Climbers demand that Turkey open Mount Ararat to touristsSeptember 1, 2017 - 14:32 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Mountaineers and guides have publicly appealed to the authorities of Turkey with a demand to open access to Mount Ararat for climbing and tourism, Rusarminfo reports citing the Turkish edition of Sozcu. "Mount Ararat has been closed to tourists for more than two years. Foreigners staying in Turkey especially in summer and fall want to climb the mountain from Bayazid and Igdir," the letter says. The area of Mount Ararat and surrounding areas were declared "special security zones" in August 2015 in connection with military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). According to the Turkish newspaper, there are currently military detachments of the PKK at some parts of Ararat, and operations are regularly carried out by the Turkish army to neutralize them. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |