Month: June 2022

 14:29,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia Rustam Badasyan met with Commissioner of South Korea’s Customs Service TaeSik Yoon in Brussels on the sidelines of the 139^th and 140^th annual meetings of the World Customs Organization, the SRC said.

The sides discussed a broad range of issues of bilateral interest and outlined the prospects for further partnership.

They highlighted the necessity of signing a bilateral inter-governmental agreement on customs cooperation and mutual help.

The meeting also touched upon the opportunities of cooperation between the Armenian and Korean customs services in areas of electronic trade and smart management of risks.

An agreement was reached to organize a cognitive visit of SRC staffers to the country to get acquainted with the activity of local information systems.

The sides expressed readiness to make all efforts to expand the future partnership.

 15:03,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Arman Dilanyan met with Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatović in Strasbourg on June 23, the press service of the Constitutional Court said.

During the meeting Arman Dilanyan highlighted the role of the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights in the protection of rights of different groups of the society in the European region.

Dunja Mijatović thanked the delegation of the Constitutional Court of Armenia for paying a working visit to Strasbourg and said that she always follows the developments happening in Armenia in the fields of human rights and rule of law, welcoming the ongoing democratic and judicial reforms in the country.

Touching upon the post-war situation in Artsakh, the President of the Constitutional Court stressed the urgency of the issue of immediate repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and highlighted the role of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner in this matter.

The sides exchanged ideas on intensifying the future cooperation between the Constitutional Court and the Office of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner.

 15:17,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan participated in the session of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank in Kazakhstan’s capital of Nur-Sultan, the Armenian government’s press service said.

The EDB annual report, as well as the procedure of the EDB membership for new members were discussed during the meeting.

During the session deputy PM Grigoryan highlighted the adoption of the EDB cooperation strategy with Armenia for 2022-2026.

 17:03,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. The member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have set the means to establish a joint humanitarian demining unit, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said summing up the results of the session of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers, TASS reports.

“The practical means for creation and preparation of the joint humanitarian demining unit have been set up” he said.

The Russian Defense Minister said that the CIS Council also approved creating a Medal for Contribution to Strengthening of Peace in CIS format, as well as approved the joint measures of the Armed Forces in 2023.

“The practical and constructive nature of the 80^th session of the Council once again affirmed that the mutual partnership in the CIS format on defense and military cooperation issues is consistently developing, and our multilateral ties are strengthening”, the Russian Defense Minister said and thanked the session participants for the work.

 17:31,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Arman Yeghoyan, the Chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration of the Parliament of Armenia, MPs Arsen Torosyan, Mikayel Tumasyan and Aleksey Sandikov met with MPs of the Hellenic Parliament Christos Dermentzopoulos, Anna-Mani Papadimitriou and Maria-Alexandra Kefala, the Armenian Parliament’s press service said.

The latter arrived in Armenia in order to participate in the workshop of the EU Twinning Project “Strengthening the capacity of the National Assembly of Armenia to further support CEPA oversight and implementation,” which took place on June 22-23 in Tsaghkadzor.

Issues related to the deepening of the EU-Armenia ties, having more open, democratic parliaments for the society and the youth were at the center of the discussions. A number of other issues of mutual interests were also touched upon.

Discussions were organized between the employees of parliaments. The sides highlighted the opportunity given by the Twinning Project, the opportunities to expand ties between the departments of different countries, to exchange experience for the development of institutional capacities.

 18:02,

YEREVAN, 24 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 24 June, USD exchange rate down by 2.26 drams to 408.56 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.94 drams to 430.54 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 7.67 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 1.12 drams to 502.73 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 133.17 drams to 24194.29 drams. Silver price down by 4.64 drams to 278.28 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

 18:03,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Today, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received members of the Coalition for Inclusive Legal Reforms. Representatives of interested state agencies and institutions took part in the meeting, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Pashinyan welcomed and encouraged such meetings, which are an effective platform for discussing issues related to the inclusion process and ways to resolve them.

Coordinator of the Coalition for Inclusive Legal Reforms Mushegh Hovsepyan welcomed the Government’s policy of keeping the inclusion process in the center of attention and supporting the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities through legislative initiatives. Referring to the activities of the coalition, he noted that founded in 2017, it is a union of 14 organizations operating in Armenia and provides legal assistance to persons with disabilities.

Content-related, legislative and technical issues related to inclusion were discussed at the meeting. The members of the coalition presented to Nikol Pashinyan a number of issues related to the establishment of independent resource centers for people with disabilities, access to education, access to infrastructure through subsidy programs, increase of day care services, mental health strategy, development of assistive technologies, etc. They expressed satisfaction with the availability of public transport in Yerevan, noting that there is need to increase the availability of public transport in the regions.

Touching upon the observations, the Prime Minister noted that the Government is consistent in supporting the inclusion process, for this purpose 4 billion AMD have been allocated from the state budget this year. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan presented the state programs and the steps taken in the context of the issues raised.

During the exchange of views, the current reforms and joint actions to promote inclusion were discussed.

The Prime Minister noted that since 2018, there has been no program that was not implemented due to lack of funds, so it is necessary to focus on the implementation of substantive programs, focusing on education and employment components. The Prime Minister proposed to inventory the existing needs in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the National Assembly to develop the state support strategy according to those needs.

Based on the results of the discussion, Nikol Pashinyan gave instructions to those responsible, as well as suggested to the NGO representatives to come up with proposals for solving the problems.

 18:34,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan again spreads misinformation, announcing that on June 24 the units of the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire from different caliber firearms in the direction of the Azerbaijani military positions located in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

The Defense Ministry notes that the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable and is under full control of the Armenian Armed Forces.

 19:06,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. A trilateral meeting took place in Minsk between the Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan, the Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov and the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan Kamran Aliyev.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Prosecutor General’s Office, within the competences of the prosecutor’s offices of the three countries the sides discussed ways to find new opportunities for resolving the existing humanitarian and legal issues arising as a result of the war unleashed against Artsakh and issues related to the implementation of the agreements reached during the previous two meetings on the same agenda in 2021.

The parties stressed the importance of maintaining the trilateral format of the Prosecutor Generals as an effective platform for maintaining contacts in the legal sphere for ensuring stability, legitimacy, de-escalation, basic living rights and security of the population in the region.

In this regard, the diligent and consistent efforts of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, and personally the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov aimed at fully complying with the humanitarian requirements of the November 10 trilateral statement, was emphasized.

Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan noted that despite the agreement reached during the previous trilateral meetings on the incidents on the contact line of the Armenian-Azerbaijani armed forces and on the mediated exchange of operative information on the ongoing investigations, ceasefire violations continued, resulting in human casualties, new threats to the realization of vital rights and security have been created for the civilian population.

As an obvious example, the Prosecutor General of Armenia referred to the actions carried out by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of Parukh settlement, as a result of which 3 servicemen were killed and 16 servicemen were injured. Arthur Davtyan stressed the need to properly investigate the actions in the village of Parukh, as well as other cases of gross violations of the ceasefire.

Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan raised especially the issue that the 8th point of the trilateral declaration of November 10, 2020 has not been implemented. He stressed that the speedy return of 38 Armenian detainees confirmed by Azerbaijan is crucial for restoring trust between the parties, establishing lasting peace in the region and establishing security guarantees, emphasizing the full fulfillment of the humanitarian requirements of the trilateral declaration by Armenia.

An agreement was reached to continue the talks with the mediation of the Russian side in order to fully resolve the humanitarian issues in a short time.

I am excited to be in Charles Aznavour’s homeland. Zaz is looking forward to the Yerevan solo concert

 19:27,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of “Haya” music festival, Armenia hosted French singer, composer Zaz, who performs pop, jazz music combined with soul-acoustic genres. Zaz will give a solo concertin Yerevan on June 25 at Hrazdan Stadium.

ARMENPRESS reports at a meeting with journalists on June 24, the singer said that she is very happy to be in Armenia and is looking forward to the concert evening, during which she wants to share her energy with the musicians and the audience, making the day a real holiday for everyone.

Speaking about the great chansonnier Charles Aznavour, with whom Zaz performed the song Paris au Mois de Mai Paris, the singer stressed that she attaches great importance to Aznavour’s advice, but Aznavour urged Zaz to learn English, which the singer did not do.

“I am excited to be in Armenia, because this is Charles’s homeland, and I feel responsible. The last time I was here was in 2018 within the framework of Francophonie. I was excited when I had to leave. People here are warm, full of love. I love the Armenian duduk, I often listen to Levon Minasyan ‘s performances, which give me positive energy,” she said.

Aznavour had compared Zaz with Edith Piaf and considered her the future of French music. The singer modestly mentioned that it is nice that the chansonnier said that about her, but there are many artists who present French music wonderfully. Zaz thinks that there are tones in her voice that are reminiscent of old French songs, and there is something new, and that combination gives a good result.

The duet of Zaz and Aznavour was included in the singer’s album dedicated to Paris. According to her, Paris is colorful because people of different nationalities live there. The singer likens Paris to a rainbow.