Category: 2023

 10:10,

YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend the Group of Seven (G7) Hiroshima summit this weekend, Reuters reported citing a Ukrainian security official.

Zelenskiy will attend the gathering on Sunday, the third and final day, two officials who declined to be identified told Reuters.

"Very important things will be decided there and it is therefore the presence of our president that is absolutely essential in order to defend our interests," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, told state television.

New sanctions targeting Russia are expected to be announced by G7 leaders, according to Reuters.

Earlier on Friday the G7 leaders laid wreaths in Hiroshima, a city that, along with Nagasaki, was destroyed by a U.S. nuclear attack 78 years ago that ended WWII.

Besides announcing new Russia sanctions, the G7 leaders are also expected to debate strategy on more than year-long conflict that shows no signs of easing.

Britain will announce a ban on Russian diamonds and imports of metals from Russia including copper, aluminium and nickel in support for Ukraine, it said in a statement.

Britain will also target an additional 86 people and companies from Putin's military industrial complex, in addition to those involved in the energy, metals and shipping industries, it said.

Europe will also restrict sales of Russian diamonds.

The United States is set to add 70 entities to its export blacklist, and to expand its sanctions authority to 300 entities as well as new sectors of the Russian economy, a senior U.S. administration official said.

 10:48,

YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. The United States has welcomed the reports that Armenia and Azerbaijan are going to continue to engage in discussions and reiterated that peace is within reach and that direct dialogue is key to resolving issues.

“…we continue to provide full support and engagement of the United States as these two countries work to secure a durable and dignified peace. We welcome the reports that the parties are going to continue to engage in these discussions, and we reiterate that – our conviction that peace is within reach and that direct dialogue is key to resolving these issues. Our view is that direct talks between the parties are of utmost importance, and we’re glad to see them happen and take place. Whether they are taking place in Arlington, in Brussels, in Moscow, our support with this effort will continue to endure,” U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a press briefing when asked on the upcoming May 19 foreign ministerial talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow.”

Patel declined to “prescribe or hypothesize or speculate” on the possible outcome of the talks. He again stressed that “peace between the countries is possible, and the U.S. continues to welcome and work towards a durable and dignified peace in this case.”

The State Department spokesperson added that the U.S. has found the Washington D.C. foreign ministerial talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan to be “constructive”.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan is expected to meet his Azerbaijani counterpart on May 19 in Moscow in Russia-mediated trilateral talks.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Pashinyan is expected to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on May 25 again in Moscow, under the mediation of President Vladimir Putin.

 10:25,

YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces breached the ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh in three different locations Thursday targeting farmers and the Kashen mine.

The Ministry of Defense of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh said that the Azerbaijani forces opened fire on May 18 in the northern, eastern and central directions, using small arms and AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers.

The Azeri forces targeted with small arms fire the farmers working in the fields of Berdashen village and shelled from AGS-17 grenade launcher in the direction of Kashen mine.

No one was hurt from the Armenian side.

The Nagorno Karabakh authorities said they've notified the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s command on the ceasefire breach.

As of 10:00, May 19 the situation in the line of contact was relatively stable, the ministry said in a statement.

 11:44,

STEPANAKERT, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. Access to Facebook has been restored in Nagorno Karabakh after a brief blackout on May 18, ARMENPRESS correspondent reports from Stepanakert.

The cause of the shutdown wasn’t immediately clear.

 10:20,

YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Vancouver’s Cinematheque will hold Armenian cinema days on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Armenian film industry.

The program is called Moving Mountains: The Centenary of Armenian Cinema and will run on June 15–22, 2023, comprising  eight feature-length films and two shorts.

It is the “the first Canadian retrospective survey of Armenian cinema’s volatile trajectory from the ideologically oriented silent period to the post-Soviet era of creative diversity and experimentation,” organizers said in a statement.  “Featuring works by major figureheads such as Hamo Beknazaryan, Sergei Parajanov, Frunze Dovlatyan, and Henrik Malyan, the program also indicates the dramatic shifts in local cinematic traditions, which have been radically transformed and expanded through the active participation of women and diasporan filmmakers since the early 1990s.”

 13:39,

YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. The Investigative Committee of Armenia launched criminal proceedings on the latest Azerbaijani shooting that left one Armenian soldier dead.

The Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened fire Wednesday late afternoon at a military outpost of the Armed Forces of Armenia deployed in the eastern section of the border. An on-duty Armenian serviceman was wounded in the shooting and later succumbed to his injuries.

In a statement released Thursday, the investigators said they are treating the shooting as a hate-motivated premeditated murder.

“Servicemen of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, motivated by racial, national or ethnic hatred, intolerance and hostility, opened small arms fire around 16:15, at a military position deployed in the eastern direction of the Armenian border with intent to kill the on-duty servicemen of the Armed Forces of Armenia. As a result, a conscripted serviceman of the abovementioned military position suffered wounds, and later died from the injuries,” reads the statement.

The Azerbaijani military then targeted with automatic gunfire the ambulance which was evacuating the wounded soldier, and the paramedic was also wounded.

The medic survived and is in satisfactory condition, authorities said.

 14:56,

YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power has called for the roads into Nagorno Karabakh to be reopened.  

“Nagorno Karabakh shouldn’t have to rely on humanitarian convoys. Prior to late last year, you had commercial traffic moving freely into the area. So it’s absolutely imperative that the roads into Nagorno Karabakh are reopened,” Power said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the FY2024 Foreign Aid Budget.

Power did not answer Congressman Brad Sherman’s question whether the blockade of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh "meets USAID's definition of a crisis."

She mentioned that the ICRC has been delivering humanitarian supplies to the blockaded people of Nagorno Karabakh, and that the latest ICRC convoy moved in on May 17.

Congressman Chris Smith asked Power whether any U.S. aid has been delivered to Nagorno Karabakh.

Power said that access into Nagorno karabakh has been very limited due to the blockade. “You asked how food is getting in, when it is getting in. It should be getting in through commercial means as it always was, but since the road is blocked and the checkpoints have been erected commercial access has not been possible,” she said, adding that supplies are delivered by the ICRC and Russian peacekeepers.

She said that the USAID sent two assessment missions to the region and that the U.S. is encouraging the UN to send an interagency assessment mission as well.

[WATCH VIDEO]

Meanwhile, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) criticized Power in a Facebook post for “dodging a straightforward Congressional inquiry” when asked whether the blockade of Artsakh "meets USAID's definition of a crisis."

Lachin Corridor – the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world – has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022. The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan on 22 February 2023 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has so far ignored the order.