Category: 2020

Armenia health minister posts photos of medical workers’ faces

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
Armenia health minister posts photos of medical workers’ faces Armenia health minister posts photos of medical workers’ faces

21:09, 10.04.2020
                  

Minister of Health of Armenia Arsen Torosyan today posted on his Facebook page photos showing how the faces of medical workers working with people infected with coronavirus look after wearing masks for a long time and posted the following caption:

“The scars caused by the coronavirus…”

As reported earlier, a 72-year-old patient died at Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center today. Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Alina Nikoghosyan posted on her Faceboko page that the 72-year-old patient had coronavirus and confirmed two-sided pneumonia, as well as underlying diseases (arterial hypertension, prostate adenoma).

Overall, Armenia reported 937 cases of coronavirus, 5,160 negative results were reported (258 in the past day) in case of testing. At this moment, 777 people are under treatment (4 more in the past day), 149 people have recovered (11 people in the past day), and 12 patients have died.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Artsakh authorities took that decision, and Armenia respects it

Nahapetian Samvel
News.am, Armenia

22:51, 10.04.2020
                  

The elections held in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) are important from the perspectives of human rights, regional security and the peace process. This is what Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said during an interview aired on Armenian Public Television.

“The people of Artsakh exercise their human right to govern public life through elections. The elected authorities will continue to ensure the comprehensive security of the people of Artsakh. Armenia has obviously been and still is the guarantor of Artsakh’s security, and after all, the elected authorities of Artsakh must gain and have the mandate of the people of Artsakh to represent them during the talks over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In this sense, the elections are more than important,” Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said.

According to Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the authorities of Artsakh took the decision to not postpone the elections due to the coronavirus by calculating all the potential risks.

“Yes, it’s a pity that there was no observation mission due to the coronavirus, but at the end of the day, the people of Artsakh vote for themselves, not observers. The authorities of Artsakh took that decision, and Armenia respects it,” Armenia’s foreign minister said.

Five COVID-19 cases confirmed in Artsakh

Markos Nalchajian
Public Radio of Armenia


 The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Artsakh has reached five, Artsakh’s Information Headquarters informs.

One of the patients is a relative of the resident of Mirik community, who was the first to be diagnoses with COVID-19 in Artsakh.

The second is a resident of the city of Karvachar (born in 1951) who was accepted to Republican medical center with double pneumonia and has chronic diseases. The citizen’s family has been in self-isolation under strict medical control. The patient’s contacts are being tracked.

Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church

Arsine Chaltikian
Your Central Valley, Fresno, CA

Sunday Service
Posted: Apr 10, 2020 / 11:52 AM PDT / Updated: Apr 10, 2020 / 11:52 AM PDT

Armenia seeks to weaken environmental information law

Antranik Varosian
EurasiaNet.org
Ani Mejlumyan Apr 10, 2020

A Caucasian leopard at Khosrov Forest State Reserve (WWF) 

Armenia’s government has asked parliament to approve legislation that could weaken the country’s freedom of information law. Environmental campaigners say the law would benefit mining interests at the expense of local communities.

The draft was listed in a government database for public scrutiny in December, but civil society groups say the version approved on April 2 – while the country is in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic and protests are forbidden by the state of emergency – differs substantively.

Both versions would forbid authorities from disclosing the location where endangered species, such as the Caucasian leopard (also known as the Persian leopard), breed. But the approved version includes an extra clause that would give authorities the right to withhold “information that can negatively affect the environment.”

“The law is ambiguous. How the law is interpreted shouldn’t be decided by a politician. The text has to be clear,” said Shushan Doydoyan, president of Freedom of Information Center Armenia, a watchdog.

The bill has now gone for consideration to parliament, which is controlled by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s My Step alliance.

The backdrop to the legislative amendment is the multiyear struggle over the Amulsar gold mine in southern Armenia.

Amulsar has been one of the government’s key challenges since coming to power two years ago. It has pitted grassroots activists of the type that were instrumental in bringing Pashinyan to office against Western embassies and investors who promise that the mine will provide jobs.

Work on the mine was begun under the previous government despite irregularities in studies showing it would not harm the environment. Last summer, Pashinyan appeared to give his go ahead for the project. Following an outcry, he backtracked, saying he would further study the issue.

Doydoyan fears the new law could be used to classify information about mining projects. “Decisions about mining are made in discussions with the public. If the public is denied information, how would people make an informed and fact-based decision?” she told Eurasianet.

The Ministry of Environment says it is not seeking to limit the flow of information, only to bring Armenia’s legislation in line with international standards.

“Under the current law, if, for example, a person requests information about the breeding site of the Caucasian leopard, we are obliged to provide that information within five working days,” the ministry said in a press release.

The UN Aarhus convention on access to information and environmental justice allows governments to deny information requests “if the disclosure would adversely affect the environment to which the information relates, such as the breeding sites of rare species.”

But Armenia’s human rights ombudsman isn’t buying the ministry’s argument. In an April 3 statement, the ombudsman’s office said the bill does not reflect the spirit of the Aarhus convention and called on parliament to guarantee the freedom of information.

