17:32, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan, in an interview with Al Jazeera, has presented the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh. Marukyan said that Azerbaijan has subjected the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to ethnic cleansing.
[see video]
17:24, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has expressed regret that his planned meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Granada, Spain will not take place. Pashinyan said there was a chance to sign a crucial document at that meeting.
“We’ve been confirming our visit to Granada until the very last moment, even today,” Pashinyan said in parliament during question time. “Furthermore, we had a very constructive and optimistic disposition, because we believed that there was a chance to sign a document of crucial significance. We were assessing that likelihood very high up until this morning. It’s the document which the marionette opposition was doing everything to misrepresent as a devastating document. And because they failed, Armenia did not give in to marionette pressures, it expressed a clear, reasonable and constructive position, made its viewpoints clear, and understandably no one could close the airports, and then we saw what happened. It turned out that the planned meeting won’t take place not because of us. For the record, the marionette opposition won’t get its bonuses, because, indeed the issue is solved but it wasn’t solved by their hands,” Pashinyan said.
The Armenian PM expressed regret that the meeting has been cancelled. He expressed hope that the concept document which is on the negotiation table will be signed at a convenient time.
“I am ready to sign that agreement and I very much regret that tomorrow I won’t have the occasion to announce that this highly important decision was made,” Pashinyan said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has cancelled his participation in the planned October 5 Granada summit with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President of the European Council Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, according to Azerbaijani media reports.
According to the reports, Azerbaijan opted out of the meeting because Germany and France rejected Azerbaijan’s request to include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the meeting.
17:36, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan assures that he is not clinging to the chair, he is ready to resign if it will help to solve all the challenges, but he is sure that exactly the opposite will happen if he does so. As Armenpress reports, the Prime Minister said this during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.
Referring to the viewpoint of Mher Sahakyan, MP representing the Hayastan faction, that the Prime Minister "has clung to" the chair, Mr. Pashinyan said. "The reality is quite the opposite. In 2021, I resigned,once again letting people of Armenia decide in that situation through extraordinary electionswho is the Prime Minister of Armenia."
Referring to the observations of the opposition, according to which the government stated that if they are not in power, there will be a war, the Prime Minister said. "On the other hand, you used to and are constantly saying that if we continue to stay in power, there will be a war. The reality is different. Unfortunately, the global situation of the Republic of Armenia does not depend only on the authorities. It is another question that in the global situation we should be able to be maximally correctly positioned. I must admit that we have not always managed to position ourselves correctlyin the past too. We call a certain period "the period of peace". We haven't had peace within 30 years, we've just had a postponement of the war, perhaps at the cost of Armenia's independence and puppetization."
The MP called on the Prime Minister to leave, blaming him for the policy he conducts.
The Prime Minister did not deny that Armenia faces challenges and has always faced them.
"However, it is very importantto understand the kind of challenges. To be frank and honest, if I know that, for example, all those challenges will be addressedby my resignation, I will do it in the next second, because, contrary to you, I am not clinging to the chair and never have clung. But all my analysis shows that if I do so, quite the opposite will happen. And that does not happen also for this very reason," emphasiedMr. Pashinyan.
Addressing the opposition MP, the Prime Minister said, "You tried that scenario in Nagorno-Karabakh and implemented it. Have things gotbetter?? Of course, you cannot implement it in Armenia, but I want us at least to draw conclusions from this theoretical situation."
17:33, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will lead a delegation to Granada, Spain despite Azerbaijan cancelling the October 5 peace talks.
“The visit of our delegation, which includes also the Foreign Minister and the Secretary of the Security Council, to Granada is not cancelled and we will have meetings there, and basically we will try to present our positions in more detail,” Pashinyan said in parliament.
17:47, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, 4 OCTOBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 4 October, USD exchange rate up by 15.69 drams to 429.14 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 17.64 drams to 450.73 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.14 drams to 4.31 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 21.75 drams to 520.29 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 778.42 drams to 25144.65 drams. Silver price up by 3.11 drams to 290.50 drams.
18:17, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Changes have been made in some legal regulations in the Russian Federation since October 1.
The changes refer to customs duties for the export of goodsof different countries from Republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.As a result, on the basis of subparagraph 2 of paragraph 5 of Article 304 of the EAEU Customs Code, in case of transporting these goods by land transport from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Armenia, the operations of their formalization under the "Customs transit" customs procedure (including the registration of the transit declaration) are subject to implementation by the entity sending the goods (in other words, the seller of the goods) in the customs body serving the location, that is, from October 1, customs operations (registration of the transit declaration) of these goods can no longer be carried out at the border customs points of exit from the Russian Federation (including the Upper Lars customs point), theRA State Revenue Committeeinformed "Armenpress".
18:56, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. On October 4, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisyan met with Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Poland Wojciech Gerwel in Yerevan.
