Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide
Justice Minister of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan has said that the bill on granting amnesty to convicts will be submitted for parliamentary debates on October 23.
Speaking to reporters today at Yerevan City Hall where the minister attended Hayk Marutyan’s inauguration as the new mayor of the Armenian capital, Zeynalyan said that it will be the largest amnesty ever.
He said that discussions are closed prior to parliamentary debates.
The bill was approved by the Cabinet earlier.
Armenia has assumed the chairmanship of the La Francophonie summit from Madagascar.
Rivo Rakotovao, President of Madagascar, announced transferring the chairmanship during today’s summit.
Armenia will chair the summit until the next summit takes place in two years.
“Mr. President, your transferring of the Francophonie summit chairmanship to me is certainly an emotional moment.
We fully realize the responsibility which from now on Armenia is assuming for ensuring this chairmanship for the coming two years. I would like to once again thank all member states and governments of La Francophonie for confidence,” the Armenian PM said, thanking Madagascar for its important contribution and achievements since the Antananarivo summit.
The Armenian government dismissed today six provincial governors from Tsarukyan bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federatioin/Dashnaktsutiun.
On Tuesday, after three parties’ lawmakers in a bid to retain their seats in the National Assembly passed a bill hobbling dismissal of the parliament, Armenian Prime Minster Nikol Pashinyan called on people to come to the area outside the parliament building.
At this rally, the premier informed people about the dismissal of the ministers. The dismissed persons are Aragatsotn province governor Ashot Simonyan, Lori province governor Hrant Margaryan, Vayots Dzor Aragats Saghatelyan, Armavir Gagik Mirijanyan, Gegharkunik Ishkhan Saghatelyan and Syunik Karen Hambardzumyan were dismissed.
At today’s Cabinet session, Nikol Pashinyan said that this is a political decision.
“You know what it connects to,” he said. “The latest political events were going on publicly and, as a result, some ministers were dismissed. I want to express gratitude to them for their work and say that this decision was due to political developments.”
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed on Thursday a decree declaring the day of funeral of Charles Aznavour day of mourning in Armenia.
“I have signed today a decree declaring October 6, the funeral day of Armenia’s National Hero Charles Aznavour day of mourning in Armenia,” the PM wrote in his Facebook page.
By Harut Sassounian,
YEREVAN. – Tatevik Revazian, Chair of the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia, was in Guangzhou, China, within the framework of the 2018 World Routes.
Revazian attended the official opening of this event. Subsequently, she had a brief meeting with deputy director Wang Huijun of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and they signed an agreement on air communication between Armenia and China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.
At the talk, they expressed a view that this agreement will become a legal basis for launching direct air communication between the two countries.
Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan and his Swiss counterpart Michael Lauber have agreed to cooperate on the return of illegal assets.
Given the fight against corruption in the country, Davtyan stressed the importance of a most intense and close cooperation with the Swiss law enforcement agencies
At a meeting with Lauber, the Armenian prosecutor said it’s necessary to boost the practice of information exchange when it comes to investigating money laundering cases and the transfer of illegally obtained funds to offshore zones.
The Swiss prosecutor general, in turn, expressed readiness to support the Armenian law enforcement agencies in such issues.
As a result, the two agreed to cooperate on the identification and return of assets obtained illegally.
YEREVAN. – Armenia and Georgia plan to increase trade turnover volume to $1 billion, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said after his meeting with Georgian counterpart Mamuka Bakhtadze who is on an official visit to Yerevan.
According to Nikol Pashinyan, they had a very important discussion and the parties set very ambitious goals.
“The relations between Armenia and Georgia are brilliant. The task is to bring the economic component in line with the level of political relations and relations between the two nations,” Pashinyan said.
During the meeting, the sides discussed a range of issues related to transportation, economy and politics. As a result of the visit, the sides are going to give a new impetus to the relations in different areas.
“Georgian PM presented an ambitious program, and we fully support it, namely to increase trade turnover to $1 billion,” Pashinyan said, adding that a meeting of Armenian-Georgian interstate commission will be held in the near future.
During the meeting the sides will have to set a task to draw a roadmap for the development of economic, political, humanitarian and cultural ties.
“We can state that with each visit the relations are rising to a new level,” Pashinyan said, recalling that personal relations between cabinet members are no less important from the point of view of strengthening interstate relations.
The royal palace has released – according to tradition – a video of the King on holiday. In the video the king is seen kite-surfing in Armenia.However according to a report in De Standaard, the family – King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and their four children – already spent some time on the French island Île d’Yeu before heading on to Armenia – an arrival which made headline news in the country.
According to protocol, the family arrived on two flights into the capital, Yerevan: the monarch and the heir to the throne – his daughter Elisabeth – may not travel on the same flight.
Armenia’s isolation is almost complete: its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed. Only since last year has Brussels Airlines laid on one flight a week, rising to two in the summer months.
According to local reports, the royals have been impressed with the local cuisine and especially the country’s wine, spending five hours on a tasting tour of one of the largest producers Armas. The country’s speciality is the blending of wine made with local grapes unobtainable elsewhere, together with more common varieties imported from other countries.
King Philippe’s sporting tendencies often form part of the royal holiday picture package, and according to those who know, the latest video of him kite-surfing shows that, at the age of 58, his skills are only improving, compared to previous footage from an outing on the North Sea last year.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
Angela Merkel has offered Germany’s help in forging a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Baku is the chancellor’s last stop on a three-day visit to the South Caucasus.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that Berlin could help mediate between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia to resolve a long-running territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Germany wants to help find peaceful solutions,” the chancellor told journalists in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, adding that the conflict was a major burden on the region.
Merkel called for stronger economic cooperation with Azerbaijan as she sat down for talks with the South Caucasian country’s president, Ilham Aliyev. The pair discussed the domestic human rights situation, the possibility of expanding energy markets to avoid dependency on Russian gas, and efforts to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Azerbaijan is Merkel’s final stop on a three-day tour that has already taken her to Georgia and Armenia.
Frozen conflict
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous border region, officially belongs to Azerbaijan but was seized by local Armenian forces during a war in the early 1990s following the break-up of the Soviet Union.
For more than 20 years, the two countries have been locked in a bitter dispute, with occasional flares in violence along the border. Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to take the region back by force, while Armenia says it will crush any military intervention.
Germany is a member of the Minsk group, which for years has been attempting to negotiate peace under the leadership of the US, Russia and France.
Merkel was expected to return to Berlin later Saturday.
nm/aw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
