Month: February 2021

At Wednesday’s special session of the National Assembly of Armenia, the MPs passed a number of law initiatives in the first reading.

These include: the package of bills on amendments and addenda to the Judicial Code and the attached laws; and the package of bills on amendments to the Law on Social Assistance and the attached laws.

In the context of racial segregation of Armenians, Azerbaijan is at the highest level. This is what deputy of the ruling My Step bloc of the National Assembly of Armenia Vladimir Vardanyan said in parliament today.

The MP said people in Azerbaijan stay true to Armenophobia and racism and particularly stated that Azerbaijan committed several violations of international law during the war and continues to commit them by not returning prisoners of war and torturing them.

Vardanyan said the Armenian side is also raising other issues such as the deployment of mercenaries in the region, adding that Armenia has actively launched international legal procedures and just recently, an interstate complaint was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights against Azerbaijan.

In his turn, deputy of the opposition Bright Armenia Party Taron Simonyan declared that the incumbent authorities aren't dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue at all. “Revise your policy on Nagorno-Karabakh and realize that there is no Armenia without Nagorno-Karabakh and vice versa,” Simonyan stressed as he addressed the representatives of the incumbent authorities.

Over the past three years, about 82,000 Armenian citizens have received Russian passports.

If we divide this by years, it will turn out that in 2018 more than 27 thousand people have been issued Russian passports, in 2019—24 thousand, and in 2020—about 31 thousand people, reports Yuzhny Federalny, citing the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Today, the threat of war is permanent for Armenia. This is what secretary of the Executive Body of the opposition National Agenda Party Ara Gasparyan told reporters today.

Gasparyan stressed the need for strengthening of the lines of defense in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), and the solution to the issue related to replenishment of the Defense Army (on the backdrop of Azerbaijan’s active counterinfluence), but the authorities don’t want to deal with these issues and aren’t capable of dealing with them.

“What’s more, the authorities led the country to this situation with their actions. The second issue for my political party is the existence of agents in Armenia who have been discrediting the army and power structures and releasing information from Armenia for years. The people were not only defeated on the battlefield, but were also prepared for defeat through split in society. The incumbent authorities did all this with the help of those agents, preparing us for defeat and ‘peaceful coexistence’,” the politician stated.

According to him, this attests to the fact that the authorities are serving the interests of Turkey and Azerbaijan. “Now, amid the military exercises in Nakhchivan and on the border of Armenia, the authorities are still trying to convince people that there is no threat. Turkey is on the path to implementation of its neo-Ottoman plan and hasn’t changed, and Armenia must not fall in its trap,” he added.

Armenia is implementing a special plan in regard to Nagorno-Karabakh. This is what deputy of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party Mikayel Melkumyan said during today’s special session of the National Assembly.

According to him, the plan is being carried out by the country’s top political leadership, and the ruling My Step bloc of the National Assembly has no chance to have an influence on its implementation.

Melkumyan added that the incumbent political authorities are leading the country towards collapse and that there will be a problem with payment of pensions and salaries in the months to come.

According to him, there also won’t be investments since nobody will make investments during the administration of such a government. Moreover, Melkumyan stated that tax revenues have grown by AMD 335,000,000,000 and the volume of capital expenditures hasn’t exceeded AMD 50,000,000,000 over the past two-and-a-half years.

“The authorities want to engage Turkish capital in the country, but that won’t be a success either,” Melkumyan said.

Karmela Arakelyan, the newly appointed principal of School #1 in the city of Abovyan and a friend of former regional governor of Kotayk Province and current Minister of Environment Romanos Petrosyan’s sister, entered the school with the accompaniment of police a little while ago.

This morning, the students and teachers started a workers’ strike/student strike against Arakelyan’s appointment. Later, they and the students’ parents gathered in the school building to express their protest against the decision of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.

Hayk Paytyan, one of the teachers, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that at midday the newly appointed principal came to the school, but the gathered didn’t let her enter. A little while ago, the police chief of Abovyan and the chief of regional police came to the school and warned the gathered that police would use force, if they didn’t let the principal enter the school.

When the gathered saw Arakelyan entering the school with police officers, they started protesting and exited the school building to show their discontent.

Artak Galstyan, one of the teachers, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that Karmela Arakelyan, without being aware of the school’s problems, presented to the principal a plan stating that the teachers don’t have command of information communication technologies.

The alliance between Azerbaijan and Turkey is disturbing for Russia. Consequently, it is necessary to neutralize that alliance with the participation of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). As for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it remains unresolved.

This is what Iranologist Vardan Voskanyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am, adding that even though the Armenian side is defeated, Azerbaijan hasn’t won either.

“Since there is a conflict between Russia and Turkey, it’s clear that this conflict can lead to clashes, and these clashes can take place on the basis of a few scenarios. One of the possible scenarios is the so-called South Ossetia scenario, taking into consideration Azerbaijan’s statements on Russian peacekeepers. The dictator of Baku is regularly presenting demands to the peacekeepers, stating that they don’t have a legal status and can be criminally prosecuted by Azerbaijan,” the Iranologist said, touching upon the subsequent Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises and asked if there might be a new war in the region.

Voskanyan also claims that Armenia’s incumbent authorities can’t resist the challenges in the region since they are incompetent and treacherous.

The opposition Homeland Salvation Movement has posted the following on its Facebook page:

“During a meeting with Vazgen Manukyan, the opposition’s unified candidate for Prime Minister of Armenia, a group of Armenian repatriates told Manukyan that no government of Armenia has ever presented a serious plan for repatriation.

The leaders and representatives of the Return to Armenia organization dealing with repatriation and integration issues and the Repatriation Advisory Office of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party talked about the problems facing Armenians in the Diaspora, the current perceptions of the ideology of repatriation in Armenia and abroad and discussed what can be done to help Armenians abroad return to Armenia.

“Armenia must first have a vision for repatriation and formulate the goals and objectives of repatriation, after which it can develop programs and a strategy,” Manukyan said, adding that these issues were part of the future government’s agenda during the Movement that began in 1988.

The state policy on repatriation must be hinged on not only patriotism and emotions, but must also derive from economic calculations, the country’s security, demography, human and professional resources. The repatriates expressed their views and presented the problems that are creating obstacles for the return to Armenia and later integration.

Manukyan suggested that the attendees prepare a document that can serve as a ground and benchmark for the future authorities of Armenia to develop a concept paper on repatriation and organize the future processes.”