15:26,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. An internationally wanted terror suspect was apprehended by Yerevan Zvartnots airport security personnel.
Kader S., a 33-year-old suspected member of a terrorist organization wanted by Interpol since November 9, 2020, was detained while attempting to board the Yerevan-Minsk flight.
The national Interpol bureau and the prosecution were notified on the arrest.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Azerbaijan and Turkey plan to unite the Turkic world by re-opening a trade corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan enclave through Armenia, Azeri President İlham Aliyev said.
“Both Turkey and Azerbaijan will take necessary steps for realisation of the Zangezur Corridor,” Aliyev said at a joint news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported. He spoke after an opening ceremony for the Fuzuli International Airport in Nagorno-Karabakh.
A November ceasefire agreement ending a 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh foresees the re-opening of key historical transportation lines between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia. Following the deal, Aliyev called on Armenia to open the Zangezur Corridor, which would link Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an autonomous western Azeri region separated from the country by Armenian territory.
“One day, we will be able to travel (directly) from Zangezur to Istanbul, cementing the region’s position as a transit and logistics hub,” Erdoğan said at the news conference.
Azerbaijan has blocked shipments of materials to both Armenia and Karabakh since 1989, while Armenia has imposed a blockade on Nakhchivan.
Relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are at an historic peak following last autumn’s six weeks of clashes in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Turkish military support proved crucial to Azerbaijan reclaiming control over the territory from Armenian-backed forces.
This week, Erdoğan paid a third visit to Azerbaijan since last year’s war. On a visit to Azerbaijan in June, Erdoğan and Aliyev signed the Shusha Declaration, which foresaw an expansion of political, economic and defence ties between the countries.
The “3+3+ format contains risks for Armenia. This is what deputy of the opposition “With Honor” faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Tigran Abrahamyan told reporters today.
Abrahamyan said there is a fear that Turkey and Azerbaijan will do everything possible to change the format of the Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group and put the Artsakh issue in the “3+3” format.
“As a member state of the OSCE Minsk Group, Turkey has always tried to obtain the status of Co-Chair, which Armenia was against. Ankara is trying to expand its presence in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in this way now. Armenia’s mishaps continue even after the statement signed on November 9, 2020. Armenia will face new threats. In these conditions, Armenia doesn’t have a government that would be capable of taking adequate actions. This government can’t lead a pro-Armenian policy and isn’t showing the appropriate will, including with respect to the issues related to borders, Artsakh, etc.,” he emphasized.
The “3+3” format implies the participation of Armenia, Russia, Iran, Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
11:08,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory letter to new Chancellor of Austria Alexander Schallenberg on appointment, Pashinyan’s Office said.
“Your Excellency, please, accept my warmest congratulations on your appointment as the Federal Chancellor of Austria.
Armenia highly appreciates the deepening and development of the friendly relations with Austria. I am sure that with joint efforts we will further raise the mutual beneficial partnership between Armenia and Austria and will deepen our multilateral cooperation, which will at best contribute to the implementation of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.
I wish you good health and all the success to your important mission”, the letter reads.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Defense Minister of Armenia Arshak Karapetyan received on Monday Military Attaché of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to Armenia Senior Colonel Sun Tszilun.
As the press department at the ministry reported, the parties discussed the course and perspective of bilateral cooperation in the defense sector.
Defense Minister Arshak Karapetyan praised the level of cooperation between the ministries of defense of the two countries, the source said.
Stamp dedicated to St. Thaddeus Monastery was issued in Iran
TEHRAN—In conjunction with the opening of a joint exhibition of selected Iranian and Armenian stamps organized by the Artak Manukian Museum and the Iranian National Postal Service’s Public Relations office, an unveiling ceremony of a stamp dedicated to the Monastery of St. Thaddeus was held earlier this year.
Present at the event were Ara Shahverdian, representative of Armenians in Tehran and Northern Iranian-Armenian community in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis); Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran, Artashes Tumanian; head of the Iran’s postal service, Deputy Minister Sobhanifar; Ahmad Mohit Tababayi, Chairman of the Iran’s National Committee of Museums; and members of the Armenian Prelacy Executive Council, Rafik Meliksetian, Ashot Sinan and Harmik Avetian and guests.
In her opening remarks, Alice Shahmuradian, Chairperson of the Museum’s Board of Directors, welcomed the guests and invited Ashot Sinan to read the message of the Tehran Prelate, Archbishop Sepuh Sargsian’s message.
In his message, after congratulating those present on the occasion of the Easter, the Prelate congratulated the organizers of the event. Referring to them as the “apostles of peace, truth and love,” he added that this project time and again provides the opportunity to expand the relations in cultural and other spheres between the two neighboring countries of Iran and Armenia. He continued by commending the Iranian authorities for their respect toward Christianity and its churches in Iran.
This is perhaps the most beautiful manifestation of respect for Christian monuments in Iran, Armenian monuments, in particular, Monasteries of St. Thaddeus and St. Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor located in the same province. All three monuments have been under the care of the Organization of Cultural Heritage of the Iranian government and have undergone extensive conservation and renovation projects over the years. While the monuments of Armenian cultural heritage and civilization have been and continue to be systematically destroyed and desecrated, turned into mosques and other publicly used venues by Armenia’s three neighbors, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Iran is the only country that has paid special attention to their care and conservation.
In his remarks, Sobhanifar, Chair of the Iran’s postal service, emphasized the importance of such joint projects between Iran and Armenia for the expansion of neighborly relations. He added that the First Day Ceremony of the stamp dedicated to the Monastery of St. Thaddeus can serve as a symbol and cultural ambassador between the two societies. He also emphasized on deep roots of philately between Armenia and Iran and expressed his government’s readiness to the further expansion of postal services between the two countries.
In his turn, Ambassador Tumanyan likewise expressed his gratitude for the realization of this project and ceremony. Following his remarks Tabatabayi , Chair of ICOM in Iran touched upon the importance and presence of hundreds of Armenian Christian monuments in Iran. At the conclusion, Ambassador Tumanyan, the unveiling ceremony of the First Day Stamp display took place.
The Monastery of St. Thaddeus (known by the locals as Kara Kilise–Black Church, because of color of the oldest part of the structure) is an ancient Armenian monastery located in the mountainous, about 20 km from the town of Chaldran in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. Built in 68 AD it is believed to be the oldest Christian church building in the world, erected on the tomb of St. Thaddeus the Apostle who along with St. Bartholomew, two of the twelve apostles who were the first evangelizers of Armenia, and were martyred there, giving the Armenian Church its apostolic identity and earning them the title, “First Enlighteners of Armenia.”
The Monastery has played a major role in throughout the tumultuous history of the Armenian people. It is the site of pilgrimage held in July of every year. The Monastery was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 7, 2008, along with two other Armenian Monasteries in the same province, the Monastery of St. Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzrodzor. In 2020 it was added by UNESCO to the list of its Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Monday,
Armenian Authorities Mull COVID-19 Health Pass
• Narine Ghalechian
France - A woman shows a COVID-19 health pass in a cafe in Paris, August 9, 2021.
Armenia’s health authorities are considering introducing a mandatory coronavirus
health pass for entry to cultural and leisure venues, Health Minister Anahit
Avanesian revealed on Monday.
Speaking in the Yerevan studio of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Avanesian said the
extraordinary measure may be needed to increase the very low vaccination rate in
the country of about 3 million.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Health, just over 344,000 people received
at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and only 170,212 of them were fully
vaccinated as of October 10.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian deplored these “very bad” numbers last week and
said the authorities must rely on their “administrative levers” more heavily to
speed up the vaccination process.
Avanesian said her ministry is now looking into the experience of Western
countries where people must produce the health pass showing they have been
vaccinated against COVID-19 or have had a recent negative test in order to visit
bars, restaurants and other public venues.
“We are working on that,” she said, answering questions from Facebook users. “We
are collecting facts about what enforcement mechanisms should be put in place.”
“A tentative draft decision will be ready soon, within two weeks,” added the
minister.
The government has already taken other administrative measures in a bid to have
many more Armenians get vaccinated. A recent directive signed by Avanesian
requires virtually all public and private sector employees refusing vaccination
to take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense.
The requirement took effect on October 1, prompting protests from some
opposition politicians and anti-vaccine campaigners.
Avanesian again defended it. She argued that Armenian hospitals are increasingly
struggling to cope with a new wave of coronavirus infections that began this
summer.
The Ministry of Health has reported an average of over 1,000 cases and at least
20 coronavirus-related deaths a day over the past week.
Armenian Court OKs Heavier Fines For Defamation
Armenia - The Constitutional Court holds a hearing in Yerevan, July 9, 2021.
In a ruling condemned by press freedom groups, Armenia’s Constitutional Court
has upheld the constitutionality of a government-backed bill that will triple
maximum legal fines set for defamation.
The bill involving amendments to the Armenian Civil Code was drafted by a close
associate of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and passed by the National Assembly
in March. It stipulates that media outlets and individuals convicted of
“slander” could be fined as much as 6 million drams ($12,450) while those making
offensive claims will face a maximum fine of up to 2 million drams.
President Armen Sarkissian refused to sign the bill into law in April, saying he
shares concerns that it could be exploited by government officials and
politicians to stifle press freedom. Sarkissian also suggested that the bill is
“contentious in terms of its constitutionality ” and asked the Constitutional
Court to pass judgment on that.
In its verdict publicized at the weekend, the court ruled that the amendments do
not run counter to the Armenian constitution.
Armenia’s leading media associations expressed outrage at that conclusion in a
joint statement issued on Monday. They argued that it contradicts a
Constitutional Court ruling on the issue handed down in 2011 and accused the
court of ignoring Council of Europe recommendations and precedent-setting
decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
The statement signed by 11 organizations also says: “Application of the
disproportionately strict measures would cause more damage than contribute to
the struggle against vices. Especially given that both politicians and officials
and representatives of various strata of the population often perceive criticism
directed at them as a defamation or insult and go to court. This could create
serious obstacles to unfettered activities of the media.”
The main author of the controversial bill, parliament speaker Alen Simonian,
earlier rejected such criticism echoed by Western watchdogs such as Freedom
House and Reporters Without Borders.
The Armenian media groups linked the heavier fines for defamation to what they
described as other curbs on news reporting imposed by the country’s current
leadership. Their statement points to recently enacted bills that banned media
outlets from citing social media accounts belonging to unknown individuals and
made it a crime to gravely insult state officials.
The Armenian authorities’ decision to criminalize slander and defamation was
strongly criticized by Freedom House late last month. The Washington-based group
said it testifies to a “clear degradation of democratic norms in Armenia,
including freedom of expression.”
Georgian PM Visits Armenia On ‘Mediation’ Mission
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Prime Ministers Nikol Pashinian of Armenia and Irakli Gharibashvili of
Georgia meet in Yerevan, October 9, 2021
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili visited Yerevan and met with his
Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashinian on Saturday as part of his attempts to
improve Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan.
Gharibashvili met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku late last
month three weeks after receiving Pashinian in Tbilisi. He said he discussed
with Aliyev “the importance of transforming the region” but did not elaborate.
Gharibashvili also divulged few details of his latest “productive” talks with
Pashinian. He tweeted on Sunday that they discussed a “new peace initiative for
the South Caucasus and Georgia’s readiness to pursue active mediation to create
more opportunities for sustainable peace and development in the region.”
“Tbilisi has taken on an active mediating role in normalizing relations between
its neighbors, notably Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the Georgian premier told
reporters on Monday. He again did not go into details.
An Armenian government statement on the talks said the two leaders “exchanged
thoughts on the situation and developments in the region.”
“The parties reaffirmed their readiness to consistently deepen bilateral
friendly ties and agreed to continue their active dialogue,” added the statement.
Speaking ahead of his September 29 trip to Baku, Gharibashvili said he could
play a “positive role” in building bridges between Georgia’s two South Caucasus
neighbors locked in a bitter conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. His foreign
minister, Davit Zalkaliani, said on Friday that he has already helped to
establish “active communication” between Yerevan and Baku.
In June, the Georgian government facilitated the release of 15 Armenian
soldiers, taken prisoner by Azerbaijan during last year’s war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, in exchange for maps of Armenian minefields provided to Baku.
It is not clear whether Tbilisi hopes to arrange more such swaps or assist in
the opening of Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links.
Alexander Iskandarian, the director of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute,
noted that Armenia has until now negotiated with Azerbaijan mainly with Russian
mediation.
“It’s hard to tell at this point just how serious these contacts [initiated by
Georgia] are and whether they can yield any results,” Iskandarian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Pashinian paid an official visit to Georgia on September 8. Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said afterwards that the Armenian prime minister
communicated through Gharibashvili an offer to meet with him and discuss the
possibility of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations.
Erdogan appeared to make such a meeting conditional Armenia recognizing
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh and agreeing to open a transport corridor
that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.
The press offices of the Armenian and Georgian premiers refused to say on Monday
whether Turkish-Armenian relations were also on the agenda of their weekend
talks.
Karabakh Civilian Killed In Truce Violation
• Marine Khachatrian
Nagorno-Karabakh - A road sign at the entrance to the town of Martakert.
An ethnic Armenian farmer in Nagorno-Karabakh was shot dead by Azerbaijani
forces while working in his pomegranate grove at the weekend, authorities in
Stepanakert said.
The 55-year-old man, Aram Tepnants, was a resident of Martakert, a small town in
northern Karabakh town close to the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” in
and around the disputed territory.
“He worked with his own tractor and in his own grove,” a spokesman for the
Karabakh police told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Saturday. “An Azerbaijani army
sniper noticed him and fired in that direction, fatally wounding him.”
The Martakert mayor, Misha Gyurjian, said that Russian peacekeeping soldiers
deployed along the “line of contact” witnessed the incident. “Peacekeepers were
sitting with [Tepnants] inside his tractor,” claimed Gyurjian.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday that the farmer was killed “as
a result of gunfire from the Azerbaijani side.”
“The Russian [peacekeeping] contingent command is conducting an investigation
into the incident with the participation of representatives of the two sides,”
the ministry said in a statement.
Azerbaijan denied that its troops killed the Karabakh Armenian civilian.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry insisted that he was killed by Azerbaijani sniper
fire and accused Baku of violating the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire
that stopped last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war. In a short statement, it
demanded a “proper investigation” into Tepnants’s death.
Tepnants is the first Karabakh civilian killed since the ceasefire came into
force on November 10, 2020.
In the last several months, Karabakh authorities have periodically accused
Azerbaijani troops of opening small arms fire at Karabakh villages mostly
located close to the town of Shushi (Shusha) occupied by them during the
six-week war. They have said that such incidents are aimed at intimidating
Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population and causing them to leave the territory.
The Karabakh foreign ministry charged that the purpose of the deadly shooting
outside Martakert was to not only trigger a “mass emigration” of Karabakh
Armenians but also undermine the Russian peacekeeping mission. It urged Russia,
the United States and France, the three world powers co-heading the OSCE Minsk
Group, to “hold the Azerbaijani side accountable and prevent such incidents in
the future.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
14:25, 8 October, 2021
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s Editor in Chief Dmitry Muratov and Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of _expression_”, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
“Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of _expression_ in the Philippines and Russia,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the award-giving body, said in a statement on October 7.
“At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions”.
The prestigious Nobel Peace Prize is intended to honor an individual or organization that has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have paid tribute to the thousands of victims of their conflict for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Commemorations were held in both countries to mark the first anniversary of the fresh outbreak of fighting.
Armenia and Azerbaijan each observed a minute’s silence on Monday and held religious ceremonies.
“Our martyrs will remain forever in our hearts,” said Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijani president, in a speech to the nation.
Thousands of soldiers later marched through Baku, carrying portraits of their fallen comrades.
n Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan laid flowers at graves in a military cemetery in the capital Yerevan, and then visited a hospital for the war-wounded.
“I bow to the memory of the dead and their families,” Armenian President Armen Sarkissian added on Facebook.
On Sunday evening, nearly 3,000 Armenians, carrying torches, also marched from central Yerevan to a memorial.
Conflict once again broke out over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region last September, with each side accusing the other of being responsible.
More than 6,500 people were killed in the six weeks of fighting, which ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement, granting Azerbaijan part of the enclave and surrounding areas.
Tensions have remained high between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and clashes regularly break out on the border, raising fears of a new conflict.
AGBU Europe has partnered with local authorities in Brussels and with the Armenian community of Belgium on a campaign to raise awareness among the population of Brussels about the brutal war that struck the Armenian population of Artsakh last fall.
From September 27 to November 10, 2021 an open-air photo exhibition will be in display in the Flagey area, depicting the impact of the Artsakh war through the lens of photojournalists Roberto Travan from Italy and Olivier Papegnies from Belgium.
A live performance event will also take place on Friday October 1 at 18:00.