RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan informed that he had met with citizens protesting against the work of Sotq and Amulsar mines and informed that they had come to mutual understanding on 2 issues.
“Today I have had meetings with citizens protesting against Sotq and Amulsar mines.
“It can be stated that there is mutual understanding in two issues: unlawful and irrelevant damage to nature should not be caused, and the economy should not appear in an artificially created crisis situation.
“As a result of the Prime Minister’s instruction to carry out transparent and complex expertise, works are already underway. We also discussed this with the citizens.
“After our meeting, the citizens decided to stop the protest action.
The FBI arrested an ethnic Armenian Glendale cop in suspicion of obstruction of justice and providing false testimonies.
As far back as 2015, John Saro Balian, a Glendale narcotics detective, used burner phones to tip off gangsters about upcoming raids, authorities said Tuesday, The Los Angeles Times reported.
John Saro Balian is also suspected of collaborating with other criminals to steal cars, presumably to sell abroad and taking money to hunt someone down.
When confronted by federal agents in four interviews over the last year, authorities say Balian, 45, lied about his ties to the Mexican Mafia and Armenian organized crime in Southern California.
“I’m not [expletive] on anybody’s payroll,” he told the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI in one interview.
Prosecutors this week charged Balian with one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
“Mr. Balian moved in criminal circles and operated as though he was above the law by repeatedly lying to hide his criminal activity,” Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement. “His alleged actions impeded legitimate investigations into organized violent crime and consequently presented a threat to public safety.”
Balian once served as spokesman for the Glendale Police Department, according to Los Angeles Times.
In one incident, Balian allegedly offered an informant and a second man $100,000 to “scare” the bodyguard of an Armenian businessman in Commerce, a request that led to a shooting in July 2016, the Los Angeles Times said.
Federal authorities Tuesday afternoon were searching Balian’s Seal Beach home, an FBI spokeswoman said. They were looking for evidence of racketeering, interference with commerce by robbery or extortion, and bribery, according to an affidavit.
The arrested cop was one of five Armenian-American police officers who sued Glendale in 2010, alleging discrimination, retaliation and harassment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
«Бархатную» революцию, или, может быть,
просто смену власти, сравнивают с общенациональным движением 1988 года. Оба
сопровождались массовыми демонстрациями, оба вызвали волну всенародного
пробуждения. На этом, сходства заканчиваются. Сущность обоих движений различна,
и у них разная культурология и мировоззрение.
Граждане Советской Армении воспитывались поэзией Шираза и
Паруйра Севака. Это были патриоты, которые мечтали о возвращении Арарата и
утраченной родины. Советские поколения, воспитанные на синдроме геноцида,
мечтали о мести, и эта накопленная энергия разразилась в 1988 году. Многие
армяне воспринимали местные армянские массовые убийства в Азербайджане как
продолжение геноцида 1915 года.
В 1988 году была единственная консолидирующая цель:
«Карабах – наш». Лозунги «Объединение» и «Борьба, борьба до конца» не содержали
никаких мировоззренческих и государствообразующих проблем. Это была
исключительно заявка на историческую месть. Ради Арцаха люди были готовы
терпеть голод, коррупцию и противозаконные действия и, наконец, умереть. Не
было даже требования о независимости, и если это обсуждалось, то только в
контексте объединения Армении и Арцаха в качестве возможного сценария для
достижения этой цели. Была одна сверхцель, и все остальное было вторичным.
Силы, пришедшие к власти в результате движения,
спекулировали этим вопросом до 2018 года. Не случайно Республиканская партия
Армении и Серж Саргсян постоянно заявляли о том, что они останутся у власти до
тех пор, пока не будет решена проблема Арцаха, и во время общественных
восстаний они угрожали напряжением на границе. Арцахский вопрос держал общество
в заложниках. Оппозиция, в лице АНК и Левона Тер-Петросяна, также спекулировала
этой проблемой, что, мол, проблемы в вопросах безопасности и экономики могут
быть решены только путем уступок Азербайджану.
Несмотря на единственную “социальную заявку” общества в
1988 году, армянское руководство, втайне от общества, в 1991 году признало
Арцах в составе Азербайджана (в СНГ, а затем и во время вступления в ОБСЕ), и
даже в этом вопросе народное требование не было выполнено, однако спекуляция
продолжилась. Общество было в заблуждении, не было проинформировано, что власти
Армении, удерживая Арцах под их контролем, права на него передали Азербайджану.
Как бы то ни было, с 1988 года общество делегировало одно
требование правительству: объединить Арцах с Арменией. Никакой другой
«социальной заявки» или «публичного договора» не существовало.
Движение 2018 года надо еще осмыслить. Лозунг «Откажи
Сержу», помимо решающего принципа, который заключается в том, что за обман
общества наказывют, имеет и другое содержание, которое еще должно быть
сформулировано. Отказ Сержу означает отказ от системы и взаимотношений, которые
были сформированы за последние 25 лет. Глубинный смысл этих отношений еще
предстоит определить и сформулировать. Это не только правила отношений, которые
превратили Армению в болото, но и те учреждения, которые основаны на этих
отношениях, которым необходимо дать RESTART. Ясно одно: нам нужен новый социальный
контракт, и вопрос Арцаха можно решить только на основе новых реалий. Больше не
получится ввергнуть общество в психологические ловушки.
1988 год был основан на старых мифах и восприятиях, 2018
год разрушает старое для построения новых отношений.
The Rosselkhoznadzor may limit the supply of vegetables from Armenia
11.05.2018
| UkrAgroConsult
This is due to the discovery of the tomatoes and the cucumbers quarantine products.
Rosselkhoznadzor may impose temporary restrictions on the import of vegetables from Armenia in connection with the discovery in the Armenian tomatoes and cucumbers quarantine products. This is stated in the message Department.
"In case of continuation of receipt of regulated products, including with the presence of not notified to the Republic of Armenia of quarantine organisms, the Rosselkhoznadzor will have to impose temporary restrictions on regulated products supplied to the territory of the Russian Federation from the Republic of Armenia", – reports the Agency.
It is noted that in may 2018 the Rosselkhoznadzor has intensified quarantine phytosanitary control coming from Armenia products through multilateral automobile checkpoint "Upper Lars". In the period from 3 to 9 may, the specialists of the Rosselkhoznadzor revealed seven cases of detection of two types of quarantine for Russia objects, tomato leaf miner moth on tomatoes and Western (Californian) flower thrips on cucumbers. All products are returned to the exporter.
The Rosselkhoznadzor addressed to the Ministry of agriculture of Armenia with the requirement to conduct a formal investigation into violations and to take measures to prevent similar incidents.
In April, Rosselkhoznadzor has announced plans to inspect manufacturers of tomatoes in Armenia from-for suspicions in the re-export of Turkish products. At the same time the Rosselkhoznadzor noted that the Russian market tomatoes are supplied mainly by two organizations-exporters ("spike" and "Grinprodukt"), which have as their own derivatives of the square, and engaged in buying tomatoes from different manufacturers.
New Hope: Armenia's Young Celebrate Political Changes
1:18 PM
Associated Press
From left to right, Getsy Harutyunyan, Victor Zatikyan, Arman Arutyunian and Yervand Vardanyan talk at a house rented by a group of youths to practice their art activities in Yerevan, May 4, 2018. Many young hopefuls believe that major political changes in this poverty-ridden former Soviet republic could bring back many Armenians who fled the country to seek their fortunes abroad.
YEREVAN, ARMENIA —
As mass protests wracked Armenia last month, 23-year-old Arman Arutyunian laid down his law school books in Vienna and returned to his homeland, sensing that the country was at a watershed.
Now, as the leader of those protests is expected to become prime minister on Tuesday, Arutyunian believes that political changes in the poverty-ridden former Soviet republic could bring back many other Armenians who fled to seek their fortunes abroad.
“Life and hope returned to Armenia. We finally saw some prospects and believed that the hopeless situation in the country can change,” he said.
About 900,000 people who were born in Armenia, a country of 3 million, currently live abroad, according to the U.N. Population Fund. More than 10 percent of the population left the country during the decade — 2008 to 2018 — that Serzh Sargsyan was in power as president. Of those who remained, nearly 12 percent live in dire poverty on less than 1530 drams ($3.20) a day. The nation's official unemployment rate is 16 percent.
Even some Armenians whose families have not lived here for many generations feel involved in Armenia's political transformation.
Rebecca Topakian, from an Armenian diaspora community established in France in the early 20th century, says the current changes may persuade her to stay longer in the nation that her grandparents left.
“I thought well, I'm coming to a country everyone leaves … and now the fact that things are changing makes me want to take part in a country building its politics and independence,” said Topakian, who is working on an art project about her family's roots.
Armenian opposition supporters walk on the street after protest movement leader Nikol Pashinyan announced a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience in Yerevan, Armenia, May 2, 2018. The protests eventually forced the resignation of Armenia’s longtime leader blamed for incompetence and corruption.
