Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Armenpress: Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation to visit Armenia

Ekmekjian Janet

Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation to visit Armenia

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11:36,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation Peter Eriksson will visit Armenia on March 21-22, swedenabroad.se reports.

Ahead of the minister’s visit the Swedish government announced that it intends to expand its financial support to Armenia in response to the strong political will to undertake necessary reforms, following the velvet revolution of 2018. 

“An active democratization process has started in Armenia after the ‘velvet revolution’ in 2018. We see a strong political will to undertake necessary reforms and to strengthen democracy, freedom of _expression_ and other fundamental rights and freedoms”, the Swedish minister said.

The opening of a bilateral program for Sweden’s development cooperation with Armenia will mean increased funding for projects in Armenia and make the Swedish support to Armenia more targeted.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




PM hopeful of launching Armenia-made military serial production soon

Ekmekjian Janet

PM hopeful of launching Armenia-made military serial production soon

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14:07,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government is making structural and content changes in the military industry sector, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a news conference.

“I am sure we will have significant achievements in this sector. Today, we have important new products that will soon, I hope, be placed on serial production tracks, we have projects that are in final stages of discussion, we have projects that are under discussion, we have projects that are still ideas. I believe that Armenia must truly be a technologically advanced country, and we are headed this way,” Pashinyan said.

As an example, he repeated a statement made earlier by him when he said they shouldn’t focus on having a tank, but the objective that will be solved by having it.

“And we must understand what is this technology that will enable us solving this issue,” the PM said.

“There was a time when in order to transfer information from one place to another people needed paper, a pen, an envelope, a post stamp, a mailman, a horse or a car for reaching the information quickly to its destination. If we were to continue focusing on the paper, the pen and the post stamp, there wouldn’t be any e-mail. And today, the same is done without paper, without a pen or stamp, even without a mailman or transportation, it is done more quickly and efficiently. Therefore, the mechanism of our thinking must undergo the kind of change that this itself will be placed at the foundation of development of our military-industry complex,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns

Ekmekjian Janet

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns

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17:21,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation on March 19, reports Armenpress.

“I made a decision to resign as president. This year marks the 30th anniversary of my term in office. People provided me a chance to be the first president of Kazakhstan”, Nursultan Nazarbayev said in a TV address.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




Sports: Armenian boxers holding training camp in the US

Ekmekjian Janet
Panorama, Armenia
March 6 2019
19:14 06/03/2019

Armenian professional boxers Gor Yeritsyan and Narek Abgaryan have started trainings in the United States ahead of sparing matches, the Boxing Federation of the country reports.

The boxers are holding the trainings headed by coach Davit Torosyan. To note, the trainings will last for two months. The team is joined by Hovhannes Bachkov, another member of the Armenian team. The sparring games are planned against world-known athletes, the source said.

“Wine is the most democratic drink,” says Turkey’s wine expert Levon Bağış

Ekmekjian Janet
Ahval News
March 2 2019
 
 
“Wine is the most democratic drink,” says Turkey’s wine expert Levon Bağış

Ahmet Külsoy
Mar 02 2019

 
Wine has been a part of our lives for thousands of years. It adorns our dinner tables, and many decisions that changed the world have been made over a glass of wine. War victories are celebrated with wine; the drink has been the subject of countless poems, and many great loves have started and ended with a bottle of wine. In mythology, wine is indispensable as an elixir, and almost every culture in the world has a god of wine.
 
Wine expert Levon Bağış feels that Turkey’s wine culture is sorely lacking.
 
“The French have a nice saying, which is that wine needs time,” Bağış tells Ahval. “But in Turkey when we say this, it doesn’t seem right. Why? Our land is the motherland of wine. Put a compass into Mount Ararat and draw a circle around it; within that region—Georgia, Armenia, and Eastern Anatolia—these were the first places to grow grapes. Wine’s history is thought to be 8,000 years old. There’s been a wine culture in Turkey since ancient times. Some regions were world famous for wine going back to the Ottomans, and to the Byzantines before that.”
 
 
 
A Turkish fine dining restaurant in Istanbul.
 
 
 
Although it varies from year to year, Turkey produces approximately 50-60 million litres of wine a year.
 
