Author: Liana Toganian

Karabakh Ombudsman receives "Armenian Refugees Platform" initiating group coordinator

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
Sep 1 2020

15:38, 01.09.2020
                  

Human Rights Defender of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Artak Beglaryan yesterday received coordinator of the “Armenian Refugees Platform” initiating group Artur Ghazaryan.

Beglaryan underscored the importance of social initiatives and platforms for protecting the rights of Azerbaijani-Armenian refugees and persons internally displaced from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and stressed that the issue is in his focus and expressed willingness to support the group within the limits of his powers.

Ghazaryan presented the main areas of activity and goals of the “Armenian Refugees Platform” and stressed that the aim of the initiative is to combine the efforts of different groups to protect the rights and interests of Armenian refugees, setting Artsakh aside as one of the major directions.



Armenian Republican Party Vice-President: If talks were merely ‘technical’, why did Armenia MFA issue press release?

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
Aug 26 2020
Armenian Republican Party Vice-President: If talks were merely 'technical', why did Armenia MFA issue press release? Armenian Republican Party Vice-President: If talks were merely 'technical', why did Armenia MFA issue press release?

23:08, 26.08.2020
                  

Armenia’s national postal operator to launch subsidiary in China

Liana Toganian

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 14:44, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS.  Armenia’s national postal operator HayPost is planning to launch a subsidiary in China, Minister of High Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan said at a news conference.

He said the company’s subsidiary in the United States has been re-opened. “The HayPost subsidiary in the US state of Delaware has been re-opened, which will boost trade turnover with the US. The company is also planning to launch a subsidiary in China,” Arshakyan said.

He said bilateral talks with Russia’s postal service are currently underway, which will result in the development of many new postal logistic services.

HayPost is currently developing a new development strategy, he said.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia education minister: My resignation is not a matter of discussion

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
Aug 28 2020

18:26, 28.08.2020

My resignation is not a matter of discussion. This is what Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Arayik Harutyunyan told reporters today, adding that he understands the demands and actions of those demanding his resignation.

Asked if he sees shortcomings that may have been a reason for the demand for his resignation, Harutyunyan said the following: “When there was a discussion on the reforms in the education sector in 2018, I had the occasion to say that there will be very dire and painful reforms because it was clear to all of us that there had to be reforms in the fields of education, culture and sport. I had also said the reforms would concern a large group of beneficiaries and that there would be complaints. The protesters have their reasons for protesting. They clearly claim that preliminary military preparation won’t be a subject in the curriculum, they lie when they say sexual education will be part of the curriculum this September, they lie when they say that Anatolia is written in textbooks instead of Armenian Highland, and they lie when they say children won’t be learning about great Armenians anymore,” Harutyunyan said and called on reporters to go deep into the texts and present the reality, not disseminate misinformation.

As far as the requirement for children to wear face masks in classrooms is concerned, he said the following: “I listened to the parents’ concerns. The ministry is considering their concerns, and apparently, they didn’t make new recommendations. The procedure for wearing masks in closed spaces was established in May.”


https://news.am/eng/news/599252.html

Armenian PM congratulates Uruguay’s President on Independence Day

Liana Toganian

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 12:11,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Uruguay Luis Lacalle Pou on the Independence Day, the PM’s Office told Armenpress.

“I warmly congratulate you and the good people of Uruguay on the national day – the Independence Day, wishing peace and prosperity.

The Armenian-Uruguayan traditional warm and friendly relations have a firm base thanks to which sincere dialogue and productive cooperation have been formed between our states.

I am full of hope that we will record new achievements in the friendly relations between our countries for the benefit of the welfare of our peoples”.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Constitutional Reforms commission considers lowering voting age in Armenia

Liana Toganian
ArmenPress, Armenia
Aug 21 2020
 
 
 
 13:04,
 
YEREVAN, AUGUST 21, ARMENPRESS. The Specialized Commission for Constitutional Reforms is discussing the option of lowering the voting age in Armenia, member of the commission Daniel Ioannisyan said during an online discussion.
 
“Three potential scenarios are being discussed,” he said. “One of the scenarios is to leave the [voting age] as it is, that is 18. I am not in favor of this option. The other scenario implies lowering the age to 16 or 17. The third scenario is to give parliament the liberty to decide the voting age for any given election. We give citizens aged 16 the right to form a family, to participate in assemblies, to work, and why can’t they have the right to vote also?”
 
According to Ioannisyan the commission has so far clearly agreed on two items – that Armenia must remain a parliamentary republic and that the “stable majority” mechanism should be scrapped.
 
The commission is also looking into possible reforms in the mechanism of election of the President, the referenda, and the formation of a government if the “stable majority” system is abolished.
 
The commission is expected to deliver the Constitutional Reforms bill to the Prime Minister by September 1, 2020.
 
Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
 
 
 
 

Armenia to host Warrior of Peace tournaments of 2020 International Army Games

Liana Toganian
ArmenPress, Armenia
Aug 19 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 19, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will host the Warrior of Peace tournament of the 2019 International Army Games championship August 23-September 3, ARMENPRESS reports the Ministry of Defense said in a news release.

Members of the armed forces of Armenia, Belarus, Greece, and Russia will participate in the event.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan




2021 STARMUS festival expected to boost Armenia tourism

Liana Toganian

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 12:54,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is expected to become an international center for technology, science, music and arts for one week as it is going to host the 6th STARMUS International Festival from September 6 to 11 in 2021.

The event will be held in Armenia at the initiative of President Armen Sarkissian, with the support of the government of Armenia.

It was Sarkissian’s idea to bring the 6th edition of the festival to Armenia, which he proposed at the 5th edition.

According to a news release issued by Sarkissian’s Office, the event is expected to attract thousands of visitors, including Nobel laureates, renowned scientists and musicians and others.

“President Sarkissian is sure that during the one week the renowned scientists will not only pass on new ideas to the visitors but will also inspire our scientists and the youth with their meetings and lectures. Especially when one of the goals of the festival is to guide the youth towards science, new technologies and the future”, Sarkissian’s Office said.

At the same time, the Armenian President is also highlighting the event in terms of tourism development in Armenia, a sector currently suffering difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Basically the festival will be a unique boost to advance tourism, which is especially important given the present-day problems of the sector”.

The President is having regular meetings with tourism companies and encouraged them to actively participate in the process.

 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Asbarez: Bourdj Hammoud Is Me, Beirut Is You, Lebanese-Armenians Are Us

Liana Toganian
August 12,  2020


The author, Garo Ghazarian, pictured in Bourdj Hammoud

BY GARO B. GHAZARIAN, ESQ.

By mere  fortuitousness, I find myself in Los Angeles, where though I live without the challenges of those I’ve left behind 42 years ago, it is not lost on me, and it can not really be lost on anyone, that wherever we have ended up, anywhere we live that is not Armenia, it is so, as a direct consequence of the Armenian Genocide.

When you say to yourself, I live in LA, but I once lived in Beirut, and, “but for” my parents and their parents not having ended up in Beirut, I very well could be among those who live in and make up the Armenian Community of Lebanon, then and only then does it become crystal clear why it is imperative to rally everyone around you to donate to #HyeAidLebanon.

Yes, I no longer live there. But what would I have been hoping for if, JUST IF, as fate would have had it, I lived there today, on August 3 or 4, or this week, or more to the point, after the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut.

While I spent my early years in the United States pondering why is it that I was the unlucky one to no longer be living in the midst of the warmest and fiercest Diasporan Armenian Community, I find myself this August, 42 years since the August which saw me leave the only place I had known as home—Bourdj Hammoud—pondering over and over again, why have I since 1978, no longer am physically there while others continue to live there?

They could’ve been me.  But, they are not.  I am not in their midst.  Yet, I am one of them.  I AM them.  And one thing has been beyond certain to me from early on in life.  Some call it street smarts.  I call it “Armenian survival instincts.”  If we do not help ourselves, if we do not stand up for our own, and fight for and beyond our mere survival, no one else will.

Today, more than ever before we must empower one another to rise fiercely for ourselves, by donating to “HyeAidLebanon,” a Pan Armenian Council of Western United States initiative to provide assistance to the Armenians in Lebanon.  After all, who are we, and what’s in a name?  Frankly, everything!

Say our name.  Call me Bourdj Hammoud because I have never stopped really seeing my true self and feeling the most comfortable in my skin more so than when I am in Bourdj Hammoud.

Bourdj Hammoud is me.  Beirut is you. And, the Lebanese-Armenians are us.

Donate today and let’s give them hope.

Tourism Committee: Persons not citizens of Armenia allowed to enter country

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
Aug 14 2020

21:21, 14.08.2020
                  

https://news.am/eng/news/596988.html