Friday, No Major Changes Planned In Armenian Cabinet Armenia -- Government session, Yerevan, 22May2017 No significant changes will be made in the next Armenian government, Eduard Sharmazanov, a leading member and spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) said late on Thursday. Speaking to media after the meeting of the party's executive body, Sharmazanov said that the HHK "has decided to give the current cabinet of Karen Karapetan an opportunity to continue its work without significant changes." "At this stage we positively evaluate the work of the cabinet of Prime Minister Karen Karapetian," he said. According to Sharmazanov, one ministerial position, which is currently held by the chief of government staff, will be abolished in the next cabinet, and David Harutiunian, who held that position, will be appointed minister of justice to succeed Arpine Hovannisian who was elected to parliament and then become its deputy speaker. "All other ministers, including our colleagues from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), will be reappointed," the HHK spokesman said. The HHK and Dashnaktsutyun renewed their political cooperation earlier this month forming a coalition in the wake of the April 2 parliamentary elections swept by the ruling party. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, the leader of the HHK, signed decrees late on Thursday, reappointing a majority of the ministers. The head of state is expected to issue more decrees on the reappointment of ministers soon. EU Rep Says Sarkisian `Ready To Sign Ambitious Agreement' . Sisak Gabrielian Armenia - Armenian and European Union flags displayed during negotiations in Yerevan, 4Nov2015. The European Union hopes that Armenia will sign a new EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, a senior European parliamentarian said following a meeting with President Serzh Sarkisian on Thursday. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament David McAllister, who led a delegation on a visit to Armenia as part of a regional tour, spoke at a press conference at the end of a two-day visit that included meetings with top officials and political representatives in Armenia. McAllister said: "I am very thankful for the president giving us so much of his precious time. We know that he is, of course, a very busy man. But it also showed that President Sarkisian was very interested in hearing the views of the members of the European Parliament and answered our questions in a very detailed way." Armenia was on track to sign a far-reaching association agreement with the European Union in 2013, but in a surprise policy U-turn in September that year President Sarkisian announced that his country would join a Russian-led economic grouping, something that made the planned deal with the EU impossible due to its major economic component. Since then Armenia and the EU have been negotiating a less ambitious accord that was inched in Yerevan in March and is due to be signed at the next Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels in November. "Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. What happened in 2013 happened. But now President Sarkisian is ready to sign an ambitious agreement with the European Union and this is important for us, as the European Union, because we make clear that our Eastern Partnership policy isn't a zero sum game," the representative of the European Parliament said. "It's not about competition with other regional actors like Russia. I strongly believe that each country of the Eastern Partnership needs a tailor-made relation with the European Union which covers, of course, not only our interest, but also the interest of the specific country." McAllister expressed a hope that "the complicated negotiations in detail can be concluded." "Because this will be beneficial for the people in Armenia and for businesses," he underscored. School Optimization Plans Raise Concerns In Armenia . Tatev Danielian Armenia -- The new school year begins on the Day of Knowledge - September 1, Yerevan, 01Sep2016 The recently announced government plans to carry out the so-called optimization of schools across Armenia have raised concerns among some teaching staffs and parents, but Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchian sees no reasons to worry about the process. "There will be no segmental, mass layoffs," Mkrtchian has told media. Under Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's order the Ministry of Education is due to submit a plan to optimize the work of some schools in the country. It will apply to schools that are located in cities and towns, have up to 300 students, occupy a disproportionately large area compared to the number of students they have. Concerns have been raised in Armenia recently that the program means these schools will be closed down and their premises will be used for other purposes. Another major concern is the possibility that some teachers will lose their jobs. The Ministry still has no answers to these questions. Ashot Arshakian, the chief of the Ministry's Public Education Department, said that this is still at the stage of calculations. "In case of schools with fewer students enlargement schemes may be applied and there can be readjustments in the case of schools with a larger number of students. This is not yet determined," he said. As a benchmark the Ministry has assumed the indices of the Asian Development Bank, under which each student should have a space of 8-12 square meters. Schools that use up to half of their territory, while the number of their students does not exceed 300, are considered under-loaded. Along with schools having fewer students, especially in capital Yerevan, there are schools that have a reputation of elite learning environments and are usually overloaded. The Ministry, however, is vague on this issue, too. In two schools in Yerevan with fewer than 200 students that were visited by an RFE/RL correspondent principals said they were unaware of their future status. Only as a result of the closure of these two schools alone 60 teachers will become unemployed. Teachers at the schools who agreed to talk off camera said they are not going to give up easily if optimization plans affect them. The parents of some students also said they are unhappy about such plans. They think the government should first solve social problems. "There are fewer students in the country because families don't want to have many children without proper livelihood," a middle-aged woman complained. Education expert Serob Khachatrian does not agree with the term "optimization" used by the government, considering that this term can be used only when conditions are improved. The expert, meanwhile, argues that this is not the case in the current process. "Social and economic reforms are needed first and only then optimizations in the education sector can be implemented, so that teachers or other specialists who lose their jobs in schools can be provided with alternative jobs," Khachatrian said. Today nearly 37,000 teachers are employed in 1,385 schools across Armenia attended by about 357,000 students. Studies have shown that most of urban schools are either under-loaded or overloaded. The number of schools with an average load makes about 16 percent. According to the official website of the government, 20 schools have already been identified for optimization. But education officials still avoid giving their names. Jailed Radical Opposition Leader Goes On Trial . Naira Bulghadarian Armenia -- Zhirayr Sefilian, a radical opposition leader, in court. 