Category: 2021

 11:25,

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. Turkey’s opposition lawmaker Garo Paylan (HDP) filed a parliamentary inquiry regarding the ongoing construction of shops carried out by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) on an Armenian cemetery in Ulus, Ankara.

Paylan, ethnically Armenian, visited the area to inspect it but was banned from entering the construction site.

“The Ankara Branch of the Chamber of Architects previously announced that the excavation was illegally ongoing in an area allocated for the reconstruction of the Provincial Bank, which had been demolished. It also noted that there was an Armenian and Catholic cemetery in the construction site, adding that human bones were found during excavation,” Bianet reported. The chamber of architects had called the ongoing construction “barbarism.”

In his Parliamentary question addressed to Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum, Paylan has said that even though the officials from the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations examined the area, concrete is still being poured there.

“In spite of this, the construction is still ongoing and concrete is being poured on the area where the graves are located,” Paylan said, according to Bianet.  Paylan asked the government to explain why the construction hasn’t been stopped yet and whether or not they are aware that “TOKİ is destroying the cultural assets and urban memory of Ankara.”

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan

 18:42,

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan and his Russian counterpart Alexey Overchuk held a working meeting in Moscow.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Armenian Deputy PM, the sides discussed Armenian-Russian bilateral trade and economic cooperation issues. During the meeting the sides also referred to the joint works carried out in the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union.

 17:54,

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. Prominent artists, intellectuals and culture professionals of Latvia have made a statement, appealing to Azerbaijan to speed up the exchange of bodies, prisoners of war, and hostages and their return to Armenia, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Embassy of Armenia in Lithuania, Litvia and Estonia.

The announcement particularly says:

”We, artists, intellectuals and culture professionals of the Republic of Latvia, professing our belief in the importance of humane values and joining the initiative of our Lithuanian colleagues, appeal to the authorities of Azerbaijan not to hinder the immediate return to the Republic of Armenia of prisoners of war (PoW) and other detainees, as well as the bodies of the soldiers killed in action and perished during the recent Karabakh war. According to our information, Armenia has already returned to Azerbaijan all PoWs.

We are certain that the unconditional and immediate return of all PoWs is one of the first steps necessary for the renewal of mutual trust between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia.

We call the international community to join this humanitarian initiative thus helping overcome the humanitarian disaster in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) caused by the recent war.”

The statement has been signed by

• Viktors Avotiņš – poet, publicist
• Ināra Beļinkaja – president of the Booksellers Association, director of the company “Jānis Roze”, recipient of the order the Cross of Recognition
• Dana Bjorka – actress, theatre director, director of the Mikhail Chekhov • Riga Russian theatre
• Inguna Cepīte – writer, publisher
• Diāna Dimza Dimme – artist, curator at the Latvian National Museum of Art
• Ina Druviete ‒ professor of the University of Latvia
• Andris Freibergs – stage designer, educator
• Lauris Gundars – screenwriter, playwright, theatre director, educator
• Rafi Haradžanjans – dr. art., recipient of the Order of the Three Stars
• Alvis Hermanis – opera and theatre director, director of the New Riga Theatre
• Nora Ikstena ‒ writer, recipient of the Order of the Three Stars
• Ilze Jaunalksne-Rēdere – journalist
• Viesturs Kairišs – film, opera and theatre director
• Rēzija Kalniņa ‒ actress, theatre director
• Andris Kalnozols – writer, theatre director, actor
• Aiks Karapetjans – film and opera director
• Agrita Kiopa – Vice-Rector for Science of the Riga Stradina University
• Marina Kosteņecka – writer, recipient of the Order of the Three Stars
• Pēteris Krilovs – film and theatre director, educator
• Rolands Kronlaks – chairman of the board of the Latvian Composers Union
• Maija Kūle ‒ dr. habil. phil., philosopher, member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Commander of the Order of the Three Stars
• Zigmars Liepiņš – composer, chairman of the board of the Latvian National Opera (2013-2019), recipient of the Order of the Three Stars
• Andra Manfelde ‒ writer
• Evija Martinsone – opera singer
• Arturs Maskats – composer
• Agnese Meiere – journalist
• Juris Millers – Dr. philol., producer
• Jānis Nords – film director
• Karine Paronjanca – painter
• Kristīne Pasternaka – costume designer
• Georgs Pelēcis – composer, professor of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music
• Juris Poškus – film director, screenwriter
• Elena Privalova – organist, musicologist
• Ainārs Roze – Dr. oec, chairman of the company “Jānis Roze” un “Jāņa Rozes apgāds”
• Kristians Rozenvalds – public relations specialist
• Ainārs Rubiķis ‒ conductor, music director of the Komische Oper Berlin
• Dāvis Sīmanis – film director, educator
• Ojārs Spārītis ‒ vice president of the Latvian Academy of Sciences
• Inga Spriņģe – journalist
• Andris Sprūds – director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs
• Baiba Strautmane – journalist
• Babken Stepanjans – painter
• Reinis Suhanovs – stage designer, theatre director
• Oļegs Šapošņikovs ‒ theatre director, director of the Daugavpils theatre
• Andrejs Šavrejs ‒ journalist
• Gatis Šmits – film and theatre director
• Horen Stalbe – musician
• Leons Taivans ‒ profesor of the University of Latvia
• Sonora Vaice – opera singer
• Pēteris Vasks ‒ composer
• Andris Veismanis – conductor
• Dace Vīgante ‒ writer
• Māra Zālīte – writer, honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

 12:14,

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Sweden are united with relations based on mutual respect and the vision of raising these ties to a qualitatively new level, Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian told his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde, who is the incumbent OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and is in Yerevan on a visit.

“Today’s meeting was a good opportunity to address the potential of cooperation in various sectors and to outline the joint actions for fully utilizing it. The active work of ambassadors and embassies has special role in this process,” Aivazian said at a joint press conference, welcoming the opening of Sweden’s resident embassy in Armenia.

“We highly appreciate Sweden’s support in the realization of reforms agenda in Armenia,” the Armenian FM said.

Linde is also scheduled to meet with President Sarkissian and Prime Minister Pashinyan.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 11:54,

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. 4 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the Republic of Artsakh in the past 24 hours, the ministry of healthcare reported.

As of March 16, 11 infected citizens receive treatment in hospitals, meanwhile the other confirmed cases receive treatment at home.

The ministry has once again urged the citizens to follow all the rules to prevent the further spread of the virus.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 11:45,

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. Doctors have detected the South African coronavirus strain in Russia, TASS reports citing the sanitary watchdog website.

“There have been detected 28 isolates linked to the British variant and two related to the South African variant, and no isolates related to the Brazilian variant have been found”, the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing said.

In 16 other cases different coronavirus mutations were recorded.

Lately, 8,159 samples were collected from several groups of people, including those who had arrived from abroad and their contacts, patients who don’t respond to treatment, children with severe forms of illness.

The tests are carried out by 14 scientific and research organizations of the sanitary watchdog.