Month: February 2020

American-Armenian athlete Allison Halverson gains Armenian citizenship

Jirair Kafian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 25 2020
Sport 15:09 25/02/2020World

American-Armenian athlete Allison Halverson has gained Armenian citizenship and will most likely represent Armenia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“I am officially an Armenian Citizen! This is one of my proudest accomplishments!” the athlete said on Instagram, captioning a photo of her with an Armenian passport.

“Just over 100 years ago my ancestors faced some of the hardest times ever seen on this earth… many of them lost their lives in unspeakable ways, but my grandfather was able to narrowly escape the Armenian Genocide by dressing up as a young girl and taking a boat to Ellis Island. Without my ancestors’ sacrifices and courage, I wouldn’t be here today. I have fallen in love with this amazing, beautiful, welcoming, and strong country and am excited to see what the future holds for myself and Armenia,” she wrote. 

‘Azerbaijan is using fake photos that have nothing to do with what happened in Khojaly’: Anzhela Elibegova

Maral Takmazian
Aravot, Armenia
Feb 25 2020


February 25,2020 21:50 25

On the eve of the 28th anniversary of the events in Khojaly, Azeri affairs expert Anzhela Elibegova emphasized at the Zarkerak press club was one of the towns used to bombard Stepanakert. It was clear to Azerbaijan that the town needed to be neutralized, but they deliberately did not warn the citizens so that it could continue to play the role of the protector and continue firing upon Armenians. It is notable that, during this time, people who had nothing to do with Azerbaijan began to live in Khojaly, which is why the number of residents had greatly increased.

According to Elibegova, the Azeri side is using this as propaganda to try and prove that the Armenian side carried this out. They are trying to convince people that Armenia committed genocide, but the Armenian side is working on revealing the fallacies contained in Azeri propaganda films and websites. “Lots of people were saved when the city was turned over to the Armenians. Around 700 civil residents of Khojaly were able to safely move to Azerbaijan thanks to the Armenians. Due to the blockade in Stepanakert, there was a food shortage, and there was no way for these people to live there,” the expert said.

Elibegova also said that it was not only one group that was saved by the Armenians. “It’s interesting that the other part went to Aghdam via the evacuation corridor opened by the Armenians. Aghdam was under Azeri control. The civilians did not reach Aghdam because the Azeris made an announcement that caused them to panic. This is when the gunfire began, and that’s when those people were killed.”

Regarding the distortion of facts, Elibegova noted that the Azeri journalist photographed the dead bodies on the 28th and in the days following. It became clear from those photos that the people had been tortured and their bodies were defiled in order to blame the Armenians. “Azerbaijan has falsified lists of dead people many times by writing the same names multiple times or by including the names of people who have nothing to do with Azeris. They did this in the hope that Armenians would not check these lists. Azerbaijan is using fake photos that have nothing to do with what happened in Khojaly.”

Nona Ghazaryan

To find out more about what happened in Khojaly, check out this brochure. [ ]

Turkish Press: Karabakh as much our issue as Azerbaijan’s: Turkey

Emil Lazarian
Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Feb 25 2020
Karabakh as much our issue as Azerbaijan’s: Turkey

Burak Bir and Jeyhun Aliyev   | 25.02.2020

ANKARA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday the Upper Karabakh is as much Turkey’s issue as it is Azerbaijan’s.

“It is our greatest desire to resolve the problem of Upper Karabakh on the basis of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

He said the railway connecting Turkey to Azerbaijan’s autonomous region of Nakhchivan, which is surrounded on the east and north with rival Armenia, holds great strategic importance.

Praising the brotherly ties between the two countries, Erdogan said: “We will boost the trade volume [with Azerbaijan] to $15 billion in 2023, this is our aim.”

Last year, the trade volume of the two countries was $2 billion.

Turkey’s main exports to Azerbaijan include machinery, mechanical appliances, and components for nuclear reactors.

The Turkish president’s remarks came after the eighth edition of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council meeting — which was established in 2010 to enhance ties at the presidential level.

Erdogan thanked the people and government of Azerbaijan for their support to Turkey after a powerful earthquake hit the country’s east in January.

Aliyev said the high-level meeting was proof that Azerbaijan and Turkey are on the same page on critical issues.

Referring to the Upper Karabakh conflict, Aliyev thanked his Turkish counterpart for “always supporting the righteous stance” of Azerbaijan at the international front.

“Unfortunately, the non-constructive and negative stance of Armenia is the main obstacle in solving the dispute,” he said.

Upper Karabakh is the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan illegally occupied by Armenia through military aggression since 1991.

Four UN Security Council and two General Assembly resolutions, as well as decisions by many other international organizations, refer to this fact and demand withdrawal of the occupational Armenian forces from Upper Karabakh and seven other occupied regions of Azerbaijan.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk group — co-chaired by France, Russia and the U.S. — was formed to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but has not reached any results yet.

