The representatives of the OSCE mission in Gegharkunik got acquainted with the situation in the border areas and settlements

The representatives of the OSCE fact-finding mission, headed by Colonel Robert Arkadius Tkachuk, today visited the Vardenis community hall, then the OSCE visited Kutakan, Sotk, Verin Shorzha, Ayrk, and Norabak settlements affected by the Azerbaijani aggression on September 13-14, 2022, to learn about the enemy’s aggressive actions, the consequences and the situation in the border areas and settlements of the region.

Armenia, and Turkey to discuss the implementation of agreements on air cargo transport, land border

A meeting between representatives of respective ministries of Armenia and Turkey is planned soon, during which the implementation of the agreements on launching direct air cargo transportation and opening the land border for citizens of third countries will be discussed, foreign ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan told ARMENPRESS.

“Soon a meeting is expected on the border between representatives of respective ministries of the two countries to discuss the implementation of the two agreements reached in July. These agreements are the launch of the direct air cargo transportation and opening of the [land] border for citizens of third countries,” Hunanyan said.

He added that there is no agreement yet on the timeframe or location of the next meeting of the special envoys for normalization.

Azerbaijan adds 2023 defense and security budget

The authorities of Azerbaijan will increase the funding of the defense and national security sector from the 2023 state budget by 4.6 percent, reaching 5 billion 320.1 million manats (3 billion 129.5 million USD at the current exchange rate).

 It is noted that such expenses are planned by the 2023 state budget project of Azerbaijan, which was presented to Milli Majlis.  In general, it is planned to allocate 16 percent of all budget expenditures to defense and national security next year.  

Azerbaijan obstructs the search for the bodies of Armenian servicemen in its occupied territories – Pashinyan

“Since 9/14 Azerbaijan has been creating different obstacles for search operations of dead bodies of Armenian soldiers in the zone of the latest Azerbaijani occupation. This is anti-humanistic and unacceptable behavior,” Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Twitter.

Zatulin claims he received a letter, according to which his entry into RA is undesirable

Konstantin Zatulin, the chairman of the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the Russian Federation, commented on the information published in the “Haykakan Zhamanak” newspaper belonging to the family of RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that he has been banned from entering the country.

 “I have not read the actI le you mentioned, but we received a letter this morning, the content of which I have just read. The letter states that my remarks are damaging to the Republic of Armenia and that in this regard my entry is undesirable. As I understand, this is how the representative of the parliament responded to the proposals that we sent last week to Mr. Simonyan (Armenian NA Speaker Alen Simonyan – Ed.), his deputy, the deputy speaker, who deals with Armenian-Russian inter-parliamentary relations, as well as to Foreign Minister Mirzoyan, their invitation to participate in the session of the Lazarian Club, which we planned to hold on October 28-29 in Yerevan at a round table on the topic “The historical past and present of Armenian-Russian relations”.  However, I see that the representatives of the parliament, probably also the authorities of Armenia, do not want to discuss either the historical past or the present of Russian-Armenian relations,” said the politician.

The Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia summit is being prepared

The Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia summit is being prepared, the Kremlin will announce the date and place, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President, told Ria Novosti.

It should be reminded that earlier the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Armenian Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Russia for the tripartite summit, where it is planned to discuss the entire range of tripartite and bilateral issues.

Other News

• Today, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the awarding ceremony of the “Prime Minister’s Cup of the Republic of Armenia” amateur marathon tournament in Etchmiadzin, the RA government reports this.