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Armenia 43 detained in 2 hours of Saturday protests

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YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. 43 demonstrators have been arrested as of 13:00 since Saturday morning as the opposition protests continue in Yerevan, Armenia.

Earlier today Yerevan police (YPD) issued a warning and notification to the protesters, saying the YPD will no longer tolerate the unlawful conduct of the initiators of the ongoing illegal rally and their supporters.

“Any kind of illegal action which will threaten state security, public order, the rights and liberties of others, will immediately be prevented or thwarted with any kind of proportionate method, including with the use of physical force or special measures,” police said in a statement.

Police recalled that the opposition MP has failed to notify authorities about organizing the rallies, as required by law.

YPD said the demonstrators are regularly violating public order and several provisions of the law on freedom of assembly.

Opposition protests began in the Armenian capital of Yerevan a week ago.

The rallies are led by opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinyan, who has called on his supporters to launch civil disobedience.
The rallies began with a sit-in at France Square in downtown Yerevan, followed by sporadic marches in the city streets. The protesters even began blocking intersections and shutting down traffic. The situation escalated when the crowd of protesters and MP Pashinyan himself breached into the headquarters of Public Radio of Armenia, demanding airtime on April 14.

Then on April 16, protesters and riot police clashed in a brief incident on Baghramyan Avenue – one of the main city streets housing the parliament, Constitutional Court and the Prime Minister’s residence. The Yerevan Police Department (YPD) has called on the opposition crowd to refrain from illegal actions and to maintain public order.

The protesters largely ignored the YPD demands and continued the rally, initiating sit-ins outside governmental buildings, blocking traffic, obstructing public service staff from entering their offices, even deflating tires of official vehicles parked outside ministries.
About 100 demonstrators were detained for misdemeanors on April 19. Several others have been placed under arrest for causing a brief riot earlier in central Yerevan. More than 200 were detained Friday, but all were subsequently released shortly thereafter.

Police said they will continue lawfully detaining those who are violating public order.

Armenia national and spiritual symbols are taken from Presidential Residence to inauguration venue

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Armenia national and spiritual symbols

Armenia national and spiritual symbols

YEREVAN. – The national and spiritual symbols of Armenia—the main copy of the Constitution and the 7th century Holy Bible—have been taken to the place where the inauguration of the fourth President of Armenia will be held on Monday.

Under the Constitution, the President assumes office by taking an oath to the people, and at the special session of the National Assembly (NA).

The NA will convene this special sitting on Monday, at Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex in capital city Yerevan.

According to the already-established tradition, these state and spiritual symbols are brought to the NA sessions’ hall.

On Monday morning, the main copy of the Constitution and the 7th century Holy Bible were brought to the Presidential Residence.

Subsequently, the national flag of Armenia and the symbol of the presidential power were handed over to the Honor Guard.

Afterward, the main copy of the Constitution and the ancient Holy Bible were taken to the venue for this inauguration.

The newly elected President of Armenia takes a respective oath before the people by putting his right hand on the Holy Bible and the Constitution.

 

Armenia: Tax breaks fuel growth in IT startups

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Armenia growth in IT startups

The Armenian government yesterday reported a sharp rise in the number of new information technology (IT) companies that are benefiting from the tax breaks introduced three years ago to boost this growing sector in Armenia.

Under a government bill passed by the Parliament at the end of 2014, these companies employing up to 30 employees can be totally exempt from the profits tax. They are also entitled to a preferential income tax rate for their employees, equivalent to 10% of their gross salary.

Nearly 430 start-ups in the sector have benefited from five-year tax breaks thanks to a special government commission created since then. According to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies, 281 of them benefited from such derogations last year, compared with a hundred in 2016.

The department touted yesterday the privileged tax system in a statement and a video report that is attached to it. The images included interviews with the founders of three Armenian technology companies established in recent years.

One of them, Himnark, specializes in the development of accounting software. “We provided services to a foreign company and our profits were not taxed,” said his young owner Ruben Osipian. “We invested it in the development of new software. If there was no tax exemption, we would obviously have invested less.

“Our income tax is lower and it allows us to pay higher [real] wages,” said Vahram Bleyan, one of the founders of another company, Mamble. The company claims to be primarily selling software to a large corporate customer in the United States.

IT is the fastest-growing sector of Armenia’s economy, growing more than 20 percent a year over the last decade. The sector employing more than 15,000 people grew by almost 30% last year, according to government data.

Deputy Minister of Transport Amalya Yeghoyan predicted last week that this rapid growth will continue unabated this year. “I’m sure the number of jobs will increase,” she said, according to the Armenpress news agency.

The Government-Funded Business Incubator Foundation (FIE) estimates that the cumulative turnover of at least 650 IT companies operating in Armenia will reach $ 765 million in 2017. This figure, which includes the provision of Internet service is equivalent to 6.5% of Gross Domestic Product.

The largest companies in the sector include Armenian affiliates of US tech giants such as Synopsys, National Instruments, Mentor Graphics and VMware. Its steady expansion is also increasingly driven by Armenian companies in the country.

“Local businesses are now in better shape than they were five years ago,” the FIE said in a recent report. “They have more employees, attract venture capital investments and demonstrate improved technical expertise and market knowledge. In addition, they are implementing more complex and value-added projects. “

The lack of qualified personnel is generally considered as the main challenge of the sector. Local IT executives have long complained that many graduates of IT departments in Armenian universities have insufficient professional qualifications. They often have to take on-the-job training after graduation.

“It’s a problem,” Yeghoyan agreed. According to her, there are at least 2,000 vacancies in the sector.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018,
Claire © armenews.com

Greece’s Defense Chief Says Armenia and Greece are facing common security challenges and threats,

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Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sarkisian (left) and Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos meet in Yerevan on March 29.

Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sarkisian (left) and Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos meet in Yerevan on March 29.

Armenia and Greece are facing common security challenges and threats, Greece’s visiting minister for national defense, Panos Kammenos, has said.

“Greece and Armenia were, are, and will be always together. We have common values, common history, common victims of the two big genocides of the Armenian people, of the Greek [Pontic] people, and we’ll continue to have problems with the same friends and allies,” Kammenos said at a joint press conference with Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sarkisian in Yerevan on March 29.

“Armenia and Greece are facing common security challenges and threats that require both a comprehensive approach and understanding as well as a solid political determination in order to cope with them effectively,” he said.

When asked about recent developments in Turkey, which like Greece is a member of the NATO military alliance and which aspires to join the European Union, Kammenos said: “Our wish always is for Turkey to be a European country with the respect of international law, with the respect of human rights. Our wish is to see Turkey approach the European values.”

But he said recent statements and decisions by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan show he still “dreams of the big Ottoman Empire” and have the potential to “guide Turkey away from Europe, away from international law, away from the international community.”

“We will continue to do our best to explain to Turkey that we want peace,” Kammenos said. “But we have to remind Turkey that in many moments of its history, and especially in the moments of its history when they had in their mind the big Ottoman empire, they lost, like in 1821 in Greece.”

An 1821 rebellion in Greece, which was part of the Ottoman Empire then, resulted in Hellenic independence from the Ottoman rule.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/greece-defense-chief-kammenos-says-armenia-greece-face-common-threats/29134626.html

Armenia showcases domestic weaponry in major High tech exhibition

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The ArmHiTech 2018 exhibition opened in Yerevan on Thursday to showcase arms supplies of both foreign and domestic production.

 

Armenia showcases domestic weaponry

Armenia showcases domestic weaponry

The second annual event, which will run until Saturday, March 31, has been attracting crowds of people to the Yerevan Expo exhibition hall (Computer Research and Development Institute, which is hosting the event) since morning.

President Serzh Sargsyan attended the opening ceremony earlier today to deliver a greeting address.The exhibition features domestically manufactured drones, mine detectors and low flying aircrafts.

“The Cornet complex is designed for shooting down tanks, armored equipment and low flying objects. Its distance capacity is 8km. It is resistant to any other [fighting] equipment,” an organizer of the exhibition told Tert.am.

The mine detectors, with a charging capacity of up to 22 hours, can find any object containing iron. “It has considerable advantages. There is no separate electronic bloc; it is in-built. [The object] is incomparably lighter and very easy to assemble,” the organizer added.

The exhibition also has separate pavilions showcasing Russian armament – both hunting rifles and weapons for special use.

ArmHiTech 2018 aims to create an efficient platform of collaboration among the servicemen, scholars and businessmen from the participating countries.

 

Armenia unveils new multi-functional drones at arms fair

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Armenia, multi-functional drones

Armenia, multi-functional drones

Armenia-made multifunctional unmanned aerial vehicles were unveiled at ArmHiTec-2018, an international exhibition of arms and defence technologies currently underway in Yerevan.

In particular, UAV s BEEB-1800, BEEB-3000, BEEB-3200, S-1 and HREESH drones were introduced on Thursday, March 29.

According to defense ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan, all the models have already been tested.

An international fair of armament and defense technology, the ArmHiTec-2018 is this year held on March 29-31 in Armenia, with 30 foreign companies from 14 countries participating. 34 Armenian companies are also represented at the event, as are high-level delegations from 10 countries.

Diaspora minister says Serzh Sargsyan’s nomination for Prime Minister ‘possible’

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Diaspora minister

Diaspora minister

The Republican Party’s experience in the Armenian politics is extremely important and acceptable, Armenia’s minister of diaspora said today, predicting high chances for Serzh Sargsyan’s nomination for the post of Prime Minister.Hranush Hakobyan also downplayed the acting

president’s 2014 statement ruling out any plan for a senior government office after the expiry of his second term. “Life is not a dogma to make us stick to what we said [several years ago]. Everything is dynamic, as life is changing and developing. [That statement] was made at a specific moment; it isn’t as though every moment had its logic. I think that under the current circumstances today, the [acting] president will be nominated by the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) to be elected to the post,” she told reporters.

The minister cited political, economic and security reasons, as well as geopolitical developments as important factors necessitating revised approaches.

All the processes are legitimate and in line with the Constitution of Armenia, Hakobyan added.

For further clarification, and comments on the minister’s remarks, Tert.am contacted Ruben Tadevosyan, the chairman of the RPA Organizing Committee.

“The Republican Party of Armenia has not officially conducted any discussion [to consider] who will be the prime minister of Armenia,” he told our correspondent, describing Hakobyan’s statement as just a personal opinion.

Azerbaijani Teacher Fired After Call for Peace with Armenia

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Azerbaijani Teacher Fired After Call for Peace with Armenia

Azerbaijani Teacher Fired After Call for Peace with Armenia

“They said I am an Armenian agent, that I came to Azerbaijan to destroy this country under orders from Armenia.”

Lamiya Adilgizi

In late December, a group of men from a nationalist organization broke into a high school in Baku and accosted a teacher, who had become a social media sensation for posting a photo of one of his students dressed in traditional Armenian attire.

“They humiliated me in front of my students. They called me Armenian,” the teacher, Rovshan Azizov, told Eurasianet. “They said I am an Armenian agent, that I came to Azerbaijan to destroy this country under orders from Armenia. I just wanted to show that peace is possible, and that we cannot solve this conflict by killing each other, that’s all,” Azizov said.

Azizov said that school officials had pressured him even before the nationalists stormed the school. “They told me: ‘You better go. If you stay, you put our life and the life of kids in danger,” Azizov said. “Teachers told my students that I was Armenian and that they had to stay away from me.”

Days later, on December 28, Azizov was fired. School officials say it wasn’t because of his pro-Armenian positions, but his unorthodox teaching methods.

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Trump the Pro Erdogan allocate $0 to Armenia, $105 mln to Georgia under spending bill

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Trump Administration prefers to appease Erdogan over upholding the rights of Americans

Trump Administration prefers to appease Erdogan over upholding the rights of Americans

U.S. president Donald Trump signed the $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday, March 23, under which Armenia will receive no assistance from the U.S. while neighboring Georgia will get more than $105 million.

Also, around $421 million will be allocated to Ukraine.

Funds appropriated by the document and made available for assistance for the Eastern Partnership countries are set to advance the implementation of Association Agreements and trade agreements with the European Union, and “to reduce their vulnerability to external economic and political pressure from the Russian Federation,” the document said.

In testimony submitted to the Senate panel drafting the Fiscal Year 2019 foreign aid bill, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) had called for a targeted $70 million aid package that would fund de-mining and rehabilitation in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), implementation of a proposal to deploy gunfire locators along the line-of-contact, the expansion of U.S.-Armenia economic and military partnerships, and support for Armenia as a regional safe haven for at-risk Middle East refugees.