IN REVIEW: COUNCIL OF EUROPE BODY DELIBERATES OVER ARMENIA’S STATUS
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is in discussion and set to approve its Monitoring Committee’s draft report on the Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Armenia. According to this report, Armenia is expected to be given time until June to implement the proposals given in the report. Among them is to launch an independent inquiry into the March 1 events, to release all prisoners who did not commit crimes, amending the law on public rallies, marches and demonstrations, engaging in a dialogue with the opposition and increasing the opposition’s role in political processes. In the Committee’s opinion, if Armenia’s fails to make essential progress on these issues the summer session of the PACE should raise the issue of suspending the right of the Armenian delegation to vote. Answering the questions of Armenian media in Strasbourg, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis said that the events of early March inflicted serious damage to Armenia’s international prestige. In his opinion, there are laws in Armenia that seem to create difficulties for people in the matter of expressing their disagreement with the government or the president. “I think it is sad, since democracy implies that people may have opposite views. But I don’t encourage violence in any way be it in the streets or not.” Terry Davis said that he heard opinions that there are political prisoners in Armenia, but added that before stating that for a fact, clear evidence is needed. He said that he had talked to someone in Armenia and waited for information in this regard in the course of this week. However, Davis declined to reveal the person he talked to. Member of the former ruling Armenian pan-National Movement, head of Armenia’s first delegation to the PACE Hovhannes Igityan is in Strasbourg these days. According to him, Armenia’s authorities are afraid of the term ‘political prisoner’ and those arrested for political views presented as “gangsters and hooligans.” Igityan says that the tactic that they adopted is more correct – criticizing Armenia’s authorities they want the problems to be solved and want Armenia to become a genuinely democratic country. “What is important for Armenian society today is not what sanctions the Council of Europe will impose on Armenia, but its correct estimations to what happened. It is necessary that for example those arrested be called political prisoners. From this, the detainees will at least have some hope that they would be released,” Igityan says.
- Gayane Mkrtchyan
NOW THERE ARE 10: TWO, INCLUDING TEENAGE CONSCRIPT, SUCCUMB TO MARCH 1 WOUNDS
Gayane Mkrtchyan
The death toll of the bloody March 1 events in the Armenian capital rose to 10 Monday. Over the weekend a young military conscript assigned to Armenian police died in hospital of wounds he sustained ...WOMAN POWER: JAILED OPPOSITIONISTS’ RELATIVES RAISE CONCERNS BEFORE EUROPE
Gayane MkrtchyanA group of Armenian women claiming that their jailed relatives are political prisoners are set to turn areas near major European embassies and representations in Yerevan into scenes of their daily protests ...NEW PRESIDENT APPOINTS TWO KEY MINISTERS
President Serzh Sargsyan on Monday evening signed a decree appointing General-Colonel Seyran Ohanyan Armenia’s Minister of Defense, the president’s press service reported. Since 2007, 46-year-old Ohanyan ...COST-CUTTING START: GOVERNMENT SET TO ABOLISH SUBSIDY ON RUSSIAN GAS, PRICES TO INCREASE FOR CONSUMERS
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Beginning next month the government will stop the state subsidy on fees for natural gas supplies for households and enterprises, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan announced during his first press briefing ...IN REVIEW: COUNCIL OF EUROPE BODY DELIBERATES OVER ARMENIA’S STATUS
Gayane MkrtchyanThe Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is in discussion and set to approve its Monitoring Committee’s draft report on the Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Armenia. According ...EASY OPPORTUNITY: PACE RESOLUTION IS A PRESIDENTIAL PLAYBOOK FOR INSTANT REDEMPTION
John Hughes
Oh, what a mess I wonder who's watching me now Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me Faced as he is with the unenviable necessity to mend a gutted nation, President Serzh Sargsyan ...SPORT: ARMENIA GETS ITS FIRST EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN TAE KWAN DO
