“No one must dictate to Armenia what form of governing we want to have”, said RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan referring to the negative opinion of the Venice Commission and the offer of the political Committee to include the discussion of the Armenian Constitutional Reforms into the PACE session agenda as an urgent issue. {BR} He noted that we must admit the offers about the general European...

Armenia which is included in the program “European Neighbors” will get 100 million Euros from the structure, particularly for finding alternative sources of energy. Today head of the EU Foreign Relations Administration Hugh Mingarelli announced about it. Although, as Mr. Mingarelli notes, “EU has not yet confirmed the 2007-2013 budget”. {BR} The EU representative told the journalists about it in the press conference held today in Yerevan...

Of all the official visit of last week Vardan Oskanyan found the one to Brussels the most important. There he represented two documents. According to him, they were extremely important in the Euro integration of Armenia. One of them was Armenia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) which Vardan Oskanyan represented to the NATO Council. {BR} The other was the draft package of the Armenian offers...

The June 19 Nagorno Karabakh elections were held in an atmosphere of transparency. This was the conclusion of the “Social International Right and Political Fraction” American non-governmental organization observers observing the elections in 22 electoral areas. {BR} Executive director of the NGO James Ruper announced during today's press conference in Yerevan that they have come to a conclusion...

RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan had a good impression of the US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice. According to Oskanyan, Mrs. Rice is well aware of the problems in our region. Mr. Oskanyan discussed with her a wide range of issues referring to the Armenian-American relations. {BR} The sides referred to the dynamically developing two-party relations, mentioning that the two countries are leading...

«I intend to visit the Southern Caucasian three countries – Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in a period when all the three Presidents are in their countries. The Caucasus is one of the sensitive regions the countries of which are members of the COE», announced PACE President Rene van der Linden during the press conference. {BR} Mr. van der Linden assured that the aim of his August visit to Southern...

“Armenia welcomes the usual elections held in Nagorno Karabakh. With this the people of Nagorno Karabakh express once more their political will to form a government on their own, which will be responsible for Nagorno Karabakh and its people”, announced RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan during today’s press conference. {BR} According to him, the authorities elected by means of democratic elections contribute to the peaceful settlement of the...

During the Warsaw meeting of the Armenian and Azeri Presidents certain agreements had been reached about the settlement of the Karabakh conflict which were to be given an official form by way of documents during the Paris meeting of the Foreign Ministers. However, this did not take place, as the two Ministers could not find a common language. NA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan announced about it during...

In case of including the issue of the Armenian Constitutional Reforms into the PACE summer session agenda the 4 main delegates of the Armenian delegation – Shavarsh Kocharyan, Tigran Torosyan, Armen Roustamyan, and Hermine Naghdalyan will make speech. {BR} Let us mention that from the Armenian delegation only two deputies will not participate in the PACE summer session. Karen Karapetyan and Gourgen...

Today at about 6:30 by Yerevan time the issue of including the discussion of the Constitutional reforms of Armenia into the PACE summer session agenda will be decided. Let us remind you that in order to include the issue into the agenda 2/3 of the deputies must vote for it. {BR} The PACE summer session which will take place on June 20-24 will start today at 6:00 by Yerevan time. Among the important...

After midnight the preliminary conclusions of the working group consisting of 11 observers from Greece, Croatia, and Czech Republic were announced. The ideas were different: the representatives of Croatia and Greece evaluated the elections positive mentioning several unimportant violations, whereas the representative of Czech Republic was of a completely different opinion. {BR} The representative...

Yesterday the Parliamentary elections took place in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. 7 political powers had put forward their candidacy by the proportional electoral system. They were – «Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Movement-88» bloc (18+20 candidates), Artsakh Democratic Party (25+10 candidates), Artsakh Communist Party (10+5 candidates), «Our Home is Armenia» party (4+3 candidates), «Social Justice» party (3+1 candidates), «Moral...

Choice is yours public organization worked out an interesting variant of the reformed Electoral Code, all the pages of which are painted either red or greed. The correlation of colors is almost equal, with slight prevalence of red. Members of the organization, who participated in the elections as observers tried to mark the positive and negative aspects of the process. To note, negative ones are marked...

All the proposals by the Venice Commission with the exception of one were included in the amended Electoral Code. “During the meeting with the Venice Commission members I said that if fingers are inked I will not participate in the elections”, Central Election Committee chairman Garegin Azaryan said. He considers that such a condition is humiliating not only for the voter but also for...

“The reformation of the Electoral Code should be carried out in three directions – the presence of balanced election commissions, proper public control and equality between the candidates”, candidate of juridical sciences Hrayr Tovmasyan considers. In his opinion no positive changes can be observes as regards the formation of the election commissions. H. Tovmasyan noted however...

The amendments to the Electoral Code did not solve the principal problem – providing of balance in the election commissions. «In Armenia the outcome of the election is determined by the composition of the election commission, since the lion's share of the falsifications was committed with the immediate participation of the election commissions», chairman of Democracy public organization Vardan...

Members of extra parliamentary parties are disappointed in the amended Electoral Code. «As a matter of fact there are no principal differences between the acting and amended Electoral Code. There are no obvious changes as regards the suffrage and electoral system», second secretary of the Communist party Frunze Kharatyan says. Powerful Fatherland party is as well discontent. In their opinion...

June 20 the amendments to the Electoral Code will come into force ”Let the authorities not to connect the conduction of fair and transparent elections with the clauses of the Electoral Code. They just want to secure a basis for further lawless actions», secretary of the National Unity faction Alexan Karapetyan says. He considers that the new Electoral Code showed regress as compared to the previous one. In his opinion, taking into account the...

Will elections in Armenia one day rated as fair, free and transparent? If yes, the event will be inscribed with gold letters in the history of the third Republic of Armenia or probably included in the Guinness Record Book. Though for civilized countries free and fairs elections is quite a natural phenomenon. What condition is essential to make elections in Armenia correspond to international standards”...

Today in Warsaw the Chess European individual Championship will start. 8 Armenian chess players will take part in it – Levon Aronyan, Artashes Minasyan, Smbat Lputyan, Ashot Anastasyan, Karen Asryan, Gabriel Sargsyan, Tigran L. Petrosyan, and Levon Babujyan. {BR} Vladimir Hakobyan and Rafael Vahanyan are factually the only leading Armenian players who will not participate in the championship. Before...

“This time the hopes of the society to have a flawless Electoral Code which could secure the fairness and transparency of the elections organized was not justified. The guarantee could be the Electoral Committees the real balance of which is not secured by the acting Electoral Code”. This was the announcement of Haroutyun Haroutyunyan, head of the non-governmental organization “Choice is yours” made during the discussion in hotel Yerevan....

Yesterday in Tbilisi the Georgian Parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze, RA NA deputy speaker Tigran Torosyan and Azeri Milli Mejlis delegation head Siyavoush Novrusov signed a memorandum creating Southern Caucasus countries Parliamentary Assembly. {BR} According to day.az, after the signing Nino Burjanadze said that «despite the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two countries can sit around...

At the event initiated by the Hnchak party of Armenia Vice President of Uruguay Rodolfo Nin Novoa confirmed Uruguay’s position on Hay Dat and called upon the European Union to urge Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide before opening negotiations with Turkey, press center of the party reported. {BR}

The Bundestag adopted draft resolution “Day of Commemoration on occasion of mass slaughters of Armenians in 1915. Germany should contribute to reconciliation of Armenians and Turks” submitted by the Christian Democratic Union. {BR} The document avoids the term “genocide” however it contains paragraph, which states that many independent experts, parliaments and international...