Maria Sharapova’s two-year doping ban has been reduced to 15 months following her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), the BBC reports.
The five-time Grand Slam winner, 29, was initially banned by the International Tennis Federation for two years after testing positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.
The Russian will be able to return to the tennis court on 26 April, 2017.
“I am counting the days until I can return,” she said on Tuesday.
The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier has welcomed the signing of the Paris Climate deal by Armenia.
“I welcome the signing of the Paris Agreement on the Reduction of Climate Change by Armenia on September 21 in New York,” the Ambassador said in a statement.
“France, as a COP 21 chairing country, encourages the Armenian authorities to ratify the agreement as soon as possible and thus help the deal enter into force by the end of 2016.
The Agreement will come into force after being ratified by 55 countries, which account for 55% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Harut Sassounian
The California Courier
Syria has been the hub of shifting international military and political intrigues since the start of the ‘civil war’ in 2011. The diverse conflicting sides include: Hezbollah, Iran, Islamic State (ISIS), Israel, Jordan, Kurdish fighters, Lebanon, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, assorted terrorists from around the world, Syria, Syrian opposition groups, Turkey, the United States, and other NATO states.
The latest ominous development is the Turkish invasion of the Syrian border town Jarablus, which had been occupied by ISIS. However, contrary to Turkish propaganda, Turkey’s military did not invade Syria to chase out ISIS, and the U.S. Air Force did not drop any bombs on Jarablus to pave the way for the advancing Turkish troops, according to David Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Phillips had served as a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Expert to the U.S. Department of State under Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
Turkey’s actual plans were to prevent further inroads into North-West Syria by Kurdish YPG fighters (People’s Protection Forces) who have been the most reliable military allies of the United States in countering ISIS, while Erdogan calls the YPG ‘terrorists.’
Phillips revealed in his Huffington Post article that “Turkish-backed Islamists never engaged ISIS in the so-called battle for Jarablus. Before invading, Ankara made a deal with the Islamic State. Rather than resist, ISIS forces simply changed into FSA [Free Syrian Army] uniforms. Jarablus was ‘liberated’ from ISIS with barely a shot.” ISIS had evacuated all civilians from Jarablus prior to the Turkish invasion because it did not “want civilians to identify newly clad FSA members as hard core ISIS fighters,” Phillips wrote.
“It is not surprising that Erdogan and ISIS made a deal. ISIS and Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) are ideologically aligned,” Phillips asserted, since “they are both branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. Despite official denials, there is a mountain of evidence that Turkey provided weapons, money, and logistical support to Islamists in Syria beginning in 2014. Turkey also underwrote the Islamic State by transporting its oil and selling it on the international market. About 500 Islamist fighters are still transiting from Turkey to Syria each month.”
Turkish leaders have made no secret of their true aim. Erdogan announced that his objective is to go after YPG and “terror groups that threaten our country.” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu pledged that Ankara would “do what is necessary” to keep the Kurdish fighters away from the Turkish border.
Washington is not pleased with Turkey’s misdirected military actions in Northern Syria. Senior Pentagon official Brett McGurk told CNN that “the Turks never cared about Jarablus until the Kurds wanted to get there.” McGurk called the Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters “unacceptable and a source of deep concern” for the United States.
The Editor of Veterans Today was also highly critical of the Turkish invasion of Syria as reflected in his cynical explanation: “Turkish troops who had been in Syria for years dressed up as ‘ISIS’ have simply gone home to Turkey, had a good wash and shave, put back on their Turkish uniforms then returned to Syria.”
Saadeddine Somaa, a Syrian Arab militant who joined the Turkish incursion into Syria, expressed to The New York Times his disappointment for being misled into fighting the Kurds instead of ISIS and the Syrian government. “Everyone is pursuing their own interests, not Syria’s,” Somaa complained.
The New York Times article stressed that due to in-fighting, the rebel groups “risk reinforcing criticism that they are Turkish and American proxies at best, de facto allies of ISIS at worst.” Furthermore, “Turkish airstrikes had killed 35 civilians in Kurdish-held villages. And there was a video online showing rebels kicking prisoners from the Kurdish-led militias.” Some of the fighters accompanying the Turkish troops’ incursion into Syria, such as members of Nooredine al-Zinki, “were accused of having ties to Qaeda-linked groups” and were “widely condemned when a group of its fighters videotaped themselves beheading a young prisoner…. Its participation in the Jarablus operation was an indication that it has not been completely shunned, at least by Turkey.”
David Phillips ended his revealing Huffington Post article with an ominous prediction: “Syria will be Erdogan’s Waterloo. The U.S. Government must not be tethered to Turkey’s sinking ship.”
A cross-stone dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims was solemnly opened and consecrated in the yard of the Armenian Church of St. Virgin Mary in the Swedish city of Södertälje. The ceremony was led by His Grace Bishop Markos Hovhannisyan.
Armenian Ambassador to Sweden Artak Apitonyan, Södertälje Major Boel Godner and Fr. Tiran Petrosyan, Pontifical Legate for Central Europe and Scandinavia, offered opening remarks.
Attending the event were representatives of Swedish state bodies and sister churches, members of the Armenian community.
Ambassador Apitonyan noted that “the first-ever cross-stone dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims unveiled in Sweden is not only of religious and cultural value.” “It also symbolizes the devotion of the Armenian community of Sweden to national identity, as well as the decisiveness of the Armenian nation to continue the struggle for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide,” he said.
On 22 August Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan visited one of the borderline sections located in the south-eastern part of the republic, met there the command staff, got acquainted with the course of service and current situation.
RA and NKR defense ministers Seyran Ohanyan and Levon Mnatsakanyan and other officials partook at the meeting.
“The recent months have brought a new dynamics into the process of settlement of the conflict in and around Nagorno Karabakh,” Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski told a press conference in Yerevan.
“The Vienna summit opened a new chapter in the efforts to find a fair and comprehensive solution to the problem. Quite recently we witnessed a new important summit in St. Petersburg and this process continues. The European Union fully supports the efforts undertaken within this framework. The leading role is played by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, and the EU is fully behind these efforts.
Quite soon the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Herbert Salber will arrive in Yerevan on July 5, Ambassador Switalski said.
He will have meetings with the President and Foreign Minister of Armenia and other officials. His visit is another testimony that the European Union wants to be seen as a contributing factor, the European Union wants to be supportive of these peace efforts. They are now in a very delicate stage. It’s not prudent to speak too much about these, because this period requires a lot of quiet diplomacy, requires very confidential approaches,” he added.
“It’s not time for strong public diplomacy. Nevertheless, as far as the European Union is concerned, we continue our support to the efforts aimed at bringing a solution to the process. I think that the agreements reached at the Vienna summit should be implemented, because now they constitute the way to bring a positive change into the conflict resolution dynamics,” Ambassador Switalski said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Yerevan on July 4, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said on Tuesday, reports.
“The ministers will discuss current problems of international and regional security, cooperation on the international arena,” she said.
The CSTO top diplomats will also exchange views on “combating terrorism and extremism in the light of the situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan,” she said.
Moscow “hopes the Yerevan meeting will make a major contribution to the implementation of agreements reached at the top level,” Zakharova said.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated their Russian counterparts Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin on the National Day of Russia despite the ongoing tensions between the countries, Turkish broadcaster CNN Türk reported, citing government sources. Yildirim and Erdogan sent letters to their counterparts for Russia’s national day celebrated on June 12, according to reports.
“On behalf of Turkish people, I celebrate the National Day of Russian people. Moreover, I hope that the relations between Russia and Turkey reach the level that it deserves in the near future,” Erdogan wrote in the letter to the Russian President, while Yildirim voiced a similar wish in his letter to Medvedev.
“I hope that the cooperation and relations between our countries reach the level necessary for the common goals of our people soon. I wish health and prosperity to all the Russians,” Yildirim said.
Photo: AFP
A man claiming allegiance to so-called Islamic State (IS) stabbed a French policeman to death before being killed when police stormed a house, in what officials say was a “terrorist act,” the BBC reports.
The attacker took the officer’s partner and their son hostage in their home in Magnanville, near Paris.
The partner was found dead but the child was rescued.
French media say the attacker had been sentenced in 2013 for involvement with jihadist groups with links to Pakistan.
Unnamed sources identified him as 25-year-old Larossi Abballa, who lived in nearby Mantes-La-Jolie and was convicted for “criminal association with the aim of preparing terrorist acts”.
He was sentenced to a three-year term, with six months suspended, they said.
Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said an IS “fighter” carried out the attack.
The current process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide should culminate in a recognition by Turkey, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters following the government sitting today.
The Deputy FM stressed the importance of the adoption of an Armenian Genocide resolution by the German Bundestag, particularly the acceptance of its complicity in the crime.
“It’s at least strange that the accomplice accepts its responsibility, while the perpetrator of the crime keeps denying its guilt.
Shavarsh Kocharyan said he regrets for the Archbishop Aram Atesyan’s letter to Erdogan, but refrained from further comments. He added, however, that the statement was a result of the fact of Armenian being under constant pressure in Turkey.