Azerbaijan began heavy ceasefire violations since Saturday afternoon in the Artsakh line of contact. Azerbaijani forces are using various caliber weapons in the violations, the defense ministry of Artsakh reported.
In addition to ceasefire violations, active movements of manpower and equipment is observed in various sections of the line of contact.
The Defense Army are closely flowing the actions of the Azerbaijani military.
SmartArmenia Armenian group was created on Slack platform. This project is aimed at uniting “creative Armenians” from design, technology and media sectors in one spot.
The application form for joining the community is available here.
According to the Founder of SmartArmenia Tigran Grigoryants, the group is for professionals from creative industry, who wish to discuss the topics in need to be voiced.
“Based on SmartArmenia project, we are creating a prototype of virtual community, joining which is more useful than gathering on social networks. We will adjust the “playground” to testing of the ideas, which we can elaborate and push forward together,” he emphasized.
Tigran Grigoryants said that the platform is a tool for discussing various projects and possible complications, speak about tough tasks and listen to advice, which will allow solving issues on self-education and discipline, technological novelties, market dynamics etc.
“The friendly and reliable relations between the participants make the base of our long-term cooperation, mutual help and exchange of knowledge. We are convinced that the modern IT community can be more open. We will achieve it both in words and actions, even if we start small. We are learning from our mistakes; together we will help each other avoid fatal flaws,” he noted.
Tigran Grigoryants called the platform ““a thought factory”, which will enable testing the relevance and sustainability of different projects.”
“At this moment we wish to unite specialists of Armenian IT sector (around 15,000 people) to create SmartArmenia club brand, and then we aim at entering US and Russian markets, involving Armenian IT specialists living there,” he concluded.
Wednesday,
Armenia Aims To Phase Out Use Of Gas For Electricity Consumption
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A newly built solar power plant in Tsaghkadzor, 29Sep2017.
Armenia will likely stop using natural gas and rely only on nuclear energy,
hydropower and other renewables in meeting its electricity needs by 2030, a
senior government official said on Wednesday.
“Our goal is to have by 2030 only nuclear and renewable sources of internal
[electricity] consumption, which means that gas-powered thermal power plants
will operate only for the purpose of exports,” Deputy Energy Minister Hayk
Harutiunian told a news conference.
Harutiunian argued that the nuclear and renewable sources of energy are
considerably cheaper than electricity generated by the plants using mainly
Russian gas.
According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), thermal plants accounted
for 37 percent of Armenian electricity production last year. By comparison, the
Metsamor nuclear power station had a roughly 33 percent share in the total. The
remaining 30 percent came from hydroelectric plants, NSS data shows.
Energy Minister Ashot Manukian said earlier this year that his ministry is
aiming to ensure that renewable sources meet at least half of Armenia’s energy
needs within the next few years. That is essential for boosting the country’s
“energy security,” he said.
Hydropower provided only one-fifth of the country’s electricity a decade ago.
Its output will rise further following the planned construction of a
76-megawatt plant on the Debed river flowing through the country’s northern
Lori province.
The success of the government’s ambitious strategy will greatly depend on a
rapid spread of solar energy. In Harutiunian’s words, its presently negligible
share in national electricity production should reach at least 20 percent by
2030.
The Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources announced on March
30 that a consortium of Dutch and Spanish companies has won an international
tender for the construction of Armenia’s first large solar power plant.
Harutiunian said work to build the 55-megawatt plant near the eastern coast of
Lake Sevan is due to be completed by the end of 2019. The state-of-the-art
facility will have more than 170,000 solar panels, he said.
The deputy minister stressed the significance of the $50 million project which
will be mostly financed by the World Bank. “It can be said that this project
has broken all kinds of stereotypes about solar technologies: that they are
expensive, that a lot of time is needed to introduce them in Armenia,” he said.
The winners of the tender have pledged to set a “very low tariff” for
electricity to be produced by the Masrik-1 solar plant, added Harutiunian.
Harutiunian’s ministry has also pledged to facilitate the construction of five
other large or medium-sized solar plants in the coming years. They would
increase Armenia’s combined solar capacity to at least 120 megawatts.
