Azerbaijan withdraws armed forces from border village near Tavush; Demining & engineering \\ Corridors and Constitutions \\ Landfill fire engulfs villages; New sanitary standards \\ Stats: jobs & wages, tourism, food prices \\ Housing “boom” near borders \\ Sports news: Wrestling Silver and Bronze

6 minutes of Armenia coverage in Transcaucasian Telegraph’s Aug/7/2024 edition.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are nearly finished hammering out a peace agreement that would finally end their decades-old conflict: Azatutyun article

The Armenian Constitution contains language that Baku says amounts to official Armenian claims against its territory: a reference to “reunification” with Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia denies having territorial claims against Azerbaijan and argues that even if Azerbaijan finds the Armenian Constitution’s preamble problematic, any AM-AZ bilateral peace agreement would legally outweigh it. Armenian officials have accused Azerbaijan of intentionally derailing the peace process by making these unnecessary demands. The Armenian government is not eager to amend the Constitution, and Armenian officials have accused Azerbaijan itself of having a problematic Constitution.

The U.S. officials recently held meetings with Armenian and Azerbaijani officials. The U.S. said Armenia and Azerbaijan must make tough decisions and compromises to reach the agreement, but didn’t clarify the expectations from each side.

According to Baku and later confirmed by Yerevan, Armenia and Azerbaijan have decided to postpone the issues relating to the unblocking of communication routes. It won’t be included in the text but the text will refer it to a later stage. "The countries may come back at some point to discuss and to come to a common agreement," said Baku. "The effective unblocking [of communication routes] remains an important part of Armenia’s agenda for developing peace and economy in the region," said Yerevan.

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Azerbaijan withdraws armed forces from one of the villages on delimited borders

Earlier this year Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to delimit parts of the Tavush-Gazakh border. Armenian army withdrew from 3 ghost villages. The 4th one, Qizilhacili [Kizil Hajili, Ղըզըլ-Հաջ]was already under the Azerbaijani army control since the 1990s so the positional rearrangements took place in the buffer zone.

Azerbaijan withdrew its armed forces from Qizilhacili in early July, according to the mayor of the nearby Armenian village of Berkaber. This will allow Armenia and Azerbaijan to install less militarized border guards.

BERKABER MAJOR: They left quite a while ago. I believe it was in early July. They vacated their position, and now our border guards are stationed there. [Էն հատվածում, որը իրենց դիրքն էր նախկինում, իրենք էդ դիրքից դուրս են եկել, հիմա մեր սահմանապահն է էդտեղ ծառայություն իրականացնում] //

The Armenian sappers carried out controlled explosions of landmines in this Berkaber-Qizilhacili direction, presumably to deploy border guards.

The sounds of the explosion are from the right side of the reservoir, the residents assume that the Armenian side is demining the areas from which the Azerbaijani military has left. The administrative head confirms. – “They left one post, but that gap is quite a section, which is being cleaned at the moment.”

There were also explosions heard in Kirants, but those were for the construction of engineering structures, said a source.

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Azerbaijani ambassador is robbed of his luxury Rolex watch in Brussels

Azerbaijan’s ambassador to NATO and his wife were reportedly mugged and injured by assailants, who beat them with a gun’s handle. The two Rolex watches are reportedly worth €90,000. In response to the questions about the price of their watches, the ambassador said they were cheaper models of Rolex.

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Anti-Corruption Committee investigation finds no corruption in the acquisition of new trees for the replacement of dying trees in Yerevan

A media outlet had reported "suspicious" activities. The ACC investigated the documents, questioned the participants, and found no evidence of corruption.

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the burning landfill in Echmiatsin forces residents to keep their windows shut

Armavir province has 5 landfills, 3 of which do not have a state registration and there is a legal uncertainty around their operation.

None of the 5 landfills are fenced, which causes them to expand without obstruction and deal environmental and property damage to residents.

On most evenings it’s impossible to open the windows in parts of Echmiatsin and nearby villages.

Residents say garbage truck drivers set parts of the landfill on fire every day to make room for the next day’s waste. The municipality uses tractors to clear the trucks’ path but it’s apparently not enough.

Residents complain about health issues from the nasty smoke. Doctors warn that the landfill is too close to residential areas. This has been happening for 10 years.

Vazgen collects bottles from one of the landfills for recycling; it generates $10/day. He says recycling has become more lucrative and he has a competition now. He doesn’t want to be filmed out of concern that his children will be bullied because of their father’s job. He even keeps it secret from his family and tells them he collects the bottles from a factory. Vazgen has other company besides fellow recyclers: stray dogs and storks eating food waste.

… Government approves the construction of first sanitary landfill in Armenia (July 25 telegraph)

• Goal: waste collection with European standards everywhere in Kotayk and Gegharkunik

• New landfill in Hrazdan

• Waste processing stations in Martuni and Akunk

• 28 new garbage trucks

• 6,400 new garbage bins

• €11 million: half loan, half grant.

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problems at Georgia-Russia border checkpoint in Upper Lars cause 4,500 vehicles to wait in a mega-traffic-jam: VIDEO

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Turkey bans the 27 most popular VPNs and access to Instagram

Turkish authorities enforced the ban on the popular social media site on Friday, without much explanation. There is speculation, however, that the government acted in response to the Meta-owned platform restricting messages of condolence following the recent assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

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tourism declined in the first half of this year after a bump in 2022-2023

H1 2023: 1,007,346

H1 2024: 946,162 (-6%)

… tourists by gender

M: 553,836

F: 392,326

… tourists by passport

395,688 Russia (-24%)

126,927 Georgia (+10%)

69,252 Iran (+18%)

24,949 India

17,042 United States

13,183 Philippines

12,663 Ukraine

11,473 China

11,082 Germany

11,032 France

7,796 Belarus

7,336 Worst Korea

6,755 Italy

5,539 Turkey

4,991 United Kingdom

4,948 Netherlands

4,703 Kazakhstan

4,231 Poland

3,549 Bulgaria

3,341 UAE

3,056 Belgium

2,948 Spain

2,929 Moldova

2,710 Egypt

2,558 Austria

2,212 Greece

2,203 Czechia

165 unknown

… Russians traveled more, but not to Armenia

Russians visiting other countries: +20% YoY

To Georgia: +31%

To Azerbaijan: +26%

To Turkey: +9% (most popular)

To Kazakhstan: -9%

To Armenia: -27%

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a new small residential district is being built in border village Karahunj, Syunik: VIDEO

Serob is one of the dozen residents building a new house in Karahunj to upgrade his living space as part of a government assistance program that allocates $41,000 for construction.

SEROB: [Points to his house under construction] This location, too, will allow us to distill a mulberry vodka [laughs in Armenian]. The construction began 1.5 months ago. It’s a great place, beautiful nature… us and our gorge. We learned about the housing program from television and applied after purchasing land. It will be a 3-storey house, around 140 m^2. It will be an Armenian house: there is the backyard, manghal will be installed, and there is the scenery. We’ll eat the bread and live our lives. //

A total of 205 houses are under construction in Syunik’s border communities.

KOSTYA: The $41,000 assistance won’t be enough to cover everything but it’s still a lot, it’s not a small sum.

VACHIK: I’m building one next to my orchard. My application was approved by the bank [gov't distributes the money through banks] and I’m waiting for the funds. We are 4 brothers. We will launch the construction soon. //

Stepan is a local construction worker. His services are in high demand. In fact, you can think of him as the local gigolo with the right hardware and experience.

STEPAN: I’m working on two houses and hope to finish them soon to take another two by the end of this year. I’ll be booked for the rest of the year. I’m building others’ houses before launching mine. //

A total of 2,000 houses are under construction across the borders as part of this program.

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food prices as of July, YoY

Food overall +1%

Rice +1%

flour -4%

bread -0.4%

butter -3%

sunflower oil -8%

Vegetables +14%

Fruits +12%

buckwheat -14%

emmer -8%

peas -7%

semolina -7%

macaroni -7%

Lamb +2%

Pork -6%

beef -1%

other food -4%

beer +4%

wine -1%

vodka +10%

bottled water +1%

coffee, tea +8%

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Armenia has more jobs and workers are earning more: June stats

Tax-visible jobs: 760,248 (+4.7%)

No branches of the economy have recorded a decline in the workforce.

The largest employer is "services and education".

Number of workers in Construction +12.4%, Finance +8%, Energy +0.5%.

… wages in June

Average: ֏275,654 ($711/mo), +3%.

Info-comm wages: ֏824K ($2,125)

Mining: ֏800K ($2,063)

Finance & insurance: ֏683K ($1,761), -15%.

Agriculture: ֏190K ($490), +15%.

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sports news

• Greco-Roman wrestler Arthur Aleksanyan (97 kg) wins silver in Paris Olympics.

• Greco-Roman wrestler Malkhas Amoyan (77 kg) wins bronze. This was his first Olympics.

• Greco-Roman wrestler Slavik Galstyan (67 kg) reached the semi-finals in the Paris Olympics.

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