As thepress service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informed Armenpress, Paruyr Hovhannisyan presented to the interlocutor the details of the situation created as a result of Azerbaijan's continuous aggressive and ethnic cleansing policy of Nagorno Karabakh, referring, in particular, to the assessment of the primary needs of more than 100 thousand Armeniansforcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh and the efforts of the Armenian government exerted in the direction of addressing them. In this context, Paruyr Hovhannisyan expressed gratitude to Poland for providing support.
According to the source, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia emphasized that the factualethnic cleansing carried out intentionally by Azerbaijan in Nagorno Karabakh is the result of the improper steps of international actors, which gives a feeling of impunity to Azerbaijan. In this context, the imperative of using concrete mechanisms to restrain Baku's superstitious ambitions and steps aimed at destabilizing the region was emphasized.
It was noted that the interlocutors also discussed a number of issues of the Armenian-Polish bilateral agenda, as well as referred to the Armenia-EU partnership and cooperation within the framework of international organizations.
19:18, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. At the moment, the Armenian nuclear power plant has a license to work until 2026, a number of works will be carried out to extend that term.
As "Armenpress" reports, Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan said this during Parliament-Cabinet Q&A session, referring to the question of Lilit Minasyan, MP from the ruling "Civil Contract" faction, regarding Turkey's request to the IAEA to close the Metsamor nuclear power plant.
"I would like to assure that since 1993 many programs and works have been carried out and are still being carried out in our nuclear power plant in the direction of ensuring its workin compliance of international standards. At the moment, our nuclear power plant has a license to work until 2026, in some directions it has a license to work till 2031," said Mr. Sanosyan.
The minister assured that a number of works will be carried out in the coming years. It is indicated what additional works are needed to extend the operation of the nuclear power plant from 2026 to 2036.
According to him, a huge amount of work has been reallycarried out. "Almost nothing old is left in the nuclear power plant. Many parts, equipment, systems have been changed. With all due respect to the employees of the nuclear power plant, I state that everything is new at our nuclear power plant except for the employees," he said, assuring that all specialists of the nuclear power plant are experienced.
The minister also read a letter from the head of the IAEA after a tour of the nuclear power plant, in which he specifically noted that he was happy to see the safety and reliability improvements made at thenuclear power plant.
"I think the IAEA will present an appropriate response," said Mr. Sanosyan.
Earlier it became known that Turkey had applied to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with a request to stop the operation of the Armenian nuclear power plant.
19:35, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia NikolPashinyan considers it important to continue the peace process with Azerbaijan, emphasizing that it should continue based on three key principles. As"Armenpress" reports, Pashinyan reminded during the Parliament-Cabinet Q&A sessionthat these principles were recorded in the statement made by President of the European Council Charles Michel, following the meeting held in Brussels on July 15, 2023.
"Those principles are as follows: First, Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity with the understanding that the territory of the Republic of Armenia is 29,800sq km, and the territory of Azerbaijan is 86, 600 sq km.
Secondly, the declaration of Alma-Ata should become a political basis for border delimitation and later for demarcation as well. It is very important that before the delimitation a decision is made and an agreement is reached to define on the basis of which maps the delimitation and demarcation will be done. Our opinion is that it should be done on the basis of the 1975 maps, but in principle it is not the case that our position on this issue is very rigid. For example, there were maps after 1975 as well, which are mostly reproductions of 1975.
Thirdly, the opening of communications in the region will take place on the basis of the principle of sovereignty, jurisdiction, legislation, equality and reciprocity of countries.
I think that if Azerbaijan reaffirms its commitment to the principlespublicly stated, we can practically consider that the conclusion of a peace treaty is only a matter of a short time," Mr. Pashinyan emphasized.
However, the Prime Minister considers it problematic that the top officials of Azerbaijan have not reaffirmed their commitment to the mentioned principles.
“The day Azerbaijan declares that they reaffirm their commitment to the three principles I mentioned, we can consider peace as practically achieved," Mr. Pashinyan emphasized.
The Prime Minister also stated that these principles were also included in the agreement that he was going to sign in Granada.
"These three principles are of utmost importance. Without them, no matter what we sign, will be a polite statement. That is the cornerstone. I would not only sign, but I would confidently address to people, I would say that we have passed about the 70 percent of the way to the signing of the peace treaty," Mr. Pashinyan noted, stressing that it would be the most difficult part of the path of peace.
20:12, 4 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The World Applied Chemistry Olympiad (WAChO) was held in Indonesia from September 28 to October 1, in which Armenia participated for the first time.
As the press service of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sportsinformed "Armenpress", Armenia was represented by Kamuni Abrahamyan, a 12th grade student of “Quantum” college. Kamuni Abrahamyan was awarded a gold medal as a result of performing test and research works.
As mentioned, 92 representatives from 9 countries participated in the Olympiad. The participants were selected as a result of conducting two online Olympiads.
The official website of the Olympiad:
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1121220.html?fbclid=IwAR2Ev-T_la7Yap4RMuygfO1HRiU2FUIYukC-vGjnkygXLLP9W6bSiRzLIG4