2021 June 23

Daily news wrap-up

News - Jun/23/2021: (1) Ballot recount adds few votes (2) Vanetsyan about cooperating w/Nikol, Crimea, Shushi operation (3) PACE, Azeri graves, landmine maps (4) President questioned for 8 hours (5) Fake news: 200,000 voter fraud (6) Remittances +29% (7) When would Russian guards deploy? (8) Forf...
by ar_david_hh

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This is your 11-minute Wednesday report in 2845 words.

Armenian peacekeepers exercise in Germany

They are deployed in Hohenfels city. The crowd-control exercise was in the U.S. military base as part of the "Kosovo Force" program.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056349.html

High Tech and Defense Ministers discuss cooperation in a military-industrial complex

They discussed cooperation to make the field more efficient.

Minister Chobanyan: it's best if we don't disclose certain things publicly but I can say that we currently have programs inherited from the past, as well as new projects, involving serious companies. This is going to result in a change of situation in the country. When the time comes we will publish details.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056388.html https://factor.am/386476.html

Photos: conscripts are drafted to military

https://factor.am/386367.html

update: suspect arrested in shooting of candidate's windshield

Someone put a hole in the windshield of anti-Kocharyan and Russia-critic MP Babajanyan's vehicle on the election day. He wasn't in the car. On Monday we learned that the police arrested a suspect.

Today the investigators confirmed the arrest of "Nikolai Kh.". No other details.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056317.html

Vladimir Putin about the 2020 Karabakh war and neighbors:

Russia has resolutely stopped the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Our peacekeepers ensure peace and security in a reliable way, help with humanitarian issues, demine the territories, and help with the restoration of infrastructure...

Russia never forgets its responsibility for the security and prosperity of neighboring countries. We are united by inseparable historical, cultural, and human ties...

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056300.html

Aliyev complains that Armenia shared only partial landmine maps

Aliyev: they only gave us Aghdam maps. In Aghdam alone, there were 97,000 landmines. There are thousands of mines elsewhere but they are refusing to share the maps. Landmines have killed and wounded hundreds of our citizens since the ceasefire. //

Context: Armenia has been sharing landmine maps piece-by-piece in exchange for POWs. The maps are from areas that no longer separate the Armenian border from Azerbaijan.

https://factor.am/386316.html

Putin spoke with Aliyev

The emphasis was on the unblocking of trade routes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the implementation of the Nov 9 and Jan 11 agreements.

Foreign Ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan also discussed the same topic.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056377.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056335.html

PACE session: Armenian delegation about Azerbaijan's war crimes and Armenophobic propaganda among children

Delegate Hayrapetyan: while the world was calling for a fight against the pandemic, the people of Artsakh were forced to hide in bomb shelters against Azerbaijan's aggression... COVID hospitals were forced to treat other patients. There were 300 COVID patients in Artsakh before the attack. Then it became impossible to track it... 71 schools and 14 kindergartens were destroyed, leading to 8,000 students without education.

Delegate Zohrabyan: there is a country in our European family that used fake news to raise an Armenophobic and murderous generation. An Azeri politician announces that Armenians must be killed in Karabakh while the Azeri media spreads his message. An 13yo Azeri girl says she wants to become a sniper and kill an Armenian, and this becomes the top news in Azeri media.

Full: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056301.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056304.html https://www.facebook.com/100024312001008/videos/1009813266505731/

Turkish faction in Dutch parliament makes a U-turn, supports Armenia

Denk party in the Netherlands, known for defending Turkish and Azeri interests and having the support of hundreds of thousands of Turkish voters in the Netherlands, has changed its stance in regards to Armenian POWs.

They joined the recently approved resolution that urges the Dutch MFA to pressure Azerbaijan to release the POWs.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056354.html

Azeri media finds unnamed military graves

35 soldiers were buried in one location in the captured Fizuli district. No one knows who they are. According to the Azeri regime, their official death toll is 2904 with 1245 wounded, but a Turkish TV recently reported about 6000 dead and wounded.

https://factor.am/386523.html

Artsakh president Arayik signed an order to issue ֏500,000 in aid

... to anyone who was hospitalized with injuries or wounds during the war but did not receive such aid from the Armenian government for various reasons. This includes people who were injured but did not go to a hospital.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056325.html

Artsakh president has been interrogated for 8 hours as part of 2020 war investigation

... announced president Arayik himself. He said that during the war he did not have the authority to command the army and that he could only give them advice. He answered questions for 8 hours.

https://factor.am/386173.html

PU Vanetsyan about the planned Shushi operation that never took place

You may remember from Gen. Samvel Babayan's interviews about plans to cut the Azeri movement from south (Hadrut) to north (Shushi) by blocking their corridor. Babayan said he had a plan but the soldiers refused to fight at the last moment.

Arthur Vanetsyan was asked to comment on a video that was circulated allegedly related to that operation. Vanetsyan was seen in the video.

Vanetsyan: Samvel Babayan has already spoken about why the operation was not conducted. I don't want to add anything. I don't think we should speak about that episode at all. It wasn't about Shushi. I was on the battlefield with my unit. We fought to the best of our abilities until the last day. Contact Samvel Babayan for clarification.

https://youtu.be/IzxMpJI-2YU https://factor.am/386223.html https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/kwrha3/jan132021_news_war_story_battles_near_shushi/

Arthur Vanetsyan on whether they plan to cooperate with Pashinyan

Not at this stage, said Vanetsyan. He said they have not received any cooperation offers from Pashinyan, and even if they did, they don't see themselves sitting with Pashinyan to discuss things.

Vanetsyan needs some time to learn the final outcome of election results, the Constitutional Court ruling whether to certify the results, a possible recount, etc.

Vanetsyan: during his speech, Pashinyan spoke about laying people on asphalt. If he wants solidarity in our society, he needs to prove with his actions - in a very short period of time - that he has changed. I will be happy if he truly brings internal peace. We will have a mirrored attitude towards him. //

Context: Pashinyan vowed to launch a reconciliation phase, while emphasizing that he hasn't given up on plans to return "what was stolen from people for years", specifically about the asset forfeiture law that went into effect recently.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056338.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056345.html

Крым наш and Я чекист / PU Vanetsyan about his "Crimea is ours" statement

Vanetsyan [former NSS National Security Services chif] recently went to Moscow and gave an interview to Vladimir Solovyov and said "Crimea is ours". He was asked the comment...

Vanetsyan: my statement had a continuation. It's about people's right to self-determination. I drew parallels with the Artsakh conflict. If 95% of Crimeans voted to join Russia then it must be respected, including by Armenia. Why? Because we have Artsakh conflict.

As for "Я чекист" (I'm a spook) statement, it's a slag used by security services officials. Armenia's NSS does not consider itself the successor of the former KGB. Armenian NSS works solely for Armenia. //

https://youtu.be/MqFlwZPIzvQ https://factor.am/386168.html

deputy Premier Tigran Avinyan about borders, internal peace, Armenia's future:

We're discussing the deployment of Russian border guards on Gegharkunik borders but that is only possible after Azeris fully withdraw from Armenian territories. A new phase of negotiations will soon begin...

Armenia is entering a good period for work, development, progress, and opportunities. All state bodies should use this time for the benefit of Armenia's development...

The return of POWs is a continuous process, as you have witnessed. It's not an easy task but I'm confident we have the opportunity to resolve it...

We have not and do not encourage violence against our political opponents. When it comes to public offices, they are inviolable regardless of their political views. On the other hand, when it comes to political positions, their political views are of key importance...

[Context: the mayor of Odzun village was recently assaulted. SIS launched a felony investigation. Kocharyan's party claimed that the mayor was pressured to resign and was beaten in the governor's building. The governor denied beating or pressuring the mayor to resign. Earlier, election observers received complaints that the aforementioned Odzun mayor was promising bribes on behalf of the Kocharyan alliance. It's unclear whether the alleged confrontation was related to the alleged bribery. Another mayor, from Vanadzor, denied being "present at the scene and stopping the fight". He denied being pressured to resign.]

https://youtu.be/3x8o3Lsv9xc https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056336.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056333.html https://youtu.be/7ObLqOmD56o https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056341.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056358.html https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/o0mfh1/news_jun152021_1_pashinyan_about_partially/ https://youtu.be/HuqpH6X9VvU https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/216953

ballot recount in dozens of polling stations

The electoral commission itself wanted to recount in some stations, in addition to petitions by parties.

Six stations were recounted. In one Vanadzor station, Kocharyan gained 90 votes.

In three different polling stations, they found that Pashinyan's party was erroneously given 39 instead of 390 votes. Someone forgot the "zero". Similarly, he was given 49 instead of the received 409 votes, and 28 instead of 281.

A similar "missing zero" error was made against an opposition force in one polling station, announced a ruling party MP. He urged residents to refrain from "making a noise" over such technical errors.

In the 9/4 polling station, the recount found a technical error that did not alter the ballot count. In one station there was a complaint by a participant that they erroneously received 3 votes instead of 63, but a recount did not result in changes.

In polling station 23/47, Kocharyan's alliance said they were missing a "zero". The investigation revealed that the polling station credited them the right number of ballots but the Electoral Commission made an error in their preliminary reports. No changes were made to the ballot count.

As a result of a recount in 18 locations, Pashinyan gained 659, Kocharyan gained 744, Babajanyan gained 52, Verelk lost 19, etc.

https://factor.am/386114.html https://www.facebook.com/arayik.harutyunyan/posts/10159377336393501 https://factor.am/386349.html https://youtu.be/YSFWWoROWZc https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056396.html https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/216956

rumors and rebuttals: the elections were not rigged with "200,000 new voters"

A political figure Artak Tovmasyan claimed election fraud, citing "dozens of thousands of forgeries and addition of 200,000 more voters since the 2018 elections".

Registration department: voter registry includes citizens listed in the state population register. No new voter lists were created in 2021. The database is constantly updated. It's the same 2018 database, plus the post-2018 natural population changes.

2018: 2,572,935

2021: 2,578,678

The eligible voter count increased only by 5,743, while the population registration registry increased by 7,102.

The number of new people who were added to the voter lists is not 200,000. In the past 3 years there were 123,235 natural additions:

67,180 of them have turned the age of 18

28,254 returned from military service and were re-registered in their local districts

6,642 became citizens and registered as residents

1,038 prison inmates were freed and re-registered in local districts

Full: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056402.html

Հալէպէն Երեւան – Ողջոյն

Հալէպի հայերն ալ թեթեւցած շունչ մը քաշեցին, չէ՞ որ Հայաստանի Ազգային Ժողովի արտահերթ ընտրութիւնները ետեւ մնացին...

Full: https://www.civilnet.am/news/623752/հալէպէն-երեւան-ողջո՛յն/

president Sarkissian believes Armenia should switch to a presidential system

Premier Pashinyan and Samvel Babayan expressed similar views earlier.

https://www.civilnet.am/news/623844/արմեն-սարգսյանի-կարծիքով՝-պետք-է-փոխել-սահմանադրությունը-անցնել-նախագահական-կառավարման-ձևի/

The FUTURE ARMENIAN initiative

... run by prominent Armenian diasporans (Nubar Afeyan, Arthur Alaverdyan, Richard Azaryanb, Ruben Vardanyan) released a statement congratulating Armenia on the elections, wished the winning forces good luck, and said that some of the issues can only be solved with the help of diasporans.

The initiative has 15 goals for the development of Armenia.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056287.html https://futurearmenian.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Full-list-of-the-goals-20210517_ARM_FINAL.pdf

world continues to congratulate Pashinyan on victory

Belarus's Lukashenko congratulated Pashinyan and QP. "Your devotion and service to the interests of the Armenian people have become the key to success."

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056288.html

Ukraine's ruling party MP Dmitryuk congratulated Pashinyan. "The people of Ukraine and Armenia have a common history, common successes, common losses. That is why we must move forward together."

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056290.html

Hunchakyan Social-Democrat Party congratulated all Armenians for "yet another free, fair, and transparent elections". They congratulated Pashinyan and QP over the "impressive victory". The party believes the "anti-bribery" and other work that began in 2018 must be completed.

Hunchaks condemned "certain politicians and church members" for "insulting the public and using labels". They welcomed Pashinyan's recent reconciliatory remarks.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056302.html

Jerusalem Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian congratulated Pashinyan. "We will pray that you contribute to the establishment of solidarity in the Homeland, fulfill the expectations of our people, increase the security of Armenia and Artsakh, reform the Armenian army, and develop the economy."

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056319.html

Pashinyan continues to host opposition parties in the post-election reconciliation effort

He met ex-BHK MP Urikhanyan to hear his views on the further course of political life. "All political forces generate some valuable political content, which very often goes unnoticed due to noise."

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056323.html

He met Conservative Party chief Hayrapetyan. The latter won't challenge the election results. He hopes to see internal unity.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056331.html

He met Sovereign Armenia party leader Sanasaryan, a former teammate-turned-opposition.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056343.html

He met environmental activist Tigran Khzmalyan, the head of the European Party of Armenia. Khzmalyan congratulated him on the reelection and recommended a closer integration with the EU.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056393.html

Justice Ministry gives an update on asset forfeiture law and active cases

Badasyan: there are over 20 cases that have reached the final stage. In some cases, petitions were sent to court to authorize the freezing of assets. We're talking about expensive properties.

We are displaying an institutional approach with these reforms that we implemented in the past few years. We decided not o recover stolen properties "at any cost", and instead, we formed institutes and laws so that there won't be questions left about the legitimacy of the process, and to show that we aren't violating property rights.

The law provides tools for the [suspect] and state to settle cases peacefully. I hope that those who know they possess illegal properties will choose that option. //

https://factor.am/386364.html https://youtu.be/GHBmodoF0Is

president Sarkissian is expecting the second baby (clickbait)

This Autumn, the Summit of Minds international forum will take place in Armenia for the second year. Usually held in Chamonix, France, the forum moved to Armenia in 2019 with the efforts of president Sarkissian. The ~300 guest scientists and politicians discuss AI, future tech, politics, etc.

Sarkissian: I'm sure you have all missed the summit. This year it will be held in Dilijan, Chamonix, and Washington. Having three meetings instead of one shows that people are interested. //

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056320.html

17,000 baby ishkhan trouts are dumped in Lake Sevan

... as part of Nature Ministry's campaign to increase the fish population. They plan to dump another 80K later this year once the fish grow above 3 grams and gains the ability to survive in the lake.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056313.html

road repairs in Sevan city

Sargis Sevants street is being asphalted. It will have new curbs and street signs.

Seven apartment complex backyards and two other streets will be renovated.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056315.html

new bus stops installed in Gegharkunik's Gavar city

Gavar's central streets have six "modern" bus stops as part of a federal subsidy. They are well-lit and have placards promoting cultural-historical tourism sites, said the municipality.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056329.html

students gave math exams

Results are available from 36 exam centers. 5K gave exams. 22% failed. The average score was 10.47. Only 246 scored 18-20 points.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056346.html

COVID stats

3881 tested. 100 infected. 48 healed. 1 death. 2601 active.

Of the 2601 active cases, 816 are receiving care in hospitals. 222 of them are in serious or critical condition.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056299.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056340.html

Roman legionnaire Henrikh Mkhitaryan's goal is declared the best in the Italian season

Video (oof): https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=288152736341873

Chess world cup: Levon Aronian will represent Armenia

He will be joined by Hayk Martirosyan, Shant Sargsyan, Hovhannes Gabuzyan, and Gabriel Sargsyan. The tournament will begin on July 10 in Sochi.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/216942

update: police demolished illegal budka kiosks installed by a "gang"

Yesterday, Yerevan mayor Marutyan announced that a gang has been traveling around Ajapnyak and installing illegal shopping budkas, and that they threatened a small group of cops when confronted about it, and that this gang has its tentacles in the judicial system.

Today the city sent large police forces and tractors to bulldoze the illegal budkas in Ajapnyak and Shengavit districts. People were detained. Some other owners promised to remove theirs in a timely manner.

Ajapnyak's district chief and his deputy submitted their resignations hours before Marutyan's public revelations yesterday. It's unclear if it's related to that story.

video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=319055279861548 https://youtu.be/JBniK7UvttY https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056286.html https://factor.am/386517.html

==electronic cash register has been introduced

IRS says: regardless whether the business is big or small, a website or an app, it can use the e-ՀԴՄ if it makes internet sales. The business should apply to receive a certificate from IRS.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056356.html

individuals transferred 29% more cash to Armenia through banks

Recently, a large number of Armenians were finally able to travel to Russia for season work, after restrictions in 2020. The bank transfer stats are for 1Q21 vs 1Q20:

Russia: $218m vs $199m

USA: $166m vs $82m

France: $17.7m vs $9.7m

Germany: $24.4m vs $14.2

The main destination of outflow was Russia, with $121m.

https://www.civilnet.am/news/623859/հայաստան-եկող-տրանսֆերտներն-առաջին-եռամսյակում-29-տոկոսով-գերազանցել-են-նախորդ-տարվա-ցուցանիշը/ https://hetq.am/hy/article/132597

today in history

1912: Alan Turing is born

1953: president Sarkissian is born

1972: soccer player Zinedine Zidan is born

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1056274.html

in case you missed

Tuesday news.

In Russian, by Impossible-Ad-

www.reddit.com/r/ArmDailyReports_RUS_/comments/o667vf/новости_из_армении_за_22_июня_2021/

end of report

The accused are innocent unless proven guilty in the court of law, even if they "appear" guilty.

News archive: http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Daily_Anti-Corruption_Reports

Donations: soldiers' families, humanitarian aid, US tax-deductible donation.

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/o6krpm/news_jun232021_1_ballot_recount_adds_few_votes_2/