Suren Musayelyan
Tae Kwan do An Armenian fighter for the first time achieved a European title as Arman Yeremyan became the continent’s champion in the 78-kilogram section in the European Tae Kwan do Championships in ...SCRUM FOR SURVIVAL: RUGBY STRUGGLES TO CAPTURE ATTENTION OF SUPPORTERS
Sara Khojoyan
Four years ago, when Alexander Chilingaryan got a left leg injury during a baseball training session, doctors recommended that he forget sports. “But I did not believe them and I believed myself and ...REALIZED DREAM: DIASPORA ARMENIAN FOUND HIS TRUE HOME IN GORIS
Armine Avagyan 1
While many Armenians dream of leaving to settle in other countries, Shahen Zeytuntsyan, from Germany, found Armenia attractive enough. More over he preferred Syunic province to Yerevan and now 68 year ...COALITION-MANIA?: POWER-SHARING BECOMES ‘A POPULAR TREND’ EVEN IF YOUR WIN IS ‘UNDISPUTABLE’
Negotiations over the roles in the emerging government of the four political parties that formed a new political coalition in Armenia last month as well as actual appointments have dominated discussions ...NEW CONSTRUCTION, NEW PROTEST: CONTROVERSY RISES AS BUILDING SITE IS REVEALED IN VANADZOR
Naira Bulghadaryan
Large scale construction works have started in the center of Vanadzor, Lori province, when a 6 meter deep pit was dug in the center of town, where green area stood just a week ago Human rights activist ...KASHATAGH: KARABAKH’S REGION FEELS SHORTAGE OF ELECTRICITY, JOBS AND RESIDENTS
Naira Hayrumyan
The first pan-Armenian conference on the development of the Kashatagh region of Nagorno-Karabakh took place in that region last month. The conference was organized by the Tufenkian Foundation under the ...CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMS: LAWSUITS SPLIT POLICE AGAINST JOURNALIST IN GYUMRI
Ani Hakobyan
The Gyumri police is asking a court to impose a 50,000 drams (about $170) fine on the chairman of the Gyumri Journalists Club for refusal to obey the demands of the police during a March 2 political protest ...NEW MFA ON THE JOB: PRESIDENT CALLS ON ALL MINISTERS TO BE “SOLDIERS”
Aris Ghazinyan
On April 14, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree appointing 52-year-old Eduard Nalbandyan Minister of Foreign Affairs. Earlier, Nalbandyan was relieved of his position as Armenia’s Ambassador ...WALK TALK: ASSEMBLY DISCUSSES LAW ON ASSEMBLY AS POLICE RESTRICT AFTERNOON “WALKS”
Marianna Grigoryan
On April 15, while National Assembly Chairman Tigran Torosyan was discussing with international experts the necessity of the controversial amendments to Armenia’s law on assemblies, several dozen policemen ...
COST-CUTTING START: GOVERNMENT SET TO ABOLISH SUBSIDY ON RUSSIAN GAS, PRICES TO INCREASE FOR CONSUMERS
Gayane MkrtchyanIN REVIEW: COUNCIL OF EUROPE BODY DELIBERATES OVER ARMENIA’S STATUS
Gayane MkrtchyanDAY OF PROMISES AND PROTEST: PRESIDENT SARGSYAN SAYS “LOOK AHEAD”; SOME NOT READY TO FORGET
Gayane AbrahamyanSOLO PERFORMANCE: PRESIDENT SARGSYAN TAKES A STAND ON HIS FIRST DAY IN POWER
John HughesREALIZED DREAM: DIASPORA ARMENIAN FOUND HIS TRUE HOME IN GORIS
Armine Avagyan
NEW PRESIDENT APPOINTS TWO KEY MINISTERS
WHAT WOMEN WANT: WIVES OF ARRESTED LOBBY FOR HUSBANDS
Gayane MkrtchyanUP AND AWAY ARMENIA!: HOT AIR BLAST BETTER FOR BALLOONING THAN FOR POLITICS OR PROTEST ON INAUGURATION DAY
WOMAN POWER: JAILED OPPOSITIONISTS’ RELATIVES RAISE CONCERNS BEFORE EUROPE
Gayane MkrtchyanNEW BUZZ IN MOBILE SERVICE: ARMENTEL BECOMES BEELINE
Sara Khojoyan
- 1862 Birth of H.F.B. Lynch in London of Irish parentage. Besides his study of law, he became noted as a writer, a geographer, a politician, and a traveller, with a keen interest in Armenia. His two-volume book on his Armenia travels is a classic and describes life in Armenia at the end of the 19th century. In 1906, he was elected to serve as a member of the British Parliament. (He died in London on 1913 11 24).
- 1877 The Yerevan detachment of the Russian forces, headed by General Ter-Ghukasov, occupies Bayazet for 12 days with the help of Armenian home guards.
- 1933 Death of Avetik Sahakian (Father Abraham), the Parliamentary President of the First Armenian Republic.
- 1953 The administrative districts of Yerevan, Kirovakan, and Leninakan are dissolved.
- 1958 Inauguration of the Armenian SSR's Art Institute.
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