Author: Jack Hunanian

 11:23,

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS. The foreign ministerial meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place next week, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said at the June 22 Cabinet meeting.

“The meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place next week. Armenia has also offered Azerbaijan to hold a session of the delimitation commission, and there is a principled agreement to convene it. Armenia is also ready for the unblocking of transport and economic connections as soon as possible, under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the parties and the principle of reciprocity,” Pashinyan said.

 12:36,

YEREVAN, JUNE 12, ARMENPRESS. The International Committee of the Red Cross facilitated on Saturday the transfer of 16 patients from blockaded Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) to Armenia for treatment. The attendants of the patients accompanied them.

Another 19 patients, together with their attendants, returned to Nagorno Karabakh from Armenia after receiving treatment.

The Ministry of Healthcare of Artsakh said that the Red Cross used a mini-bus to transport the patients and Azerbaijan has edited the images of the vehicle for its propaganda purposes so the Red Cross sign isn’t visible.

 15:04, 1 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan has said that direct dialogue between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan would also be highly important for Azerbaijan because if the dialogue fails to take place the problem won’t be resolved.

Asked whether the formation of an international mechanism for dialogue between Stepanakert and Baku is a principled matter for Armenia, given the fact that Azerbaijan doesn’t agree to it, Simonyan said: “We must reach a point where Azerbaijan starts to speak about it because otherwise there won’t be a beneficial situation for Azerbaijan itself, there will be a big gap which it won’t be able to fill for years, decades. If Azerbaijan doesn’t sit down and speak with the Armenian population living in Artsakh, that wound will someday [open].”

He added that international pressure and the international factor have big role. The Speaker said Armenia has success in this direction.

The problem won’t be resolved without dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert, Speaker Simonyan said.

“The other option is genocide, which we won’t allow. The Azerbaijani authorities should think that this issue is far more important for them than for us,” he concluded.

Speaking about a possible peace treaty, Simonyan called for guarantees to be in place for implementation of the terms of the agreement. As an example he mentioned the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement, which Azerbaijan is regularly violating while Russia – who is supposed to guarantee its implementation – fails to give proper response.

 18:11, 1 June 2023

CHISINAU, JUNE 1, ARMENPRESS. The meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President of the European Council Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is underway in Chisinau, Moldova.

[see video]

The meeting is taking place on the sidelines of the 2^nd European Political Community Summit.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders met most recently in Russia, on May 25, and in Brussels on May 14.

 17:13,

YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has met with a delegation of lawmakers from Argentina’s Senate and the Chamber of Deputies led by legislator Guillermo Andrada, the Chair of the Armenia-Argentina parliamentary friendship group.

Pashinyan welcomed the delegation’s visit and attached importance to the continuous development of the Armenia-Argentina relations, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout.

PM Pashinyan was pleased to note the principled positions voiced around sensitive matters for Armenia in the Senate of Argentina and praised the members of the friendship group for their active work in this regard.

“I hope the bilateral political, economic and cultural dialogue will continue to develop and strengthen as a result of your visit,” the Armenian Prime Minister said.

The Argentine lawmakers underscored the role of the Armenian community in further strengthening cooperation with Armenia.

Andrada added that they will continue to actively contribute to the expansion of partnership in various sectors.

Issues of regional significance were also discussed.

Issues related to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh resulting from the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan’s policy of ethnic cleansing against the population of Nagorno Karabakh were discussed. Pashinyan and the Argentine legislators stated that the Azerbaijani government’s aggressive rhetoric and attempts to disrupt the negotiations process are inadmissible. Addressing the issues of the rights and security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh was highlighted.

 17:16,

YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. UK Minister for Europe Leo Docherty visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan on May 22 to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

Docherty placed a wreath at the memorial and laid flowers at the Eternal Flame.

 09:46,

ISTANBUL, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS. Only 1 legislator will represent the Turkish-Armenian community which has an estimated population of over 50,000 in the new, 600-seat Turkish parliament after the May 14 polls, in sharp contrast with the previous composition which included 3 Turkish-Armenian MPs from different parties, including the opposition.

The new Turkish-Armenian MP is Sevan Sıvacıoglu, an Orthopedics and Traumatology doctor from Istanbul who ran for parliament from Istanbul 2nd region representing the ruling AK party led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Yetvart Danzikyan, the Editor-in-Chief of Agos, an Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper, if more MPs had entered parliament the Turkish-Armenians would feel calmer.

“In the past, three Armenian Members of Parliament were elected, but now only one, Sevan Sıvacıoglu. Thus, we have a problem of Armenian [representation]. Sure, you might as well ask, if we were to have four or five MPs, what would change? [Nothing], perhaps, but in that case the Istanbul Armenians would feel calmer. But now that’s not the case,” Danzikyan told ARMENPRESS.

Speaking about the prospects of normalization between Armenia and Turkey, Danzikyan said that the Turkish-Armenians want the two countries to normalize ties, but nevertheless he himself isn’t much of an optimist. 

Danzikyan warned that the nationalistic atmosphere has been growing in the past years in Turkey, and in such conditions “it is difficult to expect a change in the Armenian-Turkish relations.”

“A group came from Armenia (for normalization) after the February earthquake, it was a good chance, which we missed,” the editor-in-chief added.

Sıvacıoglu, 46, is an Orthopedics and Traumatology specialist who has been working at the Acıbadem Maslak hospital since 2018.

[see video]

Araks Kasyan