Armenian chess player Tigran Harutyunyan has won the Aeroflot Open 2020 B Tournament in Moscow.
The Armenian player celebrated 5 victories and drew 4 games to win the tournament with 7 points, the Chess Federation of Armenia reported.
Meanwhile, another Armenian player Manuel Petrosyan took the 8th place with 6 points in A Tournament.
In C Tournament, Artur Gharagyozyan finished 9th with 6.5 points.
Out of 14 candidates running for president in the Republic of Artsakh, two are females. They have shared about their expectation ahead of the nation-wide elections slated for April with Azdarar Tv programme.
“I am ready to assume the role of the head of the state. I am confident I will be able to work harder than any other previous leader. Furthermore, the Republic of Artsakh led by me will be the best place to live,” one of the candidates, Bella Lalayan, said.
Economist Kristine Balayan is the other female candidate nominated for the presidency.
There is ample evidence that the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait were thoroughly prepared and planned by the Azerbaijani authorities. Speaking at the rallies held on the eve of the massacres, high-ranking representatives of the city authorities called on the crowd to punish the Armenians and demanded “to kill and to deport them from Sumgait and from entire Azerbaijan”. Almost every speech ended with the chanting of “Death to Armenians!”. Amid the obvious inaction of the authorities and law enforcement bodies, as well as guided by the latters, hundreds of Azerbaijanis in Sumgait, inspired by the calls for hatred and violence against Armenians, started unimpeded attacks on the apartments of the Armenians living in Sumgait, having the lists of addresses at their disposal.
The impunity of the real organizers and perpetrators of the crimes against humanity committed in Sumgait created a fertile ground for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians throughout the Azerbaijani SSR in the subsequent years – in Kirovabad, Baku and a number of other Armenian-populated cities. Thousands of Armenians became victims of this policy, and hundreds of thousands became refugees.
Currently, the Azerbaijani authorities, unfortunately, continue their policy of inciting hatred and xenophobia against the Armenians, heroizing and glorifying the Azerbaijani officer who brutally killed an Armenian officer in Hungary in 2004. Another manifestation of such a policy became the rewarding of the Azerbaijani officer by the President of Azerbaijan for beheading a serviceman of the Artsakh Defense Army during the April war of 2016 unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh, as well as the gross violations of the norms of humanitarian law and the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces.
We bow to the memory of the innocent victims of the Sumgait crime. The international community should condemn and give a clear and unequivocal assessment to the genocidal actions committed by the Azerbaijani authorities against the peaceful Armenian population, which will not only prevent the repetition of such atrocities in the future, but will also help to heal the situation in Azerbaijan.
09:45,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s chess player Tigran Harutyunyan has won at the Aeroflot Open 2020 B Group tournament in Moscow.
Meanwhile, Manuel Petrosyan and Hayk Martirosyan both finished in draws at the A Group’s final round. Gabriel Sargsyan defeated Shant Sargsyan.
Manuel Petrosyan gained 9 points out of 6 and was ranked 8th, while Gabriel Sargsyan finished 20th.
Harutyunyan garnered 7 points but was announced winner with additional scores.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
09:47,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian addressed message in the memory of the victims of the carnage organized in Soviet Azerbaijan and Day of Protection of the Rights of the Expelled Armenian Population, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.
The message says:
“Dear Compatriots:
Today is the 32nd anniversary of the tragic events in Sumgait town of Azerbaijan. In those days in February, 1988, supported by the criminal acquiescence of the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan, local armed gangs in Sumgait executed mass violence against the Armenian population, which mounted to massacres, accompanied by torture, rape, looting, and torching of the Armenian property. As a result of the crime instigated and carried out at the state level multiple citizens of the Armenian origin were killed, many were injured, subjected to violence, and deported.
Violence and savageries against Armenians in Sumgait, and later in Baku, Kirovabad, and Maragha in their nature were reminiscent of the horrendous days of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. They also resulted in xenophobia and especially Armenophobia enthused in Azerbaijan for decades which today has become even more pronounced and have acquired state-sponsored and state-coordinated features.
Recalling the tragic events, which happened more than 32 years ago, paying tribute to our compatriots, who became victims, and proclaiming February 28 in Armenia and Artsakh the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Carnage Organized in Soviet Azerbaijan and Day of Protection of the Rights of the Expelled Armenian Population, we also send a message to the humankind that civilization cannot develop guided by fascism, national discrimination, and xenophobia.
Each case which goes unpunished, each distorted fact, each life taken based on hatred means a new opening and possibility for tragedy, it means complicity with those who perpetrate xenophobia, instigators and those who use it as a weapon. It also means incessant waves of hatred in the region, unhindered path to ethnic cleansing, and ultimately to the gravest crime against humanity – genocide.
The tragedy in Sumgait and Armenians affected by it were the immediate victims of homophobia and Armenophobia. Keeping the road open for the “Brown plague” today too, manifests disrespect to the memory of all those who fell victims of fascism and xenophobia.
I bow to the memory of all those who became victims of the Azerbaijani violence in Sumgait and Baku.
May they rest in peace”.
10:00,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan today visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the tragedy that took place in Sumgait on February 27-29, 1988.
February 28 marks the 32nd anniversary of the massacres and deportation of the Armenian population conducted by Soviet Azerbaijan at the state level.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
10:12,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria’s Idlib province on Thursday in an aerial attack by Syrian “regime forces”, according to Governor Rahmi Dogan of Turkey’s Hatay province, BBC reported.
Another 35 troops have been wounded.
A security meeting is being held at the presidential palace after the “nefarious attack against heroic soldiers in Idlib who were there to ensure our national security,” according to a statement from Turkish director of communications Fahrettin Altun, CNN reported.
Turkey said it has carried out retaliatory attacks.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey, a key member of the military alliance.
Stoltenberg “condemned the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and its backer Russia in Idlib province”, his spokesperson was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
A spokesman for the US state department said in a statement: “We stand by our Nato ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General António Guterres expressed “grave concern” over the latest escalation, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
On February 27, Russia accused Turkey of violating the 2018 ceasefire by backing rebels with artillery fire.
10:47,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has delivered a judgement in the case of journalist Khadija Ismayilova against Azerbaijan.
The Court concluded that “ the arrest and detention of the applicant, a journalist who had published articles critical of members of the Government and their families for alleged corruption and illegal business activities, had been driven by the improper reasons of silencing her and punishing her for her journalistic activity”, ECHR documents show.
The ECHR ruled that Azerbaijan must pay Ismayilova 20,000 Euros in compensation.
Meanwhile, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Samed Seyidov, told BBC that the Azerbaijani government will comply with the judgement and fulfill the demand.
This is already the third judgement in favor of the journalist.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
10:28,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan says so far there is no need to close Armenia’s border with Georgia over the novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) outbreak.
“In the event of necessity, it will be discussed, at this moment there is no such need,” Grigoryan told ARMENPRESS when asked if the government is considering shutting down the border with Georgia as it did with Iran.
“We haven’t reached that point yet. In terms of security, we will discuss, if it will be necessary, we will close it, if not, we won’t”, he said, when asked about possible national security issues if Armenia will close its border with Georgia at the same time having shut down the border with Iran.
On February 25, Armenia imposed a partial closure of its border with Iran as the Islamic Republic was reporting COVID-2019 cases.
Georgia on Wednesday reported the first case of coronavirus in the country.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
10:51,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish troops who were killed in a raid were acting inside “combat units” with jihadist militants in Idlib province when they were targeted by a Syrian government airstrike on Thursday, the Russian military said, according to RT.
The airstrike was carried out when the Syrian Army was repelling a large-scale offensive by terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Syria, inside the Idlib ‘de-escalation zone,’ the Russian military said on Friday, according to RT.
“Turkish servicemen inside the combat units of terrorist groups came under fire from the Syrian military on February 27 near the town of Behun,” RT quoted the Russian military’s statement.
The Defense Ministry said that the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria was in constant contact with Ankara, “regularly” requesting and receiving information on the whereabouts of Turkish troops. And, according to the data submitted by Turkey, there were no Turkish soldiers near Behun when the Syrian Army was fighting terrorists there.