Author: Maghakian Mike

USCIRF urges Azerbaijan against removing Armenian traces from churches

Maghakian Mike
Feb 8 2022
February 8, 2022 – 12:34 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) Nadine Maenza has expressed concern over Azerbaijan’s plans to remove Armenian Apostolic inscriptions from churches.

“We urge the government to preserve and protect places of worship and other religious and cultural sites,” the USCIRF cited Maenza as saying on Tuesday, February 8.

Maenza’s remarks came after media reports that Azerbaijan’s government has announced that it intends to erase Armenian inscriptions on religious sites in the territory that came under Baku’s control in the 2020 war.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.

Turkey and Ukraine to coproduce TB2 drones

Maghakian Mike 
DefenseNews
By Burak Ege Bekdil
Feb. 4, 2022
ANKARA, Turkey — NATO member Turkey and its Black Sea ally Ukraine
have agreed to coproduce an increasingly popular Turkish-made drone at
a production site in Ukraine.
A top Ukrainian official said Feb. 3 that the two countries would sign
a coproduction agreement which would be ratified by parliaments in
Turkey and Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Olesii Reznikov told reporters in Kyiv that
the coproduction compound would also include a training center where
Ukrainian pilots would be trained.
In 2019, Baykar Makina, a privately owned Turkish drone maker, won a
contract to sell six Bayraktar TB2 UAVs to Ukraine. The $69 million
contract also involved the sale of ammunition for the armed version of
the aircraft.
In September, the Ukrainian government announced that it was planning
to buy 24 more Turkish unmanned combat aerial vehicles in the coming
months.
Use of the TB2 by Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed separatists
in eastern Ukraine has irked Moscow. As U.S. officials claimed to have
intelligence of Russian officials working on a staged video of
Ukrainian forces attacking Russians as a pretext for war, the
Washington Post cited an unnamed U.S. government official on Friday
saying a TB2 drone could be pictured in such a film to implicate NATO.
The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude, long-range tactical UAV
system. It was developed by Kale-Baykar, a joint venture of Baykar
Makina and the Kale Group. The UAV operates as a platform for
conducting reconnaissance and intelligence missions.
Reznikov said that the aircraft to be coproduced would be dubbed the
Turkish-Ukrainian Bayraktar.
He said the drone would be powered by a Ukrainian engine. In earlier
talks Turkish sources said that the engine would be supplied by the
Ukrainian producer Motor Sich.
Bayraktar TB2 features a monocoque design and integrates an inverse
V-tail structure. The fuselage is made of carbon fiber, Kevlar and
hybrid composites, whereas the joint segments constitute precision
computer numerical control (CNC) machined aluminum parts.
Each Bayraktar TB2 system consists of six aerial vehicles, two ground
control stations, three ground data terminals, two remote video
terminals and ground-support equipment.
The Bayraktar TB2′s maximum payload exceeds 55 kilograms. The standard
payload configuration includes an electro-optical camera module, an
infrared camera module, a laser designator, a laser range finder and a
laser pointer.
Ukraine was the first export market for the TB2, with the sale of six
systems in a $69 million contract in 2019. Baykar has also won
contracts to sell batches of the TB2 to Qatar, Azerbaijan and Poland.

Aghajanyan: No final decision on Armenia’s participation in Antalya Diplomacy Forum yet

Maghakian Mike
panorama.am
Armenia – Jan 27 2022

There is no final decision yet on Armenia’s participation in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF), ruling Civil Contract faction MP Eduard Aghajanyan, chair of the parliamentary committee on foreign relations, told a briefing on Thursday.

His comments came in response to the statement of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and special envoy Ruben Rubinyan are expected to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

“At this point, there is no final decision on the participation,” Aghajanyan said, adding he had checked the report before the briefing.

Separately, he said the date and venue of the next meeting between the Armenian and Turkish special representatives are not yet known.

Answering a question whether there is an agreement that meetings of envoys should not be held in third countries, Aghajanyan noted: “During the discussions, both the Armenian and the Turkish side will express a clear view on the matter, I think, this is not an issue on which it is impossible to agree.”

76-year-old Vanadzor man kills wife, cuts body into pieces

Maghakian Mike

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 14:20,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. A 76-year-old man from the town of Vanadzor is suspected in murdering his wife and mutilating her body.

Police officers responded to a 911 call Wednesday morning saying there’s been a murder at 5/1-1 Tigranyan Street in Vanadzor. Officers found the mutilated body of 70-year-old Alvard K., the homeowner’s wife, in the bathroom. The woman’s severed legs were found outside the house.

Police said in a statement that they’ve obtained information that the murder was committed by the victim’s 76-year-old husband, who used cutting tools to kill her and then dismember the body.

“The 76-year-old man was taken into custody and placed under arrest at the Taron Police Department. An investigation is underway,” police said.

Security Council Secretary, German Ambassador highlight NK conflict’s settlement within OSCE MG Co-Chairmanship

Maghakian Mike

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 16:28,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan met on January 26 with Ambassador of Germany to Armenia Viktor Richter, the Office of the Secretary of the Security Council said.

Issues relating to the Armenian-German mutual partnership, as well as the Armenia-EU current cooperation were discussed. Both sides emphasized the importance of the long-term political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

The officials also exchanged views about issues relating to the border delimitation and demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the request of the German Ambassador, the Secretary of the Security Council presented the process of unblocking the regional transportation routes.

Tatoyan: Expired drugs found in mental health centers in Armenia

Maghakian Mike
  News.am  
Armenia – Jan 22 2022
15:01, 22.01.2022

The storage and use of medicines in mental health centers in Armenia is a concern, Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said at a press conference on Saturday, speaking about the state of mental health centers in the republic.

“Expired drugs were found in the centers of Sevan and Vardenis, their expiration date was 4 months ago, the same thing happened in the Lori regional psycho-neurological dispensary. Facts were also recorded when medical supplies, instruments, even for a period of two years, were overdue for quite a long time,” Tatoyan said.

According to him, most centers use mixed drugs without clarifying their compatibility. In addition, therapy sessions with psychiatrists are not conducted properly.

The Ombudsman welcomed the opening of a juvenile department at the Avan Mental Health Center, which can treat 12 people.

“It is a matter of concern that there are no such centers for minors living in the regions and having problems. And the children are forced to be transported to Yerevan, but even here the relatives face serious difficulties,” he concluded.

Armenian Robin the Robot raises $2M in seed financing

Maghakian Mike
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 21 2022
, 11:01

 1 minute read

Expper Technologies has announce tit has raised $2M in seed financing co-led by Starta VC with its co-investing platform Liqvest and Formula VC. The new co-investors include Healthcare Equity Angels, AiSprouts VC, AngelsDeck, as well as existing investors SmartGateVC and other angel investors.

Founded back in 2019, Expper Technologies is committed to creating a state-of-the-art innovation called Robin the Robot. We aim to solve the problem of the growing shortage of over 7.8M care providers in the U.S, resulting in glaring issues in the healthcare industry, such as increased costs, reduced quality of care, and caregiver burnout.

Robin the Robot is an Autonomous Care Assistant that augments front-line clinicians across a multitude of settings by supporting caregiving functions and extending care services using emotional AI and autonomous technology advances. Robin has integrated functionalities to provide emotional support and virtual care. Robin the Robot is a technology intended to provide patients and staff members with a warm and human-life interactive experience.

Robin’s current technology is able to provide social support/telepresence and patient monitoring. The proceeds from our financing will be used to advance Robin’s technology for pediatric patients. Moreover, we will expand the team and integrate exceptional team members passionate about the fields of healthcare and robotics.

“Raising the seed round has been an important milestone for our company, and we’re happy to welcome our investors in sharing this exciting journey with us. The funds will allow us to continue delivering our mission to make quality caregiving accessible to everyone and bring new generation caregiver robots to the market,” said Karen Khachikyan, CEO & Co-Founder at Expper Technologies.

Pro-government MPs refuse to debate opposition bill to support large Armenian families

Maghakian Mike
panorama.am
Armenia – Jan 17 2022

MPs from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party voted against the proposal to put an opposition-drafted bill on large families on the agenda of the four-day parliament session, which opened on Monday.

The measure called for increasing and long-term financial support to large families in Armenia.

MP Tadevos Avetisyan from the main opposition Hayastan (Armenia) faction underlined that the ruling force had introduced no bill to support large families since 2018, thus failing to deliver on their election promises.

“Why don’t you submit a good package and discuss it? We have drafted a bill based on a study of international experience. The bill has been discussed with numerous NGOs defending the interests of large families. It is an amended measure proposing long-lasting support to large families,” he stated.

Former Police Chief Lt. General Vladimir Gasparyan charged in 2,1 billion-dram money laundering case

Maghakian Mike

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 13:15,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Former national police chief Lt. General Vladimir Gasparyan faces multiple criminal charges in a corruption case. The Anti-Corruption Committee released the indictment on January 12.

Gasparyan is accused in laundering more than 2 billion drams over the course of 18 years.

From 1997 to 2010, Gasparyan was the Chief of Military Police. He then served as Deputy Minister of Defense for a year. From 2011 to 2018 he was Chief of Police.

According to the indictment, Lt. General Gasparyan awarded no-show jobs to his wife and daughter at the Military Police and Police in between 2000-2018, with damages totaling more than 45,000,000 drams.

Lt. General Gasparyan is accused in abuse of power, falsifications and other corruption-related crimes, which led him to illicitly obtaining “expensive homes and cars” the value of which significantly exceed his family’s legal income. He then laundered the assets through accomplices. The investigation revealed that Gasparyan laundered a total of 2,116,040,804 drams of assets.

The indictment was sent to the Supervising Prosecutor for approval and forwarding to court.

Latest Azeri attack on Armenia: OSCE calls to "refrain from the use of force"

Maghakian Mike

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 09:17,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) calls on Azerbaijan and Armenia to refrain from the use of force and engage in a meaningful dialogue to settle the dispute around Nagorno Karabakh, the Polish OSCE Chairmanship told ARMENPRESS, when asked to present its assessment of the January 11 deadly Azerbaijani attack on Armenian military positions.

“We are closely monitoring the situation in the South Caucasus. We call on Armenia and Azerbaijan to refrain from the use of force and engage in a meaningful dialogue to settle the dispute around Nagorno Karabakh. Poland as OSCE Chair is committed to working with partners to renew and strengthen our efforts aimed at establishing lasting peace and promoting sustainable development in the region. We will support the effort of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in this regard”, the Polish OSCE Chairmanship said.