On yesterday’s Yerevan to Istanbul flight, scheduled to take-off at 10:45 am, there was an unexpected and somewhat confusing delay. A “Hetq” reporter on the plane stated that all the passengers were ordered to embark and pass through security a second time.

Gevorg Abrahamyan, Public Affairs Director for Armavia, told “Hetq” that after the plane was filled with passengers an additional two individuals also showed up with tickets.  A decision was made to remove the additional passengers. According to airline safety regulations when even one person disembarks, security checks must again be completed for the plane and the remaining passengers. The repeated security was the cause for the delay. »»»»»

A bicycle convoy to raise public awareness regarding the threat posed by global warming will kick off on Sunday, December 6 at 1 pm, from the steps of the Matenadaran Repository in downtown Yerevan. Various Armenian environmental groups will participate in the events and the public is invited.

The Yerevan event will coincide with other such public awareness actions around the world on that day. On December 7, representatives of world governments, including Armenia, will travel to Copenhagen to participate in an assembly seeking to devise ways to solve this most pressing of environmental issues.

Today, video tapes were entered into court as evidence in the trial of “Haykakan Zhamanak” editor Nikol Pashinyan. One tape, showing scenes from the presidential post-election period, depicted police officers telling the crowd of demonstrators that their march hadn’t been sanctioned by law-enforcement.

Mr. Pashinyan stated that it wasn’t clear what the police officers were referring to. “Was it prohibited for the people to demand justice and take advantage of their constitutional right or was it the fact that they were demanding that those responsible for manipulating the election results be punished?” he asked. »»»»»

Richard Giragosian, Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies, stated today that the greatest threat facing the ceasefire in Karabakh was the growing level of Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation.

Mr. Giragosian, during an earlier press conference, noted two internal developments taking place within Azerbaijan that could threaten the peace. The first were the efforts of Baku to launch a satellite and the purchase of military aircraft from China. The second, and more realistic threat, was the warming of relations between Baku and Moscow. »»»»»

A few days ago, “Hetq” received calls from local residents that tress were being felled and removed from the Yerevan Botanical Garden. Following up, we called Botanical Garden’s Deputy Director Gagik Movsisyan and apprised him of the situation. His reply was that no felled trees had been discovered at the site in question. He even invited us to see for ourselves.

Yesterday, we took him up on his offer and visited the Botanical Gardens and found the remains of a bonfire in a far-off corner of the grounds. We also saw threes and branches that had been cut. It seems that someone had taken up residence in the Botanical Garden and was freely making use of the tress to erect some sort of shelter. We counted eight trees that had been chopped down in the vicinity of the fire, which also contained the remains of chicken or bird bones. »»»»»