Author: Anna Tamamian

Russia’s daily coronavirus cases exceed 25,000 for first time since March 25

Anna Tamamian

Russia’s daily coronavirus cases exceed 25,000 for first time since March 25

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 13:09,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Russia identified 25,815 coronavirus patients in the past 24 hours, TASS reported citing the anti-coronavirus crisis center.

New daily cases exceeded 25,000 for the first time since March 25. The total number of cases has reached 18,796,472.

As many as 2,525 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, down from 2,666 the day before. Hospitalizations declined in 44 regions of the country and rose in 33 regions.

Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 7,899 to 2,885,222 in the past day, St. Petersburg’s coronavirus cases increased by 2,940 to 1,578,609.

Coronavirus recoveries

Russia’s coronavirus recoveries rose by 14,221 to 18,089,941 in the past 24 hours, the crisis center reported. Recoveries increased by 6,202 to 2,657,606 in Moscow and by 1,887 to 1,523,156 in St. Petersburg.

Coronavirus death toll

Russia reported 52 coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours, down from 56 the day before. The total death toll has climbed to 382,954. Moscow’s coronavirus death toll rose by 16 to 44,634 in the past day and St. Petersburg’s fatalities were up by nine to 34,425.

Rep. Schiff calls for immediate action to hold Aliyev regime accountable for attack against Artsakh

Anna Tamamian
Panorama
Armenia – Aug 6 2022

U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, condemns Azerbaijan’s latest aggression against Artsakh and calls for immediate action to hold the Aliyev regime accountable.

Rep. Schiff issued the following statement after Azerbaijan’s attack:

“I am deeply disturbed by reports of casualties, including two Armenian soldiers, in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh – the result of Azerbaijan’s direct violation of its ceasefire agreement with Armenia. This is hardly the first time Azerbaijan has attacked Armenian forces unprovoked, and unless the United States takes immediate action to hold the Aliyev regime accountable, it will not be the last. It is imperative the State Department use all of its diplomatic channels and levers to reduce tensions and show America’s unwavering support for Armenian sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Artsakh.

“In this year’s national defense funding legislation and for years past, I have repeatedly called for the immediate release of all Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians, tens of millions in humanitarian aid and economic assistance for Artsakh, a full prohibition on U.S. security assistance to Azerbaijan, and renewed American engagement through the OSCE Minsk Group to reinvigorate the peace process. Each of these actions is critical to defending the Armenian people, and sending a resolute message that America can and will defend democracy around the world.

“I will always stand with the people of Armenia and Artsakh.”

“Flying taxis” could appear in skies of South Korea in 2025

Anna Tamamian

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 11:58, 5 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is taking active steps to develop urban air mobility (UAM) sector. Korea plans to launch the program of the so-called “flying taxis” in 2025. As a first step, the Ministry plans to connect the country’s capital airport with the center of Seoul through the flying taxis. For the fulfillment of the program, South Korea is mobilizing the capacities of the country’s major companies. The country is also cooperating with the United States for the project.

SK Telecom, the largest wireless telecommunications operator in South Korea, is also engaged in the activities of launching the program.

During a media tour organized by the Korean Culture and Information Service, Irene Kim, Manager, Communication Planning Team at SK Telecom, told ARMENPRESS that Korea is making serious efforts to develop UAM in the country. “This sector, in fact, is actively developing in the United States and Europe. In Korea, the Ministry of Land and Transport plays a key role in the development of this sector. In 2025 the Ministry seeks to connect airport with the city center through “flying taxis”. SK Telecom, Hanwha Systems and other companies have set up a consortium. A testbed will be created this November in Seoul’s district of Cheongdam-dong. And we plan to achieve the commercialization of this technology by 2025. Our country really seeks to develop this direction. We also cooperate with the United States on this matter”, she said.

During a tour at SK Telecom headquarters, reporters were provided with an opportunity to get acquainted with the company’s “Smart City” project through a “virtual tour”. The company is presenting its own concept of the future, particularly how life will look like in 2052. Words are not enough to describe that virtual tour. You will see the future flying taxis during this tour, the launch of which is not far away.

Incheon International Airport, the largest airport in South Korea, is 40km away from the capital Seoul. It takes 40 minutes, or up to an hour, to reach from downtown Seoul to the airport by car. According to different estimates, this trip with a flying taxi will last only 20 minutes. Some air taxi concepts have already been tested in a number of countries, particularly in US, Japan and also in South Korea. In some cases, these air taxis look like a small helicopter, or a small plane, but according to various estimates, they are safer and more eco-friendly.

Irene Kim also introduced another major project of SK Telecom – ifland. ifland is SK Telecom’s metaverse service that offers a range of features for social networking and is growing into a globally accessible service fueled by cooperation with various partners. It’s a platform where people can create their own characters in virtual domain and communicate with each other.

“These services have already been launched in Korea. During the spread of COVID-19 people were communicating in this platform a lot. After the mitigation of the pandemic these services are still very popular. Many people, especially, the youth, continue using infland. And we plan to launch these services in 80 countries of the world by the end of the year”, Irene Kim said.

SK Telecom Co., Ltd., a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator, was founded in 1984. It is one of the country’s largest chaebols. The company leads the local market with 50.5 percent share.

 

Shant Khlghatyan

Photos by PENTA PRESS




ANC Australia: Statement: Latest aggression by Azerbaijan targets vital artery linking Artsakh and Armenia

Anna Tamamian
Aug 5 2022
Friday,

STATEMENT

Azerbaijan’s Latest Aggression Targets Vital Artery Linking Artsakh and Armenia


The 2020 Nagorno Karabakh War never ended and it is beyond time that Azerbaijan is called out for its continued aggression against the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.

Armenians around the world strongly suspected that Turkey, the unrepentant and unashamed successor state of the Ottoman Empire which committed and denies the Armenian Genocide, and its proxy state, Azerbaijan, were never going to be content with occupying 70% of the Armenian Republic of Artsakh. The autocratic leaders of these virulently hostile neighbours, who have unilaterally blockaded Armenia for decades, have taken the baton to achieve the Pan-Turkic goal of their forefathers: the complete erasure of Armenians and their cultural and religious presence of thousands of years from the ancestral Armenian homeland.

Azerbaijan committed another offensive against the Republic of Artsakh in recent days, representing Baku’s most significant violation of the 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement since the end of the 44-day war.

Skirmishes first broke out on 27th July 2022, with shootings targeting positions of the Artsakh Defence Army near civilian settlements around the Marduni region. By 1st August 2022, Azerbaijan’s criminal behaviour intensified attempting to illegally cross the line of contact in the south-western regions of Artsakh, grossly violating fundamental human rights of the civilian population and breaching the November 9 2020 ceasefire agreement.

The most serious violation was recorded over the last three days in the north-western region of Artsakh and the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor, resulting in the death of two Armenian servicemen and leaving 19 wounded, according to the Artsakh Healthy Ministry. Moreover, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry boasted about their attacks with videos posted to social media.

It is significant to note that the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor is the only remaining artery connecting Armenians of Artsakh to their life support, the Republic of Armenia, including their access to gas, electricity and telecommunications.

Whilst we appreciate the candidness and honesty of the Russian Defence Ministry and peacekeeping contingents stationed in the Republic of Artsakh, who verified and publicly called out Azerbaijan as being responsible for this most recent––and repeated––egregious violation of the trilateral November 2020 cease-fire agreement, the international community unfortunately remains indifferent.

When they are not silent, their engagement on the issue is limited to “copy and paste” statements, non-targeted language, calling for restraint from “both sides”, and ultimately ignoring the reality that there is only one genocidal aggressor in this conflict.

Rather than sanctioning Turkey-backed Azerbaijan for its overtly aggressive Armenophobic policies against the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh, international appeasers of the belligerent petro-dictator Aliyev embolden him to continue aggressive policies by rewarding him with accolades in efforts to secure oil and gas deals.

In contrast to conflicts around the world, the statements are clear only in their double standards, blinded by political interest, risking the credibility of even well-respected inter-governmental bodies such as the European Union and the United Nations.

Underlying the continued military aggression and state terror by Azerbaijan are reports indicating that the attacks over the last week are premeditated and calculated, with the aim of forcing the Armenian Government into further concessions that go beyond the scope of the November 9 ceasefire agreement.

Today, Azerbaijan demands the closure of the Lachin (Berdzor) corridor, the vital artery and only remaining land route connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the outside world. The trilateral agreement stipulates the timeframe as November 2023 to agree on an alternate route for part of that corridor to be controlled and protected by the peacekeepers. Yet, through the use of brute force, Azerbaijan intends to corner the Republic of Artsakh’s authorities into accepting concessions not stipulated in the November 9 truce accord.

The Australian Government, as part of the international community, should unequivocally call for a stop to Azerbaijani aggression and support the continuation of the only route to lasting peace in the region. This peace will not come through forced concessions by Armenia, as they will be forever rejected by Armenians in Australia and the world over. This peace will come through a negotiated settlement through the United Nations Security Council sanctioned, OSCE Minsk Group, respecting the clearly delineated and agreed principles of equal right of self-determination, territorial integrity and the non-use of force, which Azerbaijan continues to flagrantly breach.

Until that time, it is every single Armenian’s duty to advocate in support of the over 100,000 Armenian inhabitants of the Republic of Artsakh who refuse to kowtow to a foreign occupier and brutal aggressor. We will ensure to advocate, and must do all that we must, for the protection of their fundamental human rights, including the right to self-determination and to live in peace and security on their ancestral lands.

http://www.anc.org.au/news/Media-Releases/STATEMENT–Latest-Aggression-by-Azerbaijan-Targets-Vital-Artery-Linking-Artsakh-and-Armenia

$245 fine to be imposed in Armenia for wearing military uniform by non-servicemen

Anna Tamamian
NEWS.am
Armenia –
Newspaper:
10:08, 30.07.2022

YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: The RA Ministry of Defense proposes to establish administrative liability if a military uniform is worn by persons who are not in military service.

Zhoghovurd daily learned that an addendum will be made to the Administrative Offenses Code, according to which a fine in the amount of 100 thousand [approx. US$245] drams will be imposed if a military uniform prescribed for servicemen is worn by a person who is not in military service and does not have the right to wear a military uniform. By the way, if the same act is committed again or every subsequent time after applying an administrative penalty within one year, it causes the imposing of a fine in the amount of 200 thousand drams [approx. US$490].

So, the law may be passed, but who or who others should oversee it?

Residents of Karmir Shuka in Karabakh alarmed by resumed shelling

Anna Tamamian
Caucasian Knot
Residents of Krasny Bazar in Karabakh alarmed by resumed shelling

After four months of calmness, shelling of the Karabakh village of Krasny Bazar resumed; the house of a local resident was damaged, the villagers have reported. The international community should pay attention to Azerbaijan’s actions, Gegam Stepanyan, the Ombudsperson of Nagorno-Karabakh, has stated.

On Thursday (July 28), the Armenian Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced shelling of its positions on the Azeri border’ and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Nagorno-Karabakh reported the shelling of the border villages of Tagavard and Krasny Bazar. The Azerbaijani MoD refuted this information.

Earlier, this February, Krasny Bazar villagers stopped taking their children to kindergarten because of shelling (Krasny Bazar is called Karmir Shuka in Armenian, and Gyrmyzy Bazar in Azerbaijani, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”). Shelling keeps people in constant fear, and livestock is stolen from households, villagers said on February 21.

“Azerbaijan’s actions are aimed at disrupting the normal life of Karabakh communities and intimidating the civilian population,” Mr Stepanyan has claimed on the Facebook*.

The village of Krasny Bazar became a border village after the Karabakh war in the fall of 2020. Azerbaijani military posts are next to it, as well as the base of the Russian peacemaking contingent.

Marta Mesropyan, a resident of the Red Bazaar, said that she was “bathing her child when the shelling began.”

“When it turned into intensive, I grabbed the child and hid in a secluded place in the house,” the woman has added. According to her story, “from April to this day, everything was calm.”

Vigen Shakhnazaryan, the owner of the damaged house, has noted that “only by happy chance, none of the children suffered.”

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on at 10:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

See earlier reports:

Krasny Bazar residents tell details of living under shelling, Ombudspersons of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh demand withdrawal of Azerbaijani militaries away from villages, Karabakh residents accuse Azerbaijani armed forces of a shelling attack on a village.

Author: Alvard Grigoryan Source: СK correspondent

Source:

© Caucasian Knot

Putin, Erdogan to discuss defense cooperation at Sochi meeting – Kremlin spokesman

Anna Tamamian

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 16:18,

YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey will discuss defense cooperation at a meeting in Sochi on August 5, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today, reports TASS.

“Defense cooperation between the two countries is constantly on the agenda and the fact of cooperation in such a sensitive field makes it clear that the entire range of our relations remains at quite a high level”, Peskov pointed out.

He confirmed that “the two presidents touched upon various aspects of defense cooperation in their recent contacts”. “As a rule, various aspects are discussed at almost every meeting so defense cooperation will definitely be discussed in Sochi”, the Russian presidential spokesman noted.

Turkish press: US’ Blinken urges further progress towards peace in calls with Azerbaijani, Armenian leaders

Anna Tamamian
Vakkas Dogantekin   |26.07.2022

ANKARA

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Monday that he spoke by phone with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia and called for progress towards peace and stability in the region amid normalization efforts between the two countries.

Blinken on Twitter said he spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev about the ongoing peace talks following the Nagorno-Karabakh war in late 2020.

“…I commend the positive momentum resulting from bilateral talks and urge further progress towards peace and stability in the region,” he said.

In a separate post, the top US diplomat shared details about his discussion with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and welcomed Armenia’s “positive steps forward” with Azerbaijan and Türkiye.

“…Discussions among those in the region are key to lasting peace in the South Caucasus,” he added.

A readout by US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Blinken’s call with Aliyev reiterated the US’ offer of “assistance in helping facilitate the opening of regional transportation and communication linkages.”

Relations between the two former Soviet countries have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted in September 2020 and the 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and more than 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

A tripartite agreement was brokered by Russia to bring an end to the war in November 2020.

On the ongoing normalization process with neighboring Armenia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Türkiye expects concrete steps.

“We expect them to go beyond rhetoric and take concrete steps. We are serious and resolved on the normalization process with Armenia,” he added.

Ankara and Yerevan last December appointed special representatives for talks on normalizing ties, with the first meeting held in Moscow on Jan. 14.

Türkiye and Armenia resumed commercial flights in February after a two-year hiatus.

UN Security Council to discuss situation in Ukraine on July 29

Anna Tamamian

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 18:37,

YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. The UN Security Council will hold a session on Ukraine on July 29, ARMENPRESS reports, TASS agency informs.

It is assumed that the issue of the implementation of the agreements reached on July 22 in Istanbul regarding the export of Ukrainian grain, as well as Russian food and fertilizers will be discussed.

COVID-19: Armenia reports 629 new cases in a week

Anna Tamamian

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 13:00, 18 July 2022

YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. 629 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one week, the ministry of health said.

The total number of confirmed cases has reached 424,400.

5681 tests were conducted within a week.

No death case has been registered. The death toll stands at 8626.

The number of recoveries rose by 311, bringing the total to 413,354.

The number of active cases is 736.