Category: 2023

 12:07,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired the regular Cabinet meeting. At the beginning of the session, Prime Minister Pashinyan referred to the decision of the International Court of Justice regarding the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and other issues, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

In particular, the Prime Minister noted.

"Dear participants of the Cabinet meeting,
Dear people,

The International Court of Justice last week made an important decision regarding the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor. Based on the application of the Republic of Armenia, the court reaffirmed the legally binding decision made on February 22 of this year, by which it obliged Azerbaijan to take all the measures at its disposal to ensure the uninterrupted movement of people, vehicles and cargo in both directions through the Lachin Corridor. With such a decision, the court actually recorded that Azerbaijan did not comply with the decision of February 22 of this year, otherwise there would be no need to reaffirm that previous decision.

This is an important nuance. In paragraph 28 of the July 6 decision, the court, mentioning the information provided by the Armenian side that the so-called protest of environmentalists is no longer taking place, but even now movement through the Lachin Corridor is interrupted due to the installation of a checkpoint by Azerbaijan, noted that the essence of the matter does not change from this, because the consequences of the interruption of movement through the Lachin Corridor for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are the same as in February 2022, therefore, the approach of the court and the legally binding decision also remain the same.

However, there are some nuanced differences between the court's decisions of February 22 and July 6, because if in February the Government of Azerbaijan said that the environmental protest was not organized by it and it was a spontaneous rally of civil society, now it has no opportunity to say such a thing, because now the Lachin Corridor is already blocked due to the actions of the state structures of Azerbaijan. And therefore, by the decision of the International Court of Justice, the responsibility of the Azerbaijani government for the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh is reaffirmed and further strengthened.

However, Azerbaijan's activity for "environmental protection" continues, and now that country is trying to present environmental accusations to Armenia on an official and unofficial level. Moreover, for this, Azerbaijan attributes mines to Armenia that simply do not exist, raises circumstances that are fictitious, points to decisions that are about something completely different, mentions conventions that are not relevant.

The public and private sector organizations of Armenia, of course, point out and will continue to point out the fictitious nature of Azerbaijan's accusations. I will only refer to the following circumstance. Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy has published the 2022 ranking of the world's most ecologically clean countries. The rating table measures the state's achievements in terms of environmental status, is based on 22 indicators of natural resources management and 10 categories, which address issues of environmental protection from the perspective of the vitality of the eco system, preservation of biodiversity, countering climate change, health status of the population, and the burden of economic activity on the environment, and also measure the effectiveness of state policy in the field of environmental protection. And here is in the 2022 rating, Armenia took the 56th place, and Azerbaijan – the 104th.

The progress and achievements of the Republic of Armenia in the organization of transparent and responsible mining industry are also expressed in the publications of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Returning to the topic of the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result, I would like to emphasize that the binding decision of the International Court of Justice provides an opportunity to ensure greater international consolidation around the issue in order to counter the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. In this sense, the dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert within the framework of the international mechanism with the agenda of ensuring the security and rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh is extremely important.

Dear participants of the Cabinet meeting,
Dear people,

Yesterday, the fourth meeting of the Commissions for delimitation of the state border and border security between Azerbaijan and Armenia took place on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. A message was released about it.

On Saturday, July 15, my meeting with the President of the European Council and the President of Azerbaijan is scheduled in Brussels. I have confirmed my participation in that meeting, I hope to make progress in the peace treaty negotiations during the meeting.

Thank you”.

 16:06,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has again spread disinformation, ARMENPRESS reports, the Defense Ministry of Artsakh said.

"The message issued by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan that on July 13, at 11:15 and 14:10, the Defense Army units carried out fortification works in the Askeran and Karvachar regions of the Republic of Artsakh, which were allegedly stopped by the Azerbaijani forces stationed in the occupied territories of the said regions, it is another disinformation”, MoD Artsakh said.

 16:06,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan met with the director of US National Intelligence, Avril Haines, ARMENPRESS reports, Armen Grigoryan wrote on his Facebook page.

Grigoryan and Haines exchanged ideas on the regional security situation, as well as on Armenia-US bilateral cooperation.

 17:07,

YEREVAN, 13 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 13 July, USD exchange rate up by 0.84 drams to 387.10 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 6.69 drams to 432.39 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.04 drams to 4.30 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 6.97 drams to 505.90 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 293.05 drams to 24309.90 drams. Silver price up by 0.94 drams to 288.24 drams.

 17:18,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. The 7-month blockade of Lachin Corridor total siege of Nagorno Karabakh people is having irreversible and devastating impact on the lives of the people, ARMENPRESS reports Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan wrote on Twitter.

“NK resident children 3-year-old Leo and 6-year-old Gita died as consequence of the serious humanitarian situation. In 21st century. This should not be tolerated”, Mirzoyan wrote.

