Author: Emil Karabekian

Armenia’s ruling REpublican Party is leading the way in the parliamentary vote after most ballots have been processed.

The early results are as follows:

Yelc bloc -7.69%

Free Democrats -0.90%

Armenian Renessaince-3.71%

Tsarukyan Alliance – 27.58%

Congress-PPA bloc-1,62%

Republican Party – 49.06%

Communist Party – 0.74%

Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian alliance – 2.08%

Armenian Revolutionary Federation – 6.61%

According to preliminirary results, 1,574,947 citizens or 60.86 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in the parliamentary elections 2017. The total number of voters was 2,587,706. The voting took place at 2009 polling stations.

On 2 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received the delegation of “Hayastan” of the All-Armenian Fund at the head of its executive director Ara Vardanyan.

Issues relating to the implementation of various projects in Artsakh were on the agenda of teh meeting.
During the meeting the President awarded French philanthropist of Armenian origin Richard Ohanesian with the “Gratitude” medal for significant contribution to the realization of programs of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund in the Nagorno-Karabagh Republic.

The Head of the State noted with satisfaction that the presence of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund in the development process of Artsakh was of long-term and comprehensive character, qualifying the fund’s activity as one of the effective components of cementing in practice the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity.

Prime Minister Arayik Haroutunyan and other officials partook in the meeting.

Armenia international Gevorg Ghazaryan has had a successful surgery in Germany, Press Service of the Football Federation of Armenia reports.

Ghazaryan sustained an injury of the cruciate ligament minutes after the kickoff of Armenian national team’s clash against Kazakhstan Sunday.

According to preliminary estimates, the player will need six months for full recovery.

Gevorg Ghazaryan thanked the Football Federation for organizing his departure and surgery in Germany, as well as to all fans and teammates for encouraging words.

in a 2018 World Cup qualifier held at Hrazdan Stadium in Yerevan.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the opener on the 73rd minute, Aras Ozbiliz made it 2-0 two minutes later.

Photo: AP

 

US President Donald Trump paid $38m in tax on more than $150m  income in 2005, a leaked partial tax return shows, the BBC reports.

Two pages of the tax return were revealed by US TV network MSNBC but they gave no details on income sources or of charitable giving.

The White House said publishing the tax return was against the law.

Mr Trump refused to release his tax returns during the election campaign, breaking with a long-held tradition.

He has said he is under audit by tax authorities and that his lawyers advise against releasing tax returns. His critics, however, say they suspect Mr Trump has something to hide.

The two pages show that Mr Trump paid $5.3m in federal income tax and an extra $31m in what is called alternative minimum tax (AMT).

AMT was set up nearly 50 years ago to stop the wealthiest people from using deductions and loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Mr Trump has called for it to be abolished.

The $38m bill was an effective tax rate of about 24%, higher than the average American citizen would pay but below the 27.4% averaged by higher-earning taxpayers.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh Karen Mirzoyan is on a working visit to the Hellenic Republic to participate in the March 13-15 events entitled “Our Heroic Artsakh”, organized by the Armenian National Committee of Greece.

The Foreign Minister started his visit by attending the Armenian Evangelical Church of Greece as well as some Armenian educational institutions, in particular, the Galpakyan and Zavaryan Colleges, where he got acquainted with the college activities and talked to the students.

On the same day, in the Armenian National Prelacy of Greece Karen Mirzoyan met with the Patriarchal Vicar, Archbishop Komitas Ohanian and members of the Armenian National Administration of Greece. The Foreign Minister briefed on the processes taking place in Artsakh and the situation on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, as well as answered the questions of the participants.

The Azerbaijani side used firearms of different calibers as it violated the ceasefire about 55 times at the line of contact with the Artsakh forces last night.

The rival fired over 550 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions, Artsakh Defense Ministry reported.

The Azeri forces also used an anti-tank grenade launcher in the southern direction.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep the situation under control and confidently continue with their military duty.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says comments from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials accusing Berlin of “Nazi practices” cannot be tolerated, the Associated Press reports.

Merkel told Parliament on Thursday that the remarks are “sad and incredibly misplaced” and are “not justifiable.”

She says “we will not allow the victims of the Nazis to be trivialized” by such comparisons.

Erdogan made the comment on the weekend after several German municipalities canceled events in which Turkish Cabinet ministers had planned to address rallies in Germany in support of a national referendum on constitutional reform that would give the Turkish president more powers. About 1.4 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany are eligible to vote in the referendum.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a phone conversation with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.

The parties discussed the preparations for the Armenian President’s upcoming visit to Brussels.

Edward Nalbandian and Federica Mogherini referred to the negotiations a new Armenia-EU Framework Agreement and voiced hope that the talks would be completed in the near future.

“The leadership of Azerbaijan violates the peaceful efforts of the international community and throws down the gauntlet to the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said, commenting on the statement of the President of Azerbaijan that “the April military actions and the ongoing tensions along the Line of Contact are the internal matter of Azerbaijan.”

“First of all, Azerbaijan has signed the 1994 Trilateral Armistice Agreement and the 1995 Agreement on the Consolidation of the Ceasefire Regime, which have no time limitations, with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The international community and the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, which have the mandate for mediation mission, have called on numerous occasions to strictly adhere to those agreements, maintain ceasefire regime and resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue exclusively through peaceful negotiations,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said in comments to Armenpress.

“It is obvious that resumption by Azerbaijan of military actions against Nagorno-Karabakh in April of 2016 is a gross violation of Azerbaijan’s international commitments entered into under the abovementioned agreements, constitutes an explicit disregard for the calls of the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and is an aggression against the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

“In its recent statement the leadership of Azerbaijan violates the peaceful efforts of the international community and throws down the gauntlet to the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries,” he noted.

“Either Azerbaijan believing that Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is its internal issue pretends that it takes part in the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, or it participates in the negotiations at the same time pretending that the conflict is its internal issue. Both cases are aimed at undermining the mediatory efforts of the international community,” the Deputy Foreign Minister said.

“If the leadership of Azerbaijan makes such statements without realizing the abovementioned, it still bears the responsibility for the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani side during the April aggression,” Shavarsh Kocharyan concluded.

The Karabakh conflict is a direct threat to the security of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Mariza Zakharova told a press conference today.

She stressed that there is no alternative to the peaceful search for mutually acceptable solutions and this is what any initiative should be targeted at.

As for the perspectives of cooperation between Russia and the UN on the Karabakh issue under new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Zakharova said: “The contacts with Americans are still ahead, and any comments would be untimely now. Let’s what for these contacts.”

“The conflict is certainly a direct threat to the security, stability and future development of Armenia and Azerbaijan. We have to proceed from this,” Zakharova said.