20:00, 2 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. On August 2, at 6:59 p.m., the National Crisis Management Center received information that explosive devices have been installed in Yerevan City Hall, all metro stations, "Zvartnots" International Airport, 19 Baghramyan St., as well as in all important military and civilian facilities.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of the Emergency Situations of Armenia, rescue service units have departed for all the mentioned addresses.
Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte and representatives of Ser Artsakh’s partnering organizations
Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte provided updates and a summary of the activities of the Ser Artsakh, the latest project initiated by the Anna Astvatsaturian Foundation and its partnering organizations, at a recent press conference.
This was the first time Astvatsaturian Turcotte had seen her colleagues after months of remote cooperation.
Astvatsaturian Turcotte, the initiator of Ser Artsakh, mentioned that she had returned from Artsakh a few days earlier, where she was updated with the development of the project and visited cities and villages to understand their priorities and how the Anna Astvatsaturian Foundation can help in the future.
“Our mothers and all our compatriots living in Artsakh are indeed heroes. It was important for me to call this program Ser Artsakh, to remind the world that Artsakh exists, lives and will flourish,” stressed Astvarsaturian Turcotte. “In Artsakh, I also had meetings with high-ranking officials, discussed the ways of cooperation and the possibilities of new projects,” she said.
Representatives of Ser Artsakh’s partnering organizations opened the gift boxes and presented what was included in them: onesies, pajama sets, sleeping sacks, towels and blankets, health care essentials (diapers, wipes, baby shampoo, thermometer and pacifier), maternity hygiene necessities for the new mother, a custom-made soft baby book and a wooden toy made in Armenia.
All accessories included in the box are of Armenian production and are made in Armenia and Artsakh. Representatives from Lalunz, Play Artsakh, Tmblik and Theopharma Imports thanked the Anna Astvatsaturian Foundation for this initiative and noted their pride in becoming a part of Ser Artsakh.
“We worked on each garment for a long time and carefully selected every detail, from the fabric to the colors. We put a lot of love into all of this. Even while sewing, our employees were saying blessings for the newborn babies,” said Lusine Davtyan, the director of Lalunz LLC.
“What gives us reason to live are babies, and I really want many babies to be born in Armenia and Artsakh,” said Lilyan Galstyan, a representative of the Anna Astvatsaturian Foundation.
The soft baby book was also prepared especially for the Ser Artsakh and includes the lines:
“My home is the high mountains, the sun is warm and gentle,
The bear is kind, the deer is free and proud,
It’s warm in my house, it’s spring and love in my house.”
Ser Artsakh was launched on June 1, International Children’s Day, as a sign of the need and responsibility to protect children born after the 2020 Artsakh War, who are giving new life to their native land.
Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte
16:10, 1 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, ARMENPRESS. The issue of Serbia’s possible membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has not yet been included on the agenda, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday, reports TASS.
“Frankly speaking, such an issue has not been on the agenda”, the Kremlin official said replying to a question on the matter.
On Sunday night, the situation in Kosovo and Metohija sharply escalated after Kosovo’s police had closed a checkpoint on the border with Serbia, intending to introduce a ban on Serbian documents on Monday. In response, Serbs in the north of Kosovo took to the streets and blocked key highways. The police and the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, were pulled to the bridge across the Ibar River, which links Kosovska Mitrovica’s northern and southern parts. As a result of international efforts, Pristina decided to postpone the procedure of banning Serbian documents until September 1.
17:12, 1 August 2022
YEREVAN, 1 AUGUST, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 1 August, USD exchange rate down by 0.18 drams to 407.53 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.35 drams to 417.80 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 6.59 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.35 drams to 498.90 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 11.46 drams to 22973.73 drams. Silver price up by 9.58 drams to 262.90 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
Artsakh’s military, together with Russian peacekeeping forces, take measures to de-escalate the situation
22:41, 1 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, ARMENPRESS. As of 22:00, the situation along the northern and northwestern front line of the Republic of Artsakh is relatively stable and continues to be under the full control of the Defense Army, ARMENPRESS reports the Information Headquarter of Artsakh informs.
"The information spread by some users on social networks about the Armenian side's manpower and positional losses do not correspond to the reality, and the military personnel of the Defense Army continues to protect the borderline.
The command staff of the Defense Army, together with the command of the Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in Artsakh are taking appropriate steps to resolve the situation.
Once again, we urge our compatriots to refrain from spreading unverified information," the message states.
ArmInfo.The State Control Service revealed a number of violations in the activities of the capital's mayor's office in the period from 2018 to 2022.
According to the official statement of the State Service, as a result of large-scale inspections, violations worth 8.5 billion drams were revealed, which mainly relate to the calculation of subsidies to communities, road repairs, street improvement, the provision of gasoline for official use, the activities of transport companies operating under the mayor's office, expenses for overseas business trips, purchases, etc.
