11:02, 7 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The Artsakh Defense Army has destroyed another major fuel base of the Azerbaijani military that was used by the Azeri forces in the attacks, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said, posting images.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Eddie_T
Sep 30, 2020
I keep hearing about the way Azerbaijan and Armenia are fighting. It seems to be turning into a real hotspot. I’ve been reading about it because world wars have broken out before in places Americans can’t find on a map. I don’t like the way this one looks at all, fwiw.
Turkey and Azerbaijan are culturally and linguistically almost one country…closely aligned……both nearly 100% Muslim…and Erdogan is backing Azerbaijan in what is a long standing land dispute with Armenia. There are ancient hatreds at play, with genocides having been carried out on both sides in the past.
Azerbaijan is run by a strong man dictator, who wants to add some or all of Armenia to his little fiefdom. Turkey’s president Erdogan has also set himself up as president-for-life now….although Turkey is supposed to be our NATO ally…..
Azerbaijan is a fairly big oil and gas producer.
Armenia is Christian, and they are under the protection of the Russians. They are also a real, functioning democracy.
The US seems to me to already to be squarely on the wrong side of this….worse than we are in Syria.
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia are bordered by Iran, Russia, and Turkey.
What could possibly go wrong?
13:44, 1 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Australia is concerned by the renewed fighting in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.
“We urge parties to the conflict and all other sides to show restraint and support the efforts of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group to help negotiate a peaceful resolution”, the statement says.
Azerbaijan launched a massive attack against the Republic of Artsakh on September 27. According to the latest data, the Azerbaijani side lost nearly 1280 soldiers with 2700 wounded in its offensive launched against Artsakh. Azerbaijan has lost 90 UAVs, 10 helicopters, 181 armored equipment, 1 aircraft, 2 Smerch launchers and 3 TOS-1A heavy artillery systems.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Stockholm Center for Freedom By SCF Three activists, part of an online group called “Anonymous Movement” (İsimsizler Hareketi) that produces content critical of the Turkish government on their Twitter account, were arrested yesterday for insulting Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to Turkish media. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants on September 25 for the alleged members of the group who produce Twitter content. Police raided several homes in Istanbul and detained 19 suspects including journalist Hakan Gülseven and columnist Temel Demirer. Şehmus Kavak, Misli Cihan Şenleten and Özgür Doğuş Erhan were arrested, while Taylan Kulaçoğlu, the founder of the group, was already in jail for insulting President Erdoğan. The group was accused of producing provocative content, inciting enmity and hatred, demeaning state officials and attempting to overthrow the elected government. Demirer was released after questioning. “We grow as they try even harder to oppress us. We are right, they are wrong, and we will win this struggle.” he said. n Turkey, criticizing the president can be subject to criminal investigation if it is perceived as an insult. Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) states that any person who insults the president faces a prison term of up to four years. Criticizing the government on social media platforms is also heavily sanctioned in Turkey, sometimes triggering a counterterrorism investigation. The sentence can be increased by a sixth if it has national exposure, and by a third if committed by the press or media. Since Erdoğan assumed office in 2014, thousands of people have received prison sentences for insulting him — 2,046 in 2018 and 3,831 in 2019 alone. In total 9,554 people have been handed down sentences, most of which have been suspended, for insulting the president. In a 2016 opinion, the Venice Commission had noted with concern the large number of investigations, prosecutions or convictions reported by the press for insulting the president. It had recalled that the European Commission in its 2015 report on Turkey underlined that “there is a widened practice of court cases for alleged insult against the President being launched against journalists, writers, social media users and other members of the public, which may end in prison sentences, suspended sentences or punitive fines.” According to the same report, this intimidating climate has led to increased self-censorship. According to the Venice Commission, the use of offensive, shocking or disturbing words especially within the context of a debate on matters of public interest are guaranteed by freedom of expression. Expressions that may be perceived in the abstract as denigrating, such as “thief” (in relation to a corruption probe) or “murderer” (in relation to demonstrators who lost their lives during the Gezi protests), “dictator” and the like must be evaluated in their public debate context. According to human rights lawyer Kerem Altıparmak, more than 100,000 Turkish citizens have been investigated for insulting President Erdoğan and in excess of 30,000 court cases were opened. Altıparmak says Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code on insulting the Turkish president runs against the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Turkey is a party, and should be annulled. The offense of insulting the head of state has been decriminalized in several European countries, and although it is still part of the penal code of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal, there have been no recent convictions.
ArmInfo.. According to the results of the secret ballot, the only candidate for the post of the President of the Constitutional Court, Yervand Khundkaryan, did not receive the required number of votes. Head of Office of the Constitutional Court Edgar Ghazaryan, announced this on his Facebook page.
To note, in order to be elected, Khundkaryan had to receive from the judges of the Constitutional Court 5 votes out of 9 possible.
Earlier, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan signed a law on amendments to the law “On the Constitutional Court”, which was adopted on June 30. In accordance with them, the powers of all judges of the Constitutional Court are limited to 12 years. After the amendments were adopted, three judges who had worked for more than 12 years were dismissed from their posts: Alvina Gyulumyan, Hrant Nazaryan and Felix Tokhyan. Head of the court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, has become an ordinary judge. New judges will now be elected instead. One candidate is proposed by the Government, the second – by the President, and the third – by the General Assembly of Judges. Edgar Shatiryan, Candidate of Legal Sciences, became a government candidate. At the General Assembly of Judges, Head of the RA Court of Cassation Yervand Khundkaryan was elected as a candidate for the Constitutional Court judge. Arthur Vagharshyan, nominated by the President, is Doctor of Law, Professor. All three candidates were elected by an overwhelming majority during a parliamentary meeting on September 15. Further, a new head should be elected to the CC.
16:50,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Taking into account the developments in the Middle East Armenia should actively work with the Arab world for both pushing forward its own interests and countering the Turkish-Azerbaijani anti-propaganda, Director of Armenian National Committee of the Middle East Office Vera Yacoubian told Armenpress.
“Overall, I would say that Armenia has taken little actions for intensifying the relations with the Arab world. It should have been done years before, especially when there was a firm ground for that, I mean the Armenian communities in that countries. Today more than ever Armenia should intensify its ties with the Arab world in different areas, counterbalancing Azerbaijan-Turkey anti-propaganda”, she said, adding that today Armenia doesn’t have any obstacle from this perspective. In this context, she highlighted the recent visit of the Armenian Foreign Minister to Egypt where he met with the top officials. The Arab press positively reacted to this visit and the meetings.
“I think that Armenia must have its place in these new fronts which are being formed in the region, should be able to create close ties with the main Arab fronts through active political relations in order to counterbalance Turkey-Azerbaijan anti-propaganda”, she added.
“Turkey is acting in the context of its expansionist aspirations – Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey takes every measure to destabilize the region and engage its opponents into side-to-side conflicts. In other words, it seeks to deviate the attention of the international community from its real goals”, she said. In order to restrain Turkey’s expansionist aspirations, Vera Yacoubian highlighted the initiative by Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, Italy and Israel on forming a regional gas format, which means that these countries are preparing an anti-Turkish front trying to curb Turkey’s expansionist goals.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Su-30SM fighter jets of the Armenian air force were seen flying past the statue of Mother Armenia in an air show on Independence Day.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan streamed the video on Facebook.
Armenia celebrates the 29th anniversary of independence.
In September 1991 Armenia held a nationwide referendum, which saw over 99 percent of voters approve the republic’s commitment to independence.
11:38,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. 244 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded over the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 47154, the Armenian Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.
182 patients recovered, raising the number of total recoveries to 42551.
2 people died from COVID-19, increasing the death toll to 928. This number doesn’t include the deaths of 285 other people infected with the virus who died from other pre-existing conditions, according to health authorities.
As of 11:00, September 19 the number of active cases stood at 3390.
Testing was ramped up starting September 8, a week ahead of the re-opening of schools which took place on September 14.
3737 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
The article was published in the World Energy Weekly (September 7 issue), a publication of Petrostrategies, a French think-tank specializing in energy issues.
Hit hard by falling oil revenues, Azerbaijan is trying to make its public sector more efficient through fundamental reform, possibly involving the privatization of some state-owned corporations. Thus, at the behest of President Ilham Aliyev, a holding company was founded on August 7 to bring together and manage “all state-owned companies”, including energy firms. On the previous day, during a public video-meeting with his government, Aliyev had criticized public-sector companies in very harsh terms, accusing them not only of mismanagement but also of dragging his country’s economy downward. These companies use the state budget to finance their projects and to bail themselves out if they make a loss, he asserted. “The losses in state-owned companies are quite large”, he said, specifically singling out companies in such fields as oil, gas, water, railways, aviation, maritime transportation, and so on. Stressing that such losses can range as high as 40% to 50%, the President pointed out that state-owned corporations are used to having their losses reimbursed by the government. “This will no longer be tolerated”, he insisted.
Hit hard by falling oil revenues, Azerbaijan is trying to make its public sector more efficient through fundamental reform, possibly involving the privatization of some state-owned corporations. Thus, at the behest of President Ilham Aliyev, a holding company was founded on August 7 to bring together and manage “all state-owned companies”, including energy firms. On the previous day, during a public video-meeting with his government, Aliyev had criticized public-sector companies in very harsh terms, accusing them not only of mismanagement but also of dragging his country’s economy downward. These companies use the state budget to finance their projects and to bail themselves out if they make a loss, he asserted. “The losses in state-owned companies are quite large”, he said, specifically singling out companies in such fields as oil, gas, water, railways, aviation, maritime transportation, and so on. Stressing that such losses can range as high as 40% to 50%, the President pointed out that state-owned corporations are used to having their losses reimbursed by the government. “This will no longer be tolerated”, he insisted.
In particular, SOCAR, the national hydrocarbon company, was harshly criticized by Aliyev. The government budget has been used to finance not only the extension of the gas network in rural areas, but also SOCAR’s drilling and even its “share in consortia with foreign partners and […] other infrastructure projects. Where does this money come from?” exclaimed Aliyev on August 6, probably referring to Socar’s share in the Azeri–Chirag–Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) consortium. On the following day, the President signed a decree to set up Azerbaijan Investment Holding (AIH), a company intended to bring all state-owned corporations under a single umbrella, with a charter capital of 100 million manats (some $59 million). The new body has a five-member supervisory board and is chaired by the Prime Minister. It also includes the country’’s Economy and Finance Ministers and two of Aliyev’s advisers. The decree specifies that decisions shall be made by majority vote and that there can be no abstentions when the board votes. Ilham Aliyev has given his government two months to propose a list of state-owned companies that will be subordinated to the AIH, thus ensuring their “transparency” and healthy management while “optimizing costs and risks”. According to one of Aliyev’s advisers, the aim is to speed up the liberalization of the economy by privatizing certain state-owned companies when they become profitable.
To ward off criticism, sources in the Azeri press have assured that the AIH will not meet the same fate as the Financial Market Supervision Authority (FIMSA), which was set up by Azerbaijan in February 2016 to clean up the country’s financial sector. This body proved unable to prevent major bankruptcies in the banking and insurance sectors. The most famous case is that of Azerbaijan’s largest bank, the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), whose bailout between 2013 and 2017 cost the government the equivalent of a year’s GDP, according to the EBRD. FIMSA was liquidated in November 2019.
13:21, 4 September, 2020
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian will take part in the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit (GMIS) on September 5, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.
This year the Summit will be held virtually.
The GMIS 2020 is organized under the co-chairmanship of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The Armenian President will deliver remarks at the discussion dedicated to the theme “Restoring Prosperity in a Post-Pandemic World”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, heads of state and government, as well as representatives of major companies are among the speakers.
The Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) was established in 2015 as an industry association to build bridges between manufacturers, governments & NGOs, technologists, and investors in harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s transformation of manufacturing to the regeneration of the global economy. A joint initiative by the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), GMIS is a platform that presents the manufacturing sector with an opportunity to contribute towards global good, working to the benefit of all.
GMIS is the world’s first cross-industrial and cross-functional platform that offers a voice and venue for leaders to transform manufacturing, encourage greater investment in capabilities, foster innovation and drive global skills development.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan