Author: Maral Chavushian

No one has suffered in a road accident in Syunik province, Spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan has said.

Speaking to Public Radio of Armenia, the Spokesman refuted the reports on a major crash involving a military vehicle.

“The vehicle has not crashed, it has just run off the road,” Hovhannisyan said. He added that none of the soldiers in the car has been injured, no one has been hospitalized.

The formation of a new Lebanese government—which will be headed by  was announced Saad Hariri—was announced on Dec. 18, which includes two members of the Lebanese-Armenian community, the Armenian Weekly reports.

Armenians Avedis Gidanian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and former Minister of State for Administrative Development Jean Oghassabian are a part of the new Cabinet, according to Armenia’s Hay Dzayn news outlet. Gidanian was appointed State Minister of Tourism, while Oghassabian will likely head the newly-created State Ministry for Women’s Affairs.

The four key ministerial portfolios—the Finance Minister, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Defense Ministry, and the Interior Ministry—were given to Ali Hasan Khalil, Gebran Bassil, Yaacoub Sarraf, and Nouhad Machnouk, respectively, according to Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper.

Hariri described his Cabinet as a national consensus government, underlining that it will “exert efforts during its short-term,” which will not exceed few months. “Its first mission will be to reach with the Parliament a new electoral law that abides by proportional representation and the right representation,” said Hariri, as reported by the Daily Star.

The Cabinet includes 22 newcomers and only one woman. Along with the State Ministry for Women’s Affairs, four other new ministries have also been established: State Ministry for Refugees Affairs, State Ministry to Combat Terrorism, State Ministry for Presidential Affairs, and State Ministry for Human Rights.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Stéphane Visconti.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue.

Edward Nalbandian noted that the “the unequivocal implementation of the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits is imperative for furthering the negotiation process.”

The parties attached importance to the statement of the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries issued in Hamburg.

Fitch Ratings-Moscow-02 December 2016: Fitch Ratings has assigned Armenian City of Yerevan Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of ‘B+’ and a Short-Term Foreign Currency IDR of ‘B’. The Outlooks on the Long-Term IDRs are Stable.

Yerevan’s ratings reflect a weak institutional framework for Armenian sub-nationals, as reflected by the sovereign rating (B+/Stable) constraint. The ratings also reflect Yerevan’s status as Armenia’s capital, satisfactory budgetary performance, supported by steady transfers from the central government, and a debt-free status.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The rating action reflects the following key rating drivers and their relative weights:

High
In its base case scenario, Fitch expects the city to maintain satisfactory fiscal performance with an operating margin of 2%-3% in 2016-2018 (2011-2015: average 7.5%). The lower than historical margins will be driven by continued adjustment of the city’s operating revenue to negative shocks resulting from the protracted slowdown of Armenia’s economy in 2014-2015. We also expect Yerevan to run a slight surplus before debt variation of 1%-2% of total revenue in 2016-2018, after an average deficit of 1% in 2011-2015.

Fitch projects Yerevan city’s operating revenue will total AMD78bn in 2016, up 3% yoy. Yerevan receives current transfers from the central government, which averaged 74% of operating revenue in 2011-2015. Over the medium term, current transfers are likely to remain stable at about 75% of the city’s operating revenue, while locally collected taxes will contribute about 15% of operating revenue, in line with its average in 2011-2015.

Capital spending is likely to decrease slightly to about AMD7bn-AMD8bn in 2016-2017 (2015: AMD9bn) before rising to about AMD10bn in 2018. It will likely remain at below 10% of total expenditure, significantly below the average of 22% in 2011-2015, when the city made material infrastructure investment funded by state transfers and donor grants. Fitch expects the city will continue funding capital spending predominantly with asset sales and capital transfers from the central government.

Fitch views Armenia’s institutional framework for local and regional governments (LRGs) as a constraint on the city’s ratings. It has a shorter track record of stable development than many of its international peers. Weak institutions lead to lower predictability of Armenian LRGs’ budgetary policies, narrow their planning horizon and hampering long-term development plans. The main challenge facing Yerevan is the low predictability of medium- and long-term policies, which are subject to central government decisions.