Maestro Tigran Mansurian visits AMAA’s Avedisian School in Yerevan

Khondkarian Raffi
Aravot, Armenia
Feb 25 2020

                                                       
February 25,2020 12:02 21

THE TRIANGLE. Years will pass by and today’s Avedisian School students will grow, yet many of them who were in the School’s Auditorium on February 21, 2020 will say, “I have seen and heard the greatest Armenian composer of our time, Tigran Mansurian.” Or, “I personally asked the Maestro a question, and he answered me.” Or, “I held my breath listening to the Maestro,” “I’ll never forget …” and they will recount many other unforgettable memories of the day.

Hosting the great Maestro under the roof of the Avedisian School was truly a memorable event, as the beloved composer, at the zenith of his respectable life, taught a small but invaluable lesson to the students.

What was Maestro Mansurian talking about with the Avedisian students? He advised the students to see only the good and be forgiving; on the path of real victory to know also to be conquered. He Also talked about the freedom of the creative soul; about the character of an intellectual or artist, and many other subjects that touched the soul of the students.

The living legend Maestro Mansurian was engaging. There were more students who wished to ask a question, than those who did. Then he approached the piano, sat down slowly and his fingers touched the keyboard. And the sounds of his famous music from the film “A Little Sky” first spread then began to soar to great heights. Even the air became noble… and the hall held its breath…

At the conclusion of this exciting event, School Principal Melanya Geghamyan presented the Maestro with a book about Komitas “The Magnificent Song of All Armenians” and a book about the Avedisian School. And the students promised to continue their newly formed friendship with the Maestro by sending letters.

The meeting was not yet over as the dear guest, who left the room, continued answering questions, signing autographs and taking pictures with the students outside the Auditorium.

Established in 1988, AMAA’s Khoren and Shooshanig Avedisian School is an educational institution that provides outstanding K-12 holistic, tuition-free education in a modern, environmentally friendly building, using state-of-the-art facilities in the low-income Southwest District of Malatia-Sebastia in Yerevan, Armenia.

ACNIS reView from Yerevan #6, 2020_Weekly Update_15-22 February

Aram Torosian
Weekly Update  

21 FEBRUARY 2020  

 

  • Continued Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) demining and rehabilitation assistance and support for the implementation of the Royce-Engel proposal to deploy gunfire locators along the line-of-contact were key components of the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA) testimony, submitted earlier today to the U.S. House panel drafting the Fiscal Year 2021 foreign aid bill, said News.am. The request for Artsakh aid was part of a broader $100 million targeted assistance package which would bolster U.S-Armenia economic and military partnerships and support for Armenia. ANCA Government Affairs Director Tereza Yerimyan shared with appropriators how the ANCA’s proposals advance U.S. interests and suggested concise, draft legislative language for their consideration. She reaffirmed the ANCA’s commitment to Armenia’s aid-to-trade transition, asking Members of the Subcommittee to encourage the Trump Administration to make full use of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and Economic Task Force, and, most urgently, to move forward with the long-overdue negotiation of a modern U.S. Armenia Double Tax Treaty.

  

  • RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) reported, a newly formed government commission tasked with drafting wide-ranging amendments to the Armenian constitution met for the first time on Friday amid uncertainty about the outcome of its work. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced plans to set up the commission in December. It was decided then that the ad hoc body will comprise 15 members, including Armenia’s justice minister, human rights ombudsman, a representative of the country’s judges, members of the three political forces represented in the parliament and legal scholars chosen by the Justice Ministry. The commission’s members were appointed late last month just days before Pashinian’s political team unexpectedly drafted its own constitutional amendments and put them on a referendum slated for April 5.They call for replacing seven of the nine members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court locked in a dispute with the government.

  

  • President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan addressed a congratulatory message on the Artsakh Revival Day, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. The message says: “Dear compatriots, On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and myself personally I extend my most heartfelt congratulations on the Artsakh Revival Day. On the 20th of February 1988 an extraordinary session of the Regional Council of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was held in Stepanakert and lent legitimacy to our people’s perennial aspirations and announced the start of realizing their cherished dreams and goals…This day became the symbol of our people’s courage, determination and love for freedom, our nation-wide solidarity.”
  • The real agenda in Armenia continues to be the need to adopt a new Constitution as the basis of the state building process. Such an opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by political analyst Saro Saroyan. “Unfortunately, the current administration directed the post-revolutionary processes in the wrong direction.  As a result, they did not lead to a coordinated, fundamental resolution of the key issues facing the country.  In the conditions of abandonment of the evolutionary path of development, extinguishing the “fires” periodically arising here and there with palliatives is impossible,” he said. According to the analyst, it was the new Constitution that would allow the people to conclude a social contract on the basis of a dialogue that promotes the formation of public consensus. In turn, a social contract would open up the possibility of implementing institutional changes in Armenia and the establishment of state institutions, “he emphasized.

