Wednesday,
Ryanair Confirms Plans To Fly To Armenia
IRELAND-- A Ryanair Boeing 737 landing at Dublin Airport, September 28, 2017.
A senior executive of Ryanair on Wednesday reportedly confirmed the Irish
budget airline’s plans to launch regular flights between Europe and Armenia.
Ryanair’s chief commercial officer, David O’Brien, and director of route
development, Kate Sherry, discussed the matter with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian during a visit to Yerevan.
An Armenian government statement cited O’Brien as telling Pashinian that
Ryanair “intends to enter the Armenian aviation market soon” and is now
negotiating with Armenia’s civil aviation authority and main airport operator
for that purpose. He presented concrete flights planned by the airline and its
“tariff policy” for them, said the statement.
Armenia -- Senior Ryanair executives, David O'Brien (R) and Kate Sherry, meet
with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, .
Pashinian welcomed those plans, saying that Ryanair flights to and from Armenia
would benefit the country’s tourism industry. He expressed hope that the two
sides will work out a “concrete variant of mutually beneficial cooperation.”
O’Brien and Sherry held a separate dinner meeting on Tuesday with Deputy Prime
Minister Tigran Avinian and Tatevik Revazian, the head of the Armenian
government’s Civil Aviation Committee. Revazian negotiated with Ryanair
representatives in Dublin early this year before announcing in March that the
Irish carrier is planning to fly to Armenia.
Revazian, who was also present at Pashinian’s meeting the visiting Ryanair
executives, announced in July that Ryanair as well as another Western low-cost
airline, Wizz Air, are ready to launch flight services next year if they are
granted financial concessions.
Armenia -- Tatevik Revazian, head of the Civil Aviation Committee, at a news
conference in Yerevan, July 15, 2019.
She said the Civil Aviation Committee is already drafting a bill that would
exempt them from a fixed $21 tax levied from every air ticket sold in the
country. The government agency also hopes to convince an Argentine company
managing Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport to offer them discounts for airport ground
services, she added.
The cost of air travel to and from Armenia has already decreased since the
liberalization in 2013 of the domestic civil aviation sector. This has
contributed to a steady growth of the country’s international air traffic. The
total number of passengers processed by the international airports in Yerevan
and Gyumri rose by around 10 percent in the first half of this year.
Karabakh, OSCE Officials Discuss Fate Of Armenian POW In Azerbaijan
• Marine Khachatrian
Nagorno Karabakh - Bako Sahakian (R), president of Nagorno Karabakh, meets with
Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, in
Stepanakert, March 7, 2018.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leaders have discussed with a senior official from the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe the fate of an Armenian
soldier who was taken prisoner by Azerbaijani forces last week.
The 19-year-old conscript, Arayik Ghazarian, was detained on August 12 after
crossing the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around Karabakh in still
unclear circumstances.
The Azerbaijani military said Ghazarian claimed to have deserted his unit
because of being systematically mistreated by his comrades. Armenia’s Defense
Minister Davit Tonoyan denied that, saying that that the soldier probably
strayed into Azerbaijani-controlled territory by accident.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s president, foreign minister and top military commander
raised the issue with Andrzej Kasprzyk, the longtime head of a small OSCE
mission monitoring the ceasefire regime in the Karabakh conflict zone, in
separate meetings held in Stepanakert on Tuesday.
“I can’t go into details but all issues were discussed,” said Davit Babayan, a
spokesman for President Bako Sahakian. “These are both humanitarian and
political issues and they just had to be discussed. Of course, we are first and
foremost interested in the fate of our compatriot.”
According to his press office, Masis Mayilian, the Karabakh foreign minister,
and Kasprzyk talked about “possibilities of repatriating” Ghazarian. The issue
was also on the agenda of Kasprzyk’s meeting with General Karen Abrahamian, the
commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army.
On Monday, the Azerbaijani authorities allowed representatives of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the soldier in
custody. An ICRC spokeswoman in Yerevan, Zara Amatuni, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service that they spoke to Ghazarian and inquired about his health and
detention conditions. Amatuni said the ICRC is also ready to help the prisoner
of war communicate with his family in Armenia.
Investigators Stand By Corruption Charges Against Armenian Official
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Davit Sanasarian, head of the State Oversight Service, attends a
cabinet meeting in Yerevan, April 18, 2019.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has completed a criminal
investigation that led to corruption charges brought against a senior
government official who actively participated in last year’s “Velvet
Revolution.”
The NSS indicted Davit Sanasarian, the head of the State Oversight Service
(SOS), in April while investigating alleged corrupt practices within the
anti-corruption government agency. It arrested two other senior SOS officials
in February, saying that they attempted to cash in on government-funded
supplies of medical equipment to three hospitals.
Sanasarian was charged with abusing his powers to help his subordinates enrich
themselves and a private company linked to them. The official, who was
suspended as SOS chief as a result, has repeatedly rejected the accusations as
“fabricated.”
Sanasarian’s lawyer, Inessa Petrosian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on
Wednesday that the NSS probe is over. She said that the investigators
essentially stand by the accusations of abuse of power leveled against her
client.
Sanasarian and the two other SOS officials will go on trial if the indictments
are formally endorsed by prosecutors.
Sanasarian, 35, is a former opposition and civic activist who had for years
accused Armenia’s former leaders of corruption. He was actively involved in
last year’s revolution which succeeded in large measure because of widespread
popular frustration with graft.
Sanasarian’s supporters, among them leaders of some Western-funded
non-governmental organizations, have strongly defended him, denouncing the NSS
and Vanetsian in particular. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hit back at the
critics in April. He said that they place their personal relationships with
Sanasarian above the rule of law.
Press Review
“Hraparak” says that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plans to allow the
relaunch of the Amulsar gold mining project mark his firs unpopular decision
made in office. The paper says that Pashinian is thus ignoring vehement
objections from environmental and other groups that helped him to come to power
in May 2018. “This can be described as the first rift between those who blocked
streets [during the “Velvet Revolution”] and those who came to power,” it says.
“In this case, the choice was made [by Pashinian] in favor of business and
investments. This is the first serious test for the authorities and Nikol
Pashinian in particular.”
“Aravot” deplores the “hypocrisy” of individuals involved in the controversy
surrounding the Amulsar project. The paper specifically hits out at those
residents of a village close to Amulsar who had willingly sold their
agricultural land plots to the project operator, the Lydian International
company, at high prices but are now protesting against gold mining in the area.
“The locals who did business with Lydian were happy with the sums paid to them
and used that money to buy homes and cars in Yerevan,” editorializes the paper.
“Now many of them have become enthusiastic ecologists … If you are so patriotic
you should not have sold your lands in the first place.”
Lragir.am complains that Pashinian’s “historic” speech delivered in Stepanakert
early this month has already been forgotten and offset by other developments.
The publication claims that the speech was first “shattered” by a scandalous
media report about the alleged involvement of a Karabakh general in the 2008
crackdown on opposition protesters in Yerevan. It says Pashinian’s detractors
dealt further blows to important statements made by him in the Karabakh capital.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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