Category: 2022

 13:33,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. The shortcomings during the 44-day war haven’t been entirely studied, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in parliament in response to MP Hovik Azaryan’s question whether or not the wartime flaws were efficiently studied and whether or not the government is properly getting ready to a possible large-scale war.

“Of course we haven’t studied it completely,” Pashinyan said.

He said that when the 2018 revolution took place his political team’s approach was the following: to avoid appointing anyone from the political team in military posts.

“The minister was a previous Cabinet member, he was previously the first deputy minister, and was minister of emergency situations when the revolution took place,” Pashinyan said, referring to Davit Tonoyan.

“We didn’t appoint anyone from our political team in the defense ministry because we thought that nevertheless the army is one other family and we shouldn’t interfere in its internal matters, understanding that an escalation could happen at any moment and with this realization we didn’t do that,” the PM said.

The Prime Minister said that he found out that the military has a problem of helmets and ballistic vests only a few days after the 44-day war started.

“And what about the hundreds of millions of dollars we were spending on weapons, was it difficult to buy helmets or vests? These are all systemic gaps and I think that we must go to the end and reveal what happened,” the PM said.

He added that the actions which are done to withstand possible large-scale manifestations are insufficient.

“Our army is at the most difficult phase, because the phase of transformation is always the most difficult one. What needs to be done and the reforms that we must do is a very difficult path but we must realize that we have some objective restrictions there and we must do everything to overcome these restrictions. This is the reason why I decided that the Defense Minister must be a representative of the political team and now in retrospect I regret that I hadn’t made that decision earlier. But I am not even sure that this should had been done from the very beginning,” Pashinyan said.

 13:57,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the issue of the status of Nagorno Karabakh was essentially left out from the dimension of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship format talks as of 2016.

Pashinyan was making the comments in parliament when asked by MP Vahagn Alexanyan on what took place in the negotiations process in 2016.

“What was the leitmotif of the 1998 events, Levon-Ter Petrosyan thought that the issue must be solved in a phased option, Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan and the then-authorities of Artsakh were saying no, they weren’t accepting this, and that the issue must be accepted in a package option. And this became the leitmotif,” Pashinyan said.

According to the PM, the title of the negotiations document on his table was: “On the first phase and further steps of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement” – translating from Russian – On the First Phase and Future Steps of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.”

“Meaning, the person who said that a phased solution is defeatism left in 2018 a document on the negotiations table that was titled that way. Meaning, the person who was carrying out a regime change against the phased solution again reached the phased solution. But there are so many splits in this phased solution. It is a question whether or not Azerbaijan agrees to this. They say they will solve the Karabakh issue this or that way, so why haven’t you. They forget  that they are presenting the ideas in unsigned papers as victory,” the PM said.

Speaking on the role of the Co-Chairs, the PM said: “They take the ideas of the sides, try to refine them and put it on paper. We can have all kinds of ideas. But as of 2018 the entirety of the Karabakh issue was so much split up, it wasn’t a phased option, it was rather a hyper-phased option. Meaning, from the 1998 phased option we reached the 2016 hyperphased option,” the PM said.

Speaking about a brief description of the 2016 events, he said: “In January the Co-Chairs present a negotiations package, the meaning of which is that Nagorno Karabakh will not have an interim status. The Armenian side naturally rejected it. Two months after presenting it the April War began, and then in July the second package is presented, where it is recorded that again Karabakh will not have an interim status. In August, the third package is presented where a new component is added to the negotiations papers – a UN Security Council draft resolution.”

Pashinyan cited former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s narrative during a 2017 interview that the status of Karabakh will be determined by the international community.

“This is what Levon Ter-Petrosyan meant most likely. Meaning, the NK status issue was essentially left out from the dimension of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format talks as of 2016. The issue was left out, that issue must be solved by the international community. But the international community must solve as part of several undeniable principles that in Karabakh as of 1988 there were also Azerbaijanis that left.  In the international community’s understanding it is impossible to address this issue without the protection of the rights of the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno Karabakh. And, essentially, this is all in the negotiations package,” the PM said, adding that this is included in the Madrid Principles as well.

Pashinyan said that there hasn’t even been any option that would even be unacceptable for Armenia but acceptable for Azerbaijan.

Speaking about the question addressed to his administration on how they fell into a trap in 2019, Pashinyan said: “What’s falling in a trap? That a negotiations package appears by which Armenia is expected to surrender seven regions to Azerbaijan. Serzh Sargsyan says how come we fell into the trap. We weren’t in a trap, that paper recorded what Serzh Sargsyan announced from this rostrum. That was the result of his last negotiations because as of 2019 we hadn’t even started negotiating. As of 2019 when that document was put on the table we hadn’t yet talked about substantive negotiations at all,” he said.

Speaking on the questions whether or not the war could’ve been prevented, PM Pashinyan said: “We could’ve prevented the war as a result of which we would have had this same situation, without the victims. The same situation, with all questions and nuances.”

 13:59,

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. The serviceman of the Artsakh Defense Army who was wounded from Azerbaijani fire in Parukh is in stable condition, a source close to the authorities in Artsakh told ARMENPRESS.

The source said that the situation in Parukh is calm.

The Azeri shooting in Parukh left one Artsakh soldier wounded.

On April 12, the Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno Karabakh officially accused Azerbaijan in violating the ceasefire. 

The incident was resolved by the peacekeeping contingent’s command in cooperation with the militaries of both sides.

 14:04,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan expects the unity of the people around the peace agenda.

During the Q&A session in the Parliament today, the PM said: “Yes, our society was divided after November 9, 2020. Election, where people can express, is the mean to overcome the society’s division in democratic countries. This is the mean because there is no atmosphere of consent in a democratic society, where everyone agrees with everything. This is the essence of democracy. But there are also moments when the entire public is consolidating around solving a problem. I said today that if our people gave that mandate to us, the people must unite around that peace agenda and the government that pushes forward that peace agenda. I think it’s obvious that this path has no alternative”.

The PM said declaring that agenda doesn’t mean that they will be able to succeed because it requires double, triple, quadruple efforts.

“But we must also see the challenges, learn lessons from our history, from our history of the recent period. And yes, the state’s interest must become the core and the backbone of everything. I have heard a sentence after the war that the war showed the gaps of our model of patriotism”, he said.

 15:10,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. An improvement has been made in the composition of the debt in 2021, the share of the dram debt in the government’s debt has increased, Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan said in the Parliament today.

In 2021, the government debt must have comprised the 62.3% of the GDP, he said. Based on the actual results of the year, the government debt comprised 4 trillion 209 billion drams or the 60.3% of the GDP, which is lower by 2 percentage points than the preliminary estimation made in the beginning of the year.

“We can state that the actual indicator of 2021 has registered an important progress in improvement of debt manageability due to the high economic growth than planned on the one hand, and the consistent fiscal policy on the other hand. Moreover, there has been a significant improvement in the debt composition during the year, by increasing the share of the dram debt in the total debt of the government”, he said.

The dram debt figure in the debt composition has increased, reaching 28.8%, compared to the 24.4% in 2020. The minister said this change in the composition is in accordance with the debt’s medium-term management guidelines which require that in order to reduce the risks connected with the exchange rate fluctuations, the share of domestic debt in the overall debt should be no less than 25%.

“The increase of dram debt in the government’s debt composition has led to a certain increase in the weighted interest rate of the government’s debt, which comprised 4.7% in 2021 compared to the 4.3% of the previous year”, the minister said.

However, he considered it necessary to take into account that as a result of the increase of domestic debt and interest rates in the government’s debt composition, the incomes of residents of Armenia become more of the latter. “In particular, 108.3 billion drams of the 180.8 billion drams interest payments paid in 2021 or the 60% of the overall interest payments were the internal interest payments, whereas the interest payments for the external debt comprised 72.5 billion drams or 40%. The fiscal policy of 2021, including the increase in tax revenues, the balance of expenditures, the cut in state budget deficit had a significant positive impact on the restoration of macro-economic stability and formation of positive expectations over Armenia’s economic development prospects”, Tigran Khachatryan said.

 15:23,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about the fight against corruption, its pace and what measures are being taken in this direction.

Speaking in parliament, Pashinyan highlighted that the measures must be guided with institutional logic.

“This is the reason why we are creating an anti-corruption committee, an anti-corruption court, reforms in the judiciary, the applications on confiscating illegal assets are already entering the court. Of course the opposition is trying to dispute the procedures in the Constitutional Court but we must go forward institutionally,” the PM said.

The PM said the government prioritizes creating mechanisms so that no incumbent government would be able to “plunder.”

Pashinyan highlighted the fact that last month 15 billion drams were paid to the state budget in the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine case.

“The Republic of Armenia, the people are the owner of the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine, doesn’t this mean that we are bringing back what’s been plundered? This too is the return of what has been plundered,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said it is necessary to create institutions that would fight against corruption.

“Yes, I myself am not satisfied, I’ve spoken about this numerously, but as a result of my complaints and anger I’ve concluded that there should be an institution that would work, because this isn’t a matter of a prime minister’s instruction or the political majority’s will, let there be an institution to work. In 2020-2021 we have implemented cornerstone reforms,” Pashinyan said.

 15:57,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. 43,7% of the adult population of Armenia is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Healthcare Minister Anahit Avanesyan said in parliament.

“We have the following numbers today. 49,5% of the adult population in vaccinated with first dose and 43,7% is fully vaccinated,” Avanesyan said.

 17:00,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. After the incident when a group of members of the Armenian Parliament were not allowed to enter Artsakh, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia contacted the authorities of Artsakh and the Russian Federation, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said during the Q&A session in the Parliament, asked what measures have been taken to avoid such incidents in the future.

“Since it became known that the members of the National Assembly were unable to enter Nagorno Karabakh through the Lachin corridor, of course, we have taken actions. We have been in contact with both the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh and the Russian Federation at a high level. We were assured that the entry of the MPs to Artsakh was not allowed to avoid provocations. As for our position, it is clearly reflected in the statement of the Foreign Ministry, that is that the 2020 November 9 trilateral statement doesn’t envisage any restriction in the movement through the Lachin corridor, and the citizens of Armenia, including (or moreover, if you want) the members of the National Assembly must have an unimpeded access to Nagorno Karabakh”, the FM said.

Vice Speaker of Parliament Ishkhan Saghatelyan announced that the opposition lawmakers of the Armenian parliament were not allowed to enter Artsakh.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement over the incident, expressing its concern. “This action contradicts the Trilateral Statement of November 9, which envisages the unimpeded connection of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia through the Lachin corridor. All parties to the Statement must strictly adhere to the latter’s letter and spirit, as well as fulfill its obligations”, the ministry said in a statement.