British of Armenian origin, well known philanthropist Vache Manukyan is in Yerevan at present. According to the data we possess, he arrived to take part in the funerals of the mother of former Prime Minister Armen Sargsyan.{BR} The representatives of Vache and Tamar Manukyan Foundation noted only that the philanthropist has departed for London. However we possess information that on Sunday he attended...

The Institute of Democracy and European Integration NGO formed several months ago came to a rather interesting conclusion as regards the constitutional referendum campaign. {BR} The organization members are convinced that the “referendum offers the possibility to deepen the public consent in the principal directions and fix serious constitutional guarantees for securing their irreversibility.” Calling to vote for the draft amendments the NGO...

BAKU, 7 November 2005 - The 6 November parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan did not meet a number of OSCE commitments and Council of Europe standards for democratic elections, concluded the International Election Observation Mission in a preliminary statement released today in Baku. {BR} Voting was generally calm, but the election day process deteriorated progressively during the counting and, in...

«The RA Law on dual citizenship is ready by 70-80%», member of the ARF Armen Roustamyan told «A1+» today. {BR} ARF accepts that the adoption of dual citizenship by the draft Constitution will arouse a serious problem of legislative amendments. According to Mr. Roustamyan dual citizenship is a gift which must be deserved. «He who gets dual citizenship must prove his devotedness to the country». Mr. Roustamyan did not exclude the possibility...

Armenian Revolutionary Federation has no doubt that on November 28 the draft Constitution will be adopted, and as the member of the party Armen Roustamyan said, they have no intention to lose time. Today the party had organized a discussion titled “Monopolies in Armenia: problems and solutions”. {BR} “The present Constitution has a shortcoming: it gives a very arbitrary definition to the free competition and passes by a very important issue...

The European Court of Human Rights will soon hear a case of restricting the free transportation of the RA citizen. A decision has been made lately to fix the day for the hearing of the case of the RA citizen, member of the «National Renaissance» party Armen Mkrtchyan. The board members have already been appointed. {BR} The Court has sent the plaintiff a letter asking him to give ground for his losses....

“There is no political will to combat corruption in Armenia”, announced the head of the organization “Transparency International” Amalya Kostanyan in the National Press Club today. {BR} In this atmosphere of the absence of political will she considers it useless to speak about the combat of corruption in separate spheres. She also criticized the anti-corruption strategy in which, according to her, there is no anti-corruption law, but only...

Today the Communist party of Armenia organized a march with flags and posters in the streets of Yerevan. The march started from the Miasnikyan statue, passed by the Shahoumyan statue and the statue to the Soldiers who fell victim of the combat for the Soviet power. In every place the communists put wreaths. This was the way the Armenian communists celebrated the 88th anniversary of the socialist revolution....

The Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan on November 6 did not give any surprises: everything was as it was supposed to be. First of all, none of the 6 oppositional leaders was elected as deputy. According to preliminary information, there are less then 10 oppositional deputies among the 125 in the Parliament. {BR} According to the data of the Azeri Central Electoral Committee, 46.83% of the total...

WARSAW, 4 November 2005 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has welcomed the promulgation by Armenia's President of amendments to the Law on Conducting Meetings, Assemblies, Rallies and Demonstrations. {BR} The OSCE/ODIHR acknowledged the significant progress made since April 2004 when this law was first adopted and commented upon by both the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice...

Today in Yerevan the regional organization of the party «National Renaissance» was opened. We learned from the office of the party that the founding meeting of the Yerevan structure took place in the office as the Writers' Union did not give them access to its hall. {BR} 90 deputies have participated in the meeting. A council of 9 deputies has been elected. On November 11 the founding conference of the «National Renaissance» party will take...

«Frankly speaking, I am sure that in the negotiations of the membership of Turkey into the EU the issue of recognizing 1915 will not become an official demand», said the US Marshal Fund Ankara office head Suat Kinikliogli during the seminar titled «The International Experience of European Integration and the Perspectives of European Neighborhood Policy for Armenia» which took place in Yerevan today....

