Former SRC chief appointed Governor of Armavir
15:28,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet appointed former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Edvard Hovhannisyan as Governor of Armavir province.
Hovhannisyan served as head of the tax authority from 2020 to 2021.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian spoke on the phone with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan about a variety of bilateral and regional topics. According to the Iranian foreign ministry, they spoke over the phone on bilateral ties, economic cooperation, the Joint Economic Commission of the two countries, the ECO summit, and regional and international developments. Iran-Armenia relations are strong and progressing, according to Amir Abdollahian, who calls for the strengthening of ties in several spheres.
In the telephone conversation, the top Iranian diplomat underscored the Islamic Republic’s policy to not accept any change in the borders of regional countries. Amir Abdollahian also voiced concern over the recent hostilities in the Caucasus region and urged restraint and respect for the territorial integrity of regional countries. The Armenian foreign minister also referred to the proposed roadmap in relations between Iran and Armenia which was emphasized during his recent visit to Tehran. Mirzoyan said Yerevan is ready to hold the Joint Economic Commission and expand trade ties with Tehran.
He expressed satisfaction with the growing trend in ties between Tehran and Yerevan over the recent months and underlined the importance of expanding cooperation in political, economic and other fields. Iran’s foreign minister declared Iranian companies are ready to boost their activities in Armenia, expressing hope that the Joint Economic Commission of Iran and Armenia will convene as soon as possible. Amir Abdollahian voices concern over the recent hostilities in the Caucasus region.
Foreign Minister Mirzoyan appreciated the Islamic Republic of Iran’s policy to respect the territorial integrity of countries and described it as important. Mirzoyan stressed Armenia’s resolve to boost relations in all fields with Iran and renewed his invitation to Amir Abdollahian to visit Armenia. The Armenian foreign ministry also issued a statement on the call, briefly touching on the issues discussed by the two ministers. It said Amir Abdollahian and Mirzoyan “discussed issues of mutual interest related to regional security.”
It concluded, “The Foreign Ministers of the two countries also touched upon a number of issues of multifaceted cooperation between Armenia and Iran, expressing readiness to make efforts for further deepening the relations. They emphasized the importance of high-level reciprocal visits. The interlocutors exchanged views on expanding the contacts in the fields of trade, economy, infrastructure and energy. Implementation of directed work aimed at the multilateral agreement on the establishment of the ‘Persian Gulf-Black Sea’ international transport corridor was also emphasized.”
The Armenian statement said, “Minister Mirzoyan presented in detail to his counterpart the situation resulting from the recent aggression of the Azerbaijani armed forces against Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He added that Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia is a serious threat to the efforts aimed at establishing security and stability in the region.” Mirzoyan highly appreciated Iran’s position on territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Armenia, according to the statement.
Iran has long called for respect of international borders in the south Caucasus region amid continued border tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Iran also called on the two countries to settle their decades-long disputes through dialogue. In mid-November, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, issued a statement expressing concerns over border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Khatibzadeh has expressed concern over new military clashes in the border regions of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and called on the two countries to exercise restraint and refrain from expanding and escalating the conflict. Khatibzadeh stressed the need for countries to respect internationally recognized borders and called on the two sides to resolve their differences through dialog and peaceful means.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman described the current tensions as dangerous for the gradual process of achieving peace and progress in the region. He stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as in the past, is ready to help the two sides resolve their disputes and establish stability and security in the region.
TEHRAN – An exhibition displaying artworks from the Qajar period (1789-1925) in Yerevan is celebrating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Iran and Armenia.
The exhibit underway at the Matenadaran, a museum and repository of manuscripts in the Armenian capital, is being organized in collaboration between the museum and the Iranian Cultural Center in the country, the Embassy of Iran in Yerevan announced on Friday.
Matenadaran director Vahan Ter-Ghevondyan, Iranian Ambassador Abbas Zohuri, Iranian cultural attaché Hossein Tabatabai, and a group of their colleagues visited the exhibition named “Iranian Cultural Day at Matenadaran”.
They also attended a ceremony to unveil the fifth volume of “Persian Documents of the Matenadaran Decrees” written by Kristine P. Kostikyan, an Armenian scholar who was also in attendance at the unveiling ceremony.
The collection consists of governmental decrees that were issued concerning the Armenians during the Safavid period (1501-1736).
In his short speech, Zohuri said that the history of relations between Iran and Armenia needs to be reviewed regularly in the modern world, and praised the scholars who are studying in this field to generate food for thought for the academic centers.
He expressed his hope that the continuation of these study projects could prevent the distortion of historical facts, providing present and future generations with the truth about the history of the region.
The curator of the exhibition, Ivet Tajaryan, also briefed visitors about artworks on view at the exhibition, and said that it has taken over four years to accumulate the artworks for the showcase, which will run for about a year.
Some of the artifacts are from Tajaryan’s personal collection.
Speaking in a visit to the Matenadaran earlier in October, Tabatabai said that Iran is seeking closer cooperation with Armenia on the restoration of Persian manuscripts.
Ara Philipossian, an Iranian-Armenian professor of chemical engineering at the University of Arizona, who is scheduled to finance an immense project, which includes the restoration of Persian manuscripts at the Matenadaran, accompanied Tabatabai.
The Matenadaran has recently asked Iran to organize a workshop to be given by an Iranian scholar at the museum on the restoration of manuscripts with lacquered covers.
The Matenadaran – Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, home to Islamic manuscripts, now contains a total of 2715 volumes, 450 of which are in Persian.
The museum was established in 1959 on the basis of the nationalized collection of the Armenian Church, formerly held at Etchmiadzin.
Photo: Curator Ivet Tajaryan (L) briefs Matenadaran director Vahan Ter-Ghevondyan (2nd L) and Iranian diplomats on an exhibition of the Qajar-era artworks at the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia.
MMS/YAW
Nikol Pashinyan summed up the results of the trilateral meeting with the Russian and Azerbaijani leaders in Sochi on Friday, calling it “very positive”.
“I want to confirm that we had a very positive meeting, conversation, actually discussed all the issues on the agenda. This was not a meeting to hide the problems, but a meeting where we openly discussed all the issues,” he said in a statement for the press.
“I would like to positively assess the fact that we clarified the positions on many issues, and it turned out that we do not have any misinterpretations on a number of issues, opposite to what it seemed before this meeting,” Pashinyan said.
“I would like to mention that, in fact, in connection with the opening of all transport and economic communications in the region, we registered that we have a shared idea of how those communications will operate.”
He noted that the topic of starting the process of delimitation and demarcation is not new.
“We have discussed that issue. We also adopted a trilateral statement, in which we stated that before that the necessary conditions should be created, that is, security mechanisms should be created on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the premier said, adding humanitarian issues were also discussed during the talks.
He thanked Russia for hosting the talks. “I reaffirm the readiness of Armenia and the Government of Armenia, which has received a mandate from the people of Armenia, to open an era of peaceful development for our country and our region. We are interested in that, and of course, today’s meeting contributed to the fulfilment of that agenda,” Pashinyan noted.
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has set up a petrol station on the Goris-Kapan road, which Nikol Pashinyan handed over to Azerbaijan with verbal agreement.
A video of the station was released by News.am.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participates in the 30th meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund in Yerevan.
As the press service of the Armenan government told NEWS.am, President Armen Sarkissian, President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan and others are also participating in the meeting.
The meeting began with a minute of silence in memory of the Armenians who died in the name of security and protection of the Motherland, after which those present began to discuss issues on the agenda.
https://news.am/eng/news/674593.html
Traffic is paralyzed in the Verin Khotanan section of the “Goris-Kapan” alternative road.
The video posted by deputy of the opposition “Armenia” Faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Artur Khachatryan shows several trucks and passenger cars stuck on the alternative road with poor visibility, and the traffic is actually paralyzed.
By Trend
The Russian side hopes that during the meeting of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Sochi, it will be possible to outline promising areas for the normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan, Trend reports on Nov. 26 citing TASS, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said.
“We, like all people who live in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the South Caucasus region, expect that the long-awaited peace and stability come very soon to the region,” Rudenko said.
According to him, the meeting as a whole is aimed at summing up certain results of the past year after the signing of the trilateral statement [between Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders to end the second Karabakh war] on November 10, 2020, to see what has been done and can be done next to advance the peace process and the process of normalization between countries in general.
The diplomat also stated that in the process of settlement in the Karabakh region, there remain commonly known problems.
“They relate to the opening of transport communications, the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, where, unfortunately, we periodically witness certain armed incidents and even death of people,” added the deputy minister.
The capitulator didn’t say a word about the independence of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the mandatory exercise of the right to self-determination and even the need for a status. This is what Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov wrote on his Facebook page, adding the following:
“In the way that is characteristic of him, he gave a vague formulation of the solution to the issue within the scope of the OSCE Minsk Group, but did not say a word about the Basic Principles and the right to self-determination.
However, he actually agreed on delimitation of borders without clarification and exercise of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination.
This [man] has totally stopped dealing with Artsakh.”