Author: Arbi Tashjian

 12:23,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and head of his office Andriy Yermak have been hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) earlier this week, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

Zelenskiy and Yermak are being treated at Kyiv’s Feofaniya Clinical Hospital, Yermak’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in a November 12 interview with the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda.

“A special office has been equipped there to enable the president to hold conferences. He has held a large number of conference calls today”, Podolyak said.

He said Yermak has a separate, isolated ward.

 14:53,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan held a meeting on November 11 with Lt. General Rustam Muradov, the Commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed to supervise the armistice in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone, the defense ministry said in a news release.

Tonoyan thanked Lt. General Muradov for the rapid formation and deployment of the peacekeeping mission and expressed readiness to provide comprehensive support during the mission.

The implementation and organization of the peacekeeping unit’s mission were discussed.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 14:12, 9 November, 2020

MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Russia makes all possible efforts for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through political-diplomatic means, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“The Russian side makes all possible efforts for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict with political-diplomatic means”, Peskov said.

Peskov bypassed the question relating to Turkey’s proposal on creating a working group over the NK conflict. CNN Turk was the first to report about the proposal. “On Saturday we announced the themes which were discussed during the telephone conversation of Putin and Erdogan. I have nothing to add to that statement. The Karabakh conflict has been discussed”, he said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 23:59, 6 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS.  The Human Rights Defender of Armenia and the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) published an ad hoc report on the use of incendiary ammunition of mass destruction (incendiary weapon) containing chemical elements (possibly white phosphorus) against Artsakh by the Azerbaijani armed forces, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Facebook page of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan.

Findings of the report are based on the evidence presented in the report (18+ photos of civilians’ body injuries, map illustrations, etc.). Specific findings are based on studies of the Military Medicine Faculty of the Yerevan State Medical University After Mkhitar Heratsi.

Joint studies the two human rights institutions proofed that the incendiary ammunition was used against civilian objects and forests of Artsakh, causing long-term severe damage to peaceful population and environment.

In many cases of use of incendiary mass destruction ammunition forests are close to civilian communities (e.g. Nngi, Sghnakh, Aknaghbyur, Taghavard, Togh, Qarin Tak): even in cases of 100-meter distance.

Hence, the issue is also related to the long-term inevitable damage to the life and health of the civilian population.

The joint fact-finding missions of the two Human Rights Defenders revealed that overall approximately 1815 hectares forest area was damaged almost in all regions of Artsakh. Considering the specificities of the ammunition, this number may increase even if its use will not continue any more.

Moreover, it was also reported that in civilian communities (e.g. Nngi, Taghavard, Aknaghbyur) destructions to the objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population were caused (e.g. gas pipelines).

The current ad hoc report established at least the following facts, irrespective from the concrete type of the chemical element of the used ammunition:

1) the used ammunition has nature of massive destruction;

2) ammunitions contain chemical elements;

3) are used towards forests, causing mass fires and long-term severe damage to environment;

4) according to expert assessments, the fire, caused by this type of weapon is not stopped even with the extinguishing materials or water;

5) the forests where these ammunitions were used, are located close to the civilian communities;

6) according to the fact-finding activities, civilians, who were probably damaged from the use of the ammunition, are hiding from attacks of Azerbaijani military forces in those forests;

7) the use of this ammunition against civilian objects is prohibited by the international law and may 

to war crime.

 18:29,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Artsakh has published another list of military casualties. ARMENPRESS reports 47 new names have appeared in the list, bringing the number of the death toll to 1166.

 21:15,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. President of the USA Donald Trump has announced about good progress in negotiation over Nagorno Karabakh conflict, ARMENPRESS reports Trump said in a briefing with reporters.

”We are talking about that, we are working with Armenia. We have very good relationship with Armenia. There are very good people there, very dedicated, they ar eincredible people and we’ll see what happens”, Trump said.

To the question if he has talked with the Armenian or Azerbaijani leaders, Trump said, ”I don’t want to say, but really good progress is being made”, he said.