Author: Emil Lazarian

 11:44,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan and Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan received the booster shot against COVID-19 in the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Health Minister received the booster shot by Moderna vaccine. She stated that citizens can also receive the booster shot six months after previous vaccinations.

“There are countries which do not wait for six months, but get the booster shot earlier. For instance, getting the booster shot after 4 months is not dangerous”, she said, adding that getting the booster shots regularly could also become acceptable in Armenia. “Getting a booster shot is still on a voluntary basis in our country. But we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. No one knows how the new Omicron variant will spread in Armenia. All our measures, restrictions are being applied for resisting all the challenges in a flexible way. If we have a certain perception that making a booster shot mandatory would help further protect the health of our citizens, we will apply another tool”, she noted.

In his turn the Minister of Economy said that it’s important for him to get a booster shot. “I received the booster shot by Armenian-made Sputnik Light vaccine. Previously, I got vaccinated with AstraZeneca, but given that we already have a Sputnik Light of Armenian production, I decided to try that vaccine”, he said.

He also commented on the export of the Armenian-made vaccine. “We are now holding discussions with our Russian partners in order to export our product. The consent of the Russian side in the export process is very important as the intellectual property of the trademark is theirs”, he said.

 21:46,

YEREVAN, 11 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. On January 11, private serviceman Arthur Mkhitaryan (born in 2002) and junior sergeant Rudik Gharibyan (born in 2002) were killed as a result of a provocation carried out by Azerbaijani units in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Two more servicemen are wounded, their lives are not in danger.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the MoD Armenia, as of 21:00 the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable.

 12:46,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that it is inadmissible that some people are falsely presenting the CSTO peacekeeping force in Kazakhstan to be an “occupying force”.

“We can see that such attempts have already been made,” Lukashenko said at the CSTO summit on January 10.

“We are not occupiers, we didn’t go there at our own desire. Our brother, our friend who is responsible for that huge country invited us there,” Lukashenko said.

He further underscored that the CSTO peacekeeping contingent provided the support which the Kazakh president asked for.

 15:17,

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The Human Rights Defender of the Artsakh Republic Gegham Stepanyan sent a letter to Google, urging not to give in to the Azerbaijani provocations, to ignore the baseless demands presented by Azerbaijan, to refrain from removing the Armenian toponyms and geographical names of Artsakh from the digital maps.

The Ombudsman particularly noted that these efforts of Azerbaijan are another manifestation of Azerbaijan’s long-standing policy of depriving the people of Artsakh of their homeland and denying the Armenian identity of Artsakh. He reminded that the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh in the Fall of 2020, aimed at the seizure of the entire territory of Artsakh and destruction of its people, became the culmination of Azerbaijan’s criminal policy.

In order to support its alleged rightfulness of claims over Artsakh, Azerbaijan has been deliberately erasing, destroying, and eradicating any traces of Armenians and Armenian culture and history from every centimeter of the territory under its control.

“The true motives behind the request of Azerbaijan to remove Armenian toponyms from maps can be easily defined: Nagorno Karabakh is not just a place name, but a totality of Armenian culture and history. The Armenian toponyms of Artsakh are memories of places, as well as living memories of the people who gave these names to such places. It is well-known that toponyms serve as symbols of regional culture and thus reflect the history, habitat, and environment of a place. Azerbaijan’s request to remove Armenian toponyms from the maps is nothing more than an attempt to create desired reality on the maps”, the Ombudsman said.

In the letter, the Ombudsman presented the regulations of international law, which enshrine the right of peoples to freely use and preserve their place names, to inherit from generations. He stressed that international law does not consider toponyms and geographical names to be the property of states, but considers them to be the intangible heritage of peoples.

Gegham Stepanyan noted that the removal of Armenian toponyms will only condone Azerbaijan’s gross violations of human rights of the people of Artsakh and support its efforts aimed at legitimization of the results of illegal use of force.

Appreciating Google’s human-centered approach to use the Armenian geographical names in its maps, the Ombudsman expressed confidence that the company will reject Azerbaijan’s continuing attempt to alter maps and engage in ethnic cleansing.

 15:30,

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. A civilian vehicle in Artsakh caught fire after being hit by gunfire from Azerbaijani side, the Ministry of Defense of Artsakh said.

It denied Azerbaijani media reports which accused the Artsakh military in opening fire at Azerbaijani positions. The Artsakh Defense Ministry said these reports are fake news and disinformation.

“What actually happened is that the Azerbaijani servicemen, who are deployed in positions adjacent to the village of Karmir Shuka in Martuni region, Artsakh, opened sporadic gunfire at the village, which resulted in a car owned by a civilian which was parked outside a kindergarten catching fire,” the Artsakh Defense Ministry said.

 17:46,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The draft concept of introducing comprehensive health insurance in Armenia was discussed during today’s consultation chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The draft concept was presented by the Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan and the Deputy Minister of Health Lena Nanushyan. It was noted that several models were studied in the process of developing the concept with the idea of a state health system as the basis. The aim of the reform is to create a system of sustainable health financing based on the principles of the social responsibility of the state and social solidarity of the population, and ensuring financial access to basic medical services for all groups of the population. The work done in the direction of financial evaluation of the introduction of the system, development of the package of basic services, definition of the groups of the population being insured, calculation of the necessary expenses were presented. It was noted that the draft is under discussion with the interested departments, and following the approval, a package of relevant legislative changes will be developed. The officials of the Ministry of Health emphasized that the parallel implementation of other reforms in the sphere, such as the improvement of infrastructure, the development of e-health, the strengthening of the capacity of the primary health care unit, is an important precondition for the successful introduction of the system.

An exchange of views took place on the conceptual approaches to the introduction of comprehensive health insurance. Issues related to funding mechanisms and sources, definition of population groups, insurance premiums and collection, service quality standards, calculation of the amount of money needed for the health expenses of insured citizens, cost-effectiveness, ensuring of social justice and social solidarity, investment risks were raised and a number of proposals were presented.

Emphasizing the importance of the reform, the Prime Minister noted that the primary goal of the comprehensive health insurance should be the prevention of diseases. Accordingly, it is necessary to introduce a model that will guarantee the operation of a cost-effective, high-quality health care system. The Prime Minister highlighted the introduction of a universal asset declaration system in parallel with the introduction of comprehensive health insurance system, taking into account the interconnectedness and interaction of these reforms.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan instructed to amend the draft concept based on the results of the consultation and submit it for final discussion.

 20:23,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. FlyOne Armenia and Pegasus Airlines have received permission from the Civil Aviation Committee to operate Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan charter flights, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.

Earlier, the Armenian aviation authorities issued a permit to FlyOne Armenia airline to operate charter flights in the Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan route. FlyOne Armenia had applied to the aviation authorities of both Armenia and Turkey with the request to operate charter roundtrip flights from Yerevan to Istanbul.

Asked when the flights will be launched, Flyone Armenia President of the Board Aram Ananyan said they are awaiting the permit from the Turkish aviation authorities.

On December 16, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara is considering bids from both Turkish and Armenian airlines for operating flights between Istanbul and Yerevan. Then, the Turkish authorities said that the Turkish Pegasus airline will operate the flights.