According to amendments to laws today , Armenians now must pass a medical exam at a polyclinic every 10 years in order to continue driving.

The government is shortly to publish a list of “ailments” that it considers to impair driving. The list for women is much longer than mens.

Particularly odd for me is the need for women to pass a gyneocological examination before they can be considered fit to drive.

Bizarre

So, 2 Armenian girls as Miss Iraq?

The story begins when Tamara Goregyan gets voted as Miss Iraq - I guess its nice that these contests are taking place in Iraq now - not least for entertainment purposes. Ms Goregyan then recieved a death threat from Islamic Fundamentalist Groups and has taken refuge in Jordan.. a further 2 girls declined the title , and then the fourth girl, an Armenian - Silva Sahakyan has kept the title but also recieved threats.

This story has been featured on the BBC, ABC, and many other news networks.

I guess having an Armenian Miss Iraq is kind of cool , even if it was by 4th default! - it really makes you wonder what life is like for Armenians living in Iraq at the moment- I wonder if anyone has anymore information on this subject.

I did a search and found this article

I love these articles that appear every so often. Once every month or so the Armenian State TV’s news service runs a nice little clip of a a Minister going to Mr Kocharyan’s office and showing him what he has done.

This time it was the taxation service. According to the article a new battle is to drawn against those organisations who don’t pay enough taxes.

To judge how effective this is we can ask ourselves a simple question: what large companies come to mind when you think of Armenia? Now see if you can find them in at least the top 20 taxpayers - here’s the list

Armenian tv has just launched its own news portal. You can visit here.

Armenialiberty reports:

“An ambitious political party, set up by one of Armenia’s wealthiest and most powerful men recently, unveiled its political manifesto on Friday in advance of the first conference of its leaders and activists. ”

Mr Tsarukyan is well known as a very wealthy oligarch with ties to Kocharyan. Whats strange is his party is reportedly more of an opposition one pushing for the “rule of law”, and anti monopoly measures. I am not sure what to make of this - I don’t know Mr Tsarukyan personally but according to the article many people see him as quite a generous person. I know that he gives quite a bit to charity.

Whats interesting is the manifesto was published in newspapers on Friday - they ran at double their normal print run - the extra copies were paid for by Mr Tsarukyan.

It’s quite sad that papers have to rely on things like this to print extra copies, and Mr Tsarukyans obvious influence will probably make his party a sure fire candidate for parliamentary elections and upcoming presidential elections.

What are we to make of this? A progression to more liberal, European values? Or a backward step to oligarchic fiefdom? Comments please!

Full story HERE

So it’s 2 years since those protests on Baghramyan Avenue, when peaceful protestors were shot with water cannons, and violently beaten. Many have forgotten this, and it seems Mr Kocharyan is enjoying a perceivably high amount of power.

A1 plus has the story here

I also had a look at our friends over at Cilicia.com and pulled up the logs from April , take a look at how the repats there felt at the time here. ( scroll down to 12th April)

I picked up the paper on Saturday, this made front page news in the UK - there was a huge picture of the guy also, but I couldn’t find it. It’s a Greek Armenian who is standing for the an extreme Racist political party - BNP, as head of a constituency in Bradford, a heavily Asian populated region in Britain.

The British National party was riven last night over its decision to select the grandson of an asylum seeker to fight a seat in next month’s local elections.
Sharif Abdel Gawad, whom the BNP describes as a “totally assimilated Greek-Armenian”, was chosen to stand in a Bradford ward as part of the party’s biggest ever electoral push.

The BNP is rapidly growing in Britain but still remains tiny in comparison to other parties. They claim not to be racist but the fact that they wouldn’t accept this guy as a party leader calling him “ethnic” simply proves their attitude.

What is worrying is that the article states that Sharif Abdul Gawad ( named by his mother because of her love for actor Omar Sharif) is actually a Christian Armenian, who’s grandfather came to the UK as a refugee. I cannot find the reason why he would come as a refugee, but it would make sense that he came around the time of the Genocide. To see someone whose ancestors have suffered at the hands of Racism, now stand for this extremely Racist political party is a shame.

Guardian’s Full Story Here

Charles Aznavour is in Armenia again - this time at the invitation of Air France to open their regular Paris - Yerevan flight.

“When they ask me if I’m Armenian or French, I bring the example of coffee with milk: when the two substances mix together, the result is ideal,” says world famous singer Charles Aznavour

I really like Aznavour - of course from what I see. He seems to be quite close to Mr Robert Kocharyan - they were pictured together again this time. It’s great that so many large airlines are starting up services direct to Yerevan. I also hope that Armavia improves it services ( as it seems to be doing ) and if the rumours of a London - Yerevan flight are true, then I will certainly try it out.

At the moment Czech Airlines are still the cheapest deal for Armenia - via Prague.

Full Report from A1+

I saw this report fromon Groong Lonely Planet - It’s a pretty good picture of Armenia today.

For an unfair first impression of a country, try arriving at an
unrenovated Soviet airport in the middle of the night. Armenia’s
Zvartnots airport looked like a space station from the outside and
a disused factory on the inside. Mercifully, this ancient country
revealed its authentic — and attractive — nature very quickly.

Full Report from Groong

So it looks like Armenia managed to prevent the anticipated huge hike in gas prices from Russia for the time being - what is more worrying is that the 5th Block of the Hrazadan Thermo Energy plant is now to be managed by Russian Gazprom for the next 25 years . (Initially Iran was planning to invest millions into this)

It’s also rumoured that Gazprom have bought the first section of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline. This information WAS on their website but was quickly removed. Strange?

So the price for 1000 Cubic M of gas is now $110 compared to the previous $56. Kocharyan is saying this means no more than a 10-15% rise in gas prices for the average consumer. How? It looks like the ArmRusGazProm will become even more Russian , with their stake becoming higher - and the money they put into the budget will soften the cost to the consumer.

Armenia also has guaranteed gas supplies for 25 years - and no price hike for 3. I guess the sensible thing has been done -I guess after all the work done to get people to subscribe to using gas -It would be silly to let a price rise ruin the use of natural gas in Armenia.