21:27,
YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Finance informs that a total of 974 million and 163 thousand drams has been donated to the Armenian government for its anti-coronavirus efforts, ARMENPRESS reports the government said.
The treasury account (900005001947) was opened on March 17th for citizens and organizations willing to make donations.
The government said a total of 3845 payments were made since.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Monday,
Armenian Town Sealed Off Over Coronavirus Outbreak
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia -- A police checkpoint outside Maralik, .
Authorities sealed off a small town and an adjacent village in Armenia’s
northwestern Shirak province on Sunday after 18 employees of a local hospital
tested positive for coronavirus.
Two local residents died from COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the
virus, after the Armenian police set up roadblocks around the town of Maralik
and the village of Dzorakap in the morning.
The head of the provincial administration’s healthcare department, Leyli
Aslanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Monday that one of them, a
90-year-old man, was the father of an infected nurse working at the Maralik
hospital.
Aslanian said that the old man was diagnosed with coronavirus just hours before
his death. His family declined offers to hospitalize him even though he had a
fever for almost a week, she said.
The Maralik hospital was temporarily shut down on Saturday after the 18
coronavirus cases were confirmed among its 61-member staff. Shirak’s governor,
Tigran Petrosian, said the infected medical personnel were taken to a hospital
in the provincial capital Gyumri while their colleages were placed under
quarantine. The authorities also ordered more than 40 relatives and friends of
the infected medics to self-isolate, he said.
Local officials did not disclose the suspected source of the infections. Another
Maralik resident died from coronavirus early this month. The 68-year-old man was
reportedly taken to the local medical center before being hospitalized in Gyumri.
The latest fatalties brought Armenia’s death toll from COVID-19 to 22. The
Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Monday morning that the total number of
coronavirus cases in the country rose by 48 to 1,339 in the past day.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who oversees the enforcement of a
coronavirus-related state of emergency in Armenia, announced his decision to
lock down Maralik and Dzorakap on Saturday evening.
Avinian ordered the police to ensure that people can enter or leave the two
adjacent communities only in cases of extreme necessity or for the purpose of
agricultural work until April 25. The ban also does not cover trucks supplying
food, fuel and medicine to the town of 5,000 residents located about 100
kilometers northwest of Yerevan.
All roads leading to Maralik were blocked by police checkpoints on Monday. “We
only let through people with special permissions,” a policeman manning one of
those checkpoints told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Armenian President Concerned About Hardship Caused By Coronavirus
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia -- President Armen Sarkissian meets with children from socially
vulnerable families, Gyumri, December 7, 2019.
President Armen Sarkissian has said that he feels the pain of scores of poor
Armenians who have lost their jobs and other sources of income due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
In a weekend interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Sarkissian stressed the
need to find the right “balance” between easing their hardship through renewed
business activity and tackling the deadly virus.
“My thoughts are constantly with such families because they lack reserves, so to
speak, to get by for one, two or three months [without work,]” he said. “They
obviously need assistance and that assistance must come not only from the state.
“Of course, the state and business need to cooperate very closely, and I can see
that the government is taking some steps in the financial, social and business
sectors. To the best of my ability, I certainly give my advice when necessary,
but it’s a quite difficult problem.”
“It’s not an Armenian problem, it’s a global problem, and it’s hard to find the
right balance between public health and public well-being,” added Sarkissian.
The Armenian government ordered a nationwide lockdown last month in an effort to
contain the spread of coronavirus. Since then it has also approved a series of
measures designed to cushion the severe economic impact of the lockdown.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian listed those measures in a televised address to
the nation aired on Friday. In particular, he touted some 7 billion drams ($14.4
million) in one-off cash handouts planned or already paid by the government to
about 100,000 socially vulnerable citizens. They include employees of private
firms forced to suspend their operations, microbusiness owners, self-employed
and unregistered workers as well as some pregnant women.
“The most endangered stratum in our country is those people who had no permanent
jobs and were dependent on day labor; those families that have always had very
modest incomes,” said Sarkissian. “Just imagine what a difficult time those
families … are having now.”
The head of state, who has largely ceremonial powers, also said that despite the
unfolding economic crisis Armenians should already think about “how we will be
living after coronavirus.”
