Category: 2022

 13:04,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The CSTO showed its potential and ability to act swiftly in practice, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the CSTO summit on January 10.

“Our organization showed in practice its potential and ability to act swiftly, decisively and effectively. Each of the allies had their contribution in the composition of the CSTO military contingent for the implementation of the objectives,” Putin said.

Putin said that the CSTO military are training in common programs, have joint arsenals and communication.

“We developed the peacekeeping deployment skills during regular joint exercises,” Putin said.

 13:15,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. Arakel Martikyan was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, the presidency said.

 14:41,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The COVID-19 health pass will come into effect from January 22, requiring people to produce either a vaccination certificate or a negative recent test result upon entering restaurants, hotels, gyms, libraries, museums, theaters, cinemas and other similar venues, the Armenian health ministry said.

People who want to enter such venues will have to present either a vaccination certificate against COVID-19 or a negative PCR test result administered in the last 72 hours or a negative rapid antigen test result (laboratory administered, ARMED system) administered in the last 24 hours. 

People below the age of 18, pregnant women and those who have contraindications for vaccination, as well as people who have recently recovered from COVID-19 (up to 90 days since the first positive PCR test result) are exempt from the restriction.

 14:41,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The Kazakh Scat airline is resuming Aktau-Yerevan-Aktau flights, the Embassy of Armenia in Kazakhstan said in a statement.

The Embassy said that the Aktau-Yerevan flight will be carried out today, on January 10, at 18:00-18:20.

On January 2, protests sparked in several cities of Kazakhstan. In several days, they escalated into mass riots and assaults at the bodies of authority in many cities. Thousands of people were injured, and there were casualties. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for assistance. CSTO peacekeepers have already commenced their mission in Kazakhstan. Airlines had to change their flight schedules. Several airlines even canceled their flights of coming days.

 15:17,

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The Human Rights Defender of the Artsakh Republic Gegham Stepanyan sent a letter to Google, urging not to give in to the Azerbaijani provocations, to ignore the baseless demands presented by Azerbaijan, to refrain from removing the Armenian toponyms and geographical names of Artsakh from the digital maps.

The Ombudsman particularly noted that these efforts of Azerbaijan are another manifestation of Azerbaijan's long-standing policy of depriving the people of Artsakh of their homeland and denying the Armenian identity of Artsakh. He reminded that the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh in the Fall of 2020, aimed at the seizure of the entire territory of Artsakh and destruction of its people, became the culmination of Azerbaijan's criminal policy.

In order to support its alleged rightfulness of claims over Artsakh, Azerbaijan has been deliberately erasing, destroying, and eradicating any traces of Armenians and Armenian culture and history from every centimeter of the territory under its control.

“The true motives behind the request of Azerbaijan to remove Armenian toponyms from maps can be easily defined: Nagorno Karabakh is not just a place name, but a totality of Armenian culture and history. The Armenian toponyms of Artsakh are memories of places, as well as living memories of the people who gave these names to such places. It is well-known that toponyms serve as symbols of regional culture and thus reflect the history, habitat, and environment of a place. Azerbaijan’s request to remove Armenian toponyms from the maps is nothing more than an attempt to create desired reality on the maps”, the Ombudsman said.

In the letter, the Ombudsman presented the regulations of international law, which enshrine the right of peoples to freely use and preserve their place names, to inherit from generations. He stressed that international law does not consider toponyms and geographical names to be the property of states, but considers them to be the intangible heritage of peoples.

Gegham Stepanyan noted that the removal of Armenian toponyms will only condone Azerbaijan’s gross violations of human rights of the people of Artsakh and support its efforts aimed at legitimization of the results of illegal use of force.

Appreciating Google’s human-centered approach to use the Armenian geographical names in its maps, the Ombudsman expressed confidence that the company will reject Azerbaijan’s continuing attempt to alter maps and engage in ethnic cleansing.

 15:30,

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. A civilian vehicle in Artsakh caught fire after being hit by gunfire from Azerbaijani side, the Ministry of Defense of Artsakh said.

It denied Azerbaijani media reports which accused the Artsakh military in opening fire at Azerbaijani positions. The Artsakh Defense Ministry said these reports are fake news and disinformation.

“What actually happened is that the Azerbaijani servicemen, who are deployed in positions adjacent to the village of Karmir Shuka in Martuni region, Artsakh, opened sporadic gunfire at the village, which resulted in a car owned by a civilian which was parked outside a kindergarten catching fire,” the Artsakh Defense Ministry said.

 17:25,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Armenia Suren Papikyan, the current secretary of the CSTO Council of Defense Ministers, held a telephone conversation today with Russian Defense Minister, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, the Armenian defense ministry said.

During the phone talk the current situation in Kazakhstan, the implementation process of the decisions of the CSTO Collective Security Council and Council of Defense Ministers, as well as the activity of the CSTO joint peacekeeping forces were discussed.

The ministers also exchanged views about the measures being taken.

 17:42,

YEREVAN, 10 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 10 January, USD exchange rate up by 0.17 drams to 482.96 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.62 drams to 546.90 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.06 drams to 6.44 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 1.49 drams to 655.86 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 60.25 drams to 27834.64 drams. Silver price up by 0.04 drams to 345.33 drams. Platinum price down by 103.41 drams to 14906.42 drams.

 17:46,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The draft concept of introducing comprehensive health insurance in Armenia was discussed during today's consultation chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The draft concept was presented by the Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan and the Deputy Minister of Health Lena Nanushyan. It was noted that several models were studied in the process of developing the concept with the idea of a state health system as the basis. The aim of the reform is to create a system of sustainable health financing based on the principles of the social responsibility of the state and social solidarity of the population, and ensuring financial access to basic medical services for all groups of the population. The work done in the direction of financial evaluation of the introduction of the system, development of the package of basic services, definition of the groups of the population being insured, calculation of the necessary expenses were presented. It was noted that the draft is under discussion with the interested departments, and following the approval, a package of relevant legislative changes will be developed. The officials of the Ministry of Health emphasized that the parallel implementation of other reforms in the sphere, such as the improvement of infrastructure, the development of e-health, the strengthening of the capacity of the primary health care unit, is an important precondition for the successful introduction of the system.

An exchange of views took place on the conceptual approaches to the introduction of comprehensive health insurance. Issues related to funding mechanisms and sources, definition of population groups, insurance premiums and collection, service quality standards, calculation of the amount of money needed for the health expenses of insured citizens, cost-effectiveness, ensuring of social justice and social solidarity, investment risks were raised and a number of proposals were presented.

Emphasizing the importance of the reform, the Prime Minister noted that the primary goal of the comprehensive health insurance should be the prevention of diseases. Accordingly, it is necessary to introduce a model that will guarantee the operation of a cost-effective, high-quality health care system. The Prime Minister highlighted the introduction of a universal asset declaration system in parallel with the introduction of comprehensive health insurance system, taking into account the interconnectedness and interaction of these reforms.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan instructed to amend the draft concept based on the results of the consultation and submit it for final discussion.

 19:33,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The case of former Minister of Defense of Armenia Davit Tonoyan, Chief of General Staff Artak Davtyan, former Chief of General Staff Stepan Galstyan and 4 others has been sent to court, ARMENPRESS reports the Prosecutor's Office informs.

It is mentioned that the preliminary investigation of the criminal case investigated by the NSS Investigation Department revealed that high-ranking officials of the Armed Forces, abusing their official position, with the preliminary agreement with the owner of "Moston Engineering" company, accepted a total of 4232 pieces of outdated ammunition, which had been denied in the past for not meeting technical requirements.  

It turned out that the above-mentioned persons, in order to eliminate the existing obstacles for concluding the contract for the purchase of ammunition and to give a legal look to their actions, matched the technical description of the ammunition with the technical description of the given item kept at the Defense Ministry, indicating in it untrue data on the supply of ammunition through factory boxes to the central warehouse of the N military unit of the Ministry of Defense. Moreover, the mentioned ammunition was acquired at a price almost twice as expensive as the previous purchase of ammunition from the same batch, which is an embezzlement of particularly large amount of money, over 4.6 million USD.

The indictment has been submitted to the Yerevan Court of First Instance.