Author: Edgar Tavakalian

On October 5, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan to the south of Gulistan settlement of the Shahumyan region.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain) and representative of the OSCE Chairmanship, staff member of the German Foreign Ministry Klaus Keller.

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, his Field Assistant Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded for developing the world’s smallest machines, the BBC reports.

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize for the design and synthesis of machines on a molecular scale.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden.

The winners join a prestigious list of 200 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901.

The Council of the Italian region of Basilicata (Consiglio Regionale della Basilicata) unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide on September 27, expressing its support to the Armenian people.

The bill was submitted by MP Aurelio Pace at the request of the Armenian community.

The bill says the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by a number of international organizations, including the Turkish Tribunal in 1919.

The document underlines that it’s necessary to inform the public, especially the younger generation, about the tragedy that befell the Armenian nation with a view of preventing similar crimes in the future.

The Regional Council of Basilicata became the 180th regional council in Italy to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

About 30 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival fired more than 30 shots from firearms of different calibers in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep full control of the situation at the frontline and continue with the reliable protection of the military positions.

Political instability in Turkey, a NATO member and critical U.S. partner in the fight against terrorism, is already threatening to have an impact on the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State in Syriaand Iraq, USA Today reports.

On Saturday, one day after a coup attempt, Turkey closed airspace to military aircraft around Incirlik Air Base, forcing the U.S. to halt air operations at the base, the Pentagon said.  Incirlik is the base Turkey lets the U.S. use to launch anti-ISIL missions.

Commercial power to the base had also been cut off, but the U.S. was using an internal power source.

“U.S. officials are working with the Turks to resume air operations there as soon as possible,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. “In the meantime, U.S. Central Command is adjusting flight operations in the counter-ISIL campaign to minimize any effects on the campaign. U.S. facilities at Incirlik are operating on internal power sources, and a loss of commercial power to the base has not affected base operations.”

Stability in Turkey is important for the region, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declared.

“We keep following the developments taking place in Turkey,” MFA Spokesman Tigran Balayan wrote on Facebook.

“Stability and order in the neighboring country based on democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms  is important for the whole region,” Tigran Balayan said.

Germany’s speaker of parliament has sharply criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following threats against German-Turkish MPs. Norbert Lammert said top Turkish politicians had fuelled the fire, reports.

Norbert Lammert expressed the outrage in Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday, over comments made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lammert also denounced the “sometimes hate-filled threats and smears” targeting the 11 German lawmakers with Turkish heritage.

“I would not have thought it possible in the 21st century, that a democratically elected head of state would criticize members of the German Bundestag by voicing doubts on their Turkish heritage, by labeling their blood as impure,” Lammert told parliament on Thursday.

He was criticizing Erdogan’s reaction to last week’s contentious Bundestag resolution, which repeatedly referred to the killings of Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey during World War I as genocide. Turkey disputes this definition of the massacre of Armenians.

Erdogan had said the German-Turkish parliamentarians were a “mouthpiece for the PKK,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party seeking an independent Kurdish state. The president also suggested that the 11 lawmakers should undergo blood tests, to see “what kind of Turks they are.”

“Also, I reject in all its forms the insinuation that members of this parliament are terrorist mouthpieces,” Lammert said.

 

President Serzh Sargsyan received today the Vice President of the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany Frau Edelgard Bulmahn, President’s Press Office reports.

The President of Armenia welcomed the high guest to Armenia and said that he recalled warmly his April 5-7 visit to Germany and his meetings with the leadership of the country which were conducted in the atmosphere of frankness and mutual understanding. During the meetings discussed were issues related to the agenda of the Armenian-German relations and prospects of developing the bilateral cooperation.

Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of reciprocal high-level visits, including the present visit of the Vice President of the German Bundestag, from the viewpoint of strengthening the relations between the two countries and underscored the role of the interparliamentary cooperation in the development of the interstate relations. The President hailed the years-long financial and technical assistance of the German government aimed at the social and economic development of Armenia and expressed gratitude to the German authorities.

The high guest in her turn noted that the Bundestag attaches great importance to the strengthening of the interparliamentary relations with Armenia and development of cooperation. Speaking about the visit of the Armenian President to Germany, Frau Bulmahn underscored that the visit found a broad response in her country and negotiations of the German leadership with the President of Armenia were useful and efficient and gave a new impetus to the Armenian-German relations. At the meeting, the parties spoke also about the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, particularly, to the discussions at the Bundestag related to the recognition of the Genocide and the relevant resolution. According to Serzh Sargsyan, the adoption of the resolution will demonstrate that Germany – once the ally of the Ottoman Empire – is able to once again look directly and honestly into some pages of its history and draw lessons from the past.

The Vice President of the Bundestag stressed the importance of such discussions in the Parliament of her country and presented the substance and aim of the resolution calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Frau Bulmahn asked the President of Armenia about the prospects of a peaceful resolution of the NK conflict and inquired of the efforts of the international community, including those of the OSCE Minsk Group.

President Serzh Sargsyan spoke in detail about the current situation and presented the approaches of the Armenian side on the resolution of the conflict.