TEHRAN – Iran and Armenia signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Tehran on Tuesday to expand economic cooperation, especially in the field of energy, Tasnim news agency reported.
The MOU was signed by Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian and Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan at the end of the 16th Iran-Armenia Joint Economic Committee meeting.
Based on the MOU, the two sides agreed to complete the construction of Iran’s third electricity transmission line to Armenia by 2020 in order to increase the country’s electricity exports to Armenia to over 1000 megawatts (MW).
Construction of a 100-MW hydroelectric power plant in Armenia was also agreed in the meeting. The power plant will be funded by Armenia’s private sector in collaboration with other interested countries and the produced electricity will be purchased by Iran at a guaranteed price.
The MOU also covers cooperation in a variety of areas including road and railway transportation, customs, standardization, establishing free trade zones as well as industry, mining and trade.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Ardakanian said that the two sides have agreed that quadripartite talks would continue among Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Russia regarding electricity exchange under the North-South corridor agreement.
The official further mentioned Iran’s gas exports to Armenia, saying that Iran has the capacity to increase its gas exports to Armenia and in this regard the two sides agreed to take necessary measures in order to provide infrastructure in this regard.
Iran and Armenia use a barter system to exchange gas for electricity and other basic goods.
In the industry, mining and trade sector, it was agreed to form a joint working group and hold meetings every six months in both countries.
“It was decided to hold joint business conferences in accordance with the Eurasian Economic Agreement to discuss trade and identify potential commodities for bartering in order to make necessary arrangements to exchange the two sides’ required goods,” Ardakanian said.
Regarding customs cooperation, the two sides agreed for installation of systems for electronic data exchange and also to follow up on the previous agreements in this area.
Moreover, the officials underlined the need for holding joint events in their free zones to encourage investment and trade in the two countries.
The two sides also agreed on establishing a joint road transportation committee which also includes representatives of insurance companies from the two countries in order to reduce barriers and facilitate transportation between the two sides.
Held on May 1-2, the 16th Iran-Armenia Joint Economic Committee meeting was attended by senior officials from both sides including Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, Iranian Deputy Energy Minister for International Affairs Farhad Yazdandoust, Armenian Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Infrastructure Hakob Vardanyan, as well as businessmen, entrepreneurs and representatives of the private sector.
The traditional mulberry festival will take place in Karahunj, a village located 4 km south of the city of Goris in Armenia’s Syunik Province on 6 July this year.
The festival starts with a mulberry gathering competition and includes the full process of distilling mulberry vodka and making doshab (medicinal syrup for cough, cold and etc.)
Both locals and residents of the nearby communities will introduce their own products and traditional dishes during the festival. Thus, the participants will have an opportunity to taste the dishes of the Syunik cuisine. The festival will be accompanied by national Armenian song and dance.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Director of Areni Festival Nune Manukyan said the traditional mulberry festival is aimed at raising awareness about Armenia and boosting tourism, including the domestic tourism.
“Our goal is that every region and community have their own brand. The mulberry vodka has an issue of achieving international recognition, while the festival will serve as a tool to labialize and propagate the drink,” she said.
Manukyan also noted the number of tourists visiting Armenia during festivals gradually increases, with many travelling to the country for specific festivals.
Anahit Voskanyan, a tourism development specialist at Armenia’s Tourism Committee, also said that the role of festivals in tourism is crucial since they tend to preserve and promote cultural values. According to him, the festivals are primarily aimed at the preservation and development of traditions that are of interest to tourists and contribute to domestic and inbound tourism.
The co-founder of the newly -established opposition party Adekvat Artur Danielyan says they back the initiative of Veto movement to block Soros foundation’s office Yerevan. Danielyan along with his supporters was presented on Tuesday at a protest action staged by Veto movement in front of Yerevan’s Open Society Foundation (OSF) office.
The protestors are periodically blocking the OSF office entrance holding posters reading "Stop Soros!", "Beware, Soros!" and photos of George Soros, Larisa Minasyan, the head of the Armenian branch of the Foundation, and of some officials, who, in the opinion of activists, always received direct funding from the Soros Foundation.
