Daily Archives: February 17, 2007

Yet Another Armenian Soldier Killed by Azeri Sniper

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Armenia Blog reflects on the recent killing of the Armenian soldier, major Ervand Pashikyan (b. in 1958) by an Azeri sniper, and finds it especially disappointing that “virtually nothing is done after such killings: a few words condemning the act here, a few harsh words there, and that’s it. Then again, short of an all-out war, what can be done? Obviously, we have to involve the international community, but all too often these soldiers get forgotten shortly after all is said and done.”

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Parliamentary Election Monitor

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Armenian Opposition Candidates for the May 12, 2007 Parliamentary Elections in Armenia are the focus of CRD / TI Election Monitor 2007 blog’s attention this time. Stepan Demirchian, Artur Baghdasarian, Aram Sarkisian all get their share of coverage and comments. Check out the Monitor for more.

RFE/RL reports that Stepan Demirchian, leader of the opposition People’s Party (HZhK), will not seek to form any electoral alliances with other political parties to contest the May parliamentary election. This follows news that the former Speaker of Parliament, Artur Baghdasarian, has also ruled out forming alliances with other opposition parties in Armenia and earlier reports that negotiations on an alliance between the People’s Party and National Unity had been held in January.

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Armenian Oligarchs, Their Hummers and More…

Posted on February 17, 2007 by | 4 Comments

HummerIn her post “It’s not all gold that shines…” the Armenian Odar says “…at least one of the Hummers making Yerevan’s streets unsafe, uses gas. The owner had the petroltank replaced by gastanks in the hatchback, because gas is cheaper than petrol.”

Armenian Odar only fell off her chair laughing at this, while I remember nearly having a heart attack when I first found out… :)

In the meanwhile the President of Armenia – yet another one of our oligarchs according to this rather dubious list of Top Ten Rich People in the country, is having all fun and no work according to this post by the Armenia Blog: “Robert Kocharyan to Vacation in Paris.”

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Health Issues in Armenia

Posted on February 17, 2007 by | 3 Comments

Armenia Blog has a series of posts on health, medicine and population growth issues in Armenia: Armenicum AIDS Drug Marches Forward; Child Cancer Cases Increase 15% in Decade; Armenia’s Population Increases…Barely. The blogger is especially concerned about the causes of increase in Child Cancer cases:

What could be the reason for this increase? Perhaps pesticides and other chemicals in the soil and fruits? Perhaps pollution from cars and trucks?

Vahe Balabanyan at Hyeblog also publicizes the concerns of the RA Government over sharp drop in population growth.

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Posted in Environment

Fight Against Anonymity Becomes Reality in Armenia

Posted on February 17, 2007 by | 1 Comment

David_S talks of “quite well founded rumours” that selling anonymous mobile phone SIM cards might soon be forbidden. The mobile operators will require valid identification before selling prepaid mobile SIM cards like the Armentel Easy, Go cards and the Viva Cell Allo Cards at the moment. David wonders whether this urge of fighting anonymity will soon reach Internet services as well?

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Phrase of the day #36

Posted on February 17, 2007 by | Comments Off

More Armenianisms from Kornelij Glas:

Quote: A serious businessman cannot simultaneously be a good politician.

Аuthor: Leader of the “New Times” (“Nor Zhamanakner”) Aram Karapetyan about the head of the “Prosperous Armenia” party – Gagik Tsarukyan.

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Posted in Politics

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