The Armenian Ministry of Defense reports 18 cases of ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan at the northeastern part of the shared state border last night.
The Azerbaijani side used artillery and sniper weapons as it opened sporadic fire in the direction of the Armenian positions.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense army showed restraint and resorted to response actions only in case of extreme necessity.
Armenian international offensive midfielder and winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan (27) has been offered a deal extension by Borussia Dortmund, according to Sky Sports Deutschland.
Currently on a deal with German club until June 2017, former Shakhtar Donetsk player, playing for Bundesliga giants since 2013/14, is however still tempted by the chance to leave; his ownership is esteemed around 23 million euros.
A number of clubs, including Juventus, Liverpool, Arsenal and Zenit Saint Petersbourgare interested in signinng Mkhitaryan.
Ara Nranyan has been appointed as Vice-President of the Control Chamber of the Republic of Armenia until December 13, 2019.
The corresponding decree was signed by President Serzh Sargsyan this morning.
Photo: AFP
Bomb blasts in the Syrian cities of Homs and Damascus have left more than 100 people dead, monitors and state media say.
In Homs, at least 57 people, mainly civilians, were killed in a double car bombing, a monitoring group reported.
At least four blasts later struck the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, causing at least 50 deaths, the BBC reports.
So-called Islamic State has said it carried out the Damascus blasts.
Both Damascus and Homs have been targeted by Islamic State (IS) militants in the past.
Both attacks targeted areas dominated by minorities within Islam reviled by the Sunni Muslim radicals of IS.
In Homs, the blasts happened in a predominantly Alawite district, the sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
In Damascus, at least four explosions were reported in Sayyida Zeinab, the location of Syria’s holiest Shia Muslim shrine, said to contain the grave of the Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter.
State television reported at least 50 dead and 200 wounded. Other reports put the death toll higher.
Homs, one of the early centres of the uprising against President Assad, was once dubbed the “capital of the revolution”.
But rebels left the city late last year under a ceasefire deal, leaving the city in government hands.
Turkish jet fighters entered Greek airspace several times on Monday, as NATO was preparing to deploy ships to the Aegean Sea to tackle migrant smugglers, according to
Specifically, six Turkish fighter jets and a CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft entered successively in the Athens FIR on Monday without submitting a flight plan, violating the Greek airspace 22 times in different regions of the Aegean.
The Athens FIR also recorded two more violations of air traffic rules. Nineteen out of 22 violations were committed by the CN-235 which passed between islands of the eastern and central Aegean.
According to Hellenic Air Force sources, the aforementioned aircraft entered Athens’ FIR at 14:09 local time between Lemnos and Lesbos and exited at 16:21 east of Rhodes.
The Turkish warplanes were recognized in all cases and were intercepted by Greek fighter jets as per international regulations. In two cases the interception process developed into a dogfight. Two of the Turkish aircraft were armed.
Turkey did not allow the aircraft carrying Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Iran to land in Rhodes for refueling claiming that the island is in a demilitarized zone.
It was revealed on Monday that the Greek prime minister’s trip to Iran on February 6 was not as smooth as it should be. The flight plan of the plane that was carrying Tsipras and Greek cabinet members included a landing on the island of Rhodes to refuel.
However, Turkish authorities prevented the landing on the grounds that the plane is an Embraer military aircraft with Greek Air Force pilots and crew. Since Turkey considers Rhodes and the other Dodecanese islands a demilitarized area, Turkish authorities suggested that Greece should submit a new flight plan and refuel in Ankara, Alexandroupolis or any other area. If the Greek mission would agree to refuel in Turkey, then it would be given authority to fly over Turkish air space.
Greek diplomats, then, advised the prime minister to avoid a new flight plan which would include Turkey, because that would mean Greece recognizes Rhodes as a demilitarized zone.
After that, the prime minister’s aircraft changed flight plan and flew over Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in order to reach Iran, while it stopped for refueling in Egypt.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has issued the following statement on World Radio Day:
In times of crisis and emergency, radio can be a lifeline.
For people in shattered societies, or caught in catastrophe, or desperately seeking news, radio brings lifesaving information.
Radio can help in emergency response operations – and it can assist with rebuilding.
Through community radio, local people can raise their voices and be heard.
This year, as we start carrying out the Sustainable Development Goals, let us resolve to use radio for human progress.
In the lead-up to the World Humanitarian Summit this May, let us find ways for radio to do even more to help people in emergencies.
On this World Radio Day, let us resolve to prove that radio saves lives.
Photos: REUTERS/MAX ROSSI
Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill embraced and kissed on Friday in a historic meeting nearly 1,000 years after the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart, Reuters reports.
“Finally,” Francis said as he and Kirill entered through doors on opposite sides of a room at Havana airport to begin private talks. “We are brothers.”
The two religious leaders, guests of a Communist government, are addressing ways of healing the rift between their Churches as well as their concerns over the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
They were expected to speak about territorial disputes between the two Churches after the fall of the Soviet Union, and issue a joint declaration following the meeting.
Francis, dressed in white with a skullcap, and Kirill, wearing a tall, domed hat that dangled a white stole over black robes, joined arms and kissed on both cheeks.
“It is very clear that this is the will of God,” Francis said.
“Yes, things are much easier now,” Kirill said. Both men spoke through interpreters and were accompanied by their top aides in the quest for Christian unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch and Russian Metropolitan Hilarion.
Their meeting, announced just a week ago, also carried political overtones, coming at a time of Russian disagreements with the West over Syria and Ukraine.
Cuban President Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the Catholic Church’s highest representative in Cuba, greeted the pope as he got off the plane.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he is leaving his post to be named chief of the Constitutional Council, France’s top court making sure that bills are compliant with the Constitution, teh Associated Press reports.
Fabius, 69, was in charge since 2012. His successor is not known yet, as a government reshuffling is expected in the coming days.
Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has suggested there is a chance Mats Hummels, Henrikh Mkhitaryanand Ilkay Gundogan will leave Borussia Dortmund, but is adamant they will not all be sold at once, reports.
The trio all have contracts with BVB until June 2017, leaving the club potentially contemplating cashing in on them in the summer or risk losing the influential threesome at the end of next season.
Dortmund previously lost Robert Lewandowski to Bayern Munich on a free transfer, but Watzke is not too worried about the prospect of potentially losing another star for free.
“I can rule out that three players of their calibre will all leave at once,” Watzke told Bild.
“It should be our goal to bring in a player of the same level if someone leaves us on a free transfer in 2017. We will make that happen.”
Both Hummels and Gundogan have been linked with a move to the Premier League in the past, but Watzke does not think England is the preferred destination for top players any longer.
“The absolute star players do not necessarily go to England,” he added.
“They have not been able to celebrate a World Cup for 50 years and that will not change any time soon.
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
For over two decades, the international community, led by OSCE Minsk Group mediators representing the United States, France and Russia, has been trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict.
The main obstacle is Azerbaijan’s persistence in shooting while negotiating, and intensifying its attacks on the eve of every crucial meeting for settlement of the conflict. Such unconstructive behavior is totally unacceptable for everyone involved in the peace process. Azerbaijan intentionally escalates the violence on such occasions in order to pressure the international community to force Armenia into making unfair concessions on Artsakh.
To make matters worse, every time Azerbaijani forces launch attacks on Artsakh or Armenia, the Minsk Group mediators issue a routine statement urging both sides to stop firing, thereby equating the violator with the victim. In addition, the mediators cover up their irresponsible statement by claiming that they are not certain which side initiated the shooting.
In October, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R–CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel of New York, initiated a letter signed by 85 House members, to U.S. co-chair, Amb. James Warlick, urging him to take all necessary steps to withdraw snipers from the border, deploy gunfire locator systems along the Line of Contact, and increase the number of field monitors. These measures were accepted by Armenia, Artsakh, the US Congress, and the Minsk Group co-chairs, but rejected by Azerbaijan because of its intent to conceal and continue its warmongering initiatives. Under these untenable circumstances, the three mediators may consider placing gunfire locators on the Artsakh side of the border to record the source of incoming fire. If the mediators are unwilling to take such action, Armenia should go ahead and purchase gunfire locators from US manufacturer Raytheon and recruit independent NGOs to monitor and report the results to the international community.
Once the source of the shooting is identified, the mediators would then be obligated to condemn the perpetrator; otherwise, they would be encouraging Azerbaijan to escalate the attacks on Armenia and Artsakh.
Meanwhile, the mediators must warn Azerbaijan’s autocratic President Ilham Aliyev that should he not cease and desist from making threats and shelling Armenia and Artsakh, they will be forced to submit Azerbaijan’s violations to the United Nations Security Council, to mandate economic sanctions against his country.
The mediators could also temporarily suspend their peacemaking activities by announcing that they are prevented from seeking a negotiated settlement to the conflict, while Azerbaijan keeps on shooting. Surely, it is not possible to fight and talk at the same time!
Since Azerbaijan is not ready to go to war — if it were, it would have started it already instead of merely threatening — it has no choice but to heed the call of the mediators to cease firing and start negotiating in earnest. Freezing the negotiations would be a serious setback for Azerbaijan because that is the only way it can hope to reach some accommodation with Armenia and Artsakh. Armenians, on the other hand, have already accomplished their objective of liberating Artsakh from Azeri occupation and have nothing to gain from further negotiations.
Should the mediators decide not to freeze the peace talks, the Armenian government may decide to suspend its participation in these unproductive negotiations, thus sending a clear message to Baku that shelling Armenia and Artsakh undermines Azerbaijan’s own interests.
If the negotiations are not suspended and Azerbaijan continues its attacks, the Armenian government may eventually respond with a “massive and asymmetrical retaliation,” as it has repeatedly warned. While some may be concerned that such an action would further escalate the violence, in fact it would diminish, if not halt the endless border skirmishes, once Azeri leaders realize that they have more to lose by fighting than talking. It is unfortunate that Pres. Aliyev is exploiting the deaths of young Azeri soldiers on the frontlines to distract his people’s attention away from massive violations of civil rights, corruption at the highest echelons of his government, and abysmal economic conditions due to diminishing oil revenues.
I had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues last week with various officials in Washington, D.C., while Artsakh’s Foreign Minister Garen Mirzoyan was in town to meet with members of Congress and US mediator Amb. Warlick. Two receptions were held to honor the visiting Foreign Minister at the Armenian Embassy and on Capitol Hill, the latter co-hosted by the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Assembly of America, and the U.S. Office of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic. Several House members, Amb. Warlick, and other dignitaries attended the congressional reception to the chagrin of Azerbaijan’s Embassy which had dispatched a small group of Azeris to protest the event. Chairman Royce announced during the reception that he had asked Amb. Warlick to come to the House of Representatives this week for a briefing on the Artsakh conflict.
A large number of ANCA activists from throughout the USA, including this writer, joined Foreign Minister Mirzoyan in Washington last week, to share a message of peace and democracy for Artsakh with dozens of House and Senate members, urging them to recognize its independence from Azerbaijan.