11:14, 8 April, 2022
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. 14 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 422,643, the ministry of health said.
2046 tests were conducted on April 7.
The recoveries rose by 25 in a day, bringing the total number to 410,295.
No death case has been registered. The death toll stands at 8619.
As of April 8, the number of active cases is 2050.
16:46, 8 April, 2022
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. The Embassy of Armenia in Israel strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.
“The Embassy of Armenia in Israel in strongly condemning the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv and is expressing deep condolences to the families of the victims of this barbaric act. We wish speedy recovery to those injured,” the embassy said in a statement.
17:33, 7 April, 2022
YEREVAN, 7 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 7 April, USD exchange rate down by 2.46 drams to 476.92 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.69 drams to 519.51 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.41 drams to 6.26 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 3.60 drams to 623.48 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 366.89 drams to 29595.63 drams. Silver price down by 8.24 drams to 372.06 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
19:25, 6 April, 2022
YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom to the Republic of Armenia John Gallagher.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press servic eof the Defense MInsitry of Armenia, the Armenian Defense Minister presented the situation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and in Artsakh. Noting that the actions of the Azerbaijani side endanger regional stability and security, Suren Papikyan stressed the need for the international community to take measures to prevent the escalation of the situation.
“Ambassador Gallagher reaffirmed that the United Kingdom supports the efforts to reduce tensions and resolve the conflict peacefully through the OSCE Minsk Group,” the statement said.
The interlocutors also discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation in the field of defense, as well as cooperation in the fields of military education, training and peacekeeping capabilities.
13:14, 1 April, 2022
YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS. A geneticist and anthropologist debunked the Azerbaijani claims on having discovered “mass graves” of “Khojalu victims” in the village of Parukh.
The Head of Ethnogenomics Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology Levon Yepiskoposyan says the images and videos released by Azerbaijan as substantiations of their claims is to say the least “unprofessional”.
Speaking to ARMENPRESS, Yepiskoposyan presented evidence which shows that the Azerbaijani claims are total fake news, and the fact that they’ve immediately deleted the images from the internet shows their unprofessionalism.
“Several grave fields had been found in that region. Would Armenians bury Azerbaijanis in those grave fields? This is ruled out,” Yepiskoposyan said.
Moreover, the skulls seen in the images clearly show them to be long shaped skulls with a flat back – typical to Armenians living in the eastern region: meaning the images showed remains of Armenians.
Yepiskoposyan also spoke about the names released by the Azerbaijanis. “They also presented the names and surnames, dates of birth of the missing, and all are born in 1970. If we look at the skulls, none has teeth, but the teeth of young men don’t fall out in just 30 years,” he said.
The geneticist also focused on the fact that the bones which were displayed were cleaned from tissues, whereas this process takes very long time.
Yepiskoposyan said he witnessed a case like that around 10 years ago, when in north-eastern Azerbaijan mass graves were found in a pit and the Azerbaijanis again began to falsely accuse Armenians.
The law on the purchase of property in Armenia allows citizens of any country to buy non-agricultural real estate in the country, Head of the Cadastre Committee Suren Tovmasyan told reporters on Monday, responding to the remarks that according to some media reports the Turks are buying real estate in Armenia.
“If I’m not mistaken, Turkish citizens have acquired 72 properties in Armenia since 2002. Most of them are apartments, others are small public facilities, etc. We don’t see any problem here,” Tovmasyan said.
“As for the purchase of real estate by Azerbaijani citizens, they must have tourist passports. That is, they come and get tourist passports from us. As far as I remember, 5-6 citizens of Azerbaijan have Armenian tourist passports,” he noted.
Tovmasyan dismissed claims that more citizens of Turkey and Azerbaijan have purchased property in Armenia in recent years.
Separately, he said that he had been on vacation for the past three weeks and had been in his native village, Pokr Vedi.
“Accordingly, I supported Garik Sargsyan so that he could win the local elections in the Vedi community, and he succeeded,” Tovmasyan said.
There was no accountability or justice for victims of violations committed during the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and its aftermath. Over 100 people were killed or injured by mines planted by Armenian forces in areas ceded to Azerbaijan. Some 36,000 ethnic Armenians remained internally displaced. Peaceful protests were largely permitted after Covid-19 and martial law restrictions were lifted, but freedom of _expression_ and access to information continued to be restricted. Environmental concerns at the Amulsar gold mine remained unaddressed. Domestic violence remained a widespread problem, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Political tensions remained high throughout the year. The prime minister resigned in April following months of anti-government protests over his handling of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict but was re-appointed after his party won a majority in snap elections in June.
Security along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border remained volatile with uncertainties over demarcation lines. Occasional cross-border fighting led to military and civilian casualties.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the 2020 conflict exacerbated the country’s economic hardships. According to the World Bank, Armenia suffered an 8% contraction in GDP, leading to the impoverishment of 70,000 people and driving 720,000 people into a lower welfare group. The elderly and less well-off were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, facing greater obstacles in accessing healthcare due to the lockdown restrictions and repurposing of public healthcare resources. Their ability to cover routine expenses – especially household services, utilities, food, medicines and medical services – also decreased significantly.
Vaccination uptake remained low, with only 23 % of the population receiving a full dose of the vaccine by December, amid a widespread anti-vax campaign. In response, in August, the government made Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for all government workers and many private company employees.
No progress was made in investigating war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law during the 2020 conflict and its immediate aftermath, or in bringing those suspected of individual criminal responsibility to justice.
Over 100 people were reported killed or injured by mines planted by Armenian forces in territories where they had ceded control to Azerbaijan. Armenia shared several maps detailing landmine fields in exchange for Azerbaijan returning Armenian captives. In December the president of the European Council reported that Armenia had returned all landmine maps. However, the accuracy of these maps was challenged by Azerbaijan.
Many of the approximately 91,000 people displaced at the height of the fighting in 2020 returned to Stepanakert/Khankendi and other parts of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which remained under the control of Armenia. Some 36,000 people remained displaced in Armenia and Armenia-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, and 24,000 of them from areas controlled by Azerbaijan faced long-term displacement. Returnees faced difficulties in accessing livelihoods, education and healthcare.
Peaceful protests and demonstrations were largely permitted throughout the year. By January, the government had rescinded most public health and emergency law-related restrictions imposed due to security concerns and the Covid-19 pandemic, including restrictions on public gatherings.
The right to freedom of _expression_ continued to be unduly restricted.
The government introduced several legislative amendments curtailing independent media and other critical voices. In March, the National Assembly increased the maximum fine for insult and defamation to AMD 6 million (approximately US$12,000). In August, another set of legislative amendments criminalized insulting public figures, making repeated insults punishable by up to three months’ imprisonment. In September, police opened a criminal case under this new law against a Facebook user for insulting the prime minister in a comment under a photo featuring him.
The authorities continued the prosecution on trumped-up charges of human rights defender Sashik Sultanian in retaliation for his criticism of the treatment of the Yazidi ethnic minority in Armenia. An investigation into his alleged incitement of national hatred had been opened in October 2020, after he published an online interview on problems faced by the ethnic Yazidis. His trial started in August and was ongoing at the end of the year. If convicted, he could face three to six years in prison.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and state investigative bodies failed to effectively investigate attacks and threats against NGOs and media outlets, including looting of the offices of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Open Society Foundations, in the aftermath of the conflict in 2020.
The Amulsar gold mine project in southern Armenia remained halted, pending the outcome of an ongoing criminal investigation into intentional concealment of information on its environmental impacts. The investigation was launched in response to protests by local residents and environmental campaigners since 2018.
Women continued to be affected by higher levels of domestic violence during the Covid-19 pandemic while access to services and protection remained inadequate. The pandemic also exacerbated the heavy burden of unpaid care work which continued to fall mainly on women and girls.
12:01, 24 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says the social situation in Armenia is complicating, but adds that the whole world is in the same situation.
During the Cabinet meeting today the PM said that the world is in an unprecedented high stage of inflation, and one can know about its reasons while getting acquainted with the news at any moment.
“And Armenia is still in a good situation in this sense, compared to many countries. And what is the policy of the government in this respect, it was seen in 2019 when the prices of food were increasing globally, but Armenia was one of the unique countries where the opposite was taking place, the prices of food were declining. Because we eliminated the artificial monopolies, and Armenia today is a free country in terms of imports and exports, and as a result of the measures taken, the prices of several important goods are not increasing in Armenia, and in fact will not increase, in some cases we have declines in prices. I hope we will have it also in the future”, the PM said.
He said they understand that they need to carry out a policy of mitigating the social issues, and added that they do this as much as possible, as much as the country’s budget allows which is formed at the expense of the taxes paid by everyone. “And how we collected the taxes, the data of 2021, the most crisis year for us, show, when the state budget’s tax revenues have been overpassed by 147 billion drams than it was planned. And if we take into account the additional revenues received without legislative amendments, about 110 billion drams. In general, the tax revenues of our budget after 2018 increased by nearly 35%, as I promised during the peaceful, velvet, people’s Revolution”, the PM said.
He said that there are speculations that they are raising the salaries of law enforcement officers and are not increasing the pensions. “Yes, but two things must be taken into account. Firstly, it’s one thing to raise the salary of 500 people, 5000 people or even 20,000, but it’s completely another thing to raise the pension of 550000 or 600000 people. These are absolutely different budgetary expenditures, moreover, these expenditures are not one-time, they must be carried out forever. And we, of course, do everything possible to implement our pre-election promises and vital necessary decisions”, he added.
“In any case, you should know for sure, dear compatriots, that like in the past, today as well all your pains are in our hearts, all your needs are in our mind and all your dreams are in our souls”, the PM concluded.
11:20,
YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the occasion of the country’s national day, Pashinyan’s Office said.
“Your Excellency,
On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, and on my personal behalf, I cordially congratulate you on the national holiday of the Hellenic Republic, Independence Day.
The warmest bilateral interstate relations established between our two countries is evidenced by the sincere and effective cooperation based on unwavering friendship, mutual respect and confidence between the Armenian and Greek fraternal peoples, which we highly appreciate and value.
I am convinced that the rich experience gained over the decades and the rich multi-sectoral agenda provide wide opportunities for the discovery and comprehensive use of the full potential of the Armenian-Greek cooperation, raising them to a qualitatively new level both bilaterally and multilaterally.
I am hopeful that in the near future we will have the opportunity to personally discuss the prospects of cooperation between our two countries.
I wish you, Your Excellency, good health and success, and progress and prosperity to the friendly people of Greece”, reads the letter of the Prime Minister of Armenia.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the press service of Armenian PM informed NEWS.am.
“The situation created after the invasion of Azerbaijani units into the responsibility zone of the peacekeeping contingent of Russia in Nagorno Karabakh was discussed, which Prime Minister Pashinyan assessed as tense.
PM Pashinyan raised the need to investigate the actions of Russian peacekeepers in the given situation and stressed the need for returning the Azerbaijani armed forces to their initial positions with the efforts of the Russian peacekeepers.
The leaders of the two countries agreed to make efforts to resolve the crisis situation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the statement reads.