18:34,
On May 16-17, the Prime Minister will participate in the 4th summit of the Council of Europe in Reykjavik.
Nikol Pashinyan will also have bilateral meetings with international partners as part of his visit.
12:50,
YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations plan to tighten sanctions on Russia at their summit in Japan this week, with steps aimed at energy and exports aiding Moscow’s war effort, Reuters reported citing officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.
New measures announced by the leaders during the May 19-21 meetings will target sanctions evasion involving third countries, and seek to undermine Russia’s future energy production and curb trade that supports Russia’s military, according to the report.
Separately, U.S. officials also expect G7 members will agree to adjust their approach to sanctions so that, at least for certain categories of goods, all exports are automatically banned unless they are on a list of approved items.
The G7 comprises the United States, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
17:41, 10 May 2023
YEREVAN, 10 MAY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 10 May, USD exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 386.40 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.76 drams to 423.22 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.10 drams to 5.08 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.18 drams to 487.21 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 360.80 drams to 25221.27 drams. Silver price down by 3.44 drams to 317.60 drams.
Hackensack, NJ – On Saturday, April 29, 2023, over 70 members and supporters of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) of Eastern USA gathered at the Hackensack University Medical Center for its regional seminar.
The ARS anthem was led by MaryAnne Bonjuklian, who then presented Caroline Chamavonian, chairman of the ARS of Eastern USA.
According to a press release distributed by the ARS, Chamavonian noted in her opening remarks that the last in-person seminar was held in 2019. Since then, however, she said the ARS “provided thousands of dollars worth of scholarships to young scholars. Our chapters worked in the community during the pandemic to support the elderly and thank our medical heroes. We extended our healing hands to our community members in Lebanon before and after the Beirut port explosion. We supported the work of the Central Executive Board in Artsakh and the work of our sister region in Syria.”
Cynthia Ruggerio, Esq., gave the first talk of the day on “Resonating Patterns of Cultural Destruction and Genocide.” Ruggerio spoke about Lemkin’s coining of the term “genocide” and the role of cultural destruction; recurring patterns from the past to the present; church destruction; the denialist narrative; the Artsakh blockade; and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and international deficiencies.
Dr. Kim Hekimian, assistant professor of nutrition in pediatrics (gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition) at Columbia University Medical Center’s Institute of Human Nutrition, lectured on “Women’s Health in Armenia.” Hekimian provided a lifetime view, emphasizing the intergenerational implications of malnutrition. She also reviewed the primary causes of death in recent years, with coronary heart disease ranking first.
A workshop on legislative procedures was presented by Seda Aghamianz, a member of the ARS of Eastern USA Regional Executive Board. “The understanding of parliamentary procedures is essential during meetings to ensure that the decision-making process is fair, efficient and effective, allowing for the best possible outcomes for the meeting,” she explained.
The seminar concluded with a presentation on “Armenian Women’s Rights and Roles Throughout History” by long standing ARS member Valentine Berberian and past ARS United Nations interns Taleen Nigdelian, Nory Boiatchian, Talar Hovsepian, and Arev Ebrimian on “Armenian Women’s Rights and Roles Throughout History.”
The Regional Board thanked all guests as well as the New Jersey “Agnouni,” “Armenouhi,” and “Shakeh” Chapters for their efforts in organizing the event.
11:43, 6 May 2023
YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. The European Union welcomes the sustained engagement of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the four-day talks in Washington, ARMENPRESS reports, the EU special representative in the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, wrote on his “Twitter” page. He emphasized that progress can be achieved only through dialogue.
“Encouraging news from Washington. The EU welcomes the sustained engagement of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the four-day talks. Progress can only be made through dialogue. We continue to stand by Armenia and Azerbaijan and work with our partners to strive for lasting peace,” Klaar said.
The President of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation has spoken glowingly about the efforts of Armenia in hosting the European Weightlifting Championships – a week after speculation that the team would withdraw.
The speculation followed an incident at the Opening Ceremony on April 14 that made global news, when an Armenian ran from the crowd, grabbed the Azerbaijan flag from the young woman holding it during the parade of nations and set it alight.
Azerbaijan’s Government ordered its team to withdraw and fly home, citing security fears after the “barbaric act”.
Turkey, like Azerbaijan, has no diplomatic relations with Armenia after conflicts and killings that date back more than 100 years.
“The Azerbaijan team went but we stayed,” said Talat Unlu, whose team has so far won more medals than any nation except the hosts.
“For a weightlifting championship this is the best I have seen, the best competition hall, training area, warm-up.
“We can’t deny because of one miserable thing the good organisation that the Armenian Federation did.
“Here the security are taking very good care of us and until now we have had no problems.
“Of course there will be some protesters, that is normal, it’s something that’s in human nature.
“From the first day till now there is only one disgusting thing that happened, and that is the burning of the Azerbaijan flag.
“Everything has been perfect since the Opening Ceremony.”
In February Turkey will host the 2024 European Championships, which like this event are an important Olympic qualifier, and later next year Armenia is hoping to host the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Yerevan.
The IWF Board will select a host from bidders – Peru, Venezuela, Albania, Bahrain and Armenia – in June.
“Armenia have not had problems before (in Turkey) and will not in Antalya,” said Unlu.
“Of course there will be security to take care of them.
“They can walk around Antalya with their uniform, with their flag, and they won’t face any problem.”
Asked if Turkey would be happy to return to Armenia for the IWF World Championships, if it is chosen as host, Unlu said: “This is a decision for IWF.
“If they make such a decision we will respect that, of course we will come here, no problem.
“I have one condition though: we don’t want an escort, we just want to be like the other teams. Let them treat us like all the other teams.”
Karen Giloyan, Armenia’s deputy minister of education, science, culture and sport, said: “We are very pleased to hear that Turkey has been impressed with the competition, and has felt safe here.
“We look forward to competing in Antalya, and we hope to see Turkey here again next year.”
Many athletes, coaches and federation officials have joined Unlu in making favourable comments about Armenia’s efforts in hosting the European Championships for the first time – although there was a complaint from Cyrille Tchatchet, the British member of the IWF Athletes Commission.
After lifting in front of a big, noisy crowd in the men’s 96 kilograms yesterday, Tchatchet said the overall organisation of the event had been very good but the crowd’s behaviour was unacceptable.
Tchatchet said the fans have cheered failures by other athletes that improve the Armenians’ medal chances – they have done so several times, most notably for Turkish and Italian contenders – and make too much noise when athletes are preparing to lift.
“This is not weightlifting,” he said.
“It should be like tennis, we need silence when we are preparing.”
The France coach Arnaud Ferrari said: “We are very happy to be here, because in Armenia weightlifting is the sport number one.
“The welcome is very warm and organisation is very beautiful, Olympic-standard.”
Danish coach Anders Bendix said the organisation was “the best I have ever seen” and told an Armenian interviewer: “I hope you get World Championships next year, I’d really enjoy to come back.”
The top two officials at the European Weightlifting Federation, President Antonio Conflitti and general secretary Milan Mihajlovic, both praised the level of organisation in Armenia, as did IWF vice-president Attila Adamfi from Hungary and Board member Florian Sperl from Germany – although they were all unimpressed by the flag incident.
“I don’t remember such a level of organisation in other tournaments… I think this is the best Championship I have ever seen,” said Conflitti.
“Although the event started with challenges, the conclusion of all participants is that the European Championship is excellent,” added Mihajlovic.
“I sincerely appreciate Armenia for all their efforts and for hosting such a wonderful event. We hope for more events in Yerevan.”
Read more on the flag-burning controversy and its fallout in today’s blog from Brian here.
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1136211/turkey-praise-armenia-euro-weightlifting
17:12,
YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. On April 20, the first trilateral political consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of India were held in Yerevan.
The delegations were headed by Mnatsakan Safaryan, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, Seyed Rasoul Mousavi, the Assistant of the Foreign Minister of Iran, Head of the Regional General Department of South Asia and J P Singh, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, the foreign ministry said in a press release.
During the meeting, the sides particularly touched upon economic issues and regional communication channels, outlined the prospects of deepening cultural and people to people contacts as well as trilateral cooperation in various fields. The sides agreed to continue consultations in a trilateral format.
According to the New York Times, senior tax and trade officials from the U.S. and the European Union noticed a “surge” in chips and other electronic components sent to Russia that were “deemed as critical to the development of weapons, including Russian cruise missiles that have struck Ukraine.”
The components are being sent to Russia through Armenia, Kazakhstan, and other countries, the New York Times reported on April 18.
Heavy sanctions were imposed on Russia following the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to prevent such technology from being used on the battlefield.
The European Council announced on Feb. 25 its tenth package of sanctions against Russia, which included “further export bans on critical technology and industrial goods, such as electronics, specialized vehicles, machine parts, spare parts for trucks and jet engines, as well as goods for the construction sector, which can be directed to Russia’s military, such as antennas or cranes.”
However, electronic component sales through unofficial channels and Russian-allied nations make the official sale figures much lower than the total number of technology sent to Russia.
In late January 2023, a Dutch investigation revealed that millions of microchips made by Dutch companies had reportedly ended up in Russia since Feb. 24, 2022.
The investigation showed a “clear pattern” of a small group of Chinese companies obtaining Dutch chips and exporting them to Russia month after month.
The companies’ spokespeople denied wrongdoing and claimed they don’t do business with Russia, adding that even if their customers are not allowed to re-sell chips, they are powerless if chips end up in Russia through parallel trade.
On April 14, Reuters reported that Ukraine was allegedly finding more electronic components originating from China in Russian weapons recovered on the battlefield, citing a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.
13:18,
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has again called for the development of international mechanisms guaranteeing the implementation of a possible peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Without such mechanisms, a new war or escalation could happen even a day after signing the treaty, Pashinyan warned.
Speaking about the mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity by Armenia and Azerbaijan, PM Pashinyan said that Armenia itself offered to attach the maps of the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs – approved by the USSR – to the treaty as the basis of territorial integrity of the two countries.
“But it is here that we reach the biggest and most difficult problem, Nagorno Karabakh. And there is a nuance, which has been highly urgent during the past sixteen years, but we haven’t addressed it. The problem is that usually we address and have addressed the future of Nagorno Karabakh, but it is important to address the issue of Nagorno Karabakh’s situation at any moment during the existence of the conflict,” Pashinyan said. He said he attempted to do this several times during the past five years, but regrettably the issue transforms into a dispute between the opposition and the government, which is also normal.
“During the entire course of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination were placed side by side. This actually recorded realities which we cannot admit, but regardless of admitting or not, they exist. In this context, the right to self-determination means that you, as a beneficiary of the right to self-determination, are raising the issue of revising your, so to say, nominal A status. Theoretically this could mean to revise the A status and make it a B status, or revise it and not change it, or revise it and make it A+1 or A-1 status,” Pashinyan said. But without noting the A status, with this logic there can’t be any talk about any future status, meaning the self-determination.
“If you raise the issue of self-determination it means you are part of something. If you are a part of something, you’ve either already self-determined or don’t have the need to self-determination. Now, with our own hands, during the time known to you, we have created this negotiations, political, geopolitical reality, cemented it, but after that we’ve said we want a B status for Nagorno Karabakh, but we’ve never publicly accepted the A status. We’ve lied to ourselves with this, the people of Armenia, the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” Pashinyan said, adding that there won’t be peace until they face this fact. Pashinyan said he considers his political commitment to be peace. In this context, Pashinyan attached high importance to the development of an international mechanism for dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert to ensure the implementation of the rights and security agenda of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.
“It is highly important that international mechanisms guaranteeing the possible peace treaty implementation get developed, otherwise war or new escalation could erupt the next day of the signing of the treaty,” Pashinyan said.
He also highlighted the opening of economic and transport connections, noting that as stipulated by the 9 November statement, the roads must be reopened under the sovereignty and legislation of the parties.