Category: 2021

Artsakh has reported a record number of 178 births in November.

“This is a record number compared to the previous months and is the closest to the pre-war figures,” President Arayik Harutyunyan said in a Facebook post on Friday.

“The true guarantee of our success is demographic growth,” he said, adding that his government will spare no effort to promote population growth through various programs.

A total of 1,614 babies, including 818 boys and 796 girls, were born in Artsakh in 2020. 1,389 of the babies were born in Stepanakert.

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will deliver its order on the request for the indication of provisional measures made by Armenia in the case concerning Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan) on December 7.

A public sitting will take place at 3 p.m. at the Peace Palace in The Hague, during which the President of the Court, Judge Joan E. Donoghue, will read out the ruling, the court said in a press release on Monday.

Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Representative of Armenia before the ECHR, will pay a visit to The Hague on 6-8 December to attend the hearing, according to a decree signed by Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday.

Armenia filed a case against Azerbaijan at the World Court in September, stating Azerbaijan has violated the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Among Armenia’s requested measures are an order to release Armenian prisoners of war and other captives being held in Azerbaijan, as well as to close the so-called “military trophies park”.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly expressed solidarity with Armenian people at a meeting with Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 28th OSCE Ministerial Council on Thursday.

“Met with my Armenian counterpart at OSCE. I expressed Canada’s solidarity with Armenian people, reiterated Canada is deeply concerned by the recent Armenia-Azerbaijan border clash, which resulted in the deaths of Armenian troops,” she tweeted.

“Our thoughts are w/ the victims’ families, loved ones and the community. We call for de-escalation so that a peaceful solution to the conflict may be found,” Joly said in another tweet.

Routes and the procedures for crossing borders are being discussed with Azerbaijan at this stage, Armenian Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration Armen Simonyan told reporters in the parliament on Friday.

Simonyan responded to the rumors about Azerbaijan’s construction of a railroad to Nakhichevan, saying he had no such information.

He underlined that the November 9 statement entails the unblocking of transport and economic communications, while 4 points of the statement of January 11 outline the mechanisms on the basis of which all it should be done.

“Thus, a trilateral working group is set up with the participation of deputy prime ministers and different routes are being studied. The January 11 statement states that railroads and highways are considered a priority,” he said, adding everything is clear in the case of the railroads.

“At this points, routes and border crossing procedures are being discussed. I can’t say anything specific because there is no clarity in this regard. There should be unblocking, nothing else is discussed and will not be discussed by us,” Simonyan said.

Spokesman of the opposition Homeland Party Sos Hakobyan on Friday denounced the statements of Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan during an interview to the Public TV Company.

Responding to the “offensive” remarks of Artur Vanesyan, the leader of the Homeland Party, about Nikol Pashinyan and his team at the interview, Simonyan said they “will not remain unanswered”.

“I just feel sorry for those people. They do not understand politics, they do not know the Armenian people. Well, when did they interact with the people? When did Vanetsyan have communication with the Armenian people? He used to be Serzh Sargsyan’s man, then he was given the opportunity to become a member of the revolutionary team. However, he left the team and found his place next to Serzh Sargsyan. He was among the persons with the highest rating after the revolution, but now his rating has hit rock bottom,” Simonyan said.

“During the 20 years of his activity, Vanetsyan has always fought and rooted out weeds like Simonyan and his colleagues, who do nothing with their activities, but poison the environment with their existence,” Hakobyan told Aravot.am in an interview.

He argued that Vanetsyan was not given the opportunity to do anything, but from the very first day until the day of his resignation, he did everything possible to strongly defend Armenia’s interests, especially in terms of maintaining reliable relations with Armenia’s strategic ally Russia, fighting crime and rooting out corruption in the country.

“When Vanetsyan realized that it was impossible to stop those nation-destroying men alone and preventing the collapse of Armenia and Artsakh, he left politics at the time and came back after some time. Whereas Simonyan, along with his backpack colleagues and political father, will always be remembered by generations as the ones, who turned Armenia from a regional factor into an object of regional negotiations. Generations will remember them for centuries. I think they will still manage to “enjoy” their stigma during their lifetime,” the spokesman said.

He criticized the activity of Simonyan and his team as “useless”, adding they have failed to push ahead with Armenia’s interests at meetings with international partners.

Also, the spokesman stated Simonyan is fulfilling the order of Nikol Pashinyan to “criticize and slander” his opponents.