Azerbaijan is preventing the repair of a damaged gas pipeline in Artsakh, the country’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure reports.
The gas pipeline from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged last night. The accident took place near an Azerbaijani combat position.
Negotiations are underway with the mediation of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to start the work on Wednesday, the ministry said, promising to provide further updates.
17:43, 2 March, 2022
YEREVAN, 2 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 2 March, USD exchange rate up by 4.50 drams to 489.36 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.51 drams to 651.93 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.20 drams to 4.57 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 1.21 drams to 543.19 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 467.47 drams to 30239.38 drams. Silver price up by 8.09 drams to 387.67 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
12:21, 1 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, the PM’s Office reports.
Issues related to the forthcoming Armenian-French cooperation forum in Paris and their upcoming meeting were touched upon.
The sides discussed also the situation around Nagorno Karabakh and the strengthening of security and stability in the South Caucasus region.
The leaders of the countries exchanged views on the processes taking place in the international arena.
Rep. Adam Schiff
Representative Adam Schiff on Monday issued a statement marking the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait Massacres by Azerbaijan and in marking the occasion urged for the release of all Armenian prisoners of war.
Below is the text of Schiff’s statement.
Yesterday, we marked the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait and Baku pogroms. Beginning on February 27, 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians – leaving hundreds of civilians dead and injured and women and girls were raped. Some victims were thrown from windows and burned alive. Tens of thousands were forced to flee.
After two years, it was estimated that only 40,000 of the 250,000 Armenian residents of Baku remained in Azerbaijan. On January 13, 1990, organized Azerbaijani mobs turned on them, too, killing hundreds and injuring many more.
The pogroms came as a direct result of years of vicious, racist anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijani authorities, dehumanizing the Armenian residents of Azerbaijan and laying the groundwork for mass violence. Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities and deny the government’s role in instigating the attacks.
As we reflect on yesterday’s anniversary, we honor the victims of this ghastly injustice and pledge to speak out against hatred so that history will not repeat itself. But tragically, more than three decades later, that is exactly what has happened. Beginning on September 27, 2020, and over 44 days, Azerbaijani forces once again targeted and murdered innocent Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, and displaced tens of thousands more. Today, Azerbaijani aggression against the people of Armenia and Artsakh continues. Armenian soldiers are still illegally detained and subject to torture while thousands of civilians still live in danger. Religious and cultural Armenian sites that have fallen under Azerbaijani control are under constant threat.
These are the horrific consequences when aggression and hatred grow unchecked – and it is why, whether these crimes against humanity occurred one year, thirty years, or a hundred years ago, we can never allow them to go unrecognized. More than that, it is why the United States must fully step into its role as a defender of democracy and peace around the world. We must not relent in our calls for the safe and unconditional release of the remaining Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians, for the end of U.S. assistance to the Aliyev regime, and for stronger efforts to support democracy in Armenia and a free, independent Artsakh.
So let us pause to remember those who suffered in the atrocities of the Sumgait and Baku programs. But let us also recommit ourselves and our nation to doing everything we can, today, to bring liberation to our Armenian brothers and sisters abroad, once and for all.
La Prensa Latina By Misha Vignanski Tbilisi, Feb 19 (EFE).- The Caucasus republic of Georgia is closely monitoring the stand-off between Russia and Ukraine but remains committed to its European Union and Nato aspirations. “Our path to Europe is not easy,” the office of president Salome Zourabichvili told Efe. “But we know it is a realistic path. Not only because it is in our constitution, but because there is no alternative.” Following its defeat in the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, which ended with Russia’s recognition of the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia territories, Tbilisi severed relations with Moscow and in 2017 wrote its EU and Nato aspirations into its constitution as a priority. “In the context of growing military aggression from Russia, Nato’s firm open-door policy has a lot of importance for us,” Georgian defense minister Juansher Burchuladze told Efe. Russia has vowed to respond with “technical-military” measures if Nato does not heed Moscow’s demand to halt its path to include former Soviet states. Burchuladze added that Georgia continues to strengthen its defensive capabilities in cooperation with Nato, adding that the country was due to host the NATO-GEO EX 2022 drills, with the participation of 20 armies and associate nations in March. Vakhtang Maisaia, a military expert at the Caucasus University in Tbilisi, maintains that Ukraine and Georgia have been in the same boat since Nato opened its doors to the two nations in 2008. “We’re not under any illusions: At some moment Russia will turn against Georgia again. This could begin with the demand to ‘end anti-Russian hysteria’ and culminate with an ultimatum to ‘change (Georgia’s) internal politics,” he told Efe. Russia was currently focused on Ukraine, but it has not forgotten about Georgia, he added. “We have to prepare ourselves for a new confrontation,” he warned. “Russia regularly carries out military drills in the occupied regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to intimidate Georgia.” Maisaia said such drills were a reminder from Russia that, since the end of the Russo-Georgian war in 2008, it has had military units just a few dozen kilometers from Georgia’s capital. “Russia has never put an end to its hybrid war against Georgia, which is demonstrated by cyberattacks and attempts to create pro-Russian parties and movements in the country.”EFE
14:44,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Representatives of the Kurdish community of Armenia held a demonstration outside the United Nations office in Yerevan, calling on the UN to convene a special session and demand Turkey to release political prisoner Abdullah Ocalan, the co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who is widely considered by Kurds around the world as their leader.
After being forced to leave Syria, Ocalan was abducted in Nairobi in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) and taken to Turkey, where after a trial he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organizations. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty.
Kurds demonstrate around the world calling for Ocalan’s release on February 15, the day of his arrest.
Member of Parliament Knyaz Hasanov (Civil Contract) representing the Kurdish community of Armenia was leading the demonstration. He said that the 72-year-old Ocalan is being tortured for 23 years in the İmralı prison, but the international community has simply assumed the role of an observer.
“The Turkish government shows that their goal is the destruction of both the Kurdish leader and the Kurdish people,” MP Hasanov said. “Up to this day the 25 million Kurds living in Turkey aren’t recognized as a nation in Turkey by the constitution, even their language isn’t recognized. Our children are deprived of education and are subjected to pressure there. For 12 years already, Turkey-backed Islamic groups are subjecting the 4-5 million Kurds of Syria to genocide. The Turkish authorities have already captured 3-4 cities in Rojava and have forced the people out of their settlement. This shows that the Turkish authorities are doing everything to eliminate the Kurdish people,” MP Hasanov said.
The MP called on the international community to take special measures against Turkey’s genocidal policy.
“The superpowers should first of all take these steps, but unfortunately today every superpower has its own interests and pursuant to these interests they are ignoring both the Kurds, Armenians, and the rights of all oppressed peoples,” he said.
The Kurdish community then conveyed a letter to the UN Armenia Office containing their demands to the international community.
11:22,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. 2842 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, the ministry of health reported.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country has reached 399,727.
The COVID-19 recoveries rose by 2548 in a day, bringing the total to 362,004.
The death toll has risen to 8114 (6 death cases in past day).
7636 COVID-19 tests were conducted on February 9.
The number of active cases is 28,040.
South China Morning Post By Gyorgy Busztin Feb. 7, 2022 [As Russia seeks to re-establish its Soviet-era sphere of influence and Turkey turns towards Central Asia, their opposing interests might soon collide For China, Russo-Turkish tensions would destabilise Central Asia. For South and Southeast Asia, Turkey’s neo-Ottoman drive has bigger repercussions] Current events have provided two instances of history repeating itself. The first, and indisputably more dangerous, instance is the drive by President Vladimir Putin to restore Russia to the superpower status it enjoyed in Soviet times. What is happening on Ukraine’s border is not about Russia feeling threatened but about Moscow seeking to re-establish its Soviet-era sphere of influence. What does Russia have to fear from its neighbours in Nato, a defensive alliance of countries that are preoccupied with their own concerns? To those who have followed Russian history across the centuries, this pressure campaign is neither new nor surprising. Historically, Russia has been obsessed with seeking access to warm seas. It succeeded in reaching the Black Sea at the time of Catherine the Great, clinching Crimea from its nominal suzerain, the Ottoman sultan. But this was not enough. After occupying the entire Eurasian land mass adjacent to its realm east of the Urals, swallowing up Turkish and Persian vassal states and reaching the Pacific, Russia still dreamed of ejecting the British from India, in a push to the Indian Ocean. (Thus prompting the Great Game, the British Empire’s desperate 19th-century attempt to block Russian progress south in Afghanistan). To keep Russia at arm’s length from the Mediterranean, England, France and Turkey fought the bloody Crimean war. Then came the Russian expansion into the Balkans, which pitted St. Petersburg against two great powers of the age, the Austro-Hungarian empire and Ottoman Turkey. The first of the two conflicts was temporarily defused by the Congress of Berlin, which delineated the spheres of influence of both empires. But Russia found it difficult to abide by these arrangements and stoked pan-Slav nationalism to grab more influence, leading eventually to the pistol shots in Sarajevo, and the first world war. Meanwhile, Russia’s conflict with Turkey kept brewing. It had successfully pushed the Ottomans from their Balkan dependencies by the last quarter of the 19th century. That the nations freed from Ottoman rule were soon at each other’s throats (in the first and second Balkan wars) mattered little. What mattered was Russia’s drive to end the Turkish presence in the Balkans altogether, by aiming to take hold of Istanbul, which it referred to as Constantinople. Thus emerged the antagonism that eventually pushed Turkey into the arms of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the first world war, with catastrophic consequences for the Ottoman Empire. The second development, related to the first, is Turkey’s loud support of Ukraine. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Kyiv on February 3 to announce a deal to send its highly-regarded drones to the beleaguered nation. For good measure, he used a phrase loaded with symbolism since Ukraine’s troubles with Russia began in 2014: “Glory to Ukraine!” That Turkey, a Nato member that has cosied up to Russia in recent years – despite the anger this has aroused in its other ally, the United States – has made clear which side it is on might surprise some. But for those who remember the past, the reasons are clear. Both Russia and Turkey are embarking on relentless drives to be great again on the world stage. In the case of Russia, the driving force is what Lenin condemned as “Great Russian chauvinism”, bolstered by military might and hydrocarbon resources. For Turkey, the European Union’s refusal to admit it to what Ankara sees as a “Christian club” has motivated Erdogan to go it alone and swap a European identity for one rooted in its glorious past. This has seen it make a decisive turn towards the Turkic nations of Central Asia and a claim to kinship. All would be well if these ambitions have been playing out in opposite corners of the world. But Russia and Turkey are neighbours, and the risks of them colliding are increasing. They have opposing interests in the Caucasus. Their spheres of influence overlap and breed contradictions in Central Asia. Their differences are manifest with respect to the GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova), independent states threatened by Russian expansion, but which Turkey resolutely stands by. The short but bloody war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh last year brought Russo-Turkish tensions to the surface, as both backed opposing sides – a situation similar to that in Syria and Libya, and now Ukraine. For us in Asia, the Russian push for rejuvenation seems remote. Turkey’s drive, on the other hand, is taking place in our backyard. The history that binds them, however, should interest even the casual observer. The world is rife with inherited tensions that can easily be channelled to feed new conflicts. Conflicting nationalisms – Russian Orthodox neo-imperialism here, Turkish neo-Ottomanism there – fall into this category, even if the risk of tensions spilling over remain remote. For China, protracted Russo-Turkish tensions would destabilise Central Asia. For those further south, Turkey’s neo-Ottoman drive has bigger repercussions. For many South and Southeast Asian countries with Muslim populations – Malaysia foremost among them – Turkey remains a beacon and a model for how Islam can fuse with modernity. It is no secret that it is vying with the other Muslim axes – chiefly those led by Saudi Arabia, and Iran – for leadership of the Islamic world. A Muslim nation standing up to a European power will no doubt be applauded in this region, giving the political Islam which Ankara champions a fillip, and boosting the neo-Ottoman drive. The 64,000-dollar question for those watching history repeating itself is this: have the lessons of their bloody pasts been learned by Moscow and Ankara? * Dr Gyorgy Busztin is a visiting research professor at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore. A career diplomat, he served as Hungary’s Ambassador to Indonesia and Iran, among other postings
10:37, 9 February, 2022
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. The opposition’s bill seeking to abolish the demerit point system failed to pass parliament.
The bill authored by the Hayastan faction received only 42 votes in favor, while 46 voted against.
The opposition is citing the Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy, or Non bis in idem, arguing that when motorists commit traffic violations they still have to pay the penalty and simultaneously get a point reduction under the demerit point system – which in their words constitutes "double-responsiblity".
The constitution guarantees that no legal action can be instituted twice for the same cause of action.
However, the pro-government lawmakers opposed the opposition's stance, claiming that the point reduction is not a legal action or accountability and that motorists are not being deprived of their driver’s license simultaneously with being fined. If all 9 points of a motorist are exhausted, the person loses their license for 6 months, but doesn’t have to pay a penalty for the last violation. The point reduction is an additional measure together with the penalty, the lawmakers argued.
PanARMENIAN.Net - Lawmaker from Armenia's ruling Civil Contract party Sona Ghazaryan has slammed the European Union's €2b financial assistance package for Azerbaijan.
Ghazaryan 's comments came just days after Azerbaijan announced plans to erase Armenian traces from medieval churches in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
"I'd like to tell the international community that this policy pursued by Azerbaijan is a challenge to the decision of the UN International Court of Justice on the application of urgent measures, adopted on December 7, 2021," Ghazaryan said.
"I would especially like to remind our partners in the European Union that they are in fact sending $2.1 billion to a country that stands out not only for its authoritarian regime, but also for its policy of vandalism against its neighbors and the destruction of our historical and cultural monuments."
Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.