Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

 10:08, 6 June 2022

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. 1,008,404 full vaccinations against COVID-19 were registered in Armenia so far, the Ministry of Healthcare said.

Another 27,040 people received the first dose and 55,855 people received the booster shot.

 11:21, 2 June 2022

YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Tunisia’s president sacked 57 judges on Wednesday, accusing them of corruption and protecting terrorists in a purge of the judiciary that comes as he seeks to remake the political system after consolidating one-man rule, Reuters reports.

In a televised address President Kais Saied said he had “given opportunity after opportunity and warning after warning to the judiciary to purify itself”. Hours later the official gazette published a decree announcing the dismissals.

Among those sacked was Youssef Bouzaker, the former head of the Supreme Judicial Council whose members Saied replaced this year as he moved to take control of the judiciary.

Last summer Saied dismissed the government and seized executive power in a move his foes called a coup before setting aside the 2014 constitution to rule by decree and dismissing the elected parliament.

 17:17,

YEREVAN, 31 MAY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 31 May, USD exchange rate down by 1.57 drams to 447.99 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 5.50 drams to 478.90 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 7.33 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 4.22 drams to 564.11 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 48.10 drams to 26717.24 drams. Silver price down by 4.59 drams to 317.37 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

 19:10,

YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRES. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan attaches great importance to Artsakh's position on the issue of whether the agenda of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be separated from the agenda of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, or whether the normalization of relations should also resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Discussions are underway in Armenia to form a position on this issue, and at the moment negotiations are underway only on the format and parameters of starting negotiations, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan said at the parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.

Sargis Khandanyan, a member of the Civil Contract faction, reminded that the statement issued by the President of the European Council after the trilateral meeting in Brussels did not mention Azerbaijan's proposals for peace talks and Armenia's proposals in response. And the President of Azerbaijan stated that the 5 principles proposed by Azerbaijan will play a key role in the preparation of the peace treaty.

"Some formulations that have given rise to speculation are, in fact, that the principles proposed by Armenia and Azerbaijan should become the common pillars of the peace treaty. It may be formulated not correctly, not successfully, but in reality it is about that," Pashinyan assured.

There is a very important conceptual debate in the international community, Pashinyan noted that that debate has reached the Republic of Armenia. "There is a question whether the issue of normalization of relations should also resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, or whether the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be separated from the issue of normalization of relations and viewed as a separate issue. This question arose from our response. Azerbaijan says "no territorial claims to each other", we say that it is acceptable, because for us the Karabakh issue has never been a matter of territory, it is a matter of right. And the statement of the President of the European Council refers to the right probably for emphasizing that context," Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan noted that the representatives of the opposition are also developing that agenda, saying that the agenda of normalization of relations should be separated from the agenda of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Prime Minister considered this a legitimate point of view. He highlighted the discussions during this period, emphasizing that a number of opposition partners refuse from those discussions. "But we have those discussions with other political circles, moreover, we also discuss with the Artsakh authorities which tactical approach is better," Pashinyan said, adding that he has his own position, but that position will be specified after discussions with a wider audience.

He stressed that Artsakh's position on this issue will be very important.

"In fact, now the negotiations are about the format and parameters of starting negotiations. What we are discussing is about that," said the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister cannot say when the talks will start. The foreign ministries of the two countries work together.

 15:44,

STEPANAKERT, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Artsakh plans to transition to a semi-presidential system of government.

The Constitutional Reforms Commission under the Presidency of Artsakh published the draft concept for the reforms.

“Taking into account the imperative for ensuring the security of the Republic of Artsakh, the existing challenges facing the Republic of Artsakh, as well as with the goal of ensuring flexibility of the state administration system in times of martial law or state of emergency and in emergency situations, it is proposed to transform the government system by transitioning to a semi-presidential system of government,” reads the concept.

The semi-presidential system would rely on two centers: the President and a Prime Minister enjoying the trust of the parliament.

The President, being the guarantor of the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Artsakh, will coordinate the work of the state bodies in the defense area, and will be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the President of the Security Council.

The executive power will be vested in the government led by the Prime Minister, who will coordinate the work of the 15 members of the Cabinet (ministers). Currently, the President is the head of the executive power. There is no position of a prime minister now and the government is composed of the State Minister and Ministers who are appointed by the President.

Given the current military-political situation, the commission also proposed to hold general elections gradually – parliamentary elections with proportional system in 2023 and presidential elections in 2024. At the same time, the concept proposes to reserve parliament the right to elect a President in exclusive cases.

This aerial image captured on shows the Rize-Artvin Airport with the Black Sea in the background, in Rize, northeastern Turkey. (DHA Photo)

 16:25,

HAGUE, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is trying to make the issue of the return of Armenian captives a subject of trade, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Clingendael, in response to the question of the meeting participants.

“Unfortunately, despite the 2020 November 9 statement and calls of numerous international organizations, our citizens who were captured during the 44-day war have not been returned, which cannot be understood. This is a practice of using people for political purposes and making them a subject of trade, which is condemnable”, the PM said.

Pashinyan said that when the topic of captives was touched upon, Azerbaijan tried to make it a subject of trade for exchanging them with the maps of minefields that the Armenian side had. “And when we saw that an attempt is made to exchange people with maps, we made a political decision that doing trade is out of the logic of our values. Azerbaijan was claiming that every day people are being killed on the minefields left during the war, it was releasing numbers, and I personally made a political decision that this trade must not take place, and we handed over all our maps to Azerbaijan, with the hope that the humanitarian step will be followed by a humanitarian step. After that Azerbaijan started announcing that those maps are not so correct. We said it’s not that we kept the good maps and gave the bad ones to you, that’s what we have. And they tried to make this a subject of speculation as well, but they didn’t notice one thing that after the exchange of the maps, the information on the killing of citizens from mine explosion has disappeared from their newsfeed”, the PM said.

Pashinyan stated that the Armenian side did this to show its sincerity in the peace agenda, its dedication to the peace agenda.

“Till today at least 38 of our captives are held in Azerbaijan. An attempt is made to regularly make this process a subject of trade on different topics. By the way, the last time it was at the presence of the President of the European Council that the Azerbaijani leader promised that he will release another group of captives, but this has not happened so far. I think that it’s impossible to talk about peace by ignoring the humanitarian side of the issue, we have shown this in practice”, the Armenian PM noted.

He stressed the need for the international community to know about this situation. Pashinyan called on the international community to continue urging Azerbaijan not to make people a subject of political trade.

“The war has brought tragedy to many, but I don’t think that the approach of constantly pouring salt on that open wound fits into the value system that is typical to the 21^st century”, Nikol Pashinyan said.