Author: Yeghisabet Vorskanian

 18:00,

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. Turkey will continue its efforts to normalize relations with Armenia, ARMENPRESS reports Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"A very good dialogue took place at Antalya Deiplomacy Forum (with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan – edited.). Russia has been providing assistance since the beginning of the process, Azerbaijan has also been assisting in this matter. First of all, let us ensure a ceasefire, establish peace, so that to have a peaceful region. We will continue our efforts in this direction," said Çavuşoğlu.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian Federation welcomes the process of normalization of bilateral relations between Turkey and Armenia.

 12:49,

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Chairwoman of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on protection of human rights and public affairs, Taguhi Tovmasyan, has sent letters to international human rights organizations, drawing their attention on the current humanitarian crisis in Artsakh as Azerbaijan obstructs to repair the damaged gas pipeline and the residents of Artsakh have been left without gas supply since March 8.

“The humanitarian crisis in Artsakh is deepening. It’s more than a week there is no gas in Artsakh. The Azerbaijani forces ban the Russian peacekeepers even to approach the exploded section of the gas pipeline, and there is no opportunity to repair that section of the pipeline. As a result today we both have a problem with transport in Artsakh, as well as there are a number of problems in production units, people have a problem of bread production in their country. This is a very serious alarm, over which I have sent different letters to a number of international organizations dealing with human rights and asked them to focus their attention and urgently respond to the topic of the humanitarian crisis that has started in Artsakh”, she said at the committee’s session today.

According to the lawmaker, if this situation continues further, there will also be an electricity crisis in Artsakh as the system is operating in an overload mode, and that productivity volumes could not last long. Therefore, she didn’t rule out that Artsakh may face a problem of electricity supply in the future.

“In this respect I want to once again draw the attention of everyone in the world to the humanitarian crisis that has started in Artsakh”, the MP said.

 19:12,

YEREVAN, 11 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on March 11 met with Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg in the framework of Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ministers Mirzoyan and Schallenberg referred to the agenda of cooperation between Armenia and Austria.

“In the context of issues related to regional security and stability Minister Mirzoyan drawed the attention of his partner to the provocative actions by the armed forces of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh and in the border zone of Armenia-Azerbaijan and violations of ceasefire, putting psychological pressure on civil population in Artsakh and facts of creating artificial problems in restoration of infrastructure of vital significance”, the message says.

According to the source, the necessity of comprehensive and lasting resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the mandate of the Minsk Group of the OSCE was emphasized.

It is mentioned that the interlocutors shared thoughts on normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey without preconditions.

Issues of common interests of the international agenda were discussed.

 17:38,

YEREVAN, 10 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 10 March, USD exchange rate up by 3.60 drams to 516.01 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 7.97 drams to 569.42 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.03 drams to 4.37 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 4.94 drams to 679.07 drams.

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

Gold price down by 595.99 drams to 32996.06 drams. Silver price up by 3.94 drams to 434.25 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

European Parliament adopts resolution condemning the destruction of Nagorno-Karabakh's cultural heritage

 19:31,

YEREVAN, 10 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports the resolution was adopted with 635 votes in favor, 2 against and 42 abstentions.

Armenian MP Arman Yeghoyan wrote on his Facebook page that the resolution strongly condemns Azerbaijan's ongoing policy of erasing, denying the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh and around it, violating international law, and the recent decision of the International Court of Justice.

It states that over the past thirty years, Azerbaijan has committed irreversible destruction of religious and cultural heritage, especially in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, where 89 Armenian churches, 20,000 graves and more than 5,000 tombstones have been destroyed.

The resolution emphasizes that the elimination of traces of the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh is carried out not only for damaging or destroying it, but also for falsifying history by presenting it as the so-called Caucasian-Albanian, stating that on February 3, 2022 Minister Anar Karimov announced the establishment of a working group responsible for eliminating "traces invented by Armenians on Albanian religious temples."

The resolution admits that the elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage is part of a wider systemic, state-level policy of anti-Armenianism, hatred of Armenians, encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities, including glorification of violence, anti-humanism, and territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia, threatening peace and security in the South Caucasus.

The resolution calls on Azerbaijan to renounce its maximalist goals, belligerent approaches, territorial claims to Armenia and to engage in good faith in the negotiations on the final status of Nagorno Karabakh under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The resolution calls on Azerbaijan to fully comply with the interim order of the International Court of Justice, namely to "refrain from suppressing the Armenian language, destroying the Armenian cultural heritage or eliminating the historical Armenian cultural presence by other means, or restricting the entry of Armenians to those sites”, stressing that any new case of destruction or alteration of cultural heritage must be immediately addressed by the international community.

It calls on the European Commission to use all available levers to prevent the destruction and alteration of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the prevention of vandalism.

 14:56, 8 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. 140 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 421,541, the Armenian Ministry of Healthcare said in a statement.

4 people died from COVID-19 complications, raising the death toll to 8552.

512 people recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 407,082.

2803 tests were administered (total 2,921,750).

As of March 8 the number of active cases stood at 4277.

 11:12, 5 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS. Ural Airlines is suspending its flights to Armenia from March 4 to 26.

“Due to the current geopolitical situation, Ural Airlines has to cancel the following international flights: to UAE, Armenia, Israel from March 4 to 26 and to Azerbaijan from March 5 to 26”, the company said in a statement on social media.

Earlier the airline announced about suspending its flights to Hungary, Spain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal and Turkey starting March 1 because of the closure of the airspace of European countries.