Armenia is security guarantor of Artsakh, war is not an option – FM Mnatsakanyan

 

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 18:43,

YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan says Armenia is capable to protect itself, but peace process has no alternative, ARMENPRESS reports Mnatsakanyan said in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

Mnatsakanyan said that starting from July 12 a very dangerous situation was caused by Azerbaijani troops that attempted to infiltrate into the Armenian territories by using large-caliber artillery in the north-eastern part of Armenia, increasing the escalation.

‘’At the moment de-escalation is a priority. This is what we are making efforts for, this is what we are working for with the OSCE Minsk-Group Co-chairs, comprised of France, Russia and the USA. This is the priority for this moment. We need de-escalation. Armenia is capable to protect itself, Armenia is the security guarantor of Artsakh and war is not an option. We remain committed to it and will try to de-escalate the situation and create such an atmosphere that will foster peace and negotiation process’’, Mnatsakanyan said.

FM Mnatsakanyan assessed promising the fact that for 12-14 hours the situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border has been relatively calm.

‘’We are in constant touch with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, with Russia and the other partners – the USA and France. We are trying to find the way that will allow to preserve this relative tranquility and re-confirm the ceasefire regime established in 1994 and since than we have had a document signed by Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan. And now the full restoration of the ceasefire regime is a priority for us’’, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Asbarez: BREAKING: White House Press Secretary Refers to ‘Armenian Genocide Memorial’ in Briefing

July 6, 2020

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany during Monday’s briefing

“We may be witnessing, in this one-off statement, the first steps toward an all-of-government recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA’s Aram Hamparian

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany referred to the “Armenian Genocide Memorial” during her daily briefing on Monday when discussing implications of removing monuments around the country in response to the social justice movement that has dominated national discourse since the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police officers that has sparked the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement.

“There seems to be zero understanding of history when you’re defacing the statue of Matthias Baldwin and John Whittier and Ulysses S. Grant,” said McEnany in response to a reporter’s query about an explanation for President Trump saying over the weekend that many of the problems the United States is currently facing stem from “extreme indoctrination and bias in the education system.”

“There seems to be a lack of understanding and historical knowledge when the Armenian genocide memorial, remembering victims of all crimes against humanity, including slavery, is vandalized,” said McEnany in an apparent reference to the recent defacing of the Armenian Genocide memorial in Colorado, which is on the grounds of the state’s capitol and was vandalized along with other monuments there during last month’s social justice protests.

“There seems to be a lack of understanding of history when the first responders sculpture is damaged, when the Polish war hero statue, the World War I Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, and absolutely the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th regiment Washington Memorial that honored African American soldiers who fought valiantly in the Civil War was damaged in Boston,” contended McEnany. “We need to have a better historical understanding.”

“We may be witnessing, in this one-off statement, the first steps toward an all-of-government recognition of the Armenian Genocide – the clear consequence of last year’s near-unanimous passage of H.Res.296 and S.Res.150,” said Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

“Our success in navigating adoption of these two landmark measures cemented the broad-based, bipartisan consensus among Democrats and Republicans, in the House and Senate and among 49 of our 50 U.S. states that Turkey does not deserve and will not get a veto over U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide.”

Karabakh MFA responds to Azerbaijan President’s statements

News.am, Armenia
July 8 2020
Karabakh MFA responds to Azerbaijan President’s statements Karabakh MFA responds to Azerbaijan President’s statements

21:37, 08.07.2020
                  

Police apprehend NGO head and protester in front of Armenia President’s Residence

News.am, Armenia
Police apprehend NGO head and protester in front of Armenia President’s Residence Police apprehend NGO head and protester in front of Armenia President’s Residence

14:22, 10.07.2020
                 

Founder of Kamq (Will) NGO for protection of Armenian values Vahagn Chakhalyan and the members of the NGO today held a protest in front of the Residence of the President of Armenia. Earlier, they had announced that they wanted to hand a letter to the President and give a press conference.

“We have brought a letter to hand to the President of Armenia in order to shame him for adopting the Lanzarote Convention. These people don’t want our children to learn history of the Armenian Church, Armenian language and history, and instead, they want to teach sexual education and advocate perversion so that they can implement their plans through repression. They’re taking actions to only let Nikol Pashinyan’s beloved politicians hold protests. We’re complaining against the Armenian authorities’ discrimination,” Chakhalyan stated, adding that police let people protest against smuggling of tobacco or the constitutional amendments, but don’t let citizens hold protests regarding national dignity.

The police gave the protesters two minutes to leave the premises, after which they apprehended the protesters, including Vahagn Chakhalyan and Sona Aghekyan, who also wasn’t wearing a face mask.

https://news.am/eng/news/590478.html

Coronavirus: Armenia will soon carry out 3000 tests per day

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 12:44, 7 July, 2020

YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will carry out nearly 3000 coronavirus tests daily in three weeks. In addition, it’s also possible to reach the number of these tests 4000 in a day given the number of tests conducted by private laboratories, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said at a press conference in Armenpress.

“We already “easily” carry out 2500 tests in a day, which, of course, will increase in the nearest future. And we expect to reach the number of tests nearly 3000 at least in 1-2, or 3 weeks, in line with increasing the capacities, only in our laboratories. But it’s also possible to have 4000 tests daily given the number of tests conducted by private laboratories”, the minister said.

He reminded that testing is just a mean to detect citizens for two reasons: to isolate the mild cases and their direct contacts and treat them. “In terms of treatment I can assure that no one is left out. All citizens who need treatment are being tested. We have a gap more with detecting the asymptomatic cases, which, however, will be filled in line with increasing our capacities”, he said.

As for the difficulties, the minister of healthcare said they are different starting from human resources. PCR testing is a complex process, is a science, not just a mechanical action and requires highly-qualified specialists, at the moment there are just no free such specialists. The state is preparing most of these specialists from the so-called zero.

Torosyan informed that 4 new laboratories will also be added to the testing process in Ijevan, Martuni, the St. Gregory the Illuminator and the Arabkir hospitals.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Opposition politician: Internal problems of Armenia are continuation of its foreign policy

Arminfo, Armenia
July 3 2020

ArmInfo.  The internal affairs and  problems of Armenia, like in many other similar countries, are a  continuation of their foreign policy, Chairman of the European Party  of Armenia Tigran Khzmalyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

“In this particular case, we are talking about the third stage in the  weakening of Russia in the last 100 years – this time Putin’s Russia.  The process of collapse of the management system is underway, and  it’s quite fast. It’s clear that Moscow is trying to defend its  position through special services and the internal network operating  in Armenia. People have been nurtured in Armenian political parties,  special services, and other bodies for years, who are going to be  very useful to Russia today. And without considering this fact, it’s  impossible to understand what is happening in Armenia today, “he  emphasized.

According to the politician, today Russia is losing ground not only  in Armenia, but also around the world.  In other words, what happened  with the USSR 30 years ago is happening with the Russian Federation  today. In this light, he noted the significant economic problems of  Russia, caused by another sharp drop in energy prices. At the same  time, like the late Soviet Union, Russia was drawn into wars in  distant countries, this time in Syria and Libya. In addition, Moscow  is trying to wage and unleash hybrid wars – in Ukraine and other  post-Soviet countries, including Armenia.

In this light, Khzmalyan considers the memoranda of some Armenian  parties with United Russia, as well as the statements of their  leaders, only the tip of the iceberg. A much bigger problem, in his  opinion, is the illusion according to which there are many political  parties in Armenia. In reality, according to the estimates of the  politician, there are only 3-4 national, democratic parties in the  country. The rest just represent the interests of Russian special  services.

On July 2, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, Gagik  Tsarukyan, expressed concern about the “artificial aggravation of  anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,” blaming the anti-Armenian,  anti-state forces for this, trying to break the friendly ties between  the two peoples. “As the chairman of the country’s largest opposition  political force, as a citizen, I will do everything possible to  suppress provocations aimed at forming anti-Russian sentiments in our  country,” Tsarukyan said.

“Let’s call a spade a spade. The former presidents in reality were  residents and were engaged in nothing more than trading in  sovereignty. In return, they got the opportunity to remain at power.  This is a short formula of what happened before 2018. And,  unfortunately, the authorities that succeeded them failed to change  these sad realities. The process is underway, but I assess it as  somewhat late. Over the past three decades, Armenia has stagnated,  serving the interests of Russia, while neighboring countries are  developing political and economic relations with the civilized world,  ” Khzmalyan concluded. 

Earthquake registered 55km south-east from city of Van also felt in Yerevan

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 15:50,

YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS.  On June 25, at 14:03 local time, the Seismic Protection Survey Seismological Network of the Armenian ministry of emergency situations detected an earthquake at the northern latitude 38.350 and eastern longitude 43.980 geographic coordinates (Turkey, 55km south-east from the city of Van) with 5.1 magnitude and 10km depth, the ministry told Armenpress.         

The tremor measured magnitude 7 points at the epicenter area.

No casualties and damages have been reported so far.

The earthquake was also felt in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

There cannot be political decision to file motion on stripping MP Tsarukyan of immunity – advisor

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 11:13,

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS. There cannot be a political decision to file a motion on stripping Prosperous Armenia party leader, MP Gagik Tsarukyan of immunity, Advisor to the Prosecutor General of Armenia Gor Abrahamyan said on Facebook.

“We once again repeat: there cannot be a political decision to file a motion to strip any lawmaker, including Gagik Tsarukyan of immunity.

Such decisions are made exclusively within the frames of criminal proceedings, given to what extent the Prosecutor General approves the evidences collected during the investigation as sufficient or insufficient in terms of the merits of such a motion. Therefore, the attempts to politicize the exclusively criminal proceedings are nonsense. If there are legal grounds to file a motion to the Parliament on such a matter, the Prosecutor’s Office will inform the public”, he said.

On June 14 leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan was taken to the National Security Service for questioning. He stayed there until 23:30. Tsarukyan’s supporters organized a rally outside the NSS demanding to stop the actions against the lawmaker.

Earlier the NSS issued a statement according to which a company, that is included Gagik Tsarukyan’s Multi Group Concern, has caused tens of billions of drams in damage to the state.

In another statement, the NSS said it revealed numerous cases on giving bribes to voters by the Prosperous Armenia party members, as well as candidates to vote in favor of the party during the April 2, 2017 parliamentary elections.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenia sets up 400 more beds for Covid-19 patients

Public Radio of Armenia

Turkish Press: Armenian Patriarch calls for Hagia Sophia to become place of worship

Daily Sabah, Turkey
 
 
 
Armenian Patriarch calls for Hagia Sophia to become place of worship
 
BY DAILY SABAH
 
 ISTANBUL TURKEY JUN 13, 2020 10:33 PM GMT+3
 
 
 

The Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Patrik Sahak II, has joined the discussion over the potential re-transformation of the Hagia Sofia into a mosque, voicing his support for the proposal in a chain of tweets on Saturday.

“The Hagia Sophia should be opened to worship,” he said, stating that it is big enough for that purpose while suggesting a space for Christians. “Let the world applaud our religious peace and maturity. May Hagia Sophia become a symbol of the peace of humanity in our era.”

Sahak further stated that humanity was praying for such unity and so suggested sharing the dome of Hagia Sophia. “Even though our faiths are different, don’t we believe in the same God?”

Having been a place of worship for Christians for 1,000 years and another 500 for Muslims, he claims that Hagia Sophia won’t be minding it.

“Hagia Sophia was built with the labor of ten thousand works at an astronomical cost,” he said pointing out that for over 1,500 years numerous repairs have been done on the iconic building by the Fatih Sultan Foundation. He stressed that their aim was to preserve it as a place of worship. “Not just a museum.”

He said it would be more fitting as a place of worship where believers could kneel down in prayer in awe of the structure, rather than a touristic site full of visitors rushing around.

The Hagia Sophia, one of the world’s most significant historical and cultural heritage sites, was built in the sixth century at the time of the Christian Byzantine Empire and served as the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church. It was converted into an imperial mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. The structure was converted into a museum in 1935, during Turkey’s period of strictly secular single-party rule. However, in the time since, there has been much discussion over converting it back into a mosque, with public demand to restore it as a place of worship gaining traction on social media.

The issue of Hagia Sophia is one that caused much tension between Turkey and Greece recently.