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Iranian Parliament ratifies Iran-Armenia border cooperation agreement

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An Iranian MP, while pointing to ratification of Iran-Armenia border cooperation agreement by the Parliament, said the deal aims at boosting goods transit between the two sides, Mehr News Agency reports.

Zahra Saei said the agreement pertained to Norduz Border Terminal and was part of the plan for common border management with neighbors.

“The project, which is in accordance with the recommendations of Kyoto Convention and Chapter VII of the International Covenant on coordination of border control, has been put on agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

The official said the common border gateway plan mainly aims at avoiding similar measures in border customs of the two countries in order to facilitate and speed up customs formalities.

Other merits of the plan include development of business diplomacy with neighbors which is a part of general policies of Resistance Economy since it leads to stronger economic and trade relations with neighbors, facilitates goods transit as well as that it reduces border trade costs, customs offenses parallel workload and smuggling of goods.

Father Anton Totonjian accused of financing the plot of Vartanian

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A prosecutor said Friday that an Armenian Catholic priest had financed members of a militant group who wanted to seize power before being arrested in November 2015.

Father Anton Totonjian was arrested shortly after Armenian security forces attacked the group’s hiding place in Yerevan. They found large quantities of weapons and explosives there and arrested fifteen people led by Artur Vartanian.

Vartanian lived in Spain before returning to Armenia in April 2015 and set up his group called Hayots Vahan Gund. The National Security Service (SNS) says Vartanian and his associates have drawn up detailed plans to seize the presidential administration, government, parliament, Constitutional Court and state television buildings in Yerevan.

Totonjian, who headed a Catholic radio station in Gumri, was released in January 2016, but was later tried with Vartanian and another 18 men in December. “Everything is made,” said the 71-year-old priest to reporters at the beginning of the trial.

Speaking to a Yerevan district court, one of the prosecutors said that Totonjian and Vartanian had met several times in April and May 2015 to discuss the situation in Armenia. He said they agreed that the current leadership of Armenia should be overthrown by force.

“Having an experience of armed actions and military skills, Artur Vartanian has pledged to create, in order to seize power, a criminal association whose full funding would be provided by Anton Dikran Totonjian,” the prosecutor accused. He added that the priest had disbursed $ 60,000 to Vartanian in several installments.

Vartanian denies the charges against him. “Artur Vartanian not only rejects the acts attributed to him, but also considers that these accusations are fabricated,” his lawyer Levon Baghdasarian said on Friday.

Baghdasarian did not deny that Vartanian set up the group and acquired firearms and explosives. But he insisted that his client never intended to seize government buildings.

Monday 31 July 2017,
Claire © armenews.com

4 Azerbaijan citizens were granted asylum in Armenia

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YEREVAN. – Four Azerbaijani citizens—a 17-year-old boy and a girl as well as a 35-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman—were granted asylum in Armenia in the first half of the year.

Karine Kuyumjyan, Head of the Census and Demography Division at the National Statistical Service of Armenia, said the abovementioned at a press conference on Monday.

She noted that 55 people—25 Syrian citizens, 9 Ukrainian citizens, 7 Cuban citizens, 6 Iranian citizens, and 8 from other nationalities—have sought asylum from Armenia.

In addition 46 persons—33 Syrian citizens, 4 Azerbaijani citizens, 3 Ukrainian citizens, 3 Iraqi citizens, and 2 Iranian citizens—were granted a refugee status in Armenia.

US sanctions against Russia ‘in Armenia’s interests’ – analyst

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The United States’ move to enforce fresh sanctions against Russia gives absolutely no ground for concern, especially to Armenia, according a Yerevan-based political analyst.
Speaking to Tert.am, Levon Shirinyan described the Trump administration’s recent decision as an attempt to ‘constrain Russia’s appetite’.
“Russia’s expansionist appetite is really big, as they want to seize Donbass, Ukraine and Armenia,” he said, blaming the country also for provoking repeated hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“With those sanctions now, the United States are making attempts to moderate that appetite,” Shirinyan added.

The expert said he also sees Russian attempts to establish dominance over Armenia through soft power. “While they now propose giving Russian a state language status, sometime in the future, they may urge us to change also our religion. That’s a Russian style of acting, a way of seizing [Armenia],” he noted.

Shirinyan attributed the country’s somewhat uneasy conduct to inability to maintain the one-time strong influence over the South Caucasus region. He also criticized Russia’s return move to reduce its diplomatic staff in the country as an absolutely non-adequate reaction.

“Russia will have to moderate [its ambitions]. They have no other choice. Nothing is developing in Russia – neither economy, nor agriculture and nor even science. Whatever they have created so far was due to the technologies [imported] from the West. So they are now blocking that way,” he added.

Armenian Villagers oppose a gold mine project

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Armenia gold mine projectDozens of residents of a village in Lori province in western Armenia blocked a local road Wednesday to protest against the project of an obscure private company that is considering looking for gold near Of their community.

They fear that the mine project, if implemented, will wreak havoc on the local ecosystem by contaminating the forests and pastures surrounding the village of Ardvi. They claim that the open-cast mines will also frighten tourists who visit the 10th century shrines located in Ardvi.

The company in question, called Miram, has so far disclosed only a few details of its plans to develop a gold mine in the region. It has not yet obtained government approval for the proposed operation.

The Armenian law requires that companies wishing to obtain mining licenses organize public hearings in the communities affected by their operations. Miram planned to hold such a discussion on Wednesday.

The villagers disrupted the procedure by blocking a road leading to Ardvi. “Our gold is our nature,” said one of the angry protesters.

“Their goal is to destroy our village. We will not accept any hearing, “shouted another villager.

The representatives of Miram never showed up. Until now, Arayik Zadoyan – director of a restaurant in the provincial capital Vanadzor – was among the shareholders of the company. The restaurant in question belongs to Vahram Baghdasarian, the parliamentary leader of the Republican Party.

Zadoyan said on Wednesday that he no longer owns shares in Miram. He added that the company is controlled by one of his friends from Russia.

Thursday, July 27, 2017,
Claire © armenews.com

Armenians File War Crimes Lawsuits Against Azerbaijan

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YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Hundreds of Armenians have filed government-backed lawsuits in the European Court of Human Rights accusing Azerbaijan of beheading Armenian soldiers and committing other atrocities during last year’s heavy fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ara Ghazaryan, an Armenian legal expert involved in the unprecedented legal action, said on Tuesday that the Strasbourg-based court has already requested official information from Baku on over 20 of the 359 lawsuits filed from Armenia and Karabakh.

“We expect a just compensation,” Ghazarian told a joint news conference with Armenia’s and Karabakh’s human rights ombudsmen. “It could be both a recognition of the violations [of the European Convention on Human Rights] and subsequent compensation for material and moral damages. But first and foremost, we must ensure that the European Court recognizes that there were violations.”

The war crimes alleged by the plaintiffs stem from the April 2016 hostilities in and around Karabakh which left least 180 soldiers from both warring sides dead. The authorities in Stepanakert and Yerevan say that three Armenian soldiers were beheaded by Azerbaijani troops at the time. They claim that one of them, the 31-year-old Major Hayk Toroyan, was still alive when his Azerbaijani captors began cutting off his head.

The headless body of another soldier, Kyaram Sloyan, was handed over to his family and buried on April 4, 2016, two days after the Azerbaijani army launched an offensive at two sections of the Karabakh “line of contact.” The family living in a village in central Armenia received the 19-year-old’s severed head later on.

According to Karabakh prosecutors, 15 other Armenian soldiers had their ears cut off after being killed by Azerbaijani forces.

Another Armenian lawsuit filed in Strasbourg stems from the violent deaths of three elderly members of a family in Talish, a village in northern Karabakh that was devastated by Azerbaijani shelling in April 2016. They were reportedly murdered by Azerbaijani commandos that burst into their home located on the outskirts of Talish.

Armenian-Israeli economic cooperation discussed in Yerevan

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Israel ArmeniaPrime Minister Karen Karapetyan on Wednesday received the Israeli minister of regional cooperation, who is in Yerevan on an official visit .

Greeting Tzachi Hanegbi in his office, the chief of Armenia’s cabinet expressed the country’s interest in developing cooperation with Israel to intensify particularly the economic dialogue, reports the Government’s press service.

Emphasizing his country’s willingness to deepen the economic partnership with Armenia, the Israeli official for his part attached importance to the recently launched direct flights between Tel Aviv and Yerevan.

He said that his visit is aimed at considering, and identifying possible avenues of cooperation in the IT sector, economy, tourism, trade and agriculture.

 

Armenian apricot export hits record

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Apricot ExportYEREVAN. – Export of apricots from Armenia in 2017 hit a seven-year record, deputy agriculture minister Robert Makaryan said.

Over 26 tons of apricots have been exported since the beginning of summer, he told reporters on Wednesday. Although the apricot season is over, export continues thanks to the reserves in refrigerators.

The official added that the export of strawberries has doubled reaching 2.5 thousand tons.

Since the beginning of this year, export of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables has reached 65 thousand tons with Russia being the main market for the Armenian export.

Magnitude 3.0 earthquake strikes Armenia

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earthquake armeniaA magnitude 3.0 earthquake hit Armenia on Monday, July 24, at 9:55 pm, the ministry of emergency situations said.

The quake was registered 6 km east of the town of Vayk and struck the area at a depth of 10 kilometers.

According to preliminary data, tremors were felt in several villages and towns nearby.