Author: Chmshkian Vicken

The Syrian Army announced today that its troops alongside the country’s popular forces have made a significant advance and captured more heights after a tough battle against the terrorist groups in the Western part of Aleppo province, Fars News Agency reports.

“The pro-government forces’ operation in the Western part of Aleppo province has forced the militant groups to withdraw forces from al-Zeitoun and Hazmar Heights,” the army said.

“The militant groups left scores of dead and injured members and fled the battlefields,” the army added.

“The government forces have started to hunt rest of the militants in the newly captured heights,” the army went on to say.

The Syrian army also continued to advance against the Takfiri militants in a key town of Damascus province after fierce clashes with the terrorists.

Informed sources said on Monday that the Syrian troops continued to advance in al-Bilaliyah village in Eastern Ghouta, and reached to the area of Dawar al-Bilaliyah after fierce clashes with militant groups that left a group of terrorists dead and injured.

The army also managed to secure a road in the region where the soldiers are combing the roads and defusing the mines and explosive devices there as the terrorists fled in a state of confusion.

Photo: AP

 

Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi has said so-called Islamic State (IS) will be ousted from the country, after government forces recaptured Ramadi, the BBC reports.

In a televised address, Mr Abadi vowed to retake Iraq’s second city of Mosul, saying it would be “the fatal and final blow” to IS.

The recapture of Ramadi was welcomed by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said IS had suffered a major defeat.

The jihadists seized Ramadi in May, in an embarrassing defeat for the army.

Iraqi government forces have been fighting to retake the city – about 90km (55 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad – for weeks.

As another year draws to a close, the looks at some top holiday destinations for 2016 and offers to visit Armenia, among others.

“Armenia is a Christian nation on Asia’s edge, where east and west collide, bordering Turkey, Georgia, Iran and Azerbaijan,” explains Kerry O’Neill, of Secret Compass, which organizes the Armenia: Fables, Myths and Legends expedition.

“This team expedition across the rugged ridge lines of its Southern Caucasus mountains was tough but not impossible, totally wild and ultimately very satisfying.

“The 12-strong team got on brilliantly, working in small teams to set up camp and cook every night.

“We exchanged travellers’ tales and learned about Armenia’s turbulent history from our guides, the cloudline sometimes below us, sometimes above. The mountain peaks rippled out as far as the eye could see, southwards into Iran, eastwards into Azerbaijan.”

“We experienced the incredible hospitality – and ferociously strong alcoholic shots! – of our kind hosts near Tatev Monastery at our adventure’s end. Used to the normally conservative nature of travel in the Middle East, Armenia offered a breath of high-altitude fresh air.”

Highlights include: Scaling two mountains above 3,200m in the very remote and wild Arevik National Park; visiting Tatev Monastery, perched precipitously on the side of the Vorotan Gorge, Armenia’s deepest gorge; and exploring Yerevan afterwards, a buzzing capital city.

The Lincolnshire Echo offers to follow in Kerry’s footsteps on the Armenia expedition from August 27 to September 4, 2016.

Organizers of a new exhibit at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre are hoping to inspire people with a story about the power of resistance, reports.

It took two years to research and design an exhibit about the historic novel The 40 Days of the Musa Dagh. The novel, by Jewish Czech writer Franz Werfel, tells the story of 4,500 Armenians who resisted the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago during the Armenian Genocide.

“It tells a story of resistance. It’s a story which actually inspired Jews during the Holocaust,” says Alice Herscovitch, the centre’s executive director.

About 1.5 million Armenians – roughly two thirds of the population – died during the genocide. But almost everyone who was part of the group that resisted the Ottomans at Musa Dagh survived until they were rescued by the French Navy.

“This resistance was important because it showed that you can – I mean by defending yourself, your community – you can [get] through it,” said Aram Elagoz of the Armenian National Committee of Quebec.

Exhibit designer Maia Djambazian is Armenian, but even she wasn’t aware of the story until she began researching it.

“It’s a little episode in Armenian history. But it’s also – it comes with all these symbolisms and the lessons,” she said.

The hope is that people can learn from the past.

“Some people seem to be, again and again, victims of persecution because they are minorities in other lands. It [makes us realize], I think, also our responsibility to help Syrian refugees,” said Herscovitch.

The exhibit at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre runs through Feb. 11.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan presented the draft state budget for FY2016 to the Parliament today. He said the budget is based on principles of “feasibility and stability.”

The Prime Minister said the 2016 budget will be socially-oriented, proved by the fact that the spendings of the fields of social security, education, culture and healthcare make nearly half of the total budget expenditures.

“We look at issues from the perspectives of long-term development, rather than current interests. We have tried to put long-term benefits above the temptation of immediate profits,” the Prime Minister said.

The draft budget approved by the government on October 1, envisages 1 trillion and 373.7 billion AMD in revenues and 1 trillion and 183 billion AMD in spending.

The projected deficit is 197 billion AMD. The GDP growth is expected to stand at 2.2%, the 12-month inflation at 4% (± 1.5%) and the budget deficit at 3.5% of GDP.

President Serzh Sargsyan participated in the ceremony to commemorate the newly-canonized martyrs of the 1915 Armenian Genocide that took place at Westminster Abbey. The ecumenical service was led by Bishop of London Richard Chartres and His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. The ceremony was also attended by His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Wales.

In the year of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, the ecumenical prayer for the memory and immortal souls of the canonized Armenian Genocide victims also urged all people of good will, nations and peoples to join the prayer for justice and to speak out against the gravest crime against humanity, as well as to pray for the promotion and maintenance of peace in the world.

During the service, the sacred songs were performed by the choir of London’s St Yeghiche Armenian Church.

Rescue efforts are being stepped up to help those affected by the magnitude-7.5 earthquake which hit remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday, the BBC reports.

At least 300 people are known to have died, and about 2,000 were injured.

Rescue teams have been sent to remote mountainous areas where the effects of the quake are still unclear.

The quake’s focus was deep, reducing its impact. Victims included 12 Afghan schoolgirls killed in a stampede as they tried to leave their classes.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in a televised address, urged those living in affected areas to help the rescue effort.

The Taliban, which controls parts of the province, called on aid agencies “not to hold back” relief supplies and ordered its fighters to help the victims.

Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah and Iranian fighters launched an offensive south of Aleppo on Friday, expanding the army’s counter-attack against rebels across western Syria with support from Russian air strikes, Reuters reports.

The assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria’s main cities in the west.

Aleppo, a commercial and industrial hub near the border with Turkey, was Syria’s largest city before its four-year civil war, which grew out of protests against Assad’s rule.

Control of the city, still home to two million people, is divided between the government and rebels.

“This is the promised battle,” a senior military source in Syria said of the offensive backed by hundreds of Hezbollah and Iranian forces which he said had made some gains on the ground.

Asbarez – The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) is expressing its appreciation to Congressman Ted Lieu for authoring a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in support of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty.

The accord, if concluded, would, by limiting the prospect of double taxation, remove a major barrier to the growth of US – Armenia bilateral trade and investment – a major goal of the ANCA.

In August of this year senior Armenian National Committee of America officials met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in Washington, DC to press for a new U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty. The current treaty governing double taxation issues between the two countries is the 1973 U.S.-U.S.S.R. Tax Treaty, an outdated forty year-old accord. The ANCA strongly believes that the lack of a double tax treaty between the United States and Armenia creates legal uncertainty that deters potential U.S. investors, diverts investment flows and disadvantages American businesses seeking to invest in the Republic of Armenia.

“Our many ANCA supporters in California’s 33rd Congressional District greatly appreciate Congressman Lieu’s leadership in seeking to bolster economic ties between the United States and Armenia,” said ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian. “We are pleased that Congressman Lieu is so actively supportive of updating a tax treaty that, if adopted by the U.S. Senate, would serve to facilitate the flow of investment between America and Armenia.  It is our hope that the Obama Administration responds positively to Congressman Lieu’s principled support for this critical initiative,” added Hovsepian.

In his letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew, Congressman Lieu asserted that a “modern tax treaty [between the U.S. and Armenia] could facilitate the growth of commercial relations, enhance job creation in both countries and provide Armenia with greater regional autonomy.” The Congressman’s letter went on to state that he is encouraged that “the United States already has a number of tax treaties with relatively small countries, such as Estonia, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia.”