Category: 2020

ACNIS reView from Yerevan #8, 2020_Weekly Update_29 February – 07 March

Jalatian Sonya
Weekly Update   

08 MARCH 2020    

 

  • RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, on his Facebook page, urged citizens to create networks for the campaign “Yes” for the referendum on constitutional changes in a networked way, ARMINFO According to him, those supporters who, for various reasons, were not involved in the work of the “Yes” headquarters, can form their own teams at their workplaces, in places of residence, with the involvement of family members, and conduct a campaign. Thus, as the Prime Minister noted, from one to two, from two to three, etc. a network system will be created, and the movement in favor of a referendum will acquire not an official, but a nationwide character.  “Use all the possibilities for this in transport, at work, during breaks, during walks,” the prime minister jokingly said, adding that “Yes” can be said even during broadcasts of football matches.

 

  • President Armen Sarkissian received today the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin. The parties exchanged views on the issues related to cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Russian Federation in different areas, the Presidential Office Ambassador Kopyrkin expressed gratitude for the recently organized Russian Romance event held in the framework of the Presidential Concert Series which was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. Discussed were also opportunities of organizing joint events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory. The interlocutors spoke also about cooperation in the areas of science, education, and new technologies.

 

  • According to TASS, the Russian-Turkish summit that focused on the situation in Syria’s Idlib has ended in the Kremlin. The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan lasted almost 6 hours. Russia, Turkey and Iran signed the memorandum, according to which the Idlib province became part of one of the four de-escalation zones in Syria, in May 2017. In September 2018, the Russian and Turkish presidents reached an agreement to set up a demilitarized zone in that province along the line of engagement of Syrian government forces and the armed opposition. Despite the agreements, extremists were not withdrawn from Idlib and continued to shell government forces’ positions. Since then, the situation in the region has deteriorated several times, including at the beginning of 2020.

 

  • The Constitutional Court of Armenia has accepted for consideration two bills that had been earlier submitted by the president, PANORAMA To remind, President Armen Sarkissian earlier refused to sign the law citing “apparent legal-constitutional problems” emanating from them and asked the Constitutional Court to pass judgment on them. The bills in question are “On making amendments and Supplements to the RA Code of Criminal Procedure and “Supplements to the Law on Bank Secrecy.”

 

  • Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Georgia on an official visit. Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani met the Prime Minister of Armenia at the Shota Rustaveli International Airport in Tbilisi. Nikol Pashinyan headed to the Office of Georgian government to hold high-level Armenian-Georgian talks, said the Prime Minister Office. Meetings are scheduled with Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, President Salome Zurabishvili, Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze and Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.

 

  • Advisor to the Minister of Justice of Armenia Hasmik Sardaryan and Head of the Department of International Legal Cooperation at the Ministry of Justice Tigran Grigoryan today received the delegation of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, as reported the Department of Information and Public Relations at the Ministry of Justice, said News.am. The draft of the Constitutional Law “On making amendments and supplements to the Constitutional Law “On political parties” was touched upon during the meeting. In response to the delegates’ questions, the Advisor to the Minister of Justice touched upon the interpretation of several provisions stated in the bill. Summing up the meeting, the parties agreed to continue correspondence in regard to the opinions and questions that were expressed and raised during the discussion.
  • Armenia’s government closed all schools, universities and kindergartens until March 8 after reporting the first case of coronavirus in the country on Sunday. Authorities also quarantined three dozen people who have been in contact with a 29-year-old Armenian man who tested positive for the virus overnight. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) reported. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said in the morning that the infected man and his wife were among Armenian nationals evacuated from neighboring Iran on a special Tehran-Yerevan flight on Friday.

 

  • Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, accompanied by his family, Cabinet members and other government officials, paid tribute to the memory of the 2008 March 1 unrest victims today, on the 12th anniversary of the events, ARMENPRESS The PM laid a wreath near the Myasnikyan statue in central Yerevan. A rally was scheduled to take place, but the mass gathering was cancelled after authorities confirmed the first novel coronavirus case in the country.

 

Sources: https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/, https://www.president.am, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://panorama.am, https://tass.com/, https://arminfo.info/.

  

 

ACNIS reView from Yerevan #8, 2020_Editorial_Armenia and the United Nations

Ani Basmajian

Editorial   

06 MARCH 2020 

On March 2, 1992, Armenia became a member-state of the United Nations, and the Republic’s first minister of foreign affairs (and later ACNIS founder) Raffi K. Hovannisian raised the nation’s tricolor standard in front of UN headquarters and delivered its first official address to the General Assembly.

This week, to mark that historic day, in lieu of editorial we provide a link to Public Television’s interview with Hovannisian on March 2, 2020.

 

 

 

 
 

ACNIS reView from Yerevan #7, 2020_Editorial_Armenia and the United Nations

Emil Lazarian
Editorial   

06 MARCH 2020 

On March 2, 1992, Armenia became a member-state of the United Nations, and the Republic’s first minister of foreign affairs (and later ACNIS founder) Raffi K. Hovannisian raised the nation’s tricolor standard in front of UN headquarters and delivered its first official address to the General Assembly.

This week, to mark that historic day, in lieu of editorial we provide a link to Public Television’s interview with Hovannisian on March 2, 2020.

 

 

 

 
 

Armenian MP visits Kurtan villager

Albert Nalbandian
News.am, Armenia

18:53, 11.03.2020
                  

Deputy of the My Step faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Sipan Pashinyan today visited resident of Kurtan village Mekhak Arakelyan, who approached the Prime Minister with a problem with housing during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Stepanavan.

During the meeting, the deputy stated that many people have expressed willingness to solve Mekhak Arakelyan’s problems, but added that details would be provided after the referendum for constitutional amendments so that nobody speculates anything.

Sipan Pashinyan told reporters that he understood that Arakelyan really has health problems after watching the video of the conversation between the Prime Minister and the resident of Kurtan posted on the Internet and promised that he would provide details about the assistance after the referendum.

On March 7, during Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Lori Province, 34-year-old resident of Kurtan village Mekhak Arakelyan approached the Prime Minister and asked him for help. During the live broadcast, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan scolded the man and urged him to work and build a home and not address the Prime Minister with such issues.


Armenia confirms 3 new cases of coronavirus

Alex Nanijanian
News.am, Armenia

20:56, 11.03.2020
                  

Armenia has confirmed three new cases of coronavirus. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“Today, unfortunately, Armenia recorded three new cases of coronavirus.

Two of the infected are citizens of Armenia aged 45 and 27, and one is a citizen of Italy, who is 51 years old and works in Armenia. All three arrived from Italy.

The circle of their interactions is being clarified in order to isolate them, and according to preliminary information, it isn’t a large circle.

The citizen of Italy and one of the citizens of Armenia don’t have complaints, but the other citizen of Armenia has pneumonia.

The patients were registered as soon as they arrived.

Predicting that there were going to be questions why the government didn’t make a decision to stop flights from Italy, I must say that the government considered the possibility several times and came to the conclusion that the potential infected people can arrive in Armenia from Italy’s neighboring countries such as France and Austria since there are no restrictions within the EU.

In other words, with the same logic, the government had to close borders with other EU member states, especially since the coronavirus is also spreading to other countries across Europe.

Now airline companies have decided to cancel flights from Italy.

I must say that the people staying at Golden Palace Hotel and the first diagnosed patient are fine and have no complaints.

Dear compatriots, I ask you to keep calm and follow the advice of the Ministry of Healthcare regarding the preventive measures,” he wrote.



Opinion: Ilham Aliyev’s ‘cartographic’ fears

Emil Lazarian
Panorama, Armenia

Author Anna Mkrtchyan

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s failure to find his “historical homeland” on the map at a local museum in the city of Tovuz a few days ago must have affected him deeply.

In his opening remarks at the first session of the Azerbaijani parliament’s (Milli Majlis) 6th convocation on March 10, Pres. Aliyev spoke, among other things, of Armenia’s “historical falsification” and maps.

“Just look at the maps published in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century to make sure that the overwhelming majority of the names of present-day territory of Armenia are of Azeri origin,” Aliyev said, arguing that “historical justice” in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is on the Azerbaijani side, while Armenians have no serious arguments and are engaged in falsification and bribing some politicians.

Once again he referred to the Kurekchay Treaty signed by Ibrahim Khalil Khan and the Russian General Tsitsianov in 1805, stressing that it makes no mention of Armenians. There is no mention of Azerbaijan either in the document. Moreover, no historical document makes any reference to the present-day Azerbaijan until the beginning of the 20th century, in which Aliyev was personally convinced at the Tovuz Museum. That is also why he refers to the maps of the 20th century.

In general, Ilham Aliyev’s obsession with manipulating the historical aspects of the Karabakh conflict would have been incomprehensible and absurd, if it had not been for the very pronounced tendency of “presenting the desired instead of the reality” in Azerbaijani propaganda and in Aliyev’s public messages. It’s not clear at what extent Ilham Aliyev believes in his own words, but that mentality is striking in his March 10 speech.

He speaks of the establishment of democracy in Azerbaijan, successful and free parliamentary elections and the _expression_ of people’s will, whereas the reality is quite different, as stated by all serious international structures and reports. Aliyev speaks of sweeping reforms and increased role of the newly elected parliament, but his speech largely contained direct instructions on the deputies’ future work. He complains that local executive officials are still referred to as khans, but he forgets about the cult of personality surrounding himself and his father Aliyev. The vivid evidence of this is also the remarks of the chief of staff of the Milli Mejlis addressed to Ilham Aliyev at the opening of the same session: “We express our deep gratitude to you for the creative continuity of the development strategy set up by the founder of the independent Azerbaijani state, great leader Heydar Aliyev ….”

Aliyev talks about interfaith dialogue, taking pride in the fact that the Pope praises Azerbaijan’s achievements in this area, but in another part of the same speech, he urges lawmakers to play the Muslim solidarity card in the fight against Armenians.

In a nutshell, lies and hypocrisy are everywhere in the Azerbaijani authorities’ couloirs. In all spheres, Ilham Aliyev resorts to a distortion of facts and realities that is typical of totalitarian regimes. While the current developments in Azerbaijan pursue only one goal – to keep public unrest under control through limited reforms.

No matter how much Ilham Aliyev tries to portray himself as an “enlightened monarch” or a “popular tsar”, he remains an ordinary tyrant who has serious problems with the old maps.

Analyst: Coronavirus situation dealt major blow to tourism in Armenia

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia

18:25, 11.03.2020
                  

During a conversation with reporters today, representative of the Office for Economic Research of the Bureau of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party, economist Suren Parsyan said he hopes the coronavirus situation is solved by April since the virus has dealt a major blow to tour operators and tourism in Armenia, for that matter.

According to the analyst, people aren’t taking any trips abroad, and the country has recorded a decline in the flow of tourists. The economist added that this deals a major blow to small travel agencies, most of which are closing their doors.

Moreover, as the analyst stated, flights in several directions have already been canceled. Parsyan also stated that if Armenia follows the example of Georgia and Azerbaijan and closes its borders, this will make the situation more complicated than it already is.

According to Parsyan, the coronavirus situation clearly showed the weak sides of Armenia’s economy and domestic policy, and the government needs to be more attentive to healthcare and pay special attention to the development of state clinics and hospitals, not close them.

Towards a Digitized Citizen-oriented Armenian Cadastre

Boshkezenian Garik
GIM International
 
 
 
 
 – 11/03/2020
 
 
Armenia is moving towards a more transparent, secure, unified and citizen-oriented cadastral system. To achieve this, digitizing cadastral archives is essential. Digital availability of cadastral information will enable better management of lands, documented rights and tenure security for all Armenians. The Cadastre Committee has requested Kadaster, The Netherlands’ Land Registry and Mapping Agency, for support.
 
In Armenia there is currently no unified approach to archive cadastral and land registry records. The integrated cadastre on real estate has little ability to support management and assessment of lands and real estate, and the registration of the natural, economic and legal status of those lands. The Cadastre Committee (CC) plans to reform by introducing an advanced self-service and paperless system, based on electronic registration and information processes. This digital system will be one of the pillars of the new real estate cadastre.
 
Digitization will have a positive influence on the functioning of the Armenian Government and the private sector. Databases for e-Governance will serve as a foundation for a modern and broader service provision of the Government of Armenia, which in turn will have a positive effect on corruption reduction and Government accountability.
 
Dutch support
 
CC has asked the Netherlands, and specifically Kadaster, for support with the digitization of its archives. The project is supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). In October 2019, Kadaster and CC experts exchanged experiences during a TAIEX expert mission in Yerevan. The interactive meetings gave valuable insights in the current situation and also demonstrated the strong ambition and willingness of CC staff to digitise the complete archives.
 
In the coming years, Kadaster will support CC with the digitization strategy and implementation. The project starts with detailed assessment of both the existing archives and related documents, as well as the systems and processes used to manage them. Also the experts of CC will have the opportunity to visit the Netherlands.
 
Source: Abroad (Kadaster International), edition March 2020, author: Paula Dijkstra.
 
 

Open Society Foundations-Armenia: Since revolution, society’s expectations changed regarding agreement with EU

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia

14:31, 11.03.2020
                  

YEREVAN. – Since the revolution in Armenia, public expectations in the areas of social, economic, and democracy have changed regarding Implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Armenia and the European Union (EU). Larisa Minasyan, Executive Director of Open Society Foundations-Armenia (Soros foundation), said this at the launch of the program, entitled “Civil Society Monitoring of the Implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between Armenia and the European Union.”

According to her, the new Armenian authorities have found an opportunity to make sense of what the previous authorities have declaratively adopted by supplementing them with three strategies: the judiciary, human rights, and the fight against corruption.

Minasyan, however, expressed a  regret that the reforms that Armenia had to implement within the framework of CEPA have remained on paper, and furthermore, other goals were implemented under the implementation of these principles, and as a result, instead of transparent elections, the Armenian society became more controllable during election campaigns, and instead of an independent judiciary, a body was formed that serves the interests of certain circles.

Azerbaijani press: U.S. think tank hosts discussions on Azerbaijan (VIDEO)

Boris Nahapetian

Thu 12 Mar 2020 06:42 GMT | 10:42 Local Time

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Sutherland Institute, one of the leading U.S. think tanks in the State of Utah, hosted a panel discussion dedicated to Azerbaijan’s traditions of interfaith harmony and multiculturalism featuring an interfaith delegation from Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that the visit of the delegation to Utah, which includes representatives of various religious communities and government entities, has been jointly organized by the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles, Baku International Multiculturalism Center (BIMC), the State Committee on Religious Associations of of Azerbaijan (SCRA), and the Utah-based Stirling Foundation.

Opening the event, President and CEO of the Sutherland Institute Rick Larsen expressed his appreciation for hosting such an important event and welcomed the Azerbaijani delegation.

Speaking afterwards, CEO of the Stirling Foundation Ed Rowe welcomed everyone at this historic event and said that this is the first visit of religious leaders and government officials responsible for religious affairs from Azerbaijan to the State of Utah. He also stated that he lived in Azerbaijan 20 years ago and quickly fell in love with Azerbaijani people and culture.

In his speech, Azerbaijan’s Consul General in Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev said: “We are proud of this diversity, interfaith harmony and understanding in Azerbaijan… In Azerbaijan’s case it is beyond tolerance; it is about accepting each other, respecting each other’s faith and traditions.”

Then panel discussions followed. Executive Director of the BIMC Ravan Hasanov, Deputy Chairman of the SCRA Gunduz Ismayilov, Executive Director of the Spiritual Values Promotion Foundation Mehman Ismayilov, Deputy Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims’ Board Fuad Nurullayev, Chairman of the Baku religious community of European Jews Alexandr Sharovski and the Secretary of the Baku Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church Mefodi Afandiyev spoke about Azerbaijan’s ancient traditions of multiculturalism, interfaith acceptance and harmony. They noted that Muslims, Jews, Christians and representatives of other faiths have been living together in peace, dignity and mutual respect for centuries in the majority-Muslim Azerbaijan. Afterwards they responded to numerous questions from the audience.