Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 11.03.22:

Global leaders, including NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, came to Turkey on Friday.

The dialogue forum, which will convene under the theme “Recoding Diplomacy,” comes at a critical time, in the aftermath of the first meeting between the FMs of Russia and Ukraine.

Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan is also there.

During the meeting on the margins of the Antalya Forum, Armenian FM met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Mirzoyan briefed Lavrov on the continuous violations of the ceasefire and provocative actions by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in Karabakh and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The Armenian FM also noted the importance of taking necessary steps to ease tensions and prevent incidents.

In Antalya, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov also discussed with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov the process of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border..

It was agreed to hold the second meeting of the Consultative Regional Platform "3+3" as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, a four-hour meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took place in Ankara Thursday.

The parties exchanged views on the prospects of normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations in the post-conflict period, and noted the importance of the “Zangezur corridor” as well as of the opening of the Kars-Nakhchivan railway.

During the meeting, the importance of Armenia's implementation of all the provisions enshrined in the trilateral statement was stressed, too.

The parties also touched upon the Turkey-Azerbaijan cooperation in the energy sphere.

  • The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and on Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains unstable as the Azerbaijani armed forces continue to violate the ceasefire.

After firing in Khramort village of Karabakh, today they opened fire from a grenade launcher at the school area of the village of Khnapat in the Askeran region of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Moreover, Artsakh residents have had no natural gas supplies since Tuesday after it had been damaged in the area controlled by Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani army is obstructing access to the accident site of this natural gas pipeline and carrying out repair work there.

Lusine Avanesyan, spokeswoman for the Artsakh President, said the Russian peacekeepers continue the respective talks with the Azerbaijani side.

In Yerevan, people who have been displaced from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and currently live in Armenia held their protest. They demanded that the Armenian government respond to the Azerbaijani military aggression and defend the peaceful population of Artsakh.

Meanwhile, Colonel-General Movses Hakobyan, military leader of the Republic of Armenia and Karabakh, noted that in the near future, hostilities are expected on the Armenian and Artsakh borders, in particular, in the direction of Syunik, Vardenis, Tavush provinces.

  • Russian president Vladimir Putin said there are some positive developments in the talks between Russia and Ukraine, which are held almost daily.

His remarks came during a face-to-face meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

In turn, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that all Western sanctions against Minsk and Moscow are illegitimate, and called it "disgusting.”

Earlier, Putin supported the idea of volunteers to participate in a special operation in Ukraine.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the largest number of volunteers is coming from the Middle East as almost 16,000 people applied to take part in the Russian operation in Ukraine.

Stotenberg told Reuters in an interview that it was important to find a political, diplomatic solution to the current situation.

NATO Secretary General reiterated that the alliance will not send troops and aircraft to Ukraine, the agency said in a statement.

It also noted that the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine with a high probability will lead to an escalation of the war into a full-scale war between NATO and Russia.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that if NATO continue not to provide the expected support to him, he can sit down at the negotiating table with Putin and make compromises. He added that Ukraine is ready for any guarantee from NATO, Turkey and neighboring countries, including Russia.

From now on, Facebook and Instagram users in some countries will be allowed to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers after Putin announced the military operation.

The company is also allowing some posts that call for death to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

The UN has expressed concern over Meta's new decisions.

As Elizabeth Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted, Meta Platforms' decision to temporarily allow Facebook and Instagram not to block users' calls for violence against Russians raises concerns and the issue will be discussed with the company.

  • From March 15 to August 31, 2022, Russia may ban the export of grain to the Euraisan Union (EAEU) member states and the export of sugar outside the union.

According to the source, this issue was reportedly considered on Thursday at a meeting of the subcommittee on customs-tariff and non-tariff regulation. The corresponding proposals were made by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The source noted that the proposal to ban the export of grain to the EAEU is justified by the fact that the countries of the union have already purchased sufficient volumes for their domestic market.

The ban on the sugar market concerns the export of both sugar and raw sugar to third countries. Export to the EAEU will be possible with permits issued by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, Russia has been Armenia’s main wheat, barley, flour, cereals and sunflower oil exporter as in 2020 it imported 99% of wheat from Russia.

Armenia's annual demand for wheat is 450,000 tons.

The created situation has affected the flow of vehicles heading to the Upper Lars checkpoint on the Russia-Georgia border. And now people in Armenia now are massively buying more oil, wheat and sugar.

The dollar’s (USD) exchange rate against the dram (AMD) is now AMD 518.28/$1 in Armenia on Friday; this is up by AMD 2.27 from Thursday.

The exchange rate for one euro was AMD 569.07 (down by AMD 0.35) while the rate of one Russian ruble made up AMD 4.55 (up by AMD 0.18) in the country.

The measure also requires "that prior to any initial obligation of funds appropriated under title IV of the Act for assistance for Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Secretary of State shall consult with the Committees on Appropriations on the proposed uses of such funds."

The bill itself also requires a report on the likelihood of military action against Artsakh "not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act."

"The most important thing is that they are completely local, in terms of technology, the quality meets the highest standards. The demands of a state and army that went through war are very strict. And is because of the demands that there were delays to some extent," he said.

Khachaturyan also noted that Armenia manufactures a large number of weapons.

"Quite a large number of weapons that are used now. As well as unmanned aerial vehicles which will soon be started to be used in the army," he said.

Vahagn Khachaturyan added that the Armenian army is training relevant divisions so that they can use that weapon.