Public Radio of Armenia The Union of Armenians of Ukraine in the Poltava region has installed four billboards dedicated to the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The billboards raise awareness about the Armenian Genocide of 1915, reminding that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire.
Author: Kajoyan Gevork
Syrian mercenaries complain about stolen salaries after fighting in Karabakh: video
AMN – Al-Masdar News
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Video at the link
Armenia reaches agreement with Russia to buy one million doses of Sputnik V
TASS, Russia
The country has already begun inoculating people with Russia’s Sputnik V after 15,000 doses of the jab recently arrived in the country
© The Republic of Armenia Ministry of Health/TASS
YEREVAN, April 14. /TASS/. Yerevan will purchase one million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine after Armenia and Russia have reached a relevant agreement on the high level, Armenian Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan told the national parliament Wednesday.
"I would like to underline that there is a high-level agreement to buy one million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia. Keeping other agreements in mind, we believe it is possible to vaccinate up to 20% of the population before the end of the year," she stressed.
The country has already begun inoculating people with Russia’s Sputnik V after 15,000 doses of the jab recently arrived in the country. Health workers are getting vaccinated as well as people with chronic conditions, workers of social facilities and people aged between 18 and 55 living in them.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with a Rossiya-1 journalist that Yerevan needs approximately one million doses of this shot.
Meanwhile, the country continues to face challenges linked to the COVID-19 spread. Several hundred cases are reported every day, while daily cases often reach 1,000. According to the latest data, Armenia has identified 205,128 coronavirus cases (approximately 7% of the population), while 3,794 people have died from the coronavirus-related complications. Pashinyan called on Armenians in mid-March to be stricter with epidemiological measures.
3621 identified war dead, 321 MIAs, 201 bodies under DNA testing – Pashinyan on death toll
15:26,
YEREVAN, APRIL 14, ARMENPRESS. The number of identified fatalities of the 2020 Artsakh war stands at 3621 at this moment, according to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“At this moment we have 3621 deaths confirmed with death certificates, we also have 321 persons in the list of those missing, we have 201 bodies or remains currently under DNA testing and we have more than 100 identified bodies who were identified with concrete family members, but the families are still refusing to accept this fact for various reasons. Many of our countrymen want to believe that their loved ones are alive, or held captive [in Azerbaijan], there are families who don’t trust the DNA tests,” Pashinyan said in parliament in response to lawmaker Karapet Mkhchyan's question.
According to Pashinyan, the death toll of the war is about 4000.
Identification and search missions are still taking place.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
EBRD invests $1.5 mln ‘green finance’ in Armenia – Financial Mirror
Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Azerbaijan violates agreements on POWs -MP
Public Radio of Armenia
April 9 2021
Lawyer: There are no grounds for bringing new charge against Kocharyan
Panorama, Armenia
April 6 2021
For two and a half years, the lawyers of Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan “have repeatedly warned” that Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code has problems with applicability and certainty, one of the lawyers, Aram Orbelyan, told reporters on Tuesday, after a court in Yerevan ruled to end the criminal prosecution against Kocharyan and three other former top officials under the article.
“Still at the stage of preliminary investigation more than 2.5 years ago, we filed a motion to the prosecutor asking for the opinion of the Constitutional Court over Article 300.1,” the lawyer said, stressing the need to reveal how much money the state has spent on conducting criminal proceedings, the illegality of which, according to him, was initially clear to everyone.
“Now they [the prosecutors] have applied to the Constitutional Court. There is no mechanism for altering [the accusations] and there are no grounds for bringing a new charge [against Kocharyan],” the lawyer said.
As for Article 309 of the Criminal Code, Orbelyan said its statute of limitations expired long ago.
“The mania to convict a person at any cost is in itself illegal, inhuman and unconstitutional. We must finally realize the presumption of innocence is one of the most important human rights,” he said, adding that the Prosecutor’s Office should also be guided by the presumption of innocence, which says a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The lawyer also said that no clear decision on the violation of Kocharyan’s rights has yet been made.
