Author: Arbi Tashjian

Asbarez: Talks on Ankara-Proposed ‘3+3’ Scheme Held in Moscow

Arbi Tashjian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgyan

The deputy foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and Iran met in Moscow on Friday for the first round of talks around the dangerous Ankara-proposed “3+3” scheme, which is backed by Baku and envisions the creation of regional bloc. Georgia, whose participation was anticipated for the success of the scheme, has rejected the plan.

“Prospects for the development of multilateral regional cooperation were discussed during the meeting. An agreement was reached to focus the work of the platform on the practical issues that are of interest to all its participants,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“These include confidence-building measures, cooperation in the trade, economic, transport, cultural and humanitarian spheres, and response to common challenges and threats,” added the statement, which emphasized that the “representatives of the five countries expressed interest for Georgia to join the platform, for which the door remain open.”

Armenia was represented at the talks by Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgyan, who, according to a press statement, reaffirmed Armenia’s position that the agenda of regional consultations should aim to form a mutually beneficial agenda for regional cooperation, and not replicate the activities of other international platforms, including those with conflict resolution mandates, such as the OSCE Minsk Group.

“An agreement was reached to continue the consultations based on the respect of the rights of all countries in the region,” Gevorgyan said.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 10-12-21

Arbi Tashjian

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 17:43,

YEREVAN, 10 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 10 December, USD exchange rate up by 0.08 drams to 495.32 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.74 drams to 558.82 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 6.74 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.14 drams to 653.82 drams.

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

Gold price down by 117.24 drams to 28285.02 drams. Silver price down by 2.73 drams to 354.33 drams. Platinum price down by 13.49 drams to 15064.96 drams.

COVID-19: Armenia reports 300 new cases, 19 deaths in one day

Arbi Tashjian

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 11:13, 9 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. 300 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 341,768, the ministry of healthcare reports.

7741 COVID-19 tests were conducted on December 8.

202 patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 323,116.

The death toll has risen to 7747 (19 death cases have been registered in the past one day).

The number of active cases is 9541.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenpress: Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Finland hold political consultations

Arbi Tashjian

Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Finland hold political consultations

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 19:31, 6 December, 2021

YEREVAN, 6 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. Political consultations were held between Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Finland at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia on December 6. From the Armenian side the consultation was conducted by the Head of the European Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Tigran Samvelyan, and General Director of the Department of Russian, Eastern Europe, Central Asia Marja Liivala from the Finnish side.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, the sides discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral interest by emphasizing the importance of holding political consultations and high level visits on a regular basis.

The delegations of the two countries referred also to issues of broadening the trade-economic cooperation, exchanged thoughts about promoting the cooperation in sectoral directions.

On the same day Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan received the delegation of Finland. During the meeting a reference was made to Armenia-EU cooperation, issues relating to the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Brussels.

At the request of the Finnish side, Paruyr Hovhannisyan presented the current situation created around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In this context the necessity for a full resumption of the Nagorno Karabakh peace process in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ format was stressed. As a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Finnish side reaffirmed its unconditional support to this framework.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Vahe Grigoryan also received the Finnish delegation. The sides referred to the effective Armenian-Finnish cooperation in multilateral platforms.

During the visit the delegation laid flowers at Tsitsernakaberd memorial.

Russia registers 32,974 coronavirus cases in 24 hours – 12/04/2021

Arbi Tashjian

Russia registers 32,974 coronavirus cases in 24 hours

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 15:15, 4 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 32,974 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infected to 9,769,011, TASS reports citing the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

The increase in new cases totaled 0.34% in relative terms.

Particularly, 2,528 new coronavirus cases were registered in St. Petersburg in the past 24 hours, 2,075 in the Moscow Region, 887 in the Samara Region, 840 in the Krasnodar Region, 739 – in the Voronezh Region.

The number of active cases currently stands at 1,017,126 in Russia.

The number of fatalities related to the coronavirus increased by 1,215 in Russia in the past 24 hours compared to 1,217 on the previous day, bringing the total number of coronavirus deaths in the country to 280,072, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

As many as 35,182 coronavirus patients recovered in Russia over the past day, while the total number of recoveries has reached 8,471,813, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday

Civil Contract to nominate Kristine Grigoryan for Armenia HRD post

Arbi Tashjian
PanArmenian, Armenia
Dec 4 2021
December 4, 2021 – 12:04 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party will nominate Kristine Grigoryan for the post of the Human Rights Defender of the country.

If approved, Grigoryan, who currently serves as Deputy Justice Minister, will replace Arman Tatoyan in the position. The latter was elected by the Parliament in 2016 for a period of 6 years.

Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said in October that authorities in Armenia are dissatisfied with the activity of Tatoyan.

Dutch Parliament adopts motions on Azerbaijani provocations, Armenian POWs

Arbi Tashjian
Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 23 2021
, 00:55

 1 minute read

The Dutch Parliament has adopted two motions on Azerbaijan’s provocations against Armenia and the lack of democracy in the country, the Armenian Embassy in the Netherlands informs.

In one of the motions, the parliament calls on the government to work with the EU to conduct an independent investigation into the facts of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and to report the results to the parliament as soon as possible.

The second resolution mentions the serious problems of human rights, free speech and freedom of the press in Azerbaijan, which are deepening. The resolution also addresses the issue of Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan.

Taking into account the participation of Azerbaijan, a country far from European values, in the Eastern Partnership summit to be held on December 15, 2021, the Dutch parliament calls on the government to draw conclusions from the above-mentioned situations during the EU-Azerbaijan negotiations within the EaP Summit.

Armenia plans to liberalize a part of energy market

Arbi Tashjian

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 11:53, 16 November, 2021

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Beginning February 2022, Armenia will switch to a new energetic model, some part of the market will be liberalized, Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission Garegin Baghramyan said at the Parliament’s session today, in response to the question relating to small hydropower plants.

“Under the new regulations, the guarantee of the mandatory purchase of electricity provided by the state to these power stations will no longer operate. They are free to join the market trading electronic platform and conduct trade in accordance with all trading rules”, he said.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

PM Pashinyan confirms participation in Biden’s Summit for Democracy

Arbi Tashjian

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 16:46, 16 November, 2021

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has confirmed his participation in the Summit for Democracy in the United States, which will be hosted by President Joe Biden in December. 

“Nikol Pashinyan received an invitation from President Biden to participate in the Summit for Democracy. Prime Minister Pashinyan confirmed his participation. We view the Summit for Democracy as a chance to strengthen democracy in Armenia and we will use the forum for this goal,” the Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan said in an interview on Public Television.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Opposition MP: Granting corridor to Azerbaijan through Syunik Province will be gravest crime against Armenia

Arbi Tashjian
News.am, Armenia
Nov 19 2021
00:12, 19.11.2021

It’s likely that oral promises were made to Azerbaijan, and now it is pursuing them through military escalation. This is what deputy of the opposition “Armenia” faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Artur Ghazinyan said during a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“Azerbaijan has received a legitimate right to demand what it was orally promised. I believe the promise was made in the presence of third parties. We need to understand what was promised to Azerbaijan. Judging from the response of the international community or the absence of that response in general, it is safe to assume that the international community was told about Azerbaijan’s demand, otherwise Azerbaijan would never dare to encroach on Armenia’s sovereign territory,” he said.

According to Ghazinyan, Azerbaijan wants to achieve delimitation and demarcation with the version that it wants and to have a road leading to Nakhchivan. Ghazinyan added that granting Azerbaijan a corridor through the territory of Armenia will be inadmissible.

“Granting a corridor to Azerbaijan through Syunik Province, even an attempt to do this will be perhaps the gravest crime against Armenia’s statehood in history. No extraterrestrial territory through the territory of Armenia can be granted to any country. It seems as though Iran and Russia are also resolute in this regard,” he said.

According to him, it will be possible to change the situation, if the main negotiator of Armenia changes.