President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory letter to President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on the country’s Independence Day.
In the letter President Sarkissian expressed confidence that the development of the Armenian-Ukrainian relations derives from the fundamental interests of the two peoples. He addressed his wishes to his Ukrainian counterpart, as well as wished peace and welfare to the good people of Ukraine.
ArmenPress, Armenia Aug 24 2018 Chancellor Merkel's visit unprecedented in 26-year-old diplomatic relations between Germany and Armenia YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Armenia on an official visit on August 24-25. ARMENPRESS has summed up the 26 years of the bilateral relations between Armenia and Germany ahead of the Chancellor’s visit. Armenia and Germany have established diplomatic relations in January 1992. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations the Armenian side has conducted 26 official visits to Germany at the president, prime minister and foreign minister level. The Chancellor’s visit among the German officials who paid official visits to Armenia since 1995 is unprecedented. Before this, there have been visits from Germany at the Bundestag president, deputy prime minister and the federal foreign minister level. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties Armenia and Germany have signed 45 agreements in economic, educational, cultural and commercial sectors. 5 memorandums of cooperation in different areas have been signed. The trade turnover volume from Armenia to Germany in 2017 comprised 132 483.5 USD, and the import - 206 523.3USD. On June 15, 2005 the German Parliament adopted a decision on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. On April 23, 2015 German President Joachim Gauck issued a statement on the Armenian Genocide, and on June 2, 2016 the Bundestag adopted a resolution on the Genocide. On the sidelines of Merkel’s visit to Armenia, Armenian-German high-level talks will be held led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Chancellor Angela Merkel. They will sum up the results of talks during a joint press conference. Angela Merkel is also scheduled to meet with President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian. The German Chancellor will visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 21
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
The willingness of the parties to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to establish a bilateral dialogue, hear the opponent and make compromises remain the main factors that would allow stimulating the negotiation process on the conflict’s settlement, Georgy Fedorov, Russian expert, president of the Aspect Center for Social and Political Studies, said in an interview with Trend and Azernews.
He was commenting on the intensification of the negotiation process on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement.
There is no need to change the existing format of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia-US-France), he added.
“The existing format remains the most appropriate one,” he said.
Fedorov noted that many regional powers have their own interests in the concrete outcome of the talks on Nagorno-Karabakh, or, on the contrary, in the deliberate prolongation of the conflict.
As for the internal situation in Armenia, Pashinyan’s government will be concerned over domestic problems, the economic situation and other pressing issues in the next few months, according to the expert’s forecast.
“Armenia, despite the changes in the political leadership of the country, remains economically dependent on Russia in many respects,” Fedorov said. “Therefore, no sharp steps, at least in the near future, will happen in Armenia’s foreign policy. Nevertheless, the overall foreign policy course in the future will be rather guided by Europe and the West as a whole.”
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Today “Royalsys Engineering ltd.” Davit Galstyan, the company’s president, and Andrey Baryshnikov, the deputy director of the “Kalashnikov” concern, signed an agreement to establish the production of the new “AK-12” and “AK-15” models of Kalashnikov in the Republic of Armenia.
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesperson of the RA Defense Minister, reports this.
Reminder, RA Defense Ministry Davit Tonoyan The delegation headed by
By Rashid Shirinov
German MP Albert Weiler made illegal visits to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in 2014 and 2016, and therefore his name has been included in the list of “undesirable persons” since that period, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on August 21.
He was commenting on reports in the Bild newspaper about the ban on the German MP’s entry into the territory of Azerbaijan.
“Some foreign media noted that as if his name was included in this list only now. This is incorrect information, as the name of Weiler has been in the list of “undesirable persons” since 2014. This man made illegal visits to the territory of Azerbaijan occupied by the armed forces of Armenia,” the spokesman noted.
Hajiyev stressed that it is necessary to respect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and laws of other countries, and in this context illegal visits to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan are unacceptable.
He added that at the same time Azerbaijan takes a constructive position on this issue, and if the persons who do not conduct activities directly against Azerbaijan send letters of apology and express respect for the territorial integrity and laws of Azerbaijan, the exclusion of their names from the list of “undesirable persons” may be considered and such experience already exists.
“If this person addresses us, we can consider this case, but such appeals from him have not been received so far. Therefore, there is a ban on his entry into the territory of Azerbaijan,” Hajiyev said.
Names of any individuals paying unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are included in the Foreign Ministry’s list of “undesirable persons.” The ministry and diplomatic missions pay special attention to the illegal activity in the occupied areas of the country.
Baku has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats of illegality of visits to its territories that are occupied by Armenia, calling them contradictory to international law. The work is constantly carried out to prevent such illegal actions.
Even though Grigor Grigoryan, the former head of the State Food Safety Service, has been heading the structure for three months, he knows exactly how to present the information about the food safety to the consumer. Today, he told the journalists about his approach to this issue.
According to Grigoryan, the information provided by the authorized body should be explained in detail to the consumer that he will not be afraid and suspect in terms of food safety. “The authorized body should present the highest quality information. It should be short, but meaningful, and be informative for non-professionals,” he told at the meeting.
According to him, three cases of dangerous foodstuffs are being discussed in social networks these days.
“One of them is the imported chicken wings, which were intended for industrial processing, but for some reason, they were sold at the shopping center. Also, information has been spread about the quality of “Kurnikov” type of chicken and about the buffalo meat during the last two or three days. Information about these cases is very controversial, and they have been analyzied differently and the quality of the information is low.
Media spread news about the “Kurnikov” type of chicken that it had poor quality, but based on the official source’s information, the importer was not yet clear. At the same time, there was a note in the internet, ‘calm down people, everything is ok,’”said Grigor Grigoryan.
According to Grigor Grigoryan, in case of accessible and detailed information about food, it will be easy for the consumer to orient and get quality food.
Trend News Agency (Baku, Azerbaijan) August 1, 2018 Wednesday BRIEF: President Aliyev: Azerbaijan to continue policy of Armenia's isolation Aug. 01--Azerbaijan will continue to pursue the policy of isolation and, by using all means, will further shake Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev said. President Aliyev made the remarks in Baku Aug. 1 at a ceremony to give out apartments and cars to the people disabled in the Karabakh war, Great Patriotic War, the Chernobyl disabled, and families of martyrs. "If the Armenian leadership continues to drag out negotiations, we will continue to pursue our policy of isolation and, by using all means, will further shake Armenia," the president said. President Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan also played a significant role in the collapse of the criminal junta regime in Armenia.
Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian with 2767 points has found himself in an unfamiliar position, the 13th place.
Other Armenian players in top 100 are Gabriel Sargsyan (ranked at 59t), Hrant Melkumyan (85) and Vladimir Hakobyan (93).
World champion Magnus Carlsen with 2842 points remains a confident leader in the list.
Representatives of Turkey’s religious communities have denied claims their groups were facing oppression, stressing that they are practicing their religions freely.
“Statements alleging and suggesting there is oppression toward us are completely unfounded and injudicious,” the communities said in a joint statement, signed by the representatives of 18 religious minority groups, on July 31.
The representatives, including Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Dimitri Bartholomew, Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, and Chief Rabbi of the Turkish Jewish Community Ishak Haleva, said that as minority leaders they “felt the responsibility to inform the public with the truth.”
They said there were different criticisms wrongly portraying Turkey and claiming that there is religious and cultural oppression in the country.
“As religious representatives of ancient communities with different religions and beliefs, which have been in this country for centuries, we hereby declare that we are practicing our religions in accordance with our traditions and are practicing our beliefs freely,” the statement read.
“Many problems and victimizations that happened in the past were resolved over the years. Regarding the subjects that we aim to work on, we are in continuous dialogue with our state’s institutions with mutual goodwill and solution-based conscience,” it added.
Fifteen other representatives of religious communities in Turkey that signed the statement included Patriarchal Vicar of the Syriac Orthodox Church Mor Filiksinos Yusuf Çetin, Apostolic Administrator of the Armenian Archeparchy of Istanbul Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, Chaldean Catholic Community spiritual leader François Yakan and pastor Krikor Ağabaloğlu of the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. If the government were not to declare a state of emergency on March 1, 2008 it could’ve led to additional victims, according to former minister of justice Davit Harutyunyan.
“The situation in those days in downtown Yerevan was such that not declaring state of emergency could have led to additional victims. I am saying this as a citizen whose house was nearby the very actions,” Harutyunyan told reporters today in parliament.
Harutyunyan said the declaring state of emergency is part of the tools of the president granted to him by the Consitutiokn, and a president must not answer for his actions during his tenure after his term in office ends.
“The president’s duties obliges him to ensure the security of Armenia. And these very powers, which are granted to the president for solving tasks, any action stemming from this, cannot imply responsibility in the future for these steps. Otherwise any president at the most decisive moment when the latter has to declare martial law, right up to war, can be constrained, thinking what will happen after a regime change,” argues Harutyunyan.
Speaking about the charges against former President Robert Kocharyan, Harutyunyan says he doesn’t see a legal language in the statement of the Special Investigative Service.
“I don’t see a legal part here,” he said, adding that he voiced the same opinion about the SIS’s statement concerning Michael Harutyunyan.
The former justice minister says criminal prosecution of the second president of Armenia is extremely concerning. He said that a state of emergency regime implies the use of the military during state of emergency.
“The law was adopted in 2012, and the bill passed the expertise of the Venice commission, and there was no objection in this regard, because similar approach is adopted in numerous countries,” he said.
Harutyunyan says the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), his party, will soon present its political assessment over the issue.
The March 1 case is an ongoing investigation into the deadly 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Kocharyan was the outgoing president at the time, as Serzh Sargsyan was named winner of the presidential election. Mass protests erupted in Yerevan, which led to fatal clashes between security forces and demonstrators.
Earlier criminal charges were pressed against Kocharyan over the March 1 case, and prosecutors requested a court to issue an arrest warrant.
Kocharyan is charged with paragraph 1 of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code (breaching Constitutional order).
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan