To accommodate the high demand for travel to the United States by Armenians during the winter holiday season, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan will be open on Sunday, November 1, in order to provide additional visa interviews for Armenian citizens.
Armenian business, tourist, and student visa applicants should visit the Embassy’s website — http://armenia.usembassy.gov/visas.html – today to take advantage of these additional appointments which have been made available outside of normal working hours.
Anakara’s police, intelligence and security chiefs have been suspended in the wake of bombings that left 97 people dead in Turkey’s capital, the BBC reports.
The interior ministry said the move would enable a “robust” investigation.
The attack, the worst in Turkey’s modern history, triggered widespread anger against the government.
Turkey’s president visited the site of the bombing on Wednesday. The prime minister said both Islamic State and the PKK could have played a role.
Turkish officials have said two suicide bombers carried out Saturday’s attack, which targeted crowds gathering for a rally against violence between Turkish government forces and the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).
Authorities said on Wednesday that they had detained two people with alleged ties to the PKK on suspicion of having prior knowledge of the attack.
Initially, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said IS, the PKK and far-left groups were all capable of such an attack. On Monday, he said IS was the prime suspect.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan laid flowers for the victims as he visited the site of the attack with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine has been split two ways for groundbreaking work on parasitic diseases, the BBC reports.
William C Campbell and Satoshi Omura developed a new drug against infections caused by roundworm parasites.
Youyou Tu shares the prize for her discovery of a therapy against malaria.
The Nobel committee said the work had changed the lives of the hundreds of millions of people affected by these diseases.
The mosquito-borne disease malaria kills more than 450,000 people each year around the world, with billions more at risk of catching the infection.
Parasitic worms affect a third of the world’s population and cause a number of illnesses, including River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis.
Armenia is ranked 82nd (up from 85th last year) in the Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 released by the World Economic Forum today.
Switzerland tops the ranking followed by Singapore and the United States. Armenia’s neighbors in the region are placed as follows: Georgia – 66th, Azerbaijan – 40th, Turkey 51st, Iran – 74th.
Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Kazakhstan are ranked 45th and 42nd respectively. Kyrgyzstan is 102nd, no data is available for Belarus.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The Report series remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.
On September 23, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan met with China Export-Import Bank (CEIB) Vice Chairman, President Liu Liange, Government’s Press Service reports.
Discussed were issues related to the possibility of China Export-Import Bank’s involvement in a number of investment projects in Armenia and cooperation prospects.
Prime Minister Abrahamyan said Armenia would appreciate Chinese companies’ involvement in our country’s economy. In his words, the sides had discussed a number of large-scale investment projects over the past few years, including the construction of Armenia’s southern railway.
Assuring of their keen interest in deepening economic relations with Armenia, Liu Liange expressed confidence that the cooperation would be expanded and developed ahead. He stressed the importance of Iran-Armenia railroad project, which may promote economic development in the region. During the meeting, the parties discussed other issues of mutual interest.
On the same day, the Prime Minister and the members of his delegation called at the Summer Palace in Beijing, which was built in 1750 AD during the reign of Qing Dynasty and used to be a royal summer residence. While being briefed on the history of the Summer Palace, the guests were shown ancient Chinese artifacts.
President Serzh Sargsyan visited today the Branch of Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) in Yerevan which has been established as part of an interstate agreement. Accompanied by Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, RA Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of RA Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations, Armen Yeritsyan, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the MSU Branch in Yerevan, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, RA NAS President Radik Martirosyan, MSU Rector Victor Sadovnichy, Ivan Volynkin, RF ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the RA, and by the branch leadership, the President toured the newly-opened educational institution, familiarized himself with its activities, teaching conditions and educational programs.
The Yerevan branch has mainly employed qualified professionals from Moscow. In the 2015-16 academic year, the university is attended by 65 students; 15 are state-financed and 50 study on a contractual bases. Courses are conducted in five professions – Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Law, Journalism, Linguistics and International Relations.
Joined by the faculty, students, their parents and other guests, Armenia’s president listened to the speeches on the branch’s kickoff activities made by RA Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan and MSU Rector Victor Sadovnichy at the university hall. In their welcoming remarks, they congratulated the university students on the start of the academic year, wished them success and attached importance to the entry of a new educational institution, Moscow State University, into Armenia’s education system.
At the end of the visit, Serzh Sargsyan had a private conversation with MSU Rector Victor Sadovnichy.
Federal MP for Bennelong, John Alexander has delivered a blistering speech on the floor of Parliament after meeting with a visiting Azeri MP, condemning Azerbaijan’s ongoing disregard for human rights and peace in Nagorno Karabakh, the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) reports.
His statement was delivered following on from a meeting – in his capacity as Chair of the House Standing Committee on Economics – with Khanlar Fatiyev MP, who is visiting Australia as part of an official Azeri Parliamentary delegation.
After attacking Azerbaijan’s capture of human rights activists, Alexander said: “I also raised my strong concerns about Azerbaijan’s actions in the on-going dispute with Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has invested over $1 billion in armoured vehicles and artillery in the past few years, making a mockery of any supposed desire for peace in the region.”
He added: “As we commemorate the centenary of the commencement of the Armenian Genocide it is essential for us as community leaders to call out persecution, and to stress to trading partners like Azerbaijan the importance of protecting human rights and political freedoms for all.”
ANC Australia’s Executive Director, Vache Kahramanian remarked: “John Alexander today spoke truthfully and powerfully on the true character of Azerbaijan. That country has spent billions around the world in an attempt to showcase itself as a democracy but actions speak louder than words.”
“Australia is a country built on the rule of law and on the fundamental respect for human rights. Azerbaijan has continued to be a blatant violator of human rights, ranking poorly in global rankings for consecutive years. Its ongoing aggression towards Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have further added to its sorry state of affairs,” Kahramanian added.
“Mr. Alexander has had a long track record of setting the record straight in the Australian Parliament on such important matters. Australia has been well served by this distinguished leader who speaks openly and honestly on such important matters,” Kahramanian concluded.
Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain’s longest-reigning monarch later when she passes the record set by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, teh BBC reports.
The Queen will have reigned for 63 years and seven months – calculated at 23,226 days, 16 hours and approximately 30 minutes at about 17:30 BST.
Prime Minister David Cameron will lead tributes in the House of Commons and there will be a River Thames salute.
Business in the Commons will be postponed for half an hour so MPs can pay tribute to the Queen.
Buckingham Palace has released an official photograph to mark the occasion, taken by Mary McCartney in the Queen’s private audience room.
This is where she holds weekly audiences with prime ministers of the day, and receives visiting heads of state and government.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has pledged to “wipe out” Kurdish PKK rebels in their strongholds after a deadly bomb attack on the Turkish army, the BBC reports.
“The mountains of this country, the plains, highlands, cities will be not abandoned to terrorists,” he said.
At least 16 Turkish soldiers died in Sunday’s attack in the south-eastern Hakkari province, the army said.
In retaliation, Turkey carried out several air strikes on PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) targets on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Mr Davutoglu said: “You cannot discourage us from our war on terror. Those mountains will be cleared of these terrorists. Whatever it takes, they will be cleared.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said he was saddened by the attack and promised a “decisive” response.
“The pain of our security forces who were martyred in the treacherous attack by the separatist terrorist organisation sears our hearts,” he said.
There has been a surge in violence between the army and the PKK after a ceasefire collapsed in July.
The PKK said it was behind the attack. Initially it said 15 soldiers had been killed, but later raised the figure to 31.
But the Turkish army said on Monday that 16 soldiers died, while six were injured.
Yevnige Aposhian Salibian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, who became an outspoken advocate for truth and justice as recently as April of this year, passed away Sunday aged 101, reports.
Salibian was a resident of Ararat Home in Mission Hills, Calif. With a sharp mind she articulated her family’s story of survival at community events, becoming one of the last remaining survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
She was just a baby when the Genocide began, but the she was able to recall things that happened a few years later to her family.
Born Jan. 14, 1914, one of five children in a middle-class family in the town of Aintab. Her family was among the last to leave. It was during this trip that she received a scar on her leg when she became trapped in the reins of a horse. She nearly bled to death and the scar has become a lifelong reminder of her early miseries. The family fled Aintab in 1921.
A deeply religious woman, she learned to speak English by comparing versions of the bible. After fleeing their home, her family lived in Lebanon until 1976, when she came to the United States.
In 2014, Salibian was by the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, during the organization’s 20th anniversary gala, where Steven Spielberg and others honored the survivor.
Her story captured the attention of many, including renowned journalist Robert Fisk who her and her story in an edition of the London-based The Independent in 2014.