Category: 2020

 09:39, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. A gas explosion in an apartment building in a northeastern district of Yerevan has caused the building to partially collapse.

The incident took place at 3 Raynis Street in the Kanaker-Zeytun district.  The blast is said to be caused by a gas leak.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations said a 911 call was received at 07:18 on August 26.

Multiple emergency first-responders were sent to the scene.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said on social media that he personally visited the scene early morning.

Minister of Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakyan is also present at the scene.

According to preliminary information two people were trapped under the rubbles and were rescued by emergency personnel. Another 21 people were evacuated. Two people are being treated for injuries at the Heratsi Hospital. No fatalities were reported.

The Heratsi Hospital said the two victims, a man and a woman, are currently being examined. The man is in a critical condition.

The Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan has ordered the City Hall to provide temporary accommodation to residents of the building.

He said experts will evaluate the building and if deemed fit for repair it will be reconstructed.

Corrections: This article has been updated with information on the victims and the mayor’s instructions.

 Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 10:56, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian had a meeting with heads of several companies operating in the tourism sector, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian said this is his second extended-format meeting with the tourism sector representatives and proposed to hold it in a practical environment discussing concrete assistance opportunities by the President and the presidential institute.

The meeting participants presented a number of problems, in particular touching upon the possible steps, including the need for state assistance, aimed at restoring the tourism sector in Armenia. They stated that after the previous meeting with the President certain actions have been taken on this direction.

President Sarkissian attached importance to the information both about the situation, the country and concrete areas. He also highlighted focusing on the local market in line with the foreign tourism market. “Domestic market should become one of your directions, and you need to support the local tourism to develop”, he said. “The main development assistance by you I see that you must be able to dictate certain conditions and demands for the right organization of work, ensuring service quality and the necessary hygiene. Over the past two weeks I visited many provinces, communicated with the local residents. I noticed that people have started to think about giving one or two rooms of their homes for rent which can become an additional source of income, especially when these infrastructures do not exist, there are no small hotels in each village”.

As for the assistance by the presidential institute, President Sarkissian proposed to form a working group and clearly outline the main directions. “We can assist you with participation to international structures or exhibitions at forums”, he said, adding that people need to know Armenia, what it is and what they can expect from Armenia.

He also touched upon the implementation of several projects and international events in Armenia at the initiative of the presidential institute which will also contribute to the tourism development and awareness raising on Armenia. “We are ready to cooperate with you within the frames of each project. Each of them has a connection with tourism in some sense. The first project is ATOM. It’s about the development of artificial intelligence in Armenia, and in addition to the city of artificial intelligence and cooperation with major companies, it also involves a number of other programs. One of them is the Armenian Summit of Minds. Here as well we are ready to involve you as a partner. The working group can directly work with us. Invitation is sent to nearly 3000 individuals, of which we choose 300.

The next one is STARMUS. I think that we can cooperate starting today. All these measures can contribute to tourism development. Many of the guests arrive with their families, discover Armenia and establish ties.

The next project is the Hay Park. It’s an Armenian project over which we expect the whole Armenian people to unite starting from the Diaspora to Artsakh and Armenia. We also aim at cooperating with you on the sidelines of this project”, the President said, once again expressing readiness to cooperate and assist the tourism sector representatives.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 11:23, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. 131 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 43,067, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said today.

251 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 36,726.

1696 tests were conducted in the past one day.

3 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 861.

The number of people who had a coronavirus but died from other diseases has reached 264 (4 new such cases).

The number of active cases is 5216.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 11:53, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. No new case of the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in the Republic of Artsakh in the past 24 hours, the ministry of healthcare said.

So far, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Artsakh is 271, with 252 recoveries.

The number of active cases stands at 17.

35 citizens are currently quarantined.

No death case has been registered.

Two death cases have been registered, when the patients had a coronavirus but died from other disease. 

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 11:01, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. Vahe Jilavyan has been appointed acting deputy minister of environment.

The respective decision has been signed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 11:56, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Minister of Defense Makar Ghambaryan will lead a delegation to the Russian city of Irkutsk from September 14-18 for the 15th meeting of the Armenia-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 12:30, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan issued a statement on the domestic violence incident in an Armenian town which left several children injured and one 6-year-old dead.

Gevorgyan stressed that the incident must receive the strongest assessment by the law enforcement agencies.

“I am shocked by the news of a 6-year-old child’s death caused by the child’s grandfather’s violence,” Gevorgyan said on social media. “This inhumane act must receive the strongest assessment by law enforcement agencies. Horrifying cases of domestic violence continue in our society, and it is time to adopt a stronger toolkit in the fight against domestic violence, and to encourage the people under the spotlight to actively work with law enforcement agencies to prevent and rule out such cases.”

She reminded that the victim of another domestic violence case, a 14-year-old girl from Gyumri, recovered from injuries and was discharged from a hospital several months ago, while the child’s mother was once again subjected to domestic violence.

“Law enforcement agencies must carry out quick and comprehensive investigations into these incidents. I think that judicial outcomes of these cases will prevent their repetition to some extent. My condolences to the child’s relatives,” she said.

A 28-year-old woman from the village of Khashtarak, Tavush was arrested last week on suspicion of severely beating her five children. The woman’s father, 57, is also arrested on the same suspicion. A preliminary investigation has revealed that the woman has also regularly battered her two nephews. The 7 children have been recognized as victims in the criminal case. 

One of the children, a 4-year-old, has suffered severe head injury, while a 6-year-old was hospitalized in critical condition. The 6-year-old failed to regain consciousness and died from multiple traumas.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 13:12, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. Rescuers found the body of a man under the rubbles of the apartment building in Yerevan which was partially destroyed by a gas explosion Wednesday morning.

The victim is a 58-year-old man.

The explosion was caused by a gas leak.

Two others are hospitalized. One of them is critically injured.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said on social media that personally visited the scene early morning.

The incident took place at 3 Raynis Street in the Kanaker-Zeytun district. 

The Mayor of Yerevan said the residents of the building will be provided with temporary accommodation until experts will evaluate the possibility of restoring the building. 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 14:11, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS., Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the Foreign Minister of Armenia, held a phone conversation today with Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, the Armenian MFA told Armenpress.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Sergey Lavrov discussed regional developments following the July battles and within that context the situation unfolded around the Nagorno Karabakh peace process.

Minister Mnatsakanyan emphasized the importance of the Armenian-Russian cooperation aimed at maintaining regional peace, stability and security.

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia also exchanged views on issues of the agenda of Armenian-Russian allied relations.

 13:57, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. According to the specialists of the UN e-government development survey, Armenia will soon appear in the list of very high digitized governed countries, Minister of High Technological Industry Hakob Arshakyan said during a press conference today.

“According to the survey results Armenia is in the list of countries with very highly developed human capital. According to the forecasts of the research specialists Armenia will soon change its group from high EDGI to the very high EDGI group”, the minister said.

The minister said according to the survey in 2020 Armenia has improved its positions by 19 points compared to 2018 and recorded the highest progress in the Asian region, capturing the 68^th place against the previous 87^th.

Minister Arshakyan informed that Armenia’s 2020-2025 draft digitization strategy has been developed. The digitization processes and the process of developing cyber-security standards are underway.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan