Campaigning officially kicked off on Monday for Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political allies are expected to win by a landslide.
Armenian officials are also to blame for a Russian military exercise that scared residents of a village in the northwestern Shirak province, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan said on Sunday.
The Russian military base in Armenia on Wednesday pledged to investigate an unexpected exercise which was conducted by its soldiers in an Armenian village and caused panic among local residents.
Gyumri’s municipal council voted on Monday to strip former Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian of the titles of honorary citizens of Armenia’s second largest city.
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian and his associates began touring Armenia’s northern and central regions on foot at the weekend in preparation for street demonstrations in Yerevan aimed at preventing President Serzh Sarkisian from extending his rule.
Dozens of dentists in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri held a protest in front of the Shirak provincial administration’s office on Monday against the introduction of a new order of registering visitors online that is due to take effect on March 6.
The European Parliament is planning to allocate around 40 million euros ($50 million) for development projects that will be launched in three regions in northern Armenia this year, according to a senior EU diplomat.
Businessman Gagik Tsarukian said on Thursday that his political alliance will not nominate a candidate for the post of Armenia’s next president who will be elected by parliament in March.
The Russian ambassador to Armenia downplayed on Wednesday harsh criticism of Armenia’s pursuit of closer ties with the European Union that has been voiced during talk shows hosted by Russia’s state-controlled television.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetian promised to improve the dire socioeconomic situation in Gyumri on Thursday as Armenia marked the 29th anniversary of a catastrophic earthquake that ravaged the city and other parts of the country.
A newly established company controlled by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian has asked for a government permission to explore for oil and gas in northern Armenia.
Officials inaugurated on Wednesday the first street that has been refurbished in Gyumri’s as part of a $10 million reconstruction of its historic old town initiated by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian.
President Serzh Sarkisian and other officials inaugurated on Sunday a third checkpoint on Armenia’s border with Georgia that has been modernized as part of a $64 million program mostly financed by the European Union.
More than a hundred university students in Gyumri boycotted classes on Tuesday in a show of support for one of their senior professors who risked losing his job after accusing the university rector of corruption.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetian refused to be drawn on his political future when he visited Gyumri on Friday.
Another opposition party announced on Wednesday that it will stop boycotting sessions of Gyumri’s municipal assembly in protest against official results of local elections held in Armenia’s second largest city last October.
Senior government officials toured Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province on Monday, encouraging local officials to propose development programs for their cash-strapped rural communities, instead of waiting for funding from Yerevan.
Authorities in Gyumri unveiled a new religious monument on Sunday on the first anniversary of a landmark mass which Pope Francis celebrated in the city during his visit to Armenia.
Around a hundred Armenian civilians working for a Russian military base in Gyumri went on strike on Wednesday to demand their wages which they said have not been paid for the last three months.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities have decided not to prosecute a school principal in Gyumri who admitted pressurizing parents of her students to vote for the ruling Republican Party (HHK) in the April 2 parliamentary elections.
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