Author: Chalian Meline

The Armenian Ministry of Defense has released a new social ad, warning against dissemination of unchecked information.

“Don’t harm the soldier, don’t spread unchecked information about the Army,” the Defense Ministry says.

Borussia Dortmund’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was named the footballer of the Bundesliga 2015-16, according to a poll conducted by German magazine Kicker.

Mkhitaryan topped the list with 31.1 percent of the votes, followed by Bayern Munich’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski with 22.1 percent, reports Efe.

Bayern’s Thomas Muller came third with 13.6 percent, ahead of Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with 13.2 percent.

The best goalkeeper of the season was Bayern’s Manuel Neuer with 23.8 percent, followed by Mainz’s Loris Karius with 13.6 percent and Bayer Leverkusen’s Bernd Leno with 12.8 percent.

Two Armenian Christian leaders from Syria have been in the UK to remind of the realities facing a country where half the population are either refugees or have been internally displaced, reports.

Bishop Armash Nalbandian, the Armenian Orthodox Bishop of Damascus, and Reverend Harout Selimian, a pastor of the Armenian Armenian Evangelical Church in Aleppo met with Church leaders in England, Scotland and Wales – including the Chair of our International Affairs department Bishop Declan Lang.

The Armenian clerics discussed the challenges they are facing both from the established political institutions on the one hand and terrorist organisations on the other. They asked that the Christian communities in the UK hold the people of Syria in their prayers and actions.

 

 

 

The Vienna meeting created new realities in international relations, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Arman Navasardyan told reporters today. According to him, Russia has refused from  from its dominant positions in the Karabakh issue, which has, in turn, led to intensified efforts on the part of the other Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The Ambassador said “the three Co-Chairs seem to have a consensus on the Karabakh issue, and that’s good.” “The utmost objective at this point is to ensure the return of Nagorno Karabakh to the negotiating table,” he said.

Arman Navasardyan is “cautiously optimistic” about the results of the Vienna meeting. “Negotiations are better than war in any event. But are we sure the war will stop? I’m not confident Azerbaijan will not continue the military actions,” he said.

According to the Ambassador, the Armenian side should change its position on the lost territories. “Conceding a patch of land is a loss from all perspectives – psychological, physical and military.”

He does not rule out that the circumstances may force Armenia change the provisions of its military doctrine, shifting from a defensive to more offensive position.

“We deal with a country with a third country [Turkey] at its back, which pursues the policy of Armenocide, a policy of exterminating Armenians. This is an expression of neo-fascism on the state level,” he said.

“The fierce fighting at the contact line six weeks ago  shows that the status quo is untenable in the long run,” German Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ahead of the meetings of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna.

“The longer the conflict continues and the more the parties upgrade their weapons, the greater the risk of a new escalation, even a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” the German FM said.

“The OSCE plays an important role in conflict resolution. France, Russia and the US have been trying for years as co-chair of the Minsk Group to consolidate the ceasefire and the resumption of the political process. Germany supports the OSCE Chairmanship with great emphasis. We are committed to ensuring that the parties move forward on the path towards sustainable conflict resolution,”reads a statement from the German Foreign Ministry.

“In our view, the aim must be that the ceasefire is respected at the contact line and strengthened, confidence-building measures are agreed so that the negotiations can resume,” he added.

“That will take time, overnight there will be no solution. This does not mean, however, that we should leave attempts to search for a solution to the conflict,” the German FM concluded.

 

 

 

“It’s absolutely central to have peace and security in the region in order to pursue development perspectives,” Bradley Busetto, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Armenia, told reporters on the sidelines of the “Armenia: Tracking Progress on the Millennium Development Goals and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” event in Yerevan.

He refrained from further comments on Azeri barbarities during the military actions in early April.

“The UN Secretary General said a few weeks ago that he wants secession of hostilities and return to negotiations,” he reminded.

As for the sustainable development, Bradley Busetto said: “This is not just some sort of UN effort, government effort. All of society should get together and figure out what are the development goals for Armenia.”

The U.N. human rights chief has urged Turkey to allow investigators to probe allegations of violations committed by Turkish security forces.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein said he has received reports of unarmed civilians being deliberately shot by snipers or from military vehicles in the course of security operations in southeastern Turkey. Those operations focused on mainly Kurdish towns where militants and youths linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party are active.

“While Turkey has a duty to protect its population from acts of violence, it is essential that the authorities respect human rights at all times while undertaking security or counter-terrorism operations,” he said.

The U.N. wants to investigate reports more than 100 people were burned to death in the town of Cizre while sheltering in basements surrounded by security forces.

Late in the evening of May 9th, the day before the birth of former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, graffiti found its way onto a statue dedicated to the same man, in a park in Baku,  Meydan TV reports.

The inscription read: “Happy Slave Day!”

The unknown author took the Azerbaijani phrase, “Gül bayramınız mübarək!”, changed the first two letters of the first word and thereby completely changed the meaning of the phrase from, “Happy Flower Day!” to “Happy Slave Day!”

Flower Day is celebrated every year in Baku and other large regional Azerbaijani cities on the 10th of May to coincide with the birthday of the former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.

Every year in preparation for the holiday, the government spends tens of millions of dollars on flowers from Holland, Italy, France, Turkey, China and other countries. This has elicited criticism and contempt from civil society.

The Azerbaijani army is violating international humanitarian law by using own civilians as a human shield.

The NKR Defense Army has pointed out all military objects, which are considered legitimate targets, according to the principles of ionternational law (Protocol 1 Additional to the 1949 Geneva Convention on Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts), the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Azerbaijan deploys its military objects in populated areas in violation of Article 58 of the same Protocol.

 

 

 

French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir will visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the 1.5 million victims.

“The first genocide of the 20th century should never be forgotten,” Harlem Desir told reporters.

“It’s now 15 years since the upper and lower houses of the French Parliament unianimously recognized the Armenian Genocide. We now have to work to have the Armenian Genocide recognized by all humanity,” he added.

According to the Minister, it’s impossible to create the future without properly assessing the painful events of the past, without recognizing that inhumane pain, and without reconciliation.

Speaking about the Karabakh issue, the Minister said he has brought a message to Armenia. He stressed the need to resume talks in order to escape escalation of violence. “We must combine efforts to be able to create a lasting, stable peace in the region based on most important and basic principles.”

Harlem Desir will call for reconciliation will be the main emphasis of his meetings in Yerevan and Baku. He also stressed the importance of development of confidence-building measures, investigation of border incidents, use of technical means at the line of contact.

“We cannot speak of a frozen conflict, when we have losses among the civilian population and military,” Desir said, emphasizing the importance of resumption of the negotiation process.