Author: Bedik Zaminian

In April 2016 the European Union extended final assistance of €3.75 million to enhance Armenia’s vocational education and training (VET) capacity. The disbursement was allocated out of €6 million (of which 5 million budget support, 1 million technical assistance), earmarked under 2012 Eastern Partnership Integration and Cooperation (EaPIC) programme. The programme aims to open up new horizons and foster job creation for youth, which will help maximise youth involvement in local development, curb labour migration to urban areas and support poverty alleviation in regions and across the country.

The outcomes of the assistance include reform implementation across the whole VET sector of the country, provision of equal access to quality VET education for youth with special needs, recognition of non-formal and informal learning and review of VET qualifications and lists of VET professions to meet the swiftly evolving labour market needs.

As of 2016, about 4,500 students at 17 pilot colleges in all regions of Armenia and Yerevan benefited from the EU-supported reforms and the number is envisaged to grow in the near future.

Commenting on the outcomes of the EU support in the VET sector, one of the programme beneficiaries, graduate of Yerevan regional state college N2 Tehmine Sahakyan said, “The knowledge and skills I gained at the college helped me pursue higher education at Armenian State University of Economics. They largely impacted my further achievements and career. I currently work at one of Armenia’s top insurance companies as a marketing expert and agent. I recommend all those, who are still undecided on their further specialisation to choose the VET sector as solid foundation for further career development.”

Director of the National Centre for Vocational Education and Training Development Tatevik Gasparyan in turn, noted, “The VET sector unlocks a range of opportunities for youth. State educational standards aimed at capacity building for the VET qualifications, educational programs and curricula are developed to meet the current labour demands.”

Within the frames of the final phase of the programme, five VET colleges, specifically those located on the border, were rehabilitated and equipped, with two more upgraded with facilities for physically impaired students. Another essential outcome of the programme is the development of 3-year business plans and conduction of own market research at all regional colleges. Development of business plans has been hailed by college managers in terms of sustainable financial management of VET institutions.

The assistance programme incorporates international best practices and visions for innovation and enhancement of VET education aligning them with the local market needs.

The EU has been actively supporting educational reforms in Armenia for the past 14 years with a clear focus on VET. Shortly after Armenia joined the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2006, the Government of Armenia and the European Commission agreed to focus €30 million of 2007 and 2009 Budget Support assistance of the European Union to Armenia on further reforms in the VET sector. The overall objective has been to support sustainable development in Armenia, by boosting the quality of VET sector to align it with the needs of the labour market.

Following the 2012 review of the ENP Progress Reports, €15 million assistance was allocated to Armenia under this programme. €6 million out of the allocation was earmarked for support in the VET sector.

The main directions of reforms as defined in the VET Reforms Programme and Action Plan of 2012-2016 adopted by the Government of Armenia in July 2012 are integration of the Republic of Armenia’s vocational education and training system into the European vocational education area, enhancing the VET system management efficiency, boosting reputation and prestige of VET system and development/strengthening of social partnership in the VET sector. Implementing partners of the programme are the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and social partners.

In addition to VET-focused assistance, the EU has been steadily supporting development of higher education in Armenia. “Empowerment of the Tertiary Level Education of the RA for European Higher Education Area IntegrationEHEA” Twinning (2014-2016) aims to contributes to Armenia’s full membership in the EHEA and improve the quality of higher education to the benefit of students, graduates and employers.

“Strengthening Integrity and Combating Corruption in Higher Education in Armenia” project, co-funded by the EU and Council of Europe, aims to strengthen integrity and fight corruption at higher education institutions by fostering effective implementation of the Armenian Government’s Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2015-2018.

Erasmus+, the new EU programme targeting Education, Training, Youth and Sport for the period 2014-2020, brings together seven existing programmes, including Tempus and Erasmus Mundus. 21 ongoing Tempus and 5 Erasmus+ Capacity Building projects with involvement of 22 Armenian universities and 31 other organisations including enterprises, ministries and non-governmental organizations.  There are also 17 ongoing Erasmus Mundus projects implemented across Armenia. Overall, around 800 students and staff of Armenian universities participated in Erasmus Mundus projects and Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programs in the period of 2004-2014.

The situation at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagono Karabakh and Azerbaijan remained calm last night, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival used  mostly artillery weapons of different calibers as it violated the agreement on ceasefire. Sniper rifles were also used in some directions.

The font divisions of the NKR Defense Army remained committed to the agreement on ceasefire and confidently continued with their military duty.

 

 

 

“It’s absolutely central to have peace and security in the region in order to pursue development perspectives,” Bradley Busetto, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Armenia, told reporters on the sidelines of the “Armenia: Tracking Progress on the Millennium Development Goals and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” event in Yerevan.

He refrained from further comments on Azeri barbarities during the military actions in early April.

“The UN Secretary General said a few weeks ago that he wants secession of hostilities and return to negotiations,” he reminded.

