Category: 2021

The people forcibly displaced from the Azerbaijani-occupied Shahumyan, Kashatagh, Shushi and Hadrut regions of the Artsakh Republic staged a protest outside the Armenian government building on Thursday.

The displaced people claim that they have been left out of the state support program, stating the headquarters in Armenia dealing with the issues of those displaced from Artsakh provide no assistance to them. The demonstrators demand that the authorities provide them with housing in any region of Armenia.

They note that if they do not receive support, they will have to apply to foreign embassies for asylum.

Artur Stepanyan, a resident of Hadrut, said that they demand a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and are clarifying the day and time.

The displaced Artsakh residents said that the protests will be continuous and will be held in front of foreign embassies.

Dozens of grape farmers from Taperakan village of Armenia’s Ararat province blocked the major highway connecting capital Yerevan to southern Meghri town on Thursday to protest against low grape procurement prices.

The protesters demand that grape processing companies purchase grapes at a price of 150 drams instead of current 120-130 drams. The road was blocked for some time after which occur officers used force to open the highway. 

“The water shortage in Artsakh is critical. Around 20 percent of capital Stepanakert has an issue with access to water, while 80 percent of the communities face the problem,” the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Artsakh Republic Gegham Stepanyan told reporters on Thursday. 

He noted that in some communities, the water supply activates at fixed hours during the day and in other location  – once or twice during a week. 

“According to our studies, the issue is conditioned with three main factors: dry weather conditions and water scarcity, the growth of population in Stepanakert by 13-15 thousand as the city hosted displaced people from Artsakh regions and the third factor is most vividly expressed in communities, which is some of the water reserves were left under Azerbaijani occupation, and we have no possibility to access and use them,” said Stepanyan. 

 As to the issue of mobile connection and internet access in Artsakh, the Human Rights Ombudsman noted the problem has arose over the past month when the mobile network and internet started operating with interruptions. 

In his words, both Karabakh Telecom and the Ministry of Territorial Administration have confirmed that the Azerbaijani side uses special technical means to jam the mobile signal and internet spread throughout Artsakh. 

Artsakh Republic president Arayik Harutyunyan convened on Thursday an enlarged working consultation dedicated to the identification of social sector issues, the development and implementation of programs to be carried out in their direction, as well as a number of issues in the fields of education and healthcare.

As the Information department at the President’s Office reported, first of all, the new program of providing financial assistance to the displaced residents as a result of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 2020, which is already being finalized, was discussed during the meeting.

As a result of comprehensive discussions, a decision was made to provide additional one-time financial assistance to a large part of the population of Artsakh with the help of the state budget of the Artsakh Republic, which will allow to mitigate the existing social and living difficulties in the post-war period.

The head of state noted that in addition to one-time financial assistance programs, it is necessary to develop and implement a toolkit that will allow to significantly contribute to the provision of social guarantees and raise the living standards of the people of Artsakh. In this regard, Arayik Harutyunyan first of all, instructed the officials of the relevant bodies to review the amounts of all salaries, pensions and other social payments paid from the state budget from January 1, 2022, increasing them by an average of 20 percent.

President Harutyunyan also inquired about the reforms in the healthcare system. He instructed to complete the free healthcare program in a short period of time, at the same time working to modernize the healthcare system and increase its efficiency.

Touching upon the education sphere, the President of the Artsakh Republic expressed his dissatisfaction with the implementation of the program of reimbursement of tuition fees for undergraduate students of the current system of Artsakh universities. Arayik Harutyunyan instructed to give a solution to the mentioned issue, as soon as possible, the source said. 

Nikol Pashinyan has already started the “second act of Armenia’s capitulation”, former Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakaryan said on Wednesday.

“The maneuvers aimed at distracting the public attention are organized quite skillfully (the techniques are the same, just as for 44 days the public was fooled, they squeezed money from the Diaspora and took our territory from us). Carried away by colorful festivities, new arrests, scandals and Nikol’s latest nonsense, the society will wake up one day and see that their beloved Nikol has also signed a document on Armenia’s capitulation,” he wrote on Facebook.

The former official stated Pashinyan’s steel mandate and hammer will “hit the Armenian people in the head” this time.

“In a short while, we will suddenly see that without taking into account our will, desire and rights, the Turks will be walking along the roads of Armenia with might and main, building a railway, asphalting roads, attaching stencils in Turkish to the roads, changing the names of settlements, grazing their livestock on our pastures, kidnaping people and demanding ransom, stealing livestock, intimidating children, etc.

“The guarantors of the security will force us, Armenians, to stop on the roads and wait for the Turkish-Azerbaijani columns to pass for the transportation of their goods via Armenia. There will be some road sections inside our country where Azeris will stop us to check the documents and the trunks.

“Are the Armenians ready to live on their knees in peace right now without guarantees of security and peaceful coexistence? Will it be real peace, or will it become a new struggle for existence?” Zakaryan said.