This year’s September 1 was a festive occasion not only for schoolchildren and university students, but also for Armenian soccer players, who from now on have an opportunity to get training at a modern soccer academy built with assistance from international soccer’s governing bodies.

The facility built in Yerevan’s northeastern Avan district is the largest in the South Caucasus and its goal is to promote the development of soccer in Armenia.

About three dozen lecturers of a prestigious French-Armenian school in Yerevan will see in the new academic year in the status of unemployed after being controversially dismissed last month.

The administration of the French University in Armenia says the reason for dismissing 29 lecturers was both the end of the term of their employment contracts and their failure to meet the quality requirements necessary to work for the university and failing to adhere to the internal disciplinary norms of the institution.

Parents looking for stationery, clothes, bags and other items for their children become main customers at street markets and subway stores as the start of a new school year approaches in Armenia.

The traditional “first bell” will sound September 1, to ring in another year of life getting more expensive here.

Reported violence in Turkey involving holidaymakers from Armenia and at least one case of an Armenian citizen gone missing in the neighboring country have raised concerns in Yerevan about possible ethnic motives behind these developments. While it appears that the reports were sensationalized and information not verified, the result, nonetheless, has been that some Armenian tourists are now nervous about going for a Turkish holiday.

Police used force on Wednesday to break up a protest in Yerevan near a commercial bank that intends to loan a controversial mining project in northern Armenia. Activists were at VTB bank to protest its financing of Armenian Copper Programme’s (ACP) development of a mine in Teghut.

The activists demanded that VTB should stop the funding of the “anti-ecological and illegal Teghut project”, publicize the Bank’s environmental criteria [for loan programs] and the names of those who have developed these criteria. The protesters further called for an end to what they call a contemptuous attitude towards society, for honoring the principles of transparency and accountability and also demanded that clear answers be given to letters of environmental and human rights organizations.

A series of ‘Days of Performing Arts’ events being held in Yerevan, Armenian provinces and Karabakh these days (July 22-29) as part of the fourth cultural festival ‘One Nation, One Culture’ have elicited a mix reaction from Diaspora and local people attending the events, with some expressing their satisfaction and others complaining about the level of organization.

A lack of due advertisement of events that participants had hoped would attract larger audiences appears to be a major sources of discontent for some festival delegates.

Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, ARF) leader Vahan Hovhannisyan, believes that the decision made by the United Nations International Court of Justice in The Hague on Kosovo is favorable both for the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and world justice in general.

The Hague Court stated that one-sided declaration of independence of Kosovo from Serbia does not violate the international right. Only 69 states have recognized Kosovo’s independence as of now.

Ahead of the new academic year, curriculum of the Armenian language at Armenian secondary schools in Javakhk, Georgia, was reduced, which, according to National Assembly deputy Shirak Torosyan, is another attempt by Georgian authorities to trigger another wave of emigration of Armenians from Javakhk, and to distort the national identity of Armenians living there.

Torosyan, Chairman of the Javakhk Compatriotic Union, who was banned to enter Georgia by Georgian authorities with the reasoning that he was threatening the national security of Georgia, compares the recent tendencies of reducing the Armenian language curriculum at Armenian schools in Georgia.

As compared to last year, Armenians, living mainly off their salaries, have seen an increase in their incomes by a little more than the rate of the rising cost of living, according to the data by the National Statistical Service of Armenia (NSS) published this week. (The published statistics presents the main macro-economic indicators characterizing the country’s socio-economic situation in the first six months this year).

Even so, ordinary citizens have hardly felt this positive shift in statistics, considering the skyrocketing prices on certain types of essentials, especially unusually high prices for agricultural products during this time of the year.

Discords continued within the opposition Armenian National Movement (HHSh) as Karapet Rubinyan, a prominent HHSh member, spread an open letter on Facebook social network on Monday, announcing that he could not tolerate the recent rigged election of the HHSh board chairman.

“According to my observations and the information that I possess, the recent elections of HHSh board chairman and members at the July 17 party congress were rigged.