Speaking of recent detentions of Adekvat activists by police, Danielyan said they are ready for any development and the attempts by authorities “to silence and neutralize them are of no avail” and instead may strengthen and mobilize them.
“Whenever authorities resort to restrictive measures, we benefit in terms of human, financial and media resources. The steps by authorities also spark debates on social media as most users wonder why Nikol Pashinyan takes action we may only benefit from,” Danielyan said.
Over the past month the police have detained Danielyan and his supporters on several occasions with the latest incident occurred on June 8after police received a phone call saying that Adekvat activists were terrorizing citizens.
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According to the local press, the Minister of Justice is still to examine the extradition of the accused of illegally keeping and selling weapons.
Armenian law enforcers accused Narek Sargsyan of illegally keeping weapons and drugs in his apartment in the center of Yerevan in the summer of 2018. Moreover, this is not the full list of the charges against Sargsyan.
The Armenian police also stated that when discovered, he provided a fake passport of Guatemala with the personal details of a certain Franklin Gonzales.
A criminal case has been instituted against Sargsyan for the purpose of acquiring, selling, keeping, transporting or carrying illegal weapons, ammunition or explosives as well as for selling, marketing illegal drugs or substances.
Monday,
Kocharian Goes On Trial (UPDATED)
• Naira Bulghadarian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian attends the first court hearing in
his trial in Yerevan, .
A court in Yerevan held on Monday the first, preliminary hearing in the trial
of Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharian and three other former senior
officials prosecuted in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in
Yerevan.
The hearing focused on defense lawyers’ demands for another judge to preside
over the high-profile trial. The ex-president was therefore the only defendant
present in the courtroom.
The other defendants are the former presidential chief of staff Armen Gevorgian
and retired army Generals Seyran Ohanian and Yuri Khachaturov. Unlike
Kocharian, they are not held in detention.
Kocharian looked relaxed and smiled when he spoke with his lawyers during a
break in the court session. At one point he also waved to two dozen supporters
who filled the courtroom and chanted “President!”
They afterwards bitterly argued with a man apparently critical of Kocharian who
tried to enter the courtroom. Police officers intervened to stop the
altercation from degenerating into violence.
Earlier in the day, Kocharian supporters were angered outside the courtroom by
Vardgez Gaspari, a prominent activist who held up a poster saying “Robik
murderer.” One of them ripped up the posted while another hit Gaspari with a
bottle.
Police officers removed participants of the incident from the building moments
later. Gaspari accused them of inactivity.
Kocharian, Gevorgian, Ohanian and Khachaturov stand accused of “overthrowing
the constitutional order” in the wake of a disputed presidential election held
in February 2008. Investigators say they illegally used Armenian army units
against supporters of the main opposition presidential candidate, Levon
Ter-Petrosian, who protested against alleged electoral fraud.
All four men deny the charges. Kocharian says that they are part of a political
“vendetta” waged by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Kocharian’s younger son Levon echoed that claim when he spoke to RFE/RL’s
Armenian service in the courtroom. “I believe that the accusations are personal
revenge,” he said. “There are many facts which prove what my father says, what
our lawyers say and what we agree with.”
Pashinian was one of the main opposition speakers during the 2008 protests. He
subsequently spent about two years in prison for organizing what the former
Armenian authorities characterized as “mass disturbances.” Pashinian has denied
interfering in the investigation, which took a new turn after last year’s
“velvet revolution” in the country.
Eight protesters and two police servicemen were killed as security forces
quelled the post-election protests on March 1-2, 2008. Kocharian ordered army
units into central Yerevan during the violence.
Khachaturov served as deputy defense minister while Ohanian was the chief of
the Armenian army’s General Staff at the time. Ohanian has repeatedly denied
the army’s involvement in the post-election political processes.
