Category: 2022

Armenia says has evidence of 26 more PoWs in Azerbaijan

Emil Lazarian
PanARMENIAN
Armenia – Aug 9 2022
August 9, 2022 – 14:31 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan has confirmed holding 38 Armenian soldiers in captivity, but the Armenian side believes that there are 26 more servicemen among the captives, Yerevan's ambassador to Kiev Vladimir Karapetyan has said.

The ambassador noted that there was an agreement at the highest level that the exchange of prisoners would be based on the "all for all" principle. He said the Armenian side handed over all the prisoners, even criminals who were convicted under completely different articles, including murder.

According to the ambassador, the Armenian side has relevant documentary evidence, video recordings, as well as testimonies from former prisoners who have already returned to Armenia.

Karapetyan added that the Azerbaijani side released a part of the Armenian captives in exchange for the mine-field maps. "As a manifestation of goodwill, the leadership of Armenia handed over the maps of minefields that we had at our disposal since the 90s, from the years of the first Karabakh war," the ambassador explained.

The diplomat emphasized that the maps have significantly reduced the number of mine-related deaths.

"Despite the fact that Azerbaijan has publicly and repeatedly complained about some inaccuracies in said maps, the number of explosions has decreased significantly since we transferred them, and there have been only one or two deaths. Our maps are quite accurate," Karapetyan added.

Sports: Armenian shooters win medals at World Championships

Paul Hambardsumian
PanARMENIAN
Armenia – Aug 9 2022
August 9, 2022 – 14:40 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The members of the Armenian shooting team successfully participated in the World Running Target Championships.

On August 1-8, the World Running Target Championships took place in Chateauroux, France, where Lilit Mkrtchyan and Gohar Harutyunyan (among juniors) registered impressive for Armenia and won a bronze medal each.

The Armenian shooting team participated in the world championship of the running target competition with a total of 6 athletes.

Erdogan says Armenia should “read the developments correctly”

Emil Lazarian
PanARMENIAN
Armenia – Aug 9 2022
August 9, 2022 – 16:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, August 8 called on Armenia to read the developments correctly and respond to the “sincere calls” of Baku and Ankara to achieve stabilization in the region, Anadolu Agency reports.

Erdogan made the remarks in an address to Turkish diplomats attending the 13th Ambassadors Conference in the capital Ankara.

The Turkish leader said a “new era” has started in the South Caucasus after “agreements were reached” following the Second Karabakh war. Turkey and Armenia have since taken "important steps" toward peace in the Caucasus, and have appointed representatives to normalize ties, Erdogan added.

“We are working hard to ensure that this historic opportunity is not wasted,” he said.

"I believe that our region will be stabilized in a short time if Armenia reads the developments correctly and responds to the sincere calls of Azerbaijan and Türkiye."

Addressing the same crowd, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu threatened Armenia and said that "once again warns Armenia not to engage in new provocations."

“It is not possible for peacekeeping forces to defend a country or nation”: Areresum

Jane Topchian
Aravot
Armenia – Aug 8 2022

On June 30, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said that Armenia is discussing the issues related to Berdzor and Aghavno with their partners in Artsakh. “We still have time to find solutions for the road and for the residents. We still have about 1.5 years. We will work with the Artsakh government and find solutions.” However, on August 5, it became clear that the residents of Aghavno, Nerkin Sus, and Berdzor should be evacuated from Kashatagh by August 25. The guest of Aravot’s “Areresum (Confrontation)” program, former head of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense, colonel, and candidate of political sciences Aleksan Minasyan, addressing the question of why the term was so shortened, specifically said that Azerbaijan speaks from the position of strength. “They clearly feel their advantage. They feel that they are far superior to us in terms of weapons. And we, who should have prepared with small detachments to take action behind them, are not doing so.” 

Significant sections of high-voltage lines, communication cables, and gas pipelines going to Artsakh will remain under the control of Azerbaijan for the time being. What is the explanation for the fact that the construction of new electricity and communication lines and a gas pipeline to Artsakh did not start earlier and the Armenian side once again faced the fact? Vova Vartanov, the founder of the military-patriotic organization The Art of Staying Alive, the commander of the volunteer battalion VOMA, and the other guest of the “Areresum” program, said, “It seems to me that all of this is explained by the approach of our people to leave it to their own devices: whatever will happen will happen. When I say something like this, they retort that the authorities… the people in power are not the same people… They are the same as this consumer society, which is absolutely not preparing for large-scale military operations, which is not preparing to protect its family.”

Deputies of the Civil Contract faction criticized the Russian peacekeepers for this latest tension, noting that according to the November 9 announcement, the Lachin Corridor is solely under the responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping mission, and that military force must ensure peace and stability in its area of responsibility in accordance with its mandate. However, if we take into account that the Azerbaijanis used drones again, does the tripartite statement say that the peacekeepers can have and use anti-aircraft defense systems? Aleksan Minasyan said that peacekeepers can use all kinds of weapons if they are defined by agreements. Azerbaijan did not sign the mandate of the peacekeepers, and this means that they do not have a mandate to participate in military operations, but have an exclusively stabilizing military-political significance. “And we know that there are not so many Russian troops in that area that they can provide 100 percent control,” the former head of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense also mentioned. He added that we have no right to rely only on peacekeepers. 

However, there are suggestions that the peacekeeping mission should be changed and multinational forces should be deployed in Artsakh. Vova Vartanov believes that the absence of collisions and incidents is not guaranteed even in that case. “The peacekeepers put you in a comfort zone, giving you a false sense of security that they will protect you. I do not have enough fingers; many international examples can be cited when peacekeepers in the heart of Europe did not protect Serbian Krajina, Bosnian Muslims… It is not possible to protect a country or a nation with peacekeeping forces.” He added, “And whether the peacekeepers will be Dutch, from Burundi or from Upper Volta, it makes no difference to me. They come here to protect their interests.”

COVID-19: Over 1800 new cases, 2 deaths in past week

Parkev Tvankchian

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 13:05, 8 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. 1849 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the past week, bringing the total cumulative number of confirmed cases to 428,648, the Armenian healthcare ministry reported.

It said that 4115 tests were conducted in the reporting period.

2 people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the death toll to 8,637.

1352 people recovered in the past week, bringing the total number of recoveries to 416,161.

Ministry of Environment seeks EIA requirement for construction of all types of HPPs

Emil Lazarian

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 13:24, 8 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. Changes are expected in the field of regulating environmental impact and expertise. The Ministry of Environment put into circulation a bill on amending the law on environmental impact assessment and expertise (EIA).

The Deputy Minister of Environment Gayane Gabrielyan described the bill as “stricter and simplified”.

“We’ve expanded the sectors which must undergo an environmental impact assessment and expertise process. For example the HPPs [hydro-power plants]. If it is exceeding 1 MW power, then the active legislation envisages EIA. The new changes will require EIA for the construction of all types of HPPs. This is very important, because today as a result of the exploitation of HPPs we have a very bad situation in rivers,” Gabrielyan said.

It also envisages new liability measures for failure to comply with regulations or violations. 

The bill is expected to enter parliament for debates during the autumn sessions.

Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor have worst air pollution in Armenia, warns deputy environment minister

Diana Dabaghian

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 14:25, 8 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The air pollution in Yerevan and other cities in Armenia reached concerning levels, the Deputy Minister of Environment Gayane Gabrielyan said at a news conference.

“In Yerevan, we have both functioning mines and active construction works,” she said. “Our biggest problem is the dust and the bad situation with air pollution. You don’t have to install equipment to understand the situation. People open up their windows and a short time later their home gets dirty, the cars get dirty faster and so on. These are simple, household indicators. One of the reasons is the construction boom in Yerevan. On one hand its good, investments and jobs, but on the other hand the construction businesses aren’t maintaining the requirements. We don’t need any new laws or changes. The current law envisages the necessary requirements and norms, but the construction workers are ignoring them,” Gabrielyan said.

Gabrielyan said it is the inspection agency’s job to monitor the situation, but they in turn need huge resources to supervise everyone. She said that the construction businesses themselves must maintain the requirements.

The air pollution levels are high in Gyumri and Vanadzor as well. Overall, Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor now have the worst air pollution in the entire country, already categorized in the “red zone”.

The main reasons are construction, mining and the open burning of landfills.  “The open burning of landfills, waste is inadmissible. This is a serious hazard for health. We have a lot of work to do in raising awareness here,” she said.

Azerbaijan downsizes number of Armenian PoWs by 26 – ambassador tells Ukraine public TV

Hagop Kamalian

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 14:32, 8 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ambassador to Ukraine Vladimir Karapetyan spoke about the Armenian prisoners of war who are still being held captive in Azerbaijan during an interview with the Public TV and Radio of Ukraine.

Ambassador Karapetyan said that Azerbaijan confirms that it is holding 38 Armenian servicemen in captivity, whereas Armenia finds that another 26 servicemen must be in the number of the captives.

He emphasized that there was an agreement on the highest level that the exchange of prisoners must take place "all for all". The Armenian side handed over all prisoners, even convicted criminals who were serving prison sentences for unrelated crimes, including murder.

The Armenian side has documents and video evidence, as well as the testimonies of former PoWs who’ve already returned to Armenia proving that Azerbaijan is holding another 26 servicemen captive in addition to the 38.

Karapetyan added that Azerbaijan released some of the Armenian servicemen in exchange for the minefield maps.

“As a sign of goodwill gesture the Armenian leadership handed over the minefield maps which were in our possession back from the 1990s, from the years of the first Nagorno Karabakh war,” the Ambassador said.

Ambassador Karapetyan said that the transferred minefield maps have significantly decreased the landmine-related fatal incidents.

“Despite the fact that Azerbaijan has publicly and numerously complained about the accuracy of these maps, after we gave it to them the number of explosions decreased significantly, and only one or two fatal incidents happened. Our maps are very accurate, but the time that passed must be taken into account.”

“Symphonic Yerevan" Festival to open on 12 August

Emil Lazarian

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 14:38, 8 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The opening Concert of the “Symphonic Yerevan" International Music Festival will take place in the "Arno Babajanyan" concert hall on August 12 at 19:30. Nikolay Poghosyan (bassoon)and Anahit Dilbaryan (piano) will perform at the concert, the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra said in a press release.

Concert Program։ Alexandre Tansman – Sonatina for bassoon and piano, Paul Hindemith – Sonata for bassoon and piano, Claude Debussy – Piano Preludes from the Book I, Henri Dutilleux – “Sarabande et Cortege” for bassoon and piano, Antonio Torriani – Divertimento on themes from Donizetti's "Lucie di Lammermoor" for bassoon and piano.

14 concerts will be held within the framework of the festival. Alexey Shor is the Composer-In-Residence for the festival.

Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC, President Konstantin Ishkhanov) are co-organizers of the Festival. The festival is being conducted with the support of Yerevan Municipality and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the RA.

Registration for the Convention of the Future Armenian is open to everyone

Emil Lazarian

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 15:14, 8 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. On November 11-13, 2022, the first Convention of The Future Armenian will be held in Yerevan based on the “citizens’ assembly” model of participatory democracy, The Future Armenian announced in a press release.

200 participants selected from the Republic of Armenia, Artsakh and Diaspora will discuss three of the 15 goals of The FUTURE ARMENIAN Initiative: "Armenia-Diaspora Unity", "Historic Responsibility" and "Growing Population", to highlight existing problems, challenges and adopt package of proposals to overcome those challenges.

Realizing our collective responsibility in building a stable and safe future for the Armenian nation and predetermining the path of our development, each of us can become a part of this important process.

Applications for participation in the Convention can be submitted through the official website of The FUTURE ARMENIAN: https://futurearmenian.com/convention/.

Applications can also be submitted by contacting the organizers at +374 (60) 700 800 (ext. 333), or via email: .

[see video]

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