Secretary General of Foreign Ministry of Armenia dismissed
16:58,
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan signed a decision on relieving Vahagn Melikyan from the position of Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, e-gov.am reports.
Vahagn Melikyan has been serving as Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry since May 21, 2018.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The humanitarian demining unit of the Russian peacekeeping contingent continues to carry out tasks for humanitarian demining of the terrain and objects on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
Currently, Russian servicemen are carrying out work to search for explosive objects and unexploded ordnance in the vicinity of the settlement of Machkalashen in the Martuni district, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The work in the settlement, in which the houses of local residents are located on the slopes of a mountainous area, is carried out using IMP-S2 mine detectors and non-contact portable Korshun seekers.
The servicemen first of all check the road connecting the two parts of the village, house plots and other territory.
“Upon arrival in the next settlement of the Martuni district, we started cleaning the area from explosive objects. During communication with local residents, it was found out that there are unexploded ordnance in this territory. Today, more than 1,500 hectares of the territory have been checked. The work will continue for a week,” said Yevgeny Kholodov, a soldier of the humanitarian demining group.
The detected ammunition and explosive objects are taken to a specially equipped Ballydzha landfill for subsequent destruction.
Since November 23, 2020, 2173.5 hectares of territory, more than 650 kilometers of roads, 1,892 buildings, including 30 socially significant objects, have been cleared of unexploded ordnance by the military personnel of the humanitarian demining unit, 25,640 explosive objects have been found and neutralized. More than 80 percent of the scheduled plan for the clearance of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was carried out by the servicemen of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
12:22,
YEREVAN, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS. On June 29, Consul General of Armenia in Los Angeles, Ambassador Armen Baibourtian held a virtual meeting with the Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, the Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles reports.
Ambassador Baibourtian expressed his gratitude to Nury Martinez for her constructive stance and continuous support to all Armenian resolutions. The Consul General also expressed his appreciation for the support of the resolutions adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in 2020 in relation to Armenia and Artsakh during the 44-day war. Furthermore, he also thanked for the impactful press conference that took place in front of the Los Angeles City Hall organized upon the initiative of LA City Councilmember Paul Krekorian, calling to end the aggression against Artsakh.
Council President Nury Martinez, in her turn, expressed willingness to continue her contributions and support for the various issues of the Armenian agenda. The interlocutors also discussed plans for several joint projects.
Nury Martiez has unanimously been chosen to become the President of the Los Angeles City Council in December 2019, having previously served as President pro tempore. She has been a member of the City Council since 2013 and represents the 6th District, which includes the Armenian populated North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Sun Valley as well as Panorama City, Lake Balboa, and North Hills.
Participants to a public roundtable discussion on the topic of local finances in Armenia heard how the calculation of standard expenditure needs for local authorities based on geographical features and socio-demographic characteristics of the local population can improve local public services and make local governance more efficient.
This new methodological approach to designing systems for local finances based on standard expenditure needs was presented to Armenian participants based on examples from Italy and Lithuania. This methodology, widely recognised as an example of best practice, has also been applied on a pilot basis to a representative sample of consolidated communities in Armenia and the preliminary results were also presented in the context of the roundtable.
Following a lively discussion involving representatives of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, local organisations, consolidated communities, civil society and the international donor community, participants recognised the value an approach to equalisation based on standard expenditure needs and expressed a desire to delve deeper and find out more.
In light of the comments and requests expressed in the course of the roundtable, a series of focus group discussions will be organised with stakeholders to discuss the different criteria, variables, and services to be applied when establishing standard expenditure needs in Armenia.
The “Democratic Development, Decentralsiation and Good Governance in Armenia” project is financed by the Austrian Development Agency and implemented in the context of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2019-2022.
13:58,
YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, who is leading the Armenia alliance’s electoral list, met with the residents of Vardenis town in Gegharkunik province on the sidelines of the pre-election campaign.
During the meeting Robert Kocharyan divided the problems facing Armenia into three groups – security issue, economic and domestic-political crisis. He noted that by coming to power they will bear a heavy burden, but their team is capable of solving all these issues.
“Dear residents of Vardenis, the problems facing the country can be divided into three groups. The first one is the security issue. You feel that problem like Syunik, unprotected borders, the situation of the army. The second one is connected with the economic situation. Today, in fact, we have economic crisis which will deepen, unemployment, poverty increase and migration. The third group is the domestic political situation. If there was no domestic political crisis, the snap elections wouldn’t exist”, he said.
“I do not have an unfulfilled promise. When I came to Armenia, the Sotk mine was not operating, the prices of gold were extremely high. I put a goal and the mine started operating 7-8 months later and then started to develop”, he said.
The early parliamentary elections in Armenia will be held on June 20.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Shootout on Armenia-Azerbaijan border – Armenian side suffers no casualties
19:50, 10 June, 2021
YEREVAN, JUNE 10, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani armed forces once again tried to carry out engineering works in the border part of the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia on June 10.
The units of the Armenian Armed Forces took counter-measures, forcing to stop the works, in response to which the Azerbaijani side opened fire in the direction of the Armenian positions. The Armenian border guards retaliated. The Armenian side suffered no casualties, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia.
The opportunity to create the Zangezur corridor to connect Turkey and Azerbaijan is one of the most important results of the Nagorno-Karabakh victory, which saw Baku retake several of its Armenian-occupied territories, Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova stated on Wednesday.
“One of the important results of this great victory is the historical opportunity for the construction of the Zangezur corridor, which will establish a direct connection between our countries,” Gafarova told a symposium titled “Past, Present and Future of the Turkic World” in the capital Baku.
The symposium was held by the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) and Ataturk Center in Azerbaijan to mark the 30th year of independence of Turkic republics, Azerbaijan’s victory in the Patriotic War and the centennial of the opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
Gafarova, also the term president of TURKPA, and Turkey’s Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop sent video messages to the hybrid event.
“History is rich with examples of achievements gained through Turkish states’ support to each other,” she said, highlighting Ankara’s support to Baku during the Patriotic War last year.
After the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, was liberated through a deal following a 44-day war with Armenia, it entered a period of an economic revival thanks to new transportation lines.
According to the deal, all transportation lines that were closed due to the Karabakh issue will reopen. In this period, the Zangezur corridor, which was mentioned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev several times, came to the forefront.
Zangezur was part of Azerbaijan, but in the 1920s, the Soviets gave the region to Armenia. After this move, Azerbaijan lost its link with Nakhchivan and some parts of the railway between the two countries were destroyed.
Azerbaijan has focused on projects in the Zangezur corridor, which will include highways and rail lines stretching across territories in Armenia’s Syunik region.
Once those parts are repaired, Azerbaijan will be able to reach Iran, Armenia and Nakhchivan uninterruptedly by train.
The railway will also link Turkey with Russia through Azerbaijan.
15:55, 7 June, 2021
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. The number of identified fatalities of the 2020 Artsakh war stands at 3700 at this moment, Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during the meeting with the residents of Gegharkert community in Armavir province.
“As this moment the number of officially confirmed dead is 3700. We suppose it can reach 4000”, he said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
17:08, 7 June, 2021
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Congress party highlights necessity of creating new mechanisms for deepening and harmonizing the bilateral and strategic relations with Russia, party member Arman Musinyan said by presenting their party’s pre-election program relating to the security sector.
“It will allow the state to neutralize the existing real treats at least in the short-run and put the grounds of Armenia’s long-term security already in the medium and long-run”, he said.
Taking into account the fact that the status of Nagorno Karabakh is not determined yet, Musinyan said their party considers necessary the engagement in active negotiations with Russia and the other OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, as well as with Azerbaijan aimed at finally settling the issue.
The party also attaches importance to the launch of a number of urgent actions within Armenia, connected with the improvement of the public administration system and ensuring public stability.
The electoral campaign for the snap parliamentary elections officially launched in Armenia on June 7.
The campaign will last until June 18.
The snap parliamentary elections will take place on June 20, but the electronic voting will kick off on June 11 until June 13.
26 political forces – 22 parties and 4 blocs, are participating in the elections.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan