Author: Albert Nalbandian

On the initiative of Ayb School and MIC Armenia (Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia) and with the partnership of VivaCell-MTS, Menu.am, Ayb High School hosted the Hour of Code event on December 20.

The Hour of Code is an international global movement reaching more than 100 million participants from around 45 000 schools of over 180 countries.  The Hour of Code gives participants an opportunity to learn various programming languages and approaches easily through games and helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic, and creativity. All who are interested in new technologies, games, and programming can participate. There is no age limit, and it is not required to have any knowledge of programing languages. Only English language knowledge is required.

This year, the Hour of Code is going to take place for the second time in Armenia. Last year the event united more than 150 participants from different schools of Armenia. The interest towards this initiative is rising. More than 200 participants took part in the Hour of Code 2015.

“Nowadays, programing is available to everyone. The main aim of the Hour of Code is to develop programming thinking regardless of career. The Hour of Code 2014 showed that such initiatives bring together and inspire many children. Ayb School encourages such innovation formats. We believe that the implementation of such projects is a large investment in the education and development of future generations,” said Aram Pakhchanian, the head of Ayb School.

“Today technologies are used in every aspect of life—from phones to cars, medicine to daily life. That is why in schools of many countries programming is a school subject. Microsoft Innovation Center attaches great importance to this initiative, which aims to show schoolchildren from early ages how technologies that they use are created,” said MIC director Artashes Vardanyan.

Besides the main part of the event, robotics show, creation of new samples out of broken phones, and other activities took place during the Hour of Code. The official hashtag is #HourofCodeEVN.

Mark Zuckerberg has received praise from Turkish President Erdogan for his stance against anti-Muslim rhetoric. It comes after presidential candidate Donald Trump’s demand for a ban on Muslims traveling to the US, reports.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday for defending Muslims against discrimination.

“I highly value Mark Zuckerberg’s message for pointing out the profound difference between Islam and terrorism since these two concepts are often mentioned in the same breath these days,” he wrote on his official Facebook account.

“As I always express on different platforms, Islam is a religion of peace.”

Erdogan’s post, which was in English and also his native Turkish, came in response to Zuckerberg’s message on Wednesday, which said the Muslim community should not fear being “persecuted for the action of others” after attacks in Paris and elsewhere have brought fear and confusion towards Muslims around the world.

“After the Paris attacks and hate this week, I can only imagine the fear Muslims feel that they will be persecuted for the actions of others.”

“If you’re a Muslim in this community…I want you to know that you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you,” Zuckerberg wrote on his official Facebook page.

Zuckerberg’s supportive message came days after Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump demanded a ban on Muslims traveling to the United States.

On November 5, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the eastern direction of the Talish village of the NKR Martakert region.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and his Field Assistants Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria), as well as by staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic) and Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

18-year-old Canadian Armenia Tina Garabedian, who has been skating with the Laval Figure Skating Club since she was four, will be wearing the colors of Armenia in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, reports.

Garabedian, holding dual citizenship, realized she had a small chance of representing Canada’s national team in 2018 given the strength of the Canadian team in the figure skating world. She put all the odds in her favor and will represent Armenia.

Her debut ice dance was with her long-standing partner Alexandre Laliberté in 2012. Garabedian changed partners six months ago and will ice dance with Simon Proulx-Senecal, former dance partner to Laval’s Mélissande Dumas.

The duo recently took home a bronze medal in the short program, senior dance at the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships in New York.

The team also impressed the judges with a short program at the George-Ethier Memorial Competition held in Beauport this September taking home second place. During this competition, they also qualified for the European Championships to be held from Jan. 25 to 31, 2016, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

They will also compete in Austria and Croatia before Christmas and hope to earn 29 points (short) and 49 points (long) for technique in both competitions, in order to qualify for the World Championships. They need to finish 24th to qualify for the Olympics in 2018.

The duo trains 20 hours a week at Pierrefonds’ Sportplexe 4 Glaces under the coaching skills of Elise Hamel, Shawn Winter and choreographer Shae Zukiwsky.

On 23 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia, Yervand Zakharyan and his deputy Levon Shahverdyan, Central Information Department of the Office of the NKR President reported.

A wide range of issues related to the economic cooperation between the two Armenian states were discussed during the meeting.

NKR minister of economy Andranik Khachatryan partook in the meeting.

According to  reports from this Saturday’s edition of the Hamburg-based news magazine, “Der Spiegel” (17/10/2015), the German government is going out of its way to win over Turkey. The report says that the approval of the Armenian Resolution that was so hotly debated this April in parliament will be postponed, reports.

The report claims that the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) have “quietly” agreed to delay the pending final reading of the bill for as long as possible. The article does not name sources.

Other sources claim that the resolution has been delayed due to efforts by the CDU. The opposition Green party insists that the parliament, or Bundestag, must recognize the massacre of Armenians one century ago as “genocide” before the end of this year. Green party leader Cem Özdemir criticized: “The coalition is stalling, but the clock is running out, for the commemorative year is quickly coming to an end.”

Deutsche Welle reminds that in April, parliamentarians observed the 100th anniversary of the displacement and annihilation of Armenians at the hands of their Ottoman rulers. Bundestag President Norbert Lammert (CDU), and Federal President Joachim Gauck both gave speeches this year clearly defining the historical incident as genocide carried out on the Armenians by the Turks.

Both instances led to angry reactions in Turkey. “The Turkish people will not forget German President Gauck’s words, nor will they forgive him,” was the response that Ankara’s foreign office released after Gauck’s speech in the cathedral of Berlin in April.

The author concludes, however, that “One thing is clear at the moment though, the German government needs Turkey in tackling the refugee crisis.”

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (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 Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, express their serious concerns about Armenian and Azerbaijani forces using mortars and heavy weapons in and around civilian areas.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs issued the following statement today:

The use of such weapons represents an unacceptable escalation in the conflict. We express our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and recognize the casualties on each side of the international border and Line of Contact. We appeal to the sides in the strongest possible terms to avoid civilian casualties. The sides have an obligation under the Geneva Conventions to protect the safety and security of non-combatants.

We regret that these incidents took place on the eve of the agreed meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers in New York.  We expect the Ministers to have a serious discussion on the escalation of violence and the issues surrounding a negotiated settlement. While we are unable to determine with certainty how the violence originated since each side accuses the other, the parties should work towards an OSCE investigation mechanism as discussed between the Presidents.

We will continue our work with the sides at the highest levels to de-escalate tensions and advance a lasting and peaceful settlement.

A boat has capsized off the coast of Turkey drowning at least twenty two migrants attempting to reach the shores of the Greek island of Kos, Euronews reports.

The Turkish Coastguard says it was able to rescue a further 200 people and bring them back to shore.

The group was reportedly attempting to cross the Aegean Sea when it went down near the Datcha peninsula, not far from Bodrum, where Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi’s body washed up two weeks ago.

Greece is on the frontline of the migration crisis sweeping Europe.

The “Days of Armenian Culture” festival is to be held in Belarus in 2016 as part of a cooperation agreement between the Belarusian and Armenian culture ministries, the Calvert Journal reports.

The festival took place in Armenia in 2014 under the same agreement, which will be in effect until the end of 2017.

According to a statement published on the national Belarusian legal portal, the countries will also work together to facilitate exchanges between theatre, music and dance groups in Belarus and Armenia, and an exchange of artists in opera and ballet productions. In addition, the agreement incorporates film festivals celebrating the cinema of the partner country.

“Each party will promote direct contact between museums in their countries, and also take steps towards organising exhibitions from the collections of the two countries in Belarus and Armenia,” the statement reads.

There are plans to exhibit the works of Armenian artist Arevik Petrosyan in Belarus later this year, while the Armenian Culture Ministry will organise an exhibition of the work of Belarusian folk artist Mikhail Savitsky and Belarusian artists from the School of Paris.