit (27) are prosecuted and could face a prison term of up to 5 years under the current regulations.

Under current law, draft evaders who are now above the age of 27 can’t serve in the military even if they wanted to and they certainly face criminal prosecution.  

MP Hayk Sargsyan from the ruling Civil Contract party drafted a bill that would give draft dodgers the option to have their criminal charges dropped by either enlisting into the armed forces and serving a full 2-year term, or serving a 1-year term and paying 2,5 million drams, or serving for 6 months and paying 5 million drams, or serving 1 month and paying 8 million drams, or not serving at all and paying 15 million drams to the government.

Men above the age of 27 who would obtain Armenian citizenship will also be eligible for mandatory military service and will only have the opportunity to use option 2 (serving a 1-year term and paying 2,5 million drams) if applicable.

According to Sargsyan, today there are over 10,000 fugitives on charges of draft evasion. Over 5,000 of them are above the age of 27.

Most of them are abroad and do not return to Armenia in order to avoid imprisonment. Sargsyan argued that if his bill wasn't adopted the draft evaders who are now abroad would wait until they are above the age of 37 to return to be cleared of the charges on the basis of statute of limitations.

Sargsyan said earlier at a parliamentary debate that the legislation seeks to give those who haven’t served and are now wanted the opportunity to be useful to their country.

“I wouldn’t want us to ever declare amnesty for these people again,” he said, referring to a 2021 amnesty declared by the Armenian parliament which cleared of criminal charges over 1300 draft evaders. “But I also wouldn’t want to sentence five thousand citizens to five years in prison, because by doing so, not only wouldn’t our country benefit, but we’d spend a lot of money on finding, sentencing and detaining them,” Sargsyan said.

“That’s what this legislation is about, to give these people the chance to be useful to their country, instead of becoming a burden.”

Multiple men would repatriate to Armenia if the bill passes parliament, according to the MP.

 11:16, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Parliament on Tuesday ratified the protocol on the application of the Armenia-EU readmission agreement between Armenia and Austria. The ratification was made with 93 votes in favor.

So far similar protocols have been ratified with Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, France, Estonia and Poland.

 13:10, 16 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement doesn’t provide for Russia establishing control over any road, an Armenian lawmaker has said.

Gevorg Papoyan, a Member of Parliament representing the Civil Contract Party who chairs the parliamentary committee on financial-credit and budgetary affairs, told reporters that the ceasefire deal, referred to as the 9 November statement, provides for the unblocking of all economic and transport routes, but not Russian control over any road. 

“There’s no such clause. When we read clause nine, we see that this clause says that Armenia must simply provide a road. And Armenia is ready to provide that road, in line with our legislation. Who says that Armenia has ever closed the roads? Second of all, let’s talk generally about the 9 November statement. Does it contain a single clause which Russia and Azerbaijan have implemented? There is no such clause. They’ve failed to do everything they had assumed under all clauses,” Papoyan said.

“The 9 November statement doesn’t contain a clause saying that Russia should control something. It is about the opening of roads, unblocking of connections, which is Armenia’s agenda,” Papoyan said.

Papoyan also responded to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who recently said that he is rejecting the maps proposed by Armenia for delimitation of borders.

The legislator said that Aliyev’s statement is unacceptable for Armenia, and if Azerbaijan is rejecting the maps, then it should present the kind of maps which have legal basis.

Armenia wants the process to be carried out with any map that has legal basis, he said.

“A map must have a legal basis and constitute an official document, and not a map drawn by historians the way they like. That can’t be. Presenting that kind of a map will lead to war,” Papoyan said.

He added that although Aliyev’s statements are not conducive to peace, Armenia will continue the negotiations with Azerbaijan.

 13:45, 18 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has approved a program aimed at creating maximally appealing conditions for international investment funds.

“What we are saying is this, if you are a fund that is managing over 1 billion dollars, and in the event of creating any investment fund in Armenia when you will invest at least 250 million drams the government will add 30% of that money to the fund,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

“With this, we seek to promote the activities of international investment companies in Armenia,” he added.

Eligible investment funds are those who will invest in the charter capital of resident companies in Armenia working in priority sectors. Deputy Minister of Economy Ani Ispiryan explained that the sectors of process manufacturing, energy and tourism are considered priority in this context. Another criteria concerns the portfolio of the funds: the investment funds must be managed and have investors in the form of companies that manage at least 1 billion dollars in assets.