Late January – early February this year “Respublica Armenia” daily founded in 1990 by the RA National Assembly, will renew publication after a long interval. The newspaper will now be issued on weekly basis. What is most important, the legal status of the publication has changed. Presently, it is a close joint stock company “Hayastani Hanrapetutiun”-“Respublica Armenia”.
However, as Vardan Aloyan, the Executive Director of the company, told Yerevan Press Club, the Armenian-language daily “Hayastani Hanrapetutiun” (initially founded in the same 1990 as single edition with the Russian-language “Respublica Armenia”) has and will have nothing in common with “RA”. Moreover, as Mr. Aloyan emphasized, the present “Respublica Armenia” is not the legal successor of former “RA”.
Thus, on September 6, 2000 “RA” daily was recognized a bankrupt by the Court of Original Jurisdiction of Center and Nork-Marash Communities in Yerevan. Currently, executing the writ of the Court, the temporary operator is performing the inventory taking and the sale of the edition’s property to pay the creditors.
The new “Respublica Armenia” will be issued according to the Governmental Decree #625 dated October 7, 2000, its legal status corresponding to the requirements of the RA Civil Code. Sergey Karapetian, the Chief Counselor of the RA Ministry of Justice, pointed out, that the State – in this case, represented by the Government, – has the right to create a CJSC, which, in its turn, can found a media enterprise. It is remarkable that now the founders of “RA” are the heads of the Public Relations and Information Departments of RA President Office, RA National Assembly, RA Government as well as the Department of Information and Publications at the RA Government. This status of the officials is specified by their positions, their share in the newspaper being equal (25% each).
The present “Respublica Armenia”, according to Vardan Aloyan, will represent a 16-page weekly, issued in 2-2.5 thousand copies and disseminated not only within Armenia, but also in the Armenian Diaspora in Russia and Georgia.
As to “Hayastani Hanrapetutiun” that has interrupted its publication out of the necessity to alter its Charter and to comply its legal status with the new RA Civil Code (see the previous issue of YPC Newsletter, January 8-12, 2001), this edition is currently undergoing the registration procedure as stipulated by the law. It looks rather probable that “HH” will also have new founders that represent the state structures. Thus, both pro-governmental editions – “Hayastani Hanrapetutiun” and “Respublica Armenia” – will remain under State control.
