Author: Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS

377 more families celebrate housewarming in Karabakh

Emil Lazarian
PanARMENIAN
Armenia –
– 12:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - 377 families celebrated housewarming in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) between November 2021 to July 2022, according to the press service of the country's Housing Committee.

"377 newly built apartments and houses were provided to the families of deceased persons, persons with military disability, persons with 5 or more children, displaced persons, refugees, families of Defense Army servicemen, as well as families of orphans," the Committee said.

312 apartments were provided in the capital city of Stepanakert, 48 in Askeran region and 17 in Martuni region.

In December 2021, Artsakh State Minister Artak Beglaryan announced that Artsakh was planning to build 5,000 apartments in the next 3 years, mainly for families of those displaced after the 44-day war.

Ruling party members ‘work against each other’ in the run-up to Yerevan municipal elections

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia –

The Armenian authorities’ attempts to hold snap Yerevan City Council elections have failed, Pastinfo reports, pointing to a “tough struggle” among Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party members and entourage in the run-up to the next municipal elections.

“As some media reports suggest, former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan was set to run for mayor in the snap elections, and the authorities planned to ask former and current oligarchs for help to ensure his victory. Our sources tell us that former Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan had agreed to covertly support Avinyan by securing votes for him. In addition, Samvel Aleksanyan, also known as "Lfik Samo”, was expected to join the race with [his nephew] Artak Aleksanyan, the former head of the Malatia and Sebastia administrative district, forming an alliance and running in the municipal elections. Naturally, oligarch and ruling faction MP Khachatur Sukiasyan [also known as Grzo] would not stay away from the electoral process. Incidentally, the reports have not been refuted to date,” the news outlet says.

“However, opinion polls have shown that even if such schemes are used, it would be very difficult to get 50+1 percent of the votes to install Avinyan as mayor because the approval rating of the authorities in the capital is low and Samvel Aleksanyan's influence has diminished.

Citing the findings of the polls, the Civil Contract party members persuaded Pashinyan to cancel the plan for early elections to the Yerevan City Council, fearing that this would mark the first step towards the loss of power. The Grzo-led wing of power, which [parliament speaker] Alen Simonyan is an active member of, was especially zealous in postponing the elections.

It was supposed to be like that, because Khachatur Sukiasyan, the number one oligarch in the capital, is waiting with his sleeves rolled up for the elections. The latter, according to the media reports, earlier wanted to win the mayoral race in the person of Alen Simonyan, now he personally offers his candidacy. After all, he must know that to win in Yerevan elections means to extend grip on power.

By and large, it is Sukiasyan who pulls the strings of the different wings of power today: the country’s president was his employee, the National Assembly speaker was his PR man and employee, finally, the judicial system controlled by Gagik Jhangiryan was in his pocket, but events took another turn and the number one fraudster, Gagik Jhangiryan, resigned, which significantly reduced Sukiasyan’s political reach too. But with the Yerevan municipal elections a new room opens up.

As for Avinyan, Civil Contract’s official candidate for Yerevan mayor, it seems that Jhangiryan’s method of tricks worked here too: on the one hand, someone is tricked by being declared an official candidate, on the other hand, Pashinyan and oligarchs come to the conclusion that Avinyan will not win the Yerevan elections even if Samvel Aleksanyan forms an alliance to support him… So, is Khachatur Sukiasyan left now? To make a long story short, Yerevan may find itself in the clutches of oligarchs with a wolf's hunger.

Even in your worst dreams such a scenario is impossible to imagine, but as long as Nikol is in power, “gray wolves” are also imaginable,” reads the article.


Armenian parliament majority to apply to top court for ouster of opposition MPs

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia –

Lawmakers from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party have called a special parliament session on July 14 to debate the ouster of opposition MPs who have been boycotting parliament sessions for over two months now.

They plan to apply to the Constitutional Court to strip all deputies from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions of their seats, except for Ishkhan Zakaryan and Taguhi Tovmasyan, lawyer Robert Hayrapetyan said in a Facebook post.

The draft decision was posted on the official website of the National Assembly but was later removed.

Tsovinar Khachatryan, the spokeswoman for the parliament speaker, told Panorama.am there is no such decision at this point.

“There are no such plans for now. It's the “for now” that matters here,” she said in response to the question whether the ruling faction MPs plan to apply to the top court.

Armenia opposition lawmaker announces when they will start process of removing PM Pashinyan from power

Emil Lazarian
NEWS.am
Armenia –
13:56, 11.07.2022

The formation of the councils of the offices is in full swing; councils of the Resistance Movement have been formed in virtually all provinces. Opposition MP Ishkhan Saghatelyan, who is also coordinator of Armenia’s Resistance Movement, told this to a press conference Monday

"Yes, we hold a rally once a week, on the rest of the days, a huge amount of work is done which is not visible to the public. All the gaps, organizational difficulties that we had, all of that is recorded, and a huge amount of work is being done to eliminate these gaps.

Councils of the movement are being formed in all provinces so that the movement is transferred in full to the provinces as well. In addition to the main [political] parties, we also engage various individuals, able forces.

Second, we have created eight committees, commissions which carry out very specific works in that regard. After completing these works, at some phase their results will be obvious to you. I assure [you] that we work at the same pace, but we also do back-office work," he said.

Saghatelyan stated that the second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, also participated in the opposition rallies and will participate in them in the near future as well, and there is no problem in this regard.

Reflecting on the matter of political prisoners in Armenia, the opposition lawmaker said that they failed in this regard and the international community did not receive accurate respective reports from Armenia, and many of them were hearing this matter for the first time.

"But at least the issues that were covered up will be paid attention to from now on; in this sense there will be a change."

As for starting the process of removing PM Nikol Pashinyan from power, the opposition figure stated: "I did not say that we have started the dismissal process as of August 2. As I said: as of August 2, another one is being added to our [relevant] mechanism: the possibility of dismissal. I said clearly, we will enter into that process only when there are sufficient grounds for achieving success. We will not enter as a formality into that process. And it is obvious that those grounds exist in legal and political terms. That process will end successfully only if the nationwide movement reaches the point where there will no longer be an alternative. Regarding [the opposition factions] returning to the parliament, I have said [that] we will return to the parliament solely with our agenda," Saghatelyan said.

Sports: U-20 [Women’s] European Championship: Armenia suffers loss… (Israel 102 : 40 Armenia)

Emil Lazarian
NEWS.am
Armenia –

Armenian U-20 women's team met the Israeli team in Skopje in the second round of the European Championships (Division B).

The Armenian team was defeated 40-102 (3-19, 19-35, 9-29, 9-19).

In the first round, the Armenian team defeated the Georgian team 49-46.

The teams, taken the first two places in the group, will pass to the quarterfinals.

Armenian News note: You can watch the full game at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suoscE6VWNA

Turkish Press: Armenian, Turkish leaders hold rare phone talks

Emil Lazarian
Turkish Minute
By

 Turkish Minute

 -

  

The leaders of Armenia and Turkey pledged in a rare call Monday to build on a nascent process aimed at normalizing travel, trade and diplomatic relations between the arch foes, Agence France-Presse reported.

The two sides issued identical statements saying Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “stressed the importance of the bilateral process of normalizing relations between the countries.”

The call came after Ankara and Yerevan on July 1 made a breakthrough during talks in Vienna where their diplomats agreed to open the countries’ shared land border to third-country nationals and begin direct cargo flights.

“The leaders expressed hope that the agreements reached on July 1 will be implemented in the nearest future,” the joint statement said.

The two countries have never established formal diplomatic relations and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.

Their relationship is strained by World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, atrocities Yerevan insists amount to a genocide.

But in December, the two countries appointed special envoys to help normalize relations — a year after Armenia lost to Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan in a war for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan used the help of Turkish combat drones to recapture most of the contested territory that had been under ethnic Armenian control since the 1990s.

In February, Turkey and Armenia resumed their first commercial flights in two years.

The land border between the two countries has remained closed since 1993 however, forcing trucks to transit through Georgia or Iran.

Obsidian flake from 45,000-year-old tool discovered in Armenia

Emil Lazarian
PanARMENIAN
Armenia –
– 14:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Researcher and archaeological scientist Ellery Frahm has published a picture of a tiny, prehistoric obsidian flake discovered in Armenia.

"It might not be the prettiest artifact from Ararat 1 Cave, but my chemical tests in our field lab established that this tiny obsidian flake was removed in order to resharpen a stone tool that, about 45,000 years ago, had been carried more than 200 km," Frahm said on Twitter.

Ararat 1 is a new Palaeolithic cave in Ararat Depression in Armenia.

Frahm's team earlier found another minuscule obsidian projectile, most likely dating to the Chalcolithic period, on the first day of their excavations at the cave. The obsidian comes from Geghasar volcano — 40 km away linearly, but farther on foot.

On Tuesday, July 12, scientists shared the image of what he described as "the prettiest artifact so far from Ararat 1 Cave.

"It’s a Chalcolithic (post-Paleolithic and post-Neolithic) obsidian leaf-shaped point with one end broken off — it would’ve originally been more symmetrical before it broke long ago," he wrote.

https://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/301445/Obsidian_flake_from_45000yealold_tool_discovered_in_Armenia

Yerevan hopes to open border for Armenian, Turkish citizens in the future

Emil Lazarian
PanARMENIAN
Armenia –
– 16:16 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The telephone conversation between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is another important step in the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey, Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan said in an interview with the Public Television.

He said that the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Turkey discussed in detail the opening of the border for citizens of third countries and the transportation of goods.

“I think that it will be possible to open the border for the citizens of Armenia and Turkey in the future,” Grigoryan said.

The Secretary reiterated that Armenia has repeatedly stated that a corridor through its territory for Azerbaijan is a red line, and that such an issue has never been discussed.

The Azerbaijani side has on multiple occasions spoken about a so-called "corridor" through the southern Armenian province of Syunik that would connect Nakhijevan to the rest of Azerbaijan. The Armenian side, however, has repeatedly denied being involved in negotiations for the provision of a corridor to Azerbaijan, stressing that they have only agreed to unblock transport communications in the region.

Pashinyan, Rosatom CEO Discuss Possibility Of Building New NPP In Armenia – Yerevan

Emil Lazarian

 Mohammad Ali

YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 12th July, 2022) Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed with Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev the possibility of building a new nuclear power plant in the republic, the Armenian government said on Tuesday.

"The parties discussed issues of further operation of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP, the possibility of building a new nuclear power plant in Armenia, touched upon the development of nuclear energy, as well as cooperation in the field of renewable energy," the statement says.

The Armenian-Russian cooperation in the field of energy has a rich agenda, and Rosatom is the main partner of the Armenian government in the field of nuclear energy, Pashinyan noted. He highly appreciated the role of the corporation in extending the life of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP and expressed confidence that the cooperation would continue to be effective.

"Likhachev thanked for the close cooperation and noted that the Rosatom corporation was interested in further fruitful cooperation with the Armenian government," the statement says.

Armenia now has one nuclear power plant located near the town of Metsamor, 30 kilometers south of Yerevan. There are two power units based on VVER-440 earthquake-resistant reactors. The first power unit of the Armenian NPP was put into operation in December 1976, the second in January 1980. The nuclear power plant was stopped in March 1989 after the Spitak earthquake. The second power unit was recommissioned in November 1995 due to the energy crisis in the republic. With the help of Rosatom, its modernization was completed last year.

The program of the Armenian government provides for the extension of the operating life of the operating unit of the nuclear power plant until 2026, as well as the phased commissioning of new units.

Russia building new military base in Armenia

Emil Lazarian
MEHR News Agency, Iran


TEHRAN, Jul. 12 (MNA) – According to an Armenian newspaper report, Moscow is building a new military base in Armenia and plans to deploy 2,000 soldiers there.

Hraparak daily of the Republic of Armenia in a report wrote that the first news about the construction of a new Russian military base in the Armenian territory appeared in mid-June when the government adopted at a regular [Cabinet] session the decision to make amendments to the October 3, 2012 protocol on the placement of the Russian military base in the Armenian territory. 

There is no mention of a new military base in the justification, but it is said that the "placement points of the Russian military base" and the composition of the land and immovable property being transferred to the Russian side and the legal basis documents are being changed, the report added. 

The lands being transferred to the [new] Russian military base are within the administrative boundaries of Noyemberyan and Berd enlarged communities [in Tavush Province].

According to the report, they will be deployed in Aygepar and Voskepar settlements, as well as in the territory of the Noyemberyan community. According to preliminary information, about 2 thousand Russian soldiers will be brought there.

The news comes as none of the official sources of Armenia or Russia have yet reacted to it.

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