Author: Aram Torosian

India has confirmed it will sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union on June 18 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2015). “We are definitely signing this agreement,” Amit Telang, First Secretary of India’s embassy in Russia told TASS on Thursday.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an international organization for regional economic integration. The member states of the union, which started operation on January 1, 2015, are the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Armenia.

The EAEU is aimed at economic development of the member states by coordinating their economic policy and guaranteeing free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce.

Apart from India, currently Vietnam, Iran, Egypt and Israel are negotiating the possibility of forming free trade zone agreements with the EAEU.

The Senate on Tuesday blocked an amendment that would have allowed the Obama administration to send direct aid to Kurdish peshmerga forces in Iraq, reports.

Senators voted 54-45 on the amendment, from Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA.) The amendment faced a 60-vote threshold to be attached to the defense policy bill.

The proposal would have granted a temporary authorization for President Obama to give weapons and training directly to the Kurdish forces rather than having to work through the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

Ernst suggested that the measure was a necessary step to help defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS.)

“ISIS is deadly and determined, and Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces in the fight against ISIS need weapons as quickly as possible,” she said on Monday afternoon. “We simply cannot afford future delays at this critical moment in the battle.”

Ernst added that her amendment didn’t force the president to directly aid the Kurdish peshmerga forces, but gave him the option to do so.

A fire at a care home for elderly people in China’s Henan province has killed 38 people, state media report.

Another six people were injured in the fire, which broke out at the privately run Kangleyuan home in Pingdingshan city on Monday night.

Two of the injured were in serious condition, said the Xinhua news agency.

President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out efforts” to care for the injured and bereaved relatives and to find out what had gone wrong, Xinhua reported.

Armenia and Azerbaijan must use new methods to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Johannes Hahn said at a press conference in Riga May 20, Trend reports.

“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been existing for a long time,” he said. “The EU is trying to do everything possible to resolve the conflict. Armenia and Azerbaijan must use new methods to solve it. The Balkans is a very good example, where we observed cross-border cooperation. The cross-border cooperation between Azerbaijan and Armenia is possible. First of all, this project is important to build confidence between the sides. The younger generation wants to overcome the bitterness of the past. In the coming years we intend to develop cross-border cooperation in the South Caucasus.”

Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Artak Zakaryan will leave for Germany on May 18 for a two-day working visit.

Within the framework of the visit Artak Zakaryan is expected to meet with State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Markus Ederer, Chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Relations Committee Norbert Röttgen and Chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Michael Brand.

On May 20 Artak Zakaryan will make a speech at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Islamic State militants said they had taken full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday in the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer, Reuters reports.

In a statement, the group said it had seized tanks and killed “dozens of apostates”, its description for members of the Iraqi security forces.

Ramadi is the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi signed off on the deployment of Shi’ite militias to attempt to seize back the area, a move he previously resisted for fear of provoking a sectarian backlash.

According to BBC, the Iraqi government is reported to be sending Iran-backed Shia militias to Ramadi to recapture the city seized by Islamic State (IS) militants on Sunday.

About 500 people are reported to have died when the Iraqi military abandoned positions in the city – only 112km west of Baghdad.

Former Turkish President Kenan Evren died on Saturday at the age of 97, the BBC reports.

On 12 September 1980 General Evren launched a coup that overthrew the government. He went on to serve as president until 1989.

He was put on trial in his nineties and was handed a life sentence for the coup in 2014.

Some 600,000 people were detained and 50 executed by hanging in the coup. All political parties were banned, with left-wing activists heavily targeted.

The former president died at a hospital in Ankara.

He had been in ill health since 2012 and was unable to appear in court when convicted.

The issues raised within the framework of the events dedicated to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide have reached the broader international community, Vigen Sargsyan, the Head of Staff of the Presidential Administration, President of the Commission Coordinating the Armenian Genocide Centennial Events, told reporters today, as he summed up the results of the events.

Vigen Sargsyan said all tasks have been fulfilled and added that “reactions were better than expected.” “The events served the main objectives. First of all, they were meant to raise awareness, to present the Armenian Genocide issue in the context of a broader fight against crimes against humanity and mobilize the public opinion,” he said.

Vigen Sargsyan underlined that “Armenia actually became an important platform for international struggle against genocide. He said genocide scholars suggest making the global forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” an annual event and ascribe a leading role to Armenia.

Sargsyan pointed to another important result – the national unity. Besides, he said, the political factor worked, as well. “We witnessed a wave of recognitions, which will be continuous. We managed to keep Yerevan at the spotlight of international attention,” he said.

Vigen Sargsyan said the centennial events will continue throughout the year inside and outside Armenia. The five-language website dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide () will also continue to work intensively.

VIVACELL-MTS: SONGS AND MELODIES DEVOTED TO THE VICTORY AS A RING BACK TONE

Panorama.am
18:52 07/05/2010

Society

VivaCell-MTS, a subsidiary of "Mobile TeleSystems" OJSC, is glad to
inform that on the occasion of the anniversary of the victory in the
Great Patriotic War VivaCell-MTS gives its subscribers an opportunity
to get free of charge songs and melodies devoted to the victory within
the frames of the "GOOD’OK" service and use them as a ring back tone.

>>From May 7 to 14 it’s necessary to dial the 1945 short number and
choose the melody of the victory.

First 3 minutes of the call to 1945 short number are free of charge,
and starting from the 4th minute the rate is AMD 5 per minute (VAT
included).