“Veolia Jur” Company informs its customers and consumers about the damage caused by the crash. The following water supply interruptions are expected on October 11:
The company claims the consumer’s apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.
Today, Serzh Sargsyan received Viktor Krivopuskov, Head of the Russian Association of Friendship and Cooperation with Armenia.
During the meeting Victor Krivopuskov presented to the President of the Republic of Armenia the activities and the upcoming programs of the organization headed by him, speaking in details about the works to be done to organize the Days of Armenian Culture in Russia in the near future.
The event will be held in the field of culture, within the framework of cooperation between Armenia and Russia 2016-2018. The Head of the Russian Association of Friendship and Cooperation with Armenia informed Serzh Sargsyan that besides the capital, the Days of Armenian Culture in Russia, will be also held in Russian regions.
The President of Armenia welcomed the activity of the Russian Association aimed at deepening the Armenian-Russian relations and strengthening the friendship between the two peoples and wished them success. The President assured that the state bodies of Armenia would render all the support to the Association in the implementation of the above mentioned initiatives.
By Rashid Shirinov
Vice Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Bahar Muradova has urged Armenian MPs to refrain from making provocative statements.
Muradova, who spoke on the last day of the Assembly’s session in Andorra on October 6, said that every such provocation has been adequately retaliated: “This does not happen for the first time and such statements have not yielded any results so far.”
“This is why I urged my Armenian colleagues to refrain from making provocative statements that can complicate the situation," she noted.
Muradova also said that Armenia is permanently doing this in the occupied Azerbaijani territory that it controls and on the troops' contact line.
"If we can’t do anything at the parliamentary level to ensure that common efforts yield expected results, we should not cause problems,” she added.
Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in a conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
Today, Armenia still ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
Please find the attached press release of the Ministry of Diaspora. Sincerely, Media and PR Department (+374 10) 585601, internal 805 ---------------------- Հարգանքով` Մամուլի և հասարակայնության հետ կապերի վարչություն (+374 10) 585601, ներքին 805
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On September 18, Ashot Gulanyan, the Speaker of the Artsakh Republic National Assembly, received the member of David Waladao, the US House of Representatives, Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues.
Welcoming the congressman in Artsakh on his first visit, Ashot Gulanyan, the Speaker of the Parliament, hailed the efforts of the Congressional Commision on Armenian Issues aimed at the development of the Armenian-American relations and the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict. The President of the National Assembly emphasized the importance of humanitarian assistance provided by the US to Artsakh for a number of issues and emphasized the importance of the proposal made by David Valadao in the US Congress on promoting demining activities in Artsakh, in 2018.
Expressing gratitude for the reception, David Waladaonoted that during his first visit, he wished to get acquainted with Artsakh closely and understand the local specificity as deeply as possible.
At the request of the guest, the head of the Artsakh parliament also spoke about the attempts of Azerbaijan to destabilize the situation in the conflict zone, the role of international organizations in the prevention of the conflict and the current stage of the negotiation process.
Summing up the meeting, Ashot Ghulyan expressed conviction that such discussions create grounds for effective cooperation to promote peace in the region.
Arzik Mkhitaryan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, David Melkumyan Deputy Foreign Minister, Armine Alexanyan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Avetisyan, Permanent Representative of Artsakh to USA, and Maria Mihranyan, Director of “Hayastan” Fund Us Department, the Republic of Artsakh, NA Press Service reports.
The twelve finalists
Human Rights Watch to host unveiling of the $5,000 winner on Sept 17
YEREVAN – Creative Armenia announced today the finalists for Terry George’s $5,000 human rights filmmaking challenge. The twelve filmmakers come from the United States, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Armenia, and the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh). And their 60-second human rights visions confront some of the most vital issues of our time: from war and genocide to children’s rights and the refugee crisis.
The twelve finalists of Creative Challenge 001 are presented by video and here, as follows:
Genocide: Eight Stories from Millions
Filmmaker: Eduard Hovakimyan
Country of Production: Armenia
Human Rights Issue: Genocide
Green & Black
Filmmaker: Aram Shahbazyan
Country of Production: Armenia
Human Rights Issue: Costs of War
Home
Filmmaker: Julie Asriyan
Country of Production: United States
Human Rights Issue: Migrants & Refugees
Human Range
Filmmaker: Gagik Ghazare
Country of Production: Armenia
Human Rights Issue: Struggle for Dignity
Human Rights
Filmmaker: Vahe Terteryan
Country of Production: Armenia
Human Rights Issue: Children in Wartime
In the Blink of an Eye
Filmmaker: Gurur Bozkurt
Country of Production: Turkey
Human Rights Issue: Costs of War
KWE
Filmmaker: Morningstar Derosier
Country of Production: Canada
Human Rights Issue: Rights of Indigenous Women
Not Carefully Chosen Words
Filmmaker: Georgi Aleksanyan
Country of Production: Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh)
Human Rights Issue: Social Media Bullying
Pim Pam Pum
Filmmakers: Asier Urbieta & Andoni de Carlos
Country of Production: Spain
Human Rights Issue: Children in Wartime
The Replacement
Filmmaker: Gevorg Harutyunyan
Country of Production: Armenia
Human Rights Issue: Costs of War
The Wall
Filmmaker: Artur Sargsyan
Country of Production: Armenia
Human Rights Issue: Capital Punishment
Will Work for Shelter
Filmmaker: Eduardo Garabal
Country of Production: United States
Human Rights Issue: Homelessness
The jury
The final evaluation is being conducted by a world-renowned jury: Oscar-winning filmmaker Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, The Promise); Cannes-winning filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat); social impact campaigner Bonnie Abaunza (Blood Diamond, The Promise); social impact filmmaker Carla Garapedian (Screamers); Jessica Peake (Assistant Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA); and Peter Bisanz (Executive Director of the Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment at UCLA).
