Author: Kalashian Nyrie

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan received today PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs Alan Meale and Giuseppe Galati.

The Prime Minister welcomed the co-rapporteurs’ visit to Armenia, attached importance to the cooperation with the Monitoring Committee and expressed gratitude for the technical assistance to our country.

Hovik Abrahamyan presented details from the discussions on the Electoral Code and their results. He noted that a number of proposals of the opposition forces and the civil society have been taken into consideration.

Speaking about the fight against corruption, Hovik Abrahamyan noted that an anti-corruption council has been established, the strategy and action plan has been approved. He stressed that there is a political will to take concrete steps to fight corruption.

Referring to the four-day April war, the Prime Minister noted that the large-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against the peaceful population of Nagorno Karabakh, including children and elderly people, accompanied by gross violations of the international commitments in the field of human and humanitarian rights, should be widely discussed, and condemned by the international community.

The Prime Minister stressed that the position of the Armenian side is clear: the Karabakh issue should be solved through peaceful negotiations within the framework of the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The co-rapporteurs expressed their support to Armenian partners in the processes of democratic development in the country and attached importance to the steps towards adoption of the Electoral Code.

Alan Meale and Giuseppe Galati expressed their condolences over the lives lost in the war and voiced their support for the OSCE Minsk Group efforts.

The co-rapporteurs said they are going to present the facts of killing and decapitation of Defense Army soldiers to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Kremlin calls on parties to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh to avoid steps that could violate the fragile ceasefire and lead to the escalation of tensions in the region, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, TASS reports.

Commenting on the Armenian government’s approval of the opposition’s draft law on recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh earlier on Thursday, Peskov said: “We are very carefully monitoring the decisions taken in this context.”

“No doubt, we still expect that the conflicting sides will avoid any steps that may violate a rather fragile ceasefire and lead to the escalation of tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh in general,” he said.

The Kremlin spokesman also said the draft law on recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh was not discussed by Yerevan and Moscow.

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to the President of the RA National Academy of Sciences Radik Martirossian on the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary.

“Your contribution to the development of radiophysics in Armenia is significant. Your longtime scientific and tutorial activities are commendable.

You headed the State University for years and later the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, bringing your substantial input to the important task of administering education and science in our country.

I wish you good health, boundless energy, and success in your patriotic activities,” reads the congratulatory letter of the President of Armenia.

On Thursday April 21, Thomas Jefferson School of Law will be hosting a lecture entitled, “Genocide and the Law 101 Years Later.” This event will coincide near the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.

The lecture will feature famed Armenian-American criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, who had represented several celebrities and was one of the lead lawyers in a pair of groundbreaking federal class-action lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA Corporation for insurance policies issued in the early 20th century during the Armenian Genocide.

This event is organized by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Armenian Law Student Association.

The military actions of the past days showed that Azerbaijan is unable to solve the Karabakh conflict in  military way, President of the Public Council of Armenia, first Prime Minister Vazgen Manukyan told a press conference in Stepanakert today.

He denounced the “symmetric” statement of the international community, their calls to both sides. “The Western countries are well aware who’s the aggressor. the United States and Russia can see from through satellites who’s shooting,” he said.

Vazgen Manukyan presented three ways out of the situation. First, he said, the parties should return to their initial positions.

Second, the OSCE should conduct monotony of the line of contact, including through satellites and stop pretending it’s unaware of who’s shooting.

Third, the international community must recognize the independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, with future talks continuing on territories and refugees.

Why did Azerbaijan decided to incite clashes at this point? Vazgen Manukyan says it’s connected with the drop in oil prices, the problems inside the country, and this was an option for Aliyev to divert the attention of the public from domestic issues.

Is there a mechanism to neutralize the Turkish factor in the Nagorno Karabakh issue? Vazgen Manukyan said he sees no way to do that. “Even Europe has become a captive of Turkey. Ankara thinks it has been given a “carte blanche” because of the issue of migrants and is allowed to do anything in the region and beyond.”

Manukyan said the issue is not only about Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh. “It’s a regional problem, where NATO’s interests collide with that of its rivals. Escalation will be an evil for the whole world. Let’s not forget that countries such Iraq, Syria and Afganistan are not far away,” he said.

The Hrant Dink Foundation has established a research library specialized on Armenian Studies and minorities in Turkey within the Anarad Hığutyun Building.

The Library aims to serve researchers, students and the Armenian community by providing systematic knowledge and scientific information with particular focus on Armenian culture and history.

With the capacity of 20,000 volumes, and currently featuring books, periodicals, photographs, DVDs, tapes and maps, the Library and its archive will be expanded further thanks to the exclusively donated private archives and collections.

With the use of Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system, the library offers a research capacity with international standards.

Library’s collection of books and the resources will continue to improve with the suggestion of the members of the Library. In case the literature needed for their research is not available at the Library, researchers will be able recommend resources and they will be incorporated in the Library collection if considered relevant.

The Library catalogue can be accessed online at webpage.

The Public Radio of Armenia has been awarded a Certificate of Gratitude from the British Council for successful cooperation within the framework of the 14^th British Film Festival.

The British Council, the UK Embassy in Armenia and the Beeline Company summed up the results of the Festival at a solemn closing ceremony today.

More than 25 thousand people participated in the 14^th British Film Festival held in capital Yerevan and three provinces. The Festival featured seven films presenting Britain, its diversity and innovation.

The Public Radio of Armenia was the information partner of the Festival.

Photo:  Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

 

Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin has won the FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament held in Moscow. He will now play with the incumbent world champion, Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, in a match for the world chess crown in the United States in November 2016, TASS reports.

In the final Round 14, the Russian grandmaster beat with white Fabiano Caruana of the United States. The other games of Round 14: Svidler (Russia)-Anand (India), Giri (the Netherland)-Topalov (Bulgaria), Nakamura (US)-Aronian (Armenia) – ended in a draw.

Karjakin scored 8.5 points, Caruana and Viswanathan Anand 7.5 each, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Peter Svidler and Anish Giri have 7 points, while Veselin Topalov – 4.5

Karjakin and Carlsen will play in New York on November 11-30.

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has, in the past week, pressed several Obama Administration officials – including Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and USAID Administrator Gayle Smith – for answers about proposed cuts in aid to Artsakh, foot-dragging on a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty, and the level of support being provided to help Armenia support refugees from Syria, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

In a U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Sherman cited the importance of a U.S.-Armenia Tax treaty to build upon ongoing U.S. assistance to Armenia, and pressed for the negotiation of such an accord. Responding to Secretary Lew’s assertion that there there is no need for a Double Tax Treaty with Armenia, Rep. Sherman described the situation as a “chicken and egg” scenario, stating, “You don’t get the business investment, because you don’t have the tax treaty. Then you don’t need the tax treaty because you don’t have the business investment. Given that this Congress has provided well over a billion dollars in aid to Armenia, it would be seem that having one member of your staff to achieve the same objectives would be appropriate.” Rep. Sherman and Secretary Lew agreed to work together to review the matter.

“The ANCA thanks Representative Sherman for pressing Secretary Lew about the lack of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty, and, more broadly, for his consistently principled and powerful leadership in supporting the views and values of Americans of Armenian heritage and all friends of Armenia,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We echo the points he raised today and join with him in working to remove a key barrier to the growth of U.S.-Armenia trade and investment. A Double Tax Treaty would strengthen our bilateral economic relationship, reinforce the longstanding bonds of friendship between the American and Armenian peoples, foster economic growth and opportunity in both nations, and provide Armenia with greater strategic options in dealing with regional powers.”

The EU and Turkey say they have agreed the broad principles of a plan to ease the migration crisis at a summit in Brussels, but delayed a final decision, the BBC reports.

European Council President Donald Tusk said all irregular migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be returned.

For each Syrian returned, Turkey wants the EU to accept a recognised Syrian refugee, and offer more funding and progress on EU integration.

Talks on the plan will continue ahead of an EU meeting on 17-18 March.

Europe is facing its biggest refugee crisis since World War Two. Most migrants come via Turkey, which is already sheltering more than 2.7 million refugees from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.