Author: Anna Tamamian

COVID-19 Accelerates Digital Payment Adoption in Armenia

Anna Tamamian
FinTech News, Switzerland

by Fintechnews Switzerland

In Armenia, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payment solutions and boosted e-commerce activity.

Beniamin Tadevosyan, CEO and co-founder of Armenian paytech startup PayX told local fintech news site Fintech.am that, while prior to the pandemic payment technologies were well developed in the country, adoption was very low. But the global health crisis and the government’s call to limit cash usage have push adoption of digital payment to new heights.

Beniamin Tadevosyan

“Due to some local peculiarities, including the habit of the population to pay in cash … [payment technologies in Armenia] were not actively used in everyday life before the pandemic,” Tadevosyan told Fintech.am. “The increase in cashless payments, especially for e-commerce, amid the current situation is natural … [especially considering] that the government and the Central Bank of Armenia have repeatedly strongly recommended non-cash payments.”

Though no official data have been released, Tadevosyan said that at PayX, the volume and value of digital and online transactions “have increased markedly,” a trend he expects to continue.

Demand for online payment solutions, notably those with easy and seamless integration capabilities, has risen particularly, owing in part to the boom of social commerce. “These solutions are especially requested by stores operating on Facebook and Instagram,” he said

Armenia declared a 30-day state of emergency on March 16, 2020 to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which was followed later on by more stringent restrictions on movement. E-commerce skyrocketed after the announcement with retail sales tripling within the first month, Armenia’s Minister of High Technology Industry Hakob Arshakyan said at a press conference on April 8, 2020, describing the trend as a positive indicator that indicates great opportunities in the field of cashless commerce.

Armenia’s nascent fintech industry

Information about the Armenian fintech ecosystem are scarce but data available suggest that the country is home to just a handful of startups. Similarly to other nascent fintech ecosystems, Armenia’s fintech sector is dominated by young startups operating in the payment segment.

PayX, which was founded in 2017, develops digital, mobile and e-commerce payment solutions, serving both the retail and corporate segments. Qsak is an app-based mobile payment platform that allows individuals to receive cash back on their transactions, which they can accumulate, spend, transfer and withdraw.

EasyPay provides merchants with point-of-sale (POS) terminals and consumers with a card-linked wallet that allows them to easily make fund transfers, pay bills, top up their mobile credit, and make purchases both online and offline. So far, more than 2,700 payment terminals have been installed.

And Text And Pay Me is a new startup offering “text payments,” allowing users to perform peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers on any messaging app simply by entering text commands.

Besides payments, other fintech segments are also represented in Armenia, including crowdfunding with platforms such as BoostBloom and Ayo; corporate services with online invoice service My Online Invoice; and data with the likes of Cognaize, a startup that specializes in artificial intelligence (AI)-based processing of financial information.

One fast-growing segment is cryptocurrency and blockchain where a flurry of startups have emerged over the past years.

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Arcnet is a local blockchain startup providing a career development ecosystem comprised of a job market, certification, career advice and recruitment services; Omnia offers a platform for users to mine and invest in cryptocurrencies; and Coin Stats is an app-based cryptocurrency portfolio tracker with live crypto market data, research and news. Users can set price limits volume and market cap alerts, and sync multiple crypto exchanges.

Arab Council of Australia calls for government recognition of Armenian Genocide

Anna Tamamian
June 8 2021
8 June 2021

The Arab Council of Australia has added its voice to the campaign calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government to recognise the Armenian Genocide.

The council is a secular, not-for-profit organisation representing Australians from 22 Middle Eastern countries. Its CEO Randa Kattan said in a letter to Mr Morrison, “The act of formally recognising events of mass atrocity as experienced by the victims affords them dignity.”

Randa Kattan, CEO of the Arab Council of Australia, said formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide will afford the victims dignity

She continued, “This acknowledgement of history supports the healing of a community and is inclusive of those many generations living with inherited trauma.”

Between 1893 and 1923, some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire in a policy of extermination of Christian minorities. In addition some 2.25 million Assyrian, Greek and Syriac Christians were also killed within Ottoman territories between 1914 and 1923, making a total of 3.75 million Christians killed.

The Australian-Jewish community has increased calls on the governments of Australia and Israel to recognise the terrible slaughter of a century ago.  “It is our moral duty as Jews and as supporters of Israel to be tellers of truth in matters such as these,” said Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia.

