Friday,
Armenia Sets New Record For Daily COVID-19 Cases
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- An ambulance leaves the Nork Infectious Disease Hospital, Yerevan,
March 20, 2020.
Health authorities in Armenia reported a record 3,536 coronavirus cases on
Friday as the Omicron variant continued to rapidly spread across the country.
It is the largest number of single-day infections registered by them during the
pandemic.
The Armenian Ministry of Health said in the morning that as much as 40 percent
of coronavirus tests taken in the past 24 hours came back positive.
The first Omicron cases were detected in Armenia less than three weeks ago. The
daily number of infections has skyrocketed since then.
The authorities have not yet reported a significant increase in
hospitalizations. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian said on Thursday that they
will set up more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients “if need be.”
Avanesian’s ministry recorded no coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday. This
may have to do with the fact that only 150 or so people tested positive for the
virus on a daily basis in early January.
“Just because no deaths were registered does not mean that this wave [of
infecctions] will definitely be much less serious,” Varsen Nersisian, head of
the COVID-19 section at Yerevan’s Nork hospital for infectious diseases, told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“We really don’t know yet what we are up against,” she said, referring to
Omicron.
Echoing statements by government officials, Nersisian urged Armenians to receive
a coronavirus vaccine.
Only about one-third of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated so
far.
Armenian Army Day Marked With Low-Key Ceremonies
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian lays a wreath at the Yerablur
Military Pantheon, Yerevan, .
Citing a coronavirus outbreak within its ranks, Armenia’s political and military
leadership on Friday avoided holding festive events to mark the 30th anniversary
of the official creation of the national armed forces.
Senior officials instead issued written statements on the occasion and laid
flowers at the Yerablur military pantheon in Yerevan where hundreds of Armenian
soldiers killed during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh were buried.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian, who led a government delegation visiting
Yerablur, said that an official reception dedicated to the army jubilee was
“postponed” due to a spate of COVID-19 infections.
The government announced on Wednesday that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has
tested positive for the coronavirus for the second time in 20 months and gone
into self-isolation. The Armenian Defense Ministry said the following day that a
group of high-ranking military officers have also been infected. It did not name
them.
Pashinian and many other officials were among several hundred guests who
attended on January 22 Defense Ministry Suren Papikian’s lavish wedding
celebrated at a restaurant amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the country.
Grigorian dismissed suggestions that many of them may have caught the virus
there.
Armenia - Armenian flags fly by the graves of soldiers killed during the 2020
war in Nagorno-Karabakh, .
The Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Papikian is not showing any symptoms
but will take a coronavirus test. Its press office could not be reached for
further comment on Friday.
Papikian, who is a leading member of the ruling Civil Contract party, refused to
answer questions from journalists when he visited Yerablur together with other
senior government officials.
Only the Armenian Apostolic Church held an awards ceremony on the occasion. Its
supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II, handed Orders of St. Nerses the Gracious, a
major church award, to a dozen army officers.
In a written statement, Pashinian reiterated that his administration is doing
its best to rebuild and reform the Armenian army after its defeat in the 2020
war.
“Improving the army’s combat readiness, weaponry and conditions of service is
our priority,” he said amid continuing claims to the contrary made by his
political opponents.
Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian soldiers at a frontline posiition, October 18, 2020.
Former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, who now lead the
country’s main opposition groups, also issued statements paying tribute to the
military and congratulating it on the anniversary. They both used the occasion
to take a swipe at the current government.
“The army that used to be the guarantor of security in Artsakh (Karabakh) and
the whole region today itself needs protection,” said Kocharian. He expressed
hope that it will “straighten its back” in the near future.
For his part, Sarkisian, who had served as defense minister for over a decade,
charged that the army fought the war “under treasonous command.”
Meanwhile, several opposition lawmakers visited army posts on Armenia’s border
with Azerbaijan and posted on social media their photographs with soldiers
serving there.
Armenia Discussing Border Demarcation Proposals With Azerbaijan
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan speaks in the parliament, January 19,
2022.