The ratings also consider the following rating factors:

The city is free from any debt or guarantees, since forming a community in 2008. Statutory provisions of the national legal framework guiding debt or guarantees issuance restrict the city from incurring significant debt.

The city’s liquidity position weakened in 2015 to AMD175m, from AMD941m in 2014 as Yerevan used its cash to fund capital spending. However, its average monthly cash balance improved to AMD3.2bn at end-9M16 from AMD175m in 2015, underpinned by a steady inflow of revenue sources. Yerevan holds its cash in treasury accounts as deposits with commercial banks are prohibited under the legal framework. Fitch expects the city’s cash holdings to rise to AMD1.5bn-AMD3bn in 2016-2018, surpassing the five-year average of AMD1bn in 2011-2015.

Yerevan benefits from its capital status. It’s the country’s economic and financial centre and largest market with a developed services sector. Yerevan is the country’s largest metropolitan area, where 36% of Armenia’s population resides. However, the city’s wealth metrics are low in the international context; Fitch estimates Yerevan’s GRP per capita was AMD1.8m in 2015 (USD3,770). The city’s unemployment rate is high, averaging at 17.6% in 2011-2015, as measured by ILO-compliant assessment of the national statistics service.

The country’s economy grew 3% yoy in 2015, underpinned by strong net exports. Fitch expects Armenia’s economy to grow 3.5% in 2016 and 3.6% p.a. in 2017-2018. Armenia’s economy was negatively affected by severe external shocks in 2014-2015, following a collapse in commodity prices, which depressed the country’s major trade partners and reduced remittances inflows and exports.

Photo: AFP

 

President-elect Donald Trump has announced he is leaving “business in total” to focus on presidency and avoid perceived conflicts of interest, the BBC reports.

Mr Trump said he would be expanding on his plans at a press conference with his children next month.

He previously dismissed concerns over potential conflicts between his businesses and the presidency.

There is no legal requirement to liquidate assets but past US presidents have set aside their business dealings.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Mr Trump said: “I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

“While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses.

“Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!”

Turkey could hold a referendum on whether to continue membership talks with the European Union next year, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, repeating his warning to Brussels that it needed to “make up its mind” on Turkish accession, reports.

In a speech in Ankara broadcast on television, Erdogan urged Turks to be patient until the end of the year and then said a vote could be held on EU membership.

Erdogan also said that he would approve reinstating the death penalty – a move that would likely end any hope of Turkish membership of the EU – if parliament passed a law on it, and said that too could be part of a referendum.

Turkey is expected to hold a national vote on constitutional changes next spring, including boosting the powers of Erdogan’s office to create a presidential system akin to that of the United States or France.

Turkish police have tortured and otherwise ill-treated individuals in their custody after emergency decrees removed crucial safeguards in the wake of a failed coup attempt in July, 2016, said in a report released today.

The 43-page report, “,” documents how the weakening of safeguards through decrees adopted under the state of emergency has negatively affected police detention conditions and the rights of detainees. It details 13 cases of alleged abuse, including stress positions, sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse, and rape threats, since the coup attempt.

“By removing safeguards against torture, the Turkish government effectively wrote a blank check to law enforcement agencies to torture and mistreat detainees as they like,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The cases we have documented seem to indicate that some have done just that. Turkey’s government should reinstate these crucial safeguards now.”

A provision in the emergency decrees absolves government officials of any responsibility for actions taken in the context of the decrees. And the authorities’ decision to postpone a visit to Turkey by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture casts serious doubt on the authorities’ commitment to prevent torture and ill-treatment.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 lawyers, human rights activists, former detainees, medical personnel, and forensic specialists.

At least 241 police officers and citizens died and up to 2,000 were injured when elements of the military attempted a coup d’état against the elected government on July 15-16. Human Rights Watch interviewed several people injured while resisting the coup.

Europe’s Schiaparelli lander did not behave as expected as it headed down to the surface of Mars on Wednesday, the BBC reports.

Telemetry data recovered from the probe during its descent indicates that its parachute was jettisoned too early.

The rockets it was supposed to use to bring itself to a standstill just above the ground also appeared to fire for too short a time.

The European Space Agency (Esa) has not yet conceded that the lander crashed but the mood is not positive.

Experts will continue to analyse the data and they may also try to call out to Schiaparelli in the blind hope that it is actually sitting on the Red Planet intact.

In addition, the Americans will use one of their satellites at Mars to image the targeted landing zone to see if they can detect any hardware. Although, this is a slim hope because the probe is quite small.

For the moment, all Esa has to work with is the relatively large volume of engineering data Schiaparelli managed to transmit back to the “mothership” that dropped it off at Mars – the Trace Gas Orbiter.

This shows that everything was fine as the probe entered the atmosphere. Its heatshield appeared to do the job of slowing the craft, and the parachute opened as expected to further decelerate the robot.

But it is at the end of the parachute phase that the data indicates unusual behaviour.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed the rise of Congressman David Valadao (R-CA), from California’s Central Valley, to his new role as Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues.

A longstanding friend of Armenians from Fresno and across America, he takes on this new post ready to work with his Caucus colleagues in support of a broad range of ANCA-supported priorities, including a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty, the prospect of a new Millennium Challenge Corporation grant for Armenia, continued direct U.S. aid to Artsakh, and the regulatory framework needed to initiate direct international flights from airports in the United States to Zvartnotz airport in Yerevan.

“We are honored to see Congressman Valadao – a proud son of our Central Valley – take on this pivotal leadership position in the Congressional Armenian Caucus,” remarked ANCA Central California activist Sevag Tateosian “It holds special meaning for those of us in and around Fresno – one our nation’s first Armenian communities – to see our U.S. Representative helping to lead a bipartisan legislative effort to ensure that our voices are heard and our views are respected in Washington, DC. We look forward to vigorously working with him hand in hand in advancing the many issues on our shared agenda.”

Valadao was born and raised in Hanford, California in the center of the agriculturally rich Twenty First Congressional District. As a lifelong resident of the Central Valley, he has been active in agriculture and dairy industry groups, as well as many local causes including Children’s Hospital Central California, 4-H, Future Farmers of America, and various Catholic charities. The Valadao family emigrated from the Azores Islands of Portugal to the United States in 1969. After settling in the Central Valley, Valadao’s father started a small dairy farm in the Central Valley in 1973. Valadao was born on April 14, 1977.

In 2010, Valadao was elected to represent California’s 30th State Assembly District. Valadao served on several California Assembly Committees including the Agriculture Committee, where he held the position of Committee Vice-Chair. In 2012, Valadao was elected to represent California’s 21st Congressional District, which includes Kings County and portions of Fresno, Kern, and Tulare Counties. He was reelected for his second term in November 2014. Valadao is proud to serve on the influential House Appropriations Committee, which is the committee responsible for funding the federal government and determining where American tax dollars are spent.

The Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues was founded by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and former Congressman John Porter (R-Ill.) in 1995. Since that time, the bipartisan panel has been at the forefront of Congressional action on a broad range of Armenian American concerns – from justice for the Armenian Genocide, to self-determination for Nagorno-Karabakh, stronger U.S.-Armenia ties, and support for Armenian communities in Georgia and oppressed Armenian and other Christian communities around the world.

Armenia international Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been ranked 73rd among 100 best players in the world by .

“Mkhitaryan had spent three seasons at Borussia Dortmund just getting better and better and better. And the problem when that happens is that someone was always going to come along and pay big money to buy him,” the Daily Mail writes.

That someone was Manchester United and Jose Mourinho will just be praying the Armenian comes somewhere close to last season’s scarcely credible return of 23 goals and 32 assists.

Mkhitaryan’s teammates Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata are ranked 70th and 75th respectively.

Eric Bailly is 82nd, Ander Herrera is 89th, Marcus Rashford is 97th.