In a statement on Armenian Remembrance Day, 24 April, this year, US President Joe Biden became the first president of the United States to officially recognise the genocide and warned of the need to prevent such violence from happening again.

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, wrote to President Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this year urging them to make this recognition, and called on countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Israel to follow suit.

Please sign our Barnabas Fund petition calling for the UK government to recognise the genocide by going to www.barnabasfund.org/armenian-genocide/  

Search operations for casualties of the 2020 war to continue in Jabrayil direction

Anna Tamamian
Panorama, Armenia
June 5 2021

The search operations to find casualties of the 2020 war and those missing in action will continue in Azerbaijani-held Jrakan (Jabrayil) region on Saturday, Artsakh’s State Service of Emergency Situations reported. 

To note, since November 13 search operations for the war casualties have been carried out in all areas passed under Azerbaijani control. The search operations were halted for several times in the past month for various reasons, while exchange of bodies of the killed continued between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. 

Since the start of the ceasefire, a total of 1,557 bodies of fallen troops and civilians have been recovered from the former combat zones.

Ameriabank ready for initial public offering of shares – Managing Director, Financial Institutions for EBRD

Anna Tamamian

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 13:32, 4 June, 2021

YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. Mr. Francis Malige, Managing Director, Financial Institutions for the EBRD, speaks on how challenging the 2020 was for EBRD, the global economy recovery after the crisis, likelihood of new projects and opportunities, current state of the banking system in Armenia and fruitful cooperation with Ameriabank.

“Ameria is reaching that minimum critical size which is not easy in the Armenian market because it’s not such a big market. But it is reaching that size. They can actually go and be offering a pool of investors a number of shares that will make it into a meaningful IPO on the international stage. And it’s not just about being big. It’s also about being good. And Ameria has a very good management team has very good products, a good set of clients and so is ready, in my view, for an IPO”.

Armenia 2nd President meets with leaders and officers of Police, MOD and National Security Service of various years

Anna Tamamian
News.am, Armenia
June 3 2021
00:05, 04.06.2021

Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan today met with the high-ranking leaderships and officers of the Police, the Ministry of Defense and the National Security Service of various years.

“Frankly, I was happy to have this meeting. This goes to show that representatives of Armenia’s power structures are concerned about the country’s security,” Kocharyan said, adding that he is certain that the police are in a difficult situation since many police officers are compelled to ensure the security of only one person [Nikol Pashinyan].

Kocharyan also applauded the police officers who have resigned during this period.

Azerbaijani forces must pull back from Armenia’s sovereign territory – Macron

Anna Tamamian

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 16:34, 1 June, 2021

PARIS, JUNE 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is facing a security crisis, and France is determined that peace is established in the region, French President Emmanuel Macron said before the meeting with Armenia’s caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Paris on June 1, Armenpress correspondent reports from the scene. Macron noted that despite that the ceasefire is overall being observed since the 2020 November 9 statement, a lot still needs to be done.

“France is ready to support on this matter, firstly the talk concerns the release of the prisoners of war, as well as other detainees. And the preservation of heritage in Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent territories is also an important issue. Both the Christian and the Muslim heritage must be definitely preserved. As a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, it’s the duty of France to do everything so that the sides reach de-escalation and establish dialogue”, the French President said.

He stated that demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be carried out exclusively through dialogue and use of force must be ruled out in all cases. “The Azerbaijani forces must pull back from Armenia’s sovereign territory, and I call for returning to the positions existing as of May 11”, Macron said, adding that France will try to assist in establishment of dialogue.

He noted that France as always stands by Armenia at this difficult situation.

Macron and Pashinyan are going to discuss also the economic cooperation, outlining different directions.

The Armenian caretaker PM has arrived in France on a working visit.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenia opposition MP on FM’s resignation

Anna Tamamian
News.am, Armenia
Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation
15:41, 31.05.2021

Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ara Aivazian, who resigned earlier, hadn’t expressed discontent with acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s plan for de-escalation of the border situation during the session of the Security Council. Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia Party and head of its National Assembly (NA) faction, stated this Monday during the traditional briefings at the NA.

Marukyan doesn’t think Aivazian resigned in order to not be bear responsibility for the document that Pashinyan intends to sign, but if this is the case, the diplomat needs to fight against the signing of the document, if it is unfavorable for Armenia, not escape in order to not bear responsibility.

Sports: Official: The Armenian Haroyan, Cádiz’s first signing

Anna Tamamian
BET365 – Sports Finding
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28th May 2021

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Armenian central defender Varazdat Haroyan has become this Thursday the first signing of the Cadiz for the 2021-2022 season from Astana from Kazakhstan, has reported the Cádiz club, with which the defender has committed until 2023.

