Former Director of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia, Chairman of the Homeland Party Artur Vanetsyan disapproves of the appointment of Argishti Kyaramyan as new chief of the law-enforcement agency.
“Argishti Kyaramyan’s appointment as Director of the National Security Service poses a threat to national security,” he said at a program on Yerkir Media TV channel.
He argued that Kyaramyan, who lacks management experience and has never served at national security structures, will now have access to a lot of information and will have to make quick and operational decisions in different situations.
“Whereas, the National Security Service does not only deal with the fight against economic crimes and corruption. It has more serious problems, such as intelligence and counterintelligence, with long-term work experience required to handle them,” the ex-NSS chief said.
Vanetsyan disagreed with the claims of civil society activists that by picking an unexperienced person to head the National Security Service, it will be possible to get rid of Russian influence on the structure.
“Let me make it clear that the National Security Service of Armenia has never been under Russian influence. These are false allegations made by some circles,” he said, stating civil society activists have received funds from different organizations and countries to carry out anti-Russian propaganda in Armenia and some of them are in power today.
“The allegations that the NSS is under Russian influence are false. By making such statements, some people are fulfilling the orders of their clients,” Vanetsyan said.
YEREVAN, June 11. /TASS/. Coronavirus cases in Armenia grew by 566 in the past twenty-four hours compared to 428 the day before, the republic’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday.
“In the past twenty-four hours, 566 new coronavirus cases were identified and 240 patients recovered from the illness. As many as 5,466 patients have recovered from the illness to date while the total number of infected individuals stands at 14,669,” the ministry said in a statement.
Eighteen coronavirus patients died at Armenian hospitals in the past twenty-four hours, bringing total fatalities in the republic to 245. Yerevan hospitals conducted over 2,200 coronavirus tests in the past day and their total number reached 75,389 since the start of the pandemic in the republic, the Health Ministry’s data indicate.
The situation with the coronavirus spread in Armenia remains tense. In the past week, the republic would register from 200 to 400 new coronavirus cases daily and the total number of infections surpassed 14,600, the latest data show.
Armenia registered the first coronavirus case on March 1. On March 16, the Armenian authorities introduced a state of emergency and a strict lockdown regime. On May 18, the Armenian government lifted all economic restrictions and public transport, the subway, restaurants and shopping centers resumed operation. After the restrictions were lifted, the number of coronavirus cases grew significantly. On May 25, the Armenian authorities introduced mandatory regime of wearing face masks.
In early June, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the scope of violations of epidemiological safety standards was disastrous and the country was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Amid these statements, he dismissed on June 8 the heads of the country’s law enforcement agencies, saying that they had failed to keep the situation under control. Armenia’s Health Ministry has said that the hospitals are swamped and hundreds of people are on the waiting lists for hospitalization.
In early June, Pashinyan announced that he and his family members had contracted the coronavirus. A week later, it was reported that all of them had recovered.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 7,471,190 people have been infected worldwide and more than 419,260 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 3,788,860 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
Since last night, Turkey-led groups have been literally firing at Lebanese-Armenians. This is what Lebanese-Armenian public figure Sako Arian wrote in his Facebook post under the title “Troubling News from the Armenian Community of Beirut”.
“The problem arose when a person who presented himself as a Lebanese posed threats to host of Al Javid TV station, famous Armenian journalist Nshan Ter-Harutyunyan during an interactive show on WhatsApp, referring to him as a migrant and foreigner. In his turn, Nshan opposed the caller and stressed that Erdogan, Turkey and the Ottomans are insidious.
After the show, dozens of people, most of whom live abroad, made provocative statements against the Armenians, justified the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks and said ‘you Armenians are insidious and deserve those murders’. They also praised the fact that they were so-called Ottoman Turks and the followers and supporters of Erdogan.
Arian doesn’t think these provocations are unexpected since those following the developments in Lebanon from afar have noticed Ankara’s ambitions to become established in Lebanon to establish a so-called ‘Turkish lobby’ in northern Lebanon.
“Syria, Libya and now Lebanon…this is Ankara’s new plan, and unfortunately, the Sunni Arab world has become a silent and helpless observer. In closing, I would like to address my Lebanese-Armenian friends with the certainty that they will confront this trial with pride and courage as well. May God be with our people.”