Author: Jhanna Virabian

 13:18, 8 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan has held a meeting with the new Iranian ambassador Mehdi Sobhani.

During the meeting Grigoryan congratulated Ambassador Sobhani on assuming the responsible mission and expressed hope that during his tenure the latter will contribute to the further development and strengthening of the relations between the two friendly countries, Grigoryan’s office said in a readout.

Secretary Grigoryan and Ambassador Sobhani discussed a number of items on the Armenian-Iranian bilateral agenda, as well as the regional security situation. Grigoryan presented the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from the Azerbaijani blockade of Lachin Corridor and Armenia’s stance on the matter.

Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023 the United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.  Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. Moreover, Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations.

On July 26, Armenia sent a humanitarian convoy carrying emergency food and medication for Nagorno-Karabakh, but Azerbaijan blocked the trucks at the entrance of Lachin Corridor.

 19:54,

YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. On July 20, an accident occurred in the administrative building of the General Department of Investigation of Smuggling and Economic Crimes of the Investigative Committee of Armenia. After the interrogation, the 30-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation, a Russian national, accompanied by the officers of the investigative body, handcuffed, left the office of the investigator conducting the preliminary investigation on the fifth floor, went to the end of the corridor to the exit door leading to the elevator. As soon as the door opened, he unexpectedly and quickly approached the open window next to the elevator and threw himself down, as a result of which he died, ARMENPRESS was informed about this by the RA Investigative Committee.

The Russian citizen was accused of drug trafficking.

 19:24,

YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received Aram Arzumanyan, who was disabled as a result of the 44-day war. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan was also present at the meeting, ARMENPRESS was infomred from the Office of the Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister had met Aram’s parents on July 17 in Artashat, who raised the issue of changing Aram Arzumanyan’s disability degree from 1 to 2.

Nikol Pashinyan listened to Aram Arzumanyan, answered his questions, and the minister presented the necessary clarifications regarding the change of degree, informed that Aram was provided with modern high-quality prosthetics, which contributed to his ability to walk.

Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that the government is bringing the policy of providing disability degree to the international standard. “Degree is not a goal, it is a means to solve a problem. The meaning of the policy is as follows. that methodology says, don’t assess whether a person has legs or not, but assess whether they can walk, whether their ability to walk has been restored in any way or not. And we think that policy is correct. Our policy is to restore the person’s functional capacity. We all focus on the degree all the time, but degree is not the goal. The extent to which functionality has been restored should be assessed. We should try to understand the method of providing degree, how effective it is and what needs to be done to make it more effective,” said the Prime Minister.

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the Government should do its best to restore the functionality of the person. “We must provide our brothers and children disabled as a result of the war with prosthetics that meet the best international standards.

We do not want you and our other children and brothers to have a disability degree, but to be fully rehabilitated, to be able to get an education, a job, that is, to act freely and to recover your functional capacity. In the cases when this will not be successful, the disability order will be defined by the examination, which will give us an indication that there is a functional problem,” said the Prime Minister.

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs reported that more than 1,400 servicemen were disabled as a result of the 44-day war.

Prime Minister Pashinyan reminded that the comprehensive health insurance system will be introduced in the republic from next year. “Persons disabled as a result of the 44-day war should be included in this system at the very first stage. Our task is not that you say what a good government, it gave me a first degree disability? Our task is to ensure that you walk normally, run, study, work, live. Please, don’t push us in the direction of providing a disability degree and thinking that we have solved a problem. We need you to have no disability degree. We need to implement such a modern functional prosthetics that will be both comfortable and functional,” said Nikol Pashinyan, adding that the Government will move according to the new methodological standard for disability classification.

During the meeting, Aram Arzumanyan raised other health-related issues. The Prime Minister instructed Minister Mkrtchyan to submit a new draft Government’s decision, as necessary, to solve additional health problems of Aram and other persons with disabilities.

An agreement was reached to organize a new meeting in the coming months, including with the participation of other persons with disabilities, to discuss the problems and further steps to solve them.

 15:51,

YEREVAN, JULY 17, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited a military memorial on Monday during his trip to the Ararat Province.

In a video published by the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Pashinyan is seen honoring fallen troops at the memorial.

Pashinyan visited Artashat city in Ararat on July 17 for a briefing by provincial authorities on the 2022 report and ongoing programs.

 12:07,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired the regular Cabinet meeting. At the beginning of the session, Prime Minister Pashinyan referred to the decision of the International Court of Justice regarding the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and other issues, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

In particular, the Prime Minister noted.

“Dear participants of the Cabinet meeting,
Dear people,

The International Court of Justice last week made an important decision regarding the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor. Based on the application of the Republic of Armenia, the court reaffirmed the legally binding decision made on February 22 of this year, by which it obliged Azerbaijan to take all the measures at its disposal to ensure the uninterrupted movement of people, vehicles and cargo in both directions through the Lachin Corridor. With such a decision, the court actually recorded that Azerbaijan did not comply with the decision of February 22 of this year, otherwise there would be no need to reaffirm that previous decision.

This is an important nuance. In paragraph 28 of the July 6 decision, the court, mentioning the information provided by the Armenian side that the so-called protest of environmentalists is no longer taking place, but even now movement through the Lachin Corridor is interrupted due to the installation of a checkpoint by Azerbaijan, noted that the essence of the matter does not change from this, because the consequences of the interruption of movement through the Lachin Corridor for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are the same as in February 2022, therefore, the approach of the court and the legally binding decision also remain the same.

However, there are some nuanced differences between the court’s decisions of February 22 and July 6, because if in February the Government of Azerbaijan said that the environmental protest was not organized by it and it was a spontaneous rally of civil society, now it has no opportunity to say such a thing, because now the Lachin Corridor is already blocked due to the actions of the state structures of Azerbaijan. And therefore, by the decision of the International Court of Justice, the responsibility of the Azerbaijani government for the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh is reaffirmed and further strengthened.

However, Azerbaijan’s activity for “environmental protection” continues, and now that country is trying to present environmental accusations to Armenia on an official and unofficial level. Moreover, for this, Azerbaijan attributes mines to Armenia that simply do not exist, raises circumstances that are fictitious, points to decisions that are about something completely different, mentions conventions that are not relevant.

The public and private sector organizations of Armenia, of course, point out and will continue to point out the fictitious nature of Azerbaijan’s accusations. I will only refer to the following circumstance. Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy has published the 2022 ranking of the world’s most ecologically clean countries. The rating table measures the state’s achievements in terms of environmental status, is based on 22 indicators of natural resources management and 10 categories, which address issues of environmental protection from the perspective of the vitality of the eco system, preservation of biodiversity, countering climate change, health status of the population, and the burden of economic activity on the environment, and also measure the effectiveness of state policy in the field of environmental protection. And here is in the 2022 rating, Armenia took the 56th place, and Azerbaijan – the 104th.

The progress and achievements of the Republic of Armenia in the organization of transparent and responsible mining industry are also expressed in the publications of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Returning to the topic of the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result, I would like to emphasize that the binding decision of the International Court of Justice provides an opportunity to ensure greater international consolidation around the issue in order to counter the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. In this sense, the dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert within the framework of the international mechanism with the agenda of ensuring the security and rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh is extremely important.

Dear participants of the Cabinet meeting,
Dear people,

Yesterday, the fourth meeting of the Commissions for delimitation of the state border and border security between Azerbaijan and Armenia took place on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. A message was released about it.

On Saturday, July 15, my meeting with the President of the European Council and the President of Azerbaijan is scheduled in Brussels. I have confirmed my participation in that meeting, I hope to make progress in the peace treaty negotiations during the meeting.

Thank you”.

 14:58,

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has called on the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to take concrete steps to address the issues raised in the PACE recommendation and react to the human rights crisis in Nagorno Karabakh caused by Azerbaijan.

The Permanent Representative of Armenia to the Council of Europe Ambassador Arman Khachatryan delivered a speech at the Committee of Ministers meeting, addressing the illegal Azerbaijani blockade of Lachin Corridor, the gross violations of the ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh and ongoing provocations. He presented the latest attack by Azerbaijan which left four Nagorno Karabakh soldiers dead.

Azerbaijan is attempting to commit ethnic cleansing in Nagorno Karabakh through the blockade, the gas and power supply cutoff, hate speech and threats, the ambassador warned.

Khachatryan presented the Ensuring free and safe access through the Lachin Corridor resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which warns that the current situation could lead to the population of Nagorno Karabakh leaving their homes, calls for a direct dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert and urges an immediate deployment of a fact-finding mission of the CoE.

A PACE recommendation on Lachin Corridor addressed to the Committee of Ministers is pointing out the humanitarian and human rights crisis facing the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh resulting from Azerbaijan’s unilateral actions. The Armenian representative called on the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to take concrete steps to address the issues raised in the PACE recommendation and react to the premeditated human rights crisis in Nagorno Karabakh caused by Azerbaijan.

An exchange of views took place during the meeting with PACE President Tiny Kox and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović. The Armenian ambassador stressed the importance of the involvement of PACE and the Human Rights Commissioner in addressing the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh resulting from the blockade of Lachin Corridor.

 12:26,

YEREVAN, JUNE 28, ARMENPRESS. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke by phone on June 27 with Akif Cağatay Kiliç, Spokesperson and Chief Advisor to the President of Türkiye.

They discussed ‘recent developments in Russia and our continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression, as well as Türkiye’s efforts to ensure a renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative,’ the White House said in a readout.

The U.S. and Turkish officials agreed on the importance of continued stability in the Aegean, with Mr. Sullivan welcoming constructive engagement between Türkiye and Greece. 

“They also discussed preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius.  Mr. Sullivan underscored the United States’ view that Sweden should become a member of NATO as soon as possible,” the White House added.