Armenians widely blamed Sargsyan and his ruling Republican Party for keeping the country as the Caucasus region's poorest through corruption and incompetence. So when he attempted to get around term limits and remain in power, longstanding frustrations boiled over into protests of up to 100,000 that gripped the capital, Yerevan, for weeks.
Sargsyan had stepped down from the presidency because of term limits but then was appointed by the parliament as prime minister — just as the government's structure had shifted to give the prime minister more power than the president.
Even before Sargsyan was named prime minister, opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinian was spearheading protests against the move that was widely seen as a Sargsyan power grab. Faced with the raucous but largely peaceful protests, Sargsyan resigned six days after his appointment.
Opposition untested
On Tuesday, parliament is selecting a new prime minister and, under a concession made by the Republicans, Pashinian appears certain to be chosen. That would bring into power a man who has offered considerable charisma but no detailed program for how to turn Armenia around.
“We're seeing rising expectations, especially among the youth. But the opposition doesn't have a strategy for developing the country, no plan for modernization. The big question is how the opposition can use and institutionalize the credit of trust that it has received,” said Alexander Iskandrian, an analyst at the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan.
Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan speaks during a news conference in Yerevan, Armenia, April 24, 2018.
For now, many of Armenia's young people are caught between high spirits about the changes wrought by their protests — which were often marked by singing and dancing — and concerns over the challenges ahead.
“Our protest will have a point only in the event that the new ruling elite propose a new scenario to the country and will be able to realize it,” said Toros Khachaturian, a 19-year-old film student.
Karina Eritian, who has an economics degree, ended up taking a job as a supermarket cashier after being unable to find work in her profession, earning 120,000 dram ($250) a month. She is eager for improvements to come, but knows it will take time.
“We very much want changes, but something can hardly change in a month. We are ready to be patient,” the 22-year-old said.
Arutyunian, the law student, is optimistic enough that he doesn't plan to return to Vienna, despite the potential prestige of having a Western diploma. Still, he understands that uncertainty abounds.
“Armenia got a chance, which can easily be lost if there won't be structural changes,” he said. “We have made the first step toward change, but now are frozen in expectation of what is next.”
Berejiklian family's link to Armenian genocide spurs on Premier
by Andrew Clennell NSW Political Editor
NSW Premier Gladys Berejik-lian's commitment to NSW is partly spurned by the experience of her family in the Middle East, with 40 of her relatives dying in the Armenian genocide and all her grandparents orphaned, the Premier will tell the Sydney Institute's annual dinner tonight.
Ms Berejiklian will say it is not her "MO" to talk about her personal story but will break her stand to reveal that "I try to demonstrate my gratitude every day by dedicating myself to making NSW the best it can be".
"As some of you may know, my family were victims of the -Armenian genocide of 1915," Ms Berejiklian will say in her speech.
"All four of my grandparents were orphaned and witnessed untold atrocities. "More than 40 of my relatives were among the 1.5 million Armenians killed in what became the first genocide of the 20th century.
"Those who survived, including my grandparents, were forced to leave their homeland, were displaced across the region and eventually settled in the Middle East. My father was born in -Aleppo, Syria, where we still have family, and my mother was born in Jerusalem.
"Suffice to say the safe haven offered by the Middle East was short-lived. My parents migrated separately to Sydney in the late 1960s and were married in the -Armenian Orthodox Church in Chatswood." Ms Berejiklian's office confirmed last night that some of her family had lost their homes and businesses in the Syrian civil war and were forced to flee Aleppo.
Ms Berejiklian will say she is proud of her parents, who worked as a welder and a nurse as she grew up. "They spoke Armenian at home not only because it was their first language – but also because they felt a responsibility to preserve their heritage, given the atrocities committed against our family and the Armenian people," she says. "They were determined to make sure my sisters and I were bilingual and proud of our heritage.
"But they were equally adamant that we became good citizens and gave back to the nation that welcomed them.
"As their firstborn, my first language was Armenian." Ms Berejiklian remembers not understanding English when she started school. "I remember getting ready for my first day of school and my mother encouraging me not to worry if I didn't understand everything but just to make sure I raised my hand and had a go every time the teacher asked a question.
"I don't actually remember learning English – it just happened. I remember coming back to school after a short stay in hospital to have my tonsils out."The teacher asked me to talk about my experience in hospital and that was my first recollection of speaking in fluent English."
“The Armenian Police warns that such actions can lead to crimes against the lives, well-being and property of the citizens.
The Armenian Police explains again that an assembly accompanied by mass disruptions of public order, although peaceful in nature, can be subjected to limitations through actions that the police considers necessary depending on the given situation. Those actions can be to the extent of dispersion of these rallies,” reads the statement.
