Author: Andranik Taslakhchian

Photo: AP

 

Donald Trump has named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the UN, the BBC reports.

She is the first non-white female cabinet-level official appointed within the Trump administration.

Mrs Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and had been a vocal critic of Mr Trump on the campaign trail.

The 44-year-old has been characterised as a rising star within the Republican party and is the youngest governor in the US.

Although she eventually voted for Mr Trump, the governor had lamented she was “not a fan” of either him or rival Hillary Clinton.

Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS    

Russia’s Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has been accused of taking a bribe to endorse a state takeover, the BBC reports.

Russia’s main anti-corruption body, the Investigative Committee (SK), said he received a payment of $2m.

Mr Ulyukayev is the highest-ranking Russian official held since the 1991 coup attempt in what was then the USSR.

The SK said he had “threatened” to create obstacles for Rosneft’s operations when it took a 50% stake in another state oil company, Bashneft.

According to SK spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko, “Ulyukayev was caught red-handed”, receiving a $2m bribe on 14 November for giving a favourable assessment of the Rosneft deal.

The apparent sting operation came after months of electronic surveillance, including phone-tapping, officials said.

The arrest was big news on Russia’s state-run TV channels, under the headline “Battle against corruption”.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.

The interlocutors held a detailed discussion on the steps towards reinforcement of bilateral cooperation in different spheres.

Edward Nalbandian and Frank-Walter Steinmeier exchanged views on a number of urgent international and regional issues, namely the situation in the Middle East, flow of migrants and their integration. Reference was made to issues of Armenia-EU cooperation.

Minister Nalbandian drew Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s attention to Azerbaijan’s refusal to implement the agreements reached at Vienna and St. Petersburg summits aimed at creating conditions for furthering the Karabakh conflict settlement process. Moreover, he said, Azerbaijan keeps aggravating the situation at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces.

Edward Nalbandian hailed the support of the OSCE German chairmanship to the efforts of resolving the issue exceptionally in a peaceful way. The interlocutors agreed that there was no alternative to a peaceful settlement.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan still has work to do to force his way back into the Manchester United team, manager Jose Mourinho has said, the Daily Mail reports.

The Armenian winger watched from the directors’ box as United eased to a 4-1 win over Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday.

Mkhitaryan, a big-money summer signing from Borussia Dortmund, has not played since injuring his thigh more than a month ago.

Manager Jose Mourinho said ahead of the game that he was fit but, with competition for places intense in the forward positions, Mkhitaryan may have to wait for his chance.

Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial both scored against Fenerbahce while Juan Mata also impressed and all three will hope to keep their places for Sunday’s key Premier League clash with Chelsea.

Mourinho said: ‘The situation is that we played with Lingard, with Mata and Martial. I am not an Einstein. I don’t know a tactical system that can play with four wingers at the same time.

‘He has to work more to get the intensity and fitness to play at a high level. To have him on the bench and give him 15 or 20 minutes like I did to Memphis (Depay), I think it is much better for him to work and wait for his chance, but he is ready very soon.’

Photo: REUTERS/Nicolas Asfonri

 

– Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is being treated for a cold, his office said on Tuesday, prompting speculation that the illness was diplomatic.

The announcement was unusual because the presidential office rarely provides any comments on the state of the 76-year-old leader’s health, which is a state secret under Kazakh law.

But some, including Kazakh political analyst Aidos Sarym, say it was most likely an excuse to avoid visiting Armenia where the office of President Serzh Sarksyan had said earlier on Tuesday it expected Nazarbayev to visit on Oct. 13.

Armenia will host a top-level meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) on Oct. 14.

But Astana’s ties with Yerevan have been strained since April, when during the renewed military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan insisted on holding a meeting of another regional body, the Eurasian Economic Union, outside of Armenia which was due to host it.

Both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim nations. Azerbaijan also tranships a significant share of Kazakh oil exports.

Still, Nazarbayev’s genuine health is a matter of concern for many, including energy majors who have invested billions of dollars in the country.

–  Turkey is exiting the European Union’s Creative Europe program which supports the arts, including film and TV — a surprise move that comes as relations between the Turkish government and the E.U. become increasingly strained.

In 2015, Turkey joined the ranks of non-E.U. member countries allowed to tap into Creative Europe’s 1.46-billion-euro fund ($1.56 billion) to support culture and the arts between 2014 and 2020. Creative Europe incorporates the E.U.’s Media Program, which subsidizes production, promotion, and distribution of film, TV, and video content.

“The European Commission regrets Turkey’s decision and the fact that Turkish cultural and audiovisual operators will miss future opportunities for cooperation with their counterparts in the E.U.,” an E.U. spokeswoman. “Although this is unfortunate, the commission respects the sovereign decision of Turkey.”

The withdrawal, now under negotiation between the E.U. and the Turkish government, is to be effective from Jan. 1, 2017.

According to Turkish daily Haberturk, the pullout is in response to a and performed in April by Germany’s Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra, in commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

More recently, in the wake of the July 15 failed coup in Turkey, tensions between the E.U. and Ankara have worsened, partly because E.U. officials have criticized Erdogan’s heavy crackdown against the coup’s alleged plotters and sympathizers.

To date, an estimated 2.4 million euros ($2.6 million) has been allocated by Creative Europe to support Turkish films and cultural projects, including the Istanbul Film Festival’s Meetings on the Bridge co-production forum. It is unclear whether Turkey’s pullout from Creative Europe will also affect the country’s membership in European co-productions fund Eurimages, which is overseen by the Council of Europe, not by the European Union.

In any event, the withdrawal is a blow to the Turkish film industry since producers, distributors and fest and film market organizers will not be able to tap into the Media Program’s soft money. It also symbolically weakens their ties with Europe’s creative community.

“It is a very unfortunate decision,” said Basak Emre, co-director of Festival on Wheels, which promotes Turkish films. “Many artists and cultural institutions will be affected. But we do not know the details of this decision yet,” she noted.

The Victor Ambartsumian International Science Prize will not be awarded will not be awarded this year as the Steering Committee says there was no reliable nominee among the candidates to fit all conditions for the Prize.

1. Ambartsumian International Science Prize has been established by the President of Armenia in 2009 and at present is one of the important awards in astronomy/astrophysics and related sciences. It is being awarded to outstanding scientists from any country and nationality having significant contribution in science. The Prize totals USD 500,000 and since 2010 is being awarded once every two years.

The International Steering Committee (ISC) consists of 9 outstanding scientists: Acad. Radik Martirosyan (President of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, Armenia, ISC Chair), Prof. Catherine Cesarsky (Saclay Centre for Nuclear Research, France, Past International Astronomical Union President), Prof. Anatol Cherepashchuk (Director of Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, Moscow, Russia, academician), Prof. Norio Kaifu (Past General Director, Japan National Astronomical Observatory, Tokyo, Japan, Past International Astronomical Union President), Prof. Michel Mayor (Geneva University, Switzerland, First Winner of V. Ambartsumian International Science Prize), Prof. Vahe Petrosian (Chair of Astronomy Program, Stanford University, California, USA, NAS RA Foreign Member), Prof. Brian Schmidt (Australian National University, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, Australia, 2011 Nobel Prize Winner), Prof. Joseph Silk (Professor of Oxford University and Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), Member of the Royal Society, UK) and Prof. Yervant Terzian (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, Chair of the Scientific Council of the Armenian National Science and Educational Fund, NAS RA Foreign Member).

According to the By-Laws, 2016 Prize was announced on September 18, 2015, March 18, 2016 was the deadline for nominations of candidates, and the ISC received nominations from national academies of sciences, universities, observatories and astronomical institutions for 6 individual scientists and teams from different countries: Armenia, Brazil, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine and some other countries representing the team members. The nominated works were sent to famous independent experts of the given field suggested by ISC members and at least two referee reports were received for each work. The International Steering Committee, based on a thorough study of the nominated works, discussions and independent evaluation, summarized its opinion at a Teleconference meeting held on July 15.

According to ISC, V. Ambartsumian International Science Prize will not be awarded this year, as among the nominated candidates there was no reliable nominee to fit all conditions of the Prize.

Previous winners were:

2010 – Michel Mayor (Obs. de Genève, Switzerland), Garik Israelian (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain), Nuno Santos (Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Portugal)

2012 – Jaan Einasto (Tartu Observatory, Estonia) and Igor Novikov (Astro-Space Center, P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russia)

2014 – Felix Aharonian (Ireland and Germany), and jointly Igor Karachentsev (Russia) and Brent Tully (USA),

2016 – The Prize was not awarded.

The Call for the next Prize will be released on September 18, 2017 and the award will take place in September 2018.

The meetings of the OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh conflict settlement have been postponed, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told RIA Novosti.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs were scheduled to visit Turkey on July 18 to discuss the Karabakh issue.

“The meetings in Turkey have been cancelled. We’re now discussing the date for a new meeting,” Warlick said.

The swift rounding up of judges and others after a failed coup in Turkey indicated the government had prepared a list beforehand, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s membership bid, Johannes Hahn, said on Monday.

Following a failed coup attempt on Saturday, Turkish authorities on Sunday rounded up nearly 3,000 suspected military plotters, ranging from top commanders to foot soldiers, and the same number of judges and prosecutors.

“It looks at least as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage,” Hahn said.

“I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared.”

– The leaders of Germany and Turkey sought on Saturday to clear the air in their first private talks since the German parliament infuriated Ankara by branding the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide, but they did not overcome their differences.

Chancellor Angela Merkel met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Warsaw to discuss the tensions in their often prickly but strategically important relationship.

Ties between Turkey and Germany – vital partners in efforts to curb mass migration to Europe – have been strained since the Bundestag passed the Armenian resolution on June 2. Ankara recalled its ambassador and threatened unspecified retaliation.

Turkey has since denied German parliamentarians access to the Incirlik airbase where 250 German soldiers are taking part in NATO operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq, causing anger in Berlin.

“We discussed all outstanding issues,” Merkel told reporters at a brief news conference. “The atmosphere was constructive … and very businesslike in an effort to solve the existing conflicts.”

Asked whether the issues had been resolved, she said: “The differences don’t just disappear through such a discussion. But I believe it was important that we talked them through.”

A source close to the Turkish presidency said Erdogan had expressed his disappointment over the Bundestag resolution to Merkel, who said she would do her utmost to ensure this event would not harm German-Turkish relations.

The source said Merkel also expressed satisfaction with the way Turkey was keeping its word in preventing refugees and migrants crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece after more than one million flooded into Europe last year, most ending up in Germany.

The Turkish source said Merkel had raised the issue of the Incirlik airbase and had asked Erdogan to restore access for lawmakers, who approve all military spending and investment in infrastructure at the base.

Erdogan replied that the airbase was not a place for “public shows and marketing” but Turkey would consider the request in the light of German statements on relations, the source said.

The two leaders also discussed intelligence cooperation in the fight against foreign fighters recruited by Islamic State in Syria, some of whom have returned to carry out attacks in Europe.