Russian Federal Council member, Armenia’s national hero Nikolay Rizhkov will arrive in Armenia in December, first deputy chairman of the committee of the State Duma for the CIS and European integration affairs Konstantin Zatulin told the reporters in Yerevan today.
He said Rizhkov will participate in the events dedicated to the 30th anniversary of disastrous earthquake in Armenia’s Spitak.
They participated in a shootout between criminal clans in the city of Erfurt in 2014 and 2016.
German police arrested 31-year-old Artur Z. and 26-year-old Karo S. (names changed) on suspicion of drug trafficking in the territory of the federal state of Thuringia, according to MDR THÜRINGEN. 35 kg of marijuana were found during searches.
Artur Z. and Karo S. were among the leaders of the Joker gang, which included young people from Armenia and Azerbaijan. The group was engaged in racketeering, robbery, and drug trafficking. Subsequently, the Joker gang fell apart, but two men continued their criminal activities. The suspects participated in the firefight between Armenian clans in the city of Erfurt in July 2014. Artur Z. also joined a shooting between the Armenian and Moldovan groups near a nightclub in Erfurt in June 2016.
According to the publication MDR THÜRINGEN, the investigators tried to establish ties between the Armenian mafia and the drug trade, but they did not have enough evidence.
For three years, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) together with the German Land Police Agency has been conducting a secret operation to search and arrest representatives of Armenian organized crime groups under the code name FATIL – Fight Against Thieves In Law. German police drew attention to the Armenian criminal groups after a shootout between participants of two organized criminal groups at a casino in Erfurt in 2014. Then two people of Armenia aged 27 and 54 were injured.
As part of the operation, 14 criminal cases were initiated. Investigations have been initiated against 42 people who are charged with money laundering. The materials featured the names of boxers Artur Abraham, Karo Murat, and the Armenian ambassador in the country, Ashot Smbatyan, but the law enforcers could not find convincing evidence against them and other suspects. The names of the suspected thieves in law are still not disclosed.
On November 22, at 15:47, the “911” hotline received an alarm that a fire broke out on the roof of Boghboj kindergarten at Demirchyan 17 Street in Sevan, Gegharkunik Region. There are no victims.
Rescuers evacuated 88 children and 36 employees.
The "Young Women's Association" organized a peaceful protest in Yerevan Monday demanding that women's voices be heard everywhere, with more opportunities and fewer barriers for women to be able to engage in entrepreneurship.
The founder and president of the "Young Women's Association" Lilit Asatryan said that a group of NGO representatives from the regions united with the aim to raise the awareness about women's issues in a peaceful march, given that today is the International Women's Entrepreneurship Day.
"In fact, this class in our country has a big potential, but it does not have a stake in different spheres, neither in business nor in politics. Today, the participants of the initiative raise their voices concerning these issues, " she said.
The women participating in the action said they would like to have low interest loans to be able to start their business, and at the same time create job opportunities.
Women from the frontier village of the protest action have jobs, they have to work and keep their children.
Women want to build a middle class, they want young women to work and engage in entrepreneurship.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 17
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Visits to a number of countries, in particular to the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, by people who present themselves as representatives of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories are one of the constituent elements of illegal actions in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev told reporters in Baku Nov. 17.
Hajiyev said that France is one of the co-chair countries, and the essence of the mediatory mission requires that a mediator country show balanced attitude and avoid taking biased steps.
“There are such phenomena as the twinning process of some French cities with occupied territories and cities of Azerbaijan, visits to France by people presenting themselves as leaders of the illegal regime,” Hajiyev noted. “We consider this to be incompatible with the commitments undertaken by France as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, and this should be stopped.”
He said that in this context, Azerbaijan’s diplomatic mission will express the country’s serious discontent to the French side.
“The Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region also expressed its attitude to this issue,” said Hajiyev. “If such a person as Bako Sahakyan visits France, equality should be ensured in relation to communities. If we consider the issue as part of the human rights, both communities are equal, thus, special treatment of one community and violation of the rights of the other community is gross violation of human rights. Therefore, if France and other countries want to contribute to the conflict’s settlement process, first of all, the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories should be ensured and the right of IDPs to return to their homes should be guaranteed.”
He added that as part of this process, a dialogue between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh region should be encouraged.
“Therefore, the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries and the world community in this direction would be useful,” he said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Tatevik Shahunyan. Today, processes are taking place in Armenia that pose a clear threat to traditional values and family foundations. This was during a round table on the topic "Traditional values as the basis of statehood: the role of the church in ensuring national security, political stability and social cohesion" said Arman Gukasyan, chairman of the NGO "International Humanitarian Development".
According to him, the proof of this is the fact that the LGBT Christians forum will be held in November 15-18 in Yerevan. The main organizer of the event is the European LGBT Forum public platform. The projects of this platform are funded by American and European funds. The LGBT Christians Forum is supported by the American foundation Arcus, and in Armenia its New Partner and Forum organizer is New generation", which is also funded from Western sources, in particular, by the Soros Foundation, the European Commission, USAID and others, "said Ghukasyan.
The "Arcus" Foundation itself, he continued, is the largest keeper of LGBT organizations in the world. This is a private foundation that was founded in 2000.
year in USA in Michigan. It has offices in New York and Cambridge (Britain). The founder and president is John Stryker, whose fortune is estimated at $ 2.9 billion, and he is also the head of Stryker Corporation. Activities – support and funding of LGBT organizations, as well as the protection of great apes.
According to Ghukasyan, the foundation is conducting an aggressive campaign aimed at the destruction of religious ethics and morality in the sphere of sexual relations, family and marriage. He urged the relevant authorities of the Republic of Armenia to carefully study the activities of those local organizations that work and are funded by Western grants and are co-sponsors of such events in Armenia. He also expressed concern over the silence of the political circles of Armenia on the organization of the LGBT forum, and on the intensification of propaganda of a non-traditional orientation. According to him, this represents a real threat to the national security of Armenia.
October 28, 16:17 UTC+3 YEREVAN
YEREVAN, October 28. /TASS/. Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan said on Sunday his country has no need in buying US-made weapons.
"We didn’t discuss a matter of buying American weapons," he said in an interview with the News.am agency following his meeting with visiting US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Tonoyan noted that the weapons market is open and Armenia has no need in buying American weapons at this point.
Armenian acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said earlier that the cabinet was ready to look at the issue of buying US-made weapons in case it received "an attractive offer from the American side."
Meanwhile, Bolton said on October 25 that US weapons were better in terms of quality than Russian armaments and hinted at a possibility to sell them to the Armenian side.
Now, Armenia buys most of its weapons from Russia.
On the Government of the Republic of Armenia has initiated an extraordinary sitting including the draft law “On making amendments and additions to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia”.
A number of factors have affected the formation of the RPA faction’s position on the draft.
As known, successful electoral reforms require broad discussions in order to encourage both – participation of the public and political forces in the reform process, and their reception of the final results of the reforms. The involvement of all the political forces is the only modus ensuring consensus on the changes in the electoral legislation. However, the way of the organization of the discussion on the draft and its presentation to the National Assembly prove that the Government has adopted diametrically different policy.
Thus,
• One can recall, that a working group consisting of representatives of the four factions was formed in the National Assembly, within which the “Yelq” (“Way Out”) Faction included representatives from the Civil Contract Party of the Prime Minister. It is noteworthy, that the parliamentary format of discussions within the international standards is considered the most effective way of drafting the electoral code, and in a number of cases (e.g. adoption of electoral system) broader consensus of the political forces is required. Already in August the parliamentary working group had summed up its proposals and sent them to the Government. However, even important proposals submitted as consensus by all four factions of the parliament were altogether ignored by the Government.
• The draft has been officially submitted to the National Assembly on October 17, 2018. Factions of the National Assembly had therefore had only two full working days to study the final variant of the draft. While the Government insists that the initial version had been posted on the “e-draft” website two weeks ago, it is irrelevant, since the initial version of the draft significantly differs from the version submitted to the National Assembly. Only to emphasize the scope of substantial alterations, it suffices to note that the draft posted on the “e-draft” website contained 87 articles, whereas the final one presented to the parliament only 69 articles.
• The draft has been hasty submitted not only to the National Assembly, but also to the Venice Commission. The draft has been submitted to the Commission only a few days ago. As a result the Venice Commission didn’t have an opportunity to hold a formal discussion and present formal opinion. In fact, for the first time the Venice Commission has been deprived of the opportunity to give an opinion and anticipate changes in the draft of the electoral code on the basis of that opinion before its adoption by the National Assembly. There is no OSCE / ODIHR opinion either.
• The proposed regulations are intended to be implemented during the upcoming extraordinary elections. In general agreeing to the idea of preterm elections, we have repeatedly opposed the haste in attempts of holding the elections until the end of 2018. Holding the elections within two months under pressure from the executive power deprives the political parties from the opportunity to reorganize and revise their tactics under the new electoral regulations. Such approach contradicts international standards. As established by the Venice Commission, while alterations of the electoral systems cannot per se be interpreted as a negative phenomenon, it is negative to change it just before the elections. The reason is that such haste, even in the absence of political manipulations, leaves an impression that they are available. In order to avoid it, the Commission recommends that if the Electoral Code is subjected to significant change, the new system should come into force at least one year after the adoption of the new law. It was reaffirmed by the President of Venice Commission in his October 19 statement – pointing to the need to maintain a one-year period for significant changes in the electoral code, such as the abolition of territorial lists.
Based on the afore-mentioned, the Republican Party of Armenia declares that it is not in favor of the proposed draft.
The UEFA Nations League is really starting to get exciting.
We’ve seen England beat Spain on their own turf, Germany are staring relegation in the face and Gibraltar have won twice in the space of four days.
Incredible.
After beating Armenia 1-0 on Saturday, ‘The Rock’ followed that up with a 2-1 win against Liechtenstein on Tuesday.
It leaves them with a chance of being promoted from League D, Group 4.
But football fans were talking about League D, Group 4 for another reason on Tuesday rather than just Gilbralter’s win against Liechtenstein.
In the other fixture on Tuesday night, Armenia beat Macedonia 4-0.
Prior to that match, Macedonia had won all three of their matches, while Armenia entered the match on the back of two defeat (Macedonia 0-2 and Gibraltar 0-1).
So when Armenia ran out 4-0 winners, there were a few raised eyebrows.
However, those eyebrows turned into suspicions after seeing all four goals during the match – while, there was also a last-minute sending off for Macedonia.
Macedonia goalkeeper, Stole Dimitrievski, was probably at fault for three of the four goals – while the other was given away by a defender – and it’s led to a Reddit thread discussing the possibility of match-fixing.
It must be mentioned that the goalkeeper in question actually plays for Real Vallecano in La Liga, so it’s not a case of just being rubbish.
Take a look at the goals here:
Yeah, Dimitrievski had a bit of a nightmare.
And now check out the reaction on Reddit:
It certainly makes you suspicious.
Of course, there’s no evidence that there was any match-fixing going on during Armenia and Macedonia, but there’s plenty of football fans that believe there was.
Former French President François Hollande has made a post on his twitter microblog, extending condolences on the demise of French-Armenian singer Charles Azanour. Hollande wrote that Aznavour will always remain on the stage for everyone.
“In all the cities of the world from Yerevan to Paris he used to sing about love and freedom. A bit ago Charles Aznavour left us, but for us he will always remain on the stage”, he wrote.