Category: 2022

Protesters detained after trying to bar Pashinyan from entering Ararat, oppositionist says

Kajoyan Gevork
Panorama
Armenia –

Many protesters were detained after attempting to bar Nikol Pashinyan from entering Ararat Province on Saturday morning, lawyer Arsen Babayan, a senior member of the opposition Homeland Party, said on Telegram.

“This morning, Nikol Pashinyan travelled to Ararat Province on a working visit. Citizens tried to block his entry to the region, noting that he has no right to visit the communities,” he wrote, adding many of the protesters were taken to police stations.

“I would like to tell the pro-government circles that next time you boast that your prime minister can travel freely in Armenia, remember that your elder brother Aliyev can move around “freely” in Armenia as well,” Babayan said.

“I advise the police against detaining Armenians during Aliyev’s tour,” he added.

Yerevan court refuses to arrest Yerkir Media head

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia –

A first instance court in Yerevan on Saturday rejected a motion by prosecutors to put Bagrat Yesayan, the director of Armenia’s opposition TV channel Yerkir Media, in pre-trial custody, his lawyer Vahe Yeprikian said.

“The motion for Bagrat Yesayan’s unlawful arrest has been rejected,” he wrote on Facebook, thanking the court for the “fair decision”.

Officers of the National Security Service broke into the editorial office of Yerkir Media and detained Bagrat Yesayan on Friday.

He is charged with “inciting mass riots and obstructing journalists’ lawful professional activities” at the demonstrations in Yerevan on November 10, 2020.

Artur Vanetsyan wins defamation suit against Arman Babajanyan

Hagop Kamalian
Panorama
Armenia –

Senior opposition MP Artur Vanetsyan, who heads the Homeland Party, has won his defamation lawsuit against Chairman of For the Republic Party Arman Babajanyan.

A first instance court in Yerevan, presided over by judge Naira Avetisyan, obliged Babajanyan to publicly deny his claims about Vanetsyan made in a 2020 interview and apologize to him in a ruling delivered on Friday.

“In the case of Artur Vanetsyan vs. Arman Babajanyan, the court of first instance once again obliged the latter to publicly apologize to the Homeland Party leader,” Arsen Babayan, a senior member of the party, wrote on Telegram.

Babajanyan has also been told to pay Vanetsyan 800,000 drams (about $1,900) in damages.

In the interview to Factor TV in September 2020, Babajanyan accused Artur Vanetsyan of “spying for Russian special services”.

Armenia`s authorities will decriminalize "great insult"

Emil Lazarian
ARMINFO
Armenia –
Naira Badalian

ArmInfo. Armenia’s authorities will decriminalize “great insult,” Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan wrote in a Facebook message. 

At a discussion chaired by Armenia’s premier, representatives of  government agencies decided to abolish criminal responsibility for  great insult, with only administrative responsibility. 

“The Criminal Code that will be enforced on July 1, 2022, will not  impose punishment for great insult,” he wrote. Mr Andreasyan adds  that the criminal responsibility was prescribed by the law to  “prevent outrageous and inadmissible behavior of individuals and  groups amid profound social polarization.” 

“The government considers inadvisable to include an article on great  insult in the new Criminal Code and prefers the civil liability norms  in effect,” the minister added. 

However, it does not mean derogatory remarks about people will not be  punished. Those abusing the freedom of speech will be fined up to AMD  3mln. 

Armenia wants to reduce fine for driving without a contract of MTPL insurance

Maral Takmazian
NEWS.am
Armenia –
22:33, 10.06.2022

It’s necessary to reduce the fine for driving without having a MTPL insurance contract in Armenia, Armen Khachatryan, one of the authors of the legislative initiative and an MP from the ruling party, said.

His remarks came tomorrow during the debate of the bill on making changes to the law “On Administrative Violations” in the National Assembly during the sitting of the parliamentary standing committee on defense and security.

According to the current regulation, there is a fine of 100 thousand drams for driving a car without a MTPL contract.

“We think that this level of fine doesn’t correspond to the essence and danger of the act. This regulation also contradicts the adopted reforms, according to which fines over 30 thousand drams are equal to criminal responsibility,” the MP explained.

In this regard, MPs proposed a different regulation, according to which the driver who does not have a contract of MTPL, is exempt from paying 75% of the fine, but on condition of elimination of the violation within 24 hours after the protocol of the violation.

“That is, the driver will pay a fine of 25 thousand drams if he presents a contract of MTPL insurance within 24 hours,” Khachatryan noted.

The deputy also admitted that initially it was envisaged to provide 48 hours, but the government proposed to reduce the terms to 24.

After a relatively short discussion the legislative initiative received a positive conclusion of the parliamentary standing committee.

EU Special Representative on Karabakh negotiations: "EU is willing to help and move talks forward"

Jalatian Sonya

June 6 2022


  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

EU Special Representative on Karabakh talks

There is a positive trend, we can develop it, move the process forward. This opinion about the Armenian-Azerbaijani talks was expressed by the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar, who is in Yerevan on an official visit.

He has already met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of the Security Council. From Yerevan the European diplomat will travel to Baku.

In an interview with Radio Azatutyun (Freedom), Special Representative Toivo Klaar spoke about the positive signals from Yerevan and Baku, the Brussels and Moscow formats of the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, as well as the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh. In particular, he stated that the settlement of the conflict is impossible without taking into account the opinion of the Armenians living there.

  • Third Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting in Brussels ‘productive’, parties say
  • “Karabakh is up for sale” – Armenian opposition on Pashinyan-Aliyev Brussels talks
  • Op-ed: Armenia should approach Brussels talks on Karabakh conflict with caution

From the capitals of Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to Klaar, mostly positive signals are coming. He stressed that the meeting of the leaders of the countries in Brussels, which took place a few weeks ago with the mediation of the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, “has produced certain results”.

In this regard, the diplomat recalled, in particular, the first meeting of the border commission on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. It was planned back in April, but took place only after the Pashinyan-Aliyev-Michel meeting in Brussels. Immediately, Klaar stressed that the recent Moscow meeting of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and their Russian counterpart also took place after the talks in Brussels – moreover, after a pause of six months.

Military spending of Armenia and Azerbaijan in numbers – an overview by the Fact Investigation Platform – an independent fact-checking media based in Armenia

Armenia positively assessed Toivo Klaar’s statement that NK Armenians should, in any case, be part of the conflict settlement:

“It is clear that the people living in Karabakh are fundamentally interested in achieving a comprehensive settlement. And I personally do not see how such an agreement can be reached without taking into account the opinions and points of view of these people”.

Klaar stressed that the statement of the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, after the recent talks in Brussels did not cover all the issues that need to be addressed.

The diplomat expressed this opinion in response to the remark that Michel’s statement spoke about the rights of the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and not about the future status:

“It should be a comprehensive settlement. We all know how the conflict began, it must be finally closed. Michel didn’t touch on much in his statement. But the fact that we have always emphasized is that a comprehensive settlement of the conflict is needed, and we are working in this direction.”

“We believe that the peacekeeping mission should remain here indefinitely, as the conflict has not been resolved” – statement by the State Minister of the unrecognized NKR

“EU wants to help the process”

As for the uncertainty of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, then, according to Toivo Klaar, at the moment the main thing is to advance the negotiation process, not to let it stall:

“The EU does not claim copyright on anything. We are interested in seeing progress and supporting it. I think this is what Charles Michel was able to achieve through his three meetings with the leaders [of Armenia and Azerbaijan], as well as joint negotiations with Presidents Macron and Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan. And that’s what we want to do.”

The diplomat recalled that in addition to the Brussels format, there is a Moscow one. The EU Special Representative welcomed the resumption of meetings of the Trilateral Commission of Deputy Prime Ministers within the Moscow format.

“It’s great, very good if we move in the right direction here. The sole interest of the European Union is to help this process and reach a lasting and comprehensive settlement.”

EU Special Representative’s statement on Karabakh talks

https://jam-news.net/eu-special-representative-on-karabakh-negotiations-eu-is-willing-to-help-and-move-talks-forward/

GRETA Publishes Report on Human Trafficking in Armenia

Eduard Nalbandian

June 7 2022

Despite progressive revisions to Armenia’s anti-trafficking legislation, the country still has to properly investigate human trafficking cases and offer better support to victims, experts on human trafficking said last week.

Armenia is expected to provide better support to human trafficking victims. (Photo: Global Panorama, Flickr, License)In a report published last week, the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) urged the country to “improve access to legal aid and psychological assistance” for human trafficking victims and “to effectively investigate offences of human trafficking for all forms of exploitation and promote reintegration of victims.”

A total of 68 victims were identified between 2017-2021, two thirds of which were women and girls. While human trafficking can subject its victims to a multitude of inhumane treatments, the prevailing ones here were sexual and labour exploitation.

Female human trafficking victims in particular face severe discrimination from gender stereotypes and patriarchal cultural norms, the report notes. This consequently has an adverse effect on their ability “to gain access to justice on an equal basis with men.”

Survivors can also expect to face stigma, prejudice, and gender-based violence, thereby further isolating them from those whom they are in need of the most.

Regrettably, the report highlights that certain groups of women may have an even slimmer chance of receiving justice should they belong to an ethnic minority or live with a disability.

Those from lower-tiered socio-economic strata may also lack the knowledge of how to pursue legal aid—or even an awareness of their legal rights—due to a lack of education and access to information.

Naturally, financial resources also factor into to what extent one may be able to pay for legal representation, judicial taxes, and child care while in court.

Children were also highlighted as an at-risk group in GRETA’s report. Part of how GRETA urged Armenian authorities to better protect children from trafficking included paying particular attention to children from rural areas at risk of child labour, using girls from the Yezidi community (an ethnoreligious minority) and children placed in child-care institutions as examples.

Another recommendation aimed at combatting human trafficking was to enact measures that will lower the population’s poverty rates, as it would provide the parents with more time and resources to attentively watch over their children.

One distinct obstacle Armenian authorities are faced with is their ability to identify human trafficking victims and pursue their captors. GRETA argues that, by and large, “authorities largely relied on trafficking victims to self-identify and failed to detect victims through pro-active investigations.”

As with women, however, all victims were noted to express a degree of distrust towards police and feelings of shame for being a victim in the first place, thereby choosing to remain silent.

This distrust towards the authorities’ ability to deliver them justice can be better understood in the criminal investigations against traffickers. Between 2017 and 2021, “a total of 69 criminal investigations were conducted into human trafficking cases but only 13 cases were brought to trial and just six persons were convicted for trafficking,” the report found.

GRETA concludes its report by recommending that Armenia establish a bureau dedicated to monitoring human trafficking activities, as well as urging the country’s authorities to guarantee legal assistance to victims as soon as they have been properly identified as such.

NJ Restaurant Brings ‘Plant-Based’ Armenian Favorites To Montclair

Boshkezenian Garik

June 6 2022
Eric Kiefer,Patch Staff

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Zareh and Nvair Beylerian chose to give up eating meat five years ago. But for the couple, the most challenging thing about their new diet wasn’t giving up American staples such as steak or burgers, but the Armenian foods from their childhoods. That includes lahmajun, a millennia-old Armenian/Arabic/Turkish staple made of flatbread and ground lamb mixed with minced tomato, parsley, onion and peppers.

But necessity is often the mother of invention.

Experimenting in her home kitchen, Nvair Beylerian created a lahmajun substitute by replacing the meat with brown lentils — and voila, the first recipe for worldFLATS was born. Apparently, it’s a formula for success; worldFLATS recently opened up its third location in Montclair alongside its other eateries in Ridgewood and Paramus.

The “fast-casual” restaurant, located at 58 Church Street, offers dine-in, pickup or online ordering for delivery within a five-mile radius. The restaurant is vegetarian and vegan-friendly.

The “FLAT” staple of the worldFLATS menu is known in Armenia as lavash. According to the restaurant’s purveyors, lavash is what many Americans would call a “flatbread,” but it’s softer and more pliable than a traditional flatbread and commonly circular in shape. Flats can be eaten flat like a pizza, or folded in wrap form.

The restaurant also offers vegetarian soups, salads and desserts, as well as the option to add plant-based proteins to most menu items. Beverages include shadlavs (Armenian yogurt drinks) and their house-made agua frescas (fruit-infused water with a touch of agave).

A major goal of the restaurant is to help people learn about the joy of eating “plant-based meals,” the Beylerians say.

“I love it when a customer tells me that they don’t miss the meat and especially when someone reports that when they took dinner home to their family and it wasn’t revealed that it was plant-based until after they ate,” Nvair Beylerian said. “They’re usually very surprised and ask for more.”

https://patch.com/new-jersey/montclair/nj-restaurant-brings-plant-based-armenian-favorites-montclair

Azerbaijan works to revive recaptured Karabakh resort of Shusha

Jane Topchian
June 6 2022
By Nailia Bagirova

SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, June 6 (Reuters) – The area around Shusha was once called the “Switzerland of Azerbaijan” for its wooded hills and mild climate – a nickname that belies a history of periodic violence between ethnic Azerbaijanis and Armenians stretching back more than a century.

A year and a half ago, Azerbaijani forces retook the town from the ethnic Armenians who had seized it in 1992 for the Armenian-backed breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, driving out the 15,000 Azerbaijanis who lived there.

But the Shusha they recaptured, in Soviet times a tourist resort, was a shadow of its former self. The 4,000 or so ethnic Armenians who had settled there – and called it Shushi – fled, leaving behind an empty town still bearing most of the scars of 1992.

Slowly, though, Azerbaijani construction workers are bringing life to the streets.

The local council building, the police headquarters and the main post office have been restored, and there is scaffolding around the Govkhar Agha mosque and the Armenian Orthodox Ghazanchetsots Cathedral.

The building of three hotels allowed Azeri authorities to choose Shusha as the host of the annual Baku Energy Week conference, and announce that the Emirati firm Masdar would build solar and wind plants for Azerbaijan that together will produce 4 gigawatts of power.

Three supermarkets are open and, from this month, five buses a week link Shusha to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, bringing local tourists as well as workers.

“When I arrived in Shusha, everything was destroyed,” said Elkhan Guliyev, who works for the Azerishiq electricity company. “A lot has been done in these eight months. Electricity and water have been installed, everything has been restored. Many tourists and students come here now.”

Jahid Alekperov left when he was just 25. Now 56, he has returned as a construction worker, but longs for the day when former residents will be allowed back to their properties.

He has been to inspect the ruin of his family’s old home.

“Only the walls are left from it,” he said, picking at the peeling yellow wallpaper.

“I work for a company that is working to restore the city. But Shusha is beautiful in this state, too.”

Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Janet Lawrence
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/azerbaijan-works-revive-recaptured-karabakh-resort-shusha-2022-06-06/