The winner and recipient of the $5,000 prize will be announced on September 17, 2017, at an event co-hosted in Los Angeles by Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading independent human rights organizations. Both Creative Armenia and Human Rights Watch are partner organizations of The Promise, the epic story of the Armenian Genocide which Terry George directed. All proceeds of the film are going to humanitarian causes.
Visit www.creativearmenia.org/challenges to learn more about Terry George’s challenge and upcoming creative challenges.
The Białystok city culture center hosted the solemn opening ceremony of personal photographer of the Armenian President Davit Hakobyan’s personal photo exhibition called “Memories of the Road”. The event was organized within the state program “The Culture of the East” initiated by the Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Among the participants of the opening ceremony were Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Poland Edgar Ghazaryan and Deputy Mayor of Białystok Rafal Rudnitsky who delivered welcome speeches.
As the organizers of the exhibition inform, Ambassador Ghazaryan presented the professional career of the photographer, adding the exhibition, that showcases the photos taken during the foreign visits of the Armenian President as well as unique attractions of Armenia, has been organized in number of Polish cities.
The Ambassador thanked the Białystok authorities for including the exhibition in the culture program and the opportunity for the city residents to get familiarized with the photographer’s works.
Taking the opportunity, the Ambassador has called on the guests to visit Armenia and admire beauties of Armenian nature and the warm hospitality of the Armenian people.
Tuesday, Israeli Drone Exports `Halted' Amid Azerbaijan Inquiry Israel -- Defense Ministry building in Tel Aviv, 5Aug2007 Israel's Defense Ministry has reportedly halted exports of "suicide" drones manufactured by an Israeli company that was accused earlier this month of using them against an Armenian army position at the request of Azerbaijan. In a statement cited by the Newsru.co.il news service, the company, Aeronautics Defense Systems (ADS), said late on Monday that the ministry's export control agency has at least temporarily banned it from delivering a batch of Orbiter 1K drones to a key foreign client. The statement said ADS was due to supply $20 million worth of such unmanned aircraft, capable of carrying special explosive payload, to the client in 2017-2018. The ADS statement did not specify the buyer of the sophisticated weapon, saying only that Israel has close commercial ties with that country. It also attributed the ban to an ongoing inquiry conducted by the Israeli security agency. The Israeli newspaper "Maariv" reported on August 13 that the agency launched an investigation after receiving a formal complaint stemming from ADS's commercial dealings with the Azerbaijani government. It said ADS representatives traveled to Azerbaijan earlier this summer to finalize a contract for the sale of Orbiter drones to the Azerbaijani military. The paper claimed that two Israeli drone operators working for the defense company rebuffed Azerbaijani officials' demand to demonstrate the use of the deadly drone by hitting the Armenian position with it. But other, more senior ADS executives agreed on launch the deadly craft on the target, according to "Maariv." ADS denied the report, saying that "the operational action was carried out by the purchaser alone." Nagorno-Karabakh - An Israel-manufactured Azerbaijani "suicide" drone is shot down in the Martakert district, 4Apr2016 According to Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian-backed Defense Army, the Azerbaijani military most recently attacked its frontline positions with a suicide drone on July 7. The commander of an army unit stationed in northeastern Karabakh said in early August that two of his soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident. No Armenian military hardware was damaged in that drone attack, he said. The Azerbaijani army heavily used similar suicide drones manufactured by another Israeli company, Israel Aerospace Industries, during the April 2016 hostilities in Karabakh. Baku had received them as part of multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed with Israeli arms manufacturers. The Israeli weapons sold to Azerbaijan have included not only various types of unmanned aircraft but also air-defense systems and anti-tank rockets. Armenia has long expressed concern at the Israeli-Azerbaijani arms deals, saying that they undermine international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict. Still, its reaction to the "Maariv" report was rather cautious. Yerevan Fire Mostly Extinguished . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Firefighters battle a fire in the Nairit chemical plant in Yerevan, 28Aug2017. Firefighters largely extinguished on Tuesday a massive fire in a chemical plant in Yerevan that raised health concerns among people in nearby residential areas. The blaze quickly engulfed on Monday storage containers filled with chemical waste from the Nairit plant located on the city's southern outskirts.More than a hundred firefighters were sent to the scene to contain it. The Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) said that they put out the flames in three of the four burning tanks by Tuesday burning. "A small source of fire remains active only in one container," it said in a statement. Black smoke was still billowing from it in the afternoon. "Cooling efforts are still being made to prevent further outbreaks of fire," the head of the ministry's National Center for Crisis Management, Hovannes Khangeldian, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Some officials suggested that the fire was caused by an explosion. "It is too early to speak of theories," cautioned Khangeldian. "I think that relevant bodies will examine all theories and establish the causes." In another statement issued later in the day, the MES said it will conduct forensic tests for that purpose. Some "materials regarding the fire" have already been submitted to an Armenian law-enforcement body, it added. The Armenian ministries of environment and health said, meanwhile, that they took air samples from parts of Yerevan's Shengavit district adjacent to Nairit. They insisted that toxic emissions from the fire pose no major health risks to local residents. Still, the Health Ministry released a written statement on Monday urging them to stay indoors and shut their windows. Some Shengavit residents complained that government officials did not visit their neighborhoods and communicate with them in person. "They could have told us what to do through megaphones," said one woman. "They work much harder during elections." Armenian Government Coy About Troop Deployment To Syria Syria -- A Russian Mil Mi-24 "Hind" attack helicopter flies above the damaged site of the ancient city of Palmyra, March 4, 2017 Armenia's leadership on Tuesday declined to confirm or deny a senior Russian military official's claim that that it is prepared to send a demining team to Syria. Major General Alexander Novikov of the Russian army's General Staff said late last week that Armenia and Serbia have expressed readiness to join an "international coalition" which Russia hopes would help its troops clear landmines in the war-torn country. Moscow called for the creation of such a coalition through its permanent representative to the United Nations in April. Asked by News.am whether Yerevan has indeed decided to join the Russian-led effort in Syria, President Serzh Sarkisian's press secretary, Vladimir Hakobian, said: "When a decision is made and all issues are clarified, the public will be notified in an appropriate manner." Hakobian did not comment further. A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry similarly told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Monday that the matter requires "further examination." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed possible Armenian involvement in demining operations in the historic Syrian city of Palmyra when he met with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian in Yerevan in April 2016. "I hope that our joint initiative can be implemented," Lavrov said after the talks. It is not clear whether Sarkisian and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about Syria when they met in the Russian city of Sochi on August 23. The Armenian presidential press service said they discussed "topical international and regional issues." Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance of six ex-Soviet states. Press Review "Haykakan Zhamanak" says the latest fire in Armenia's troubled Nairit chemical plant is the third major accident to occur there in the last 11 years. "If Nairit worked, provided jobs to thousands of people, was constantly modernized in the process, paid taxes to the state budget and exported its products, one could weigh up benefits and dangers created by it," writes the paper. "One could discuss whether or not we need Nairit. But with Nairit periodically exploding, burning and putting people's lives at risk and at the same time standing idle, there is probably nothing to weigh up. The Nairit problem requires a radical solution. It must either operate at full capacity or become a thing of the past and cede several hundred hectares of land occupied by it to other businesses or be turned into a big and nice park." "Haykakan Zhamanak" believes that the sorry state of Nairit is "the result of populism." "Nairit's operations were not discontinued on the grounds that thousands of people work there," it says. "That seemed very convincing. However, if there was a political decision to liquidate Nairit under legal and transparent procedures, proceeds from the sale of its expensive equipment would be enough to properly compensate its thousands of employees." "Zhoghovurd" notes that the Nairit fire erupted just weeks after a group of European investors made renewed efforts to take over the plant and restart its production operations. They met with Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian on August 8 to present their $100 million investment plan. They also made clear that they need to conduct a thorough audit before finally deciding whether to invest in the Soviet-era giant. The paper also notes that the fire broke out in a Nairit unit whose chief manager and two dozen other employees were fired in July. They were tasked with preventing accidents. "Time will tell whether these events are connected with yesterday's fire or whether this is just coincide," the paper says. "Hraparak" hits back at President Serzh Sarkisian's strong denial of suggestions that his 2013 decision to make Armenia part of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) at the expense of a major deal with the European Union was a last-minute U-turn. The paper argues that just days before the announcement of that decision senior Armenian officials were insisting that Armenia has no intention to join the EEU. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
The water levels of Lake Sevan continues dropping. As of 11 August, the lake level decreased from its highest peak of June 2017 – 1900.91 meters – by 18 centimeters, making up 1900.73 meters, EcoLur reports.
Compared to the same day of the past year, the lake level is only above by 2 cm – it was 1900.71 meters on 11 July 2016.
The decrease in Lake Sevan water levels is conditioned with the water outlets. Additional 100 million cum water intake has already been performed out of Lake Sevan, for the purpose of which, upon the Armenian Government's proposal, on 6 July the National Assembly adopted the bill on making amendments to RA Law on 'On Approving Annual and Complex Programs for Recovery, Conservation, Reproduction and Use of Lake Sevan Ecosystem'.
Already 197.946 million cum water has been let out of Lake Sevan, out of which 0.741 million cum is an unregulated leak. According to the adopted law, still 72.795 million cum water shall be let out of the lake.