Author: Greg Madatian

 

 

 

Armenian President’s speech at NATO summit included three important messages, Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly, Spokesman for the Republic Party of Armenia Edward Sharmazanov told reporters today.

First, he said, the President stressed that “Armenia and Artsakh stand for the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

According to Sharmazanov, another important point was the statement that “NATO is not the platform for the discussion of the Karabakh issue.” The President deemed the attempts to move the consideration of the issue to other platforms inappropriate and contradicting to the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries.

The third message was the importance of unconditional implementation of the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg, Sharmazanov said.

According to him, the reference to the status quo was also essential. “The status quo will change when the people of Nagorno Karabakh receive the opportunity to exercise their right of self-determination,” President Sargsyan stated in Warsaw.

“This means, it’s necessary to eliminate the reasons of the conflict, not the consequences. President Sargsyan made it clear in Warsaw that the primary issue is that of Artsakh’s status and the realization of the people’s right to self-determination, not the territories or refugees,” Edward Sharmazanov said.

Portugal are the first team into the Euro 2016 semi-finals after a penalty shoot-out win over Poland in Marseille, with the game ending 1-1 after extra-time, Reuters reports.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lewandowski scored the opening spot-kicks for each side and Portugal were leading 4-3 when Jakub Blaszczykowski saw his spot-kick pushed around the post.

That left it to Ricardo Quaresma to send Portugal into the last four, where they will face Wales or Belgium, and he found the roof of the net in style.

Robert Lewandowski notched his first goal of the tournament after less than two minutes to put Poland in front, converting smartly from Kamil Grosicki’s cut-back from the left.

However, his new Bayern Munich team-mate Renato Sanches, handed his first international start at the age of 18, pulled Portugal back level on 32 minutes when a deflection helped his rifled effort find the corner of the net.

Ronaldo missed a golden opportunity with five minutes remaining when he swung and missed a lovely lofted ball over the top from Joao Moutinho, ensuring the match would go into extra time.

It looks like it’s going to be a fall release for the much-anticipated film “The Promise,” which stars Oscar Issac and Christian Bale in an Armenian Genocide-themed epic directed by Academy Award-winner Terry George.

The Promise” is eyeing to hit theaters as early as December, reports, quoting its sources.

Golden Globe-winner Issac and Oscar winner Bale were announced as leads of “The Promise” last June when Survivor Pictures, founded by late-billionaire Kirk Kerkorian revealed the long-rumored film project. According to early reports, Bale will play Chris, who is in love with both a woman and the danger of being in a combat zone during World War I. Isaac will play Michael, who is in love with the same woman but conflicted by old-world traditions and his heart.

George, who was nominated for a best director Oscar for “Hotel Rwanda,” co-wrote “The Promise” with another Academy Award nominated screenwriter Robin Swicord. In March 2013, George was a guest of the Armenian State Pedagogical University, where the Irish filmmaker compared the Armenian Genocide to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

The film, which also stars, Charlotte Le Bon, James Cromwell, Marwan Kenzari, Jean Reno, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Angela Sarafyan, among others, completed shooting in Europe last fall and is in post-production.

After shooting was completed on the film, Survival Pictures co-manager and a producer of the film, Eric Esrailian told Asbarez in an email that “Kirk will be proud,” referring to Kerkorian. “That makes all of the hard work even more special.”

The entertainment blog, The Playlist, gave an early prediction that “The Promise” will be on a short list for Academy Award consideration in 2017.

German lawmakers of Turkish descent have been placed under police protection after receiving death threats over parliament’s decision to recognise the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as a “genocide,” an MP told AFP Sunday.

The lawmaker, who is among MPs given police protection and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said security officers have been assigned to accompany them since Saturday.

The measure came following a round of “security discussions” with federal police, the source said.

Police declined to comment.

The Bundestag vote last week over the World War One-era massacre has driven ties between Turkey and Germany to a low, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacting furiously to the parliamentary decision.

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert had during the vote itself revealed that MPs had received death threats.

Cem Ozdemir, the co-chairman of the Alliance90/Greens party and who was among those who initiated the resolution, had already been given police protection.

Photo: Getty Images

 

He might run the world’s biggest social networking site, but not even Mark Zuckerberg is immune to being hacked, the BBC reports.

The Facebook founder’s accounts on sites including Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest appear to have been briefly compromised on Sunday.

A hacker group called Ourmine, which has more than 40,000 Twitter followers, claimed responsibility.

The group bragged about the alleged hacks in a tweet and invited Mr Zuckerberg to contact them.

“Hey @finkd we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm us.”

Louis van Gaal has been sacked as manager of Manchester United, with former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho set to be named as his replacement, the BBC reports.

The Dutchman leaves after two years of a three-year contract and is currently discussing severance terms.

BBC Sport reported on Saturday that United’s FA Cup win over Crystal Palace would be his last game in charge.

Mourinho’s appointment is expected to be confirmed he meets with senior United officials on Tuesday.

“We feel much more secure, it was great this time. I just need to fix the in-ears, that’s the only thing. Everyone is taking good care of me here”, Iveta commented on her second rehearsal in the press conference of the Armenian delegation.

Iveta Mukuchyan’s musical repertoire includes songs in several languages. “I also sing in Armenian language, and we have more plans to mix it with those groove sounds. As to German, I think it’s more difficult even though sometimes I wanna sing in German, when I want to express my emotions. We have a couple of songs in German but I haven’t released them yet.”

“The German show business is different. Buying CDs is over, live gigs are more important”, Iveta explains the music scene of her home country Germany. “The feedback of Germans and Europeans in general has been amazing, I never imagined that before.”

“We had Swedish composers in our national selection but in the end of the day, somehow the whole team just decided to take LoveWave, which was written by Armenian authors. The only reason was that it was tailored to me”, Iveta states on her choice of song.

The government opinion on the draft law on recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic does not mean approval of the bill, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“Armenia has clearly declared on many occasions in what case it will recognize the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,” the Ministry said.

“As a predictable and reliable partner, when making such decision Armenia will inform its partners, and first of all the heads of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries,” the statement reads.

“We hope that Azerbaijan will be reasonable enough to refrain from the repetition of its adventure, unleashed in early April. Only through the acknowledgment of the lack of alternative to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue it is possible to return the process onto the negotiation track and find a just and effective way for the full implementation of the right to self-determination by the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Ministry said.

On 2 May Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan met with head of the General Staff of the Republic of Armenia’s Armed forces, colonel-general Yuri Khachaturov.

Issues related to the large-scale combat operations launched recently by Azerbaijan against the Artsakh Republic and cooperation between the two Armenian states in the sphere of army-building were addressed during the meeting.

NKR Defense minister Levon Mnatsakanyan partook in the meeting. 

On April 27 the traditional Flower Gathering event took place in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex
on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets. Since 2010 the
Flower Gathering has been supported by the FPWC’s General Partner VivaCell-MTS.

The initiative combines the idea of giving these flowers a new lease of life and the environmental mission
that promotes recycling. The flowers laid at the Genocide Memorial on April 24 are gathered and their
stems are removed from the petals. The petals are used to derive compost, and the stems – to make
handmade recycled paper. The compost is used for the treatment of the soil in the Genocide Memorial
Park, while the handmade recycled paper is used to make certificates or postcards. This year Yerevan
Botanical Garden and ORWACO CJSC Armenian-Norwegian joint venture will help get bio humus from
the stems.

“During the last few years this initiative has become the natural continuation of April 24. The idea of the
Flower Gathering has been so consonant with people’s expectations, that it became everyone’s, getting an especially wide response among youth. Flower Gathering is now an integral of the impel that drove tens of thousands to the memorial every year,” FPWC Founder Ruben Khachatryan noted.

The event was attended by hundreds of representatives of non-governmental and international
organizations, private and public sector representatives, schoolchildren and students, ambassadors and
officials.