Month: February 2021

 10:24, 8 February, 2021

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The rescuers of Artsakh have found 2 more bodies of fallen servicemen during the search operations in Varanda (Fizuli) which has come under the Azerbaijani control, the State Emergency Service of Artsakh told Armenpress.

“The dead servicemen will be identified after forensic examination.

As of February 8, the total number of the bodies found in the battle zones has reached 1367.

Today the search operations will not be conducted in connection with the shift of the Russian peacekeeping troops”, the statement says.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 11:07, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Italy is denying Azeri media reports on having invited Azerbaijan to take part in the 2021 G20 Rome summit.

The Italian Embassy in Armenia told ARMENPRESS that the reports are “ungrounded”.

“The reports saying that Italy has invited Azerbaijan to be present at the G20 summit are ungrounded, and in no other way was this information spread or approved,” chargé d'affaires Giovanni Nicola Dionisi told ARMENPRESS in response to a written inquiry.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 11:08, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. 89 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 168,177, the ministry of healthcare said today.

156 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 159,876.

6 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 3123.

1870 tests were conducted in the past one day.

The number of active cases is 4395.

The number of people who had been infected with COVID-19 but died from other disease has reached 783 (4 new such cases).

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 12:30, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament of Armenia Viktor Yengibaryan from the ruling My Step faction will be appointed Head of Armenia’s Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, replacing MP Gayane Abrahamyan who stepped down.

The respective issue is on the agenda of the Armenian Parliament’s Council session scheduled on February 8.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 12:32, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament of Armenia from the ruling My Step faction Rustam Bakoyan, representing the Yazidi community of Armenia, will be appointed head of the Armenia-Iraq parliamentary friendship group.

The respective draft decision is included in the agenda of the Parliament’s Council session scheduled on February 8.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 12:57, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Specialists at the Armenian State Academy of Crisis Management (under Ministry of Emergency Situations) are studying the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles in search and rescue operations.

The first field test using a drone took place outside the town of Aparan on January 27 and 28.

The exercise featured three scenarios: search for a missing person in a forest, search for a missing person in nighttime and search for a person covered with a layer of snow.

The drone was successful in the first two scenarios, but failed in the third one. Specialists continue working to improve and perfect the capabilities of the drones.

New tests are taking place near Stepanavan from February 4 to 8.

The studies will develop a model for using the drones in the search and rescue operations which can be useful to rescuers.

Reporting by Aram Zakaryan

Photos by Vahram Avoyan

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 13:47, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The specialists of the International Mine Action Center of the Russian defense ministry continue demining works in the territory of Nagorno Karabakh, the Russian defense ministry reports.

The engineering units of the Russian peacekeeping forces have already cleared nearly 1191,3 hectares of land, 352 km long roads. 24,181 explosive devices were found and neutralized.

In the course of demining and clearing the territory of explosive objects in Nagorno Karabakh, Russian peacekeepers use modern robotic systems.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 14:57, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Russia has documented 15,916 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the lowest daily figure since October 21. The total number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Russia reaches 3,983,197, TASS reports citing the anti-coronavirus crisis center.

The daily increase rate reaches 0.4%.

In the past 24 hours, 1,728 COVID-19 cases have been documented in Moscow, 1,551 in St. Petersburg, 912 in the Moscow Region.

Currently, there are 434,038 active COVID-19 cases in Russia.

 15:09, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The issue of creating Ministry of Internal Affairs and Patrol police service is on the government’s agenda, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said at the consultation on Police reforms.

“We have talked many times that the judicial reforms are one of our most important actions for this year. In this context the Police reforms are also very important. The process of creating a Ministry of Internal Affairs is on our agenda. In line with this, we also must launch the creation of a Patrol police in Armenia this year. The process has already started, and today we should also discuss the urgent actions we need to take in this context so that this project will not be delayed further, because it has been postponed a little due to the war”, Pashinyan said.

The Armenian PM said this project should be implemented in 2021 as it has been planned.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 15:27, 8 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The authorities do not see the need for holding early elections because the “majority of the parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition have not formed such a demand,” Parliament Majority Leader (My Step bloc) Lilit Makunts told reporters.

“One of the primary mechanisms of forming a public demand is in the form of being presented by political forces. Since the majority of the parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition did not form that demand on agreeing around early elections, then this is how it is,” she said.

Makunts added that their proposal on holding early elections did not receive positive reaction from the parliamentary opposition.

On February 7, Prime Minister Pashinyan met with the lawmakers representing his My Step bloc. After the meeting, the bloc issued a statement saying they don’t see a need for snap elections. 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan