6-minute read.
political consultations were held between foreign ministries of Armenia and Georgia about "adherence to European values" and regional issues
It was the first bilateral consultation after the recent signing of the AM-GE Strategic Partnership agreement. Economy, trade, transport, energy, tourism, culture, and education were noted as the main pillars of this cooperation.
The demarcation of the AM-GE border will remain a priority on the agenda.
Regional developments were also discussed. The parties reiterated univocal support to each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The discussion also included the role of Armenia and Georgia in supporting peace and regional development, as well as adherence to European values.
In other news. Armenia’s foreign ministry says they held discussions with Georgian colleagues regarding the recent decision by Tbilisi to require all tourists visiting Georgia to have health insurance. Armenia says the June 1 deadline reported earlier has been postponed.
EU reportedly plans to freeze Georgia’s membership bid to EU if "foreign agent" bill becomes law
Financial Times, citing a person briefed on the discussions between Georgian and EU officials in recent days
EBRD’s international forum was held in Yerevan: Day 2
TLDR video,
full video in English,
other video,
Pashinyan’s speech in English,
sanctions compliance by banks,
EBRD bank funds its largest-ever road project in Armenia
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending €236 million to Armenia to build the southern section of the Sisian-Kajaran road. Details and how much faster the road will get in May 8 news digest.
The loan agreement was signed today between the Finance Ministry and EBRD during the latter’s annual business forum held in Yerevan.
This important infrastructure project, part of Armenia’s international North-South, is aligned with EU flagship initiatives for improved land transport connectivity and building resilience in the southern regions of Armenia.
EBRD: We appreciate Armenia’s aspiration to develop a transport and logistics infrastructure that will enhance its regional connectivity and integration with external markets. We support this project because it meets our strategic objectives in Armenia and the region.
EBRD and InecoBank will co-finance the development of a new TUMO Convergence Centre for Engineering and Applied Science in Yerevan
See the architectural design and details about the new TUMO tech/science/innovation/education center here: INTERPRET.
is a unique STEM hub in Yerevan, focused on sparking innovation. It is where academia and industry come together and where Armenia connects to the world. Designed by the world-renowned Dutch architecture firm MVRDV, the Convergence Center’s flagship building will be an innovative horizontal skyscraper. Only six stories tall but stretched over 200 meters at the edge of the Hrazdan Gorge, the building occupies 17,000 square meters. It is made up of 300 modular spaces arranged inside a giant hall that creates a unique interior ecosystem.
The goal of the Convergence Center project is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that will accelerate the growth of high tech, engineering and applied sciences in Armenia.
EBRD and InecoBank will chip in €7.25 million each. The EU Delegation to Armenia will also contribute.
EBRD plans to invest €500 million in Armenia this year
EBRD: This is a historic figure and it shows that we are working closely with public and private sectors. We have already invested €640 million over the past 5 years, half of which is in the private sector.
The events in Ukraine have increased the need for stable connectivity between Europe and Asia, making the South Caucasus region and Armenia in particular an attractive area for international trade and investment. //
Day 7 of anti-Pashinyan protests organized by pro-Russian opposition forces
CHAPTER 1
Yesterday the co-organizer Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan invited everyone to join a "big rally" near the opera building on Wednesday, the area where the EBRD is holding the international business forum attended by over 3,000 international and local officials. The police brought a large number of forces to protect the area.
GALSTANYAN (yesterday): At 5 pm on Wednesday there will be an international forum in our opera hall. Numerous international economic organizations will be present, and the leader of this government will give a speech there. Each one of you has the opportunity to be there and express your disagreement towards this illegal demarcation of our border. Come in big numbers. Tomorrow we must express our peaceful but strong dissent. //
The aerial view of Galstanyan’s rally near the opera building on Wednesday: video
Galstanyan’s followers attempted to block the movement of buses serving the EBRD economic forum attendees. video
CHAPTER 2
5 protesters + 4 trash cans = 9 video,
CHAPTER 3
A group of low-income residents from Vanadzor, who were registered with humanitarian organizations as aid recipients, reported to police that someone bribed and duped them to join the ongoing protests.
AUTHORITIES: On April 24, the suspect used vehicles to transport 7 people to join the protests in Voskepar, Tavush, in exchange for cash. The residents joined the protests and shut down roads until late evening. Upon return, the participants received the promised ֏3,000 ($8).
On May 9, the same suspect organized the transfer of several low-income food bank recipients to Yerevan’s Republic Square to take part in "Tavush for the motherland" protest. They received ֏3,000 ($8) on the spot and were taken home to Vanadzor in late evening. //
Authorities published the audio of testimony by participants. Some of them were duped; they were told it was going to be a simple "road trip". One witness said there were 3 GAZelle vans transporting several participants. audio
CHAPTER 4
The protest organizers are in touch with former Ambassador-At-Large Edmon Marukyan’s party LHK, Ruben Vardanyan’s party Aprelu Yerkir, and "Hayaqve". These parties joined the Archbishop/ARF-led protest on May 9 and held political discussions with Galstanyan on Wednesday morning. Galstanyan urged his followers to ramp up the strikes and road closures starting tomorrow.
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Russia’s foreign ministry responds to speculations and conspiracy theories that began after Pashinyan’s recent meeting with Putin
Backstory: Former Ambassador-At-Large Edmon Marukyan has strained relations with several pro-West figures. The pro-West figures had accused Marukyan of serving the interests of Russia by providing pro-Russian advisory to Pashinyan. In turn, Marukyan accused the pro-West figures of unprofessionalism.
Pashinyan recently asked Putin to withdraw Russian agents from the Zvartnots airport and the AM-AZ border. After that meeting, Russia released a statement that included a phrase stating that Pashinyan asked Putin to preserve the troops along the border with Turkey and Iran.
Edmon Marukyan released a video in which he was simply "asking questions" to the pro-West figures. He wanted them to explain what exactly happened that Pashinyan "asked" Russia to preserve its forces on the borders with Turkey and Iran. Marukyan’s video could be perceived as an attempt to incite a conflict between Pashinyan and pro-West figures by presenting Pashinyan as a "pro-Russian" figure who was supposedly given an opportunity to withdraw ALL Russian forces but "asked" them to stay.
Russia’s foreign ministry was asked to comment on Wednesday.
REPORTER: The official statement reads that the Armenian side asked for the Russian guards to remain on the TR and IR borders. At the same time, we know that the Russian guards on TR and IR borders were installed under a different – bilateral state agreement. Does this mean that during the Pashinyan-Putin meeting, Putin offered to withdraw forces from TR and IR borders as well and that Pashinyan asked them to stay?
RUSSIAN MFA: No, Russia did not offer a complete withdrawal of all border guards from Armenia. Some other outlets claimed that the withdrawal is a result of an AM-AZ agreement not to deploy 3rd party forces on the border; these are all false. In reality, the Armenian side wanted to discuss the withdrawal of Russian border guards from several regions near the AM-AZ border as a result of the completion of their duties.
Armenia and French Development Agency will expand cooperation
PM Pashinyan hosted Bertrand Walckenaer, the representative of the French Development Agency.
PASHINIAN: We highly appreciate the cooperation with the FDA and we hope to expand it to new areas. Armenia is interested in expanding cooperation with France in all fields.
WALCKENAER: We plan to expand the directions of cooperation and the scope of programs for the development of various infrastructures in Armenia. //
They discussed the ongoing construction of the large Vedi reservoir.
Armenia and France expand partnership in civil aviation
The countries signed a technical agreement this week to exchange knowledge and experience.
Armenia’s Economy Minister and U.S. Department of Agriculture discussed the possibility of increasing agricultural exports to U.S.
Minister Papoyan’s U.S. trip continues. They also discussed providing technical assistance in the field of agriculture.
second round of major army leadership appointments and rotation in Armenia
Seven new appointments to various army departments, including Territorial Defense Forces.
DEFENSE MINISTRY: This is within the framework of ongoing army reforms in connection with the approval of the new statutes and structure of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Armenia.
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the ceremony of the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Nagorno-Karabakh was marked in Ivanyan on Wednesday
Ranking army officials from Russia and Azerbaijan participated in the ceremony. The decision to withdraw without waiting for the 5-year term to end was made on April 17.
Armenia and Slovakia discuss expansion of defense cooperation
Deputy MOD Brutyan visited the IDEB-2024 defense exhibition in Bratislava where he met Slovak MOD Kaliňák and representatives of their military industry. The talks touched upon defense and technical cooperation between Armenia and Slovakia and resulted in a number of agreements.
In other news. The pro-Azerbaijan Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico was shot by a left-wing activist and is in a life-threatening condition. The assailant was detained by police. A crowd was waiting outside a cultural centre when one of them started shooting. He was reportedly shot in the arm and abdomen.
https://old.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/1cstg1n/northsouth_funds_coming_ebrd_wants_armenia_to/
Posted by ar_david_hh
3 Comments
All this shit for 8 $ smh
> CHAPTER 2 5 protesters + 4 trash cans = 9 video,
That sole bird singing with absolute silence was the cherry on top
##the AM-AZ border delimitation in Tavush is being done with 1976 maps; village Kirants gains access to lands unreachable since the 1990s
On May 15 the border commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan held a meeting to discuss the continuation of the Tavush-Gazakh delimitation. They confirmed the work completed so far and agreed to continue.
The statement says that parties are using the 1976 maps by Soviet CoGS [the one that Armenia wanted].
**REPORTER:** What does this mean?
**PASHINYAN OFFICE:** As you know, the commissions have installed several border posts to locate the pre-agreed coordinates. These coordinates were taken from the 1976 maps. Now the cartographers have agreed on the border lines between the posts, again based on the same maps. In other words, the reproduction of the border in these areas is complete and signed, and the border is considered delimited in these sections.
**REPORTER:** Why the 1976 maps?
**PASHINYAN OFFICE:** It’s the map with de jure power at the time of the collapse of the USSR. The Armenian government had announced that we were not drawing a new border, but rather reproducing the existing border at the time of the collapse of USSR.
**REPORTER:** The commissions’ statement says that these 1976 maps went through legal procedures in 1979. What does it mean, and why didn’t we use the 1990 maps?
**PASHINYAN OFFICE:** In 1979 the relevant USSR authority verified the 1976 maps and their legal basis. These maps were used until the collapse of USSR. These are the most recent maps verified by authorized state agencies of USSR.
**REPORTER:** Not all border posts have been installed in the convoluted section of Kirants. How will this be resolved? Will you build new roads or houses?
**PASHINYAN OFFICE:** The 3 remaining coordinates of Kirants were pinpointed with the use of a computer and the border posts will be installed later. The rest [another 8 posts in Kirants] are already there. The good news for Kirants is that around 25 hectares of land that have been unreachable for 33 years will be returned to the village. The border resembles the 1976 line. As we said earlier, yes, there is a need to build a bypass road, which can be accomplished in 2-3 years. We will also rebuild the road between H-26 and Acharkut and Kirants, which is an alternative road for Kirants. As for property issues, the volumes are small and the government will compensate in such situations.
**REPORTER:** What about Baghanis, Berkaber, and Voskepar?
**PASHINYAN OFFICE:** The most sensitive topic in Voskepar was the fate of the church, and on the Voskepar-Baghani section, it was the Soviet-era road. Both issues received the best resolution: the road is fully within Armenia and so is the church, and the border line is quite far from the road and the church. As for Berkaber, there were no such sensitive topics.
**REPORTER:** When will the sides deploy border guards?
**PASHINYAN OFFICE:** Within 8-9 days, and a bit later in the 3 sensitive areas of Kirants after further clarifications.
[source,](https://hetq.am/hy/article/166578)
[source,](https://factor.am/773338.html)