Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received Ambassador Robert Simmons, the Special Representative of NATO Secretary General for the Caucasus and Central Asia, on October 20.

Elections to self-government bodies were conducted in the marzes of Armavir, Lori and Tavush on October 19. Mostly, Republican candidates won the local elections.

The court hearing on the case of Vardan Jhangiryan, brother of ex deputy Prosecutor General Gagik Jhangiryan, was adjourned today because of Jhangiryan's absence.

Elections to the mayor of Vanadzor took place on October 19. According to the Central Election Commission over 50 percent of eligible voters participated in the vote.

Elections to self-government bodies were held in the town of Etchmiadzin on October 19. Three candidates were running for the mayor - Karen Grigoryan, the son of General Manvel Grigoryan, former Armenian MP Hakob Hakobyan and nonpartisan Artak Poghosyan.

I had promised to you during our rally on September 26 to reveal and explain in detail the strategy of the Popular Movement or the Armenian National Congress without concealing anything from you. Today it is the time to fulfill that promise, therefore, I ask you to be patient and to listen carefully to every word of my speech.

The national movement called for a two month time-out. After stating his decision, Levon Ter-Petrosian called on the authorities to not get too excited and not perceive that short-term stop as an end to the movement.

“The current Armenian authorities are putting the security of the Armenian people in jeopardy,” stated today leader of the “Republic” party Aram Sargsian whose speech mainly focused on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Armenian National Congress rally kicked off and is in progress as we speak. There are crowds of people stretching from the Matenadaran entrance and nearby areas all the way to Mashtots Street.

The group of attorneys is ready to defend Alexander Arzumanian, Sasun Mikayelian, Miasnik Malkhasian, Hakob Hakobian, Grigor Voskerchian, Suren Sirunyan and Shant Harutyunian who are charged with the March 1 events. The preliminary investigation is over and the case will soon be sent to court. The attorneys include Stepan Voskanian, Liparit Simonian, Hovik Arsenian, Melania Arustamian and Varduhi Elbakian.

Youth opposition activist Tigran Arakelian was severely beaten three hours before the Armenian National Congress rally. Arakelian and his friend were passing out flyers today in front of the ANC main headquarters on Koryun Street. Two guys came up to them and asked them what they were doing. Tigran said that he was passing out flyers for the rally. The guys kept on walking and then came back and asked: “What did you say?” “What you heard,”...

Opposition rallies continue to frighten Armenian authorities and proof of that are the closed roads coming from the Marzes to Yerevan. Early in the morning there were lines of people waiting at the bus stops in Abovian. The authorities have given the order to not let any bus pass. “A1+” tried to find out from the drivers coming from Abovian to Yerevan why they are not working today. They said that...

On February 29 RA French Consul had held talks with French Armenian liberation fighter, film director and citizen of France Sargis Hatspanian and had advised him to leave Armenia. Does this mean that the French Consul knew what was going to happen on March 1? In response to ethnographer Hranush Kharatian’s question, Hatspanian refused to reply and only said that the conversation is recorded, can’t...

“Who is he to give up lands?” said participant of the Artsakh war of Karabakh origin Violeta Grigorian today during a discussion held on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamian advised today to put an end to the opposition’s meetings. In response to the question as to how he pictures constructive work in a parliament where opposition deputies have only 7 mandates and the radical opposition, that is, the Armenian National Congress is out, Hovik Abrahamian said: “I can’t help everybody get inside because I don’t have the right to do that. I will persuade them to participate in the 2012...

“I urge everyone to attend the opposition’s October 17 rally,” former deputy Prosecutor General Gagik Jhangiryan said today in the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash districts.

“Dareskizb” Ltd Anna Hakobian said: “We shall not be appear in the street as soon as the final decision is rendered. Gagik Beglarian /head of Kentron’s municipal council/ will not achieve his aim no matter how hard he tries to evict the premises.”

Turkish writer Ohran Pamuk, Nobel Prize holder in Literature, accused Turkey on Tuesday of restricting freedom of expression, at the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair, in which the Turkish president Abdullah Gül also participated.

Judge Arshak Petrosian of the Kentron and Nork-Marash districts general jurisdiction court denied the appeal of attorneys of former Deputy Prosecutor General Gagik Jhangirian that were filed against the verdicts of investigator Vahagn Harutyunian and prosecutor Koriun Piloian.

The activities of the NA temporary committee on the March 1 events are getting more and more absurd. For months, the committee was trying to find out at what time the dispersion of demonstrators from Freedom Square began and when it ended, and then they tried to confuse the Armenian public claiming that the video going around was edited and the scenes of a person’s jaw or blood did not correspond to the reality.

Back in 1992-1993 when Serzh Sargsyan was the RA Defense Minister, he had made a statement according to which the liberators of Artsakh knew that there would come a day when they would have to give up the liberated territories for the Nagorno-Karabakh status. However, head of the NA Committee on Defense and Armed Forces Arthur Aghabekian, who was one of the liberators of the Nagorno-Karabakh territories,...

“The Defense Ministry and I personally have nothing to do with the split of the “Land Defender Volunteers’ Union” and we have never made any attempts to split the union,” told A1+ today Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan during the event “We are inheritors of victory” at Victory Park.

The Armenian National Congress “Democratic Armenia” civil initiative strictly condemns the evident persecution of former liberation soldier Sargis Hatspanian.

“The Speaker of Armenia's National Assembly invited the U.S. experts simply to solve the issue of his legitimacy,” Republic Party member Suren Abrahamian told A1+. Note, Suren Abrahamian is involved in the public committee looking into the March 1 events.