Today the Justice bloc and the National Renaissance party organized the following meeting with the electors opposite the Gyumri Acharyan Theater. Stepan Demirchayn was greeted by the residents of the city with calls “Here comes the truly elected President” and applause. {BR} The meeting was opened by the head of the Gyumri regional organization of the National Renaissance party Hounan Mazmanyan....

November 18 in Saint Petersburg the CIS inter governmental Congress convened its 26th plenary session. {BR} President of the Congress Sergey Mironov mentioned that all the countries are concerned with the fate of CIS as they fully understand the power and the efficiency of the economic and political alliance. Representing the results of the 15-year activity of the Armenian Parliament, RA NA President...

On October 12-16 the Public Committee controlling the legality of the referendum held a survey among 60 experts about the course of preparing for the Constitutional referendum. {BR} 83.3% of the participants of the survey find that the violations carried out during the preparing of the referendum will have an influence on the organization and the results of the referendum unless measures are taken...

Why did the opposition change its strategy and calls on people to boycott the referendum instead of saying “No” to the Constitution? Today the fact of changing the strategy was being actively discussed especially by the representatives of the coalition in the NA. {BR} Head of the ARF fraction Levon Mkrtchyan is convinced that the opposition has realized that is it difficult to have any success...

The main provision of the Constitutional amendments which proved attractive for the National Minorities Council of Armenia is the following, “Discrimination of gender, race, color of skin, ethnic or social origin, language, religion, political views, belonging to any national minority, or of nay other kind... is prohibited”. {BR} Representative of the Greek community of Armenia Slava Rafaelidis claimed that the Greek community will say “Yes”...

“Armenia is not going to make concessions”, NA deputy Hranush Hakobyan said in answer to NATO PA deputy chair, Turk in origin Vahid Erdem, who said that Armenia should change some articles of its constitution, not to present Western Anatolia as a part of Armenia and recognize the Kars agreement. {BR} The Armenian delegation headed by Hranush Hakobyan took part in the NATO PA session held November 11-15. A draft resolution titled “Protection...

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian is in Strasbourg to participate in the 115th Session of the Committee of Ministers. There, he delivered one of the major introductory addresses.{BR} The main discussion of the annual Ministerial Meeting was the follow-up to the Third Summit of the Council of Europe, which was held in Warsaw in May. Four invited keynote speakers addressed four sub-themes...

President’s Advisor on national security Garnik Isagulyan and chairman of the civic service council Manvel Badalyan organized a meeting with youth in Tekeyan center today. The discussions focused on the constitutional amendments. {BR} Our generation grew up in the epoch of problems, now we have free and independent republic,” chairman of the National Students Association Karen Avagyan said. “It is impossible to think about upcoming reforms...

Today a meeting with Armen Rustamyan was organized in the Linguistic University after Brusov. The students for most part showed interest in the provision on dual citizenship. {BR} The answer surprised the students. “We try to correctly use the energy of the Diaspora. There are Armenians of Diaspora, who are much better than the citizens of our own country. Lifting the taboo of dual citizenship the...

Despite the fact that independents deputy Manuk Gasparyan is going to say “no” to the draft constitutional amendments he does not take part in the process of “no” agitation, since he does not wish to collaborate with some opposition figures. {BR} He explains that some oppositionists in 2003 supported Robert Kocharian’s election campaign and even were his advisors. The founder of the Democratic Forces does not fear of “offence” of his...

Today at 10.00- 12.00 local time some 50 employees of ArmenTel Armenian-Greek Joint Venture declared a strike and spent two hours in front of the administrative building of the company presenting their demands. {BR} According to PR department head Hasmik Chutilyan the demands the employees of 4 IT departments do not meet the accepted strike demands. “Their claims do not bear social character but refer to Armenian-Greek relationships. It’s an...

Today in the NA Minister of Regional Government Hovik Abrahamyan was forced to refer to the death of one of the residents of the Buzand street. {BR} During the questioning between the deputies and the Government NA deputy President Tigran Torosyan tended to consider problems raised by some oppositional deputies «rhetoric». An attempt was made to leave unanswered the question by Tatoul Manaseryan, «Who must answer for the death of the resident...

Today the Constitutional reforms were discussed in two higher educational institutions – The Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema, and the Yerevan State Pedagogical University. {BR} Member of the ARF, deputy Rouben Hovsepyan was in the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema. The students were mainly interested in the issues of dual citizenship, the authorizations of the President,...

A number of organizations have decided to turn to the RA Attorney General Aghvan Hovsepyan to bring a criminal case against those who have violated the law during the agitation of the Constitutional amendments. {BR} Two booklets have also been represented to the prosecutor. They were published during the «Yes» agitation. The application demands to find out and punish the authors of the «RA Constitutional Amendments» and the «Referendum 2005:...

The non-governmental organizations of Nagorno Karabakh Republic have sent an open letter to the RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Yuriy Merzlyakov, Steven Mann, and Bernard Fassier, and the International Crisis Group head Alain Deletroz. {BR} The letter voices the indignation of the Karabakh society about the two reports of the International Crisis Group about the Karabakh...

Youth initiative group “Power” consisting of youth branches of a number of parties organized a discussion on the constitutional amendments of Metropol Hotel today. {BR} According to preliminary agreement the youth wing of the coalition had to be present at the meeting, However, the only coalition representative was Armen Ashotyan, who joined the debates in its peak. In the opinion of initiative...

Today Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, Minister of Agruculture David Lokyan, Deputy Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan gathered today to hold a “yes” agitation for farmers. U.S. Ambassador to RA John Evans was also present at the meeting{BR} Vartan Oskanian said that everything possible will be done for complete implementation of agricultural reform. He reminded that the United States and Europe support the amendments and called to vote...

Today the Center of political studies “Consent” organized a discussion on the economic aspect of the constitutional amendments. {BR} The only rapporteur was former Mayor of Yerevan Vahagn Khachatryan. He made a report tiled “Monopolies and free competition in the context of constitutional amendments.” Before his speech chairman of Consent center David Shahnazaryan stated that the media omitted...

“This draft f constitutional amendments is not a magic stick , which can make our life like heaven,” head of the Democratic party of Armenia Aram G. Sargsyan stated in Zerkalo club. His opponent Khosrov Harutyunyan agreed with him but added, “Not only Constitution but also revolution.” Today the supported of “yes” and “no” tried to ground their opinions. Kh. Harutyunyan considers that the draft really is a progress as compared to...

Russian Accounts Chamber Chairman Sergey Stepashin arrived in Armenia to discuss the process of functioning of the Armenian enterprises given to Russia within the framework of Property for Debt agreement.{BR} The research carried out by the Accounts Chamber gave way to indignation. “Presently these enterprises do not function properly and the matter concerns both parties. Mars plant uses only 1% of its capacity,” Stepashin said. His Armenian...

The representatives of the «Yes» agitation Coordinating Council do not agree with the opposition that the “Yes” agitation is not so effective as it is realized but the RA President’s advisor Garnik Isagoulyan and the leader of the United Communists Yuri Manoukyan. {BR} According to the President of the Constitutional Referendum Preliminary Works Coordinating Council Mher Shahgeldyan the strategies of the «Yes» and «No» agitations are...

The November 14-17 4-day NA sitting started today with the secretary of the Justice bloc Viktor Dallakyan announcing that today all the TV Companies of Armenia violate the 11th article of the RA Law on Television and Radio. It refers to the work of the TV Companies in the pre-election period. {BR} According to Viktor Dallakyan, while broadcasting pre-election material before the Constitutional Referendum...

Today the Justice bloc with Stepan Demirchyan at the head visited the Aragatsotn region village Voskevaz. Because of the bad weather, as well as the efforts of the village head there were not many people at the meeting, although according to one of the participants of the meeting «there are at least 600-700 people at the meeting every time Demirchyan comes here». {BR} This time the newly founded...

552 offers were sent by the NA deputies to the RA Government in order to amend the RA Law on “2006 state budget”. Only 90 of them have been admitted. {BR} During today's NA session none of the deputies were interested in why the 362 offers were rejected. By the way, during the budget discussion there were only two oppositional deputies on the hall – Aghasi Arshakyan from the National Unity and...