Month: February 2019

Heads of CSTO states are wise people, will make a right decision: Chief of Joint Staff on issue of Secretary General

14:46, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The heads of CSTO member states are wise people and they will make a right decision over the issue of the Secretary General,  Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov, Chief of Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), said during today’s Moscow-Yerevan-Minsk-Bishkek-Astana video conference, reports Armenpress.

“The heads of the CSTO member states are wise and experienced people, they will make a right decision. The CSTO Joints Staff is an operating structure that is ready to implement any decision made by the heads of state”, he said, commenting on the current situation in the CSTO.

On November 2 Armenia’s Yuri Khachaturov was dismissed from the position of the CSTO Secretary General after Armenia applied to the CSTO member states to launch the process of recalling him as criminal case was filed against Khachaturov over the 2008 March 1 unrest in Yerevan. 

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Development of allied relations with Russia among key priorities of Armenian government

14:55, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will actively work on ensuring its active and initiating participation in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) by contributing to further raising the effectiveness of these structures, the government’s draft Action Plan, that was released today, says, reports Armenpress.

According to the draft, the actions on developing the strategic-allied relations with Russia are among the top priorities of Armenia.

“The Armenia-Russia relations are based on friendship, equality and the readiness to solve the issues with joint efforts. The government views Armenia’s strategic partnership with Russia as a key component on ensuring Armenia’s security system”, the draft says.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Unsurprisingly, Turkey lambastes Macron for declaring April 24 Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day

15:07, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Turkey was quick to respond to French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent announcement on France declaring April 24th to be a National Day of Armenian Genocide Commemoration.

Being committed to the infamous denial policy, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin labeled Macron’s statement about the Armenian Genocide as “a political lie” and “strongly condemned” it, Anadolu reported. 

He even accused Macron in “trying to rescue himself by using historical events as political fodder”.

President Emmanuel Macron has said France will make April 24 “a national day of commemoration of the Armenian Genocide”.

Speaking to the Armenian community at a dinner organized by the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organisations of France (CCAF), Macron said: “France is, first and foremost, the country that knows how to look history in the face, which was among the first to denounce the killing of the Armenian people, which in 1915 named genocide for what it was, which in 2001 after a long struggle recognised it in law”, according to France24.

France “will in the next weeks make April 24 a national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide,” he added.

Macron said he has informed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the decision to declare April 24th a National Day of Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in advance.

“We have disagreements over the fight against the Islamic State, human rights and civil liberties in Turkey and on the genocide,” Macron said, according to Euronews.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Judge orders to resume 2016 Yerevan hostage crisis hearing in camera

15:11, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. During the ongoing court hearing of the 2016 Yerevan police station attack, judge Mesrop Makyan ordered to continue the hearing in camera.

Prior to this, the judge ordered to remove one of the defendants from the courtroom, which sparked anger among those in the audience.

The judge said that the citizens in the courtroom are obstructing the hearing and ordered them to clear the room.

Earlier, Police Chief Valeriy Osipyan testified in court in the case. He was among those taken hostage during the 2016 attack when he was serving as deputy chief of the Yerevan Police Department.

Two of the 10 assailants are currently under arrest. The remaining seven were released on bail.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia to continue consistently developing friendly partnership with US

15:29, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will continue taking actions to consistently develop the friendly partnership with the United States, the Armenian government’s draft Action Plan, released today, says, reports Armenpress.

According to the draft, the government is inclined to deepen the partnership with the US aimed at assisting Armenia’s development and reforms agenda and expanding the dialogue for regional stability.

The government will deepen the friendly relations and will expand the partnership with the European Union, its member states and other European countries. The draft says the implementation of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is considered as a significant factor contributing to the government’s reforms agenda aimed at the development of Armenia.

The government will continue taking steps to ensure the EU visa liberalization for the Armenian citizens.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Al Jazeera publishes article about life story of Syrian-Armenian refugee jeweler living in Yerevan

15:33, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Al Jazeera media outlet has released a report about the life story of Vahe Hovhannesian, a 31-year-old jeweler, a Syrian-Armenian refugee, Armenpress reports citing Al Jazeera.

The author of the article says Vahe is one of tens of thousands of Christian Armenians who have returned to Armenia in the wake of Syria’s civil war. 

“Two years ago, he was living in Aleppo, dodging snipers on his way to work”, the author says.

“Every day leaving my apartment, I knew that I could not turn right”, Vahe Hovhannesian said. “I should always go to the left, otherwise I might be killed. There was a small territory in our district I had to cross to go to my workplace. I knew that there was a sniper and I was running so that he could not target me. Every day I had to run”, he added.

In early 2016 a rocket exploded in front of Hovhannesian’s house.

“The rocket fell right on our building”, he said. “It was useless to run or try to hide”.

The explosion nearly levelled their home.

“At that moment I realized that I had to leave Syria”.

Hovhannesian lives with his brother Zareh and parents, Andranik Hovhannesian and Vergin Khachaturyan in an apartment. They settled in Aleppo in 1946, where they found a home for 70 years. 

Prior to the Syrian conflict, neither Vahe nor his parents had set foot in Armenia.

