Armenian Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan reacted to Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan’s statement on the setup of Azerbaijani checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan highway, saying that instead of legitimizing these actions, efforts should be made to remove the checkpoints.

In an interview with the Public TV Company on Wednesday, Grigoryan announced that Azerbaijani forces would set up customs checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan road starting from midnight.

Addressing the Secretary of the Security Council, Tatoyan demanded explanations from him over a number of issues.

“As the secretary of the Armenian Security Council, the official has to explain how the free and safe movement of people and goods on the Goris-Kapan road is possible in the conditions of Azerbaijani border and customs control?” the ombudsman wrote on Facebook.

Tatoyan also wondered if the Security Council Secretary realizes that these actions would lead to the restriction of Armenian citizens’ rights, including arrests, fines, criminal prosecutions, and searches by Azeri law enforcement agencies.

“How are the residents of Armenia [neighboring villages] or foreigners traveling along the Goris-Kapan road supposed to protect their rights. For example, whom should they apply to and by what procedures? the ombudsman said.

Another issue raised by Tatoyan concerns the ways to hold the Azerbaijani border and customs officers responsible for violation of rights.

He reiterated that the presence of the Azerbaijani military, law enforcement agencies, and, above all, their actions on the roads of Armenia are unlawful.

“Instead of legitimizing their presence and actions by statements, efforts should be made towards their withdrawal,” Tatoyan wrote.

The first day of Pashinyan come to power in 2018 set the stage for the Turkification of Armenia and send two messages to Turkey unconditional relation with Turkey and the Closing Armenian Ministry of diaspora

There can be no talk of normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan without the restoration of full diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Former Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin told this to Haqqani.az of Azerbaijan.

Speaking about the role of the Armenian diaspora, Cetin noted that, “In time, the people of Armenia will come to understand all the harmfulness and destruction of its impact on the political course of Yerevan.”

“Sitting in comfortable conditions in the West, the [Armenian] diaspora continues to sow enmity between Armenia and its neighbors,” Cetin added, ignoring the fact that the Armenian diaspora comprises largely the descendants of the victims of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Turkey.

According to Cetin, “After the defeat suffered in the war with Azerbaijan, Armenia only returned to its borders recognized by the world community. So, there is no reason for new wars here at all. At the same time, it must be understood that any new war unleashed by Armenia will lead to huge losses for its people.”

In the spirit of Turkish diplomacy, Cetin implied that normalization of relations with Turkey “will open the way for Armenia to the world”, as now “all trade and economic relations between Armenia and the outside world pass solely through the territory of Russia, which in itself is not much of a positive factor for an independent state.” Cetin even “generously” called on the Azerbaijani authorities to “build houses and roads in the Armenian-populated cities of Karabakh.”

According to Hikmet Cetin, “At present, there are all the necessary preconditions for establishing lasting peace in the South Caucasus region. It confirms the positive response of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey to Armenia’s desire, which was voiced in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s last speech, to normalize relations with neighboring countries.”

“Yes. It will take some time for these relations to normalize and meet the standards of good neighborliness,” added Hikmet Cetin. “But it is inevitable, as it is the wish not only of Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also of Armenia, whose people, despite the defeat in the 44-day war, as a result, supported not the revanchist leaders of the Dashnaktsutyun [Party], but Prime Minister Pashinyan.”

A struggling economy and defeat in last year’s war appear to be driving large numbers of Armenians to leave the country.

Ani Mejlumyan

In a stagnating economy and following a dispiriting war defeat, Armenians appear to be leaving the country in large numbers.

While emigration is an unofficial process and so is not documented precisely, a proxy statistic to measure the flow is to compare the number of Armenians leaving the country to the number entering it. While that number was positive in each of the three years between 2018 and 2020 – that is, more Armenians entered the country than left – it has taken a dramatic turn in 2021.

In the three quarters of 2021, 103,000 more Armenians left the country than entered it, according to official data. That amounts to about 3 percent of the country’s entire population. Most of the loss was in the first quarter of the year, when the net loss represented almost 64,000 people. 

At Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport, 30-something Narine, who did not give her last name, was among those leaving. She lived in the town of Masis, in the Ararat region, and her husband has been working as a labor migrant in various cities around Russia. “He left for Russia at the beginning of the year but now he’s not coming back, and he asked me and our two boys to join him,” she told Eurasianet. The family’s prospects in Armenia appeared hopeless given the country’s political and security situation, she said. “My husband said we should leave while we can because it’s not safe for the future of the kids.”

Analysts say that the economy remains the top reason for outmigration, but that other post-war challenges and security issues also are playing a role.

Armenia’s economy shrank 7.6 percent in 2020. “The economic crisis that began last year has forced people to exhaust all their savings,” economist Hrant Mikaelian told Eurasianet. “We see that financial flows in the economy are slow but inflation is high.” 

Demographics has long been a concern in Armenia, where the population has decreased by roughly 600,000, or about 15 percent, since the country gained independence in 1991, due to a combination of low birth rates and high levels of emigration. 

Mikaelian said that the benchmark to compare 2021 is not the years that came immediately before but the other “crisis years” that Armenia has suffered since independence. He cited years including 1998, when there was an economic crisis compounded by a political crisis; or the global economic recession of 2008. Both those years were followed by large spikes in emigration, he said. “I think we will have a similar picture this and next year and probably it will be comparable to those crisis years.”

The head of Armenia’s Migration Service, Armen Ghazaryan, echoed that assessment. “Migration is closely connected to the economic situation – better years show fewer people leaving,” he told Eurasianet. “2004 to 2006, 2018 to 2020 were good economic years that showed less migration.”

Because seasonal migrant workers to Russia form the bulk of migrants, the real picture on migration will become clear by the end of the year when they traditionally return for the holidays, when work in Russia slows down, Ghazaryan said.

But there are indications that more Armenians may be moving to Russia permanently.  

According to Russia’s Federal Migration Service, about 22,000 Armenians were granted Russian citizenship in the first half of this year. That’s the highest such figure in the last four years.  

While economic factors drive many Armenians to emigrate, the difficult situation following the war has also impacted Armenians with more means.

“Some families are leaving because they are afraid for their children to be conscripted into the army, they’re afraid of endangering their kids’ lives,” Mikaelian said. “There are people who don’t believe the country has a future and they decide to tie their future to another country. We see this tendency in people who are not the poorest, but live normally.” 

One of those who has lost faith is Vahe Grigoryan, a 20-something from the Tavush region, who also was at Zvartnots to get a flight to Russia. He has worked on and off there for two years and is now weighing a longer or even permanent stay. “All my extended family moved to Russia over the last 10 years and they are making a living; meanwhile in Tavush there is no work, or if there is it’s nothing you can build a future on,” he told Eurasianet.

“Of course the war on our doorstep [the summer 2020 fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan] and then in Nagorno-Karabakh [that autumn] has had a huge impact on people’s decisions,” he told Eurasianet. “But Russia also is not what it used to be; the job market is crashing there, too. I love my country. Why would anyone move to frigid Russia if we had decent conditions to live in this country? The only people who have any sort of life here are in Yerevan.” 

Ruben Yeganyan, an economist and demographer who studies migration, is currently conducting a survey with the United Nations on emigration out of Armenia, with a particular focus on post-war factors. 

The survey will be completed in February 2022, but early indications are that migration might be slower than it otherwise would be because of COVID-related restrictions on movement, Yeganyan said. “The flow of permanent emigration is now frozen, and that has to do with external factors, not Armenia,” he told Eurasianet. “It’s possible that a lot of people want to leave but they can’t.”

While seasonal labor migration is mostly conditioned by the economic situation, there are now additional factors that are making the research harder to conduct, Yeganyan said. 

Many of those whom his team is surveying don’t want to talk, or hide their real thoughts about migration, he said.   

“Social, moral, psychological aspects of the issue, and the post-war and ugly political situation from all sides, are all affecting people’s attitudes,” he said. “People are fed up. I would call it a post-war shock, distrust, they don’t trust any organizations.”

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

1835 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 316,839, the ministry of healthcare reports.

11,553 COVID-19 tests were conducted on November 4.

1987 patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 276,865.

The death toll has risen to 6582 (50 death cases have been registered in the past one day).

The number of active cases is 32,069.

The number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 but died from other disease has reached 1323.

Just minutes ago, the European Court of Human Rights announced the decisions on the cases of Mamikon Khojoyan and Karen Petrosyan (residents of Verin Karmiraghbyur and Chinar villages of Tavush Province of Armenia), who were captured and tortured in Azerbaijan in 2014.

The ECHR acknowledged that Baku has violated the right of the Armenian captives to life, as well as the rights to abstain from tortures and discrimination and to freedom and personal immunity. The ECHR also obliged Baku to pay EUR 40,000 under each case.

Mamikon Khojoyan, 77, was captured in January 2014. Two months later, on March 4, he was returned to Armenia and died after a while. The forensic medicine expert examination showed that the reason for his death was total intoxication of the organism.

On August 7, 2014, Karen Petrosyan got lost, crossed the border and found himself in an Azerbaijani village. After a short while, the Azerbaijani authorities detained him, and the next day, they declared that Petrosyan had died from a heart attack.

Baku transferred the body of Karen Petrosyan to the Armenian side in October 2014 in an attempt to conceal the traces of violence.

Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am had reported that the ECHR will announce the decision on the case of Karen Petrosyan, who was brutally killed in 2014 in Azerbaijan.

Secretary of the Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, has exceeded his powers. The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Armenia (RA), Arman Tatoyan, told this to a press conference Wednesday, responding, in particular, to Grigoryan’s remark that the ombudsman’s statements are political nature, and that in a few months they will nominate their candidate for the post of Human Rights Defender.

“In general, who gave him the right to discuss the issue of changing the Human Rights Defender? This is an obvious encroachment on the independent institution of the Human Rights Defender—and by a high-ranking official of the executive power. I have officially applied to the Corruption Prevention Commission. That person should be held accountable for his statements in order to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted work of the ombudsman of Armenia in the future as well,” Tatoyan said.

According to Arman Tatoyan, there are two main theories in the statements of the secretary of the Security Council: he questions the impartiality of the Human Rights Defender, and makes political statements.

“It is generally ridiculous because 1-2 days before that, when the Venice Commission adopts the strongest report on the RA Ombudsman, it says that the RA Ombudsman is a key player in the development of human rights, democracy in the country,” said the ombudsman.

Tatoyan added that in 2018 when Armen Grigoryan was detained, he had visited him, and written a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office, demanding an investigation into the violations of his rights.

He mentioned that all this shows one thing: nothing has changed, both before the 2018 change in power and now, in terms of the attitude towards the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.

“Border issues should not be viewed in isolation from human rights. It should not be taken under the military-political ‘roof.’ This is how we make our country a victim of geopolitical games. Isn’t it clear that this is the most super beneficial approach for Azerbaijan to cut off from human rights and take everything to the military-political field,” Tatoyan said.

“I have submitted so many reports, emphasizing in particular that the Azerbaijanis have come, entered, are making denials from the side, giving a separate political instruction to the local self-government bodies to say that such a thing did not happen. We need it to ensure compensation, to protect the rights of our citizens at international organizations, right? (…). It is easy to say everything—‘political, political’ and forget all the issues,” said Arman Tatoyan.

The ombudsman stressed that he will continue his exclusive human rights work as the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.

Glasgow, 2 November, 2021 Video

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank Her Majesty and Her Majesty’s Government for organizing this significant and timely event.

Special thanks to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his colleagues and the City of Glasgow for an excellent summit and warm hospitality.

First about Armenia – a small state but a global nation.

According to the World Bank analysis, Armenia is the 4th most vulnerable country to climate change in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Armenia has registered a 1.3-degree Celsius increase in temperature, and a 9 per cent decrease in precipitation.

Despite the challenges by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we are committed to a stronger integration into the global agenda on climate change and to demonstrate an increase in our climate ambition.

Armenia has consistently expressed its commitment to joining global efforts to combat climate change. In 2021 Armenia reaffirmed our commitment through the Nationally Determined Contributions and declared an objective of 40 per cent reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to the 1990 levels.

The long-term objective of Armenia is to achieve climate neutrality in the second half of this century.

Transition to climate neutrality is at the core of the country’s energy independence, energy security and green growth policies.

Our vision of resilient and low-carbon growth is directly connected to a solid and effective adaptation strategy based on an ecosystem approach, reforestation, investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, new high technologies, promotion of electric mobility and further development of nuclear energy.
Dear colleagues,

Substantial public debt burdens most developing economies in their ability to access concessional and non-concessional climate finance.

In this regard, a creative approach is crucial. I am delighted to share with you our renewed “Debt-for-Climate Swap” Initiative. It presents a new climate finance instrument. And it will help developing countries to adapt more efficiently to climate change finance, provides new economic opportunities.

Mr. President,

Exactly one year ago during its war against Nagorno-Karabakh Azerbaijan used internationally banned weapons to target not only civilians but also beautiful forests of the large area, causing massive forest fires and creating environmental disasters in place. We call on international community to step up its efforts to prevent such irresponsible, inhumane behavior.

The environmental challenges do not recognize borders and conflict lines, and we should bring all states of the world into comprehensive cooperation.

Now just a couple of words about this conference.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opening of the conference, enjoyed the speeches of my colleagues from worldwide. And it was confirmed by everybody here, that there’s a big problem which is the climate change. But that’s not the only problem that we have these days, because we are facing also pandemic, we are facing economic difficulties worldwide, we are facing rise of populism, we are facing uncertainty, we are also facing unpredictability here.

By having all of these problems, we have also recognized here globally that there’s huge wealth and that wealth is in trillions of dollars that could resolve the issue. And on the other side during the hundred years of development based on quantum technology and quantum physics, we have achieved phenomenal achievements in science and technology, and that technology today can resolve our problems be that in climate changes, be that in Covid and other problems that we are facing.

So where is the problem? Why are not we so effective or efficient? I think that there’s one thing that we should learn from the history of science when 100 years ago great scientists, people like Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Heisenberg, realized that the classical laws of physics and mechanics cannot be applied to the new discovered small particles and atoms. You have to change your mentality, you have to change your philosophy, your logic, even your common sense to understand and create the theory of quantum physics.

We are on the crossroad. The world has become quantum. This is a crossroad that we have to start thinking differently because the world that’s ahead of us, is not the one that was there 10 or 20 years ago. If we change our mentality and form our ambition and strategy, then we can effectively use the finances and the wealth that the world created during this phenomenal development and use the technology to handle the problems that we are facing. But not only to resolve the problems but also to create the basis of development to the brighter future years to come.

At the opening of this Summit Professor Brian Cox took us to a trip to Cosmos to see from the above how amazingly beautiful this Planet is and to realize that in the whole Universe this is our Home and the Only One and there is no other alternative for us but to work and to fight for this Green and Blue Planet.

Armenia is committed to become a really Smart State, devoted to our Nature, Planet and Humanity. And I’m optimistic that we can overcome these difficulties and build a brighter future for all of us.

Thank you.

The speeches by the presidents and heads of governments of the participating countries will continue Tuesday, the second day of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) being held in Glasgow, UK, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned the press office of the President of Armenia

Also, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian is scheduled to deliver an address today.

Earlier, the President spoke—on the margins of COP26—with the leaders of several countries, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, as well as with European Council President Charles Michel.

“Sheep Investigating Wolf” ?

Pashinyan another false flag operation he created Sheep political supporter to investigate Pashinyan 44 day war crime against Armenian nation imagine that…

The Sheep

Republic Party chairman Aram Sargsyan, Liberal Party chairman Samvel Babayan, representative of Alliance Progressive Centrist Party chairman Tigran Arzakantsyan, Fair Armenia Party chairman Norair Norikyan, Sovereign Armenia Party chairman David Sanasaryan, Armenia’s European Party chairman Tigran Khzmalyan, Christian-Democratic Party chairman Levon Shirinyan, United Motherland Party chairman Mher Terteryan, Conservative Party leader Mikayel Hayrapetyan, Social Democrat Hunchakian Party Armenia Office Head Sedrak Achemian.