Armenia is continuing to discuss with Azerbaijan its conditions for demarcating
the long border between the two states, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on
Friday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Pashinian pledged
to set up a joint commission on border delimitation and demarcation during a
trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin held in Sochi last
November.
The Armenian government said earlier this month that the commission should start
its work after a set of confidence-building measures, notably the withdrawal of
Armenian and Azerbaijani troops from their border posts. Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov rejected the Armenian “preconditions,” saying that Baku
stands for an immediate and unconditional start of the demarcation.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry responded by saying on January 20 that Aliyev and
Pashinian agreed on the mutual troop withdrawal during their follow-up
negotiations held in Brussels in December.
Mirzoyan insisted that the two sides are not deadlocked on the issue. But he
refused to go into details.
“Discussions are continuing … We are now trying to get clarifications about what
exactly is unacceptable to them, on what grounds, and what new solutions there
could be,” Mirzoyan told journalists.
Russia regularly calls for a quick start of the demarcation process, saying that
it would minimize ceasefire violations along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The process is due to be mediated and facilitated by Russian officials.
Two senior European diplomats discussed the matter with Aliyev and Pashinian
when they visited Baku and Yerevan last week. Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s
special representative to the South Caucasus, described the talks as “excellent.”
Armenian Roads ‘Very Important’ For Iran
Armenia -- A road in the Syunik province, September 3, 2018.
Armenia’s Syunik province bordering Iran must remain a key route for cargo
shipments between the two neighboring states even after the anticipated launch
of Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links, a senior Iranian diplomat said on
Thursday.
Yerevan and Baku reported last month significant progress towards opening a
railway that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik.
The Armenian government says it will also allow Armenia to have rail links with
Iran and Russia through Azerbaijani territory.
The Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri, welcomed such a
prospect in an interview with the Armenpress news agency.
“If a process of unblocking [transport links] between Nakhichevan and Yerevan
goes ahead, we will have a short and fast railway between Iran and Armenia,” he
said. “We are ready to take necessary steps to help establish rail communication
through this route.”
“Nevertheless, I want to again remind that the proposed new variants cannot be a
reason to neglect the importance of roads passing through Syunik province and
the North-South project in Armenia,” added Zohouri.
Zohouri said those roads are “very important” not only for Armenian-Iranian
trade but also cargo traffic from Iran’s Persian Gulf ports to Georgia and other
Black Sea countries. “This is the principal transit route considered by us,” he
stressed.
Armenia - Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri visits a section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border in Gegharkunik province, August 3, 2021.
Armenia lost control over a 21-kilometer stretch of the main highway Syunik
connecting it to Iran after a controversial troop withdrawal ordered by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian following the Karabakh war. Last September, Azerbaijan
set up checkpoints there to tax Iranian vehicles.
The move triggered unprecedented tensions between Tehran and Baku. It also
forced Yerevan to hastily finish work on a 70-kilometer bypass road.
Zohouri said the Iranian side is looking forward to further highway upgrades
planned or already carried out in Syunik. He stressed the significance of a
multimillion-dollar construction project that would significantly shorten travel
time between Yerevan and the Iranian border.
The Karabakh truce accord also commits Armenia to opening a road link between
Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has
repeatedly claimed that it envisages an exterritorial land corridor passing
through Syunik.
Armenia - Mount Khustup overlooking the town of Kapan, June 4, 2018. (Photo
courtesy of Kapan.am)
The Armenian side denies this, saying that Azerbaijani freight cannot be exempt
from Armenian border controls. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to back
Yerevan’s stance during a January 3 phone call with Pashinian.
“Tehran supports the sovereignty of Armenia over all territories and roads
passing through that country,” Raisi was cited by his press office as telling
Pashinian.
Last fall, some Iranian officials accused Aliyev of seeking to effectively strip
the Islamic Republic of a common border with Armenia.
In late December, the Iranian government decided to open a consulate general in
Syunik’s capital Kapan.
Commenting on that decision, Zohouri said: “As a rule, hundreds of Iranian
trucks pass through Syunik every day. We have many economic and consular issues
in Syunik and … need to have a mission there in order to better deal with them.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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