Author: Andranik Taslakhchian

An alley in the French city of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence has been named after Charles Aznavour on his 92^nd birthday.

The Passage Charles Aznavour is located behind the Town Hall Square.

“There were street named after me abroad, but not yet at home in France!” Charles Aznavour said, according to La Provence.

His friends Michel Drucker, Dany Brillant, Didier Barbelivien, Alice Dona, Daniel Guichard, Antoine Duléry, Vincent Labrune, president of Olympique de Marseille, and his daughter Katia participated in the inauguration ceremony, Nouvelles d’Armenie reports.

Invited by Charles himself, Richard Findykian, Deputy Mayor of 9 & 10th districts of Marseilles, was also invited to celebrate the event and participate in the birthday lunch that followed the ceremony.

Former Nantes coach Michel Der Zakarian has been appointed Stade de Reims manager, according to the club’s .

Stade de Reims, relegated to Ligue 2 will attempt to return to Ligue 1 next season.

Born on 18 February 963 in Yerevan, Michel Der Zakarian played five international matches for the Armenian national team between 1995 and 1996. At club level he played for Nantes (1979-1988) and Montpellier (1988-1998).

During the raid on al-Assad hospital in Deir Ezzor two days ago, ISIS fighters simultaneously seized most of the Deir Ezzor cemetery which is located a few hundred meters south of the hospital,  reports. 

Islamic State’s media outlet Amaq News said 10 government soldiers were killed during skirmishes at the Christian cemetery. Upon entering the cemetery, ISIS militants were quick to pose for pictures, which they sent to Amaq News to publish for propaganda reasons, the sourse says.

Although the provincial capital of Deir Ezzor city is largely Sunni, the city is also home to a large Christian, mostly Armenian minority.

The Christian districts are located in the government controlled western part of the city, while the Sunni suburbs are split between the SAA and ISIS.

Some 100.000 civilians live in government-held areas of Deir Ezzor, facing an ISIS-imposed siege which has caused food prices to rise some 80%. If the Islamic State is to capture Deir Ezzor city entirely from the SAA, the Christians are expected to be massacred of expelled, similar to the scenarios in Raqqa and Mosul.

The Saint Martyrs Armenian Church in Deir Ezzor was destroyed by the Islamic State in September 2014.

The church was built in 1989-1990, and consecrated a year later. A genocide memorial and a museum housing remains of the victims of the genocide was also built in the church compound.

Thousands of Armenians from Syria and neighboring countries were gathering at the memorial every year on April 24 to commemorate the genocide.

What Armenia wants is just peace, Armenia’s Iveta Mukuchyan told the Winners’ press conference, when asked about the Karabakh flag she took to the Green Room.

“My heart, my thoughts, my feelings and my emotions are with my Motherland. I just want peace on the borders. Armenia wants just peace. That’s why I wrote this song. I just want to spread love waves,” Iveta  said.

“I put up the flag because I want people to concentrate on that. I just want peace in this world,” she added.

Speaking bout the contest, Iveta Mukuchyan said: “You always dream of this situation, and then suddenly it’s reality! Everyone told me that I would make it but when you sit there you cannot believe that it is actually happening. But the whole thing was just too short – only three minutes! That was what I thought.”

She continued to explain her emotions: “I never take anything for granted, and that’s why I feel like this right now. When I get old, I wanna remember everything of this situation, I am really thankful for everyone who made this happen.”

Armenia was drawn to perform in the second half of the Grand Final.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today Ambassador Herbert Salber, the EU Special representative for the South Caucasus and the Conflict in Georgia.

Minister Nalbandian briefed Ambassador Salber on the harm the Azerbaijani aggression against Karabakh has caused to the negotiation process and presented the efforts targeted at the elimination of its consequences.

The EU Special Representative noted that there is no military solution to the Karabakh conflict and added that “the European Union supports the efforts of the OSCe Misnk Group targeted at exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue.

The EU Special Representative mentioned that the issue has no military solution and the European Union supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs for exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue.

The interlocutors exchanged thoughts on the possibilities of resumption of the negotiations. In this regard, Edward Nalbandian stressed that currently any possible meetings could be aimed at the elimination of the repetition of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh of early April, the unconditional implementation of the trilateral ceasefire and ceasefire consolidation agreements of 1994-1995, which have no time limitations, the creation of a mechanism for investigation of ceasefire violations. According to Edward Nalbandian, those steps would create appropriate conditions for the continuation of the negotiation process.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia reflected on Armenia-European Union relations, negotiations on the legal basis of the relations.

The agreement on ceasefire was reached yesterday between the Defense Ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Spokesman for the NKR President David Babayan told a press conference in Stepanakert today.

He added, however, that the current agreement on cessation of hostilities is very much like the negotiation process. “We have a distorted format of negotiations because of Azerbaijan’s non-constructive stance. Although Nagorno Karabakh is not a full-fledged party to the talks, we are a participant of it,” Babayan said.

“Minsk Group Co-Chairs periodically visit Stepanakert and hold discussions with the local authorities,” he said.

“Thus, the agreement on ceasefire was formally reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Karabakh is a party to it, as it is the implemented of the ceasefire,” Babayan concluded.

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic welcomes the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group, but has certain reservations, Spokesman for the NKR President David Babayan told a press conference today.

According to him, the statements should be more targeted and should express a clear stance on Azeri actions. “We are ready to assume responsibility, but we are not the party violating the ceasefire,” he said.

David Babayan said “all members of the OSCE Minsk Group are interested in the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. “If the clashes grow into large-scale military actions, the whole region will turn into a battle scene, many countries will get involved whether they want it or not,” he added.

The Spokesman said he expects hot discussions during the forthcoming visit of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

In response to a question by the , Babayan said they have all grounds to assert that there are terrorists and extremists fighting on the Azerbaijani side. “We’ve heard from our soldiers that they have seen people speaking Turkish and Arabic, wearing uniforms differing from that of the Azerbaijani army.”

As for Ankara’s role, David Babayan said “Turkey is inciting clashes” and quoted the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtas as saying that “Turkish President Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu are personally responsible for the current escalation.”

“The United States remains deeply engaged as a Minsk Group Co-Chair in seeking to achieve a lasting, peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the US Department of State has said in comments to Public TV of Armenia.

“The final status of Nagorno Karabakh will be determined within the broader framework of a negotiated, peaceful settlement to the conflict based upon the Helsinki Principles of non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity of states, and the equal rights and self-determination of people,” the State Department said.

The comments come after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called some actions of the OSCE Minsk Group “provocative.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Wednesday for “an ultimate resolution” of the two-decade-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the State Department.

“We want to see an ultimate resolution of the frozen conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh that needs to be a negotiated settlement and something that has to be worked on over time,” Kerry said during a brief photo opportunity with Aliyev.

Photo: ANCA

 

– American commercial broadcast television and radio network CBS’s Super Bowl 50 pregame broadcast on Feb. 7 was sponsored in part by Turkish Airlines. The company used its airtime to feature its media partnership with the upcoming film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” As the “official airline partner” of the $200 million Hollywood production, Turkish Airlines debuted a series of commercials of fictitious ads urging travellers to visit the fictional cities of Gotham City and Metropolis—the settings of the popular Batman and Superman franchises.

The Turkish Airlines Super Bowl advertisements, which can cost up to $5 million for 30 seconds of air time according to a statement made in 2015 by a CBS network executive, feature cameo appearances by famed Hollywood actors Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

“Turkish Airlines, which was launched in 1933 as part of Turkey’s Ministry of Defense and is still 49.12 percent officially owned by the Erdogan government, strived mightily to polish an increasingly tarnished Turkish brand by running a series of Batman-themed Super Bowl ads, starring Ben Affleck,” read a part of a Facebook post shared by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“This airline represents a major source of revenue for a government that remains complicit with ISIS, obstructs justice for the Armenian Genocide, illegally blockades Armenia, militarily occupies Cyprus, brutally suppresses the Kurds, jails record numbers of journalists, and violates the human, civic, and religious rights of its own citizens—destabilizing the Middle East and representing a material threat to peace around the world. Flying Turkish Airlines funds a government complicit in ISIS brutality and guilty of both regional aggression and domestic oppression,” read the post.

In a separate Facebook post, the ANCA highlighted the fact that actor Ben Affleck has been an outspoken critic of human rights abuses in the Congo, but is being hypocritical by working for the airline, which is partly owned by the Turkish government. “Affleck is being hypocritical, calling out evil on the one hand, and enabling it with the other. All the while, enriching himself through ties with a government that he knows very well uses Super Bowl ads and movie tie-ins (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) to cover up its obstruction of justice for genocide and its escalating domestic repression and regional aggression,” read a part of the post.

Affleck is the founder of Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), an advocacy and grant-making initiative focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo. According to the organization’s website, the ECI “envision(s) an eastern Congo vibrant with abundant opportunities for economic and social development, where a robust civil society can flourish.”

The Armenian Central Bank lowered its key refinancing rate to 8.75 percent from 9.75 percent today.

Annual inflation in the country was at 1.2 percent in November, down from 1.9 percent in October, according to Central Bank data.

The government forecasts annual inflation in a range of 2.5-5.5 percent in 2015, the same as last year’s target.