14:16,
YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Tigran Mkrtchyan has been relieved from the position of Armenia’s Ambassador to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia based on the decree signed by President Armen Sarkissian, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.
According to another presidential decree, Armen Martirosyan has been appointed Ambassador of Armenia to Lithuania.
The President signed the respective decrees based on the Prime Minister’s proposal.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
10:44,
YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the leader of the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) opposition party Gagik Tsarukyan are scheduled to hold a meeting on March 18, the Premier’s spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan told ARMENPRESS.
“The meeting between the Prime Minister and Gagik Tsarukyan is planned for today,” she said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Azerbaijani political emigrants have called on EU authorities to respond to Baku's actions.
On March 14, in the western French city of Nantes, unknown assailants attacked the Azerbaijani blogger Muhammad Mirzali. Mirzali, 27, was taken to hospital with 16 stab wounds. This is not the first attack on Azerbaijani refugees. On March 15, political emigrants living in Europe called on the EU authorities to respond to Baku's actions.
An Azerbaijani journalist living in Strasbourg, Emin Akhmedbekov told RFI, Mirzali's condition improved after the surgery, but he still has a long rehabilitation.
According to him, the assassination attempt on Mirzali was not a surprise or accident.
Before that, there was an attempt on another blogger – Orkhan Agayev was attacked in Berlin. He was beaten on 13 February. And on January 6, blogger Gamil Mammadov, who also lives in Germany, was attacked. There was also an incomprehensible incident on December 31 – the Azerbaijani political emigrant Vugar Rza disappeared in Brussels, and only on January 15 was his body found in the river.
"For several years, we have repeatedly stated that European politicians take bribes from the Azerbaijani authorities. European politicians received colossal bribes. Nobody believed us," he noted.
For a long time, European law enforcement agencies were silent. Only after 2017, when the Commission of the Council of Europe launched an investigation, thanks to the activities of the Azerbaijani opposition, the facts of bribery of politicians and officials of the European Union were revealed."
"Today we are talking about a big threat in Europe associated with these groups, with dictatorial regimes."
11:55,
YEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Starting from , “Rostelecom” presents a new special offer "Half Price", within the framework of which the new subscribers of the company will receive the services provided during the first 2 months at half price.
“Rostelecom” subscribers, who subscribe to the Trio service package for a period of 1 year from March 15 to May 15, will pay the half of the monthly fee set for their tariff plan and will get the following advantages:
The offer is also available for all those who will subscribe to Mono Comfort, Mono Ultra and Mono Premium Internet service packages for 1 year, receiving:
More information about the offer can be provided by calling 060464646 or visiting the company's website at the following link https://www.rtarmenia.am/en/for-home/half-price_21/ : Pay the half, get the whole.
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“Rostelecom” Armenia, CJSC “GNC-ALFA” “GNC-ALFA” CJSC was founded in 2007. In February 2012 the company became a member of Rostelecom OJSC group of companies.
Starting from December 18, 2012 “GNC-ALFA” CJSC provides telecommunication services in RA under the brand of “Rostelecom” as a subsidiary company.
As one of the leading telecommunications companies “Rostelecom” in Armenia provides Internet access, Fixed telephony and new generation IP TV services to both physical bodies and corporate clients.
During the period of 2012-2013 the company made large-scale investments in network development and expansion. Investments resulted with successful implementation of new “Fiber to the home” (GPON) technology in a number of cities of Armenia.
Starting from 2014 the company provides services in cities Yerevan (Center, Erebuni, Nubarashen, Ajapnyak, Avan, Nor Nork, Davitshen, Malatia-Sebastia, Arabkir, Shengavit districts), Abovyan, Charentsavan, Hrazdan, Vanadzor, Gyumri, Ashtarak, Metsamor, Armavir, Masis, Artashat, Ararat, Sevan, Dilijan, Ijevan, Kapan, Martuni, Alaverdi and Kajaran. Sales and support offices and shop-in-shops are operating in all cities mentioned.
In September, 2015 “Rostelecom” in Armenia has presented the new Smart TV with its latest technologies and OTT solutions.
The network of “Rostelecom” in Armenia is solely based on fiber-optic cable (FOC) infrastructure covering 80% of the territory of Armenia and spreading for over 3000km.
It is connected to region’s main terrestrial networks and largest traffic exchange nodes as well as international channels of Iran and Georgia.
“Rostelecom” has built 40Gb/s network covering all municipalities of Yerevan and providing high-speed internet connection to all customers.
The Government of Republic of Armenia, State institutions and International organizations, Corporations, local Commercial Banks and Financial institutions, operators are listed as corporate clients of “GNC-ALFA” CJSC.
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PJSC “Rostelecom” (www.rostelecom.ru) is one of the biggest national telecommunications companies in Russia and Europe, with a presence in every segment of the telecommunications services market and coverage of more than 34 million households in Russia.
The Company holds a leading position on the Russian broadband and pay TV markets, with over 10.9 million fixed-line broadband subscribers and more than 7.7 million pay TV customers, of which more than 2.4 million use the unique nationwide “Interactive TV” product.
The Group’s consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2014 was RUB 80.4 billion and its OIBDA reached RUB 26.5 billion (33.0% of revenue), with a net profit of RUB 6.9 billion.
“Rostelecom” is an absolute market leader in providing the telecommunications services to Russian government departments and corporate users at every level.
It is also a recognized technological leader in innovative solutions in the fields of E-government, cloud computing, healthcare, education, security and housing & utility services.
Its stable financial status is confirmed by credit ratings of BBB- from Fitch Ratings and BB+ from Standard & Poor’s.
An Armenian man jailed in California for the 1982 murder of the Turkish consul in Los Angeles will be released on parole, the governor's office confirmed Thursday.
Hampig Sassounian, who is now 58, was jailed in 1984 for opening fire on Turkish diplomat Kemal Arikanwhen after he had stopped at a traffic light on January 28, 1982.
Sassounian, an Armenian immigrant who was living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, was initially sentenced to life behind bars with no chance of parole, but an appeals court overruled that judgment.
In 2002, he signed a declaration renouncing terrorism and was sentenced to life in prison, and to serve a minimum of 25 years.
He had applied for parole on several occasions, unsuccessfully until now.
But a Los Angeles judge recently granted it and a spokeswoman for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had previously opposed the measure, said Thursday he had decided not to challenge the ruling.
"The governor has carefully weighed the factors in this case and will not pursue an appeal," the spokeswoman said.
The US State Department issued a statement saying it was "deeply disappointed" about the forthcoming release.
"Attacking a diplomat is not only a grave crime against a particular individual, it is also an attack on diplomacy itself," it said.
"To ensure the safety of the dedicated US diplomats serving around the world, it has been the longstanding position of the United States to advocate that those who assassinate diplomats receive the maximum sentence possible, and that they serve those sentences without parole or early release," it said.
Today, March 13, marks the 124th birthday anniversary of prominent Armenian poet, writer and public activist Yeghishe Charents.
Yeghishe Charents (Yeghishe Soghomonyan) was born in Kars (then a part of the Russian Empire) in 1897 to a family engaged in rug trade.
He first attended an Armenian, but later transferred to a Russian technical secondary school in Kars from 1908 to 1912. In 1912, he had his first poem published in the Armenian periodical Patani (Tiflis).
Amid the upheavals of the First World War and the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, he volunteered to fight in a detachment in 1915 for the Caucasian Front. Sent to Van in 1915, Charents was a witness to the destruction that the Turkish garrison had laid upon the Armenian population, leaving indelible memories that would later be read in his poems. He left the front one year later, attending school at the Shanyavski People's University in Moscow. The horrors of the war and genocide had scarred Charents and he became a fervent supporter of the Bolsheviks, seeing them as the one true hope to saving Armenia.
Charents joined the Red Army and fought during the Russian Civil War as a rank and file soldier in Russia and the Caucasus. In 1919, he returned to Armenia and took part in revolutionary activities there. A year later, he began work at the Ministry of Education as the director of the Art Department. Charents would also once again take up arms, this time against his fellow Armenians, as a rebellion took place against Soviet rule in February 1921. Then, Charents published his satirical novel, Land of Nairi (Yerkir Nairi), which became a great success and twice published in Russian in Moscow during the life of poet.
In 1924-1925 Charents went on a seven-month trip abroad, visiting Turkey, Italy (where he met Avetik Isahakyan), France, and Germany. When Charents returned, he founded a union of writers, November, and worked for the state publishing house from 1928 to 1935.
In 1930 Charents's book, "Epic Dawn", which consisted of poems he wrote in 1927-30, was published in Yerevan. It was dedicated to his first wife Arpenik.
His last collection of poems, "The Book of The Way", was printed in 1933, but its distribution was delayed by the Soviet government until 1934, when it was reissued with some revisions. In this book the authors lays out the panorama of Armenian history and reviews it part-by-part. William Saroyan met him in 1934 in Moscow and thereafter described him as a courtly, brilliant man who was desperately sad.
Excepting few poems in journals, Charents could publish nothing after 1934 (at the same time, in December 1935 Stalin asked an Armenian delegation how Charents is).
In July 1936, when Soviet Armenian leader Aghasi Khanjian was killed, Charents wrote a series of seven sonnets. After Komitas's death he wrote one of his last great works, "Requiem Æternam in Memory of Komitas" (1936).
Actress Arus Voskanyan told about her last visit to Charents: "He looked fragile but noble. He took some morphine and then read some Komitas. When I reached over to kiss his hand he was startled". He became a morphine addict under the pressure of the campaign against him and because he was suffering from colic, caused by a kidney stone. The hypodermic needle Charents used for his habit is on exhibit in his museum in Yerevan.
A victim of Stalinism, he was charged for "counterrevolutionary and nationalist activity" and imprisoned during the 1937 Great Purge. He died in prison hospital. All his books were also banned. Charent's younger friend, Regina Ghazaryan buried and saved many manuscripts of the Armenian poet. Charents was rehabilitated in 1954 after Stalin's death.
Charent's works were translated by Valeri Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Arseny Tarkovsky, Louis Aragon, Marzbed Margossian, Diana Der Hovanessian, and others. His home at 17 Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan was turned into a museum in 1975. The Armenian town of Charentsavan was named after him.
YEREVAN. – PM Nikol Pashinyan had instructed his MPs to definitely flop the voting for the election of the new judges of cassation court because he is offended by the demeanor of individual judges who are human rights advocates. Gevorg Petrosyan, an independent MP of the National Assembly of Armenia, told this to a press conference on Monday.
"Since not all judges blindly carry out his will, he places that blame on the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council [Ruben Vardazaryan], and they have completely forgotten what it is about," Petrosyan added.
"Nikol Pashinyan says, 'One of our [the incumbent authorities] mistakes was being loved [by the people].' Are you loved [by the people]? If you're loved, why do you walk around with bodyguards? (…). He has committed so many illegal acts during these months that he realizes that once he resigns, they [the law enforcement] will knock on his door and take him away one hour later,” the MP noted.
Also, Petrosyan announced that the ignorant had come to Nikol Pashinyan's rally last week.
As for Pashinyan's statement that Onik Gasparyan—chief of the army General Staff—has carried out ex-President Serzh Sargsyan's order, Pashinyan is embarrassing himself with that. "That is, you are so ‘zero’ that Onik Gasparyan carried out the order of a person who does not hold a position," Gevorg Petrosyan said.
March 4, 2021
Opposition leader Vazgen Manukyan speaks to reporters
Homeland Salvation Movement’s candidate for prime minister, Vazgen Manukyan, who was charged on Thursday with allegedly breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, rejected those charges saying they are politically motivated.
Manukyan was summoned to appear on Thursday at Armenia’s Investigative Services headquartered, where he was officially charged with violating article 301 of Armenia’s Criminal Code—breaching the country constitutional order. The Investigative committee cited remarks made by Manukyan on February 12 and 20, when allegedly he incited a violent overthrow of the government.
As an example the investigative committee cited remarks made by Manukyan on February 20 during a rally, where he said: “At any moment — it could be today, one week later or ten days later — we must be ready for revolting and taking power at lightning speed.”
Manukyan was released on his own recognizance and signed a document pledging to leave the country while the criminal proceedings continued.
“This is real political persecution. There is no other way I can describe it,” Manukyan told reporters on Thursday before enter the National Investigative Services headquarters.
“During the past two and a half years in our country, the constitution and laws have been violated at least once every month by the leadership of the country no less,” Manukyan told reporters adding that the constitution has been violated on numerous occasions after the war.
“After the humiliating defeat, now, that it is not a military situation, the prime minister continues to surrender lands in Syunik. This is a major breach of the Constitution and its criminal, and criminal charges must be filed against him,” explained Manukyan.
He said that if he is remanded into custody, the movement will continue, saying that theirs is a popular movement.
“If they remand me, there are thousands of people who will continue the movement. This is not a whimsical effort. This is popular demand and the only salvation,” added Manukyan saying he would not respond to any question and will not be giving a deposition.
Manukyan’s attorney, Aram Vartevanyan, said that this was a “ordered” by the authorities, adding that it was absurd to bring criminal charges against political speech, reported Azatutyun.am.
11:56, 4 March, 2021
YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS. The acquisition of coronavirus vaccines is still in process, Minister of Healthcare Anahit Avanesyan said.
“Negotiations continue, there is a certain overall protraction of processes, but together with our partners abroad we are trying to exert pressure so that the accessibility of developing countries is ensured. We hope to have the first batch during spring. The negotiations with the Russian side are completed regarding the first batch, the contract is in the signing phase. We expect to import this batch [Sputnik V] in the first month of spring,” she said.
Avanesyan noted that people should continue wearing face masks parallel to the vaccination process. “There is a misconception, people who’ve recovered from COVID-19 are reluctant to wear face masks. But we don’t have any proven scientific approach whereby the infection with other strains is ruled out,” she said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan