Author: Anna Tamamian

 17:34,

YEREVAN, 15 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 15 March, USD exchange rate down by 7.03 drams to 507.94 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 6.03 drams to 558.53 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.05 drams to 4.61 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 9.37 drams to 662.15 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 849.78 drams to 31910.90 drams. Silver price down by 10.37 drams to 414.39 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

 11:20,

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. The situation at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact was “relatively stable” on March 13 and overnight March 14, the Artsakh military said on Monday.

“On March 13, during the day, and overnight March 13-14 the operative-tactical situation at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact was relatively stable,” the Defense Army of Artsakh said in a statement.

It added that no “significant” ceasefire violations occurred.

 12:33,

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia commented on the call of Ukraine’s national bank to suspend all transactions with cards of Russia’s Mir payment system.

In a query to ARMENPRESS, the Central Bank said that it will properly notify the public about any action in all cases.

“The National Bank of Ukraine has publicly announced that it has asked the central banks of the partner countries to stop transactions with cards of Mir payment system in their national systems. The decisions of the Central Bank of Armenia have always been transparent, and in all cases the public will be properly informed about any action”, the Central Bank said.

The National Bank of Ukraine has appealed to the leadership of the central banks of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Turkey, and the Kyrgyz Republic to suspend any transactions with payment cards of the MIR payment system in these countries. Specifically, the NBU has urged these central bankers to discontinue the servicing of MIR cards in their ATM and POS networks, and to make it impossible to use these cards in e-commerce and P2P transfers.

 17:14, 8 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani military is obstructing the repair works of a gas pipeline which was damaged earlier on March 8.

The main pipeline supplying natural gas from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged due to a malfunction at 01:00, March 8. The damaged section is near an Azerbaijani military position.

“At this moment the Azerbaijani side is obstructing the launch of repair works,” the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Artsakh said in a statement. “Negotiations with mediation of the Russian peacekeeping mission are underway for launching the repair works tomorrow,” it said.

 14:12, 5 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS. The Central Board of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party addressed a congratulatory letter to Vahagn Khachaturyan on his election as President of Armenia.

“Dear Mr. Khachaturyan,

On behalf of the Central Board of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, we congratulate you on your election to the high and responsible position of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

The stable and uninterrupted operation of the country’s state structures in this difficult period for the homeland and the entire humanity in general is strongly necessary. In this sense, we hope that you, as the head of state and guarantor of the Constitution, will invest your long-term state experience and skills for the stability and prosperity of Armenia.

The Hunchakian Party, committed to its historic mission and principles, continues unconditionally supporting the welfare of the homeland and the strengthening of its statehood.

Once again congratulations. We wish you strength, energy and success”, reads the congratulatory letter.

 10:15,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The first ever Armenian company specializing in building and producing innovative rehabilitation devices – QaylTech – is developing a new VR equipment designed for people with disabilities.

QaylTech’s upcoming Qaylaber device will be available for military veterans with disabilities.

The company showcased this innovation at the Dubai Expo 2020.

After the 2016 April War, a group of Armenian kinesiologists teamed up and started to voluntarily work with military servicemen who suffered disabilities. As a result of many years of work, the specialists realized that Armenia lacks the required quantity of rehabilitation devices and personally initiated production. This is how QaylTech was launched.

QaylTech founder Davit Arsenyan told ARMENPRESS that each device was created upon necessity. He said that people with disabilities who are unable to walk potentially develop more than 30 diseases and conditions – the prevention of which is incomparably more effective than treatment.

Together with his team, Arsenyan had numerous successful results at the hospital after the 2016 war, but then they faced a problem. When the time came for the patient to leave the hospital and go home, their inability to walk and subsequent sedentary lifestyle lead to health problems. In order to help the patients in preventing this, Arsenyan and his team created the devices. Even in seemingly hopeless cases the veterans are able to walk again thanks to the dedicated work of QaylTech.

“We had a patient, Hovo. During the war he was shot in the head by sniper fire. 45% of his brain was removed, including the brain’s language center. Everyone thought Hovo was never going to speak again,” Arsenyan said.

But one day, a remarkable event happened.

Arsenyan says he was walking down the hospital corridor to the patient’s room while quietly singing a song – Getashen – a patriotic song popular among the military. Singing a verse from the song, Arsenyan entered Hovo’s room, and to everyone’s awe Hovo continued the verse.  “We all froze for a moment. Then I found out that Getashen was the song of his company in the army. We researched and realized that this happened due to brain plasticity. The function of the damaged center is being assumed by the function of the neighboring healthy center. This led me to start working as founder of QaylTech,” Arsenyan said.

Arsenyan says they’ve worked with veterans having the most serious brain damage. Even when they would send test results to various hospitals around the world, they would say ‘the patient won’t survive, even if he does, he will be in a vegetative state’. But now, not only did the patients survive, but they are also walking and speaking.

In 2018 QaylTech made its first exoskeleton model and went on to perfect it in the next years. Because of the difficult and time-consuming nature of creating the exoskeleton, simultaneously they began to design and develop other equipment, namely the Qaylaber – a walk simulator device, a verticalizer, a tilt-bed, a standing-frame wheelchair, electric-powered wheelchair with the capacity of 30 km/h speed.

Now, QaylTech is developing the Walk Simulator Device called Qaylaber.

“The person who is unable to walk stands on the device and starts operating it with arms and legs. The device is equipped with sensors, again produced by QaylTech, which is connected to a virtual reality headset. Through the sensors and goggles the patients appears in virtual reality where they can walk, and do their everyday activities. For example, they can play football or skiing games with virtual reality,” Arsenyan explained.

With the Skiing VR game, QaylTech wants to hold world cyber-sport tournaments for people with disabilities. The people with disabilities from all over the world will be able to come together through ZOOM, Skype or Viber, see each other in virtual reality.

Both the device and the idea are unprecedented.

Moreover, the device will contribute to preventing the diseases which could be caused by sedentary lifestyle. QaylTech plans to provide the device to military veterans with disabilities.

The QaylTech devices are successfully used in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, and at the same time the experts are working to perfect the equipment.

“The cost of the VR-game devices could be rather high, but I am trying to find the means wherever I can,” he added.

QaylTech is cooperating with various charitable organizations in order to make the products accessible for veterans and others in need.

Arsenyan says it takes 4 to 5 years for a startup to start making income. Speaking of funding, Arsenyan noted the first investment they got; it was a 6 million dram investment from the Ministry of High-Tech Industry.

“Perhaps there will be some who will say that I am making money by using soldiers. I don’t like to speak about this topic, I will simply say that I haven’t taken and I will not take any money from any soldier. But on the other hand, people should realize that if this all wasn’t a business it would simply die. This is how our devices reach hospitals and rehabilitation centers, and we always invest the company’s profit in the development of technologies,” Arsenyan said.

The QaylTech founder added that they want to restore and develop the once-industrial potential of Armenia.

He further added that Armenia cannot be a market for their products, thus they want to access the international arena, and they already have the pre-requisites for this – internationally certified, high-quality equipment with competitive price.

Arsenyan said he wants to launch a crowd-funding next year.

Interview by Karine Terteryan

Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan

 15:10, 1 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan met today with Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), in Geneva, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

Referring to the ICRC’s activities as a non-political and humanitarian organization, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stressed the importance of the organization’s activities towards resolving the humanitarian issues in Artsakh.

In this context, Ararat Mirzoyan drew Peter Maurer’s attention to the urgency of repatriating 38 Armenian prisoners of war and civilians held in Azerbaijan, as well as revealing the cases of enforced disappearances and the fate of missing persons.

Minister Mirzoyan stressed the need for ensuring the unimpeded access of international organizations to Nagorno Karabakh and their active involvement on the ground.

The interlocutors agreed to continue the cooperation for the resolution of humanitarian issues.

 13:44, 1 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan received today Special Envoy of Canada to the European Union and Europe, Stéphane Dion, the Defender’s Office said.

The Human Rights Defender presented the framework of her powers and the actions and programs for the exercise of these powers.

She also touched upon a number of post-war humanitarian problems, specifically focusing on the return of captives and civilians held in Azerbaijan, the importance of fighting hate speech, the prevention of torture and ill treatment, and the protection of rights of women and children.

The sides touched upon the institutional capacity development of the Defender’s Office.

A number of priorities of the bilateral cooperation and the situation of human rights in Armenia were also discussed.

Stéphane Dion highly appreciated the role of the Human Rights Defender’s Office in protecting human rights, strengthening democracy and rule of law.

 13:11,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Tehran welcomes negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and hopes that the dialogue will help resolve the crisis in the region, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference, reports TASS.

“This is good news. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are precisely what we have called for from the very first day”, he said. “The political dialogue is a means of achieving a stable solution of the problems that have existed in the region for decades”.

Khatibzadeh added that the “ceasefire agenda must be advanced at the negotiations in earnest”.