Month: October 2019

The United States of America is engaged in oil production in Syria using equipment imported to circumvent sanctions.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, issued a statement about this on Saturday.

“Oil extraction is carried out with the help of such equipment, which bypasses all American sanctions,” as “Armenpress” reports, citing “RIA Novosti”, he noted.

Konashenkov reminded that Washington had officially imposed sanctions on the supply of oil products to Syria. Sanctions apply not only to American companies, but also to every other company.

The President of the Republic of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos will arrive in Armenia on an official visit. This is reported by the e-gov.am website.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos The delegation headed by

The last time a presidential visit from Greece to Armenia took place in 2014, when Karolos Papoulias arrived on a state visit.

On October 27, 1999, a terrorist attack was carried out on the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which RA NA Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and 6 other state figures and NA deputies were killed, 8 people were injured, and 91 were taken prisoner.

The terrorist group captured 91 people, mostly members of the National Assembly. Journalists covering the meeting were also captured, and the terrorists let them out after some time. The injured deputies and members of the government were also released after some time.

The remaining captives were released at dawn on October 28, after the terrorists laid down their weapons and surrendered.

The terrorists are: Nairi Hunanyan, Karen Hunanyan, Vram Galstyan, Derenik Bejanyan, Eduard Grigoryan.

According to the official version, Nairi Hunanyan, who carried out the terrorist attack, organized the operation on his own initiative, worked out the details, involved associates, with the help of which he acquired weapons and entered the National Assembly, and carried out all of that.

In 2013, the Wikileaks website published the former US ambassador to the Republic of Armenia in 2001-2004. of John Ordway the secret letter in which the latter writes about the events of October 27. The ambassador specifically emphasizes that the opposition blames the authorities, who hold the post of president Robert Kocharyan, to keep the entire process of crime detection under their own control. In particular, the ambassador writes:

“Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, relatives of the victims and opposition leaders mostly accuse Kocharyan of establishing his control over the trial, covering up important government information about the case, trying to strengthen his own political positions.”

Ordway emphasizes that Kocharyan and his supporters have categorically denied their involvement in the murders, and the embassy has never seen any evidence to the contrary.

Two years ago, he was a deputy of the “Yelk” faction Aram SargsyanFormer Prime Minister of Armenia Vazgen Sargsyan brother, announced that the crime that took place in the National Assembly on October 27, 1999 will not be revealed under the current authorities. According to him, 99 percent of the public believes that these events are not revealed and only 1 percent claims that they are revealed.

“That 1 percent is in power, that 1 percent are the systems that include the judicial, legislative, and executive bodies, which see danger from revelations, will do everything to prevent the case from being revealed. Therefore, 99 percent of our public believes that the case will be revealed when there is a real change of power in Armenia, a change in the system,” Aram Sargsyan stressed.

In 2018, the government in Armenia changed. Today, a lot of people started talking about reopening the October 27 case. And the other day it became known that Nairi Hunanyan, a life convict of the “Yerevan-Kentron” penitentiary institution of the Ministry of Health, submitted an application for parole a month ago.

The Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informs that a decision will be made in accordance with the law within 80 days.

Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan has already announced that the way out is clear: it will be rejected, but it is obvious that Nairi Hunanyan is becoming a political actor, because everyone urges him to speak and reveal the whole truth. And this can have dangerous prospects.

Former Defense Minister of RA (1999-2000), Lieutenant General Vagharshak Harutyunyan believes that three factors led to the crime of October 27, 1999. first, the Meghri version of the Karabakh conflict, then the issue of keeping power and, of course, the issue of financial losses. He said this today in a conversation with journalists on the 20th anniversary of the events of October 27 in Yerablur.

It should be noted that according to Harutyunyan, Meghri’s version was discussed in his presence by the 2nd President of the Republic of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, and the then President of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev between July 1999 in Sadarak. At that time, Meghri’s version was presented as follows. The territory of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKM) and Lachin are connected to Armenia as a corridor between Armenia and Artsakh. Instead, Armenia ceded the Meghri region (with the 1988 borders) to Azerbaijan, so that Azerbaijan would have a land connection with Nakhichevan. However, in this way, Armenia lost its land connection with Iran, writes Sputnik.

It was an exclusively American initiative, and Robert Kocharyan and Heydar Aliyev was introduced to the American Key West, thus receiving the informal name of the Key West version. It is also known among the people as the Meghri version, but it has never been discussed as an official version of the settlement within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan also claims that at that time Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan was against that option.

“He was against it, we know very well, in his notes he expressed what Meghri means for Armenia, it is an important part that ensures Armenia’s security and connection with Iran,” added Harutyunyan.

Referring to the news about Nairi Harutyunyan’s early release, Harutyunyan said that now, 20 years after the crime, Nairi Hunanyan has the right to apply for parole.

“His testimony can be divided into two phases. before and after May 2, 2000. Until May 2, Nairi Hunanyan was testifying, from which it became clear that there were organizers. After May 2, he took all the blame on himself and declared that there were no organizers,” said Harutyunyan and emphasized that everyone understands that it is impossible to organize such a crime with 5 people.

Let’s remind that on October 27, 1999, the gang led by Nairi Hunanyan killed the Speaker of the National Assembly in the session hall of the RA National Assembly. Karen Demirchyan, Prime Minister Run to Sargsyan, interlocutors Yuri Bakhshyan and: Ruben Miroyan, minister for operational issues Leonard Petrosyan, deputy Armenak Armenakyan, Henrikh Abrahamyan and: Mikael Kotanyan:

The preliminary investigation of the initiated criminal case lasted 1.5 years, the trial lasted 2.5 years.

As a result of the trial that ended in 2003, the court decided Nairi Hunanyan, his brother Karen Hunanyan, their uncle Vram Galstyan, as well as Derenik Bejanyan, Edik Grigoryan, Norayr Yeghiazaryan and Ashot Knyazyan sentenced to life, Hamlet Stepanyan to 14 years in prison.

In the 20 years following the crime, 4 of the 8 members of the group died under different circumstances.

From October 24 to 25, the delegation led by the head of the combat training department of the RA Armed Forces – the deputy head of the Armed Forces, Major General Andranik Makaryan participated in the annual conference of the European Armies in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Held under the auspices of US Army Europe Command, the event aimed to exchange ideas on current security and stability challenges, approaches to meeting them, and the necessary interoperability.

After the plenary sessions of the conference, Major General Makaryan had a working meeting with the Commander of the US Ground Forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Christopher Cavoli with Issues related to Armenian-American cooperation in the field of defense and regional security were discussed.