Month: April 2016

The history of Armenia is closely connected with Byzantium and Greece, through common course and tragic events. The Athens-based Byzantine and Christian Museum, hosts the exhibition “Armenia: The spirit of Ararat, from the Bronze Age to the 20th century,” organized in collaboration with the History Museum of Armenia and the Embassy of Armenia in Greece.

Director of the Byzantine and Christian Museum Mrs. Katerina Delaporta told that “the exhibition includes 104 items, starting from prehistoric times, findings that emerged from excavations of the Hellenistic and Roman period to digital material from the modern history of Armenia, presenting the destruction of monuments and the Armenian Genocide.”

It is the first time that archaeological treasures of Armenia are on display in Greece. Visitors will certainly find the historic link between the two countries.

Armenians made their presence felt both in Europe and the Middle and Far East and India and China. This geographic expansion of their commercial networks, particularly to the east, influenced their cultural preferences, which are visible on objects in the collection.

The exhibition will remain open until May 31.

“Self-determination is the only solution for Nagorno- Karabakh. The European Union should impose sanctions against Baku with regards to the new outbreak of Azeri aggression against the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” MEP Eleni Theocharous said at a plenary session of the European Parliament.

“The Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh have resisted against the Soviet totalitarianism for 60 years now and have managed not to be absorbed by the authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan, to which they were unwillingly given by the South Soviets. After many bloody fights, the Armenians have gained their freedom and their right to self-determination. This would be the only fair solution for Nagorno Karabakh,” she said.

“Since 1994, the Armenians are defending themselves against the constant attacks by Azerbaijan, which uses its economic power towards purchasing heavy weapons whereas at the same time its own people live in absolute poverty. Its utter purpose is the destruction of the Karabakh people since the continuous attacks and killings of civilians are Azeri practices,” the MEP added.

“It is therefore the EU’s responsibility to support the people of Nagorno Karabakh, who fight for their freedom, and thus not to support the continuation of an unjust status quo. Peace equals recognition of the right to self-determination for the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” Eleni Theocharous concluded.

 

 

 

“The world should listen to what concessions Artskah is ready to make,” Vice-Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Edward Sharmazanov told reporters today. He added, however, that a number of principles need to be clarified before that.

“There can be no mutual concessions without the decision of the people and authorities of Artsakh.  Speaking about concessions today is useless, as I haven’t heard anything from the Azerbaijani side,” Sharmazanov said.

The Vice-Speaker ruled out any unilateral concessions. “It is impossible after 25-30 years of struggle. We’ll fight till the end,” he said.

Sharmazanov has just returned from Artsakh. He visited Nagorno Karabakh accompanied by lawmakers from the Czech Republic, Latvia and Greece, who have already been blacklisted by Azerbaijan. The European MPs had arrived to see the consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression on the ground.

Sharmazanov quoted the European lawmakers as saying that “the people of Artsakh are not alone in their struggle, and it’s up to Artsakh to determine its future.”

Spekaing about Turkey’s reaction to the recent escalation, he noted that “attempts to ascribe a religious coloring to the Karabakh conflict” could mark the start of a catastrophe. He urged the international community to be cautious and pressure those attempting to incite escalation.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with Ambassadors of OSCE participating states today.

Minister Nalbandian briefed the Ambassadors on the consequences of the recent Azeri aggression along the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

“With its aggressive actions Azerbaijan actually tried to refuse from its international commitments of solving the issue in a peaceful way, thus grossly violating the basic principles of international law, the decisions and declarations of a number of OSCE summits and Ministerial Councils, obviously ignoring the statements on the heads of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries on the settlement of the Karabakh issue,” the Armenian Foreign Minister said.

Minister Nalbandian attached importance to the active role of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries and stressed the need to support their efforts.

Leading Assyrian Christian organizations have collectively penned an open letter to the five remaining U.S. presidential candidates, urging them to fight against radical terror groups and to recognize the past genocide that Christians have suffered under the Ottoman Empire, according to

, addressed to Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, states that Assyrian Christians are being “tortured, kidnapped, raped and murdered by radical terrorist organizations such as ISIS.”

“We have seen this terror in Paris, Brussels, and other cities around the world, committed in the name of Islam by radical Islamic organizations. For Assyrians it feels like 1915 all over again,” the groups write, referencing the ethnic and religious cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey, between 1915-1924, when 750,000 Assyrians, 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

“One hundred years have passed since the era of World War I when no one heard the cries of our ancestors, the Assyrian people, in their suffering in that genocide that is known as the Armenian Genocide,” the letter reads.

“26 countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide. 12 countries, governments and institutions have recognized the Assyrian genocide. Turkey, however, continues to deny the genocide,” the Assyrian organizations pointed out.

Assyrian organizations that are listed as signers of the letter are: Assyrian Genocide and Research, Federation des Assyriens de Belgique, Institut Syriaque de Belgique, Sefyo Center Belgium, Assyrian Universal Alliance Americas Chapter, Restore Nineveh Now Foundation, American Mesopotamian Organization, Institut Assyrien de Belgique, Central Union of Assyrian Associations in Germany and European sections, Assyrian Democratic Organization, and Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Student Union of Canada.

The mass genocide of Christians marked its 100th year anniversary on April 24, 2015, bringing together world leaders to Yerevan, Armenia, to pay their respects to the dead.

“I bow down in memory of the victims and I come to tell my Armenian friends that we will never forget the tragedies that your people has endured,” said French President Francois Hollande.

President Barack Obama faced criticism from Armenian-American activists, however, when he failed to refer to the 1915 massacre as a genocide last year.

“The president’s surrender represents a national disgrace,” said Aram S. Hamparian, executive director of the Washington-based Armenian National Committee of America, at the time. “It is a betrayal of the truth, and it is a betrayal of trust.”

Although Obama had promised during his election campaign in 2008 that he would use the word, the White House later clarified that it does not want to sour its relations with Turkey, a NATO-partner.

In their letter, the Assyrian leaders reminded the presidential candidates that Secretary of State John Kerry has designated the ongoing massacre of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as a genocide.

“As President of the United States, would you do everything in your power to end these atrocities, bring the perpetrators to justice, and aid the survivors?” the Assyrian groups asked in the letter.

“As President of the United States, would you acknowledge the Ottoman Genocide against Christians – Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks – during World War I and support reparations for the victims?” they added.

“It is our hope that as President you would aid the victims of genocide, both past and present, and bring relief to their suffering.”

 

 

 

The Energy Ministers of Armenia, Georgia, Iran and Russia met in Yerevan today to discuss the countries’ cooperation in the power sector.

The parties signed a “roadmap” of steps towards forming a North-South energy corridor by 2019, Armenia’s Deputy Energy Minister Areg Galstyan told reporters after the signing ceremony.

The project will allow the four countries to unite their energy systems, improving the level of governance, as well as the efficiency, security and reliability of the energy systems.

Before that, Armenia and Iran plan to commission the 400 kW third power transmission line.

After a successful flight test on Calspan’s variable-stability Learjet aircraft last year, an L1 adaptive flight control system is being modified for the U.S. Air Force’s VISTA F-16 aircraft by Professor Naira Hovakimyan and her graduate students, Kasey Ackerman and Javier Puig-Navarro. Hovakimyan, a W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor in MechSE, has been developing the L1 adaptive control theory since 2005, accoridng to the 

The VISTA flight test, conducted by the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, is expected to take place in September of this year at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The progression from testing on the Learjet to the VISTA F-16 was a natural one, said Puig-Navarro, and the next steps will be crucial. The Learjet testing itself was a huge milestone, but only certain aspects of the L1 system were tested on the Learjet aircraft. The Learjet was chosen for the first test at Edwards Air force base because it is less expensive to operate and allowed the researchers to collect over 18 hours of flight data.

“The Learjet is a slower aircraft with inherently stable dynamics, while the F-16 is more maneuverable, with faster dynamics,” Puig-Navarro explained. “The Learjet was definitely very challenging, and a necessary step on the way to the F-16. As a result, all the experience acquired from the Learjet tests was very important to move on to a faster and more dynamically challenging aircraft.”

After the September flight tests, Hovakimyan and her team hope to be one step closer to incorporating an L1 control system on more advanced aircraft, leading (in the distant future) to implementation on commercial aircraft. L1 adaptive control has the potential to make flights much safer, Ackerman said. In the event of a failure, it allows the pilot to focus on landing the airplane and getting the passengers out safely. Additionally, since the L1 system can compensate for undesirable dynamics, it may result in a more pleasant flight experience for passengers, said Puig-Navarro.

L1 adaptive control has been in development for only 10 years, and many more test flights and extended research are required before it can be considered for commercial use.

“Every new opportunity is extremely precious, and we value our relationship with Edwards Air Force Base Test Pilot School students and instructors for helping us to test our methods on a new platform every year,” said Hovakimyan. “The benefits to humanity will be safer aviation, fewer crashes, and more robust and stable flight.”

The first flight tests resulting from Hovakimyan’s research in L1 adaptive control started when NASA, Boeing, and the Air Force were researching methods for improving aviation safety from 2005 to 2010. According to Hovakimyan, previous adaptive methods for controlling aircraft under dangerous conditions needed improvements.

“It was clear that the conventional approach to adaptive control aiming for complete compensation of uncertainties, irrespective of their frequency range, achieved only asymptotic results without any quantification of the transient performance bounds, and it is during the transients resulting from unpredictable circumstances that crashes happen,” she said.

During the first tests on NASA’s AirSTAR’s Generic Transport Model remotely piloted aircraft, the L1 adaptive flight control system was the only research flight controller cleared by NASA test pilots for the unpredictable, highly uncertain stall and post-stall flight regimes, and it consistently delivered predictable performance, rendering the aircraft controllable for the pilots.

Ackerman and Puig-Navarro are looking forward to how their work will continue to unfold. The team believes that the VISTA flight tests will build upon the success of the NASA AirSTAR and Learjet projects and continue to demonstrate the efficacy of L1 adaptive control in aviation safety.

Mathematician Naira Hovakimian was born in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1988 she gratuated from the Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Mechanics Yerevan State University and did her  Ph.Dat the  Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992. 

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan participated today in the sitting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Moscow.

The Heads of Government of EEU member states discussed a wide range of issues on the EEU agenda. The participants attached importance to raising the dialogue and economic cooperation with China to a new level. A number of decisions were signed upon the conclusion of the sitting.

On the sidelines of the sitting PM Hovik Abrahamyan talked to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

At the initiative of the Russian Prime Minister, the next sitting of the Council will take place in Yerevan on May 20, 2016.

The Azerbaijani side kept violating the agreement on ceasefire along the line of contact with Karabakh forces all through April 13, the NKR Defense Army reports.

Between 17:15 and 18:00 the rival used 82 mm mortars in the northern direction (Martakert).

At about 17: 50 the Azerbaijani forces used 60 mm mortars, as they shelled the Armenian posts located in the Talish direction.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army remained committed to the oral agreement on ceasefire and resorted to retaliatory measures in case of extreme necessity.

Armenia’s Andranik Karapetyan (77 kg) won gold at the European Weightlifting Championships under way in Norway.

Another Armenian weightlifter Tigran Martirosyan came in second in the same weight category.