Today the guest of the National Press Club was the rector of the Yerevan State Linguistic University after Valeri Brusov, politician Souren Zolyan. According to him, «The greatest deceit is the Constitution itself, as those who say «no» do not know what they are saying «no» to; neither do those who say «Yes». {BR} Mr. Zolyan is going to say “Yes” to the Constitution as the new variant is better than the old one. But there are two dangerous...

While deciding whether to say «Yes» or «No» to the Constitution the situation of deputy Aghasi Arshakyan is not one to be envied. From the political point of view he must say «No» as the National Unity has decided. {BR} But “the call of the blood” makes him say “Yes”, as his compatriots - the members of the “Nig Aparan” union have decided. According to Aghasi Arshakyan, he has his own opinion about the Constitutional amendments....

According to the representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation bureau Hrant Margaryan today they are going to represent the truth about the federation as it was and as it is. {BR} During the conference devoted to the 115th anniversary of the ARF Mr. Margaryan claimed that they eat the bread baked not 115 year ago, but today. The proof of it is the work done by them for the last 15 years,...

“The referendum does not have sense without exchange of opinions,” Chairman of the National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan considers. However this circumstance did not prevent Hayrikyan from supporting the amendments. {BR} Today Democracy NGO chairman Vardan Poghosyan joined the debates organized in Zerkalo Club. He stated that the constitutional amendments as compared to the operating...

Today the governments has ratified the bill on introducing amendments to the RA law “On income tax”. {BR} Guiding by the Article 70 of the RA Constitution, the government decided to submit to the President a proposal on convocation of a NA special sitting on November 10 at 10 a.m. The government has approved the strategy of the social welfare of people with special needs for 2006-2015. The strategy aims at the integration of the people with...

When commenting on the constitutional amendments Armenian National Movement board member David Shahnazaryan focused on dual citizenship and change of the state border. {BR} In his opinion, the danger as regards dual citizenship comes from Russia. Dual citizenship is admissible in all the European states and this clause should be fixed by an international treaties. David Shahnazaryan is convinced...

In these latter days ANM board member David Shanazaryan and Chairman of National Unity party Artashes Geghamyan accuse each other of every deadly sin. The political figures communicate via press only. {BR} David Shahnazaryan thinks stated that NU leader Artashes Geghamyan occupies the second place among the oppositionists serving to the authorities. However he refrained from announcing the name of...

Today the head of the National Unity Artashes Geghamyan met the residents of Alaverdi. They met him with flowers. The meeting took place in the culture house. About 200 people participated in it. {BR} According to our colleagues from “Corner+3” NGO there were no attempts to hinder the meeting. It was more like pre-election campaign than anti-agitation of Constitution, as Mr. Geghamyan only occasionally referred to the draft Constitution.

Today the member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Armen Roustamyan and the NA deputy President Tigran Torosyan had a meeting with the students in the Yerevan State Economic Institute. {BR} For about two hours the two representatives of the coalition represented the advantages of the offered draft Constitution to the students and professors of the Institute. The meeting was more like a lecture,...

During the usual session of the Central Electoral Committee the representative of the Justice bloc Felix Khachatryan was the only one who did not agree with the other members of the Committee who adopted a decision about the Constitutional referendum. {BR} The decision was about the ballots, seals, registration of Mass Media representatives of observers, packing of ballots and the elimination of unused...

Today 6 members of Justice bloc – Stepan Demirchyan, Stepan Zaqaryan, Vardan Mkrtchyan, Grigor Haroutiunyan, Tatul Manaseryan and Aram G. Sargsyan were in Talin town of Aragatsotn region for holding agitation.{BR} Only the diamond factory runs in Talin. People live on by working abroad or cattle-breeding. “Our leaders declare, that they open so many workplaces. On the contrary, if 10 jobs are opened, 15 are closed. Nobody works”, - Henrik...

Armenia and Georgia won’t suffer over the fact that Azerbaijan has problems with EU, - co-chair of the commission on EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation Marie-Ann Isler-Beguin stated.{BR} We should note, that membership of three states of South Caucasus in the EU New Neighbors Program, as Azerbaijan officially started relations with North Cyprus. As the program of these actions was meant for...