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2018 FIFA World Cup mascot Zabivaka greets Armenian Prime Minister in Moscow airport, plays ball

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MOSCOW, JUNE 13,  Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and his spouse Anna Hakobyan have arrived in Russia for the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony.

The Armenian PM and his wife were welcomed at the Moscow airport by Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan and head of the state protocol service of Russia’s foreign ministry Igor Bogdashev, ARMENPRESS correspondent reports.

Zabivaka (literally meaning goal-scorer),  the official mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, approached Pashinyan as he exited his aircraft. Zabivaka and the Armenian PM kicked a football a few times and posed for photos.

During the two-day visit, Pashinyan will have a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and will visit the monastic complex of the Armenian Church of Moscow.

Pashinyan will attend the inauguration of a bust of Soviet military commander Hamazasp Babadzhanian, the Chief Marshal of the Soviet Armored Troops, the government’s press service said. Babadzhanian was Armenian.

The Armenian Prime Minister will also attend the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the first match in the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.

 

Pashinhyan will be ‘minority’s prime minister’ if elected – opposition MP

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minority's prime minister

minority’s prime minister

Nikol Pashinyan, who is now the only possible candidate for the prime minister’s post, will be the political minority’s leader if elected, says Edmon Marukyan, an opposition MP from Yelk (Way Out) parliamentary faction.  

Speaking to Tert.am, he described the current political developments in Armenia as a situation comparable to a force-majeure, with no political force promising to be a sustainable majority.

“It isn’t absolutely clear what is going on, but we have that kind of example in international practice. Pashinyan will be the minority’s prime minister, with three [parliamentary] forces having already nominated him and the fourth [the Republican Party of Armenia] , which is a majority at the moment, backing him to the extent of just a couple of votes.

So the cabinet to be formed will be a minority cabinet, which will be temporary,” he noted. As urgent steps for the current period, the lawmaker stressed the need of electoral reforms and political stability in the country (until the snap parliamentary election). Marukyan said they also hope to negotiate reforms to the Electoral Code (which is a constitutional law) for resolving the ongoing political crisis.

Armenia: Republican backs plan to nominate Serzh Sargsyan for prime minister – spokesperson

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The Republican Party’s executive board unanimously backs the plan for nominating the third president for the prime minister of Armenia, according to the ruling party’s spokesperson.

Speaking to reporters after the board’s meeting late on Wednesday, Eduard Sharmazanov said they intend to submit the proposal to their council on Saturday to request an official decision. But he said they “aren’t yet sure” whether Serzh Sargsyan will be the Republican’s preferred choice.

“Under the Constitution, the governing political force is to nominate its candidate for the prime minister in the parliamentary system of Armenia. We are also aware that a meeting was held between the chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia [Serzh Sargsyan] and First Deputy Chairman [acting Prime Minister] Karen Karapetyan.

The RPA executive board finally initiated its discussions today [to consider] the future prime minister’s candidacy,” Sharmazanov added.
Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan earlier announced a decision to back Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy for cabinet leader’s post, citing major challenges and concerns linked to the country’s future sustainable development.

Karapetyan met with the outgoing president in his office on Saturday to brief him on his cabinet’s accomplishments (over the past period of his tenure since September 2016) and the reforms stemming from the constitutional transition to a parliamentary republic (based on the 2015 constitutional reforms).

On Monday, he met with Armen Sarkissian, already the fourth president of Armenia, to tender the executive’s resignation. The new cabinet is to be formed within 15 days after the new prime minister’s appointment (Article 150 of the Constitution).

Sharmazanov said the Thursday meeting also summed up the past 10 years of Serzh Sargsyan’s tenure.

“Those 10 years were complicated and full of challenges but at the same time, they marked a period of state building and security strengthening. So Mr President’s contribution is really invaluable to the strengthening of Armenia,” he said, admitting also the existing shortcomings and ommissions.

Sharmazanov said he sees essential differences from 2018, especially in the field of democracy-building, security strengthening and protection of human rights. As an important achievement, he highlighted the firmer approach to the exercise of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) people’s right to self-determination.

“We thanked all the cabinet members, especially Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, for the outcomes of the past 1.5 years,” he added

Armenia creating ‘institute of autocratic prime minister’ – human rights advocate

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The constitutional reforms, envisaging a transition to a parliamentary republic, do not virtually promise that form of government in our country, according to the president of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia.

Speaking to Tert.am, Avetik Ishkanyan said he sess that the changes, adopted in the wake of the 2015 nationwide referendum, give only sweeping powers to the prime minister, creating a government model “ruled by a single party.” “Instead of an autocratic president, we are thus creating an institute of an autocratic prime minister,” he noted.

Ishkhanyan said he doesn’t think that the amended Constitution helps in any way resolve the problem of the political system’s super-centralization.

