Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia’s top news as of 21.11.2019.

• Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan continues his official visit to Italy where he met with the Armenian community of Milan and delivered a speech at ISPI think tank in Milan.

In his speech at ISPI, he spoke about importance of the EU-Armenia agreement and the challenges that Armenia faces, especially the Karabakh conflict – Armenia’s main security challenge. He assumed that in case of hostilities, Azerbaijan will provide ground for terrorists who lost ground in other countries, and the escalation will lead to regional and global consequences.

Pashinyan once again invited investors to Armenia, saying that Italian investors have been very active so far.

Later in the day Nikol Pashinyan and his spouse Anna Hakobyan visited La Scala Opera House in Milan.

• Azerbaijanis tried to organize provocation during the meeting of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and members of the Armenian community of Milan in the local church.

The man who had come to the meeting presented himself as an Azerbaijani and, pursuing overtly provocative goals, started listing the names of Azerbaijani “heroes”.

“You are an Azerbaijani who has entered an Armenian church and asked the Prime Minister of Armenia a question. One can’t imagine that an Armenian can have the opportunity to attend an event attended by the President of Azerbaijan and ask him a question,” Pashinyan said and answered the question.

• Armenia’s ex-president Serzh Sargsyan shared his concerns over the foreign and domestic policies of the new government in the first public statement since his resignation in April 2018.

Sargsyan traveled to Zagreb, Croatia, where he participated in the Congress of European People’s Party. In his speech ex-president emphasized that “the current negotiation stage of the Artsakh conflict causes my concern”.

He criticized those who came to power “under the name of the revolution” for not being able to introduce “any revolutionary transformation or breakthrough”. The politician noted that “the voices of those who blame me for yielding power to populists become more prominent”.

• Eight firefighting squads have been dispatched to extinguish large fire in downtown Yerevan on Thursday afternoon.

A fire broke out on the roof of a two-story where famous Dolmama Restaurant is located.

Eight fire and rescue squads, operational and emergency response teams, and a psychiatric instructor, have been dispatched to the scene.

Overall, a territory of 250 square meters has burned down, head of rescue service said.

• By the decision of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Armenia will set up a council for women’s issues to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

A task force shall be set up and its individual composition shall be approved in order to organize the activities of the council, the decision says.

Ministers, deputies of the parliament, deputy ministers and other officials will be among the members.