Saturday,
Yerevan Streets Still Blocked By Opposition Protesters
• Sisak Gabrielian
Armenia - Opposition supporters are camped in France Square in Yerevan, 14
April 2018.
The Armenian police avoided dispersing opposition supporters that continued to
block the intersection of two key streets in central Yerevan on Saturday in
protest against former President Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent efforts to extend
his rule.
Several thousand people occupied the street sections forming the city’s France
Square on Friday evening after a rally held by opposition leader Nikol
Pashinian at adjacent Liberty Square. Pashinian said he and his associates will
hold nonstop rallies at least until the April 17 election by the Armenian
parliament of the country’s next prime minister.
Pashinian urged the crowd not to leave the square. Only 200 or so people
remained camped there after midnight. Some of them sat on public benches pulled
from nearby sidewalks, while others pitched tents on the asphalt.
There was virtually no police presence in or around the blocked street
junction. In a statement issued on Friday evening, the police criticized the
protest organizers for restricting other citizens’ freedom of movement and “not
cooperating” with law-enforcement authorities and urged them not to “lose
vigilance.”
Another police statement issued later in the evening, warned the protesters
against taking “noisy actions” that would disturb residents of nearby buildings
at night. Neither statement threatened the use of force against the protesters.
As of Saturday noon, the Armenian government and the ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) made no statements on Pashinian’s campaign. The HHK’s governing
Council was due to officially nominate Serzh Sarkisian for prime minister at a
meeting later in the day.
The meeting was originally expected to take place at the HHK headquarter in
downtown Yerevan. Pashinian pledged on Friday to “blockade” the party building
during that meeting.
Pashinian told reporters in the morning, however, that the ruling party’s
leadership has decided to hold the meeting at a hotel in Tsaghkadzor, a resort
town 60 kilometers north of the Armenian capital. He said a large group of
opposition activists will head to Tsaghkadzor and picket the hotel in a convoy
of cars late in the afternoon. He urged other Armenians to also join the
procession and make it “very powerful.”
The HHK did not immediately confirm the change of the meeting venue.
Opposition Protesters Seize Armenian Radio Building
• Hovannes Movsisian
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian and his supporters seize the
offices of Armenian Public Radio in Yerevan, .
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian and hundreds of his supporters seized the
offices of Armenia’s Public Radio and occupied them for about an hour on
Saturday on the second day of their anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan.
The protesters unexpectedly burst into the radio building as they marched
through the city center to condemn former President Serzh Sarkisian’s plans to
extend his rule.
Two police officers guarding the building pulled their guns in an attempt to
stop its seizure. But they did not fire gunshots and were swiftly pushed aside
by the crowd, which broke another entrance door and seized key radio studios
moments later.
Pashinian attributed the extraordinary action to what he described as the
failure of Armenian state television and radio to properly cover his
anti-Sarkisian campaign launched on Friday. He called this and other
broadcasters mouthpieces of government propaganda.
Armenia - Opposition supporters occupy the Public Radio headquarters in
Yerevan, .
“We are protesting against the fact that Armenia’s broadcasters have imposed an
information blockade on our campaign and recent months’ political and civic
consolidation against Serzh Sarkisian,” he told reporters inside one of the
seized studios.
Pashinian also apologized to the police officers and Public Radio staff for the
“inconvenience.” “But with this action we are fighting against a much greater
inconvenience,” he said.
“Please leave the building. You can continue your action outside it,” one of
the police guards told Pashinian.
The opposition leader refused to do that before telephoning Public Radio’s
chief executive, Mark Grigorian, to demand that he be allowed to immediately go
live on air and appeal to Armenians. He insisted on his demand when a senior
radio executive, Lika Tumanian, arrived at the scene.
“Why did you smash the door? Has this institution ever deprived you of free
speech?” she told Pashinian.
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian (L) argues with a senior Public
Radio executive after seizing the radio building in Yerevan, .
Tumanian went on to express readiness to invite to Pashinian to a live talk
show that would be aired three hours later.
“I have come here not to give an interview but to appeal to people,” responded
the oppositionist. Tumanian rejected the demand, saying that the state-run
broadcaster cannot interrupt its programs.
Shortly afterwards, electricity supply to the building was cut off. Public
Radio broadcasts appeared to have also been disrupted.
Pashinian told his supporters to leave the building about one hour after the
intrusion. Public Radio broadcasts resumed about 30 minutes later.
The Armenian police condemned Pashinian’s actions and threatened to launch
criminal proceedings in a statement issued shortly after the radio headquarters
was vacated. The statement also urged him and his supporters to refrain from
further “illegal conduct.”
