Author: Jirair Kafian

Art: “A New Yerevan is Rising”: Armenian capital hosting poster art exhibition

Jirair Kafian
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 16 2019
Culture 11:55 16/01/2019 Armenia

A poster art exhibition dedicated to the Armenian capital of Yerevan opened on Tuesday at Gallery Space of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Armenia, the Ministry of Culture said.

Titled “A New Yerevan is Rising”, the exhibition is organized as part of the events marking the 2800th anniversary of the capital. The event features an array of posters from the late 19th century until today that were produced in and dedicated to Yerevan. The exhibition aims to show the development of Yerevan poster art, the best examples from different time periods, and to present the main trends in poster art of the past century.

Of particular interest are those posters which focus on the cultural and social spheres of Armenia’s capital. They are directly related to the city's history and cultural vitality, highlighting the everyday life and entertainment of Yerevan residents, AGBU Armenia said on Facebook.

The exhibition features pre-Soviet theatre and concert bulletins, and a variety of Soviet-era posters addressing subjects from social and 'citizen education', to film announcements and city posters. The exhibit also includes examples of contemporary Armenian poster art.

"A New Yerevan is Rising" is initiated by the Culture and Art for Peace Educational NGO and organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture and AGBU Armenia.   

The exhibition runs through 15 February. 

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/08/2019

Jirair Kafian 
                                        Tuesday, 

Indicted Businessman Seeks Medical Treatment Abroad

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - Businessman Samvel Mayrapetian at the official opening of his 
Toyota-Yerevan car dealership in Yerevan, 23 June 2009.

A prominent Armenian businessman prosecuted on corruption charges has appealed 
to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after law-enforcement authorities 
in Yerevan refused to allow him to undergo medical treatment abroad.

The millionaire businessman, Samvel Mayrapetian, was arrested and charged with 
“assisting in bribery” in October. Armenia’s Special Investigative Service 
(SIS) has still not publicized details of the accusations. The tycoon had 
greatly benefited from close ties with the country’s former governments.

An Armenian court freed Mayrapetian on bail on December 27. He has remained in 
a Yerevan hospital since then.

Immediately after his release Mayrapetian requested the SIS’s permission to 
leave for Germany for health reasons. The law-enforcement body refused to 
return his passport.

Mayrapetian’s lawyers responded by asking the ECHR on January 2 to order the 
Armenian authorities to allow his treatment in a German clinic.

The lawyers said on Monday that the Strasbourg court has accepted the lawsuit 
and asked the Armenian Justice Ministry to explain the investigators’ refusal 
to let the suspect leave the country. A ministry spokesperson confirmed the 
information on Tuesday.

One of the lawyers, Karen Batikian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that his 
client is suffering from a life-threatening form of pancreatitis that requires 
urgent surgery. He insisted that Armenian hospitals lack modern equipment 
needed for such an operation.

“His life is really in very serious danger,” said Batikian. “We have documents 
signed by doctors certifying that this disease cannot be cured in Armenia.”

Batikian said later in the day that the SIS has handed the passport back to 
Mayrapetian but made clear that he will still not be allowed to fly to Germany.

Mayrapetian is one of Armenia’s leading real estate developers who also owns a 
national TV channel and a car dealership. His company was involved in a 
controversial redevelopment of old districts in downtown Yerevan during the 
1998-2008 rule of former President Robert Kocharian. Some media outlets for 
years linked Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership.

Kocharian is currently held in pretrial detention, having been charged in 
connection with the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests in 
March 2008. He denies the accusations as politically motivated.



Armenian, Azeri FMs Set For More Talks


U.S. - Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov (R) of Azerbaijan and Zohrab 
Mnatsakanian (second from right) of Armenia pose for a photograph with the OSCE 
Minsk Group co-chairs in New York, 26 September 2018.

International mediators are trying to organize another meeting of Armenia’s and 
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers later this month, the Armenian Foreign Ministry 
said on Tuesday.

“The [U.S., Russian and French] co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have proposed 
a meeting of the foreign ministers in January,” the ministry spokeswoman, Anna 
Naghdalian, told the Armenpress news agency. “An announcement on the meeting 
will be made in a coordinated manner.”

Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar 
Mammadyarov held three face-to-face meetings in the second half of 2018.

According to the co-chairs, at their most recent talks held in Milan on 
December 5 Mnatsakanian and Mammadyarov pledged to “work intensively to promote 
a peaceful resolution of the conflict and to further reduce tensions.”

“They agreed to meet again in early 2019 under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk 
Group Co-Chairs for this purpose and in order to facilitate high-level talks,” 
the mediating troika said in a December 6 statement.

Both ministers described the Milan meeting as “useful.” Mammadyarov said that 
it resulted in a rare “mutual understanding” between the two parties to the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The ministers met in the Italian city the day before Armenian Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke to each other at a 
summit of ex-Soviet states held in Russia.

Pashinian and Aliyev also had a brief conversation during the previous CIS 
summit held in Tajikistan in September. There has been a significant decrease 
in ceasefire violations in the Karabakh conflict zone since then.

“The year 2019 will give a new impetus to the Armenia-Azerbaijan 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process,” Aliyev wrote on his Twitter page 
on December 14.

Pashinian tweeted two hours later that a Karabakh settlement “remains a top 
priority” for Armenia.



Court Approves Fresh Arrest Warrant Over 2008 Crackdown

        • Anush Muradian

Armenia- Vahagn Harutyunian, the former head of a criminal investigation into 
the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.

A Yerevan court has approved a fresh arrest warrant against the man who led a 
criminal investigation into the 2008 post-election violence in Armenia during 
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.

The former official, Vahagn Harutiunian, was charged in late October with 
forging factual evidence to cover up the Armenian army’s involvement in the 
deadly breakup of opposition protests staged in the wake of a disputed 
presidential election. He left Armenia for Russia in July, ostensibly to 
receive medical treatment, and apparently remains there.

On November 2, a court of first instance in the Armenian capital allowed the 
Special Investigative Service (SIS) to arrest Harutiunian pending 
investigation. The Court of Appeals annulled the arrest warrant on December 13, 
however.

Shortly afterwards, Harutiunian was also charged with two counts of abuse of 
power. According to an SIS spokeswoman, Marina Ohanjanian, the district court 
again sanctioned the former SIS investigator’s arrest on December 30.

Harutiunian rejected the initial accusation leveled against him as “unfounded, 
illegal and fabricated” when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service by phone on 
November 1. He insisted that his team of investigators never found any evidence 
of illegal actions taken by the Armenian military during the 2008 unrest, which 
left eight protesters and two police servicemen dead.

The SIS completely changed the official version of events following last 
spring’s mass protests that toppled Sarkisian. It now says that Sarkisian’s 
outgoing predecessor, Robert Kocharian, illegally ordered army units into the 
streets of Yerevan before declaring a state of emergency on March 1, 2008.

Kocharian was arrested on December 7 on charges of overthrowing Armenia’s 
constitutional order. The former president denies them, saying that Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian is waging a political “vendetta” against him.

Pashinian was a key speaker at the 2008 protests. The former journalist 
subsequently spent about two years in prison for organizing what the SIS used 
to describe as “mass disturbances.” He strongly denied those charges.


New Parliament Majority ‘Wary’ Of Opposition Party

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Gevorg Gorgisian (L) and other election candidates of the Bright 
Armenia party campaign in Yerevan, November 26, 2018.

An opposition politician claimed on Tuesday that Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s government is too scared to cede a leadership position in Armenia’s 
newly elected parliament to his party.

Pashinian’s My Step alliance named the incoming speaker of the National 
Assembly and two of his three deputies ten days after winning the December 9 
parliamentary elections by a landslide.

The Armenian constitution reserves the third post of deputy speaker for a 
representative of the parliamentary opposition. It will therefore be given to 
one of the two other political parties that have entered the new parliament: 
Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Bright Armenia. They will have 26 and 18 
parliament seats respectively.

Pashinian indicated on Monday that My Step lawmakers will likely vote for a 
candidate of the BHK because the latter is the second largest parliamentary 
force.

Gevorg Gorgisian, a senior Bright Armenia lawmaker, dismissed Pashinian’s 
explanation. “It’s a political decision, and I think it’s wrong to cover it up 
with different wording,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “They should just 
come out and openly say that they have decided to gift that post to the BHK.”

Gorgisian insisted that his party will be a “strong opposition” with or without 
controlling the post of vice-speaker. “Maybe they are scared of further 
strengthening Bright Armenia by giving it [power] levers,” he said of the 
parliament majority.

Bright Armenia, Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and another party made up the 
Yelk alliance that was in opposition to the country’s former government. 
Pashinian toppled it in May after weeks of mass protests organized by him. 
Bright Armenia declined to join the protest movement.



Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

Armenia acting PM: Gas talks with Russia continue

Jirair Kafian
News.am, Armenia
Jan 7 2019
Armenia acting PM: Gas talks with Russia continue Armenia acting PM: Gas talks with Russia continue

19:19, 07.01.2019

YEREVAN. – Gas talks with Russia continue, and we will do our best to defend our national interests, acting PM Nikol Pashinyan told reporters.

He commented on the question whether the present talks can be considered as a defeat for the Armenian authorities.

“We will continue talks and we will do our best to defend our national interests. Is it a defeat?”

As to the possible supplies of the Iranian natural gas, acting PM said the issue has been discussed and will be discussed, until a favorable solution is found.

Ombudsman rejects reports about attacked LGBT person in Artsakh

Jirair Kafian
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 6 2019

The Human Rights Defender of the Artsakh Republic Artak Beglaryan has rejected the reports about gay person attacked in Artsakh.

“Moments ago, an explicit fake page on Facebook published a post claiming that a gay person was severely beaten in Artsakh. The person in question was identified as a Diaspora Armenian named James Markosyan who had visited Artsakh for the Holiday Season from France. Regretfully, some media outlets republished the report without checking its veracity,” Beglaryan wrote on Facebook.

In his message the Ombudsman states that respective enquiries to the Artsakh Republic foreign ministry, ministry of healthcare and the police sent prove that no person with the indicated name has ever filed a complaint to the police., applied for a medical aid and ever received a visa to enter Artsakh.

Furthermore, Beglaryan points out that the photo accompanying the initial report on the Facebook page was taken from another source. The Ombudsman thus call on all outlets to refrain from publishing explicitly fake news.

Armenia, Russia to intensify talks on gas, Kremlin says

Jirair Kafian

Armenia, Russia to intensify talks on gas, Kremlin says

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15:57, 28 December, 2018

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Russia will intensify negotiations on gas, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said, according to TASS.

Peskov said that the matter was addressed by Armenian caretaker PM Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin during their December 27 meeting in Moscow.

"It was agreed to intensify the conversation on gas, because until yesterday, unfortunately, we could not state active negotiations between our Gazprom and Armenian colleagues," Peskov said, according to TASS.
Meanwhile, according to RIA Novosti, the issue has also been discussed between Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Armenia’s caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan in St. Petersburg today.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Holocaust survivor chronicled tragedy with dark wit

Jirair Kafian
The Washington Post
January 3, 2019 Thursday
Holocaust survivor chronicled tragedy with dark wit
 
by  Harrison Smith
 
 
Edgar Hilsenrath, a German Holocaust survivor who chronicled the degradations of the ghettos in one novel and dared to turn genocide into satire in another, selling millions of copies and defying critics who said he was too funny, too gruesome and too vulgar, died Dec. 30 at a hospital in Wittlich, Germany. He was 92.
 
The cause was pneumonia, according to an obituary published on Mr. Hilsenrath's website by his manager, Ken Kubota.
 
Laconic in interviews, wearing a black beret and often shrouded in cigarette smoke, Mr. Hilsenrath was a best-selling writer whose books were widely translated – his most celebrated, "The Nazi and the Barber" (1971), was a black comedy told from the perspective of an SS officer – and often drew on his childhood in Hitler's Germany, adolescence in a Romanian shtetl and war years in a Ukrainian ghetto.
 
While other works sought to find some higher meaning or lesson in the Holocaust, focusing on the determination of its survivors or the heroism of those who sought to help, novels such as "Night" (1964) – Mr. Hilsenrath's first – focused almost entirely on the suffering and agony of its victims.
 
Completed while Mr. Hilsenrath was working as a waiter in New York City, "Night" was centered on Ranek, a Jewish man forced to live in a ghetto modeled after the one in Ukraine where Mr. Hilsenrath, his mother and his brother were sent in 1941.
 
While the Hilsenrath family lived in relative comfort, staying inside the classroom of an old school building, Ranek slept under a table and, to barter for food, used a hammer to pry a gold tooth loose from his dead brother's jaw. Other ghetto prisoners were forced to eat garbage.
 
Asked why his book's unlucky hero was a member of the ghetto's lowest social class, rather than a more autobiographical version of himself, Mr. Hilsenrath told Der Spiegel it may have been "because I had a guilty conscience." He added, "I felt guilty because I survived."
 
Mr. Hilsenrath's novel also featured Jewish characters who rape and brutalize women in the ghetto – a dark shading that generated controversy in West Germany, where, Mr. Hilsenrath noted, most contemporary novels about the Holocaust idealized its Jewish victims. "The Jews in the ghetto," he told Der Spiegel, "were every bit as imperfect as human beings anywhere else."
 
"Hilsenrath's priority is the plight of the oppressed," German scholar Dagmar C.G. Lorenz wrote in "The Routledge Encyclopedia of Jewish Writers of the 20th Century." "Disregarding official versions of history he explores aspects of domination: lust, sexual gratification and greed, all merging into the ecstasy of power. Few other writers have so candidly exposed the ties between sadism, politics, war and genocide."
 
His follow-up was "The Nazi and the Barber" (1971), about Max Schulz, a Nazi war criminal who escapes prosecution by adopting the identity of one of his concentration-camp victims – a Jewish friend from his childhood – and moves to Israel to become a war hero and hair dresser. In a closing scene, he confronts God, declaring that inaction from the divine was partly responsible for the Holocaust. The scene was deleted from the German-language edition, according to Kubota, because Mr. Hilsenrath did not want it to seem as though he was absolving the German people of guilt.
 
Sixty German publishers initially refused to publish the novel, which was originally released by Doubleday and published in the original German in 1977. The book received a critical boost from Nobel Prize-winning writer Heinrich BÃ ll, who praised its "gloomy and quiet poetry," while noting that he had to overcome a "threshold of disgust."
 
It was, Mr. Hilsenrath said, a typical problem with his novels, which later included "The Story of the Last Thought" (1989), an alternately humorous and despairing account of the Armenian genocide, in which some 1.5 million Armenians were murdered in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
 
"Sensitive readers do have problems with my books," Mr. Hilsenrath told Der Spiegel in 2005, recalling a time in which he sent a copy of his Armenian novel to a friend. "She called me a bit later and was totally horrified. She had just read the part about the 97-year-old man that sleeps with a Kurdish 9-year-old girl and said she could not go on reading the book. That's how it is with my books."
 
Edgar Hilsenrath was born in Leipzig on April 2, 1926, and raised in the nearby city of Halle, also known as Saale. As anti-Semitic attacks escalated in Germany, the family decided to flee. In 1938, Mr. Hilsenrath's father, a furrier, told the family he would eventually meet them in Paris. His mother took Mr. Hilsenrath and his brother to her native Romania, where they lived in the town of Siret, just across the border from Ukraine.
 
In 1941 the family was deported, taken by cattle truck to a ghetto in Mogilev-Podolsk, Ukraine. Defying the rules of the ghetto, they sewed jewelry and other valuables into their clothing, then traded them for food with nearby farmers. Mr. Hilsenrath told the reference work Contemporary Authors that he once attempted to escape but was captured and received a death sentence. He said he "stood facing the firing squad for about 10 minutes" before "the order to shoot was rescinded."
 
By late 1944, the ghetto was liberated by the Soviet Red Army, and Mr. Hilsenrath made his way back to Siret, where a group of Zionists from Bucharest invited him to settle what was then British-controlled Palestine. He lived there for several years before moving to France, where he reunited with his father and the rest of the family, determined to become a writer.
 
His idiosyncratic brand of gallows humor was developed after the war, he once told German radio, "because it was the only way to deal with all the bad memories."
 
Mr. Hilsenrath moved to New York in 1951 and returned to Germany in 1975, around the time the country was experiencing a rash of anti-Semitic attacks and demonstrations. One reading by Mr. Hilsenrath in West Berlin was interrupted by a group of 15 Nazis with air pistols and bike chains, who told the audience to leave if they did not want to get hurt.
 
"The following evening," the Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time, "when Mr. Hilsenrath was about to hold another public reading from his works, 20 young thugs waited for him and threatened to beat him up if he went ahead with the meeting. He transferred the reading to a private home."
 
His wife Marianne preceded him in death. Survivors include his second wife, Marlene Hilsenrath, whom he met at a symposium on his work.
 
In 2016, Mr. Hilsenrath was honored with the Hilde Domin Prize, awarded by the city of Heidelberg to a German writer who addresses the subject of exile.
 
"His novels, which are driven by bleak, dark powers of imagination, are attempts to find ways to speak of the horrific acts humans commit against each other through various forms of the grotesque," the prize jury said. "His stories are best symbolized as laughter that gets caught in your throat – somewhere between cynicism, sorrow and assertiveness."

Azerbaijani journalist persecuted for dialogue with Armenians

Jirair Kafian
Netgazeti, Georgia
Dec 24 2018
Azerbaijani journalist persecuted for dialogue with Armenians

The following is the text of Gunel Movlud's interview with Arzu Qeybullayeva
[Armenian News note: the below is translated from Georgian]

Arzu Qeybullayeva, also known as Arzu Qeybulla, is a blogger and journalist reviewing political developments unfolding in Azerbaijan. Her articles are occasionally published in international editions such as Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Global Voices, and Agos [Armenian bilingual weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey]. She is one of those voicing criticism of [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev in the international mass media.

Over the past several years, the journalist has lived in Turkey. However, representatives of the Azerbaijani pro-government media and one part of society repeatedly subject her to attacks and intimidation.

Despite attacks, Arzu Qeybulla is currently writing a book on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Receiving threats due to cooperation with Armenian newspaper

[Movlud] Arzu, why did you leave Azerbaijan? Was this because the question of inobedient journalist was raised there?

[Qeybulla] I was 16, when I left the country for the first time. At that time, I was admitted to the American Council's student exchange programme [Future Leaders Exchange Program] and I left for the United States for a year to study.

This is where my adventure began. Returning home, I finished the 11th form and entered Bilkent University in parallel to this. I left for the place for four years. I took a bachelor's degree with distinction in international relations. Afterwards, I took a one-year master's course in global politics at London School of Economics. Completing my studies, I moved to Turkey, where I was offered a job.

In 2017, I returned to Azerbaijan on business. At that time, I was already working in a think tank as an analyst. At the end of 2009, I moved to Baku. However, after a year, I finally left the country. But then again, I often visited Azerbaijan on business. However, it was in 2014 that I went there for the last time.

[Movlud] Over the period of you cooperation with Agos, you were strongly criticised because of your cooperation with Armenians. What did you feel at that time?

[Qeybulla] My cooperation with Armenians did not begin in Agos. It began back in 2009, when I was in the Imagine centre, working at first as a trainer, then as a facilitator, and later as a co-director.

The organisation continues working in the conflict management sphere even today. We have different programmes and we have worked with different groups from Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In 2013, we held the first dialogue between the journalists of the two countries. The dialogue was successful and after returning to Turkey, I was offered to work as a correspondent in the Agos newspaper. At that time, particularly after the dialogue, I found the offer interesting and I agreed.

My friends warned me that I was going to face difficulties because of this. However, I thought that I was able to overcome everything. In fact, I was not doing anything new here. I just continued my work in the conflict management sphere, writing about conflicts. However, I really had no idea about what was lying ahead.

I was persistently persecuted for a long time. They even threatened to kill me. They threatened to kill not only me, but also my family. They wrote and published terrible things about my parents. I saw "journalists" slinging mud at my deceased father. However, it was the reaction of absolute strangers in social networks that was most threatening. They wrote about me and my family, saying that I was a traitor and a cheap whore. They wrote the same about my parents. One can never be ready for things of the kind.

At first, it was extremely hard to experience this. Frankly speaking, I just did not know how to struggle against this horridness. There were moments, when I wanted to disappear forever. I was lucky to be surrounded by friends and colleagues, who showed support for me.

This was the most difficult period in my professional life. I was not going to give up journalism. However, I once advised my brother to renounce me, when he complained to me that my "activities" caused him damage. He took no interest in how I felt.

A short while ago, they showed a documentary film on female journalists, who were subject to intimidation. In my interview, I described this period as a black spot. This might sound dramatic, but this was the darkest and the most dangerous time for me. I am grateful to my friends, colleagues, and many organisations, which rendered help to me. If it were not for them, things would have had a worse end.

Opposition media outlets have to work outside Azerbaijan

[Movlud] When did you visit Azerbaijan for the last time?

[Qeybulla] I was in Baku in 2014 and this is when I visited my father's grave for the last time.

[Movlud] Which of your articles or pronouncements do you think turned you into an enemy of the Azerbaijani authorities?

[Qeybulla] As far as I understand, [this happened] after my interview in the Modern.az newspaper, when I was asked to speak about myself, my job, and experience. Later, the interview was reprinted without permission by many Azerbaijani editions, including the pro-government media. In my opinion, this was a blow for what I wrote in international editions and said on international platforms.

[Movlud] Over the past several years, many opposition figures have been leaving Azerbaijan. They are by no means sitting idle in Europe. Moreover, they have created a concrete circle and media. Now that effectively no independent portal or newspaper has remained in Azerbaijan, what do you as a journalist think of bloggers, TV stations and news portals functioning outside Azerbaijan? Can they fill up the information space of your country?

[Qeybulla] Of course, you cannot fill up the information gap in the country, unless you are physically in Azerbaijan. However, as you have said, in case of a disability of the kind, this is one of the versions. This is better than being without information at all. Given the situation, these people are doing their best.

Opposition figures, media threatened even abroad

[Movlud] After many activists moved to Europe, the authorities have opened a new phase of putting pressure on relatives and friends, as well as persecuting [those] abroad by means of cyber attacks. What is the main danger these people are facing and what should they fear?

[Qeybulla] These are first and foremost journalists working on different platforms. They should heighten their cyber security, protecting their websites from cyber attacks.

The technologies, which the Azerbaijani authorities are currently using, allow them not only to attack websites, but also to crack their accounts, obtaining information.

Next is that you should by all means have a Plan B for your relatives, who are still staying in the country. Experience has shown that no-one is safe.

You need to warn all your acquaintances, friends, and relatives about the dangers they might face if the journalists and activists proper happen to come under the blows from the government.

[Movlud] Have you ever been aware of danger because of your relatives?

[Qeybulla] At present, I do not perceive any danger. However, four years ago, when they first threatened to kill me, I also felt worried about my relatives and friends, of course. However, I also realised that living in fear was not a way out.

Of course, there are moments of the kind even today. However, I try not to think long about this. Life is anyway short and I do not think that it is healthy to spend life in fear. That is why I try not to think about this.

[Movlud] We know that countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Turkey are dangerous [places] for Azerbaijani opposition figures. For example, over the past several years, Turkey handed over "two enemies" to the Alieyv regime. Against this background, do you have no fear of living in Turkey? I know that you travel a lot and that you are not there at the moment. However, being a resident of Turkey, you often stay there.

[Qeybulla] I have lived in Turkey since 2010. A lot has changed over the past eight years. In 2016, I obtained Turkish citizenship. I do not know whether this fact makes me feel calm or not. As I have already said, there are moments, when I think hard of the danger.

A short while ago, we founded here an association for foreign journalists. I would like to believe that this will help ensure the safety of other journalists, as well as that of mine.

Armenia, Greece hold political consultations

Jirair Kafian

Armenia, Greece hold political consultations

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12:20,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian and Greek foreign ministries have held political consultations on December 17th in Athens, the Armenian foreign ministry said.

The Armenian delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Garen Nazarian, while the Greek side was led by Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Georgios Katrougalos.

The bilateral political agenda was discussed, and ideas were exchanged over further deepening of cooperation in the commercial, scientific-academic, cultural and other areas.

Addressing the current phase and development prospects of the Armenia-EU cooperation, Nazarian introduced the application process of CEPA by Armenia and attached importance to Greece’s ratification of the document.

The sides also exchanged ideas over commencing dialogue about liberalization of EU entry visas, and support from EU countries in this process.

Regional and international matters of mutual interest were also discussed.

At the request of the Greek officials, Nazarian briefed on the latest developments in the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. In turn, Katrougalos presented the Greek stance over the Cyprus issue.

Issues concerning cooperation and mutual support in multilateral and international arenas were also addressed.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Index: Armenia is the first country in Europe by the number of believers

Jirair Kafian
Arminfo, Armenia
Dec 7 2018

ArmInfo. The American Analytical Center Pew Research Center has published data from studies conducted in Europe on the subject of religiosity of the population.

