Armenian News... A Topalian 8 editorials

Panorama, Armenia

July 13 2019

Artsakh reports over 90 Azerbaijani ceasefire violations over past week

The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire along the Artsakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact over 90 times in the past week, the country’s defense ministry reported on Saturday. In the period from July 7- 13,

 the adversary fired around 800 shots towards the Armenian defense positions from firearms of different calibers, the ministry added.

As the statement said, the Defense Army frontline units strongly adhere to the ceasefire regime and continued confidently implementing their combat duties.

Prensa Latina

July 16 2019

Syria Received 100 Tons of Humanitarian Aid from Armenia

Syria has received 100 tons of humanitarian aid offered by the Government of Armenia, officila sources reported Tuesday in Damascus.

 

An Ilyushin Il-76 plane loaded with Armenian humanitarian aid landed in the Russian air base of Hemeymim, in the province of Latakia, reported the newspaper Al-Watan.

 

It added that 100 tons of Armenian assistance arrived in Syria in three flights, and includes wheat, rice, cereals, oil and basic aid material that will be distributed to Syrian families in need.

 

Armenia had sent a brigade of doctors and deminers to Aleppo province, where there is an Armenian community of more than 100 people.

 

ARKA, Armenia

July 15 2019

Ryanair and Wizz Air planning to enter Armenian market 

. Ryanair and Wizz Air are planning to enter Armenia’s market, Tatevik Revazian, head of the General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia, told journalists on Monday summarizing the results

 of one year of her activity in office. 

“The low coster companies have already expressed their willingness to enter the Armenian market in summer 2020 if all difficulties in acquisition of new aircrafts are settled,” she said.

In her words, to make the Armenian air market more attractive to lowcosters, the department has worked out legislative changes, which imply preferences, including air tax exemption, for launch of new routes. 

She said this approach will be applied only to new routes and only with taking their financial risk exposure for companies. 

“We intentionally don’t assign preferences to air companies, since this can lead to monopolies, unfair competition and price rise in the future,” Revazian said. “We offer preferences for new routes for five years. If, for example, Yerevan-Marseille flights

 are operated by Ryanair, it will enjoy preferences, and if Air France launches flight s in the same routes, it will have preferences as well.” 

She said the project is almost ready and is likely to be put on the National Assembly’s floor in late August.

Both companies, she said, expressed their interest in working with Armenia in writing. 

Armenpress.am

16 July, 2019

Number of foreign visitors to Armenia rises by 14.4%

The number of foreigners who visited Armenia during the 1st 6 months of 2019 was by 14.4% higher than the number of the same period in 2018, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page.

''By the way, touristic season just starts. I hope our entrepreneurs, starting from taxi drivers to small shop assistants, will meet nicely the tourists.

Each tourist returning back from our country with good impressions raises Armenia's international reputation and increases the economic and touristic attractiveness of our country'', he wrote.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Armenpress.am

15 July, 2019

Armenia’s team wins five medals at International Physics Olympiad

Armenia’s team won five bronze medals at the International Physics Olympiad, Minister of education, science, culture and sports Arayik Harutyunyan said on Facebook.

“This means that all members of our team return with medals. Last year our team won one silver, one bronze medals and one certificate. Next year we should develop our success and work on raising the quality of the medal”, the minister said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

News.am, Armenia

July 15 2019

Armenia put on list of countries that produce most waste 

Armenia is included in the list of countries producing the most waste per capita, USA Today reported. 

According to a study conducted by Tempo, Canada ranked first, leaving behind Bulgaria and US.

Every citizen of Canada accounts for 36 tons of garbage per year. In Bulgaria, each citizen accounts for 26.7 tons of garbage per year, and in the United States - 26 tons, the source noted.

Armenia ranked sixth. For every citizen of Armenia accounted for 16.3 tons of garbage per year.

According to the source, in 2014, Armenia produced almost 493,000 tons of municipal waste.

“Armenia produces relatively little municipal waste, with nearly 493,000 tons in 2014. It also ranks among the countries producing the least amount of agricultural and construction waste. However, what contributes  to Armenia’s rank among the world's biggest producers of waste is the huge amount of industrial waste it produces. Of the nearly 48 million tons of total waste the country produces, 47.3 million is industrial,” the source noted.

The list also includes Estonia (23.5 tons), Finland (16.6 tons), Sweden (16.2 tons), Luxembourg (11.8 tons), Ukraine (10.6 tons), Serbia (8.9 tons).

Panorama, Armenia

July 15 2019

Armenian authorities agree general vetting of all judges is ‘neither necessary nor useful’ – Venice Commission

The authorities of the Republic of Armenia have reached an agreement with the Venice Commission that it is ‘neither necessary nor efficient to carry out general vetting of all sitting judges instead disciplinary  procedures should be strengthened and a link with the asset declaration system established.’ The agreement is reflected in the session report of the 119th plenary session of the Venice Commission which contains references to the situation around Armenia’s  judicial reform.

The document said that discussions around the judicial reforms of Armenia were held during the visit of the delegation of a high Council of Europe officials led by the Director General on Human Rights and the Rule  of Law, including the Secretary of the Commission.

It is noted that an agreement had been reached to amend the country’s Judicial Code by end of July for which Armenian authorities had requested an urgent opinion of the Venice Commission. At its meeting the Enlarged  Bureau has authorized the preparation of the urgent opinion which will be forwarded to the requested side prior to October Plenary Session, said the document. 

Emerging Europe

July 15 2019

Armenia sees big increase in tourist spending

Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that tourists arriving to the country spent approximately 120 million US dollars more in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period of

 the previous year.

Quoting a report from the Central Bank of Armenia, around 85,000 more tourists visited the country in the last six months compared to January-June 2018, adding that they spent 75 per cent more in restaurants,  36 per cent more in travel agencies, 32 per cent more in hotels and 30 per cent more in stores, while their use of ATMs increased by 20 per cent in the first half of the year.

The chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, Artur Javadyan, noted that the average spending of tourists had increased by more than 17 per cent from 2013 to 2018, with 300 hotels opening over the last

 six years.

Eurasia Times

July 11 2019

Armenian lake faces destruction: ecologists 

Armenian environmentalists say the country’s largest lake is facing extinction from  algae and falling water

 levels.

The authorities must take action or  “the lake will turn into a swamp” through water-logging, according to the Aysor website. 

Karine Danielyan, an ecologist who heads the government’s environmental committee, said it was the government’s publication of satellite pictures of the algae this month that provided the final proof.

“We warned them about this two months ago. All the measures may be in place, but we are still destroying Lake Sevan through our thoughtless actions,” Danielyan told Aysor.

The water level in Sevan should be lowered to carry out the cleaning work and then restored, Prosperous Armenia party MP Hrant Madatyan argued.

Bardukh Gabrielyan of the Zoology and Hydroecology Research Centre at the National Academy of Sciences said organic substances and phosphorus must be prevented from leaching into rivers that flow into the lake. It  was necessary to install sewage treatment on the main rivers, Gabrielyan added. “There are several such plants in the region, but they carry out only mechanical cleaning of sewage waters, which is not enough,” he said. 

Gabrielyan told the media it was necessary to restore fish stocks, including crucian carp and crayfish.

Armenian Environment Minister Erik Grigoryan tried to put the algal bloom in the context of climate change, pointing to similar outbreaks in Russia’s Lake Baikal and the Black Sea but ecologists said specific Armenian  factors were also to blame. 

Grigoryan said the algae would “be gone within a fortnight”. 

The minister said: “Previously the cleaning works affected 80 or 100 hectares per year but, with the participation of the prime minister’s staff, the cleaning works will take place both this year and the next two

 years and will affect 770 hectares.”

Sevan experienced an algal bloom last year and swimmers were advised against using the lake. Grigoryan said there was a similar scare in 1964. But recent satellite pictures show almost half of the lake is now green,  pointing to a problem on a larger scale than in the past. 

Water resources specialist Knarik Hovhannisyan said too much water was withdrawn for irrigation, which has led water levels to fall four times since 2012 when they should have risen.

She told the media that pollution from multiplying tourist resorts on the shore and sewage in the rivers that fill the lake “could mean losing the only freshwater basin in the region”.Drigoryan said a government contract bidding process aimed to clean up the shore and rivers so “by 2020-21 this whole area will be completely clean” and water levels should rise again.

Armenian water committee chairman Vardan Melkonyan said less water had been drawn from Sevan this year with 29 million cubic metres removed, compared with 43.5 million in the first half of last year.