301🇦🇲

We raise our voices when our churches and religious history are demolished and destroyed. So why can't we stand united behind the church and this movement when the entire nation is threatened?

Тhe Vardanyan family call on representatives of the international community to demand for Ruben Vardanyan's and the 22 other Armenian prisoner unconditional release A statement by Ruben Vardanyan’s family Yerevan, May 17, 2024 - The Azerbaijani court has once again extended the pre-trial detention of Ruben Vardanyan, Armenian philanthropist, and former State Minister of Artsakh, who has been illegally detained in Baku since September 27, 2023. For eight months, the Azerbaijani authorities have flouted international law and human decency by keeping Ruben incarcerated without trial and without any proper process. They still refuse to say when any proper trial or hearing will take place on their so called charges. This decision to extend his detention by another five months without any due process is another gross violation of his basic human rights. While the international pressure on Azerbaijan continues to grow through the European Parliament resolution, US congress sanction bill and the French Senate resolution, we, the Vardanyan family, call on representatives of the international community - government, business and civil society - to demand for Ruben's unconditional release and the 22 other Armenian prisoners if Azerbaijan is to maintain the privilege to host COP29, which Azerbaijan has proclaimed to be the "COP of peace". “The repeated extensions of pre-trial detention without an individualized and specific determination to justify the denial of bail is another flagrant violation of Ruben’s rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty to which Azerbaijan is a state party. The only explanation for the extended delays is this case is political and that Azerbaijan doesn’t have any actual evidence against Ruben to put him on trial. Therefore, he should be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Jared Genser, the Vardanyan family’s international legal counsel

CSTO member-state, Belarus’s President, Aleksandr Lukashenko, visited occupied Shushi alongside Azerbaijan’s dictator Ilham Aliyev.

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan met with the members of the Armenian National Congress led by First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan. "I met with Aram Manukyan and Levon Zurabyan. They expressed their disagreement with the policy of the current government", Archbishop told reporters.

On May 17, during a state visit to Azerbaijan,Alexander Lukashenko, along with Ilham Aliyev, visited the Republic of Artsakh, which is currently under occupation. Belarusian media reported that the delegation toured the Varanda region, which was occupied by Azerbaijan in October 2020.

Death, displacement, and destruction. All under the guise of “peace”. When does it end?

301’s Tatev Azizyan reports on the Holy Movement led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, which began on May 3 and continues to gain momentum in Yerevan

Police forces have given Kirants citizens time to reopen the Yerevan-Tbilisi road.

Armenia will open an Embassy in Cyprus. The decision was approved at the government sitting today. Currently Armenia’s Ambassador to Greece also serves as Ambassador to Cyprus (seat in Athens). The seat of the Cypriot Embassy in Armenia is in Moscow. On March 14, 2024, the Cypriot side informed in an official statement about the decision of the Council of Ministers of Cyprus of February 27, 2024 to open a diplomatic representation (embassy) of Cyprus in Armenia (seat in Yerevan).

Speakers of the parliaments of Armenia and Azerbaijan had a short private conversation in Geneva. The long meeting between Alen Simonyan and Sahiba Gafarova will take place today at 20.30