11:07,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. 870 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 333.583, the ministry of healthcare said today.
2161 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 304.017.
41 patients have died, raising the death toll to 7253.
9660 tests were conducted in the past one day.
The number of active cases is 20.909.
More and more people in Armenia demand action from the country’s political leaders every day, human rights activist Ruben Melikyan says.
"Several conclusions:
1) Intolerance towards these scourges is increasing with every passing day,
2) Every day, more and more people strongly demand action instead of words from the political leaders,” he wrote on Facebook on Friday.
“The older generation should remember well Lenin’s statement made in October 1917: ‘Yesterday was too early. Tomorrow will be too late. Today is the day!’” Melikyan added.
16:15,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Armed Forces have returned military positions from Azerbaijan during countermeasures taken on November 16 amid the Azerbaijani attack at the eastern border, the ruling Civil Contract party lawmaker Armen Khachatryan told reporters during a briefing.
“Right now there’s a ceasefire. There are positions which we have taken back,” Khachatryan said, without specifying.
Asked whether or not Armenia has applied to the CSTO, the lawmaker said Armenia has indeed applied to the organization, but couldn’t say whether a written request has been submitted.
He underscored that there won’t be any corridor through the country, and that no one can solve that issue by force.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Turkish long-range indigenous air defense missile Siper during a test firing, Nov. 6, 2021. (DHA Photo)
Turkey has successfully test-fired its high-altitude long-range air defense missile system, Siper, a top defense official said Saturday.
Different tests of the domestic air defense system, which is planned to enter the army's inventory in 2023, will continue, Ismail Demir, the head of Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), tweeted.
He said Turkey will continue to produce new weapons and will have up to six different air defense systems.
The Siper project is led by Turkey's defense giants Aselsan, Roketsan and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK)'s Defense Industries Research and Development Institute (SAGE).
Developed to protect strategic facilities against enemy attacks within the scope of regional air defense, Siper will allow air defense at long range and in the protection of distributed architecture.
Besides Siper, which is expected to rival Russia's S-400, the Korkut, Sungur and Hisar air defense systems are also in place, systems set to outline a layered air defense for the country, as mentioned several times by the officials.
In this context, the first delivery within the scope of serial production of Korkut systems was carried out in 2019, and the pedestal-mounted air defense system Sungur was also put into service.
Developed by Roketsan, Sungur will be integrated in land, air and sea platforms with its portable feature.
The air defense system has the capability of shooting while moving, along with effective target detection, diagnosis, identification, tracking and 360-degree shooting capability day and night.
Sungur is ahead of its class in terms of effectiveness, high maneuverability, high target-hit capacity and countermeasures. It is equipped with a titanium warhead and has sighting capabilities allowing the target to be viewed from a long range.
While the deliveries of the low altitude air defense missile system Hisar-A missiles have started, the mass production of the Hisar-O missiles have also begun. The interception range of the Hisar-A system is 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), while that of the Hisar-O system is 25 kilometers. Siper, on the other hand, is intended to be at a level that can compete with the S-400.
In March, the Hisar-O+ medium-range air defense system, the upgraded version of Hisar-O, successfully completed a test firing, which was the longest range and the highest altitude test conducted in the country to date. The air defense system is expected to destroy all kinds of air threats created by fixed and rotary winged aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and air-to-surface missiles in adverse weather conditions.
12:42, 9 November, 2021
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The curling Civil Contract party’s proposal to create a commission for investigating the circumstances of the 2020 Artsakh War will be implemented, and all steps will be taken for an effective work, Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan told reporters at a briefing.
“You know that the law allows to create a commission for 6 months and extend the term of its operation by another 6 months. You know that not all MPs have presented documents on confidentiality. I can state that the commission will definitely operate and this will not be the only purpose. It must have a concrete result and deal with concrete actions. The activities of the commission will start soon when we understand that there is no technical problem for the operation of the commission”, Alen Simonyan said.
Alen Simonyan said that lessons must be learnt from the past 30 years path which led to the November 9 ceasefire agreement. “We need to analyze long, we have paid a very high price for our mistakes. I attach great importance to the idea of establishing that investigative commission, which we have proposed, as its results could play a decisive role”, the Speaker added.
