Category: 2022

Azerbaijan pulls back troops from Parukh village, Russian peacekeepers say

 21:05, 27 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Azerbaijani military pulled back its troops from the village of Parukh in Artsakh as a result of negotiations with Russian peacekeepers.

“As a result of negotiations the Azerbaijani side pulled back its units from the Parukh settlement,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire again in Askeran region. “Two people from each side were wounded in the shootout.The Russian peacekeeping contingent stabilized the situation in cooperation with the representatives of the parties to the conflict.”

On March 24-25 the Azerbaijani troops attacked Artsakh military positions and invaded the Parukh village. Azeri drone strikes killed 3 Artsakh troops and wounded 15 others.

 09:22, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Football Team arrived in Oslo, capital of Norway, on March 27, where they will play a friendly match, the Football Federation of Armenia said.

The team will stay at Radisson Blu Hotel Nydalen in Oslo.

Norway-Armenia match will take place on March 29 at Ullevaal Stadion, 19:00 (local time).

 10:02, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. British vessels Northumberland and Richmond delivered military vehicles and equipment to Estonia where the UK-led NATO Battlegroup is located, TASS reports citing a statement by the UK Ministry of Defense.

According to the Sunday statement by the UK Ministry of Defense, the Royal Navy frigates and a RAF Poseidon P8A submarine hunter aircraft also participated in joint exercises with forces from Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Baltic Sea.

“Activities such as these in the Baltic Sea are routine business for us and our JEF partners, in one of our principal areas of geographical interest,” Major General Jim Morris, the Commander of the UK Standing Joint Force HQ (SJFHQ) which leads the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), said. According to him, “there has never been a more important time to ensure that freedom of navigation is maintained in the Baltic Sea.”

In February, the UK already sent additional tanks and armored vehicles to Estonia as well as doubled its contingent there to 1,800 servicemen. It is reported that the new batch of equipment was sent to Estonia within the framework of resupplying the UK-led NATO Battlegroup.

The UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) was formed in 2014 and represents a different structure without being regular troops. The alliance which also includes Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Estonia periodically holds joint drills. During the March meeting in London, the leaders of these countries vowed to bolster cooperation due to the altered security situation in Europe and hold more sea and land drills in the North Atlantic and the Baltics.

 11:10, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. 10 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 422,468, the Armenian Ministry of Healthcare said.

No one died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and the death toll remains at 8610.

29 people recovered (total recoveries: 409,819).

2397 tests were administered (total tests: 2,968,785).

The number of active cases stood at 2364 as of March 28.

 11:17, 28 March, 2022

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The 2020 war in Artsakh resulted in destructions of a number of buildings in the Republic. Following the war, construction companies have conducted and continue conducting renovation works in more than 3000 facilities. These restoration works have been completed in 2500 out of these 3000 facilities, the rest will be completed during 2022, Minister of Urban Development of Artsakh Aram Sargsyan said in an interview to ARMENPRESS, talking about the ongoing house-building, road construction and other activities in the Republic.

The weather conditions in March created a collapse situation in Artsakh. Presenting the current situation in the Republic, the minister said the unfavorable weather conditions and heavy snowfalls in Artsakh were unprecedented compared to the previous years, and this created some difficulties for the movement of citizens and for traffic. “However, the clearing operations have launched and been implemented in an operational manner in order to mitigate the weather-related difficulties as much as possible. Overall, the inter-state roads and the Stepanakert-Berdzor highway have been mainly open during this period, only some parts were difficult to pass”, he said.

He said the Ministry of Urban Development launched the program on eliminating the consequences of the war immediately after the end of the military operations. “Last year the ministry’s activities were directed mainly to eliminating the destructions caused by the war and building new houses for our displaced citizens. These works are also a priority this year and will continue until the displaced citizens are provided with apartments and the consequences of the war are eliminated completely. The total number of damaged buildings in Artsakh comprises 7622, of which 120 have been destroyed either completely or mostly need to be built from zero.

As for the ongoing house-building works, the minister said that all resources are now being invested to quickly solve the existing challenges. “At the moment big construction sites exist in the Republic, and new apartments, districts, residential buildings and houses are being constructed in several regions. These works are being done at the expense of both public funds, the Hayastan All Armenian Fund and different private and charity means. By 2024, a new housing stock of the required number will be created in Artsakh”, he said.

In response to the question when the residents of the settlements which have come under the Azerbaijani control as a result of the war will be provided with apartments, the minister said that in the post-war period, till this moment, nearly 300 apartments have been commissioned.

The road construction works are also being actively carried out. He said the construction of the road linking Khramort community to the town of Askeran is underway.

The war also damaged a number of educational facilities in Artsakh. Over a dozen schools and kindergartens have been damaged by the shelling. “The renovation works started immediately after the end of the war so that the study process would not suffer. Overall, educational institutions have been damaged in Stepanakert, Martuni, as well as in Shosh, Aygestan, Karmir Shuka, Kert, Charektar and Tonashen communities. The renovation works have already been completed in these settlements, and the educational facilities there are already operating normally”, the minister added.

 11:58, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that Germany is considering setting up a missile shield for the whole of Germany, Deutsche Welle reports.

The missile defense system will be based on the Israeli model.

“[A missile shield] is certainly among the things we are discussing, for good reason,” DW quoted Scholz as saying in an interview to broadcaster ARD.

“We must all prepare ourselves for the fact that we have a neighbor presently ready to use force to assert its interests.”

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag had previously reported that Germany was considering purchasing an Israeli Arrow 3 system. This system would cost €2 billion ($2.2 billion), the newspaper reported.

 12:13, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is pleased to note that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries gave a clear assessment to the latest escalation in Nagorno Karabakh, stating that it is a consequence of the Azerbaijani troops movements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said that it called on the Azerbaijani side to pull back its army units. And on March 27 the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation released a statement saying that the Azerbaijani side has withdrawn its units from the Parukh settlement of Nagorno Karabakh. Nevertheless, we have to note that the Azerbaijani units’ invasion into the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno Karabakh still continues, which is reflected in the attached maps. We expect the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation in Nagorno Karabakh to take concrete measures to stop the invasion of the Azerbaijani units into the area of responsibility of the peacekeepers and to withdraw the Azerbaijani armed forces. We emphasize the importance of a proper investigation into the actions of the peacekeeping contingent during the entire period of the Azerbaijani military invasion and for answers to a number of questions to be given,” the foreign ministry added.

The deployment locations of the Russian peacekeepers shown in the maps is taken from the Russian Defense Ministry website.

The map describing the situation as of March 24, 2022 clearly shows that there are no Azerbaijani posts in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers. However, the map as of March 28 shows Azerbaijani posts in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers.

 12:30, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. There will be no cut in expenditures envisaged by the 2020 state budget, the capital expenditures will be carried out completely, and if the tax revenues would be lower than expected, it will be compensated by attracting state debt in case of necessity, Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan said at the session of the parliamentary standing committee on economic affairs.

“We will have a need to borrow funds also in coming years because in most cases these are financial resources directed to privileged development programs which should enable to make investments in infrastructures, key branches of the economy, thus raising the economic growth potential. Respectively both now and in the future we must think of ways of implementing it, which are safe and manageable from macroeconomic perspective”, the minister said.

The heavy year of 2020 ended with 63.5% debt-to-GDP ratio. However, the minister reminded that the government planned to significantly improve this figure in the next five years. “We summed up the year [2021] with 60.3% debt-to-GDP ratio”, he said, considering this a significant improvement.

The government debt in the end of the year comprised 4 trillion 210 billion drams (8 billion 768 million dollars) – 6 billion 191 million dollars external debt, and 2 billion 577 million dollars internal debt. The share of internal debt in the overall debt has significantly improved, reaching around 29%.

Member of Parliament Babken Tunyan was interested in what will be the debt-to-GDP ratio by the end of the year. The minister said it’s early to give assessments. According to him, the macroeconomic uncertainties could have a negative effect on the predicted economic activity and growth rates, which in turn directly affects the tax revenues.

“If this situation has a long-lasting effect, we may end the year with lower tax revenue performance than expected. And our decision is that, by following the situation, we will attract so many necessary additional financial resources which are needed for completely conducting the expenditures approved by the 2022 state budget. And we will not go on the path of cutting the expenditure if tax revenues decline. I think that in terms of performance we will be within quite good indicators, we will seek to implement the capital expenditures with certain increase in debt because the funds to be borrowed, that will compensate the taxes, will be especially additional credit resources. It’s possible that by the end of the year we will have a debt slightly higher than GDP, we envisaged 60.2%, but it may be a little bit higher from that”, he said.

He said they came to this decision as a result of long discussions and joint conclusion with the International Monetary Fund.

 12:41, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The situation in Artsakh’s line of contact is relatively stable, the Artsakh authorities said.

“In the evening of March 27 and on March 28, as of 12:00, the operative-tactical situation at the entire line of contact, including at the eastern section of the line of contact, is relatively stable, no significant ceasefire violations were recorded,” the official Information Center of Artsakh said in a statement.

It added that the village of Parukh in Askeran region is now under the control of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

According to the Artsakh authorities, thanks to the “courageous efforts of the Artsakh military the Armenian side succeeded in thwarting the Azerbaijani military advance and maintained control over the main part of Mount Karaglukh.”

The Azerbaijani troops remain in positions on one part of Karaglukh.

“Works continue with the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s command over returning the Azerbaijani side to its initial positions,” the Artsakh Information Center said.