Sarkisian Nominated As Armenia’s PM Amid Protests
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Senior members of the ruling Republican Party (HHK) vote in
Tsaghkadzor to nominate Serzh Sarkisian to be Armenia’s next prime minister, 14
April 2018.
Ignoring continuing street protests in Yerevan, the ruling Republican Party
(HHK) on Saturday nominated its chairman and former President Serzh Sarkisian
to be Armenia’s next prime minister.
The HHK’s decision-making Council unexpectedly met in the resort town of
Tsaghkadzor, rather than Yerevan, to formalize the nomination the day after the
opposition Civil Contract party launched nonstop demonstrations in the capital
against Sarkisian’s continued rule.
The Civil Contract leader, Nikol Pashinian, told supporters on Friday to gear
up for marching to the HHK headquarters and surrounding it during the key
meeting. After it emerged overnight that the meeting has been moved to
Tsaghkadzor, Pashinian planned on Saturday morning to send a large group of his
loyalists there late in the afternoon.
The HHK again wrong-footed the protest leaders when it announced afterwards
that its Council has already met and nominated Sarkisian for what will now be
Armenia’s top executive post.
A short statement released by the party said the nomination was “proposed” at
the meeting by Karen Karapetian, the outgoing prime minister and the HHK’s
first deputy chairman. “The Council discussed the issue and unanimously
approved [Sarkisian’s] candidacy,” it said.
Armenia -- Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, 14Apr2018
Several photographs of the meeting held at a Tsaghkadzor luxury hotel showed
both Sarkisian and Karapetian addressing senior HHK members. Their remarks were
not immediately made public.
Sarkisian and Karapetian met to discuss their political future on April 7, two
days before the HHK chairman completed his second and final presidential term.
The outgoing premier said afterwards that they decided to “propose” to the HHK
leadership to nominate Sarkisian for prime minister.
Karapetian cited the need for a “smooth and effective transition” to a
parliamentary system of government. He is expected to become the number two
government figure in his new capacity as first deputy prime minister.
The Armenian parliament is scheduled to vote for the new prime minister on
Tuesday. The HHK holds 58 seats in the 105-member National Assembly. Its junior
coalition partner, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun),
controls 7 parliament seats.
The Dashnaktsutyun leadership officially announced its endorsement of
Sarkisian’s candidacy later on Saturday. “Although there are numerous serious
challenges and problems in our country requiring solutions, certain successes
achieved in the last two years make us hope that the chosen path is right,” it
said in a statement.
Dashnaktsutyun cut a power-sharing deal with Sarkisian and the HHK in March
2016. It is represented in the current government by three ministers.
Armenia - An opposition protester in Yerevan rips a poster depicting Serzh
Sarkisian and his 2014 promise not to hold on to power, 13 April 2018.
Sarkisian promised in April 2014 that he will “not aspire” to the post of prime
minister if Armenia becomes a parliamentary republic as a result of his
constitutional changes. He downplayed that pledge last month, citing the
increased risk of renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and other security
challenges facing the country.
The Armenian opposition and Pashinian’s Civil Contract in particular accuse
Sarkisian of failing to keep his word. The ongoing protests in Yerevan are
aimed at scuttling the ex-president’s plans. Pashinian has indicated that his
supporters will march to the parliament building and try to thwart the vote on
the new prime minister on April 17.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
PanARMENIAN.Net – Five nations, including Armenia and Russia, whose doping records have risked weightlifting’s place on the Olympic schedule have been limited to just two athletes for the 2020 Tokyo Games by the sport’s governing body, Reuters reports citing a document.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is effectively allowing Armenia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Belarus only two places each at Tokyo 2020 – as the new rules state that any nation with 20 or more doping violations from 2008 to 2020 will have just one man and one woman at the Games.
Countries with 10-19 doping violations over that same period will be limited to two men and two women in Tokyo. At least nine more countries, including Bulgaria, Iran and India, who have won five weightlifting golds at the Commonwealth Games, fall into that category.
There could be further sanctions, including being banned from the Olympics, or more nations penalized if there are further doping violations before the Olympic qualifying period ends in April 2020, the IWF said.
The crackdown will benefit countries with less than 10 violations from 2008-2020 as they can send up to eight qualifiers each, split equally between men and women.
Collectively Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Armenia have had more than 130 doping violations since 2008, with several cases still outstanding according to the IWF’s website.
All five are among the nine nations serving a one-year suspension until October for multiple retest positives.
Of the four others Ukraine, Moldova and Turkey are in the 10-19 bracket while China is currently safe on seven.