12:15, 30 May 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. The International Boxing Association President Umar Kremlev will visit the fan zone at Yerevan’s Swan Lake at 14:00 on May 30 for a ceremony of presenting boxing gloves to athletes, the Boxing Federation of Armenia said in a statement.
Yerevan is hosting the EUBC Men’s Elite European Boxing Championships.
13:21, 30 May 2022
YEREVAN, 30 MAY, ARMENPRESS. Anti-government protesters are demonstrating outside the #3 government building in downtown Yerevan, which houses several ministries and other government agencies.
The leader of the protests – ARF’s Ishkhan Saghatelyan, the Vice Speaker of Parliament representing the opposition Hayastan faction, said they want to enter the building and inquire from different government agencies on their position regarding the opposition’s draft resolution which is included in the agenda of the June 3 emergency session of parliament.
The June 3 emergency session of parliament will be convened at the initiative of the opposition. However, the ruling Civil Contract party announced that it won’t participate in the session. If Civil Contract doesn’t take part, there will be no quorum and the session won’t be convened.
The opposition’s draft resolution of parliament states, among others, that “Armenia will support the full exercise of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan, there must be reliable land connection between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh: Artsakh will not be an exclave, the delimitation and demarcation must be carried out with the precondition of Azerbaijan withdrawing its troops from sovereign Armenian territory, Armenia is the guarantor of security and the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, the breach of the territorial integrity of Armenia is ruled out as a result of delimitation and demarcation, any agreement in the Armenian-Turkish normalization process that would question the Armenian Genocide is ruled out, and that the unblocking of roads with Azerbaijan and Turkey cannot happen in the logic of a corridor.”
Saghatelyan said that they want two opposition MPs to enter the building and meet with Cabinet members and demand their position on the draft resolution.
Police were not allowing the MPs to enter. Officers said they must inquire whether or not the Cabinet members are ready to receive them.
The MPs argued with the police that they are entitled to freely enter the building.
A scuffle began between demonstrators and police as demonstrators attempted to breach the line.
Saghatelyan called on the crowd of supports to block the building, stating that they will not leave until they have a meeting with the ministers.
Police then reported that 5 demonstrators were detained on suspicion of hooliganism.
UPDATE:
14:09 – Demonstrators end protest near #3 government building, start marching
On June 3, 2022, the 10th sitting of the trilateral working group chaired by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Mher Grigoryan, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Overchuk and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafa took place in Moscow.
The parties discussed and clarified their approaches to border, customs and other types of control, as well as the safe passage of citizens, vehicles and goods through the territories of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan by roads and railways.
During the meeting, an exchange of views took place on the possible routes of the road connecting the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhijevan.
The parties will continue working to implement the agreements reached by the leaders of the Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan on unblocking transport links in the region.
Armenia continues to prioritize the security and rights of compatriots living in Artsakh, and the status should derive from this, Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan told reporters today.
“We are confident that the rights and security will determine the status, and we’ll continue to work in this direction,” Grigoryan said.
He said the statements made by Armenia after the trilateral meeting Brussels fully comply with the process.
“We try to be as transparent as possible and inform the public of what has been discussed,” he said.
The Secretary noted that negotiations are taking place also because there are disagreements. “We hope that it is possible to overcome these disagreements through negotiations,” he said.
As for the statements from Azerbaijan that do not correspond to the agenda of discussions, Armen Grigoryan said Armenia raises the issue during contacts with colleagues in Brussels.
17:37, 2 June 2022
YEREVAN, 2 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 2 June, USD exchange rate down by 2.38 drams to 443.26 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.61 drams to 473.98 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.08 drams to 7.19 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 4.73 drams to 556.20 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 52.33 drams to 26291.93 drams. Silver price down by 3.94 drams to 307.97 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
ARF-ER CC Chairman George Aghjayan (Photo: Knar Bedian)
How many Armenians are there in the world?
I have often heard or seen mentioned that there are 10 million Armenians worldwide. Recently, a few social media posts got me thinking about this figure and realistically who we can consider to be Armenian. To do so, I think it is easier to first state unequivocally those who cannot be practically considered Armenian.
The most obvious are those claiming to be Armenian but not Christian. Our nation has been defined as Christian almost from the beginning, and everyone knows Armenia was the first nation to declare Christianity as its national religion. Over the last 1,000 years of subjugation, if an Armenian converted from the Christian faith, then they were no longer considered Armenian. So, those who are Muslim, Jewish or do not believe in a God cannot possible be considered Armenian. We cannot be sure how many of these so-called non-Christian Armenians there are, but most likely they number in the millions.
But really this is not specific enough. The core of our nation has always been the Armenian Apostolic church. So, those who are Catholic, Protestant, Mormon or members of any of the many other Christian sects cannot be considered Armenian. Again, I am not sure how many such people there are, but I would guess over one million worldwide.
I think we must also consider those who were not born to two fully Armenian parents. While someone who has full Armenian parentage is clearly Armenian (assuming they meet the other criteria we have or will lay out), their non-Armenian spouse, no matter how sympathetic he or she might be to the Armenian people, clearly cannot be Armenian. After all, we are not in the business of assimilating others into our nation. Neither can the children from a mixed marriage be considered Armenian.
So now we have gotten to a core of those who can reasonably be considered Armenian – the full-blooded Armenian Apostolic. But is that enough? Isn’t more required than simply birth and religion? For example, if one does not speak pure Armenian (not corrupted by foreign words from Russian, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, etc.), can they really be considered Armenian? Even if they speak Armenian, what is the extent of their engagement in the Armenian community? Shouldn’t we expect an Armenian to participate in Armenian community life, and if they don’t, can they reasonably be considered Armenian? To be considered Armenian, you must fully embrace the language, food, culture and also contribute to the betterment of the Armenian people through the various community organizations. Again, those failing on any of these points must number in the millions.
Sometimes I sense Armenians treat their Armenianness as some sort of membership in an exclusive country club.
It seems to me that those who know nothing of our rich history or geography really cannot be considered Armenian. After all, aren’t these equally as important as language and culture?
The last criteria I would use to consider someone Armenian is that they should be living in Armenia. The so-called hyphenated Armenian is a fictitious construct to which we should not succumb.
At this point, I think we can acknowledge that really there are not even one million Armenians in the world. Based on the criteria above, I am not one of them, and I am sure by now you have gotten my point.
Sometimes I sense Armenians treat their Armenianness as some sort of membership in an exclusive country club. Such pride itself is not bad, but when this pride in Armenianness leads to exclusivity, then it becomes destructive.
This past weekend, I was fortunate to attend the 50th anniversary of the AYF Junior Seminar where over 300 of our ARMENIAN youth from all backgrounds were embracing their Armenianness. No one in this world has a right to tell them they do not measure up!
Azerbaijan is in a hurry because it sees that PM Nikol Pashinyan does not have a mandate to negotiate, MP from the Armenia bloc Aram Vardevanyan noted.
He recalled that in March-April 2021, Nikol Pashinyan said from the rostrum of the parliament that the de-occupation of Hadrut and Shusha, the promotion of the right of Karabakh to self-determination come from the interests of Armenia, in September 2021 he no longer uttered the word Artsakh, and now they have reached the wording ethnic population of Karabakh.
"What is Nikol Pashinyan guided by, leading us to these concessions? After all, he knows that with his departure the situation will change, but he is trying to ensure that Karabakh becomes part of Azerbaijan. Pashinyan does not embody the Armenian people, who have always fought and developed,” the MP added.
PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not see a problem with IT specialists moving to Armenia, TASS reports.
Speaking at the first Eurasian Economic Forum, Putin recounted how he discussed the development of high technologies with colleagues from Kazakhstan and Armenia, but not because "some section of [Russia's] IT community have moved to Armenia."
"Well, they moved, and thank God, let them work," Putin said.
At the same time, he believes that such a situation is "to a certain extent a challenge" for Russia. "We must create better conditions," Putin explained.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the unprecedented Western sanctions against Russia have made many Russian businesses flee their home country and settle in Armenia. The Ministry of Economy has published a guide for businesses seeking to relocate to Armenia, also setting up a working group to answer queries.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the first space satellite had been launched into low Earth orbit.
cooperation of the Armenian state CJSC "Geokosmos" and the Spanish company Santlantis", — he said.
Pashinyan said that the satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 25.
not only to Armenian, but also to foreign operators. Satellite images will allow, among other things, to control borders”, — noted the prime minister.