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YEREVAN — Armenia is extending emergency restrictions for another 10 days until April 10 in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday.
The tiny former Soviet republic of around 3 million people has reported 532 cases of the virus, the highest number in the South Caucasus region. Three people have died.
“We are doing this (extending the restrictions) to keep the situation under control,” Pashinyan said during a live session on Facebook.
Armenia on March 16 declared a month-long state of emergency and later tightened emergency restrictions to include shutting most businesses and restricting free movement. Only grocery stores, pharmacies and banks are allowed to remain open.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said the government could tighten the restrictions further in the coming 10 days.
“We should become more effective and will involve other (law enforcement) bodies in addition to the police controlling the process more effectively,” Avinyan told a briefing.
In neighboring Azerbaijan, the death toll from coronavirus rose to five on Tuesday. The country has reported 297 cases of the virus.
Azerbaijan shut the metro system in the capital Baku on Tuesday until April 20.
The country of about 10 million people has also halted passenger flights and railway connections with Russia.
Only one check-point on a land border between the two ex-Soviet countries continues to operate in a limited capacity.
Another South Caucasus country, Georgia, had reported 110 cases of coronavirus as of Tuesday with no deaths.
(Reporting by Nvard Hovnannisyan; Additional reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku and Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Gareth Jones and Ed Osmond)
Monitoring Desk: The European Union and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have rejected so-called “presidential and parliamentary elections” in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region.
According to State Run News Agency, AZERTAC, European Union strongly rejected elections in Nagorno-Karabakh region and stated as:
“In view of the so-called “presidential and parliamentary elections” in Nagorno-Karabakh on 31 March 2020, the European Union reiterates that it does not recognise the constitutional and legal framework within which they are being held. This event cannot prejudice the determination of the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiation process.
The EU recalls its firm support to the OSCE Minsk Group and, in particular, to its Co-Chairs’ efforts to bring about progress beyond the status quo and substantive negotiations towards comprehensive and sustainable peace. The EU stands ready to further support efforts, aimed at early, peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
Meanwhile OIC has also rejected elections.
“The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), view the holding of elections in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 31 March 2020 as in contravention to the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions concerning the Nagorna-Karabakh conflict,” says a statement published on the organization’s official website.
“The OIC General Secretariat further referred to the resolutions and decisions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe which supports a peaceful solution to the conflict on the basis of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the internationally recognized borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” the statement says.
The authorities of the internationally unrecognised breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh are holding presidential and parliamentary elections amid international criticism and despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that was seized by Armenian-backed separatists who declared independence amid a 1988-1994 conflict that killed at least 30,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Following a Russia-brokered fragile truce in 1994, the region has been under the control of ethnic-Armenian forces that Azerbaijan says include troops supplied by Armenia. The region’s claim to independence has not been recognised by any country.
The ethnic Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh has been expelled from their homelands and lives as internationally displaced persons (IDPs) in Azerbaijan.
Russia, the United States, and France are the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which acts as a mediator in resolving the crisis. The group has been struggling for years to mediate a solution to the situation.
In a sternly worded statement, the European Union reiterated on Tuesday (31 March) that it does not recognise the so-called elections and warned that the move could hamper the progress of international negotiations on resolving the conflict.
“In view of the so-called ‘presidential and parliamentary elections’ in Nagorno-Karabakh on 31 March 2020, the European Union reiterates that it does not recognise the constitutional and legal framework within which they are being held,” EU spokesperson Peter Stano said.
“This event cannot prejudice the determination of the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiation process.”
Stano also reiterated the EU’s “firm support to the OSCE Minsk Group and, in particular, to its Co-Chairs’ efforts to bring about progress beyond the status quo and substantive negotiations towards comprehensive and sustainable peace.”
Azerbaijan and its closest regional ally, Turkey, have both condemned the poll.
The election went ahead despite concerns over the coronavirus outbreak that prompted even some of the candidates to call for their postponement, RFE/RL reported.
As of 30 March, the region reported no coronavirus cases, saying that three people who had been isolated on suspicion of having the virus have tested negative for it.