Category: 2017

On December 22 a working consultation was held in the Armenian Government led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan during which the main directions of the Armenia-EU partnership agenda were discussed, the government reported.

In particular, a number of issues relating to the implementation of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) were discussed.

“An inter-agency commission is formed which will be chaired by vice prime minister, minister of international economic integration and reforms Vache Gabrielyan. We need to concretely agree on how we move on and fix our actions,” the PM said.

The Vice PM presented the upcoming actions according to sectors and the action plan, and deputy foreign minister Karen Nazaryan reported on the upcoming activities and programs within the frames of the Armenia-EU cooperation agenda which derive from the logic of several fundamental documents relating to the bilateral cooperation.

The PM tasked the heads of each agency to analyze the upcoming actions, develop an action plan and a roadmap for their implementation.

A protest was organized in Yerevan against the import of cars with the right-hand drive.

“From the demographic point of view of 2017, we had a serious problem for the army replenishment. The coming five years will continue to be hard in this regard, so the delay of academic procrastination was right, ” expert Artak Markosyan said today.

He considered the demographic situation and emigration of Armenia dangerous. “Only in 2016, 22,000 citizens of Armenia have received Russian citizenship. 2017 data have not been published yet.”

The whole article is available here

Today, the Armenian Football Federation has summed up the results of poll for the “Best Player of the Year” nomination.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Manchester United midfielder, and  senior of the Armenian National Football Team has been named the best football player 2017 in Armenia, the press service of the Football Federation of Armenia reports.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan got 190 points, leaving behind Tigran Barseghyan. Armenian national team and Macedonian striker of “Vardar” received only 35 votes. Varazdat Haroyan, defender of the Russian “Ural,” is the third with 25 points.

During his career it has been the eighth time that Henrikh Mkhitaryan takes this title.

On December 22, the RA NA Vice President Eduard Sharmazanov addressed with a letter to the President of Chamber of Deputies of Congress of the Republic of Paraguay Pedro Lorenzo Alliana Rodriguez, where he expressed his concern over one-sided, anti-Armenian statements concerning the Nagorno Karabakh problem adopted by the Chamber of Deputies of Congress and the reality was distorted, and exclusively the false approach of Azerbaijan was presented over the problem, particularly, on 1992 Khojalu events.

The NA Vice President noted: “This is a biased and anti-Armenian statement which damages the peaceful settlement process. The Armenian military units have no connection and could not have any relation. The former President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov state at best in one of his interviews given to the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta on April 2, 1992, noting that the Azerbaijani opposition organized the Khojalu tragedy for organizing his throwing down, and the Armenians have no connection with it.”

Eduard Sharmazanov expressed hope that from now on they would do utmost to reach the position of the Republic of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to the legislators of Paraguay and with that avoiding the adoption of the false resolutions.

It is already three years since a 67-year-old Varduhi Khacheryan has started painting and writing. After loosing her 37 years’ old daughter she found relief in creating.

“I started painting and, I don’t know why, but it started helping me after all that pain and grief. I felt how I was painting, the presence of a strong power, and probably it was God who helped me from above. I see the picture, it comes to my sight and then I paint it. I do not just start painting,” she said.

Her life and her inner world are on the canvas. There were 37 canvases exhibited in the Naregatsi Art Institute in summer.

She is from Yerevan. Her father’s family, who survived Genocide, ran away to France, and her mother’s family moved to Georgia. Her son currently lives in France with his family. After her daughter’s and husband’s death she has been alone. Sometimes she is visited by her grandchildren and sister.

Details are available in the video

In the second half of 2017, the downturn in border incidents has to do with the Minsk Group’s work, according to RPA Deputy Chairman Armen Ashotyan. “I can tear down or weaken the tension exclusively with the good will or personal decision of the political leadership of Azerbaijan.”

Armen Ashotyan, Deputy Chairman of the HHK (Republican Party), said that the downturn of incidents in borders, in the second half of 2017, had nothing to do with the Minsk Group’s work. “I am connecting the tension downturn or weakening exclusively with the Azerbaijani authorities’ “kindness” or personal decisions.”

The HHK Deputy Chairman did not sum up the year today. He started speaking about the agreement signed with the EU, spoke about China, came back to Iran, noting that we did not know our neighbors well. From that point of view, the situation is worse with Turkey. Our relations are in a deadlock.“Armenian-Turkish Protocols signed on Armenian side’s initiative will no longer be part of political agenda since spring 2018.”

According to the representative of Nzhdeh’s ideology, Turkey, however, had to find excuses for this absence of relations; though all their  efforts were in vain. “They do not hide the fact that the settlement of the Armenian-Turkish relations is exclusively connected with with the expectations of the pro-Azeri solution of the Artsakh issue.”

Despite this, the number one priority of Armenia’s foreign policy for the next year is to intensify relations with the Islamic states. Armen Ashotyan meant Arabian countries which do not imagine Armenia well. “Taking into consideration Azerbaijan’s dangerous policy to  provoke Islamic countries’ animosity towards Armenia and Armenians, though the policy does not succeed, nevertheless, these challenges do exist.”

Speaking of diplomatic success, Mr. Ashotyan did not overpass the cooperation with the opposition. “When crossing the border of Armenia there is little difference between the power and the opposition.”

By the way, Armen Ashotyan also spoke about the 20-minute breaks of the Yelk (Way Out) in Parliament, mocking the force. Armen Ashotyan said that the Yelk did not accept the fact that the party does not have the levers that belong to the opposition, according to the Constitution.