Today we live in a society, which can not imagine life without expressing views on social media. Probably it does have certain advantages. Nevertheless, many participants of active discussions have already forgotten or do not even know about the developments, which unfolded in Armenia 5, 10 or 15 years ago.
To fill the gap Mediamax launches new 5/10/15 project, which will introduce developments in Armenia 5,10 and 15 years ago.
• 15 YEARS AGO: AUGUST 21-27, 2002
October 27, death penalty, Dallakyan
On August 21, Rimma Demirchyan initiated the meeting of co-rapporteurs of PACE Monitoring Committee with relatives of the victims in the terror attack on October 27 of 1999 . The relatives demanded to apply death penalty for terrorists, while co-rapporteurs reminded about Armenia’s responsibility of soonest ratification of Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty.
Rimma DemirchyanPhoto: Mediamax
The meeting was organized by Chairman of Armenian National Assembly Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Victor Dallakyan. He was one of the most active opponents of Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan after the attack on October 27. Nevertheless, Dallakyan was appointed as Deputy Head of the Armenian President’s Staff in 2012. Having worked for 5 years in that position, he returned to opposition again.
International reaction to developments in Bethlehem
15 years ago the Israeli Army seized a plot of land in Bethlehem, owned by Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The topic was actively discussed both in Armenia and around the world.
The Head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Alexy II, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and General Secretary of U.S. National Council of the Churches of Christ Dr. Robert Edgar expressed their concern and readiness to contribute to the settlement of the issue.
Armenian Cross in BethlehemPhoto: REUTERS
15 years have passed since then, while Armenia still does not have an embassy in Israel, which definitely weakens positions of Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Serzh Sargsyan is Lithuania and NATO exercises
Minister of Defense of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan visited Vilnius 15 years ago and welcomed Lithuania’s offer on sharing its military experience with South Caucasian states.
During the meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart Linas Linkevicius, Serzh Sargsyan invited Lithuanian servicemen to take part in the military exercises within the frames of НАТО Cooperative Best Effort in 2003, Armenia.
Linas LinkeviciusPhoto: REUTERS
Today Serzh Sargsyan is President of Armenia and Linas Linkevicius is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania. NATO exercises are no longer held in Armenia.
Perina and call for mutual compromise
On August 24, Express newspaper of Baku published the interview with U.S. Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group Rudolf Perina, who called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to be more active and demonstrate readiness for mutual compromise.
Ambassador Perina in 2015 Photo: U.S. Army
He remarked that the sides “were close to signing the peace treaty on several occasions, but they missed the chance each time”. Rudolf Perina urged the side to stop blaming OSCE Minsk Group, “which had done a lot to solve the issue, giving the conflicting sides plenty of opportunities for the last 10 years to discuss in detail all possible ways of settling the issue”.
Sale of Armenian electric networks
On August 26, the process of privatization of electric networks of Armenia was finally concluded. After almost three years Midland Resources Holding became the winner of the tender. Total contract price made USD 37mn.
The real owner of Midland Resources Holding was considered to be MP Harutyun Pambukyan, which, nevertheless, claimed to only mediate between the company and Armenian government.
The privatization of electric networks of Armenia was considered to be an important geopolitical element 15 years ago (American AES Silk Road and Russian RAO UES were among potential buyers), while after more than 10 years, it has become the cause of escalation in domestic politics: #ElectricYerevan movement unfolded in summer of 2013.
• 10 YEARS AGO: AUGUST 21-27, 2007
“Passive war”
Defense Minister of Artsakh Movses Hakobyan stated on August 21 that “positional passive war is unfolding on Contact Line almost every day”.
As we see, the vocabulary of our servicemen has not much changed in 10 years.
New developments in telecommunications
On August 21, President of Sistema JSFC Alexander Goncharuk officially confirmed the information about MTS’s negotiations on acquiring VivaCell-MTS.
Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia made a decision on August 24, according to which ArmenTel will lose all its monopoly rights as of October 1 of 2007.
• 5 YEARS AGO: AUGUST 21-27, 2012
It is hard to believe that the war was already raging in Syria five years ago. Press Secretary of the Berio Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church (Aleppo) stated that armed clashes neared Armenian communities of Aleppo.
Ara Tadevosyan
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