Addressing the justifications (outlined in the concept paper (proposed by the working group tasked with elaborating the amendments back in 2014) and the internationally acclaimed political science organizations’ research into the topic, the human rights activist said he is under the impression that the authors themselves felt their legal initiative was not a constitution in essence.

 

“It guarantees no separation [of powers]. As we delve further into the conceptual clauses (many have simply forgotten the fact), we see that it repeats approximately the same provisions which many civil society representatives – including myself – had stated before, criticizing the authorities for the remarks written by the group of specialists,” he added.

Turkish Prime Minister’s family owns $140 million in foreign assets

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By Harut Sassounian,

Last week, we disclosed the improper enrichment of Pres. Erdogan of Turkey by receiving a $25 million oil tanker as a gift from an Azeri billionaire. This week, we expose the Prime Minister of Turkey, Binali Yildirim, who turns out to be just as corrupt as his boss!

Craig Shaw and Zeynep Sentek revealed in their article posted on the website theblacksea.eu, based on a report by the European Investigative Collaborations’ (EIC) Malta Files, that the Yildirim family owns shipping and other foreign assets worth $140 million.

In 2009, when Yildirim was Minister of Transport and Maritime, he told a gathering of large ship owners in Istanbul: “From now on any Turkish businesses owning ships, yachts or sea vessels that flew foreign flags would be ‘treated with suspicion’ by the government.” Yildirim gave the ship owners three months to change the registration of their vessels. Yildirim added, “Now they have no excuse. If they insist on not changing to the Turkish flag, we don’t see that [they have any] good intentions.” The Minister was apparently promoting the creation of a strong, national shipping fleet which would pay taxes to Turkey.

Ironically, sitting just a few feet away from Yildirim during the speech was his 30-year-old son Erkam who was “the registered owner of at least one general cargo ship called the ‘City,’ through the family’s offshore company in the Netherlands Antilles. This freighter flew not the Turkish flag, but that of the Dutch Caribbean Islands,” according to EIC investigators.

Since then, EIC reported the Yildirim family owned 11 foreign-flagged ships registered “in a network of secretive companies in Malta, the Netherlands, and the Netherlands Antilles — specifically now Curacao, with more suspected in the Marshall Islands and Panama.”

In addition, theblacksea.eu revealed that “Yildirim’s son, daughter, uncle and nephews have purchased seven properties in the Netherlands, worth over $2.5 million — all of which were paid in cash.”

Yildirim started his career in shipping in 1994 when he managed Istanbul’s Fast Ferries Company (IDO), owned by the city. However, he was fired in 2000 over revelations he awarded a contract to manage the ferries’ canteens to his uncle, Yilmaz Erence,” according to Shaw and Sentek.

Yilmaz is the same uncle who registered the Turkish company, Tulip Maritime Limited, in Malta in 1998. Yilamz’s partners were: “Salih Zeki Cakir, a known ship-owner who briefly employed Yildirim, Ahmet Ergun, President Erdogan’s advisor from his days as Istanbul Mayor, as well as a former MP [Member of Parliament] and high court judge, Abbas Gokce,” according to Shaw and Sentek.

The Black Sea and EIC reported that six of the 11 ships owned by the Yildirim family – “worth between 1.9 million and 33 million Euro — appear to have been bought without any bank loans. If so, this suggests an enormous cache of funds exists in the Dutch operation, despite on paper being a money-losing business.”
On June 9, 2016, two weeks after Pres. Erdogan appointed Yildirim as Prime Minister, he acquired four new shipping companies registered in Malta. The director of these companies is Suleyman Vural, Yildirim’s nephew. Two of these companies, linked to a business in Istanbul, were set up in 2015 by uncle Yilmaz and his son, Rifat Emrah Erence.

Yildirim’s son, Erkam, also owns extensive businesses in the Netherlands, including “modest properties and expensive ships,” according to Shaw and Sentek. EIC reported that the Yildirim family owns a company called Castillo Real Estate BV, based in Almere, the Netherlands, where houses a dental clinic in a building owned by the son of the Prime Minister. Next door to the dentist are the offices of Castillo Real Estate and Zealand Shipping — two of the family’s major companies.

In addition to these two buildings, Castillo owns four properties in the Netherlands: an apartment building in Schoonhoven, two houses in Utrecht, and a shoemaker’s shop in The Hague. These six properties, valued over 2.16 million Euro, were all paid in cash. A seventh property in Almere was purchased personally by Erkam for Zealand Shipping’s manager.

The Yildirim family’s biggest assets in the Netherlands — worth $129.8 million — were established in 2007 by Erkam under the name of Zealand Shipping until 2014, when it was bought by Holland Investments Cooperatif UA, also owned by Erkam. In addition, the Yildirim family “owns 30% of Q-Shipping BV based in Barendrecht. The partner in this venture is Abdulvahit Simsek, a Turkish businessman who shares an office with the Yildirims in Istanbul…. Q-shipping BV and its subsidiaries manage 20 ships — none of which sail under a Turkish flag,” according to Shaw and Sentek.

Until a year ago, New Zealand Shipping owned 10 ships flying the Dutch flag, two of which were sold to “a Turkish conglomerate close to the Erdogan government, Kolin Group,” according to Shaw and Sentek. They summarize the “Foreign Wealth of the Turkish Prime Minister’s Family” as follows:

— 18 ships (Dutch conglomerates, fully or partly owned)
— 1 ship (Netherlands Antilles company)
— 4 Malta companies
— 7 properties in the Netherlands
— 8 ships in the Netherlands
— 3 ships in Malta
— Total estimated assets: $140 million.
Shaw and Sentek conclude their article by noting that “after Turkey’s constitutional referendum which granted Pres. Erdogan the power to destroy the Prime Ministry in two years, Yildirim’s tenure at the top is coming to an end. But in the nearly 20 years since he ‘transferred his businesses’ to his children, they have created a soft cushion for him to land upon when he leaves politics for good!”

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

 

Ireland to have first gay prime minister

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Ireland to have first gay prime ministerLeo Varadkar is set to become the Republic of Ireland’s next taoiseach (prime minister) after winning the leadership of the Fine Gael party.
The 38-year-old will become the first gay taoiseach and will also be the country’s youngest ever leader, BBC News reports.

Mr Varadkar beat his rival, Housing Minister Simon Coveney, with 60% of the votes to lead Fine Gael – the biggest party in the coalition government.
He will succeed Enda Kenny as leader of the centre-right party within weeks.
The former GP is the son of an Irish nurse and a doctor from India and much of the media coverage of his victory has focused on Mr Varadkar’s background, age and sexuality.
The former first minister of Northern Ireland, DUP leader Arlene Foster, has spoken on the phone to congratulate Mr Varadkar. He has also received a letter from Prime Minister Theresa May.

Karen Karapetyan appointed Prime Minister of Armenia

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Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has signed on Thursday a degree, appointing Karen Karapetyan as Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

“Guided by Part 4 of Article 55 of the RA Constitution of the 2005 amendments, I decide: To appoint Karen Karapetyan as Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia,” reads the President’s decree available on the official website of the President’s office.

To add, the new cabinet will be formed within a period of twenty days upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

Armenian PM: I promise to spare no effort and energy so that we create New Armenia

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Prime Minister of Armenia, Karen Karapetyan,

YEREVAN. – It is indisputable for all sections of the society that Sunday’s parliamentary elections were conducted at a higher level than in previous years.

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Karen Karapetyan, wrote about the aforementioned on his Facebook page.

“The vote, which our team [the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)] got, is binding. We [RPA] clearly realize the accountability we are assuming, and we are determined to bring to fruition the mandate of changes given by the people.

“I promise to spare no effort and energy so that we create a NEW ARMENIA, that every citizen of our country feels better than before,” Karapetyan wrote, in particular.

According to preliminary results of Sunday’s National Assembly election, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia has received the most number of votes, with over 49 percent.

We would be living in different country if not ‘October 27’ – Armenian politician

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tremendous-loss

Remembering Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan

If not the tremendous losses suffered in the October 27, 1999 parliament attack, Armenia would be a totally different country now, says an opposition lawmaker.

“The negative aftermaths of October 27 are felt to date; they aren’t completely overcome,” Stepan Demirchyan (Armenian National Congress) told reporters on Thursday, describing the tragedy as a major blow to the Armenian statehood.

Asked whether the terrorist plot is likely to be ever resolved, Demirchyan said he is skeptical about such a scenario. In his words, the authors “did all their best to cover up the crime”.

“Yes, we can state that there was never a desire to resolve it,” he added.

Stepan Demirchyan is the son of Karen Demirchyan, the National Assembly’s speaker who was shot dead along with Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and other parliamentarian on the tragic day.

Prime Minister vows to open up the business sphere to all investors

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pm-and-businessThrough the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments we will have a kind of a business ombudsman, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan told during the extended interview to TV Channels. To Karapetyan’s words, the ministry will support the economic entities to overcome existing hindrances.

Asked what assurances the state may provide the investors from the Diaspora, the Prime Minister said: “We want to open up the investment field not only for Diaspora Armenians, but also for the Chinese and anybody else. In order for them to feel protected we will ensure a mutual link through the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments that, speaking roughly, will act as an ombudsman for the businessman, a protector, a mediator to support them facing hindrance”.

Apart from the ministry, Karapetyan also informed about the names and data of other responsible bodies that closely work with him soon to be published.

“We have also registered the business decriminalization, laying out the actions to be taken toward both law-abiding or unlawful businesses. Even the most law-abiding businessmen have been warned from not exceeding their authority. We will undoubtedly turn to law enforcement for any abuse of authority. This is a working mechanism and yes, we will be consistent to move forward and to see the results,” Karapetyan stressed.

 

Source Panorama.am