Author: Yeghisabet Vorskanian

Police Chief awards posthumous Medal of Heroism to fallen Yerevan officer

 19:11,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Interim Police Chief of Armenia Arman Sargsyan has awarded a posthumous Medal of Heroism to Tigran Arakelyan, the Yerevan police officer who was gunned down in the line of duty on October 16th. Arakelyan was awarded for “selflessness and heroism in the line of duty in life-threatening conditions”, the police department said in a news release.

Arakelyan’s partner, who was injured in the incident, was awarded the “For Excellent Service in Police” order.

Arakelyan and his partner were patrolling the city when around 04:30 they saw two young men who ran away upon seeing the police cruiser. The officers eventually apprehended the suspects in the Azatutyun Avenue, but the latter resisted arrest and one of them got hold of the officer’s firearm and fired on Tigran Arakelyan. Arakelyan succumbed to his injuries. His partner was battered by the suspects but survived.

The two suspects were later apprehended. Police said the suspects had earlier committed a robbery.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Aliyev’s words are disrespectful towards Armenian people and CIS heads of state – PM Pashinyan

 12:54, 11 October, 2019

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reacted to the speech of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the session of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Ashgabat.

Pashinyan stated that Aliyev’s remarks contain attempts to distort the history.

“Unfortunately, we saw such attempts in the remarks of Ilham Aliyev. Listening to his assessments on Garegin Nzhdeh, frankly I remembered the Kidnapping, Caucasian Style film where there is a talk about the ruins of an ancient castle, and question is asked “so what, have I also destroyed the church?” There is an impression from Aliyev’s statement that in general Hitler played a secondary role in that war, and the leader of the Nazi movement was Garegin Nzhdeh. But the reality is that Garegin Nzhdeh was fighting against Armenia’s Turkish occupation, against the genocide of Armenians which was organized by Turks”, Pashinyan said, once again emphasizing the importance of knowing the objective assessment of the history.

“It is stated that Garegin Nzhdeh has died in the Vladimir Prison. Many Soviet figures have died in the Vladimir Prison, and so what, all those who were convicted in the 1937-1950s, should be considered as people’s enemies? And if that is so, many famous figures were convicted and spent the last days of their life in prison. But this doesn’t mean that we must accept this as a fact. And I consider it inappropriate to use this format to distort the history, create some tension during this very important session”, the Armenian PM said.

Pashinyan noted that the Armenian government pays special attention to the war veterans, just few months before the social fees provided to all veterans of the Great Patriotic War doubled.

“From the Declaration we will sign today I would like to highlight the parts which emphasize the necessity to make joint efforts to restore the broad international dialogue aimed at strengthening the international security, opposing the dividing lines, the actions leading to formation of mistrust, tension. And I also believe that during such format summits we should do everything possible not to increase the tension between our peoples, our countries, but quite the contrary, to be able to find ways for dialogue, compromise, mutual trust and respect. I think the words of the Azerbaijani President are first of all disrespectful for the Armenian people. And I also believe that his words are disrespectful towards the leaders of the countries and the peoples they represent here”, Nikol Pashinyan said.

The Armenian PM once again thanked the Turkmen leadership for the successful chairmanship in the CIS and expressed hope that the joint efforts aimed at improving and strengthening the multilateral cooperation within the CIS will continue. He also reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to provide support to the Uzbek partners during the 2020 chairmanship in CIS.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

To note, Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2019 and will be awarded $ 37,500.

The 12 strongest grandmasters will compete in classical chess this time. 

The opening ceremony has already taken place and the pairs of the first round are already known. Armenia’s representative Levon Aronian will play the white against French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. 

It will be a round-robin tournament, which will finish on August 29. 

German Tourists start to visit Armenia significantly more

19:45,

YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. The number of tourists who visited Armenia rose by 12.8% in the 1st 6 months of the year. The number of visitors with foreign passports has also risen. The number of German tourists has significantly risen, ARMENPRESS reports Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan said.

''Touristic visits to Armenia have increased by 12.8% and the interesting thing is that the rise of visitors with foreign passports has increased more – 14.4%’', the Minister said, adding that 55 thousand Russian citizens and 6 thousand German citizens visited Armenia during the first 6 months.

The percentage increase of the number of German tourists is the biggest, while Russia is the leader in absolute values. Number of tourists visiting from Asia has also recorded significant rise – 53.5% from China (which is still a small number in absolute values) and 22% from Japan. The Minister noted that the visa free regime with China to come into force in the near future will significantly promote the flow of Chinese tourists to Armenia.

Tigran Khachatryan expressed confidence that by the end of the year Armenia will record 15% rise of number of tourists.

Edited and trenslated by Tigran Sirekanyan