"If you believe, for instance, that corruption is at the heart of the problems in the Armenian army, then the mere resignation of RoA Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan will not rectify the problem and those guilty will not be punished." This was the gist ...
The trial looking into the death of journalist Gayaneh Babayan, recently run over in a traffic accident that got underway today at the Kanaker-Zeytoun District Court was interrupted just minutes ago when a boisterous shouting match broke out between the ...
Responding to criticism that the cages of many animals at the Yerevan Zoo are giving off a foul odor, especially given the recent high temperatures, Sahak Abovyan, the zoo’s director told Hetq that he couldn’t argue with the facts. "Sure there’s an ...
At a press conference earlier today, Bavel Gyuzalyan from the RoA Ministry of Emergency Situations told reporters that fires raging in Azerbaijan had crossed into Armenia, particularly in Tavush and Vayots Dzor. He said that Armenian fire fighters hadn’t ...
Just minutes ago, the RoA Court of Appeals sustained the motion presented by the attorney of one of the former students at the Nubarashen #11 School for Special Needs Students and added one year to the two year sentence handed down by a lower court to Levon ...
Ruben Khachatryan, Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets, said today that the plastic bags so freely handed out in Yerevan shops are killing the environment and ordinary people. "I’m not only talking about the ...
Bank employees say they have no manager When protestors at today’s demonstration outside the offices of VTB Bank on Nalbandyan Strret demanded to speak to an official inside, they were told that the bank "had no manager". This created a roar of laughter ...
Recently the newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak wrote that U.S. Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch was attempting to get Serzh Sargsyan and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan to have a face to face meeting, with the aim of starting a dialogue. Today, Galust Sahakyan, ...
Police do not spare women protestors from being man-handled Reports from the scene indicate that police have used force to remove about 20 demonstrators who had blocked the entrance to the VTB Bank on Nalbandyan Street. Some of the activists, protesting ...
On July 28, an organization calling itself the "Youth Party" convened a seminar entitled "Strategy 2020" aimed at studying such issues as a "young Armenian government" and "reserves of young Armenian cadres". Surprisingly, no young people from the opposition ...
Karapet Rubinyan, who recently created a relatively large clamour in oppositional Armenian politics when he resigned from the Armenian National Movement (HHZh), told Hetq that he has no regrets for what he did. "I was given information that the HHZh administration ...
The Administrative Court today threw out the petition of the Abrahamyan family demanding that the Yerevan Municipality verify their property rights to a house on 83 Buzand Street. The property was declared eminent domain according to a 2007 government decision ...
Raffi Hovannisian, leader of the Heritage Party, told reporters today that it was too early to make predictions regarding possible candidates for the next presidential election. He did note, however, that there were a number of potential women candidates as ...
Tomorrow, the Criminal Appeals Court will hear the case of the former students of the Nubarashen #11 School for Special Needs. The plaintiffs are protesting the two year sentence handed down by the Erebuni and Nubarashen Administrative Court to Levon Avagyan, ...
Ecolur, an environmental NGO in Armenia, has presented a petition in the Court of Cassation, seeking to overturn the ruling of the Administrative Court regarding the groups original suit to halt all work at the Teghut mining site. The Cassation Court has accepted ...
Yesterday,Karapet Rubinyan, a high-ranking member of the HHZh (Armenian National Movement) issued a public statement to the press in which he tendered his resignation. He cited fraud in the recent round of HHZh governing board elections as the major reason ...
Months ago the OSCE office in Armenia said the organization was willing to financially assist in the demolition of the Nubarashen toxic dump site, but that the amount wouldn’t be enough for the job. Mr. Karel Hofstra, Deputy Head of the OSCE Office, had ...
The criminal defamation case that had been brought against the newspaper "Azatamtutyun" by Heritage Party MP Zaruhie Postanjyan, has been dropped by the courts since the charge has been decriminalized. MP Postanjyan told Hetq that she would probably pursue ...
Hetq has learned that the former principal of the Nubarashen #11 School for Special Needs Children, Meruzhan Yengibaryan, has applied to the courts to get reinstated as a school administrator. Mr. Yengibaryan, had been dismissed from his post by the Minister ...
The Nor Nork District Administrative Court has rejected an appeal by “Radio Hye” to obligate Heritage MP Stepan Safaryan to issue a retraction of a statement he made claiming that the station was carrying out the directives handed down either by President ...
Raffi Hovhannisyan, founder of the Heritage Party in Armenia, confessed that the party had "retreated from its decided upon path" in his speech at Heritage’s 6th party congress. He also said that there were election-related and other infractions ...
Environmental specialist Lilik Simonyan said today that the shifting of land at the Nubarshen toxic waste site not only hasn’t stopped but that it could get worse.
According to a study presented at the "Freedom of Speech" assembly, convened by the RoA Human Rights Ombudsman, pressures brought to bear against reporters often are politically motivated. Mr. Harutyunyan stated, "This is borne out by the fact that pressure ...
According to an unnamed reporter at the newspaper "Haykakan Zhamanak", the RoA Presidential Palace does not allow opposition papers to cover the actions of President Serzh Sargsyan. The reporter forwarded his complaint to Armen Harutyunyan, Armenia's Human ...
Robert Haddejian, editor of the newpaper Marmara in Istanbul, cultural specialist Movses Herkelian, and writer Toros Toranian, all from the diaspora, expressed their displeasure today at the draft bill now being studied in Armenia that would allow for the ...
The International Chess Federation has just come out with its list of the top 100 chess players in the world. Levon Aronian comes in at 5th place, 47 points behind, top world player Magnus Karlseni from Norway. Vladimir Hakobyan comes in at 44th place ...
At today’s meeting with reporters, Republican Party of Armenia spokesman Edward Sharmazanov, said that Karabakh would never be a part of Azerbaijan and that Official Baku was in a panic. He said that Armenia emerged victorious from the Artsakh War and ...
Edward Sharmazanov, spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, said that the recent joint statement of the presidents from the Minsk Group Co-Chair nations regarding Karabakh included some positive points and that it was "constructive" overall. "One ...
The spiritual and cultural committee of the Sardarapat Movement held its first press conference today and presented the main areas of its planned work. The first of these is the development of a spiritual and cultural policy, which envisages the production ...
When a frog is thrown into a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out. But when you place the same frog in a pot of cold water and gradually bring it to a boil it stays in the water and eventually dies. This is the concept expressed by sociologist Gayaneh ...
The government will spend 213 million AMD this year to renovate and restore ten cultural monuments in Armenia this year. Samvel Mosoyan, who heads the Agency to Preserve Historical and Cultural Monuments attached to the Ministry of Culture, said that 10-15% ...
Reporter Ani Gevorgyan, detained by Yerevan police on May 31 and later formally arrested, along with her brother Sargis Gevoryan and a friend, Davit Kiramidjyan, remained in police custody. Attorney Lusineh Sahakyan told Hetq that the reporter has yet to be ...
ARF MP Vahan Hovhannisyan sees two other disturbing points in the European Parliament’s Resolution 2216 other than the demand that Armenian forces pull out of the "liberated" Karabakh territories. For one, there is the proposal that the mandate of the ...
Ani Gevorgyan, reporter and photographer for Haykakan Jamanak (Armenian Times), her brother Sargis Gevorgyan and Davit Kiramjyan have been arrested. Lawyer Lusine Sahakyan told Hetq that no charges had been presented as yet. Ani Gevorgyan is suspected ...
The Sardaparat movement held a discussion at the office of the Kenats Tun cultural NGO today where the Armenian intelligentsia presented practical steps to oppose the plans of the Armenian government to open schools in the country with foreign languages as ...
The first Speaker of the National Council of Slovakia and current member František Mikloško came up to the Hetq office to take a look at Mount Ararat, before heading off to a press conference. On 23 May, the Slovak delegate was an observer at the parliamentary ...
Ashot Grigoryan, the President of the Forum of Armenian Unions in Europe and František Mikloško, Member of the Slovakian National Council have suggested that the European Union should give Armenia, the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan the status ...
A short while ago, the Erebuni and Nubarashen District General Court found Levon Avagyan, former teacher of Nubarashen N 11 School for children with special needs, guilty of the first and second parts of article 142 of the Criminal Code. A sentence of two ...
Levon Avagyan, former Nubarashen teacher, to be sentenced on May 29 According to the indictment levied against Levon Avagyan, a former teacher at the Nubarshen #11 School for Special Needs Children, during the period 1985-2008, he engaged in sexually ...
The trial of Levon Avagyan, former teacher at the Nubarashen #11 School for Special Needs Children, continued today at the Erebuni and Nubarashen District Court. Mr. Avagyan has been charged with abusing former students, including sexual misconduct. A group ...
Today, activists from an ad-hoc organization calling itself "We are the owners of this coty" formed a human chain around a construction site in downtown Yerevan in an attempt to halt work at the site known as "Student Garden". Two cafes are being built ...
“The Azeris would quickly come and sell their eggs to us as soon as their hens laid them. They would come and drink tea with us in the evenings and we would go to them. Let me say, though, that we never had any foreigners - including Azeris - living ...
"What was the most moving thing for me was when the people of Stepanakert came out of the basements after the liberation of Shushi. When the freedom fighters came down to Stepanakert the people welcomed them in the street with flowers. It was a great relief ...
At around noon today, students protesting military deferment cuts to various post-graduate faculties started to march from the campus of Yerevan State University to the Government Building. Student organizers have told Hetq that the police have warned them ...
On August 30, 2007, the RoA Appeals Court let stand a lower court ruling in the case of Tigran Ohandjanyan, a soldier who died during military service. Those implicated in the case, Captain Rostom Khachatryan, Chief of Communications at the military base, ...
Artak Grigoryan, an Israeli studies specialist, today commented that Armenians should harbour no great expectations that a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide will be included for debate in the Israeli Knesset. "Most likely, such a resolution will ...
Rule of Law Party MP Stepan Aslanyan has told Hetq that he would be resigning his seat in the Armenian parliament to assume administrative work on the outside. He didn’t give any details. "I won’t say now. Things will become clear in ten days or so. ...
Heritage Party MP Raffi Hovannisian stated today that while he thought President Sargsyan’s TV address to the nation yesterday, declaring a halt to the Protocols ratification process, a sound and successful statement, he still believes there is a wide gulf ...
The days leading up to the 95 anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide are especially poignant for MP Raffi Hovannisian. The American born politician and RoA’s first Foreign Minister, traces his roots back to western Armenia. "More than 2,000 schools and ...