MORE THAN 4000 BOOKS TO BE PASSED TO ARMENIA’S PENITENTIARIES
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 20:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Libraries of Abovian, Vardashen, Erebuni, Hrazdan
and Sevan penitentiaries will receive some 4000 books, journals,
manuals and learning aids. Collection of books was initiated by the
Civil Society Institute in Armenia.
Books in several languages have been donated by individuals, as well
as private and public organizations.
PARLIAMENTARIAN SASUN MIKAELYAN SENTENCED TO 8 YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT
ArmInfo
2009-06-22 17:05:00
ArmInfo. Armenian parliamentarian, one of the defendants in ‘the Case
of the Seven’, Sasun Mikaelyan was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment
by Kotayk Court. Mikaelyan is charged with Article 225 part 1 (5 years
of imprisonment) and Article 235 part 2 (5 years of imprisonment).
Through partial addition of the terms of the sentences, Mikaelyan
was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment. S. Mikaelyan was found not
guilty in the charge with Article 235 part 1. The amnesty adopted by
the Armenian Parliament last week did not apply to Sasun Mikaelyan
since Article 235 part 2 was not involved in the list of the articles
subject to amnesty.
RA PARLIAMENT PASSES DECISION ON GRANTING AMNESTY
Noyan Tapan
June 19, 2009
YEREVAN, JUNE 19, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 19, the RA National Assembly
with 98 votes "for," 1 "against" and 3 "abstained" passed the decision
on granting an amnesty made up on the basis of proposals acceptable for
the RA President. Zharangutiun (Heritage) faction members were against
and abstained, the reason of which was turning down of their proposals
on extending the amnesty on all persons accused on the March events.
According to the main reporter, RA Minister of Justice Gevorg
Danielian, amnesty’s decision will be used to persons committing
a crime by June 1 of the current year. It was also mentioned that
according to approximate calculations, in total, the amnesty will
extend to nearly 2 thousand persons, 500 of which will be completely
get free of serving their punishment.
The amnesty will also extend to nearly 90% persons accused on the March
events. Among them, those sentenced to maximum 5 years’ imprisonment
will get completely free of serving their punishment.
The amnesty will not be used in a number of cases, including, in
particular, to persons being in search before passing this decision,
with the exception of those voluntarily presenting themselves to the
law enforcement bodies by July 31 of the current year and to the
court if the case is examined at the court. The decision will not
extend to an especially dangerous repeated commission of crimes,
as well as to persons committing several crimes if no amnesty is
envisaged for even if one of those crimes.
The decision also establishes the conditions of reduction of the
non-served part of punishment, the responsibles of execution of
amnesty decision are clarified in separate cases. Amnesty is subject
to granting to persons kept at disciplinary battalions and RA Justice
Ministry penitentiary institutions, as well as to persons suspendedly
set free of punishment ahead of term, to persons, the punishment set
to which was delayed or the punishment was not used suspendedly or
to those sentenced to punishments not connected with imprisonment by
September 30 of the current year.
UAE FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT ARMENIA IN SATURDAY
ARKA
June 19, 2009
YEREVAN, June 19. /ARKA/. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United
Arabic Emirates Sheikh Abdallah Bin Zayid Al Nahyan will pay an
official two-day visit to Armenia on Saturday, the press-service of
the RA Foreign Ministry reported.
The Minister and the UAE delegation headed by him will have meeting
with RA President Serzh Sargsyan, Speaker of the National Assembly
Hovik Abrahamyan and Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian.
During their meetings the sides will discuss will discuss
bilateral trade and economic relations and will sign two documents –
intergovernmental agreement on mutual grant of lands for establishing
diplomatic representations in Armenia and UAE as well as on removal
of requirements for receiving visas for individuals with diplomatic
passports.
ECHR ASKS: WHY DID YOU NOT PROTECT HRANT DINK?
Erol Onderoa~^Lu [email protected]
BIA Magazine
June 18 2009
Turkey
The ECHR has granted Turkey until November to answer questions related
to the murder of journalist Dink.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has received five
applications related to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, the editor of the weekly Agos newspaper, in January 2007.
Having merged applications which were made at different times,
the court is now asking Turkey questions, to which it wants answers
by November.
Lawyer Deniz Tuna of the International Hrant Dink Foundation told
bianet that the applications were related to parts of the European
Convention on Human Rights concerned with the violation of the right
to life, the right to an effective application to court, the right
to a fair trial, the right to freedom of expression and the ban on
discrimination.
One application by Dink himself Hrant Dink had appealed to the ECHR
two weeks before he was killed in relation to a six-month deferred
prison sentence he had received under Article 159 of the Turkish
Penal Code for a series of articles entitled "Armenian Identity".
Following his murder, lawyers for his family had appealed to the ECHR
when the Trabzon police and gendarmerie and the Istanbul police were
not taken to court although they were accused of having been negligent
in evaluating intelligence on murder plans.
Another application relates to the lack of punishment for Samsun
police officers who took "souvenir shots" with the suspected gunman
Ogun Samast after catching him at the Samsun bus station a day after
the murder.
Evidence of serious negligence The Prime Ministerial Review
Committee had pointed to a "serious lack of coordination" in the
sharing of intelligence between security institutes prior to the
murder. Nevertheless, no public official is being tried in the main
murder case heard at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court.
Police Intelligence Head Ramazan Akyurek, Istanbul Chief of Police
Celalettin Cerrah and Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler from the Istanbul Intelligence
Unit, as well as other officials, were never brought to court.
Rather, 18 young men, most from the Pelitli town in Trabzon province,
are on trial for the murder, as well as CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci, a gendarmerie
informant who claims that he notified the officials of murder plans,
and Osman Hayal, brother of suspect Yasin Hayal. Osman Hayal has been
found to have been in Istanbul on the day of the murder, a fact which
he denied for a long time.
The tenth hearing of the main murder trial is on 6 July.
Gendarmerie officers in separate case Eight gendarmerie officers are on
trial for negligence in not having evaluated the intelligence. However,
they only face up to two years imprisonment. Their trial continues
on 24 July.
Lawyers for the Dink family have long called for the cases to be
merged, as it was the neglect of the officers which led to the death
of Hrant Dink. (EO/AG)
AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Noyan Tapan
June 18, 2009
RYDE, JUNE 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Parliamentarian
Mr. Victor Dominello from the Australian city of Ryde (LIB) has
recently spoken about the Armenian Genocide at State Parliament,
stating the importance of universal condemnation of Genocide. According
to him, the failure to condemn and punish the perpetrators of Genocide
will simply contribute to the crime’s continuation. V.Dominello
called on the Federal government to follow the government of NSW in
recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
Victor Dominello calling to the Australian Armenian community of
Ryde assured that he will assist them to achieve recognition of
Armenian Genocide.
ANC Australia President, Mr. Varant Meguerditchian thanked
parliamentarian V. Dominello for his support and noted that they
believe his words will ring loud in Canberra and other legislative
structures throughout the world.
VIVA-CELL MTS EXPANDED 3G-ROAMING GEOGRAPHY
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.06.2009 19:08 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Immediately after 3G network launch, Viva-Cell
MTS announced a new 3G roaming service. Today Viva-Cell MTS informed
about 3G roaming services expansion to 16 operators’ networks in 14
countries, including Bulgaria, Egypt, Estonia, France, Hong Kong,
Island, Macedonia, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain , Tanzania,
Columbia and Sweden.
Viva-Cell MTS will keep offering voice connection services, as well
as innovative services based on GPRS/EDGE and 3G technologies in more
countries by attracting new roaming partners.
Currently the company has 375 roaming partners in 177 countries
of the world (excluding MTS group roaming partners). Besides, the
company collaborates with 68 CAMEL roaming partners in 44 countries
and 87 GPRS roaming partners in 56 countries. In many parts of the
world Viva-Cell MTS subscribers can use roaming services via several
operators’ networks.
After complete integration of MTS, Viva-Cell MTS subscribers will
be able to use roaming services in MTS roaming partners’ networks,
company’s official website reported.
ARMENIAN COLLEGE AND PHILANTHROPIC ACADEMY OF CALCUTTA REOPENED
AZG Armenian Daily
18/06/2009
Diaspora
After a one-month-summer holiday, the Armenian College and
Philanthropic Academy of Calcutta has reopened its doors to start
2009-2010 academic year, the press service of the Mother See of Holy
Edzmiatsin reports.
Being one of the oldest schools in Diaspora, the Armenian College and
Philanthropic Academy of Calcutta continues to carry out educational
work in far India under the patronage of the Mother See of Holy
Edzmiatsin and the Catholicos of All Armenians.
At present Indian Armenians, as well as Armenian young people from
Armenia, Iran and Iraq study at the Academy to acquire knowledge and
Armenian upbringing.
This year a group of Armenian young people from Iraq attend the
Academy, as well as teachers from Armenia are invited to lecture at
the Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy of Calcutta
WB PRESENTS A REPORT ON ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING IN ARMENIA
Sona Hakobyan
"Radiolur"
17.06.2009 16:56
The Report on the "Observance of Standards and Codes: Accounting and
Auditing" of the World Bank was presented in Yerevan today. Specialists
of the sphere presented the reforms in the sphere of financial
accounting and auditing implemented in the world and he countries of
the region.
Reference was made to the influence of the global financial-economic
crisis on reforms.
The report presents an assessment of accounting, financial reporting
and auditing requirements and practices within the enterprise and
financial sectors in Armenia. The report uses International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Standards on Auditing
(ISA) as benchmark and draws on international exercise and good
practices in the field of accounting and audit regulation, including
the EU member states, to assess the quality of financial information
and make policy recommendations.
"The World Bank will be with Armenia throughout the process of reforms
in the field of accounting and auditing," said John Hegarty, Head of
the World Bank Centre for Financial Reporting Reform. He underlined
that Armenia had registered great progress in this regard, but there
was still some way to pass. "The World Bank will be beside Armenia as
long as necessary. We are here to assist Armenia. The importance of
raisin g the level of financial accountability especially increases
under the conditions of the crisis, accounting and audit become
extremely essential, because they play a regulatory role. Crisis means
new challenges, the risks increase, their measurability decreases,
but we are sure we’ll work together to resist this," Mr. Hegarty said.
Head of the World Bank Office in Armenia Aristomene Varoudakis
expressed hope that this report would enable Armenia to improve
the corporative accounting and auditing, since these are among the
important prerequisites for the country’s development. According
to him, the corporative financial transparency is important for
the private sector, as well: it provides the investors with an
opportunity to properly assess the corporative perspectives of the
companies, increases their trust in private companies and promotes
the availability of credits for small and medium-sized businesses.
According to RA Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan, accounting and
auditing are one of the most important spheres of the financial sector,
and their productive activity promotes the development of the economic
and financial system of the country. The Minister informed that
Armenia had been implementing reforms in cooperation with the World
Bank and other financial institutions to have the sphere correspond
to international standards.
US Embassy in Armenia
1 AMERICAN AVENUE
YEREVAN, ARMENIA
TELEPHONE (+374 10) 464700
FAX (+374 10) 464742
E-Mail: [email protected]
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch to Visit Armenian Diaspora
Groups in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. from June 18 to
July 1
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch will meet with
representatives of the Armenian-American Diaspora community during her visit
to Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. June 18 – July 1, 2009.
Ambassador Yovanovitch will meet with U.S. government officials, Armenian
diplomats, business leaders, and media representatives to discuss present
and future cooperation between the United States and Armenia. She will also
visit with civil society representatives and members of the Armenian
religious community.
Ambassador Yovanovitch looks forward to exchanging views on current
developments in Armenia, U.S-Armenian relations, and U.S. foreign policy in
Armenia. She will also highlight U.S. Government assistance efforts in the
country. Community meetings will be held in the following venues and are
open to the general public:
Friday, June 19 at 7:00 p.m.
Armenian Cultural Foundation
441 Mystic Street, Arlington, MA 02474
Monday, June 22 at 7:00 p.m.
Diocese of the Armenian Church
Haik and Alice Kavookjian Hall
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Thursday, June 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Western Diocese of the Armenian Church
3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91504
Friday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Church
6252 Honolulu Avenue, La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tuesday, June 30 at 12:30 p.m.
Library of Congress, Mumford Room
1st Street SE, Washington DC 20543