It is reported that the results of the investigation conducted at the Yerevan Municipality were summarized and were sent to the RA Prosecutor General's Office for legal assessment and further decisions.
In addition, the monitoring on the processes of issuing building permits and alienating land plots through direct sale in the period from 2011 to 2018 is carried out in Yerevan Municipality, as a result of which violations worth about 7.3 billion drams have been identified so far.
According to the source, 5 materials were sent to the RA Prosecutor General's Office on separate cases of the revealed violations, on the basis of which 3 criminal cases have already been initiated.
Rates of births and marriages have increased in Nagorno-Karabakh so far in 2022, reversing declines seen in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and the 2020 war with Azerbaijan.
In the first half of 2022, 864 children were born in Karabakh, the territory’s de facto authorities reported. That would be the highest per capita rate since before 2020.
The recent record year for births per capita in Karabakh was 2018, when 2,204 children were born in a population then estimated at 150,000, a birth rate of about 1.4 percent. That dropped to 1,614 in 2020 and then further to 1,463 in 2021. The 864 in the first six months of 2022 would outpace either of those years.
The per capita rate may be even larger than in 2018, given that the population’s territory has shrunk in the aftermath of the war. As a result of the war Armenian forces lost control of some territories where Armenians had been living, and many other former residents also fled to Armenia or elsewhere. In July 2021, the local authorities reported that the population remaining in the Armenian-populated territories was roughly 110,000.
Marriage rates, too, have spiked recently.
In the first half of 2022, the Ministry of Justice has registered 451 marriages. That compares to 899 in all of 2018 (a pre-war maximum for marriages, as well as for births) and 836 in 2019. The figure dipped to just 165 in 2020, as coronavirus restrictions and then the war made weddings nearly impossible, before rebounding to 1,314 in 2021.
Demography has long been a concern among the Armenians of Karabakh. The issue was most memorably addressed by a 2008 mass wedding in which roughly 700 couples tied the knot. The endeavor was sponsored by a Karabakh-born Russian businessman, Levon Hayrapetyan, and supported by the local authorities. Hayrapetyan said he initiated the event to stimulate Karabakh’s birth rate, which he called its “weakest link.” Birth rates reportedly rose 25 percent following the mass wedding.
Also in 2008, the de facto government began giving aid to encourage marriages and births: It gave every newly married couple 300,000 drams (about $730) on their wedding day, and then grants of 100,000 drams ($245), 200,000 drams ($490), and 500,000 drams ($1,225) for their first, second, and third children, respectively. Fourth and subsequent children got 700,000 drams ($1,175) each and families with six or more children under 18 got a free apartment.
Following the war, the government further boosted those amounts: Now first and second children get 300,000 drams each, and parents with disabilities get even larger aid.
“Step by step, we are continuing to create the necessary conditions for living and development. The year 2021 should mark the beginning of a new vision of Artsakh, where the children of Artsakh will make a great contribution," the then de facto Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mane Tandilyan, said in announcing the new policy in December 2020. (Artsakh is an Armenian name for the region.)
Karabakh also is soon set to have a new maternity hospital, after construction was delayed as a result of the war. During the fighting in October 2020, Azerbaijani forces shelled the hospital, which was then under construction. That set back progress, but on July 19 the de facto Ministry of Urban Development announced that construction of the hospital, in Stepanakert, had been completed. They did not specify when it would open.
13:14,
YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS. President Vahagn Khachaturyan held a meeting with the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan, the presidency said in a press release.
Sanosyan briefed the President on the current course of the construction of the North-South Highway, namely the ongoing works in the road section of Syunik Province. He also informed the President about the completion of the construction of the Iran-Armenia high-voltage power line.
The president and the minister also exchanged ideas on existing opportunities and issues around the construction of a new nuclear power plant.
This interview was originally published in Armenian by Mediamax on June 14, 2022. It has been translated for publication in the Weekly by Dr. Ara Nazarian.
Anahit Adamyan is the wife of Avetik Chalabyan, a co-founder of the Arar Foundation and a member of the “Consolidation” movement who was arrested on May 14.
Avetik Chalabyan and Anahid Adamyan in Tsaghkadzor, April 10, 2022 (Photo: Official Facebook page of Avetik Chalabyan)
Tell us about yourself. How did you meet Avetik?
I was born in Abovyan in a family of engineers. My mother is Russian, and we mainly spoke Russian at home, but my father categorically decided that we would go to an Armenian school. And at that time people sent their children to Russian schools, and in many cases, parents started learning Russian together with their children. But it was the opposite in our house. My mother studied Armenian with us.
