2021 June 29

Daily news wrap-up

News - Jun/29/2021: (1) Sec. Council: Russians won't leave Karabakh after 4.5yrs; conscription could be 1.5yrs (2) Army needs AI experts (3) Anti-corruption bust in Supreme Court (4) Okul Defteri (5) Rob's bribery trial (6) BHK's bad polling (7) World reacts to elections (8) Draught (9) HayPost Air!
by ar_david_hh

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This is your 10-minute Tuesday report in 2525 words.

Security Council chief Grigoryan about the border conflict, peacekeepers, etc.:

There are active negotiations with Russia. Russian forces will be eventually deployed on Soviet-era borders, Azeris will leave Armenian territories, and the issue will be resolved.

After Russians are deployed on borders, we will begin border delimitation and demarcation, followed by the placement of Armenian and Azeri border guards...

We will follow the path of creating a professional army...

Mandatory conscription could reduce from 2 years to 1.5...

Russian peacekeepers have assured us that they won't leave after 4.5 years...

https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/293965/ https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217413

authorities promise mass replacement of public workers who resist ongoing reforms

Security Council chief Grigoryan: as we said during the election campaign, there will be no vendetta but there will be a personnel replacement that will affect those who will not support the reforms. Some people in many government agencies torpedoed our efforts after 2018.

It doesn't matter whom they voted for. The problem here is whether they support the government’s reform agenda or not.

http://arka.am/en/news/politics/authorities_to_carry_out_sweeping_personnel_replacement_in_government_agencies/

anti-corruption: authorities uncover abuse and embezzlement at Supreme Court

Investigative Committee said: the State Control Service audited the Supreme Court's Judicial Department finances, and learned that between 2016-2018, the head of the Department issued an order claiming that 9 workers had to travel to provinces.

The workers submitted receipts claiming to have spent ֏42 million on accommodations. However, it was revealed that some of them were, in fact, located in their offices during the claimed trip. Hotel receipts were forged.

A felony investigation is launched. //

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056879.html

Kocharyan & Co-defendant's $4 million bribery trial is postponed again

Judge: if Kocharyan and co-defendant [ex-deputy Premier] Armen Gevorgyan become Parliament MPs, there will be an issue with their parliamentary immunity.

Kocharyan's lawyer: they plan to challenge the election results in Constitutional Court, so we won't know the answer to that question until around July 26.

Judge: I'm delaying the trial until August 3.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056864.html

Kocharyan promises to be a "radical opposition" in the Parliament

He said the BHK and LHK were too soft in recent years, and they plan to "fix" that. He predicted new snap elections within 1.5 years because he believes the govt isn't equipped to resolve the issues.

https://youtu.be/B28KsdfiiQk https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056909.html

update: the arrest of Izmirlyan hospital director [Kocharyan ballot] accused of pressuring workers not to vote for Pashinyan

The defense lawyers asked the SIS to lift his pre-trial arrest, vouching that he will behave appropriately while in freedom. The SIS responded saying such petitions should be sent to prosecutors, not SIS. Prosecutors can ask the judge to lift the arrest.

The SIS criticized the defense lawyers for being "incompetent" and "not knowing basic procedures."

The director Charchyan was hospitalized after his arrest. He underwent surgery involving the examination of his heart stent.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056831.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056869.html

prominent BHK MP talks about internal sabotage and bad polling

Prominent BHK MPs Zohrabyan and Gevorgyan announced plans to step down before the elections. BHK ultimately failed to gain 5% to enter Parliament.

BHK MP Naira Zohrabyan: there were people in our party who were clearly working against me and Gevorg Petrosyan while feeding Gagik Tsarukyan with false information to appease him.

They convinced Tsarukyan that BHK would win 27% of votes [lmao?]. Now we know who does the public surveys. They fed him with a comfortable lie while convincing me to join them. I refused to tell the lie.

https://armeniasputnik.am/politics/20210629/28109486/gagik-carukyanin-shaqarakalats-sut-en-matucel-zohrabyany-bhk-i-anhajoxutyan-masin.html

EU is satisfied with Armenia's "excellent" cooperation

Armenia has been amending its laws to meet the new AM-EU comprehensive cooperation agreement's rules, including accepting back and helping the Armenian citizens who are deported from the EU.

EU rep.: Armenia can serve as a great example with its enormous work done in re-admission and re-integration fields.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056897.html

Migration Services are building a new shelter for asylum seekers

Abovyan city will have a new facility for up to 120 asylum seekers as part of a €1.4m cooperation program with the EU. Even during the pandemic, the number of asylum seekers is showing a downward trend, said the officials.

https://factor.am/387982.html

Joe Biden congratulated Pashinyan:

Congrats to Armenia and Pashinyan for the successful elections. We are committed to strengthening the partnership to resolve regional conflicts and to strengthen democracy.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056823.html

Poland about the snap elections:

Congrats on the transparent elections that met international standards. We will cooperate with the Armenian govt to strengthen the democracy and to modernize the country.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056875.html

Council of Europe chief congratulated Pashinyan:

It is important that the election results showed the unconditional support of the Armenian people to the reform policy implemented under your leadership. Now that the campaign is over, it's time to hold dialogue with civil society and political forces.

The EU promises to continue to help with strengthening democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056906.html

Russian Parliament chief congratulates Armenian counterpart over "convincing victory"

Volodin and Mirzoyan also discussed cooperation in various fields.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056870.html

Russia and UN discussed the return of IDPs and refugees to Karabakh

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056827.html

US Secretary of State official Reeker met Georgian MFA

They discussed the recent cooperation that mediated the repatriation of 15 Armenian POWs.

https://factor.am/388108.html

MOD met Russian military base representative in Armenia

Vagharshak visited the Erebuni airport where he met the Armenian airforce and Russian military base leaders. They showed him examples of military aircraft armaments. The leaders discussed joint AM-RU air patrol programs and other things.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056905.html

Azerbaijan is still "investigating" the downing of Russian military helicopter in Armenia

Azeris shot down a Mi-24 helicopter in Armenia during the final days of the war, killing the Russian pilot. Aliyev promised to get to the bottom of it. They are still investigating.

https://factor.am/388221.html

group of Azeri war participants held a protest in front of Azeri MOD building

They complain about not being given medals "despite taking part in military events", not receiving disability status despite being seriously wounded, general corruption, and lack of response from authorities.

A few days ago, Ilham Aliyev issued medals to several individuals. The Azeri social media responded with complaints that the "real" participants were left out.

https://factor.am/388127.html

cancel culture reaches Okul Defteri

Only 90s kids and Azeri lurkers will get that.

Armenian govt recently banned the import of 2,200 Turkish products in response to their participation in the 2020 war. The raw materials, which are used by Armenian manufacturers to produce goods, are exempt from the ban.

As a result of the ban, the imports reduced by 70%, dropping to $22m in the first 5 months of the year.

Some importers are bypassing the ban by transferring clothing to Georgia, removing the tags, then importing them to Armenia. Others say they replaced the Turkish with Chinese imports.

More: https://youtu.be/lSfeFDoopa0 https://factor.am/388331.html

Armenian firefighters extinguish brush fire on no man's land

Units were dispatched yesterday to Tavush borders. The firefighters learned that the fire was in the buffer zone between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They finished isolating it this morning. 400 hectares of grass was burned.

https://factor.am/387941.html

a group of Shirak farmers briefly closed the Gyumri-Yerevan road to complain about lack of irrigation water

High temperatures, coupled with low rainfall, will lead to agricultural losses, said the farmers. "This isn't the first year we are experiencing water shortage during drought." Karnut reservoir had half the volume of water this year.

The farmers opened the road after meeting the local water delivery agency and the governor.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056842.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056859.html

Pashinyan about agricultural irrigation and global climate change

Pashinyan: June was accompanied by unprecedented heat. It caused irrigation problems. Extreme heat has been observed for many years now, so we must accept the new reality that this isn't an isolated case. This is a result of global climate change. We will continue to have these issues.

The traditional method of irrigation has no future. Our strategy must be the use of drip irrigation and other new technologies. I spoke about this during the election campaign. We need to work towards implementing this very quickly. We don't have time to waste. We also need to build the dozens of reservoirs I mentioned earlier.

But right now we must focus on what can be done this year and next year because the aforementioned programs will take years to complete.

We need to review our legal code to ensure the farmers have irrigation water. The agricultural season began successfully. We need to make sure it continues that way.

Government members: the ongoing high temperatures will last throughout the Summer and cause irrigation problems. We should promote the subsidy program that helps farmers install drip irrigation. Agricultural insurance is also important.

Pashinyan: there is a need for water sector reform. Prepare a new strategy. Today we're also forming a new expert group that will record the issues in the agricultural-farming sector to propose institutional solutions.

https://youtu.be/HBA3UHVVuVA https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056856.html

How "green" is each country? Satellite helps understand where the forests are

Asia: Asia

World: World

houses are being thermally insulated in Lori's Stepanavan

... as part of a program to conserve energy.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217411

two vaccines for some animals... (not COVID)

The Economy Ministry (formerly "Agriculture Ministry") received reports about cattle dying from the disease in provinces. They dispatched the state-run veterinarian organization to Gegharkunik to investigate.

They discovered some deviations and learned that the animals suffered from fever, weakness, and refused to eat before drying.

The Ministry launched a widespread treatment program, including double vaccines for healthy animals (the first doses were in April). 85% of the affected animals recovered shortly afterward. Ministry reported no new cattle deaths today.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056862.html

video: Yerevan is destroying more illegally built structures

https://youtu.be/WGhbN0F6aWM

Yerevan is now raiding the open-air food sellers in downtown

The city recently complained that some residents were food poisoned after eating products that were kept in the open air under very hot temperatures. "We have warned the sellers many times."

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056900.html

update: HayPost post office will have its airlines for cargo delivery

We learned on April 5th that HayPost plans to launch air delivery with the use of a subsidiary company. "We will significantly improve the postal delivery process by making international delivery faster."

HayPost Air was registered on May 10. It has one jet so far, with plans to obtain two more later. The flights will be to-from Russia and China in the initial period.

Flights will launch in 6 months.

https://hetq.am/hy/article/132806 https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/mku2u6/apr52021_1_post_office_to_launch_air_delivery_2/?

Armenian and Iranian businesses reach agreements

Economy Minister Qerobyan's delegation met business representatives from Armenia and Iran during a conference in Yerevan attended by delegations representing 25 Iranian high-tech companies.

Rhyton Solutions's Masoud Hasani: this is our first work trip to Armenia. We already have an established business partnership; they ordered programs from us. This business forum will allow us to expand the cooperation. Together we can work on larger global programs.

IT rep. Amade Askari: we want to establish production in Armenia and enter a global market together.

P. Abajyan Ltd.: our company specializes in lab testing and certification of construction materials. We're interested in the Iranian cement industry.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056840.html

Artsakh to host thousands of techies during TechWeek Artshakh-2021

... July 3-5 in capital Stepanakert. It'll be attended by 1,200 participants from 60 domestic and foreign organizations.

Organizer: Only with knowledge of a foreign language and IT field can an Artsakh citizen live and work in his own country.

https://armeniasputnik.am/karabah/20210629/28108659/TechWeek-Artshakh-2021arcax-.html https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/293979/

High Tech Minister visited Mobile World Congress 2021 in Barcelona

Chobanyan met the "GSMA" representative and spoke about global challenges and solutions, and the need to gradually improve the infrastructure in Armenia.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056850.html

the army is looking for AI experts among conscripts

MOD: we're launching a competition to recruit experts to implement and use high-tech solutions in the military, to have more effective use of conscripts' capabilities.

The Summer 2021 conscripts can apply to join the subdivision "1991" and choose one of the following fields: machine learning, data engineering, statistical data analysis.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056893.html

the new head of National Academy of Sciences talks about military industry

Radik Martirosyan stepped down (term limit) after 15 years of serving as the president. He will serve as an advisor to the new president-elect Ashot Saghyan. The latter presented his 5-year plan of action.

President Ashot: the NAS is working towards improving the military-industrial bloc. That's part of my plan. We need to be more active.

At first, we need to learn which branch of mil-ind-complex is the priority, then conduct monitoring in NAS institutes and groups to learn which ones are capable of working in these directions.

It's difficult. The NAS has not been involved in the mil-ind-complex for a long time. A state funding is necessary.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056889.html

Armenian students win three medals during the international Informatics Olympiad

...attended by 355 students from 88 countries.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056844.html

stats: exam results for Chemistry, Physics, Armenian History, and Russian Language

These are June 22 and 25 results from several exam facilities...

Russian Language: 246 students, 8% fail, 11% excellent, avg. 12.8 points

Chemistry: 1,042 students, 16% fail, 26% excellent, avg. 13.3 points

Physics: 1311 students, 21% fail, 21% excellent, avg. 12.6 points

Armenian History: 1403 students, 10% fail, 37% excellent, avg. 14.7 points

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056853.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056866.html

COVID stats

3477 tested. 116 confirmed. 73 healed. 4 deaths. 2636 active. 3% vaccinated (22% globally)

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056829.html https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217399

public officials urge residents to get vaccinated

Deputy Parliament Speaker: I just received the second Sputnik V shot. Only 2% of Armenians have been vaccinated. We are behind almost everyone. Please get a vaccine.

Justice Minister: in the next COVID wave, the salvation of human lives will depend on our vaccination.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217352 https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217391

German and British ambassadors met in Yerevan to watch the Euro-2020 GER vs ENG match

No spoilers.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217417

Urartian castle is being restored in Western Armenia

The Turkish authorities are working on a 3,000-year-old castle in Bitlis province's Adilcevaz (Artske, Արծկե) settlement.

Artske was an ancient town in Greater Hayq's Turuberan province, north of Vana Lake, between Archesh and Khlat settlement.

It was mentioned in 5th-century writings. It developed between the 10-13th centuries.

By the 19th century, it only had 500 houses, with Armenian and Kurdish populations. Armenians were killed during the 1915 Genocide.

Before the Arab invasions, Artske belonged to Gnuni and Bznuni families. Arabs conquered it in mid 7th century and renamed it Dar al Javaz, which is the origin of the modern Turkish name "Alcavaz" or "Adilcevaz".

In the 11th century, it went under Byzantine rule before being conquered by Seljuks, Mongols, and others.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/217392

maybe your child wants to be an actor?

Gabriel Sundukyan Theater will host a "Classroom + Classic" program next month to teach acting and stage organizational skills. The high schoolers will play alongside famous actors.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056874.html

today in history

1825: playwright Gabriel Sundukyan is born, the founder of modern Armenian drama

1900: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is born, the writer of The Little Prince

1986: Richard Branson (the original Elon Musk) is awarded for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by a surface vessel

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056809.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Atlantic_Challenge_Trophy

yesterday's news report

https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/o9rxu4/news_jun282021_1_bombshell_from_gen_samvel/

перевод на русский by Impossible-Ad-

https://reddit.com/r/ArmDailyReports_RUS_/comments/oa1mbl/новости_из_армении_за_28_июня_2021/

end of report

The accused are innocent unless proven guilty in the court of law, even if they "appear" guilty.

News archive: http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Daily_Anti-Corruption_Reports

Donations: soldiers' families, humanitarian aid, US tax-deductible donation.

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/oafz0b/news_jun292021_1_sec_council_russians_wont_leave/