Today, the Freedom of Speech Defense Committee presented its review of 2011 dealing with violations directed against journalists. The review notes three cases of violations that took place during the May parliamentary elections and one that occurred in the local elections that followed.
Residents of the Armenian town of Meghradzor, the site of a planned cyanide plant, have come to Yerevan to stage a protest outside the Presidential Palace today.
“I would like to believe in Ivanishvili’s sincerity and in the statements that he made in Armenia. However, we must take into account a number of negative and positive factors that exists independent of the prime minister’s will,” Sargsyan told reports in Yerevan today.
A new website dedicated to the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan from 1987-1992 called KarabakhRecords.info was publicly launched today in Yerevan.
Sedrakyan said that he would recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia if elected president, adding that he would do the same regarding Artsakh and even that of Nakhijevan.
Haroutyunyan said that only Nikol Pashinyan had the right to be nominated from the Armenian National Congress (HAK), after Levon Ter-Petrosyan chose not to run. He said that MP Hrant Bagratyan should have resigned from the National Assembly before declaring his candidacy for president.
Artur Sakounts, who heads the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly office in Vanadzor, stated today that a large percentage of human rights violations in Armenia’s military are the result of inadequate medical treatment.
Karineh Danielyan, a member of the Yerevan Municipality’s Urban Construction Advisory Council’s Environmental Committee, lamented the fact that proposals submitted by environmental activists have been lost, collecting dust somewhere in the archives of the mayor’s office.
Heritage Party representative Styopa Safaryan today stated that the decision of Prosperous Armenia Party head Gagik Tsarukyan not to run for president would lead to greater voter apathy and thus open the door for more election fraud.
Hakob Sanasaryan, President of Armenia’s Green Union, has pulled out of the presidential commission set up in 2008 to analyze the problems facing Lake Sevan and to draft proposals to resolve them.
“I have frequently declared that when the territorial integrity of Artsakh is recognized and when Armenians have the right to return to their historic homeland, then those Azerbaijanis who wish to do so can return to their former homes in Artsakh,” Hovannisian clarified.
Environmental activists are demanding that the Ministry of the Environment cancels the recent employment tender for the vacant post of director of the Khosrov Forest State Reserve.
According to Areg Mikayelyan, Co-president of the Armenian Astrological Association, the next solar eclipse visible from Armenia will take place on June 21, 2020.
When we disembarked from the van, I asked the girl who she was. She replied that she would tell me but first asked where the painting class was being held. I told her on Pushkin Street near the Art Institute. She told me to wait and went to talk to a man who later turned out to be a policeman. I approached and overheard the cop saying ‘we’ll take her to the salt mine.’
Environmental activists gathered at Yerevan’s Mashtots Park today to collect signatures for a petition demanding that Armenia’s Ministry of the Environment, its minister and staff, be called to account for the government’s poor track record when it comes to protecting and preserving the country’s environment.
Sousanna Ter-Sahakyan resides on the same street as Mrs. Aghajanyan. She frequently stops by to see how the senior is getting along. Sousanna even hired an attorney to retrieve Mrs. Aghajanyan’s documents from the state archives.
During a brief meeting with reporters today, Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian stated that he would only stand as a candidate for the Armenian presidency once and that he’d subsequently launch a civil struggle.
Khudyan, in his statement, laments the fact that he has not been able to pursue his legal case in Armenia’s court system and that his so-called business partners in Armenia are protected by top ranking officials in government.
A building under construction in the vicinity of Yerevan’s Vardan Mamikonian statute collapsed today injuring workers trapped under the rubble.
Several public commentators in Armenia criticized the significance of the recent Yerevan-Erebouni festivities, calling them financially wasteful and void of true cultural significance.
Summing up his organization’s 3rd quarter report regarding the state of freedom of speech in Armenia, Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Speech President Ashot Melikyan noted that while there had been less assaults on reporters this year than last, Armenia still has a long road to go.
The only organization in the country certified to issue an “organic” seal of approval to produce is EcoGlobe, which cooperates with the Ministry of the Economy.
The issue of mini hydro-plants sprouting like mushrooms across Armenia has been one of the most hotly contested issues of late in the country.
Tigran Atanesyan, lawyer for embattled Civilitas Founder and former Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, told reporters today that he had no illusions that the Armenian courts would give his client a fair shake.
At a press conference today in Yerevan, Davit Gasparyan claimed that a book he has edited containing the heretofore unpublished works of Yeghishe Charents has been seized by the Armenian government.
