Author: Arbi Tashjian

Members of the European Parliament Frank Engel, Eleni Theocharous and Jaromir Stetina have issued the following joint statement on the Constitutional Referendum in Artsakh. The statement reads:

On the 20th February, the people of Artsakh voted on the draft Constitution that the authorities of the Republic submitted to their consideration. The turnout of over 76% is resounding proof of the intention of Artsakh voters to take an active part in the shaping on their democracy. The vote took place after a campaign during which both camps expressed their ideas and convictions freely. Promoters and opponents of the draft Constitution confronted their positions in the parliamentary and public debate.

The people of Artsakh said yes to their new constitution, which heralds significant changes in the institutional functioning of the country.  It also clearly spells out that the Republic of Artsakh upholds and protects the rule of law and the rights and the freedoms of the people. This message, relayed by the population of Artsakh through their decisive approval of the draft constitution is particularly significant in the South Caucasus.

A people, a population, a nation who believe in their state and refine their republican institutions should not be ignored by the international community. These people, these voting citizens exist. Their existence is not affected by the absence of international recognition of their country. The people of Artsakh, a nation under constant threat of military attack by an aggressive neighbor, continue to oppose democratic vitality and maturity to the international denial of their state.

Members of the European Parliament

Frank Engel,  Eleni Theocharous, Jaromir Stetina

Head of the Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC), political scientist Stepan Grigoryan offers to organize a forum on human rights in Belarus and invite prominent dissidents from that country.

The situation around the arrest of the Russian-Israeli blogger and the plans to extradite him to Azerbaijan are conditioned by the bilateral interests of Baku and Minsk, Stepan Grigoryan said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.

The political scientist considers that Armenia should respond to Alexander Lapshin’s issue with a propaganda campaign and by seeking support from human rights organizations.

Stepan Grigoryan is confident that Alexander Lukashenko does not want problems with those structures, as the relations with Europe are important to him now.

Fierce debate has broken out after fans raised two Turkish flags at a Lebanese basketball match, apparently in an attempt to anger Armenian players and fans, reports.

The flags were photographed on Sunday during a game between the Riyadi and Homenetmen clubs in Lebanon’s basketball league. Homenetmen are a Lebanese-Armenian team, representing the estimated four percent of the Lebanese population who are of Armenian descent, according to Minority Rights Group.

The recent flag waving appears to have been pre-planned and deliberately provocative, as one Riyadi fan, Mohammed Khoder, tweeted on Sunday morning “Tonight we’ll be raising the turkish flag in the basketball game against homentmen ‘Armenian Lebanese team’! BURNNN”. The tweet was later taken down.

A Riyadi fan page posted the following unapologetic message on Facebook: “If you want to prevent us from raising the Turkish flag at the stadium, then prevent them from singing the Armenian national anthem at their stadium.”

Meanwhile, one Lebanese blogger called the flag-waving “disgusting, disgraceful, hurtful and despicable.”

Riyadi club issued a statement on their Facebook page, “denouncing” and “rejecting” the raising of the Turkish flag, emphasizing that no provocative chanting took place during the game, and that the flags were flown after it had finished. The club also offered assurances that it would increase its efforts to prevent a repeat of what happened.

Deputy Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Valery Semerikov started fulfilling the duties of the post-Soviet security bloc’s chief on Sunday, CSTO Press Service reports.

The term of CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha expired on December 31, 2016.

Bordyuzha had been the CSTO Secretary-General since 2003. At the organization’s Moscow summit in December 2015, a decision was made to extend Bordyuzha’s term until January 1, 2017.

In late December, Bordyuzha said the issue on the new chief of the organization would be solved in April 2017 at the meeting of the CSTO Council.

 

 

 

The idea of creating an All-Armenian Orchestra is materializing with the first concert set to be held on April 24, 2017.  The orchestra plans to perform abroad, as well.

The issue of our unity lies in the basis of the idea of creation of the All-Armenian Symphony Orchestra. “It aims to unite world-spread Armenians around music, around one orchestra,” Armenian Minister of Culture Armen Amiryan told a press conference today.

Armenian musicians from about 20 countries have already been invited to play with the orchestra.

“It’s hard to bring together Armenian musicians living in different countries in a short period of time, because any of them has his/her own plans,” said Ruzanna Simonyan, Director of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

The orchestra will be led by three conductors – Edward Topchyan, Sergey Smbatyan and Karen Durgazyan.

“The concert program will include works by Armenian composers – Aram Khachatryan, Avet Terteryan, Edward Mirzoyan and others.  Tigran Mansuryan will compose a work dedicated to the heroes of the April war,” Armen Amiryan said.

The Russian State Duma has ratified an agreement between Armenia and Russia on the creation of a Regional Air Defense System in the Caucasian region. The document was submitted for consideration by Russian President Vladimir Putin, TASS reports.

Russia and Armenia signed the agreement in Moscow on December 23, 2015. The document stipulates “the establishment of a regional Unified Air Defense System as part of the of CIS Unified Anti-Air Defense System.”

The main task of the system is to “set up and maintain air defense combat duty in the Caucasus region, keep the battle management system, the weaponry and the military hardware of the Unified Air Defense System on alert, cooperate with the forces of other regional air defense systems,” an explanatory note says.

In peacetime, the member states’ defense ministries are supposed to draw up plans for the combined use of the troops, their joint air defense combat duties, as well as operational and combat training.

Armenia’s Parliament ratified the agreement at the end of June.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire about 60 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, firing over 900 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions, the NKR Defense Ministry reported.

More intensive firing was reported in the southern /Hadrut/ and eastern /Martuni/ directions of the line of contact, where the Azeri forces used sniper rifles and machine guns.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army mostly refrained from response actions and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact.

The NKR Defense Ministry also dismissed the Azeri media reports on the downing of two Armenian drones, describing them as “nothing but propaganda.”

The Armenian language will be taught as a separate profession at the Beijing Language and Culture University. China’s Education Minister Chen Baosheng confirmed the plans at a meeting with Armenian Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan.

He welcomed the agreement reached between the Beijing Pedagogical University and the Yerevan State Pedagogical University to implement joint programs and issue double diplomas.

The perspectives of functioning of the Chinese school being constructed in Yerevan were also discussed at the meeting.

The parties emphasized the importance of giving a regional status to the school and creating a training system.

The Azerbaijani side kept violating the ceasefire regime at different sections of the line of contact with the Karabakh forces today, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

Aside from firearms, the rival used automatic grenade launchers and antitank grenade launchers in the northeastern (Talish) direction of the line of contact, the Ministry said.

Private of the NKR Defense Army Gurgen Avetik Ayvazyan was fatally wounded as a result of a ceasefire violation by the Azeri side at about 17:00.

Investigation into the details of the incident is under way.

The NKR Defense Ministry shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses its support to the soldier’s family and friends.

Jose Mourinho and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were snapped leaving the Lowry Hotel this morning after Manchester United’s stalemate with Liverpool last night, reports.

Manchester United were held to a goalless draw at Anfield and Mourinho looked a little worse for wear the morning after.

The Old Trafford boss was seen getting into a waiting car complete with a personalised ‘JM’ backpack before being whisked away to Manchester United’s Carrington training ground.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was also snapped leaving the Lowry as he too headed off to training sporting a white BALR hoodie, dark jeans and black wash bag.