2022 August 9

Daily news wrap-up

Your Tuesday news digest from Armenia. Aug/9/2022.
by ar_david_hh

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11 minutes. 2833 words.

more details: Azerbaijan will lose control of several Armenian villages lost after the war, with the launch of new Lachin corridor

[Context](https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/wjnjam/your_monday_news_digest_from_armenia_aug82022/) and [more details](https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/wj6ds9/the_armenian_government_hides_the_fact_it_agreed/iji4bxs/).

Artsakh minister Hayk Khanumyan: We are preparing the list of families that will be evacuated from Berdzor, Aghavno, and Sus soon. Some of them want to settle in Artsakh, while others in Armenia. There are a total of 100 families.

Families who choose to relocate to Armenia, that's about 20%-30% of them, will receive a rent subsidy and eventually a free apartment. We already know where to provide apartments for those who choose to settle in Artsakh.

We believe it'll be possible to organize the relocation by August 25. We are simultaneously moving the cultural monuments.

We urge residents not to burn down their houses before the move. They did this in Charektar in 2020 but the village ended up remaining part of Artsakh. Hundreds of millions had to be invested to recover the damage.

The Aghanus municipality (which includes villages Meghvadzor, Hunanavan, Melikashen, and Maratuk) was lost years ago, but it will soon become part of the new corridor, outside of Azeri control. They are currently in ruins. Had we not destroyed the homes, we could have resettled residents in those villages more easily. Today there are only burned walls and ruins.

The new route passes through Tasy Verst, Mets Shen, Hin Shen, Aghanus, before reaching the Armenia border. The 11km road to Kornidzor will be ready in 250 days. In the meantime, we will use a 4km gravel road that connects to the highway, above Aghavno. //

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089957.html) [watch,](https://youtu.be/VKL4FUQJ5r8)

unblocking the AM-AZ road

Azerbaijani FM Bayramov accused Armenia of delaying the agreement to launch a cargo/passenger "corridor". Azerbaijan recently decided to build a connection to Nakhijevan via Iran instead, to bypass Armenia. They are currently building a bridge on the Araks River.

Armenia, in turn, has accused Azerbaijan of being responsible for the delay. Armenia wants to discuss terms around customs procedures and passport checks.

[read,](https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31980534.html)

Armenian NGOs presented Azerbaijan's 2020 war crimes during a session of UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

George Soros's foundation has organized a trip for various Armenian NGOs to attend the UN session to present the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan.

It's meant to spoil Azerbaijan's little fun. The regime prepared a report on how great they are towards racial minorities. Armenian NGOs will present counter-reports and provide evidence of ethnic cleansing towards Armenians and anti-Armenian racist policies.

The NGOs, some of which are represented by Artsakh refugees, presented their reports on Monday. They will hold several meetings with UN officials throughout the week.

[read,](https://factor.am/542018.html)

Azeri regime arrested more activists and journalists who criticized the recent attack on Artsakh

Context in [August 5 news](https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/wh55ub/friday_news_summary_from_armenia_aug52022/). The prosecutors have since targeted several other residents for speaking against the regime's policies. They accused the activists of "casting a shadow on the legitimacy of Azerbaijan's military operations".

Prosecutors: Unfortunately, these malicious attempts are masked by freedom of information, out-of-context claims, and false pacifism. //

They invited several residents to "talk". This is in addition to two journalists and several social media users who were targeted last month after revealing corruption in the military.

[read,](https://factor.am/542080.html)

borders on Tuesday

Artsakh army reported that borders were tense but stable. Azeri troops used rifles to violate the ceasefire in several locations.

Two soldiers from Artsakh Defense Army sustained serious injuries after mishandling explosives.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089936.html) [read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089934.html)

Armenia's team wins silver medal in Chess Olympiad 2022

The men's team defeated Azerbaijan and was #2. They proceeded to defeat Spain in the final round, but Uzbekistan also performed well against the Netherlands and became the champion. India is 3rd, the U.S. is 5th.

US's Levon Aronian congratulated the Armenian team, calling it an "incredible performance".

The women's team finished 11th after defeating Croatia in the final round.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089933.html) [read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089937.html) [read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089958.html) [read,](https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/241977)

Gyumri Open international chess tournament kicks off in the second city

Held for the second time, this year it has attracted hundreds of players including from UAE, Russia, Indonesia, Spain, Iran, Lebanon, and India.

Two age groups compete separately. The are 73 adults and 138 children under 12. They will compete in nine rounds for the $4,000 prize.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089945.html)

Iraqi Kurdistan sent a delegation to Armenia

Culture Minister Mohammad Ali met his Armenian counterpart Dumanyan in Yerevan on Tuesday. The delegation visited the Genocide Memorial, the History Museum, Matenadaran, and Garni Temple.

Dumanyan: Cultural ties between Armenians and Kurds date back to ancient times. We want to deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation with the Iraqi Kurdistan autonomous region. Thank you for visiting the Genocide Memorial, that's a fair stance. Also thanks for the aid during the 2020 war.

Ali: Our people have many common values and a great potential for cooperation. The Armenian community has contributed greatly to social and cultural life. Experts from Matenadaran are helping us to restore the ancient manuscripts destroyed by ISIS.

Dumanyan: Thanks for allocating space to open an Armenian cultural center in the [Citadel of Erbil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_of_Erbil) last year.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089965.html)

gas or no gas

The village Ghazanchi (Ashotsk, Shirak) has been finally connected to the gas network. That's great for many residents, who no longer have to burn cow shit, but those who live further away from the main pipe can't afford to run pipes to their homes. It's especially more difficult for residents of sari tagh.

Mayor: Yes, it is up to each household to connect the "last mile". It does cost a lot. Those who live nearby will have no problem, though.

The gasification efforts began last year. Today the main pipe is available in the central district. Next year they plan to bring it to other districts, but households are still expected to pay for the last mile. //

[read,](https://factor.am/542322.html)

government drafts a bill to reform the environmental impact assessment (SHMAG) process | more businesses to undergo assessment, higher fines, easier & faster investments for some

Nature Ministry officials: The EIA (SHMAG) law is one of the most complex laws you can find because it involves absolutely everything, from healthcare to infrastructure, from municipality regulations to urban development. The goal is to balance and manage the risks.

Our SHMAG laws were written in 1995 when Armenia lacked experience. We later joined the Aarhus Convention and the SHMAG laws were amended in 2014. The shortcomings became clear over time, so another amendment is necessary today.

Businesses are the biggest opponents of SHMAG procedures because it prevents them from carrying out certain activities, but nature and people's rights must be respected.

... What is new in the amended SHMAG?

The Ministry has a state non-profit organization tasked with assessing the impact on nature. They are currently overburdened and require new technology and knowledge. Each agent is assigned to 50 cases today. The reforms will introduce new resources that will shorten the wait time for investors.

Second. Some processes will become more difficult for businesses, while others will become easier.

We have decided to expand the list of fields and activities that will require an environmental SHMAG assessment. On the other hand, to make things easier for some, we have decided to optimize 3 categories into 2: instead of strict, medium, and mild, we will have strict and mild categories. This merger of the lower tiers will be quite positive for some investors, without harming nature.

... You said more types of activities will require an environmental assessment. Any examples?

All hydropower plants will be required to undergo SHMAG. At the moment, only those above 1MW do, but today we see that even the small ones cause serious damage to rivers.

... Any other new scenarios that will require SHMAG?

There are many. I won't list them today. The fields have been brought maximally in line with the Aarhus Convention. It includes waste management, water permission, construction, urban development, and volume of construction.

... What about the size of penalties?

You can receive a fine for carrying out activities without SHMAG, and for ignoring inspectors' follow-up warnings. The penalties will significantly increase for the second violation (ignoring inspectors' demands).

The current law doesn't envisage penalties for violating certain terms & conditions. The reforms will close that gap.

... What's the size of the penalty?

The penalties for the second violation will increase from $400 to as much as $10,000.

The penalty for violating certain terms & conditions will increase from the current $0 to [needs to check].

... Tell us about amendments that'll make things easier for investors.

SHMAG laws envisage a balance between healthy nature and business investments. The first simplification is the reduction of the number of public hearings required for the project, from the current 4 to 2.

However, this doesn't mean there can't be a 3rd or 4th public hearing. Our "green" critics don't seem to understand this part that they aren't necessarily limited to 2 hearings.

... What are the problematic areas today?

We have active mining and construction in Yerevan. Our biggest problem here is air pollution from dust. Cars are always covered in a thick layer of dust. All you need to do is to open our window...

The construction boom is great, but construction companies must respect environmental protection laws. In their permit documents, they are required to describe how they plan to cover the area, water the area, etc. Our inspectors are overloaded. Today we need 10,000 inspectors to monitor forests, water resources, construction, and mining. The amendment will allocate more resources.

Stop burning shit! Landfills pose a serious danger to public health if they are on fire. Don't burn the fallen leaves, either. They contain chemicals. They need to be collected and taken away for natural disposal.

... What about the quality of environmental reports?

Today, the SHMAG report, which contains a description of the entire process, can be written by anyone without education, and they don't carry any legal responsibility for it.

You can write a paper and hand it over to the business, who then approaches inspectors for permits. The inspectors don't know who wrote and evaluated this document. The Nature Ministry does not carry out an evaluation process. That's the task of specialized organizations. Will the project impact the climate or the soil? All of this is handled by specialists. Inspectors can only investigate wheater an evaluation document is accurate or not, [at a later date]. They rely on those who draft the document to be knowledgeable.

This is why we want the "specialists" who draft these documents to be licensed, so the documents won't be a fairy tale. This will have a tremendous positive impact on the quality.

... When?

We've held 5 public hearings to discuss it. The government will discuss it internally again, followed by another public hearing. It should reach the parliament in September.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089849.html) [watch,](https://youtu.be/kAGRHG2-kVg) Tags: #NatureProtection #NatureReforms

Pashinyan's letter to prime minister of Singapore:

Congratulations on the National Day of Singapore. Armenia attaches great importance to the deepening of the relations between our states. I remember with pleasure our mutual visits in 2019, which raised the cooperation between Armenia and Singapore to a new level. I reaffirm my willingness to work towards expanding the cooperation in accordance with our bilateral agreements. //

[read,](https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/241968)

Stent For Life: Armenian doctors have saved thousands of lives

Erebuni cardiology chief Hayrapetyan: We've been providing state-subsidized emergency heart surgeries since 2015. The program expanded its coverage in 2018-2019. This year we've done 1,400 surgeries.

The mortality rate from a heart attack was 8.4% in 2015, and 3.9% in 2021.

In 2018 we began replacing basic stents with drug-eluting stents. A year later, the program expanded to authorize the coverage of patients without an ST elevation.

There are restrictions on who can qualify for procedures, though. The period between the [heart attack] and hospital admission cannot exceed 12 hours. Sometimes it's safer not to operate at all. //

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089912.html)

French city of Châteauroux hosted the world championship on shooting mobile target

Armenia's Lilith Mkrtchyan defeated her Qatari opponent 6:0 to win the bronze. In the junior competition, Gohar Harutyunyan also won bronze.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089914.html)

Armenian students won 6 medals during International Mathematics Competition

YSU students Vahan Martirosyan, Vahe Karagulyan, and Tigran Chtchyan won gold medals. Others won 2 silver and 1 bronze.

[read,](https://factor.am/541965.html)

anti-corruption: former head of Armavir's urban development department is charged with crimes

Authorities: The 2003-2018 head of the department abused his powers to benefit a group. After learning that Armavir governor set up a charity fund, he gave its bank account number to residents and pressured them to wire donations. He claimed that the payments were legal and necessary to carry out certain property-related work.

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089921.html)

Georgia has accepted 6x as many Russian tourists in H1 2022

It went from 69k to 403k. Just as in Armenia, Russians account for the largest share of foreign tourists:

1) Russians 403k (6x)

2) Turks 358k (+126%)

3) Armenians 300k (+350%)

Total 2.3m (3x)

[read,](https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1089930.html)

number of Turkish tourists visiting Armenia has skyrocketed in H1 2022

Russia +156k

France +5k

Germany +7k

Azerbaijan +3 (three Azeri officials visited Armenia for EuroNest)

Georgia +41k

Turkey +2k (was 1k, now 3k)

Iran +22k

USA +6k

[read,](https://armlur.am/1204345/)

does Armenia recognize Taiwan as an independent state?

Armenia continues to support the "One China" principle, said MFA when asked.

[read,](https://en.armradio.am/2022/08/09/armenia-supports-one-china-principle-mfa/)

in case you missed

Yesterday's news in English, русский (by Impossible-Ad-). Archive by Armeniapedia. Donate to Armenia & Artsakh here

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

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/wkdpgs/your_tuesday_news_digest_from_armenia_aug92022/