First, as I have repeatedly said and I will repeat it here, the EEU is a stillborn project — it will not become a reality.
Regarding the July 15 arrest of Artsakh native businessman Levon Hayrapetyan in Moscow, Prosperous Armenia MP Grigori Margaryan told Hetq that while he saw no political undertones in the matter, he could not rule out the hand of Baku.
"There's no talk of a final deadline — neither January 1 nor October 1. Be patient for a few days, for some time. The presidents will meet in the summer, and there will be a final decision only at that time. All other timelines are speculation," he told Hetq.
MPs from two of the four non-coalition parties in Armenia gave a variety of explanations as to why they haven’t jointly met to devise a strategy to oppose the recent electricity rate hike.
ARF MP Artzvik Minasyan today told reporters that President Sargsyan’s comment to the Argentine La Nation newspaper last week that Armenia was concerned about arms sales to Azerbaijan was more a result of recent incidents on the Artsakh frontline.
Rule of Law Party President Artur Baghdasaryan went out of his way today to stress to reporters that his party should also been seen as an opposition force in Armenia.
Artur Baghdasaryan, president of the Rule of Law party in Armenia, told reporters today that a demonstration it has scheduled for July 18 in Yerevan will focus on reversing the recent electricity consumer rate hike approved by the Public Services Regulatory Commission.
Representatives of four non-ruling parliamentary factions — Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Heritage Party, Armenian National Congress, and Prosperous Armenia Party — at a press conference today all agreed that the recent increase in the electricity tariff was as a result of a political decision.
Despite sporadic public protests, Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission approved a 4 AMD electricity rate hike to take effect as of August 1.
For the second time this week, activists closed a major street in Yerevan to protest a possible electricity rate hike.
“They faulted me for speaking kindly about Serzh Sargsyan, but for the sake of Armenia and salvation we must have an Armenia without a Sargsyan presidency.
Even though Azerbaijan currently has chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE), Baku has come in for some stinging criticism ever since the opening of the PACE plenary session on June 23 in Strasbourg.
Secretary of the Prosperous Armenia Party parliamentary faction and a member of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs Aragats Akhoyan warns that if the ruling authorities continue to exacerbate the current social tension, it will have serious implications for them.
MPs from three Armenian opposition political parties chastised the police for employing excessive force to break-up a protest today in Yerevan where opponents sat in the middle of a street to protest another electricity rate hike.
An Azerbaijani attempt to blacklist the Armenian delegation at PACE was never even broached today at the organization’s plenary session in Strasbourg despite the fact that a bill to this effect was signed by 58 of the body’s 642 members (321 principal and 321 substitutes).
The PACE Bureau and Standing Committee adopted the decision to effectively blacklist Baku following the Azerbaijani authorities' last-minute decision to withdraw a visa already granted to a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René Rouquet (France, SOC).
Prosperous Party MP Naira Zohrabyan has told Hetq that Azerbaijan has petitioned the forthcoming Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) plenary session in Strasbourg (23-27 June) and is seeking that members of the Armenian delegation be stripped of its voting rights.
There appears to be a split among the ruling authorities, and the opposition has to use this to its advantage, head of the Armenian National Congress faction Levon Zurabyan told Hetq, following a meeting with the three other minority factions (Heritage Party, Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and Prosperous Armenia Party) earlier today.
When the minority factions realized that the Republican Party, with its 70 MPs, failed to assemble the required 66 needed for a quorum, they walked out of the chamber along with the five deputies of the Rule of Law faction.
Zurabyan told Hetq that the opposition’s response to such presidential statements was one and the same – “Serzhik get lost”.
The non-coalition factions are arguing that the government wanted to push through a number of critical bills at today’s special session without any serious debate.
Voicing his ire over the fact that the government today introduced a number of bills to a special session of the parliament that MPs haven’t had a chance to familiarize themselves with, opposition HAK (Armenian National Congress) faction leader Levon Zurabyan chided the regime for seeking to turn the Armenian legislature into rubber-stamping body.
Mikayel Melkumyan, Deputy Chair of the Economic Affairs Standing Committee in Armenia’s Parliament, today stated that the public should expect further increases in their energy bills and that the government has an inherent interest in hiking energy prices.
Prosperous Armenia Party secretary, MP Naira Zohrabyan, in turn, said such a "categorical" statement by Davit Harutyunyan is surprising for her. "The head of government took a totally different view, saying there are acceptable points for him that can be discussed.
Mikayel Melkonyan, a member of an ad-hoc parliamentary committee tasked with looking into the sale of the Armenian government’s remaining 20% shares in the former HayRusGazArd, in order to pay off a US$ 300,000 million debt to Russia’s Gazprom, told Hetq today that the shares had never been valued before the sale.
Immediately after the four non-coalition parliamentary factions issued there 12 point list of demands to the government last Tuesday, National Assembly Vice President Edward Sharmazanov declared that the parties never broached the most important issue of all; proposed changes to the constitution.
It appears that the alcohol industry in Armenia has been able to push through favorable changes in the parliament dealing with laws regarding commercial advertising of some alcoholic beverages.
Armenian National Congress MP Nikol Pashinyan in his speech in the National Assembly concerning the 2013 budget performance recalled the scandalous stories of Tigran Sargsyan's government.
Former Armenian Prime Minister and current Armenian National Congress MP Hrant Bagratyan lambasted the government of ex Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan for failing to achieve its stated goals, particularly in the economic sector.
"Why should there be a customs point?" said Armenian Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan, speaking to journalists and responding to a question on whether there will be a customs checkpoint between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
ARF parliamentary faction secretary Aghvan Vardanyan today questioned the validity of a recent statement made by Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan claiming that the country’s entry into the Russian led Customs Union would facilitate a settlement of the Artsakh conflict.
Promoting the Ari Toun (Come Home) program, Diaspora Affairs Minister Hranoush Hakobyan was quick to point out today in the Armenian parliament that the daughter of MP Karineh Ajemian found her future husband through the program that brings young diaspora Armenians to Armenia to attend summer camps and other activities.
You know what, we shouldn't mix up these formats. Russia sells arms to a second, third country, including a country you know quite well, with which we do not have friendly relations, and we should not conclude from that that our relations with Russia have waned, that the strategic partnership isn't working, and so on and so forth. They are parallel processes: we shouldn't look at all this in a simple way.
"I think, the presence of our observers there won't have any significance, but if there will be wishes [to go], naturally… It's just that we believe we have to be able to support the Armenian community in more serious ways," he said.
"It troubles both the international community and the [OSCE Minsk Group] Co-Chair countries, which are always urging to take the appropriate steps in the act of strengthening the ceasefire, withdrawing snipers, and creating appropriate mechanisms that will deal with investigations of ceasefire violations," he said.
In conversation with Hetq and responding to the question whether Armenia's friend Russia is acting appropriately by again selling tanks to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Volynkin said: "This is a commercial issue — there are no politics here. And attention should not be drawn to these issues. Thus… I don't see [anything] criminal here; nothing dangerous is happening; it was simply a commercial transaction. We are tied also to Armenia through military...
Responding to a question posed by Hetq as to whether Armenia would be signing any document at tomorrow’s session of Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Astana, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian left the door open to such a possibility.
There is agreement in the quartet to begin a series of joint actions.
I don't want to enumerate the one room of the communal apartment in Moscow, the share of which I received through my uncle. He bequeathed it to me and living there till now is my aunt [the wife of his uncle]. I think that you probably won't be interested in my grandma's house, the unfinished house, which again was bequeathed to me. My grandma acquired that house in the 70s, and it was bequeathed to me before I got into politics. Probably also...
Armenia’s four non-coalition parliamentary factions (Armenian National Congress, ARF, Heritage and Prosperous Armenia) will once again convene a meeting behind closed doors tomorrow to discuss a yet unspecified agenda.
Voting against the bill proposed by government were the Rule of Law, Heritage Party, and Armenian National Congress (HAK) factions, with the exception of HAK MP Hrant Bagratyan, who abstained. The Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) factions also abstained, with the exception of two BHK lawmakers who voted against the bill. BHK MP Vartan Oskanian did not participate in the vote, though...
When asked by Hetq to comment on a recent remark made by the German Ambassador to Armenia Rainer Morel that Armenia could sign the political portion of the European Union Association Agreement even after joining the Customs Union, Armenian National Congress (HAK) MP Levon Zurabyan dismissed the possibility as far-fetched.
Four opposition parties in Armenia’s National Assembly today stated that the government’s revised bill regarding the pension system has not addressed their concerns.
In a secret ballot Sahakyan garnered 101 votes, beating out his only rival Armenian National Congress (HAK) faction MP Hrant Bagratyan who received a mere three.
ARF parliamentary faction head Armen Roustamyan told reporters today that his party would not participate in elections to pick the next president of the National Assembly, noting that the process is a foregone conclusion
Armenian National Congress (HAK) parliamentary faction head Levon Zourabyan told reporters today that the party would boycott the election for the next speaker of the parliament to deride the candidacy of Galust Sahakyan, the Republican Party front-runner for the job.
Galust Sahakyan, who heads the parliamentary faction of the ruling Republican Party, can be described as the legislature’s cantankerous elder statesman, quick with a acerbic retort to questions posed by the press.
A French-Armenian approached Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan on the street today in Yerevan and greeted him saying ‘bonjour’.
Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan today showed up unannounced at a closed door meeting being held by the four non-coalition parliamentary parties.