Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 05.12.2019:
· Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan met Wednesday in Bratislava his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov with the mediation of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs from Russia, France and US, as well as Andrzej Kasprzyk, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.
During the meeting, the sides discussed plans for strengthening the ceasefire, taking confidence-building measures, and continuing working together at the beginning of next year, MFA press service reported.
Later, assessing the past year, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Slovak FM Miroslav Lajcak noted that there remains a real risk of escalation when it comes to Karabakh.
· Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Gevorg Loretsyan, his driver, and the president of an Armenian football club have been arrested for taking a large amount of bribe, NSS reported.
Loretsyan reportedly assisted the aforementioned representative of the business entity in tenders announced by the ministry for the purchase of sports equipment and sportswear and agreed to receive a large amount with his driver’s help.
· An armed attack was carried out on the Flash gas station in Yerevan last night, shamshyan.com reported.
Three armed men entered the restroom of the station’s employees. The attackers took money, mobile phones and a computer of a station employee and fled the scene in an Opel.
· Ireland has ratified the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.
Welcoming Ireland’s ratification Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said, “I am delighted to confirm Ireland’s ratification of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Armenia that deepens Armenia’s relations with the EU and its Member States.”
· Armenian citizen has been hospitalized in Russia with stab wounds, NEVSKY NEWS reported referring to a law enforcement.
According to the man, he was attacked by three unknown people. Police caught the suspect - Uzbekistan woman - the same day. It turned out that she stabbed the man while being drunk. The injured and detainee arrived in Russia for a work. Both migrants are temporarily registered in St. Petersburg, but live in the Leningrad region.
· The court in Yerevan ruled that ex-prosecutor general and ex-MP Gevorg Kostanyan has to be arrested.
The Special Investigation Service announced earlier including Kostanyan's in the March 1 case as an accused, while also informing him that he had been given 48 hours to come in order to be charged. Kostanyan, who reports that he is in Moscow, does not consider the request to come within 48 hours reasonable, whereas SIS chief Sasun Khachatryan had told reporters that if Kostanyan failed to come within 48 hours, the SIS will carry out legal action.
· The Dutch parliament has just approved opening a resident embassy in Yerevan, Armenian embassy in the Hague tweeted. The lawmakers have adopted amendments to the 2020 budget of the Foreign Ministry, allocating necessary funding for the resident Dutch Embassy in Yerevan.