According to the changes adopted, scanning of the signed voter rolls will occur at noon one day after election day. Members of local election committees, candidates, proxies, election monitors and the press will be able to follow the scanning process.
Armenia’s Prosecutor General has examined 597 reports of fraud – media articles and written complaints filed by NGOs and citizens – alleged to have taken place during the referendum campaign, on election day and afterwards.
According to the draft expenditure, 260 million AMD ($584,000) of the 2.784 billion AMD ($5.868 million) slotted for the elections will go to the police, to see that the April elections will be “free and fair”.
This reporter uncovered some funny business today at the 19/10 polling station in Etchmiadzin, Armenia – the fiefdom of “General” Manvel Grigoryan, an Armenian MP.
There are three ambassadors of Armenia who do not file financial disclosures with the country’s Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials.
Gagik Margosyan and others embezzled 759.2 million AMD (US$1.594 million) from the company during 2010-2014, and another 24.4 million from 2008-2013.
A man in Armenia’s Tavoush Province finds himself in court for allegedly stealing eight chickens and one rooster.
The three reporters, Artak Hambardzoumyan, Karlen Aslanyan and Hovhannes Movsisyan, were hindered from covering the arbitrary detention of citizens that were merely sitting in a nearby park.
Robert Ananyan, a reporter for Armenia’s A1+ news outlet, is being treated at the Yerevan’s St. Gregory the Illuminator for wounds to his legs and hand when police let loose with percussion grenades on crowds demonstrating near the police building seized by an armed group two weeks ago.
The criminal case has been dropped based on the finding.
Haytayan said that the Sasna Dzrer armed group, which earlier today had taken four emergency ambulance personnel hostage, had asked to speak directly with the minister, and that he ostensibly went to negotiate for their release.
Armenia’s Constitution was adopted on July 5, 1995. The first changes were made on November 27, 2005. Other changes were made on December 6, 2015. The right to receive changes made to the Constitution was declared as a constitutional right and one of the fundamental human rights.
Residents in several communities in Armenia’s Gegharkounik Province say their animals are displaying symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious ailment almost exclusive to cattle, sheep, swine and other cloven-hoofed animals.
When this reporter asked Sahakyan, who receives an annual salary of 9.3 million AMD ($19,510), where the money came from, she said she had taken out a loan of 70,000 Swiss francs. (That’s around $71,200 at today’s exchange rate)
Grisha Sargsyan, former head of the Armavir Provincial Military Police, has sued the newspaper Zhoghovourd for slander when it published a news item on May 24 alleging that he refused to carry out the directives of an Artsakh military base command.
A long abandoned construction crane, now adorned with tens of stork nests, is a familiar sight for those traveling the road to the border with Turkey in Armenia’s Armavir Province.
In fact, the village council has decided to pay up to 50% of such costs and it turns out that the major beneficiaries are the children of the Yeraskhoun mayor, and his relatives, and children of council members.
The cloaks worn by judges in Armenia cost 70,000 AMD ($146) a pop.
On May 11 of this year the Scotch Whisky Association took two companies owned by Aleksanyan family members, A&G Ltd. and Aleks Grig Ltd. to court in Yerevan, demanding that the court prohibit the companies from engaging in such deceptive business practices, to pull the whisky in question from store shelves, and to obligate the companies to pay compensation.
Nshan Gevorgyan gets paid 5,000-7,000 ($10-15) every month for keeping the bus station in the Armavir village of Vosgehat clean.
A host of problems plague Araks, a village in Armenia’s Armavir Province on the border with Turkey.
Exports of tomatoes and cucumbers from Armenia have increased over the past few years.
Ashot Yeghoyan, a 55-year-old resident of the Getap village in Armenia, is known by his neighbors as the ‘inventor’.
Relatives of a young man, soon to turn twenty, suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF) asked that his name not be mentioned in this article. He’s embarrassed because people look at him differently.
Armenia’s National Assembly yesterday debated a new Law on Medicine designed to replace the current law that was adopted in 1998 and is considered lacking.
Waagner-Biro Stage Systems, a division of the multi-national Waagner-Biro, based in Austria, was given the job of refurbishing Yerevan’s Spendiaryan National Opera and Ballet Theater and the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall.
Karen Shakhmuradyan owns 8.33% of the company and his brother Ashot the same amount. Their mother, Lousya Ter-Sargsyan, owns the remaining 83.34%.
In July of 2013, Naghdalyan’s company won a 409.2 million AMD contract to carry out repairs on sections of the very same Goris-Meghri highway, down to the border with Iran.
Justice Minister Hovhannisyan said that Armenia’s Ethics Committee Re: Top Officials has certain powers to deal with such allegations and that it can launch an investigation if deemed appropriate.
At a session of the Armenian parliament today, MP Khachatour Kokobelyan called on the Armenian government to demand from Russia that it annuls its armaments deal with Azerbaijan.
Zohrabyan argued that the National Assembly, on behalf of Armenia, a full member of the Council of Europe is obliged to respond to the statements uttered by that “scoundrel” Agramunt.
Three Artsakh soldiers, wounded in fighting that broke out along the Line of Contact today when Azerbaijan launched a major offensive, have been transferred to the Mouratsan Military Hospital in Yerevan.
Mrs. Badoyan lost her husband in WWII. She raised their only son by herself and is happy that her son is now taking care of her.
“The proposal that lists of those who have voted be published is quite controversial, since it contains both positive and negative elements,” Avetisyan told Hetq.
Last year, he spent 90 million AMD ($183,000) to buy ten paintings. That same year, Arsenyan purchased a Mercedes Benz for 95 million AMD and two parcels of land for 33 million AMD.
A family of three lives in the only temporary metal hut in Landjaghbyur, a village in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province.
While Hovsepyan has declared such “gifts” in his financial disclosures, that’s about all we know. Who made such generous gifts and why, remain unanswered questions.
In 2015, Aleksanyan, who offers interviews at 500 Euros a pop, only declared 8.8 million AMD in dividends and 1.2 million AMD in property rent as revenue in addition to his yearly salary of 6.2 million AMD as an MP.
For years, Hovik Abrahamyan, Armenia’s prime minister since 2014, has declared millions of AMD (35-45 depending on the year) in revenue from the sale of ‘agricultural goods’. 40 million AMD roughly translates to US$97,500.
Armenia’s Police has signed a 19.9 million AMD ($40,000) contract with a company 50% owned by the son-in-law of Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan to clean the department’s patrol cars and escort vehicles.
His wife, Karineh Mkhitaryan, who officially claims no income at all, recently purchased a $70,000 Range Rover in the family’s 2015 financial disclosure.
Armenia’s National Assembly today elected Arman Tatoyan the country’s new Human Rights Defender by a vote of 96 to 7. Four ballots were found invalid.
Postanjyan also ridiculed the discussions underway, labeling them as having nothing to do with selecting Armenia’s next HRD but merely rubber stamping the Republican Party’s nominee for the post.
MP Naira Zohrabyan, who heads the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) parliamentary faction, took the podium today and said she would abstain from voting for Armenia’s next Human Rights Defender since it was a ‘done deal’ and that the institution itself was weak and basically superfluous.
Tatoyan went on to say the office of the HRD must serve as a bridge between various civic organizations and state institutions, noting that various flexible approaches to achieve this are available.
Armenian Parliament Deputy Speaker Hermineh Naghdalyan and opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan today condemned a recent incident during which MP Mher Setrakyan got into a shouting match with reporters, calling them ‘a flock of sheep’.
Everyone in the Artzvaqar neighborhood in Gavar, the capital of Armenia’s Gegharkounik Province), knows 42-year-old Garineh Hovhannisyan.
In the first quarter of 2016, the company will be paid 800 million AMD (US$1.6 million) by the government to operate and maintain such equipment.
Armenia imported 37.4 tons of tomatoes from Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Holland and Greece in 2015. That same year, 135 tons of cucumbers were imported from Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Greece.