Category: 2022

                                        Friday, 


Senior Armenian, Azerbaijani Officials Meet In Brussels


Armen Grigorian, secretary Armenia’s Security Council (second from the right), 
and Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign-policy advisor to the president of Azerbaijan 
(second from the left), meet in Brussels with the EU’s mediation. August 19, 
2022. (Photo from Toivo Klaar’s Twitter).


Senior representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan have meet in Brussels, a 
European Union envoy said on Friday.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo 
Klaar wrote on Twitter about “good and substantive discussions today” with Armen 
Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, and Hikmet Hajiyev, a 
foreign-policy advisor to the president of Azerbaijan, “on Armenian-Azerbaijani 
relations and EU engagement.”

Klaar did not report any details of the discussions, but posted a photograph 
showing the Armenian and Azerbaijani officials during the discussions mediated 
by him and other EU representatives.

There was no immediate report or comment by officials in Yerevan and Baku about 
the meeting.

Grigorian and Hajiyev last met in Brussels in May and, as Armenian Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian said on June 27, had also been supposed to meet the 
following month, but the Azerbaijani side, he said, canceled the scheduled 
meeting.

The EU special representative visited Yerevan and Baku in mid-July in an 
apparent attempt to reschedule and organize a new meeting.

Yerevan-based political analyst Beniamin Poghosian suggested in an interview 
with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last month that a new Grigorian-Hajiyev meeting 
may precede another meeting in Brussels between Pashinian and Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev.

This is the first meeting of senior Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives 
after the latest escalation of violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in 
early August when at least one Azerbaijani and two Armenian soldiers were 
killed. The two sides blamed each other for the violence.



Leaders Of Armenia, Georgia Inaugurate ‘Friendship Bridge’


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli 
Garibashvili officially inaugurate the newly constructed “Friendship Bridge” at 
the Armenian-Georgian border. .


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Georgian counterpart Irakli 
Garibashvili attended on Friday a ceremonial inauguration of a bridge connecting 
their two South Caucasus countries.

The construction of the facility over the river Debed called “Friendship Bridge” 
began jointly by Armenia and Georgia in July 2021 and was completed earlier this 
month.

The project carried out through a €6 million loan from the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development will help the two countries facilitate regional 
trade and passenger flow over the natural boundary marking the state border.

According to the press office of the Armenian prime minister, Pashinian and 
Garibashvili highlighted the importance of the bridge in facilitating bilateral 
traffic.

The two leaders reportedly noted intensive high-level contacts that “testify to 
the dynamic development of Armenian-Georgian relations and the high level of 
political dialogue.”

In his remarks at the ceremony Pashinian, in particular, stressed that the 
inauguration of the bridge was testimony to “close and versatile 
Armenian-Georgian partnership.”

“No doubt, centuries-old relations between our two fraternal countries based on 
common values and historical heritage need similar modern infrastructures which 
are consonant with the requirements of the time and create a strong foundation 
for our further large-scale cooperation,” the Armenian premier said.

“I am more than sure that there are all prerequisites today for developing and 
deepening our relations with fraternal Georgia in accordance with important 
foreign-policy priorities of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinian added.

Garibashvili, for his part, also emphasized that friendship between Georgia and 
Armenia is measured by many centuries and added that relations between the two 
countries are “not only an example of brotherhood and friendship, but a 
prerequisite for prosperity, stability, security and development in the region.”

“The Friendship Bridge, which we have built together, embodies the success of 
our cooperation and friendship,” the Georgian prime minister said, adding that 
it will help double traffic between the two countries.

The Friendship Bridge consists of two separate 160-meter-long bridges in both 
directions, each of which is 11.85 meters wide. They are located at a distance 
of one meter from each other. The total width of the bridges is 24.7 meters.

The structure of the old bridge used by the sides before the construction of the 
new one is expected to be strengthened so that it can be used as an alternative 
road.



Yerevan Authorities Seek To Enforce Ban On Street Trade

        • Robert Zargarian

Vegetables and fruits on sale in the middle of a sidewalk in central Yerevan 
(file photo).


Authorities in Yerevan want to have more instruments to clamp down on street 
trade in the Armenian capital that continues to thrive despite a formal ban.

Under the current regulations, people caught selling things in the street can be 
fined between 70,000 and 100,000 drams ($170-$245). Most street vendors, 
including sellers of vegetables and fruits, however, are not discouraged by such 
fines that they often do not even pay.

The mayor’s office now suggests that the powers of inspectors be broadened to 
allow them, besides issuing fines, also to confiscate the goods sold in the 
street or the means of trade used by the vendors.

The measure was approved by the Armenian government during its August 18 meeting 
and now needs to go through parliament.

Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsian said that it will be put on the agenda of the 
next session of the National Assembly which is due to reconvene after summer 
recess in September.

Meanwhile, street vendors in Yerevan that RFE/RL’s Armenian Service talked to 
voiced their discontent with the steps of the municipality.

“If they don’t let us sell our goods, what shall we do, how shall we earn our 
living?” one street vendor complained.

Earlier this month authorities in Gyumri also moved to enforce the ban on street 
trade in several locations in the second largest city of Armenia. Similar 
measures taken by Gyumri’s municipality in the past would not solve the problem, 
however.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

  

                                        Saturday, 


Man Found Dead After Breaking Into Mayor’s Office In Armenian Town


The logo of the Armenian police.


An armed man who broke into the mayor’s office in Masis, a town near the 
Armenian capital Yerevan, last night was found dead inside the building, the 
police said early on Saturday.

According to police officials cited by Armenian news websites, the apparently 
drunk man allegedly threw a hand-grenade and fired shots from inside the 
building where only a cleaner and a security guard were at the moment of the 
attack.

Both were reportedly evacuated and were unscathed.

A representative of the police’s press department told local media that the 
attacker had made no demands and shot himself as law-enforcement officers were 
trying to negotiate with him.

No casualties were reported among the police.

The attacker was later identified as 36-year-old Eduard Markarian, a former 
member of Masis’s municipal assembly.

His motives for carrying out an apparent armed intrusion were not clear 
immediately as police said more details would be reported later.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.