Turkey’s coastal areas along the Aegean and Mediterranean, mostly known today as holiday spots, have always produced wine and sold it around the world. In Roman times, the wine from Tenedos Island (Bozcaada, off Turkey’s north-eastern coast) was world famous.
 
So what happened to Turkey’s deeply rooted wine legacy?
 
“This started happening around 1915, with the Armenian genocide and the population exchanges following the First World War. We lost a big part of our wine culture along with the non-Muslim people disappearing from Anatolia because under the Ottoman system, the Greeks and Armenians were the ones producing and selling the wine. During the systematic murder and removal of Armenians and Pontic Greeks, 8,000-year-old vineyards were cut down,” Bağış explains.
 
The events of 1920 were the death knell for wine in Turkey. One of the first actions during the 1st Parliament was to ban wine production. This law remained in place for six years. After 1926, according to Bağış, the nascent state’s approach to wine underwent some major changes. Wine-tasting houses started to appear, and the Vinikol Winery in İstanbul’s Galata neighbourhood became Turkey’s first winemaker, supported by grape growers across Turkey’s interior.
 
“There was a logical reason for this,” according to Bağış. “All over there were these huge vineyards with no owners, and the state couldn’t generate any income from them. But wine is tremendously profitable. After 1926, wine production was subsidised by the state because the industry was so lucrative. You need one kilo of grapes to make a bottle of wine. If this bottle is good quality, people want it and it’s a very valuable product.”
 
Climate change is also negatively affecting Turkish agriculture, its vineyards in particular. Bağış points out that changing climate conditions are changing the quality of wine and increasing its alcohol content.
 
“We’re a hot country, but much of what we’re facing now is our own doing. Backwards politicians came up with ideas like ‘We’ll bring the sea to Central Anatolia’ and then built a giant dam. After the dam, the colour of Turkey’s longest river, Kızılırmak, changed. It’s just still water now. The climate is different, too. It used to be that there was no humidity in Cappadocia, but now the wine producers there are struggling with the damp. Famous winemakers all over the world are talking about using different grapes because of climate change.”
 
There are a few up and coming domestic brands producing wine; labels such as Eski Bağlar of eastern Turkey’s Elazığ, Maadra from northwestern Turkey’s Kaz Mountains and Asmadan from Eceabat in northwestern Turkey are increasingly finding their way on shelves.
 
At 44 litres per person each year, France leads the world in wine consumption. Although Turkey is the world’s sixth-leading producer of grapes, the annual Turkish wine consumption rate hovers around just 0.07 litres per person. Bağış points out that actual per capita consumption is actually less, however.
 
“The sad thing is that about half of the wine consumed in Turkey is at the seaside tourist resorts. Food and drink culture has become fashionable here, but people have been drinking less wine in Turkey because of various government policies over the last decade. Alcohol is heavily taxed, and it’s much harder to get a license to open a liquor store or sell alcohol at a restaurant. We know alcohol won’t get banned. We know how much people drink in countries where alcohol is illegal—bans just make it more attractive. For us, a ban would be too difficult. Instead, they raise the price and make it hard to access, and this is effective enough,” he explains.
 
The expert notes that in Turkey, there’s some confusion about the difference between alcohol and alcoholism.
 
While it’s natural for a government to take on alcoholism, he says, fighting alcohol and fighting alcoholism aren’t the same thing, adding, “They forget how valuable wine is. We talk about how we’re a tourist country, but walk down a main street in Istanbul or Budapest and you can’t even tell you’re in a different country. It’s the cuisine that makes them different, the different flavours and delicacies. Wine isn’t just wine. It’s our wealth and our cultural heritage.”
 
I asked Bağış if he’d ever seen a Turkish politician with a glass of wine.
 
“I don’t know of any that drink wine,” he answers. “Our concept of wine is a bit strange. We’ve been drinking bad wine for such a long time that we now associate it with being unpolished or uncouth. We think of things like low-quality rotgut wine. We call people ‘wino’ to humiliate them or call their character into question. That’s why I’ve seen politicians drinking rakı but never wine—they’re afraid people will start talking about their religion or ethnicity. But I don’t think you can say that wine is good and rakı is bad. They both have their place. Wine is a drink of the working class and the aristocrats because there’s always a wine that suits what you can pay. If you buy it and drink it, it’s good wine. The best wine of all is the wine in your glass.”
 

Baku responded to the statement of the head of the National Security Council of Armenia about the impossibility of territorial concessions

Ekmekjian Janet
Arminfo, Armenia
March 1 2019
Tatevik Shahunyan

ArmInfo. Baku reacted to the  statement of the head of the National Security Service of Armenia  Artur Vanetsyan about the impossibility of territorial  concessions.

“We call on the OSCE Minsk Group to condemn such statements by the leadership of Armenia,” the statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in response to an Interfax request.The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry emphasizes that such statements  contradict the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group on the peaceful  settlement of the conflict, as well as the agreements reached by the  heads of the foreign affairs agencies of Armenia and Azerbaijan in  Paris.

“All responsibility for the consequences of such provocative  statements falls on Armenia,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the  Republic of Azerbaijan stresses.It should be noted that during the  visit to the southern regions of Artsakh, the head of the National  Security Service of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan stated that the talks  about the possible surrender of the territories to Azerbaijan are  speculations. During his visit to the southern regions, Vanetsyan  discussed the program of settling the territory along the bank of the  Araks River with the top leadership of Artsakh. In particular, it is  planned to build the settlement Araksavan, to develop agriculture  here and to create infrastructures. According to Vanetsyan, the  settlement of these territories is one of the main security  guarantees of Artsakh. In the context of the discussions, Vaniecian  noted that the implementation of this project is already a refutation  of speculation that negotiations are underway around possible  territorial concessions. “Implementing this program, we are sending a  clear message to the world that no one will surrender even a single  inch of land. On the contrary, our compatriots should live in our  territories, live and create,” said Vanetsyan.

Armenia to introduce environmental tax on plastic bags, looks to ban from 2022

Ekmekjian Janet
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 23 2019

Armenia’s ministry of nature protection has come up with a draft legislation banning the free provision of plastic bags to be enacted from January 1, 2020. The ministry cites initial studies, suggesting the proposed measure will sharply decrease the use of the plastic bags in the republic, before banning the use of polythene from 2022.

The draft legislation proposes to tax minimal amount for the sale of every plastic bag produced (100 AMD). According to the statistics, Armenia has imported some 18.059,6 tones of plastic bags in 2017-2018. Polythene amounts for 30% of the total waste volumes in the republic mostly accumulated in landfills.

The justification for the legislative initiative cites the public health and environmental impacts of using polythene bags in the country. it says the average bag picked up at the stores has a lifespan of about 12-15 minutes. Polythene is a non-biodegradable substance and it does not disintegrate or degrade itself in nature, instead degenerating into toxic microplastics. It notes also that countryside filled with polythene bags can be easily witnessed in many parts of Armenia, all year round.

According to the ministry, some 120 countries around the world have taken legal measures to regulate the polythene waste management through economic measures aimed at decreasing its usage, including through introducing taxation and fees.

Pashinyan told why he decided to occupy the post of Prime Minister of Armenia after the revolution

Ekmekjian Janet
Arminfo, Armenia
Feb 18 2019
Tatevik Shahunyan

ArmInfo.At the presentation of his book, ”The Other Side of the Earth”, Nikol Pashinyan told about why, after the revolution, he did not take his backpack and did  not go home, considering his revolutionary mission as fulfilled, but  decided to take the office of Prime Minister of Armenia.

”If after the revolution I would take my backpack and go home,  saying that my revolutionary mission was completed and Karen  Karapetyan or someone else would become the prime minister, the  people would not believe in the truth of the revolution, I would be  blamed in conspiracy with certain forces, that I just implemented the  authorities’ scenario. But this could not be allowed, because the  people would be lost into even greater despair than before the  revolution, “he explained. 

A big waste. Manvel Grigoryan’s accusation was completed and the preliminary investigation was announced

Ekmekjian Janet
  • 14.02.2019

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  • Armenia:

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  • arm

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  • rus

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The preliminary investigation of the criminal case regarding Manvel Grigoryan and Nazik Amiryan has been completed. This was reported by the press service of the HCSR.


M. Grigoryan is accused of illegally possessing weapons and ammunition, misappropriating 101,232,917 AMD property, evading the payment of 1,228,176,342 AMD taxes, wasting 1,225,003,300 AMD of state funds and organizing the theft of property worth 37,101,100 AMD through extortion.


As a result of the preliminary investigation of the criminal case against Manvel Grigoryan and his wife Nazik Amiryan, a former deputy of the RA National Assembly, former president of the “EARTH PROTECTION VOLUNTARY UNION” NGO, in the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Armenia, in addition to the previously revealed crimes, M. Cases of Grigoryan evading the payment of particularly large amounts of taxes, organizing the non-payment of particularly large amounts of taxes, wasting state funds and organizing the extortion of particularly large amounts of property. Manvel Grigoryan’s accusation has been completed. He was charged under Article 235, Part 2, Article 179, Part 3, Article 1, Article 38-205, Part 2, Article 205, Part 2, Article 179, Part 3, Clause 1, and Article 38-182, Part 3, Clause 2 of the RA Criminal Code.


According to the accusation, M. Grigoryan, with the prior consent of his wife, son and other persons, was illegally acquired, transported and illegally kept in three houses owned by them: Alaverdyan house 46, Echmiadzin city, Armavir marz, summer house complex located at 28 and 30 Lchapnya street, Arshaluys village, Armavir marz /”Hangstyan Tun 28″/, in a private house located in the area called “ARA LER” of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Artsakh. Firearms, munitions, rifle cartridges, explosives, in particular:


1. “THOMSON 1928 A1” model “S-434832” number 45 ACP /11,43×23/ caliber rifle-machine gun,
2. being a firearm: 1993 7.62mm /7.62×54/ caliber self-loading hunting rifle of “Tigr” model number “29740”,
3. Firearm: “MP-446 VIKING” model number “0244601711” 9mm /9×19/ caliber pistol,
4. a firearm, “BERETTA 92FS” model number “BER020699” 9mm /9×19/ caliber pistol,
5. a firearm, a rifled self-made pistol adapted to fire 5.6 mm ring-shaped incendiary cartridges,
6. munitions: about 000 combat bullets,
7. about 30 combat grenades,
8. 20 “UZRGM-2” combat explosives,
9. 18 shots with their constituent 13 starter powder charges,
10. 40mm “РПГ-7В” type grenade launcher as a firearm
11. 6 “UZRGM-2” combat explosives,
12. More than 30 detonators
13. Shattering explosive material: 12 pieces of factory-made 400-gram TNT explosives,
14. shattering explosives: three pieces of factory-made 200-gram TNT explosives broken pieces.


The firearms and ammunition listed above were found and confiscated in 2018. with searches carried out on June 16 and 19.


In addition, Manvel Grigoryan, as the chairman of the board of the non-governmental organization “EARTH GUARDIAN VOLUNTARY UNION”, having the authority to manage the organization’s property and financial resources, using his official position, with the help of his wife, Nazik Amiryan, who is responsible for the construction and economic issues of the military sports camp “Three Generation Earthkeeper” of the same organization, and his son, Arman Grigoryan, the director of the “ARA EV AITSEMNIK” BB company, has performed a particularly large task entrusted to the organization. appropriation of property worth AMD 101,232,917.


In particular, in order to solve the problems provided by the charter, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia provided various properties to the non-governmental organization “EARTH PROTECTION VOLUNTARY UNION” during 2016-2018: food products, equipment, etc.


The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia and the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh have handed over various properties to the NGO “EARTH GUARD VOLUNTEER UNION” in order to meet the needs of the military and volunteers protecting the borders of the Republic of Artsakh during the April 2016 four-day war and the following days. Apart from that, through the aforementioned state bodies and territorial bodies of the EMU, the bulk food, economic and medical goods collected by citizens and organizations were also handed over to the EMU central body: clothing, food, etc.


Manvel Grigoryan, with the help of his wife and son, embezzled a part of the above-mentioned property entrusted to him with the help of his wife and son, instead of using it for the purposes stipulated by the organization’s charter or handing it over to the military or volunteers protecting the borders of the Artsakh Republic.


M. Grigoryan stored the stolen property with his accomplices in the buildings owned by them located at 28 and 30 Lchaapnya, Arshaluys village, Armavir marz, RA, in the premises of “ARA AND AITSEMNIK” BB company managed by Arman Grigoryan, in Aghajanyan 3 house, Shushi city of Artsakh Republic, owned by Nazik Amiryan, “ARA LER” of the Ministry of Defense of the Artsakh Republic. in his private house located in the area called, belonging to a person in close relations with him, in the warehouse of the company “JI-ES PLUS SP” located in the area called Mirzajan, Askeran region of the Republic of Artsakh, he disposed of them at his discretion, using them for personal needs, including using the stolen food to feed wild animals kept in the areas belonging to him, and registered the ownership rights to cars in the names of his close persons.


Some of the stolen goods were found during a search in the office of “ARA EV ATSEMNIK” BB company located at 19 Mashtots street, Echmiadzin city, Armavir marz.


1. 4317 pieces of canned meat, marked “SOLDIERS’ DEPARTMENT NOT FOR SALE”, produced in 2015-2016, total value: AMD 4,470,066.


2. 1776 pieces of canned fish, marked “NOT FOR SALE TO THE SOLDIER’S DEPARTMENT”, manufactured in 2016, total value: AMD 840,048.


3. 840 kg of pasta marked “SOLDIERS’ DEPARTMENT NOT FOR SALE”, produced in 2016-2017, total value: AMD 214,040.


4. 8 bags of iodized salt, produced on April 27, 2016. total cost: AMD 31,685,


5. 15 bags of sugar, marked “SOLDIERS’ DEPARTMENT NOT FOR SALE”, produced: 06.06.2016, total value: AMD 280,190,


6. 3 bags of beans, marked “SOLDIERS’ SECTION NOT SUBJECT TO SALE”, total value: AMD 264,075,


7. 2 bags of lentils, marked “SOLDIERS’ SECTION NOT SUBJECT TO SALE”, total value: AMD 92,045,


8. 119 bottles of “Golden Drop” sunflower oil, marked “NOT FOR SALE TO THE SOLDIER’S DEPARTMENT”, produced in 2016, total value: AMD 116.606.7,


9. 180 pieces of condensed milk, marked “SOLDIERS’ DEPARTMENT NOT FOR SALE”, manufactured in 2017, total value: AMD 183,840,


10. 19 pairs of socks, 5 pairs of gloves, 30 t-shirts, 19 boxes of razors, 4 pairs of boots: total value: AMD 108,700.


11. “Uaz Hunter” brand 01 AG 045 h/h car, worth AMD 7,600,000,


12. “Uaz Hunter 2.7” brand 01 AC 045 h/h car, worth AMD 7,600,000,


13. “Uaz Pickup” brand 01 OX 045 h/h car, worth AMD 9,800,000,


14. “Uaz 374195-05” brand 01 FM 045 h/h car, worth AMD 7,200,000,


15. “Uaz 39625” brand 01 DA 045 h/h car, worth AMD 7,400,000,


16. “Uaz 390945” brand 01 PG 045 h/h car, worth AMD 7,500,000,


17. “Uaz 3163-105-30” brand 01 GP 045 h/h: car worth AMD 8,400,000,


18. “Uaz Pickup” brand 01 PA 045 h/h: car worth AMD 9,800,000.


Among the stolen goods, the below-mentioned goods were found during a search in Manvel Grigoryan’s country house complex located at 28 and 30 Lchapnya street, Arshaluys village, Armavir marz.


1. 2006 units, mostly produced in 2015, some of which are marked “NOT FOR SALE TO THE SOLDIER’S DEPARTMENT”, total value: 928.634.7 AMD.


2. 160 pieces of canned meat and 44 pieces of canned vegetables, produced in 2015-2016, total value: 250,400 AMD.


3. 33 bottles of oil, produced: 25.12.2015, total value: 23,452 AMD,


4. 69 kg of pasta, produced in 2014-2016, total value: AMD 78,600,


5. 14 packs of tea, produced in 2015, total value: AMD 4824,


6. 140 pieces of toilet paper, total value: AMD 20,699.


7. 1231 units: medicine, medical and hygiene supplies: total value: AMD 330.765.7,


8. 250 units of underwear, total value: AMD 166,440.


9. In the same country house, among the cars owned, there is a “Uaz Hunter 2.7” brand 01 CA 045 h/h car worth AMD 9,800,000.


Among the stolen goods, the goods with a total value of 7,076,980 AMD (cans, underwear, tea, coffee, medical and hygiene items, cigarettes) were found in the warehouse of the J-ES PLUS SP company located in the Mirzajan district of the Askeran region of the Republic of Artsakh.


Among the stolen goods, the goods with a total value of AMD 832,500 (juices, pasta, canned goods, medical and hygiene supplies, clothes, cigarettes) were found in the house of Nazik Amiryan, at 3 Aghajanyan Street, Shushi City, Artsakh Republic.


The following products were found in a private house in the area called “ARA LER”: 2976 cans manufactured in 2015-2016 with the marking “NOT FOR SALE TO THE SOLDIER’S SECTION”, 269 cans without the mentioned marking, 60 kg of pasta, 20 caviar, 41 condensed milk. sugar, spices, jams, drinks, bedding, underwear, military equipment, medical and hygiene supplies, power generator “LUTIAN” type, “LT2500s” model, cigarettes, gasoline fuel, etc., the total value of which was AMD 5,348,328.


In other words, Manvel Grigoryan, with the help of his son and wife, using his official position, appropriated a particularly large property of AMD 101,232,917.


In addition, Manvel Grigoryan, due to the positions he held in RA (head of various military units, RA Deputy Minister of Defense, RA NA Member of Parliament, Chairman of the EMU NGO), sponsoring a number of affiliated companies due to his personal prestige, personal-relative connections, participation in a number of companies, and influence in state administrative bodies, organized the non-payment of taxes to the state budget by their directors in particularly large amounts, as a result of which KAZARA AND Through the companies “AYTSEMNIK” BB, “EJMIATSNI HATS” BB, “KUARLINI” SP, he avoided paying taxes of 1,228,176,342 AMD.


In addition, Manvel Grigoryan, as the chairman of the YCU NGO board, is directly responsible for the tax and financial obligations arising from the organization’s activities, in order to avoid paying taxes, by not submitting the documents that are the basis for taxation of the said organization and by inserting obviously false data in the documents, he avoided paying the 2013-2018 income tax to the RA state budget in particularly large amounts: 53.176.123 /penalties: 102.408.095/ AMD from paying tax.


The preliminary investigation also revealed that M. Grigoryan, being authorized to manage the property and financial resources of the organization, using his official position, wasted AMD 1,255,003,300 of the financial resources provided to the organization in 2013-2018 on the basis of the relevant contracts concluded with the ministries of education, science, and defense of the state on behalf of the state, causing particularly large property damage to the state.


In addition, Manvel Grigoryan, occupying the position of Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia in 2000-2008, organized a group of people with the prior consent of P., a resident of Etchmiadzin city. Extortion of particularly large properties belonging to Torosyan. In particular, in the middle of 2004 M. Grigoryan, P. Torosyan organized the gas station being built by Torosyan in Etchmiatsin for his own profit, with the threat of destroying (damaging) the given property, using violence against the owner of the property and his family members, through two persons in his sphere of influence, with prior agreement, as a group, P. The extortion of a particularly large gas station belonging to Torosyan, worth AMD 37,101,100.


Regarding Manvel Grigoryan and Nazik Amiryan, the preliminary investigation in the separate part of the criminal case has been completed in order to send it to the court with an indictment.


M. Arman Grigoryan, the son of Grigoryan, is wanted.

Artsakh rules out the release of Asgarov and Quliyev

Ekmekjian Janet
Kavkazsky Uzel , Russia
Feb 12 2019
Artsakh rules out the release of Asgarov and Quliyev
by Alvard Grigoryan
[Armenian News note: the below is translated from Russian]

Having released Elnur Huseynzada, [Azerbaijan’s breakaway] Nagorno-Karabakh ruled out the release or exchange of other Azerbaijani citizens Sahbaz Quliyev and Dilqam Asgarov [detained in 2014 and sentenced to 22 years in prison and life imprisonment respectively], who were convicted for extremely grievous crimes. At the same time, the foreign ministry of the unrecognised republic noted that Azerbaijan should address directly the government of Nagorno-Karabakh regarding such issues. Both the ruling party and the opposition described as absurd the idea of exchanging Quliyev and Asgarov for Armenian prisoners kept in Azerbaijan.