Pashinian Admits Discord With Opposition Ally
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is interviewed by RFE/RL during a
political march through Shirak province, 1 April 2018.
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian acknowledged on Wednesday growing differences
with his key political ally, while saying that he hopes to prevent the collapse
of their Yelk bloc, the third largest force in Armenia’s parliament.
“There has never been a stale atmosphere of total accord in the Yelk alliance,”
Pashinian told reporters. “We have had heated debates right from the beginning
and those debates in no way reduce the difference between opinions and my
respect for our partners.”
“Unfortunately, those differences are becoming more pronounced by the day,” he
said. “But our position has always been constructive and will remain
constructive.”
“I think that the Yelk alliance needs to overcome the differences,” he added on
the fifth day of his 200-kilometer-long march through Armenia’s northern and
central regions.
Pashinian and a group of activists of his Civil Contract began the unusual
walking tour in advance of their demonstrations in Yerevan against President
Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent plans to stay in power after completing his second
term on April 9. The first such rally is scheduled for April 13.
Amenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian (C) and his supporters pose for a
photograph outside Vanadzor, 3 April 2018.
The two other parties making up Yelk have refused to join the campaign, saying
that it will not draw strong popular support. One of them, Bright Armenia, has
been particularly critical of Pashinian’s tactics. Edmon Marukian, the Bright
Armenia leader, called it “reckless” on Tuesday.
In a newspaper article, Marukian said that instead of trying to unseat the
outgoing president by street protests Yelk should gain more levers to hold the
government in check. In that regard, he suggested that the authorities allow
the opposition and civil society to name the chairpersons of two standing
committees of the Armenian parliament, a member of the Constitutional Court and
the country’s human rights ombudsman.
Pashinian dismissed the idea. “My march is not aimed at securing any state
posts for the opposition and in this context we cannot even consider that,” he
said.
Pashinian again insisted that his fight against Sarkisian’s continued rule
reflects the views of the vast majority of Armenians who voted for Yelk in the
April 2017 parliamentary elections.
“We are ready to stay patient so that pessimists reconsider their views and
believe that the people can win,” the Civil Contract leader said in a live
video message aired through Facebook later in the day. He claimed that his
ongoing march has already created an “atmosphere of optimism” among opposition
supporters in the country.
New Armenian Anti-Graft Body To Be Set Up Soon
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - The Prime Minister's Office and Finance Ministry buildings in
Yerevan, 30Sep2017.
A new and more powerful body tasked with tackling corruption in Armenia will be
formed before the end of next month in line with a government bill passed by
the parliament last year.
The Commission On Preventing Corruption will be tasked with deterring and
detecting corrupt practices among senior Armenian officials. It will replace
the existing State Commission for the Ethics of High-Ranking Officials that has
received mandatory income and asset declarations from the country’s 600 most
high-ranking state officials, including ministers and judges, for the last six
years.
The new commission will be empowered to not only scrutinize those financial
disclosures but also investigate possible conflicts of interest or unethical
behavior. It could ask law-enforcement bodies to prosecute officials suspected
by it of engaging in corruption or even submitting false declarations.
The commission will consist of five members to be named by a special council
that will also comprise five individuals. Each of them will be chosen, starting
from April 10, by the opposition minority in the Armenian parliament, the
Constitutional Court, the state human rights ombudsman, the presidential Public
Council and the national bar association.
Karen Zadoyan, who heads the Armenian Association of Lawyers, said that unlike
the outgoing commission the new anti-graft body will have “very serious powers”
that will allow it to combat corruption. But he said it could make a difference
only if its members are reputedly honest individuals ready to resist pressure
from the government or other state bodies.
The same is true for the council that will pick those members, according to
Zadyoan. “It is essential to focus attention to the formation of the council so
that it consists of spotless, honest and professional people,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Wednesday.
Daniel Ioannisian of the Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens was skeptical
on that score. “You have to be a bit naïve to think that a truly independent
council will be formed to choose members of the commission,” he said.
