News From Tajikistan
The Hadrut junction substation and the Digital Management Center have been inaugurated. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the opening ceremony. Chairman of 'Azerishig' OJSC Vugar Ahmadov informed the head of state about the works done. The foundation stone for the newly built Hadrut junction substation was laid by President Ilham Aliyev on October 9, 2021. President Ilham Aliyev launched the substation.
Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended a ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone for the village of Pirahmadli of the Fuzuli district. The head of state and the First Lady were informed of the works to be done in the village. The total projected area of the Pirahmadli village is 178 hectares. A total of 565 houses will be built for 2,369 people in the village. The first phase will see the construction of 280 houses. The village will have an administrative building, hotel, cafe, restaurant, mosque, pharmacy, 480-seat secondary school, two kindergartens, a community club, library, etc. The construction work will be completed in November, 2025. President Ilham Aliyev laid the foundation stone for the village of Pirahmadli.
Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency
Azerbaijan administered a total of 168 COVID-19 jabs on Friday, the Task Force under the Cabinet of Ministers told AZERTAC. Azerbaijan has administered more than 13,962,384 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January 2021. More than 5.4 million people have received their first doses, while nearly 4.9 million people got their second doses. Azerbaijan has also given third booster shots to more than 3.4 million people.
Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency
The top U.S. diplomat said on Thursday that a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan "within reach" after four days of talks outside Washington, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports from the State Department.
"The two sides have discussed some very tough issues over the last few days, and they've made tangible progress on a durable peace agreement," Secretary of State Antony Blkinken said in the closing session of the discussions between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan.
"I hope that they see and I believe that they do, as I do, that there is an agreement within sight, within reach," Blinken added.
The Secretary later emphasized in a separate statement that the two sides "demonstrated a sincere commitment" to normalizing relations and ending their longstanding conflict, and that they agreed in principle to certain terms, as well as, have a better understanding of one another's positions on outstanding issues.
"I have proposed the Ministers to return to their capitals to share with their governments the perspective that, with additional goodwill, flexibility, and compromise, an agreement is within reach," Blinken noted. "They will continue to have the full support and engagement of the United States in their effort to secure a durable and sustainable peace."
The two countries, in their turns, put out almost identical statements following the talks, saying they had laid out their positions on normalization. Both sides acknowledged, however, that the positions on some key issues remain divergent.
Blinken praised the foreign ministers for their leadership: "None of this is easy, but the commitment, the determination to move forward to deal with the remaining challenging issues is real," he said, adding, "... the last mile of any marathon is always the hardest. We know that."
"But the United States is here to continue to help both of our friends cross the finish line," he emphasized.
Reaching an agreement would be, as Blinken put it, "not only historic but would be profoundly in the interests of the people of Azerbaijan and Armenia and would have very positive effects even beyond their two countries.”
As TURAN reported earlier, the closed-door discussions were held far from the spotlight at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.
Neither Bayramov, nor Mirzoyan spoke at the closing ceremony.
Source: Turan News Agency
Turkmenistan will join the ranks of the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) corridor member countries in the near future, Asset Assavbayev, Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) TRACECA said, the press service of the IPC PS told Trend.
According to Assavbayev, Turkmenistan, which was at the origin of this program, in 2022 expressed its intention to join to the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor.
"All TRACECA member states supported this initiative, and we hope that Turkmenistan will join our organization in the near future," the secretary-general said.
Turkmenistan is actively cooperating with TRACECA, studying the procedure, legal framework, and other details for joining this organization.
Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, Mekan Ishanguliyev, said that the transport corridors, which also pass through the territory of Turkmenistan, are the first steps for joining TRACECA.
Source: Trend News Agency
On May 5, at about 12:00, the Armenian armed forces units from the positions in the direction of Digh settlement of the Gorus region subjected to fire a tractor doing engineering work in the territory of the Lachin region, opposite Azerbaijan Army positions located on the conditional border, Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan told Trend.
The Azerbaijan Army Units stationed in these directions took adequate retaliatory measures.
Source: Trend News Agency
It is planned that the construction of the Aghdam Mugham Center, the foundation-laying ceremony of which was attended by President Ilham Aliyev during a trip to the city of Aghdam, will be completed at the end of 2024, Deputy Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (excluding Shusha) Bashir Hajiyev told reporters, Trend reports.
According to him, the Aghdam Mugham Center will consist of two floors.
"It will provide for the creation of classrooms, dance classes, halls for meetings and large concerts, as well as an open-air amphitheater. At the same time, it is planned to build an underground parking. The completion of construction work is scheduled for the end of 2024," he said.
Reklaminizi SmartBee il? effektiv edin.
Hajiyev also spoke about the progress of construction work on other facilities, the foundation of which was laid by the President Ilham Aliyev. He noted that construction work continues rapidly.
Source: Trend News Agency
On May 1-4, 2023, talks were held between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The ministers were received at the George Shultz National Center for Foreign Affairs Studies. While in Washington, they met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Assistant to the President, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. This is reported in the information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.
The ministers shared their views on the current situation and expressed their positions on the current issues related to the normalization of relations.
The ministers and the members of the delegation accompanying them reached mutual agreement on some articles of the draft bilateral Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations, while at the same time they recognized that the positions on some key issues remained different.
Both ministers expressed their gratitude to the US side for hosting the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The parties agreed to continue the discussions.
Source: Turan News Agency
Foreign Ministers Ceyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan have concluded talks in the United States, reaching "mutual agreement on some articles of the draft bilateral agreement on peace and on the establishment of interstate relations. At the same time, they acknowledged that positions on some key issues remain different," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
Milli Majlis MP Rasim Musabekov explained the lack of a documented agreement after the talks in America as being due to the Russian pressure on Yerevan.
"At the talks in Washington, Armenia stuck to its demands and thwarted the initialing of an agreement with Azerbaijan. A continuation of the negotiations in Moscow was announced. Encouragement followed from there: the repair of the main gas pipeline in the Stavropol region is completed, and the gas supplies to Armenia, interrupted on May 1, are restored.
The deputy also expects an encouraging gesture from the Kremlin in the form of resumption of the passage of Armenian trucks with agricultural products through the Lars crossing, which was suspended during the Washington meetings of Ministers.
Armenia does not expect a breakthrough in the negotiation process, even in the next, Moscow phase. According to political analyst Suren Surenyants, the government's rating has reached a historic low, Pashinyan will do everything to avoid signing any document, "because he knows that any document, regardless of whether there are negotiations in Moscow, Washington or Brussels, cannot be in Armenia's interests."
"Prime Minister Pashinyan understands that after the signing of any Armenian-Azerbaijani document he will face insoluble domestic political problems.There could be upheavals in the country. And this may be as far as regime change, because a large part of the Armenian society does not trust it. But we must realize that Pashinyan`s resources are not unlimited. Eventually he will be forced to make a choice between geopolitical centres.The authorities have driven themselves into a deadlock," Surenyants said.
Source: Turan News Agency