Citizens celebrate triple holiday - Soviet victory in Great Patriotic War, the liberation of Shushi and the formation of the Armenian Army
Environmentalist and Artsakh War vet Apres Zohrabyan expressed a number of concerns today regarding rumors that the Armenian government is planning to lease grazing lands in Syunik to Iran on a long-term basis.
Barev Yerevan: Photos of today’s rally in Freedom Square organized by the Barev Yerevan alliance campaign rally four days before elections for the Yerevan Municipal Council.
Vendors of the Malatya street mall in Yerevan kept their shutters shut today to protest the high lease rates they have to pay in order to do business.
Heritage Party MP Zarouhie Postanjyan lambasted certain political forces that have been distributing condensed milk to voters in the run-up to the May 5 Yerevan municipal elections.
"In Freedom Square, the provocations began when the cops told us not to sit on the steps of the pedestals of the statues. They gave no reason why we couldn't. They tried to incite passions but they failed,” Safaryan said.
"When I referred to my rights as enshrined in the Constitution, the police told me, ‘You can keep that constitution. It doesn’t interest us.’ That was the extent of their response.”
The internationally renowned Italian saxophonist Frederico Mandelchi will be performing with the Armenian State Chamber Orchestra on March 30 at the Aram Khachatryan Concert Hall.
A group of activist students today told reporters that if their demand for the dismissal of Yerevan State University Rector’s Assistant Gevorg Melkonyan isn’t met by March 22, they will demand the resignation of Rector Aram Simonyan.
That man is Albert Doumikyan, who served as deputy director and then director of the Buriensky National Park in Russia for twenty years.
A group of Raffi Hovannisian’s legal advisers today filed a petition with the RA Constitutional Court seeking to annul the official results of the February 18 presidential election.
Students now in the second day of an open-ended boycott of Yerevan colleges and universities, wound their way from the State University to the Teachers College.
At a press conference today in Yerevan, Pre-Parliament civil initiative representative Jirayr Sefilian told reporters that they would do everything possible to sustain the energy of Raffi Hovannisian’s movement.
Here are a few photos taken at Freedom Square, the site of Raffi Hovannisian's post election press conference. More than reporters showed up to hear what the Heritage Party candidate, who officially came in second place, had to say regarding yesterday's presidential election.
A group of citizens gathered today in one of the auditoriums of Yerevan’s Dramatic Theater in what they described as a “Meeting of RA Citizens”.
Demonstrators assembled in front of the Armenian Government building in Yerevan to voice their opposition regarding any plan to lease pasture land in Armenia’s southern Syunik Province to Iranian sheepherders.
Organizers say all they want to do is to remind young people, especially college students that they too should get active in the social and political life of the country.
Landmark preservation activist were out in force today raising the alarm about another Yerevan architectural gem being threatened by shoddy construction work nearby. Visitors to Yerevan have surely walked past the two-storey building housing the Armenian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (ASRFC) on Abovyan Street.
In the given state of affairs there can be no objective discourse. Just look at what’s happened. I’ve been on hunger strike for twenty days and the media is merely covering my health. No one is discussing the issues I have raised.
Artour Gevorgyan, who heads the Yerevan Municipality’s Public Affairs Unit, assured us that the dismantling was a temporary measure. A construction permit for a multi-residential complex was given to Aviatrans Ltd.
Relatives of Gevorg Tosounyan, accused of participating in a fight resulting in the death of Grigori Papyan, staged a demonstration today outside the Prosecutor General’s Office in Yerevan demanding a fair trial.
Vardan Devrikyan, Deputy Director of the Literature Institute in Armenia, adds his name to the list of public figures who believes that “foreign powers” are behind yesterday’s assassination attempt of presidential candidate Paryur Hayrikian.
Supporters of the Yerevan-based daily newspaper Zhoghovourd, facing a 3 million AMD freeze of its assets, took to the streets carrying banners calling for justice and an end to the government’s repression.
Today, the Freedom of Speech Defense Committee presented its review of 2011 dealing with violations directed against journalists. The review notes three cases of violations that took place during the May parliamentary elections and one that occurred in the local elections that followed.
Residents of the Armenian town of Meghradzor, the site of a planned cyanide plant, have come to Yerevan to stage a protest outside the Presidential Palace today.
“I would like to believe in Ivanishvili’s sincerity and in the statements that he made in Armenia. However, we must take into account a number of negative and positive factors that exists independent of the prime minister’s will,” Sargsyan told reports in Yerevan today.
A new website dedicated to the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan from 1987-1992 called KarabakhRecords.info was publicly launched today in Yerevan.
Sedrakyan said that he would recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia if elected president, adding that he would do the same regarding Artsakh and even that of Nakhijevan.
Haroutyunyan said that only Nikol Pashinyan had the right to be nominated from the Armenian National Congress (HAK), after Levon Ter-Petrosyan chose not to run. He said that MP Hrant Bagratyan should have resigned from the National Assembly before declaring his candidacy for president.
Artur Sakounts, who heads the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly office in Vanadzor, stated today that a large percentage of human rights violations in Armenia’s military are the result of inadequate medical treatment.
Karineh Danielyan, a member of the Yerevan Municipality’s Urban Construction Advisory Council’s Environmental Committee, lamented the fact that proposals submitted by environmental activists have been lost, collecting dust somewhere in the archives of the mayor’s office.
Heritage Party representative Styopa Safaryan today stated that the decision of Prosperous Armenia Party head Gagik Tsarukyan not to run for president would lead to greater voter apathy and thus open the door for more election fraud.
Hakob Sanasaryan, President of Armenia’s Green Union, has pulled out of the presidential commission set up in 2008 to analyze the problems facing Lake Sevan and to draft proposals to resolve them.
“I have frequently declared that when the territorial integrity of Artsakh is recognized and when Armenians have the right to return to their historic homeland, then those Azerbaijanis who wish to do so can return to their former homes in Artsakh,” Hovannisian clarified.
Environmental activists are demanding that the Ministry of the Environment cancels the recent employment tender for the vacant post of director of the Khosrov Forest State Reserve.
According to Areg Mikayelyan, Co-president of the Armenian Astrological Association, the next solar eclipse visible from Armenia will take place on June 21, 2020.
When we disembarked from the van, I asked the girl who she was. She replied that she would tell me but first asked where the painting class was being held. I told her on Pushkin Street near the Art Institute. She told me to wait and went to talk to a man who later turned out to be a policeman. I approached and overheard the cop saying ‘we’ll take her to the salt mine.’
Environmental activists gathered at Yerevan’s Mashtots Park today to collect signatures for a petition demanding that Armenia’s Ministry of the Environment, its minister and staff, be called to account for the government’s poor track record when it comes to protecting and preserving the country’s environment.
Sousanna Ter-Sahakyan resides on the same street as Mrs. Aghajanyan. She frequently stops by to see how the senior is getting along. Sousanna even hired an attorney to retrieve Mrs. Aghajanyan’s documents from the state archives.
During a brief meeting with reporters today, Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian stated that he would only stand as a candidate for the Armenian presidency once and that he’d subsequently launch a civil struggle.
Khudyan, in his statement, laments the fact that he has not been able to pursue his legal case in Armenia’s court system and that his so-called business partners in Armenia are protected by top ranking officials in government.
A building under construction in the vicinity of Yerevan’s Vardan Mamikonian statute collapsed today injuring workers trapped under the rubble.
Several public commentators in Armenia criticized the significance of the recent Yerevan-Erebouni festivities, calling them financially wasteful and void of true cultural significance.
Summing up his organization’s 3rd quarter report regarding the state of freedom of speech in Armenia, Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Speech President Ashot Melikyan noted that while there had been less assaults on reporters this year than last, Armenia still has a long road to go.
The only organization in the country certified to issue an “organic” seal of approval to produce is EcoGlobe, which cooperates with the Ministry of the Economy.
The issue of mini hydro-plants sprouting like mushrooms across Armenia has been one of the most hotly contested issues of late in the country.
Tigran Atanesyan, lawyer for embattled Civilitas Founder and former Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, told reporters today that he had no illusions that the Armenian courts would give his client a fair shake.
At a press conference today in Yerevan, Davit Gasparyan claimed that a book he has edited containing the heretofore unpublished works of Yeghishe Charents has been seized by the Armenian government.
Irate residents of the village of Getahovit converged on the Ministry of the Environment in Yerevan to protest the fact that they haven’t had drinking water for the past twenty days.
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