Author: Maral Chavushian

 15:50,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. On February 18, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan met with Erin Elizabeth McKee, the Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Europe and Eurasia within the framework of the Munich Security Conference.

During the meeting, the programs implemented by USAID in Armenia and the prospects of further cooperation were discussed, the foreign ministry said in a read-out.

Foreign Minister of Armenia emphasized the role of the U.S. and especially USAID in institutional capacity building in Armenia and providing support to democratic reforms of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. 

Issues on regional security and stability were also touched upon.

Ararat Mirzoyan briefed his counterpart on the humanitarian challenges faced by 120,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan. In this context, the imperative of the unimpeded humanitarian access to Nagorno-Karabakh for relevant international organizations was stressed.

 11:40,

ANKARA, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan arrived in Ankara, Turkey.

He was welcomed by Ambassador Serdar Kilic, Turkey's special envoy for the normalization of relations with Armenia, ARMENPRESS correspondent reported from the Turkish capital. 

During the visit FM Mirzoyan is scheduled to have a meeting with Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu.

FM Mirzoyan’s delegation includes Vice Speaker of Parliament and the Special Representative of Armenia in the negotiations for normalization with Turkey Ruben Rubinyan.

Foreign Minister Mirzoyan will visit Adiyaman in southeastern Turkey where an Armenian search-and-rescue team has been supporting the rescue efforts since February 7.

The death toll in Turkey in the earthquake exceeds 30,000.

Armenia sent humanitarian aid to Turkey on February 11 and February 14.

CIVILNET.AM

 15:26, 3 September 2022

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense has released fresh disinformation falsely accusing the Armenian military in opening fire at Azerbaijani military positions in the eastern part of the border.

The Azeri propaganda didn’t even mention a date and only noted that it happened “recently”.

The Ministry of Defense of Armenia denied the claims as disinformation and added: “The situation on the border is relatively stable and is under the full control of the Armenian Armed Forces.”

 14:03, 1 September 2022

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev plans to call an early election in coming months and seek a second term, he told the country’s parliament in an annual address.

Tokayev also proposed holding snap parliamentary elections early next year, Reuters reports.

Tokayev was elected for a five-year term in 2019 when former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev abruptly resigned after almost three decades in power.

Tokayev has also proposed increasing the presidential term to seven years from five while prohibiting future presidents from seeking more than one term.

 10:51,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS. A total of 212 amusement rides are listed in the Ministry of Emergency Situations list of potentially hazardous industrial structures.

134 are located in Yerevan while the 78 are in other cities.

As of the latest data (2022 August), 139 amusement rides (89 in Yerevan and 50 in other cities) passed a general inspection and received the technical safety approval.

The Director of the Expertise Laboratory of the National Center of Technical Safety Martin Aslanyan told ARMENPRESS that all amusement rides will undergo the inspection prior to commissioning.

In the event of a given amusement ride failing the safety inspection, the conclusion is forwarded to the Urban Development and Fire Inspection Agency which bans the amusement ride until its standards are improved to match the regulations.

“In accordance with Article 11 paragraph 6 of the Law on State Regulation for Ensuring Technical Safety, every industrial structure, in this case the amusement ride, must undergo a technical safety inspection at least once a year, and it can be put into operation only after receiving the positive conclusion,” Aslanyan said.

Regarding the amusement rides which haven’t yet been inspected, Aslanyan said the previous conclusions on these structures are still in effect and the next inspections will take place as planned under the deadlines.

“As of this moment we’ve received a request for inspection from Gyumri city,  the application is now being processed and the technical safety inspection will be carried out in approximately 5 business days,” Martin Aslanyan said.

According to Yelena Zohrabyan, the Director for Public Relations at the Urban Development and Fire Safety Inspection Agency, if the businesses ignore the ban on operations after failing the safety inspection they are fined 1,000,000 drams and face suspension.

Zohrabyan said they’ve received information on 41 amusement rides from the Ministry of Emergency Situations which hadn’t passed the safety inspection as of May, 2022. However, when officers arrived at the addresses for inspection it was revealed that a part of these structures were already decommissioned, while others were being reconstructed or under development.

Gayane Gaboyan