Armenia on Friday marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of its armed forces.

However, as Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and some high-officials from Defense Ministry have tested positive for COVID-19 a reception dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Armenian Armed Forces has been postponed.

Meanwhile, National Assembly (NA) speaker Alen Simonyan, and many members of the ruling majority “Civil Contract” Faction of the NA have visited Yerablur.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed the decision on approving the composition of the Council on Constitutional Changes. According to the text of the decision the Council on Constitutional amendments was formed, its individual composition and activity order were approved. The professional commission of constitutional amendments will be formed within two months after the formation of the council.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar has summarized the results of the EU delegation’s recent visits to Yerevan and Baku.

"The meetings allowed us to follow up on the substantive discussions that the two leaders held with President Charles Michel in Brussels in December, as well as on their meeting with President Emmanuel Macron following the Eastern Partnership Summit," he noted.

Earlier he noted that they support contacts of Yerevan and Ankara within the so-called ‘3+3’.

“We also support the upcoming resumption of flights between Yerevan and Istanbul and other high-level contacts between Armenian and Turkish officials, such as the contacts within the so-called ‘3+3’ platform and other possible contacts in the framework of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum,” Klaar stressed.

Armenian side does not have clarifications yet on which of the proposals on border demarcation and delimitation is unacceptable for Azerbaijan, said Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.

Asked whether the Armenian side is waiting for the proposals of the Azerbaijani side, or will it present new proposals, the Armenian FM noted: "There is a constant discussion, the discussion continues."

On January 19, Ararat Mirzoyan had announced in the National Assembly that the Armenian side has prepared a package of several measures aimed at de-escalating the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The fountain built in memory of famous Armenian painter Arshile Gorky (Vostanik Manoug Adoian) was damaged by unknown people in the Turkish province of Van, according to the Gazeteduvar website of Turkey.

In the latest vandalism, the signs telling the story of Gorky's life were removed and disappeared.

When asked why the water from this fountain was cut off, the district administration said that it was due to lack of water, and denied any information about the damage.

The risk of dying from Covid-19 is significantly higher in countries with populist governments. A study by an international team of researchers found that populist governments have handled the crisis worse than non-populist governments.

The researchers analyzed the excess deaths in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. They found that excess mortality was, on average, more than twice as high in populist-governed countries as in non-populist-governed countries.

Before the pandemic, the so-called populist wave swept through many countries, when radical and anti-establishment leaders came to power.

Of the 42 countries included in the analysis, 11 were classified as populist-run in 2020: the US, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the UK, India, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, and Turkey. Countries that were considered non-populist included Japan, Canada, and Sweden.