Author: Emil Lazarian

 18:47,

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. According to the studies conducted by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the Margara Bridge is in a fairly good state and is ready for exploitation, ARMENPRESS reports, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan told the journalists, talking about the studies carried out around the Margara bridge.

"Part of the work on the Margara Bridge is under our domain and we have carried out a study which has revealed that the bridge is in a fairly good state and is ready for exploitation. The only problem with the bridge is that it is narrow and can provide one-way traffic. In the future, depending on the process, if the traffic increases over time and there is a need to either widen the bridge or build a new one, but I think it will be right to build the second one if necessary," concluded Sanosyan.

 18:57,

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. The Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands, under the auspices of the Armenian Embassy in the Netherlands, is organizing a series of events commemorating the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

As ARMENPRESS was informed by "Nederlandakan Oragir", on April 19 in the exhibition hall of the Eye film museum in Amsterdam, the ceremony of commemorating the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide began with the animated film "Aurora’s Sunrise" directed by Inna Sahakyan, where Ambassador of Armenia to the Netherlands and Luxembourg Tigran Balayan delivered opening remarks.

Referring to the upcoming events, the source informs that on April 23, the mentioned film will also be shown in Utrecht and Maastricht.

On April 23, the local "Ani" Armenian community in Maastricht and the administration of the Saint Karapet Church will commemorate the memory of the 1.5 million Armenian victims of the Armenian Genocide carried out in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, at the Saint Karapet Church.

Delegates from the Armenian communities will lay flowers and wreaths at the monuments of the holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide in Asen and Almelo on April 24. In Almelo, the program will begin with the speech and prayer of the delegate of Western Europe, the representative of the Armenian Church in the Vatican, Archbishop Khazhak Parsamyan.

On April 25, the Armenian Apostolic Church of Almelo together with the AGBU Foundation and the "Yerevan" organization will organize the screening of the documentary film "Hidden Map" on the topic of genocide, which will be attended by the director of the film, Ani Hovhannisyan. The film is about the granddaughter of an Armenian-American survivor of the genocide, who travels to the homeland of her lost ancestors to uncover long-buried truths. During her journey, she meets a Scottish intelligence officer, with whom she discovers many secrets…

An extensive commemoration of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire is planned in Amsterdam. It was organized by the "Grigor Narekatsi" Foundation with the "Holy Spirit" Church, the annual commemoration will take place on April 23 near the memorial cross-stone placed on the outer wall of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Spirit Church.

The program will begin with a short prayer, followed by a series of speeches, and flowers and wreaths will be laid on the monument.

At the event dedicated to the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the speeches of the Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam, Rutger Groot Wassink , and deputies of the Parliament and the City Council are scheduled. Representatives of Dutch civil society, various organizations, as well as members of the Greek, Assyrian and Yazidi communities of the Netherlands will also take part in the memorial ceremony.

Events commemorating the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire will take place in other cities with an Armenian community in the Netherlands.

 19:48,

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. The preliminary investigation into the case of hooliganism and physical violence against the Chairman of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia has been completed.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Investigative Committee, on March 31 MP Mher Sahakyan hit Vladimir Vardanyan, Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs.

At the April 12 sitting, the National Assembly gave a consent to initiate a public criminal prosecution against MP from the “Armenia” faction Mher Sahakyan.

Criminal charges are pressed against Mher Sahakyan. Ban on absence has been chosen as preventive measure.

 09:53,

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS. It’s Day 5 at the 2023 EWF European Weightlifting Championships at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex in Yerevan, Armenia.

Athletes in the 71kg women’s category and 81kg men’s category will take the stage today.

 10:42,

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS. United States congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Congressmen Ted Lieu (D-CA), and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) are re-introducing the Armenian Genocide Education Act, a bipartisan measure – building upon official U.S. Congressional and Presidential recognition of this crime – to fund Library of Congress educational programs about the history, lessons, consequences, and ongoing costs of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported.

This landmark legislation – strongly supported by the ANCA – seeks to provide $10 million in funding over five years for the Library of Congress to educate Americans about Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate state-sponsored mass murder, national dispossession, cultural erasure, and exile of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians, between 1915 and 1923.

“With Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, openly seeking to complete the Armenian Genocide, it’s more urgent than ever for American school children to learn the lessons of this still unpunished – still ongoing – crime against all humanity,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Chief among these lessons is that we – as Americans – must never, for reasons of political convenience or practical expediency, turn a blind eye to state-driven genocidal campaigns to eradicate indigenous populations or other at-risk groups, anywhere in the world.”

