Author: Torgomian Varazdat

 19:00,

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan received Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopirkin on March 28.

As ARMENPRESS was infomred from the press service of the MFA Armenia, during the meeting Ararat Mirzoyan and Sergey Kopirkin discussed the situation in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the part of Parukh village of Nagorno Karabakh, resulted by the Azerbaijani invasion which started on March 24.

Minister Mirzoyan highlighted the assessment made by the relevant Russian departments on the invasion of Azerbaijan. The Minister stressed the need for taking concrete measures by the Russian peacekeeping contingent to stop the intrusion of Azerbaijani units into the area of responsibility of the peacekeepers and the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces.

 13:01,

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS. According to the verified information, 5 contract servicemen of the Defense Army of Artsakh received wounds of various degrees as a result of the skirmish provoked by the Azerbaijani forces in the night of March 25, the Artsakh Information Center said.

“Their lives are not in danger”, the Center said.

As a result of Azerbaijan’s criminal actions, 14 servicemen received various degrees of injuries. Artsakh’s Ombudsman

 19:01,

YEREVAN, 25 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan got acquainted with the health condition of the servicemen wounded as a result of the March 25 actions of Azerbaijan at the Stepanakert Military Hospital, ARMENPRESS reports Stepanyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“According to the verified information at the moment, 14 people received various degrees of injuries. Doctors assess the condition of 10 people as mild, 1 as moderate, 1 as severe, and 2 as extremely severe.

Private conversations with the wounded revealed that almost all cases of injuries were registered due to the use of drones by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

Such actions against military personnel in the context of the ceasefire should be considered as crimes and violations of international humanitarian law. The private conversations with the wounded have shown that some of them were deliberately targeted by drones as they tried to provide first aid to injured friends. It is reported that the Azerbaijani side, while being able to observe unhindered by UAVs, struck at the moment when a humanitarian operation was being carried out by the military personnel.

In the conditions of systematic ethnic cleansing and genocidal actions carried out by the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan, the Artsakh Defense Forces indisputably carry out self-defense enshrined in international documents to ensure the right to life and existence of the people of Artsakh”, Stepanyan wrote.

 12:10,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Serdar Berdymukhamedov, who won Turkmenistan’s presidential election on March 12, has taken office as the country’s president, TASS reports citing the Turkmenistan State News Agency.

The inauguration ceremony took place in Turkmenistan’s capital of Ashgabat.

The country’s Central Commission on Elections and Referendums announced on Tuesday that Serdar Berdymukhamedov had won the snap presidential elections, receiving 72.97% of the vote.

 12:49,

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Chairwoman of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on protection of human rights and public affairs, Taguhi Tovmasyan, has sent letters to international human rights organizations, drawing their attention on the current humanitarian crisis in Artsakh as Azerbaijan obstructs to repair the damaged gas pipeline and the residents of Artsakh have been left without gas supply since March 8.

“The humanitarian crisis in Artsakh is deepening. It’s more than a week there is no gas in Artsakh. The Azerbaijani forces ban the Russian peacekeepers even to approach the exploded section of the gas pipeline, and there is no opportunity to repair that section of the pipeline. As a result today we both have a problem with transport in Artsakh, as well as there are a number of problems in production units, people have a problem of bread production in their country. This is a very serious alarm, over which I have sent different letters to a number of international organizations dealing with human rights and asked them to focus their attention and urgently respond to the topic of the humanitarian crisis that has started in Artsakh”, she said at the committee’s session today.

According to the lawmaker, if this situation continues further, there will also be an electricity crisis in Artsakh as the system is operating in an overload mode, and that productivity volumes could not last long. Therefore, she didn’t rule out that Artsakh may face a problem of electricity supply in the future.

“In this respect I want to once again draw the attention of everyone in the world to the humanitarian crisis that has started in Artsakh”, the MP said.

 13:27,

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Russia has lifted the COVID-19-related restrictions on non-scheduled and regular flights to Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Iran on a reciprocal basis, TASS reports citing the statement of the press service of the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsiya).

“On March 9, 2022, restrictions on non-scheduled and regular flights to Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Iran imposed earlier as part of efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were lifted in accordance with the decision of the government of the Russian Federation”, the statement said.

Earlier, the COVID-19-related restrictions on flights to Belarus, the Dominican Republic, Egypt (excluding Cairo), the UAE, Turkey, Finland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, South Korea and Cuba were also fully removed.

 17:33,

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Acting President Alen Simonyan signed a decree March 11 on relieving Vahagn Khachaturyan from duties as Minister of High-Tech Industry.

Khachaturyan is the President-elect of Armenia and will be inaugurated as the 5^th President of Armenia on March 13.

Baku’s statements about peace contradict the shootings in the direction of peaceful settlements in Artsakh

 21:35,

YEREVAN, 11 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Baku’s statements on signing a peace treaty with Armenia contradict the firing of Azerbaijani armed forces on peaceful settlements in Artsakh. ARMENPRESS reports, citing Azerbaijani media, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov told reporters that Baku is ready to sign a peace treaty with Yerevan and close the page on the history of the conflict.

According to Khalaf Khalafov, the main priority of Azerbaijan is the restoration of communication, including the opening of the Nakhichevan railway.

“We are ready to start the border demarcation process with Armenia without any preconditions,” Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani armed forces continue to target peaceful settlements in Artsakh.

Earlier, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia Vahan Hunanyan said that Armenia may soon apply to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to initiate peace talks with Azerbaijan.