As for the sustainable development, Bradley Busetto said: “This is not just some sort of UN effort, government effort. All of society should get together and figure out what are the development goals for Armenia.”

It was not immediately clear who was killed in the massive attack, whose explosion could be heard across the city and which caused damage to buildings near the site of the detonation.

By Elif Shafak

Amid the political turmoil in Turkey this week, culminating in the prime minister’s announcement that he’ll stand down within days, it was Oscar Wilde who became the subject of a heated debate in the Turkish parliament. A member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said he wanted to quote a line from Wilde. A deputy from the ruling AKP party objected to the idea of citing someone who was neither Muslim nor Turkish. “Do you not have any examples from this culture, this civilisation?” Yet another AKP member confused the Irish author with the Oscars, to which a female HDP deputy, Burcu Özkan protested: “It’s Oscar Wilde. He is not an award, he is a man!”

When they are not debating Wilde, MPs are busy exchanging blows. During a discussion to strip them of their immunity – a deliberate amendment that might lead to the trial and incarceration of Kurdish MPs – Garo Paylan, an Armenian deputy, was kicked, punched and subjected to hate speech by several AKP members. Paylan said: “What they can’t digest is this: a person of Armenian identity reveals their lies and stands upright.”

It is hard to be an Armenian in Turkey. Or a Kurd, or an Alevi, or gay, or a conscientious objector, or a Jew, or a woman, or someone who just doesn’t agree with what is happening in the country. If you happen to tick more than one box, life is even harder. The list goes on and on. Diversity has been stifled. Freedom of speech has been abandoned. An “ideology of sameness” dominates the land. That ideology is shaped by Turkish nationalism, Islamism and authoritarianism blended with machismo and patriarchy. The tension in politics penetrates all aspects of daily life.

Turkey is no longer simply politically polarised. It is now bitterly divided into two planets: those who support and will continue to support the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, no matter what; and those who are, for a variety of reasons, against him. The president, who is theoretically above political parties and strictly neutral, is in truth, anything but. Erdoğan is the most divisive politician in Turkey’s modern political history.

A full, unconditional obedience to the leader is expected from AKP members. There isn’t even the slightest trace of inner-party democracy. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s announcement surprised everyone. He said his resignation was not a choice, but rather “a necessity”. It is no secret that his successor will be someone fully approved and controlled by Erdoğan, who will even further consolidate his power. Eventually, Erdoğan wants to change Turkey into a presidential regime with a monopoly of power.

What little opposition exists is fragmented, scattered, and demoralised. Since theGezi Park riots three years ago, people have been increasingly and systematically intimidated. On average, every four days someone is being sued in Turkey for insulting Erdoğan – almost 2,000 people since he became president. Among them are artists, journalists, cartoonists, academics, even students for Facebook comments. Over the years, as Turkey’s media has been curbed, social media has become more politicised. Now that too is heavily monitored. Turkey tops the countries demanding content removal from Twitter.

Everything is shifting in Turkey – and very fast. We Turks live with a feeling of “what now?”, knowing that every day something new happens. As the country slides backwards, what we have in our hands is not a democracy but a crude form of majoritarianism. The central components of democracy – such as separation of powers, rule of law, freedom of speech – are all but broken.

Murat Belge, a well-known academic and columnist, was put on trial for insulting the president. Academics who signed a peace petition criticising the government’s actions in southeast Anatolia have been slated in pro-government media. Some have lost their jobs. Four were imprisoned. The infamous article 301, which claims to protect “Turkishness”, even though nobody knows what exactly that means, has re-emerged.

There are three major dangers: an absolutist monopoly of power; the total collapse of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process; and the loss of secularism. Recently the parliamentary speaker, İsmail Kahraman, came up with a horrifying proposition: “Secularism shouldn’t take place in the new constitution.” Secularism was the one principle that separated Turkey from other parts of the Middle East. It made the country relatively more liberal, more open, more diverse. And the recent talk by some AKP members about developing a religious constitution is alarming – particularly for women, who need to uphold secularism more loudly and wholeheartedly than men because they have more to lose in an Islamic fundamentalist regime. Befittingly, Bayan Yani, a humour magazine produced by an all-female staff, and whose title means “the seat next to a woman on public transportation”, drew a cartoon of a Turkish Marianne leading the people with the caption: “Long live secularism!”

Hikmet Çetinkaya and Ceyda Karan, two veteran journalists from the daily Cumhuriyet – one of the last remaining alternative voices in the media – have been sentenced to two years in prison for reprinting Charlie Hebdo cartoons. During their trial Islamist slogans were chanted in the courtroom. The sentence profoundly shocked Turkey’s democrats. Today, in Reporters Without Borders’ world press freedom index, Turkey ranks 151st of 180 countries.

In the past we had a solid tradition of black humour. Politics was always rough, but it was OK for the people to laugh at politicians. Not any more. Recent research shows that only half of Turkey’s people think it OK to criticise the government publicly. When Angela Merkel allows German comedians to be sued by Erdoğan, it is a clear message to Turkey’s democrats: “You are all alone.”

So what happened to the Turkish model we used to be so hopeful about? That unique blend of western democracy, secularism and majority-Muslim culture and pluralistic society is today empty rhetoric. Even the EU, to which we Turks once so aspired, has turned into a political game.

However, Turkey has millions of beautiful people who – though deeply depressed, demoralised and lonely – are globally connected and ahead of their government. And that quote in parliament which fell on deaf ears? It was about the vulgarity of power.

The Azerbaijani side kept firing all along the line of contact with Karabakh forces last night, using artillery weapons, as well as 60 and 82 mm mortars and grenade launchers, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

Two Armenian servicemen Gagik Movsisyan (born in 1997) and Vazgen Harutyunyan (born in 1968) were killed as a result of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side.

The NKR Defense Ministry share the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses its condolences to the families and friends of the killed soldiers.

“The actions of the rival will not go unpunished, and the Azerbaijani side will bear full responsibility for the consequences,” the Ministry said in a statement.

Armenia has not lost the Armenian Genocide case at the European Court of Human rights, human right lawyer Amal Clooney said in an

“The case was brought to the Court by little known Turkish politician Dogu Perincek. He appealed against Switzerland, which found him guilty of denying the Armenian Genocide,” Clooney said.

She reminded that Armenia’s demands were in no way related to whether or not Perincek would incur criminal penalties. “Our objections of Armenia were related to the wording used in the case, implying the denial of genocide,” she said.

“For example, the Court was stressing the difference between the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, saying that the first one is provable, while the second is not. Our objective was to ensure that the Court refuse from using such wording in the Perincek case. And we won,” Amal Clooney said.

“When making the decision, a number of judges said the Court shouldn’t have considered the matter at all, as it has nothing to do with the case, but many agreed that there is proof of the Armenian Genocide. I respect Armenia’s position in this case. It was defending the freedom of speech, no one was saying Perincek had to be jailed,” the lawyer added.

“There are people of higher status than Perincek who have openly recognized the fact of the Armenian Genocide, the Pope, for instance. That’s why I don’t think they are particularly concerned by Perincek’s opinion,” Clooney added.

“On the other hand, Turkey also had something to say on the case, but that country has the worst freedom of speech record in the Council of Europe. I think people do not completely understand the case,” she noted.

“Neither Armenia, nor I as Armenia’s representative, stood against freedom of speech. We just wanted the Court to be precise, when considering the genocide case,” Amal Clooney concluded.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan visited a number of military units located in the northeastern and southern parts of Artsakh and held consultations with the command staff.

A wide range of issues related to the current situation and the course of service was on the agenda of the consultations.

The Defense Ministers of the two Armenian states and representatives of supreme command staff accompanied the Presidents.

A threatening note was left for a family in Tujunga because they hung an Armenian flag from their home, according to detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department, reports.

Hasmik Chatalyan contacted police at about 12:30 p.m. on Thursday after the threatening note was discovered in her family’s mailbox.

The married mother of two said she hung the flag on her house in the 10000 block of Pinyon Avenue in honor of her fallen heroes in Armenia.

At one point, the note reads, “You will be hurt.”

“Being threatened in my own home, it was shocking,” Chatalyan said.

Detectives took the note into evidence and said they would test it for fingerprints.

Officials said the act was being investigating as a “hate incident” and that hate crime charges could potentially be brought in the future.

“My kids are home and I don’t know who is going to come up to my house and try to put the flags down or break-in and hurt me, because in the letter it says, ‘You’re going to get hurt,’” Chatalyan said.

Neighbors on the same block said their car was egged last year after they put an Armenian flag on their vehicle.

“Violated, angry and frustrated,” Tujunga resident Adelaida Yian said. “Why do people have so much hate in their hearts?”

In response to the suspect’s threats, the Chatalyan family kept the Armenian flag up and hung a second flag as well.

They also called on other Armenian families to place flags on their homes.

“I grew up here, but I’m also from Armenia and I’m proud of my country and I will not let anybody put that down,” Chatalyan said. “I will not let anybody tell me how to love my country.”

The world’s largest plane manufacturer Boeing plans to cut more than 4,500 jobs by the middle of the year to reduce costs, the BBC reports.

A company spokesman said about 1,600 positions will go through voluntary redundancies while the rest will take place through attrition.

The bulk of the layoffs is set to come from its commercial aircraft division as customers cut back on orders.

Hundreds of executives and managers are also expected to lose their jobs.

The cuts account for almost 3% of Boeing’s workforce, which comprised 161,000 people at the end of last year.

Boeing is reacting to concern that demand for its jets is slowing.

The US company has also been losing market share to rival Airbus Group SE.