Author: Andranik Taslakhchian

 12:08,

ROME, SEPTEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church met in Rome to begin their second attempt at electing a patriarch for their church, UCANews reported.

The bishops had met in Lebanon for two weeks beginning June 22, but no candidate had garnered the two-thirds vote necessary to succeed Patriarch Grégoire Pierre XX Ghabroyan, who died in Beirut May 25.

In accordance with church law, after the unsuccessful election, the bishops turned to Pope Francis. He asked them to gather in Rome and begin the electoral process again Sept. 22 after two days of prayer and reflection.

 13:44, 13 September, 2021

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan will visit the city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan from September 14 to 17 to participate in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) joint meeting of the foreign ministerial, security council and defense ministerial committees.

Bilateral meetings are expected as part of the visit, Grigoryan’s office said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 14:08, 13 September, 2021

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian’s Purgatorio – based on the eponymous second part of Dante’s Divine Comedy was played at the Ravenna Festival in Italy on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Italian poet’s death.

The concert was conducted by Riccardo Muti.

Speaking to ARMENPRESS, Mansurian praised the excellent performance. “What Riccardo Muti did with the orchestra, the choir, baritone Gurgen Baveyan and cellist Giovanni Sollima was dimply wonderful. I’ve rarely heard such good performance. There’ve been good performances, but very few like this. I am very happy. The audience was also happy and accepted Purgatorio very well. I think one of my best works was born on the 700th anniversary of death of Dante,” Mansurian said.

Venice’s Center of Armenian Culture Studies and Documentation Director Minas Luryan said that Muti wanted to cooperate with Mansurian and Sollima very much for the event. Sollima also wrote the music for Divine Comedy’s Hell, while the music for Heaven was written by Valentin Silvestrov.

“Muti decided that he’d conduct only Mansurian’s work, while the other works would be conducted by younger conductors,” Luryan said, adding that more concerts are planned in Italy soon.

A concert is due September 14 in the opera theater of Florence, and at the Philharmonic hall of Verona on September 15.

Angela Hambardzumyan

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 21:10, 13 September, 2021

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. A 19-20 weeks pregnant woman died of coronavirus in one of the specialized hospitals of Armenia. ARMENPRESS reports, the Ministry of Health of Armenia informs that the latter had acute respiratory insufficiency, bilateral pneumonia with 40% lung infection.

 17:26,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. On 16 September, Armenia and Europol signed a strategic cooperation agreement to expand cooperation to combat cross-border criminal activities, Europol reports.

The agreement will enable both partners to work on some key areas such as migrant smuggling, cybercrime, drug trafficking, asset recovery, money laundering, organized property crime and trafficking in human beings.

The agreement allows for the exchange of general strategic intelligence as well as strategic and technical information and operational information with the exception of personal data, and will lead to the secondment of a Armenian Liaison Officer to Europol.

The signing of the Agreement on Strategic Cooperation concludes the successful negotiations between Armenia and Europol on how to effectively join forces to fight serious and organized crime. 

Europol is the European Union’s law enforcement agency.

 19:05,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan referred to the developments in the South Caucasus region at the narrow-format session of the CSTO Collective Security Council.

ARMENPRESS reports the PM said in his speech that along the perimeter of the CSTO collective responsibility zone, we are recording new manifestations of direct and indirect challenges and threats. ‘’Today, our region is at the threshold of very important transformations. In case of manifestation of political will and prudence, they can change the current picture and lead to the formation of conditions for true peace in the region. Our Government set a goal in its Action Plan to open a new era of peaceful development for our country and the region. And we, winning the early parliamentary elections in June this year, received a mandate to achieve this fundamental goal’’ Pashinyan said.

The Armenian PM presented to the CSTO Heads of State how he sees the achievement of a peaceful era of development. ‘’ Through dialogue, through gradual overcoming of the hostile atmosphere, which unfortunately exists in our region, and through opening of all the regional economic and transport communications. In this context, it’s very important to implement the agreements enshrined in the trilateral statements signed by the President of the Russian Federation, President of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister of Armenia on November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021’’.

Nikol Pashinyan drew the attention of the Heads of State on a very important nuance. ‘’For the solution of economic and political issues, the atmosphere in which they are discussed is very important. Unfortunately, I have to inform that Azerbaijan has not yet returned all Armenian prisoners of war, captives or other detainees, despite the 8th point of the November 9, 2020 trilateral declaration, despite the efforts of our partners, including the Russian Federation and President Putin. This purely humanitarian issue must be resolved without delay. I expect your support in this matter.”

 16:21, 9 September, 2021

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Governor of Ararat Province Razmik Tevonyan tendered his resignation, his aide Kristine Poghosyan told ARMENPRESS.

“The resignation can either be accepted or rejected within three days. As to the reasons of his resignation, I can’t say,” she said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan