Author: Parkev Tvankchian

Number of coronavirus-infected healthcare workers increases in Armenia, says minister

Parkev Tvankchian

 14:55, 2 April, 2020

YEREVAN, APRIL 2, ARMENPRESS. One of the main tasks of the government is to protect the health of medics so that they can continue providing their services, Healthcare Minister of Armenia Arsen Torosyan said at a press conference, asked whether in addition to the 3 healthcare workers, who were infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), there are new cases among the doctors.

“It will be difficult to answer now, but yes there are new cases and their number is increasing. Of course, this is painful, but also is unavoidable. There are also some interesting cases when healthcare workers are sometimes being infected not in the workplace, but within their circles which are being clarified and isolation works are taking place”, the minister said.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global pandemic and named the virus COVID-19. 

According to the latest data, the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in Armenia has reached 663. 4 death cases have been registered so far. 33 patients have recovered. 2490 people tested negative for the virus. The number of active cases is 626.

 

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




COVID-19. Parliament’s second Attempt to adopt the Bill on tracking People’s Movements with Phone Data was successful

Parkev Tvankchian

Journalist

The National Assembly adopted the bill on phone-tracking people’s movements in order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

71 MPs from My Step faction voted in favor of the bill; there were no against and abstained votes. The opposition – Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia parties – did not take part in the session.

This was the second discussion of the bill on March 31. The first attempt had failed. Taking into consideration the importance of the bill, the government had submitted it to NA for the second time in a day, to conduct a discussion and voting in an emergency regime.

My Step confirmed that the Government and the Commandant’s office need to use this tool in the state of emergency caused by COVID-19. The bill allows collecting, processing and using (as required) all the data that will allow to define the location, date, start time of citizens’ phone conversations.

Commandant Tigran Avinyan once again declared that they aimed at working effectively and introducing new technological tools to prevent the pandemic.

“Based on the obtained data, an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations will call a citizen to inform that the person may have contacted a Coronavirus-positive case. That person should be self-isolated. The data will be obtained automatically, without a human interference,” Tigran Avinyan said.

According to Avinyan, the government would like to make the situation more controllable and to decrease the virus spread quotient, and even if just one person’s life is saved as a result of this bill, it means the measure is justified.

The bill of the second reading was a bit different from the first reading draft – it was adapted to the suggestions made by MPs.

The adopted bill does not stipulate providing information about the end time of the phone call by mobile operators. It’s completely enough to record just the mere fact of the phone call.

It has been clarified that various data (including data related to medical confidentiality) related to Coronavirus-positive patients, as well as contacts of their contacts, can be used as and when required.

According to the bill, the collected data shall be depersonalized, and the personalized data shall be destroyed after the state of emergency. All the collected data must be destroyed in a one-month period after the state of emergency.

The bill bans the preservation and usage of depersonalized statistic data.

The requirement related to secret data is valid not only for persons transmitting the data and working with the database but also for the third parties – positive cases, people having symptoms, people undergoing treatment, as well as their contacts.

According to the government decision, it is stipulated to launch a commission in order to destroy the data collected in the days of the state of emergency. The commission may include also representatives of parliament factions and experts.

Despite these changes, Artur Papyan, the co-founder of Cyberhub, an IT support hub and a threat lab for Armenian civil society, thinks that the bill is not proportionate to the existing situation.

“The data of 3 mln citizens will be collected and processed; certain operations will be conducted. However, they don’t specify how they will use the data and what kind of results will they achieve… After all, they have to deal with human rights issues,” Papyan says.

Papyan says there’s never a guarantee that the data obtained from three service providers will not be used for other purposes, for example, during public gatherings and other events,

“They create a legislative framework and technical resources for public control. Later, there might be a temptation to make use of those data.”



Azerbaijani services attack Armenian social media groups after failed subversive attack

Parkev Tvankchian
Panorama, Armenia
Society 12:39 31/03/2020 Armenia

Following a failed sabotage infiltration attempted by Azerbaijani military in the direction of Armenian military posts in Noyemberyan community of Tavush Province, Azerbaijan’s respective services have launched an attack on Armenian social media groups, this time targeting the Noyemberyan military units.

Spokeswoman for the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan took to Facebook on Tuesday to warn that Azerbaijanis spread disinformation in Armenian groups of Facebook though hacked or fake accounts of Armenians, alleging coronavirus has spread in military units and subdivisions of Noyemberyan involved in combat tasks.

“Such fake news is spread in different Armenian groups,” she said, sharing a post by the hacked account belonging to an Armenian user named Naira Gevorgyan on the Facebook group of Artsakh News.

The post alleges that 13 Armenian servicemen from a Noyemberyan military unit have been hospitalized with coronavirus after coming into contact with the driver of the military unit.

The fake news has already been removed by an admin of the group, the spokesperson said, asking social media users not to share such content and notify group admins immediately.

“Be vigilant and attentive,” Shushan Stepanyan added. 


EU to provide funds to Armenia to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak

Parkev Tvankchian
Public Radio of Armenia

As part of its global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission stands by Eastern Partner countries and has reallocated €140 million for the most immediate needs including for Armenia. In addition, the Commission will also redirect the use of existing instruments worth up to €700 million across the region to help mitigate socio-economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Olivér Várhelyi said: ”These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries, such as Armenia, as well. We have to do what we can to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. Today’s package responds both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as a longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries”. 

Responding to immediate needs:

Support to the Armenian health system: At the request of the partner countries, including Armenia, the Commission will respond to immediate needs by supporting the supply of medical devices and personal equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, goggles, gowns, and safety suits.

The European Commission is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is deploying €30 million to ensure these necessary supplies are jointly purchased and effectively distributed to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks. In addition, the funds will support national health administrations to train medical and laboratory staff and carry out awareness raising measures to the wider population.

Support to the people who are most affected by the crisis, together with civic partners. The EU has made available more than €11.3 million in small grants to civil society organisations across the region. These funds are already responding to immediate needs, through the ongoing regional “Rapid Response Mechanism”, such as supporting local schools with distance learning. In Armenia, a project with the Red Cross will be launched in the coming days to support the elderly, vulnerable families, and people with disabilities.

By the summer, and as part this package, the Commission will the launch of the “Eastern Partnership Solidarity Programme” which will target the most affected parts of the populations through civil society support and notably sub-grants to smaller, local organisations. Additionally a new call for proposals, worth €3 million, was launched on 25 March, to support civil society organisations contribute to social well-being, including those impacted by the COVID19 outbreak.

Mitigating socio-economic impact of the outbreak:

Support to Armenia’s economy, notably small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) The EU is working closely with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and relevant financing institutions from EU Member States as TEAM EUROPE providing a coordinated European response for the real economy, including SMEs, in particular through:

  • Launching of a new regional support programme of €100 million to help SMEs, including self-employed and others to easily access credit and boost their businesses after the crisis. This will be complemented by a new support programme targeting Armenian SMEs worth €13 million
  • The EU is also exploring to mobilise over €30 million from existing programmes in coordination with the Armenian government
  • Facilitating, simplifying, accelerating, and reinforcing €200 million worth of existing credit lines and grants to SMEs in local currency including through its EU4Business Initiative;
  • In addition, in the current crisis the EU has mobilised its major de-risking instrument worth €500 million, the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD). This will rapidly provide liquidly and can be urgently deployed by IFI partners to facilitate the provision of liquidity in the EU’s Neighbourhood including through working capital, trade finance, or moratoria on debt service.

The EU is also reorienting ongoing support programmes to address Armenia’s needs to respond to the pandemic. As a result, €1.75 million has already been disbursed under a Public Finance Policy Reform budget support programme to provide immediate support to the government.

In parallel, a new Twinning programme of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in partnership with the Swedish and Lithuanian civilian protection agencies has been approved and will start soon to improve civil protection and disaster risk management. The Commission also stands ready to provide assistance to Armenia through TAIEX, its peer to peer instrument, by using EU Member States expertise, experience and examples of good practice on assessing emergency preparedness response scheme and health systems.

39 new cases bring COVID-19 total number in Armenia to 329

Parkev Tvankchian

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 10:18,

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS. 39 people have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total cumulative number of cases in Armenia to 329, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said as of March 27, 10:00 GMT+4.

Out of the 329, 18 people recovered and 1 patient with underlying health conditions died. The remaining 310 are active cases and are hospitalized.

Overall, 1625 of implemented tests have come back negative.

More than 100 quarantined people have been released.

 

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




U.S. ends funding for Karabakh demining

Parkev Tvankchian
EurasiaNet,org
March 19 2020
Joshua Kucera Mar 19, 2020
A Halo Trust employee working in Karabakh (photo: Halo Trust)

The U.S. government has halted its funding for removing land mines in Nagorno-Karabakh, the largest American aid program in the contested territory.

The program has been strongly supported by Armenians and a longtime irritant to Azerbaijanis, but U.S. officials said the decision to defund the program was motivated by the virtual completion of the project and the need to direct resources to higher priorities rather than by any political considerations.

Still, Armenians and their supporters in the U.S. have rallied to try to convince Congress to restore the program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and carried out by the UK-based charity Halo Trust.

Halo is one of very few international organizations to be working in Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway territory of Azerbaijan controlled since the early 1990s by Armenian forces. The U.S. does not recognize the self-proclaimed independent government there.

U.S. officials made the decision to halt their support of the program in spring of 2019, which set off a months-long battle between the federal government and pro-Armenia members of Congress who fought to get the funding restored.

But the Trump administration has not been convinced. In a February 18 letter to several members of Congress obtained by Eurasianet, senior officials from USAID and the State Department noted that no civilians had been injured by landmines in Nagorno-Karabakh since 2017.

“With casualties at an all-time low and contaminated land in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast sparse, there are a number of opportunities that our agencies see for U.S. assistance funding that could have a greater impact on the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, such as preparing the populations for peace,” wrote Mary Elizabeth Taylor, Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, and Richard C. Parker, Assistant Administrator of USAID for Legislative and Public Affairs. “Forward-looking programs that support a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and lay the groundwork for a more prosperous future offer the best hope for the populations of Nagorno-Karabakh in the long term.”

U.S. officials say the new funding will likely go towards programs in Armenia for promoting transparency and good governance, and in Azerbaijan for energy security and programs designed to wean the country off its dependence on oil and natural gas revenues.

“We see this [demining program] as a success … but at the same time we think we have reached a limit of what we can accomplish in supporting demining in traditional Nagorno-Karabakh,” a USAID official told Eurasianet, speaking on condition of anonymity. “And we’re looking forward to pivoting to other work in the region that could hopefully help resolve some of the regional conflicts.”

Halo’s work in the area is divided into two categories: those inside the Soviet-legacy borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, and those in the territories surrounding Karabakh proper that Armenian forces control as a security buffer. USAID funds only operations in the former, while operations in the latter are funded by private donations, primarily by Armenian diaspora groups.

Officials at Halo did not respond to an emailed request for comment about the cut in funding. But during Eurasianet’s November visit to the organization’s headquarters in Karabakh’s de facto capital of Stepanakert, Halo’s officers said they still had much more work to do.

In nearly two decades of operations, Halo has cleared more than 2,000 anti-tank mines and over 9,000 anti-personnel mines from the area, making 48 million square meters of territory again safe for humans.

In 2018, Halo reported that it expected to complete demining in Karabakh by 2020. But in 2019, it started a new survey, which uncovered several new minefields in the region of Martakert (within the Soviet-legacy Karabakh boundaries). “It will take at least another year to complete the traditional oblast. It’s a job [surveying] that requires patience and skill, sitting in a village for a couple of hours and talking to people,” Rob Syfret, Halo’s program manager in Karabakh, told Eurasianet. The entire survey, including the surrounding occupied territories, was scheduled to take three years.

“We’re going village-by-village to quantify how much has been done and how much is still to go,” added Oliver Gerard-Pearse, Halo’s operations manager. “For every humanitarian demining program, this is a key stage in their lifespan.”

U.S. officials, however, argue that it is impossible to declare with certainty that an area is completely mine-free, and point to the fact that the only mine fatalities since 2015 have been Halo employees themselves, suggesting that the remaining mined areas are so inaccessible that the resources spent on clearing them would be better used elsewhere.

“This was an interagency decision, taking into consideration all of our priorities and interests in the South Caucasus, including regional priorities, assistance priorities, our demining programs around the world, and our role as a Minsk Group co-chair in the peace process,” a State Department official told Eurasianet, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Minsk Group is the body, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is mediating the peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the two sides signed a ceasefire over Karabakh in 1994.

Armenian-American lobby groups and members of Congress representing significant blocs of Armenian-Americans have rallied to try to save the program.

Seventy-five members of the House of Representatives signed a letter dated March 13 calling on Congress to restore the demining money. It argued that there were “12 near-miss scenarios for civilians over the past year” from land mines in and around Karabakh.

The representatives also called on the U.S. to eliminate military aid to Azerbaijan “until its government ceases its attacks against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh” and singled out a new $100-million maritime security program for Azerbaijan.

“For decades, USAID has helped clear mines in Artsakh, saving lives, promoting development, and giving communities a sense of normalcy. Today, even though the work is not done, that aid is threatened,” Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, said on the floor of the House of Representatives on February 11, using the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh. “Today, even though Armenia has transformed itself into a growing democracy, it is autocratic Azerbaijan that has received a massive, disproportionate increase in military aid from the United States. If the administration won’t help those who stand for peace and democracy, Congress must.”

“The demining program has […] allowed the Armenian population to grow into areas that were heavily mined that would not have been able to be populated otherwise,” Ani Tchaghlasian, an officer in the U.S. East Coast branch of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation said in February. “This is a major, major issue for us.”

Azerbaijan has long opposed the demining program, arguing that it perpetuates and encourages Armenian forces’ occupation of Azerbaijani territory. Most international organizations decline to operate in Karabakh because doing so usually results in being blacklisted by Azerbaijan; Halo is the most prominent organization to buck that sanction.

While there is no evidence that Azerbaijan has influenced the decision to defund the demining program, some Armenian advocates nevertheless sense Baku’s hand in the decision.

“This is a heartless, senseless cut by the Trump administration – attacking a life-saving American investment in Artsakh peace at the urging of the increasingly hostile Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan,” Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told Eurasianet. “Instead of cutting this humanitarian aid, the White House should be expanding assistance to Artsakh, a Christian land and democratic republic on the frontiers of freedom.”

The press office of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at Eurasianet, and author of The Bug Pit.

CIVILNET.Armenian PM Says Country Has Sufficient Food Supplies in Event International Trade Halts Over Coronavirus

Parkev Tvankchian
CIVILNET.AM

20 March, 2020 01:28 

Ani Paitjan

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that the country has sufficient food supplies in the event that international trading halts due to coronavirus. 

Armenia has closed its borders with Iran and Georgia for citizens, while tightening control for cargo trucks from Iran and trains from Georgia. One of the key transportation routes to Armenia, the Upper Lars check-point at the Georgia-Russia border, also implemented stricter control of cargoes.

Armenia’s two other borders, with Turkey and Azerbaijan, remain closed since the beginning of 1990s.

“We have sugar for 201 days. We have a 64-day supply of chicken and a 38-day supply of [sunflower] oil,” Pashinyan stated during a March 19 government session.

