Category: 2022

 11:20,

XI’AN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. The central Shaanxi province of China and its provincial capital Xi’an are considered to be the cradle of Chinese civilization: this is where the Silk Road began.

As part of a program organized by the China International Press Communication Centre, international journalists were taken on a tour to Xi’an.

Being in the center of the entire history of China, now Xi’an is transforming into a modern megapolis which will again be the beginning of the Silk Road. One of the biggest cities of the Ancient World, the city can now be considered as China’s spirit.

The capital of 13 ancient Chinese dynasties, Xi’an is now the link connecting the country’s north to south and west to east.

There are 9 other large cities in Shaanxi province, which in their vision will be multi-functional cities utilizing their modern technology potential. As of 2020, the population of the province stood at 39,5 million.

The city is known for the Terracotta Army inside the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum from 3rd century BC, Ming dynasty city walls, the Gate of Xi'an, the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower and many other historic sites.

Xi’an has a population of over 12 million and is an important economic hub because of its trade-logistic center. It is in the focus of the Belt and Road initiative.

Out of the total 60 universities in the city, the Xi'an Jiaotong University is perhaps the most famous one, as well as the Northwestern Polytechnic University and the Railway Vocational and Technical Institute.  

Noteworthy fact: Xi'an and Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2015. In February 2020, Gyumri sent humanitarian aid to Xi’an to help in the COVID-19 response.

Varvara Hayrapetyan

 11:27,

GYUMRI, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Gyumri city is inviting everyone to join in celebrating International Youth Day on August 12.

The Center of Youth Initiatives of Gyumri will organize various public events on this occasion.

The program features a seminar at the Gyumri Technological Center, followed by an EXPO-fair and other events.

The Center of Youth Initiatives of Gyumri is organizing public events on International Youth Day since 2015.

This year the center is carrying out the programs jointly with the UNFPA Armenia, Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps programs information center, the Enterprise Incubator Foundation and the Gyumri Technological Center.

 11:34,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. The government allocated 2 billion 734 million drams for the construction of roads in the Stepanavan-Yaghdan, Sisian-Dastakert and Tatev-Aghvani sections.

The bill was presented at the Cabinet meeting by Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan.

PM Nikol Pashinyan commented on the Tatev-Aghvani road, mentioning that last year this road was commissioned in a force majeure situation and then this road had serious problems.

“And we started working in this direction and as far as I know the problem is mostly solved and there is only a 500 meter part where potholes need to be fixed,” he said.

Sanosyan said the problematic section is actually less than 500 meters and the potholes will be fixed and asphalting will be carried out starting August 12.

The third layer of asphalting is already underway, with 5,8 kilometers compelted.

 11:51,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. On Tuesday 9th August 2022, the convenors of the New South Wales Armenia-Australia Friendship Group appealed to Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, requesting the Federal Government publicly condemns Azerbaijan’s latest attacks against the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).

Member for Davidson and Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, the Hon. Jonathan O’Dea and Member of the Legislative Council, the Hon. Walt Secord––who are Chair and Vice-Chair of the Armenia-Australia Friendship Group––raised concern over the latest unprovoked ceasefire violation committed by Azerbaijan.

Significantly, their letter voiced the bipartisan group’s objection over the targeted attacks against civilian settlements in Martuni, and attempts by Azerbaijan to cross the predetermined line of contact as determined by the November 2020 trilateral agreement, violating several fundamental human rights, resulting in the death of two Armenian servicemen and leaving 19 wounded.

The letter co-signed by O’Dea and Secord read: “The Russian Defence Ministry and its peacekeeping contingents stationed in Artsakh verified on Tuesday that the attacks were launched by Azerbaijani Armed Forces using a range of weapons. Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry even boasted about their attacks on video via social media.”

“The parliamentary group ask that your government seriously consider publicly condemning Azerbaijan’s recent illegal violations of the ceasefire agreement,” their letter added.

ANC-AU Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian said: “Azerbaijan’s criminal behaviour and use of force is the most significant violation of the ceasefire agreement recorded since the end of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war, and through this brute force has cornered the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh into concessions that go beyond the scope of the November 9 ceasefire agreement, specifically the closure of the only land corridor between Artsakh and Armenia.”

This new wave of aggression has resulted in the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of thousands of Armenians from the villages of Berdzor and Aghavno, located inside the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor, which represents a clear violation of Article 7, Section 1(d) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, prohibiting the "deportation or forcible transfer of population".

“On behalf of the Armenian-Australian community, we thank Mr Jonathan O’Dea and Mr Walt Secord for joining many international political leaders, who seek to defend the human rights of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, by stopping Azerbaijan’s aggression against the self-determined Republic of Artsakh,” added Kolokossian.

“The autocratic regime of Azerbaijan has consistently proven that it will terrorise the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh. It has not returned Armenian POWs, it has not withdrawn from the sovereign borders of Armenia, it exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the region by cutting off natural gas supplies between Artsakh and Armenia, and has now conducted aggressive military operations. These are actions of a criminal state, emboldened by the international community's silence and ‘both side-ist’ rhetoric, which this statement exposes as false and dangerous.”

Kolokossian added: “Australia must rightfully champion a different path, by publicly speaking out against Azerbaijan’s unprovoked aggressions and upholding the values of truth, justice and international law.”

 12:30,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting that road construction companies have problems in completing government contracts. The PM said the problem is related to the state procurement system.

“When we were discussing previously the reforms of the procurement system , an idea was voiced to take into account the overload of road construction companies in the given phase as a factor. Unfortunately, in some parts we see a situation where the companies are vigorously taking part in tenders, winning the contracts, and then having problems in completing the government orders within the deadlines. Of course, if they fail to meet the deadlines, we have mechanisms, blacklisting, bank guarantees, penalties, but we aren’t consoled by this. We don’t need to pull the bank guarantee or impose penalties, we need the road,” the PM said, adding that there is a construction boom in Armenia now and therefore construction companies are seriously overloaded.

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan said they are trying to make several changes in the procurement system.

He said the companies bidding the lowest must be subjected to higher supervision to understand at what expense they are able to make quality work at such low prices. “The other problem is that the capacity of our country’s construction companies doesn’t meet what the government wants to do. Last year, 33 billion drams was allocated for reconstruction, but our construction companies were able to carry out only 21 billion drams of work. This year, we’ve already allocated 60 billion, but prior to doing so we’ve notified them that we are building 500 kilometers of roads and this implies that construction companies must increase their capacities all the time,’ Sanosyan said.

 13:00,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet approved the regulations and terms of providing personal assistance service (PAS) to people with disabilities.

The service will be free of charge and compensated from the government budget.

Persons having long-term impairments, such as vision, mental, movement impairments whose families are registered as socially vulnerable will be eligible for the program.

The government expects 2450 persons with disabilities to receive the service.

The decision will take effect from 2024, with a test program scheduled for 2023.

 13:00,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Works continue over launching the Armenian ferry boat service for cargo shipment from Georgia’s Port of Poti in the Black Sea to Russia’s Port Kavkaz in Kerch Strait, the Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said.

“We are now finalizing the work, soon the timetables will be released,” he said, adding that the option of using Port of Poti is being considered.

“This is not an easy matter, especially when it was being accompanied by heavy geopolitical changes and pressure, but nevertheless, we hope our work will give results soon,” he said.

Kerobyan earlier said that they are ready to launch the ferry service in August.

Earlier in March, the government said it will subsidize Poti-Port Kavkaz regular ferry connection for imports or exports.

Russia's daily coronavirus cases exceed 25,000 for first time since March 25

 13:09,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Russia identified 25,815 coronavirus patients in the past 24 hours, TASS reported citing the anti-coronavirus crisis center.

New daily cases exceeded 25,000 for the first time since March 25. The total number of cases has reached 18,796,472.

As many as 2,525 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, down from 2,666 the day before. Hospitalizations declined in 44 regions of the country and rose in 33 regions.

Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 7,899 to 2,885,222 in the past day, St. Petersburg’s coronavirus cases increased by 2,940 to 1,578,609.

Coronavirus recoveries

Russia’s coronavirus recoveries rose by 14,221 to 18,089,941 in the past 24 hours, the crisis center reported. Recoveries increased by 6,202 to 2,657,606 in Moscow and by 1,887 to 1,523,156 in St. Petersburg.

Coronavirus death toll

Russia reported 52 coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours, down from 56 the day before. The total death toll has climbed to 382,954. Moscow’s coronavirus death toll rose by 16 to 44,634 in the past day and St. Petersburg’s fatalities were up by nine to 34,425.

 14:22,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. Russia is planning to organize high-level trilateral contacts over various topics of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization by the end of August, the Russian foreign ministry’s deputy director for information and publications department Ivan Nechayev said at a press briefing when asked about a possible meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders.

“There are plans to organize high level trilateral contacts over various topics of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization until the end of August,” he said.

 14:28,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Latvia (the Saeima) has declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, TASS reported citing a statement published on the Saeima’s official website on Thursday.

On August 11, the Saeima adopted a statement, which recognizes activities of Russian troops in Ukraine as terrorism and declares "Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism."

"The Saeima's statement calls on EU countries to immediately suspend the issuance of tourist and entry visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens," the statement reads.

Members of the Latvian Parliament state that Russia allegedly "has for many years supported and financed terrorist regimes and organizations in various ways — directly and indirectly."

The statement also reads that "the MPs strongly condemn the military aggression and large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation with the support and involvement of the Belarusian regime and call on the Euro-Atlantic community and its partners to urgently intensify and implement comprehensive sanctions against Russia."