Author: Andranik Taslakhchian

Preliminary probe into case involving producer Armen Grigoryan over

Andranik Taslakhchian
Panorama
Armenia –


The preliminary investigation into the case involving producer Armen Grigoryan has been completed, lawyers Ruben Melikyan and Armen Mashinyan said, citing the agency dealing with the probe.

“The case files have been made available to the defense lawyers for study,” they said in a statement on Saturday.

Court hearings on the case are expected to begin in July.

The lawyers reiterate that the act incriminated to Grigoryan does not contain elements of a crime under Armenia’s Criminal Code and his prosecution is politically motivated.

Grigoryan was arrested in May on charges of “humiliating national dignity” of the residents of Shirak and Ararat Provinces and questioning their national identity in various interviews.

Resistance Movement rally takes place in Yerevan

Andranik Taslakhchian
NEWS.am
Armenia –
19:34, 18.06.2022

Rally of the Resistance Movement is held in France Square in Yerevan.

Earlier Ishkhan Saghatelyan, the coordinator of the Resistance Movement, vice-speaker of the Armenian Parliament from the opposition, representative of the Supreme Body of ARF Dashnaktsutyun announced that during today’s rally they will present their vision of Armenia’s future.

Government of Armenia stood, stands and will stand by Artsakh – PM

Andranik Taslakhchian

Save

Share

 15:09,

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS. In 2021-2022 the budget of Artsakh has reached an unprecedented level: the budgetary support provided by the Armenian government to Artsakh has reached an unprecedented amount. The government of Armenia has stood, stands and will stand by Artsakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in his remarks during the Parliament’s debate of the 2021 state budget performance annual report.

Pashinyan said that during 2021 the opposition has developed two main thesis according to which the government has left Artsakh alone, and secondly, they urged to adopt the resolution “Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan”, trying to justify that this has been their policy when they were in power, and if today’s leadership is not adopting it, it is a betrayal regarding the Artsakh issue.

The PM said the first thesis is denied just by the budget indicators. “In 2021-2022 the budget of Artsakh has reached an unprecedented amount, and the Armenian government’s budgetary support to Artsakh has reached an unprecedented amount. In 2019 the budget of Artsakh comprised 117.9 billio drams, which has been the highest in the pre-war period, I mean, since 90s. 57.8 billion drams of this money has been paid by the Armenian government. In 2021 the revenue part of the Artsakh budget has been 174 billion drams, 128 billion drams of which is the money paid by Armenia. In other words, the budget of Artsakh in the post-war period has been the highest in history, Artsakh has never had a bigger budget, and Armenia has never provided support with such a scale to Artsakh. Thus, Armenia’s assistance to Artsakh in 2021 has increased by 122% compared to 2019 or by 70 billion drams. And the budget of Artsakh has increased by 48% or 45 billion drams”, the PM said.

Pashinyan reminded that the government of Armenia has implemented a program worth 136 billion drams in Artsakh from December 2020 to the end of 2021. The salaries of employees of all budgetary agencies of Artsakh, the pensions and benefits have been paid that time with the funds provided from the budget of Armenia. The healthcare and education expenditures have been covered with these funds.

Coming to 2022, the budgetary support of the Armenian government to Artsakh comprises 160 billion drams, in other words the support provided by Armenia to Artsakh in 2022 has increased by 32 billion drams compared to 2021, and 102 billon drams compared to 2019. These funds contributed to the increase of pensions and benefits in Artsakh by around 20%, large-scale housing works are underway.

The PM said the government has not voiced this so much. “And I think we did right because this is our work. And the government of Armenia has stood, stands and will stand by Artsakh, no matter how much some circles do not notice it or try to sow contradictions between Armenia and Artsakh”, the PM added.

Artsakh Diocese Primate: Azerbaijan wants to replace Dadivank’s Armenian clergy with Baku’s Russian Diocese servants

Andranik Taslakhchian
NEWS.am
Armenia – June 7 2022
13:28, 07.06.2022

There is information that Azerbaijan wants to ask the Russian side so that the Armenian clergy of Dadivank Monastery are replaced by the clergy of the Russian Diocese of Baku. Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, Primate of the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, told Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

“I believe this information is completely in line with Azerbaijan’s policy pursued today. They do everything to bring what they want to fruition and remove our clergymen from Dadivank. They saw that they could not achieve anything with the visits of the Udis, and [therefore] they resorted to this option.

Besides the fact that they will remove the Armenian clergy, they will also say that there is no need for Russian peacekeepers [in Artsakh] anymore. I am sure that the Russian Orthodox Church will not give way to that move,” said Bishop Abrahamyan.

The Primate of the Artsakh Diocese added that intensive negotiations are underway to resume the entry of Armenian pilgrims to Dadivank.

Opposition: Let Lavrov know that negotiator has no mandate behind closed doors

Andranik Taslakhchian
NEWS.am

Armenia – June 8 2022
16:49, 08.06.2022

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Armenia today to participate in the session of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers. Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament from the opposition Ishkhan Saghatelyan wrote about it on his Facebook page.

He noted in particular:

“The Armenian people have already formed their own agenda, which today is discussed and defended in the streets, squares of Armenia and presented to the international community, including arriving international partners. The priorities emanating from the vital interests of our people have nothing in common with the agenda negotiated behind closed doors by the Armenian authorities.

That’s why we will gather tomorrow, 9 June, at 09:00 on France Square to once again raise the voice of our people and inform our strategic ally that the person who negotiates with them behind closed doors from a loser’s perspective does not express the will of the Armenian people and therefore has no mandate to conduct any process on our behalf,” he said.

Music: First round winners of Khachaturian Competition revealed

Andranik Taslakhchian
Panorama
Armenia – June 9 2022

The winners from the first round of the 18th Aram Khachaturian International Competition were announced on Wednesday..

The following contestants have made it to the second round scheduled for June 9-10:

1. Mikayel Voskanyan
3. Kyung-Jun Lee
4. Eva Arderius
9. Yo Kitamura
10. Seonwoo Park
11. Ivan Sendetckii
12. Ettore Pagano
14. Constantin Borodin
15. Tatsiana Bayaryna
17. Artyom Ioanisyan

“We congratulate them and wish successful performances in the 2nd round. Also we thank all contestants of the 1st round for being a part of the 18th Khachaturian International Competition and wish best of luck in their professional careers,” organizers said in a statement.

The Khachaturian Competition kicked off in Yerevan on June 6, the 119th birth anniversary of the great Armenian composer.

Armenia parliament deputy speaker from opposition: We will lose road to Berdzor (Lachin)

Andranik Taslakhchian
News.am
Armenia –
11:24, 10.06.2022

An alternative road is being built by Azerbaijan, to which it seems that [Armenian PM] Nikol [Pashinyan] and [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev have a conspiratorial agreement that we will lose today’s Berdzor (Lachin) road. Resistance Movement coordinator Ishkhan Saghatelyan—the National Assembly deputy speaker from the opposition “Armenia” Faction and a representative of the Supreme Body of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party of Armenia—stated this during Friday’s press conference at France Square in downtown Yerevan.

“That is, a bypass road is being built to [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) capital] Stepanakert, which is being built now and will be put into operation in 2-3 months. If that road works, it means that we will completely lose the Berdzor region (…). Most importantly, all our utilities—that is, [natural] gas, electricity—will fall under the control of the enemy. This means we will be in complete dependence, and what we were saying the ‘de-Armenianization of Artsakh,’ we also mean this. This is another conspiratorial plan,” Saghatelyan said.

Narrow-format session of CSTO Foreign Ministers begins in Yerevan

Andranik Taslakhchian

Save

Share

 11:14,

YEREVAN, JUNE 10, ARMENPRESS. The narrow-format session of the Foreign Ministers of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) kicked off in Yerevan.

The session will be followed by an extended-format session, the Armenian foreign ministry reported.

International and regional security, the strengthening of CSTO crisis response mechanisms are on agenda.

Protest staged outside Armenian Foreign Ministry

Andranik Taslakhchian
Panorama
Armenia – May 31 2022

A protest was held outside the Armenian government building housing the Foreign Ministry and several other ministries in downtown Yerevan on Tuesday as part of the opposition campaign to topple Nikol Pashinyan.

Opposition leader and deputy parliament speaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan urged protesters to refrain from clashes with the police.

Opposition lawmakers wanted to enter the government building and to talk to the ministers about the issues raised by the opposition, including Artsakh’s status and Armenian-Turkish relations.

They negotiated with police officers guarding the building for an hour to be let in. Eventually, no meeting took place between the minsters and the MPs.

“The ministers avoid meetings with parliament deputies. They are simply afraid and are hiding behind police cordons,” Saghatelyan said before they marched through the city.

FM: If there was no Artsakh, geopolitical landscape of South Caucasus would radically change

Andranik Taslakhchian
Panorama
Armenia – May 31 2022

Artsakh plays a key role in maintaining the geopolitical balance, Artsakh’s Foreign Minister David Babayan said on Tuesday.

“Artsakh, its very existence, is among the most important factors in maintaining the regional and even global geopolitical balance. If there was no Artsakh, the geopolitical landscape of Transcaucasia would radically change, and after that the same would take place also in the adjacent regions,” he wrote on Facebook.

“This would lead to the situation where maintaining the geopolitical balance by traditional means (a system of geostrategic checks and balances, etc.) will be practically impossible. This will lead to an open, tough and direct confrontation between the centers of power. And what can happen when it is impossible to maintain the geopolitical balance by traditional means and when the great global and regional powers will openly clash with each other? I think the answer is very clear. The world may even be on the brink of nuclear war,” the minister said.