Author: Edgar Tavakalian

Only mountains can be better than mountains, famous Tbilisi-based Armenian mountaineer Lev Sarkisov says.

Lev Sarkisov first discovered his love for mountains, when working at the Tbilisi Aviation Factory.  A group of mountain climbers there was organizing periodic expeditions. In 1962 the group decided to climb Kazbek, the highest peak of the Caucasus Mountains.

Sarkisov later joined the mountaineer group of the Armed Forces and worked as coach for a long time.

Sarkisov is one of the few Armenians to have climbed Everest – the highest peak in the world. In 1999 he was recognized by the Guinness book of world records as the oldest mountaineer to conquer the highest peak.

He climbed Mount Ararat four times and took the Armenian tricolor to the peak. “Taking the Armenian flag was a great risk. I could be arrested had the flag been found in my rucksack. I bought fabric of three colors at a  store in Bayazet and sew the flag at the hotel,” he said.

In 1999 Georgian President Edward Shevarnadze awarded him with an Order of Honor. He’s also the recipient of Snow Leopard award, a Soviet mountaineering award, given to climbers conquering all five peaks of 7,000m and above located in the former USSR.

Even at 70, Lev Sarkisov is ready to take the road to mountains.

Barcelona and Atlético Madrid will meet in the last eight for a second time in three seasons while the Nyon draw also paired Paris Saint-Germain with first-time quarter-finalists Manchester City, according to UEFA’s official website.

QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
5 & 13 April
Bayern München (GER) v Benfica (POR)
Barcelona (ESP) v Atlético Madrid (ESP)

6 & 12 April
Wolfsburg (GER) v Real Madrid (ESP)
Paris (FRA) v Manchester City (ENG)

• Road to Milan

Semi-finals: draw 15 April, matches 26/27 April & 3/4 May
Final: 20.45CET, Saturday 28 May; Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan

• Draw facts

• Wolfsburg and Real Madrid have never previously met. Wolfsburg’s Julian Draxler was in the Schalke team beaten by Madrid in the 2013/14 round of 16.

• Bayern have won four of their six matches against Benfica, drawing the other two. The clubs have not played each other since 1995.

• Barcelona have won their last six fixtures against Atlético in all competitions, Lionel Messi scoring in five of them.

• Messi has registered 25 goals in 27 games against Atlético, including three hat-tricks.

• Barcelona and Atlético came together in the 2013/14 quarter-finals, Atletico winning 1-0 at home after a 1-1 away draw.

• This is the third year running Atlético have faced a Spanish side in the quarter-finals – they lost 1-0 to Madrid over two legs 12 months ago.

• Paris and Manchester City played out a 0-0 draw at the City of Manchester Stadium in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage, their only past encounter.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

During the meeting reference was made to the cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, the conduct of regular consultations.

The Ministers exchanged views on urgent international and regional issues.

Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov signed the 2016-2017 plan of consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Russia, under which the parties will hold tens of meetings on international and regional issues, regional affairs, exchange of information, consular services, etc.

Pope Francis yesterday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment “You shall not kill” was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent, Reuters reports.

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he also called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make “a courageous and exemplary gesture” by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church’s current Holy Year, which ends in November.

“I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty,” he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

“The commandment “You shall not kill,” has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty,” he told the crowd.

The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John Paul, who died in 2005.

The pope added that there was now “a growing opposition to the death penalty even for the legitimate defence of society” because modern means existed to “efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves.”

Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international conference against the death penalty starting Monday in Rome and organised by the Sant’Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group.

Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope nearly three years ago – the latest in Mexico last week – also called for better prison conditions.

“All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their freedom,” he said.

Members of the OSCE Minsk Group themselves should solve the issue of modifying the existing format on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, said Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Feb. 18.

She made the remarks in response to a question of Trend correspondent on the possibility of holding an expanded meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group.

“The current format has been approved, and it is widely recognized and effective in many ways,” said Zakharova. “Of course, everyone would like to have better results, however this format works.”

Earlier, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström said in Baku that Sweden offers to convene an enlarged meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“If there is a need for a meeting in a broader format for the conflict settlement, we, as an OSCE Minsk Group member, are willing to participate in it,” she added.

Photo: Dorith Mous/Copyright A.M.P.A.S. via AP

The statuettes for the upcoming Academy Awards are based on an original Oscar from 1929, the Associated Press reports.

The film academy announced Tuesday that a New York foundry is restoring features of the original design to the Oscar statuettes for 2016 using digital scans and 3-D printers.

It took Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry three months to make the 50 statuettes needed for the Feb. 28 ceremony using the high-tech process. Oscar was previously made in a more traditional way by Chicago’s R.S. Owens & Company, the academy’s foundry for the past 34 years.

Oscar is still plated in 24-karat gold. Oscar’s dimensions remain the same: He’s 13 ½-inches tall and weighs 8 ½ pounds. And he’s still just as hard to get.

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says he does not consider the conflicts in Nagorno Karabakh and Transdniestria are “frozen.”

“They bring suffering to people year after year and hamper the development in the corresponding regions,” Mr. Steinmeier said in an interview with Interfax.

“We plan to strengthen the ceasefire regimes, reinforce trust and ease everyday life of the people in the conflict zones, e.g. through intensification of economic exchange,” the German Foreign Minister added.

“As for the Karabakh conflict, the military clashes at the line of contact and at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border are causes of concern. Germany stands for intensification of negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group. Creation of a mechanism of investigation of border incidents would be an important step here,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

In a letter sent this week to Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) urged the U.S. to oppose any proposed bailout for Azerbaijan’s corrupt and authoritarian regime, especially with U.S. taxpayer dollars. According to recent media reports, the U.S.-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are contemplating a $4 billion bailout for Azerbaijan, while at the same time Standard and Poor’s downgraded Azerbaijan’s bond rating sending a warning to investors that they are considered speculative junk.
“Rather than reward one of the most corrupt dictatorships in the world, whose president, Ilham Aliyev, received the first ever Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year award, bestowed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Azerbaijan should be urged to make much needed reforms and use its oil resources for the betterment of its people and not at the expense of Christian Armenians,” the Assembly letter stated. Further, the letter highlighted that “Azerbaijan’s president continues his policy of trying to resolve the dispute over Nagorno Karabakh by threatening to wipe Armenia off of the map.”

The Assembly’s response comes as 2015 saw the highest number of Armenian casualties of Azerbaijani snipers and heavy artillery fire since the 1994 cease-fire agreement, including the targeting of Armenian schools and other civilian areas along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact.

“The notion of bailing out a corrupt, foreign regime that continues to blockade and attack its Christian neighbor is out of step with America’s values,” stated Assembly Board Co-Chairmen Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian. “We urge the United States to use its considerable influence as a leading member of the IMF and World Bank to oppose any such bailout,” they continued.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is investing US$ 40 million in the acquisition of an equity stake in Ameriabank CJSC, a leading private bank inArmenia. This is the largest single-ticket equity deal the EBRD has signed in the region to date.

As a first step the EBRD will acquire a stake of around 20 per cent for US$ 30 million. The remaining US$ 10 million will be used for future capital increases. The goal of the investment is to strengthen Ameriabank and prepare the bank for a future IPO. In the course of 2016 an independent director representing the EBRD will join Ameriabank’s Board of Directors.

Prior to a possible listing, the EBRD investment will support the growth of Ameriabank by providing additional funds for lending to large corporate and private customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and retail customers. More lending to the real sector will strengthen the growth of Armenia’s economy.

Mark Davis, EBRD Head of the Yerevan office, said: “We welcome the opportunity to become a shareholder in Ameriabank and see this as a further step towards strengthening and consolidating the local banking sector. Increased access to finance is key to enabling local companies to realise their potential. As a shareholder the EBRD will support Ameriabank’s development, with a special emphasis on corporate governance.”

“We highly appreciate this new level of partnership with the EBRD. It is a great support for Ameriabank in global capital markets, in line with our strategic goals and aspirations. I am sure that our joint efforts will promote the development of Armenia’s banking sector and contribute to economic growth in our country,” added Andrew Mkrtchyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Ameriabank.

Since the start of its operations in Armenia in 1992, the EBRD has invested over €1.04 billion in 148 projects in the country’s financial, corporate, infrastructure and energy sectors, with 88 per cent of these investments being in the private sector.