Category: 2021

Azerbaijan will continue its actions, and it will primarily occupy major military posts and regularly exert pressure on the society and the authorities. This is what deputy of the opposition ‘I Have Honor’ bloc of the National Assembly of Armenia Tigran Abrahamyan told reporters today.

“The authorities’ approaches aren’t related to the threats that Armenia faces. The absence of shootouts on the border doesn’t mean the issue is solved. There are rather high risks of escalation. There were specific causes for the pressures on Armenia, and those causes remain. In the current situation, even if there is a pause, it can’t help ensure long-term peace for us,” he said.

It’s internationally accepted that there are small countries that have contractual ties for strategic partnership with other countries which ensure border security. This is what deputy of Civil Contract Party, businessman Khachatur Sukiasyan told reporters today, touching upon Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s proposal according to which Russian border guards may be deployed along the entire length of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Sukiasyan added that Armenia needs to create an army that will be able to maintain border security while Russian border guards ensure the country’s border security along with Armenian border guards. When told that this will lower the level of Armenia’s sovereignty, Sukiasyan disagreed. “Security comes first, and Armenia will always be a sovereign state,” he said.

Touching upon the current situation on Armenia’s border, Sukiasyan said even though there will be escalation and provocations, Armenia must be ready to manage everything very calmly and cold-heartedly in order to ensure border security.

Sukiasyan added that he didn’t know what the Russian Federation has discussed in regard to the border situation and that he doesn’t think the ruling party has held discussions on ceding new territories.

President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian today signed a decree on appointing Gnel Sanosyan Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.

Sanosyan was previously holding the office of governor of Gegharkunik Province and was relieved of the post today.

The Union of Journalists of Armenia condemns the actions of the National Security Service against journalist Nairi Hokhikyan and calls on the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia to investigate and give a public assessment on the act of the state power structure against the journalist. This is stated in the statement issued by the Union of Journalists of Armenia.

“On July 29, 2021, member of the Union of Journalists of Armenia, journalist and TV commentator Nairi Hokhikyan was summoned to the National Security Service (NSS) for an interview as a witness, during which the mobile phone of the journalist was seized.

Hokhikyan offered to voluntarily provide the investigative body with the facts at his disposal, but the officers of the National Security Service neglected the journalist’s willingness and seized his mobile phone in which there were several pieces of personal and professional information. In this sense, the investigative body de facto hindered implementation of the professional activities of the journalist as well.

It should be mentioned that Nairi Hokhikyan has publicized a documentary on the 44-day war that took place in 2020 and several facts that became a topic for wide public discourse, after which the Armenian authorities have de facto started persecuting the journalist who is carrying out his professional activities. Summoning a journalist to an interview as a witness without familiarizing him or her with the specifics of the particular criminal case and committing acts against him or her that are specific to the status of a suspect (asking accusatory questions, seizing personal items) are unlawful acts and pressure against the journalist.

Nairi Hokhikyan has disclosed several details of his conversation with Jewish blogger Alexander Lapshin which shed light on the dark pages of the 44-day war, contain de facto evidential base, but the NSS have seized the mobile phone of the journalist.

The Union of Journalists of Armenia condemns the actions of the National Security Service against journalist Nairi Hokhikyan and calls on the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia to investigate and give a public assessment on the act of the state power structure against the journalist,” the statement reads.