Category: 2021

 11:58,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) calls for the United States to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid for the people of Artsakh who were forced to flee their homes during the unprovoked attack by Azerbaijan and Turkey that displaced more than 50,000 ethnic Armenians in the region. 

“We plead for the United States to actively negotiate the safe return of Armenian soldiers and citizens who are being held in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed on November 9, 2020. We also urge the broad recognition of the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th century by all political and faith leaders throughout the United States”, NCC said in a statement.

NCC applauded the letter signed by 101 Members of Congress that was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to stress the importance of addressing the “ongoing humanitarian crisis in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh).” 

“We call on President Biden and the Secretary of State to take direct action and negotiate the release of all Armenian soldiers and civilians held by Azerbaijan. Even though the ceasefire agreement mandated that Azerbaijan must free all Armenian prisoners of war and apprehended citizens, Azerbaijan has refused to abide by the agreement. An unknown number, believed to be over 200 Armenians, continue to be held captive. Many were captured after the military hostilities ended”, the statement says.

The Council also condemned the destruction of the churches and religious monuments by Azerbaijan during the conflict.

“As Armenians continue to be displaced and killed, we call for the President to keep his pledge and formally recognize the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2021, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, in order to further the US commitment to human rights”, the statement added.

 11:34,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The Union of the Armenian Communities in Israel organized a demonstration on Tuesday to protest Elbit Systems, an international defense electronics company that manufactures weapons supplied to Azerbaijan, Asbarez reports.

Israel supplies 60 percent of the Azerbaijani military’s armaments, including drones and deadly cluster bombs, which are banned by close to 100 nations. During the war in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Azerbaijan used Israeli weapons to attack innocent civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, and to bomb hospitals and churches.

Presently, Israel’s defense industry is in the process of negotiating yet another arms deal with Azerbaijan, and Israel’s Armenian community cannot be indifferent to this. 

On Tuesday, Israel’s Armenian community gathered outside of Elbit Systems to demand that the Israeli government stop supplying weapons to Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime, and reminding them that, with its growing Islamic fundamentalisms and intolerance towards national minorities, Azerbaijan is an unreliable ally for Israel itself.

 11:19,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The dismissal of Colonel General Onik Gasparyan remains in force, the Prime Minister’s Office said in response to reports that an administrative court ruled in favor of Gasparyan in his lawsuit asking for temporarily securing the suit and invalidating his dismissal.

Gasparyan had filed two lawsuits, one asking to invalidate his dismissal and another asking to secure his lawsuit. The court approved the latter, thus prompting news reports that Gasparyan could get temporarily reinstated. 

However, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that this ruling of the court cannot reverse Gasparyan’s dismissal because it has come into effect by the force of the constitutional norm, citing  Article 139, paragraph 2 of the Constitution.

The Constitution does not envisage the possibility of reversing a decree that has come into force pursuant to a constitutional norm, the Prime Minister’s Office said. 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 10:44,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the leader of the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) opposition party Gagik Tsarukyan are scheduled to hold a meeting on March 18, the Premier’s spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan told ARMENPRESS.

“The meeting between the Prime Minister and Gagik Tsarukyan is planned for today,” she said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 19:14,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova referred to the announcement of the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on holding early parliamentary elections on June 20, ARMENPRESS reports, citing Ria Novosti, Zakharova said in the briefing that Russia views the decision to hold early parliamentary elections as a domestic issue of that country.

”We have recorded that the sides have managed to reach an agreement over the date of the elections. We hope that the pre-election period will be in a constructive atmosphere’’, Zakharova said.