Armenian news - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news:

·       Armenia defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 4-2 during the Euro 2020 qualifying clash.

Armenia national squad leader Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored double during the clash.

Currently, Armenia national squad are ranked third with nine points.

After the clash, Mkhitaryan tweeted a new photo from the dressing room and captioned it: “The Armenian warriors.”

Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s head coach Robert Prosinečki resigned after losing to Armenia, the press service of the Football Federation of Bosnia reported.

At a press conference in Yerevan, Prosinečki said that Bosnia had lost the chance of leaving the group.

·      The seventh National Assembly (NA) of Armenia on Monday started its third sitting.

Accordingly, there are 69 items on the draft agenda of this sitting, and 57 items on the draft agenda of Monday’s regular sessions.

During the sitting, the Armenian parliament opposed bill criminalizing homosexuality propaganda.

The draft law provides that propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation among people under the age of sixteen by distributing materials, images, publications, comments, suggestions to participate, encouraging participation or engaging in this kind of relationship, an attempt to develop interest in this, and also the distribution of relevant materials via the Internet and other mass media will be punishable.

Armenian parliament also refused to pay compensation to servicemen wounded out of combat duty. The funds were planned to be allocated from a special fund of the Armenian Defense Ministry, however, these funds, according to the current legislation, are again allocated only to those servicemen who were injured during the period of military operations or on alert. 

Also, the budget of the new Program for free or preferential treatment of infertility, within which several hundred couples will have access to assisted reproductive technologies, will make AMD 210 million this year. The Health Ministry hopes that about 130-140 children will be born under the program. The program is carried out in 5 medical centers of Yerevan.

·      During the boarding of passengers of the Siberia Airlines flight from Yerevan to Moscow on Monday morning, a passenger announced there was a bomb in his hand luggage, but did not make any demands.

The aviation security service at Zvartnots International Airport of capital city Yerevan and the police were immediately informed about this situation, the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

This passenger was handed over to the Zvartnots Airport police. The passengers on board were taken out of the aircraft, and they as well as their hand luggage, baggage, cargo, and the plane were inspected.

 

·       Jermuk residents planned to hold a rally on Monday and express their position on the issue of exploiting the Amulsar field, a resident of Jermuk Shirak Buniatyan told NEWS.am.

“The Amulsar development page was closed more than a year ago for us. I don’t think that the day will come when we will agree to return to this,” the ecologist said. 

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, in his turn, urged the citizens to deblock all the roads lead to Amulsar.

“We [the Armenian government] can’t ignore the environmental risks that we have; that’s ruled out,” he said. “My position is that if the [Amulsar gold] mine is safe to operate—by environmental and other criteria, it can be operated. [But] if it’s not safe, it can’t be operated. Now, the body that’s in charge for all that says that ‘I guarantee.’ And we are saying that if that’s not guaranteed, the mine will be closed in 90 days.

According to PM, at the moment, we have no legal grounds for banning the operation of the Amulsar mine. 

·      Supporters of the second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, held a rally action near Kentron and Nork-Marash of the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan.

The protesters demanded that the Constitutional Court’s decision be immediately implemented and Robert Kocharyan be released. 

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia has reacted to the Constitutional Court’s (CC) recent ruling—and based on the petition by second President Robert Kocharyan.

The CC, in its turn, had deemed unconstitutional Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code, and which refers to cases that rule out criminal prosecution in the country.

As per the Prosecutor General’s Office, the CC has found Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code to be problematic insofar as it does not envision grounds for terminating criminal prosecution when it becomes clear that a person enjoys functional immunity and it has not been overcome.

Meanwhile, supporters of the second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, held a rally near the Shengavit court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan and demanded that judge Anna Danibekyan immediately hold a meeting and release the ex-president.