The French government plans to extend a state of emergency imposed after the Paris attacks in November to cover the Euro 2016 football tournament, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said, the BBC reports.
Given the scale of the event, security has to be ensured, he said in a radio interview.
The proposed two-month extension will require parliamentary approval.
The European football competition involves 24 national teams and runs from 10 June to 10 July.
President Serzh Sargsyan received today Nobel Prize winners in the area of medicine and adjacent areas Aaron Ciechanover, Ada Yonath, Dan Shechtman, John Robin Warren, and Ei-ichi Negishi.
These scientists, who were awarded the greatest prize in the area of science, have arrived to Armenia in the framework of the scientific event organized by the M. Heratsi State Medical University of Yerevan.
At the meeting, discussed were issues related to the development in Armenia of science, particularly of medicine and adjacent areas.
An explosion occurred on March 31 in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır near the city’s bus terminal during the passage of a police vehicle, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Ten people were wounded when an explosion hit a passing police vehicle in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, a security source said, according to Reuters.
Broadcaster Haberturk TV said the blast hit near a bus station in the city, the largest in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Ambulances rushed to the scene, Haberturk said.
The southeast has been scorched by waves of violence since a ceasefire between the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the government collapsed last July.
The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired over 3,200 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions on March 27 and 28, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.
The rival mostly refrained from using heavy weapons after the Karabakh forces repelled an Azeri attack on March 26.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep the situation under control and confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact.
Photo: Reuters
Syrian government forces backed by heavy Russian air support drove Islamic State out of Palmyra on Sunday, inflicting what the army called a mortal blow to militants who seized the city last year and dynamited its ancient temples, Reuters reports.
The loss of Palmyra represents one of the biggest setbacks for the ultra-hardline Islamist group since it declared a caliphate in 2014 across large parts of Syria and Iraq.
The army general command said that its forces took over the city with support from Russian and Syrian air strikes, opening up the huge expanse of desert leading east to the Islamic State strongholds of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor.
Palmyra would become “a launchpad to expand military operations” against the group in those two provinces, it said, promising to “tighten the noose on the terrorist group and cut supply routes … ahead of their complete recapture”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes continued on the eastern edge of Palmyra, around the prison and airport, but the bulk of the Islamic State force had withdrawn and retreated east, leaving the city under President Bashar al-Assad’s control.
According to the BBC, President Bashar al-Assad has hailed the recapture of Palmyra from so-called Islamic State (IS) as an “important achievement” in the “war on terrorism”.
President Assad said this showed the success of the army’s strategy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Mr Assad, a Kremlin spokesman said.
Ani – the City of 1,001 Churches – is now an eerie, abandoned city of ghosts
By Joseph Flaherty
An abandoned city of ghosts
Ruled by a dizzying array of kingdoms and empires over the centuries – from the Byzantines to the Ottomans – the city of Ani once housed many thousands of people, becoming a cultural hub and regional power under the medieval Bagratid Armenian dynasty. Today, it’s an eerie, abandoned city of ghosts that stands alone on a plateau in the remote highlands of northeast Turkey, 45km away from the Turkish border city of Kars. As you walk among the many ruins, left to deteriorate for over 90 years, the only sound is the wind howling through a ravine that marks the border between Turkey and Armenia.
The toll of many rulers
Visitors who pass through Ani’s city walls are greeted with a panoramic view of ruins that span three centuries and five empires – including the Bagratid Armenians, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks, Georgians and Ottomans. The Ani plateau was ceded to Russia once the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War. After the outbreak of World War I, the Ottomans fought to take back northeast Anatolia, and although they recaptured Ani and the surrounding area, the region was given to the newly formed Republic of Armenia. The site changed hands for the last time after the nascent Turkish Republic captured it during the 1920 eastern offensive in the Turkish War of Independence.
A hotly contested territory
The ruins of an ancient bridge over the Akhurian River, which winds its way at the bottom of the ravine to create a natural border, are fitting given the vexed state of Turkish-Armenian relations. The two countries have long disagreed over the mass killings of Armenians that took place under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and Turkey officially closed its land border with Armenia in 1993 in response to a territorial conflict between Armenia and Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan.
A bid to save the ruins
Although the focus on Turkish-Armenian tension preoccupies most discussion of Ani, there’s an ongoing effort by archaeologists and activists to save the ruins, which have been abandoned in favour of more accessible and less historically contested sites from classical antiquity. Historians have long argued for Ani’s importance as a forgotten medieval nexus, and as a result, Ani is now on a tentative list for recognition as a Unesco World Heritage Site. With some luck and careful restoration work, which has begun in 2011, they may be able to forestall the hands of time.
‘The City of 1,001 Churches’
At its height during the 11th Century, scholars estimate that Ani’s population reached as high as 100,000 people. Artistic renderings based on the site’s archaeological findings show a bustling medieval centre crowded with myriad homes, artisanal workshops and impressive churches scattered throughout.
Known as “The City of 1,001 Churches”, Ani’s Armenian rulers and city merchants funded an extraordinary number of places of worship, all designed by the greatest architectural and artistic minds in their milieu. Although the nickname was hyperbole, archaeologists have discovered evidence of at least 40 churches, chapels and mausoleums to date.
An imposing cathedral
A rust-coloured brick redoubt, the Cathedral of Ani looms over the now-abandoned city. Although its dome collapsed in an earthquake in 1319 – and, centuries later, another earthquake destroyed its northwest corner – it is still imposing in scale. It was completed in 1001 under the reign of Armenian King Gagik I, when the wealth and population of Ani was at its peak. Trdat, the renowned Armenian architect who designed it, also served the Byzantines by helping them repair the dome of the Hagia Sophia.
Half of a church
Only one half of the Church of the Redeemer remains – a monument to both the artistic prowess of the Armenian Bagratid Dynasty and the inevitability of time. Propped up by extensive scaffolding now, the church was an impressive architectural feat when it was built. It featured 19 archways and a dome, all made from local reddish-brown volcanic basalt.
The church also housed a fragment of the True Cross, upon which Jesus was crucified. The church’s patron, Prince Ablgharib Pahlavid, reportedly obtained the relic during a visit to the Byzantine court at Constantinople.
A church fit for a prince
Built sometime in the late 10th Century, the Church of St Gregory of the Abughamrentsis a stoic-looking, 12-sided chapel that has a dome carved with blind arcades: arches that are purely for embellishment instead of leading to a portal. In the early 1900s, a mausoleum was discovered buried under the church’s north side, likely containing the remains of the church’s patron, Prince Grigor Pahlavuni of the Bagratid Armenians, and his kin. Unfortunately, like many of the sites at Ani, the prince’s sepulchre was looted in the 1990s.
The remnants of an underground city
Opposite the Church of St Gregory of the Abughamrentsare a series of caves dug out of the rock, which some historians speculate may predate Ani. The caves are sometimes described as Ani’s “underground city” and signs point to their use as tombs and churches. In the early 20th Century, some of these caves were still used as dwellings.
A church that keeps watch
The Church of St Gregory of Tigran Honents stands vigilant over the ravine that separates Turkey and Armenia. Commissioned by a wealthy merchant and built in 1215, it was constructed when the then-controlling Kingdom of Georgia granted Ani as a fiefdom to a bloodline of Armenian rulers, the Zakarians. During the winter, the lonely church makes for a striking sight against the endless, snow-covered Armenian steppe in the distance.
Frescoes cover the walls
The Church of St Gregory of Tigran Honents is one of Ani’s best preserved buildings, adorned with remnants of paintings depicting scenes from the life of Christ and St Gregory the Illuminator. Detailed fresco cycles did not ordinarily appear in Armenian art of the era, leading scholars to believe the artists were most likely Georgian.
An Islamic minaret still stands
The Seljuk Empire – a Turkish state in Anatolia that drove out the Byzantines and eventually gave way to the Ottoman Empire – controlled the greater area of what is today northeast Turkey and Armenia beginning in the mid-1000s. However, in 1072, the Seljuks granted control of Ani to an Islamic dynasty of Kurdish origin, the Shaddadids. The Shaddadids, in turn, left their mark on Ani with buildings like the mosque of Manuchihr, which is perched precariously on the edge of the cliff. Its minaret is still standing from when the mosque was constructed in the late 1000s; the rest of the mosque is most likely an addition from the 12th or 13th Centuries.
Origins up for debate
The original purpose of the mosque of Manuchihr is debated on both the Turkish and Armenian sides. Some contend that the building once served as a palace for the Armenian Bagratid dynasty and was only later converted into a mosque. Others argue that the structure was built as a mosque from the ground up, and thus was the first Turkish mosque in Anatolia. From 1906 to 1918, the mosque served as a museum of findings from Ani’s excavation by the Russian archaeologist Nicholas Marr. Regardless of the building’s origins, the mosque’s four elegant windows display spectacular views of the river and the other side of the gorge.
Once formidable city walls
Ani’s city walls may seem ready to crumble, but when they were constructed in the 10th Century, they made for a formidable defence. The Bagratid family of kings built them in order to fortify their new capital and, over the centuries, they protected the city’s occupants against siege after siege by various armies. These ramparts, along with Ani’s inhabitants, witnessed bloody conflicts between the Bagratids and the Byzantines, and the Byzantines and the Seljuks.
Despite Ani’s history as a field of warfare, the ruins also represent many periods throughout history where the city saw a remarkable interchange of cultures, religions and artistic motifs.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan on Wednesday (9 March 2016) for talks on the partnership between the Alliance and Yerevan. The Secretary General thanked Armenia for its contributions to NATO’s missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
The two Ministers also met with the North Atlantic Council for an exchange of views on Armenia’s cooperation with the Alliance and regional security. The Secretary General welcomed Armenia’s commitment to the NATO Building Integrity Programme and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
Mr. Stoltenberg also highlighted Armenia’s sustained cooperation with NATO in the areas of defence reform, enhanced interoperability, defence education reform and civil emergency planning. Armenia has been a NATO partner for over 20 years, developing political dialogue with Allies and cooperating on democratic, institutional, and defence reforms.
The documentary “Pure State of the soul” by Turkish Armenian director Ugur Yusuf Ires will screen at the cultural center of the Yerevan State University tomorrow. The film presents the story of the director’s family, namely his grandfather Harutiun Ires, who regained his identity at the age of 71, regained his ‘pure state of the soul after he was baptized as Christian Armenian.
The constant arguments between the director’s grandparents lie in the basis of the documentary. “Although they were speaking Zazaki, we could understand from some Turkish words that all disputes were about religion,” Yusuf Ires told reporters in Yerevan.
“For ten years grandma was trying to persuade her children and grandchildren that they were Turkish and Muslim. She was confident it would be easier for them to live with that consciousness. But there is a reality called genetic memory. This is what motivated the creation of the film,” the director said.
Harutiun’s daughter Karin Gulteki returned to her Christian roots three years ago. She was baptized in Germany, as the tax for baptism in Armenian Churches of Turkey is too high. “I’m glad to have found my true identity and individuality,” the Dersim Armenian woman said.
“Turkey does not miss any opportunity to pressure Armenians,” said Mihran Gulteki, founder of the Union of Dersim Armenians. He said “Turkey is implementing a special policy of repatriating Turks from foreign countries and settling them in Western Armenia, where an estimated 3-4 million hidden Armenians live. According to him, the number will even grow if it becomes safer for Armenians to live there.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan wants to win trophies with Borussia Dortmund, and as soon as possible. asked before the Saturday game against Bayern whether the second spot could be seen a title, the Armenian said: “No! A title is a title. As a footballer you want to finish the season holding something in your hands – no matter what competition.”
“We have the opportunity in spring and we have no intention to waste any opportunity. We want to squeeze the maximum out of us, especially when we fight against the best ones,” the Armenian told Sport Bild.
In the Bundesliga, BVB is in second place in the table, eight points behind Bayern. In the Europa League Dortmund meets in the second round at Tottenham, the DFB Cup in the semifinals in faces Hertha BSC.
Mkhitaryan, whose contract expires in 2017 expressed, spoke about the possible extension: “I feel totally comfortable in the city, in the team, and we have good understanding with BVB. Borussia is a wonderful club – ambitious, hungry for success, with unique fans.”
Asbarez – Armenoid Productions– a documentary film production company of dedicated, storytellers of concealed history – today announced that the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) has selected its awardwinning Orphans of the Genocide documentary by Bared Maronian for national distribution to over 300 public television stations. The documentary is scheduled for national broadcast across PBS stations by April 24.
“I urge Armenian-Americans nationwide to contact their local public television station’s programing department to urge them to air Orphans of the Genocide’s special 60-minute version sponsored by NETA,” said Maronian. “This is a great honor that NETA has selected a documentary on the Armenian Genocide as part of their select number of programming recommendations to national PBS stations.”
The National Educational Telecommunications Association is a professional association that serves public television licensees and educational entities in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The four-time Regional Emmy Award winner filmmaker, Bared Maronian’s Orphans of The Genocide documentary has been previously screened on select PBS stations nationwide. The documentary weaves historical archives with interviews and memoirs of Armenian orphans establishing irrevocable proof of the Armenian Genocide. An emotional, visual journey through never-before-seen archival footage and discovered memoirs of orphans who lived through the last century’s first genocide. Maronian is currently completing his new documentary project – Women of 1915 – of stories of Armenian and non-Armenian women heroines who lived through the atrocities of W.W.I and survived to retell stories of strength, perseverance, and empowerment.