19:40, 6 February 2024

BUDAPEST, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is ready to develop relations with Hungary and will do everything to ensure dynamic development, the Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan said at a joint press conference with Hungarian President Katalin Novák.

''This visit is historic after a long break. In fact, we are initiating a new process. And personally, I and our delegation greatly appreciate it. I would like to express the readiness of the Republic of Armenia to actively restart a new phase of Armenian-Hungarian relations and to do everything to ensure that our relations undergo dynamic development and follow a logical course.

This signifies the friendly, fraternal relations that we have had for a long time, since time immemorial," President Khachaturyan noted.

Hi Everyone, 

Hamazkayin Western Region Literary Group presents the book “Stateless: The Politics of the Armenian Language in Exile” by Author Dr. Talar Chahinian. 

Introduction: Dr. Shushan Karapetyan Book presentation by Dr Talar Chahinian on Sunday, February 25, 2023, at 5pm at ACF Burbank Beshir Mardirossian Youth Center 75 E Santa Anita Ave, Burbank, CA 91502.

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Hamazkayin Western Region Literary Group from Glendale, CA, USA

 09:44, 9 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. 8,761 persons, including 3,658 citizens of CIS states and 266 citizens of EU states, were granted residency status in Armenia in 2023, according to official data published by the Statistical Committee.

5,073 of the 8,761 people received temporary residency status. The remaining 3,274 and 414 received permanent and special residency status respectively.

Most of the residency status recipients are citizens of Russia and India (3,350 and 2,035 respectively). 2,137 citizens of Russia and 41 citizens of India received permanent residency status.

Another 370 foreigners applied for asylum in Armenia in the second half of 2023.

193 of them (citizens of 14 different countries and 1 stateless person) received refugee status (94 Ukrainian citizens, 28 Haitian citizens, 17 Iraqi citizens, 16 Syrian citizens, 11 Iranian citizens, 7 Turkish citizens and 6 Yemeni citizens).  Most of them are aged between 35 and 64. Most of the asylum seekers were citizens of Iraq (109), Ukraine (91), Iran (57), Egypt (42), Russia (13) and Turkey (9).

In the same period, authorities revoked refugee status of 35 persons. 98 asylum applications by 187 persons were suspended.

 09:56, 9 February 2024

BUDAPEST, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan’s official visit to Hungary was highly important for the bilateral relations between the two countries, according to Armenian Ambassador to Hungary Ashot Smbatyan.

Khachaturyan was in Hungary February 5-7. He was received by President Katalin Novak. 

Armenia and Hungary agreed to restore diplomatic relations in 2022, ten years after the ties were severed by the Serzh Sargsyan Administration after Budapest extradited Ramil Safarov, the convicted murderer of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, to Baku.

“President Vahagn Khachaturyan’s official visit will play an important role and will be significant for the relations of the two countries. I believe that with the Armenian President’s official visit, the Hungarian side signaled that the relations between the two countries should become stronger,” the Ambassador said.

Khachaturyan met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on February 7. He also met with Speaker of Parliament László Kövér. 

Smbatyan said that two agreements in the sector of education and culture were signed during the visit.

President Khachaturyan visited the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest.

The Armenian State Pedagogical University and the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, which has a Department of Armenian Studies, signed an agreement on cooperation. Ambassador Smbatyan said that the Pázmány Péter Catholic University has plans on opening a Center of Hungarian Studies in the Armenian university, which was welcomed by the latter.

The Ambassador highlighted President Khachaturyan’s meeting with members of the Armenian community in Hungary. Hungary is one of the two countries in Europe where the Armenian community has a special role and status on a legislative level, the other being Romania.

“I think that historical commonalities are very deep, and the Armenians of Transylvania have a unique role in the history of Hungary, which Hungary values,” the Ambassador said.

Smbatyan noted that the Hungarian Wizz Air airline has a very active flight schedule in Armenia. The Armenian government is now working to achieve direct flights between Hungary and Armenia, furthermore not only from Budapest to Yerevan but also to Gyumri. “The Armenian side is now working in this direction. But of course, this depends on what decision the airline will make.” Direct flights between the two countries would boost tourism, he added.

Hungarian President Katalin Novák said at a joint press conference with Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan that Hungary plans to open a consulate in Yerevan. The Armenian Ambassador commended the announcement and said, “I think and I hope that there will be a corresponding step from the Armenian side as well.”

