Armenian News ... A Topalian 6 editorials
JAM News
Aug 6 2019
Armenian PM lists impressive long-term development goals at opening of Pan-Armenian games
One of which is to increase GDP up to 15 times
“Artsakh is Armenia – and that’s the end of it!”, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said while opening the Pan-Armenian games last night on August 5.
Earlier last week Pashinyan publicly announced that he intended to deliver a speech at the opening of the Seventh Pan-Armenian Games, and in doing so attracted the media’s and the public’s attention to the games in advance of its opening.
On the Pan-Armenian games and the bold political statements made by PM Pashinyan
The Pan-Armenian Games symbolize the unity of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the large Armenian diaspora scattered throughout the world.
This year, the Pan-Armenian Games are being held with the motto ‘Unity Through Sports’. Over 5300 athletes from 161 cities of 35 countries of the world will take part in them.
Initially, the Pan-Armenian Games were held every two years (from 1999 to 2003), but after the third games it was decided to hold the games once every four years.
Six times they have been held in Armenia – this time the event was moved to Karabakh.
The PM’s address
Pashinyan began his speech with a motto present during the Velvet Revolution in the spring of 2018: ‘reunion’, saying that Armenians most abandon the disunity that has been inherent in society for a long time.
“This fragmentation must be eliminated. It is necessary to abandon the concepts of ‘Karabakh’, ‘Ijevan’, ‘Gyumri’”, Pashinyan stated.
He added that the revolution of last year should be understood as a “pan-Armenian revolution”. Since it happened not only in Armenia, but also among all Armenians.
And this, in turn, means that the values of the revolution are pan-Armenian values:
“The revolution should be continued in Armenia, Artsakh and among all Armenians.”
Pashinyan also called for the consolidation of efforts for the implementation of pan-Armenian ideas, the development and strengthening of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
To achieve this goal, Pashinyan believes that attracting the potential of the diaspora is highly important. He noted that repatriation is one of the priorities of the government:
“Repatriation should become one of the most important results of the revolution that took place in Armenia.”
What tasks must the government solve
During his speech, Nikol Pashinyan touch on the country’s long-term development goals, “which should consolidate national potential and centralize national resources.”
Among the goals to be achieved by 2050 are:
• bring the population of Armenia to at least 5 million people,
• create 1.5 million jobs,
• solve unemployment,
• eradicate poverty.
Pashinyan says that Armenia should become an industrial country. And in the next thirty years, in his opinion, the following tasks must also be solved:
• increase GDP by 15 times,
• have at least five technology companies whose value exceeds $10 billion, and 10,000 working startups,
• increase the average salary seven fold,
• enter the top twenty countries in the world by the army’s combat readiness index.
He also touched on education and healthcare:
“[We must] ensure 100% accessibility of health services and increase the financing of this area by a factor of 20. To make education a way of life, increase funding for science and education by 20 times.”
The head of the government also said that the number of tourists coming to Armenia is planned to be increased to 15 million people.
Pashinyan completed the list of main tasks with the sphere of sport, promising “to make the Armenian national football team the winner of the European and world championships, to win 25 Olympic medals and the title of world chess champion.”
During his speech, Nikol Pashinyan asked a rhetorical question, to which he himself answered:
“Why don’t I pronounce the word Artsakh? Yes, because Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s the end of it!”
Baku Angry Over Pashinyan’s ‘Artsakh is Armenia’ Comment
Armenia
Baku is angry at Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s comment that “Artsakh is Armenia” with the head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Azerbaijani President strongly condemning the statement, which was made on Monday during a rally in Stepanakert.
“Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan. It is our historic and inseparable land,” said Hikmet Hajiyev, according to the Azerbaijani news agency Turan.
Hajiyev called Pashinyan’s comments “provocative,” adding that with such rhetoric Armenia’s leadership brings the region to the brink of a “serious crisis.”
“Let no one doubt that Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity. Responsibility for the consequences lies with the Armenian side,” said Hajiyev.
Pashinyan spoke at a rally in Stepanakert’s Revival Square Monday ahead of the opening ceremonies of the 7th Pan-Armenian Games, which took place Tuesday in the Artsakh capital attended by thousands of Armenians from around the world.
During his remarks on Monday, Pashinyan also said “only Armenians can determine their own fate,” alluding to the potential of the Armenian nation in Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora.
During his remarks, Pashinyan also referred to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, saying that the goal of the talks was to “defend the achievements of the liberation struggle waged for the sovereignty and security of the people of Artsakh.”
“Any solution reached as a result of negotiations that will be considered acceptable for the governments of Armenia and Artsakh can only go into effect if the people of Armenia and Artsakh endorse it,” said Pashinyan.
Referring to Hajiyev’s comments, Artsakh Presidential spokesperson Davit Babayan told news.am that Baku is distorting Pashinyan’s statement in order to further its dishonest goals.
“When the Prime Minister of Armenia was talking about the idea of unification, he was referring to the ideals of the nation and that which all Armenians of the world are aspiring to achieve,” said Babayan.
“This doesn’t imply dismantling Artsakh’s statehood. We, Armenians, want reunification, and we are not hiding it. However, we also need to take into consideration global, regional and geopolitical factors. From that perspective, the two Armenian states are strengthening their positions, and this allows us to resist many challenges effectively,” explained Babayan.
Panorama, Armenia
Aug 6 2019
Armenia’s permanent population on the decline: statistics
Armenia’s permanent population keeps dropping. According to the latest figures released by the Statistical Committee, the population shrank by 8,200 people to 2,961,600 as of July 1 2019 from 2018.
The country’s population numbered 2,965,300 as of January 1, falling by 3,700 in six months.
Some 1,892,800 people live urban communities, while 1,068,800 live in rural communities. The population stands at 1,081,300 in capital Yerevan.
The regions with the largest population are Armavir and Ararat with 263,800 and 256,600 people respectively. Vayots Dzor is the least populated region in Armenia with 48,800 residents.
In January-June 2019, the population viability rate, i.e. the ratio of birth and death rates stood at 116.8% against the 123.0% recorded in the same period of 2018.
An estimated number of 16,111 babies were born in Armenia from January to June this year, compared to 16,261 born during the same months last year.
According to the statistics, 13,790 people died in Armenia in the first half of 2019, of whom 7,237 died of blood diseases, 2,741 – of cancer and 1,656 – of respiratory diseases.
Meantime, Armenia saw a rate of 242 divorces per 1,000 marriages in January-June, with 282 divorce cases recorded in the same months of 2018.
Arminfo, Armenia
Aug 6 2019
WRI: Armenia ranks 17th in the list of countries with high water shortages
Asya Balayan
Armenia was on the 34th place in the list of 164 countries of the world where there is a shortage of water. This is stated in the report of the World Resources Institute (WRI), published on Tuesday, August 6.
According to the study, Armenia is on the list of 27 countries that are experiencing high water shortages. Among them are Belgium, Uzbekistan, Spain, Turkey, Italy and other states, thus, being on the 17th line of the rating.
The study evaluated water shortages, as well as the risks of drought and river floods. The list of countries with extreme water shortages includes Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, the United Arab Emirates, San
Marino, Bahrain, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Oman and Botswana. In these states, according to the study, agriculture, industry and municipalities consume an average of 80% of the available surface and groundwater annually.
It is clarified that 12 of the 17 countries exposed to extreme water scarcity are in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The region is hot and dry, so the water resources were not rich at first, and growing demand exacerbated the situation.
Due to climate change, the Middle East and North Africa will suffer even greater economic losses from water shortages in the future. The World Resources Institute notes that in a number of MENA countries there are unrealized opportunities to improve water
security: about 82% of wastewater in this region is not reused. The introduction of their cleaning technologies will create a new source of clean water. A positive example is shown by Oman, which occupies the 16th place in the list of countries with extreme
water shortages: this state on the Arabian Peninsula treats 100% of the collected wastewater and reuses 78%.
Among other methods that will help solve the problem of acute shortage of water, the researchers called improving the efficiency of agriculture, as well as investing in gray and green infrastructure.
At the same time, as the WRI report showed, even in countries with sufficient water resources there can be hot spots. While the overall water deficit level in the United States is labeled "medium-low," the US state of New Mexico is facing water shortages
on a par with the UAE.
Aug 6 2019
Yerevan struggles with uncollected trash
In a recent poll, Armenians identified trash collection as the top problem their communities face.
Ani Mejlumyan
Long-running complaints about poor trash collection have reached crisis proportions this steamy summer in Armenia's capital, and the city’s garbage contractor is in a politically tinged fight with the authorities.
Yerevan residents have been taking to social media to vent, posting pictures – and tagging city officials – of uncollected trash piling up in the heat, which has lately been hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). “Today it is 10 days since the garbage has been collected,” wrote Anuk Mkrtchyan, a journalist at RFE/RL, on her Facebook page on August 5 next to a photo of five overflowing trash receptacles. “The smell of the street is indescribable.”
The investigative website Hetq posted its own photo of piles of garbage and asked users to send theirs. “I see [Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan keeps telling diaspora Armenians to return,” one user commented.
“How can we return to this, literally garbage?! Shame on them for not figuring out how to properly handle trash. It’s been 23 years since I left the country, this was an issue then and [it's] still an issue now.”
Complaints about poor collection started emerging last summer. The city’s mayor, an ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, campaigned in last
September’s election in part on a promise to deal with the trash problem: in the first shot of one campaign video, he stood next to piles over overflowing trash and said, “We will clean it up.”
But the problems have not been solved. A recent poll by
the International Republican Institute (IRI) found that Armenians, asked what was the biggest problem in their town or village, most often answered “garbage collection.”
Yerevan city authorities and the private company with the contract to collect the trash, Lebanon-based Sanitek, have been blaming one another for the problems.
City authorities repeatedly fined Sanitek and have hinted that they may break the contract with the company, signed in 2014 for a 12-year term. “We will clean up Yerevan with or without Sanitek,” Mayor Hayk Marutyan told an August 2 press conference. That followed a July 30 announcement from the State Revenue Committee that it had opened a criminal investigation against Sanitek for tax evasion. The municipality also has been spending additional funds to buy additional garbage trucks.
Sanitek, meanwhile, has complained that it is being unfairly scapegoated and inaccurately tied to the former authorities.
Also on August 2, Sanitek’s director Nicholas El Tawil held a press conference – originally scheduled in Tbilisi, for unclear reasons, then carried out by videoconferencing – in which he complained that
the company was the victim of politics. “2018 was a critical period for the company, followed by a revolution, and because garbage was a visible issue, Sanitek became a target for the political campaign,” he said. “It was also used to make this look like a
deal between the former city authorities and company shareholders.”
The legal cases against the company were politically motivated, Tawil said: "The authorities set a goal to financially weaken the company with the aim of its subsequent expropriation.”
Meanwhile, the trash has continued to pile up. Anna Kostanyan, a member of parliament from the opposition Bright Armenia party, posted photos of piled-up trash near her home on August 5, calling it “stinking” and “intolerable.” She said the situation had become so extreme that neighborhood children had made a joke of it. “They are calling people over, saying ‘come and see our beautiful sights!’”
Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.
BBC Sports
Aug 8 2019
Pyunik 0-4 Wolves: Raul Jimenez scores twice as Wolves dominate in Armenia
By Harry Poole
Portugal's Diogo Jota provided two assists for strike partner Raul Jimenez in Armenia
Raul Jimenez scored twice as Wolves took firm control of their Europa League third-round qualifier against Armenian side Pyunik with a dominant first-leg display in Yerevan.
Returning from pre-season injury, Republic of Ireland right-back Matt Doherty slotted into the bottom corner from Diogo Jota's pass to put the visitors ahead after 29 minutes.
Jota provided two further assists for strike partner Jimenez either side of the interval, allowing the unmarked Mexican to fire into the roof of the net three minutes before half-time and then add his side's third 35 seconds after the restart.
Second-half substitute Ruben Neves converted an injury-time penalty, won by £16m summer signing Patrick Cutrone, as Wolves - competing in Europe for the first time since 1980 - recorded their biggest ever continental victory.
Manager Nuno Espirito Santo handed a first appearance to AC Milan arrival Cutrone as Doherty, Jota and Jimenez were withdrawn in anticipation of the club's opening Premier League fixture away to Leicester City on Sunday (14:00 BST).
The second leg against Pyunik takes place at Molineux next Thursday (19:45), with the winners playing either Italian side Torino or Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus in the play-off round on 22 and 29 August - the final qualifying round before the
group stages.
A 6,370-mile round journey to the Armenian capital three days before the club's opening Premier League fixture presented a far from ideal situation for Wolves, who claimed a seventh-place league finish last term.
Following a comfortable 6-1 aggregate victory over Northern Irish side Crusaders in the previous round, Wolves prepared meticulously for their trip to Yerevan with the squad reportedly undertaking a mid-flight workout in preparation.
Initially lacking a cutting edge, Doherty's fine finish from his side's first shot on target prompted slick waves of attacks as Jota missed his opportunity to double the lead.
A similar post-match session is planned for the players - who began their Europa League qualifying on 25 July - and, on Thursday's evidence, they appear suitably fit and hungry to build on last season's achievements.
Jimenez, Gold Cup winner with Mexico over the summer, was twice presented ample time to select his spot following tireless work by Jota - with the pair continuing their electric form of last season
It took 50 minutes for 14-time Armenian champions Pyunik to register a shot on target, as their hopes of reaching the group stages of European competition for the first time were all but ended for another year.
Neves' late penalty added deserved gloss for Wolves, for whom another promising and eventful season dawns.
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