Friday, Armenia-Kurdistan Flights Continue For Now . Ruzanna Stepanian Iraq -- Vehicles drive out of the Irbil International Airport, November 23, 2015 Weekly flights from Armenia to Iraq's Kurdistan region continued on Friday despite the Iraqi authorities' decision to close the region's airspace to foreign airlines in retaliation for its vote for independence. A plane belonging to a private Armenian airline flew from Yerevan to Kurdistan's capital Erbil just hours before the ban imposed by Baghdad was due to come into effect. The ban followed the Kurdistan Regional Government's refusal to hand over control over the airports in Erbil and another regional city, Sulaimaniya. The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority sent a notice to foreign airlines telling them that international flights to both cities will be suspended at 1500 GMT on Friday and only domestic flights will be allowed. The Yerevan-Erbil flights operated by an Iraqi company were carried on Saturdays. According to the Armenia Airline carrier, the latest flight was brought forward by one day at the request of its Iraqi partner. The airline's deputy director, Gevorg Khachatrian, said the company has no plans yet to suspend the service. "We have received no notifications, and as of now there are no changes in our flight schedule," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Armenia's Directorate General on Civil Aviation did not clarify whether it will order the company to suspend the flights. "If the airspace is closed, we will obviously decide whether or not to continue the flights," said a spokeswoman for the government agency. Neighboring Iran and Turkey have already said that the will comply with Baghdad's ban on flights to and from Kurdistan. Reuters reported that as of Friday morning two European carriers, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines, kept at least one flight still scheduled after the deadline. Iraq's Kurds overwhelmingly voted for their autonomous region's independence on Monday in a referendum strongly condemned by the Iraqi central government as well as Iran and Turkey. Armenia reacted cautiously to the referendum. Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian expressed hope on Wednesday that Kurdistan and Baghdad "will avoid tension and find ways of solving existing issues." Yerevan has maintained cordial relations with both sides. It formally decided to open an Armenian consulate general in Erbil in March shortly after Nalbandian held fresh talks with Massoud Barzani, the Iraqi Kurdish president, in Germany. Armenia's trade with the Kurdish region and other parts of Iraq has grown considerably in recent years. Armenian exports to the Middle Eastern nation account for the bulk of bilateral trade which stood at $138 million last year. Turkish Intellectuals Risk Arrest After Trip To Karabakh Armenia - Turkish intellectuals (left to right) Erol Katircioglu, Sait Cetinoglu, Ali Bayramoglu and Ufuk Uras at a news conference in Yerevan, 21Sep2017. Authorities in Azerbaijan have issued an international arrest warrant for four prominent Turkish intellectuals who visited Nagorno-Karabakh last week. Former Turkish parliamentarian Ufuk Uras, writer and political commentator Ali Bayramoglu and two scholars, Sait Cetinoglu and Erol Katircioglu, travelled to Karabakh via Armenia on a trip organized by a Yerevan-based group called the National Congress of Western Armenians. They met with Karen Mirzoyan, the Karabakh foreign minister until this week, in Stepanakert on September 22. Mirzoyan's press office said he briefed them on "the history and origins" of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the Karabakh Armenian leadership's efforts to resolve it. Azerbaijan's Office of the Prosecutor-General said late on Thursday that the Turks illegally crossed Azerbaijan's internationally recognized border and will be prosecuted under a corresponding article of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code. It said it has asked Turkish law-enforcement authorities to arrest and extradite them to Baku. The Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan, Erkan Ozoral, strongly condemned the trip on Friday. But he did not explicitly say whether Uras, Bayramoglu, Cetinoglu and Katircioglu will be arrested in Turkey. "We respect the legal system," Ozoral told the Azerbaijani APA news agency. Successive Turkish governments have strongly and unconditionally backed Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict. Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli reaffirmed that stance and called for "the liberation of Karabakh" on Thursday when he visited Azerbaijan to attend joint exercises held by the air forces of the two Turkic states. Baku similarly issued international arrest warrants for three pro-Armenian members of the European Parliament who travelled to Karabakh and monitored a constitutional referendum held there in February. None of them has since been arrested. The three lawmakers -- Frank Engel of Luxembourg, Eleni Theocharous of Cyprus and the Czech Republic's Jaromir Stetina -- had already been declared personae non grata in Azerbaijan because of their previous trips to the Armenian-populated territory. The Azerbaijani government has also blacklisted more than 600 other non-Armenian foreigners for the same reason. Earlier in February, Belarus controversially handed over to Azerbaijan Alexander Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli blogger detained in Minsk in December. An Azerbaijani court sentenced Lapshin three years in prison in July. He was pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and set free on September 14. The blogger called for continued Armenian control over Karabakh the following day. First Major Solar Plant Built In Armenia Armenia - A newly built solar power plant in Tsaghkadzor, 29Sep2017. Armenia's first-ever major solar power plant went on stream on Friday, with a senior government official predicting the country's growing reliance on renewable sources of energy. The 0.5-megawatt plant has been built by a private company, Energo Invest Holding, in Tsaghkadzor, a resort town 60 kilometers north of Yerevan. "Today is a historic day for Armenia as the first solar power plant has been connected to Armenia's electricity networks," the Armenpress news agency quoted Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructures Hayk Harutiunian as saying at the inauguration ceremony. Harutiunian said 11 more such facilities with a combined capacity of 10 megawatts will be constructed in the country by 2019. "Besides, we are holding a tender for the construction of a big solar plant with a 55-megawatt capacity," he added, according to the ARKA news agency. Solar and wind power currently make up only a tiny share of electricity produced in Armenia. The Armenian government has declared the spread of these renewable sources of energy a priority. In July, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian attended the official opening of Armenia's first factory manufacturing solar panels used for power generation. The government exempted equipment and raw materials imported by its private owner from customs duties earlier this year. The Tsaghkadzor plant is equipped with German-made solar panels. Energo Invest Holding claims to have invested about $500,000 in its construction. "This is a pilot project," a senior Energo Invest executive, Liana Lobasian, told reporters. She said her company plans to build larger solar plants that will absorb "large-scale investments." Energo Invest is part of the Tashir Group of Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire businessman. The Russian-headquartered business conglomerate owns Armenia's national electric utility and largest thermal power plant. It is also expected to start managing soon country's state-owned power transmission network. Karapetian was the driving force behind the recent creation by three dozen Russian businesspeople of Armenian descent of a multimillion-dollar investment fund that pledged to finance various business projects in Armenia. The fund is said to be particularly interested in hydropower and solar energy. Press Review "Zhoghovurd" says that the head of the European Union Delegation in Yerevan, Piotr Switalski, may again find himself at loggerheads with the Armenian authorities following his latest statements on changes which they need to make in order to make Armenians eligible for visa-travel to the EU. The paper claims that Switalski referred not so much to visa-related changes as broader reforms needed in Armenia. "Haykakan Zhamanak" reports and comments on a government forecast that economic growth in Armenia will reach 4.5 percent next year. The government expects economic recovery in Russia and higher international prices of copper will contribute to that growth. "That our economy and the population's living standards are painfully dependent on the copper price and remittances from our compatriots working abroad is not a revelation," the paper says. "All we have to clarify is what depends on our government." "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" reports that a new government bill on freedom of information has provoked strong criticism from Armenian journalists and non-governmental organizations. The paper says that the Justice Ministry, which drafted the bill, appears to be postponing its submission to the government and the National Assembly for approval. It says ministry officials have so far been unable to make it more acceptable to the critics in line with an instruction issued by Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian. "Hraparak" says that President Serzh Sarkisian's decision to pardon Vazgen Khachikian, the former head of Armenia's state pension fund who was jailed for corruption in 2012, has not gone down well with many people. "The extent of criticism and resentment is so high that even sensible people did not dare to counter that at least this plunderer spent five years in jail," the paper says. "There are so many plunderers that remain at large, occupy posts, wreak havoc on the state budget and get away with that." (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org