Month: September 2020

 19:10,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The novel coronavirus has brought social and economic difficulties, but the predictions according to which Armenia will face a social or economic collapse, have not come true and will not come true, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a Q&A session in the Parliament, responding to the question of opposition Bright Armenia faction MP Arkady Khachatryan.

“There is a concrete statistics that there is no doubt that the coronavirus has caused social and economic difficulties, but it’s also clear that the predictions according to which there is going to be a social or economic collapse in Armenia, have not come true and will not come true. The situation is manageable”, the PM added.

Pashinyan said there is a traditional problem with the capital expenditures, but the government is making efforts for the works to be done more intensely. He said the Cabinet will implement new projects in autumn which will boost the construction and other branches of the economy.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 19:40,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. It’s already 21 years Armenia together with the international community is trying to solve the issue of the restoration of the ozone layer, Armenia Ozone program national coordinator Liana Ghahramanyan said during a press tour organized at the Amberd Meteorological Station on September 16 – the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

“Imagine if the ozone layer didn’t exist, life would disappear on Earth within a week, because the ozone layer is one of the most important shields given by the nature that is protecting life and all of us from harmful UV rays”, she said.

Starting 2000 Armenia’s Hydromet Service is conducting ozone layer observations with the Dobson spectrophotometer, which is the only one in the region. The station is included in the GAW network. “Ozone measuring observations are carried out by the Dobson spectrophotometer in the daytime for 3-5 times”, she said.

Liana Ghahramanyan said the Ministry of Environment is publishing UV indices for all provinces of Armenia depending on the intensity of solar radiation. In case of predicting high UV indices, people are being warned to avoid direct solar radiation.

“The predictions are very important: the population must be informed about the UV index of that particular day because it depends on index how many people should be under sun that day”, she added.

She informed that for 35 years the entire international community managed to replace 99% of the ozone depleting substances, but the ozone layer is still not restored, as it is a complex and long process.

Representative of the Hydromet Service Anna Tsarukyan says the current situation of the ozone layer also impacts the human health, in some cases person can suffer from cancer, etc.

She said from September to November the UV index in Armenia is declining, but in June, July and August is increasing.

“In 2012-2016 the value of the total amount of minimum ozone was registered in 2014, and the maximum in 2019. This proves that the ozone layer is gradually restoring”, Tsarukyan said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 19:24,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. At the proposal of Armenia, Russia is considering to allow the migrants representing the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to work with their national driving licenses.

Russia’s Interior Ministry developed a bill which will allow the migrants from the EAEU states to work in Russia as a driver by using their national driving licenses.

According to the bill, the driving license of the EAEU member states will be recognized as valid while working in Russia.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) held intensive consultations in Paris on September 14. Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings. 

The Co-Chairs reviewed the situation in the region with particular focus on new developments following the mid-July violent escalation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The Co-Chairs carefully considered and assessed the private and public messages and concerns of the sides. The Co-Chairs were briefed by the PRCiO on the security situation on the ground and welcomed his concrete preparations for the resumption of monitoring activities.

The Co-Chairs spoke separately by phone with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and invited the ministers to meet individually with the Co-Chairs in person in the coming weeks to further clarify their respective positions, with the aim of resuming serious substantive negotiations without preconditions.

The Co-Chairs remain actively and fully engaged in facilitating negotiations for a peaceful and comprehensive settlement in accordance with their OSCE mandate.  

In recent years, the ongoing instability and crisis situations in the region pose threats and risks both to the security of Armenia and to Armenian communities in the Middle East, Adviser to the Foreign Minister Ruben Karapetyan said in an interview with Russian Riafan.ru.

Therefore, he said, we cannot but worry about Turkey’s aggressive expansionist policy, which is aimed at open confrontation in different parts of the region and thereby exacerbates the already extremely aggravated situation in the region, further destabilizing it.

“Information on the training of Syrian militants on the territory of Azerbaijan to participate in hostilities against Armenia and Artsakh is a vivid example of this. Taking into account the precedents of Azerbaijan’s use of extremists and Turkey’s export of terrorists to various regions, we take such a threat very seriously,” Karapetyan said.

“For many years, Armenia has been raising this issue both on international platforms and in the format of bilateral discussions with our partners. We have repeatedly warned about the catastrophic consequences of this policy, especially after the April 2016 aggression, when Islamic State militants and radicals from Turkish nationalist groups were thrown against the civilian population of Karabakh,” he added.

The diplomat noted that as a responsible member of the international community, Armenia is committed to de-radicalization in the region.

“We have called and will continue to call for more decisive measures to prevent the spread of radicalism and extremism in the region, especially when the use of terrorists serves as a means of achieving the political goals of individual states or their leaders,” Karapetyan stated.