1.
Edmon Marukyan
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Edmon Marukyan was born on January 13,1981 in Kirovakan, Armenia, then part of the Soviet Union. He attended School #6 of his home town Vanadzor, then served in the Armenian Army, Marukyan graduated from the Institute of Commerce and Law in Moscow in 2002 with a Bachelor of Law degree. In 2006 he received qualification of a Specialist for the Protection of Human Rights and Interests in the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights of Warsaw, in 2007 he left the Academy of Public Administration of the Republic of Armenia with a Master of Law degree. Three years later, in 2010 Marukyan received an LL. M. and was a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow studying Human Rights and International Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Along with legal education, Marukyan participated in specialized training courses in Armenia, Poland, Hungary, the US, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Germany. Since 2001, Marukyan is actively involved in human rights activism in Armenia and he has been the head of several non-government human rights organizations. From 2007 to 2008 he lectured Philosophy and Political Science at the Vanadzor State Pedagogical Institute, since 2008 Marukyan is a member of the Chamber of Advocates of Armenia. He is also author of articles and reports on human rights in Armenia, the 2012 parliamentary election was held on May 6. The official campaign started an earlier, during which Marukyan said he walked from neighborhood to neighborhood. He defeated Republican Viktor Dallakyan, which was an independent candidate for past 4 elections, Armenian media widely responded to his election, calling him the Bright Spot, Kinder Surprise of the May 6th election. On May 8,2012, just two days after the election Marukyan announced that he not join any fraction. Marukyan is married and has two sons and he is fluent in Armenian, English and Russian
2.
Nikol Pashinyan
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Nikol Pashinyan is an Armenian politician, journalist, publicist. He was a member of the Armenian National Congress, an opposition movement led by former President of Armenia. He was the editor of Armenias best-selling daily liberal newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak, in 2000, while he was the head editor of Haykakan Zhamanak he was convicted on charges of defamation and libel against different people. Pashinyan supported Levon Ter-Petrosyan in the 2008 presidential elections, when he was described as Ter-Petrosyans customary crowd-warmer and he went into hiding shortly after the deadly unrest following the election, he was wanted by the Armenian police on allegations of murder and mass disorder. In June 2009, he out of hiding and turned himself to the police. He was released after an amnesty was granted to political prisoners in May 2011. On May 6,2012, he was elected to the National Assembly of Armenia, Pashinyan went into hiding after the events of March 1st,2008. Nikol Pashinyan considered this to be shameful for the National Security Service and he spoke at an Armenian National Congress rally, where he called for snap elections and said they were the only possible means of restoring Armenians confidence in their government. The fire completely destroyed the front section, including the drivers seat. After launching an inquiry, police concluded unusually quickly that the fire was caused by a breakdown of the car battery’s wires, Pashinyan has said that the explosion was as an assassination attempt engineered by a wealthy businessman, Gagik Tsarukian. He said that Tsarukian was infuriated by a recent Haykakan Zhamanak story that accused him of illegally cutting trees to build a villa in the town of Tsaghkadzor. On December 9,2013 Pashinyan with other six politicians and activists started a new group called Civil Contract. The members of the board of Civil Contract said they will seek the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan, Pashinyan stated that the organization will take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Official personal website Payqar official website and underground newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak website, armenaker Kamilion has a substantial number of English translations of Pashinyans articles in Payqar
3.
Aram Sargsyan
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Aram Zaveni Sargsyan is an Armenian political figure. He was Prime Minister of Armenia from 3 November 1999 to 2 May 2000 and he is the younger brother of Vazgen Sargsyan. In 2001 he founded the oppositional party Republic and he supported opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan in the 2008 Armenian presidential election. Sargsyan was elected to the Armenian National Assembly in May 2012 with the Armenian National Congress, but he didnt accept the seat
4.
Liberalism
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Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty and equality. Liberalism first became a political movement during the Age of Enlightenment. Liberalism rejected the social and political norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy. The 17th-century philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a philosophical tradition. Locke argued that man has a natural right to life, liberty and property. Liberals opposed traditional conservatism and sought to replace absolutism in government with representative democracy, prominent revolutionaries in the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution used liberal philosophy to justify the armed overthrow of what they saw as tyrannical rule. Liberalism started to spread rapidly especially after the French Revolution, the 19th century saw liberal governments established in nations across Europe, South America, and North America. During the 20th century, liberal ideas spread even further as liberal democracies found themselves on the side in both world wars. In Europe and North America, the establishment of social liberalism became a key component in the expansion of the welfare state, today, liberal parties continue to wield power and influence throughout the world. Words such as liberal, liberty, libertarian, and libertine all trace their history to the Latin liber, which means free. One of the first recorded instances of the word occurs in 1375. The words early connection with the education of a medieval university soon gave way to a proliferation of different denotations and connotations. In 16th century England, liberal could have positive or negative attributes in referring to someones generosity or indiscretion, in Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare wrote of a liberal villaine who hath. confest his vile encounters. With the rise of the Enlightenment, the word acquired decisively more positive undertones, being defined as free from narrow prejudice in 1781, in 1815, the first use of the word liberalism appeared in English. In Spain, the Liberales, the first group to use the label in a political context. From 1820 to 1823, during the Trienio Liberal, King Ferdinand VII was compelled by the liberales to swear to uphold the Constitution, by the middle of the 19th century, liberal was used as a politicised term for parties and movements worldwide. Over time, the meaning of the word began to diverge in different parts of the world. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, In the United States, liberalism is associated with the policies of the New Deal programme of the Democratic administration of Pres
5.
