Author: Aram Torosian

Azerbaijani press: MFA: US supports Azerbaijan’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity

Aram Torosian
POLITICS6 May 2020 12:58 (UTC+04:00)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 6

Trend:

The US supports independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within internationally recognized borders, Head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Leyla Abdullayeva said, Trend reports on May 5.

Abdullayeva has made the remark commenting on the information disseminated in the Armenian media about the adoption of a resolution on the “recognition” of the fictitious regime created in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by the Senate of the Minnesota state.

She said that according to the Senate office, this paper, presented as a resolution of the Minnesota’s Senate, signed by Senator Mary Kiffmeyer, the Secretary of the Senate and the Chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Administration and Rules, is a personal statement of the senator and is symbolic.

“No voting is required to accept such a paper, which can be submitted by any member of the Senate; that is, it was not adopted by the state of Minnesota as an official resolution. As seen, this paper, presented by the Minnesota Senate supposedly as “recognition” of the fictitious regime in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, is in fact a symbolic “document” signed by the senator, not reviewed and not put to a vote in the State Senate,” Abdullayeva noted.

Leyla Abdullayeva pointed out hat the recognition of any structure as a “state” is outside the Minnesota state’s legislative authority.

“As for the US position at the federal level, it is clear that the US supports independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” she said.

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 the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Artsakh hero: In Armenia, liberators of Shushi standing trial today

Aram Torosian
Panorama, Armenia
May 8 2020

Hero of Artsakh, General Vitaly Balasanyan issued a congratulatory message on the 28th anniversary of the liberation of Shushi. The message reads:

“Dear compatriots,

I congratulate the Armenian people on May 8 marking the 28th anniversary of the liberation of Shushi city-fortress.

During the Artsakh war we have carried out many victorious actions, while the liberation of Shushi stands out with its strategic significance and symbolism.

With this operation, the Armenian armed forces succeeded in ending the bombing of Stepanakert. Besides, the liberation of Shushi reaffirmed the right of Armenian Artsakh to live freely in a symbolic way.

I have to record that this day, which has become symbolic for all Armenians, is marred by a disgraceful trial, which again becomes symbolic. A trial as part of which Robert Kocharyan, a participant of the operation to liberate Shushi, the chairman of the Nagorno-Karabakh State Defense Committee during the war and the first and second president of Artsakh and Armenia, is being kept under arrest on groundless charges.

A trial faced by Seyran Ohanyan and Yuri Khachaturov, the generals who took part in the liberation war and greatly contributed to our army building.

The people who won the war will appear before the court on May 8. Those who risked their lives for the victory and freedom of the Armenian people.

The irony of the fate is that after the liberation of Shushi, the military elite was tried in Azerbaijan for handing over the city, while today the liberators of Shushi are standing trial in Armenia. This is a shame for all of us and we must do our best to clean this stigma from us.

I am sure that time and history will put things in the right place.

We will reject defeatism and will strive for new victories.”

CIVILNET.Arevik: A Catholic Village in Armenia

Aram Torosian
CIVILNET.AM

7 May, 2020 19:10

The small village of Arevik is located in Armenia’s Shirak Province. The majority of the residents in this village do not belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, but the Catholic one. Catholics in Armenia are a very small minority. According to National Statistics, they represent less than one percent of the population.

Armenia reports 113 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 2,386

Aram Torosian
Public Radio of Armenia
May 3 2020


Armenia has reported 113 more cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number to 2,386.

The results of 922 tests have been negative.

According to the data of the National Center for Disease Control, 25 patients have recovered; a total of 1.035 people have now been discharged from hospital.

Thirty-five deaths have been reported.

The number of active cases is 1,312.

Lawyer seeks political, legal and moral assessments on espionage allegations against ex-NSS chief Artur Vanetsyan

Aram Torosian
Panorama, Armenia
May 1 2020

Head of the Homeland Development Fund office, lawyer Arsen Babayan, a former deputy chief of the Armenian parliament staff, seeks to get political, legal and moral assessments on the allegations of espionage concerning former Director of the National Security Service (NSS) Artur Vanetsyan.

Babayan on Friday visited the Prosecutor’s Office to have the law enforcement body check the circumstances of the statement made by MP Hrachya Hakobyan which “contains judgments about an evident crime” and give it a criminal and legal assessment. However, as expected, the doors of the building were closed.

“Today is a a non-working day, but the Prosecutor’s Office is a controlled area, with police officers always deployed inside and outside the building, and the Prosecutor’s Office has never been closed,” he told reports outside the building, adding that he had notified the office of his visit in advance.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Hakobyan, who is Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s brother-in-law, wondered whether Vanetsyan has been dismissed “because of having been recruited by foreign intelligence services.”

Arsen Babayan believes Nikol Pashinyan is behind the statement, as ‘it has been the case with the other statements” on Artur Vanetsyan.

“But the important thing is Hrachya Hakobyan makes an absurd statement, using some tricks to put it in a way to make it impossible to bring him to responsibility for defamation. They have supposed that the society will think if Pashinyan’s family member talks about such things, he is informed on them. But I reiterate that the statement is nonsense, typical to the yellow press,” Babayan said.

The lawyer stressed the remarks damage the honor and dignity of the former NSS director and an officer.

“A political, legal and moral assessment must be made, because any effort to question an officer’s dignity and devotion to his homeland and state is devoid of any moral rule. I expect a legal assessment from the Prosecutor’s Office today,” he said, adding political assessments should be made both by the authorities and opposition forces, while moral assessments are made by the society.

Armenia PM on tension with friends

Aram Torosian
News.am, Armenia

21:50, 20.04.2020

The friends and relatives who think there is no tangible change in their lives after the revolution are another source of disappointment. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated live on Facebook, adding the following:

“They say I was a deputy, a journalist and a prisoner before that and now I am the Prime Minister, but nothing has changed in their lives. From my point of view, this is good because effective is a government that manages to set limits on friends, relatives and close ones.

In this sense, our government has also worked quite effectively, but this has also led to tension and disappointment,” he said and emphasized that, from his point of view, it’s good that he hasn’t done anything merely as a friend.

Ex-president Serzh Sargsyan questioned as witness by NSS

Aram Torosian

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 17:21,

YEREVAN, APRIL 17, ARMENPRESS. Serzh Sargsyan’s lawyers are denying media reports that a new criminal case has been filed against the former president.

In a statement, Sargsyan’s lawyers said he was questioned by the National Security Service as a witness. They didn’t specify the case.

Sargsyan was questioned last week within the framework “of a case which isn’t investigated on an apparent case of bribing”.

“We urge [the media] to refrain from circulating disinformation”, the statement said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Armenian scientists develop new generation chlorine-free disinfectant

Aram Torosian

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 13:59,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. Scientists at the A.B. Nalbandian Institute of Chemical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia have developed a new generation composite disinfectant amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The academy said in a news release that the disinfectant, called Bioxyl-2, is based on active oxygen, does not contain chlorine and is highly effective, as well as environmentally friendly and affordable. 

The scientists have also developed the required technology for manufacturing the disinfectant.

According to the academy, the disinfectant has been tested by the Healthcare Ministry and has proven to be highly effective. Technical terms of productions have been affirmed by authorities.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the A.B. Nalbandian Institute of Chemical Physics manufactured 1 tons of the disinfectant and donated it to the Ministry of Emergency Situation for preventive measures.

The institute said it is ready to launch mass production.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Michael Joseph Martin, the custodian of Dhaka’s Armenian church, dies

Aram Torosian
BDNews, Bangladesh

  News Desk,  bdnews24.com

Michael Joseph Martin, the sole custodian of Armenian Church of Holy Resurrection in Old Dhaka’s Armanitola for more than three decades, has died at the age of 90.

He moved to Ontario, Canada following the death of his wife in 2014 and breathed his last on Apr 10, his family said.

Martin was the only Armenian living in Bangladesh. He was born on Jun 6, 1930 in Rangoon, Burma. His father was an Armenian while mother was an Iranian. His family moved to Dhaka in the 1940s and began to run a jute business.

In 1986, Martin became the custodian of Armenian Church of Holy Resurrection in Dhaka, a Greek orthodox church established in 1781 in Armanitola near Mitford Hospital. It was initially an Armenian cemetery.

Nestling in one of the busiest parts of Old Dhaka, Armenian Street used to be a thriving business area, but its Armenian community has vanished.

Little evidence remains of its presence, even though centuries ago Armenians were at the heart of Bengal’s jute and leather trade.

The caretaker Martin, lovingly preserved the building against the ravages of the weather and pollution.

He kept the centuries-old births, deaths and marriages register and looked after the ancient tombstones that chronicle the history of the Armenian community in Bengal.

”Whatever happens I’m determined not to let this church go to rack and ruin,” Martin had told BBC in an interview in 2003.

”I may be the last resident Armenian in Bangladesh, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that an Armenian from abroad takes over the job I have been doing. Otherwise centuries of tradition will disappear overnight,” he said.