Weekly Update
16 MARCH 2020
- Armenia will be the focus of the World Health Organization (WHO). This was stated in a telephone conversation with the President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sargsyan by the Director General of WHO Tedros Adan Gebreisus, ARMINFO told. He noted that the WHO statement on the pandemic indicates the complexity of the situation, in which there is an urgent need to combine international and national efforts, to coordinate activities on the part of states, in particular in terms of border control, population movement and mutual assistance, which is especially important for Armenia.
- President Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory message to His Holiness Pope Francis on the anniversary of his election as Pontiff, the Presidential Office said. Armen Sarkissian was the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Vatican. In 1997 he received the St. Gregory the Great Order from His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Through his active participation, in 1999 in attendance of His Holiness blessed memory John Paul II and His Holiness blessed memory Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin I, the “Armenia-Rome” exhibition was opened at the Sistine Chapel to commemorate the rich common historical and cultural past. President Armen Sarkissian mentioned this in his message and noted also that Armenians’ ties and relations with Vatican go back millennia and nowadays Armenia-Vatican interstate relations continue to develop harmoniously.
- RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) reported, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday continued his tour of Armenian towns campaigning in next month’s constitutional referendum, signaling no need yet for suspending public rallies in view of new coronavirus cases confirmed in Armenia. Armenian authorities reported three new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total of confirmed cases to four. The country’s Ministry of Health said that two of the people testing positive for the novel coronavirus infection known as COVID-19 were citizens of Armenia aged 45 and 27 and one was a 51-year-old Italian who works in Armenia. All three had arrived from Italy, officials said. The first coronavirus patient identified in Armenia on March 1 had arrived from Iran, another country hit hard by COVID-19. Over three dozen people have been quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the beginning of the month as a precaution against the further spread of the infection.
- TASS informed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially characterized the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during Wednesday’s briefing in Geneva. "WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction," the WHO chief stated. "We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic," he said. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reminded that the disease had spread to 114 countries, with over 118,000 people infected.
- Contractual serviceman, 36-year-old Zohrab Sianosyan, who died from a gunshot fired by the Azerbaijani side on the border with Nakhchivan today, was from the Pokr Vedi village of the Ararat Province of Armenia and a father of two daughters aged 2 and 4. Head of the village Norik Martirosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that Zohrab had just gone to serve as a contractual serviceman and had been helping his parents with farming until then. Zohrab was the eldest, and his younger brother is working abroad. A soldier of the Armenian Armed Forces was killed in fire by Azerbaijani side, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Zohrab Sianosyan (born in 1984) was fatally wounded as Azerbaijani side opened fire on Tuesday afternoon in the direction of one of the military units in Armenia’s southwest. An investigation has been launched.
- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Brussels on a working visit. The head of the Armenian government first met with European Council President Charles Michel. After a formal photo session, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the European Council discussed a wide range of issues related to EU-Armenia cooperation. The meeting focused on the reform process underway in Armenia, the Prime Minister Office said. Welcoming Nikol Pashinyan’s visit, Charles Michel said it was a good opportunity to discuss cooperation prospects, including the effective implementation of democratic reforms in Armenia. Prime Minister Pashinyan appreciated EU’s support of the reforms being implemented in Armenia and expressed confidence that the EU-Armenia interaction will continue to develop effectively during Charles Michel’s tenure as President of the European Council.
- During the period from March 1 to 7 the Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire regime in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact nearly 160 times by firing more than 1700 shots from various caliber weapons at the Armenian positions, the defense ministry of Artsakh told Armenpress. The Defense Army forces of Artsakh fully control the situation in the frontline and continue confidently conducting their military service.
Sources: https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/, https://www.president.am, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/, https://tert.am, https://arminfo.info/.