Eurasian Economic Union
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The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic union of states located primarily in northern Eurasia. A treaty aiming for the establishment of the EAEU was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, treaties aiming for Armenias and Kyrgyzstans accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on 9 October and 23 December 2014, respectively. Armenias accession treaty came into force on 2 January 2015, Kyrgyzstans accession treaty came into effect on 6 August 2015. It participated in the EAEU from the day of its establishment as an acceding state, in 1994, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, first suggested the idea of creating a Eurasian Union during a speech at Moscow State University. Numerous treaties were signed to establish the trading bloc gradually. Many politicians, philosophers and political scientists have called for further integration towards a monetary, political, military. However the member states decided to seek a purely economic union, having concerns about keeping their independence, the Eurasian Economic Union has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over 4 trillion U. S. dollars. Provisions for a currency and greater integration are envisioned in future. The union operates through supranational and intergovernmental institutions, the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council is the Supreme Body of the Union, consisting of the Heads of the Member States. The second level of institutions is represented by the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council. The day-to-day work of the EAEU is done through the Eurasian Economic Commission, there is also a judicial body - the Court of the EAEU. After the end of the Cold War and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia, post-Soviet states underwent economic reforms and privatisation. The idea was seen as a way to bolster trade, boost investments in the region. During the 1990s, the Eurasian integration process was slow, possibly due to the crisis experienced after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As a result, numerous treaties have been signed by states to establish the regional trading bloc gradually. In 1995, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and later acceding states Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan signed the first agreements on the establishment of a Customs Union and its purpose was to gradually lead the way toward the creation of open borders without passport controls between member states. The treaty established a market for its member states. The Eurasian Economic Community was modelled on the European Economic Community, the two had a comparable population size of 171 million and 169 million, respectively
6.
Political spectrum
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A political spectrum is a system of classifying different political positions upon one or more geometric axes that symbolize independent political dimensions. Most long-standing spectra include a wing and left wing, which originally referred to seating arrangements in the French parliament after the Revolution. According to the simplest left–right axis, communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on the left, liberalism can mean different things in different contexts, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. Those with an intermediate outlook are classified as centrists or moderates, politics that rejects the conventional left–right spectrum is known as syncretic politics. Political scientists have noted that a single left–right axis is insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs. As seen from the Speakers seat at the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right, originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum was the Ancien Régime. The Right thus implied support for aristocratic or royal interests, and the church, while The Left implied support for republicanism, secularism, and civil liberties. Because the political franchise at the start of the revolution was relatively narrow, the original Left represented mainly the interests of the bourgeoisie and their political interests in the French Revolution lay with opposition to the aristocracy, and so they found themselves allied with the early capitalists. However, this did not mean that their interests lay with the laissez-faire policies of those representing them politically. As capitalist economies developed, the aristocracy became less relevant and were replaced by capitalist representatives. This evolution has often pulled parliamentary politicians away from laissez-faire economic policies, for almost a century, social scientists have considered the problem of how best to describe political variation. In 1950, Leonard W. Submitting the results to factor analysis and this system was derived empirically, rather than devising a political model on purely theoretical grounds and testing it, Fergusons research was exploratory. As a result of method, care must be taken in the interpretation of Fergusons three factors, as factor analysis will output an abstract factor whether an objectively real factor exists or not. Although replication of the Nationalism factor was inconsistent, the finding of Religionism and Humanitarianism had a number of replications by Ferguson, shortly afterward, Hans Eysenck began researching political attitudes in Great Britain. He believed that there was something similar about the National Socialists on the one hand. Submitting this value questionnaire to the process of factor analysis used by Ferguson. Such analysis produces a factor whether or not it corresponds to a real-world phenomenon, Eysencks dimensions of R and T were found by factor analyses of values in Germany and Sweden, France, and Japan. According to Eysenck, members of both ideologies were tough-minded, in this context, Eysenck carried out studies on nazism and communist groups, claiming to find members of both groups to be more dominant and more aggressive than control groups
7.
