Armenian serviceman Hayk Levon Hambartsumyan was wounded in Azeri firing at about 08:30 this morning, when protecting one of the military units located in the southern direction of the NKR Defense Army.
Probe into the details of the incident is under way, the NKR Defense Ministry said.
The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire about 50 times last night, firing more than 1,800 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.
Photo: AP
The winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize is set to be announced later in Norway’s capital, Oslo, the BBC reports.
The winner of the prestigious award has been selected from a list of 376 candidates – 228 are individuals and 148 are organisations.
However, who or what they are is meant to be kept closely guarded secret.
Despite this, a list of front-runners has emerged – including Syria’s White Helmets, and the negotiators of the Iran nuclear deal.
Last year, the prize went to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, a group lauded for helping their country’s transition to democracy, instead of Angela Merkel – who was widely thought to be in the running for her work with refugees.
President Serzh Sargsyan sent today a congratulatory message to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
“Distinguished Mr. President,
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of your birth anniversary.
I sincerely wish you great health and new success in your policies aimed at the increase of the well-being of the citizens of Russia, prosperity of the country and strengthening of its role on the international arena.
There is no doubt that joint and consistent deepening and enrichment of the potential of our countries’ allied cooperation, based on the centuries-long brotherly and friendly relations of our countries, allows to register significant results in all areas of the Armenian-Russian cooperation. Thanks to your personal input, important interstate strategic agreements, including economic, military-technical, investment, humanitarian and other, are being called to life.
I am confident that the intensive and efficient political dialogue and our regular meetings will continue to play an important role in the active development of the entire complex of the Armenian-Russian cooperation on the bilateral level as well as in the framework of international and regional unions.
Joint steps aimed at the productive functioning of the Eurasian Economic Union, adaptation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and further development of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s structure create qualitatively new conditions for the future development of the allied relations for the benefit of our peoples, stability and security in the region.
I am glad for the upcoming opportunity to welcome you at the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council in Armenia.
I cordially wish you, Distinguished Mr. President, all the best and success in all your undertakings,” reads the congratulatory message of the President of Armenia.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Friday submitted a Russian-Armenian agreement on creating the Caucasus Unified Anti-Air Defense System to the State Duma. This information is available from the State Duma electronic database, TASS reports.
Russia and Armenia signed the agreement in Moscow on December 23, 2015. The document stipulates “the establishment of a regional Unified Anti-Air Defense System as part of the of CIS Unified Anti-Air Defense System.” The main task of the system is to “set up and maintain air defense combat duty in the Caucasus region, keep the battle management system, the weaponry and the military hardware of the Unified Anti-Air Defense System on alert, cooperate with the forces of other regional air defense systems,” an explanatory note says.
In peacetime, the member states’ defense ministries are supposed to draw up plans for the combined use of the troops, their joint air defense combat duties, as well as operational and combat training.
Armenia’s parliament ratified this agreement at the end of June.
The convoy with humanitarian aid from Armenia has arrived in Aleppo, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs via Twitter.
The authorities in Lattakia received 40 tons of food and relief aid sent by Armenia to help the Syrian people, SANA reported.
Armenian Consul in Aleppo Tigran Gevorgyan told journalists during the unloading of the aid shipment at the Virgin Mary Church in Lattakia that this aid has been provided based on directives from Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to help the Syrian people and as an expression of the strong friendship between the two countries.
Gevorgyan noted that back in 1990 when Armenia was having a food and economic crisis, Syria sent around 6,000 tons of wheat, food, medicine, and fuel to help it overcome the crisis, asserting that Armenia will continue to send aid to the Syrian people.
A Syrian Arab Army officer said that the aid will be distributed among displaced families that have been affected by terrorism.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the BBC reports.
Judges in Norway praised him for his peace deal with Farc rebels, signed last month after four years of negotiations.
But the agreement was narrowly rejected by Colombians in a referendum last weekend.
The 52-year conflict has led to the deaths of an estimated 260,000 people with more than six million people internally displaced.
An NKR Defense Army vehicle has been damaged as a result of intensive firing from the Azerbaijani side.
The NKR Defense Army reports more than 50 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side at the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.
The rival fired more than 1,800 shots from weapons of different calibers in the directions of the Armenian positions.
More intensive firing was reported in the northern and northeastern directions of the line of contact, where the rival used DShK large-caliber machine guns, Istiglal rifles and sniper rifles and HAN-17 grenade launcher.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army resorted to response actions to pressure the activeness of the rival and confidently continued with their military duty.
Photo: Viktor Drachev/TASS
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) plans to hold large-scale collective forces’ drills dubbed Combat Brotherhood on the territory of Armenia, Kazakhstan and Russia in October 2017, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov said on Friday, TASS reports.
“This year, four CSTO exercises have been held on the territory of various states and at different time. Next year, we’re planning to unite the maneuvers and hold them under a single scenario simultaneously with all the components of the CSTO collective forces. So far, the name Combat Brotherhood has been proposed for the drills,” Sidorov said.
The CSTO’s unified drills will be held in October 2017. “That is, we won’t hold drills separately in April, August, September and October as was the case this year and in October 2017 we’ll practice joint measures within a short period of time on the territory of three states: Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan. This will be more efficient to optimize the joint system of the CSTO collective forces’ control,” he said.
“The drills will approximately last for three weeks and a counter-terror operation will be devised under a single scenario: first reconnaissance, then the use of the rapid response collective forces with the support of aviation and then the post-conflict settlement with the employment of peace-keeping forces. This will be an experiment,” the colonel-general said.
The CSTO rapid response collective forces comprise over 17,000 servicemen from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. These troops allow adequately responding to all existing challenges and threats – to counter terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking. The CSTO peacekeeping forces comprise about 3,600 servicemen.
The U.S. Department of State announces the opening of the registration period for the 2018 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery, also known as the “Green Card Lottery.” Entries for the 2018 Diversity Visa lottery must be submitted electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Tuesday, October 4, 2016, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Monday, November 7, 2016, the U.S. Embassy in Armenia informs.
Applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form at during the registration period. Paper entries will not be accepted. Applicants are strongly encouraged not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter. Heavy demand may result in website delays. No entries will be accepted after noon EDT on November 7, 2016.
Applicants are reminded that there is no cost to enter, that multiple entries result in automatic disqualification, and that they should retain their entry confirmation page with their unique confirmation number.
The annual DV program makes immigrant visas available to persons meeting simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. A computer-generated, random lottery drawing chooses selectees for visa interviews. The Diversity Visa Program requires the principal applicant to have a high school education, or its equivalent, or two years of qualifying work experience as defined under provisions of U.S. law. Entrants may prepare and submit their own entries or have someone submit the entry for them. Regardless of whether an entry is submitted by the individual directly or with assistance, only one entry may be submitted in the name of each individual. The person entering the DV lottery is responsible for ensuring that the information provided is correct and complete. Visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration. No DV visas are given to nationals of countries that sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the past five years. Within each region, no single country may receive more than 7% of the available DVs in any one year.
The law allows only one entry by or for each person during each registration period. The Department of State uses sophisticated technology to detect multiple entries. Entrants who submit more than one entry will be disqualified. Applicants must submit a recent photo taken within the last six months. Entries that include the same photo from the last DV year (DV-2017) will be disqualified.
There is no cost or fee to register for the DV Program. You are strongly encouraged to complete the entry form yourself, without a “Visa Consultant,” “Visa Agent,” or other facilitator who offers to help for a fee. If somebody else helps you, you should be present when your entry is prepared so that you can provide the correct information. You should retain the confirmation page and your unique confirmation number.
To fight fraud, the Department will use web site-based tools to notify entrants of their selection and visa interview appointment information. The Department will not send selectee notification or appointment letters to successful entrants by regular mail or by e-mail. Instead, entrants will use their confirmation number to check their status online. Starting May 2, 2017, entrants may enter their DV-2018 entry confirmation number into the Entrant Status Check, which will be available at , to determine if their entry was selected to move forward.
It is important to note that winning the lottery is not a guarantee that you will receive a visa – winners must be interviewed and qualify for a visa.
For detailed information about entry requirements, along with frequently asked questions about the DV lottery, please see the instructions for the DV-2018 DV lottery available at .
On October 7, 2016 “HayPost” CJSC put into circulation two new stamps dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of the Armenian artist, painter Arshak Fetvadjian (1866 -1947).
Fetvadjian was the designer of the postage stamps and currency of the first Republic of Armenia.
Arshak Fetvadjian travelled in the Eastern Armenia, painted Armenian architectural monuments and produced more than 2,000 works varying from pencil drawings to watercolors. He is also author of portraits, works with themes related to Armenian history, mythology and nationalism, as well as reproductions from Armenian miniature paintings.
The stamps were printed in “Cartor” Printing House, France, with print run of 40,000pcs per each. They have face values of 170 and 230 Armenian drams. The stamps depict Portrait of Arshak Fetvadjian and his painting “Woman playing the Mandolin”. The stamps were designed by David Dovlatyan, designer of “HayPost” CJSC.
The official cancellation ceremony of the stamp took place at the National Gallery of Armenia. The cancellation was carried out by the Director of National Gallery of Armenia, Arman Tsaturyan and the Acting Chief Executive Officer of “HayPost” CJSC , Hayk Avagyan.