Private of the Artsakh Defense Army Karen Danielyan (born in 1996) was killed in Azerbaijani firing during the protection of one of the units located in the northern direction of the Defense Army at about 07:20 this morning.
Probe into the details of the case is under way.
The Artsakh Defense Ministry shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and offers condolences to the serviceman’s family and friends.
Photo: Reuters
The gunman who shot dead a policeman in Paris on Thursday has been identified from papers left in his car, but French officials are yet to release his name, the BBC reports.
Local media say the 39-year-old lived in the city’s suburbs, and had been seen as a potential Islamist radical.
The gunman wounded two police officers before being shot dead by security forces on the Champs Elysees.
A pump-action shotgun and knives were found in his car, the French TV station BFMTV reported.
Another man suspected of possible links to the attack has turned himself in to Belgian police.
French police have also taken three family members of the gunman into custody, Reuters reports, citing a legal source.
Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Two adults and a child have been killed in a shooting in a classroom of a primary school in San Bernardino, California, police say, the BBC reports.
The suspect shot and killed his estranged wife, a teacher, and wounded two children who were behind her, one of whom died of his wounds.
He then turned the gun on himself, police said.
Police chief Jarrod Burguan described the incident as a suspected “murder-suicide” attempt.
The shooting happened at 10:30 local time (17:30 GMT) at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino county, 96km east of Los Angeles.
The gunman, named as 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, had gained entry to the school as a visitor and kept his weapon concealed until he opened fire in the classroom where 15 children with special needs were being taught, authorities said.
He killed his wife Karen Elaine Smith and fatally wounded eight-year-old Jonathan Martinez, who was airlifted to hospital but later died.
In December 2015, 14 people were killed and 21 others wounded when a couple entered a disabled service centre in San Bernardino and began firing at a group of county health workers.
Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan sees no controversy between Armenia’s membership in the CSTO and its strategic partnership with Russia and the development of cooperation with NATO.
“Armenia and Russia are strategic partners, co-founders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Armenia has always played an important role in the CSTO. We have backed all integration processes within the framework of the organization –establishment of peacekeeping and rapid response forces, etc,” Vigen Sargsyan said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.
“We believe the CSTO has a huge potential. For us it is reflected in agreements, which allow CSTO member states to purchase armaments, military equipment at internal consumption prices, use each other’s opportunities in the field of military education. This is truly a huge privilege,” Minister Sargsyan noted.
He added, however, that “over the past years Armenia has been guided by ‘both/and’ rather than ‘either/or’ principle, and has succeeded in both military and economic domains.”
“Armenia interacts with NATO under the Cooperation for Peace Program and has an Individual Partnership Plan (IPAP) with NATO. Our peacekeepers are carrying out mission in NATO-led operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, and are present in Lebanon within the framework of a UN-led peacekeeping mission,” the Minister said.
He noted that “Armenia has grown from consumer of peace into a contributor of it, and it’s a huge achievement.”
“We also have a close cooperation with our strategic partner Russia. In cooperation with Russia, Armenia has sent several batches of humanitarian aid to Syria,” he said.
“We have managed to equally develop effective cooperation with both our strategic partner Russia and other countries, rather than take sides in the existing controversies,” Vigen Sargsyan stated.
President Serzh Sargsyan has arrived today on a working visit to the United Arab Emirates. At the Abu Dhabi airport, the President of Armenia was greeted by the Vice President of the UAE, Minister of presidential affairs Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
After the official welcoming ceremony, the President of Armenia had a meeting with Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Serzh Sargsyan expressed gratitude for a swift organization of the forum on Armenia’s investment opportunities. The agreement to conduct such forum was reached during President’s previous meeting to the friendly UAE. President Sargsyan expressed hope that the results of the forum, as well as agreements reached with Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan will have their considerable input and role in the development of the Armenia-UAE relations.
President Serzh Sargsyan had a substantial talks related to Armenia-United Arab Emirates investment forum also with the Minister of Economy of UAE Sultan Al Mansouri.
Dozens of people were reported to have been killed or injured by a suicide bomber at a Damascus court building on Wednesday, state media reported on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
No further details were immediately available.
State media said the attacker targeted the Palace of Justice, a court house in central Damascus.
On the eve of the Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Armenia, discussing the Statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs of 17 February, 2017 on the Constitutional Referendum of 20 February, 2017 held in the Republic of Artsakh, the Board of the Political Science Association of Armenia (PSAA) adopted an Appeal to the Secretary General of the OSCE and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship states.
Below the full text of the Appeal is presented by the Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia, Professor, D.Sc. Hayk S. Kotanjian.
The Promotion of Democracy in the Karabakh Conflict Zone as a Peacebuilding Resource for Conflicting Parties and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship
The Political Science Association of Armenia has the honor to address Your Excellencies – the Secretary General of the OSCE Mr. Lamberto Zannier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov, the US Secretary of State Mr. Rex Wayne Tillerson, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Mr. Jean-Marc Ayrault on the maintenance of peace in the turbulent zone of the Karabakh armed conflict and the surrounding volatile region of the Greater Middle East.
On 20 February 2017, a National Referendum on the draft of a new Constitution was held in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). The turnout has been 76,44 % of the registered voters, of which 87,6 % supported the adoption of the new Constitution. Around 100 international observers from 30 countries monitored the voting process and positively assessed the organization and conduct of the referendum noting their transparency and compliance with international standards.
The Constitutional Referendum of 20 February 2017 became the successive step in the legitimate institution-building in the Republic of Artsakh, based on the democratic will of the population in the continuation of the results of Referendum of 10 December 1991 on the independence of Artsakh with the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in accordance with the norms of the international law and the Soviet legislature then active.
The comparative analysis of the current state-building processes in the neighboring states of the Republic of Artsakh – the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan – shows fundamental distinctions in terms of the development of democracy in these countries. Following the record of another positive result of applying a referendum tool of direct democracy in the state-building of Nagorno-Karabakh one may notice an opposite trend of rollback to totalitarianism in neighboring Azerbaijan. In particular, the former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich qualified the appointment by Ilham Aliyev of his wife Mehriban Aliyeva on 21 February 2017, to the position of the first Vice President as a step towards the establishment of a monarchy in the country.
At the same time, the ruling regime in Azerbaijan systematically carries out repressive measures against the opposition, trying to suppress any manifestation of dissent in the republic. Many opposition figures are convicted under various articles, are obliged to leave the country; many international organizations have repeatedly drawn attention to the extant human rights situation in Azerbaijan, describing it as unacceptable.
The Political Science Association of Armenia analyzed these facts that evidence the deepening systematic totalitarianization of power in Azerbaijan, which is accompanied by the use of the energy resources of this state for narrow clan purposes and as a resource for more militarization of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s budget and as a result of this – as a main factor of returning the Karabakh conflict to the acute phase of war. These trends contrast with the condition in the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh, particularly, with the recent constitutional reform in the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which the state makes a transition to the parliamentary form of government. Thus, in terms of the development of democratic institutions, there is a widening gap between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, on the one hand, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the other, which unequivocally manifested itself in the referenda on constitutional amendments held on 6 December, 2015 ‒ in Armenia, 26 September, 2016 ‒ in Azerbaijan and 20 February, 2017 ‒ in the Republic of Artsakh.
Through the Constitutional Referendum in the Republic of Armenia the Basic Law was adopted, aimed at the further promotion of democracy in the process of transition to the parliamentary model of governance, as evidenced by the assessments made by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights according to the results of the Referendum (OSCE/ODIHR final report on Armenia’s Constitutional Referendum recommends inclusive electoral reform. 5 February 2016.
The contradiction between the constitutional changes and Azerbaijan’s international commitments to protect democracy was claimed in the letter of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights ‒ one of the most prestigious US institutions in the field of human rights protection ‒ addressed to Ilham Aliyev before the Referendum, which particularly states: “By extending presidential terms and expanding presidential authorities, the proposed constitutional changes are susceptible to abuse that would entrench political authority, making it less responsive to the will of the Azerbaijani people. We are especially troubled by the amendments that would restrict fundamental rights vital to open public debate and government accountability.”
Against this background, an extensive process of democratic state-building is consistently implemented in the NKR. Since 1991, competitive presidential and parliamentary elections have been held in the NKR, and since 1998 – local authorities have been formed through elections. According to the assessments of international observers, elections in the NKR are conducted in line with the Electoral Code of the Republic and according to the universally recognized norms of international law, as a step reinforcing democratic institutions and developing the civil society.
The NKR Constitution, adopted through the Referendum in 2006, imparted a more systemic character to the process of state-building. Today, the NKR population has all the legal and political tools for the organization of domestic life, formation of political and state structures, as well as development of democratic institutions.
At present, by its political culture and the level of development of democratic institutions, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (renamed the Republic of Artsakh as a result of the recent Constitutional Referendum) outperforms Azerbaijan. The proof of this is the Freedom House Report “Freedom in the World 2017”, where Azerbaijan is included in the list of “not free” states, whereas the NKR and the Republic of Armenia in that of “partly free” states.
The escalation of the situation along the line of contact on the night of 25 February, 2017, once again demonstrated the problematic character of identifying the perpetrators of ceasefire violations, and stressed the urgency of effective and immediate implementation of agreements reached on at the Summits of Vienna and St. Petersburg in 2016 towards the introduction of mechanisms for monitoring ceasefire violations. (Joint Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Secretary of State of the United States of America and State Secretary for Europe Affairs of France.
At the same time, unlike other conflicts (Ukraine, Syria), the continuous coherence of US and Russian positions towards the settlement of the Karabakh Conflict enables to consider the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship as an effective platform for opening a constructive dialogue between these states.
In this regard, it would be effective to assume control over the warlike preparations of the sides in the entire zone of the Karabakh Conflict through the orbital means of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states from the near-Earth space. Such innovative application of hi-tech information and communication technologies in the outer space sensing for deterring a war could also become an experimental platform for the exchange of targeted intelligence information among the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs – the Russian Federation, the U.S. and France, aimed at peace building. This innovation in political-diplomatic containment and military deterrence in the case of success could be used globally to prevent the escalation of Karabakh-like frozen local conflicts towards a war with the catastrophic involvement of actors from volatile surrounding regions like the South Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia.
According to the above-mentioned, we call upon the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states to consider the Constitutional referenda of 6 December, 2015 and 20 February, 2017, correspondingly held in the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, as well as the upcoming Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Armenia as stages of democratic institution-building in the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, as well as a factor contributing to the stability and security both in the turbulent zone of the Karabakh armed conflict and the surrounding volatile region of the Greater Middle East.
President Serzh Sargsyan has arrived in Paris for an official visit at the invitation of his French counterpart Francois Hollande.
After an official welcome ceremony, the delegation led by President Sargsyan headed for the headquarters of the International Organization of the Francophonie to meet with Secretary General Michaëlle Jean.
Azerbaijan’s president has appointed his wife as the first vice president of the ex-Soviet nation, the Associated Press reports.
Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday named his wife Mehriban to the position created after a constitutional referendum in September. She has served as a lawmaker and headed a charity in the past.
Aliyev’s government has long faced criticism in the West for alleged human rights abuses and suppression of dissent.
Aliyev’s critics saw September’s referendum that also extended the presidential term from five to seven years as effectively cementing a dynastic rule. Aliyev succeeded his father in 2003.
Photos: EPA
A telephone used by Adolf Hitler during World War Two has been sold for $243,000 (£195,744) at a US auction, the BBC reports.
The identity of the buyer, who bid by phone, has not been revealed. The bidding in Chesapeake City, Maryland, started at $100,000.
The red phone, which has the Nazi leader’s name engraved on it, was found in his Berlin bunker in 1945.
Soviet soldiers gave it to British officer Sir Ralph Rayner as a souvenir shortly after Germany surrendered.
The phone was sold by auction house Alexander Historical Auctions.
Auction house officials said the phone was a “weapon of mass destruction”, as it was used by Hitler to give orders that took many lives during the war.
A porcelain figure of an Alsatian dog, also owned by Hitler, fetched $24,300. It was bought by a different bidder.