Author: Garnik Zakarian

Armenian PM accepts Putin’s invitation to visit Russia — Kremlin

Garnik Zakarian
TASS, Russia
Feb 21 2022
The latest meeting between the two leaders took place in Russia’s Sochi in November 2021

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to pay an official visit to Russia and this invitation has been accepted, the Kremlin press service said on Monday.

"In view of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Armenia to be marked in April, Vladimir Putin invited Nikol Pashinyan to pay an official visit to our country. The invitation was accepted with gratitude," it said.

The latest meeting between the two leaders took place in Russia’s Sochi in November 2021 but they maintain telephone contacts.

Meanwhile, the press service of the Armenian government said that Pashinyan invited Putin to visit Yerevan. It said that the two leaders discussed several other topics linked with the efforts toward strengthening stability and establishing lasting relations of peace and cooperation in the region, and the current situation in the Russian-Ukrainian relations.


The Police and Russian peacekeepers are in Khramort (Artsakh), negotiations are underway. Hunan Tadevosyan

Garnik Zakarian

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 15:42,

YEREVAN, 26 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The calls from the Azerbaijani side to leave the Khramort community in the Askeran region through loudspeakers are, in fact, intended to create panic, ARMENPRESS reports the head of the public relations department of the State Emergency Service of the Artsakh Republic Hunan Tadevosyan wrote on his Facebook page.

At the moment, the officers of the Askeran regional police department and the officers of the Russian peacekeeping mission are in Khramort. Negotiations are underway with the enemy, the results of which we will publish.

I would like to inform you that there is no panic in Khramort, no one is going to leave the village, on the contrary, there are 12 families displaced from other settlements living next to the locals," Tadosyan wrote.

Earlier, information was spread in the media that the Azeris have been demanding through loudspeakers from the residents of Khramort village of Artsakh's Askeran region for two days now to leave the village.




You can produce it in Armenia

Garnik Zakarian
February 17, 2022 Hovsep Daghdigian Non-Profit 0

On Bagrevand Street, 21/1 in the Nor Nork section of Yerevan is the Science and Technology Museum, part of the Engineering City complex. While there are science exhibits of famous trailblazing Armenian scientists from Armenia and the Diaspora, the focus of the museum is on products which were engineered and manufactured in Armenia during the Soviet era. Products range from machine tools to electronic equipment, computers and household appliances. These products were distributed to all the Soviet republics. The message conveyed is “Armenians had a talent for engineering and manufacturing a few decades ago. We still have that talent.”

Science and Engineering Museum

Engineering City started with a few high-tech companies coming together to promote high tech in Armenia. In 2016-2017, the Engineering City campus was established as part of a public-private partnership funded by the Armenian government, the World Bank, investors and the private business sector. Currently, 14 companies have facilities there, including companies from Armenia, Canada and the US. Industries that are particularly sought include advanced automotive electronics, wireless communication, radio frequency electronics, industrial electronics, manufacturing technology, aerospace and education technologies.

Services offered include precision, numerically controlled machine tools with experienced operators; sheet metal fabrication; RoHS compliant surface mount printed circuit assembly and test; and mold making. Companies meeting certain criteria will have an opportunity to receive donations of land to establish an office with access to Engineering City’s lab and manufacturing facilities.

Besides the museum and production facilities, Engineering City offers tuition-free business, management and technology courses at an on-site branch of the State Engineering University (Polytechnic Institute). Facilities include a library, a cafeteria and a technical high school. High school graduates, if they wish, can continue their engineering or scientific education at the Polytechnic Institute.

The intent is to create an environment where companies can efficiently develop marketable products and go into production. Any company, whether a startup or a branch of an established company that wants to take advantage of the facilities is welcome. The goal is to facilitate rapid development of products which can be exported, the establishment of a manufacturing city to mass produce products, and the creation of 10,000 good paying jobs.

Marina Saguinian, an Engineering City principal, addressed R&D and manufacturing issues. She indicated that a key to success is rapid development and transition to manufacturing. Armenia can produce products with quality equaling or exceeding those produced elsewhere, and at a lower cost due to low wages in Armenia. Armenians, she emphasized, have the talent to do so. 

Recent news from Engineering City indicated that engineers have completed development of a system to automatically evaluate electronic control systems used in electric vehicles. This equipment, developed in Armenia, is ready for deployment to markets in Europe and Asia.

