Category: 2021

Armenia’s Ambassador to France, Hasmik Tolmadjian, attended the Paris City Council meeting, which voted for the new Armenian Quarter

The Paris City Council unanimously approved a measure on Thursday to create an Armenian quarter in the center of the city in the 8th arrondissement area of the French capital.

This area, which will be called “Esplanade d’Arménie” will encompass the part of Court Albert I where the statue of Komitas is located, the Garden of Armenia, and will extend as far as the Pont de l’Alma–-a location in the heart of the prestigious 8th arrondissement of Paris, right in the center of the capital.

Armenia’s Ambassador to France Hasmik Tolmadjian, who was present in the stands of the City Council at the event, immediately posted on Facebook, thanking Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, his deputy Arnaud Ngatcha, for this gesture of friendship and solidarity with Armenia.

Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin

The latest dramatic events and the shifting realities require new approaches to Russia-Armenia relations, Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin said Friday when speaking at a forum titled “Armenia and Russia: Imperative of a New Strategy,” the Arka news agency reported.

According to the ambassador, it is worth thinking about how to tackle the growing imbalance between the deep strategic relations between Russia and Armenia in such areas as defense, security, economy, and those prevalent external factors in such important issues as orienting the society’s values.

Kopyrkin pointed out that profound and dynamic changes were taking place in the world, in the South Caucasus region and in the broader areas surrounding this region.

“In fact, behind these sometimes dramatic events there is an obvious tendency toward the formation of a new world order. Now various forces, powers, blocs of powers, alliances of powers are fighting for positions in this new, not yet fully known world order,” he explained.

The ambassador noted that competing interests are sometimes taking on dramatic forms that are not always acceptable from a traditional diplomacy perspective and international relations.

“Under these conditions, relations between traditional allies, relations that have been tested for centuries, become even more important. The majority of the population of Russia and Armenia values these relations,” he stressed.

Kopyrkin said that this is a mutual matter for Russia and Armenia, which will help the countries to more successfully defend their interests in this difficult world.

“We all very vividly remember those dramatic events that took place a year ago [the 44-Day War in Artsakh]. During that difficult period for Armenia and the Armenian people it was Russia that stood by Armenia, providing it with support in general and in practical terms, Russia was the only entity that was on Armenia’s side,” claimed Kopyrkin.

The ambassador observed that various partners from different regions of the world are trying to get something of their own from the new, changing regional order, while a year ago “everyone was mostly silent.”

WATCH: Drone Shots Show Tbilisi Filled With Saakashvili Supporters

TBILISI — Thousands of people have gathered in the center of the Georgian capital demanding the release of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose detention earlier this month deepened a protracted political crisis in the South Caucasus country.

Shouting slogans such as “Free Misha” and waving national flags, the protesters filled Tbilisi’s Freedom Square and the city’s main thoroughfare, Rustaveli Avenue, in the evening of October 14.

Busloads of riot police were deployed outside the parliament building ahead of the demonstration, according to footage aired on television.

The 53-year-old Saakashvili declared a hunger strike following his arrest on October 1 and incarceration in the city of Rustavi, hours after he announced he had returned to Georgia following an eight-year absence.

Saakashvili was convicted in absentia in 2018 and had lived in Ukraine in recent years.

In an address read out by his lawyer Nika Gvaramia to the protesters, Saakashvili said he had come back to Georgia to “contribute to the struggle of the Georgian people against poverty, corruption, injustice, destruction.”

He also called for the government linked to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, to be “defeated” and for Georgia to return to its pro-Western path.

Ahead of the demonstration, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told journalists that “inmate Saakashvili’s sole goal is to stir up destabilisation and upheaval in the country.”

The rally ended without reported incident after the participants sang the Georgian national anthem on Freedom Square.

Last month, Saakashvili announced plans to fly home for the October 2 nationwide local elections despite facing prison, claiming he wanted to help “save the country,” amid political turmoil triggered last year after opposition parties said elections won by Georgian Dream were rigged.

In this month’s vote, Georgia’s main opposition force — the United National Movement (ENM) that Saakashvili founded — was outpolled decisively by Georgian Dream.

However, the party’s mayoral candidates failed to surpass the required 50 percent threshold in the key cities of Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Poti, and Rustavi and runoffs are scheduled for October 30.

Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was sentenced in 2018 to a total of nine years in prison in absentia after being convicted of abuse of power in two separate cases. The ex-president has rejected all charges as politically motivated.

Saakashvili’s doctor, Nikoloz Kipshidze, said on October 10 he needed to be transferred to hospital as his condition was worsening.

The Justice Ministry later said that Saakashvili’s “health condition is satisfactory.”

With reporting by AFP and Civil.ge

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