Author: Khondkarian Raffi

Blinken Discusses Karabakh with Pashinyan

Khondkarian Raffi

March 5, 2021



Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 5

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the need for the immediate return of prisoners of war, hostages and other captives by Azerbaijan during a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Pashinyan’s office said on Friday.

In regard to the POW issue, Blinken emphasized the importance of the efforts of the OSCE Minks Group co-chairs and expressed Washington’s readiness to continue to play a role to resolve the conflict, according to the statement issued by Pashinyan’s office.

In discussing the post-war situation in the region, the need to resume the peace process with the Minsk Group co-chairs was stressed.

“The Secretary of State stressed the importance of developing partnership with Armenia. He praised Armenia’s achievements in the field of democracy and assured that the United States will continue to provide assistance to Armenia’s reforms agenda,” said Pashinyan’s office.

“The sides attached importance to working together to strengthen the rule of law in Armenia, fighting against corruption, implementing reforms in the justice system and the police.
Nikol Pashinyan thanked the American side for the readiness to provide assistance,” added the statement from the prime minister’s office.

Converse Bank is recognized as the “Best Trade Finance Provider in Armenia” by Global Finance

Khondkarian Raffi

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 13:51, 5 March, 2021

Converse Bank has been recognized as the “Best Trade Finance Provider 2021 in Armenia” by the prestigious Global Finance magazine, for the second year in a row.

The Bank was presented with this prestigious award owing to the outstanding results in the sphere of trade finance proven by the unprecedented growth in the volume and quantity of transactions as well as the expansion of transactions’ geographical coverage.

Important to note that Converse Bank has received several prominent awards in trade finance, among which for two years in a row the Bank was awarded with the “Deal of the Year – Green Trade Award” by the EBRD and the “Trade Finance Award” by Commerzbank AG.

For the full list of the 2021 World’s Best Trade Finance Providers, click here: https://www.gfmag.com/magazine/february-2021/worlds-best-trade-finance-providers-2021

Armenpress: “Russian weapons are the best” – Vice Speaker Alen Simonyan

Khondkarian Raffi

“Russian weapons are the best” – Vice Speaker Alen Simonyan

 12:03, 2 March, 2021

YEREVAN, MARCH 2, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan has praised Russian weapons as being “the best” and also stated that Russia’s actions were “maximally allied” towards Armenia during the 2020 Artsakh War.

“I consider Russian weapons to be the best weapons,” Simonyan told reporters in parliament. “I consider that the actions of the Russian Federation during the war were maximally allied, and I consider that the problems which had emerged are no less well known also to our Russian colleagues,” he said.

Simonyan’s comments come a day after the Prime Minister’s Office issued a clarification over PM Pashinyan’s remarks on the Iskander missile systems.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

[Press] From U.S. Embassy – statement

Khondkarian Raffi 
The United States Embassy is closely following the current situation in Armenia 
developments, including statements from relevant stakeholders. We encourage all parties to exercise calm, restraint and 
to ease the tension peacefully and without violence. United States, our 
supporting Armenia's democracy in line with common values 
reforms, emphasizes democratic institutions and processes 
the importance of resolving political differences through dialogue  
on the way. The United States Embassy is closely following ongoing developments in Armenia. 
including statements by relevant stakeholders. We encourage all parties to 
exercise calm and restraint and to de-escalate tensions peacefully, without 
violence. The United States is committed to supporting Armenia’s democratic 
reforms, in line with our shared values, and stresses the importance of 
democratic institutions and processes as Armenians look to address their 
political differences through dialogue. _______________________________________________
Press mailing list
[email protected]

More than 110 aftershocks recorded in Armenia after February 13 earthquake

Khondkarian Raffi

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 12:29,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. More than 110 aftershocks were recorded so far after the February 13 magnitude 4,7 earthquake in Yerevan, the Armenian seismic protection service said.

“Right now there is an aftershock seismic activity, but it is gradually decreasing,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations Seismic Protection Service director Sos Margaryan told a news conference. “There’ve been magnitude 0,1 and less aftershocks. Overall, only two or three of these aftershocks were felt in Yerevan.”

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Lithuanian lawmakers call on Azerbaijan to release Armenian POWs

Khondkarian Raffi
Public Radio of Armenia
Feb 8 2021
– Public Radio of Armenia

Members of the Interparliamentary Group for Relations with the Republic of Armenia at the Lithuanian Seimas has adopted a statement calling on Azerbaijan to speed up the exchange of bodies, prisoners of war and hostages and their transfer to Armenia, Armenia’s Ambassador to Lithuania Tigram Mkrtchyan informs.

Based on the November 19th declaration by the EU High Representative on Nagorno Karabakh on behalf of the EU, the commitments declared by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the statement of the European External Action Service on the release of prisoners dated January 29 and the February 1st statement by the Political Assembly of the European People’s Party, the lawmakers call on Azerbaijan to speed up the exchange of bodies, prisoners of war and hostages, to suspend immediately the criminal proceedings against them and to transfer them to Armenia.

“The unconditional and immediate return of the prisoners will be one of the first steps towards restoring a climate of trust between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We also call on the European Union institutions to raise this humanitarian issue consistently in the context of current and future relations with Azerbaijan,” members of the group say.

Aeroflot to resume regular flights to Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, India

Khondkarian Raffi
TASS, Russia
Feb 9 2021

At the same time, Aeroflot also increased the frequency of flights to Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), Minsk (Belarus), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), and Cairo (Egypt)

MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. In February, Aeroflot will resume regular flights from Moscow to Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Yerevan (Armenia), and New Delhi (India), the airline said on Tuesday.

At the same time, Aeroflot also increased the frequency of flights to Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), Minsk (Belarus), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), and Cairo (Egypt), and opened flights from St. Petersburg to Minsk.

Deputy Minister of Transport Igor Chalik said earlier that Russian airlines will increase passenger traffic by about 52% in 2021 to around 105 mln people. He added that Russian airlines may carry around 30 mln passengers on international flights in 2021, up by 57% compared with 2020. “We expect the results of 2021 to be even higher than in 2019 on domestic flights, whereas on international flights -to amount to roughly 60% [of 2019 level], meaning around 30 mln passengers,”he said, adding that in terms of financials this year is expected to be better for air carriers than 2020.

Russian airlines carried 69.24 mln passengers in 2020, a decrease of 46% compared with the previous year, according to the data provided by the Federal Aviation Agency. Meanwhile, airlines carried slightly over 13 mln people on international destinations in the period, down by 76.2%, whereas on domestic destinations the passenger flow decreased by 23.1% to 56.15 mln passengers. 2019 was a record year for Russian carriers as they carried 128.1 mln passengers, up by 10.3% compared with 2018.

Armenian American diaspora demands Pak’s entry into FATF blacklist

Khondkarian Raffi
ANI News, India
Feb 11 2021
Armenian American diaspora demands Pak’s entry into blacklist

ANI | Updated: Feb 12, 2021 00:35 IST

Washington [US], February 12 (ANI): With the Financial Action Task Force () scheduled to meet this month to decide the future of Pakistan in the global arena, the demand for Islamabad to be blacklisted for its terrorist financing continues to grow.
On Thursday, The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) in a tweet wrote that the money-laundering watchdog must add Islamabad to its blacklist for terrorist financing that includes the funding of jihadist mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Artsakh.
“Dear Secretary (Janet) Yellen: Our US Treasury representative to the  must press this powerful global money-laundering watchdog to add Pakistan to its blacklist for terrorist financing, including its funding of jihadist mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Artsakh,” the ANCA said in a tweet.
In October, the  decided that Pakistan will continue to be on its greylist and asked it to continue to work on implementing an action plan to address its strategic deficiencies including demonstrating that its law enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of terrorist financing activity and demonstrating that prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.
Pakistan is on the ‘s grey list since June 2018 and the government was given a final warning in February 2020 to complete the 27 action points by June in the same year.
The  extended the June deadline to September due to the spread of coronavirus that disrupted the  plenary meetings.
Pakistan is facing the difficult task of clearing its name from the  grey list. As things stand, Islamabad is finding it difficult to shield terror perpetrators and implement the  action plan at the same time.
In recent weeks, Pakistan has tried to paint a picture that it started the reforms, including the passing of some Bills to prevent blacklisting by the . (ANI)


Armenia opposition MP: Armenian authorities need to respond to news about ‘confidential document’ on Syunik Province

Khondkarian Raffi
News.am, Armenia
Feb 12 2021
Armenia opposition MP: Armenian authorities need to respond to news about ‘confidential document’ on Syunik Province
16:27, 12.02.2021

The Armenian authorities need to respond to the news about the ‘confidential document’ on Syunik Province and Nagorno-Karabakh that is spreading on the Internet. This is what deputy of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party Iveta Tonoyan told reporters in parliament today.

Tonoyan also mentioned that the statement issued by the National Security Service is an attempt to not hide the reality from the public.

“There is an unequivocal demand of all Armenians for the government’s resignation, and those negative moods may be manifested at any moment,” she added.

Yesterday the National Security Service of Armenia commented on a previously made statement that, proceeding from the operative situation and for security considerations, as well as taking as a basis the border activities in the respective territories of the Syunik Province of Armenia, mass media representatives must coordinate with the National Security Service the visits to the specified territories for coverage of various topics.

Parliament session – LIVE – 02/10/2021

Khondkarian Raffi

Parliament session – LIVE

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 10:01,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The session of the Armenian Parliament has resumed today.

During today’s session the lawmakers will continue debating the draft Criminal Procedure Code.

The MPs will also debate a number of other bills.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan