Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 13.02.2020:
· Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Germany on a working visit.
The welcoming ceremony took place at the Tegel Airport in Berlin.
The PM later left for the Bundestag and met the President Wolfgang Schauble.
During the meeting, Schauble noted that the promise to ratify Armenia-EU deal was fulfilled. He expressed confidence that PM’s visit would give a new impetus to the further development of Armenian-German relations.
The PM, in his turn, referred to the forthcoming referendum in Armenia on the constitutional amendments scheduled for April 5 and invited representatives of the German Bundestag as observers to follow the referendum process.
· The Syrian parliament has recognized the Armenian Genocide during the voting on Thursday, Kantsasar reported.
The resolution was introduced by the Syria-Armenia parliamentary friendship group at a meeting of the legislative body. It recognizes and condemns the Armenian Genocide at the beginning of the 20th century by the Turkish government.
· Armenian IC has launched a criminal case on charges of causing suicide in connection with soldier Tigran Manvelyan's sustaining a gunshot wound to the head on February 12.
The IC has launched another criminal case, again on charges of causing suicide, this time in connection with soldiers Tigran Mkhoyan's sustaining a gunshot wound to the head on the same day.
· Armenian MFA spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan referred to the recent parliament day elections in Azerbaijan and noted that the people of Artsakh have never participated in the elections of Azerbaijan either now, or throughout the entire history of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani MFA earlier issued a statement on the parliament elections, which inter alia states that voters from Karabakh participated in those elections as well.
According to Naghdalyan, Azerbaijan tries to instrumentalize the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a cover up of its failure in democracy and extremely low level of legitimacy of the elections.
· Olympic champion, Greco-Roman wrestler Artur Aleksanyan beat Italy’s Nikolos Kakhelashvili 7-1 to win his fifth European Championship title.
Armenia athletes won two gold and two bronze medals of the European Wrestling Championships in Rome.
By the way, during an awards ceremony the Turkish wrestler did not stand beside Armenia’s Olympic champion. Artur Aleksanyan beat Ildem 7-1. During the fight, the Turkish wrestler repeatedly provoked and hit Artur in the head. He was reprimanded for being rude, and this helped add two points to Artur Aleksanyan’s score.
· Congressional Armenian Caucus leaders joined with human rights advocates and Armenian American community members in solemn remembrance of the 30th anniversary of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku, vowing to continue U.S. aid and support enhanced security for Artsakh.
Among Members of Congress were Frank Pallone, Gus Bilirakis, Jackie Speier, as well as Representatives Judy Chu, Jim Costa and others.
The event featured moving keynote remarks by Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, who, along with her family, fled the anti-Armenian attacks in Baku in 1989, finding safe haven in the US in 1992.
· A total of 255 new deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 were recorded in China over the past day. Death toll has reached 1369. At least 60,373 confirmed cases of infection have been reported worldwide, most of them in China. According to the latest data, 52 972 patients are still infected.