Weekly update

23 November

• Pope Francis arrived on Saturday in Japan, the second leg of a week-long Asian trip whose main aim is to bring an anti-nuclear message to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the world’s only cities to suffer atomic bombing, Reuters said. Francis, 82, a determined anti-nuclear campaigner who has in the past called for a total ban on nuclear weapons, will read a message on the theme in Nagasaki on Sunday and meet survivors. “I wish to meet those who still bear the wounds of this tragic episode in human history,” the pope told Japanese bishops shortly after his arrival.

22 November

• President Trump claimed that he is preventing Hong Kong from being "obliterated" by China, saying that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping not to send soldiers into Hong Kong because it would affect ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S. "If it weren't for me, Hong Kong would've been obliterated in 14 minutes," Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with "Fox & Friends" on Friday morning, CBS News reported. He added that Xi has "got a million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong that aren't going in only because I asked him, 'Please don't do that, it's going to make a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal.'"

21 November

• Nineteen months after being toppled by a popular uprising, former President Serzh Sarkisian has accused Armenia’s current leadership of jeopardizing democracy and stifling dissent in the country, Azatutyun.am said. Sarkisian lambasted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government as he addressed late on Wednesday a congress of the European People’s Party (EPP), a coalition of Europe’s leading center-right political forces, held in Croatia’s capital Zagreb. It was his first public speech since his dramatic resignation in April 2018. Sarkisian claimed that Pashinian’s political team has failed to bring about “revolutionary changes” promised by it.

20 November

• Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his delegation have arrived in Italy. The official three-day visit is starting from Venice, ARMENPRESS’s Shant Khlgatyan reports from Italy. The Armenian Prime Minister is heading to Saint Lazarus Island to the Monastery of the Mekhitarist Congregation to meet with the monks. Afterwards PM Pashinyan will travel to Milan, where he is scheduled to meet with the local Armenian community at the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Forty Martyrs. The Armenian PM will visit the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), an independent think tank, where he will meet with Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala and will participate in a discussion on Dialogue on Future. A meeting with Lombardy regional government officials, as well as businessmen is also expected. A joint Armenian-Italian Business Forum will also take place. Then the Armenian PM will head to Rome to have meetings with Italy’s top leadership. PM Pashinyan will have a meeting with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte at Rome’s Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the Italian Prime Minister. PM Pashinyan and PM Conte will deliver press statements at a joint news conference afterwards. The Armenian Prime Minister will also have a meeting with President of the Senate Maria Elisabetta Casellati and Italian Trade Agency (ITA) Director Carlo Ferro. PM Pashinyan and his spouse Anna Hakobyan are also scheduled to visit the St. Nicola Armenian Catholic Church and the Pontifical Levonyan College in Rome.

• President Armen Sarkissian wrapped up results of his official visit to the State of Qatar: new page in the Armenian-Qatari relations, said the Presidential Office. “I know this country very well, have been visiting it for many years, have many friends here among the leadership of the country, in the business community, in the areas of education and science. I am glad that the relations of many years, meetings and ideas today serve our country, the state, our nation,” President Sarkissian said at the meeting with journalists referring to the course of the visit, meetings and reached agreements. President Armen Sarkissian is in the State of Qatar on official visit.

19 November

• The Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Thomas Greminger, said he was concerned by the latest wave of protests in Georgia and urged all sides to engage in peaceful dialogue, TASS informed. The protests erupted in Tbilisi after the parliament failed to approve constitutional amendments on November 14 to hold a proportional representation election in 2020.

18 November

• The customs service is always criticized in case of difficulties at the border, however, this is often due to infrastructure problems, and some of them can be solved through the introduction of digital technologies and a single-window system, in which Armenia has succeeded, said Secretary General of the World Customs Organization Kunio Mikuriya. His remarks came on Monday at the international conference on digital solutions for cross-border cooperation and trade facilitation, News.am said.

17 November

• U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is amplifying her unfavorable comparison of President Donald Trump to fellow Republican Richard Nixon, saying that disgraced president at least cared enough about the country to leave office before his impeachment, CNBC reported. The top Democrat in Congress told reporters last week that Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate one of his potential opponents in the 2020 election “makes what Nixon did look almost small.”

16 November

• In light of the further advancement of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the President of Turkey recently made controversial statements, which distort the reality, Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, News.am informed. “These statements contain claims aimed at justifying the Genocide by means of insulting the dignity of the victims. On April 24, 2019 the President of Turkey already attempted to justify the Armenian Genocide by qualifying it as “the most reasonable act” and referring to the victims of the Genocide as “Armenian gangs and their supporters”.  Turkey should reconsider its current hostile policies against Armenia and the Armenian people, which may become the first step in overcoming the consequences of the Genocide and reducing regional threats.”

Sources: https://armenpress.am, https://www.president.am, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://news.am/eng/, https://www.reuters.com/, https://tass.com, https://www.cbsnews.com, https://www.cnbc.com/.