Mane Gevorgyan has been dismissed as Nikol Pashinyan’s spokesperson, according to a decree published on the official website of the Armenian government.
The decision was made in accordance with Article 9 (Part 10) of the law “On Public Service”.
In a public post on Facebook on Tuesday, Gevorgyan said she was relieved of her post upon her request.
Armenia has registered 258 divorces from January to September this year, the latest figures released by the State Statistical Committee suggest. The divorce rate for the indicated period in the previous year stood at 267.
According to the source, the highest number of divorces has been recorded in capital city Yerevan, where 332 divorces were registered in the past nine months which is also the highest number recorded since 2017. The second highest number of divorces is registered in Kotayk (258), followed by Lori (238).
The divorce rate has grown most in Tavush region to compare with the previous year data. 158 cases were registered in the province last year, while the number in the first nine months of the ongoing year is 192.
According to the official statistics, the divorce rate has significantly dropped in Syunik province with 260 cases registered last year against 187 of the ongoing year.
Those who were displaced from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) need to be granted a refugee status, and a settlement for refugees needs to be established around Yerevan. This is what historian, member of the board of the “Armenian Population Forcefully Displaced from Shushi” NGO Ashot Harutyunyan said during a protest near the government building today.
“A trilateral agreement was signed last year, and it’s clear that the people don’t accept this. But even if we try to be governed by the points stated in that document, point 6 clearly states that there shouldn’t be Azerbaijani troops in Shushi now. But we see that Azerbaijan is already unilaterally breaching the agreement. Other points of the agreement state the return of refugees and forcefully displaced persons. If the Armenian government doesn’t accept us as refugees, how will there be return? This traces back to the policy led in 1988 when Azerbaijan presented its 350,000 refugees as 1,000,000 refugees. In 1988, over 800,000 refugees came to Armenia from Azerbaijan and weren’t granted any status,” Harutyunyan said.
According to him, the enemy country has established refugee settlements, invited international observers and showed the settlements to the world. “Armenia needs to do the same and establish a refugee settlement around Yerevan. If we Armenians want to win Azerbaijan in the war, we need to lead this policy so that we can exert pressure on Azerbaijan,” he added.
Azerbaijan has made threats against Defense Minister Arshak Karapetyan of Armenia.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense had announced Monday about Karapetyan’s upcoming visit to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), and this announcement caused a nervous reaction in Azerbaijan—even a hysteria by its Ministry of Defense.
A respective statement from the Azerbaijani defense ministry assesses Karapetyan’s forthcoming visit to Artsakh as “illegal” and “provocative,” and aimed at “destabilizing the situation in the region and casting a shadow over the activities of Russian peacekeepers.”
“The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan warns the military-political leadership of Armenia that in case of repetition of such illegal visits to Azerbaijani territories, necessary measures will be taken to prevent the aggressive separatism and provocations,” threatens the Azerbaijani defense ministry.
There can be no talk of normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan without the restoration of full diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Former Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin told this to Haqqin.az of Azerbaijan.
Speaking about the role of the Armenian diaspora, Cetin noted that, “In time, the people of Armenia will come to understand all the harmfulness and destruction of its impact on the political course of Yerevan.”
“Sitting in comfortable conditions in the West, the [Armenian] diaspora continues to sow enmity between Armenia and its neighbors,” Cetin added, ignoring the fact that the Armenian diaspora comprises largely the descendants of the victims of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Turkey.
According to Cetin, “After the defeat suffered in the war with Azerbaijan, Armenia only returned to its borders recognized by the world community. So, there is no reason for new wars here at all. At the same time, it must be understood that any new war unleashed by Armenia will lead to huge losses for its people.”
In the spirit of Turkish diplomacy, Cetin implied that normalization of relations with Turkey “will open the way for Armenia to the world”, as now “all trade and economic relations between Armenia and the outside world pass solely through the territory of Russia, which in itself is not much of a positive factor for an independent state.” Cetin even “generously” called on the Azerbaijani authorities to “build houses and roads in the Armenian-populated cities of Karabakh.”
According to Hikmet Cetin, “At present there are all the necessary preconditions for establishing lasting peace in the South Caucasus region. It confirms the positive response of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey to Armenia’s desire, which was voiced in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s last speech, to normalize relations with neighboring countries.”
“Yes. It will take some time for these relations to normalize and meet the standards of good neighborliness,” added Hikmet Cetin. “But it is inevitable, as it is the wish not only of Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also of Armenia, whose people, despite the defeat in the 44-day war, as a result supported not the revanchist leaders of the Dashnaktsutyun [Party], but Prime Minister Pashinyan.”
The election of the UNESCO General Conference chair and the vice-chairs representing the regional groups took place at the opening sitting of the 41st session of this conference which kicked off in Paris Tuesday, reported the Armenian National Commission for UNESCO.
And Armenia was elected UNESCO General Conference vice-chair from the Eastern European regional group.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has made another immoral and unreal statement, blaming the Armenian side for the incident that took place near Shushi.
Yesterday an Azerbaijani soldier invaded the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and shot four workers repairing a water pipeline, leaving one dead and three wounded.
After contemplating for a day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan put the blame for the incident on the Armenian side in general and on Armenia in particular. Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Leyla Abdulayeva declared that Azerbaijan allegedly has nothing to do with the incident and that “Russian peacekeepers are usually reported before launching any operation in this territory, and the operation is carried out with the accompaniment of the peacekeepers. This time, the Russian peacekeepers were not informed and didn’t participate in the operation which, of course, entails serious questions. That day, an event was held in Shushi and attended by the President of Azerbaijan and state officials, and it is known that in such cases enhanced measures are taken for security in the territory. Realizing this, repair of any water pipeline in a site that is the closest to the territory does not fit in any logic.”
The tolerance and silence of the international community with regard to the tremendous number of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijan have obscured the brains of Azerbaijani officials so much that they aren’t even going out of their way to try to refute the fact that there were attacks on peaceful civilians. All this is happening in the context of the statements on the willingness of Azerbaijan to establish ‘an era of peace’ in the region.
Several opposition Members of Knesset (MKs) have submitted a bill Tuesday to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide and hold a memorial day for it every April 24, Jpost reports.
The bill was submitted by Shas MKs Ya’acov Margi, Haim Biton and Moshe Arbel alongside Likud MKs Yuli Edelstein, Israel Katz and Yoav Kish.
This is not the first time an attempt has been made in the Knesset for Israel to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.
In 2018, Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg proposed a bill to recognize the massacre as genocide, but the bill was canceled due to government resistance.
In 2019, a number of high-profile members of Knesset like Yair Lapid and Gideon Sa’ar voiced support for the move, but again it did not proceed due to little government support.
The House of Commons of the UK Parliament adopted the bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the first reading. This is stated in the press release issued by the Armenian National Committee of the UK.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue with Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See’s Secretariat of State.
“We thoroughly talked about the efforts that the Russian Federation is making to maintain the ceasefire regime in Nagorno-Karabakh and to organize the processes that will strengthen confidence and create conditions for full economic and other kinds of cooperation in the South Caucasus,” Lavrov said during a press conference held after the meeting.