Category: 2022

 15:52,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said today that Azerbaijan is holding in captivity 38 persons, 3 of whom are civilians.

“Armenian prisoners of war and civilians are still illegally held in Azerbaijan. And Armenia continues raising the issue of the immediate return of Armenian POWs, hostages and other persons held in Azerbaijan at different international formats. Azerbaijan is still holding 38 persons – POW, hostage and persons held in another status. 3 out of 38 are civilians. It’s worth noting that 2 out of these 38 have been captured before the November 9″, the FM said at the session of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs.

The issue has been included to the agenda of the PACE autumn session on 2021 April 19, as well as the decision on applying ECHR interim measures in Azerbaijan is still in force.

On May 20, 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the immediate release and return of Armenian captives.

The FM also recalled the 2021 December 7 decisions of the UN’s International Court of Justice, where through the use of urgent measures the Court obliged Azerbaijan to prevent inciting racial hatred and discrimination targeting ethnic Armenians, to take necessary measures to prevent and punish the acts of vandalism and desecration directed against the Armenian cultural heritage.

The minister said the statement of the Azerbaijani culture minister that a commission must be set up to deal with the “restoration of Aghvan cultural monuments” makes urgent sending a UNESCO mission to Nagorno Karabakh. And the Armenian side is now holding negotiations on this direction.

 15:58,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Former editor-in-chief of ARMENPRESS News Agency Narine Nazaryan was appointed as the agency’s new director, replacing Aram Ananyan.

The decision on her appointment was made during the general assembly of the authorized representatives of the agency’s founder, based on the conclusion and decision of the commission which held a competition for the vacancy, where Nazaryan was declared winner.

Narine Nazaryan brings nearly 20 years of media experience in her new capacity as Director. She was Editor-in-Chief of ARMENPRESS from 2011 to 2021, and Deputy Director for more than 7 years before that.

Narine Nazaryan is the first woman director to lead ARMENPRESS in the agency’s 103-year-old history.

 16:10,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Finance of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan commented on the possible inflation in the country and said that the management of inflation is in the toolkit of the Central Bank and the Bank aims at returning the inflation to the limits defined by law.

“This means that inflation by the result of 2022 will be within 5.5%, a 1.5% deviation is also possible. The Central Bank has stated that these performance indicators will be executable and, despite the temporary difficulties existing today in the region and the world conditioned by the possible changes in prices of food and energy, they will be manageable, and in the end of the year we will have an actual inflation by law”, he said.

The minister said the calculation of increase in price of individual goods is not a general calculation. “If the food basket consists of several goods, then the sum is taken into account when determining the inflation rate”, he said.

 16:15,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. All rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and the issue of the status of Nagorno Karabakh are principled and key matters for Armenia, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told lawmakers during the parliamentary foreign affairs committee session on the government’s 2021 report of its 2021-2026 action plan.

Opposition Hayastan faction MP Armen Rustamyan asked if the FM can clearly announce that Armenia entered negotiations to rule out Artsakh’s status within Azerbaijan, to rule out an enclave status of Artsakh and to restore Armenia’s commitment to be the guarantor of the right to self determination of the people of Artsakh.

FM Mirzoyan answered by saying that the ruling Civil Contract party issued its views on these questions, and these views are anchored on the goals of building peace in the region and ensuring stable development.

According to the FM, the campaign programs of Civil Contract received sufficient public support in order for Civil Contract to form the government and implement their programs.

“The outline of our government is to build peace in the region. Certainly a most important part of this is the re-launch of peace talks around Nagorno Karabakh, the negotiation and subsequent signing of a comprehensive peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The matters of the rights of Armenians of Artsakh and the status of Nagorno Karabakh are principled and key issues for us,” Mirzoyan said.

Speaking on a different question regarding the connections, demarcation and delimitation, Mirzoyan said there is a common understanding that in case of unblocking the roads will be under the sovereignty and legislation of the countries through the territory of which they pass.

As a result of the November 26, 2021 meeting between the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani leaders in Sochi, as well as the December 15 Brussels meeting between the Armenian, Azerbaijani and European Council leaders an agreement was reached to restore the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordbubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway, Mirzoyan said. “And now works are underway to stipulate these agreements de jure,” he added.

“I wouldn’t be mistaken to say that now there is a common perception that all roads, railways that will be unblocked, all transport infrastructures must function under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries through which they pass,” Mirzoyan said.

 16:20,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov held a telephone conversation today, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said.

The sides discussed the situation in the region, including the implementation process of the 2020 November 9 and 2021 January 11 trilateral statements.

The ministers also discussed the situation around Ukraine.

Earlier today the Russian FM also held a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan.

 16:30,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian-Russian allied, strategic partnership continued developing in 2021, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said at the session of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs.

“The agenda of the bilateral relations between Armenia and Russia has significantly expanded, involving new directions of deepening and expanding the cooperation in commercial, industry, agricultural, energetic, transport, ICT, social, healthcare and humanitarian spheres”, the FM said.

He reminded that the 8^th Armenian-Russian inter-regional conference was held in Yerevan on October 18-19 2021, as well as the 20^th session of the Armenian-Russian inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation took place on December 21-22, co-chaired by the deputy prime ministers of the two countries.

 16:39,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenia continued high level dialogue with the United States, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan said at the parliamentary foreign affairs committee session on the government’s 2021 report of its 2021-2026 action plan.

He mentioned that during the year he had a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and that the Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan was on a visit to the United States.

“An agreement was reached to organize the next session of the Armenia-U.S. Strategic Dialogue,” he said.

 16:46,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan held a meeting on March 21 with the Ambassador of Russia to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin.

Ambassador Kopyrkin congratulated Khachaturyan on assuming the presidency.

During the meeting Khachaturyan and Kopyrkin exchanged views on the rich agenda of the Armenian-Russian relations, the President’s Office said.

 16:48,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of the European Commission’s Team Europe initiative, Portugal handed over the first batch of Pfizer vaccines to Armenia.

200,070 doses of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 were delivered. Another batch consisting of an equal amount of doses will be delivered in early April.

“We are grateful to Poland for its coordinating role and we are very happy that this process is entirely EU funded,” EU Ambassador to Armenia Andrea Wiktorin said.

She added that the EU is ready to provide more, but this requires the Armenian government to officially make such request.

First Deputy Minister of Healthcare Lena Nanushyan thanked the partners for supporting Armenia in these difficult times not only with providing vaccines but also with technical support.

Armenia holds active talks with Iran on establishing North-South int’l transportation route

 17:00,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenia continues deepening the traditional friendly relations with Iran and for this purpose Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met two times with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at the session of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs.

“In order to deepen the traditional friendly relations with Iran, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met on August 5, 2021, with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi during his working visit in Iran. The next meeting took place in Dushanbe on September 17 of the same year. The further development of the Armenian-Iranian multilateral relations and the developments taking place in the region were discussed during these meetings”, the FM said.

He said that in the end of the year the government of Iran adopted a decision on opening a general consulate in Armenia’s town of Kapan, adding that the Armenian side is discussing the issue of opening a general consulate in Tabriz.

“Active talks are underway with Iran to establish a North-South international transportation route”, the FM said.