Category: 2022

 13:04, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan is in the city of Almaty of Kazakhstan on a two-day visit from March 28 to take part in the meeting dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliament’s press service said.

Speaker Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Senate (upper house) of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Maulen Ashimbayev within the framework of the visit.

After the mutual greetings the Armenian Speaker of Parliament thanked his Kazakh counterpart for the hospitality and congratulated him on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The heads of parliaments have documented that the Armenian-Kazakh ties are directed to the mutually beneficial and perspective cooperation in the spheres of politics, economy and culture. Alen Simonyan noted that Armenia and Kazakhstan persistently develop the political cooperation, activate the inter-state contacts for reaching the bilateral relational to a qualitatively new level.

The Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan highlighted with gratitude the role of Armenia as a chairing state in the CSTO in operatively responding in the military clashes happened in Kazakhstan in January and showing joint support with the allies.

During the meeting the provocative actions of the Azerbaijani forces in Artsakh and the facts of invading the sovereign area of Armenia were discussed. Alen Simonyan underlined that once again Azerbaijan violated the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement, because of which there are victims and wounded. Alen Simonyan characterized the situation of the region as a deep humanitarian crisis, expressing hope that Kazakhstan, as an ally would have an impact on Azerbaijan.

The sides highlighted the active cooperation of the legislative bodies in the relations of the two states through the Parliamentary Friendship Groups. At the meeting the problems of more than 15.000 Armenians residing in Kazakhstan were touched upon. The Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan has assured that the Armenians living in Kazakhstan are completely involved in the social-cultural, economic and educational spheres, and the Armenian community is considered to be exemplary.

At the end of the meeting, the Armenian Speaker of Parliament invited his Kazakh counterpart to pay an official visit to Armenia: the invitation was gladly accepted.

 13:35, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. In over 20 years, citizens of Turkey bought 72 and citizens of Azerbaijan bought 5 or 6 real estate properties in Armenia, the Head of the Armenian Cadastre Committee Suren Tovmasyan told reporters when asked on the matter.

Tovmasyan said the real estate bought by the Turkish and Azerbaijani citizens are of “non-agricultural significance”.

“Citizens of any country can buy real estate of non-agricultural significance in Armenia,” Tovmasyan explained.

“Ever since the registration of rights, if I am not mistaken since 2002, there’ve only been 72 real estate units to be bought by citizens of Turkey. Most of these properties were apartments, and some were small public facilities,” Tovmasyan said.

Asked to elaborate on the acquisition of real estate by Azerbaijani citizens, Tovmasyan said relevant background checks are in place. “Foreign citizens don’t buy that property here with their passports just like that. These people get a respective travel passport here, and all concerns are allayed in that process. If they have the travel passport it means that everything checked out and then only they buy the real estate,” Tovmasyan said, referring to background security checks.

Tovmasyan says there’ve been 5 or 6 real estate to be bought by Azerbaijani citizens in Armenia.

He dismissed rumors claiming that Azerbaijanis are buying real estate in Armenia especially in the recent period. He said the years of acquisition vary.

 13:42, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. All sides should do everything so that the Azerbaijani units, which infiltrated into the territory of Artsakh, return back to their initial positions, Armenia’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan told reporters in the Parliament today.

“One thing is clear: the positions, where the sides were located after November 9, have been violated, both in the direction of the position and the height. And all sides should do everything so that the Azerbaijani troops return back to their initial positions. This is very clear”, the minister said, when asked to comment on the recent incursion of the Azerbaijani armed forces into the area that is under the responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping troops in Nagorno Karabakh.

 13:54, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Russia considers it necessary for all parties to observe the previously reached agreements over Nagorno Karabakh, and the question about the possibility of sending an additional contingent of peacekeepers amid growing tensions in the region must be addressed to the Russian defense ministry, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters today, TASS reports.

“That question must be addressed to our military. They are in contact with the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. Now the main thing is to ensure that all sides continue implementing the terms of the respective agreements”, the Kremlin spokesperson said.

 14:11, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Around 850 million dollars in remittances flow into Armenia from Russia every year, but due to the situation in Russia this number could drop around 40%, Armenian Finance Minister Tigran Khachatryan said.

Speaking on Armenian exports to Russia, Khachatryan expressed confidence that Armenian exporters will overall find new opportunities. He cited similar situations of 2015 and 2016.

“In 2021 we had around 860-870 million dollars in exports to Russia,” he said, adding that the businesses got impacted when there were currency shocks and their debts were in rubles.

The finance minister didn’t give assessments as to how much this would impact economic activity in 2022.

 14:32, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. A PhD student at the Armenian-Russian University of Yerevan is working on a project that would help healthcare workers in early diagnosis and prevention of COVID-19 consequences in patients who have cardio-vascular diseases.

Participant of the 100 Ideas for Armenia project Chinar Movsisyan told ARMENPRESS that her project will enable doctors to find out the severity of the disease and what were the factors that contributed to its development in patients.

“The project started when I began my PhD studies at the Armenian-Russian University. After discussing with my supervisor, Sos S. Agaian of the City University of New York, we understood what problems exist now that require innovative solutions. After numerous discussions we decided to research cardio-vascular diseases to understand how artificial intelligence can be useful in treating them easier and faster. It will help doctors and patients to understand the problems faster and avoid a number of tests,” Movsisyan said.

Movsisyan said they’ve been cooperating with the Armenian Cardiology Institute, which provided the required data needed in working on AI projects.

The project is currently in the stage of data processing and research.

Movsisyan says they will soon publish an article, which will be followed by tests.

The purpose of the project is to understand which type of AI can be integrated in hospitals that would be used for prevention and treatment of diseases, and secondly the project will make medical services more effective and fast.

The 100 Ideas for Armenia competition is a youth project organized by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport for encouraging young people to be interested in science and propose innovations. The competition has more than 20 categories and includes various sectors.

Reporting by Gayane Gaboyan

 14:50, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia is currently discussing a number of anti-crisis measures, is allocating funds for their implementation and is doing that by making decisions about redistributions of expenditures, Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan said at the session of the parliamentary standing committee on economic affairs.

During the session one of the members of Parliament, commenting on the minister’s statement that there will be no cut in expenditures envisaged by the 2020 budget, said that the government cannot constantly raise the state debt. The lawmaker highlighted revising expenditures during crises. “I think that the finance ministry must take concrete and drastic measures because in this difficult financial situation our country cannot afford luxuries, particularly it could concern cutting both either bonuses, or business trips or cutting the number of persons leaving on a business trip”, MP Hripsime Stambulyan said.

In response, the minister said: “Undoubtedly, there will be some changes inside. The government is discussing numerous anti-crisis measures now and is allocating resources for their implementation and does this by making decisions about redistribution of expenditures, including ongoing. If there is a situation when there will be a need to revise some funds given for bonuses to make some more important expenditures, of course, there will be that decisions”.

As for the inflation, the minister reminded that it is the task of the Central Bank.

He said when the economy feels pressure on itself due to external forces, the government should not add additional pressure.

 15:15, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission Garegin Baghramyan says he believes that there should be a discussion with the involvement of the Ministry of Economy and the Central Bank in order to understand what currency would be more convenient for paying for the Russian gas.

Baghramyan made the comments at a press briefing when asked whether or not he finds the option of paying in rubles appropriate.

“As Chairman of the Commission, within my powers, I would prefer buying gas with a more firm currency,” Baghramyan added.

Baghramyan refrained from commenting on potential effects in the economy in the event of paying in rubles for gas.

“We must assess what currency is more beneficial for us. It should be viewed from an overall macroeconomic perspective.”

Earlier on March 23, the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan said the Armenian government is discussing the possibility of paying for Russian gas in rubles.

 15:34, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. On March 28, Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament) of the Kyrgyz Republic Talant Mamytov, the Armenian Parliament’s press service said.

The sides discussed the perspectives of cooperation within the framework of the IPA CIS, recording the necessity of the parliamentary diplomacy and the active cooperation of the Friendship Groups.

The Parliament Speaker highlighted the constructive cooperation of the delegations of the two countries in the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on other parliamentary platforms.

The Kyrgyz counterpart reminded about the protocol on the ceasefire of the Nagorno Karabakh signed in Bishkek in 1994, documenting that the bad peace is preferable from any war. Touching upon the issues of the establishment and peace of the region, both sides emphasized the support of the peace agenda.

Ideas were exchanged also over the decentralized cooperation among wide circle of discussions. In this context the upcoming exchange programs between the two second cities Gyumri and Osh, as well, as Shirak and Osh relevant universities were singled out.

 17:05, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Hambardzum Matevosyan and his delegation will depart for Dubai, the United Arab Emirates on March 28, the deputy PM’s Office said.

Hambardzum Matevosyan will participate in the Annual Investment Meeting 2022, as well as the closing ceremony of the Expo 2020 Dubai.

The Armenian deputy PM will deliver speech at the AIM.