The reverberations from US President Barack Obama’s recent declaration on the end of US combat operations in Iraq are being felt in Armenia. Hopes are rising among hundreds of Iraqi-Armenian refugees that they might soon be able to return to Iraq and regain a sense of economic security that has remained elusive in Armenia.
The academic year is getting underway in Armenia amid efforts by administrators and non-governmental activists to overhaul the way the state’s 24 special-needs schools operate. The reform initiative comes in the aftermath of a sexual abuse scandal at one of the schools in Yerevan.
After the deaths of seven soldiers this summer in non-combat-related shootings, public pressure for reform is coming to bear on one of Armenia’s most closed institutions -- its armed forces.
Amid a downturn in Turkish-Israeli relations, political support in Israel for a parliamentary vote on the recognition of Ottoman Turkey’s 1915 slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide appears to be growing.
A heated political debate in Armenia over a joint statement by US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicholas Sarkozy about the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process has overshadowed preparations for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s July 4-5 visit to Yerevan.
Amidst the freeze on normalizing ties with Turkey, a group of Armenian architects and cultural heritage professionals is pushing ahead with a plan to rebuild a medieval bridge that links Armenia to Turkey.
It’s not a widely known fact, but metalheads rule in Armenia. Top government officials displayed their true colors during a May 25 concert in Yerevan by the legendary British hard rock band Deep Purple.
A school teacher in Armenia who confessed to the repeated sexual abuse of mentally challenged students received to a two-year prison term on May 24. Lawyers for the victims complained that the punishment was too lenient, given the magnitude of the crime.
The recent death of a 24-year-old man in police custody in Armenia is prompting human rights activists to renew calls for an end to police abuse of prisoners. The push by rights activists is causing law-enforcement officials in Yerevan to back-peddle.