He also commented on yesterday’s actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces which targeted civilians, calling it as a provocative step.
“We need a situation to continue together with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs the discussions on the Artsakh issue which have been suspended”, he said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Padilla Amendment Calls for Report on Azerbaijani War Crimes; Use of Foreign Mercenaries in 2020 Artsakh Attacks; Menendez Also Calls for Report on U.S. Technology Discovered in Turkish Drones Used Against Armenia/Artsakh
WASHINGTON—Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) on Thursday introduced a powerful amendment that would end U.S. presidential waiver authority of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, an Armenian National Committee of America-backed measure that would effectively block U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.
The amendment (#4177) is one of three amendments to the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that deals with U.S. aid to Azerbaijan as well as Azerbaijani and Turkish war crimes committed against Artsakh and Armenia during the 2020 war. The amendment removes all references to presidential waiver authority of Section 907, a provision first put in place in 2001, and utilized by successive U.S. presidents – including President Biden, even in the wake of Azerbaijan’s 2020 brutal aggression against Artsakh in Armenia. Since 2016, the U.S. has provided over $120 million in U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan, in the face of objections by Members of Congress and the ANCA, which has long raised alarms about the Aliyev regime’s belligerence in the region.
Senator Menendez also offered a second amendment (#4150) to the NDAA which calls for a joint State Department and Defense Department report on Turkey’s use of U.S. technology in its Bayrakdar drones, with a special focus on whether their sale to third countries, like Azerbaijan, violates U.S. export laws. The ANCA has identified a number of U.S. parts used in Bayrakdar drones that targeted Artsakh and Armenian civilians during the 2020 Artsakh war. In addition to the ANCA, Amendment #4150 also has the support of a coalition of ethnic, civic, and faith-based groups including the Hellenic American Leadership Council, American Friends of Kurdistan, the Hindu American Foundation, and the Middle East Forum.
A third amendment (#4251) introduced by California Senator Alex Padilla (D) calls for a joint State Department and Defense Department report, in response to Azerbaijani war crimes during the 2020 Artsakh war, including the use of U.S. technology during the attacks; the use of white phosphorous, cluster bombs, and other prohibited munitions; and the hiring of foreign mercenaries.
“We thank Senators Menendez and Padilla for their principled leadership in holding Azerbaijan and Turkey accountable,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We are working – in Washington, DC and across each of our fifty states – to secure the adoption of their ANCA-backed amendments enforcing Section 907, investigating Azerbaijani war crimes, and demanding answers about the U.S. parts discovered in the Turkish drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh.”
Additional Armenian-related amendments to the NDAA may be introduced in the next several days. A Senate vote on the Menendez and Padilla amendments can come as early as next week.
Earlier this year, the U.S. House adopted five ANCA-backed amendments to its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R.4350), which demanded Baku’s release of Armenian prisoners of war (POWs), called for investigations into Azerbaijani war crimes, supported expanded U.S. aid to Artsakh, and urged Turkey’s Grey Wolves be designated a foreign terrorist organization.
11:39, 1 November, 2021
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Beginning November 8, adult foreign nationals who fly to the United States, with limited exceptions, must provide proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, as well as a negative test taken in the past three days, the US Embassy in Armenia said in a statement.
The statement adds that the foreign nationals will still need to follow local health guidelines, such as wearing masks and washing hands.
Former world WBO champion Arthur Abraham today visited the Football Federation of Armenia where he and FFA President Armen Melikbekyan discussed the future plans for cooperation, particularly Abraham’s current investment program.
The FFA President gifted Abraham a nominal shirt of the Armenia national football team.
Diplomats often speak of creating “facts on the ground,” that is, actions and faits accomplis of various kinds that determine future outcomes even before any negotiations occur. Sometimes these new “facts” are created by military actions. However, when the guns are silent, other moves can create new realities even more powerful than any army. In autumn of 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan entered a hot conflict—the Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9)—from which Baku regained control of all the buffer areas Armenia had occupied since the mid-1990s and some of Karabakh itself. Armenia not only lost these areas but suffered damage to housing stock and infrastructure it had de facto controlled for three decades. After the war, some Armenians moved into remaining Azerbaijani territory still under Armenian control. As a result, construction companies, not soldiers, are creating new “facts on the ground” via competing construction projects in the liberated Azerbaijani areas and, on a smaller scale, in those portions of Karabakh still controlled by Armenians but defended by Russian peacekeepers.
The size of the Azerbaijani effort, made possible by Baku’s rapid de-mining efforts, infrastructure construction, as well as industry and housing investments by Turkey, Iran and Russia, is far larger than the Armenian one, which is supported by Yerevan, Armenian non-governmental organizations and humanitarian assistance from Russia. This imbalance is likely to play a major role in future moves to resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At a minimum, the disparity in local redevelopment will mean those actors like Russia that favor the nebulous status quo for the region rather than a final settlement will have to come up with far more money to keep the separatist economy going. If that does not happen, there are two possibilities: the Armenians in Karabakh may turn to terrorism, as have other people who see those around them doing far better than they; or they may become more willing to cooperate with Azerbaijan and thus limit Yerevan’s—and Moscow’s—leverage over Baku.
Many assumed that the areas Azerbaijan had retaken last year would become “dead zones,” at least temporarily, because the Armenian population had fled and because both infrastructure and housing had been destroyed (EurasiaNet, November 19, 2020). But Baku moved quickly to de-mine the area and to rebuild, attracting investments from Russian, Turkish, Iranian and some Western firms, whose governments were anxious to gain influence with the winning side (see EDM, April 26, 2021). The Russian government, for example, has sponsored a series of business missions to encourage Russian firms to invest in the formerly occupied territories. Turkey has been more open and has focused on infrastructure like roads and railways. Iran has sought out a variety of niches for its businesses as well (Rosbalt, October 22).
Baku itself has invested almost $3 billion in redevelopment to date. Perhaps even more importantly, it has extended tax and other benefits to firms—both domestic and foreign—that are prepared to promote development in the formerly occupied territories. The Azerbaijani government has created several economic development zones to focus investment on infrastructure like roads and airports. They adopted a much-ballyhooed policy of “smart villages” that will rely on green energy and be organized far more efficiently and productively than the traditional villages they will replace. Baku has almost completely restored electrical power to the entire region, most of which lost that resource during the war or did not have it prior to that time. As a result, Baku is confident that development in the recovered lands will accelerate in the coming year (EurasiaNet, October 20; Worldbank.org, March 2021).
This program has not been without problems for Azerbaijan. Many of the Azerbaijanis who fled this region in the 1990s now feel they are receiving less land back than they deserve, with more of the plots going to businesses and government. So far, such feelings have not limited the development of smart villages in what was previously scorched earth; however, they are likely to force Baku to modify its program so as to ensure that Azerbaijanis continue to return to the region (EurasiaNet, October 15). Irina Dzhorbenadze of Moscow’s Rosbalt news agency concludes, on the basis of her survey of these projects, that “in the near future, the Karabakh region will become an investment center of Azerbaijan, not only in terms of economic breakthroughs but also with regard to the image of the authorities of the country who have already shown how a depressed territory can be quickly transformed into a flourishing region” (Rosbalt, October 22).
The situation on the Armenian side of the ceasefire line is quite different. There, officials are concentrating on meeting the humanitarian needs of people who have fled the regions now under Azerbaijani rule or whose housing was damaged by the fighting. Both Moscow and Yerevan have dispatched humanitarian assistance; but so far, the fiscal outlays have been inadequate. And though housing is being gradually restored, work on infrastructure and factories has been much slower than in Azerbaijani-controlled regions (Tcf.am, August 18; EurasiaNet, October 15; Pace.coe.int, September). One plant, the Savva Cement factory, near Askeran, is being repaired more quickly because officials believe its output will allow them to accelerate the rebuilding of housing throughout the Armenian-controlled area (President.nkr.am, September 18).
These competing construction projects may not be as dramatic as the Azerbaijani military’s advance during the 44-day war last year. But—especially because they are so different in size and extent—they are establishing new, diverging “facts on the ground” that neither the governments in the region nor analysts elsewhere can afford to ignore if they are to predict how the conflict will evolve.
Thursday,
Armenia, Azerbaijan Face Off At UN Court
• Karlen Aslanian
NETHERLANDS -- People walk toward the International Court of Justice in the
Hague, August 27, 2018
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of serious human rights violations as the two South
Caucasus nations that fought a six-week war last year faced off at the United
Nations court in The Hague on Thursday.
A lawyer representing Armenia, Yeghishe Kirakosian, made the accusation as a
hearing opened at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) into a request by
Armenia for judges to impose urgent interim measures to prevent Azerbaijan
breaching an international convention to stamp out ethnic discrimination.
Yerevan specifically wants the court to order Baku to release dozens of Armenian
prisoners, shut down an anti-Armenian “park of trophies” in the Azerbaijani
capital and stop destroying Armenian cultural and religious monuments in parts
of Karabakh captured by it during the war.
Kirakosian said Armenia is not asking the court to rule on the root causes of
the war but “seeks to prevent and remedy the cycle of violence and hatred
perpetrated against ethnic Armenians."
“Azerbaijan captured, arbitrarily detained and tortured many Armenian servicemen
and civilians and is now continuing to destroy Armenian cultural heritage and
religious sites or deny their being Armenian,” he said.
Lawyers representing Azerbaijan addressed the court later on Thursday. One of
them, Peter Goldsmith, urged the UN tribunal to reject the injunctions sought by
Yerevan, saying that Baku has fully complied with a Russian-brokered ceasefire
that stopped the hostilities last November.
He also claimed that the several dozen Armenians remaining in Azerbaijani
captivity are guilty of “grave crimes.”
Kirakosian dismissed such claims when he spoke with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
from the Dutch city. “It is crystal clear that all Armenians held by Azerbaijan
are protected by international humanitarian law,” he said.
Azerbaijan has filed a similar case alleging discrimination against its citizens
by Armenia and also has requested the world court to impose interim measures.
Hearings in the Azerbaijan case are scheduled to start on October 25.
Rulings on both requests will likely be issued in coming weeks. But both
nations' cases alleging breaches of the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination will likely take years to
reach their conclusion at the ICJ.
Armenian, Azeri FMs In Fresh Talks
Belarus - The foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia meet in Minsk,
.
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met on Thursday for the second
time in less than a month for talks mediated by their Russian counterpart Sergei
Lavrov.
They also held separate talks with Lavrov before the trilateral meeting held on
the sidelines of a gathering in Belarus’s capital Minsk of top diplomats from a
dozen ex-Soviet states. The Russian Foreign Ministry publicized Lavrov’s
comments made at the start of his conversations with Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun
Bayramov.
“We spoke at length in Moscow recently but can today look at some additional
issues of both bilateral character and of course the region,” Lavrov told the
Armenian minister. “Karabakh must always receive our attention.”
Speaking with Bayramov, he cited unspecified “issues that need to be resolved.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that at their ensuing trilateral meeting the
ministers “reviewed” the implementation of a Russian-brokered agreement that
stopped the six-week war in Karabakh last November.
“They concluded that most provisions of that Statement are being successfully
implemented. They agreed to intensify work on the remaining issues,” it said
without elaborating.
Mirzoyan was cited by his press office as saying that Baku is continuing to hold
dozens of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives in breach of the truce
accord. He also reaffirmed Yerevan’s stated commitment to a “comprehensive and
lasting settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh” advanced by the U.S., Russian and
French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The three mediators took part in Mirzoyan’s first meeting with Bayramov held in
New York on September 24. In a joint statement, they said they “proposed
specific focused measures to deescalate the situation and possible next steps.”
They did not disclose those proposals.
The mediators are expected to visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and Karabakh soon. It
will be their first tour of the conflict zone since the 2020 war.
The Karabakh issue also featured large during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
latest meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian held in Moscow on Tuesday.
Pashinian described the meeting as “very productive” but did not give its
details.
Armenian Anti-Vaxxers May Have To Pay For COVID-19 Treatment
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Anti-vaccine campaigners demosntrate in Yerevan, September 19, 2021.
Armenians contracting COVID-19 after refusing to get vaccinated against the
disease may soon be required to pay for their treatment in hospitals, a senior
government official warned on Thursday.
Deputy Health Minister Gevorg Simonian said the Armenian Ministry of Health is
considering taking the harsh measure as part of its efforts to boost the very
slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations in the country of about 3 million.
According to the ministry, just over 344,000 people received at least one dose
of a coronavirus vaccine and only 170,212 of them were fully vaccinated as of
October 10. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian deplored these “very bad” numbers
last week and said relevant authorities must rely on their “administrative
levers” more heavily to speed up the vaccination process.
The authorities had already obligated all public and private sector employees to
get inoculated or take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense, a
requirement effective from October 1. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian revealed
on Monday they could also introduce a mandatory coronavirus health pass for
entry to cultural and leisure venues.
Thanks to government funding, Armenia’s hospitals have treated all COVID-19
patients free of charge since the start of the pandemic. The government claims
to have spent over $80 million for that purpose.
Armenia -- A healthcare worker clad in protective gear looks after COVID-19
patients at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
Simonian said that forcing infected anti-vaxxers to cover their hospital
expenses, worth an estimated 800,000 drams ($1,660) per person, would enable the
government to cut the funding and spend more on subsidizing treatment of other
serious illnesses.
Davit Melik-Nubarian, an independent health expert, spoke out against the
possible measure, saying that it would result in fewer hospitalizations and more
deaths. He said the government should instead do more to explain the benefits of
vaccination to skeptical people.
Melik-Nubarian cited a recent opinion indicating that only 7 percent of
Armenians categorically refuse to take vaccines. “Others are ready to change, in
one way or another, their attitudes if they get answers to their questions,” he
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Coronavirus infections in Armenia have steadily grown since June not least
because of the authorities’ lax enforcement of mandatory mask wearing in indoor
public spaces and other sanitary rules.
According to the Ministry of Health, 1,589 people tested positive for the
coronavirus on Wednesday, the largest single-day number of cases recorded this
year. The ministry also reported on Thursday morning 29 deaths caused by
COVID-19 in the past day.
Officials warned that Armenian hospitals are running out of vacant beds for
COVID-19 patients.
Armenian Government In No Rush To Brief Parliament On Border Tensions
• Gayane Saribekian
Iranian trucks are parked on the main road connecting Armenia with Iran.
Armenia’s top defense and security officials appear reluctant to brief lawmakers
on lingering tensions along the country’s border with Azerbaijan that have
caused serious disruptions in Armenian-Iranian trade.
The two main Armenian opposition forces demanded such a briefing immediately
after Azerbaijani authorities began levying on September 12 hefty duties from
Iranian vehicles passing through an Azerbaijani-controlled section of the main
highway connecting Armenia and Iran.
They said Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian and National Security Service (NSS)
Director Armen Abazian must come to the National Assembly to answer questions
about the Azerbaijani roadblock and the overall situation along the country’s
borders.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian said he will consider organizing such a
discussion. Simonian has made no further statements on the matter since then. It
therefore remains unclear whether the authorities will accept the opposition
demand.
In a bid to step up the pressure on them, the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem
blocs have drafted legislation requiring top security officials to appear before
the parliament in such cases. They will try to push it through the parliament
committee on defense and security first.
The committee is scheduled to hold on Friday an emergency meeting initiated by
its four opposition members. The committee’s chairman and six other members
representing the ruling Civil Contract party have not yet commented on the
opposition bill.
“I hope that common sense will prevail and this initiative will not be blocked,”
Pativ Unem’s Tigran Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday.
“The fact is that those officials who are supposed to be at least somewhat
accountable to the public are dodging that in all possible ways,” he said.
Opposition leaders have repeatedly condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
government for handing over a 21-kilometer section of the Armenia-Iran highway
to Azerbaijan shortly after last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinian said
at the time that the road section is located on the Azerbaijani side of
Armenia’s Soviet-era border with Azerbaijan, a claim disputed by his political
opponents.
The Azerbaijani roadblock and its resulting negative impact on Iran’s cargo
traffic with Armenia have fuelled unprecedented tensions between Tehran and Baku.
Senior Armenian and Iranian officials have discussed the issue in recent weeks.
Yerevan has pledged to accelerate the ongoing reconstruction of an alternative
road in Armenia’s Syunik province which will allow Iranian trucks to bypass the
Azerbaijani checkpoint.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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