 18:16,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. On July 13, Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan received the delegation led by Tobias Lindner, German Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the National Assembly of Armenia, welcoming the guests, Ruben Rubinyan commended the cooperation with Germany. The Vice President of the National Assembly emphasized that the cooperation between Armenia and Germany has expanded and deepened in recent years, which was also facilitated by the effective work of friendly groups of the parliaments.

Ruben Rubinyan presented the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulted by Azerbaijan's illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor and emphasized the role of international partners, including Germany, in overcoming it.

The sides referred to the importance of the deployment of the EU observation mission in Armenia.

Ruben Rubinyan also presented the normalization process of Armenia-Turkey relations.

 19:00,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received German Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Tobias Lindner, who is on a regional visit to Armenia, ARMENPRESS was infomred from the Office of the Prime Minister, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister welcomed Mr. Lindner's visit and noted that it is a good opportunity to discuss issues related to Armenian-German relations, as well as regioanl issues. Nikol Pashinyan added that Armenia values cooperation with Germany in various fields, including the effective promotion of democratic reforms.

The Minister of State, in turn, emphasized the readiness of his country's government to deepen cooperation with Armenia in various directions, as well as to continue further assistance in the process of implementing democratic reforms.

The interlocutors referred to the process of normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, the security situation in the region, the deepening of the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of Azerbaijan's illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor, and the necessary steps to overcome it. In this context, Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized the active support of the international community aimed at Azerbaijan's implementation of the decision of the International Court of Justice on unblocking the Lachin Corridor.

 19:34,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. On July 13, Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan convened a meeting of the Security Council to discuss measures aimed at addressing the deepening consequences of the complete blockade of Artsakh, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the President of Artsakh.

State Minister Gurgen Nersisyan presented a report on the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh resulted by Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy.

President Arayik Harutyunyan noted that the efforts made in the foreign policy sphere and the appeals from various international structures and states to lift the blockade of the Artsakh-Armenia corridor have not produced positive results. The Head of the State emphasized the need for more active engagement and targeted efforts in this direction.

Based on the situation, President Harutyunyan issued a set of instructions aimed at redistributing available resources to ensure the functioning of the republic, addressing internal and external security issues.

 19:41,

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, a consultation was held in the Government, during which the project concept of the Academic City was discussed, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan noted that the State Education Development Program has set important targets for the period until 2030, among which are having 4 universities in the top 500 universities of the world, at least doubling the number of foreign students through increasing the international reputation of the higer education system, etc. "In terms of content, this implies a reform within the framework of the process of enlargement of universities and unification with scientific research organizations," said the Minister, reminding that for this purpose, by the decision of the Prime Minister, a working group was formed last year, which performed relevant analytical works. As a result, 6 main directions were identified, which assume that universities and research organizations should be enlarged.

"These directions include: the Classical direction, the so-called classical university, which should mainly include fundamental sciences in social and humanitarian fields. At this stage, it is not planned to be included in the Academic City. The second is the medical field, which includes medical and life sciences fields. We assume that there is no need to relocate it to the Academic City at this time either.

The last 4 directions are the universities that are planned to be located in the Academic City. The technological, which mainly includes the fields of applied sciences and engineering, including materials science, modern equipment manufacturing, agro-technological field, construction technologies. The educational direction, which includes the fields of education and related sciences, Arts, which can include both arts and culture majors and the direction for officers, which includes the educational and research programs related to internal and external security systems," Zhanna Andreasyan noted.

According to the Minister, the concept of the Academic City was developed based on this content description. "In other words, the above-mentioned 4 enlarged universities should be located here, with relevant scientific and research orientation," she noted.

It is believed that the Academic City should meet the requirements to become an environment guaranteeing modern research, innovative activities, where university education will be inseparable from research. It is also planned to have opportunities for the commercialization of the knowledge gained there. "It should act as an intellectual and entertainment environment, and there should be adequate infrastructure. Here we should also have the necessary environment for innovative and experimental solutions, such as, for example, experimental programs in the agricultural sector," said Zhanna Andreasyan.

For the implementation and further operation of the Academic City project, the "Academic City" Foundation was formed, which will act as the main agent for the implementation of the project.

It is also planned to have a separate legal regulation for the Academic City, taking into account the international experience.

Next, the possible locations of the Academic City, the course of the design work carried out with the German GMP company, infrastructural and other issues were discussed.

Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized the importance of the Academic City construction project and added that it has strategic importance. At the same time, the Prime Minister noted that the possibilities of further development and expansion of the city should be taken into account when carrying out the design works, the necessary infrastructure for the practical phase of training, green areas and other important issues should be planned.

Based on the results of today's discussion, the Prime Minister instructed to finalize the project concept and submit it for the Government's approval.