Author: David Nargizian

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Theresa May on assuming the position of the leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the country.

”I am confident that your long-term political experience will allow you to lead the United Kingdom towards further advancement and prosperity, meeting existing challenges and registering new achievements.

Armenia greatly values development of the cooperation with the United Kingdom in all areas of mutual interest, as well as the further deepening of friendly relations between our two nations. I believe that our common efforts will allow to raise our amicable relations to a qualitatively new level and will give a new impetus to our bilateral agenda to the benefit of our two countries.

I wish you every success in your responsible endeavour.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration’’ reads the congratulatory message of the President of Armenia.

On a working visit to Lithuania, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan had a meeting with the country’s Minister of National Defense Juozas Olekas and Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius.

The Defense Ministers of Armenia and Lithuania discussed the perspectives of defense cooperation between the two countries and the programs implemented under Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan.

The parties referred to the current stage of Armenia-EU negotiations, the opportunities provided by the Eastern Partnership Program.

The interlocutors attached importance to the need of exchange of experience. Within that framework representatives of RA Armed Forces will continue the training in military-educational institutions of Lithuania.

Seyran Ohanyan and Juozas Olekas referred to security issues around Armenia and Lithuania, including the Karabakh conflict. Minister Ohanyan briefed his Lithuanian counterpart on the situation around the conflict.

Minister Olekas, in turn, expressed concern over the unprecedented escalation of the situation in April, offering his condolences over the loss of life. He noted that “there is no military solution to the Karabakh conflict.”

Seyran Ohanyan and Linas Linkevičius discussed the perspectives of bilateral cooperation and referred to the negotiations on the Karabakh conflict settlement.

The Lithuanian Foreign Minister voiced his support to the peace talks within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship.

Minister Linkevičius also attached importance to the negotiations under way between Armenia and the European Union.

President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Poland today to participate in the NATO meeting  on Afghanistan with Resolute Support Operational Partner Nations at the level of Heads of State and Government held within the framework of the NATO summit.

The delegations were welcomed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Poland’s President Andrzej Duda.

President Sargsyan is expected to meet with US Secretary of State John kerry later today.

 

 

 

Organizers of the 13^th Golden Apricot Yerevan Film Festival today presented the cooperation with a number of Foreign Missions accredited to Armenia. The best French, Russian and British films will screened within the framework of the festival.

Golden Apricot Film Festival in cooperation with British Council in Armenia will present a special film program, dedicated to the 400th anniversary of renowned British writer William Shakespeare’s death. The best films, based on Shakespeare’s works, will be screened in the frames of the program.

The “French New Cinema” program will be realized in cooperation with the Embassy of France in Armenia. It includes the best three films of French production.  The program will open with Two Remis, Two, (2015) by Pierre Léon.

The “Danish New Cinema” program will be implemented in cooperation with the Danish Film Institute. The program will present the best Danish films of the last five years. The Commune (2015) by Thomas Winterberg will open the program.

The four best films by Basque directors will be presented in a separate film program titled “Basque New Cinema.” The film Autumn without Berlin (2015) by Lara Izagirre is to open the film program.

The Golden Apricot 13^th International Film Festival will kick off on July 10 with the screening of Hamo Beknazaryan’s Zareh and will run through July 17.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov will visit Armenia June 27-28, Press Service of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister will meet with Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the two countries will be followed by a joint press conference.

Former Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt faces a $2,500 fine for not reporting legal assistance provided by a pro-Turkish group, C reports.

The Turkish Coalition of America Inc., which aided Schmidt in several legal disputes connected to her political career, will pay a $25,000 fine, the Federal Election Commission said in its letter to all parties in the matter.

The June 10 agreement with the FEC comes nearly five years after Schmidt political opponent David Krikorian leveled the accusation, part of a multi-front battle between the two over Schmidt’s support of Turkey in Congress and Krikorian’s characterizations about her support.

Neither Schmidt or Krikorian are in politics anymore, but the battle has continued, long after voters rejected them both. Schmidt beat Krikorian in 2008 to keep her 2nd Congressional District seat but later lost the 2012 Republican primary to now-Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Columbia Tusculum.

Schmidt reported she had repaid Turkish Coalition of America $42,812 in legal fees and expenses, but in fact, the TCA provided free legal services to Schmidt worth $651,244 in several cases from 2008 to 2011, the FEC said. Schmidt was represented by TCA’s legal arm, the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund.

“We are pleased that this matter was resolved in the manner that explains the mitigating circumstances and the ambiguous state of the law,” said David Saltzman, legal counsel for the Turkish Coalition of America. “Rather than litigate this matter, the Turkish Coalition of America agreed to settle on favorable terms and thereby keeps its focus on its programs that help foster understanding and cooperation across the globe.”