Centrism
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Centre-left and centre-right politics both involve a general association with centrism combined with leaning somewhat to their respective sides of the spectrum. It has been suggested that individuals vote for centrist parties for purely statistical reasons, Centrists usually support a degree of equal opportunity and economic freedom. They can generally lean conservative on issues and lean liberal on social issues. However, centrism itself is location-dependent and exact policies can vary depending on geographical, Indian National Congress was centrist in its ideology. It is one of the oldest parties in the world, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru the party sought to build a modern secular democratic republic in India. Its support is has different ups and downs from the late 1990s, people change their support base to other political parties but choose it again after period of 5 years. It acts as a party, presently, in Indian Parliament. There have been centrists in both sides of politics, who alongside the various factions within the Liberal and Labor parties. In addition, there are a number of groups that have formed in response to the bipartisan system who uphold centrist ideals. South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon had launched his own centrist political party called the Nick Xenophon Team in 2014, the Palmer United Party has been suggested as being a centrist party as well, however, the party itself does not make such formal claims of being politically centrist. The Australian Sex Party is also a centrist political party and they have just one seat and control the balance of power, with a huge political responsibility within the Victorian Legislative Council since 2014. The New Flemish Alliance is the largest, and since 2009, among French speaking Belgians the Humanist Democratic Centre is a centre-right or centre party as it is considerably less conservative than its Flemish counterpart, Christian Democratic & Flemish. Another party in the centre of the spectrum is the liberal Reformist Movement. The Liberals are currently the largest party in Canadas House of Commons, although, some may argue that the Liberal Party is more of a Centre-Left then a Centrist party. Czech Republic has two main centrist political parties which are currently in the government, liberal ANO and Christian democratic Christian, france has a tradition of parties that call themselves centriste. The most notable centrist party, often also called liberal, was the Union for French Democracy, among its successors belongs the small Centrist Alliance, the most successful of them is the Democratic Movement of François Bayrou, founded in 2007. However, the centrist parties often oppose to the parties such as Socialists. It often support the centre-right Gaullist parties and join several coalitions governed by Jacques Chirac, zentrismus is a term only known to experts, as it is easily confused with Zentralismus, so the usual term in German for the political centre/centrism is politische Mitte
8.
Orange (colour)
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Orange is the colour of carrots, pumpkins and apricots. It is between red and yellow in the spectrum of light, and on the traditional painters colour wheel and it is named after the fruit of the same name. In Asia it is an important symbolic colour of Buddhism and Hinduism, the colour orange is named after the appearance of the ripe orange fruit. The word comes from the Old French orange, from the old term for the fruit, the French word, in turn, comes from the Italian arancia, based on Arabic nāranj, derived from the Sanskrit naranga. The first recorded use of orange as a name in English was in 1512. Prior to this word being introduced to the English-speaking world, saffron already existed in the English language, crog also referred to the saffron colour, so that orange was also referred to as ġeolurēad for reddish orange, or ġeolucrog for yellowish orange. Alternatively, orange things were sometimes described as red such as red deer, red hair, in ancient Egypt artists used an orange mineral pigment called realgar for tomb paintings, as well as other uses. It was also used later by Medieval artists for the colouring of manuscripts, pigments were also made in ancient times from a mineral known as orpiment. Orpiment was an important item of trade in the Roman Empire and was used as a medicine in China although it contains arsenic and is highly toxic and it was also used as a fly poison and to poison arrows. Because of its colour, it was also a favourite with alchemists searching for a way to make gold. Before the late 15th century, the colour orange existed in Europe, portuguese merchants brought the first orange trees to Europe from Asia in the late 15th and early 16th century, along with the Sanskrit naranga, which gradually became orange in English. The House of Orange-Nassau was one of the most influential houses in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. It originated in 1163 the tiny Principality of Orange, a state of 108 square miles north of Avignon in southern France. The family of the Prince of Orange eventually adopted the name, the colour came to be associated with Protestantism, due to participation by the House of Orange on the Protestant side in the French Wars of Religion. One member of the house, William I of Orange, organised the Dutch resistance against Spain, another member, William III of Orange, became King of England in 1689, after the downfall of the Catholic James II. Due to William III, orange became an important political colour in Britain, William was a Protestant, and as such he defended the Protestant minority of Ireland against the majority Roman Catholic population. As a result, the Protestants of Ireland were known as Orangemen, Orange eventually became one of the colours of the Irish flag, symbolising the Protestant heritage. When the Dutch settlers of South Africa rebelled against the British in the late 19th century, in the United States, the flag of the City of New York has an orange stripe, to remember the Dutch colonists who founded the city
9.
National Assembly (Armenia)
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The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, also informally referred to as the Parliament of Armenia is the legislative branch of the government of Armenia. Before 1995, It was referred to as the Supreme Council of Armenia, the National Assembly is a unicameral body. It comprises 131 members, elected for terms,75 members in single-seat constituencies and 56 by proportional representation. The proportional-representation seats in the National Assembly are assigned on a party-list basis amongst those parties that receive at least 5% of the total of the number of the votes, the current speaker of the National Assembly is Galust Sahakyan. According to law adopted in 2016 the National Assembly consists of at least 101 seats, partis need to pass 5% and coalitions 7% threshold respectively to be included in mandate distribution. Election system reserves 50% of votes casted in favor of party to be distributed via party lists. Out of these 4 mandates will be assigned to national minorities in first place, a party list can not include over 70% of representatives of the same sex and its every 4 consequetive entries shall include members of both sexes. Another 50% of votes received by each party will be distributied among their territorial lists submited in 13 electoral disctricts, if neither party wins over 50% of mandates second round of elections will be carried out. After first round two best-placed parties are allowed to the second round, all mandates received as per first round are be preserved. The party which wins second round of elections will be given additional number of mandates to reach 54% all seats, aim of these committees is to draw attention on the exceptional cases that are not covered by the standing committees. Following the consideration and definition in the Constitution the Law on Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly clearly defines all the issues concerning the add-hoc committees. More particularly, according to the article 22 of the mentioned law, the ultimate reason for existence of such committees is to deliver a report on its finding during a session of the National Assembly. Based on these reports, the Deputy may create a resolution in 2 days and if agreed by the Lead Committee. One of the current add-hoc committees of the National Assembly of Republic of Armenia is the Committee on Ethics, if the chairperson of the ethics committee is from a non-opposition faction, the vice chairperson should be from the opposition faction and the vice versa. Factions have the right to change their representative in the ethics committee, the committee also decides if there was a violation of 2nd Paragraph of the Article 6.1 of the mentioned law i. e. The members of the committee are free to enter any state institution or to examine any document relating to the case. Any individual can apply to the committee on ethics in cases prescribed by the law, the applicant should submit a written application with all the relevant documents. By proposal of the chairperson of the committee but no later than ten days the committee starts the examination of the issue raised in the application or rejects its examination
10.
Yerevan City Council
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The Yerevan City Council is the lawmaking body of the city of Yerevan. It has 65 members elected by Party-list proportional representation system, headed by the Yerevan Mayor, the Council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and makes land use decisions as well as legislating on a variety of other issues. The City Council also has responsibility for approving the city budget. Yerevan City Council elections are being conducted four years with proportional lists of parties. The City Council has 65 members, the first person in the list of the party that has received more than 40% of seats is considered elected mayor. If the parties fail to gather so many votes, the mayor is being elected by City Council, the construction of the building was completed in November 2004 during the period of Mayor Yervand Zakharyan, with a cost of AMD3.1 billion. It was originally designed by architect Jim Torosyan, the construction was set at the beginning of the 1980s but stopped in 1991 due to financial difficulties. It remained unfinished until August 2003 when the process was continued and completed within 15 months. The city hall is a building with a total area of 13,500 m2. The main entrance is topped with the traditional Armenian symbol of endless circles representing the eternity and it has a 47-metre-high rectangular clock tower with the word ԵՐԵՎԱՆ carved in Armenian script, decorated with traditional ornaments. The tower is surrounded with walls at its top. The Yerevan History Museum is located in a building just to the west of the city hall
11.
Politics of Armenia
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, Armenia became independent from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic on 28 May 1918 as the First Republic of Armenia. After the First Republic collapsed on 2 December 1920, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union, the TSFSR dissolved in 1936 and Armenia became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union known as the Armenian SSR. The population of Armenia voted overwhelmingly for independence in a September 1991 referendum, Ter-Petrosyan had been elected head of government in 1990, when the National Democratic Union party defeated the Armenian Communist Party. Kocharyan was successful in riding out the unrest, in May 2000, Andranik Margaryan replaced Aram Sargsyan as Prime Minister. Kocharyans re-election as president in 2003 was followed by allegations of ballot-rigging. He went on to propose controversial constitutional amendments on the role of parliament and these were rejected in a referendum the following May at the same time as parliamentary elections which left Kocharyans party in a very powerful position in parliament. There were mounting calls for the Presidents resignation in early 2004 with thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets in support of demands for a referendum of confidence in him. The unicameral parliament is dominated by a coalition, called Unity, dashnaksutyun, which was outlawed by Ter-Petrosyan in 1995–96 but legalized again after Ter-Petrosyan resigned, also usually supports the government. The Government of Armenias stated aim is to build a Western-style parliamentary democracy as the basis of its form of government, for the most part however, Armenia is considered one of the more pro-democratic nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Observers noted, though, that parties and candidates have been able to mount credible campaigns. Elections since 1998 have represented an improvement in terms of fairness and efficiency, although they are still considered to have fallen short of international standards. The new constitution of 1995 greatly expanded the powers of the branch and gives it much more influence over the judiciary. The observance of human rights in Armenia is uneven and is marked by shortcomings, police brutality allegedly still goes largely unreported, while observers note that defendants are often beaten to extract confessions and are denied visits from relatives and lawyers. Freedom of religion is not always protected under existing law, nontraditional churches, especially the Jehovahs Witnesses, have been subjected to harassment, sometimes violently. All churches apart from the Armenian Apostolic Church must register with the government, the governments policy toward conscientious objection is in transition, as part of Armenias accession to the Council of Europe. Most of Armenias ethnic Azeri population was deported in 1988–1989 and remain refugees, Armenias record on discrimination toward the few remaining national minorities is generally good. The government does not restrict internal or international travel, although freedom of the press and speech are guaranteed, the government maintains its monopoly over television and radio broadcasting
12.
