Category: 2021

 16:45,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Armenia will not agree with Azerbaijan’s claims that the “town of Shushi is a center of Turkish culture”, Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian said in parliament when asked on the matter by My Step bloc MP Tatevik Hayrapetyan.

“Shushi is an Armenian cultural center. We will not agree to the claims that Shushi is a Turkish cultural center. We are sure that we will receive the international community’s support in this matter,” Aivazian said.

The Azeri authorities have announced that they want to transform Shushi – a town in Nagorno Karabakh which was captured by the Azeri forces during the 2020 Artsakh War – into a “Turkish cultural center”.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 16:52,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ara Aivazian sees need for formation of a common agenda of the Armenian side over the Nagorno Karabakh issue.

“The conflict has entered into new stage where it is necessary to form a common agenda of the Armenian sides. In this respect the recent visit to Artsakh was very important where we have discussed the necessity of forming a common agenda and coordinating our actions”, the FM said during a Q&A session in the Parliament, in response to the question of the ruling My Step faction MP Tatevik Hayrapetyan.

The minister said the contradictory statements of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are condemnable which, he added, prove that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not completely solved.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 16:56,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to resume the negotiations over Nagorno Karabakh in the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format.

“The Armenian side is ready to begin negotiations in the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format and conduct negotiations around the fundamental principles around which an agreement had been achieved in the past,” he said in parliament during a Q&A with lawmakers.

Aivazian said that the Armenian side’s priority issues are the "unblocking", the safe return of the Armenian population to their settlements, ensuring humanitarian assistance to Artsakh and the preservation of the Armenian religious and cultural heritage.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 17:25,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian side has reached an agreement with the Russian and Azerbaijani sides over the security of the Yerevan-Kapan road, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said during a Q&A session in the Parliament.

“As of this moment, we have concrete agreements with both the Azerbaijani and Russian sides over the section of the road you mentioned, the Russian border troops are also stationed there. No incident with the transport passing through that road has been registered as of now. We do not have problems in Syunik and over the Armenian-Azerbaijani border line in general, we haven’t recorded any incident and I hope we will not have any in the future as well”, the deputy PM said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 17:29,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan and Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Suren Papikyan will visit Syunik province to get acquainted with the problems which emerged after the recent war.

“Next week I, Mr. Papikyan and several deputy ministers will visit Syunik because there are issues connected with pastures, economic activity. Syunik will be under the special focus”, Avinyan said during a Q&A session in the Parliament.

He added that the government will adopt a new anti-crisis economic package probably next week, which will suppose new tools for restoring the post-war and the post-COVID-19 economy.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 17:07,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called Azerbaijan’s latest Armenophobic postage stamp “unacceptable” and compared it with similar postage stamps that the Nazi Germany used to issue.

Speaking in parliament during a Q&A, he told lawmakers that they should show the stamps to the international community at different platforms.

“The issuance of this stamp is unacceptable. The Azeri leadership is lately often speaking about so-called Armenian “fascism”, but it is obvious that we are seeing manifestations of fascism in Azerbaijan, because as far as we know similar stamps existed only in Nazi Germany. Parliamentary diplomacy also has a role here, these stamps should be presented in international platforms,” Pashinyan said when asked about the matter by MP Gor Gevorgyan.

Pashinyan noted that the 2020 Artsakh War has brought its aftershocks, and their objective is to manage this situation.

The illustration accompanying the postage stamps which focus on COVID-19 medics and soldiers issued in Azerbaijan show a hazmat medic standing over an Azeri map and spraying disinfectant onto Nagorno Karabakh – a deplorable anti-Armenian propaganda trying to depict the population there as a virus.

This propaganda was also condemned by the Armenian Human Rights Defender.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 18:18,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif plans to visit Yerevan, Moscow, Baku and Tbilisi next week, ARMENPRESS reports mehrnews website informed.

''I plan to pay a visit to Caucasus and Russia’', Zarif said, adding that he holds negotiations also with Turkey.

''Yesterday evening I had a productive phone conversation with Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu. I plan to visit the countries that are able to work together to help overcome Karabakh crisis and establish peace and stability in the region'', he said.

 18:22,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Vahram Dumanyan met on January 20 with the EU Delegation to Armenia, led by Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Ministry, greeting the Ambassador, Vahram Duamnyan highlighted the programs implemented in the spheres of education, science, culture and the youth with the assistance and partnership of the EU.

Referring to the last Artsakh war, the Minister emphasized that as a result of that a significant part of the cultural heritage of Artsakh which has remained out of the Armenian control is under direct threat.

‘’ At the moment, the preservation of these universal values is crucial, and we expect EU's support for preventing any threat to those values’’, the Minister said.

Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin noted that the EU shares the challenges facing Armenia. ‘’2020 was really a hard year. COVID taught all of us to further develop our digital capacities and infrastructures. For that goal the EU provided assistance to the Mistry of Education for organizing distance education. The EU also shares the concerns over the historical heritage of Artsakh, highly assessing the fact-finding activities of the UNESCO in that direction’’, the Ambassador said.

Armenian Government discussing opportunity of assisting businesses that suffered losses due to war

 18:50,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia discusses the programs that will assist the businesses that suffered losses due to the war, ARMENPRESS reports Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan said during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.

Avinyan noted that during the next week the Government will discuss another post-war and post-coronavirus anti-crisis program.

 17:46,

YEREVAN, 20 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 20 January, USD exchange rate down by 0.12 drams to 519.19 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.17 drams to 629.57 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.04 drams to 7.08 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 4.35 drams to 711.08 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 12,660.33 drams to 30625.44 drams. Silver price down by 30,182.74 drams to 422.23 drams. Platinum price down by 17,787.52 drams to 18211.35 drams.