15:59,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. A serviceman of the Armenian Armed Forces was found shot dead in his military position on May 11, the Ministry of Defense said.
Private Argishti Yeghyan’s body was found with a gunshot wound to the chest at a military position in the eastern direction.
An investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the incident.
Private Yeghyan was 20 years old.
16:25,
HAGUE, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is trying to make the issue of the return of Armenian captives a subject of trade, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Clingendael, in response to the question of the meeting participants.
“Unfortunately, despite the 2020 November 9 statement and calls of numerous international organizations, our citizens who were captured during the 44-day war have not been returned, which cannot be understood. This is a practice of using people for political purposes and making them a subject of trade, which is condemnable”, the PM said.
Pashinyan said that when the topic of captives was touched upon, Azerbaijan tried to make it a subject of trade for exchanging them with the maps of minefields that the Armenian side had. “And when we saw that an attempt is made to exchange people with maps, we made a political decision that doing trade is out of the logic of our values. Azerbaijan was claiming that every day people are being killed on the minefields left during the war, it was releasing numbers, and I personally made a political decision that this trade must not take place, and we handed over all our maps to Azerbaijan, with the hope that the humanitarian step will be followed by a humanitarian step. After that Azerbaijan started announcing that those maps are not so correct. We said it’s not that we kept the good maps and gave the bad ones to you, that’s what we have. And they tried to make this a subject of speculation as well, but they didn’t notice one thing that after the exchange of the maps, the information on the killing of citizens from mine explosion has disappeared from their newsfeed”, the PM said.
Pashinyan stated that the Armenian side did this to show its sincerity in the peace agenda, its dedication to the peace agenda.
“Till today at least 38 of our captives are held in Azerbaijan. An attempt is made to regularly make this process a subject of trade on different topics. By the way, the last time it was at the presence of the President of the European Council that the Azerbaijani leader promised that he will release another group of captives, but this has not happened so far. I think that it’s impossible to talk about peace by ignoring the humanitarian side of the issue, we have shown this in practice”, the Armenian PM noted.
He stressed the need for the international community to know about this situation. Pashinyan called on the international community to continue urging Azerbaijan not to make people a subject of political trade.
“The war has brought tragedy to many, but I don’t think that the approach of constantly pouring salt on that open wound fits into the value system that is typical to the 21st century”, Nikol Pashinyan said.
Anti-government rallies have been raging since last month over Pashinyan’s speech about the need to sign a peace deal with Azerbaijan.
Police in Armenia have detained 180 anti-government demonstrators who were blocking streets in the capital, Yerevan, to protest against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Protests demanding that Pashinyan step down reignited in Armenia last month, after he spoke in the country’s parliament about the need to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under Armenian control since the early 1990s.
In a six-week war in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan was able to reclaim control over large swaths of land in and around the region before signing a Russia-brokered truce with Armenia.
Pashinyan has faced backlash at home for agreeing to the deal.
As Armenia and Azerbaijan edged closer to reaching a proper peace agreement this year, opposition forces in Armenia have resumed protests against Pashinyan.
Rallies in Yerevan have been held almost daily since April 17.
On Sunday, demonstrators in the centre of Yerevan set up tents for a round-the-clock protest and said they would not leave until Pashinyan and his team step down.
The Interfax news agency reported that barricades were erected from rubbish bins and street benches, and that traffic in France Square, where a major road connects four main avenues of the Armenian capital, stopped.
Demonstrators – including opposition lawmakers – chanted “Armenia without Nikol!” Protest leader and deputy parliamentary speaker Ishkhan Sagatelyan told reporters that protesters would clear the streets by Monday afternoon, so that another rally could gather in the square in the evening.
Some of the detentions on Monday were carried out with the use of force, and journalists covering the protests were reported to have been pushed around by the police.
Police spokespeople told Interfax the demonstrators were detained on charges of refusing to obey police officers.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/2/armenia-detains-180-protesters-demanding-pms-resignation
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https://ktar.com/story/gallery/armenia-detains-180-protesters-calling-on-pashinyan-to-quit/ Video
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https://spotonnewjersey.com/jersey-shore/972527/armenia-detains-125-protesters-calling.html
21:19, 29 April, 2022
YEREVAN, 29 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. Why should Kosovo or other internationally unrecognized countries benefit from the international mechanism of salvation and compensation, but not Artsakh?, ARMENPRESS reports State Minister of the Artsakh Republic Artak Beglaryan voiced this rhetorical question on his “Telegram” channel.
“It was a pleasure to hear Russian President Vladimir Putin talk to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Kosovo. Undoubtedly, this was a precedent for the peoples who live under the existential threat, fight for their right to self-determination, among which the indigenous people of Artsakh are in the forefront.
Needless to bring proofs of the genocidal policies against the Armenians of Artsakh over the decades, including the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan and Artsakh, deportation, destruction of cultural heritage, systemic policies of anti-Armenianism, and a number of other existential threats, as evidenced by the decision of the UN International Court of Justice, as well as similar documented facts of many other international organizations.
And now the rhetorical question is why Kosovo or other internationally unrecognized countries should benefit from this international mechanism of salvation and compensation, and Artsakh, which meets all the standards of international law, no. We should not forget the many cases when the international community did not fulfill its preventive responsibilities, as a result of which different peoples were subjected to genocide,” Beglaryan wrote.
The families of Armenian soldiers who were killed in the 44-day war in Artsakh started a protest in Yerevan’s Charles Aznavour Square on Tuesday afternoon. Many of them were wearing T-shirts with the images of their fallen sons, brothers and spouses or were just holding their photos.
“This is a part of the struggle of the hero soldiers’ parents for justice and the rule of law. Gathered here today we once again announce: don’t think that we will ever forget what happened. We will continue fighting,” said opposition Hayastan faction MP Gegham Nazaryan, the father of fallen soldier Abgar Nazaryan.
He again blamed Nikol Pashinyan and his cabinet for not preventing or stopping the war in 2020. Afterwards, the protesters began chanting “Traitor!”.
According to Nazaryan, it would have been ideal if at least 8,000 parents, 16,000 brothers and sisters of soldiers had joined the protest, adding, at the same time, those who came to the square were the “collective image of all fallen heroes.”
“Some of the parents are just knocked out after this hard blow, they have lost interest in everything. All of us gathered here should help them out of this situation. There are parents who have decided to step aside for some reason, but I assure you, they are in the minority,” the MP said.
He cited Pashinyan’s latest statement that the war “could have been prevented, as a result of which we would have had the same situation, of course without the casualties.”
“I believe that after this confession no reasonable person can remain indifferent,” Nazaryan said.
15:27,
YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping extended birthday greetings to Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan.
“In the recent years a stable and firm development of the Armenian-Chinese relations is seen and the cooperation between the two countries is solidly advancing in various areas.
I attach great importance to the development of the Armenian-Chinese relations and I am ready to make joint efforts with you to raise the friendly and collaborative relations between Armenia and China to a new level for the benefit of our countries and peoples,” Xi Jinping said in a message to Khachaturyan.
16:03,
YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan rules out signing any document on the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict without a “broad public discussion.”
“I rule out, I simply rule out that a document can exist close to getting signed that would be signed without a broad public discussion, including with all layers of Artsakh’s public. This is a guarantee, an iron guarantee that the fate of Artsakh cannot be decided behind the back of the people,” Pashinyan said.
He says that in this regard the pessimists are mentioning the 2020 November 9 trilateral statement as an example of a document that was singed without a broad public discussion. However, Pashinyan rejected the comparison. “This is an odd comparison because in wartime a decision was to be made within hours and sometimes minutes to save thousands of Artsakhis, 25 thousand troops and save Artsakh from exodus of Armenians and these comparisons are simply inappropriate. But on the other hand our entire policy and steps are aimed at this very issue, so that we don’t have to make decisions in such conditions,” the PM said.
Pashinyan added that the society is now aware of the content of all documents that are subject to negotiations. “It is the 5-points handed over by Azerbaijan and our response to it which was essentially entirely published through interviews and speeches and we will continue this conduct in the future as much as inter-state diplomatic ethics allows,” Pashinyan said.
The opposition Hayastan bloc supports the protest launched in Yerevan’s Liberty Square indefinitely by oppositionist Artur Vanetsyan and considers it part of decentralized actions to remove Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team, Hayastan faction MP Aram Vardevanyan told reporters in the square on Monday.
“The Hayastan bloc has a clear-cut action plan, which will be unveiled to the public in the near future,” he said. “Our steps have to be well planned and coordinated.”
“We have found ourselves in an extremely difficult situation, but I strongly believe that we will get out of it and the “rubbish” policies will no longer have a place in our reality,” Vardevanyan stressed.
He addressed all those who were disappointed and discouraged in the recent period, adding it does not help improve the situation.
“You really have to wake up and get out of numbness. We really need to be united to achieve the desired outcomes,” the MP said, urging people to join the protest.
17:42,
YEREVAN, 12 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh was and will be the main guide of the foreign policy of the Government, ARMENPRESS reports the President of the Republic of Artsakh announced at the meeting with heads of administrative districts of Askeran city, heads of communities and local activists, emphasizing that the official Stepanakert will not deviate from that agenda.
“The fact that the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination is not a subject of bargaining is unequivocal. We will not deviate from our path of independence”, said Arayik Harutyunyan.
At the meeting the President of Artsakh talked about the recent geopolitical developments and the actions be carried out in that context. He mentioned that we enter a new difficult phase conditioned by the Russian-Ukrainian military actions.
Arayik Harutyunyan referred to the actions of Azerbaijan, in particular that on March 24 again the provisions of the trilateral agreement of November 9, 2020 were violated and Azerbaijan doesn’t hide its expansionist aspirations.
“Azerbaijan violated the condition and for the first time questioned the Russian peacekeeping mission.”, the President of Artsakh said.
12:06,
YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. Nokia will stop activities on the territory of the Russian Federation over Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, TASS reports citing statement of the Finnish producer of telecommunication equipment.
“It has been clear for Nokia <...> that continuing our presence in Russia would not be possible”, the company said. “We can now announce we will exit the Russian market”, according to the statement.
The company also emphasized the importance of ensuring the continued flow of information and access to the internet on Russian soil. “As we exit [the Russian market] we will aim to provide the necessary support to maintain the networks and are applying for the relevant licenses to enable this support in compliance with current sanctions”, Nokia said.
Over the last weeks the company has suspended deliveries of equipment to Russia.