Month: November 2023

 13:00,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Stolen Asset Recovery Division of the Prosecutor-General’s Office is seeking to confiscate a total of 500 billion drams in assets suspected to be of illicit origin in 93 different cases.

Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetyan said November 23 that the stolen asset recovery division, officialy known as the Department of Confiscation of Illegally Obtained Assets, has filed 93 cases to court since 2020. The assets in question include over 1000 real estate properties, 200 movable properties and shares in 270 companies.

So far 4 settlements have been reached, and the persons involved in the cases surrendered 6 real estate properties and 1 movable property worth over 2 billion drams, as well as 79 million drams.

 13:22,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan is hosting the IBA Junior World Boxing Championships.

Armenia will be represented by 16 athletes in the championships.

Scheduled from 23 November to 4 December at the MIKA Sport Arena, this event marks a significant milestone in junior boxing, hosting around 600 young talents from around 60 nations across 26 weight categories.

Armenia was chosen as a host country by IBA given the recent success of Armenian athletes, as well as the high-level organization of the 2022 and 2023 European championships in Yerevan.

 14:45,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Business tycoon and former MP Gagik Tsarukyan is under investigation by the Stolen Asset Recovery division of the General Prosecution.

The General Prosecution said in a statement that it launched a probe into suspected illegally obtained assets owned by Tsarukyan in 2020.

Tsarukyan and persons affiliated with him have since failed to produce any evidence proving the assets in question were obtained legally, the prosecution said.

In October 2023, the prosecution filed a motion to the Anti-Corruption Court seeking the forfeiture of multiple illegally obtained assets owned by Tsarukyan, including 79 units of real estate, 42 cars, over 340 million drams spent on eight unidentified vehicles, market value of 10 other real estate properties, shares held in 39 companies, the right to claim 63 billion drams in transactions, another 16,8 billion drams transferred to 12 unidentified individuals and companies and 86 billion 400 million drams in illegal revenue.

 14:53,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government will compensate the 2023-2024 1^st semester tuition fees of forcibly displaced students from Nagorno-Karabakh who’ve formally transferred to universities or other educational institutions in Armenia after September 19, 2023. 

The decision was adopted during the November 23 Cabinet meeting.

 15:28,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Some issues in the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan require the presence of mediators, Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan has said.

“We’ve numerously said that there are issues where the presence of mediators is mandatory. There are issues where the presence of mediators has a very important role,” he said when asked whether Armenia is in favor of holding talks with Azerbaijan without mediators.

Such issues include the rights of the forcibly displaced population of Nagorno-Karabakh, Safaryan said, adding that Armenia attaches importance to the presence of international mechanisms in this issue. There are other issues that require guarantees, he said.

“At this moment the issue of the rights of the forcibly displaced population is being raised by Armenia,” Safaryan said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to hold a meeting on border delimitation on November 30.

 17:05,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenia did not veto the documents that were adopted during the CSTO summit in Belarus which it did not attend, Belarus State Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Volfovich has said.

He said that the documents were agreed upon beforehand.

The Belarusian foreign minister, Sergei Aleinik, confirmed that CSTO decisions are made by consensus. “I have had a telephone conversation with my Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan. We discussed, among other things, these issues and decision-making mechanisms. All decisions that will be made today will be absolutely legitimate. In accordance with the rules and procedures of the organization, all decisions are made by consensus of all member countries. We agreed that following the summit, the CSTO secretary general will visit Yerevan. And, naturally, we will forward all the decisions finalized here within the framework of the conciliation commission to our Armenian partners. And we will count on them to join these decisions,” BelTA quoted him as saying.

 17:30,

GYUMRI, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. President of Iraq Abdul Latif Rashid has visited Gyumri as part of his official trip to Armenia.

He was accompanied by Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan.

The Iraqi president visited the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies and then participated in the Connecting Innovations Armenian-Iraqi Tech Initiative which took place in Sev Berd castle.

“We must now look ahead and do everything we can to make Armenia a technologically developed country. I am sure that the further cooperation, also intensification of the political relations, will benefit the development of this area as well,” Khachaturyan said, highlighting the friendship of Armenia and Iraq.

“When there’s an alternative, we become safer, when there isn’t, we are in danger. Let’s use the opportunities that Iraq has. For this, we need to get to know the Iraqi people and Iraqi economy’s demands better,” Khachaturyan added.

 President of Iraq Abdul Latif Rashid lauded the new level of cooperation between the two countries.

“Many Armenians are working in various cities in Iraq, in various sectors, we can have the new phase of cooperation not only on the state level, but also in business sectors,” he said.

 The Armenian President said that all prerequisites exist for strengthening the age-old friendship between the two countries, and that the IT sector can become a new area for cooperation.

 17:33,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov has said that Moscow expects Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s participation in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summits scheduled to take place in Saint Petersburg in December.

 "I think they [Armenian delegation] will come to Saint Petersburg, where the traditional informal CIS summit will take place, and also the official EAEU meeting. By the way, at this meeting the chairmanship [of EAEU] will pass from us to Armenia, thus I believe that Pashinyan will arrive to accept the chairmanship from President Putin,” TASS quoted Ushakov as saying.

 18:01,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia Narek Mkrtchyan on Thursday received the delegation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China, headed by Vice Minister Zhan Chengfu.

During the meeting, the perspectives of sectoral cooperation and a number of issues of mutual interest were discussed, the ministry said in a press release.

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs highly appreciated the role of long-standing friendly relations between Armenia and China and in this context emphasized the importance of joint work in the fields of social protection of both countries.

"We have effective cooperation with the Chinese Embassy in Armenia and have implemented many joint projects. We hope that further initiatives with the Ministry of Civil Affairs will also have tangible results," the minister said.

Zhan Chengfu, in turn, thanked for the reception and noted that the members of the delegation were impressed by Armenia.

"Both Armenia and China are developing countries, and we should help each other to find the right way of development. We have a lot to learn from Armenia and a lot of work to do together," said the head of the delegation, adding that they are ready to exchange experience in various fields.

''During the meeting, the parties also referred to the process of providing social support to forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh. Zhan Chengfu noted that they are ready to take necessary steps to overcome the crisis created in Armenia.

As part of the visit, separate discussions with the representatives of the sector with the participation of the delegation members, as well as visits to the care facilities operating under the ministry are planned,'' the ministry said.

 18:30,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. All Armenian political prisoners, POWs and hostages illegally held in Azerbaijan must be released immediately in accordance with the international law.

This is noted in the report of the Center for Truth and Justice entitled “Azerbaijan Must Release All Armenian Political Prisoners, POWs and Hostages.”

The report indicates that on Sept. 19, 2023, an Azerbaijani offensive, the second in three years, set the stage for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from their ancestral land of Nagorno-Karabakh. Within 10 days, over 100,000 Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh and found refuge in neighboring Armenia.

During the Sep-Nov 2020 and Sep 2023 wars against Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani authorities detained some 200 Armenian civilians and military personnel.

“Dozens remain in Azerbaijani jails illegally, some awaiting trials and others illegally convicted to lengthy jail terms,’’ reads the report.

It is noted that according to Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general, 300 former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh are wanted  for alleged war crimes committed during the wars. Eight of these leaders were detained, humiliated in front of cameras, and transferred to prisons in Baku.

Referring to the hostages, the authors of the report noted that an unknown number of Armenian civilians were taken prisoner since 2020 by Azerbaijani security personnel in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and within the borders of Armenia.

As for POWs, according to the report, 36 Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) remain in Azerbaijani prisons.

“The 2020 war POWs should have been released in accordance with the 10 November 2020 ceasefire agreement. Now that both wars are over, all POWs from must be freed immediately in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The majority of prisoners of war were taken a month after the official ceasefire in 2020, and in the area of Khtsaberd.

These political prisoners, POWs and hostages, some of whom have been convicted illegally to lengthy jail terms in Azerbaijan, must be freed immediately in accordance with international law, and at the very least as a confidence-building measure so that the ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan can produce results. The international community, in particular the U.S., Russia and EU mediators, as well as others, have an obligation to persuade Azerbaijan to free them unconditionally and immediately,’’ reads the report.

All the hostages are represented by name in the report, including the persons who held leadership positions in Nagorno-Karabakh: Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan, Davit Babayan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Ruben Vardanyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, Davit Manukyan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, as well as captured civilians and military personnel.