“In the case of Armenia, we can, for example start from the simplest thing:
public health … Right now air in our city [Yerevan] is two or three times
cleaner than it was before coronavirus. So why don’t we think about always
having clean air?” he said.
Sarkissian suggested in that regard that the municipal authorities plant trees
on more than 100 hectares of presently unused land adjacent to the
Tsitsernakabert memorial to the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman
Turkey. The public park could have 1.5 million trees matching the estimated
number of genocide victims, he said.
“I have written to the government, the prime minister and the [Yerevan] mayor
proposing that we discuss this issue,” the president said. He added that he will
personally start raising private funds for the would-be park if they back the
idea.
Pashinian Vows ‘Purge’ Of Armenian State Officials
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during his government's
question-and-answer session in parliament, Yerevan, April 15, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has pledged to purge Armenia’s government,
judiciary and security apparatus of “remnants” of the country’s former
leadership, accusing them of trying to discredit him and scuttle his
far-reaching initiatives.
In a video message streamed live on Facebook on Sunday night, Pashinian charged
that many Armenian media outlets are also sympathetic to the former regime and
keen to undercut him.
“It’s probably about time that real purges within the government took place,” he
declared before hitting out at former President Serzh Sarkisian and his
political allies.
“They still have lots of their people in the government and the law-enforcement
system,” he said. “They do because we said that there will be no vendettas and
gave everyone a chance. But now the time for using that chance is up.”
“The state governance system must be cleansed of Serzh’s remnants … Nobody can
blame us for doing that because they had that chance and haven’t used it,” added
Pashinian. He did not name anyone.
The remarks followed a scandal that marred Pashinian’s live address to the
nation broadcast on Friday evening by Armenian Public Television. Several other,
private TV broadcasters, some of which are controlled by Pashinian’s political
foes, were allowed retransmit it.
It emerged afterwards for at least 15 minutes preceding the broadcast, Public
Television also filmed Pashinian’s preparation for the address which focused on
the Armenian government’s response to the coronavirus epidemic. The sensitive
footage was leaked to some of his detractors who circulated it on social media
to mock the prime minister.
On Sunday morning, Pashinian’s spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, accused Public
Television of negligence and a lack of professionalism, saying that it should
have alerted the premier that he is being recorded. Gevorgian also lambasted the
state-funded broadcaster for giving the other TV channels access to not only the
speech but also what preceded it.
The Public Television management denied any wrongdoing. It insisted that prior
to the broadcast one of its employees informed the prime minister’s aides about
the filming.
Armenia -- Margarita Grigorian, executive director of Armenian Public Television.
Nevertheless, Public Television’s executive director, Margarita Grigorian,
resigned on Monday, saying that she takes responsibility for the incident. In a
statement, Grigorian also implicitly accused other broadcasters of violating
ethical standards of journalism and leaking the footage. She described that as a
“stab in the back.”
In his late-night Facebook message, Pashinian downplayed the incident while
attacking “swaggering scumbags” who he said are taking advantage of his
administration’s tolerance of political dissent. He stressed that during the
2018 “Velvet Revolution” in Armenia he prevented their “lynching” by angry
crowds that toppled Sarkisian.
“People were demanding that … we take the scumbags, who are swaggering now, out
of their homes and swat them in the streets,” he said. “But we said no, this is
not our work style.”
Pashinian went on to allege that Armenia’s former regime is stepping up its
smear campaign against him because of what he described as major progress made
in ongoing corruption investigations conducted by law-enforcement bodies. He
said they are also worried about the Armenian parliament’s passage of government
bills on judicial reform and confiscation of assets deemed to have been acquired
illegally.
The 44-year-old former journalist also blasted the Armenian media, saying that
that up until the 2018 revolution “99 percent of media outlets and 70 percent of
journalists received money from the [former] authorities.” “They are not getting
that money now and the entire media field is furious with that,” he claimed.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Imagine, There’s No Newsroom – From Novel Coronavirus to Novel Uncertainties
10:06, 8 April, 2020
YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. If the news media, internet and telecommunications were not to exist, it could’ve seemed that the post-industrial mankind has returned to the deep Middle Ages. More precisely, the part of the Middle Ages when a man’s movement is limited to their settlement (in the case of many countries – their apartment) territory. Few months ago, no one could even imagine in their most terrifying nightmare that the present-day “social distancing” term would describe in real life the disruption of usual human relationships.
The novel coronavirus pandemic proved to be a unique stress-test not only for countries, healthcare systems and economies, but also the press. We have found ourselves in an era of new uncertainties, and the quest for finding a solution to this equation full of unknowns is becoming harder day by day.
Even the most promoted futuristic analyses and studies in the world require revision. The coronavirus pandemic vanquished the unique mental oblivion that even during existing challenges it is possible to make projections about the future, to some extent.
Certainly, medical science will eventually discover effective measures for combating the COVID-19. Figuratively speaking, the coronavirus vaccine will be discovered sooner than we think, but later than we all want it.
Now is the time to learn lessons, rather to teach them or make recaps. In terms of the news media’s future, however, it is possible to make some preliminary observations for the post-pandemic period. Sometime later the consequences of COVID-19 will impact the daily activities of the press, and the scope of impact will include both content, production and consumption types, as well as business models and human resources management. Most serious challenges may occur for a number of branches of the news media industry, whereas others (for example radio and TV) can find themselves in a second Golden Age. Today, no one has ready formulas and the presented theses are an invitation to start a discussion on the future.
No news is good news
Today the news media is flooded with information about the coronavirus pandemic. The uncontrollable consumption of these news is reaching volumes that threaten to weaken the mental resistance of man. This is why WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on the global population to read the news maximum twice a day. In fact, “No News Is Good News” is perhaps the best applicable quote for the coronavirus pandemic.
However, this isn’t the only good news for the media. The media outlets have produced news both during world wars and during no less serious crises. Journalists once again proved they are ready for changes, that working and reporting during emergencies is a usual working rhythm. And now, numerous professionals are engaged in telling stories and covering in both in the frontlines and from their home offices the pandemic that is challenging the world. It was the news media itself that turned out to be the most-prepared for switching to telework in numerous countries. In this difficult situation, many of our colleagues showed simple solutions reaching the level of genius in tactically and rapidly orientating. If in the past telework was considered a freelancer’s monopoly, now during pandemic conditions it is becoming a usual norm of life. The abovementioned already applies not only to online media outlets who already had certain telework experience, but also the other branches of traditional press – printed to broadcast.
This transformation is the consequence of rapid technological progress on one hand, and restrictions on free movement and social interactions on the other. Today monopolies are absent for the creation of news content, and with the help of new smartphones it is possible to create the kind of high-quality audio-visual content that is even comparable to the production of professional equipment of a few years earlier. Crises conditions are breaking taboos. And the traditional news media are no longer constrained in not deploying the type of content-creating methods which they would resort to only in the event of extreme necessity in the past (tele-conferences, skype calls etc.), just like G7 leaders don’t have to gather for a summit if it can be done in a tele-conference format. The pandemic became the catalyst of development of previously projected trends. But won’t this predicted inertia be slowed down from the imminent economic uncertainties?
The Italian doctor’s choice, economic challenges, human capital and technologies
The projections about the future of global economy and the potential drop of economic activity may inflict a painful blow to the economic opportunities and financial sustainability of media outlets. In short-term perspective, this all might as well not become a serious challenge, but it is crystal clear that the news media will also suffer serious economic losses in conditions of worsening public and economic fears
It is still unclear what will happen to the traditional sources of income of media outlets, it is unclear how the commercial advertisement market’s conjuncture will change. These transformations will inflict the most painful blow to the “Golden Mean”, because global major players have far greater resources for resisting potential shocks, while small players – bloggers, vloggers and podcasters are working with already limited resources.
A part of media outlets will have to seek new income sources in times of narrowing opportunities.
At the same time, the extending practice of teleworking may put into question the necessity of maintaining offices and making the subsequent spending. Is the big newsroom disappearing by ceding its spot to a minimum-loaded office which is possible to be maintained with limited spending? And are media-managers nearing the day when they will have to make a difficult choice in human resource management for saving the media outlets with the same method that overloaded Italian hospitals are forced to make in order to save lives?
Anyhow, the liberalization of technical requirements for content will lead to a situation when media outlets will need professional, unique “universal soldiers” capable of creating multifarious content. And if these projections become reality, then Artificial Intelligence tools and mobile technologies will get greater applications not only in media consumption but also content production.
Quoting Márquez: “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” or “Love in the Time of Cholera”
I am among the narrowing group of people for whom the printed newspapers and Gabriel García Márquez’s novels are the “first loves” in journalism and literature respectively.
Most probably it was because of subliminal irony that these two titles of Márquez’s novels became the headlines of this paragraph.
Predictions about an imminent death of printed press are being heard for a long time. They are heard ominously. Circulation of printed press are declining globally, and news about newspapers or magazines shutting down or switching to online-only are so frequent in the newsline that any new birth of a printed news outlet is almost a sensation. Skippers of the printed press, however, are fiercely resisting, switching to electronic and online subscription sales, however none of them is able to break the backbone of the negative projections.
And although newspapers are still championing in being the most reputed branch of news media, the novel coronavirus pandemic is inflicting the hardest blows to the printed press, the production of which also involves other branches such as printing industry, distribution and subscription services.
Most probably the quarantine measures will further drop the already low sales of printed press. The fact that paper can be fomite for the virus will also impact this trend.
What changes may happen in the consumer behavior of people is also unknown, and most likely the printed press is destined to resist the hardest blow of the “corona-crisis.”
Novus ordo: educational, healthcare and entertainment services
Any challenge is first and foremost also an opportunity. In the post-pandemic “New World”, the challenge of strengthening economic capacity will be the hardest one. Most likely, this circumstance will force media outlets to pay greater attention to the kind of spheres of activities where the solvent demand will shift to. And it’s not about the production of toilet paper at all….
According to a projection of the World Economic Forum published years earlier, simultaneously with the growth of the middle class (which was projected to total 4,9 billion people globally in 2030) the demand for new media services was also projected to increase: in the consumer arena of educational, premium content, on-demand video content, healthcare and welfare services.
The coronavirus pandemic and the enforcement of quarantine measures in many countries automatically contributed to the justification of these projections. We assume that the media outlets will also increase contributions in these spheres. This can change the nature and content of the media outlet’s work to some extent.
Reputation: the “intangible” capital of a media
For any modern news media, reputation is not only and not as much of an intangible value as a capitalizing, and why not also a commercializing asset. And despite uncertainties, one thing is very certain: the future will not be without new universal challenges which will concern everyone, just like the danger of the pandemic. Given the world’s connectivity and the volume of globalization, the new challenges can be no less difficult.
As much as anti-globalist calls may be voiced in the current short-term period, the world in itself will not become less global neither in terms of economic ties, nor human contacts and information flows, and the technological developments will only deepen these trends.
Just like in present days, in the future the reputation of information disseminators will be highlighted in overcoming crises. In strengthening this “intangible” capital, all players of public life have actions to take – first of all the media outlets themselves, especially now when new, more difficult, actual and tangible problems are being added to the earlier ones (fake news, the march of the social media, journalistic ethical issues of the digital world and others).
A lot may change in the world after the pandemic, but the press, internet and communication will remain equally important. If they were not to exist, we would appear in the deep Middle Ages, wouldn’t we?
Aram Ananyan, Doctor of History, Director-General of ARMENPRESS News Agency
14:48,
YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS. The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously transformed a number of sectors of daily activities, however, each challenge is also first of all an opportunity. ARMENPRESS had an exclusive interview with Dr. Yervant Zorian, Chief Architect and Fellow at Synopsys, President of Synopsys Armenia, the founder of the Armenian Virtual College about remote learning, personal development and the changed reality.
Dr. Zorian, how did you come up with such an interesting and useful idea of creating the AVC Learning Zone?
The “Learning Zone” is a new offering by AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC) designed to turn each day into a journey of learning, discovering and making friends, while staying home. The idea appeared naturally once the government of Armenia and other countries announced school closures and the shelter in place mode. We thought that it should be our responsibility to reuse our valuable resources in a new format to allow online education and collaboration that would keep people happy and busy while staying home.
Earlier in March, AGBU AVC was invited to participate in working group discussions initiated by the Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. As an educational institution with over 10 years of experience in online education, AVC immediately took the action to redeploy AVC’s unique capabilities to meet the immediate needs of our Armenian communities during this global covid19 pandemic. So, we launched the AVC Learning Zone initiative on March 26, free for all participants.
With a primary goal of encouraging self-education during this crisis and allowing discoveries in a way that is actually exciting and fun, the Learning Zone offers daily themes covering interesting aspects of Armenian heritage and identity, which includes Armenian culture, language, history, religion, architecture, cuisine, and chess. These daily topics are mostly derived from AVC’s interactive eBooks, multimedia courses and virtual tours, and are made available in seven languages: Eastern and Western Armenian, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. The Learning Zone also offers opportunities to collaborate among the participants, through interactive daily meetup sessions, forums, group projects, and other activities to create virtual social communication among participants worldwide. It’s noteworthy that the Learning Zone was publicly endorsed by the Armenian Minister of Education Arayik Harutyunyan and supported by the Diaspora communities and prominent people of Armenian descent around the globe.
Dr. Zorian, a few days ago the AVC Learning Zone hosted a masterclass with the Armenian Chess Champion of 2017 Hovhannes Gabuzyan. What made that event so special? What were the advantages of the online masterclass?
Indeed, as the meetup session for yesterday’s daily theme on chess, AVC Learning Zone in cooperation with the Armenian Chess Federation hosted an online masterclass with the Armenian Chess Champion of 2017 Grandmaster Hovhannes Gabuzyan, as the Chess is a key element of our Armenian heritage, therefore we decided to pay a special tribute to it.
What was special about the online event is that it allowed anyone interested in chess to join a free online class via Zoom with a professional chess player who could answer all the questions in real-time. It’s important to note that the masterclass was held in multiple instruction languages therefore it was available for a wide audience. We were pleased to see a great interest in chess among the AVC Learning Zone, especially the young generation. Given the high demand for chess classes, AVC plans to offer new online chess sessions with Armenian champions.
Dr. Zorian, could you please tell us how to register and attend these sessions?
Registering at the AVC Learning Zone is very easy, you simply visit our website www.avc-agbu.org, choose your language and sign up, of course, free of charge. In case you need further instructions, see our video guides posted on our web site, social media pages, Facebook, YouTube, etc., or just contact our IT help.
AVC Learning Zone has been functioning for two weeks already. How would you evaluate its progress?
Ever since its launch, the AVC Learning Zone is becoming more popular day over day. We are happy to witness very positive interactions. It’s so overwhelming seeing how the public benefits from using the Learning Zone, which is a product of combining the advantages of multimedia digital technologies and interactive collaboration. In addition, the enrollment to our regular quarterly courses, I mean the current AVC Spring Term, has attracted three times more students than our average. Also, it is worth mentioning that AGBU offers several other digital educational resources, including learning applications for children, concise web talks on a variety of topics, and most importantly the Atlas platform, which contains a wide range of curated digital educational resources from a variety of providers.
Dr. Zorian, you perfectly combine the roles of a Fellow and Chief Architect at the #1EDA company Synopsys and the President of Synopsys Armenia. At the same time, you exemplify the devoted Armenian patriot who initiates and puts into action numerous projects that contribute to the prosperity of Armenian and preservation of the Armenian identity… How do you manage to do that?
That’s a difficult question to answer (smiling). But I will try to formulate it in a simple way – I do love what I do. On the one hand, Science and engineering are my passion, and as a fellow and chief architect at Synopsys, I enjoy working with my US and Armenia teams to bring into market new innovative products that help make our surrounding smarter, safer and more secure. As the President of Synopsys Armenia, I am responsible for driving R&D activities in Armenia that support Synopsys’ strategy to maintain its leadership in microelectronics. On the other hand, it gives me pleasure to contribute to the prosperity of Armenia, via supporting the IT industry and pushing the technological innovation in Armenia to the next level. And this objective is quite accomplishable by cooperating with academia, government, and the business community.
The rest of my other initiatives are also meant to serve my nation by boosting the Armenian identity in Diaspora and strengthening the prosperity of the homeland, which are the precisely the objectives of AGBU – with this, I just continue my family’s tradition to perform my responsibilities through this dedicated global organization.
I think every Armenian around the globe should do his/her best, and we can only do so by staying connected and merging our efforts and resources. In order to keep Armenians connected, last fall together with Serj Tankian, Eric Esrailian and Alexis Ohanian, we co-founded a new pan-Armenian platform called HyeConnect.
That same year during the visit of the Prime Minister to Silicon Valley, I was very pleased to sign an agreement on behalf of AGBU Silicon Valley with the Minister of HighTech Industry, launching the “Armenian Virtual Bridge” program to proactively support the Armenian IT startups by providing them incubation and acceleration periods in Silicon Valley. This new partnership between AGBU and the Armenian government will formalize, support and expand what we have been already doing as AGBU Silicon Valley for many years.
In 2019, we also launched an Armenian branch of IEEE Computer Society. IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. As an organization that fosters technological innovation and excellence, it gives a great opportunity for Armenian professionals to be integrated into the worldwide community and help to better contribute to the advancement of the high tech industry of Armenia, as well as raising its visibility on a global scale.
Beyond the abovementioned achievements, is there any dream, which for some reason you couldn’t fulfill or haven’t fulfilled yet?
I believe that education is the means to prosperity. I am dreaming of a day when every school in Armenia including rural villages will be fully equipped with state-of-the-art interactive and immersive online learning solutions, of course with their corresponding infrastructure, so our kids will have access to first-class education and thus allow the best chances of prosperity as a nation.
Interview by Gayane Markosyan
Today marks the 28th anniversary of the massacre of civilians of the Armenian settlement of Maragha, Martakert region of the Republic of Artsakh, committed by the armed forces of Azerbaijan. The Artsakh foreign ministry issued a statement on the tragic date, saying the massacre in Maragha is an unprecedented war crime committed by the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the basis of hatred against Armenians aimed at the annihilation of the Armenian population.
The statement reads that on April 10, 1992, after several hours of shelling, the Azerbaijani armed units invaded Maragha. Prior to this, a significant part of the population was evacuated, but the people who remained in the village, were subjected to inhuman torture and massacre by the Azerbaijani servicemen. The self-defense forces of Artsakh managed to liberate Maragha, but two weeks later, the Azerbaijani troops attacked the settlement again and committed new crimes against the civilians who had returned to bury their relatives.
It notes that Maragha was captured by the Azerbaijani armed forces and to this day is under the occupation of Azerbaijan. According to various data, including the reports of the human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as a result of the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in Maragha over 50 civilians, including 30 women, were brutally killed. About 50 more people, including 29 women and 9 children, were taken captive, and the fate of 19 civilians is still unknown.
As testified by Member and former Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of Great Britain, human rights activist Baroness Caroline Cox, who visited the village with representatives of the organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide immediately after the tragedy, the bodies of the brutally murdered residents of Maragha were dismembered, mutilated, and burned. Lady Cox called Maragha “contemporary Golgotha many times over”.
“The massacre of Armenians of Maragha became another manifestation of the consistent policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities against the Armenian people, first in Sumgait, Baku and other settlements of Azerbaijan in 1988-1990, and later in Northern Artsakh. The fact that commander of the Azerbaijani armed units Taghiyev Shahin Taliboglu, who had committed the massacre in Maragha, was awarded the title of national hero of Azerbaijan testifies that the responsibility for this crime lies entirely with the Azerbaijani authorities. The impunity of the crimes committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians and the lack of an adequate political and legal assessment by the international community created favorable conditions for rooting an atmosphere of hatred towards Armenians and all Armenian at the state level in Azerbaijan. 24 years later, in April 2016, during the aggression unleashed against Artsakh, Azerbaijan attempted to use the same methods to carry out new genocidal acts in Artsakh that were prevented by the decisive actions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh.
The massacres of civilians in Maragha are a crime against humanity with s no statute of limitations, and they must be condemned by the international community, and their organizers and executors must be justly punished,” the statement read.
“Today we bow our heads in commemoration of the victims of the massacre in Maragha and assure that the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh will take all measures to guarantee the inalienable right of the people of Artsakh to live freely and safely in its homeland,” the statement concluded.
ArmInfo.Today marks the 28th anniversary of the massacre of civilians of the Armenian settlement of Maragha, Martakert region of the Republic of Artsakh, committed by the armed forces of Azerbaijan, the press service of NKR MFA reports.
“The massacre in Maragha is an unprecedented war crime committed by the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the basis of hatred against Armenians aimed at the annihilation of the Armenian population.
On April 10, 1992, after several hours of shelling, the Azerbaijani armed units invaded Maragha. Prior to this, a significant part of the population was evacuated, but the people who remained in the village, were subjected to inhuman torture and massacre by the Azerbaijani servicemen. The self-defense forces of Artsakh managed to liberate Maragha, but two weeks later, the Azerbaijani troops attacked the settlement again and committed new crimes against the civilians who had returned to bury their relatives.
Maragha was captured by the Azerbaijani armed forces and to this day is under the occupation of Azerbaijan. According to various data, including the reports of the human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as a result of the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in Maragha over 50 civilians, including 30 women, were brutally killed. About 50 more people, including 29 women and 9 children, were taken captive, and the fate of 19 civilians is still unknown.
As testified by Member and former Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of Great Britain, human rights activist Baroness Caroline Cox, who visited the village with representatives of the organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide immediately after the tragedy, the bodies of the brutally murdered residents of Maragha were dismembered, mutilated, and burned. Lady Cox called Maragha “contemporary Golgotha many times over”.
The massacre of Armenians of Maragha became another manifestation of the consistent policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities against the Armenian people, first in Sumgait, Baku and other settlements of Azerbaijan in 1988-1990, and later in Northern Artsakh. The fact that commander of the Azerbaijani armed units Taghiyev Shahin Taliboglu, who had committed the massacre in Maragha, was awarded the title of national hero of Azerbaijan testifies that the responsibility for this crime lies entirely with the Azerbaijani authorities.The impunity of the crimes committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians and the lack of an adequate political and legal assessment by the international community created favorable conditions for rooting an atmosphere of hatred towards Armenians and all Armenian at the state level in Azerbaijan. 24 years later, in April 2016, during the aggression unleashed against Artsakh, Azerbaijan attempted to use the same methods to carry out new genocidal acts in Artsakh that were prevented by the decisive actions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh.
The massacres of civilians in Maragha are a crime against humanity with s no statute of limitations, and they must be condemned by the international community, and their organizers and executors must be justly punished.
Today we bow our heads in commemoration of the victims of the massacre in Maragha and assure that the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh will take all measures to guarantee the inalienable right of the people of Artsakh to live freely and safely in its homeland”, the statement of NKR MFA stated.
Armenia has imposed further restrictions on public life as the nationwide lockdown has been extended for at least ten days untill April 12 in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The government initially imposed one-week lockdown from March 24-31.
According to the Armenian Unified Infocenter, a new decision signed by Commandant Tigran Avinyan envisages the following changes:
– The public transport is suspended, except for rail transport. Taxis are allowed to operate.
– Inter-regional movements of people are restricted. Movement is allowed with the work-home route and with one or two other exceptions.
– Movement of family members and employees of the same organization by a light passenger car is allowed without restrictions.
– From now on, people will need to submit a form filled out by their employers.
– The movement sheet will need to be presented in other provided cases.
– The current restrictions on types of economic activity have mostly been maintained.
The details of other restrictions are available .
Some restrictions will take effect later than others, giving citizens time to adapt to them, the center said.
Armenia along with four countries has joined the sanctions mechanism against Turkey for illegal exploration work on the Cyprus shelf in the exclusive economic zone of the Republic of Cyprus, the EU council said in a released statement.
“The countries that are candidates for accession to the EU, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania, as well as Iceland, a member of the European Economic Area, as well as Armenia have joined this decision”, the statement said. The document notes that now the mentioned countries will have to coordinate their policies with Council Decision concerning restrictive measures in view of Turkey’s unauthorised drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it,” the statement said.
The mechanism, approved by the European Union in November last year, allows sanctions to be imposed on individuals and companies responsible for drilling activities related to the exploration of carbon resources, which are not authorized by Cyprus, in its territorial waters, the exclusive economic zone or on the continental shelf. In addition, individuals and companies that provide financial support for these activities of Turkey may be sanctioned.