Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni will visit Armenia on November 8 as part of his regional tour.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tigran Balayan confirmed the news to Public Radio of Armenia.
Within the framework of the visit Minister Gentiloni will hold meetings with the leadership of Armenia.
The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Italy Edward Nalbandian and Paolo Gentiloni will hold a joint press conference.
Parallel to implementing a wide range of infrastructure projects throughout 2016, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has built scores of homes for Artsakh families with five or more children. With proceeds from its 2015 Telethon as well as contributions from individual benefactors, the fund will continue to construct homes for large families in Artsakh.
To date, a total of 28 such homes have been built or are in the process of being constructed in cities, towns, and villages across Artsakh, including Martakert, Martuni, Vorotan, Avetaranots, Vank, Nor Haykajur, Chankatagh, Mushkapat, Chartar, Khandzadzor, Mets Tagher, Aknaberd, Charektar, Yeghegnut, Mirik, Berdik, Krasni, Chapar, Kusapat, Mariamadzor, Noragyugh, Varanda, and Vurgavand.
Nine of the homes were recently completed and fully furnished, and are ready for occupancy. Previously, six other brand-new and fully furnished homes were presented to as many families. The beneficiaries are the Harutyunyan, Shirinyan, Baghdasaryan, Movsesyan, Petrosyan and Sargsyan families, who moved into their new houses in Chartar, Krasni, Martakert and Chankatagh.
As determined by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Board of Trustees and worldwide affiliates at their most recent joint meeting, proceeds from the fund’s 2016 Thanksgiving Day Telethon, on November 24, will be allocated to initiatives for rebuilding war-ravaged communities in Artsakh, various measures to ensure the safety and security of the peaceful population of the republic, and the construction of many more homes for Artsakh families with multiple children. The meeting has also affirmed that the fund’s donors will continue to have the option of supporting special projects of their choosing.
Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, has donated mobile labs to the Health Ministries of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as part of its support to the CIS countries in fighting infections, RIA Novosti reports.
Rospotrebnadzor provides material and technical support to CIS participating states, reinforcing the capacities of the healthcare services in revealing and preventing the outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases.
The mobile labs are equipped with self-contained life support systems, have a high level of biological safety and are used to indicate the infectious agents through accelerated and rapid diagnosis methods.
Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan had a meeting with French Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier.
The Armenian Defense Minister attached importance to France’s efforts towards the settlement of the Karabakh conflict in its capacity as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair.
The interlocutors praised the high level of interstate relations and noted that there is a great potential for developing bilateral cooperation in the field of defense, especially in international peacekeeping.
The parties agreed to work towards intensification of cooperation in the field of defense and on the military-political level.
Reference was made to issues of regional security.
Reminding that the course of the case is changed in accordance with the political developments, Friends of Hrant stated: “We don’t care about the political developments. The murderers of Hrant Dink are not unidentified. Their names and positions are very well known. Their parts in this murder are obvious.”
Friends of Hrant pointed out that former chief of Istanbul Security Directorate Celalettin Cerrah, former chief of Istanbul Police Directorate Intelligence Branch Ahmet İlhan Güler and the former chief of General Security Directorate Intelligence Branch Sabri Uzun will be heard during this round of hearings and asked addressing the public officials who have been saying that they hadn’t seen the reports about the murder: “Will those public officials explain such absurdities? Will the court press them to explain? We will see soon enough.”
Friends of Hrant also mentioned the arrested writers of Cumhuriyet and MPs of HDP: “The operations against Cumhuriyet and HDP weaken our trust in justice even more. That is why we won’t forget who are the murderers and perpetrators. As HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been arrested a couple days ago, says: Fear may be contagious, but so is courage.”
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili tendered his resignation as governor of Ukraine’s southern Odessa region on Monday, accusing highly-placed officials in Kiev of obstructing his attempts at reform, Reuters reports.
Saakashvili, who is widely credited with cracking down on graft when he was president of Georgia from 2004-2013, was appointed Odessa governor in May 2015 by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Saakashvili has since repeatedly accused the Kiev leadership of lacking a real commitment to reform.
Vowing to continue to fight corruption which he said went to the very top of Ukraine’s establishment, he told journalists: “I have decided to tender my resignation and start a new stage of the fight. I am not giving up.”
In a clear rebuke of Poroshenko, he said: “In reality, in Odessa region, the President personally supports two clans.”
He said the work of reform-minded public officials had been repeatedly thwarted by higher authorities in Kiev interested in preserving the status quo.
On November 6, Heritage Party Chairman Raffi K. Hovannisian attended and addressed a special conference on Migration and Refugees organized by the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP).
The meeting, which brought together 40 political parties from more than 25 countries, was co-sponsored by the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party of Turkey.
Following inflammatory interventions by Azerbaijani and Turkish delegates, Raffi Hovannisian took the floor to present an Armenian perspective on historical and current developments in the region. He referred in particular to the unacceptability of the recent arrest of opposition MPs in Turkey and the crackdown on civil liberties which triggered flashbacks to 1915; the reality and legacy of the Armenian Genocide and Great National Dispossession of the Armenian and other peoples (Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds, Yezidis, and Alevis) as an unprecedented watershed in refugee creation; the Turkish official policy of denial and the untold story of thousands of righteous Turks who saved Armenian lives.
He underscored the tendency of states like Turkey and Azerbaijan to launch military activities in neighboring countries and then be compelled to manage refugee crises, seeking international support for their solution; Armenia’s experience with Syrian-Armenian refugees; Azerbaijan’s failed war of aggression against the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) Republic and the 500,000 Armenians who were displaced from Azerbaijan, Nakhichevan and other occupied Armenian lands; the imperative to secure for all refugees and internally displaced persons a guaranteed and equitable right of return to their places of origin, including the return of Armenians to and the establishment of communal life in Azerbaijan, Nakhichevan, and the western Armenian heartland in current-day eastern Turkey; and the need to be
self-critical in Turkey, Armenia, and all other countries and to take responsibility for developing just, democratic societies which are the only avenue to prevent non-conflict-driven emigration.
Upon completion of Hovannisian’s address, the vice chairman of the AK Party repeated Turkey’s denialist line and asked the reference to the word Genocide be deleted from the record. Hovannisian condemned this approach as an unacceptable, characteristic attempt at official censorship.
The bust of Missak Manouchian, National Hero of France, who participated in the Resistance Movement in France, was solemnly opened in Perdiguier Central Park of Avignon, France.
Attending the event were the Mayor of Avignon, Cécile Helle, Armenia’s Honorary Consul in Marseille Samvel Lalayan, President of the Armenian-French Cultural Association of Avignon Véronique Bruna-Mardoyan, Members of French Senate and National Assembly, author of the sculpture Marcella Kratz, representatives of local and regional governments, political and public figures, clergymen and French Armenians.
Mayor Cécile Helle presented the Missak Manouchian’s glorious path, emphasizing the respect and love he earned in France in response to his contribution to the anti-Fascist struggle.
Consul Samvel Lalayan referred to the friendly relations between Armenia and France, the effective cooperation between the Armenian community and the local authorities of Avignon.
The ceremony was followed by the screening of Robert Guédiguian’s film “The Army of Crime” (L’Armée du crime), dedicated to Manouchian and his group.
The event was widely covered in the local press.
Christiano Ronaldo has signed his contract extension with Real Madrid in the Board Room of the Santiago Bernabéu accompanied by President Florentino Pérez, according to the club’s official website.
The Portuguese player is linked to the club until 30 June 2021. Following the signing, he received a replica of the Puerta de Alcalá and a shirt with his name and 2021 on the back.
“I thank the people at Real Madrid, the city of Madrid, my colleagues and everyone who helped me get to this point,” Ronaldo said.
“It is a special day for me, very important, as it continues my link with Madrid.
“As I’ve always said, it is the club of my heart and this is a unique moment in my life, to renew for five years.
“But it won’t be the last contract, that’s clear, because in the next five years I will continue doing the same.”
How to resolve media-related disputes without referring to the courts was the focus of a working seminar organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan on 5 November 2016 for journalists and media lawyers in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia.
Around 25 participants, including journalists, lawyers involved in freedom of expression litigation, civil society members and representatives of the police took part in the event. Participants discussed the work of the Information Disputes Council (IDC), an extra-judiciary body that provides expert opinions on resolving media-related disputes. They examined a broad range of issues including cases of violence against journalists and the protection of journalists’ rights when covering civic unrest, defamation and insult, personal data protection and free expression, presumption of innocence, as well as pre-trial publicity and the media’s coverage of court trials.
“Extra-judicial dispute resolution mechanisms for media should be strengthened,” said David Gullette, Democratization Programme Officer at the OSCE Office in Yerevan. “They promote media quality and ethics, they can help minimize expensive and time-consuming court litigation and help maintain constructive dialogue between journalists, lawyers and other parties involved, over important aspects of journalistic work particularly on sensitive issues.”
Established in 2011, the mandate of the IDC is to protect freedom of speech and improve access to information, as well as to protect human dignity and the right to a private life by publishing expert opinions and recommendations based on Armenia’s constitution, international legal acts and ethical norms, in cases when judicial disputes occur. The IDC also identifies cases for intervention through its own initiative and advocates for improvements in the issues concerned. Where applicable it also issues joint decisions together with the Media Ethics Observatory, the media self-regulation body in Armenia.
The OSCE Office in Yerevan has been supporting the IDC’s work since its inception to help achieve better protection of free speech in Armenia in line with OSCE commitments in this field.