An Armenian and an Azerbaijani citizen were repatriated on June 8 in an operation carried out with support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The handover took place at the international border of Armenia, in the town of Ijevan. RA citizen Zaven Karapetyan, who had crossed the international border into Azerbaijan on 20 June 2017, was repatriated. And Elvin Ibrahimov, a citizen of Azerbaijan, who had crossed the north-eastern border of Armenia on March 16, 2019, was transferred to Azerbaijan.

Increase of Minimum Wage

On June 27, the Government approved the legislative initial proposal of 2 MPs from “My Step” faction, which is about increasing the minimum wage. According to the bill, the Law on “Minimum Monthly Wages” will be amended. The minimum salary will be increased up to 63.000 dram, instead of current 55.000 dram.

During the sitting, Deputy minister of labor and social affairs Gemofin Gasparyan informed the attendees, that the minimum wage may be raised from the mentioned threshold as well. According to him, studies carried out during the last 3 months lead to the conclusion that threshold of minimum wage may be increased up to 68.000 dram. In the opinion of Gasparyan, this proposal will be presented to the NA during discussions of the bill.

Free Health Care for 0-18 years old

According to another decision of the Government, 12 billion dram will be allocated to the Ministry of health for the implementation of numerous urgent and important programs in the field.

The allocated amount will be addressed to fully implementation of hospital medical care and service within the framework of state order.

At current free medical care is provided for children under 7 years old and those making use of state privileged coditions for various reasons. According to the data of the Ministry, the number of beneficiaries, under 18 years old, making use of privileged conditions for medical care, will increase by 200.000 people.

Kocharyan Detained Again

On June 25, the Court of Appeal decided to approve the 2 appeals and imposed detention on the RA Second President Robert Kocharyan, charged with overthrowing the consitutional order on March 1, 2008.

According to the Judge Armen Danielyan, proceedings will be recalled by the Constitutional Court and sent to the Court of First Instance for carrying out new investigation. Personal guarantees of ex and current presidents of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan and Arkadi Ghukasyan are commissioned to be returned.

Read more

Why is Kocharyan being sentenced?

Flat-scale of Taxation Accepted

On June 25, NA fully approved the bill “On Making Amendments and Addenda to RA Tax Code.” 73 MPs voted in favor of the bill and 32 MPs against. It means that starting from January 1, 2020, the Income tax will be 23% for everyone in Armenia.

Read more

Rough Groundings of Flat-Scale of Taxation in Armenia

Proposal to reduce permissible speed in Yerevan

On June 26, Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan, suggested to reducing the permissible speed from 60km/h to 50km/h. The Mayor noted that in most European countries the normal speed is just 50km/h. The proposal is grounded by the increased number of accidents and victims.

The Mayor presented the statistics according to which number of accidents has increased by 23.3% in January-April, 2019 in comparison with the same period of the last year reaching to 423 cases from 343 cases. During the first 4 months of this year, 67 people died because of accidents.

The proposal has become a subject of hot debates. Those, having negative opinion, note that in case of reducing the speed, number of traffic will increase causing additional problems.

Anyhow, the Mayor is going to discuss this proposal with the Road Police and a number of other departments.

From Moscow to Tbilisi by Yerevan

“Armenia” Airlines has got permission from the Russian side for Yerevan-Moscow-Yerevan direct regular flights. Hours of flights will be close to the Yerevan-Tbilisi-Yerevan flights of “Georgian airways”.

Such indirect flights from Moscow to Tbilisi are carried out since June 21, after the decree of RF President Vladimir Putin, according to which a ban will be imposed on air carriage between the 2 countries starting from June 8. The decision was accepted on June 20, after demonstrations in front of Georgian Parliament with participation of thousands of people. The participants were against “the Russian occupation” of Georgia. However, the main reason for the protests was Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy that was organized in the building of Parliament of Georgia. The right to open the Assembly was given to MP of Russian State Duma Sergei Gavrilov who was allowed to sit on the chair of the head of Georgian Parliament.

Hence, starting from July 8, “Armenia” Airlines will operate 2-4 flight a day to Moscow depending on the demand. And Yerevan-Tbilisi-Yerevan flight will be operated twice a day, instead of one flight.

Translated by Mary Grigoryan

Ampop Media 

For Armenian original CLICK HERE

© The copyright of stories and visualizations on Ampop.am belongs to “Journalists for the Future” NGO. It is forbidden to use Ampop’s content and images without active hyperlinks to the source website. Uploading of infographics and images of Ampop.am is possible only in case of an agreement reached with JFF.

First Published: 03/07/2019