Armenia ranked, ranked, together with Macedonia, Ethiopia and Vietnam, 107th
out of 180 countries and territories that were evaluated in Transparency
International’s 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released in February.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” describes Russia and Turkey as “brothers in trouble” in a commentary
on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest visit to Ankara. “As well as
having serious problems with the West, they have serious problems with one
another,” writes the paper. “They have to forget about [those problems] for now
for purely tactical reasons … [Warm] Russian-Turkish relations have always
caused Armenia fairly severe losses. But one should not take a fatalistic look
at these processes. The situation now is totally different from what it was in
the past.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” continues to comment on the Armenian government’s
controversial decision to grant President Serzh Sarkisian ownership of his
official residence in Yerevan where he has lived since becoming president in
April 2008. At issue, the paper says, is not the vast size of the property and
adjacent land privatized by Sarkisian. The problem, it says, is that he will
own a property that has long been reserved for Armenia’s presidents. “To say
that this happened by accident would mean not realizing the whole essence of
Serzh Sarkisian and his boundless lust for power,” it says. “The handover to
him of ownership of his official residence is a vivid manifestation of that
lust for power.
“The authorities have decided to do everything to make the people believe that
not only there is economic growth but that they can feel the effects of that
growth on their skin,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper points to comments made
this week by Gagik Minasian, the chairman of an Armenian parliament committee
on budgetary issues. “The authorities have yet to ensure steady growth,
something which nobody has guaranteed,” it says.
“Aravot” discusses a recent increase in infectious diseases among Armenian
children which has resulted in a number of deaths. “The reason for that is
clear: propaganda against vaccination has intensified,” editorializes the
paper. “Parents have started trusting in that propaganda and refusing to have
their children vaccinated.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
Please find the attached press release of the Ministry of Diaspora. Sincerely, Media and PR Department (+374 10) 585601, internal 805 ---------------------- Հարգանքով` Մամուլի և հասարակայնության հետ կապերի վարչություն (+374 10) 585601, ներքին 805
91. Տեղի ունեցավ Սիրիահայերի ձեռքի աշխատանքների ցուցահանդեսի բացումը.docx
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On March 16, 2018 the President-elect of Armenia Dr. Armen Sarkissian visited Synopsys headquarters in Mountain View, Silicon Valley.
Synopsys President and co-CEO Dr. Chi-Foon Chan and Synopsys Armenia President Dr. Yervant Zorian welcomed the President-elect Dr. Sarkissian and congratulated him on his new responsibility. They also expressed their determination to continue the fruitful efforts aimed at advancing the high-tech industry in Armenia. “Armenia is the home to one of the largest Synopsys R&D sites with strong engineering expertise and highly successful educational models. The business-academia-government cooperation is crucial for developing the IT ecosystem. Synopsys is committed to continuing its contribution to advance the high-tech industry in Armenia and we are looking forward to working together on making Armenia an important regional center for microelectronics,” said Dr. Chi-Foon Chan.
“It’s impressive what Synopsys does in Armenia,” said the President-elect Dr. Armen Sarksissian. “Synopsys’ investment in technological education is a significant contribution in advancing Armenia’s high-tech economy.
The educational model implemented by Synopsys in cooperation with universities is a good example to expand on.”
The visit commenced with a dedicated meeting where Dr. Chi-Foon Chan gave a corporate overview presentation about the company’s achievements mentioning that the company currently has over 12,200 employees and its annual revenue reached ~2.7B. Talking about Synopsys’ products he added: “We are proud having the Synopsys technology at the heart of innovations that are changing the way we live and work. The Internet of Things. Autonomous cars. Wearables. Smart medical devices. Secure financial services. Machine learning and computer vision.
These breakthroughs are ushering in the era of Smart, Secure Everything―where devices are getting smarter, everything’s connected, and everything must be secure. Synopsys has the world’s most advanced tools for silicon chip design, verification, IP integration, and application security testing. Our technology helps customers innovate from Silicon to Software, so they can deliver Smart, Secure Everything.”
Dr. Sarkissian was then invited to an insightful tour accompanied by Dr. Chi-Foon Chan and Dr. Yervant Zorian.
On the same day a special IT forum organized by AGBU – Silicon Valley was held at Synopsys.
Dr. Yervant Zorian, who is also the AGBU-Silicon Valley Chair and AGBU Central Board Member moderated the town hall event. In his opening remarks, he mentioned: “The new President-elect combines the talents of an experienced statesman, an innovative scientist, and a successful entrepreneur. Therefore, it is not surprising that, as a President-elect, he requested to communicate with the IT community that cares deeply about Armenia, in Silicon Valley, where innovation and entrepreneurship intersect.
It is not surprising also that the AGBU Silicon Valley organized the event given its long commitment to the advancement of technology ecosystem in Armenia, and that the forum was hosted at Synopsys, given the prominence of its IT R&D center in Armenia.”
During the event Dr. Armen Sarkissian shared his vision about the IT development opportunities in Armenia. He explicitly stressed the importance of joining Armenia and Diaspora efforts to make Armenia a hub for new technology, and the need to build its future, based on innovation in the fast changing world.
The topics raised during the 3 hours long discussion, ranged from technology to education, to science and health. At the forum with 200 participants the President-elect was eager to hear from the young generation about their plans, thoughts, and concerns. Dr. Sarkissian was very attentive to every question and input, demonstrating his openness to hear from the leaders of tomorrow.
The President-elect expressed his will to use his position to advocate for a more open Armenia for the benefit of the Armenian residents and the Diaspora. He was clear that he has an inclusive Armenia-Diaspora agenda and called forum participants and community for action to care about each other and work together to attract investment, foster education, and advance science. The powerful evening left attendees enthusiastic about the future of Armenia and ready to contribute to its prosperity.
Earlier this year, in February, Dr. Sarkissian had been introduced to Synopsys Armenia from an insightful tour during his visit to its campus in Yerevan, where the meeting with the local IT community in Armenia was held. The visit agenda also included a meeting with Synopsys Armenia Educational Department students and professors.
Despite warnings, users continue to download and use the Turkish “Get Contact” phone software. Doing so, they endanger not only their personal information, but their contacts.
“This program is a great threat, because every person, by downloading it on his android and IOS phone, automatically retrieves his contacts from the “Get Contact” database. That is, if I’m not in the database, my friend or relative will automatically include my phone number. If you have a phone number, you can easily find the phone’s IP code and wire the phone, take phone softwares, be it a picture, etc.,” said security expert Vahan Azibekyan.
On December 10, 2017, the Armenian Ministry of Justice has warned about the negative effects of this software, but after the warning, the downloads have not diminished. Some have started to download the software because of curiosity, some for having fun.
“The girls, for example, write the number and say, oh, look, someone has registered me as “Cuties”, let’s know who he is. The boys want to know who is registered by their nicknames. They do not realize the seriousness of this project,” Vahan Azibekyan said.
The software is easy to download, and the phone number can also be removed, for which you need to access the appropriate site, but it is no longer possible to prevent the information leakage.
“As the program was installed in the phone, the phone number has been fixed in their database. They will receive a message if you remove it. but the contact will still remain,” said the expert.
Some Armenian users, who are aware of the program’s harmfulness, remove it from the phone, some find it is not dangerous, they are retaining only for interest. At the same time, not everybody knows how to remove their phone number from the “Get Contact” database.
