The Armenian Report

05/12/2022

MP Gegham Manukyan: Incident with elderly in Gyumri was a provocation organized by the authorities

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: On May 8, a clash took place in Gyumri between the elderly and the young members of the Resistance Movement.

The Armenian Report interviewed the father of one of the young men who were arrested in the incident, Taron Manukyan.

Member of Parliament of "Hayastan" faction Gegham Manukyan, referred to the incident, said that they were sorry for what had happened, but it was a specific provocation organized by the government.

“They could have not have given into the provocations, despite the fact that they had completely broken one of the young man’s car,” said the father and MP.

According to Manukyan, the video does not reflect the complete picture, the vehicles of the young individuals was attacked by the elderly. They hit them with eggs, they cursed. According to him, the elderly people were so aggressive that the police could not keep them on the sidewalk.

“They (the government) had turned those elderly men into their political tools,” said Manukyan.

He mentioned that on the day of the rally in Gyumri, the government had organized various provocations.

Details in the video

https://youtu.be/MonaqQlonxA

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: On May 8, a clash took place in Gyumri between the elderly and the young members of the Resistance Movement.The Armenian Report intervie...

05/11/2022

Armenia lifting the COVID-19 health pass starting May 12.

The country’s health authorities say the epidemiological situation is relatively stable in Armenia.

The COVID-19 health pass took effect January 22, 2022 and required people to show either a proof of vaccination or a negative test result upon entering restaurants, hotels, gyms, libraries, museums, theaters, cinemas and other similar venues.

05/11/2022

EXCLUSIVE: During the car rally held by Resistance Movement on May 8 in Gyumri, an incident took place among a group of local elderly men and young participants of the opposition.

The Armenian Report spoke with the press secretary of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia Vardan Tadevosyan, to confirm this incident.

Tadevosyan told us that as a result of investigative and judicial actions carried out to find out the circumstances of the incident, it turned out that a group of young people approached the old men standing at the bus stop in Gyumri and started beating them. The injured men are 74, 56, 72 and 84 year old citizens.

We also contacted Arsen Martoyan, one of the young men who participated in the incident. He told us that he learned about the police wanting to arrest him from the news and decided to take himself to the police station.

"We do not support violence, we respect the elderly, but provocation is not the right thing to do. The police are not fulfilling their duty, they do not restrain the provocateurs. The incident with those old men was due to a provocation. They were hitting the cars with stones and eggs. They created an emergency situation. Directing the most derogatory words at people,” Martoyan explained to us..

Martoyan stressed that without a reason, the car would not have stopped during the march and the people in the vehicle would not have approached the elderly.

"When we approached them, they started attacked us more furiously. This time hitting us with the eggs. A couple of cars were damaged, the windows were broken. All this was Pashinyan's political order; the police know that very well," Martoyan continued.

He added that all the young people who took part in the scuffle voluntarily went to the police station.

Today, during the opposition march, Ishkhan Saghatelyan announced that two people had been arrested in connection with this incident in Gyumri: oppositionists Taron Manukyan and Gor Sargsyan.

Martoyan, Manukyan, Sargsyan are participants of the 44-day war.

05/10/2022

Ambassador at-large Edmon Marukyan says there is no legal ground that at any time any de-jure Azerbaijani enclave has existed in the territory of Armenia.

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Khalaf Khalafov said that on April 6 in Brussels, Armenia agreed to launch peace treaty negotiations with Azerbaijan based on the 5-points presented by Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister made a similar statement.

Marukyan told Armenpress, “There is nothing unacceptable for us in the proposals handed over to us by Azerbaijan on March 10. It is another matter that these proposals do not address all issues of the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. We supplemented the agenda with our response handed over to the OSCE MG Co-Chairmanship & therefore we are ready for the launch of the peace talks based on this.”

On April 6, Armenia also [directly] handed over to the Azerbaijani side the 6-point document which includes, the issues of the security & the protection of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh & the final status of Artsakh. The Armenian side offered to start negotiations based on the two agendas in the direction of a peace treaty. The Azerbaijani side agreed to this approach, after which an agreement was reached to initiate negotiations on a peace treaty.

Khalafov also made a statement on what he called the return of “7 villages of the Ghazakh district & Kyarki” to Azerbaijan, saying that these issues will be solved during the delimitation & demarcation.

Marukyan said they have numerously said that the delimitation & demarcation processes should take place based on facts & documents of de-jure significance. “At this moment we don’t possess any legal substantiation that any de-jure Azerbaijani enclave has ever existed in the territory of Armenia. On the contrary, there are legal grounds on the village of Artsvashen belonging to Armenia. The same applies to a number of territories belonging to Armenia, including in the Sotk-Khoznavar section where the infamous unlawful Azerbaijani military invasion took place last year in May. These issues must certainly be discussed & resolved in the delimitation & demarcation process.”

05/10/2022

Levon Kocharyan on Resistance Movement, running for office, and wife Sirusho having baby abroad

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: On May 9, a rally of the Resistance movement took place in Yerevan. The Armenian Report caught up with Levon Kocharyan during the march, who is the son of the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and the husband of famous pop singer Sirusho.

We asked Kocharyan…

1. In his opinion will the citizens taking to the streets succeed in the struggle?

"I can say that there are all preconditions for the struggle to succeed, we do everything to make it successful. Our numbers are increasing day by day. People are not afraid. They take to the streets. I have high hopes that it will succeed," Kocharyan told us.

2. What can be said about the rumors that this struggle is organized by the 2nd and 3rd presidents — and if they act as a leader it will not succeed?

“Have you seen them act as such (leaders)? Of course there is no such thing, you will not see them walking front row at our marches. They can come participate, to inspire their followers, for the people to whom their opinion is important, but there are not leading this movement. But naturally they welcome all of this," he emphasized.

3. What political ambitions does he have — since there are talks that he may run in the Yerevan mayoral election?

"I have no ambitions with all sincerity, at least at this moment I do not consider myself a politician. I am a person, a citizen, who is concerned about his country. In case when this movement succeeds, I do not even think that I should hold any position. I honestly don’t know how the future will be, as they say ‘never say never’,” he said.

4. We inquired about people criticizing his wife Sirusho for announcing that she will be having their third child abroad as well.

"Those following Sirusho do not doubt for a second her patriotism. At the core of the huge work she does from an early age, has the Homeland, everything that makes us Armenians," he said.

5. We also asked Kocharyan whether the men walking with him are bodyguards? To which he denied and said the men walking with him are friends, friends of friends, and acquaintances he’s met along the way during the movement.

Details in the videos

https://youtu.be/UZ5Znhh14L8

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: On May 9, a rally of the Resistance movement took place in Yerevan. The Armenian Report caught up with Levon Kocharyan during the march,...

05/10/2022

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s congratulatory message on Victory Day & Shushi Liberation Day:

“This holiday symbolizes the end of WWII & the beginning of a new era in human history.

It was the heroic spirit of our grandfathers & fathers in the Great Patriotic War, World War II, that merged with the spirit of volunteerism in the early 90s, becoming the guarantor of the the victory in Artsakh struggle for survival, the 1st Artsakh War, the liberation of Shushi.

Today, after the 44-day catastrophic war, we note with sorrow & bitterness that not only we failed to transform the victory in the first Artsakh war into a diplomatic, political, economic victory, but many fruits of that victory are lost, Artsakh & Armenia are facing serious challenges.

Our response to this situation, should not be apocalypticism, but a sober, cold, professional analysis of the reasons underlying the current military-political & regional situation, & the pragmatic planning of the future.

The blood of our martyrs who gave their lives to the Motherland should not be forgotten; the greatest acknowledgement of their work should be the strengthening Armenian statehood, full realization of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh, peaceful development of our generations & peaceful regional coexistence, which is the only reliable security guarantee of Artsakh & Armenia.

The political majority that received the people's vote is leading Armenia in this direction, realizing all the difficulties that will emerge. We are ready to face these difficulties because we are guided by the conviction that yes, we are moving in a difficult but the right way. We are not the begetter of the disasters on our country, we have deserved a cruel fate & a sacred mission: to lead our Homeland through the inevitable disasters that have accumulated for many years, to lead it to a peaceful, prosperous, happy future.

We have not always been able to turn victories on the battlefield into victories in life. We must be able to turn our failures on the battlefield into victories in the fields of education, science, industry, economy, foreign policy, the ultimate outcome of which must be lasting & stable peace.”

05/09/2022

In honor of Shushi Liberation Day and Victory Day, commemorated on May 9 — The Armenian Report reached out to veterans who participated in the liberation of Shushi on May 8 and 9, 1992.

Swipe through to read what they had to say.

05/09/2022

On Sunday, May 8, members of the "Resistance" movement who are demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation held a car rally from Yerevan to Gyumri.

Upon reaching Gyumri, supporters of PM Pashinyan and parents of several Armenian POWs from Shirak region closed the Yerevan-Gyumri highway, and did not allow the opposition members to enter Gyumri.

On the way, there was a clash between those demanding Pashinyan's resignation and his supporters. Police officers on the scene managed to deescalate the situation.

Representatives of the "Resistance" movement, MPs of the "Hayastan" faction Gegham Manukyan and Arthur Khachatryan got out of the car and spoke to a father of a serviceman who is currently a prisoner of war in Azerbaijan. The father of the captured serviceman said that the Armenian authorities had said more than 30 prisoners were going to be returned to the homeland, but since the ARF burned the Turkish flag on April 24 and made anti-Turkish and anti-Azerbaijani statements — hence why Azerbaijan did not return the Armenian POWs.

In response, Manukyan and Khachatryan explained to the father that the ARF has been burning the flag for 30 years. They told the father that it had nothing to do with the process of returning the captives and the men have been taken captive for 1.5 years and no effective steps had been taken to return them.

Details in the video.