Author: Arpi Talalian

Long queues at Armenian-Iranian border: Iranian citizens get vaccinated for free

Arpi Talalian
News.am, Armenia
18:52, 10.07.2021

At the Armenian-Iranian border, queues of Iranian citizens who come to Armenia for free vaccination against coronavirus have formed.

Iranian media have been reporting for several days that the number of Iranians is so large that they have to queue for hours. The border crossing process takes longer than usual, as they must have a negative coronavirus test result to enter Armenia.

According to the Iranian media, many residents of Iran in the queues feel bad.

As the Armenian News - NEWS.am was informed at the Meghri customs point, there are no queues on our side of the border.

By the way, a visit to Armenia for vaccination is so common among Iranians that there are even special tour packages. Lately, long queues of Iranians have been seen at mobile vaccination sites in Yerevan.

The latter note that in the IRI they vaccinate elderly citizens from the risk group, but they have to wait for months in a queue for vaccination. While in Armenia, they can be vaccinated for free for several hours.

A few days ago, the Armenian health ministry said that the number of vaccinated people in our country has recently increased, reaching about 5,000 people a day. But it is not known how many of them are residents of Armenia, and how many are Iranians, vaccinated with a drug purchased at the expense of our state budget, there are no statistics on this score.

Artak Zakaryan: Armenian and Azeri authorities have ‘much in common’

Arpi Talalian
Panorama, Armenia
July 1 2021

The authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan have “much in common”, former Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia Artak Zakaryan said on Facebook on Thursday, denouncing the “sham” trials in the countries.

“A fabricated, groundless and sham trial of our young men, who defended Artsakh and were taken prisoner in unknown circumstances, is taking place in Azerbaijan,” he wrote.

“At the same time, a fabricated, groundless and sham trial of two Influential persons, who founded, defended and developed the Republic of Artsakh and made great efforts for its self-determination, is taking place in Armenia.

“The Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities have a lot in common,” Zakaryan said.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe sends congratulatory message to Nikol Pashinyan

Arpi Talalian

Secretary General of the Council of Europe sends congratulatory message to Nikol Pashinyan

Save

Share

 20:18,

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe sent a congratulatory message to caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on the successful conduct of the parliamentary elections.

As ARMENPRESs was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the message runs as follows,

‘’Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I congratulate you on the successful holding of the June 20 snap parliamentary elections. I welcome the fact that international observers, including the delegation of our Parliamentary Assembly, assessed these elections as competitive and generally well organized.

It is important that the election results showed the unconditional support of the Armenian people to the reform policy under your leadership. Now that the election campaign is over, it is time to focus on a constructive dialogue with political parties and civil society. In this regard, I reaffirm the readiness of the Council of Europe to continue to support Armenia in the reform process, based on the criteria of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. "


Any criminal case against Armenian captives in Azerbaijan has no legal ground: Representative of Armenia before ECHR

Arpi Talalian

Save

Share

 11:05,

YEREVAN, JUNE 28, ARMENPRESS. The Office of the Representative of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has made a statement over the ongoing illegal criminal prosecutions of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan.

The statement says:

“According to the information gained on the sidelines of the inter-state legal processes initiated by the Armenian government in the European Court of Human Rights and collected from open public sources, currently the Azerbaijani authorities are conducting fake criminal prosecutions against Armenian citizens who have been captured during the 2020 September 27 war and are still being held in Azerbaijan with obvious gross violations of international humanitarian law.

The Armenian government has repeatedly officially announced and reaffirms now as well its position that persons, currently illegally held in Azerbaijan, are considered prisoners of war and hostage-taken civilians and use the protection guarantees in accordance with the 1949 Geneva Convention. Any criminal case against captured Armenians has no legal ground and openly contradicts the international legal norms”, the statement says.

The Office stated that it has repeatedly applied to the ECHR requesting to stop the ongoing criminal prosecutions against the Armenian captives, release them and guarantee their rights. However, the only urgent measure within the ECHR is the opportunity of applying an interim measure, which, unfortunately, has a limited nature, and the Court cannot intervene in the ongoing criminal prosecutions against these persons.

The Office said it is ready to cooperate with lawyers, attorneys and any other persons interested in the matter.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Turkish press: Erdoğan, Putin discuss bilateral ties, pandemic, region

Arpi Talalian
 ISTANBUL DIPLOMACY 
JUN 24, 2021 7:41 PM GMT+3
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands after a joint news conference in Moscow, Russia, March 6, 2020. (AA Photo)

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed bilateral relations, tourism, the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the Nagorno-Karabakh region and Syria in a phone call Thursday.

Erdoğan voiced appreciation for Moscow’s decision to resume air traffic with his country, as well as for the start of deliveries of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, a statement by the Kremlin said.

For his part, Putin shared his impressions on his meeting last week with United States President Joe Biden in Geneva, it added.

The leaders exchanged views on the situation concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh region that Azerbaijan liberated last year from decades of Armenian occupation.

The leaders made a positive assessment of the efforts of a joint Russian-Turkish center monitoring the resulting cease-fire in the region.

“The Turkish President expressed support for Russian efforts to ensure the full implementation of the agreements fixed in the statements of the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan from Nov. 9, 2020, and Jan. 11, 2021,” said the statement.

It also noted that Putin and Erdoğan confirmed their mutual readiness to continue coordination, including in the interest of economic development and restoration of the region's transport infrastructure.

Addressing the situation in Syria, both presidents stressed the importance of the joint work of the Russian and Turkish armed forces in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib to prevent escalation, as well as their efforts in the northeast of the country and in the fight against the terrorist groups in these areas, it added.

They also agreed to continue personal contacts and joint work at other levels.

Head of Union of Communities of Armenia: Calls by authorities to fire community leaders are illegal

Arpi Talalian
News.am, Armenia
12:48, 26.06.2021

The authorities' calls for the dismissal of community leaders just because they supported the opposition in the snap parliamentary elections are illegal political statements. President of the Union of Communities (Municipalities) of Armenia, Emin Yeritsyan, told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to him, there should be no legal consequences if these statements are not followed by administrative steps.

Yeritsyan explained that the community leaders are independent, so they can ignore those statements altogether.

"It is common for community leaders to express their political position. Both under our legislation and around the world, the head of the community is a political position. Moreover, according to the new Electoral Code of Armenia, elections shall be held on the proportional [representation], partisan principle. This speaks to the fact that the head of the community cannot but be engaged in party and political activities. His activities are directly political; that is, the activities of the community head are neither professional, nor official, but political,” stressed the president of the Union of Communities (Municipalities) of Armenia.

Newspaper: Pashinyan is PM of actually just 26.49% of Armenia voters

Arpi Talalian
News.am, Armenia
09:20, 23.06.2021

YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd daily of Armenia writes: After the end of the snap parliamentary elections, various analyzes continue on, after all, what was linked to such a picture in the elections and the reproduction of the current authorities.

Let's talk in the language of numbers. 50.59% of registered voters did not participate in the elections. As a result of the elections, Nikol Pashinyan received 26.49% of the votes of the registered voters, the "Armenia" and "I Have Honor" blocs—12.91%, 9.69% of their votes were pulverized. These numbers speak for themselves. It turns out that only 26.49% of all voters [actually] voted for Nikol Pashinyan, but they are the majority.

The situation is deeper when you study the data by area. 675,194 people took part in the elections in Yerevan, of which 345 thousand voted for the CC [i.e., the ruling Civil Contract Party], whereas 92,940—for the "Armenia" bloc [led by second President Robert Kocharyan]. Yerevan is the only constituency where Nikol Pashinyan's votes did not exceed 50%. Nikol Pashinyan received the largest—67.90% of—votes in Tavush Province, followed by Gegharkunik Province—with 66.26% of votes, and Shirak [Province]—with 65.11% of votes.

According to the 2019 data, 43.5% of the population is poor in Gegharkunik, and 48.4%—in Shirak. These two provinces are the areas that voted for Nikol Pashinyan the most. 14.1% of the population is poor in Yerevan, where Pashinyan did not even garner 50% of the vote. In any case, it is necessary to note that Pashinyan was [actually] elected by 26.49% [of Armenia’s voters].

Armenian caretaker high-tech minister, Roscosmos director general discuss cooperation in space development field

Arpi Talalian

Save

Share

 13:55,

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s caretaker minister of high technological industry Hayk Chobanyan met with general director of the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities Dmitry Rogozin in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021), the ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting they discussed the possible cooperation within the frames of space development in Armenia.

Hayk Chobanyan highlighted the importance of development of space services, technologies in Armenia and the cooperation within this framework. The officials also touched upon the signing process of an inter-state agreement between Armenia and Russia, the implementation of joint projects, promotion of Russian companies in Armenia in the context of space activity development and a number of other issues. The tax privileges set by the Armenian legislation are favorable for this purpose.

At the end of the meeting Hayk Chobanyan invited Dmitry Rogozin to take part in the 6th STARMUS international festival on science and art in Armenia on September 5-10, 2022.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

COVID-19: Belarus eases entry restrictions for Armenian citizens

Arpi Talalian

Save

Share

 13:09,

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS/BelTA. Belarus has updated the red list of countries.

Nine states will be removed from the red list on June 16. These are North Macedonia, San Marino, Monaco, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Moldova and Serbia.

The Healthcare Ministry recalled that people coming from the red list countries (that are included in the Healthcare Ministry's list of countries where the largest number of COVID-19 cases is reported), must enter a 10-day self-isolation period on arrival.

“Arrivals from the green list countries do not need to observe self-isolation,” the ministry said.