Author: Kalashian Nyrie

The European Union has lifted most sanctions against Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and his administration officials, the EU Council said in a statement Monday, praising Belarus’s role at a time when Russia has been pushing to reestablish control over former Soviet republics, The Moscoe Times reports.

Relations between Belarus’s authoritarian president and the West have improved markedly since the start of Russia’s meddling in Ukraine a couple of years ago. Lukashenko criticized Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and the Russian-backed separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s east, and hosted peace talks in his capital Minsk between representatives of the Kiev government, rebel leaders, Russia, Germany and France.

The EU Council “acknowledges the steps taken by Belarus over the last two years that have contributed to improving EU-Belarus relations,” and “values Belarus’ constructive role in the region,” it said in a statement.

The EU suspended sanctions against Lukashenko and 169 other Belarussian individuals last year, and lifted them altogether on Monday. The sanctions, which included asset freezes and visa bans, had been in place for over a decade.

The release of all political prisoners by late August last year, and improvements during the October presidential balloting after a series of flawed elections in the past contributed to the EU decision, the statement said.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s second-half goal sealed Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win over Hanover 96 on Saturday to trim Bayern Munich’s lead at the top of the Bundesliga to five points.

Dortmund were without injured star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who missed his first league match of the season after netting 20 goals in as many Bundesliga games.

In his absence, Mkhitaryan displayed superb individual skill to score the winner at Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park.

With Marcel Schmelzer screaming up in support on his left, Mkhitaryan cut back inside and curled his right-footed shot around Hanover’s Germany goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler on 57 minutes.

“That really looked like hard work out there today,” said Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel.

“We started well but didn’t create the high-carat chances, then it became tough and tenacious.

“In terms of performance, there is much room for improvement, but of course we’re happy to take the three points.”

“It was a nice goal. I got the ball from Marco Reus and actually wanted to play a one-two with him, but then I saw a defender was behind him so I ran past him. I was aiming for the far post with my shot, and luckily that’s where it went,” Henrikh Mkhitaryan said after the match.

 

 

 

The Russian Foreign Ministry will study the inquiry of Russian parliamentarians on denouncing the Moscow Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood with Turkey signed on March 16, 1921. Is this simple propaganda or an initiative that could lead to practical steps?

“Whatever the objective, the initiative should be welcomed,” head of the Modus Vivendi Center Ara Papyan says.  According to him, the treaty was an absurd from the very beginning.

If the treaty is annulled, Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction over Nakhijevan will come under question. According to Papyan, it will contribute to the development of Armenia’s relations with Iran. Armenia can raise the issue of Kars in the future, express a position on Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award, under which the area to be returned to Armenia makes 100 sq. km.

According to Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Oriental Studies Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, even if Russia withdraws its signature from the treaty, it will in no way benefit Armenia. “The question is not about the Treaty of Kars, while it was under this treaty that Armenia was divided between Soviet Russia and Kemalist Turkey.  It was simply a deal,” he said.

Ruben Safrastyan does not share the opinion that Armenia will only suffer as a result of aggravating relations between Russia and Turkey. “What’s important for Armenia is to be ready for the development of events in order to be able to present its interests if necessary,” he said.

“No one will tell us ‘come and take your lands’,” Safrastyan said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit Germany February 12-13 to participate in the Munich Security Conference, Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs repots.

Minister Nalbandian is expected to meet with his counterparts from a number of countries and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Photo: Getty Images

 

US scientists have urged the World Health Organisation to take urgent action over the Zika virus, which they say has “explosive pandemic potential,” the BBC reports.

Writing in a US medical journal, they called on the WHO to heed lessons from the Ebola outbreak and convene an emergency committee of disease experts.

They said a vaccine might be ready for testing in two years but it could be a decade before it is publicly available.

Zika, linked to shrunken brains in children, has caused panic in Brazil.

Thousands of people have been infected there and it has spread to some 20 countries.

The Brazilian President, Dilma Roussef, has urged Latin America to unite in combating the virus.

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message on the occasion of New Year and Holly Christmas to the leadership of a dozen of the Armenian educational establishments in Syria, which continue to function in war conditions, to their employees and students and wished them productive work and perpetual energy in their dedicated work for the benefit of the Armenian nation.

The Armenian Central Bank lowered its key refinancing rate to 8.75 percent from 9.75 percent today.

Annual inflation in the country was at 1.2 percent in November, down from 1.9 percent in October, according to Central Bank data.

The government forecasts annual inflation in a range of 2.5-5.5 percent in 2015, the same as last year’s target.