Irate residents of the village of Getahovit converged on the Ministry of the Environment in Yerevan to protest the fact that they haven’t had drinking water for the past twenty days.
The Armenian analyst is sure that carried out in the name of integration in Georgia is the gradual process of Armenians being absorbed into the dominant culture, but the non-Georgian peoples living in Georgia — Armenians and Turks — don't combine their efforts to oppose this process because they don't have friendly relations with each other. According to Shirinyan, Georgians know this and use this to their advantage.
"Of course a cultural center in [Yerevan's] Republic Square would be desirable, but if we [have to] make a choice between a hotel and a state department, then, without a doubt, it would be better for there to be a hotel instead of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — on the condition that the exterior architectural appearance of the building is preserved," said Ruben Babayan, the artistic director of the Yerevan State Puppet Theatre named after...
Lawyers for Vardan Oskanian, the former Armenian foreign minister facing embezzlement charges, stated today at a press conference that the case against their client lacked anything resembling professional jurisprudence.
A group of environmentalist held a press conference today to protest the planned construction of a Komitas Museum in the pantheon/park of the same name. They say that the memorial park in Yerevan, where the graves of numerous Armenian notables including Komitas Vardapet are located, will suffer as a consequence.
Artsakh army commander Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan told reporters today that while the state of the Armenian military has greatly improved in the past 21 years since independence, its positive aspects are overshadowed by the much more publicized negative ones.
Today marks Civil Society day in Yerevan and, according to tradition, a program was held in Lovers’ Park to raise awareness of the importance of civic participation within the mainstream public.
Mesrobian reminded members of the lcal press that religious tolerance has always been the hallmark of Syrian society, with Muslims and Christians living side by side in peace for centuries. He noted that this is particularly true in Aleppo, with its diverse mix of peoples and religions.
Some 2,600 volunteers in Armenia, backed by the financial support of 50 organizations, collected and sorted over 600 cubic meters of trash in an effort to raise public awareness of the litter problem in Armenia.
Residents of the rural community of Yenokavan say they will demonstrate in the village square on Saturday to voice their opposition to a mini-hydro electric plant now being constructed in their midst.
The war general also stated that Safarov would be conveniently done away with by someone with an Armenian name, thus killing two birds with one stone.
More than 80 NGOs in Armenia have signed a petition opposing the possible extradition of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army officer who murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan during a NATO military exercise in Hungary in 2004.
Many vacationers off to Sevan for a bracingly cold dip in the mountain lake should know that most of the beaches along the shore have been either fully or partially public for a few years now.
Today, a candlelight vigil took place outside the Harsnakar Restaurant where military physician Vahe Avetyan was brutally beaten and later died in a coma.
Syrian-Armenians and their supporters rallied today in front of the Government Building in Yerevan calling for greater assistance on a national level to those Armenians fleeing Syria and wishing to relocate in Armenia.
“If I didn’t comment about it I’d only be deceiving myself. I don’t agree that it was a product of a bad upbringing or stupidity. Something has gone wrong in our system and it’s gotten to a breaking point. There will certainly be repercussions,” Petrosyan said.
Carrying a variety of banners and placards, the demonstrators also attempted to get the message across to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who was leaving the parliament after addressing the legislature.
Samvel Karapetyan: We are a nation that has barely survived and do not have the right to kill members of this current generation. If this trend continues, we will not last for long, another 100 years maximum.
Haykuhi Gevorgyan, Director of the Youth Professional Orientation Centre, told reporters that the jobs most in demand today in Armenia are chiefs, retailers and the IT sector professionals.
Ara Babloyan, who heads the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Health Care, Maternity and Childhood, told reporters today that a majority of Armenian citizens would be covered by universal health insurance in the next 5-10 years.
Samvel Karapetyan, a noted specialist in the preservation of Armenian cultural monuments, told reporters that Azerbaijan is destroying everything in the northern Artsakh district of Shahoumyan (now under Baku’s control) that testifies to an Armenian presence on those lands.
Former Heritage Party MP Stepan Safaryan sounded a note of suspicion when commenting on the recent one day visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Armenia.
On June 1, Children’s Day, the kids took the colored chalk they were given and started drawing pictures and words on the asphalt that now serves as their playground.
An economist at Yerevan State University says that there’s a seasonal factor linked to the recent appreciation of the U.S. Dollar against the Armenian Dram.
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