Author: Garo Vardanian

Armenia designates more hospitals for coronavirus cases

 10:30,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Because of the growing number of novel coronavirus patients in Armenia, healthcare authorities have designated other hospitals in addition to the Nork Infectious Diseases hospital to treat the cases, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said.

Earlier, all suspected and confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Armenia were being taken to the Nork Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yerevan.

Torosyan said on March 21 that 5 medical facilities have been designated to treat coronavirus patients in Yerevan. He said that few patients are also currently hospitalized in two hospitals in provinces.

“Asymptomatic patients are being taken to other hospitals, the others remain at the [Nork Infectious Diseases hospital]”, he said.

The healthcare minister said so far 11 patients have been confirmed to have pneumonia by x-ray tests. Only 3 of them require intensive care. Torosyan said all patients are in non-life threatening condition.

“I’d like to inform that today there are more than 600 people under quarantine. We find that the reserve is nearing its end, and we find that the preventive measures must be conditioned with self-quarantine. Experience shows that our citizens not always adhere to it. That’s why the parliament debated during a special session the bill on envisaging liability for the violation of self-quarantine or quarantine. I believe that this is a reasonable requirement, when a citizen is endangering public health, they must be held to account,” Torosyan said on social media.

As of March 21, the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Armenia stands at 160.

One patient has recovered and was discharged on March 15th.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

 17:45, 4 March, 2020

YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan assures that the meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs in the foreign ministry of Turkey was part of the routine and Armenia has no concerns over this fact.  Turkey can have no role in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process, ARMENPRESS reports Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs have their working routine which includes also meetings with representatives of the OSCE member states and the Minsk Group in case of necessity. He emphasized that such meetings are not something new and there is nothing bizarre there.

''This is not the 1st meeting. They met with a number of other countries before and other meetings are scheduled.  This is normal and we have no concerns regarding the Minsk Group Co-chairs. Maybe the difference is that Turkey made some comments. By the way, to be honest, the comments did not include anything that we had never heard in the past. And we made an announcement about this.  Everybody knows that approach, which is Turkey with its unfriendly policy towards Armenia and the Armenian people, which in Nagorno Karabakh conflict is reflected also by the one-sided military assistance to Azerbaijan, can have no direct role in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process”, FM Mnatsakanyan said.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

12th case of novel coronavirus confirmed in Georgia

 12:03, 7 March, 2020

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. The 12^th case of the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Georgia, Newsgeorgia reported.

Currently 140 people are under quarantine, and 42 receive stationary treatment.

The first case of Covid-19 has been reported in Georgia on February 26.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

 10:02, 5 March, 2020

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian revolution film I Am Not Alone has announced its United States theatrical release.

With unprecedented access to both the revolutionary Nikol Pashinyan and the then-ruler Serzh Sargsyan, the documentary telling the story of the 2018 Armenian Velvet Revolution will now open in theaters across the US: from April 10 in Los Angeles, April 17 in New York and Fresno, and April 24 in Washington, DC, Boston, and more, after having won awards at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), AFI Fest, and Doc NYC, Massis Post reported.

The film has been praised as “masterful” by Vice and “an inspiring portrait of democratic self-determination” by The Hollywood Reporter, garnering 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 9.3 audience rating on IMDb. I Am Not Alone is directed by Garin Hovhannisian.

"The mind-blowing experience of Armenia's velvet revolution is coming to U.S. theaters on April 10", Tankian said on social media and shared the trailer. 

Edited by Stepan Kocharyan

 10:51,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish troops who were killed in a raid were acting inside “combat units” with jihadist militants in Idlib province when they were targeted by a Syrian government airstrike on Thursday, the Russian military said, according to RT.

The airstrike was carried out when the Syrian Army was repelling a large-scale offensive by terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Syria, inside the Idlib ‘de-escalation zone,’ the Russian military said on Friday, according to RT.

“Turkish servicemen inside the combat units of terrorist groups came under fire from the Syrian military on February 27 near the town of Behun,” RT quoted the Russian military’s statement.

The Defense Ministry said that the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria was in constant contact with Ankara, “regularly” requesting and receiving information on the whereabouts of Turkish troops. And, according to the data submitted by Turkey, there were no Turkish soldiers near Behun when the Syrian Army was fighting terrorists there.

 10:36,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Italian former professional football player Alessandro Del Piero is in Yerevan.

The Juventus legend shared a video story on Instagram filmed from the rooftop of what appears to be a downtown hotel in the Armenian capital.  “Good morning Yerevan”, he wrote.

The visit was not announced beforehand and it is unclear if Del Piero is on a business or private trip.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan