Author: Garnik Zakarian

Moscow does not hide its military-technical cooperation with Yerevan and asks Baku to treat this with understanding, Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday, TASS reports.

“We already informed the Azerbaijani side via diplomatic channels that Russia and Armenia are connected by allied relations and develop military-technical cooperation as well,” Zakharova said.

“This is a well-known fact. We cooperate without hiding anything — transparently and openly. We hope that Azerbaijan will treat this fact with understanding,” she added noting that Moscow takes into account all risks in the region when it supplies weapons.

“Any weapons are delivered to Armenia or friendly Azerbaijan with careful consideration of necessity to preserve the existing balance of power in the region,” she said.

On Wednesday Azerbaijan to Russian Foreign Ministry over supplying Armenia with weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has discusses the issues of Syrian settlement in a phone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, TASS reports.

According to Peskov, Assad assessed the Russian-US joint statement as an important step towards settlement in Syria and confirmed his readiness to cooperate.

The delegation led by Maja Gojkovic, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan.

Members of the delegation laid a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims and paid tribute to their memory with a minute of silence.

The Serbian lawmakers visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, familiarized themselves with the materials and photos of genocide. Maja Gojkovic left a note in the Memorial Book.

The Freedom House ranks Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh as “partly free” in its Freedom in the World 2016 report.

Armenia’s neighbors Georgia and Turkey are also ‘partly free,’ while Azerbaijan and Iran are ranked as ‘not free.’

Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are listed among ‘not free’ countries. Kyrgyzstan is ranked as ‘partly free.’

Freedom in the World is an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country and a select group of related and disputed territories. The 2016 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015.

Freedom in the World assesses the real-world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and nonstate actors, including insurgents and other armed groups.

On January 14, 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 in the eastern direction of the Talish village of the NKR Martakert region.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic).

 From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain).

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.

Photo: AFP

There are no Armenians among the victims of the terrorist acts in Jakarta, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports, quoting the Armenian Embassy in Indonesia.

A series of bomb blasts has rocked the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, with gun battles on the streets.

The blasts were centered around Thamrin Street, a major shopping and business district close to foreign embassies and the United Nations offices.

Police say the situation is now under control, with five suspected attackers among at least seven people killed.

It is not yet clear which group was behind the assault, which President Joko Widodo called an “act of terror.”

Rafa Benitez is facing the sack just six months after taking over at Real Madrid.

Directors of the Spanish club have been consulting throughout Monday after Madrid failed to beat Valencia on Sunday evening.

Club president Florentino Perez has called a board meeting for Monday afternoon which will be followed by a press conference at 4.30pm.

The expectation is that Benitez will be dismissed with Zinedine Zidane stepping up from the B-team to take control of first team affairs until the end of the season.

Perez remains a huge fan of Jose Mourinho and the former Chelsea manager remains an option but the president is understood to prefer Zidane taking over with immediate effect.

Mourinho would remain an option for the Spanish giants at the end of the season if the Zidane experiment fails.

Benitez has been unable to win any of Madrid’s big away games so far this season with Villarreal, Sevilla and Barcelona all beating them and Atletico Madrid, Valencia and PSG all taking a point.

Privates of the NKR Defense Army Aghasi Grigoryan and Ruben Aleksanyan (both born in 1996) were killed in a clash with Azeri forces, the NKR Ministry of Defense reports.

Contract serviceman Gor Ohanyan (born in 1992) was fatally wounded under unknown circumstances in of the military units located in the northern direction of the Defense Army.

Special forces of the Azerbaijani army undertook two acts of sabotage in the northeastern and northern direction of the line of contact last night.

The front troops of the NKR Defense Army were quick to spot the advancement of the rival and force it to retreat, incurring losses.

The NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement it shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses its support to the families and friends of the killed soldiers.

The Ministry vows retaliation for the provocative actions of the adversary. “The response is going to be painful and irreversible,” the statement reads.

“I’ve voted for the sake of our stable future,” Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said after he cast his vote in the referendum on Constitutional changes.

“After the voting the government should combine its efforts to ensure economic development to meet the expectations of the people,” the Prime Minister said.

He said everyone should be provided with the opportunity to vote freely and added that any outcome would be acceptable to the authorities.

“I cast my vote for the sake of our stable future and development. We’ve done our best to ensure the transparency of the voting. We’ve urged all our teammates not to do a disservice. Let the public decide whether to accept the Constitutional changes or not. I’ve not received any reports on serious violations so far. I hope the commissions will do their utmost to avoid violations,” Hovik Abrahamyan said.

He urged the teammates to avoid any provocation and ensure transparent voting.