I did very well in school, but historical subjects were not my favorites. I liked math. I graduated from Yerevan State University’s (YSU) Faculty of Economics, after which I studied at the American University of Armenia (AUA). Avetik and I met there, where he had also applied to the AUA following his work at the YSU Faculty of Physics.
It was impossible not to notice Avetik. He always had a habit of asking difficult questions, sometimes even in a positive sense, “upsetting” the lecturers. I noticed Avetik in the classroom for the first time, when the lecturer was trying to say something, and he was constantly asking questions, interrupting the lesson. I thought, who is this guy who is preventing the lecture from going on as planned. It turned out that we found ourselves in a common circle of friends; we even found out that we were born on the same day, a few years apart. Thus began our closer relationship. We have been married for 21 years and have four children.
What was Avetik’s family life like?
Avetik was born in Yerevan in a family of physicists and grew up in a very typical Yerevan environment in the yard of a multilevel building in front of the “Russia Cinema.” From a young age, he had various interests, even contradictory and seemingly incompatible. For example, he took both painting and boxing classes. But his greatest interests were Armenian, world history, military history and military strategies.
One of Avetik’s characteristics is being constructive and rational, which was also manifested when choosing a profession. His father says that things came easily to him where challenging problems were easy exercises for him. Realizing that he did not want to study theoretical physics, he changed his major and first studied at the AUA, then in 2001 he received his MBA from the University of North Carolina.
He is an exceptional person for me with personality traits that I have always admired. He is a knowledgeable, reserved and balanced leader whose opinion is valued by everyone. For many years, he worked in the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia. He has always excelled in effective negotiations, fair and impartial decision-making, reasoned debate and other important skills.
You lived in the USA for a while, then in Russia, but returned to Armenia. How did you make that decision?
We were studying in the United States and had no doubt that we would return. After living in the US for many years, Avetik received an offer from the Moscow branch of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, triggering our move to Russia. We lived in Moscow for about 20 years, but never thought we would settle there permanently. We always knew that one day we would return. We spent the summer months here, and all four of our children grew up under the care of their grandparents.
While living and working in Moscow, Avetik always implemented pro-Armenian programs in Moscow, Armenia and in Artsakh. He took an active part in public life and implemented initiatives supporting young people, students and various other groups.
Through the efforts and initiative of Avetik and his supporters, the Aybik Educational and Cultural Center was established in Moscow, serving as a platform for new educational opportunities for Armenian children and closer ties with the Armenian community.
Then Repat Armenia was founded, the main goal of which is to unite the potential of the Diaspora and support repatriates. Many people who have returned to Armenia state that they made their decision to repatriate within the framework of meetings with Repat Armenia.
Why did Avetik decide to get involved in politics?
After the war in April 2016, many things changed for him dramatically. From that time on, he knew that a new war was imminent and that we must be prepared for it, militarily and physically and spiritually. The obvious danger on the one hand and the obvious inaction on the other caused significant pain for him. His programs aimed at Artsakh and the army expanded after the 2016 war and continue to this day.
He decided to get involved in politics from the second half of 2018 because he saw a gap and realized that, only in that way, could he have a meaningful impact. Before that he tried to help remotely, but there was a condition from McKinsey that he should either be involved in politics or continue his consulting activities. He chose to work for the homeland.
Avetik was born in Armenia, studied in the US and worked and lived in Russia. He has no dislike for any culture or politics. Most importantly, his vision and activities are pro-Armenia and pro-Artsakh.
If you follow his interviews or articles, you will see that unfortunately his predictions and warnings have come true. Today, he has a vision for the country’s development – build a strong and stable army that will serve as a deterrent to our enemies and take every effort toward building a strong military, sparing little toward that goal. He has explored means to cooperate with various entities, including the Ministry of Defense since 2016.
Of course, many of these programs and initiatives are not discussed publicly, but informed people are aware of them. Avetik was doing everything for the army, for Artsakh and Armenia, but there came a moment when everything started to collapse before his eyes, and he simply could not but fight based on his character and values. We were ready for any kind of difficulty. We discussed all possible developments, including arrest and pressure and agreed that none would be an obstacle, because Avetik’s motivation is patriotism, and his work is for Armenia and Artsakh.
Armenia’s traffic police will step up security in the country on Vardavar (the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ) to be celebrated on Sunday, July 24.
The traffic police units will heighten security on busy sections of regional roads, especially on the Yerevan-Sevan highway.
Taking into account the expected large number of holidaymakers on the shores of Lake Sevan, Traffic Police Chief Yegor Karapetyan urges drivers to be vigilant and strictly observe traffic rules to avoid accidents.
"Drunk drivers will be the center of attention and there will be no leniency towards them. Any driver violating the law will be held strictly accountable, while their cars will be taken to impound lots," he said in a statement on Saturday.