Wednesday, November 8, 2017 Armenian Textbook Fees Challenged In Court November 8, 2017 . Anush Muradian Armenia - High school students in Yerevan pass graduation exams, 6Jun2017. The state human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, has asked Armenia's highest court to stop the government from charging the parents of public school students for textbooks provided to them. In a 16-page appeal to the Constitutional Court filed this month, Tatoyan challenged a clause in an Armenian law on education stipulating that only primary school students aged 9 and younger can use textbooks free of charge. He said it runs counter to the country's constitution which guarantees free secondary education in "state educational institutions." "In our view, we have an unconstitutional provision here," Tatoyan told a public discussion in Yerevan. "Our constitution is very clear and does not provide for any rules # on this issue." In his appeal, the ombudsman also pointed to the cost of textbook rent fees which has steadily increased in recent years, saying that many parents have trouble paying them. He said that existing government arrangements meant to exempt low-income families from such payments are fuzzy and open to different interpretations. "Practical research and our interviews show that often times parents don't speak up about the difficulty of paying for textbooks out of shame or a desire to spare their children stigmas," he claimed. Lusine Bilian is a mother of two schoolchildren who receives poverty benefits from the state. She said that the administration of a Yerevan school where the children study notified her recently that she will have to pay half the cost of their textbooks for this academic year. Bilian estimated it at between 3,500 and 4,000 drams ($7-8). "I don't know how I'm going to pay that," she told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). The Armenian Education Ministry has not yet officially reacted to the legal action. Armenian Military Wants To End Conditional Amnesty For Draft Evaders November 8, 2017 . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Soldiers are lined up at an Armenian military base, 21Oct2014. Pro-government lawmakers publicly criticized on Wednesday a Defense Ministry proposal to abolish a law allowing Armenian men who illegally evaded compulsory military service to buy a government amnesty. Under the law enacted in 2004, they can avoid criminal prosecution in exchange for a hefty fee depending on the number of years they have spent on the run. The maximum fine was set at 1.8 million drams ($3,750) per person. The amnesty-for-cash scheme was originally applicable only to those fugitive men who were aged 27 or older by June 2004. This age threshold has been repeatedly raised since then. The parliamentary factions of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and all other political groups represented in the National Assembly are now seeking another extension that would apply to male citizens who have turned 27 before December 1, 2017. The Armenian Defense Ministry has put forward an amendment to their joint bill stipulating that there will be no further extensions of the scheme. It also wants to drastically raise the legal cost of the final amnesty to 9 million drams. Lawmakers affiliated with the HHK rejected the amendment at a meeting of the Armenian parliament committee on defense and security. Among them was the committee chairman, Koryun Nahapetian. Armenia -- Koryun Nahapetian chairs a meeting of the parliament committee on defense and security, 8Nov2017. "Our goal must be to help our compatriots who evaded military service because they moved abroad with their families at a very young age and now live there to return to their homeland, not to create additional obstacles," said Nahapetian. He argued that between 700 and 800 draft dodgers have been granted such amnesty annually since 2004. The Defense Ministry has received a total of 8 billion drams ($17 million) as a result, he said. Nahapetian also revealed that almost 9,500 other men remain on the run on draft evasion charges. "What do we want to do? To throw those people into prison?" said another HHK lawmaker, Felix Tsolakian. Tsolakian also protested against the much higher amnesty fee demanded by the ministry. "Armenians returning from Russia come back because they don't have money. They didn't succeed there," he reasoned. Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian insisted, however, that keeping the conditional amnesty would only encourage more draft evasion. "We very much want our citizens to come back but at the same time we must not keep that door open for others to flee," said Zakarian, who is also affiliated with the HHK. The parliament committee will again meet on Friday to formulate its final position on the measure that has been personally advocated by Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian. Minister Meets Protesting Students, Rejects Their Demands November 8, 2017 . Marine Khachatrian Armenia - Education Minister Levon Mkrtchian (R) meets with representatives of students protesting against government plans to scrap draft deferments, 8Nov2017. The Armenian government will not refrain from essentially abolishing temporary exemptions from compulsory military service, Education Minister Levon Mkrtchian told on Wednesday university students protesting against the planned measure. Mkrtchian met with representatives of the students as they boycotted classes for a second day in protest against a relevant government bill passed by the Armenian parliament in the first reading. Over 200 students rallied outside the main Yerevan State University building and marched through the city center before the meeting. "When it comes to serving the homeland, no citizen of the Republic of Armenia will have privileges," Mkrtchian told several organizers of the continuing protests. The minister repeated his arguments that over 85 percent of male students of state-run universities are already drafted to the armed forces at the age of 18 because they pay tuition fees unlike the other students who study for free. Armenia - Students demonstrate outside Yerevan State University, 8Nov2017. The latter have until now been allowed to perform the two-year service after completing their undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate studies. Those obtaining doctoral degrees have been exempt from military duty altogether. The controversial bill drafted by the Defense Ministry would grant deferments only to those students who would agree to undergo parallel military training and serve in the army as officers for three years after graduation. The protesting students say that without deferments they would find it much harder to become scientists or scholars. Mkrtchian dismissed such assertions, arguing that only a small percentage of Armenian students temporarily or permanently exempt from conscription have pursued academic or scientific careers. "There is quite strong political support behind [the bill] # I don't think that this bill is subject to withdrawal," he said. The protest organizers made clear, meanwhile, that they will continue the boycott until the government meets their demands which are backed by some Armenian opposition leaders. The protesters on Wednesday again tried unsuccessfully to enter YSU premises and get more students to join their campaign. Entrance doors of those buildings remained locked from inside, with the university administration apparently seeking to contain the boycott. At least one YSU professor, Karen Saghatelian, condemned the shutdown and joined the protesters. Press Review November 8, 2017 "Haykakan Zhamanak" says that the controversial government initiative to essentially abolish remaining military draft deferments for university students in Armenia is raising "many questions." "For instance, what will happen to those who dodge draft on bogus health grounds?" the paper asks. It says that the government bill in question "poses no threat to them" and that more draft dodgers will now turn to health authorities, rather than universities. Hovannes Tokmajian, the rector of a state college in Nagorno-Karabakh, tells "Hraparak" that the bill contains "many positive things" and that "the idea of draft deferment has been fairly discredited" due to various corrupt practices. "At the same time, I'm really worried that after serving [in the armed forces] for two years many young men will not be able to continue their studies and that we could have a vacuum here," he says. "Zhoghovurd" questions Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's claim that nearly half of $850 million in investments in Armenia's economy promised by him were carried out in the first eight months of this year. The paper argues that figures released by the National Statistical Service (NSS) show that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Armenia continued to decline in the first half of 2017. "And yet data published by the government indicated a very strong growth," it says. "This discrepancy has been quickly explained: the government has used a totally different methodology to calculate its indicators." "Zhamanak" says that even Transport and Communications Minister Vahan Martirosian does not know whether an ambitious government project to refurbish Armenia's key highways stretching from the Iranian to the Georgian borders can be completed in the foreseeable future. "He says that that the [North-South] road will be built but he too doesn't know when," writes the paper. "Aravot" says that the Armenian community in the United States has been "spending huge resources and time" to get various U.S. states to recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. "We are proudly saying that the 48th state (Indiana) has recognized the genocide," editorializes the paper. "Another millions of dollars and another several years will be spent on [genocide recognition by] the 49th and 50th states, and in the process they will speculate about why the U.S. president has not uttered the word genocide." (Elen Chilingarian) 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