On December 23, 2021, the Custos of the Holy Land, His Paternity Fr. Francesco Patton visited the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and met His Beatitude Abp. Nourhan Manougian, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem.
His Paternity was accompanied by the Custodian Vicar Rev. Fr. Dobromir Jasztal.
Friday, December 24, 2021
Pashinian Hopes For ‘Compromise’ Road Deal With Aliyev
December 24, 2021
Beglium - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev and European Council President Charles Michel meet in Brussels, December
14, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed hope on Friday that he and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev will iron out their differences on the status of a
highway that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia.
Pashinian confirmed that they failed to reach an agreement on the issue at their
two meetings held in Brussels last week.
One of those meetings was hosted by European Council President Charles Michel
and lasted for more than four hours. Michel said afterwards that the two leaders
pledged to de-escalate tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restore
rail links between their countries. But he admitted that they still disagree on
the Nakhichevan road link sought by Baku.
Speaking just hours before the December 14 meeting, Aliyev said people and cargo
passing through that “Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border
controls. Pashinian swiftly rejected the demand.
Pashinian said on Friday that Yerevan’s “red line” on the matter has not changed
as a result of the Brussels talks.
“Our fundamental position with regard to the highways remains the same,” he told
a virtual news conference. “In Brussels, I and Azerbaijan’s president tried to
go into details and understand the reason why we express such [different]
positions because positions taken publicly are just the visible tip of the
iceberg.”
“When we went into details … I saw an opportunity to find some solutions whereby
both our positions and the purely practical issues raised by Azerbaijan could be
resolved,” he said. “But we have no agreement on this score.”
“It’s just that after that meeting I saw some opportunities and we should try to
use those opportunities so what we find a real compromise solution to this
issue, which would not cross the red line regarding the highways which I have
already mentioned,” added Pashinian. He said nothing about possible parameters
of that compromise.
Aliyev described the December 14 meeting as “productive” before meeting with
Pashinian again on December 15.
Aliyev, Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reported major progress
towards opening Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links after holding talks in the
Russian city of Sochi on November 26. Putin said a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani
task force will formalize their understandings in the coming days.
However, the task force announced no agreements after meeting in Moscow on
December 1. On December 6, Aliyev renewed his threats to forcibly open a land
“corridor” to Nakhichevan. Yerevan condemned the threats and said they run
counter to what they agreed on at Sochi.
Both Aliyev and Pashinian have confirmed their participation in a summit of
ex-Soviet states that will take place in Saint-Petersburg on December 28. The
Armenian premier said he expects to talk to Aliyev on the sidelines of the
summit.
Court Blocks Election Of Vanadzor Mayor
December 24, 2021
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - The building of the Vanadzor municipality,December 13, 2021.
A court blocked on Friday the first session of Vanadzor’s newly elected
municipal council in what local opposition figures denounced as a government
attempt to prevent their arrested candidate from becoming the mayor of Armenia’s
third largest city.
Mamikon Aslanian, who ran Vanadzor until October, was arrested on December 15
ten days after a bloc led by him all but won a local election with about 39
percent of the vote. Aslanian is facing corruption charges rejected by him as
politically motivated.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party finished second with 25
percent, the most serious of setbacks suffered by it in the local polls held in
36 communities across Armenia on December 5.
Three other parties fared much worse but still won seats in the local council
empowered to appoint the next head of the municipality comprising Vanadzor and
nearby villages. Another party, Bright Armenia (LHK), got 3.97 percent, narrowly
failing to clear the 4 percent threshold to enter the council.
The LHK challenged the official election results in court, saying that
irregularities and inaccuracies artificially reduced the number of votes
garnered by it.
Armenia’s Administrative Court rejected the appeal earlier this week, paving the
way for the Vanadzor council’s inaugural session scheduled for Friday.
The LHK asked the Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling. An Administrative
Court judge responded by issuing an injunction that bans the council from
meeting and electing the mayor pending a Court of Appeals verdict on the lawsuit.
