The European Union and the United States welcomed the return of Armenian prisoners of war
Official Washington welcomed the return of five Armenian prisoners to Armenia.
“We welcome the reports about the return of Armenian detainees to their homeland, which is a positive development for the peace process of Armenia and Azerbaijan. We hope that all remaining detainees will return home soon and that Azerbaijan and Armenia will continue to take steps to build trust and resolve existing differences,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted.
Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative for the crisis in the South Caucasus and Georgia, also welcomed the release of the Armenian prisoners of war on his Twitter page.
“The news about the release of five Armenian detainees by Azerbaijan today, after the meeting of the leaders held in Brussels on August 31, is welcomed. It’s an important humanitarian gesture and also remarkable that the handover took place without intermediaries,” Klaar tweeted on Thursday.
It should be reminded that yesterday the Azerbaijani side returned five Armenian prisoners of war to Armenia.
RA Human Rights Defender claims the trials of Armenian prisoners in Baku are obviously and fundamentally artificial
The Human rights defender of Armenia Kristine Grigoryan does not object that the most effective way to return the prisoners from Baku at the moment is perhaps political negotiations, not considering the use of other tools as pointless.
“Every step has its positive effect to bring the moment of the return of captives closer,” Grigoryan said.
Speaking about the trial of the Armenian prisoners in Baku, Grigoryan described it as artificial, stressing that they are aimed at exerting more psychological pressure, terrorizing both the victims’ family members and the Armenian society.
Armenian Defense Minister Papikyan met with Colin Kahl, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy Affairs
On September 8, RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan met with Colin Kahl, US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy Affairs, at the Pentagon, RA Ministry of Defense.
The Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Armenia to the USA Lilit Makunts also participated in the meeting.
At the request of the American side, the RA Minister of Defense presented the military-political situation around Armenia, including the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
During the meeting, the entire agenda of Armenian-American defense cooperation was discussed, and agreements were reached in the direction of deepening cooperation in peacekeeping missions, military education, military medicine, and other fields.
The parties emphasized efforts aimed at achieving long-term peace and stability in the region.
International security issues of mutual interest were also discussed at the meeting.
Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense spreads another misinformation
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has spread misinformation, the press service of the RA Ministry of Defense reports.
On the night of September 8-9, the units of the RA Armed Forces did not fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone.
The situation at the border is relatively stable, it is under the full control of the RA Armed Forces.
Alen Simonyan claims a process of depriving the opposition of its mandate may start
The work of the Parliament does not suffer in any way because the opposition doesn’t show. It’s them who suffers, National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan said referring to the issue of the opposition factions not returning to the Parliament and not participating in the sessions of the autumn session.
“They continue to occupy the rooms and get salaries. Recently, I got acquainted with a survey conducted among our citizens, where 90% of our citizens, regardless of their political preferences, refer negatively to the style of the opposition. I don’t think that we will give them that opportunity once again in the future. I’m not threatening, I’m saying it directly, it’s the requirement of the law. I am sure that if there are elections this Friday, none of them will appear in the National Assembly hall. I have internal information that they have split into two groups, one part says “Let’s go”, and the other part says “No”. I don’t know what will happen in the end, but I am very determined. We have no problem bringing them to the hall, let them not come.
Other News
- Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan will participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit as a guest in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on September 15-16.
- YSU graduate, co-founder of the STARMUS VI festival, astrophysicist Garik Israelyan, writer David John Acre, and the first Armenian astronaut Jim Baghyan spoke at the discussion organized within the framework of the “YSU-Starmus Nobel Week” event on September 9 at Yerevan State University. YSU Rector Hovhannes Hovhannisyan presented the YSU Gold Medal to Garik Israelyan.