Earlier this year, Kocharian was also charged with receiving a $3 million bribe
from an Armenian businesswoman, Silva Hambardzumian. Prosecutors say that
Hambardzumian also paid a separate $1 million kickback to Gevorgian. The latter
became Armenia’s deputy prime minister after Kocharian handed over power to
Serzh Sarkisian in April 2008.
Both Kocharian and Gevorgian deny the corruption accusations as well.
The ex-president’s lawyers also demanded on Monday that the presiding judge,
Davit Grigorian, recuse himself from the high-profile case. They said he cannot
be trusted because earlier this year he declined to rule on their petition to
free Kocharian from pre-trial custody. They also claimed that Grigorian has not
had enough time to thoroughly examine materials of the criminal case.
The prosecution led by Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian as well as a
lawyer representing the families of people killed in March 2008 objected to the
demand. Grigorian will announce on Tuesday whether he will continue to preside
over the trial.
Incidentally, the Supreme Judicial Council, a body overseeing the Armenian
judiciary, censured Grigorian on Monday for having another judge decide whether
Kocharian should remain behind bars. The council last week took similar
disciplinary action against two other judges for the same reason.
Minister Cautious About Corruption In Healthcare
մայիսի 13, 2019
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian speaks at a news conference held at
the UN office in Yerevan, May 6, 2019.
Կիսվել
Կարդալ մեկնաբանությունները
Տպել
Armenia’s public healthcare sector may still be plagued by corruption despite
the government’s anti-graft efforts, Health Minister Arsen Torosian admitted on
Monday.
“If we talk about illegal revenues collected in medical institutions and
consider that corruption, then it does exist,” he told reporters. “I personally
don’t consider that corruption. I consider that illegal revenue … which a
doctor seeks from a patient, a patient’s relative and so on.”
“If we go a bit further up, if we talk about corruption in the government
apparatus, I can say that we are doing everything do put an end to that,” said
Torosian.
As recently as in late March, one of Torosian’s deputies, Arsen Davtian, was
arrested while allegedly receiving a hefty bribe from a hospital director in
return for ensuring greater government funding for the latter’s medical
institution. Davtian was sacked shortly afterwards.
Torosian has repeatedly pledged to eliminate widespread corruption in the
healthcare system since he was appointed health minister one year ago.
He insisted on Monday he will alert law-enforcement authorities about any
instance of corruption known to him. The minister argued that it was he who
effectively engineered the arrest in February of two senior government
officials accused of attempting to personally benefit from government-funded
supplies of medical equipment to three hospitals.
The officials held senior positions in the State Oversight Service (SOS), a
government agency tasked with combatting financial irregularities in the public
sector. The SOS chief, Davit Sanasarian, was also indicted but not arrested
last month. Sanasarian strongly denies the corruption charges.
Turning to the chronic problem informal payments collected in Armenian
hospitals, Torosian said the best way to end them is to raise the salaries of
doctors and other medical personnel. “No doctor enjoys getting 5,000 drams
($10) and putting it into their pockets,” he said. “They want to legally get
that 5,000, 10,000 or 50,000 drams as part of their monthly salary, and our
task here is to shift everything on to a legal plane.”
Jailed General Insists On Innocence
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia -- Retired General Manvel Grigorian appears before a court in Yerevan,
.
Retired General Manvel Grigorian and his wife pleaded not guilty to a string of
criminal charges brought against them at the start of their trial in Yerevan on
Monday.
“I don’t consider myself guilty,” Grigorian said nearly one year after being
arrested following searches conducted at his properties in and around the town
of Echmiadzin.
Investigators found there many weapons, ammunition, medication and field
rations for soldiers provided by the Armenian Defense Ministry. They also
discovered canned food and several vehicles donated by Armenians at one of
Grigorian’s mansions. An official video of the searches conducted by the
National Security Service (NSS) caused shock and indignation in the country.
Grigorian was also charged with tax evasion and extortion in February. His
wife, Nazik Amirian, was indicted on some of these charges but not arrested.
Armenia - A screenshot of official video of security officers finding larges
stockpiles of food in a villa belonging to retired General Manvel Grigorian, 17
June 2018.
Amirian insisted on Monday that the high-profile case is “fabricated.” She also
protested her and her husband’s innocence at the first, preliminary court
hearing in the trial held in Grigorian’s absence on May 2.
That hearing focused on defense lawyers’ fresh demands for Grigorian’s release
from detention on health grounds. The court rejected them, backing prosecutors’
assertions that the ailing ex-general is receiving adequate treatment in a
civilian clinic in Yerevan when he has been kept since February.
Grigorian, who served as deputy defense minister from 2000-2008, told the court
that he has suffered from many serious diseases and undergone several surgeries
in the last two decades. “There is hardly a doctor in Armenia who hasn’t
treated me,” he said.
Grigorian felt unwell during Monday’s court session which was repeatedly
interrupted because of that. The 62-year-old required medical aid from doctors
present in the courtroom.
Pashinian Allies Slam Karabakh Security Chief
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- Retired General Vitaly Balasanian attends an official ceremony at
the Yerlablur military cemetery in Yerevan, January 28, 2017.
Two Armenian pro-government lawmakers on Monday hit out at a senior
Nagorno-Karabakh official who has traded insults with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s press secretary.
Vitaly Balasanian, a retired army general who serves as secretary of Karabakh’s
Security Council, began the war of words last week when he criticized Armenian
authorities for not heeding the current and former Karabakh leaders’ calls for
the release of Armenia’s imprisoned former President Robert Kocharian. He made
the comments in Stepanakert during official celebrations of Karabakh’s main
public holiday attended by Pashinian.
Responding to them, Pashinian’s press secretary, Vladimir Karapetian, said that
Balasanian should have exercised “necessary restraint.”
“Vladimir Karapetian is too little a person … to make such statements,”
Balasanian shot back in an ensuing newspaper interview. “Let the Vladimir
Karapetians mind their business.”
Karapetian responded by likening Balasanian to two senior members of the former
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) loathed by many allies and supporters
of Pashinian.
Two of those allies added their voice to the criticism of the Karabakh
official. “The statement by that official not only endangered our national
security system but also offended our public self-esteem,” said Andranik
Kocharian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense and
security. “He must not do such things.”
Ruben Rubinian, who heads the parliament’s foreign relations committee,
described Balasanian’s statements as “unfortunate.” “Unfortunate for Mr.
Balasanian,” he added at a joint news conference with Kocharian.
Balasanian was a prominent field commander during the 1991-1994 war with
Azerbaijan. He is now seen as one of the potential main candidates in a
presidential election which is due to be held in Karabakh next year.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinin and Karabakh President Bako
Sahakian lead a festive demosntration in Stepanakert, May 9, 2019.
Pashinian raised more questions about his relationship with the Karabakh
leadership on his return from Stepanakert. “If some people try to turn Artsakh
(Karabakh) into a hotbed of counterrevolution, the people of Artsakh will turn
it into a hotbed of revolution,” he wrote on Facebook late on May 9. He did not
elaborate.
It is not clear whether Pashinian warned Balasanian or HHK leader and former
President Serzh Sarkisian. The latter was also in Karabakh last week, attending
events together with Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leadership.
While in Stepanakert Sarkisian was interviewed by Karabakh state television. He
spoke only about the 1991-1994 war, avoiding any comments on political
developments in Karabakh or Armenia.
Pashinian publicly lambasted Karabakh leaders in November during Armenia’s
parliamentary election campaign. One of his close associates, Sasun Mikaelian,
declared at a campaign rally that last spring’s protest movement that brought
Pashinian to power was more important than the Armenian victory in the war.
Mikaelian’s remark was condemned by Armenian opposition politicians as well as
senior officials in Stepanakert, including a spokesman for General Levon
Mnatsakanian, the then commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army.
Pashinian accused the Karabakh leadership of misinterpreting Mikaelian’s
statement and “meddling” in the Armenian parliamentary race. Mnatsakanian was
sacked in December.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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