Month: November 2016

An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude has hit New Zealand’s South Island, hours after an initial quake killed two people, the BBC reports.

The new tremor struck at 13:45 local time (00:45 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6 miles), northeast of Christchurch.

A 7.5-magnitude quake, with the same depth, had hit the same area just after midnight, triggering tsunami warnings.

A large river dammed up by a landslide has now breached its banks sending a “large wall of water” downstream.

Residents around the Clarence River – one of the largest on South Island – were being urged to move immediately to higher ground.

A new kindergarten, now under construction, is the fourth major community-development project to be implemented by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund in Karin Tak, a village in Artsakh’s Shushi Region. In recent years, the fund has built Karin Tak’s multifunctional community center and new potable-water network, and completely renovated the local school gym. The construction of the kindergarten is co-sponsored by the Devejian and Ekserciyan families as well as Krikor Simsiroglu of Argentina, the Greek-Armenian and the Cypriot-Armenian communities, and the government of Artsakh. Proceeds from the upcoming Phoneathon of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s affiliate in Greece will likewise benefit the kindergarten-construction project.

The future kindergarten is designed to accommodate up to 50 children. The facility will feature a complement of state-of-the-art amenities, including a boiler room, a central-heating system, and an outdoor playground with various play equipment, all of which will make for an enriching and comfortable learning environment. The structure is already up and the roof is finished. In the next phases of the project, crews will work on the exterior and interior decoration, the installation of the boiler room, and the landscaping of the grounds. When completed in the summer of 2017, the campus will open its doors to the community’s 40 kindergarteners.

Karin Tak has a population of over 650, with a large percentage of young people. According to Mayor Mkhitar Arushanyan, the necessity of a kindergarten has long been felt in the community, given its steady demographic growth. “Our villagers feel a very strong bond with their native land,” Arushanyan says. “Even during the war years in the 1990s, when the village was under constant bombardment, our residents refused to abandon their birthplace. Today, thanks to a string of marvelous development projects, Karin Tak’s quality of life is improved significantly, and our residents have great faith in their future.”

Located five kilometers from the city of Shushi, Karin Tak was founded in the 18^th century. It is among villages that were utterly devastated during Artsakh’s war of liberation. Every year on January 26, the residents of Karin Tak commemorate their community’s heroic battle and victory in 1992.

More than 60 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival used weapons of different calibers as it fired over 870 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The Azerbaijani side used 60 and 82mm mine throwers in the direction of the military posts located in the northeastern and grenades in the northern direction of the Defense Army.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep full control of the situation at the frontline and confidently fulfill their military duty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved and instructed to sign the draft Agreement on a joint group of forces in the Caucasus region with Armenia, TASS reports.

According to the project, Russia and Armenia are planning to create a joint group of forces in the Caucasus region.

The document states that a Unified Command structure will be created to manage the force, which will be established “to ensure the security of parties in the Caucasus region.”

The group’s prerogatives will include repelling any armed attack on either party, as well as defending the state borders of Armenia and Russia.

“Turkey was vocal in its support for Azerbaijan during clashes in April 2016 in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the European Commission said in a report on Turkey, published on November 9.

The report also reminded that the 2009 protocols on normalization of relations with Armenia are not yet ratified.

The 100-page review claimed Turkey had regressed in its eligibility to join the bloc.

The highlighted a series of problem areas, including the legal situation in Turkey, which it described as being of “grave concern”.

It warned that a range of measures, introduced by president Recep Tayipp Erdogan following the failed military coup on July 2015 were “not in line with European standards”.

The report slammed Ankara and highlighted “serious allegations of human rights violations” as well as “disproportional use of force” by the security services.

The report added that “the Armenian Patriarchate’s proposal to open a university department for Armenian language and clergy has been pending for several years. Similar demands have been made by different Christian communities who sought to train clergy.:

The Armenian Defense Minister initiates public discussions featuring NGO representatives, journalists and intellectuals, the Ministry’s Press Service informs.

The program of increased state insurance fees to be paid to the families of servicemen killed or handicapped during military actions or military service will be presented to the discussions, which will be followed by exchange of views on the issue.

 

 

 

“NATO and Armenia have a very reliable, steady and substantial partnership,” James Appathurai NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, said in a video message on the occasion of the NATO Week in Armenia.

According to him, the most obvious element of that long-standing cooperation is Armenia’s contribution to NATO peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

He pointed to other non-military fields of cooperation, such as defense education, fight against corruption, science for peace programs. “It’s a very good two-way, mutual relationship, which benefits both parties,” he said.

“Armenia has a balanced foreign policy,” he said, adding that Armenia-NATO cooperation is in no way detrimental to Armenia’s other bilateral or multilateral relationships,” James Appathurai said.

The NATO Week that kicked off in Yerevan today will continue through November 18 and will be accompanied by a number of events. It’s aimed at raising awareness about Armenia-NATO relations among the society.

German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler considers that NATO Week is yet another opportunity to discuss important issues of bilateral interest.

With data from just the first nine months, scientists are 90% certain that 2016 will break the global record for the warmest year, the reports.

Temperatures from January to September were 1.2C above pre-industrial levels.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says they will remain high enough for the rest of the year to pass the mark set in 2015.

El Nino has had an impact, but the most significant factor driving temperatures up continues to be CO2 emissions.

While there are still a couple of months to go this year, a preliminary analysis of the October data indicates that 2016 is very much on track to surpass the 2015 level, which in turn broke the previous high mark set in 2014.

Ex-President of France Nicolas Sarkozy had a meeting with the Armenian community at the premises of the National Center of Armenian Memory in the city of Decines last week, Nouvelles D’Armenia reports.

Speaking about the Christians in the Middle East, Sarkozy said “the word genocide must not be trivialized. Its negation is a crime against intelligence and morality. The situation for Christians in the East is genocide.”

Referring to the perspectives of Turkey’s EU membership, Sarkozy said: “I went to Ankara to say on the spot that Turkey is certainly a great civilization, but that its place is not in Europe, and also that a great country must recognize the glorious hours as the dark hours in its history.”

Germany‘s ruling coalition has backed Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as the country’s next president, party sources said Monday, paving the way for a sharp critic of Donald Trump to become head of state, AFP reports.

Party leaders have been wrangling for months over whom to nominate as a potential successor to President Joachim Gauck, a 76-year-old former pastor from the ex-communist East Germany who is stepping down due to his advanced age.

On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) agreed on Germany‘s most popular politician, Steinmeier, whose name had been put forward by his Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The third party in the coalition — the CDU’s Bavarian allies CSU — backed the decision soon after.

“Now it’s official,” a CSU party source told AFP.

The new president — a figure who is meant to transcend party politics and serve as a moral standard bearer for the nation — will be elected on February 12 by a special assembly of MPs, delegates from Germany‘s 16 federal states and other notables.