 

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

Armenia’s Health Minister does not believe COVID-19 is receding

Emil Lazarian
MediaMax.am, Armenia

Speaking at the National Assembly today, Torosyan has specified that previously confirmed cases were infected in the same hotspot but now the infection sources vary.

 “Our job is to discover each case, test the potential patient, confirm the case, isolate the contacts, and treat the patients. We have to keep completing these steps as long as we can. When we are no longer able to do it, we’ll only test and treat. If the spread grows, we won’t isolate people anymore, because it would be pointless,” he said.

 According to Arsen Torosyan, the priority is to keep the number of deaths and the workload in the hospital as low as possible.



Works carried out to transport Armenian citizens to homeland

Elizabeth Jabejian
Aysor, Armenia

The Commandant’s office and Foreign Affairs Ministry are dealing with the transportation of passengers from Moscow and solve their issues, Armenia’s Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said at press conference today.

The minister said during the past week at least three planes arrived in Armenia, one from Belarus, two from Moscow.

“The passengers were moved to the quarantine place, mainly in Yerevan and not only,” he said.

Torosyan said currently works are being carried out to organize other flights, the details of which will be reported by the MFA.

Chinese medical supplies arrive in Yerevan, Armenia

Chalian Meline
Xinhua, China

Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-10 16:06:40|Editor: huaxia
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Workers transfer medical supplies from China at the Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia, April 8, 2020. A batch of humanitarian aid including disposable surgical masks, protection suits, and ventilators from China to support Armenia’s fight against COVID-19 arrived at the country’s Zvartnots International Airport on Wednesday. (Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via Xinhua)

Workers transfer medical supplies from China at the Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia, April 8, 2020. A batch of humanitarian aid including disposable surgical masks, protection suits, and ventilators from China to support Armenia’s fight against COVID-19 arrived at the country’s Zvartnots International Airport on Wednesday. (Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via Xinhua) 

Karabakh MFA: Today marks 28th anniversary of massacre of Armenians in Maragha

Ani Basmajian
News.am, Armenia

13:59, 10.04.2020
                  

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on Friday issued a statement on the 28th anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Maragha. The statement reads as follows:

Today marks the 28th anniversary of the massacre of civilians of the Armenian settlement of Maragha, Martakert region of the Republic of Artsakh, committed by the armed forces of Azerbaijan. The massacre in Maragha is an unprecedented war crime committed by the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the basis of hatred against Armenians aimed at the annihilation of the Armenian population.

On April 10, 1992, after several hours of shelling, the Azerbaijani armed units invaded Maragha. Prior to this, a significant part of the population was evacuated, but the people who remained in the village, were subjected to inhuman torture and massacre by the Azerbaijani servicemen. The self-defense forces of Artsakh managed to liberate Maragha, but two weeks later, the Azerbaijani troops attacked the settlement again and committed new crimes against the civilians who had returned to bury their relatives.

Maragha was captured by the Azerbaijani armed forces and to this day is under the occupation of Azerbaijan. According to various data, including the reports of the human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as a result of the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in Maragha over 50 civilians, including 30 women, were brutally killed. About 50 more people, including 29 women and 9 children, were taken captive, and the fate of 19 civilians is still unknown.

As testified by Member and former Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of Great Britain, human rights activist Baroness Caroline Cox, who visited the village with representatives of the organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide immediately after the tragedy, the bodies of the brutally murdered residents of Maragha were dismembered, mutilated, and burned. Lady Cox called Maragha “contemporary Golgotha many times over”.

The massacre of Armenians of Maragha became another manifestation of the consistent policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities against the Armenian people, first in Sumgait, Baku and other settlements of Azerbaijan in 1988-1990, and later in Northern Artsakh. The fact that commander of the Azerbaijani armed units Taghiyev Shahin Taliboglu, who had committed the massacre in Maragha, was awarded the title of national hero of Azerbaijan testifies that the responsibility for this crime lies entirely with the Azerbaijani authorities. The impunity of the crimes committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians and the lack of an adequate political and legal assessment by the international community created favorable conditions for rooting an atmosphere of hatred towards Armenians and all Armenian at the state level in Azerbaijan. 24 years later, in April 2016, during the aggression unleashed against Artsakh, Azerbaijan attempted to use the same methods to carry out new genocidal acts in Artsakh that were prevented by the decisive actions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh.

The massacres of civilians in Maragha are a crime against humanity with s no statute of limitations, and they must be condemned by the international community, and their organizers and executors must be justly punished.

Today we bow our heads in commemoration of the victims of the massacre in Maragha and assure that the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh will take all measures to guarantee the inalienable right of the people of Artsakh to live freely and safely in its homeland.

Armenia’s health minister says no return to former lifestyle for at least 1-2 years

Ani Kharatian
Aysor, Armenia

No return to former lifestyle should be expected in near future, Armenia’s Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said at press conference today, adding that for at least 1-2 year it will be impossible to return to former way of living.

Asked whether there are any statements he regrets to have made before, Torosyan said he never avoids accepting his mistakes.

“In conditions of having new disease and knowing little about it, I may make a statement which later may appear not to be accurate due to revealing new things about it,” Torosyan said, adding that it was the case with him.