Author: Toneyan Mark

“Thanks to brotherly Greece,” says Armenian FM following meeting with Dendias in Athens

Toneyan Mark
by ATHENS BUREAU

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias met on Monday with visiting Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan in the presence of Deputy Foreign Minister Kostas Fragogiannis.

The two top officials reaffirmed the strong friendship and historical ties between Greece and Armenia.

They also discussed Greek-Armenian relations, including the trilateral cooperation between Greece, Armenia and Cyprus on diaspora issues, developments in the Caucasus region, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and developments in the Eastern Mediterranean.

After the meeting Dendias and Mirzoyan signed an MoU between the Greek and the Armenian Foreign Ministries on EU-related matters, the foreign ministry posted on Twitter.

Thanks to brotherly Greece and my friend Nikos Dendias personally for warm welcome and hospitality. Had very productive discussions also with also the President and the Prime Minister and the Greek Foreign Minister. Strong partnership with Greece has a strategic importance for Armenia,” Mirzoyan tweeted.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/06/29/brotherly-greece-dendias/

Asbarez: Menendez, Schiff Alarmed that Biden Again Approves U.S. Military Aid to Azerbaijan

Toneyan Mark
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in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories
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Sen. Menendez: “It simply makes no sense to say that U.S. assistance and training has not impacted its [Azerbaijan’s] military balance with Armenia.”

Rep. Schiff: “Under no circumstances should the U.S. be providing military support to such a regime […] President Biden should not have waived Section 907.”

WASHINGTON—Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) reacted sharply to President Biden’s decision to once again waive Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, greenlighting new U.S. military aid to the Aliyev regime despite its ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

In a statement released on Friday, Chairman Menendez noted, “I am deeply disappointed to see the Department of State once again make an exception to bypass Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act to provide what has become annual assistance to the regime in Baku. Adding insult to injury, the administration chose to move forward with this most recent waiver despite the recent publication of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which confirmed the Department of State and Department of Defense have failed to meet statutory reporting requirements to Congress on the impact of U.S. assistance on the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Chairman Menendez continued, “As Azerbaijan continues to further occupy territory from its violent assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, during which more than 6,500 people died and more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians were displaced in 2020, it simply makes no sense to say that U.S. assistance and training has not impacted its military balance with Armenia. I will continue to conduct rigorous oversight of any and all assistance to Azerbaijan and expect the Department of State to operate with complete transparency and provide all necessary details for Congress to assess any assistance provided to Baku.”

In commentary released to the ANCA, Chairman Schiff pledged to work with Congressional allies and the Armenian American community to “remove a president’s power to waive Section 907 and to urge the Biden administration to reinvigorate the peace process.”  Chairman Schiff explained, “Azerbaijan is responsible for provoking a horrific war and humanitarian disaster in Armenia and Artsakh, killing thousands of Armenians over 44 days in September 2020 and forcing thousands more to flee their ancestral homelands. To this day, Azerbaijan continues to illegally detain Armenian soldiers who have been subject to torture, and to threaten thousands of innocent civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh who live in fear of another attack and invasion.  

Chairman Schiff continued, “Under no circumstances should the United States be providing military support to such a regime – it not only runs counter to our nation’s core democratic values, but could empower the Aliyev regime to continue or escalate its provocative actions against Armenians. President Biden should not have waived Section 907.”

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian thanked Chairman Menendez and Chairman Schiff for calling out the Biden Administration’s reckless decision – demanding stronger Congressional oversight and a stop to U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. “Not a single penny in U.S. tax-payer money should go to the overtly racist and openly aggressive Aliyev regime.  We look forward to working with Chairman Menendez and Chairman Schiff and their colleagues on key committees in both the Senate and the House to oppose U.S. subsidies for Azerbaijan’s genocidal violence against Artsakh and Armenia.”

The ANCA has been running an online campaign – https://anca.org/907 – condemning President Biden’s decision and urging Congress to use every legislative vehicle possible to zero-out military aid to Azerbaijan.

On June 23rd, the Biden Administration reportedly notified Congress of their decision to waive Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act. The measure, adopted in 1992, establishes statutory restrictions on U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan “until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Congress included a Section 907 waiver in the FY2002 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. U.S. presidents – Republican and Democrat – have waived Section 907 annually ever since.

During his run for office, on October 14th, 2020, then-candidate Biden stated that the United States must “fully implement and not waive requirements under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan.” As President, he first reversed his position on the issue on April 23, 2021 – on the eve of his historic announcement properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, issued earlier this year, revealed that the State Department consistently failed to inform Congress of the impact of over $164 million in assistance to Baku on the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia.  According to the GAO, the U.S. has provided about $808 million in overall US aid to Azerbaijan in fiscal years 2002 through 2020.

Armenian judicial watchdog dismisses Ruben Vardazaryan

Toneyan Mark
Panorama
Armenia – June 23 2022

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a state body overseeing Armenian courts, has decided to dismiss its suspended chairman Ruben Vardazaryan.

The SJC approved a motion for disciplinary action against Vardazaryan, a judge of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction.

“Ruben Vardazaryan’s powers are terminated on the grounds of a serious disciplinary violation,” acting SJC head Gagik Jhangiryan announced on Thursday.

The decision takes effect immediately after its delivery and is not subject to appeal, he said.

Vardazaryan was suspended as SJC chairman after being charged with obstruction of justice in April 2021. Jhangiryan took over the SJC pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

Earlier on Monday, Vardazaryan released a secretly recorded audio of his conversation with Jhangiryan, who can be heard warning the official to resign or face criminal charges.

Diplomat: It is pointless to talk about the security guarantees of the Artsakh people in the absence of the status of Artsakh

Toneyan Mark
ARMINFO
Armenia – June 23 2022
David Stepanyan

ArmInfo. Against the backdrop of Baku’s desire to force to renounce any status of Artsakh, dilute it with the rest of Azerbaijan, holding Artsakh people as hostages,  Armenian interests in this matter have not even been formulated yet.  Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, former Foreign Minister  of Artsakh Arman Melikyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

“And the fact that before the 44-day war these interests were  expressed in the maintenance of the status quo, the preservation of  which was guaranteed by external, and not by our own forces, is the  biggest problem of the Armenian statehood. Having a formal toolkit  for conducting foreign policy, our state has all these years did not  even try to form an alternative agenda, although such ideas were  proposed. As a result, today the restoration of sovereignty requires  a lot of consistent work,” he said.

In the opinion of the diplomat, in today’s realities, this work, the  search for ways to outline the most important problems and ways to  solve them, should be carried out outside the state and political  institutions by a professional team. While, unfortunately, the expert  and analytical circles in Armenia are busy serving either the  interests of the authorities or the interests of external forces, but  certainly not the interests of Armenia. Moreover, in both cases this  is done by analytical justification of already committed, rather than  predicted actions.

Meanwhile, according to Melikyan, it is pointless to talk about the  security guarantees of the people of Artsakh if Artsakh does not have  a status. While in the current situation, Baku not only does not  intend to do this at all, but also claims that even the NKAO does not  exist, referring to the decision to disband it, taken back in the  early 1990s. While according to Melikyan, Artsakh should have a  status in any case. Just like ithad it, starting with the formation  of the USSR. In this light, it is impossible to consider Artsakh as a  part of sovereign Azerbaijan under any circumstances.  “Another  important problem is Baku’s attempts to draw parallels between the  rights of Artsakh people and, for example, Azerbaijanis who  previously lived in Syunik. One should never confuse the issue of  human rights with the right of a particular territory to have state  status. Meanwhile, unlike the Azerbaijanis living in Armenia earlier,  the Artsakh Armenians had this right yesterday and still have it  today. And Armenia abandoned its natural mission of protecting the  rights of more than half a million Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan,  and thus provided Baku with the opportunity today to express its  readiness to protect the rights of all Armenians in Azerbaijan  without granting the status to Artsakh,” the diplomat summed up.

CoE Human Rights Commissioner welcomes Armenia’s ongoing reforms at meeting with Constitutional Court President

Toneyan Mark

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 15:03,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Arman Dilanyan met with Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatović in Strasbourg on June 23, the press service of the Constitutional Court said.

During the meeting Arman Dilanyan highlighted the role of the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights in the protection of rights of different groups of the society in the European region.

Dunja Mijatović thanked the delegation of the Constitutional Court of Armenia for paying a working visit to Strasbourg and said that she always follows the developments happening in Armenia in the fields of human rights and rule of law, welcoming the ongoing democratic and judicial reforms in the country.

Touching upon the post-war situation in Artsakh, the President of the Constitutional Court stressed the urgency of the issue of immediate repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and highlighted the role of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner in this matter.

The sides exchanged ideas on intensifying the future cooperation between the Constitutional Court and the Office of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner.

I am excited to be in Charles Aznavour’s homeland. Zaz is looking forward to the Yerevan solo concert

Toneyan Mark

I am excited to be in Charles Aznavour’s homeland. Zaz is looking forward to the Yerevan solo concert

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 19:27,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of “Haya” music festival, Armenia hosted French singer, composer Zaz, who performs pop, jazz music combined with soul-acoustic genres. Zaz will give a solo concertin Yerevan on June 25 at Hrazdan Stadium.

ARMENPRESS reports at a meeting with journalists on June 24, the singer said that she is very happy to be in Armenia and is looking forward to the concert evening, during which she wants to share her energy with the musicians and the audience, making the day a real holiday for everyone.

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan

Speaking about the great chansonnier Charles Aznavour, with whom Zaz performed the song Paris au Mois de Mai Paris, the singer stressed that she attaches great importance to Aznavour’s advice, but Aznavour urged Zaz to learn English, which the singer did not do.

“I am excited to be in Armenia, because this is Charles’s homeland, and I feel responsible. The last time I was here was in 2018 within the framework of Francophonie. I was excited when I had to leave. People here are warm, full of love. I love the Armenian duduk, I often listen to Levon Minasyan ‘s performances, which give me positive energy,” she said.

Aznavour had compared Zaz with Edith Piaf and considered her the future of French music. The singer modestly mentioned that it is nice that the chansonnier said that about her, but there are many artists who present French music wonderfully. Zaz thinks that there are tones in her voice that are reminiscent of old French songs, and there is something new, and that combination gives a good result.

The duet of Zaz and Aznavour was included in the singer’s album dedicated to Paris. According to her, Paris is colorful because people of different nationalities live there. The singer likens Paris to a rainbow.

Armenia ready to open consulate in Tabriz

Toneyan Mark
TEHRAN TIMES
Iran –

TEHRAN – The Armenian Parliament speaker has said that his country is ready to open a consulate in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz. 

Alen Simonyan, the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, who has traveled to Tehran at the invitation of the speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, met with Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Thursday evening.

Simonyan said the establishment of the consulate general of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Armenia’s Syunik Province is a turning point in the relations between the two countries and announced Armenia’s readiness to establish its consulate general in Tabriz, according to the Iranian foreign ministry.

In this meeting, Amir Abdollahian called Armenia “an important friend and neighbor of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. Citing high-level political relations between the two countries, Amir Abdollahian stressed the need to develop economic cooperation and take advantage of the two countries’ diverse capacities. He expressed the Islamic Republic of Iran’s readiness to increase trade volume with Armenia to $1 billion a year.

Amir Abdollahian also referred to Iran’s principled position to support the territorial integrity of the region and stressed the unchangeability of international borders and the need to respect the sovereignty of the regional countries.

Nagorno Karabakh issue most important, most urgent issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan – PM Pashinyan

Toneyan Mark

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 10:01,

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. The trilateral statement signed between Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020 was a step to stop violence in Nagorno Karabakh, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview to Al Jazeera during the official visit in Qatar.

“But I should state that this statement hasn’t addressed the Nagorno Karabakh issue, and Nagorno Karabakh issue should be addressed, and we hope that in upcoming times we will be able to address Nagorno Karabakh issue as well”, the PM said.

Pashinyan stated that Armenia has several tracks with Azerbaijan. “Recently we have established a commission for border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and it is very important to continue that work. Only one meeting occurred, but we have already agreed that the second meeting will take place in Moscow, the Russian capital, and the third meeting will take place in Brussels. And we hope that with the support of our international partners and of course through the direct work we will be able to delimit our borders”, he said.

Asked what will be the position of Armenia if the border commission decides that the entire territory of Nagorno Karabakh should belong to Azerbaijan, the Armenian PM said: “The commission for border delimitation has nothing to do with the Nagorno Karabakh issue, because, as I said, we have different tracks with Azerbaijan. One track is border delimitation, and border security also, it is very important, and is under the mandate of this commission because we need to keep the stability and security alongside of our borders. The second issue is the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There is one more track connected with the opening of the regional transportation and economic communication. But, of course, the most important and the most urgent issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan and for the peace in our region is Nagorno Karabakh issue”.

Pashinyan highlighted Russia’s role as the guarantor of the trilateral statement. “Russia is the strategic partner and ally of Armenia, but Russia is a very close country for Azerbaijan too”, he noted.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 14-06-22

Toneyan Mark

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 17:50,

YEREVAN, 14 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 14 June, USD exchange rate up by 0.99 drams to 419.63 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.26 drams to 437.93 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 7.39 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 3.20 drams to 507.25 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 69.72 drams to 24700.76 drams. Silver price up by 0.28 drams to 290.87 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

Armenia`s defense minister responds to critics

Toneyan Mark
ARMINFO
Armenia – June 7 2022
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo.After reforms in the country’s Ministry of Defense, Armenia will have a new model with the first minister of defense will be chief of the General Staff, Defense  Minister Suren Papikyan stated in an interview with the Public TV of  Armenia. 

“Reforms are being implemented in army management. These are not  substantial reforms. The Armed Forces will only deal with defense of  the country and combat training. Other departments will deal with  procurement and services. That is, nonmilitary personnel will perform  numerous duties, to start with rear services,” the minister said. 

The relevant bill will soon be submitted to Armenia’s Parliament. 

As regards criticism by some circles in Armenia over lack of reforms  and arms procurement, Mr Papikyan said he has no intention to  publicize the government’s plans. Armenia’s army must be modernized  and made more efficient and must ensure the country’s sovereignty.  The minister is critical of the people speaking of the problems in  the army in a provocative manner. 

“They are doing it on purpose. Some processes cannot be openly  discussed. And it is not only physical movement of arms to Armenia,”  the minister said. Those speaking of that can receive the information  they are interested in, he added. 

“We have started transition to processional army and we are going to  initiate legislation soon. Professional army will be organically  linked with fixed-term service,” Mr Papikyan said.

“At present, we are carrying out huge fortification work along the  border, and this work is under my personal control,” he said. 

About 13 companies are now carrying out road construction work, with  simultaneous engineering work under way. 

“The roads lead to the frontline. Our task is to fully provide both  the road network and the frontline in summer. Engineering work is  under way on the frontline,” Mr Papikyan said. 

Chief of the General Staff Artak Davtyan was dismissed on February  24, 2022. Vice-Chief Kamo Kochunts has since been Acting Chief of the  General Staff.