Kavkazsky Uzel wrote that Azerbaijani prisoner of war Elnur Huseynzada served his two-year sentence in Nagorno-Karabakh and was released. According to the prosecutor’s office of Artsakh, he asked to transfer him not to Azerbaijan, but to a third country. Azerbaijan has put him on the wanted list on charges of high treason.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry expects that Armenia will release Dilqam Asgarov and Sahbaz Quliyev like it released Elnur Huseynzada.

“We would like Armenia to release Dilqam Asgarov and Sahbaz Quliyev,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Leyla Abdullayeva told the Interfax-Azerbaijan agency on 5 February.

Artak Nersisyan, the head of the department for information and ties with the public of the Artsakh foreign ministry, commented on the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, which says that Azerbaijan expects Armenia to release two more Azerbaijani citizens – Sahbaz Quliyev and Dilqam Asgarov.

Nersisyan believes that “Azerbaijan’s appeal to Armenia is baseless”.

“As regards the Azerbaijani criminals convicted in Artsakh, Baku should definitely directly address Stepanakert, which expressed readiness back in December of the past year to consider as a gesture of free will within the frames of law the possibility of the early release of citizen Elnur Huseynzada, who has not committed a grievous or extremely grievous crime on the territory of Artsakh,” Nersisyan told Tert.am.

Nersisyan noted that “issues related to persons, who committed grievous crimes, are considered at another level”.

He reminded that Asgarov and Quliyev “were found guilty of kidnapping and killing a minor because of ethnic hatred and a number of other crimes”.

“At the same time, the Artsakh republic foreign ministry urged Baku to take a step from the opposite direction and free Armenian hostages kept in Azerbaijan, first and foremost those, who have obvious health problems,” he noted, adding that “the Azerbaijani side rejected the proposal”.

Artsakh justice minister Ararat Daniyelyan also said previously that it was impossible to exchange Asgarov and Quliyev.

Helsinki Initiative-92 Committee Head Karen Ohanjanyan told Kavkazsky Uzel that representatives of the committee periodically visited the Azerbaijani citizens in the penitentiary facility and that they were kept in conditions corresponding to international standards.

A representative of the opposition National Revival party of Artsakh, Tigran Grigoryan, described Azerbaijan’s statement as “ridiculous”.

“Any proposal to exchange or release the criminals is simply absurd,” the political analyst told Kavkazsky Uzel on 11 February.

He noted that “I agree with the foreign ministry that Azerbaijan should apply” to the Artsakh government.

“However, I do not think that the foreign ministry or the government of Artsakh intend to seriously discuss the exchange of Azerbaijani saboteurs for anyone, but I agree with this as a principle, particularly as Armenian Prime Minister [Nikol Pashinyan] said that Artsakh must represent its own interests,” Grigoryan noted.

“Azerbaijan has the right to make statements it wants to make, but it is another thing that they are absurd,” said PhD in history Arevik Petrosyan, the chair of Vita, a civic organisation for assisting wounded fighters of the Artsakh army.

“Azerbaijani citizens Asgarov and Quliyev committed crimes against the people of Artsakh and they are punished for that,” she told Kavkazsky Uzel.

As regards the comments of the Artsakh foreign ministry, Petrosyan noted that “it does not matter, who Azerbaijan addresses”.

“I cannot see any difference here. I think that the statement by Azerbaijan was addressed to Armenians in general and Asgarov and Quliyev committed crimes against the Armenian people,” she said.

“It is incorrect to compare crimes committed by Elnur Huseynzada with the crimes committed by saboteurs Asgarov and Quliyev,” said Artur Tovmasyan, the head of the Homeland faction in the Artsakh national assembly.

“Huseynzada crossed the state border, but admitted his guilt, while Asgarov and Quliyev penetrated for sabotage purposes, committed a number of other crimes, and are guilty of the deaths of people, including a minor. Therefore, they were convicted in strict conformity with the law. So it is extremely immoral … [ellipsis as published] to speak about the possibility of their release or exchange,” he told Kavkazsky Uzel.

The politician also thinks that on this problem, Azerbaijan should address the Artsakh government, not Armenia.