23-30 November

Հայացք Երևանից 01 December 2019

Weekly update

In an annual telethon broadcast from Yerevan and Los Angeles, a pan-Armenian charity has raised about $10 million that will be spent on fresh infrastructure projects in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, Azatutyun said. They are designed to improve water supplies and expand the use of solar power in Karabakh and Armenia’s northern Shirak, Lori and Tavush provinces. The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has already implemented over $350 million worth of similar projects since being set up in 1992.

According to Reuters, the Taliban said on Friday they were ready to restart peace talks with the United States, a day after President Donald Trump visited U.S. troops in Afghanistan and said he believed the radical group would agree to a ceasefire. Trump’s surprise Thanksgiving Day visit was his first to Afghanistan since becoming president and came a week after a prisoner swap between Washington and Kabul that raised hopes for a long elusive peace deal to end the 18-year war.

The organization that donated trucks to Yerevan Municipality had received a construction permit. This is what Spokesperson of the mayor of Yerevan Hakob Karapetyan told journalists today, touching upon the comment that head of the Light faction of Yerevan’s Council of Elders Davit Khazhakyan had declared that the municipality had received the KamAZ trucks as a gift from Alex & Holding owned by businessman Samvel Alexanyan and that it had received the trucks in exchange of construction permits, said new.am. According to him, among the five companies, the donation contracts with which were published, there are companies that had received construction permits from the municipality before the donation was made.

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan received U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy on November 27. Director of USAID Armenia Office Deborah Grizer was also present at the meeting. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of Tigran Avinyan, attaching great importance to the continuous development of the Armenian-American relations, Deputy PM Avinyan highlighted the U.S. support to the reform implementation in Armenia. The Deputy PM also noted that the 1^stsession of the U.S.-Armenian strategic dialogue was a serious step for raising the bilateral cooperation to a new level. Ambassador Lynne Tracy noted that the Government of the USA supports the democratic and economic reforms in Armenia, as well as its anti-corruption agenda and participation in regional security initiatives. Citing the 40% increase of the U.S. assistance to Armenia, she noted that they are ready to assist the implementation of reform programs.

The delegation of the High Council for the Judiciary of Italy (CSM) at the proposal of President Armen Sarkissian today at the Presidential Palace held consultations with the representatives of Armenia’s judicial system, said the Presidential Officce. The head of the delegation, Vice President of the CSM David Ermini stressed the importance of presenting Italian experience in the judicial system in Armenia because both countries are parliamentary democracies and in the democratic system the court is a pivot of the state. According to David Ermini, cooperation of the two countries in this area could have a positive impact on the efficiency of the steps taken for the improvement of the system.

Many were perplexed and outraged when, right after clashing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a heated Oval Office meeting on November 13, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham hurried back to the Senate floor and did something that likely delighted Erdogan, said Tert.am. Graham blocked a resolution that would have formally recognized Turkey's Genocide of the Armenian people. Graham had just scolded Erdogan over his invasion of Syria and attacks on the Kurds, Axiosreports, citing sources in the room. As Graham was leaving the Oval Office, senior White House staff asked him to return to the Senate and block the Armenian genocide resolution — a measure that would have infuriated Erdoğan.