Author: Arbi Tashjian

Asbarez – The Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) announced today that it successfully defeated Senate Resolution 168 in Kentucky, which grossly misrepresented the facts of Artsakh-Azerbaijani conflict. Dozens of Kentucky residents responded to the ANCA-ER action alert and successfully defeated the measure. Kentucky joins Idaho, New Hampshire, and other states which have already rejected similar misleading pro-Baku measures in the recent past.

“Our experience in Kentucky proved again that the democratic process works and our state legislators will not tolerate any attempt of interference and misrepresentation that serve the interests of a foreign dictator like Ilham Aliyev, who has ruthlessly repressed his own people and taken an increasingly anti-Western stance, while continuing aggression against Armenia and Artsakh effectively endangering fragile peace in the region,” said ANCA-ER Communications and Community Outreach Director Artur Martirosyan. “With our wide network of local ANCs and advocates, we will continue to work diligently to ensure the rights of the free people of Nagorno Karabakh Republic are protected and affirmed by the international community.”

S.R. 168, sponsored by Senator Daymon Thayer, was introduced in the Kentucky Senate on March 1, 2016. Upon learning about the resolution by local advocates, ANCA-ER immediately mobilized the grassroots and spoke strongly against the deceptive and dangerous resolution calling upon the Senate President and Majority Floor Leader to withdraw it. Earlier today, the Kentucky Senate officially withdrew the measure from the proceedings of the legislative body and effectively killed the resolution.

The numerous calls and emails generated by the ANCA-ER and local residents caused Senators to educate themselves on the realities of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Sumgait and Baku massacres of Armenians, Azerbaijan’s gross human rights track record, Baku’s destabilizing role in the region as well as the rightful aspirations of the people of Artsakh Republic to live in an independent state free of Azerbaijani repression.

There is no alternative to the recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic by the international Community, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan says.

“The Resolution adopted by House of Representatives of Georgia proves the very fact that amid Azerbaijan’s destructive policy the international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has no alternative,” the Deputy FM said in a Twitter post.

The State of Georgia honoring and recognizing the independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

PHOTO: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC

 

Facebook said on Wednesday that “Reactions”, an extension of the “Like” button, has now been rolled out worldwide, according to Reuters. 

The social network launched a pilot of “Reactions” – which allows users to select from seven emotions including “Angry”, “Sad” and “Wow” – in Ireland and Spain in October.

“We will initially use any Reaction similar to a Like to infer that you want to see more of that type of content,” Facebook said in separate blog post.

The company said that over time it hoped to learn how different “Reactions” should be weighted differently by the Facebook News Feed to customize it for individual users.

Turkey’s former international football star Hakan Sukur risks up to four years in jail after being charged with insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in posts on Twitter, reports said Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

Prosecutors have charged Sukur with posting Tweets from his account @HakanSukur containing “insulting content against Mr President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son,” the private Dogan news agency reported.

In his defence, Sukur, 44, said he did not intend to target the president in his posts, the content of which was not made clear.

But that was rejected by prosecutors, who claimed that the tweets were “clearly related” to Erdogan, the news agency said.

If convicted, Sukur faces up to four years in jail, according to the charges. As the indictment has been approved, a first hearing is expected in the coming weeks.

Sukur, a striker whose football career stretched from 1987-2007, was by far the most prolific goalscorer in the history of the Turkish national side, finding the net 51 times in 112 appearances.

He is also remembered for his electric performance in the 2002 World Cup, where Turkey registered its best ever performance of third place.

After football, the high-profile Sukur went into politics and was in 2011 elected MP from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

But he resigned in 2013 after a vast corruption probe that targeted Erdogan and his inner circle, siding with the movement of his arch-foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The legal case is one of a string of others targeting journalists, bloggers and ordinary people who land in court on charges of insulting Erdogan and other top officials.

Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS

Conflict in Syria may grow into military confrontation between the Middle East countries putting the security of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member-states in jeopardy, the post-Soviet security alliance’s chief, Nikolay Bordyuzha said on Tuesday, TASS reports.

“Turkey’s massive artillery shelling of Syrian territory, the statements of Ankara and Riyadh on plans to deploy ground operations in Syria threaten to switch the Syrian crisis to a qualitatively new and a very dangerous level: the direct military confrontation between the regional countries,” Bordyuzha said warning that it is difficult to predict the possible consequences.

The CSTO secretary-general stressed that in this context the fight against international terrorism and assistance to peaceful settlement in Syria is relegated to the back burner.

“Further instigation of hotbed of war in Syria’s territory in direct proximity from the zone of the CSTO’s responsibility is a threat to security of the organization’s member-states,” Bordyuzha said.

The CSTO is a regional security group comprising six post-Soviet countries — Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia.

The Portuguese star’s role in an advertisement sees him left feeling sheepish after mistaking HD quality television of a lovely lady for the real thing, reports. 

Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest acting role sees the Real Madrid star left embarrassed after attempting to flirt with a beautiful woman – who turns out to be made up entirely of pixels.

In a French advertisement for an HD television, the Portuguese icon catches eyes with the lovely lady from his apartment across the street and proceeds to unbutton his shirt in a bid to win her affection.

Ronaldo is left feeling sheepish, however, when the woman suddenly transforms into a bear as the 30-year-old’s neighbour switches channels.

On the occasion of Army Day, President Serzh Sargsyan along with the President of NKR Bako Sahakian, His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and the highest leadership of the Republic visited today the Erablur Military Pantheon and paid tribute to the memory of the Armenian sons who sacrificed their lives for Armenia’s Independence.

Turkey’s Oriental Orthodox Christians, the country’s largest Christian denomination, held mass on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus, which they observe on Jan. 6, reports. 

On Tuesday evening, Christmas Eve mass was held at several Oriental Orthodox churches throughout the city. The pews of the Surp Vartanants Armenian Church were filled during the service, which was conducted in Armenian. Those present sang hymns such as Der Voghormia (Lord of Mercy). The congregation then filed out of the church holding candles and sang and prayed together in the front yard of the church. The candles are held to symbolize the light that Jesus brought the world with his birth. Afterwards, bread and salt were distributed to symbolize the abundance of food for the next year.

The Surp Vartanants Armenian Church is located in the Feriköy neighborhood of İstanbul’s Şişli district, where many members of the local Armenian community reside. Armenians are Turkey’s largest Christian minority population and celebrate the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem as well as the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6.

There are an estimated 65,000 Armenian Orthodox, 15,000 Syriac Orthodox, 8,000 Chaldean Catholic and 2,500 Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey. There are also members of other denominations such as Bulgarian Orthodox and Georgian Orthodox, as well as Protestants.

Armenian economist Carlos Melconian was appointed as President of the National Bank of Argentina on Wednesday December 23, reports.

Stressing that the Bank of the Argentine Nation “will take a more prominent role as a development bank,” Melconian began his tenure after being appointed by the newly elected President Mauricio Macri.

In 1980s Melconian worked in the Central Bank of Argentina and then as a private consultant at the World Bank, among others.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber as at fired more than 1,700 shots in the southern direction (Hadrut) of the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

According to the NKR Ministry of Defense, the Azerbaijani side used 60, 82and 120 mm mortars, TR-107 missile units and 122 mm D-30 howitzer cannon.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army resorted to retaliatory actions to pressure the activeness of the rival and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact.