Category: 2019

The Republic of Armenia is closely following the developments taking place within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement, including the work of the last summit of the heads of states and governments of the Non-Aligned Movement held on October 25-26, 2019 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.  This was stated in the statement issued by the RA Foreign Ministry regarding the Final Document adopted at the 18th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Baku.

“We condemn the fact that Azerbaijan, the host of the summit and the current chairman of the Movement, once again chose to abuse its membership in the Movement by promoting misleading, extremely biased claims about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Summary Document of the Summit.

Having the status of an observer state in the Non-Aligned Movement, Armenia could not in any way engage or endorse the process, which clearly demonstrates the manipulative intent of the host state to abuse the platform. Armenia regrets that the wording of the Summary Document on Nagorno-Karabakh contradicts the principles underlying the Movement.

The authorities of Azerbaijan, which have committed mass atrocities against Armenians in Azerbaijan and Artsakh, have consistently pursued a policy of intolerance and hatred, including through the public glorification of criminals convicted of murdering Armenians, who have continuously attempted military aggression against Artsakh, are directly and directly responsible for creating risks that threaten the existential security of the people of Artsakh.

They once again demonstrated their lack of commitment to the only format with an international mandate for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the peace process under the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, using their experience of “conference sales” in order to disrupt the current negotiation process. Armenia firmly supports the inalienable rights of the people of Artsakh to freely determine their political status without restriction and coercion, to freely ensure their economic, social and cultural development. Armenia continues to be the only guarantor of the security of the people of Artsakh.

Armenia calls on the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement to show responsibility and respect for the negotiations and to act in accordance with the spirit, logic and path of the peace process, based on the norms and principles of international law, the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, including the right of peoples to equality and self-determination, which is one of the key principles of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the statement said.

On October 28, a delegation led by the head of the flight safety service of the Russian Armed Forces arrived in Armenia to participate in bilateral discussions.

This is reported by the RA Ministry of Defense.

On September 19, 2019, the Penitentiary Service sentenced life convict N. He submitted a negative report on the conditional release of Hunanyan from serving his sentence.

On October 23, 2019, the Probation Service also submitted a negative report.

The press service of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Justice informs about this.

Taking into account the fact that the reports presented by 2 services were negative, the administration of the penitentiary institution on October 28, 2019 accepted N. Decision not to present to the court the issue of paroleing Hunanyan from serving the sentence or replacing the unserved part of the sentence with a milder punishment. It can be appealed to the Court of First Instance within ten days after receiving the decision.

Notice: If the decision of the administration of the penitentiary institution is not appealed, the matter can be considered again after the adoption of the relevant decision, one and a half years later, if the convict submits an application no earlier than 40 days before the expiration of the specified period.

In the case of appealing the decision of the administration of the penitentiary, if the court refuses parole from serving the sentence, the issue can be reconsidered after the final judicial act enters into legal force, after three years, if the convict submits an application no earlier than 40 days before the expiration of the specified period.

The Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia informs that a ban has been placed on the visits of Arsen Babayan, the former deputy of the staff of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.

“Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia published in mass electronic media on the evening of October 25 Gevorg Gorgisyan and Ani Samsonyan In connection with the video with the participation of the RA Ministry of Justice, the Penitentiary Service of the RA Ministry of Justice clarifies that the meeting of the deputies with Arsen Babayan, the accused in the criminal case under investigation by the RA Special Investigation Service, the inmate of the “Vardashen” Penitentiary Institution of the RA Ministry of Justice, was prohibited on the basis of the decision of the body implementing the criminal proceedings, by which a restraining order was placed on the detained person A. on Babayan’s meetings,” the statement said.

In the period between October 20 and 26, in the contact zone of the Artsakh-Azerbaijani conflict troops, the enemy violated the cease-fire regime more than 170 times, firing about 1,500 shots from different caliber firearms at the Armenian position guards.

The vanguard military units of the Defense Ministry are in control of the operational-tactical situation and continue to confidently carry out the combat task set before them.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report does not contain any inaccuracies regarding Armenia, Valentina Saltine, a senior specialist in the development of the private sector of the World Bank, said in a conversation with “Voice of America”, commenting on the statement of the President of the Central Bank of Armenia, Artur Javadyan, that a certain mistake was made in the ranking table of the report, which, if corrected, would place Armenia in the 37th position in the ranking table, instead of the current 47th.