According to the results, 79% of the population of Armenia said that  they believe in God. According to this indicator, Armenia became the  first in Europe. 45% (2nd place) of Armenians said they pray daily,  and 53% (3rd place) that religion is important in their lives.  Moreover, only 34% (12th place) of Armenians attend churches at least  once a month. Based on all the criteria, Romania became the most  religious country in Europe, Armenia ranked second in terms of  overall performance, and Georgia was third.

Ջրի սակագինը 2019 թվականին չի բարձրանա

Jirair Kafian
  • 28.11.2018

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  • Հայաստան

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  • arm

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«Վեոլիա ջուր» ՓԲԸ-ի կողմից մատուցվող ծառայությունների 2019թ. նախատեսվող սակագնի բարձրացում չի լինի: Այս մասին հայտնում է ՀՀ Էներգետիկ ենթակառուցվածքների ու բնական պաշարների նախարարությունը:


Համաձայն վարձակալության պայմանագրի և ՀՀ ՀԾԿՀ-ի կողմից «Վեոլիա Ջուր» ՓԲԸ-ին տրամադրված թիվ ԼՋ 0001 լիցենզիայի` յուրաքանչյուր տարի նախատեսվում է ընկերության կողմից բաժանորդներին մատուցվող խմելու ջրամատակարարման և ջրահեռացման (կեղտաջրերի մաքրման) ծառայությունների, այդ թվում` մանրածախ սակագների վերանայում (ճշգրտում):


Գործող օրենսդրության պահանջներին համապատասխան` «Վեոլիա Ջուր» ընկերությունը սույն թվականի օգոստոսին ՀՀ ՀԾԿՀ-ին ներկայացրել էր սակագները վերանայելու (ճշգրտելու) հայտ 2019թ. համար: Այն նախատեսում էր մոտ 14 ՀՀ դրամով գործող սակագնի բարձրացում 1/խմ ջրի համար, ներառյալ ԱԱՀ-ն:


Նոյեմբերի 19-ին ՀՀ ՀԾԿՀ-ում բոլոր շահագրգիռ կողմերի մասնակցությամբ տեղի ունեցավ 2019թ. հայտի աշխատանքային քննարկում:


Դրա արդյունքներով, հաշվի առնելով հայտի շրջանակներում իրականացված մանրածախ ջրամատակարարման ծավալների մոնիթորինգի տվյալները, որոշվեց ՀՀ ՀԾԿՀ-ի հանձնաժողովի նիստի հաստատմանը ներկայացնել «Վեոլիա ջուր» ՓԲԸ-ի կողմից մատուցվող խմելու ջրամատակարարման և ջրահեռացմա ծառայությունների գումարային մանրածախ սակագինը 202,272 դրամ/խմ՝ ներառյալ ԱԱՀ-ն, սահմանելու վերաբերյալ նախագիծ, ինչը 10,858 դրամով ավել է 2018թ. գործող սակագնից։


Բաժանորդների սոցիալական բեռը թեթևացնելու համար Էներգետիկ ենթակառուցվածքների և բնական պաշարների նախարարությունը դիմել է «Վեոլիա Ջուր» ընկերությանը` վարձակալության պայմանագրի ու լիցենզիայի պահանջներից բխող սակագնի բարձրացումը բաժանորդների նկատմամբ չկիրառելու հնարավորության շուրջ բանակցելու նպատակով՝ առաջարկելով այլընտրանքային ֆինանսավորման եղանակ։


Նպատակ ունենալով նվազեցնել սպառողների սոցիալական բեռը` «Վեոլիա ջուր» ընկերությունն ընդունում է ներկայացված առաջարկը և հետաձգում է 2019թ. համար մատուցվող խմելու ջրի մատակարարման և ջրահեռացման ծառայությունների գումարային մանրածախ սակագնի օրինական բարձրացման կիրառումը:


Իր հերթին ԷԵԲՊՆ Ջրային կոմիտեն համաձայնում է դրանով պայմանավորված «Վեոլիա ջուր» ընկերության եկամտի կորստի չափով վերջինիս 2019թ․ներդրումային պարտավորությունները նվազեցնել և հետաձգել, իսկ այդ ընթացքում համակարգում նախատեսված ներդրումներն իրականացնել Ջրային կոմիտեին ծրագրերի իրականացման համար տրամադրված վարկային միջոցների խնայողություններից: