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ANKARA, March 31 (Xinhua) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that he planned to visit the city of Shusha in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in May.
“We hope that we will celebrate another festival in Shusha as soon as possible when we visit it after Eid al-Fitr,” Erdogan said via a video link.
Last November, Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders agreed on a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Enditem
The Court of General Jurisdiction in Yerevan, presided over by judge Anna Danibekyan, on Friday will continue hearings in the case of the alleged overthrow of the constitutional order involving Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan and three other former top officials.
The court is expected to hear a defense motion to end the criminal prosecution against Kocharyan under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code, his legal team said in a statement on Thursday. The motion had been filed to the court on March 27.
Earlier last Friday, the Constitutional Court of Armenia ruled that Article 300․1 of the Criminal Code is unconstitutional and invalid, noting that it runs counter to Articles 78 and 79 of the Constitution.
Armenia acquires “AstraZeneca’’ COVID-19 vaccine at an affordable price
17:57,
YEREVAN, MARCH 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenia acquires “AstraZeneca’’ COVID-19 vaccine for 4.5 USD per one dose instead of the 25 USD in in the international market, ARMENPRESS reports Deputy General Director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Armenia, Head of the National Immunization Program Gayane Sahakyan told the reporters.
“The cost of Astra Zeneca is very high in the international market, it reaches 25 USD. We have acquired it in the sidelines of COVAX Facility initiative, thank to which we pay 4.5 USD for one dose. This is quite an affordable price for our country’’, Sahakyan said.
According to her, in the first stage priority will be given to 4 risk groups, in the second stage the program will expand and cover more groups.
“Yesterday we received the first batch of the vaccines. Today we are carrying out intensive works and by the end of the week the vaccines will be delivered to remote villages’’, she said.
Armenia has acquired 24 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
10:01,
YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Minister of High-Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan says he is ready to “bear responsibility” after a CCTV footage emerged online allegedly showing him physically assaulting a reporter in a Yerevan restaurant.
“First of all I’d like to say that I am against any kind of violence and I am guided by the principle of solving issues with civilized methods,” Arshakyan said in a statement. “Every citizen has the right to inviolability of his private and family life. Any member of our society, be it an official or a journalist, is first of all a human being, who has emotions and is mindful especially in any matter concerning his family. I’d like to apologize to all citizens who witnessed the incident, and to all who have been disturbed by my actions. Lastly, I’d like to say that I am ready to bear responsibility over this incident,” the minister said.
The journalist involved in the incident is Paylak Fahradyan. He says he saw Arshakyan in the restaurant and asked him why he was there instead of being in the office. After exchanging a few words, Fahradyan is seen in the CCTV video returning to his table. Arshakyan is seen approaching the journalist and assaulting him afterwards.
The prosecution said it forwarded the recording of the incident to the Special Investigations Service for proceedings.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Azerbaijani political emigrants have called on EU authorities to respond to Baku’s actions.
On March 14, in the western French city of Nantes, unknown assailants attacked the Azerbaijani blogger Muhammad Mirzali. Mirzali, 27, was taken to hospital with 16 stab wounds. This is not the first attack on Azerbaijani refugees. On March 15, political emigrants living in Europe called on the EU authorities to respond to Baku’s actions.
An Azerbaijani journalist living in Strasbourg, Emin Akhmedbekov told RFI, Mirzali’s condition improved after the surgery, but he still has a long rehabilitation.
According to him, the assassination attempt on Mirzali was not a surprise or accident.
Before that, there was an attempt on another blogger – Orkhan Agayev was attacked in Berlin. He was beaten on 13 February. And on January 6, blogger Gamil Mammadov, who also lives in Germany, was attacked. There was also an incomprehensible incident on December 31 – the Azerbaijani political emigrant Vugar Rza disappeared in Brussels, and only on January 15 was his body found in the river.
“For several years, we have repeatedly stated that European politicians take bribes from the Azerbaijani authorities. European politicians received colossal bribes. Nobody believed us,” he noted.
For a long time, European law enforcement agencies were silent. Only after 2017, when the Commission of the Council of Europe launched an investigation, thanks to the activities of the Azerbaijani opposition, the facts of bribery of politicians and officials of the European Union were revealed.”
“Today we are talking about a big threat in Europe associated with these groups, with dictatorial regimes.”
12:57,
YEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. German Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office Michael Roth has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to cooperate with the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in full transparency over the matters relating to the prisoners of war and missing persons.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan need to cooperate with ICRC in full transparency, on prisoners of war and missing persons. Lasting peace and reconciliation require a political solution under the auspices of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs!” the German Minister of State said on Twitter.
He also noted that “the fighting in Nagorno Karabakh has ended, but wounds are still open”.
YEREVAN. – Past daily of Armenia writes: These days, the focus of internal political events is the well-known statement of Armed Forces General Staff chief Onik Gasparyan and dozens of other high-ranking officers demanding the resignation of [PM] Nikol Pashinyan.
According to Past newspaper’s information, in separate meetings, including with military circles, Nikol Pashinyan promised to resign on March 9 or 10, after which snap [parliamentary] elections shall be organized.
According to the newspaper’s sources, Nikol Pashinyan actually assured that on March 9, when Onik Gasparyan’s dismissal decision will come into force, and when, in fact, he [Pashinyan] will not see any danger from the army, he will resign and hold snap [parliamentary] elections in May.
However, neither the general nor the political and analytical circles believe, to put it mildly, Pashinyan.
On the other hand, the prevailing opinion is that if snap elections are held by these authorities, an unprecedented amount of administrative resources will be used, and the election results will be falsified.
Saturday, Armenian PM, President Discuss Possible Snap Elections Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and President Armen Sarkissian, March 13, 2021 Armenian President Armen Sarkissian on Saturday met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian as part of discussions initiated by him to defuse the current political crisis in the country. According to the president’s press office, during their meeting Sarkissian and Pashinian discussed “the situation in the country, ways of resolving it and overcoming the internal political crisis.” “In this context, they discussed holding early parliamentary elections as a solution,” the report disseminated by the president’s press office said. The Pashinian government has been under pressure to resign after Armenia suffered a defeat in a six-week war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh last fall. Opposition parties and groups demanding Pashinian’s resignation renewed their street protests in late February. Earlier this week President Sarkissian offered to host talks between Pashinian and opposition leaders aimed at ending the political crisis in Armenia. The leaders of the pro-government My Step parliamentary faction and one of the two opposition factions, Bright Armenia, accepted the invitation to the talks set for March 13 and their meetings with President Sarkissian were held later today. In a statement disseminated late on Friday, the president’s office said that the two other sides invited to the talks – the parliamentary opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the Homeland Salvation Movement, an alliance of about a dozen political parties and groups, including the BHK, demanding Prime Minister Pashinian’s resignation in the street – had proposed their own agendas and set conditions for the meeting, which made the format of talks in which all invited parties would meet at one table “unfeasible.” As Pashinian visited the presidential compound in a heavily guarded motorcade, supporters of the Homeland Salvation Movement staged more protests in the adjacent boulevard that they have been blocking since late February. The opposition movement continues to insist that Pashinian must step down and a provisional government led by its leader Vazgen Manukian should be formed before snap parliamentary elections can be held in a year. Ishkhan Saghatelian, one of the leaders of the movement, said that in order to be able to discuss their possible participation in snap elections, first Pashinian must step down and then the parliament must be dissolved. “The prime minister’s resignation and dissolution of parliament should take place before snap elections can be held. If these two processes are completed and we will have snap elections ahead, we will express our position on whether we take part in these elections, and if we do, then in what format. But [Pashinian’s] resignation should come first,” he said, talking to media. Talking to several media on Friday, the leader of the BHK, Gagik Tsarukian, announced his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Pashinian. He said that Pashinian must resign and snap parliamentary elections must be held in the country as early as possible to end the current political crisis. Unlike it was before, Tsarukian did not appear to insist on electing a new prime minister in parliament and forming any provisional government before holding preterm elections at some point in the future. Earlier, Edmon Marukian, the leader of the other opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament, said his faction was ready not to field any candidate if Pashinian resigned to clear the way for snap elections. Pashinian enjoys a comfortable majority in the Armenian parliament and practically does not need any assurance on the part of the opposition to resign and ensure that the parliament twice fails to elect a new prime minister for snap elections to be appointed. He and his political team, however, have sought such assurances from the two opposition factions to exclude any risks of political upheavals in the country. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.