Saguinian addressed the issue of exporting manufactured goods and was confident that Armenia can effectively compete in the global market.

  •  Bio
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Joseph “Hovsep” Daghdigian is originally from Lowell, MA. His grandparents were from Kharpet in Western Armenia. He is active in the Merrimack Valley community and a former chairman of the AYF CE. Dagdigian is a retired electrical and software engineer with a MS in computer engineering. Dagdigian spends three to five months per year in Armenia and Artsakh exploring sites with his friend Vova Tshagharyan. His adventures are described in his “Unseen Armenia” series of articles. He, with Anahid Yeremian, co-founded the Support Committee for Armenia’s Cosmic Ray Division (SCACRD) in 2000 to support the scientists and students at the Cosmic Ray Division of the Yerevan Physics Institute (now the A. Alikhanyan National Laboratory). He lives in Harvard, MA with his wife Lisa.


FLYONE Armenia starts Yerevan-Moscow-Yerevan regular direct flights

Garnik Zakarian

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 15:04,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian airline FLYONE Armenia will start operating Yerevan-Moscow-Yerevan regular direct flights from March 1 as the company received the permit of the Armenian and Russian aviation authorities, the company told Armenpress.

The first flight to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport is scheduled on March 1.

The company will then operate the flight twice a week – on Mondays and Fridays.

The flights will be operated from the Zvartnots Airport with convenient timetable and affordable prices.

The tickets and additional services of FLYONE Armenia can be acquired at www.flyone.am or in a mobile app available in Google App or App Store, as well as in the offices of all partner companies.

About FLYONE Armenia

FLYONE Armenia (www.flyone.am) started its operations in 2021. On 27 October 2021, the Civil Aviation Authority of Armenia offered us the National Air Operator Certificate, assigning the IATA 3F code, which contains 2 characters and ICAO FIE code- 3 characters.

The airline's fleet consists of Airbus A320 aircraft, on which we will operate both scheduled and charter flights. Each aircraft has 180 seats and meets all International Air Transport Association (IATA) and EASA safety standards. Also, in pandemic conditions, the aircraft is equipped with HEPA air filters, which remove 99.97% of viruses and bacteria.

FLYONE (www.flyone.eu) was launched in 2016 on the Republic of Moldova market and is currently one of the leaders in the aviation market there. FLYONE has received IOSA certification, the highest safety standard in operational management. As well, it has been ranked multiple times in 2018, 2019 and 2020 in the TOP 10 "Most punctual company" according to the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) category.

The sitting of the Bureau of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly held in Yerevan

Garnik Zakarian

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 18:20,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. The sitting of the Bureau of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly took place in Yerevan on February 21. The heads of the delegations of the parliaments of Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine from the Eastern Partnership countries, as well as the political groups of the European Parliament took part.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the parliament of Armenia, during the sitting, the deputies of the Eastern Partnership countries presented information on the current political processes in their countries. Issues related to the security and political situation in the European Union and the Eastern Partnership area were also discussed.

The sittings of the Euronest PA Committees on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy, Economic Integration, Legal Approximation and Convergence with EU Policies, Energy Security, Social Affairs, Employment, Education, Culture and Civil Society will be held on February 22 at aren Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex.

Country to Live party: ‘Shushi Declaration’ is undisguised threat to Armenia and Artsakh

Garnik Zakarian
 NEWS.am 
Armenia – Feb 15 2022
14:09, 15.02.2022

The "Shushi Declaration" signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey on June 15, 2021 in occupied Shushi, and then ratified by their respective parliaments, is an undisguised threat to Armenia and Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)], which officially confirms and reaffirms a hostile policy against Armenia and Armenians and ensuing actions deriving as a result. The Country to Live party of Armenia has noted this in a statement it released Tuesday. The statement continues as follows:    In particular, as before, the declaration now stipulates that the Artsakh issue is "resolved", despite the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries that the issue of a comprehensive settlement of the status of Artsakh remains on the agenda of the OSCE Minsk Group. 

The agenda of forming a "one nation, two states" alliance of Turkic-speaking countries is enshrined as a strategic goal of Turkey and Azerbaijan, [and] moreover, the "Zangezur Corridor" is considered a priority in terms of achieving that goal, considered separate from the process of unblocking communications in the region.  The recent working group set up by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, which aims to once again eliminate and distort the Armenian cultural heritage at the state level, once again proves that we are dealing with retaliatory steps by antagonist countries, whose long-term goal is to place the region under the sole Turkish sphere of influence. 

At the same time, the Armenian government continues to push forward the agenda of opening an "era of peace" inadequate to these challenges, considering it exclusively a process of unblocking roads, when in fact we can only achieve peace after establishing  the inadmissibility of the use of force, the threat of force, the exclusion of hatred, propaganda of hostility at the state level, and the way of achieving the solution of problems in a constructive atmosphere of negotiations without preconditions. In this context, the foreign policy agenda should continue to be dominated by the Artsakh status agenda as a real guarantee of security and long-term stability. At the same time, it is necessary to develop and implement a clear reform policy strategy in the field of army building. 

The clearly destructive and presumptuous manner of conduct by Azerbaijan is not only left without an adequate response from the international community, but also indirectly is even  "encouraged", especially when the international community seeks to equate the aggressor with the party affected by the aggression. The recent announcement of € 2 billion in EU aid to the authoritarian Azerbaijan raises a number [of] questions, including the EU's commitment to democratic values and their promotion in the region.  As the above-mentioned issues have strategic importance in the context of building a real and lasting peace in our region, the "Country to Live" party is going to present its circumstantial concerns to the ambassadors accredited to Armenia and international representations, as well as propose concrete actions against cultural vandalism.


UNESCO responds to Azerbaijan: Heritage, history should not be subject of any political instrumentalization

Garnik Zakarian
 NEWS.am 
Armenia – Feb 15 2022
16:39, 15.02.2022

UNESCO continues working to send an Independent Technical Mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, the UNESCO Press Office said in response to the query of Armenpress, commenting on the reports about the cases of distortion and destruction of the Armenian historical-cultural heritage in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) territories that have come under the Azerbaijani control after the 2020 war.

UNESCO hopes that this mission will be possible soon.

“We continue working to send a UNESCO Independent Technical Mission within the framework of the 1954 Convention. We hope that it will be possible soon, but for the moment the necessary conditions are not in place. So discussions are still ongoing”, Thomas Mallard, Press Officer at UNESCO, said.

Considering the fact that on December 7, 2021, the International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts,” as a provisional measure in the context of Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), how does the organization assess the mentioned actions by Azerbaijan’s government regarding the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh, UNESCO said: “Heritage and history shouldn’t be the subject of any political instrumentalization. We urge all our Member States, all over the world, to respect this principle.”

To note, many of these cultural crimes and vandalism by Azerbaijan are registered on .

https://news.am/eng/news/686978.html

Forcibly displaced Artsakh residents holding protest in Yerevan

Garnik Zakarian
ARM INFO
Feb 18 2022
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo. People forcibly displaced from Artsakh are holding a protest in Yerevan. Residents of Hadrut and Shushi have gathered at Yerevan's Republic Square,  indignant at the Armenian authorities' indifference toward them. 

As a result of the 2020 war Hadrud and Shushi were occupied by  Azerbaijani troops. The residents had to flee empty-handed. 

"We have no housing, work or even cash allowances. The government has  not paid us for two months. We want to return to Arstakh, but we have  neither homes nor sustenance. We have come here, but none of the  government officials is coming out to know why we are here," the  protesters say. 

One of the protesters, Levon Airyan, said Armenia's incumbent  authorities "do not even know what hey want." 

"What peace treaty are you talking about? You did not declare war nor  did Azerbaijan. Such a treaty must never be signed. It will be  further capitulation committed to paper. So the enemy is in a hurry.  And Armenia's authorities are incompetent and do not know what they  are doing. And the tragedy of the situation is that they are trying  to invoke political reasons," he said. 

According to him, the Arstakh authorities should declare the  statement on November 9, 2020, groundless.  The protesters marched  toward Armenia's foreign office for a written answer to their  inquiry. 

CSTO an important partner for UN – António Guterres

Garnik Zakarian

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 20:36,

YEREVAN, 16 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a strong partner of the United Nations, ARMENPRESS reports UN Secretary General António Guterres said on February 16.

"Currently, more than ever, the UN is relying on closer and deeper cooperation with regional organizations. The CSTO is a strong partner for the UN”, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS, Guterres said in a meeting on cooperation with the CSTO.

He expressed hope for strengthening cooperation with the CSTO in the field of peacekeeping missions.