“It’s for our client to decide on what processes to start. In my opinion, all persons whose rights have been violated should launch a process to protect their rights. This is the tool which will make the Prosecutor's Office refrain from the desire to convict persons at any cost and begin to fulfill its duties of restoring the rule of law,” Orbelyan said.
Armenian Caucus Seeks Over $100 Million in U.S. Aid for Artsakh and Armenia
12:31, 2 April, 2021
WASHINGTON D.C., APRIL 2, ARMENPRESS. The United States Congressional Armenian Caucus is calling for over $100 million in U.S. aid to Armenia and Artsakh following the war unleashed by Turkey and Azerbaijan in 2020, as House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Ranking Member Hal Rogers (R-KY) begin crafting the FY2022 Foreign Aid Bill, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“We want to thank Representatives Pallone, Speier, and Schiff and their colleagues in the leadership of the Armenian Caucus for advancing this aid package for Artsakh and Armenia in response to the humanitarian and security crisis created by Azerbaijan and Turkey’s aggression,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “U.S. re-engagement requires robust U.S. assistance to Artsakh, an immediate cut-off in all U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, and strong support for the sovereignty of Armenia as a pillar of regional security architecture.
“The below requests for Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh in the Fiscal Year 2022 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs appropriations bill are critical for assisting the country in helping to make its people more secure, bolster its democracy and sustainable economic development, stabilize its civil society, aid its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, most urgently, alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Artsakh,” states the “Dear Colleague” letter circulated Wednesday by Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Vice-Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), which included the following budgetary requests:
— Robust funding to directly aid the Armenian people of Nagorno Karabakh to recover and rebuild, including urgently needed housing, food security, water and sanitation, medical and refugee assistance, rehabilitation, and infrastructure needs.
— $2 million for Conventional Weapons Destruction programs in Nagorno Karabakh.
— $100 million for economic, governance, rule of law, and security assistance to Armenia through State Department and USAID accounts.
— the suspension of all U.S. security assistance for Azerbaijan until it has been verified to have ceased all attacks against Armenia and Artsakh.
The ANCA has already launched an action platform – anca.org/aidletter – where pro-Armenia and Artsakh advocates can write, call, and tweet their U.S. Representatives to cosign the Congressional Armenian Caucus letter outlining FY2021 foreign aid priorities.
Coronavirus: Armenia records 10 cases of UK variant
16:53, 2 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 2, ARMENPRESS. 10 cases of the UK variant (B.1.1.7, VOC-202012/01) of the coronavirus have been recorded in Armenia, the health ministry said.
The ministry said it had submitted 12 samples of the novel coronavirus on March 18th for complete genome sequencing which was carried out by experts from the Institute of Molecular Biology Human Genomics and Immunomics Laboratory, the Bioinformatics scientific team and scientists from the Armenian-Russian University’s Department of Bioengineering, Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Electoral Code: Opposition LHK disapproves proposed amendments, calls for open list system
13:23, 1 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS. The opposition Bright Armenia (LHK) party continues to insist that an open-list proportional electoral system is the best for Armenia and it is wrong to abolish the preferential (ranked) voting method and hold early elections with the closed-list system.
Speaking at parliamentary hearings on the parliament majority-backed bill seeking to amend the electoral code, LHK lawmaker Gevorg Gorgisyan disapproved the initiative and said they propose an open proportional electoral system instead.
He admitted that the ranked voting system, the separations into districts potentially enable those having resources to exploit it to gain votes. “But depriving citizens from electing members of parliament, their representatives in parliament is fraught with even worse consequences. We’d have a parliament of button pushers,” he argued.
Gorgisyan insisted that an open proportional electoral system is the right system for Armenia and that it would contribute to strengthening democracy. He warned that otherwise the changes could lead to the political system’s degradation.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan