Month: February 2021

COVID-19: Armenia reports 192 new cases, 104 recoveries in one day

Ani Kharatian

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 11:29,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. 192 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 169022, the ministry of healthcare said today.

104 patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached  160942.

2 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 3140..

2704 tests were conducted in the past one day.

The number of active cases is 4151.

The number of patients who had coronavirus but died from other disease has reached 789 (1 new such case).

Armenian Ambassador speaks with U.S. Congressman about repatriation of Armenian POWs

Liana Toganian

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 14:17,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. Varuzhan Nersesyan, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America, held a virtual meeting with Congressman David Valadao (R – California) on February 12, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Facebook page of the Embassy.

Ambassador congratulated Congressman Valadao on resuming his mission as Member of House Representative, as well as being elected as Co-Chair of Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues.

Ambassador briefed in detail about the Turkish-Azerbaijani recent aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and described the challenges and humanitarian crises followed by the war.

In that regard Ambassador stressed the importance of repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians.

Interlocutors emphasized the need to address the core issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

Earthquake 8 km south-east from Yerevan with MMI of 6-7

Emil Lazarian

Eartquake 8 km south-east from Yerevan with MMI of 6-7

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 16:11,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. The Seismological Service of the Emergency Situations of Armenia registered an eartquake at 15:29 local time 8 km south-east from Yerevan at a depth of 10 km with a magnitude of 4.7. The Modified Mercalli Scale (MMI) was 6-7. 

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Ministry of Emergency, the earthquake was felt in Yerevan at an MMI of 5-6 and 3-4 in Aragatsotn, Ararat, Shirak, Armavir and Vayots Dzor Provinces.

Photos by Tatev Duryan


Armenpress: PM Pashinyan presents details about earthquake consequences

Jane Topchian

PM Pashinyan presents details about earthquake consequences

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 16:52,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia NIkol Pashinyan presented some details over the earthquake registered in Armenia.

‘’According to preliminary data, there are no devastations. One house has been damaged in Yerevan’s Erebuni district and one citizen received slight injuries. According to preliminary information, the epicenter of the earthquake was nearby Parakar village of Aramavir Province’’, the PM wrote on his Facebook page.

The Seismological Service of the Emergency Situations of Armenia registered an earthquake at 15:29 local time 8 km south-east from Yerevan at a depth of 10 km with a magnitude of 4.7. The Modified Mercalli Scale (MMI) was 6-7. The earthquake was felt in Yerevan at an MMI of 5-6 and 3-4 in Aragatsotn, Ararat, Shirak, Armavir and Vayots Dzor Provinces.

Photos by Tatev Duryan





CivilNet: Emile Ghessen On His Time in Artsakh and His Upcoming Karabakh War Documentary Film

John Hovhannisian
CIVILNET.AM

5 փետրվար, 2021 21:00

British documentary filmmaker Emile Ghessen looks back on his time in Artsakh, as he prepares to leave Armenia. Emile had been covering the war for 3 months, and is preparing to release a documentary film on the 2020 Karabakh War. Emile himself has covered other military conflicts, and has served in Afghanistan and Iraq as a Royal Marine. 

CivilNet: Iran Sets Itself Up as a Regional Player

Emil Lazarian
CIVILNET.AM

6 February, 2021 04:21

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif toured the Caucuses from January 24 to 30, visiting Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The unprecedented presence shows Iran is eager to come out as a regional player in the post-Karabakh War era.

Azerbaijan

Foreign Minister Zarif’s first stop was Azerbaijani capital Baku where, in meetings with President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, he stressed the importance of regional cooperation and increasing bilateral relations. 

"Iran is happy for the ‘liberation’ of its territories by friendly, brotherly Azerbaijan and for them to come under the control of the Azerbaijani people," Zarif said in Baku. 

The foreign minister said that Iran is ready to help Azerbaijanis return to their homes in the “liberated” territories of Karabakh as quickly as possible. He also stated that Iran will help reconstruct the war-torn areas of Karabakh.

Russia

Zarif’s next stop was Moscow where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The parties agreed that peace in the region is of utmost importance and in the best interest of all countries involved. 

Zarif also highlighted the importance of unity between Moscow and Tehran in order to save the Iran Nuclear Deal after former US President Trump pulled out in 2018. In Russia, Zarif did not meet with President Putin. 

Armenia

On January 27, Zarif traveled to Armenia and met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. 

"We have common regional interests we share with you. From the first day of that conflict, we have always been in contact with you and other countries in the region, and we want to maintain that connection, having the potential for future cooperation. Of course, you are aware of the position of our caring leader, which is to ensure the security of Armenians, as well as to ensure them a dignified life," Zarif told Pashinyan.

According to the governmental report, the prime minister and the Iranian foreign minister discussed the situation in the region after the Karabakh War. Pashinyan noted that many issues remain unresolved, including the status of Nagorno Karabakh, and that Armenia is ready to continue negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Turkey

After leaving Armenia, Zarif paid his penultimate visit to Turkey, where he met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Çavuşoğlu welcomed the “3 + 3" regional cooperation measure proposed by Zarif, which calls for the participation of six countries: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, and Russia. The implementation of this measure aims to provide peace and stability in the region.

In Turkey, both sides expressed satisfaction with Ankara-Tehran relations and agreed to develop the economy, communications, and energy sectors. As a result of the Turkish-Iranian talks, new railway lines will be established and new trade relations will gain momentum. Çavuşoğlu discussed US-Iran relations and expressed Turkey’s readiness to facilitate a possible dialogue between the two countries.

Nakhichevan 

The final stop of the regional visit was Nakhchivan, where discussions were held with local authorities, including Supreme Council Chairman Vasif Talibov. It is worth noting that this was Zarif's first visit to Nakhchivan in the past three years. He visited both the "Iranian" and "Nakhchivan'' regions of Julfa. 

According to Zarif, Nakhchivan and Armenia will play a vital role in terms of providing a corridor that connects the Persian Gulf to the North Sea and Russia. 

__

Zarif's visit to the region was important in the context of developing post-war processes in the region. In each country, the Iranian minister discussed both bilateral relations and "3 + 3" measures. Iran seeks to play an active role in post-war developments, offering its own approaches to each party. The visit to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is especially significant as it shows that Iran has recognized the region's independent or semi-independent geopolitical situation. Azerbaijani sources mentioned only five countries in their reports about Zarif's visit, leaving out Nakhchivan, which they consider part of Azerbaijan.

Opinion: Erdogan fears Turkey’s Generation Z

Greg Madatian 
Deutsche Welle


By Banu Güven
Feb. 5, 2021


[Protests at Istanbul's Bosphorus University against a rector
appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have led to harsh
crackdowns. The president fears a second Gezi Park movement, says Banu
Güven.]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fears the protests that have
erupted at Istanbul's Bosphorus University (also known as Bogazici
University — Editor's note) against his totalitarian rule. He has
retaliated with an iron-fisted approach.

In the 1990s, I studied at Bosphorus University, which is situated on
the European side of the city and offers English-language teaching.
During this time, I worked as an assistant to professor Ustun Erguder,
the institution's rector at the time.

A bastion of liberalism

Bosphorus University is one of Turkey's few remaining bastions of
democratic and liberal thought. Its resilient faculty and critically
minded students are a thorn in Erdogan's side; they are the sort of
forces he wishes to purge from Turkey. The university is a safe haven
for liberals, anarchists, feminists, LGBTQI+ activists, Kurds, the
left, atheists and even — to Erdogan's horror — pious Muslims, who
fear no one except Allah.

They study and teach side-by-side at this university, on this
beautiful campus, near River Bosphorus. And they reject the new
Erdogan-appointed rector, Melih Bulu, arguing he committed plagiarism,
which disqualifies anyone from leading one of Turkey's top
universities. It has also emerged that he used to be an active member
of Erdogan's ruling AKP party and in 2009 considered running as mayor.
It is evident that Erdogan wishes to install Bulu to control this
elite institution. But that won't work.

For weeks, lecturers and students have been staging midday protests,
lining up outside with their backs to the rector's office. These days,
Bulu must be the loneliest rector in the entire world.

Hundreds of arrests

Erdogan is angered by such resistance. And by staging creative
protests and posting online videos, the students are attracting ever
more public attention. Students at other universities have already
expressed solidarity with them. Erdogan, in turn, has brought in the
police to crush such protests. Hundreds of students were temporarily
arrested; four remain in custody.

Erdogan and Devlet Bahceli, who heads Turkey's nationalist MHP junior
coalition partner, lash out against the students almost daily,
branding them "terrorists." In an effort to further delegitimize the
protests. Erdogan has even resorted to stoking homophobia, claiming
"there is no such thing as LGBT." AKP Interior Minister Suleyman
Soylu, meanwhile, called the movement "revolting."

First-time voters threat to AKP power

Erdogan is resorting to violence because he fears a movement akin to
the 2013 Gezi park protests. He is desperately trying to delegitimize
the students as he worries they could vote him out in the 2023
election. He is on to something: within two years, 5 million young
Turks will have reached voting age, comprising about 12% of the total
electorate. Only a small faction would cast their ballot for the
president — that much is clear from the thousands of dislikes and
negative comments Erdogan's 2020 YouTube live stream attracted.


Various surveys show that Turkey's Generation Z has little sympathy
for Erdogan and his ideas. According to one poll by the Gezici
Arastırma Merkezi institute conducted last year, 76.4% of respondents
said they regard the rule of law and democracy as top priorities for
Turkey. A mere 15.7% of Generation Z voters say they regularly pray —
bad news for Erdogan, who aims to make Turkey more pious. On top of it
all, a MetroPoll poll found that 55% of AKP supporters favored
university rectors to be democratically elected, rather than appointed
by the president.

How much more brutal will Erdogan get?

Bosphorus University rector Bulu insists he will not resign — which he
cannot anyway, unless Erdogan replaces him with someone else. So Bulu
hopes the protests will slowly dissipate.

Erdogan's brutal police crackdown will prevent a second Gezi park
uprising. But this violence will not change the minds of Turkey's
young. The more force the president marshals, the sooner his downfall
will come. The question is: how much more violent can Erdogan become
in years to come?

*

Banu Güven is a Turkish journalist and television presenter. She
writes for various German and Turkish media outlets. She has been
living and working in Germany since 2018.

CivilNet: The work of the Armenian Missionary Association in Artsakh

Paul Hambardsumian
CIVILNET.AM

8 February, 2021 14:15

The Armenian Missionary Association of America started its mission in Artsakh in 1995, after the first Artsakh war. The organization began implementing programs to support locals in the region by implementing many social, educational and cultural programs. The main directions of activities are kindergartens, "Shogh" development centers, sponsorship of socially vulnerable families, and a number of other social programs.

Because of the recent war in Artsakh, the AMAA has decided to expand its activities, because according to them, now the people of Artsakh need it very much.