Friday,
Senior Armenian, Azerbaijani Officials Meet In Brussels
Armen Grigorian, secretary Armenia’s Security Council (second from the right),
and Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign-policy advisor to the president of Azerbaijan
(second from the left), meet in Brussels with the EU’s mediation. August 19,
2022. (Photo from Toivo Klaar’s Twitter).
Senior representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan have meet in Brussels, a
European Union envoy said on Friday.
EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo
Klaar wrote on Twitter about “good and substantive discussions today” with Armen
Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, and Hikmet Hajiyev, a
foreign-policy advisor to the president of Azerbaijan, “on Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations and EU engagement.”
Klaar did not report any details of the discussions, but posted a photograph
showing the Armenian and Azerbaijani officials during the discussions mediated
by him and other EU representatives.
There was no immediate report or comment by officials in Yerevan and Baku about
the meeting.
Grigorian and Hajiyev last met in Brussels in May and, as Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian said on June 27, had also been supposed to meet the
following month, but the Azerbaijani side, he said, canceled the scheduled
meeting.
The EU special representative visited Yerevan and Baku in mid-July in an
apparent attempt to reschedule and organize a new meeting.
Yerevan-based political analyst Beniamin Poghosian suggested in an interview
with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last month that a new Grigorian-Hajiyev meeting
may precede another meeting in Brussels between Pashinian and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev.
This is the first meeting of senior Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives
after the latest escalation of violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in
early August when at least one Azerbaijani and two Armenian soldiers were
killed. The two sides blamed each other for the violence.
Leaders Of Armenia, Georgia Inaugurate ‘Friendship Bridge’
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli
Garibashvili officially inaugurate the newly constructed “Friendship Bridge” at
the Armenian-Georgian border. .
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Georgian counterpart Irakli
Garibashvili attended on Friday a ceremonial inauguration of a bridge connecting
their two South Caucasus countries.
The construction of the facility over the river Debed called “Friendship Bridge”
began jointly by Armenia and Georgia in July 2021 and was completed earlier this
month.
The project carried out through a €6 million loan from the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development will help the two countries facilitate regional
trade and passenger flow over the natural boundary marking the state border.
According to the press office of the Armenian prime minister, Pashinian and
Garibashvili highlighted the importance of the bridge in facilitating bilateral
traffic.
The two leaders reportedly noted intensive high-level contacts that “testify to
the dynamic development of Armenian-Georgian relations and the high level of
political dialogue.”
In his remarks at the ceremony Pashinian, in particular, stressed that the
inauguration of the bridge was testimony to “close and versatile
Armenian-Georgian partnership.”
“No doubt, centuries-old relations between our two fraternal countries based on
common values and historical heritage need similar modern infrastructures which
are consonant with the requirements of the time and create a strong foundation
for our further large-scale cooperation,” the Armenian premier said.
“I am more than sure that there are all prerequisites today for developing and
deepening our relations with fraternal Georgia in accordance with important
foreign-policy priorities of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinian added.
Garibashvili, for his part, also emphasized that friendship between Georgia and
Armenia is measured by many centuries and added that relations between the two
countries are “not only an example of brotherhood and friendship, but a
prerequisite for prosperity, stability, security and development in the region.”
“The Friendship Bridge, which we have built together, embodies the success of
our cooperation and friendship,” the Georgian prime minister said, adding that
it will help double traffic between the two countries.
The Friendship Bridge consists of two separate 160-meter-long bridges in both
directions, each of which is 11.85 meters wide. They are located at a distance
of one meter from each other. The total width of the bridges is 24.7 meters.
The structure of the old bridge used by the sides before the construction of the
new one is expected to be strengthened so that it can be used as an alternative
road.
Yerevan Authorities Seek To Enforce Ban On Street Trade
• Robert Zargarian
Vegetables and fruits on sale in the middle of a sidewalk in central Yerevan
(file photo).
Authorities in Yerevan want to have more instruments to clamp down on street
trade in the Armenian capital that continues to thrive despite a formal ban.
Under the current regulations, people caught selling things in the street can be
fined between 70,000 and 100,000 drams ($170-$245). Most street vendors,
including sellers of vegetables and fruits, however, are not discouraged by such
fines that they often do not even pay.
The mayor’s office now suggests that the powers of inspectors be broadened to
allow them, besides issuing fines, also to confiscate the goods sold in the
street or the means of trade used by the vendors.
The measure was approved by the Armenian government during its August 18 meeting
and now needs to go through parliament.
Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsian said that it will be put on the agenda of the
next session of the National Assembly which is due to reconvene after summer
recess in September.
Meanwhile, street vendors in Yerevan that RFE/RL’s Armenian Service talked to
voiced their discontent with the steps of the municipality.
“If they don’t let us sell our goods, what shall we do, how shall we earn our
living?” one street vendor complained.
Earlier this month authorities in Gyumri also moved to enforce the ban on street
trade in several locations in the second largest city of Armenia. Similar
measures taken by Gyumri’s municipality in the past would not solve the problem,
however.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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