Author: Ani Basmajian

Azerbaijani press: Michael Seibert: We don’t recognize so-called "presidential and parliamentary elections“ in Nagorno Karabakh

Ani Basmajian
POLITICS1 April 2020 15:04 (UTC+04:00)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 1

Trend:

We do not recognize the legal framework of the so-called “presidential and parliamentary elections“ that took place yesterday in Nagorno Karabakh, Head of the department of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia Michael Seibert stated, Trend reports on Apr. 1.

Both the so-called “elections” and their results are considered illegal, said the statement.

The so-called “presidential and parliamentary elections” were held in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh of Azerbaijan on March 31.

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, 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 Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Armenian President signs into law location data bill for contact tracing of coronavirus cases

Ani Basmajian

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 09:44, 1 April, 2020

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian has signed into law the bill on authorizing authorities to use mobile location data for contact tracing of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“The temporary restrictions of individual fundamental liberties and rights of people stipulated in the Constitutional is unavoidable during emergencies. It stems from public interest, as well as the necessity of preserving human life and health – the highest human right of anyone,” Sarkissian’s office said.

“This difficult situation requires unity, and support to the authorities”, it added.

“The President has signed into law the bill adopted by parliament on amending the law on The Legal Regime of the State of Emergency and the law on Electronic Communication. Although the laws envisage significant restrictions of human rights, the president has signed them taking into account that these restrictions will be applied by the government only as exclusive measures and exclusively during state of emergency. Therefore, the main precondition and the only goal of using these laws must be saving lives and preserving public health,” the statement said, adding that the authorities must apply the laws with “utmost responsibility”.

The bill was initially turned down in parliament on March 31, but hours later the parliament held another session and approved it.

 

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Opposition Bright Armenia party: Why is ruling force talking via Viber, WhatsApp inside country?

Ani Basmajian
News.am, Armenia

16:04, 30.03.2020

YEREVAN. – Much money will be spent to process, study, manage the base, identify, transmit those data from body to body, whereas our country is in a serious socioeconomic crisis today. Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia party and head of the Bright Armenia faction in parliament, stated this during Monday’s National Assembly debates on the draft to intervene—due to the coronavirus—in the rights to protection of personal data, the inviolability of the private and family life, and the freedom and secrecy of communication.

Referring to the matter of trust toward the government, Marukyan said: “The whole government, the ruling faction, all have Viber, WhatsApp and other programs and talk with it inside the country. Why? Don’t you trust your systems? Why are you talking with those systems? Therefore, the issue of trust also has a problem in it.”

Marukyan suggested thinking seriously about resolving the problems of people currently on the verge of poverty. “Bright Armenia is against this draft,” the MP stressed. “We are against giving up our freedoms, and in the case when it has zero impact in connection with the spread of the pandemic.”

Family of slain Armenian journalist Hrant Dink awaits justice 13 years on

Ani Basmajian
AHVAL News

  • Uzay Bulut
  • Mar 30 2020 02:10 Gmt+3
  • Last Updated On: Mar 30 2020 02:11 Gmt+3

Thirteen years after Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was shot dead in broad daylight outside his office in Istanbul, the trial of 77 people accused of involvement in his murder, including police officers and intelligence agents, is still dragging on with no end in sight.

Dink had received many death threats for writing in the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper, Agos, about the genocide Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire during World War One. Some 1.5 million were killed in massacres, or died from starvation and disease in forced marches into the Syrian desert.

Turkey denies a genocide took place and says many died in intercommunal fighting. On April 24 last year, the day the genocide is commemorated, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “The relocation of the Armenian gangs and their supporters who massacred the Muslim people, including women and children, in eastern Anatolia, was the most reasonable action that could be taken in such a period”.

Any suggestion of genocide is met with anger by many in Turkey, even more than 100 years later. Dink was prosecuted for his writing several times under Article 301 of the penal code, which makes it illegal to insult Turkey or Turkish government institutions, or to “denigrate Turkishness”.

Teenage Turkish nationalist Ogün Samast shot Dink three times in the head on Jan. 19, 2007 and pictures later emerged of Samast posing next to smiling police officers. Samast was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2011, but could be eligible for parole in 2021.

A 2017 indictment accused the officials now on trial of running a criminal network, destroying evidence, dereliction of duty and official misconduct, and other offences. Their case has been combined with the murder retrial.

A court handed prison sentences to nine suspects in relation to Dink’s murder in July last year. But out of dozens of defendants – including police, intelligence and gendarmerie officials – few remain in jail.

“The trial is continuing for 13 years and the end is nowhere in sight because there is no desire by the government to find out the truth and bring the real planners of the murder to justice, or, alternatively, there is direction by the government not to find the truth and bring the real planners of the murder to justice,” said Raffi Bedrosyan, an Armenian activist born in Istanbul and a columnist for the Armenian Weekly.

“This is why the judges and prosecutors of the case have been substituted at least 14 times so far. This is obviously a clear message to all Armenian journalists, human rights lawyers and activists to give up and not to interfere in this case,” said Bedrosyan, who has written extensively about Dink and is now based in Canada.

Agos columnist Ohannes Kılıçdağı said that he would have expected the case to have been closed long ago and the defendants allowed to walk free.

“That is what is considered normal in Turkey. If the trial process has taken so long, it is due to the courageous struggle for justice of Hrant Dink’s friends, lawyers, and rights advocates,” he said.

The Dink family and their lawyers applied to the Constitutional Court in 2016 to appeal against a decision by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office not to prosecute more officials that the Dink family and their lawyers believe were involved in the murder. But in 2019, the court rejected the request for an additional investigation.

On the 12th anniversary of Dink’s murder last year, opposition member of parliament Garo Paylan, who is of Armenian origin, submitted a parliamentary motion that aimed to shed more light on the killing. But deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their far-right nationalist allies voted down the motion.

“This trial is related to the basic nature of the Turkish state and its values,” Kılıçdağı said. “In this trial, the state is defending its own character and identity. Not surrendering their own personnel is also part of this defence, so it took years for even the simplest legal steps to be taken.”

One of the accused, Şeref Ateş, a gendarmerie intelligence officer in Istanbul at the time of Dink’s murder, was killed in an armed attack on his vehicle in the northwestern city of Düzce on March 12. Police have detained three suspects for the killing, state-run Anadolu news agency said. Ateş was arrested as part of the Dink murder case in 2016 and spent more than a year in prison pending trial before being freed on bail.

“The recent murder of the intelligence officer is also undoubtedly dark,” Kılıçdağı said. “But if we consider the gang-like nature of the state, such an incident is not unexpected according to the logic of the state and the way it operates.”

The next hearing of the Dink murder trial is due to be held on May 12. The long, drawn-out case could work in two ways, Kılıçdağı said.

“First, undoubtedly, intimidation might discourage rights advocates from the very beginning, showing that they could be in a similar situation and case. But, on the other hand, the struggle of rights advocates in this trial demonstrates that although it is very challenging, if you persevere, you can shed light on at least part of the murder – or in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s words right after Dink’s murder – on the dark corridors of the state,” he said.

“Thanks to this case, we have been able to see the dark, crooked relations within the state to some extent. And I think this is an achievement for rights defenders.”

CIVILNET.Armenia Adopts Controversial Data Collection Bill to Fight Coronavirus

Ani Basmajian
CIVILNET.AM

22:25 

By Ani Paitjan

Amid strong opposition, Armenia’s National Assembly adopted a draft bill that could limit the right to protection of personal information. On March 30, 57 deputies voted for the draft bill, 24 against and one abstention. Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling My Step Bloc, said the bill will likely be amended before being passed in the final reading.

Armenia’s government proposed amendments to the Law on the Legal Regime of State of Emergency, to impose restrictions on the right to protection of personal data, such as the inviolability of the private and personal life, and the right to freedom of communication and secrecy. Backers of the bill say these amendments are designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The bill went through an intense debate during the National Assembly session. 

Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan who presented the bill to lawmakers said the amendments would help track and isolate individuals infected with COVID-19. Under the bill, the mobile operators will provide the government with data necessary to determine the location of their customers, the telephone numbers, as well as the date, start and end of the telephone conversations, along with other personal data. Badasyan stressed that there will be no recording of the contents of the telephone calls.

Armenia’s government declared a state of emergency from March 16 to April 14 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

National Assembly deputies, including those from the ruling My Step Party, expressed their concerns about the state’s interference with the citizens’ personal data.

Ararat Mirzoyan, President of the National Assembly, asked, “Why should we collect data from a person isolated in his house in one part of Yerevan, who calls another person isolated in another part of the city? What will those calls bring to you?”

Opposition lawmakers urged the government to give up the idea of tightening control on citizens.

“This is a late settlement. This would make sense if it was applied to the first [COVID-19] patient,”stated Edmon Marukyan, leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party. “Here, it is about collecting and processing large amounts of personal data, which will require large financial resources. And we are in a crisis,” he added.

Speaking on behalf of Prosperous Armenia, another opposition party, legislator Naira Zohrabyan pointed out the importance of solving social and economic problems in the current situation.

“This is a retreat from democracy,” stated Zohrabyan. Adding that, “Instead of spending enormous resources to locate us, spend those resources to lighten the burden on people who are unemployed.”

Olya Azatyan, a lecturer on Public Policy Planning and Analyses at the Brusov State University and former adviser to the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Armenia, expressed her shock on her Facebook page:

“Even in my worst nightmares I wouldn’t imagine that the post-revolution government could discuss such an anti-democratic project,” she wrote.
 

COVID-19: European Union stands by Armenia

Ani Basmajian

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 16:19,

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. As part of its global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission stands by Eastern Partner countries and has reallocated €140 million for the most immediate needs including for Armenia. In addition, the Commission will also redirect the use of existing instruments worth up to €700 million across the region to help mitigate socio-economic impact of the coronavirus crisis, the EU Delegation to Armenia told Armenpress.

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Olivér Várhelyi said: “These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries, such as Armenia, as well. We have to do what we can to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. Today’s package responds both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as a longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries”. 

Responding to immediate needs:

Support to the Armenian health system: At the request of the partner countries, including Armenia, the Commission will respond to immediate needs by supporting the supply of medical devices and personal equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, goggles, gowns, and safety suits. The European Commission is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is deploying €30 million to ensure these necessary supplies are jointly purchased and effectively distributed to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks. In addition, the funds will support national health administrations to train medical and laboratory staff and carry out awareness raising measures to the wider population.

Support to the people who are most affected by the crisis, together with civic partners: The EU has made available more than €11.3 million in small grants to civil society organisations across the region. These funds are already responding to immediate needs, through the ongoing regional “Rapid Response Mechanism”, such as supporting local schools with distance learning. In Armenia, a project with the Red Cross will be launched in the coming days to support the elderly, vulnerable families, and people with disabilities. By the summer, and as part this package, the Commission will the launch of the “Eastern Partnership Solidarity Programme” which will target the most affected parts of the populations through civil society support and notably sub-grants to smaller, local organisations. Additionally a new call for proposals, worth €3 million, was launched on 25 March, to support civil society organisations contribute to social well-being, including those impacted by the COVID19 outbreak.

Mitigating socio-economic impact of the outbreak:

Support to Armenia’s economy, notably small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): The EU is working closely with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and relevant financing institutions from EU Member States as TEAM EUROPE providing a coordinated European response for the real economy, including SMEs, in particular through:

  • Launching of a new regional support programme of €100 million to help SMEs, including self-employed and others to easily access credit and boost their businesses after the crisis. This will be complemented by a new support programme targeting Armenian SMEs worth €13 million
  • The EU is also exploring to mobilise over €30 million from existing programmes in coordination with the Armenian government
  • Facilitating, simplifying, accelerating, and reinforcing €200 million worth of existing credit lines and grants to SMEs in local currency including through its EU4Business Initiative;
  • In addition, in the current crisis the EU has mobilised its major de-risking instrument worth €500 million, the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD). This will rapidly provide liquidly and can be urgently deployed by IFI partners to facilitate the provision of liquidity in the EU’s Neighbourhood including through working capital, trade finance, or moratoria on debt service.

The EU is also reorienting ongoing support programmes to address Armenia’s needs to respond to the pandemic. As a result, €1.75 million has already been disbursed under a Public Finance Policy Reform budget support programme to provide immediate support to the government.

In parallel, a new Twinning programme of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in partnership with the Swedish and Lithuanian civilian protection agencies has been approved and will start soon to improve civil protection and disaster risk management.

The Commission also stands ready to provide assistance to Armenia through TAIEX, its peer to peer instrument, by using EU Member States expertise, experience and examples of good practice on assessing emergency preparedness response scheme and health systems.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has accelerated spread of myths and disinformation around it– coming from various sources both within and outside of the European Union. Learn more in the report on Disinformation on the coronavirus.

13-year old domestic violence victim starts walking with the help of doctors

Ani Basmajian

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 19:18,

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The 13-year old girl who was subjected to domestic vilence weeks ago in Gyumri and was hospitalized in critical condition has strated to walk with the help of doctors, ARMENPRESS reports spokesperson of Surb Astvatsamayr medical center Gevorg Derdzyan wrote on his facebook page.

Gevorg Derdzyan added that she remain under the supervision of the doctors and continues receiving relevant treatment.

A 13-year-old girl from Gyumri was severely battered on March 5 and was transported to a Yerevan hospital in critical condition.  The girl underwent an emergency surgery in Gyumri before being taken to Yerevan.

The head of the hospital Nikolay Dallakyan said the girl has suffered multiple traumas, closed-head injury, cerebral edema, subarachnoid hemorrhage, fractures of multiple facial bones.

The victim was rushed to Yerevan from Gyumri at 01:30 March 6. She was on assisted ventilation and unconscious. Dallakyan said the girl is in a critical condition, but stable. He added that the brain trauma is very serious.

After the child was taken to a hospital in Gyumri on March 5, police officers were dispatched to the apartment where the incident had taken place. First responders found the child’s 43-year-old mother dead. Her body had traces of violence.

Gyumri police said they’ve a 28-year-old suspect in custody.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Global Armenia Automobile Market Latest Innovations and Trends 2020-2026

Ani Basmajian
Global Industry News 24
By steven k on

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Armenian President holds phone talk with Artsakh counterpart

Ani Basmajian

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 16:26,

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian had a telephone conversation with President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan, the Armenian President’s Office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian was interested in the process of upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections of Artsakh scheduled on March 31, given that tomorrow is the last day of the election campaign.

Armen Sarkissian expressed hope that like in the previous elections this time as they will be organized and held free and fair by maintaining the principles of democracy and competitive fight.

Armen Sarkissian and Bako Sahakyan highlighted the security and stability of Artsakh, which is the issue and goal of Armenia, Artsakh and all Armenians.

President Sarkissian was also interested in the actions taken in Artsakh to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

No case of coronavirus has been reported in Artsakh as of now.

In Armenia the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has reached 372 according to the latest data.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




PM Pashinyan touring in Yerevan supermarkets and groceries

Ani Basmajian

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 19:10,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is touring in the supermarkets and groceries of Yerevan, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan is Live broadcasting on Facebook. He familiarizes himself with the situation over food in the markets.

Citizens tell Pashinyan that there are no food problems at the markets and they do their daily shopping.

Yesterday Nikol Pashinyan had announced that there are no problems with food reserves in Armenia, calling on the citizens not to do panic shopping.

On March 16 Armenia declared a 30-day state of emergency to fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus. The state of emergency is effective until April 14, at 17:00. By now there are 72 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Armenia, one of whom has recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan