Author: Jalatian Sonya

The State Security Service of Georgia says it has thwarted a planned terrorist act on the Russia-Armenia gas pipeline, Gruzia Online reports.

According to the source, seven people have been detained on suspicion of plotting the blast, employee of the Poti Patrol Police Levan Mamporia among them.

The detainees are accused of being linked to a terrorist organization.

The suspects prepared to carry out an explosion of an open section of the gas pipeline near the Saguramo village, some 20 kilometers from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, teh State Security Service said.

Photo: EPA

 

A failed Syrian asylum seeker has blown himself up and injured 12 other people with a backpack bomb near a festival in the south German town of Ansbach, the BBC reports.

The state of Bavaria’s interior minister said the 27-year-old man had detonated the device after being refused entry to the music festival.

About 2,500 people were evacuated from the venue after the explosion.

Bavaria has been on edge since a knife rampage on a train claimed by so-called Islamic State last Monday.

The Ansbach blast is reported to have happened at about 22:10 (20:10 GMT) outside the Eugens Weinstube bar in the centre of the town, which has a population of 40,000 and is home to a US military base.

The bomb went off close to the entrance to the Ansbach Open music festival.

The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld a 4-year prison sentence given to prominent Armenian businessman Levon Hayrapetyan for embezzlement of $700,000, reports from the courtroom.

The sentence thus came into force.

In April, Hayrapetyan was found guilty of stealing $700,000 from the mother of former Bashkortostan senator Igor Izmestyev sentenced to life for terrorism. In addition to the prison sentence Hayrapetyan was ordered to pay the victim 20.8 million rubles (about $320,000).

According to investigators, the businessman has misled the woman by promising a reduced sentence for her son. In practice, he could not influence the judgment.

The businessman has pleaded not guilty. According to his lawyer, the case has been framed up.

Hayrapetyan also stands charged with involvement in an embezzlement case under which Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov, sold Bashneft, a midsized oil company he headed for three years, to the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema in 2009 at a huge “discount” of $500 million.

Hayrapetyan holds dual citizenship, has assets abroad and was until recently living in Monaco. Prosecutors presented this information as grounds for arrest. In early October 2014, Hayrapetyan was placed under house arrest. His defense attorney asked the court to release him, citing health problems.

Pope Francis visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial this morning. The Pope left the following note in the Book of Honorary Guests:

“Here I pray with pain in my heart, so that never more will there be tragedies like this, so that humanity does not forget and knows how to overcome the evil with good. May God grant the beloved Armenian people and the entire world peace and consolation.  May God protect the memory of the Armenian people. Memory should not be diluted or forgotten. Memory is source of peace and the future. Francis 25.06.2016.”

 

 

 

Archbishop Aram Ateshyan, General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey Aram Atesyan will be welcomed by protests at Zvartnots airport.

The move comes after the Archbishop’s highly controversial message to the Turkish President Regep Tayyip Erdogan following the German Bundestag’s vote on the Armenian Genocide.

“At a time, when Bundestag MPs of Turkihs descent urge to ban Erdogna from Germant, we, as descent children of the Armenian nation, which respects the memory of the 1.5 million canonized victims of the Armenian Genocide, won’t allow Atesyan to enter Armenia,” reads a statement of a Facebook initiative, which calls itself

Historian Gevorg Yazichyan believes that the Armenian Foreign Ministry should have declared about the inexpediency of Atesyan’s visit. He’s disappointed by attempts of some clergymen to justify the Archbishop’s behavior.

“Anti-human, not anti-Armenian.” This is how MP Zaruhi Postanjyan assesses Aram Atesyan’s statement.

To some members of the Armenian society it’s unacceptable that Aram Atesyan remains a member of the Supreme Religious Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church and is coming to Armenia to participate in the meeting of the Council. According to Gevorg Yazichyan, the assertions that the Armenian Church has no right to defrock Archbishop Atesyan are groundless.

A mass was held on Wednesday at Mar Gregory Cathedral for Syriac orthodox in Damascus, on the centennial anniversary of the Syriac genocide (Seyfo 1915). The mass was led by Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II Karim, reports.

Patriarch Aphrem said the memory of martyrs, Assyrians and Armenians, who were killed at the hands of Ottomans, gives us a momentum to remain in Syria and defend it in the face of terrorism that targets the one Syrian family.

“The memory of massacres that killed half million of Syriac people and more than million and a half of Armenians will remain alive in our hearts as we will remember them in our prayers,” the Patriarch said.

He called on the world governments and parliaments to recognize the genocides, hailing the stance of the German parliament that lately recognized the genocide, demanding states that ignite the crisis in Syria to stop doing so.

Following the mass, a march of candles set off from the patriarchate into the park of Syriac martyrs.

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; sent a letter of appreciation to Mr. Norbert Lammert, President of the German Bundestag; and expressed his appreciation and gratitude on the occasion of the adoption of a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, on June 2 by the Bundestag.

In his letter, praising the good will expressed by German political and public figures and the people in the restoration of historical justice; His Holiness particularly stressed: “This resolution towards the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide is not only an important step for once again proving the historical reality of the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the 20th century, but also in preventing the recurrence of such crimes from history. The decision taken is a great witness and an invitation to the world, to resist and reject the denialist policy regarding the crimes perpetrated against humanity in different corners of the world.

We extend our blessings and appreciation to the members of the German Bundestag and all the benevolent people, wishing them unending will and zeal in the divine mission of human universal values and rights protection’.

 

 

 

The elimination of consequences of the April war unleashed by Azerbaijan and the support to the affected families in Nagorno Karabakh will be the main strategy of this year’s fundraiser of the Hayastan All Armenian Fund, the Fund’s Executive Director Ara Vardanyan told reporters today.

He said the funds raised during this year’s telethon will be provided for that purpose if no other suggestions are made, he noted.

“The NKR government has started calculating the damages. I can’t mention the amount needed, but the assistance should be multilayered and benefit different spheres –from supply of medicines to reconstruction of houses and assistance to families of the fallen soldiers,” Ara Vardanyan said.

The Executive Director noted that the plans will be clarified within a month or two.

The 25^th sitting of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Board of Trustees was held in Yerevan today.

The meeting was chaired by President Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Board of Trustees. Participating in the sitting were Armenia’s Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, President of the National Assembly Galust Sahakyan, NKR President Bako Sahakyan, other high-ranking officials.

Addressing the meeting, NKR President Sahakyan Bako Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the entire Armenian nation, Mother Armenia and the Diaspora  for rendering support to the Artsakh Republic during the harsh days of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan.

Bako Sahakyan emphasized that the Armenian nation has a unique ability to consolidate at fatal hours and solve national issues of paramount significance.

The President proposed to include the reconstruction of the settlements affected by the April war into the program of the “Telethon-2016.”

The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of various calibers, as well as 60, 82 and 120 mm mortars and hand-held antitank grenade launchers, as it kept violating the agreement on ceasefire along the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army showed restraint and resorted to response actions only in case of extreme necessity.

A renowned Russian conductor has led a concert in the ruins of Palmyra in Syria, which were recaptured from the so-called Islamic State (IS) in March, the BBC reports.

Valery Gergiev conducted the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, from St Petersburg, at Palmyra’s Roman Theatre.

Mr Gergiev led the orchestra through pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin, in front of a crowd of Russian soldiers, government ministers and journalists.

Pictures of the concert, broadcast on Russian state television, were occasionally interrupted by footage of military action – showing Russian military backing for Syrian government forces as they liberated Palmyra from IS militants.

The maestro described the concert as a protest against the barbarism and violence exhibited by Islamic State militants who had used the city’s Roman amphitheatre to execute prisoners.

The Russian president also addressed the audience, by video link from his Black Sea residence of Sochi.

He called terrorism a contagion of which the world needed to rid itself, and said the fact the concert was taking place at all was “surprising”.

“Today’s action involved major inconvenience and dangers for everyone, being in a country at war close to where hostilities are still ongoing. That has demanded great strength and personal courage from you all” he said.