The program has been downloaded by more than 5 million people and has raised a great deal of dissatisfaction in many CIS and European countries. Measures are taken to prevent its spread. Particularly, they are banned in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Tuesday, Appeals Court Upholds Guilty Verdict Against Babayan . Karlen Aslanian Armenia - Samvel Babayan, a retired army general critical of the government, attends an appeals court hearing in Yerevan, 26 February 2018. Armenia's Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a six-year prison sentence handed down to Samvel Babayan, a retired army general prosecuted on charges of illegal arms acquisition and money laundering which he strongly denies. It also rejected the appeals of two other suspects in the high-profile case who were sentenced by a district court in Yerevan to three and two years in prison in November. Babayan was arrested in March 2017 after Armenia's National Security Service (NSS) claimed to have confiscated a surface-to-air rocket system. The arrest came about two weeks before Armenia's last parliamentary elections. Babayan was unofficially affiliated with the ORO alliance led by former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian and two other opposition politicians. ORO condemned the criminal case as politically motivated. Babayan has since repeatedly denied prosecutors' claims that he promised to pay other defendants, notably his longtime associate Sanasar Gabrielian, $50,000 for the delivery of the shoulder-fired Igla rocket. Gabrielian, who received the three-year prison sentence, insisted during their trial that it was he who commissioned the confiscated Igla. He claimed that he wanted to donate it to Nagorno-Karabakh's army. Both defendants appealed against the guilty verdict handed down by the lower court. They and the third suspect, Armen Poghosian, said they must be acquitted on all counts. Armenia - The Court of Appeals hands down a verdict on the appeals of Samvel Babayan and two other men accused of illegal arms acquisition, . "This is a fabricated case," Babayan told the Court of Appeals on Monday. He reiterated that he only advised Gabrielian to hoard the sophisticated weapon in a remote Karabakh village and then confidentially tip off a military official in Stepanakert. A trial prosecutor insisted, for his part, that the investigators have substantiated their accusations levelled against Babayan and the other defendants. Purported evidence presented by them includes a short segment of a wiretapped telephone conversation between Babayan and Gabrielian. Babayan said that his secretly recorded remarks were "taken out of context." He earlier petitioned the court to have the prosecutors publicize full audio of the phone call. The court refused to do that. Babayan, 52, led Karabakh's Armenian-backed army from 1993-1999 and was widely regarded as the unrecognized republic's most powerful man at that time. He was arrested in 2000 and subsequently sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly masterminding a botched attempt on the life of the then Karabakh president, Arkady Ghukasian. He was set free in 2004. Babayan criticized the current authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert after returning to Armenia in May 2016 from Russia where he lived for five years. Armenian Parliament To Debate 2008 Crackdown On Opposition . Tatevik Lazarian Armenia - A man walks past burned cars on a street in Yerevan where security forces clashed with opposition protesters, 2 March 2008. The National Assembly agreed on Tuesday to debate an opposition-drafted resolution condemning the use of lethal force against opposition protesters in Yerevan in the wake of Armenia's disputed 2008 presidential election. The parliamentary resolution put forward by the opposition Yelk says that supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian protested against "the falsification" of the results of the election that formalized the handover of power from outgoing President Robert Kocharian to Serzh Sarkisian. It describes as "crude and illegal" the forcible dispersal of those protests on March 1-2 2008 which left ten people dead. The statement demands that law-enforcement authorities at last identify and prosecute those responsible for the killings. The parliament unanimously voted to include the draft resolution on its agenda even though its standing committee on legal affairs gave a formal negative assessment of the document last week. Gevorg Kostanian, the incoming committee chairman affiliated with the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), criticized the Yelk motion. Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian addresses protesters that barricaded themselves in central Yerevan, 1 March 2008. Addressing fellow lawmakers before Tuesday's vote, Yelk's parliamentary leader, Nikol Pashinian, again blamed the authorities for what was the worst street violence in Armenia's history. "Ten years ago the police illegally used force against citizens fighting protesting against the falsification of the presidential elections, as a result of which ten people were killed in the center of Yerevan," he said. "Serzh Sarkisian managed to seize power only thanks to those killings," charged the outspoken politician who played a major role in Ter-Petrosian's 2007-2008 opposition movement. HHK lawmakers rejected such claims during parliamentary hearings on the unrest that were chaired by Pashinian earlier this week. Significantly, one of those lawmakers, Samvel Nikoyan, blamed not only Ter-Petrosian but also Kocharian for the bloodshed. Nikoyan disputed Kocharian's March 2008 claim that some of the protesters shot at security forces. Armenia - Armenian army soldiers are deployed on a street in Yerevan where security forces clashed with opposition protesters, 2 March 2008. Ter-Petrosian, who had served as Armenia's first president from 1991-1998, was the main opposition candidate in the February 2008 presidential ballot. He rejected as fraudulent official vote results that gave victory to Sarkisian. Many Ter-Petrosian supporters took to the streets to demand a re-run of the vote. Thousands of them barricaded themselves in downtown Yerevan on March 1, 2008 after riot police broke up nonstop demonstrations organized by Ter-Petrosian and his allies in the city's Liberty Square. Eight protesters and two police servicemen were killed as security forces tried to forcibly end that protest as well. Ter-Petrosian urged his supporters to disperse early on March 2, 2008 shortly after Kocharian declared a state of emergency and ordered Armenian army units into the capital. Dozens of opposition figures, including Pashinian, were subsequently arrested and prosecuted. The parliamentary statement proposed by Yelk also demands that Armenian prosecutors review those "fabricated" criminal cases. New Body To Oversee Armenian Judiciary . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - A district court building in Yerevan, 27Jun2017. The Armenian parliament will elect on Wednesday five of the ten members of a new and powerful body tasked with overseeing Armenia's courts. The remaining members of the Supreme Judicial Council will be chosen by the country's judges who took the bench at least ten years ago. The council is being set up in accordance with sweeping constitutional changes enacted in 2015. According to one of those amendments, its main mission is to "guarantee the independence of the courts and the judges." The council will nominate virtually all new judges that will be appointed by the Armenian president and the National Assembly. It is also empowered to take disciplinary action against judges or have them terminated altogether. The parliament discussed on Tuesday the five members of the council proposed by the ruling Republican Party (HHK) and its junior coalition partner, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). Lawmakers will vote for or against them in secret ballot. The candidates, among them Gagik Harutiunian, the outgoing chairman of Armenia's Constitutional Court, will have to be backed by at least 63 members of the 105-seat parliament in order to get elected to the judicial body. The HHK and Dashnaktsutyun control 65 parliament seats. The two other political groups represented in the legislature chose not to nominate any candidates. Instead, deputies representing the opposition Yelk bloc put tough questions to the five candidates on the parliament floor. In particular, Harutiunian was asked about the existence of political prisoners and opposition allegations of electoral fraud that have always been dismissed by the Constitutional Court. "I won't confirm or deny [the existence of political prisoners] for the following reason: I have not looked into any criminal case of this kind," said Harutiunian. Yelk's parliamentary leader, Nikol Pashinian, hit out at the long-serving Constitutional Court chief after the question-and-answer session. "The guy was vice-president, prime minister and Constitutional Court chairman # but doesn't know if there have been political prisoners in Armenia," he said. "This is his relationship to the truth." Pashinian also attacked another candidate, former Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian. He said that Armenian jails were "full of political prisoners" during Danielian's tenure. HHK parliamentarians rejected the criticism. "Nobody can call into question their [professional] qualities that are needed for their tenure at the Supreme Judicial Council," one of them, former Prosecutor-General Gevorg Kostanian, said during the debate. Incidentally, another candidate nominated by the ruling party, Liparit Melikjanian, ran for the parliament on the Yelk ticket as recently as one year ago. He accused the Armenian authorities of pursuing "anti-national policies" during the election campaign. "I may sympathize with the Yelk bloc in terms of political views but I think that my political career is over now," Melikjanian said on Tuesday. Armenian courts have long been notorious for their lack of independence from the executive branch. They are still mistrusted by many citizens despite having undergone frequent structural changes in the last two decades. Corruption among judges is thought to be another serious problem. Sarkisian Encouraged By Faster Economic Growth Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian meets with Prime Minister Karen Karapetian and other senior officials in Yerevan, . President Serzh Sarkisian hailed on Tuesday robust economic growth recorded in Armenia last year, while acknowledging that it did not have a serious impact on living standards. Sarkisian said the Armenian economy expanded by at least 7.4 percent in 2017 as het met with Prime Minister Karen Karapetian and other senior officials to discuss the socioeconomic situation in the country. "This is certainly a good indicator," he said. "But we must also bear in mind that one year of strong economic growth cannot have an impact on broad sections of our society." The rapid growth, the president went on, should continue unabated for two or three more years before its positive effects can be felt by most Armenians. He noted in that regard that the Armenian government achieved "good economic indicators" in January as well. The Finance Ministry made a more modest growth projection last month: 6.7 percent. It had originally forecast a 3.2 percent growth rate. It revised that target upwards to 4.3 percent in September. Armenia's National Statistical Service (NSS) has yet to report an official growth figure for 2017. So far it has released only detailed separate data on the performance of different sectors of the economy. In particular, Armenian industrial output rose by over 12 percent, according to the NSS. In its five-year policy program approved by the parliament last June, Karapetian's cabinet pledged to ensure that the domestic economy grows by around 5 percent annually. Sarkisian announced on Tuesday that his administration will finalize "within several weeks" a 12-year "strategy for Armenia's socioeconomic development." A statement on the meeting released by the presidential press service gave no details of that strategy. Sarkisian will complete his second and final presidential term on April 9. He is widely expected to become prime minister and thus extend his decade-long rule. Press Review "Zhoghovurd" reports that the Armenian government is determined to complete a controversial reform of the national pension system that triggered street demonstrations in Yerevan in 2014. It will become mandatory in July for all Armenian workers self-employed individuals born after 1973. The paper is critical of the new pension system, saying that it should not be introduced in Armenia because average wages there are quite low. It says that a higher pension tax envisaged by the reform will only cut those wages in real terms. "Zhamanak" says that hardly anyone was surprised by Gagik Tsarukian's decision to endorse President Serzh Sarkisian's pick for the next head of state, former Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian. The paper links this decision to what it sees as a "profound transformation of the government system in Armenia." Tsarukian is keen to adapt to this ongoing change, it says. "Building a party and making it a success in Armenia is a very difficult task," writes "Hraparak." "Especially if that party does not make use of government resources its chances of electoral success become slim # and the likelihood of splits within it greatly increases. That explains why the history of non-governing parties in Armenia has been one of volatility and upheavals. Such parties fail to achieve important results because financial resources and public platforms mainly serve pro-government forces." Karapet Rubinian, an opposition figure who has served as deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament in the past, tells "Aravot" that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's latest statements on "historic Azerbaijani lands" in Armenia may be a prelude to renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. Rubinian also speculates that Aliyev's decision to bring Azerbaijan's next presidential election forward by six months is apparently connected with the ongoing political transition in Armenia. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
ArmenPress News Agency , Armenia February 8, 2018 Thursday Skier Michael Michaelyan says proud to be flag-bearer at 2018 Winter Olympics Parade of Nations YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Skier Michael Michaelyan, Armenia’s flag-bearer at the 2018 Winter Olympics Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, says it is a great honor to carry his country’s flag at the inauguration. “I feel proud, because without any serious funding we try to represent our little mountainous Armenia. With our small records, we are trying to compete with the US, Russia and other countries”, Michaelyan told ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s skier Michael Michaelyan will be the country’s flag bearer at the 2018 Winter Olympics Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang. Armenia is the only country in the world to have three athletes from the same family to become flag bearers. Michaelyan’s mother and brother were flag bearers of Armenia in the past. Gagik Bolshikyan, head of Armenia’s delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, told ARMENPRESS that skiers Katya Galstyan, Ashot Karapetyan, coaches Arthur Michaelyan and Seyran Harutyunyan, and Armenian Federation of Skiing boss Gagik Sargsyan will participate in the parade also. The opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics will take place February 9, 15:00 Yerevan time. It is an unprecedented event that three members of the same family are flag-bearers at the Olympic Games. Michaelyan’s mother was a flag bearer for Armenia at the 1998 18th Winter Olympics, while his brother carried the flag at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
President Tump appoints Patrick Hovakimian to serve in Justice Department
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump has nominated Patrick Hovakimian to serve as a Member of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the Justice Department, for the remainder of a three-year term expiring September 30, 2020.
As the release issued by the White House reads, the nomination comes as part of key additions administration posts.
To note, Patrick Hovakimian serves as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, where he investigates and prosecutes public corruption and white-collar crime. Previously, he practiced law with the international law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP, and clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He holds a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School, where he studied as a Truman Scholar and was a member of the Stanford Law Review; a Master of Philosophy from Oxford, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar; and a Bachelor of Arts, conferred summa cum laude, from Occidental College. Mayor Kevin Faulconer appointed him to the Human Relations Commission in 2016.