Author: Eduard Nalbandian

Parliament session begins: lawmakers to debate 2021 state budget performance report

 10:01, 15 June 2022

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS. The session has been resumed in the Parliament of Armenia on June 15.

The bills debated yesterday will be put up to voting at the beginning of today’s session.

Then, the lawmakers will start debating the 2021 state budget performance annual report.

Q&A session is expected with members of the Cabinet at 16:00.

 11:13, 17 June 2022

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia commented on the statement of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev according to which Armenia rejected the proposal to hold a trilateral meeting in Tbilisi at the level of foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

“We not only have not rejected, but also have always positively reacted to such a possible meeting, at the same time noting that work needs to be done to ensure the efficiency of the meeting”, MFA spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said in response to query of ARMENPRESS.

 14:24,

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS. The 11th Dolma Festival will take place in Armenia’s Zvartnots Historical Cultural Museum-Reserve on June 19. 

Sedrak Mamulyan, Chairman of “Preservation and Development of Armenian Culinary Traditions” NGO, told Armenpress that the number of pavilions is gradually increasing as 27 teams are participating in the festival this year. One of the teams decided to make a 150-meter dolma. Nearly 70  types of dolma will be displayed in the pavilions. 

The teams will compete for “Best Taste”, “Best Look”, “Best Idea” categories. The participant with the most points will receive the Grand Prix.

Owners of restaurants, representatives of service sector, cooks and individuals from Gyumri and Tsaghkadzor will participate in the competition. There are teams who will make sweets.

This is already the third year the Dolma Festival is taking place in the Zvartnots Museum-Reserve. The aim, Mamulyan says, is also to present the Armenian cultural monuments to tourists. He said that the decision to hold the Dolma Festival was made in 2011 following the statement of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who talked about their cultural features, touching upon also dolma.

“We aim at raising the attractiveness of our country, creating a tourism atmosphere”, Sedrak Mamulyan said, adding that they achieved their goal as tourists are looking forward to the festival.

The number of festival participants reaches around 3000-5000, but there was a year when they had a record hosting up to 30,000 participants.

 11:14,

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. In an interview to Al Jazeera in Qatar, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan touched upon also the relations of Armenia with its neighbors, particularly with Iran.

“We have four neighbors, and with two of them we have very good relations, I mean Georgia and Iran. Iran is a friendly country for us, and we consider Iran as a friendly country, which also has good relations with Azerbaijan too. It isn’t our intention not to have good relations with countries which have good relations with Azerbaijan. But now we have very close ties with Iran”, he said, expressing hope that with the cooperation with Iran, Armenia will be able to enhance the bilateral trade with Qatar as well.

“And we are working on developing the communications connecting Iran with Armenia, and now we are in the process of constructing a very strategic highway named North-South, connecting our Georgian border with our Iranian border. And we hope that as a result of that project, our economic relations with Iran will increase. By the way, the Eurasian Economic Union has free trade agreement with Iran which is very important for our bilateral relations as well”, the Armenian PM said.

 12:39,

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. Thanks to historically brotherly and allied relations, Armenia has a special place among our friends and allies, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin said during the state reception organized on the Russia Day.

“This year we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 25^th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Help. During these decades the cooperation between our countries has been distinguished by intensive, reliable high-level political dialogue and active cooperation between different ministries and agencies. The economic ties have consistently developed and continue developing. According to the results of 2021, the trade turnover exceeded the pre-pandemic figures, comprising around 2,6 billion dollars. Russia keeps the positions of being Armenia’s main and reliable economic and investment partner. Our cultural, educational and humanitarian cooperation is expanding. The bilateral effective cooperation in the security sector, both regional and international, is of vital importance. Our countries are actively cooperating in international platforms and within the frames of integration unions – EAEU, CSTO and CIS”, the Russian Ambassador said.

The diplomat said Russia is actively supporting and will support what contributes to creating ground for the peaceful and secure development of the South Caucasus region. According to him, Russia, in close cooperation with partners, is working hard to solve the regional issues directed to opening the transportation and economic ties, improving the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and establishing normal, full relations between Armenia and Turkey.