26May, 2017 A trial of Zhirayr Sefilian began in Yerevan on Friday almost one year after the radical opposition figure was arrested on charges of plotting an armed revolt against the Armenian government. Sefilian, who leads the Founding Parliament opposition movement, stands accused of acquiring weapons and forming an armed group in late 2015 to seize government buildings in Yerevan. Several other suspects in the case are also under arrest and are defendants in the trial. Justice Tatevik Grigorian, the judge presiding over the proceedings, made a decision today to adjourn the hearing as the lawyer of one of the defendants was absent. The next court hearing is scheduled for May 30. After the court hearing Sefilian's lawyer Tigran Hayrapetian claimed that the investigative body had failed to prove the oppositionist indeed committed the acts he is charged with. State prosecutors claim that the alleged plot was foiled when the weapons allegedly acquired by Sefilian were discovered by the police. According to their indictment submitted to the court, some members of the armed group also refused to participate in what the prosecutor describe as Sefilian's plan to launch an attack that would have endangered the lives of Armenian army soldiers. The investigators have not yet elaborated on this allegation. Sefilian and other senior members of Founding Parliament deny the charges as politically motivated. Sefilian was arrested in June 2016 less than one month before three dozen gunmen affiliated with Founding Parliament seized a police station in Yerevan. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian free their leader and other "political prisoners" and step down. They surrendered to law-enforcement authorities following a two-week standoff which left three police officers dead. Russian-led Trade Bloc Flaunts Economic Growth . Aza Babayan Russia -- Heads of government of the CIS countries meet in Kazan, 26May2017 For the first time since the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) was established in 2015 all of its member states have registered economic growth, Tigran Sargsian, the president of the Eurasian Economic Commission's Board, said on Friday during a gathering of the prime ministers of the Russian-led trade bloc in Kazan. Sargsian, who represents Armenia's rotating presidency of the EEU, said that it was only in 2016-2017 that the member states agreed to eliminate 60 barriers in the internal market and reached major agreements in the electricity, oil, gas and transportation sectors. The EEU, whose founding members are Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, also include Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Some opposition members in Yerevan have criticized the government's decision to join the EEU despite the fact that Armenia has no land border with the rest of the union's members. Besides, some critics also believe that Armenia, which has no fuel resources, does not fit into the customs union led by such major oil and gas producers as Russia and Kazakhstan. They pointed to the poor economic performance of Armenia that followed its accession to the EEU. Armenia's government, on the contrary, has all along defended its decision regarding the EEU membership, arguing that otherwise the country would have fared much worse in conditions of global economic turbulence. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetian attended the May 26 gathering of the prime ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including EEU member states, in the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that trade among EEU member countries has increased almost threefold. In Kazan, the heads of CIS member countries' governments signed a number of documents aimed at deepening cooperation in various fields, in particular in the fields of innovative cooperation and international transportation. The next meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government is scheduled to be held in November. The Armenian governmental delegation led by Prime Minister Karapetyan also participated in the official reception given on behalf of the Russian prime minister to the delegations attending the gathering. The only intrigue of the meeting was the absence of the Moldovan prime minister, who boycotted the event due to some disagreements between Russia and Moldova. In Kazan, Karapetian also held a bilateral meeting with Belarus Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov. According to a press release of the Armenian government, the prime ministers of the two countries discussed the agenda of Armenian-Belarusian economic relations and prospects of their further development. Press Review "Haykakan Zhamanak" suggests that Armenia's international soccer star Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who became an UEFA Europa League winner together with the English Premier League side, Manchester United, is making history for Armenian soccer like Yerevan's Ararat club did in 1973 by winning the USSR championship. The paper suggests that Armenian soccer fans will long remember the crucial goals scored by Mkhitaryan and trophies won by him. The editor of "Aravot" writes that for him the most impressive thing about Mkhitaryan was when he celebrated the victory in the Europa League final with an Armenian tricolor, that is, the national flag of the Republic of Armenia, wrapped around his shoulders. "And in this sense this victory is bigger than victories of other world-renowned Armenians who are citizens of other countries. We, ordinary citizens of the Republic of Armenia, perhaps are not so talented, but we, too, should feel this flag wrapped around our shoulders in our daily lives - beginning from most common situations and ending with intricate social relationships. We should remember that we are citizens of the State," the editor stresses. "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" comments on President Serzh Sarkisian's recent statement that by 2040 Armenia's population should reach at least 4 million: "It is already several days that different officials keep stating that this is quite realistic. Maybe someone indeed has not understood that for the population to increase it is necessary to curb the current outmigration and encourage people to have more children# According to official data, during the nine years of Sarkisian's rule as president about 400,000 people have emigrated from Armenia. The question now is what should change for emigration to be replaced by immigration, for the birthrate and life expectancy to be increased?" "Zhoghovurd" writes on Karabakh war veteran and activist Volodya Avetisian, who was released from prison on Thursday and went straight to the government building to start a protest there: "Avetisian is a rare war veteran who, since 2012, has been consistent in raising social issues of veterans. The campaign he launched did not pass without consequences. Voices raising similar issues after him have increased in number and the government had to make certain reforms. Avetisian's release may become a new headache for the authorities. The statements of the war veteran that his opinion about the current government and personally Serzh Sarkisian has not changed showed that imprisonment for more than three and a half years had no impact on the activist's principles." (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org