The injunction was made public just minutes before the start of the council’s
session. It was condemned by members of Aslanian’s bloc and the opposition
Hayrenik party allied to it.
Hayrenik’s local leader, Vahe Dokhoyan, accused the ruling party and the LHK of
trying to steal their victory.
“Bright Armenia is assisting in the theft of our votes,” Dokholian told
journalists. “This is the opinion of the vast majority of Vanadzor residents.”
The LHK, which was represented in Armenia’s former parliament but fared poorly
in the June snap elections, denied cutting secret deals with Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s party.
Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian.
Aslanian’s bloc and Hayrenik will hold 15 and 2 seats respectively in the
33-member council, putting them in a position to install the head of a large
community comprising Vanadzor and nearby villages in Armenia’s northern Lori
province. However, the ex-mayor’s continuing detention deprives them of their
razor-thin majority.
It was not clear whether Civil Contract, which will control 9 council seats,
hopes to strike a deal with the two other parties to be represented in the
council. Lori Governor Aram Khachatrian, who led the ruling party’s list of
local election candidates, insisted on Friday that it has not yet nominated or
endorsed any mayoral candidate.
Meanwhile, Aslanian urged Vanadzor factions to avoid “trampling electoral
processes underfoot.” In a written appeal issued from jail, the ex-mayor said
they must “make a choice stemming from the will of the people.”
Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist based in Vanadzor, last week described
the criminal proceedings launched against the ex-mayor as “political
persecution.” He said the Armenian authorities are trying to distort local
election outcomes in these and other communities.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, likewise accused the
authorities of resorting to arrests and intimidation to gain control of
communities where the ruling party failed to win outright.
Pashinian’s political allies deny the accusations.
Government Sticks To Mandatory COVID-19 Tests After Court Ruling
December 24, 2021
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Health Minister Anahit Avanesian visits the Armenian company Liqvor
producing Sputnik Light vaccine, Yerevan, December 6, 2021.
The Armenian government insisted on Friday that workers refusing vaccination
will have to continue to take mandatory coronavirus tests despite a
Constitutional Court ruling hailed by critics of the requirement.
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian imposed the requirement on October 1 in an
effort to speed up the slow pace of vaccinations in Armenia.
Her initial directive obligated virtually all public and private sector
employees to get inoculated against COVID-19 or tested twice a month at their
own expense. Such mandatory testing now has to be done once a week.
The requirement has been denounced by Armenians reluctant to get vaccinated as
well as some opposition groups. A group of opposition parliamentarians
challenged its legality in the Constitutional Court.
Armenia - Anti-vaccine campaigners demosntrate in Yerevan, September 19, 2021.
In a ruling publicized late on Thursday, the court party said the measure is
partly unconstitutional. Citizens cannot be forced to pay for their tests, it
said.
Aram Vartevanian, a lawmaker from the opposition Hayastan alliance who led the
appeal, welcomed the ruling. He said it means that the government must exempt
ordinary workers from what he regards as exorbitant testing fees.
The Armenian Ministry of Health offered a different interpretation of the
court’s decision, however.
“The Constitutional Court’s decision did not create any obligation for the state
or the employer to pay for an employee’s PCR tests,” Anna Mkrtumian, the head of
the ministry’s legal department, told reporters on Friday. Nor did the court
scrap the testing requirement for anti-vaxxers, she said.
In a separate statement on the ruling, the Ministry of Health likewise insisted
that unvaccinated “workers will have to undergo tests in any case.”
The government’s vaccination campaign accelerated significantly after the
testing requirement took effect on October 1. Officials say this is one of the
reasons why coronavirus infections in Armenia have fallen dramatically in recent
weeks after reaching record levels this fall.
Even so, the country’s vaccination rate remains low by international standards.
Ministry of Health data shows that only some 643,000 people in the country of
about 3 million were fully vaccinated as of December 19. More than 260,000
others received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
Health Minister Avanesian said on Thursday that Armenian health authorities have
not yet detected any cases of the new Omicron variant of the virus.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (R) swears in Jeff Flake (L) as ambassador to Turkey as Cheryl Flake (C), spouse of Jeff Flake, looks on, in the Ceremonial Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 December 2021. (EPA Photo)
Former Sen. Jeff Flake, the United States' newly appointed ambassador to Turkey, is expected to arrive in the capital Ankara on Jan. 7 and officially take office after presenting his letter of credence to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who took office on Jan. 20, 2021, announced in July that the former Republican Arizona senator would be nominated as the new U.S. ambassador to Turkey, replacing experienced diplomat David Satterfield, who has been working in Ankara since August 2019.
Biden's decision to send a political figure to Ankara instead of a career diplomat from the State Department raised eyebrows and was viewed as a response to the Turkish government sending another politician, Murat Mercan, to Washington.
Flake's appointment was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 16 and the Senate General Assembly on Oct. 26 with the joint approval of Republican and Democrat members. The former senator was officially sworn in at the ceremony held on Dec. 7, with the participation of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
It is said that Flake, who will assume the duty of ambassador amid the normalization process in recent Turkish-American relations, will travel to Ankara and use his political influence to initiate dialogue between the allies to overcome the current problems.
However, Turkey's purchase of an advanced S-400 Russian air defense system and Washington's support for the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist, the YPG, will dominate the agenda.
As BBC Turkish reported, Ankara does not expect Satterfield's replacement by political appointment will negatively impact the relations. On the contrary, it is anticipated that the new ambassador will contribute to the dialogue and consultation process that started after the Biden administration took office and continued with two face-to-face meetings between the leaders.
Flake, who is expected to stray from the rules of diplomatic rhetoric and deploy more political language, has not shown hostility toward Turkey in the past. The fact that he did not support the Armenian genocide bill presented by the Democrats in 2014 is also a positive indicator. However, the new ambassador's lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to Turkey and the vast region surrounding it is seen as a disadvantage.
Nominated in mid-July, Flake was a key Republican ally for Biden during last year's race to the White House and endorsed the Democratic then-nominee after establishing himself as a Republican at odds with former President Donald Trump.
Flake served in both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his time in Congress, spanning nearly two decades. Flake served in the U.S. Senate for Arizona from 2013 to 2019 and in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2013.
Flake retired from the Senate at the end of his term in 2019, saying he was out of step with the Republican Party in the era of former President Donald Trump. He later wrote a book, "Conscience of a Conservative,” that was a critique of Trump.
Ties between NATO allies Turkey and the U.S. were badly strained in 2019 over Ankara’s acquisition of the advanced S-400 air defense system, prompting Washington to remove Turkey from its F-35 Lightning II jet program. The U.S. argued that the system was incompatible with NATO systems and could be used by Russia to covertly obtain classified information on the F-35 jets. Turkey, however, insists that the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance.
Back in December 2020, the U.S. decided to impose sanctions on Turkey over the purchase of Russian-made missile defense systems. Flake said in September that Turkey could face more sanctions if it purchases additional S-400 missiles from Russia.
On the other hand, Ankara maintains that the greatest challenge that Turkey-U.S. relations face is not the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system but rather Washington’s support for the YPG.
The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a jolt to the bilateral relations with Ankara. The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria to fight the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Turkey strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria, which poses a threat to Turkey and terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.
Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and truckloads of military support to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns. Underlining that one cannot support one terrorist group to defeat another, Turkey carried out its own counterterrorism operations, over the course of which it has managed to drive away a significant number of terrorists from the region.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have signed five agreements in the field of energy, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fahrettin Dönmez has said.
“When we consider our motto of ‘two states, one nation,’ our ongoing projects are running successfully,” Dönmez told reporters on Dec. 22 in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, where he attended the Turkey-Azerbaijan 1st Energy Forum.
“We can also carry this relationship to third countries, especially on energy,” he said.
The areas of the agreements were natural gas, mining, geological exploration, mineral research and electricity transmission.
Dönmez noted that there is a shortage of energy supply in Europe, especially regarding natural gas.
“In order to meet the increasing demand, we are holding some preliminary talks on increasing the existing capacity,” he said.
“These are not issues that will be solved from today to tomorrow, because there is also the production side of this. It is not enough to increase the capacity in the pipeline alone. The main thing is to work on increasing the amount of production in the Caspian.”
Power generation was also on the agenda of the talks between Turkish and Azerbaijani officials, Dönmez said.
“Azerbaijan has solid targets for renewable energy. They have a huge potential. They have determined green energy targets particularly in the Karabakh region, which has been liberated from [Armenian] occupation,” said the minister.
Caspian Sea offshore and onshore wind turbine projects are also on the table, according to Dönmez’s remarks. Representatives of Turkish companies are expected to meet with Azerbaijani officials and businesspeople on those projects in the upcoming months.
Dönmez also said that an electricity trade route could be established between the two countries through Georgia, a country that both Turkey and Azerbaijan currently has power transmission deals.
Turkey’s natural gas consumption will reach nearly 60 billion cubic meters this year, according to the Energy and Naturel Resources Ministry. No supply problems have occurred thanks to long-term contracts and extra contracts.
In recent years, Turkey paid approximately $12 billion for around 45 billion cubic meters of imported natural gas annually.
Turkey imports natural gas through pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and İran. It also buys liquefied natural gas (LNG) from suppliers including Qatar, Nigeria, Algeria and the United States. Nearly a third of the country’s gas needs are met with LNG supplies.
A recently discovered natural gas field in the Black Sea is set to provide nearly a third of Turkey’s domestic needs when it reaches peak production capacity by 2026. Turkey could start with the initial annual production capacity of 3.5 bcm at Sakarya Gas Field in 2023.
State-run energy company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) plans to drill 40 wells over four phases in the Sakarya field, which is estimated to have recoverable gas reserves of about 540 billion cubic meters.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has touted the find – the biggest ever in the Black Sea – as a boost to Turkey’s $765-billion economy.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan border
Moscow, once again, sought to assert its firm grip on regional developments, saying that issues discussed between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan last week during meetings in Brussels emanated from agreements reached at a meeting in Sochi last month that was mediated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels last week in meetings first mediated by the President of the European Council Charles Michel and later presided over by President Emanuel Macron of France. Following these talks, Armenia and Azerbaijan announced their readiness to reactivate the old Soviet railway links that run through Armenia, Nakhichevan, Iran, Azerbaijan to Moscow.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Friday made to drive home what she said were discussion that took place in Sochi when Pashinyan, Aliyev and Putin met there on November 26.
“Substantive discussions are continuing by the trilateral working group co-chaired by the deputy prime ministers of the three countries,” said Zakharova referencing a working group established to make proposals on the opening of transit routes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, following an agreement signed in Moscow on January 11.
“I would also like to remind that within the framework of this mechanism, a wide range of issues is being discussed on the unblocking transport and economic ties in the South Caucasus—including the restoration of both railway and transport links in the region. As agreed by the heads of state, we are working toward the immediate launch of specific transport projects,” explained Zakharova, once again, stressing Russia’s role in the process.
Zakharova also urged the sides to make statements that clearly invoke what she called the “positive aspects” of the discussions and “not to make problematic issues a focal point” of the effort.
The spokesperson also touched on the future delimitation and demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan and stressed that Russia will provide assistance in that realm, commenting on Michel’s earlier statement voicing the EU’s readiness to assist in the process.
Nevertheless, Zakharova said, Russia welcomes “international efforts aimed at the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. At the same time, it is very important to take into account the regional realities, the agreement between Yerevan and Baku, as well as the added value from it. For our part, we will continue to provide all necessary assistance—including advisory—to the parties.”
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan speaks at the opening of a military unit in occupied Hadrut on Dec. 24
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan once again threatened to wage war against Armenia on Friday during the opening of a military base in Artsakh’s occupied Hadrut.
“Baku will prevent the dangers posing a threat to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” he said during his speech.
“If Armenia tries to become a source of danger for us again, its end will be the same as it was during the second war in Nagorno-Karabakh,” added Aliyev.
The Azerbaijani leader also announced that the newly-inaugurated base n Hadrut will house special military detachments.
“The creation of ‘commando’ brigades is an innovation for us. Azerbaijan is creating such brigades that can complete any combat task. This will essentially increase the capacity of our army,” he said.
“Azerbaijan did not end army construction after the war and hasn’t cut the expenditures for the army, on the contrary, it has increased them,” explained Aliyev, according to a press statement from his office.
“The new contracts signed after the war are being implemented, and the most state-of-the-art weapons and equipment are being imported on the basis of those contracts,” he added.
.
Aliyev stated that the procurement of military equipment, the increase of military expenditures, as well as the rise of the salaries of servicemen go to show that “the process of fortifying the armed forces will not end, even though the war is over.”
Turkey-Armenia border
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday said unreasonable optimism should not be expressed over discussions and negotiations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, pledging Yerevan’s commitment to advance relations between Armenia’s neighbors.
“We are ready to pursue that path,” said Pashinyan during an online press conference on Friday night local time, when he responded to questions from reporters and representatives of non-governmental organizations. He said Yerevan’s participation in talks is meant to “create a basis for optimism.”
Armenia and Turkey have appointed special envoys who will engage in negotiations․ Armenia will be represented by the Deputy Parliament Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, and Turkey will be represented by Ankara’s former ambassador to the United States and notorious Armenian Genocide denier Serder Kilic.
Pashinyan said that a first meeting has not been scheduled yet. He expressed hope that the meeting will be scheduled as soon as possible. “A rather long process is expected, and one should not have exaggerated expectations from one or two meetings in order to record a concrete result,” said Pashinyan.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Turkey has voiced preconditions for normalizing relations with Yerevan, among them calling on Armenia to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity that includes Artsakh, and more recently pressing for the creation of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor,” a plan advanced by Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev who seeks to create a route connecting Azerbaijan proper with Nakhichevan and Turkey through Armenia.
“Armenia has not discussed, does not discuss and will not discuss any corridor issue,” said Pashinyan.
As for relations with Turkey, he said, if building roads and opening transit routes will have greater regional significance, then the matter will be placed on Armenia’s agenda. “One of the issues, for example, might be the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border and the railway,” Pashinyan said, signaling his approval for opening air traffic between Turkey and Armenia—a point made last week by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
“Our expectation is the normalization of relations [with Turkey], but we must understand that we are dealing with a complex problem, which has many nuances and sensitivities. There is a lot of emotional approaches to the issue in the Republic of Armenia,” said Pashinyan.
The prime minister explained that Armenia has always said that it is ready to normalize relations with Turkey without preconditions, which means, he said, that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has never been a precondition for normalization of relations with Turkey and opening of borders. He added that the Armenian government has clearly stated its position on the issue of international recognition of the Genocide.
Pashinyan clarified that there is no agreement about a meeting with Erdogan. However, he said, if the negotiations between the envoys is successful “a high-level meeting can take place.”
On the issue of relations with Azerbaijan, Pashinyan said that Armenia is interested in negotiating a peace treaty, adding that such a document would be contingent of the comprehensive settlement of the Karabakh, which he explained the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have proposed.
Saying that Armenia is open to talked and has not refused to negotiate, Pashinyan said this approach stems from his government’s plan for ushering in an era of peaceful development in the region.
“If we manage to formulate a model of peace that will be beneficial to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, then perhaps the negotiation process will have less conflict or opposition, and create an opportunity for understanding the other side’s point of view, come to some acceptable provisions from those points of view and to form some type of a new scheme,” said Pashinyan, adding that his talks with Aliyev in Sochi and Brussels focused on that approach.
According to Pashinyan, after Sochi, however, events took place that seriously called into question that conversation. Fortunately, no such events have taken place following the Brussels meeting.
To that end, however, Pashinyan said that if the security of cargo transportation through the territory of Azerbaijan is not ensured, cargo transportation will not be carried out.
“If in those conditions, suppose the Armenian cargo does not pass through the territory of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani cargo will not pass through the Armenian territory. Of course, this matter will be included on the agenda when we discuss these issues,” said Pashinyan.
Since the Brussels talks last week, the issue of opening the railway has been brought up by Armenian officials as part of a larger discussion of opening transit links with Azerbaijan. Pashinyan said on Friday that Armenia will never agree to provide a road to Azerbaijan without customs duty or inspections.
“Before the Brussels meeting, I had already outlined the red lines for the Armenian side on my Facebook page, according to which we do not accept any corridor-related proposal, and what we talked about and agreed to regarding the railway in Brussels, was a summation of the Sochi talks and what we registered there is that customs and border control will operate from both sides, which is acceptable for us, is acceptable for Azerbaijan and we agreed to launch the construction of the railway,” explained Pashinyan.
However, following the talks in Sochi, Aliyev demanded that his proposed “Zangezur Corridor” have the same status as the Lachin Corridor currently has.
Pashinyan explained that during his talks with Aliyev in Brussels he saw opportunities for reaching agreements on some practical issues with Azerbaijan. He emphasized, however, no agreement has been reached on the opening of transport links.
He also addressed the one-on-one meeting he had with Aliyev, which was announced by Michel, the European leader, who told reporters that he left Pashinyan and Aliyev alone to have a private conversation.
Pashinyan told reporters on Friday that the 20 to 30 minuted meeting with Aliyev focused on the same topics that were earlier discussed during the talks mediated by Michel.
President of Artsakh discusses a number of issues with representatives of Hadrout region and community heads
20:06, 23 December, 2021
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan received representatives of the Hadrout regional administration and a group of community heads on December 23.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office, issues related to the population forcibly displaced in the aftermath of the hostilities against Artsakh in 2020, who temporarily sheltered in different settlements of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh, the process of construction of new settlements for them in the territory of the Artsakh Republic, as well as other issues were on the discussion agenda.
The Head of the State presented the measures envisaged by the 2022 State budget in that direction, social assistance programs, noting that development programs will be implemented in parallel with them.
“The construction of new settlements for the forcibly displaced people does not mean that the Artsakh authorities are retracting from the demand for the restoration of the territorial integrity. It remains one of the key directions of Artsakh’s foreign policy,” Arayik Harutyunyan said.
21:20, 23 December, 2021
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. No appointments of Diaspora Commissioners have been made in foreign countries so far, but there are already candidates, ARMENPRESS reports High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia Zareh Sianayan said in his annual press conference, referring to the recently adopted draft law on the establishment of the institution of Diaspora Affairs.
"We do not have commissioners appointed yet; we have candidates. At the moment we are in the planning stage of how to geographically divide the countries or territories in order to achieve our goal," Sinanyan said.
Referring to the goal, he noted that the commissioner's office is a small body, it is much smaller than a ministry, even if they ever reach the number of employees of the ministry – 90 or more, it will not be enough to cooperate with more than 7 million Diaspora fully, efficiently, on time, deeply.
“That number cannot ensure the opportunities we can ensure if we have representatives on the ground. Therefore, by having a commissioner in the community, we can provide presence on the ground, a person who will be involved in the Armenia-Diaspora partnership, who will be an influential person, acceptable to the majority of the community. There will be people who are ready to work, support us, strengthen the Armenia-Diaspora ties”, Sinanyan said.