11:56,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. 2 new cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Artsakh in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2751, the ministry of healthcare reports.
51 COVID-19 tests were carried out on May 27.
The number of hospitalized patients is 20.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
12:58,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. EU Foreign Affairs Ministers will visit the three counties of the South Caucasus – Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, on behalf of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell.
“A group of [European Union] Ministers will visit the three South Caucasus countries on my behalf – to show our readiness to further engage in the region”, Mr. Borrell said at the informal meeting of the Foreign Affairs Ministers in Lisbon, Portugal.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
13:58,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. The European Court of Human Rights is examining Armenia’s appeal relating to ensuring the fundamental human rights of six Armenian servicemen who have been captured on May 27 in the morning by the Azerbaijani forces in the bordering area of Gegharkunik province, ECHR representative told TASS.
“Such a request has been submitted to the Court, and it’s now being examined. We cannot provide further details for now”, the Court representative said.
On May 27 Armenia applied to the ECHR with the purpose to ensure respect of the fundamental human rights of six Armenian servicemen who have been captured by the Azerbaijani forces.
The Office of the Representative of Armenia before the ECtHR has submitted request to the European Court of Human Rights to indicate interim measures under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court against Azerbaijan in the name of the individuals taken as prisoners of war while carrying out engineering works in the bordering area of the Gegharkunik province early in the morning on May 27.
The submitted request aims to ensure respect of the captives’ rights to life and prohibition of torture envisaged by the European Convention on Human Rights.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
14:17,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish currency has hit a new record low, weighed down by concern that monetary policy remains too loose to curb accelerating inflation, Bloomberg reports.
“The lira slid as much as 1.1% to 8.5981 per dollar, poised for a third daily decline this week”, Bloomberg reports.
“The nation’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 19% for a second meeting this month, saying the pace of price gains had peaked. Yet the currency has weakened more than 13% over the past three months, by far the most among emerging markets, a depreciation that threatens to feed through into higher prices.”
14:27,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan participated in the CIS prime ministerial meeting in Minsk, Belarus.
Grigoryan delivered remarks during the session, briefing the heads of government of the CIS countries on the ongoing developments at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, emphasizing that the Azeri actions are an explicit threat also for the entire region and everyone else.
“The caretaker Deputy Prime Minister underscored that only the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Azerbaijani forces from Armenian sovereign territories, as well as the return of captive Armenian servicemen, can create conditions for considering the issues within the framework of political-diplomatic set of tools,” Grigoryan’s Office said.
15:29,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. The return of Armenian captives from Azerbaijan is a matter of time, it is one of the factors with which Azerbaijan wants to have an impact on the upcoming snap parliamentary elections of Armenia, Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the meeting with the members of the Civil Contract party in Kanaker-Zeytun administrative district.
“The issue of captives is our most painful matter. It is a matter of time. We are making daily efforts for the return of captives, without any exaggeration. Of course, every day for them and their family members is a very serious threat and trial. And my conviction is that it is a matter of time and I am mostly sure that this process will intensify after the elections because the factor of captives and other factors are being used for having an impact on the outcomes of the elections in Armenia. And this is also the reason why they are not returning [the captives]. I don’t say that this is the only reason, but is one of the reasons”, he said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
16:17,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says the military requires serious and deep reforms.
“There should be a serious revision regarding the salaries of contract servicemen, with the condition that they must be professional soldiers,” Pashinyan said during a meeting with members of his Civil Contract party. “Some, but not all of our contract servicemen where serving active duty for 14-15 days, and then they would go and do some other jobs for 14 days, farming or taxi driving or something else. The next 15 days of the months of contract servicemen has nothing to do with military service.”
Pashinyan said that the job of soldiers must be the development of tactical, strategic and firearms skills. “This is what we mean when we say a professional army. Moreover, our perception is the following – that the soldier should be in the military base and not in a border trench, because guarding the border is the job of the border guards. During this time the soldiers must be in the military base and should constantly develop tactical and technical skills, so that they have the skills of rapid deployment and taking action whenever there is an alarm of a border breach,” he said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
16:30,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. 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) released a statement today over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement and the current border situation caused by the recent Azerbaijani incursion into Armenia’s territory.
Armenpress presents the statement:
“The Co-Chairs held consultations with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer and UN High Commissioner of Refugees Filipino Grandi in Geneva 27 and 28 May. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings. The Co-Chairs take note of the reported detention of six Armenian soldiers on May 27 and call for the release of all prisoners of war and other detainees on an all for all basis. The Co-Chairs underscore the obligation to treat detainees in accordance with international humanitarian law. The Co-Chairs strongly urge the sides to lift all restrictions on humanitarian access to Nagorno Karabakh immediately, and call on the sides to implement in full the commitments they undertook under the November 9 ceasefire declaration.
The Co-Chairs also note with concern several recent reports of incidents on the non-demarcated Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The use or threat of force to resolve border disputes is not acceptable. We call on both sides to take immediate steps, including the relocation of troops, to de-escalate the situation and to begin negotiations to delimitate and demarcate the border peacefully. The Co-Chairs stand ready to assist in facilitating this process.
Having in mind the terms of their OSCE mandate and the aspirations of all the people of the region for a stable, peaceful, and prosperous future, the Co-Chairs again call on the sides to reengage under their auspices at the earliest opportunity”.
18:12,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Defense Minister of Armenia Vagharshak Harutyunyan met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu on May 28.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, during the meeting the sides discussed the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh, the situation in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces of Armenia, as well as the Armenian-Russian strategic cooperation and issues referring to the regional security.
The Armenian caretaker Defense Minister presented to his Russian colleague details about the infiltration of Azerbaijani servicemen into the Armenian territory and the actions taken by the Armenian Armed Forces.
Vagharshak Harutyunyan emphasized that the Azerbaijani provocations carried out under false pretext of ‘’border clarifications’’ are extremely inadmissible and the Azerbaijani units must immediately withdraw from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.
The sides observed the possible options for solving the situation and reached an agreement on steps necessary for that.
Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 28-05-21
18:20,
YEREVAN, 28 MAY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 28 May, USD exchange rate stood at 520.78 drams. EUR exchange rate stood at 635.04 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate stood at 7.09 drams. GBP exchange rate stood at 735.45 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price stood at 31808.4 drams. Silver price stood at 470.83 drams. Platinum price stood at 20108.9 drams.