Politics

Today, Marie Yovanovich, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, held a speech at Yerevan State University during a discussion on Civil Society in Armenia. Here is the text of her speech.  Ladies and gentlemen, friends.   Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today for a conversation on the role of civil society in Armenia. You may …

After the past three months the Armenian national Congress held the first rally in Yerevan. The rally was overcrowded and it reminded the ANC’s best times with active demonstrations. The big number of participants in the demonstration can be the main message as it shows that the social situation and discontent of people are growing …

Former foreign affairs minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan gave an interview to his Civilitas Foundation webpage, during which among other issues he spoke about the state of democracy in Armenia. “…Freedoms are even more curtailed. Public assembly is hampered. I know that first-hand sitting here in the Civilitas office. Every kind of loud, musical event …

Yesterday’s rally of the ANC was quite crowded. The police stated that there were 5-6 thousand people gathered but it was evident that their number is much larger. Perhaps the number would be much higher if the police didn’t block the regional routes. The rally was almost over when the people arrived from Vanadzor to …

According to our information, the authorities are concerned of the developments in the Diaspora and activities of Armenian organizations. For this purpose the minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan was instructed to announce that president Serzh Sargsyan wants to make reforms and make the parliament bicameral to include people from the Diaspora in the upper level. …

The RPA’s board session resulted in a memorandum to be signed by the three coalition parties of Armenia. Before the RPA board meeting the RPA head and the RA president Serzh Sargsyan met with the leaders of the PA and Legal State parties to agree the text of the announcement, which was later approved by …

Yesterday Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin discussed the political situation in Armenia with leaders of the political parties represented in parliament during a visit to Yerevan. In fact this is an unprecedented event and virtually doesn’t fit in the diplomatic manners and especially in the inter-parliamentary format. Participants of the meetings, apparently the first …

Yesterday evening the several month long tension between the PA and the RPA came to a solution. Headed by the president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan yesterday’s session of the Republican Party discussed and adopted a declaration, which should be signed today. According to that project during the upcoming presidential elections the coalition will come up …

A quite strange situation was created in the political elite of Armenia. During the practice of journalism I often notice that political and economic actors and even not very high-ranked or wealthy ones, avoid to openly speak about any issue in a closed office, vicinity of state institutes. And especially they don’t answer any serious …

The exclusive interview of Giedrius Čekuolis, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office for Protracted Conflicts, to Mediamax – You are scheduled to visit South Caucasus next week. Some experts believe that presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have led the Karabakh process to deadlock and it will be hard to break it. Do you agree that …