“From our point of view, there is no inaccuracy or error regarding Armenia. This year, we have just slightly revised and reformulated the assessment of protection indicators for small-cap investors. We didn’t add any new elements, we just made some corrections.”

In particular, according to Saltine, in order to receive additional points for the protection of investors with a small share, the country needs to have at least 10 private companies selling voting shares in the stock market, while there are only 7 such companies in the Armenian stock market, of which only three are private.

“It’s not something the government can easily do on its own. It certainly cannot force other companies to go public. It is something that should happen naturally, and the government can create conditions for it by passing laws,” the representative of the World Bank said.

At the same time, Valentina Saltain pointed out the achievements recorded by Armenia during the past year, which are aimed at creating a favorable atmosphere for business implementation. It is the improvement of the process of obtaining the right of construction, the reforms of the tax sector and the digitization of cross-border trade declarations.

“Generally, Armenia is doing very successfully. The issues in some areas are mainly related to legislative changes and it takes time to feel the impact of these changes.”

Three of Armenia’s four immediate neighbors – Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey – are in a better position than Armenia in terms of ease of doing business, while Iran ranks 127th.

In terms of ease of doing business in 2020, the World Bank recognized New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong as leaders. The situation is worse in Venezuela, Eritrea and Somalia.

The United States of America is engaged in oil production in Syria using equipment imported to circumvent sanctions.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, issued a statement about this on Saturday.

“Oil extraction is carried out with the help of such equipment, which bypasses all American sanctions,” as “Armenpress” reports, citing “RIA Novosti”, he noted.

Konashenkov reminded that Washington had officially imposed sanctions on the supply of oil products to Syria. Sanctions apply not only to American companies, but also to every other company.

The President of the Republic of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos will arrive in Armenia on an official visit. This is reported by the e-gov.am website.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos The delegation headed by

The last time a presidential visit from Greece to Armenia took place in 2014, when Karolos Papoulias arrived on a state visit.

On October 27, 1999, a terrorist attack was carried out on the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which RA NA Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and 6 other state figures and NA deputies were killed, 8 people were injured, and 91 were taken prisoner.

The terrorist group captured 91 people, mostly members of the National Assembly. Journalists covering the meeting were also captured, and the terrorists let them out after some time. The injured deputies and members of the government were also released after some time.

The remaining captives were released at dawn on October 28, after the terrorists laid down their weapons and surrendered.

The terrorists are: Nairi Hunanyan, Karen Hunanyan, Vram Galstyan, Derenik Bejanyan, Eduard Grigoryan.

According to the official version, Nairi Hunanyan, who carried out the terrorist attack, organized the operation on his own initiative, worked out the details, involved associates, with the help of which he acquired weapons and entered the National Assembly, and carried out all of that.

In 2013, the Wikileaks website published the former US ambassador to the Republic of Armenia in 2001-2004. of John Ordway the secret letter in which the latter writes about the events of October 27. The ambassador specifically emphasizes that the opposition blames the authorities, who hold the post of president Robert Kocharyan, to keep the entire process of crime detection under their own control. In particular, the ambassador writes:

“Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, relatives of the victims and opposition leaders mostly accuse Kocharyan of establishing his control over the trial, covering up important government information about the case, trying to strengthen his own political positions.”

Ordway emphasizes that Kocharyan and his supporters have categorically denied their involvement in the murders, and the embassy has never seen any evidence to the contrary.

Two years ago, he was a deputy of the “Yelk” faction Aram SargsyanFormer Prime Minister of Armenia Vazgen Sargsyan brother, announced that the crime that took place in the National Assembly on October 27, 1999 will not be revealed under the current authorities. According to him, 99 percent of the public believes that these events are not revealed and only 1 percent claims that they are revealed.

“That 1 percent is in power, that 1 percent are the systems that include the judicial, legislative, and executive bodies, which see danger from revelations, will do everything to prevent the case from being revealed. Therefore, 99 percent of our public believes that the case will be revealed when there is a real change of power in Armenia, a change in the system,” Aram Sargsyan stressed.

In 2018, the government in Armenia changed. Today, a lot of people started talking about reopening the October 27 case. And the other day it became known that Nairi Hunanyan, a life convict of the “Yerevan-Kentron” penitentiary institution of the Ministry of Health, submitted an application for parole a month ago.

The Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informs that a decision will be made in accordance with the law within 80 days.

Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan has already announced that the way out is clear: it will be rejected, but it is obvious that Nairi Hunanyan is becoming a political actor, because everyone urges him to speak and reveal the whole truth. And this can have dangerous prospects.