The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 80 times overnight, firing 1,300 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions from artillery weapons of different caliber, also as 60 and 82 mm mortars and HAN-17 grenades.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army confidently continue with their military duty and resort to retaliatory actions when necessary, the NKR Defense Army said in a statement.
The Supreme Election Board has rejected an application from incarcerated intellectual Sevan Nisanyan to run as a deputy candidate representing the Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming Nov. 1 general election, Today’s Zaman reports.
The Armenian-Turkish linguist is currently serving a sentence of 11 years after being found guilty of violating Law No. 2863 on Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage by “deliberately causing harm to the protection of immovable cultural heritage.” Nisanyan was handed the sentence after building an extension to his home in the Aegean village of Sirince that was deemed to violate the Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection Act, under which his house is protected.
“The Supreme Election Board has informed us that Sevan Nişanyan will not be a candidate due to [having built an extension without a permit]. We knew it would be difficult to make Nisanyan a candidate but still, it is important to draw attention to the fact that he will be spending years in jail for not obtaining a stamp of approval,” Tarik Beyhan, the deputy secretary general of the LDP, told the Diken news portal.
Nisanyan is known for his outspoken criticism of the government and many commentators have alleged that his prison sentence is politically motivated. Beyhan once again repeated the claim that the extension to his house was used as an excuse to incarcerate him and added that it was important for the LDP to draw attention to the injustice.
The Armenian community of Argentina honored former and late Argentine President Raul Alfonsin on Sunday September 20, with a plaque in memory of his recognition of the Armenian Genocide as president of the country on September 1, 1987, Agencia Prensa Armenia reports.
The event took place at the Armenian Cultural Association, the same place where he made his statement of recognition 28 years ago, and was organized by the Commemorative Commission of the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide.
Dr. Hugo Kuyumdjian, speaking on behalf of the Commission of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, said that “it is our duty to highlight and remember the individual who made ethics in politics and morals his inalienable flags.”
Kuyumdjian also stressed that Alfonsin “encouraged and accompanied” the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by both houses of Congress in 1985 “despite the pressures.”
“That same year he instructed Leandro Despouy to work for the recognition in the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the United Nations.”
“The Turkish state must understand that our country’s position on human rights and its position on the Armenian Genocide cannot become factors of pressure and negotiation,” concluded Kuyumdjian.
Hipolito Solari Yrigoyen, President of the National Convention of the Radical Civic Union, recalled: “The friendship between our peoples, Argentina and Armenia, is of long standing: it was the President Hipolito Yrigoyen who acknowledged, anticipating many, the first proclaimed independence of Armenia.”
On October 15 there will be a tribute to former President Nestor Kirchner for promulgating Law 26,199 in January 2007, which declared every April 24 as the “Day of action for tolerance and respect among peoples” in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan and the U.S. Commercial Service in Moscow, in partnership with Ameria Management Advisory Services, organized a one-day business conference focused on franchise business opportunities on September 22 in Yerevan.
The event helped strengthen the growing commercial ties between the United States and Armenia by introducing American franchise businesses that are new to the Armenian market and already successful elsewhere in the region. The goal was to highlight these opportunities to Armenian businessmen and women who are looking to open their own businesses.
“I know there are many successes waiting to be born today,” U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Clark Price said during the event’s opening. “It is my hope that we, at the U.S. Embassy, can set the stage for success by connecting Armenian businessmen and women to American corporations. Then we can step back and let you do what you know best, build your businesses.”
“I believe that franchise is the least risky format of business for foreign companies to enter the Armenian market and understand its peculiarities, and for local investors – to employ fully-fledged and successful business technologies,” said Director of Ameria Management Advisory Services Tigran Jrbashyan.
Two U.S. corporations, Papa John’s Pizza and Tutti-Frutti Frozen Yogurts, sent representatives to Yerevan to speak to conference participants about the possibility of investing in franchises in Armenia. This event provided participants with rare and valuable early access to well-known brands eager to enter the Armenian market. Approximately 50 business representatives and entrepreneurs attended the conference.
“It is my hope that many business relationships will start today, and that in time, those relationships will grow to successful, profitable partnerships,” said Mr. Price. “We are more than happy to set the stage for economic growth through events such as today’s franchise day. But we all know, the success of your efforts will be in your hands.”
Along with presentations from each of the American franchise concepts, participants had a chance to hear from well-known Armenian organizations on topics such as business, legal, and financing considerations.
The event was organized in part to strengthen and enrich the bilateral commercial relationship between Armenia and the United States by boosting commercial ties between the two. The event also focused on the importance of Intellectual Property Rights in the further development of franchise businesses in Armenia.
President Serzh Sargsyan has left for the Nagorno Karabakh Republic for a working visit.
On September 1-2 President Sargsyan will participate in the festive events dedicated to the 24th anniversary of proclamation of Arsakh Republic.
President Serzh Sargsyan took part today in the solemn opening ceremony of the 6th Pan-Armenian Summer Games at Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium. The president made an opening speech.
Remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan on the Opening of the 6th Pan-Armenian Summer Games
Dear compatriots,
I cordially welcome all the participants and guests of the 6th Pan-Armenian Summer Games. On behalf of all of us, I would like to say to our diaspora sisters and brothers welcome to the homeland, welcome to mother Armenia.
The Olympic Movement truly accomplishes a great and crucial mission in the present-day world. All countries and peoples consider it an honor to take part in that movement. Undoubtedly, the Olympic Games, too, are based on healthy competition, fair struggle and on the postulate that the winner is the strongest, where the most important principle is participation, not victory.
When organizing the Pan-Armenian Games, our first goal was to ensure the broadest participation so that sports and a healthy way of life reach every one of us. Moreover, it is very important for sports to unite people and become one of the realities consolidating our people all over the world.
Dear athletes,
I am confident that you keep these central values burning in your hearts. The sports teams that have arrived here to take part in the 6th Pan-Armenian Games come from different countries of the world.
Let us look and see what progress we have made over these 16 years. In relation to the first games held in 1999, the number of participating countries has increased by one third, rising from 23 to 36. The number of participating cities has grown two and a half times, rising from 63 to 175, and the number of athletes has increased six times, rising from 1141 to 6352. The number of sports categories has grown from seven to 17.
Many of you represent already the 4th or 5th generation born in the diaspora. There are people among you who have visited their homeland for the first time. There are people who find it hard to talk Armenian. But Armenia is always in their soul, and Armenia’s heart is open to them.
All the people present here are bound together by one commonality – the Armenian identity. No matter how many new and different additional strata of identities are added, Armenianness, being Armenians is our mother identity. It is that very identity that in this year marked by Armenian Genocide commemorative events makes us repeat the slogan of 2015 – “I Remember and Demand.”
Dear friends,
Today, representatives from the younger generations of different communities in mother Armenia, Artsakh and the diaspora are taking part in this solemn ceremony.
During the games, you must compete in a way befitting Armenians, i.e. fairly and justly, in a true Olympic spirit. During these days, you will find new friends, and will keep the fire of that friendship burning throughout your entire lives. I strongly believe that the flame of the Pan-Armenian Games will keep on guiding you for many years to come.
Congratulating all of us, I would like to announce the opening of the 6th Pan-Armenian Games.
Thank you.
Glendale hospital doctors, nurses and other medical specialists will be heading to Armenia this fall to help improve care offered at a hospital in a rural village and develop a sort of a “sister partnership,” the reports.
Earlier this year, Kevin Roberts, chief executive of Glendale Adventist Medical Center, and two of the hospital’s doctors headed to Noyemberyan, a Tavush province town about 120 miles from the capital, Yerevan, and just 3 miles from the Azerbaijani border.While visiting Noyemberyan Hospital, they identified the health demands that needed to be met and plan to return in October to perform surgeries, provide treatment and bring supplies.
“We came back from that trip very excited and enthusiastic and feeling that the purpose was going to be well connected to this community,” said Roberts, who has wanted to carry out a medical outreach mission since becoming the medical center’s chief executive.
Glendale Adventist is teaming up with the nonprofit Armenia Fund for the outreach, and both will carry out fundraising efforts leading up to the trip.
Roberts said he’ll be heading back with 35 hospital employees this time. The focus will be to offer gallbladder and hernia surgeries as well as procedures to repair cleft palates.
Stroke and heart attack victims will also be treated, and there will also be a focus on preventive care.
“They have a widespread gap in their vaccination program we would like to start helping to fill,” Roberts said, adding that, as a registered nurse, he will also be pitching in with the effort.
But the project may go beyond the autumn visit. Roberts said he hopes some of the doctors in Noyemberyan will visit Glendale Adventist to get some training and tele-medicine equipment will let them consult remotely with local physicians.
Roberts said that being a public hospital in Armenia limits the resources Noyemberyan has access to and the goal of establishing a sustainable relationship is so that people in the village will not only get better treatment, but regain faith in their local medical center.
“If we can help them reinforce and upgrade some of their practices, their community will save a three-hour drive to Yerevan, and say, ‘I’m going to try my local hospital again,’” Roberts said.
In 2010, the Armenia Fund paid to refurbish Noyemberyan Hospital. The facility staffs 30 doctors and houses 60 beds.
President Serzh Sargsyan visited today the French Embassy in Armenia on the occasion of French National Day. The Armenian president congratulated Ambassador Jean-Francois Charpentier, the embassy staff and, in the person of them, the entire people of France.
On the occasion of the holiday, Serzh Sargsyan has also sent a congratulatory message to President Francois Hollande of the French Republic.
Congratulatory Message of President Serzh Sargsyan to President Francois Hollande of the French Republic on French National Day
Distinguished Mr. President,
I cordially congratulate you and the friendly people of France on the occasion of French National Day, wishing your country further progress, prosperity and continued strengthening of its international positions.
I reaffirm my personal devotion to the Armenian-French ages-old friendship and to the special relationship that exists between our countries.
I express my satisfaction with the high-level political dialogue between Armenia and France, the striking illustration of which have been our regular meetings held in the recent period.
I highly value your participation in the commemorative ceremony to mark the Armenian Genocide Centennial held on April 24 in Yerevan, which once again stressed your country’s and your personal loyalty to universal values, particularly to the international struggle aimed at the prevention of that gravest crime against humanity.
Armenia attaches great importance to France’s involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and greatly appreciates the co-chairs’ consistent efforts to ensure peace and stability in our region.
I strongly believe that we will continue concerted efforts to reinforce and deepen ties between Armenia and France both in bilateral and multilateral formats for the benefit of our peoples.
Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Twitter Inc will start curating tweets on live events, the microblogging service said, as it plans major changes to make its real-time news feed more user friendly, Reuters reports.
Dubbed Project Lightning, the changes will let users follow events instead of just people, and instantly upload photos and videos that can be shared across websites, social news and entertainment website Buzzfeed reported on Thursday.
A team of editors will curate the most visually appealing and relevant tweets about say, a red-carpet event or shooting, and present them in one place, so that users need not be flooded with every single tweet as it is posted, Buzzfeed said.
Twitter’s mobile app will show both pre-scheduled events and breaking news events, Buzzfeed said.
Twitter spokeswoman Rachel Millner confirmed the report but declined to comment further.
Twitter has struggled with user growth. About one billion people have visited the website, but only 302 million are users.
“The negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement are not conducted within the framework, under the umbrella, or through the mediation of the European Court of Human Rights. The Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group is the only internationally mandated format dealing with the resolution of the issue,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said as he commented on the European Court ruling on Chiragov v. Armenia case.
“Decision on Chiragov’s application is an individual court case, which cannot have any impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process,” the Minister said in comments to Radio Liberty.
“The manipulation of this case by Azerbaijan can only harm the efforts aimed at the peaceful settlement,” he added.
“Issues related to the right of the refugees and displaced persons to return are integral part of the negotiation process, they can be resolved as a result of the comprehensive resolution of the issue. The well-known statements of the heads of Co-Chair countries on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement also have reference to it,” Minister Nalbandian concluded.