Month: October 2016

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has been charged by the Football Association for claiming it would be “difficult” for referee Anthony Taylor to officiate their game with Liverpool, the BBC reports.

Mourinho added appointing Taylor for the 17 October match had put “pressure” on the Manchester-based official.

Managers are not supposed to speak about referees prior to matches.

Mourinho has until 31 October to respond to a charge of improper conduct and bringing the game into disrepute.

Taylor issued four yellow cards – all to Manchester United – in the 0-0 draw.

Managers were banned from talking about officials in the run-up to matches in 2009 in an attempt to prevent their comment from influencing decisions.

The Portuguese was given a one-match stadium ban and fined £40,000 in November after the FA backed referee Jon Moss’ claims that the then-Chelsea manager refused to leave the officials’ changing room and verbally abused him and his colleagues at half-time of a defeat at West Ham.

Mourinho was also fined £50,000 for claiming that referees were afraid to award penalties against his side last season after the Blues were beaten 3-1 by Southampton in October.

Today, at the Meridian exhibition center President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the opening of the Junwex Yerevan Show-2016 international jewellery exhibition which will run through October 30.

The exhibition center is located on the territory of the free economic zone which provides tax and customs privileges to the businesses operating here.

The exhibition is being organized by the Armenian Jewellery Association (AJA) for the sixth time.

The exhibition is attended by famous jewellery houses from different countries, individual jewelers, and experts.

The President toured the pavilions, familiarized with the jewellery pieces presented by the local and foreign companies, jewellery tools, familiarized with the activities and upcoming programs of the firms.

Today President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the opening of the Yerevan fair trade center. The creation of the center was initiated by the SIL Concern Company. During the tour, the President was briefed by the officials of the Company on the works carried out at the first stage, investments, new jobs, and the upcoming development programs, particularly the works envisaged for the second stage.

It was noted that in January-June 2016, over 250 employees were engaged in the construction on a permanent basis with the average salary of 200.000 AMD. The segment of the fair constructed during the first stage of the works will allow to hire 550 employees with the average salary of 150.000 AMD.

According to the officials, investments at this stage came close to 2 billion 500 million AMD. After the second phase of construction works is completed, in summer of 2017 Yerevan will have a fair, which will occupy 430002 meters, with 850 pavilions for retail and wholesale trade, with all modern facilities. The fair will create over 1000 new jobs with the average salary of 150.000 AMD.

The Government decided today to allocate sums to refund the tuition fees of Syrian Armenian students.

About 400 of the 500 Syrian Armenian students need compensation to pay the tuition.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Armenian General Benevolent Union will allocate 120,000 USD each to cover the costs, but the whole sum needed to refund the tuiton fees amounts to 20 mln AMD.

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

The whole world is following with great interest the flood of internal emails released by WikiLeaks: over 400,000 emails of the Turkish ruling party (AKP), 2.8 million U.S. diplomatic emails, over 30,000 emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State, and 27,000 emails and attachments hacked from the Democratic National Committee.

I will single out a few out of the hundreds of leaked emails that touch upon Armenia or Turkey:

1. On April 19, 2015, Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy adviser, sent an email to a half dozen senior campaign staffers, including Chairman John Podesta, asking if they should issue a statement on the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Sullivan also wanted to know if Clinton would use the term “genocide” as she did as Senator and presidential candidate eight years ago, or will she avoid that term as she did as Secretary of State? Sullivan pointed out that “the White House studiously avoided using ‘genocide’ so far,” and would probably continue to do so. Sullivan wondered whether Clinton’s campaign should proactively issue a statement on the Armenian Genocide or wait until asked to do so by “Armenian groups.” Sullivan ended his email by acknowledging that the Armenian Genocide issue “matters enormously to Armenian-Americans.” Within hours, Podesta suggested that a quotation from Pope Francis acknowledging the Armenian Genocide be included in the genocide statement which ultimately the Clinton Campaign decided not to issue.

2. Ismail Cobanoglu, First Counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., sent an email on Sept. 9, 2015 to Campaign Chairman John Podesta, asking if Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu could “pay a courtesy call on Mrs. Clinton,” in New York, between Sept. 26 and 30. Strangely, Cobanoglu stated that he had first written to the State Department, but was told that Clinton was no longer Secretary of State! Cobanoglu told Podesta that Davutoglu is making this request “in light of his prior friendship with Secretary Clinton dating back to the time when they were colleagues as Secretary of State/Foreign Minister.” On the same day, Podesta told Cobanoglu that Mrs. Clinton’s “schedule is quite difficult, but this would be a priority meeting if at all possible. Huma Abedin, the campaign’s Vice Chair, will follow up.” Podesta then asked Ms. Abedin: “How do you want to handle?” She responded the next day to Cobanoglu informing him that Mrs. Clinton “would be happy to meet with the Prime Minister but we aren’t certain that she will be in New York any of days you suggest. We will let you know as soon as we are more clear on her schedule. We will be in touch soon.” It is not known if the requested meeting ever took place.

3. On December 17, 2010, Huma Abedin, who at the time was Secretary of State Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, forwarded her news about a ruling by the Federal Appeals Court, allowing heirs of Armenian Genocide victims to seek compensation from three German life insurance companies. Interestingly, and ominously, the subject line of Abedin’s email stated that Foreign Minister Davutoglu referred to this court case in his earlier phone call to Clinton. The next day, Harold Koh, Legal adviser of the State Department, sent a copy of the court verdict to Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and Joe MacManus, Executive Assistant to the Secretary of State, asking them to forward this important document to Secretary Clinton. Koh added that “since FM [Foreign Minister] Davutoglu mentioned it in his phone call to her on Friday, we wanted to get this to her ASAP.” Sullivan sent the court verdict to Secretary Clinton with the following note: “Importance: High.” In my opinion, this was an unwarranted and blatant interference by the Turkish Foreign Minister in the US judicial system, seeking to enlist the Secretary of State in pressuring the courts to reverse the verdict! It is not known if Mrs. Clinton took any action in this regard. However, the Federal Court of Appeals subsequently struck down the earlier decision.

4. Finally, in a March 17, 2016 email, Campaign Chairman John Podesta listed 39 individuals as potential Vice Presidential candidates for Mrs. Clinton. One of the surprising names on the list was Muhtar Kent, a Turkish-American who is Chairman of The Coca Cola Company. His father, Necdet Kent, was Consul General of Turkey in New York City, where Muhtar was born. He attended high school in Mersin, Turkey. As we know, Mrs. Clinton ended up picking Tim Kaine as her running mate, not Muhtar Kent.

 – Thousands of people attended the festival Buenos Aires Celebrates Armenia organized by the government of the City of Buenos Aires and the Armenian community in Argentina, with shows that included Armenian dances and music, food stands and artistic and cultural events.

The singer Grigor Mirzoyan was the main attraction of the show, which was then accompanied by the Argentine-Armenian band Nor Arax, the violinist Aida Simonian and singers Valeria Cherekian and Arman Gasparyan. The Armenian folk dances groups Nairi, Masis, Kaiane and Narek interpreted the songs with traditional Armenian dances.

The event in an outdoor park was attended by the Secretary for Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism of the Nation Claudio Avruj, President of National Bank Carlos Melconian, Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church for Argentina and Chile and the Consul of Armenia in Argentina, Ester Mkrtumyanalong with officials, leaders of the Armenian community in the country, scout groups and representatives of the community schools.

The “Buenos Aires Celebrates” program was created in 2009 to organize thematic festivals of all communities of Argentina.

The  Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have issued the following statement:

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America, and Pierre Andrieu of France), together with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, traveled to the region from 23 to 25 October 2016.

‪The Co-Chairs met with the Presidents and Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Armenia’s newly appointed Defence Minister, and de facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh. The purpose of the Co-Chairs’ visit was to discuss the situation after the unprecedented violence last April, and to clarify positions on the negotiation process.

‪During the meetings, the sides confirmed that the situation on the ground remains relatively calm.  The Co-Chairs underscored that respect for the ceasefire provides a critical foundation for ongoing negotiations, and stressed the importance of fully implementing decisions taken in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

‪The Co-Chairs also discussed current working proposals to advance substantive negotiations towards a lasting peace. The Presidents each expressed their views on how to move the settlement process forward.  The Presidents also reaffirmed their agreement to expand the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, and operational details are still being discussed.

‪The Co-Chairs plan to meet with the Ministers including on the margins of the December 2016 OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg to discuss a possible meeting of the Presidents at the earliest opportunity.  Such a dialogue at the highest level is necessary to make progress towards a settlement.

‪While in the region, the Co-Chairs also met with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to discuss the work the organization has undertaken on the exchange of data on missing persons, a humanitarian measure which the Co-Chairs have fully supported in meetings with officials at all levels.

Jamaica’s Minister of tourism, Edmund Bartlett, says plans are under way to market brand Jamaica in Armenia, the  reports.

“We were able to establish a new partner in Armenia that now will be selling destination Jamaica with Qatar Airlines to bring new arrivals into the country,” he said.

Bartlett, who was speaking at a recent press conference held in New Kingston, said the partnership will provide new opportunities for a diversified local tourism market, while boosting arrivals to the country.

Initial discussions were held during the minister’s attendance at the 38th plenary session of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) affiliate members in Armenia from October 1 to 4.

Further details on the partnership are to be announced later this year.