The 28-year-old Armenian footballer has been international 58 times with his country's senior team, which is currently managed by the Sevillian Joaquin Caparrós, former coach of Sevilla, Villarreal, Deportivo, Athletic, Mallorca, Levante, Granada and Osasuna, among other clubs.

Haroyan, who is the captain of the Armenia senior team, began his sports career at Patani, later passing through Pyunik Yerevan, with which he won six titles in his country.

After an ephemeral passage through the Iranian Sazi tractor, He signed for Padideh, before making the leap in 2017 to Russian football with Ural Yekaterinburg, to later serve in Tambov and Astana.

Ilham Aliyev’s speech in Karabakh: "We will live on this land forever"

Anna Tamamian
JAM News
    JAMnews, Baku

Ilham Aliyev’s speech in Karabakh, Aghdam region

“Azerbaijan will continue to strengthen its borders. Some pro-Armenian countries make various statements and the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the basis of false data. These are all meaningless words. The main thing is that we are here and will live on this land forever”, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on May 28, during his visit to the Aghdam region which passed under the control of Azerbaijan as a result of the second Karabakh war.

During his visit, the President laid the foundation for the first residential building in the city of Agdam, which was completely destroyed during the occupation after the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s. President then aaddressed the local resident.

Below are the main theses of the President Aliyev’s speech.

  • Abkhazia will no longer negotiate with Georgia until peace treaty is signed

● At the beginning there were some hopes, but at the last stage there were none. The Armenian leadership has openly declared that the return of the territories is impossible. The negotiation process has actually been completed.

● The war became inevitable after the military provocations by Armenia in July-August-September 2020.

● Throughout the 44-day war, the Azerbaijani army did not retreat. There was not a single day when we retreated. In the last days of the war, the Armenian side fell into panic and began to realize its defeat.

● During the war, Azerbaijan acted with dignity and observed all the rules of conducting military operations. That is why the losses among the civilian population of the Armenian side are minimal. We have never fought against civilians.

● There is practically no city of Agdam. Only the ruins of the Juma Mosque remained and Armenia only left it because they needed a reference point to adjust the artillery fire, as well as an observation point. The minarets of the mosque served as the latter.

● From now on, Azerbaijan will develop as a victorious country. Armenia is a losing state. The myth about the Armenian people created by Armenian lobbying organizations has been debunked.

● This war was not only against the fascist Armenian state, it was a war against fascism. Azerbaijan’s victory proves that the fate of all fascists will be similar to the fate of the Armenians.

● Unfortunately, even today, Armenia does not stop its provocative actions. If there is even a small threat to the state security of Azerbaijan, the enemy will be destroyed immediately and on the spot.

● The provocation carried out by the Armenian army in recent days on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, naturally, could not remain unanswered and we did respond to it.

● For 30 years, the Armenians have not been able to build a state. This means that these people can only live by taking advantage of the possibilities of the larger states.

● The current government of Armenia accuses the previous one of not being able to defend their borders and the previous government blames the current one. In fact, both are to blame. They did not think that they would find themselves in such a miserable situation and that they themselves were the cause of all their misfortunes.

● Azerbaijan will continue to strengthen its borders. Nobody can put pressure on us. Some pro-Armenian countries, circles make various statements – let them. The European Parliament has once again adopted a resolution on the basis of false data. The Azerbaijani people should not pay attention to this. These are all meaningless words. The main thing is that today we are here, we are standing here and will live on this land forever.

Situation in Ishkhanasar community of Armenia’s Syunik calm – head of community

Anna Tamamian
Aysor, Armenia

The situation in Ishkhanasar is calm, head of the community Marat Petrosyan told Aysor.am.

“Nothing happened in Ishkhanasar, we have a test site, the shooting may be heard from there. In general the situation is peaceful,” she said.

The head of the community said neither fight nor shooting has been recorded.

“The peacekeeping troops are sitting there,” Petrosyan said, describing the media reports shameful.

He said probably something happened in Goris direction.

“But everything is normal, nothing happens in Syunik,” he said.

Deputy mayor of Goris IrinaYolyan reported that the adversary passed the border in Ishkhanasar sector and advanced 3 kilometers.

Another deputy mayor of Goris Menua Hovsepyan said the enemy advanced in the territory of Black Lake and tries to deploy there.