Month: October 2016

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Armenia Ivan Volinkin.

Noting that the Armenian-Russian friendly relations of allied partnership have a solid foundation, the Prime Minister stressed that interaction is developing steadily in all directions. Emphasizing that Russia is Armenia’s main economic partner, Karen Karapetyan stressed the importance of further development and expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

The Premier assured of his government’s readiness to take all necessary steps in this direction, adding that there is great potential to implement new investment projects and increase trade turnover.

Ivan Volinkin congratulated Karen Karapetyan on his appointment as Prime Minister and wished him new achievements. Convinced in the success of the new government, the Ambassador assured of his willingness to support the implementation of joint initiatives.

During the meeting, Karen Karapetyan and Ivan Volinkin discussed a wide range of issues related to bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

Photo: AFP

At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a Kurdish wedding in north-eastern Syria, the BBC reports.

The bomber blew himself up on Monday night at a hall in Tal Tawil, outside Hassakeh city, reportedly while the bride and groom were exchanging vows.

There were conflicting reports about whether the groom was among the dead.

So-called Islamic State said one of its militants had attacked a “large gathering” of Kurdish fighters with a machine-gun and and explosive vest.

Kurdish-led forces have driven the jihadist group out of most of Hassakeh province, but they have been unable to prevent deadly bomb attacks.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs hope the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Serzh Sargsayn and Ilham Aliyev will agree to hold the next meeting on Karabakh conflict settlement, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“We hope the Presidents will agree on a next meeting. The date and place have not yet been set for a meeting,” Warlick said.

According to him, the Co-Chairs are working with the sides to solve the conflict.

“During the UN General Assembly session in New York the Co-Chairs held separate meetings with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss the agreements reached in Vienna and Saint Petersburg and to outline the future steps,” the diplomat said.

“We plan to hold meetings and discuss issues with the parties during our visit to the region by the end of the month,” Warlick stated.

Armenia has shown determination in fighting racism and intolerance, integrating refugees and supporting ethnic minorities. However, numerous legislation gaps, rise in hate speech and violence, and institutional shortcomings remain of concern, said the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its new report published today.

The report covering the period from December 2010 to March 2016 welcomed the efforts of the Armenian authorities to revise the Criminal Code and draft comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, integrate a large influx of refugees from Syria and increase the financial support for the ethnic minorities.

However, the criminal, civil and administrative legislation and procedures still suffer from numerous shortcomings which make it impossible to adequately combat racism and discrimination. The report notes a rise in hate speech leading to violence, main targets being members of the LGBT community and non-traditional religious groups, and the stigmatisation of these groups in the political and public discourse.

As priority recommendations to be followed up in two years, ECRI calls on the authorities to streamline the various integration strategies for all vulnerable groups, and to amend the Armenian criminal law. The list of “prohibited grounds” should explicitly include colour, language, nationality, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and gender identity. Besides, incitement to violence and to racial discrimination, as well as the public denial, trivialisation, justification or condoning of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes should be criminalised.

Other recommendations include making homophobic/transphobic motivation an aggravating circumstance; giving more powers to the Human Rights Defender to enable him/her to deal with discrimination in the private sector; establishing an independent mechanism for dealing with complaints against the police; and encouraging the adoption of a code of ethics for media and a code of conduct for parliamentarians.

Pope Francis visited the earthquake-hit towns of central Italy in a surprise journey on Tuesday morning, praying with the residents of Amatrice on the feast day of his namesake, St. Francis, telling them to ‘move forward’ together for ‘there is always a future,’ reports.

His first visit was to the newly constructed ‘Capranica’ school, where the Pope met with elementary and middle-school aged children, who gave him several of their handmade drawings.

Pope Francis hugged them one-by-one and listened to their stories of the deadly earthquake in Amatrice where 231 of the total 297 people died.

During his visit, Pope Francis told the residents of Amatrice, “I thought long and hard in the first days of these many pains that my visit, perhaps, would be more of a hindrance than a help, a greeting. I didn’t want to be a bother so I let a little time pass, so that some things could be resolved, like the school. But from the first moment, I felt that I needed to come to you! Simply to express my closeness to you, nothing more. And I pray, pray for you! Solidarity and prayer: this is my offering to you. May the Lord bless you all; may Our Lady watch over you in this moment of sadness, pain, and trial.”

After blessing them, he said, “Let’s move forward; there is always a future. There are many loved ones who have left us, who fell here under the rubble. Let us pray to Our Lady for them; let us do it together. Always look ahead. Courage, and help each other. One walks better together, alone we go nowhere. Forward! Thank you.”

The Holy Father then went to the heavily damaged centre of Amatrice accompanied by the Mayor Sergio Pirozzi. There he paused for several minutes to pray.

A press release by the Holy See Press Office said, “Already on Sunday, during his inflight press conference on the flight from Baku to Rome, Pope Francis had said he would make this visit ‘privately, alone, as a priest, as a bishop, as Pope. But alone. This is how I want to do it. And I would like to be close to the people.’”

Nearly 4,000 people are living in tents near Amatrice after their homes were destroyed in the 6.0-magnitude earthquake.

Afterwards, the Pope stopped to have lunch with around 60 elderly people living in the ‘St. Raphael Assisted Living Facility’ in Rieti, whilst on his way to nearby Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto to bring his message of hope and solidarity to them as well.

Egypt’s short film Wintry Spring (Rabie Chetwy) scooped-up the Best Short Film Award at the Sose 2016 International Film Festival, which took place between 23 and 30 September in Yerevan, Armenia, according to Ahram Online.

Released in 2015 and directed by Mohamed Kamel, the 16-minute film depicts a relationship between a father and his daughter Nour. In an apparently otherwise regular relationship and life, typical youth problems emerge with Nour and create a rift between the two.

The film screened across over 90 film festivals around the world and received many awards.

Sose International Film Festival highlights women’s rights in the language of art. This year the festival featured 104 films from 38 countries. For the complete list of winners click .

Photos by Pierre Suu/Getty Images

Reality television star Kim Kardashian, Russian model Natalia Vodianova and others showed up at the launch for Armenian-American jewelry designer Siran Manoukian in Paris, according to

The Los Angeles-born designer and socialite, a longtime friend of Kardashian, was launching her own clothing label Maison Siran.

Attending the event were Portuguese model Sara Pinto Sampaio, German model Toni Garrn, Elton John’s husband David Furnish and Siran Manoukian’s friend Emiliya Kazandzhyan, American Armenian writer and president of a charity fund.

Kim Kardashian was tied up and robbed at gunpoint at a luxury Paris residence by assailants disguised as police who made off with millions in jewelry after she made a series of high-profile appearances at Paris fashion week.

Maria Sharapova’s two-year doping ban has been reduced to 15 months following her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), the BBC reports.

The five-time Grand Slam winner, 29, was initially banned by the International Tennis Federation for two years after testing positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.

The Russian will be able to return to the tennis court on 26 April, 2017.

“I am counting the days until I can return,” she said on Tuesday.