More Kiosk Owners Stage Protests In Yerevan

A large underground pass in central Yerevan could soon become a new flashpoint in Mayor Karen Karapetian’s controversial efforts to regulate and curb street trade.

The owners of more than 40 kiosks located there demonstrated outside President Serzh Sarkisian’s office on Friday to express concern about rumors that the municipal administration plans to sell the whole area to a single investor.

They said they would be forced to close their businesses legally owned by them since the 1990s. They also claimed that as recently as last year the mayor’s office had them collect 22 million drams ($60,000) to finance capital repairs of the pass located at the intersection of two major Yerevan streets.  Read more... (369 words)

Dashnak Leadership Criticizes Party Branch In U.S.

In a rare manifestation of discord within its ranks, the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) criticized on Friday its largest branch in the United States for deciding to boycott an upcoming event in Los Angeles to be attended by President Serzh Sarkisian.

Sarkisian is expected to visit the U.S. in late September to address the UN General Assembly in New York and meet with representatives of the influential Armenian-American community. He will attend an official banquet organized by the Armenian Consulate in Los Angeles and dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence.  Read more... (634 words, 1 image)

Armenia’s Ombudsman Calls for 3 Judges to be Submitted to Disciplinary Action

Human Rights Defender of Armenia Karen Andreasyan has submitted three (3) reports to the RA Council of Justice on being subject to disciplinary action, since according to him, judges Yerem Yesoyan, Masis Rehanyan, and Yurik Iskoyan ventured obvious and gross violations of the law during the last year, according to a statement issued by the RA Human Rights Defender’s Office.

It took Judge Yerem Yesoyan a period of nineteen (19) months to consider the dispute between mother and son regarding just 9.6 square meters of residential space; that is, he didn’t meet the requirement of the law to examine the case within a reasonable time. In addition, Judge Yesoyan ignored the requirement to terminate the right of using a residential space, clearly defined by the law, which resulted in a gross violation of the citizen’s right.  Read more... (317 words)

Ombudsman: Kiosk demolition wrong

Armenia’s human rights ombudsman has condemned as illegal the controversial closure of kiosks in Yerevan ordered by the mayor, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

In a written statement, Karen Andreasian on August 16 accused city officials and riot police of committing “blatant violations of human rights” during the forcible dismantling last week of several such small shops located on a street in the city’s northern Arabkir district.

The police used force to overcome resistance from the kiosk’s angry owners on August 10. The resulting public uproar led Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian to demand explanations from Mayor Karen Karapetian at a meeting of his cabinet held the next day.  Read more... (490 words)

World Bank To Boost Lending To Armenia

The World Bank will disburse up to $100 million in additional loans to Armenia next year to finance more infrastructure upgrades and public service and tax reforms, officials said on Thursday.

Under its four-year Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) launched in 2009, the World Bank was to lend a total of over $540 million to the country. More than half of this sum has already been made available to the Armenian government.

Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian told members of his government that the bank’s governing board in Washington has decided to extend the lending program by one year, until 2013, and increase its monetary volume by $55 million.  Read more... (348 words)

Yerevan Prosecutor’s ‘Suicide’ Investigated

A Yerevan prosecutor who was found dead at a cemetery in the northern Armenian city of Vanadzor on Tuesday most probably committed suicide, law-enforcement authorities said on Wednesday.

Aram Grigorian, a 37-year-old native of Vanadzor, reportedly died from a single shot fired to his head. Local police found his body lying by his late mother’s grave.

According Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General, Grigorian left a suicide note in his car that read, “My decision is final. Please forgive me and don’t blame anyone.”

A spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency, Sona Truzian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the Special Investigative Service (SIS), which is subordinate to state prosecutors, believes that Grigorian shot himself from his pistol. She said investigators have examined his body and found no traces of violence on it.  Read more... (285 words)

Officials in Armenia Are Confident About Continued Dialogue With Opposition

A representative of Armenia’s governing coalition expressed confidence on Wednesday that its ongoing dialogue with the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) will continue despite the controversial arrest of three HAK activists.

Gagik Minasian said the HAK leadership will not act on its threats to pull out of the dialogue if the young activists are not set free soon.

“I think that they won’t announce such a thing,” Minasian told a news conference. “Why? Because that would be illogical.”

The HAK warned on Monday that the prosecution of its members is an “extremely serious obstacle” to further negotiations with the authorities that are aimed at defusing political tensions in the country.  Read more... (337 words)

International Magazine Claims Highest Circulation In Armenia

“Cosmopolitan,” a popular international magazine for young women, appears to have become the best-selling glossy publication in Armenia less than seven months after the launch of its Armenian-language edition.

The launch made “Cosmopolitan Armenia” the 63rd international edition of the famous U.S. title published by the Hearst Magazines media company. It is currently printed in 36 languages and distributed in more than 100 countries.

“We are confident that ‘Cosmo’ will do well with Armenian women,” Duncan Edwards, the Hearst Magazines chairman, said ahead of the Armenian edition’s release in February.

“Cosmopolitan Armenia” now claims to print and sell about 5,000 copies per issue, more than any other Armenian magazine. The circulation figure is also higher than the print runs of most of the country’s daily newspapers that mainly cover political and economic developments.  Read more... (354 words)

Armenian Government Reports Further Growth In Tourism

The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia has increased further this year following robust growth registered in 2010, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Official statistics released by Mekhak Apresian, head of a tourism department at the Armenian Ministry of Economy, show that the country received about 266,000 tourists in the first half of 2011, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.

Apresian said his department expects full-year growth in tourism to reach about 20 percent. He said private tour operators are also reporting a rising influx of tourists, many of them Diaspora Armenians, into the country

“We keep in touch with our private sector partners and what they report is quite positive,” Apresian told journalists. “For them, growth in tourism is obvious.”  Read more... (284 words)