Tuesday, January 16, 2017 Armenia Recognizes Genocide Against Iraq's Yazidis Iraq -- Members of the Yazidi minority search for clues that might lead them to missing relatives in the remains of people killed by the IS jihadist group, a day after Kurdish forces discovered a mass grave near the Iraqi village of Sinuni, 3Feb2015. Armenia's parliament unanimously passed on Tuesday a resolution recognizing as genocide the 2014 mass killings of Yazidis in Iraq which were committed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. The National Assembly also called on the international community to track down and prosecute those directly responsible for the killings and "take measures to ensure the security of the Yazidi population." Thousands of Yazidis were seized by IS when it overran Iraq's northwestern town of Sinjar in August 2014, and most of them remain unaccounted for. The town was regained from IS in late 2015 and 30 mass graves of Yazidis have since been found there. But an unknown number of the ethnic minority, which practices a unique religion that IS considers heretical, was moved to neighboring Syria. The U.S. government officially declared in March 2016 that IS is "responsible for genocide" against Yazidis as well as Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria. A subsequent report released by United Nations investigators similarly concluded that the Islamist militants' actions against Yazidis meet a 1948 UN convention's definition of genocide. Armenia - A session of the Armenian parliament in Yerevan, 15Jan2018. In its resolution, the Armenian parliament said it "recognizes and strongly condemns the genocide of the Yazidi people perpetrated by terrorist groups in 2014 in Iraqi territory controlled by them." The main sponsor of the resolution is Rustam Makhmudian, the parliament's sole ethnic Yazidi member representing the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). Presenting the document to fellow lawmakers on Monday, Makhmudian drew parallels between the 2014 atrocities against Iraqi Yazidis and the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks also killed and displaced many Yazidis during the First World War. Thousands of them fled to what is now the Republic of Armenia. There are an estimated 50,000 Yazidis living in Armenia at present, making them the country's single largest ethnic minority. Armenia - Ethnic Yazidi activists commemorate in Yerevan's Liberty Square the third anniversary of atrocities committed against their ethnic kin in Iraq, 3Aug2017. President Serzh Sarkisian condemned the mass killings and deportations of Iraqi Yazidis shortly after they were first reported in the summer of 2014. Sarkisian instructed Armenia's Foreign Ministry and diplomatic missions abroad to "redouble their efforts to adequately raise the issue in the international arena." The move followed a series of street protests staged by Yazidis in Yerevan. They said that the Armenian government is slow to react to the atrocities. In April 2016, leaders of Armenia's Yazidi community inaugurated a memorial in downtown Yerevan to Yazidis and other people massacred by the IS extremists. Said Avdalian, the leader of a Yazidi youth group, hailed the Armenian parliamentary resolution on Tuesday as a "historic event." Armenian President `Not Irreplaceable' For Tsarukian . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian visits a new leisure center built by businessman Gagik Tsarukian (R) in Tsaghkadzor, 20Dec2017. Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of Armenia's second largest parliamentary force, publicly disagreed on Tuesday with assertions that President Serzh Sarkisian is "irreplaceable" as the country's commander-in-chief. Senior representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) have said in recent weeks that Sarkisian should stay in power in one way or another after completing his final presidential term in April. They say that nobody else can deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and other security challenges facing the country as successfully as he has. "There are no irreplaceable people," Tsarukian said when asked by reporters to comment on such statements. "Put such questions to the Republican Party. In the [April 2017] parliamentary elections 55 percent of our people voted for the Republican Party. So they will decide, they will present [their candidate for the post of prime minister.]" The millionaire businessman, whose alliance finished second in the elections, would not say whether he thinks Sarkisian should become prime minister or let Prime Minister Karen Karapetian retain his post in April. He repeated only that it is up to the HHK to pick the next premier. Tsarukian was forced to leave the political arena nearly three years ago after challenging Sarkisian's hold on power. He returned to active politics ahead of the 2017 elections. The tycoon and his allies criticized government policies but avoided personal attacks on the president during the election campaign. Sarkisian has regularly attended the inaugurations of new businesses set up by Tsarukian in the last two years, raising questions about the Tsarukian Bloc's opposition credentials. Tsarukian confirmed that the bloc will not join a demonstration against the latest consumer price hikes in Armenia which will be held by another opposition alliance, Yelk, on Friday. He said that street protests cannot remedy the increased cost of living. He also argued that the Armenian parliament will hold soon hearings on the price hikes at the president's initiative. Bus Drivers In Yerevan Protest Against Higher Fuel Prices . Marine Khachatrian Armenia - Minibus drivers protest against higher fuel prices in Yerevan, 16Jan2018. Several dozen drivers of minibuses in Yerevan went on strike on Tuesday to protest against a sizable increase in fuel prices that has cut their incomes. The prices of gasoline, diesel fuel and liquefied natural gas, which is used by virtually all buses and minibuses in Armenia, went up on January 1 following the entry into