Republicans Came To Combat Aids

REPUBLICANS CAME TO COMBAT AIDS

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[06:33 pm] 02 February, 2009

Today the Armenian Parliament began its sitting with the national
anthem. Only the members of the Heritage faction joined in the
singing. The other MPs looked at each other and smiled.

At the beginning of the sitting the Speaker of the National
Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan presented the agenda for the four-day
session. He left after the adoption of the agenda followed by most
parliamentarians. Ten out of the 50 legislative initiatives put on
the agenda were discussed within an hour. Only the Heritage faction
participated in the discussion.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan presented the
draft law on ratification of agreement on establishment of Eurasian
Development Bank proposed by Serzh Sargsyan.

Highlighting the agreement the Minister noted that the authorized
capital stock is 1, 5 milliard dollars, 1 milliard of which belongs
to the Russian Federation and the other half – to Kazakhstan.

"Entering into the agreement, Armenia will have its part of the capital
stock aimed at promoting to the implementation of programs in the
spheres of energy, mineral resource industry, chemistry, metallurgy
as well as in agriculture", said Armen Movsisyan. Armenia is going
to make an investment of 100 thousand dollars at the expense of its
reserve fund. Heritage MP Larissa Alaverdyan noted that the issue was
to be raised by the Minister of Finances and not by the Minister of
Energy and Natural Resources.

Today the National Assembly also referred to the draft law on "military
police" presented by Deputy Defence Minister Ara Nazaryan. According
to the draft amendments the military police is empowered to police
delivery, conduct outer observation and eavesdrop on telephone
conversations.

As expected only the Heritage spoke against the draft bills.

"After the March 1 unrest, the telephone talks of some political
figures were deciphered. We shall vote down the bills which aim
to eavesdrop on the conversations of political figures and publish
them in the press," said Armen Martirosyan. "Our law-enforcers warn
servicemen’s parents against attending opposition rallies if they
care for their sons’ future," he added.

The NA hall filled during the discussion of the draft law on "the
combat against illnesses caused by human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV)." Republican MPs rushed to the hall elbowing each other,
"Let’s go and see what they say about AIDS," they said to each other.