The Armenian Ambassador attached importance to Khachaturyan’s visit to Hungary also in terms of developing ties with the EU, given that Budapest will assume the EU presidency on July 1, 2024.

“President Khachaturyan, during the joint press conference, invited the President of Hungary to visit Armenia, and the Hungarian side accepted the invitation. I think that this year we will also see Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s official visit to Hungary,” the Ambassador said, adding that the Hungarian Speaker of Parliament has invited his Armenian counterpart to pay a visit.

“These bilateral, high-level visits will definitely have a significant role in deepening the relations between the two countries,” Ambassador Smbatyan said.

 10:32, 9 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on February 8 in The Hague met with Päivi Kaukoranta, the President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Kaukoranta congratulated Armenia on joining the ICC, the foreign ministry said in a readout.

Mirzoyan and Kaukoranta exchanged ideas around the ongoing and required further steps in the direction of applying the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, highlighting close partnership with the assembly.

The FM underscored Armenia’s priorities and expectations regarding joining the ICC, which were earlier voiced during the official ceremony dedicated to the membership of Armenia in the ICC and are in line with universal principles of democracy, the rule of law and fight against impunity.

The Armenian government’s representative for international legal affairs, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, also participated in the meeting and presented details about the steps for harmonizing the Armenian legislation with the Rome Statute.

 12:15, 9 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has reiterated its readiness to resume negotiations with Azerbaijan under EU mediation, Member of Parliament representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party Artur Hovhannisyan has said.

The MP, however, emphasized that there is no clarity at this moment on the resumption of talks.

“Naturally, the Republic of Armenia also favors the resumption of the talks in that format because the Armenian agenda’s priority is the establishment of peace in the region,” Hovhannisyan said. 

Azerbaijan has recently refused to participate in EU and US mediated talks with Armenia, despite having reached several agreements under EU mediation in the past. However, on February 8, President of the European Council Charles Michel said on X that he called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to congratulate him on his re-election and that he welcomes Azerbaijan’s commitment to take part in trilateral talks in Brussels.

 12:20, 9 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on February 8 in The Hague met with Fernando Arias, the Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to discuss partnership.

The Armenian Foreign Minister “emphasized the importance attached by Armenia to the commitments stipulated in the Chemical Weapons Convention, which has been reflected, among others, in the legislative reforms undertaken in the country since Armenia joined the document,” the foreign ministry said in a readout.

Director General Fernando Arias presented the existing challenges facing the organization in the conditions of the latest developments, including in the context of implementing the mandate defined by the convention.

Views were exchanged around the continuous efforts of the OPCW and member states in the direction of disarmament and non-proliferation in the changing world.

 13:30, 9 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Swiss authorities said a man armed with an axe and a knife held 15 hostages on a train for almost four hours, until police stormed the train and fatally wounded him late on Thursday, Reuters reports.

The incident occurred in the town of Essert-sous-Champvent on the train line connecting Baulmes and Yverdon-les-Bains in the Swiss canton of Vaud near the French border.

"The hostages were all released unharmed," police in the Vaud canton said in a statement on Friday. "The hostage taker was fatally wounded during the intervention."

Police did not provide any details regarding the possible motives of the man, who police said was a 32-year-old Iranian asylum seeker.

Jean-Christophe Sauterel, police spokesperson for the Vaud canton, said there was no indication that the hostage taking was a terrorist incident.

 14:33, 9 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other government officials attended on Friday an event marking the 28^th anniversary of the establishment of the Constitutional Court.

Prime Minister Pashinyan and Chief Justice Arman Dilanyan delivered remarks at the event.

Mediamax, Armenia
Feb 10 2024

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that the demarcation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be carried out on the basis of the most recent and legitimate maps of the USSR.

Armenian Foreign Ministry reports that he said this at the meeting with his French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné on February 9 in Paris.

“Issues related to the security situation in the South Caucasus were thoroughly discussed. Armenia’s Foreign Affairs Minister presented the country’s vision regarding the establishment of stability and peace in the region. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized the key principles in the process of settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, particularly the importance of respect toward territorial integrity and inseparability of borders, sovereignty, as well as the need to ensure greater certainty in order to implement the further demarcation process on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration and the most recent and legitimate maps of the USSR,” the news release reads.