Category: 2022

ArmInfo. Law-enforcers have detained the officer platoon commander who was driving the off-roader that run over a pregnant young woman at the intersection of Paronyan street and Leo street. 

“According to the preliminary data, on April 26, at 18:06pm, the  commander of an officer platoon of the Traffic Police, driving a  Toyota Prado, run over a 28-year-old resident of the Ararat region.  The woman was admitted to the Nairi medical center with bodily  injuries and died without regaining consciousness. 

“The driver left the scene, but later returned and participated in  the investigative action. He has been detained. The preliminary  investigation is in progress,” the official report reads.

The off-roader was among the escort vehicles of Armenia’s Premier  Nikol Pashinyan. The killed woman was expecting her firstborn this  June. Last evening people were bringing toys and lit candles to the  scene of accident.

ArmInfo.Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I has addressed  congratulatory message to Emmanuel Macron on the occasion of his re-election as President of  France.

In his message, Aram I highly appreciated Mr Macron’s support for the  Armenian people and Armenian Cause and called on France to continue  supporting Artsakh’s independence and Armenia’s territorial integrity  and sovereignty. 

In the context of contemporary concerns, Aram I emphasized France’s  decisive role in the present-day geopolitical developments and as a  symbol of justice, diversity and human rights in Europe, Middle East  and Caucasus. 

Aram I also emphasized France’s vital role for Lebanon and expressed  hope that Lebanon will remain among President Macron’s priorities,  especially in the present critical period of its history. 

ArmInfo. The statement by U.S. Secretary of State  Antony Blinken is evidence of the combined efforts of the United  States and European Union to force Russia out of Artsakh first and  later of the entire South Caucasus, David Stepanyan, associate  member, Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs  (AIISA), said in an interview with ArmInfo. 

“This statement by Mr Blinken, as well as his telephone talks with  Armenia’s Premier Nikol Pashinyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham  Aliyev before the Brussels meeting, are evidence of not only indirect  – through the EU – but also direct involvement of the United States  in, let us say, the post-Minsk process of settlement of the Artsakh  problem. And we can be sure of the USA’s presence, albeit invisible,  at the Michel-Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting in Brussels on April 6, 2022,”  he said. 

In his remarks at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee session,  Secretary Blinken said the United States supports a long-term  political settlement with regard to Nagorno Karabakh.

“I have been very actively in directly engaged with leadership in  both Armenia and Azerbaijan including just as recently as a week ago  phone calls with Prime Minister Pashinyan and with President Aliyev,  as well as their foreign ministers, trying to help advance prospects  for a long-term political settlement with regard to Nagorno  Karabakh”, Blinken said. “We have been developing and promoting  various confidence- building measures. We have been trying to push  back on any unilateral actions particularly by Azerbaijan that would  only inflame the situation and we have a number of programs in place  that are part of the budget to try to help advance more peaceful  prospects”.

After the geopolitical confrontation over Ukraine entered an active  phase, the trilateral OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship has  transformed into two separate, even rivaling, processes. And intense  rivalry of the United States and France with Russia is an  accomplished fact. However, neither the USA nor France or Russia is  not going to officially dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group in the  foreseeable future, primarily due to the fact that it is as OSCE  Minsk Group co-chairs that they are internationally mandated to  mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan.   

“I would like to emphasize the part of Mr Blinken’s statement saying  that the USA has ‘been trying to push back on any unilateral actions  particularly by Azerbaijan.’ I think that part of the statement is  addressed to Moscow rather than to Baku. And it is not without  reasons that the United States believes that Russia, along with  Turkey, is actually provoking Azerbaijan’s excessive bellicosity as a  means of keeping a tight rein on Armenia and preventing it from  making any steps toward the West,” Mr Stepanyan said.

In other words, the USA’s statements are a means of curbing the  present and preventing further militant tendencies by President Ilham  Aliyev thereby stripping its principal rival, Russia, of one of the  means of influencing Armenia and, therefore, the settlement process. 

“Of course, it is being done primarily in the national interests of  the United States, which is seeking to project the current situation  in Ukraine to the South Caucasus and force Russia to leave the other  side of the Caucasian Range,” Mr Stepanyan said.    