Arriving as a refugee was “numbing”, he said. 

“My first days in Yerevan were quite difficult”.

“Although I knew Armenian, I couldn’t understand when people were saying to me. They were using so many Russian words and expressions in their speech. I had never heard a single Russian word in my life before”, he said.

Jeweler Vahe Hovhannesian is currently working 12 hours a day with his brother Zareh in Yerevan.

Armenia to expand mutual partnership with partner countries of Middle East

15:51, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government will take active steps to develop the unique and friendly relations with Iran and Georgia that will be free of other geopolitical impacts as much as possible, the government said in its draft Action Plan released today, reports Armenpress.

According to the draft, the government will actively work to expand multisectoral broad cooperation with China, develop and deepen the friendly and mutually beneficial partnership with India and Japan.

Armenia plans to expand the mutual partnership with the partner countries of the Middle East, develop the cooperation with the American, Asian, African and Pacific states.

An importance is attached to Armenia’s active engagement in the multilateral platforms – the UN, OSCE, CoE and other international structures, as well as protection of its interests including in the fields of security, sustainable development and human rights.

The active cooperation within the CSTO, as well as the development of the bilateral relations with the CIS states, the continuation of political dialogue with the NATO, the consistent implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan, the deepening of Armenia’s engagement in the International Organization of La Francophonie and conducting Armenia’s chairmanship at the IOF at the highest level are highlighted.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

Government eyes state-of-the-art missile systems, aviation and modern warfare capacities in Action Plan

16:34, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia has presented its defense policy in the draft Action Plan that is due to be submitted to parliament for debates.

According to the program, the government plans to equip the military will modern long-range precision guided missile systems, artillery and air defense complexes, multi-role aviation and automated and robotized aerial systems, thus enhancing deep reconnaissance abilities, troop mobility and fire range, precision and efficiency.

An important component of ensuring security will be the development of local military industry, and coherent re-equipment of the frontline with technical devices, efficiency of combat shifts and increasing security will remain in focus.

Actions will be taken in order for the command system to be maximally automated, having required tactics and operativeness for operating modern warfare, vitality, mobility, technological superiority, as well as necessary abilities for ensuring cyber-security, and be guided by the Command Through Order principle aimed at encouraging proactiveness, speedy orientation and decision making.

Education of servicemen will also be among priorities.

The morale, discipline, human rights protection in the military will also be significantly improved.

The government also plans to develop the social protection system for military families.

The government will also develop bilateral and multilateral military-political alliances and partnerships for the purpose of enhancing the opportunities of existing procedures of international cooperation and collective security.

 

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenian parliamentary delegation members to PACE sum up Strasbourg visit

16:51, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The members of the Armenian Parliament’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have summed up the visit paid to Strasbourg from January 21 to 25, reports Armenpress.

The delegation members led by My Step faction MP, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs Ruben Rubinyan, have departed for Strasbourg to attend the PACE winter session.

“During the winter session the key issue relating to Armenia was the discussion of observations made by the PACE observer mission on the December 9 early parliamentary elections of Armenia. Rapporteur Alexander Pochei, who was also the head of the observer mission, highly valued the quality of the parliamentary elections in Armenia, stating that this time there were no electoral violations compared to the previous cases, the elections were free and competitive, the debate via Public TV between the leaders of the participating political forces was specifically highlighted. Heads of different political groups in PACE, individual MPs delivered remarks, congratulating us on this major progress”, Ruben Rubinyan said.

Ruben Rubinyan said they also met with PACE President Liliane Maury-Pasquier, PACE political groups, heads of delegations of several countries who also congratulated Armenia.

The following Armenian parliamentarians participated in the PACE winter session:

Hovhannes Igityan (My Step)

Naira Zohrabyan (Prosperous Armenia)

Edmon Marukyan (Bright Armenia)

Vladimir Vardanyan (My Step)

Sos Avetisyan (My Step)

Tatev Hayrapetyan (My Step)

Mikayel Melkumyan (Prosperous Armenia)

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

BelTA awarded status of official media partner for II European Games

17:00, 6 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. ARMENPRESS partner BelTA, the Belarusian state news agency and the Minsk European Games Organizing Committee (MEGOC) have signed an agreement to establish cooperation today.

BelTA will be the official media partner of the 2019 European Games that will take place in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus this summer. By the agreement, the news agency will cover the second European Games through its six-language newsline.

“The news media have already carried out large scale work, in every corner of our country people know what kind of an important event is scheduled to take place in summer of 2019 in Minsk. It is important that BelTA publishes information in six languages, which contributes to advancing the upcoming sports forum,” George Katulin, CEO of the Minsk European Games Organizing Committee (MEGOC) said.

BelTA Director General Irina Akulovich noted that the agency has already published nearly 450 articles about the preparations for the upcoming European Games, as well as more than 300 photos.

A video section will function from February 6, which will present how athletes, coaches and organizers are gearing up for the event.

“BelTA has a huge photo archive and we are planning to initiate another project where not only will the European Games be presented with photos, but also how sports developed in Belarus,” she said.

The II European Games will be held in Minsk June 21-30.

Around 4000 athletes from 50 countries will participate in the event.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan