Author: Aram Torosian

On April 20, Council of City and County of Honolulu, state of Hawaii, adopted a resolution 16-78, CD1, encouraging and supporting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic s continuing efforts to guarantee its citizens those rights inherent in a free and independent society and urging the president and congress of the united states to support the international community’s efforts to reach a just and lasting solution to security issues in the South Caucasus region.

WHEREAS, Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a land-locked region in the South Caucasus that historically has been Armenian territory and is populated by an ethnic Armenian majority; and

WHEREAS, in 1921, the region was severed from Armenia and placed under the Soviet Azerbaijani administration as the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region; and

WHEREAS, February 20,1988, marked the beginning of the national liberation movement in Nagorno-Karabakh, as the elected legislature representing the people of Nagorno-Karabakh adopted a resolution returning Nagorno-Karabakh to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia; and

WHEREAS, on September 2,1991, in accordance with its enacted law, the legislature of Nagorno-Karabakh declared formation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic; and

WHEREAS, on December 10,1991, the people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic voted in favor of independence, and on January 6,1992, the democratically elected legislature of the republic formally declared independence; and

WHEREAS, since proclaiming independence, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has built a democratic nation with a free-market-oriented economy and a vibrant civil society that has held presidential and parliamentary elections that have been assessed by nongovernmental international monitors as free and fair; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu that it encourages and supports the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s continuing efforts to guarantee its citizens those rights inherent in a free and independent society; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council urges the President and Congress of the United States to support the international community’s efforts to reach a just and lasting solution to security issues in the strategically important South Caucasus region; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today released a statement in response to Azerbaijan’s launch of military operations against Nagorno Karabakh:

“It is unacceptable and reckless for Azerbaijan to blatantly violate its ceasefire agreement with Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic with a series of deliberate, offensive attacks last weekend. Baku’s warmongering has led to numerous Armenian deaths, both civilian and military, as well as significant Azerbaijani causalities. I strongly condemn Azerbaijan for instigating this violence against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and urge Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to stop his aggressive military onslaught.

“In addition, I call on President Obama and the State Department to hold President Aliyev fully accountable for this violence, and to support the implementation of the pro-peace steps laid out by Reps. Royce and Engel that include an agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact, the placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-location systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact, and the deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.”

On 3 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan convoked a working consultation on the current situation along the borderline and measures undertaken by the Defense Army towards rebuffing the enemy’s criminal encroachments.
The Head of the State gave concrete instructions to the Defense Ministry and heads of all the appropriate structures towards proper implementation of the discussed issues.
Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev Martirossyan, premier Arayik Haroutyunyan, defense minister Levon Mnatsakanyan and other officials partook at the consultation.

 

On a working visit to Geneva, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Commissioner hailed Armenia’s consistent efforts towards preventing new genocides, underlining that today the international community is more resolute to prevent crimes against humanity.

“As a nation that survived the first genocide of the 20^th century, we feel obliged to take steps to unite the efforts of the international community to exclude new crimes against humanity,” Minister Nalbandian said.

Issues related to minorities and violation of human rights as a result of the situation in the Middle East and the routes of their settlement were discussed. It was noted that Armenia has given refuge to about 20,000 thousand migrants from Syria.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the protection of human rights in Armenia. Minister Nalbandian spoke of Armenia’s effective cooperation with international human rights organizations.

The Armenian Foreign Minister briefed the UN High Commissioner on the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group towards the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

Arsenal almost got a surprise present from Luis Suarez after the Barcelona forward left his passport at home before his team’s flight to London, the BBC reports.

Whether it was forgetfulness or subconscious nerves, unfortunately for Gunners fans, someone from the club was sent back to the Uruguayan’s home to pick it up and he caught the flight with the rest of his team-mates.

The striker has been training in preparation for Barcelona’s Champions League last-16 first leg match at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

Barca forwards Lionel Messi, Suarez and Neymar have scored 91 goals between them this season – Suarez has scored 41 of them.

The return leg is at the Nou Camp on 16 March.

 

 

“The region is on the threshold of a new phase in the Syrian crisis,” Director of the Oriental Studies Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan told a press conference today.

“Ground forces of other countries will be deployed in Syria soon. Saudi Arabia has already declared about the intention to send forced. The US-led coalition is seriously considering the opportunity to deploy foreign troops,” he said.

Safrastyan added that “Turkey is also mobilizing forces at the Syrian border, but has not reached the ultimate goals it pursued when getting involved in Syria.”

Commenting on the recent developments in Turkey-Vatican relations, Safrastyan warned against hasty conclusions. “Let’s wait and see what happens next,” he said.

Remind that Turkey returned its ambassador to the Vatican on Thursday, nearly 10 months after withdrawing him in protest against Pope Francis’ description of the century-old massacres of Christian Armenians as genocide. Muslim Turkey promptly recalled its envoy.

The decision came after the Vatican on Wednesday praised Turkey’s willingness to open its archives to historians and create a joint commission of scholars to explore past events.

Ruben Safrastyan believes that “what Pope Francis did on April 12, 2015, was simply unprecedented.” Reaching targets through treachery and intrigues has always been an indispensable part of Turkey’s policy, which find sits reflection on the Syrian front, as well. The political scientist said, however, that the policy has been a failure so far.

To solve his personal problems, Erdogan escalated the domestic situation in the country months ago by inciting tensions against Kurds. Erdogan solved his issues through elections, but created a situation that had not been in place for decades. Safrastyan is confident the situation will further deteriorate in the future. “The Turkish policy of the recent months aims to engage the US and NATO into a conflict with Russia, but Turkey has failed here, as well,” he said.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is hoping to arrange a meeting with an Afghan boy who shot to fame after pictures of him dressed in a striped plastic bag jersey went viral, Kabul’s football federation said Monday, Agence France-Presse reports.

Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi idolises the Argentine soccer star but a jersey of his favourite player is beyond the means of his poor family in the volatile province of Ghazni near Kabul.

His elder brother Homayoun, 15, made him the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt with Messi’s named scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on Facebook in mid-January.

Jorge Messi, Lionel’s father, told AFP on Saturday that the footballer was aware of the photos that made waves on social media and “wants to do something” for his young fan.

The Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) on Monday said Messi was keen to meet Murtaza as soon as possible, though no date or venue has so far been finalised.

“Messi has been in communication with the federation to set up a meeting with the young boy,” AFF spokesman Sayed Ali Kazemi told AFP.

“We are working to see whether Messi will come to Afghanistan or the five-year-old will travel to Spain or they will meet in a third country.”

There was no immediate comment from FC Barcelona.

Photo: Reuters

Secret files exposing evidence of widespread suspected match-fixing at the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon, can be revealed by the and BuzzFeed News.

Over the last decade, 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they have thrown matches.

All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.

The TIU– set up to police the sport – said it had a zero-tolerance approach to betting-related corruption.

Chris Kermode, who heads the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the body that governs world tennis, rejected claims evidence of match-fixing had “been suppressed for any reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated”.

But he added: “While the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information.”

The cache of documents passed to the BBC and Buzzfeed News include the findings of an investigation set up in 2007 by the ATP.