Armenian language
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The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages and it is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups, Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to an extent by Greek, Persian. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible and he is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. W. M. However, unlike shared innovations, the retention of archaisms is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann used the method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. Meillets hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse, eric P. Hamp supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian. Nevertheless, as Fortson comments, by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, graeco--Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC
13.
Civil Contract (Armenia)
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Civil Contract is an political party in Armenia, which was established on July 24,2013 as public–political union. The governing board of the contract was formed on December 9,2013, on May 30,2015, it becomes political party. First election of party been Hrazdan majoral election in 2016, where candidate of party, ex-major of Hrazdan Sasun Mikayelyan defeated by RPA candidate, Hrazdan major Aram Danielyan. On July 24 the new updated version of the Civil Contract was publicized and, hence, “Civil Contract announces that until its first Treaty Conference the text of the contract will be worked out and undergo amendments since some points of the document need comments and clarification. The proclamation of those fundamentals will be followed by the creation of a road map for the development of each of the mentioned fields. On December 9,2013, during the conference at Ani Plaza hotel the Governing Board of the Civil Contract was presented. The governing board was formed in pursuance of the 7th clause of the contract, the governing board does not have a chairman or a director. The idea is the following, funds donated to “civil contract” will be stored on Fund’s account, the costs will be conducted under the supervision of the board of trustees. The members of the Board of Trustees are independent from the Governing Board, in other words, the transparency of the donated money to the civil contract is guaranteed not only by the RA existing legislation but also by the fundamental document of the contract. Here are a few clauses of the document related to the funding of the civil contract initiative. On February 22,2014 it was declared about the creation of the “civil contract” board of trustees, on the same day Haykak Arshamyan was elected the chairman of the board of Trustees. Members of the Board of Trustees, Lara Aharonean, “Womens Resource Center” co-founder, director Haykak Arshamyan, PhD in history Levon Bagramyan, economist, political scientist, Washington, “Financing politics is one of the essential entangled knots of the history of the Third Republic. How is the public-political activity financed in Armenia and its a question the proper answer of which is not known. One can guess, put forward hypotheses but the society does not have a reliable and verifiable answer to the question, the most popular answer is that we are funded by thousands of our supporters. This is an answer, which generates new questions, whom, who takes it and under what conditions. How do others learn whether their retainer has donated that much, from the very first stage of the debates over establishing “civil contract” public–political union the issues about funding the activities of the contract have been the subject of heated debate. How is the going to be financed. The answers to these questions were principal for us
14.
Prime Minister of Armenia
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The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of Armenia, but can be removed by a vote of no confidence in parliament. The office of President is generally considered to be powerful than the office of Prime Minister. The office of Prime Minister was first established in 1918 with the foundation of the First Republic of Armenia and it vanished when the First Republic of Armenia was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. When Armenia regained its independence, the office of Prime Minister was reintroduced, Prime Ministers Prime Ministers Historical Overview – Former Prime Ministers – The Government of the Republic of Armenia
15.
Armenia
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Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Republic of Armenia constitutes only one-tenth of historical Armenia, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia, in the 1st century BC the Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great. Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in between the late 3rd century to early years of the 4th century, the state became the first Christian nation. The official date of adoption of Christianity is 301 AD. The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century, under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the fell in 1045. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, during World War I, Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian Genocide. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, in 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the worlds oldest national church, as the countrys primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD, Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia supports the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was proclaimed in 1991, the native Armenian name for the country is Հայք. The name in the Middle Ages was extended to Հայաստան, by addition of the Persian suffix -stan, the further origin of the name is uncertain. It is also postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. The exonym Armenia is attested in the Old Persian Behistun Inscription as Armina, the ancient Greek terms Ἀρμενία and Ἀρμένιοι are first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus. Xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. According to the histories of both Moses of Chorene and Michael Chamchian, Armenia derives from the name of Aram, a descendant of Hayk
16.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area
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The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas are three free trade areas established between the European Union, and Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine respectively. The DCFTAs are part of each countrys EU Association Agreement, the agreements with Moldova and Georgia have been ratified and officially entered into force in July 2016, although parts of them were already provisionally applied. The agreement with Ukraine is provisionally applied but has not been ratified by the European Union, Euratom, aside from these issues, the deal was ready. Despite those outstanding issues, Ukraine was ready to sign the agreement as it stood, although it wanted stronger wording on enlargement prospects and access to the EU market for its truckers, Ukraine had more than many other candidates at the equivalent stage of the process. The finalised agreement was initialed on 19 July 2012, ratification of the DCFTA, like the AA, has been stalled by the EU over concerns over the rule of law in Ukraine. This includes the application of justice, as well as amending electoral laws. As a result, the role of Ukrainian oligarchs in sanctioning the agreement was also questioned, the decision to put off signing the association agreement led to 2014 Ukrainian revolution. During the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga on 22 May 2015, the EU-Ukraine DCFTA provisionally entered into force on January 1,2016. Furthermore, Ukraine is granted access to the EU internal market for the sectors concerned, in 2015, Commissioner Malmström mentioned a plan to start negotiations of a DCFTA with Morocco and Tunisia
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Republican Party of Armenia
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The Republican Party of Armenia is a national conservative political party in Armenia. It was the first political party in independent Armenia to be founded and registered and it is the largest party of the right wing in Armenia, and claims to have 140,000 members. The party controls most government bodies in Armenia and it has been described by political commentators as essentially lacking political ideology. The Republican Partys national conservative ideology is based on tseghakron, an early 20th-century Armenian nationalist ideology and it was formulated by Garegin Nzhdeh and holds that the Armenian national identity and state should carry religious significance for all ethnic Armenians. Former Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan classified this ideology as Armenian racism, the Republican Party of Armenia was established in 1990 by Ashot Navasardyan. The birth of the RPA is also linked to the 1988 National Awakening, fight for independence. The military-political unit Army of Independence, formed at the outset of the struggle, on May 27,1990 these detachments were among the first to resist the Soviet troops in Nubarashen. They were also involved in the nationalization of the Soviet army weaponry. The RPA was among the founders of the first Armenian military cemetery – Yerablur pantheon, since its foundation and up to November 1997 the late Ashot Navasardyan had been the chairman of RPA. After his death and until March 2007 late Andranik Margaryan headed the party, the party has had a crucial contribution to the work of the coordinating council of voluntary armed detachments, thus promoting the establishment of law and order in the country. Following the formation of the Armenian regular army it issued a statement on its demilitarization, the RPA has convened nine ordinary and three extraordinary congresses. In 1999 the office of the party chairperson was abolished, the RPA has constantly focused on inter-party ties and has been actively involved in setting up different political alliances. The party was among the founders of the National Alliance formed in 1992 after the deterioration of the situation in Artsakh, the RPA had an active participation in the work of the Civil Accord constitutional council shaped in 1993. In 1995 with the involvement of the RPA the Republic pre-election association was set up. However, due to the disagreements on the regulation of the Artsakh problem, in July 1998 the RPA, the Yerkrapah Volunteers Union and the parliamentary Yerkrapah deputy group issued a joint statement, which commenced the political consolidation process within the RPA. Given the common ideology and political positions the Yerkrapah Volunteers’ Union sector engaged in politics was included in the RPA, vazgen Sargsyan became the party leader. In 1999 together with the People’s Party of Armenia the Republican Party set up the Unity pre-election alliance, following the parliamentary elections in 1999 the role of the RPA in the Armenian political life increased greatly. Functioning within the parliamentary majority Unity faction, in 1999, for the first time, vazgen Sargsyan was appointed Prime Minister, with several RPA member ministers in his Cabinet
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Prosperous Armenia
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Prosperous Armenia Party, is a political party in Armenia. It was founded by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan on 30 April 2004, armenias second president Robert Kocharyan was instrumental in creation of the party. Kocharyans influence and role in the party is a subject of debate, in 2012 most analysts believed Kocharyan was closely involved in the party. Some believe that Kocharyan is the leader of the party. According to sociologist Karen Sargsyan the party base largely consists of rural population. Kotayk Province is widely considered its stronghold, during the 2012 parliamentary election, Prosperous Armenia came first and won around 47. 5% of the vote in that province, well above the national average of 30%. While in the 28th electoral district, which includes the city of Abovyan and several surrounding villages and it debuted in the 2007 Armenian parliamentary elections, winning 18 seats and 14. 68% of the votes, making it the second largest political party in parliament. In the 2012 Armenian parliamentary elections, it more than doubled its share of the vote to 30. 12%, winning 37 seats and solidifying its position as the main opposition party
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Armenian Revolutionary Federation
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The ARF has traditionally advocated democratic socialism and is a full member of the Socialist International since 2003, which it had originally joined in 1907. It has the largest membership of the parties present in the Armenian diaspora. The party campaigns for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the right to reparations and it also advocates the establishment of United Armenia, partially based on the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920. ARF members formed fedayi groups that defended Armenian civilians through armed resistance, in 1918, the party was instrumental in the creation of the First Republic of Armenia, which fell to the Soviet communists in 1920. After its leadership was exiled by the communists, the ARF established itself within Armenian diaspora communities, after the fall of the USSR, it returned to Armenia, where it now again has a presence as a minor party in Armenias parliament. In the late 19th century, Eastern Europe and Russia became the hub of small groups advocating reform in Armenian-populated areas in the Ottoman Empire, the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party at one point had agreed to join as well, seeing that the ARFs political ideology was socialism. However, the Hunchakians claimed the new party was not Marxist enough, the original aim of the ARF was to gain autonomy for the Armenian-populated areas in the Ottoman Empire. The party began to organize itself in the Ottoman Empire in the early 1890s and held its first major meeting in Tiflis, Russian Empire, in 1892. The party set its goal of a society based on the principles of freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of religion. The ARF gradually acquired significant strength and sympathy among Russian Armenians, mainly because of the ARFs stance towards the Ottoman Empire, the party enjoyed the support of the central Russian administration, as tsarist and ARF foreign policy had the same alignment until 1903. On June 12,1903, the tsarist authorities passed an edict to bring all Armenian Church property under imperial control and this was faced by strong ARF opposition, because the ARF perceived the tsarist edict as a threat to the Armenian national existence. As a result, the ARF leadership decided to defend Armenian churches by dispatching militiamen who acted as guards, in 1905–06, the Armenian-Tatar massacres broke out during which the ARF became involved in armed activities. Some sources claim that the Russian government incited the massacres in order to reinforce its authority during the turmoil of 1905. The first outbreak of violence occurred in Baku, in February 1905, the ARF held the Russian authorities responsible for inaction and instigation of massacres that were part of a larger anti-Armenian policy. Unable to rely on government forces to protect their interests and properties, the Russian Tsars envoy in the Caucasus, Vorontsov-Dashkov, reported that the ARF bore a major portion of responsibilities for perpetrating the massacres. The ARF, however, argued that it helped to organize the defence of the Armenian population against Muslim attacks, the blows suffered at the hands of the Dashnakist fighting squads proved a catalyst for the consolidation of the Muslim community of the Caucasus. During that period, the ARF regarded armed activity, including terror, in January 1912,159 ARF members, being lawyers, bankers, merchants and other intellectuals, were tried before the Russian senate for their participation in the party. Kerensky succeeded in having the evidence reexamined for one of the defendants, the Senate eventually opened an inquiry against the chief magistrate who had brought the charges against the Dashnak members and concluded that he was insane
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Heritage (Armenia)
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Heritage is an Armenian national liberal party. It was founded in 2002 by Raffi Hovannisian, independent Armenias first Foreign Minister, support for Liberal democracy Economy Economic liberalism Domestic policy goals are legal reforms, the development of civil society and the economic policy of Armenia. Heritage sates that sustaining the competitiveness of the helps the Armenian economy grow. Furthermore, the party believes that poverty and building good social services are very important for the future of Armenia. By taking these measures, Heritage has the objective to reduce emigration from Armenia, Foreign Affairs Their foreign policy can be characterised as balanced, but also as pro-Western. The Heritage party underlines the relationship with Russia, China and India. European integration is not a goal on its own, but rather a tool for improved well-being, with Turkey, Heritage advocates an open and honest dialogue. It obtained 7 seats and a vote of 5. 81%. In 2012 parliamentary election, Heritage won 5 seats by party-list with 86,998 votes and it is now the smallest faction in the Armenian parliament with Zaruhi Postanjyan as its leader
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Armenian Democratic Liberal Party
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It was established as the Armenakan Party in the Ottoman Empire by Mekertich Portukalian as part of national movement in Van in 1885. The Armenakan Party was one of the first parties that was established in the Ottoman Empire by Armenian national movement, at the Armenian parliamentary elections on 25 May 2003, the party won 2. 9% of popular votes and no seats. Ever since, the party has lost all presence in the landscape of Armenia. A few pockets of their presence exists in the Diaspora with ever-decreasing numbers, the Armenakan Party was established in Van by Mekertich Portukalian, Setrak Gabudian, and Hampig Der Hampartsoumian in 1885 as an underground organization against the ruling system. It was classified as a party based on the fact that it developed a platform, a body. Portukalian is also cited as the father of the Armenian Patriotic Society of Europe, after Mekertich Portukalian, the Armenians of Van continued to develop the political principles behind Armenian nationalism, in secrecy. The partys main misconception was that enemies of the Ottoman Empire would intervene, with the turn of the century, Armenakans had cells outside Van, in other towns in the province, as well as in Trabzon and Istanbul. The military structure was developed in Russian Transcaucasia, in Persia, military activities in the Ottoman Empire included Bashkaleh Resistance in May 1889, Defense of Van in June,1896 and the Siege of Van from April 19 to May 6,1915. The majority of the membership of the Armenakan Party was absorbed into the new party, the current numbers of the party are minimal compared to other traditional parties in the Diaspora and Armenia. Moreover, they hold no seats in the parliament of Armenia while having no solid constituency, subsequently, the situation has risen a debate over the existence of the party. Party member Unger Garabed Manushian has called for reform or disbandment of the party, We and we have no presence in Armenia and insignificant role in the Diaspora. We must start a process of reforming the party, its ideology, if we do not choose this course, then we must admit to ourselves that our party has come to an end. Armenian Democratic Liberal Party has long-established media in the Armenian diaspora as well as in the Republic of Armenia, the party was active during and after the Armenian Genocide, when the Armenians began mobilizing politically for rights under the oppressing Ottoman regime. With his band of brothers, Zinvadz Lerner, Diran Pasha held out the Ottoman forces from the ancient castle at Haghardzin village, the siege concluded with the death of Diran and all his men. Diran Pashas death inspired more people to join the ranks of the Ramgavars, Agha Panos planned an attack an on Ottoman military convoy on their way to deport the Armenians of Mooghni. Later on, after the attack, Agha Panos later on was disillusioned by the Ramgavars failures. During that time, the Hnchankians had a policy against the ranks of the Ramgavars with the aim of recruiting young Ramgavars towards the ranks of the Hnchanks. The influx of Diasporan Armenians also encouraged the propagation of the party, of immense importance was also the establishment of the highly respected and popular Azg daily, an official organ of the Armenian Liberal Democrats
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Hayazn
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Hayazn is an Armenian nationalist political party, that was founded as a civil organization in 2009. It declared itself a party in 2013 and was registered as such in 2014. Hayazn had also called on the Armenian government to opt out of the European Neighbourhood Policy in the past, Hayazn also opposes any official recognition by Armenia of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Hayazn also advocates in case of a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, to liberate historical Armenian provinces of Gandzak and Nakhitchevan, presently within the areas of Azerbaijan. It blamed mainstream opposition parties for not being pro-people, and the government for electoral fraud resulted in the formation of, what they call. In June 2011, the union started to collect signatures for the citizenship of Jirair Sefilian, more than 4,000 signatures were gathered. On September 1,2012, Hayazn organized a protest during which several of its members burnt the Hungarian flag as an act of protest against Ramil Safarovs release to Azerbaijan and they also demanded the resignation of the Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan. On May 21,2012 Hayazn organized a march in opposition to the first of its kind Diversity march organized by the LGBT community of Armenia. The march was stopped prematurely, because LGBT activists were afraid of their safety, on October 10,2012, Hayazn organized a protest in front of Germanys embassy in Yerevan by the union against the presentation of the film The Parade about gay activism in Serbia. The union stated that they would not tolerate propaganda of immorality, during anti-Putin protests on December 2,2013, several members of Hayazn attacked LGBT rights activist and demanded that they do not fly the Rainbow flag during the protests. Throughout spring 2013, Hayazn was an opponent of leasing land in Syunik Province for Iranian pastures. Hayazn took a role in the anti-government protests throughout 2013
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Justice
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Justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered. The concept of justice differs in every culture, an early theory of justice was set out by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice issues from God, in the 17th century, theorists like John Locke argued for the theory of natural law. Thinkers in the social contract tradition argued that justice is derived from the agreement of everyone concerned. In the 19th century, utilitarian thinkers including John Stuart Mill argued that justice is what has the best consequences, Theories of distributive justice concern what is distributed, between whom they are to be distributed, and what is the proper distribution. Egalitarians argued that justice can only exist within the coordinates of equality, John Rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness. Property rights theorists take a view of distributive justice and argue that property rights-based justice maximizes the overall wealth of an economic system. Theories of retributive justice are concerned with punishment for wrongdoing, restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on restoring what is good, and necessarily focuses on the needs of victims and offenders. Understandings of justice differ in culture, as cultures are usually dependent upon a shared history. Each cultures ethics create values which influence the notion of justice, although there can be found some justice principles that are one and the same in all or most of the cultures, these are insufficient to create a unitary justice apprehension. In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just City State, Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the warring parts of the person or city. Hence, Platos definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is ones own, a just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received. This applies both at the level and at the universal level. A persons soul has three parts – reason, spirit and desire, similarly, a city has three parts – Socrates uses the parable of the chariot to illustrate his point, a chariot works as a whole because the two horses power is directed by the charioteer. Lovers of wisdom – philosophers, in one sense of the term – should rule because only they understand what is good, if one is ill, one goes to a medic rather than a farmer, because the medic is expert in the subject of health. Similarly, one should trust ones city to an expert in the subject of the good, not to a politician who tries to gain power by giving people what they want. For Socrates, the way the ship will reach its destination – the good – is if the navigator takes charge. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice, and indeed the whole of morality, is the command of God
