19:17,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 16, ARMENPRESS. By the decision of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, mourning was declared on August 17-18, 2022 in memory of the citizens who died as a result of the fire and explosion that occurred at "Surmalu" shopping center, ARMENPRESS reports the Prime Minister's decision is posted on the website.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1090453.html?fbclid=IwAR3zu1MDaomM7BXnJpeL2dgBLzfszziFHaDYi4U8o_jjV7400cYEh4-P3YM
17:59,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. On August 15, the delegation headed by Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan, who is in the Russian Federation on an official visit, visited the "Patriot" center near Moscow, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official Facebook page of the Defense Minister.
The Minister of Defense attended the opening ceremonies of the "International Army Games 2022" and the "Army 2022" military-industrial exhibition at the "Patriot" center.
Suren Papikyan toured in the pavilions of the companies represented at the exhibition, got acquainted with a number of the newest samples of the military industry, had meetings with the heads of large military industrial companies, and discussed a number of issues related to military cooperation.
Azerbaijan has developed a project to turn Surb Hambardzum Church in Berdzor into a mosque, Hovik Avanesov, head of Stepanakert University's Center for Caucasian Studies, told NEWS.am.
He said the Azerbaijani organization Public Association for Monument Protection also published a photo of the project. According to the project, the domes and the bell tower will be dismantled and two minarets will be attached instead. "The project was approved by the order of Azerbaijani President Aliyev. Aliyev gave such an order when he was on another illegal visit to the occupied Hadrut region. Their main goal is to eliminate the Armenian cultural heritage in all the occupied Armenian settlements. Churches and institutions of cultural value built in the period of independence, which cannot be albanized, are turned into a mosque or other structures by Aliyev's order," the head of the Center said. Hovik Avanesov highlighted that this is a clear war crime.
"Given the fact that under all international conventions, the destruction or transformation of such heritage into other structures is considered not only cultural genocide, but also a war crime. A similar fate threatens the chapel in Aghavno, and all the historical and cultural heritage that remains in the occupied territories," Avanesov noted. According to Hovik Avanesyan, the only way to stop this process carried out by Azerbaijan is to appeal to international structures. "The way out is for serious international messages to be applied, or perhaps through negotiations, Russian peacekeepers to set up an observation point here to prevent the church from being turned into a mosque or destroyed."
The church was built 1996-98.
Flying right now is a nightmare for casual travelers and experienced road warriors alike. Here’s the harrowing journey I planned for a trip to Armenia.
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In addition to being an award-winning travel writer (not really), I am also a partner in a couple of businesses. As an owner, I watch expenses far more closely than I did when working for someone else’s business. It’s not right, but it’s true. As such, I am more careful with my company funds and find that some expenses are just intolerable but necessary.
I had a business trip to Yerevan, Armenia that I needed to fulfill within a very specific date range due to upcoming commitments. However, for anyone that’s flown recently, the costs are laughable, especially for the class of service.
Ideally, I was searching for a reasonable coach ticket that I could upgrade using instruments or miles. However, coach rates from Pittsburgh any time during the week I needed topped $3,000 and none of them included a business class/first class segment, not even domestically. In fact, the best rate I could find from any nearby city (New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Philadelphia) didn’t dip below $2,000 no matter when I flew on any carrier from any of those airports. Due to the length of the journey, business class was a must so I was stuck looking for space and patching together a ticket.
After searching nearly 100 different permutations from the aforementioned airports to any place with direct flights into Yerevan that doubled as major hubs (Paris, Warsaw, Athens, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Dubai), I found a unicorn.
United Airlines not only had a reasonable flight to Paris from Washington Dulles for the date I wanted but it also had confirmable upgrade space even from the cheapest economy fare using Plus Points that I had not been able to use heretofore. However, it was only one leg and just to Paris. That didn’t get me to Dulles nor from Paris onward.
Searching for onward flights, Google pointed me in the direction of an absolute bargain for the journey at more than $800 roundtrip in coach making that short segment unbearably long. Air France wanted $1600 for the non-stop in coach on an A320. I also worked on getting using SkyTeam miles to complete the segment but no award seats were available short of 171,000 Air France miles. Oneworld has almost no routes into the city (just Qatar flies from Doha following the suspension of S7.)
I headed back to United.bomb where I found one-way economy space for 17,000 miles or 28,500 in business. I attempted to complete the booking for economy but couldn’t get it to ticket so I snagged business class on the advice of the unimitable Matthew Klint, Award Expert.
On the way home, for my week of travel (lots of flexibility given) there was not a reasonable coach seat (upgradeable nor tough-it-out) and no business class seats on offer from the city. Getting back to Paris for a return left me with no such magic as I found on the outbound.
American Airlines website showed phantom space through Royal Air Maroc but wasn’t bookable online nor even on the phone. The rep could recreate and display the availability but not ticket the flights. Not from Yerevan, not from Dubai, not even from Paris.
This is how busy and bad travel is right now. For two weeks there’s not a single bookable award seat on any alliance from Yerevan.
I am hoping this changes, but for now, it appears that I’ll be traveling to nearby Tbilisi, Georgia to ultimately fly an incredibly painful route home. Here’s my journey:
Outbound
Return
The journey from Pittsburgh to Armenia is always a long affair, even with the tightest of connections. Flights into Yerevan from Europe are almost exclusively at night arriving in the very early morning due to a short distance but several time zone changes. For example, departing Paris for Yerevan with just a 25-minute connection in Vienna (fun) departs just after 8 PM but doesn’t arrive until 4 AM though the distance is just about 4.5 hours of flying time.
The rest of the journey presents some interesting new challenges. I hope to be able to adjust my return with space opening up closer to my departure, but as it sits now, I will just have to make this work.
All told I spent about $800, 80 Plus Points, 97,000 miles for a business class roundtrip which feels like a bargain, but I will be earning those savings.
I’ve never seen it this hard to book a trip, not on short notice, not in the heights of summer – never before in my life. That said, I was still able to get this trip to something I can live with for a price I can live with and a travel… adventure – no – experience that will be interesting at the least.
https://liveandletsfly.com/planning-a-nightmare-trip-to-armenia/
A verdict was reached Friday in the case of the tragic road accident that happened more than three years ago on the Zod bridge in Ararat Province of the Republic of Armenia (RA).
The general jurisdiction court of Artashat city sentenced the defendant, Soghomon Hakobyan, to 6 years and 6 months in prison.
Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned that the court took into account the terms of detention during the investigation and the trial for the final punishment. In other words, Hakobyan will remain in prison for 3 years and 5 months more. He has been in pretrial detention since July 8, 2019, the verdict was handed down on August 4, 2022.
The prosecution had motioned that Hakobyan be sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Tigran Avetisyan, the father of 20-year-old Astghik Avetisyan who died as a result of the aforesaid accident, told us said that the court granted 50 percent of the claim for compensation of the material damages of the injured parties.
The legal successors of the victims are dissatisfied with the court verdict. "The defense delayed the court hearing for about 2 months, on July 1, the RA Criminal Code was changed, so that article was mitigated. If after that terrible incident that person should be sentenced to [just] 6 years in prison, then what can I say" Tigran Avetisyan noted.
On July 6, 2019, a passenger van, a Toyota Hilux, and a VAZ-21063 collided on the aforesaid bridge, which resulted in a fire in the van, and then it spread onto the other two cars.
Toyota Hilux driver Soghomon Hakobyan was charged with violating traffic rules and causing the death of two or more people.
According to the indictment, Hakobyan negligently caused 7 deaths and 4 injuries.
12:06,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Air temperature in Armenia will increase by 6-8 degrees Celsius over the next 5 days due to an incoming heat wave from Iraq, meteorologists said.
Furthermore, from August 15th to 19th the temperature is expected to reach +40-42 degrees Celsius in Yerevan and in parts of Aragatsotn and Vayots Dzor provinces, as well as in the Ararat Valley, the Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center said, warning of wildfire dangers associated with the heat wave and absence of rains.
15:50,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Armenia hosted the delegation led by Mohammad Said Ali, the Minister of Culture and Youth of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Armenian Consul-General to Erbil Arshak Manukyan, NAS presidency members and research fellows from the NAS Institute of Oriental Studies and Institute of Arts participated in the meeting, NAS said in a statement.
NAS Institute of Oriental Studies Director Robert Ghazaryan spoke about the history of the Armenian-Kurdish relations and the results of studies conducted in the institute in relation to development of Kurdish studies.
Professor Anna Asatryan, the Acting Director of the NAS Institute of Arts, presented a report on the Armenian-Kurdish cultural contacts. She presented Armenian composer Komitas’ work on Kurdish folk songs.
Minister Mohammad Said Ali presented the Iraqi Kurdistan government’s policy in culture and attached importance to the strengthening of the Armenian-Kurdish cultural ties, as well as the historic contacts of the two peoples. The minister expressed hope that the Armenian-Kurdish cultural and scientific ties will be intensified.
Intensification of ties between the NAS institutes with cultural and scientific organizations of Iraqi Kurdistan were highlighted.
The meeting was organized by the NAS Oriental Studies Institute and the Armenian Consulate-General in Erbil.
12:32, 4 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is ready to provide the connection of Azerbaijan’s western regions with Nakhijevan through its territory, but exclusively in accordance with Armenian legislation, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.
“Azerbaijan is saying that Armenia has assumed the obligation to provide connection of Azerbaijan’s western regions with Nakhijevan. We are ready to provide that connection every day; it is Azerbaijan that doesn’t take the opportunities we offer. Today we again say, in accordance to the procedures defined by Armenian legislation come and cross the border of the Republic of Armenia, right today. Since last year, we have Armenian customs and border guard service checkpoints in several sections and we told Azerbaijan that at any moment they can cross and establish connection with Nakhijevan in accordance to procedures defined by Armenia’s legislation,” PM Pashinyan said.
Speaking about the new roads which are being built, Pashinyan said that the trilateral statement clearly states that this must take place with consent of the parties.
“We say that we consider the discussion of the routes of these roads to be a secondary issue, the first issue must be the stipulation and launch of legal procedures. Today, I am officially stating: Azerbaijan can cross the border of Armenia in several points and travel towards Nakhijevan. If we interpret it literally, it mentions that we must ensure the connection of Azerbaijan’s western regions with Nakhijevan. The westernmost region of Azerbaijan is the Gazakh district, we are ready, let them come and cross and go to Nakhijevan, we guarantee the security of that traffic. Furthermore, not only through the Gazakh-Ijevan section, they can do it through the sections of Vardenis, Sisian, Yeraskh and Goris also. During this period Azerbaijan didn’t even try to use it. This must take place in accordance with the procedures defined by Armenian legislation,” the PM said.
15:04, 4 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Guinness record holder Yuri Sakunts eyes to set a new world record with his latest spectacular performance: pulling two train wagons by only using his little finger.
Sakunts, two-time Champion of Europe in power triathlon, pulled the two metro cars weighing 65 tonnes with his pinky on August 4. The record has to be formally registered by Guinness to be official.
Yuri Sakunts is also a lecturer at the State Academy of Crisis Management.
He set his previous record by pulling two firefighting vehicles weighing 37,5 tonnes with his teeth.
“It’s very difficult to pull 65 tonnes using only one pinky, given that I weight only 65 kilos. I am happy that I could do it, albeit with difficulty. My motto for success in life is to believe in what you want to do. I dedicate this record to the Armenian people,” Sakunts said.
He said he plans to pull a helicopter using his pinky next.
BAKU, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan said its forces had crushed an Armenian attack near the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday, prompting international calls for an end to fighting in a region that has been a flashpoint for 30 years.
Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan with Armenian support after a bloody post-Soviet ethnic conflict in the early 1990s. In 2020, Azerbaijan successfully won back part of the territory controlled by the separatists.
Under the terms of a subsequent ceasefire, Russian peacekeepers were deployed to protect the remainder of the separatist-held territory. Both sides though accuse each other of breaches and in recent days violence has flared.
The Azeri defence ministry said Armenia had grossly violated the ceasefire by committing an act of sabotage that killed one soldier. In addition, Baku said its forces had beaten back an Armenian attempt to capture a hill in an area controlled by the Russian peacekeepers.
"As a result, those fighting for the illegal Armenian armed formations were killed and injured," it said in a statement, demanding all Armenian troops pull out of the area and promising "crushing" countermeasures if necessary.
In response, Armenia's foreign ministry said Azerbaijan had violated the ceasefire by launching an attack in areas controlled by the peacekeepers. In a statement, it said Yerevan wanted the international community "to undertake measures toward halting the aggressive behaviour and actions of Azerbaijan".
The European Union called for an immediate end to hostilities and said both sides should respect the ceasefire, a call echoed by the Polish chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Earlier, separatist authorities in the ethnically Armenian enclave declared a partial mobilisation.
Russia said the situation in the areas controlled by its peacekeepers was getting more tense and reported at least one violation of the ceasefire by Azeri forces, Interfax said.
Reporting by Nailia Bagirova, writing by David Ljunggren; editing by Bernadette Baum and Alistair Bell
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/karabakh-separatists-declare-partial-mobilisation-amid-skirmishes-with-2022-08-03/