Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 20.08.2019:
· Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Monday consulted about the situation regarding the Amulsar gold mine, reported the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Staff of the Prime Minister.
Pashinyan noted that the criminal case was instituted on July 20.
Chair of the Investigative Committee Hayk Grigoryan, in his turn, stated: “Mr. Prime Minister, after the criminal case was instituted, the leading field-related specialists were engaged as experts, after which the expert examination was assigned to a state non-commercial organization. When discussions became heated, we assigned international experts to conduct the expert examination.”
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, in turn, stated the following: “When the issue on expert examination was becoming a current topic, the Ministry of Environment asked various international organizations which of them could conduct an expert examination, and it particularly asked the National Resource Government Institute (NRGI).”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked for clarification about the NRGI, to which Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said he assumes that the NRGI is a non-governmental, civil society organization that is at the highest level within the board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
The Prime Minister asked about the cases of undergoing an Environmental Impact Assessment. Sona Tevanyan, the assistant to Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan, stated all the cases, and the PM discussed all the cases and their connection to the criminal case regarding the operation of the Amulsar gold mine in detail.
· Representatives of the Baku delegation of the ICRC visited the Artsakh soldier Arayik Ghazaryan, who had ended up in Azerbaijan, the head of communication programs of the ICRC’s delegation in Armenia Zara Amatuni told Armenian News - NEWS.am.
According to her, the ICRC representatives visited Monday the Armenian national who recently crossed the line of contact.
The ICRC visits detainees to monitor their treatment and conditions of detention and ensure that the detainees can maintain contact with their families.
· A Siberian ulcer case has been recorded in Armenia, Health Ministry reported.
According to the source, a few days ago the infected participated in the process of cutting and processing cow meat in the village.
Appropriate treatment was provided to all patients.
· Pobeda Airlines has dismissed reports on one of its planes’ making a hard landing in Gyumri, Armenia, a representative of this airline told reporters, RIA Novosti reported.
The Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia on Monday announced that a Pobeda airliner had hit the runway hard from its tail while landing at Shirak airport in Gyumri, causing damage to its tail. There were 173 passengers on board, but no one was injured.
According to the Pobeda Airlines representative, damage to the tail of this aircraft was detected during the inspection in Gyumri, this had occurred when making a second round, but the reports of a hard landing are inaccurate.
· Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a working meeting on Tuesday with Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Harutyunyan. The work of the new ministry and the work done have been discussed.
According to the education minister, currently, 38 percent of children aged from 3 to 6 attend preschools.
“We should get an indicator of 70 percent in five years,” he said.
He added that 18 preschool institutions have already been opened in eight different regions, in which major repairs have been carried out, the institutions are equipped with completely new furniture and will be ready by September 1.
PM, in his turn, noted that the availability of pre-schools should be increased and new ones should be opened.
According to the education minister, 21 village schools will be built in Armenia next year in different areas.