  

  • The Presidential Office informed, President Armen Sarkissian received today the Ambassador of the United States to Armenia Lynne Tracy. The parties exchanged views on the issues related to cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the United States in different areas. In particular, among prospective areas were mentioned modern technologies, especially implementation of joint programs in the area of artificial intelligence. In this context, possible cooperation in the framework of the ATOM Presidential initiative aimed at the development of science and technology in Armenia was mentioned. The program is directed at making Armenia a leading center in the area of artificial intelligence and mathematical modeling. The parties discussed also opportunities of cooperation on a number of Presidential initiatives which are aimed at the enhancement of Armenia’s international standing and the boost of interest towards our country. The interlocutors exchanged also views on the referendum on the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia to be held on April 5.
  • Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar. Head of EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Victorin was in attendance, the Prime Minister Office Pleased with the current status of EU-Armenia relations, the Prime Minister noted that the ongoing cooperation is of intensive nature. The Premier advised that our country is in the process of holding a referendum on constitutional amendments and presented its rationale and objectives. The interlocutors discussed issues related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Nikol Pashinyan assured of Armenia’s commitment to achieving a peaceful settlement in the OSCE Minsk Group format. He reflected on his vision of the negotiated settlement. The Prime Minister highlighted the involvement of Artsakh’s civil society in confidence building measures, which will help shape a constructive atmosphere in the negotiation process.

  

  • The Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders’ recent talks, on the sidelines of the 2020 Munich Security Conference, were a useless format in terms of pushing ahead with serious processes in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict settlement talks, according to an expert in international affairs. “Such a format did not exist at all on the level of the former leaders. To the best of my understanding, the Armenian authorities previously made proposals of the kind, which were later rejected. “I don’t think the format is useful given that the parties, by and large, voiced theses which have been raised for decades. And they practically did not say anything new at this meeting either; they did not discuss new ideas, approaches and thoughts, and hence the meeting itself cannot possibly have any effectiveness,” President and Founer of the Armenian Center for American Studies Suren Sargsyan told Tert.am.

  

  • Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are holding a discussion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The session was presided by a conversation between Pashinyan and Aliyev, News.am informed.

 

Sources: https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/, https://www.president.am, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/, https://tert.am,  https://arminfo.info/.

  

‘Armenia works very closely with neighboring friendly Iran’: FM comments on spread of coronavirus

Garo Vardanian

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 16:19,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan commented on the spread of coronavirus in Iran.

“Spread of coronavirus in neighboring friendly Iran is concerning. Armenia took preventive measures to stop the spread of virus and works very closely with our good neighbor Iran to jointly overcome this hazard”, the FM said on Twitter.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan✔@ZMnatsakanyan

Spread of Coronavirus in neighboring friendly #Iran is concerning. #Armenia took preventive measures to stop the spread of virus and works very closely with our good neighbor #Iran to jointly overcome this hazard.

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3:26 AM – Feb 24, 2020
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Number of people infected with novel coronavirus in Iran has risen to 64, number of those killed is 12.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Armenia invites international community to observe upcoming constitutional referendum

Andranik Taslakhchian

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 16:33,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan has addressed invitations for observer missions of the upcoming April 5 constitutional referendum to the Chairs of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.

Voters are expected to decide in the April 5 referendum whether or not the incumbent Chairman of the Constitutional Court Hrayr Tovmasyan, as well as most other justices appointed under the previous constitution, should remain in office.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Covid-2019: Armenia to monitor all arrivals from affected countries

Antonian Lara

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 17:18,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Travelers arriving from countries where the novel coronavirus (Covid 2019) outbreak is spreading , including from Italy, will be under monitoring by medics for the lengths of the disease’s incubation period. The travelers will not be quarantined but will instead be monitored by district clinics per residence addresses, National Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Artavazd Vanyan told a news conference.

“Full monitoring will be implemented, like we did for people arriving from China,” he said.

So far, there haven’t been any coronavirus cases in Armenia.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenian FM to attend 43rd session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

Emil Lazarian

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 16:21,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan will depart for Geneva on February 24 to take part in the High-Level meeting at the 43rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the MFA told Armenpress.

The Armenian FM will also deliver remarks at the meeting.

During the visit he is scheduled to have meetings with some of his foreign counterparts.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Covid-2019: All suspected cases during one month in Armenia test negative

Baghdasarian Karlen

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 17:19,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. 83 suspected cases of the novel coronavirus have all tested negative in Armenia since January 24, National Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Artavazd Vanyan told a news conference.

“Since January 24 we monitored more than 2000 people and we had 83 hospitalizations. That is, people who arrived from China and had even the slightest symptoms, for example 37 degree fever, they were immediately hospitalized and examined, and everyone was tested. All tests came back negative,” Vanyan said.

Vanyan said there are people under monitoring now. He did not elaborate.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan