The office of Armenia’s human rights ombudsman has deplored continuing abuses committed by law-enforcement authorities, singling out ill-treatment of criminal suspects held in custody.
Armenia’s membership in a Russian-led trade bloc and Georgia’s Association Agreement with the European Union can be used for deepening relations between the two neighboring states, Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze said during a visit to Yerevan on Friday.
A new local airline promising some low cost flight options has announced its imminent entry into Armenia’s civil aviation market. The bid by the company called “Armenia” comes less than two years after another local airline stopped operating passenger flights citing unfair competition as the main reason.
Representatives of nongovernmental organizations involved in election monitoring processes in Armenia are dismayed at the changes proposed in the draft Electoral Code that was revealed by the government earlier this week, describing them as “regression” from even existing standards.
A well-known maverick activist controversially arrested and prosecuted by the Armenian authorities claimed to have been assaulted in prison as he was forced to undergo a psychiatric examination on Wednesday.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) confirmed on Thursday that it will receive three ministerial posts in Armenia’s government as part of a “long-term” power-sharing deal with President Serzh Sarkisian.
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) on Wednesday urged other opposition parties and civic groups to jointly seek to force the government to include significant anti-fraud provisions in a new Electoral Code which is due to be enacted soon.
The scale and gravity of government corruption in Armenia has remained essentially unchanged in the past year, Transparency International said in an annual global survey released on Wednesday.
The Armenian government on Thursday postponed the resumption of classes in the country’s public schools by one more week, until January 25, due to a continuing influenza epidemic that has killed 11 people.
An outbreak of swine flu, which struck Armenia late last month, is under control, the Ministry of Health insisted on Monday after the H1N1 virus killed two more people in the country.
A coalition of four Armenian civic organizations that deployed the largest monitoring team during Armenia’s constitutional referendum on Monday rejected as fraudulent its official results showing a “Yes” vote for President Serzh Sarkisian’s constitutional changes.
Radical opposition groups campaigning for “regime change” in Armenia rallied hundreds of supporters and demanded President Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation on Sunday evening shortly after the polls closed in a constitutional referendum denounced by them as fraudulent.
Only one in three Armenians intend to vote for President Serzh Sarkisian’s controversial constitutional amendments in next month’s referendum, a non-governmental polling organization said on Tuesday.
A senior U.S. diplomat on Friday criticized a key committee of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) for backing a draft resolution that demands Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and the territory’s return to Azerbaijani rule.
A team of U.S., Russian and French mediators reportedly came under fire on Tuesday as it crossed into Azerbaijani-controlled territory from Nagorno-Karabakh through a “line of contact” that has seen growing ceasefire violations in recent years.
President Serzh Sarkisian used his Friday speech at a gathering of Russian diplomats’ training school graduates in Yerevan also to praise the controversial constitutional reform initiated by his administration that he said would increase the institutional role of Armenia’s opposition.
The Armenian government has decided to allocate a total of more than 1.8 billion drams, an equivalent of about $3.8 million, for the preparation and holding of a constitutional referendum due later this year.
It is expected that European Union foreign ministers will issue a mandate for starting talks with Armenia at their meeting in Luxembourg next week. The talks are due over a new agreement between Brussels and Yerevan.
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian lambasted some members of his cabinet on Thursday after they apparently greeted with skepticism an upbeat statement on the economic situation in Armenia made by Economy Minister Karen Chshmaritian.
The residents of Paravakar have stopped taking cover in their basements and other makeshift bomb shelters for the last few days, but life is still far from back to normal in this village on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
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