According to him, 38 food trucks entered Armenia on March 18, which brought 18 tons of cooking oil, 220 tons of sugar, 145 tons of wheat, 15 tons of confectionery, 20 tons of peas, in addition to other goods.

He added that the country is also fully equipped with fuel, gasoline and diesel.

Gegham Gevorgyan, Head of Armenia’s State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, said that there are provisions of gasoline in the country for at least 3 months.
 

Head of Teach For Armenia appeals to Armenia’s tech community

Parkev Tvankchian
iTel.am, Armenia

Teach For Armenia (TFA) Foundation founder and CEO Larisa Hovannisian has addressed technological companies.

“The shutting down of schools – especially in underdeveloped and economically deprived countries like ours – crystalizes and makes even more urgent the inequities we’re dealing with in the system.

The 15,000+ kids we work with across rural Armenia and Artsakh are already so deprived economically, left out of any educational opportunity, and lack basic necessities for learning. And to give you context, we work with only about 10% of students who are faced with such challenges.

Yes, we should absolutely think of leveraging virtual learning. And I’m glad to see some private and affluent public schools in Yerevan doing this for students. But what about the rest of the country? What about the majority of our students? Thousands upon thousands of kids do not have access to a backpack, notebook, or shoes, let alone a computer or tablet. How do we ensure all of our kids are learning?

For one, we can urgently ask our tech companies to refurbish, sanitize, and donate their technology to students and their teachers living in economic hardship. This will begin to enable learning to happen, albeit not perfect, but a crucial start. PicsArt, VOLO, Synopsys, ServiceTitan, Globbing, just to name a few – would you come together in urgent response to this looming education crisis our kids are faced with now? This will have impact far beyond what we can even know at this point. We’ve got to do something.

To those reading – please feel free to share, message, reach out. If you work for a tech company, please feel free to put your management team in direct touch with me. If you’re management of a tech company, let’s set up a Zoom call to discuss!” she wrote in the statement.

Azerbaijani press: Analyst: Ties with Armenia won’t bring economic benefits to Serbia

Parkev Tvankchian

Tue 17 Mar 2020 18:13 GMT | 22:13 Local Time

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It can be unequivocally said that the possible cooperation of Serbia and Armenia in the military sphere will negatively affect the international authority of official Belgrade, Ilyas Huseynov, a political analyst at the Center for Social Research’s internal policy analysis department, told Trend.

The political analyst said that a few days ago, a delegation led by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, on the invitation of the Belgrade, visited Serbia.

“Referring to the information disseminated in the Armenian media, it can be concluded that issues of military cooperation with Serbia were also discussed during this visit. In particular, recently there has been a deepening of ties between the two countries. In the near future, the opening of the Serbian Embassy in Armenia and the abolition of the visa regime for Armenian citizens are expected. The signing of a trade agreement between Serbia and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in October 2019 is also assessed as a factor leading to the development of relations between the two countries,” Huseynov noted.

The expert said that another moment is connected with the speech of Ararat Mirzoyan regarding Nagorno-Karabakh during the meeting with the president of Serbia, adding that according to Mirzoyan, the right to self-determination is the only guarantor of ensuring the security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan’s region, currently under occupation by Armenia).

Huseynov also added that before that, relations between Serbia and Azerbaijan in the political, economic, humanitarian field was being developed on an ascending line, noting that cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy has great prospects.

“It is no coincidence that, along with interest in the Southern Gas Corridor, Serbia also intends to participate in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project. In view of this, the increase in the intensity of interaction between Serbia and Armenia, as well as the organization of regular visits, do not quite correspond to the spirit of friendly relations between Serbia and Azerbaijan in the economic, in particular in the energy sphere. It can be said in advance that relations with Armenia will not give economic benefits to Belgrade. The intensity of cooperation between Serbia and Armenia is under the close attention of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku,” the political analyst said.