Author: Mike Maghakian

 15:13, 24 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. With support of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, the authorities in Artsakh continue negotiations with the Azerbaijani side for the restoration of gas supply, the Artsakh authorities said on March 24.

“The government of the Republic of Artsakh seeks to resolve this highly important humanitarian issue as soon as possible and we assure that we are taking all possible measures also in the diplomatic arena, which naturally aren’t subject to publicizing,” the government’s Information Center said.

It added that the President Arayik Harutyunyan authorized Secretary of the Security Council Vitaly Balasanyan to act as the negotiator.

The authorities of Artsakh said that the main pipeline supplying gas from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged on March 7 and the supply stopped.

The Artsakh authorities had said the area where the damage occurred was in Azerbaijani-controlled territory. It was reported that the Azerbaijani military deliberately damaged the pipeline.

The Azerbaijani authorities obstructed repair works for days. Only on March 16 the authorities in Artsakh announced that the Azerbaijani side itself began the repair work. However, days later, the gas supply was cut again. Authorities they have reasons to believe that during the repairs the Azeri authorities installed a valve on the pipeline in order to shut it down whenever they want.

Meanwhile, the population of Artsakh is without gas and heating amid freezing temperatures and snowfalls. The Artsakh foreign ministry described Azerbaijan’s actions as humanitarian terrorism.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry the current situation emphasizes the urgency of clear response of the international community towards preventing the humanitarian crisis.

On March 22 the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan and the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan issued a joint statement, calling on international human rights organizations to pressure Azerbaijan and eliminate its gross and continuous human rights violations against the Armenians of Artsakh.

On March 23, the FM of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan they utilized all diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation.

On March 23, the European Union expressed its concerns.

On March 24, Freedom House urged Azerbaijan to prevent humanitarian crisis and restore gas supplies to Artsakh.

Speaking on the gas supply cut-off, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the March 24 Cabinet meeting that Azerbaijan seeks to finish ethnic cleansing in Artsakh.

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 11:20,

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the occasion of the country's national day, Pashinyan’s Office said.

“Your Excellency,

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, and on my personal behalf, I cordially congratulate you on the national holiday of the Hellenic Republic, Independence Day.

The warmest bilateral interstate relations established between our two countries is evidenced by the sincere and effective cooperation based on unwavering friendship, mutual respect and confidence between the Armenian and Greek fraternal peoples, which we highly appreciate and value.

I am convinced that the rich experience gained over the decades and the rich multi-sectoral agenda provide wide opportunities for the discovery and comprehensive use of the full potential of the Armenian-Greek cooperation, raising them to a qualitatively new level both bilaterally and multilaterally.

I am hopeful that in the near future we will have the opportunity to personally discuss the prospects of cooperation between our two countries.

I wish you, Your Excellency, good health and success, and progress and prosperity to the friendly people of Greece”, reads the letter of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

 12:13,

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces again resorted to aggressive actions around 11:00 March 26, using various caliber small arms and attempting to advance in the direction of the Republic of Artsakh’s eastern borderline, the territory in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, the Ministry of Defense of Artsakh said in a statement.

“The Defense Army units are taking appropriate countermeasures to neutralize the adversary’s advance. Steps are taken in the direction of finding ways for resolving the situation with the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s command,” it added.

 14:04,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Cultural Days will be held in Monte Carlo on March 25-27 within the framework of an international art festival.

There will be a premiere of ballet. The authors of the music are composers Michelle Petrosyan and Aram Hovhannisyan.

New works will be performed, the Sergey Parajanov Museum, the Gurdjieff Ensemble, pianist Vardan Mamikonyan, soprano Karine Babajanyan and others will perform during the event.

During a press conference in Armenpress today, composer Michelle Petrosyan said this festival is one of the most important cultural events in Monaco. The director of the festival included something new in the festival this year, focusing also on the Armenian culture.

“It can be said there is going to be an Armenian weekend. The Armenian painting art and music will be presented. This festival has never paid such a focus on the Armenian culture. This year’s approach speaks about an important step and a special attitude”, the composer said.

“The creative process was quite hard as we were dealing with a branch close to the art. Music itself can talk about many things, but when it deals with ballet, other approaches are needed. Therefore, that work was quite a serious experience for us”, composer Aram Hovhannisyan said.

The ballet will also be presented in Armenia this year in November.

Gurdjieff Ensemble artistic director Levon Eskenyan in turn said that they will focus on Komitas during the upcoming festival.

The Sergey Parajanov Museum will be presented at the festival through the Color of Pomegranates movie. There will also be a photo exhibition of Parajanov’s works.

The international art festival in Monte Carlo kicked off on March 11 and will last until April 3.

 15:03,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held a phone conversation with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, Milliyet reported.

The situation in Ukraine was discussed during the phone talk.

A day before Cavusoglu and Kuleba held a meeting in Lviv.

Before traveling to Ukraine, the Turkish FM visited Russia and held several meetings with government officials.

After the visits, Cavusoglu said that he has higher hopes for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

 15:33,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Britain has banned Russian state TV channel RT, saying it was incapable of providing impartial coverage of the war in Ukraine.

UK broadcast media regulator Ofcom said it had been conducting 29 investigations into RT's coverage.

"Freedom of _expression_ is something we guard fiercely in this country, and the bar for action on broadcasters is rightly set very high," Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes said in a statement. "Following an independent regulatory process, we have today found that RT is not fit and proper to hold a license in the UK. As a result we have revoked RT's UK broadcasting license."

RT deputy editor-in-chief Anna Belkina responded by saying that the “supposedly independent British media regulator has proven itself to be a tool of the government.”

With its decision Ofcom “has shown the UK public, and the regulatory community internationally, that despite a well-constructed facade of independence, it is nothing more than a tool of government, bending to its media-suppressing will,” Belkina said.

“By ignoring RT's completely clean record of four consecutive years and stating purely political reasons tied directly to the situation in Ukraine and yet completely unassociated to RT’s operations, structure, management or editorial output, Ofcom has falsely judged RT to not be 'fit and proper' and in doing so robbed the UK public of access to information,” she added.

 19:00, 7 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. The delegations of the Russian Federation and Ukraine have started the third round of talks in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus, ARMENPRES reports, citing TASS, TASS, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Belarus informed.