ArmInfo. Azerbaijan is successfully implementing both railway and automobile projects on its territory, and expects concrete steps related to work in this  direction in Armenia as well. Jeyhun Bayramov stated this at a joint  briefing with Georgian Foreign Minister Ilya Darchiashvili.

“This primarily concerns the 3 countries of the South Caucasus in  terms of the processes taking place in the region, especially the  normalization of the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. The Georgian  side also supports this. The Azerbaijani-Georgian cooperation can be  used  as a model if we consider the South Caucasus as our joint home.  This can serve as a model for any two neighboring countries. Armenia,  of course, can also take its place in international projects,  observing the norms and principles of international law,” Bayramov  said.

“One of the priority issues for us after the end of the conflict is  to ensure sustainable peace in the region. I had the opportunity to  negotiate with my colleague in this regard as well. There are some  results of our contacts with the Armenian Foreign Ministry. I have  already had 2 telephone conversations with the Foreign Minister  Affairs of Armenia. There are already conditions for starting the  work of the commission on delimitation and demarcation of borders,”  Bayramov said, APA reports.  Touching upon the Georgian-Azerbaijani  relations, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister noted that relations  between Baku and Tbilisi are based on historical ties and the  principle of good neighborliness.  “Azerbaijan has always supported  the territorial integrity of Georgia, the inviolability of its  borders. We saw the same approach from Georgia,” Bayramov said, also  pointing to the successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia  in the international framework.

ArmInfo. MP from the “Armenia” opposition faction Aram Vardevanyan harshly criticized the behavior of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashyyan, who did not show any  reaction in connection with the fatal incident involving his security  motorcade. He also criticized the position of some, including the  pro-government, media, for their unjustified passivity about this  tragic story.

“Partners from “Azatutyun” Radio (RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, ed.  note), I publicly appeal to you.  How is it that you are extremely  passive on the fact of a tragic and obvious crime? You use any excuse  to mention the name of second President of the Republic of Armenia  Robert Kocharyan on the tragic incident in “Poplavok” (Yerevan jazz  cafe where Kocharyan’s security guard beat a man to death in 2001).  Why don’t you write that Nikol Pashinyan, seeing the crime  personally, left Sona Martirosyan (a pregnant woman who was hit by an  escort car at high speed, ed. note) (Article 128 of the Criminal Code  of the Republic of Armenia). Why don’t you write that the person who  told the people that his motorcade is stopping and will stop at a red  light, is moving around the city at BREAKNECK speed, hitting people,  spitting on public order. Write, cover, eliminate hypocrisy,” the  opposition MP wrote.

It should be noted that earlier, the Investigative Committee of  Armenia reported that in the framework of the criminal case initiated  under Art. 242 part 2 and art. 244 part 1 of the RA Criminal Code,  the necessary investigative actions are being taken to clarify the  circumstances of the fatal accident at the intersection of Paronyan  and Leo streets. “According to preliminary data, on April 26, at  about 18:06, at the indicated intersection, the commander of an  officer platoon of the Traffic Police in a Toyota Prado car hit a  28-year- old resident of the Ararat region. The latter with bodily  injuries was taken to the Nairi medical center, where she died  without regaining consciousness. The driver of the car left the scene  of the accident, but later returned to the scene at about 20:05 and  took part in investigative measures. He was detained. The preliminary  investigation continues,” the RA Investigative Committee said in a  statement.

This 28-year-old pregnant woman who died in this accident by the  motorcade of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was Sona Mnatsakanyan. In  the evening, citizens began to bring toys, flowers and burning  candles to the scene of an accident that claimed two lives. It is  also worth adding that the news that after the accident, none of the  seven cars accompanying the prime minister’s motorcade stopped to  help the woman caused a wide public outcry. However, the prime  minister’s office only commented “Nikol Pashinyan was not driving.”  Neither condolences were expressed in connection with the tragic  incident, nor words of regret.  We note that Sona Mnatsakanyan was a  founding member of Support Our Heroes and the leader of the Artsakh  Tever IT Center project group within SOH.  “Sona will always remain  in our hearts as an exemplary patriot and a dear friend with great  human values. Our condolences to Sona’s family, loved ones,  friends…”, the respective message of Support Our Heroes – Armenia  reads.