Building upon the 2019 passage of H.Res.296 and S.Res.150 – which specifically rejected any official U.S. association with Armenian Genocide denial – the Armenian Genocide Education Act seeks to counter-discourse and propaganda that claims that Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate state-sponsored mass murder, national dispossession, cultural erasure, and exile of millions of Christians between 1915 and 1923 did not take place. A similar measure was introduced in the last session of Congress.

Members of Congress can join as original cosponsors of the measure in the days leading up to its introduction, timed around April 24th, the international day of justice for the Armenian Genocide, ANCA reported.

 11:31,

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS. Rep. Adam Schiff is calling on his U.S. Congressional colleagues to join him in demanding that the Commerce Department explain why it is considering licensing the sale of high powered U.S. rifles to Azerbaijan, in the face of Azerbaijan’s 125+ day blockade of Artsakh and ongoing attacks on Armenia, which left four Armenians dead and six injured just last week, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“The same Biden Administration that continues shipping military aid to oil-rich Azerbaijan and has yet to investigate the discovery of U.S. parts in the Turkish drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh is now considering the direct sale of U.S. rifles to Azerbaijan, a dictatorship whose military openly executes unarmed Armenian POWs with rifles, then posts, trophy, videos of these killings on social media.”

“We join with Congressman Schiff, Senator Menendez, and all those – Democrats and Republicans – in the House and Senate who stand against this reckless arms sale.”

In a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. House members, Rep. Schiff is urging his colleagues to co-sign a letter to Secretary Raimondo seeking “additional information from the Commerce Department about the status of any requests for export licenses to send lethal weapons to Azerbaijan and safeguards to prevent U.S. weapons from being used in the commission of human rights violations.”

Rep. Schiff stated, “approving the export of more lethal weapons to be pointed at Armenia would only fuel conflict, especially in the hands of security forces with a history of human rights violations. The State Department’s 2022 Human Rights Report documents ‘credible reports of unlawful killings involving summary executions of Armenian soldiers in Azerbaijani custody,’ torture, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment with high levels of impunity.”

Members of Congress have until Friday, April 21st to co-sign the letter to Secretary Raimondo. The ANCA is working with regional and local affiliates to encourage broad bi-partisan support for the letter.

News of a possible sale of U.S. rifles – including assault-style and semi-automatic sniper models – to Azerbaijan broke on February 1st when Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez (D-NJ) announced his “deep concern and strong opposition” to the proposed sale.

“The export of weapons to an authoritarian country that wages war against a neighbor, blockades a vulnerable population, and commits rampant human rights violations at home is not consistent with the Administration’s commitment to democracy and human rights,” Sen. Menendez stated in a letter to Secretary Raimondo. “Further, the consideration of this export license further compounds my dismay that the Administration continues to allow the export of assault-style and sniper rifles abroad – even while supporting an assault-style rifle ban domestically – and deepens my reservations about the Department of Commerce having jurisdiction over such exports,” concluded Senator Menendez.

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian and the local ANC chair from Secretary Raimondo’s home state of Rhode Island, Steve Elmasian, expressed similar concerns in a February 13th letter to Secretary Raimondo. “As you know, from your long friendship with Americans of Armenian heritage in Rhode Island and across the United States, our community is deeply troubled by the U.S. military aid program to Baku, and even more shocked by the possibility that American offensive weaponry may be deployed against Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and Armenia. The victims of Azerbaijan’s attacks are, very often, the relatives and friends of Armenian American citizens,” stated Hamparian and Elmasian.

 16:05,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on April 18 that he wants his questioning in the parliamentary ad hoc commission investigating the circumstances of the 44-Day War to be public. He said he plans to reveal why he didn’t sign a document on ending the war on October 19th, 2020, which the Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke about.

“We’ve agreed, and assumed obligation, that I must be heard in the investigative committee,” Pashinyan said in parliament when asked by MP Vahagn Aleksanyan.

“I’m asking the commission chairman Andranik Kocharyan whether or not the opposition will come. He says he doesn’t know, that perhaps they won’t. Well, all right, let’s say we came, people would say that the opposition wasn’t there, they came and discussed all by themselves and left,” Pashinyan said.

He added that discussions are underway to find an option for the questioning to be public.

“The foreign ministry raises its issues here, the interior ministry too. I’m thinking, if I come and speak at the commission, and my speech gets classified top secret and is kept in a safe, the opposition will boycott and people will say it was a cover up,” he said, adding that he realizes the risks.