“With these actions, the FEC has finally delivered a small measure of justice,” said Krikorian in an emailed statement. “The Turkish Coalition of America should have its ‘charitable’ status revoked for its willful and egregious violations of campaign finance law.”

Photo: Reuters

 

Iraqi forces recaptured the local municipal building in Falluja from Islamic State, state television said on Friday, symbolizing government control of the city, an hour’s drive west of Baghdad, nearly four weeks after the offensive began, reports.

A military statement said the federal police had raised the Iraqi flag above the building and were continuing to pursue the ultra-hardline militants, who continued to hold other areas.

The Australian parliament is being urged to follow Germany’s lead and recognise the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces during World War One as genocide, reports.

The call comes from an Armenian-Australian community group, after the German parliament passed a resolution designating the deaths as the most serious of international crimes.

A Turkish community organisation, meanwhile, says Australia has no business taking a position on the issue.

The Bundestag voted overwhelmingly in support of recognising the Ottoman Turk massacre of Armenians starting in 1915 as genocide.

A  resolution introduced to the parliament also acknowledged the German Empire, then an ally of the Ottomans, failed to act to prevent the deaths.

A group known as the Armenian National Committee of Australia says the vote sends a strong message to Turkey to come to terms with its history.

Executive Director Vache Kahramanian regards it as an important moment.

“The motion that was adopted in the German Bundestag is a very welcome development in the global efforts for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Germany, including the support of the German government, adopted a motion recognising the events of 1915 as a genocide. And this is the first time that Germany has formally put on record its condemnation of the events that occurred, and also took responsibility for its role in not preventing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians by its ally, the Ottoman Empire, during that time.”

That number is disputed by Turkey, which says hundreds of thousands of people, and not only Armenians, were killed and subjected to what it calls ‘relocations’.

It also rejects the terminology “Armenian Genocide”, and has warned of possible further repercussions, after it recalled its ambassador from Germany to protest the resolution.

In Australia, one Turkish community group says the German parliament’s actions have undermined the possibility of reconcilliation and betterment of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

 

Australia isn’t among the more than 20 countries to officially adopt the term “Armenian Genocide” at a national level, as the parliaments of New South Wales and South Australia have done.

But the Armenian National Committee of Australia’s Vache Kahramanian believes there’s enough support on both sides of parliament for national recognition.

“Hopefully what Australia will now do is to now have the moral high ground and tell its ally and friend, the current republic of Turkey, that it needs to come to terms with its own history, and Australia should join the international community by recognising the events of 1915 as a genocide through a formal motion in the Australian parliament.”

 

In 2015, on the centenary of ANZAC World War One landings on Turkey’s Gallipoli peninsula – which coincided with commemoration of the “Armenian Genocide” – Australia would not commit an official representative to attend formal events in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

Declassified documents revealed by SBS showed that in the lead up, the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was assuring the Turkish government there would be no change in Australia’s position.

That’s after the publication of comments in Australia and Turkey attributed to then Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is partially of Armenian descent, in which he allegedly upheld the need to acknowledge the “Armenian Genocide”.

Russia and Armenia discussed on Monday the possibility to supply the Armenian nuclear power plant (ANPP) with additional fuel to create a fuel reserve, Russia’s TVEL fuel company, which is part of the state-owned Rosatom nuclear energy corporation said in a statement, reports.

Representatives of TVEL held a meeting with ANPP General Director Movses Vardanyan on the sidelines of the Atomexpo 2016 forum.

“During the meeting, the prospects of further cooperation, including the possibility of additional deliveries of Russian fuel for reserve were considered,” the statement said.

Photo: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree pardoning Nadezhda Savchenko, who was sent to Kiev, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, reports.

“Relatives of the murdered journalists requested that Vladimir Putin pardon Nadezhda Savchenko as a humane gesture,” Peskov added.

Savchenko was sentenced in late March to a 22-year jail term in Russia for her part in killing Russian journalists in Donbass. On June 17, 2014, a court ruled that she had directed the artillery fire at a group of Lugansk militia and Russian journalists, which lead to deaths of Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin.

Two Russian citizens who had been jailed in Ukraine, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov, have also been freed.

“The transfer of Nadezhda Savchenko to Ukraine and Russians Alexandrov and Yerofeyev to Russia has been completed. This happened on the basis of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, ratified by Russia and Ukraine,”Russian Upper House Speaker Valentina Matvienko said.

“This is not a prisoner swap,” she added.

The plane carrying Russian citizens Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov has landed at Vnukovo Internatinal Airport.

In May 2015, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov were detained by Ukrainian forces near a front-line town in the Lugansk Region in eastern Ukraine. A Kiev court sentenced them to 14 years in prison, having found them guilty of terrorism-related activities.