Author: Diana Dabaghian

YEREVAN (Public Radio of Armenia) – The 13th annual international DigiTec Expo technological exhibition will be held from September 29 to October 1 at the Yerevan Expo Center.

This year the DigiTec is expecting an unprecedented number of participants both local and international. About 150 participants and 70,000 visitors are expected to attend.

The participants of DigiTec will introduce the latest trends of the sector and the innovations and job opportunities of the current market.. Business meetings, different competitions, forums, seminars, and other meetings will also be held.

Leading Armenian companies like Joomag, Ucom, Arpinet, VOLO, Zangi, Monitis, SFL, ArmSoft will also be featured at DigiTec 2017.

DigiTec 2017 will host participants and delegations from Japan, China, India, Sweden, Russia, USA, and Canada among other countries. Foreign companies include Dahua Technology from China, Hitachi Construction Machinery Eurasia and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries from Japan, Ericsson from Sweden, Jabra from Denmark, and others. The overall list of participants is being updated on digitec.am.

“Until now, DigiTec has been a platform for only Armenian technological leading companies, but during recent years and this year especially, it became an effective platform of communications for local, Diaspora, and foreign techno-leaders,” said Karen Vardanyan, the executive director of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE),and the organizer of DigiTec.

DigiTec Expo is the biggest technological exhibition in the region, as well as B2B, B2C communicative platform. The 3-day Expo is held under the slogan “Fest for Armenian techno-society.”

Since 2005 DigiTec has been organized by the UITE under the high patronage of the Prime Minister.

Measures Sanction Ankara and Baku

WASHINGTON – The full U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday adopted a series of Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) supported provisions as part of its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) foreign aid bill, specifically calling for continued aid to Artsakh and increased assistance to Armenia ($20.7 million), and also imposing weapon and travel sanctions on Turkey and Azerbaijan.

“Congress is clearly turning the corner on both Turkey and Azerbaijan, with senior legislators, from both parties, openly confronting and officially sanctioning Erdogan and Aliyev for their undemocratic abuses and anti-American actions,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “We thank all those who worked to include these constructive provisions and look forward to remaining engaged in support of each of these issues as the legislative process moves forward.”

The Senate foreign aid bill’s “report,” which provides detailed legislative guidance for the executive branch, included language recommending: “assistance for victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in amounts consistent with prior fiscal years, and for ongoing needs related to the conflict. The Committee urges a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

In terms of aid to Armenia, the Committee called for roughly a $14 million increase over the President’s proposed budget: $17.633 million in Economic Support and Development Fund (ESF), $1.5 million for battling narcotics trafficking, $600,000 for International Military Education and Training and $1 million in Foreign Military Financing.  The Senate maintained parity in appropriated military assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan.  The Trump budget request for Armenia, submitted in May of this year, envisioned $4 million in ESF, $1.5 million for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, and $700,000 for Non-Proliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs. Military parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan was maintained in the Administration’s proposed budget with each receiving $600,000 for International Military Education and Training and cuts Foreign Military Financing to both countries.

Three key amendments targeted Turkey and Azerbaijan in response to the growing human rights abuses in each country, most notably the May, 2017, beating of peaceful protesters by Turkish President Erdogan’s bodyguards in Washington, DC.

Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Senate Appropriations Committee Vice-Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced a successful amendment to block the use of funds to facilitate the sale of weapons to President Erdogan’s Presidential Protection Directorate. Sen. Van Hollen told the Washington Post that the appropriations panel’s vote in support of the measure sent “a strong, bipartisan message: We are not going to let President Erdogan’s personal bodyguards attack peaceful American protesters on American soil — and we’re certainly not going to sell them weapons while they do it.”

Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced and passed an amendment to restrict U.S. travel visas to any senior official of the Government of Turkey who is knowingly responsible for the wrongful or unlawful prolonged detention of U.S. citizens or nationals. The move is widely viewed as being in response to Turkey’s continued imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a North Carolina native who, for more than two decades, has ministered to the Izmir Resurrection Church in Turkey’s third largest city.

Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) called for similar visa restrictions of Azerbaijani government officials involved with the “wrongful imprisonment of Mehman Aliyev, the director of Turan, Azerabaijan’s last remaining independent news outlet.”  The Washington Post editorial board this week called for the Turan chief’s immediate release and noted that under President Aliyev’s reign, “a sustained and punishing campaign has been waged against dissenting scholars, human rights defenders and journalists.”