Author: Ani Basmajian

 10:36, 3 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Winter rafting, snowkiting, snowboarding: Armenia has interesting offers for tourists this year.

Specialists claim this year the country has chances to recover the tourist loss, which occured because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Artsakh War.

The Tourism Committee told ARMENPRESS that they do everything to bring tourists to Armenia.

PR and digital marketing expert at the Tourism Committee Gayane Ayvazyan said that they have already planned several campaigns in digital field for winter aimed at raising Armenia’s attractiveness as a country of winter interests.

According to the Tourism Committee, winter is favorable for conducting targeted marketing campaigns. Russia, some European countries, the United States and Ukraine, which recently showed activeness, are under the target. The Committee claims a lot needs to be done to position Armenia from more favorable positions and show the country’s all attractions to tourists.

In their turn tour companies are making interesting offers, they state that there are many means to boost the flow of tourists in winter, as according to them, Armenia has many other options to attract tourists in addition to Tsaghkadzor and Jermuk resort towns.

One Way Tour founding director Matevos Barseghyan says a lot of events need to be organized, it’s necessary to advertise Armenia, first of all as a safe country. According to him, it’s necessary to establish contacts with the tour companies of those countries from where Armenia wants to attract tourists.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 20:34, 1 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Justice  of Armenia Karen Andreasyan received the representatives of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance organization on December 1.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, during the meeting, the parties discussed the implementation of the Constitutional reforms and the representation of the organization in the reform process.

Representatives of the International IDEA welcomed the efforts of the Ministry of Justice in the process of constitutional reform, emphasizing that the reforms are important, they must be acceptable for the people.

The Minister thanked the representatives of “International IDEA” for their support in the process of constitutional reform.

The representatives of the organization praised the work carried out by the ministry and expressed readiness to support the reforms in the field of justice․

The Minister of Justice and the representatives of “International IDEA” agreed to implement the Constitutional reforms with joint efforts.

 15:16,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus hasn’t been detected in Armenia so far, Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan said at a press conference.

She said they are regularly sending samples to the laboratory for sequencing, with latest samples being sent today.  “As of this moment we don’t have a confirmed [Omicron variant],” Avanesyan said.

The Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa.

The variant spread around the world on Sunday, with new cases found in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.

On November 29, the Armenian health authorities said they plan to temporarily restrict the entry of citizens of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania over the Omicron variant.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 13:29,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. On November 23, President of the Senate of the Republic of France Gérard Larcher hosted the delegation led by Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan, who arrived in Paris on a working visit.

Alen Simonyan expressed his gratitude to Gérard Larcher for the invitation to take part in the Forum entitled “Armenia After One Year”, the Parliament’s press service reports.

The President of the Senate of France thanked the Armenian Speaker of Parliament for accepting the invitation, noting that they thoroughly follow the situation in Armenia and they are well aware of the post-war developments.

The counterparts considered remarkable that the Forum would be held one year after almost unanimous adoption of the resolution on the Necessity of the Recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on November 23, 2020 and after 20 years of the adoption of the law recognizing the Armenian Genocide by France.

Speaker Simonyan has affirmed that those historical events are exceptional manifestations of solidarity towards Armenia and the Armenian people, and unique examples of unanimity in the inner-political life of France. In this context the Armenian side highly appreciated the adoption of the resolutions on condemning the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Artsakh and the necessity of the recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic by the two Chambers of Parliament of France, as well as the humanitarian assistance provided by the French state and different organizations.

The sides have touched upon the provocative and aggressive actions carried out by Azerbaijan on the border of Armenia, recording that Azerbaijan violates the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement.

Presenting details on the post-war situation at his colleague’s request, Alen Simonyan stressed the call of Armenia to all international colleagues – to distinctly and targeted respond to these actions seriously endangering the regional peace and security by the Azerbaijani side and undertake practical steps in preventing theme and withdrawal of the armed forces of Azerbaijan from the Republic of Armenia. The parties documented the importance of the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the auspice of and within the framework of the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group. During the talk the attention was drawn to the urgent settlement of the post-war humanitarian problems, including the necessity of the repatriation of all prisoners of war and civilian hostages.

The sides referred to the fire opened in the direction of the Armenian positions located in the section of the village of Norabak of Gegharkunik Marz from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border a few hours ago from the meeting, as a consequence of which serviceman Suren Safaryan died. The sides considered the aggressive actions of Azerbaijan an encroachment also against democracy.

The counterparts talked about the remarkable functions of the inter-parliamentary cooperation in the development of the inter-state relations, as well as the dynamics of the Armenian-French high-ranking political dialogue.

The meeting has been concluded by signing the Agreement of Cooperation between the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the Senate of the Republic of France, which designs multi-polar cooperation for the benefit of friendship and solidarity existing between the two countries.

 10:26,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. The Persian Gulf-Black Sea international transportation corridor project, initiated by Iran, is gradually taking form. In case of implementation, this project could create a big transit road from India to the countries of Eastern Europe, by boosting the commercial ties of Asia and Europe and also raising Armenia’s economic, political share in the region.

The Embassy of Iran in Armenia told Armenpress that this agreement could be approved at the next meeting of the participating countries in Sofia.

The Persian Gulf-Black Sea transportation corridor is a major international program aimed at economically connecting the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. Iran pushed forward the idea back in 2016. At that time Tehran announced that the project will include also all the three republics of the South Caucasus, and Armenia could be one of the transit roads leading to the Black Sea. However, after the recent meetings of the representatives of the participating states and the developments in the region it turned out that Azerbaijan is left out of the project. Meanwhile, Armenia is actively taking part in the project.

The Embassy said that currently Armenia, Georgia, Greece and Bulgaria are involved in this Iranian initiative. However, other countries as well, including India, can have a participation to the project, which would greatly expand the geography of this corridor.

Armenia can also greatly contribute to this project with the North-South highway that is under construction. And Iran highly appreciates these efforts of the Armenian government.

“Fortunately, the government in Armenia is also consistent with the construction of the North-South highway in the Armenian territory. This road would be a very important connecting chain in the Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor and would significantly raise the attractiveness of the Armenian railway”, the Embassy said.

Since the launch of the initiative in 2016, five stages of expert talks of the working group formed that time have taken place in Tehran (2 times), Sofia, Tbilisi and the last one was held in Yerevan. The delegations of Iran, Armenia (offline) and Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece (online) participated in that meeting in Yerevan in April 2021.

“Azerbaijan was not in attendance”, the Iranian Embassy said.

The Embassy informed that during that meeting in Yerevan the sides demonstrated a will to finalize the text of the agreement and agreed upon the tasks over some sections of the draft text.

“The member states try to do so that the agreement is approved during the upcoming meeting in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia”, the Embassy said.

According to the Embassy, the launch of this project would contribute to increasing the trade exchange rates of Asia with Europe thanks to the economic efficiency and security of the corridor.

“Taking into account the starting and end points of this corridor, it should be noted that this is a multi-model corridor. Cargo from the Persian Gulf will enter Iran by sea. Iran has big ports in the south, some of which are at a development stage. By land, these cargos as well can be transported by the railway network or roads of the countries on the route, such as Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the next part, in other words, from the Black Sea ports to the final destination, the option of sea transportation could also be applied”, the Embassy said, adding that in addition to physical problems connected with the creation of necessary infrastructures, there are also legal issues, the payment issue, the necessary rules of procedures.

As for the possibility of India’s joining the corridor, the Embassy recalled the interest of Indian officials to this route during the official visit of the Indian Foreign Minister in Yerevan in October. Tehran believes that the facilitation of cargo transportation to the Black Se would be beneficial to all countries that have access to the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea.

“Iran and India have good cooperation in the field of transportation, and Indian companies are participating in the Chabahar Port development program and the construction of a new railway in Iran’s east. All countries are interested in having convenient and varied routes. The creation of respective infrastructures and the facilitation of transportations along the Person Gulf to the Black Sea would be attractive not only for the negotiating countries, but also for all those that have an access to the Person Gulf and the Black Sea, both for the other countries of the Persian Gulf and the countries of the Eastern Europe”, the Iranian Embassy said.

Reporting by Aram Sargsyan

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan