Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 31.01.2020:

·       Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan paid a working visit to Kazakhstan to attend the subsequent meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council.

Expressing gratitude to Kazakh PM for successfully holding the meeting today, PM, in his speech, noted it’s necessary to intensify efforts for the creation of common energy and transport markets within the EEU. He once again noticed that ‘we considered the course of activities for elimination of the obstacles within the operation of the internal market.’

Priority attention is paid during the meeting to eliminating obstacles in the EEU domestic market, integrating national information systems, interacting in the areas of customs regulation and forming common union markets.

·       PACE has welcomed the organisation of Armenia’s parliamentary elections in line with international standards, a resolution adopted on Thursday says.

A resolution was adopted based on a report by Sir Roger Gale.

The delegates welcomed Armenia’s commitment to combat corruption and to reform the judiciary with a view to strengthening its independence.

Assembly, however, expressed concern on the challenges faced by the judiciary from all sides in ensuring its independence, impartiality. It noted continuing prevalence in the Armenian society of intolerance, negative stereotypes regarding LGTBI persons and other minorities as well as the obstacles over the Istanbul convention ratification.

·       Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs as well as Minsk Group Co-chairs held ‘an intensive’ discussion amid three days’ meetings in Geneva, the joint statement said.

The sides discussed possible next steps to prepare the populations for peace, principles forming the basis of a future settlement, as well as timing and agenda for advancing the settlement process. 

The Co-Chairs reiterated their full commitment to helping the sides find a peaceful solution to the conflict, while the FMs agreed to meet again in the near future under Co-Chairs auspices. 

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has signed a decision to set up an interdepartmental commission to coordinate the activities to prevent the spread in Armenia of the new coronavirus, which has already killed 213 people globally.

The expediency of temporarily suspending visa-free travel with China was discussed during the meeting on Friday, chaired by Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan. Thus, given the epidemic situation due to the coronavirus, the visa-free travel to Armenia is suspended for Chinese citizens, from February 1 to March 31.

Meanwhile, Armenia has reached a deal with one of the Chinese companies producing lad tests for the diagnosis of the virus, health minister Arsen Torosyan told reporters. A pack with 50 tests cost about $ 1,500, but given the situation with coronavirus, these tests are necessary, he said adding that Armenia may restrict entry for Chinese citizens amid the risk of virus spread.

·       The letter by Nairi Hunanyan, who is serving a life sentence on criminal case into the 1999 deadly attack on Armenia’s parliament, has been forwarded from the Prosecutor General's Office to NSS, said Prosecutor General's Office spokesperson Arevik Khachatryan.

Earlier, Hunanyan had written that letter to PM, and the latter had forwarded it to the Prosecutor General's Office.

According to Khachatryan, it was sent by them to the NSS to make it a subject of examination, along the lines of the proceedings that reopened with the separated part of the October 27 case.

·       The opening ceremony of the laboratory of the Environmental Monitoring and Information Center SNCO took place on Friday in Yerevan. Work has been carried out to strengthen the lab's capacity under the Water Initiative Plus for Eastern Partnership Countries (EUWI+) program.

EU envoy Andrea Wiktorin, in her turn, also spoke about the water issue.

According to her, efforts should be made to ensure that water quality meet the requirements of the people as much as possible. She also noted that it is envisaged to implement projects to restore Lake Sevan ecological balance.

·       The Bundestag on Thursday, January 30, stripped parliamentary immunity of MP Karin Strenz, who is accused of taking a bribe of at least EUR 22 thousand to lobby for the interests of Azerbaijan in the PACE. 

MP Eduard Lintner was also accused over the case. Lintner, according to the prosecutor's office, received about EUR 4 million from Azerbaijan from 2008 to 2016 through British shell companies.

He redirected some money to individual PACE members to speak positively about the elections in Azerbaijan and oppose the demands for the release of political prisoners.