Wednesday,
Students Protest Ouster Of Armenian University Chief
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Student of Brusov State University boycott classes, Yerevan, March 15,
2023.
Hundreds of students of a state-run university in Yerevan boycotted classes on
Wednesday to protest against the Armenian government’s decision to effectively
depose its recently reelected rector.
The board of trustees of Brusov State University (BSU) voted to reappoint Karine
Harutiunian as BSU rector on December 9. Harutiunian defeated another candidate
for the post, Davit Gyurjinian, who enjoyed government support.
Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosian, who headed the BSU board,
and Education Minister Vahram Dumanian were sacked three days later. Media
reports suggested that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian thus punished Dumanian and
Matevosian for their failure to install the government-backed candidate.
Later in December, Armenian prosecutors opened two criminal cases in connection
with the BSU vote. For its part, Pashinian’s government refused to validate
Harutiunian’s reelection, alleging vote irregularities strongly denied by the
rector and other BSU board members. The board was dissolved as a result.
Armenia - BSU rector Karine Harutiunian and Davit Gyurjinian.
The government announced on Wednesday that Gyurjinian, the defeated candidate,
has been appointed as acting head of the university specializing in the teaching
of foreign languages.
Many university professors and students expressed outrage at the decision.
Tigran Torosian, a former parliament speaker heading BSU’s Political Science
Chair, condemned it as illegal.
“Their move today proves that they are doing everything to replace Karine
Harutiunian by Davit Gyurjinian,” Torosian said during an emergency meeting of
the university faculty.
“We want to be run by the rector who was elected by us and the faculty,” said
one of the students boycotting classes.
Gyurjinian, who is also the chief of the Armenian Education Ministry’s Language
Inspectorate, and Education Minister Zhanna Andreasian met with the university
staff later in the day. The two officials were escorted by dozens of police
officers as they made their way into the university building in downtown Yerevan.
“I expect support from all of you,” Gyurjinian told the staff.
Tsolak Akopian, a BSU deputy rector, argued with Andreasian during the meeting,
saying that he will challenge Gyurjinian’s appointment in court. The minister
responded by warning that the government will scrutinize the legality of
decisions made by the university administration.
Armenia - Students of Brusov State University protest outside the prime
minister's office in Yerevan, October 17, 2022.
Representatives of the protesting students said, meanwhile, that the boycott
will continue on Thursday.
They as well as Akopian claimed that the government decided to arbitrarily
install Gyurjinian because it wants to to press ahead with its controversial
plans to merge BSU with two other state-run universities.
Those plans triggered angry street protests by BSU students last fall.
Harutiunian, the deposed rector, backed the protesters.
Pashinian and his associates pledged to give universities more freedom from the
government when they swept to power in 2018. But in 2021, they pushed through
the parliament a bill that empowered the government to appoint most members of
university boards. Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared the bill
unconstitutional a few months later.
Armenian Military Reports Arms Acquisitions In 2022
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Defense Minister Suren Papikian inspects an Armenian army post on the
border with Azerbaijan, March 10, 2023.
Armenia’s armed forces received significant amounts of new weapons and
ammunition last year, Defense Minister Suren Papikian said on Wednesday.
Papikian said that they included mortars, air defense and anti-tank rocket
systems, drones as well as demining, communication and night-vision surveillance
equipment. He declined to reveal the sources, quantities or monetary value of
the arms acquisitions.
“I can’t tell where we bought them from. It’s a secret,” Papikian told the
Armenian parliament committee on defense and security.
In an apparent reference to Russia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained
last September that “our allies” have failed to deliver weapons to Armenia
despite contracts signed with them in the last two years.
At around the same time, Armenia reportedly signed contracts for the purchase of
$245 million worth of Indian multiple-launch rocket systems, anti-tank rockets
and ammunition. Papikian explored the possibility of more such deals when he
visited India in October.
Indian media reported afterwards that the two sides signed in November a $155
million deal to supply Indian 155-milimeter self-propelled howitzers to the
Armenian army in the coming years. Yerevan has not officially confirmed that
either.
UAE - Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian visits IDEX arms exhibition in
Abu Dhabi, February 20, 2023.
Armenia’s military spending is projected to rise by over 40 percent to 506
billion drams ($1.3 billion) this year.
Earlier in September, the Armenian military suffered serious casualties and
territorial losses in border clashes with Azerbaijani forces. Armenian
opposition leaders portrayed them as further proof of Pashinian’s incompetence
and inability to protect the country’s borders. They said that his
administration has done little to rebuild the armed forces since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian said last week that Russia donated “enormous”
amounts of military hardware to Armenia in the past but stopped that
“military-technical assistance” when Pashinian came to power in 2018.
Pashinian dismissed that claim on Tuesday, suggesting that Sarkisian referred to
outdated “free weapons” sent by Moscow.
“Armenia purchased more weaponry in 2018-2020 than during the previous ten years
combined,” he told a news conference.
A senior member of Sarkisian’s opposition Republican Party, Hayk Mamijanian, hit
back at Pashinian, saying that the allegedly outdated weapons still account for
a large part of the Armenian military arsenal. Mamijanian also argued that
Russia is using many of those Soviet-era weapons in the ongoing war with Ukraine.
Pashinian also described as “unserious” the ex-president’s claim that the
Armenian side did not use its “most powerful weapons” during the disastrous war
with Azerbaijan.
During the parliament committee’s meeting with Papikian, an opposition lawmaker,
Anna Grigorian, expressed serious concern over the state of Armenian army
fortifications along the volatile border with Azerbaijan.
The minister acknowledged that “things on the frontlines are not as we would all
like them to be.” But he insisted that “everything is being done” to strengthen
Armenian military positions.
“There is a great deal of work to be done in the army and … I will bring that
work to its successful completion,” added Papikian.
Pashinian Again Denies ‘Systemic Corruption’ In Armenia
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian arrives for a news conference in
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has again claimed to have eliminated “systemic”
corruption in Armenia amid continuing allegations about illicit enrichment of
members of his government and political team.
“There is no systemic corruption in Armenia,” Pashinian insisted during a news
conference held on Tuesday. He said this is evidenced by a large number of
corruption cases investigated by law-enforcement authorities.
“Had there been systemic corruption there would not have been these [corruption]
revelations,” he said. “Systemic corruption would mean that I have a share in
[corruption schemes.]”
Daniel Ioannisian of the Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens disputed
Pashinian’s claim. He said that while corrupt practices in the country are not
as “systemic” as they were before the 2018 “velvet revolution” they remain
widespread and involve the higher echelons of government as well.
“We can see, for example, that a person, who had received taxpayers’ money for
bogus business trips lasting for hundreds of days and then had to return that
money [to the state,] is appointed as chairman of the [recently established]
Anti-Corruption Court,” argued Ioannisian. “Instead of putting him on trial,
they appoint him as chairman of the Anti-Corruption Court.”
“We can see a very tolerant treatment of many [corrupt] practices,” he told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - Daniel Ioannisian is interviewed by RFE/RL, November 28, 2022.
Together with Romania, Armenia ranked 63th out of 180 countries and territories
evaluated in Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
released in January. It occupied 58th place in the previous CPI released a year
ago.
The Berlin-based watchdog said that the downgrade reflects “worrying signs” in
the South Caucasus country. Its Armenian branch pointed to “selective”
enforcement of laws and regulations, controversial appointments of senior
officials as well as growing questions about integrity in public procurement.
Pro-opposition and independent media outlets increasingly accuse members of
Pashinian’s entourage of enriching themselves or their cronies.
In particular, the investigative publication Hetq.am reported recently that
Defense Minister Suren Papikian acquired last summer another apartment in
Yerevan which is now worth an estimated at $412,000. Papikian, who is also a
leading member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, paid only $168,000 for the
apartment located in an exclusive residential district.
The district is being constructed by a company belonging to Ashot Arsenian, a
wealthy businessman who was, at least until recently, very close to former
President Serzh Sarkisian. Arsenian’s son Vahagn was investigated for draft
evasion before being elected mayor of the town of Jermuk on the Civil Contract
ticket last year.
Armenia - Defense Minister Suren Papikian, January 19, 2023.
Ioannisian noted that Papikian received from Arsenian a significant discount to
buy the expensive property.
“Will they give you or any of your radio listeners a discount of 50-100 million
drams ($128,000-$256,000)?” he said. “They won’t. Cheese is free only in the
mousetrap.”
Pashinian defended his defense minister and close political ally during his news
conference, questioning the market value of the apartment cited by Hetq.am. He
said that just like tens of thousands of other Armenians, Papikian obtained a
mortgage to buy real state and will repay it with his legal incomes.
The mortgage was provided by a commercial bank owned by the family of Khachatur
Sukiasian, a pro-government businessman and parliamentarian.
Sukiasian and his extended family have reportedly expanded their business
interests since Pashinian came to power in 2018. As recently last month, an
insurance company controlled by them won another government contract without a
tender.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Author: Torgomian Varazdat
RFE/RL Armenian Report – 03/13/2023
Monday,
Gas Supply To Karabakh Blocked Again
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Nane Sahakian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Schoolchildren warm themselves around a stove in the
classroom in Stepanakert, December 15, 2022.
Azerbaijan offered to hold more talks with Nagorno-Karabakh’s representatives on
Monday three days after reportedly again blocking Armenia’s supplies of natural
gas to Karabakh.
The flow of gas through a pipeline passing through Azerbaijani-controlled
territory stopped late on Friday nearly three months after Azerbaijani
government-backed protesters blocked Karabakh’s sole land link with Armenia and
the outside world.
The gas supply has been regularly disrupted during the blockade, adding to
shortages of energy, good, medicine and other essential items experienced by
Karabakh’s population. Armenia’s electricity supplies to Karabakh were similarly
cut off by Baku on January 10, leading to daily power cuts there. They have
still not been restored.
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, held on Sunday an emergency meeting
with other officials in Stepanakert to discuss his administration’s response to
the latest disruption.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s office said on Monday that it is inviting
“representatives of Karabakh’s Armenian community” to visit Baku for further
talks on Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan and “infrastructure
projects.” The authorities in Stepanakert did not immediately respond to the
move.
Azerbaijani and Karabakh officials already met at the headquarters of Russian
peacekeepers near Stepanakert on March 1. The two sides gave differing accounts
of the agenda and purpose of the meeting.
Karabakh’s leadership said its participants discussed the restoration of
“unimpeded” traffic thorough the Lachin corridor and Armenia’s energy supplies
to the Armenian-populated region.
An official Azerbaijani readout of the talks said, however, that they focused on
the Karabakh Armenians’ “integration into Azerbaijan.”
Harutiunian insisted afterwards that his representatives refused to engage in
such a discussion. He said Baku responded by threatening to take “tougher and
more drastic steps” if Stepanakert persists in opposing the restoration of
Azerbaijani rule.
The Karabakh leader linked that to the March 5 shootout that left three Karabakh
police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. He warned the Karabakh
Armenians to brace themselves for more Azerbaijani “provocations.”
Meanwhile, Aliyev’s chief foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, made clear on
Monday that Baku continues to oppose the creation of an “international
mechanism” for its dialogue with Stepanakert which is sought by Yerevan.
“There is no question of creating any international mechanism to discuss the
rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians,” he told report.az. “We have
never agreed to this.”
Hajiyev said the issue is Azerbaijan’s internal affair and Baku is not willing
to discuss it with Yerevan or any other third party.
The Azerbaijani official responded to comments made by the secretary of
Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, in a March 10 interview with
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Grigorian said, among other things, that Armenia will not sign a peace treaty
with Azerbaijan without negotiating security guarantees for Karabakh. Such
guarantees, he said, could include the establishment of a “demilitarized zone”
around Karabakh or “international presence” there.
Putin, Pashinian Discuss Escalating Tensions In Karabakh
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir
Putin attend a CSTO summit in Yerevan, November 23, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian again telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin
on Monday after Azerbaijan renewed its threats to launch fresh military
operations in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia at the weekend of continuing to send military
personnel and weapons to Karabakh with the help of Russian peacekeepers deployed
there. Yerevan was quick to deny that.
Meeting with the Azerbaijani army top brass in Baku on Saturday, Defense
Minister Zakir Hasanov said his troops must be prepared to take “preventive” and
“resolute” actions to thwart Armenian “provocations.”
In a statement released after the meeting, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry
demanded that “illegal Armenian armed units” be disarmed and removed from
Karabakh. It said the Russian peacekeepers must help Baku achieve that objective.
The Azerbaijani military already threatened to “disarm and neutralize” Karabakh
Armenian forces on March 7 two days after a shootout outside Stepanakert left
three Karabakh Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. It
claimed that its soldiers came under fire as they tried to check a Karabakh
police vehicle allegedly smuggling weapons from Armenia.
The Armenian side strongly denied that, saying that the vehicle transported only
policemen and was ambushed by Azerbaijani special forces. Yerevan accused Baku
on March 8 of preparing the ground for another attack on Karabakh.
The Armenian government’s press office reported that Pashinian raised with Putin
the March 5 shootings and their “consequences” during what was their third phone
conversation in 41 days.
“In the context of overcoming the crisis in Karabakh, the Armenian prime
minister prioritized a targeted response by the Russian Federation,” it said in
a statement. It did not elaborate.
According to the Kremlin’s readout of the call, Putin “emphasized the need to
resolve all emerging issues in a constructive manner, in close contact and
interaction of the parties with Russian peacekeepers.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry last week criticized “bellicose rhetoric” on the
Karabakh conflict and urged both sides to “strictly” comply with their
Russian-brokered agreements.
Moscow has still not publicly reacted to the Azerbaijani allegations that the
Russian peacekeepers escorted Armenian military convoys in Karabakh.
Yerevan Vice-Mayor Arrested
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Gevorg Simonian, a deputy mayor of Yrevan.
A former deputy health minister currently serving as vice-mayor of Yerevan was
arrested over the weekend on charges stemming from what an Armenian
law-enforcement agency called misuse of government funds provided for the fight
against COVID-19.
Gevorg Simonian was remanded in pre-trial custody after investigators searched
his office and rounded up a dozen medical workers on Friday. One of them, Babken
Shahumian, runs a private clinic in Yerevan that has treated thousands of
COVID-19 patients.
The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) claimed that the Medline Medical Center
rigged records of its medical services to defraud the government of 119 million
drams ($305,000) in 2020 and 2021. It said that Simonian did not properly
monitor the use of the government funds allocated to the clinic because of his
close personal relationship with Shahumian.
Simonian and Shahumian denied any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, a Yerevan court
allowed the ACC to hold them in detention pending investigation.
The criminal case is based in large measure on a report leased by the Armenian
parliament’s Audit Chamber last year. It suggested that officials from the
Ministry of Health embezzled and/or wasted some of the 26 billion drams ($66
million) in emergency government funding allocated following the onset of the
coronavirus pandemic.
In particular, the chamber said, the ministry inflated the number of
hospitalized COVID-19 patients and channeled 900 million drams into hospitals
that did not treat people infected with the respiratory disease. It also
questioned the integrity of relevant state procurements, saying that many of
them were administered without tenders.
Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian speaks at a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, June 11, 2020.
The alleged abuses were committed during former Health Minister Arsen Torosian’s
tenure. Torosian, who is now a parliament deputy representing the ruling Civil
Contract party, rejected the Audit Chamber report as untrue and misleading.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Torosian decried the “fictitious” accusations
leveled against his former deputy. The former minister also pointed out that
investigators have still not questioned him despite the fact he is the one who
“issued those orders” which landed Simonian in jail.
Torosian was sacked by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in January 2021.
Throughout his tenure he was criticized not only by opposition groups but also
some pro-government parliamentarians.
The criticism intensified during the pandemic which hit Armenia hard. Torosian
repeatedly defended his and other government officials’ response to the
unprecedented health crisis.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Nobel prize-winner Kenzaburo Oe dead at 88
13:05,
YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. Kenzaburo Oe, who won Japan its second Nobel Prize for literature with books about pacifism and his disabled son, has died.
His death was due to old age, Reuters reported citing his publisher Kodansha.
Oe was born in Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s main islands, the third son of seven children. After his father died suddenly in 1944, at home he was raised by his mother, who bought him books such as “Huckleberry Finn.”
A graduate of Tokyo University, where he studied French Literature, Oe began publishing stories while still a student and won the Akutagawa Prize, a career-launching award for new writers, in 1958. A steady stream of work followed, including books on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
His Nobel Prize was followed by Japan’s Order of Culture, but he refused to accept it because it was awarded by the Emperor and said: “I do not recognise any authority, any value, higher than democracy.”
Always a pacifist, Oe became an even more vocal critic after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, saying that Japan had “a sacred duty” to renounce nuclear power, the same way it renounced war under its constitution.
Armenia not to sign peace treaty without security guarantees
Mehr News Agency
TEHRAN, Mar. 11 (MNA) – Armenia will not sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan without negotiating security guarantees for Nagorno-Karabakh, said the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigoryan.
“There is no question that agreements to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh issue need to be reached, and our understanding with our international partners is that the peace treaty could be finalized if there is progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, if there are guarantees of ensuring [the Karabakh Armenians’] security and rights, and if Armenia is certain that there will be no ethnic cleansing in Karabakh,” Grigoryan told Azatutyun.am., according to Massispost website.
Grigoryan said that such guarantees could include the establishment of a “demilitarized zone” around Karabakh or “international presence” in the Armenian-populated territory. He indicated that Baku and Yerevan have reached no agreements on that so far.
Grigoryan said that the Azerbaijani side is not interested in negotiating in good faith. He pointed to the March 5 armed incident near Stepanakert which left three Karabakh police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead.
Armenian forces took control of Karabakh in a war that gripped the region as Soviet rule was collapsing in the early 1990s. Azerbaijan recaptured large swathes of territory in a six-week conflict in 2020 that ended with a truce and the dispatch of Russian peacekeepers, who remain in the region.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have met several times as part of efforts to resolve the conflict, but periodic violence has hurt peace efforts.
SKH/PR
AYF Camp Haiastan presents summer 2023 leadership team
FRANKLIN, Mass. — The AYF Camp Haiastan Board of Directors is pleased to announce the 2023 camp management staff.
Nairi Koroghlian (Long Island City, New York) will be the 2023 Summer Camp Director, and Ani Changelian will return to AYF Camp Haiastan this summer to direct the day camp. The Board has also selected a Program Director, a new position responsible for developing and organizing curriculum specific activities and schedules for Camp Haiastan’s programs. This role will be filled by former Summer Director Seran Tcholakian of Farmington Hills, MI.
Nairi Koroghlian
Koroghlian has a long history with the Camp, starting as a camper in the early-to-mid ’80s and then serving on staff in the early ’90s. Her love for the Camp was established through her parents Harry and Claire Kushigian. Now, she’s part of a Camp Haiastan Summer Director legacy. Her father, also known as “Baron Harry,” was a Camp Haiastan counselor from the late 1950s to the early 1960s and later served as the 1962 Summer Director when he, along with former Summer Camp Director Mesrob Odian, started the ‘History of the Camp’ lecture, which is now a mainstay ‘Hye Talk’ delivered to staff and campers every year.
Koroghlian draws upon more than 20 years of professional experience in various roles ranging from marketing to theater and film. Most recently, she has been a leader in the health and wellness industry, serving as a coach for large organizations throughout Manhattan, including Sesame Street and Weight Watchers International. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked as a volunteer crisis responder for IMALIVE.org, an organization that brings awareness to mental health and suicide prevention.
“I am thrilled to return to the ‘best place on earth’ this summer to inspire a love for our Armenian heritage for our youth and create a nurturing experience for fostering friendships and cultural pride,” expressed Koroghlian.
Koroghlian is a native of Rhode Island and a University of Rhode Island graduate. She resides in New York City with her husband Haig. The two met as campers at Camp Haiastan.
Ani Changelian
Camp Haistan is looking forward to Changelian’s return as director of the day camp. “Ani’s extensive knowledge of the Camp and her experience with children greatly benefit our youth,” stated Board chairman Hratch Najarian.
Changelian received a master’s degree in education from the New York Institute of Technology, Downing College. She lives in Bedford, Massachusetts with her husband Andrew and their two children, former campers and staff members. Changelian previously worked as a kindergarten teacher at St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School in Watertown and also served as the AYF Camp Haiastan Summer Director from 2019-2021.
Seran Tcholakian
Tcholakian, a camper for many years, is now the inaugural Program Director at Camp Haiastan. A native of New York, Tcholakian lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan with her husband Rafi and their five children, former campers and staffers. A graduate of Hunter College, Tcholakian taught for many years at the Alex and Marie Manoogian School in Dearborn. She is now a tutor and an active member of her local Armenian community through the Armenian Relief Society (ARS).
This new position will bring an increased level of attention to the Camp’s various programs and ensure that all activities are engaging for young campers. Following her recent stint as summer director (2019 – 2021), Tcholakian has proven that she understands the needs of the campers and staff to ensure a positive, developmentally appropriate and magical experience.
“We are excited to kick-off the 2023 summer season with this strong leadership team,” stated executive director Kenar Charchaflian. Serving as an AYF Camp Haiastan staff member goes beyond the reward of impacting the future youth of our community. For generations, our grounds have served as a place of opportunity to learn new skills, to build friendships and to grow professionally and individually. Staff applications are open through the 20th of March. Application deadlines are below.
March 14th – Aquatics Director, Armenian School Teacher, Lifeguard, Health Center Staff, Kitchen Staff, Summer Office Administrator
March 20th – Cabin Counselor, Day Camp Counselor, Staff In Training (SIT)
Armenpress: PM Pashinyan visits Germany, meetings with President Steinmeier and Chancellor Scholz expected
09:43, 2 March 2023
YEREVAN, MARCH 2, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is visiting Germany on March 2-3 where he will meet with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Thursday.
Pashinyan and Scholz will hold a joint press conference after their talks, the PMO said in a press release.
The meeting with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to take place on March 3.
The Armenian PM is also scheduled to visit the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
Other meetings are also planned.
The Prime Minister’s wife Anna Hakobyan is accompanying him on the visit.
“Kommersant” recalled the events in Nagorno-Karabakh: And the battle continues in the world
March 6 2023
March 6 – BLiTZ. Despite the peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, shots are heard again in this land.
According to the newspaper “Kommersant”, the other day on the territory of Stepanakert (Azerbaijani name – Khankendi) there were military clashes, which resulted in the death of three representatives of law enforcement agencies from Armenia.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of sabotage, reporting losses, the number of which is not given.
Recall that the situation in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh continues to worsen since December 12. Then Armenia and Azerbaijan did not share the only route and made claims. Negotiations on this conflict are still ongoing.
Earlier, I also reported that on Monday, March 6, the visit of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, Toivo Klaar, is expected in Baku.
The final goal of United States is peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, says Louis Bono
16:04, 6 March 2023
YEREVAN, MARCH 6, ARMENPRESS. The United States Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Louis Bono has said that the United States stands ready to provide further assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan in signing a peace treaty.
The peace treaty must be enduring and come from the two parties, rather than the United States or other countries, Bono said after his meeting with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Monday, according to Interfax.
According to him, it is important to Washington that Armenia and Azerbaijan interact irrespective of the mediation format. The final goal of the United States is peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Bono said. He noted that both sides would profit from peace, as they reaffirmed the aspiration for peace at a meeting in Munich on February 18, 2023.
Bono said he would go to Armenia on March 7 to encourage the sides to maintain dialogue and to meet again.
Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 03-03-23
17:18, 3 March 2023
YEREVAN, 3 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 3 March, USD exchange rate down by 0.78 drams to 388.17 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.79 drams to 412.08 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate stood at 5.15 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.31 drams to 465.57 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 109.20 drams to 22915.69 drams. Silver price down by 2.96 drams to 259.58 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
Armenian, Iranian Foreign Ministers meet in Geneva
16:17,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan met with Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Geneva within the framework of the high-level meeting of the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The foreign ministers discussed issues related to bilateral and multilateral partnership, the Armenian foreign ministry said in a read-out. Both sides were pleased to note the high level political dialogue between Armenia and Iran.
Joint actions for the further development of cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including in the sectors of energy, transport and infrastructures were highlighted.
Ideas were exchanged around issues of security and stability in the region.
Speaking about the grave humanitarian situation resulting from the blockade of Lachin corridor, FM Ararat Mirzoyan stressed that it is imperative that Azerbaijan immediately stops the blockade of Nagorno Karabakh without preconditions in accordance with the terms of the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement.
The implementation of the ICJ ruling was also underscored.
FM Mirzoyan presented the latest developments in the Armenia-Azerbaijan settlement process.
The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan on February 22 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. The Lachin Corridor is blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022. Azerbaijan hasn’t yet complied with the order.