Armenianow

Daily News

Aris Ghazinyan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The situation in the South Caucasus is on the agenda of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when he begins a visit to Turkey on Wednesday, official sources confirmed. According to unofficial reports, the so-called “Armenian subject”, including Armenia’s relations with Turkey and neighboring Azerbaijan, is also likely to come up for discussion in the context of the general situation in the region. Lavrov’s visit comes at a time when the Armenian public is still digesting the recent statement of President Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow concerning the possibility of forming an Armenian-Turkish commission to review historical events in the first quarter of the 20th Century, once Turkey had lifted its blockade of Armenia and opened its border. At the same time, Sargsyan unveiled plans to invite his Turkish counterpart to Yerevan to “watch together” the first-ever football match at senior level between the two national teams.

Daily News

Aris Ghazinyan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

President Serzh Sargsyan’s statements on Armenia’s relations with Turkey made while on a recent official visit to Russia elicited a negative reaction from the opposition and at least one pro-government party at home. Meeting representatives of the Armenian Diaspora in Moscow early last week, Sargsyan, in particular, unveiled his plans to invite Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Yerevan in September to watch together an upcoming World Cup qualifier between the two countries’ national teams.

Daily News

Ani Hakobyan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Thousands of Levon Ter-Petrosyan supporters braved rainy weather and government-imposed “working day” conditions to stage a rally in Armenia’s second largest city last weekend in what proved to be the first major gathering of the opposition outside Yerevan and its first major arrangement to be formally allowed by the authorities in months. The rally in Theater Square in Gyumri, which had been allowed by the city’s authorities to be held on June 28 and last for three hours, came only two days after the enactment of amendments to the law on public assembly lifting some of the severe restrictions on street protests and marches imposed in the wake of the March 1 melee. It also came at the end of a week during which Armenia was a focus of debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that reiterated its demand for “freedom of assembly to be guaranteed in practice” and urged the Armenian authorities “to allow rallies to be organized by the opposition without placing undue restrictions on them.”

Daily News

Gayane Abrahamyan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The debate on Armenia at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ended late on Wednesday, with Yerevan managing to avoid sanctions and suspension of its delegation members’ voting rights at the Strasbourg-based pan-European organization. The PACE instead adopted a report on the fulfillment of its Resolution 1609 giving another six months to the Armenian authorities to comply with its demands. It is mentioned in the report that “while regretting the delay in implementing the concrete measures to comply with its demands, the Assembly acknowledges that the time given to the Armenian authorities was short”. The PACE gave Armenia time until January 2009 but warned that if the country failed to comply with the demands until then “the Assembly would consider the possibility of suspending the voting rights of the Armenian delegation to the Assembly at the opening of its January 2009 part-session.”

Daily News

Suren Musayelyan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

On a scale from one to seven, where lower means more democratic, Armenia scores 5.21, according to the latest annual report of a U.S.-based pro-democracy group. The Nations in Transit report focusing on 2007 released by Freedom House (www.freedomhouse.org) on Tuesday reviews the democratic progress of 29 nations in Central Europe and Eurasia according to such criteria as Electoral Process, Civil Society, Independent Media, National Democratic and Local Democratic Governance, Judicial Framework and Independence, and Corruption.

Daily News

Gayane Abrahamyan — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

President Serzh Sargsyan has signed into law a parliament-adopted change in the structure of the government that will include a ministry in charge of Armenia’s relations with its worldwide Diaspora. The new law will come into effect on July 1, but the Ministry of Diaspora, one of the 18 ministries included in the government structure, will not start its work until October 1.

Daily News

Gayane Abrahamyan — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The summer plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) begins in Strasbourg Monday having on its agenda an ‘urgent debate on Armenia’ to assess the country’s progress in fulfilling the demands of the organization’s mid-April Resolution 1609. The matter was put on the agenda after PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs Georges Colombier (France) and John Prescott (UK) found after their visit to Yerevan earlier last week that Armenia had made “insufficient progress” on the demands and Committee Head Serhiy Holovaty said in a letter address to the Assembly’s president that an urgent debate was “warranted”.

Daily News

Vahan Ishkhanyan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights has judged that Armenian authorities are wrong to have continuously kept A1 Plus TV off the air. In its verdict delivered this week the Court said it had held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the Armenian authorities’ refusal to grant the applicants’ requests for broadcasting licenses.

Daily News

Vahan Ishkhanyan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The National Assembly on Monday set up an ad hoc commission that is to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into the March 1-2 events. The commission already held its first meeting later that day. The commission is to look into causes of violence, the competence of police action, the circumstances of the deaths in the March 1 clashes between security forces and opposition protesters that claimed at least ten lives. It has the right to obtain necessary information from law-enforcement bodies, invite officials in order to get explanations from them, as well as involve experts, including international ones, in its work.

Daily News

Vahan Ishkhanyan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

President Serzh Sargsyan has signed a decree setting up a public council, a body whose declared goal is to facilitate dialogue between broad sections of the public and the authorities. Meeting prominent intellectuals last week Sargsyan said that the authorities must consolidate all forces of the society in order to be able to direct their efforts at solving problems facing the country. “I sincerely believe that we can unite. This problem exists in all countries, because during no election one political party or individual gets a hundred percent of the vote, and naturally there remain forces, individuals in society that are first dissatisfied and secondly do not appreciate the importance of engaging with others in the task of tackling problems facing the country,” Sargsyan said.