force of higher excise duties on fuel set by a new national Tax Code. The gas price rise was particularly sharp, exceeding 16 percent. Yerevan's public transport system is dominated by minibuses belonging to private firms. Drivers working for them collect fares and pay their employees fixed amounts of money on a daily basis. Despite the price hike, the minibus fares set by the municipal administration remained unchanged at 100 drams (21 U.S. cents) per ride, translating into less revenue for the already underpaid drivers. "Let them cut the gas price so that we can keep working," said one of the protesting drivers that gathered on a street. "If you go to work but earn nothing will you turn up for work the next day?" complained another driver. Senior municipality officials met the protesters and urged them to end the strike. Alik Gevorgian, an aide to Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian, said while the municipality cannot cut the fuel price it will try to get the minibus firms to ensure that the drivers do not end up earning less. "We will sort out all issues with your operators in an organized way," said Gevorgian. "Everything will be fine." The drivers responded to these assurances with skepticism. Still, they agreed to end the strike shortly afterwards, while warning of more such protests if their demands are not met. The municipality has pledged to embark by the end of this year on a radical overhaul of the city's outdated transport system. The battered and overcrowded minibuses are to be replaced by a centralized transport network consisting only of large and medium-sized buses. Deputy Mayor Vahe Nikoyan said in August that the municipal authorities hope to attract a "foreign investor" that would run the network. U.S., Armenia To Hold `Defense Consultations' Armenia - Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian (R) meets with U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills in Yerevan, 16Jan2018. U.S. and Armenian officials will meet later this year to discuss ways of continuing military cooperation between their countries, the Armenian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. A statement released by the ministry said Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian and the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Richard Mills, reached an agreement on the holding of "U.S.-Armenian defense consultations in Yerevan in the course of 2018." It said the consultations will be aimed at working out a "common vision for further cooperation" between the U.S. and Armenian militaries. That cooperation has deepened over the past decade despite Armenia's military alliance with Russia. Armenia currently contributesmore than 120 troops to NATO-led missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan and regularly participates in multinational exercises organized by U.S. forces in Europe. U.S. instructors have trained hundreds of Armenian soldiers mostly serving in a special peacekeeping brigade. The United States also helped to renovate the brigade's training center near Yerevan. It was inaugurated by Sargsian and a U.S. army general in October 2017. Armenia plans to join more peacekeeping missions abroad with specialized medical and demining units in the near future. They will undergo U.S. training before such deployment. In October 2016, Sargsian and Mills inaugurated a new paramedic school of the Armenian armed forces. U.S. instructors trained the first group of Armenian teaching personnel for the school in August 2015. According to the Defense Ministry statement, Sargsian briefed Mills on a seven-year plan to "modernize" the Armenian army which is expected to be adopted by his government later this month. The minister said Yerevan will seek to "develop cooperation with the U.S." as part of that plan. The statement gave no other details of the meeting. Sarkisian Drops First Hint On Next Armenian President . Emil Danielyan Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian meets with a group of intellectuals and artists in Yerevan, 16Jan2018. Armenia's next president must be a renowned but politically inexperienced individual who speaks foreign languages, President Serzh Sarkisian said on Tuesday. Sarkisian commented on his possible successor at a meeting with a group of elderly artists and intellectuals. "In Serzh Sarkisian's view, the future president must speak foreign languages, have broad connections in both Armenia and the [Armenian] Diaspora, enjoy a good reputation, and, most importantly, be an impartial person who has never engaged in politics and been a member of a political party," the presidential press office said in a statement. It did not cite him as naming anyone who he thinks would be fit for the post. Sarkisian will complete his second and final presidential term on April 9 in time for Armenia's transition to a parliamentary system of government. The next Armenian president will be elected by the parliament, rather than popular vote, by March 9 and have largely ceremonial powers. The parliament is controlled by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), putting Sarkisian in a position to install his choice of the next head of state. Meeting with parliamentary leaders last week, Sarkisian said his successor should enjoy "broad-based support" in the National Assembly. Armenian newspapers claimed late last year that Gagik Harutiunian, the chairman of Armenia's Constitutional Court, is Sarkisian's preferred presidential candidate. However, Harutiunian insisted in December that he has received no such offers and is not interested in the job. Some media outlets have since speculated that Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who is fluent in English, French and Russian, may become president. Citing an unnamed government source, the Yerevan daily "Zhamanak" said on Tuesday Armenia's ambassador to Britain, Armen Sarkisian (no relation to the president), is also a potential candidate. Press Review "Zhoghovurd" claims that Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian has opted for a "political self-destruction" with his controversial decision to launch a fundraising campaign for the medical treatment abroad of a wounded Armenian soldier. The paper says that the uproar sparked by his initiative on social media has dealt an "extremely serious blow to his reputation." It says that the way in which he announced the fundraising and his ill-tempered responses to some Facebook users' comments "wrecked the entire process." "Haykakan Zhamanak" alleges, meanwhile, that the chief of the Armenian army's General Staff, Colonel-General Movses Hakobian, is behind "counterpropaganda" spread against Vigen Sargsian through some media outlets and Facebook. The paper claims that Hakobian may have also had a hand in a reported meeting of current and former senior military officials allegedly opposed to Sargsian's continued tenure. It says that one of those officials, Emergency Situations Minister Davit Tonoyan, wants Hakobian to be sacked too. "Zhamanak" reacts to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement on Monday to the effect that Moscow will not try to impose a peace accord on Armenia and Azerbaijan. "Things are not clear-cut here because Moscow may not have a [Karabakh peace] plan but it does have a business plan and supplies weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan," writes the paper. It says this encourages a more aggressive Azerbaijani stance and thereby keeps Armenia heavily dependent on Russian arms supplies. "Hraparak" says that 2018 promises to be a "tough year" for Armenia and its population. The paper singles out the increased prices of some essential products, denouncing the authorities' reaction to the price hikes. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Author: Markos Nalchajian
Music: The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra to have a concert at the Elbphilharmonie
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 10 2018
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (previously: the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia) has entered the year 2018 with great enthusiasm after being renamed.
As the Orchestra reports in a release, with this new status the collective will be presenting new programs, will have tours and interesting initiatives, and all these projects will be dedicated to the preservation and development of the Armenian musical traditions.
The first tour of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (ASSO), headed by its Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Sergey Smbatyan, will take place on March 28 in Germany, at the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, the most prestigious cultural project of the century.
The Elbphilharmonie is located in one of Europe’s largest cities, Hamburg, on the shore of Elba. Today it is one of Europe’s most popular tourist and cultural hubs. The Elbphilharmonie reminiscent of a floating vessel on the water is a unique structure with innovative architectural solutions. This multifunctional building with millions of visitors is distinguished by the concert halls built with best standards and with great acoustics. The world’s best orchestras, conductors and artists, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestras, Semyon Bychkov, Kent Nagano, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Jurowski, Thomas Hengelbrock, Richard Galliano, John Malkovich, Vadim Repin, Gidon Kremer, Gautier Capuçon and more perform with concerts here.
The Elbphilharmonie presents music of different genres and styles, from symphonic concerts and operas to jazz, modern improvisations, and electronic music.
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra will present Armenian music at the Elbphilharmonie. During the first part of the concert the connoisseurs will enjoy world premiere of the Cello Concerto by Eduard Hayrapetyan, soloist: Narek Hakhnazaryan, and during the second part the Symphony No.2 “The Bell Symphony” by Aram Khachaturian will be performed.
It should be noted that the tickets of the concert have been sold out since December. Perhaps a few tickets are circulated at a triple price among the resellers. As a result of the renaming, the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has the opportunity to conquer new and important platforms, presenting the Armenian culture and performing art to the world at a highest level.
The Number of RA Police Officers and Vehicles
As it is known, the RA Police are trying to keep secret the information on the number of police officers and vehicles in the country. However, different police officials publish figures which require simple arithmetic to receive the total number of officers of the Police and Police Troops. Similarly, it is very easy to reveal the number of police vehicles by using open sources.
“Union of Informed Citizens” has decided to publish a series of non-confidential information related to the staff of the RA Police and the Police Troops, as well as the number of vehicles possessed by them.
Staff
In order to calculate the number of police officers, “Union of Informed Citizens” sent an inquiry to the Head of RA Police, requesting information on the average salary of the officers. According to letter N 13/2206 received from Head of Finance and Budget Department of the RA Police, the average gross salary of police officers and police troops is 228.600 AMD. And according to N 13/3807 letter, the officers receive an average of 223.500 AMD as a reward. In other words, one police officer annually receives a gross income of about 3 million AMD. During the same year of 2016, about 30.9 billion AMD was spent from the state budget of the RA Police under the budget line “salary and rewards of employees”. From that amount, 10.6 million AMD was paid as a bonus to about 1.100 police officers who are special civil servants. Dividing the salary fund into annual average gross salary and reward of the police officer, we will get the total number of police officers and police troops. And that number makes up 10.400.
It should be added that salaries have also been paid from the Extrabudgetary Fund of the RA Police. Thus, 6.3 billion AMD was paid as salaries for security services (mainly), 1.9 billion to the Road Police, and 270 million to the Passport Department. About 3100 police officers receive salaries with that amount, 2300 of which are involved in security guardianship activities (many private organizations use the guard services of the RA Police, including banks, shops, etc.). Thus, about 3100 employees (or most of them) are difficult to qualify as police officers in classical sense (this is a matter of assessment).
This number slightly diverges from Deputy Head of RA Police Vardan Yeghiazaryan’s statement on the amount of budget allocations per police officer that he made last year. Major general Yeghiazaryan announced that the budget allocation for one police officer made up 4.1 million AMD in 2015. The total budget of the RA Police was 36.3 billion AMD in 2015. Thus, it results that there were 8.900 police officers in Armenia then.
It can be stated that the number of police officers in Armenia is between 8.900 and 10.400. Among them, about 1100 are special civil servants. And the Police have another 3100 employees at the expense of the extrabudgetary means.
Vehicles
In order to calculate the number of vehicles possessed by the RA Police, the number of procured CMVLI contracts has been studied since according to the RA legislation, there only very few types of transport means that may not be insured.
According to the RA Law on Procurements, all the procurements (including those of CMVLI contracts) shall be open and transparent. With this principle, the CMVLI contracts of vehicles possessed by the RA Police, which contain the number of vehicles, type of CMVLI, is published in the public procurements armeps.am website.
Thus, during the previous 12 months, the Police have signed 1118 CMVLI and 41 Casco insurance contracts. 13 of them were CMVLI contracts for motorcycles. The total value of CMVLI contracts has made up more than 46 million AMD.
Moreover, it should be added that only in 2017, the Police procured 126 units of vehicles. Twelve were motorcycles, 38 were SUV, 4 were minibuses and 72 were passenger cars. The sum value of vehicles procured during 2017 made up 660 million, and a considerable part of them were Japanese “Toyota” cars made in Turkey.
It should be noted once again that the data on the vehicles are as of 2017, and those of the staff are as of 2016. All the information has been collected from open (not confidential) sources only.
Union of Informed Citizens
Music: A new sound world: discover the piano music of Komitas
Gramophone
Jan 4 2017
Soghomon Soghomonyan, known as Komitas
Ask someone to name an Armenian composer and the first name on the list is likely to be Aram Khachaturian, famous for his Gayane and Spartacus ballet scores. But for Armenians, their most treasured composer is Komitas (1869-1935), often described as the Armenian Bartók or the father of Armenian music. A new recording of his piano music shows him forging, like Bartók, a pioneering course ahead of his time, but unable to realise it because of historical circumstances.
Little-known abroad, but treasured at home, Komitas was born in what is now Turkey and trained as a priest at the seminary of Etchmiadzin, the centre of the Armenian Church. He collected 3000 Armenian folk tunes, composed liturgical and instrumental music, much of it based on the music he collected. During the Armenian genocide of 1915, he and other Armenian intellectuals were imprisoned by the Ottoman government until Talaat Pasha was petitioned to release him. But Komitas was left mentally unstable by the experience and spent his last 20 years in a Paris mental asylum. He died in 1935 and his remains were taken to Yerevan, the Armenian capital where the Music Conservatoire is named after him.
The Armenian pianist Lusine Grigoryan has just recorded all of Komitas’s surviving piano music for ECM. Speaking to her in Yerevan, I wondered why his music is still so little known? ‘First of all his work was interrupted in 1915 and his work and manuscripts were scattered,’ she says. ‘A lot of his works are not yet printed and available in the Western world, which is why I’ve put his piano compositions on my website.’
The surviving Komitas piano compositions are all arrangements of Armenian folk music: Seven Songs, Seven Dances and 12 Piece for Children, plus a substantial 10-minute work called Msho Shoror (Shoror Dance of Mush) and a tiny piece called Toghik, which lasts less than a minute.
‘Even in Armenia pianists have only started playing his music recently, because they are not virtuoso, showy pieces,’ explains Grigoryan. ‘But for me there is so much depth in them. He uses the piano in a way it hadn’t been used before to create new timbres, sounds and drones.’
Komitas, like many composers of the time, sought a national identity through music. Dvořák became known through his Slavonic Dances, composed for piano (four hands) in 1878 and 1886. Grieg wrote piano transcriptions of Norwegian songs and folk dances from the 1870s. Albéniz (in Spain), Janáček (in Moravia) and Bartók (in Hungary) followed a generation later with many piano compositions based on transcriptions and folk inspirations. There was widespread popularity to be won and money to be made from piano music for domestic performance.
Although they are miniatures, Komitas’s compositions are exquisitely crafted and Grigoryan’s performances are light, transparent and vibrate with colour. Many of the melodies are modal, some of the time signatures irregular and the harmonies often unorthodox and piquant. Like Bartók, he was forging a new language through folksong.
‘When I’ve performed these pieces in Europe, people are surprised and can’t imagine when they were written,’ says Grigoryan. ‘They are not romantic, not impressionist, not minimalist, but they sound modern. They were composed a century ago, but still remain unknown. I often wonder what might have happened if these pieces were known? What directions might they have opened?’
It’s certainly true that these pieces open up a new sound world. Komitas collected folk music in the last decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th century in Armenia and what is now Turkey and also notated tunes from villagers coming on pilgrimage to Etchmiadzin.
He played the dances in Paris in 1906 where his music was heard and praised by Debussy. They are contemporary with Bartók’s first piano works based on folk tunes he’d collected, like Ten Easy Pieces, For Children and Two Romanian Dances. In many ways they were travelling similar paths to create a new contemporary sound from traditional sources. Komitas may not have had the genius of Bartók, but as the First World War put an end to Bartók’s folksong collecting in Eastern Europe, the 1915 Armenian Genocide brought an end to Komitas’ work altogether.
Komitas’ Seven Dances are particularly interesting because he notes the original instruments and the location where he heard them into the piano score. So ‘Yerangi of Yerevan’ says ‘In the style of nay and tar’, the nay referring to the reedy Armenian duduk while the tar is a plucked lute. The final ‘Shoror of Karin’ is played by pogh (flute), drums and dap (frame drum). These obviously give the pianist a useful clue to how they should sound, but Grigoryan has also benefitted from a 2015 ECM recording her husband, Levon Eskenian, made with the Gurdjieff Ensemble arranging the music for Armenian folk instruments.
So the opening ‘Manushaki of Vagharshapat’ is performed by the filigree notes of a delicately strummed tar, followed by the more legato bowing of kamancha fiddle, over soft drum beats and the drone bass of a santur (hammer dulcimer). Of course these recordings were a fantastic aid for Lusine Grigoryan to make her interpretations as authentic as possible.
‘This is the second time I’ve recorded the piano pieces,’ she admits. ‘I thought I’d mastered them in 2004. But hearing the folk music recordings made me realise I wanted to do them again with that music in my ears. Those recordings completely revitalised my interpretation.’
She mentions the ornaments in the melodic line of ‘Unabi of Shushi’. They are written as a mordent in classical music, but shouldn’t be played like that. ‘It’s to imitate the type of attack on the tar. And some of the staccatos shouldn’t be too harsh, but like a softly plucked string.’
On paper, perhaps the most curious of the dances is ‘Yerangi of Yerevan’. On the piano, the left and right hands have the same music – a 12/8 melody and accompaniment in both hands two octaves apart. In the folk recording Levon Eskenian gives the legato melody to the plangent, reedy duduk, the most iconic of Armenian instruments with a tar adding harmonic and rhythmic punctuations. In the piano version Grigoryan isolates the melody and accompaniment expertly while the melodic line two octaves apart evokes the sonorous depth of the duduk sound.
The last of the Seven Dances is ‘Shoror of Karin’, one of the longer pieces lasting around five minutes. A shoror is a swaying dance which Komitas describes as ‘noble and heroic’ in character. The melody is modal and the pulse shifts between two and three beat patterns. It starts slow and quiet, but the ensemble builds in size as the pace increases. This and the longer Msho Shoror, a sequence of seven dances depicting a pilgrimage to the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Mush, are like windows onto a vanished world of the Armenian communities of Anatolia.
The Armenian population in Anatolia has vanished and apart from a few ruined churches and stones, it’s pieces like this that provide windows onto the culture of that lost world – as well as being curious and beautiful pieces in their own right.
Lusine Grigoryan’s familiarity with the original folk world clearly makes her interpretations of these pieces something special. But is it necessary to know and understand that world to play them? ‘Of course many pianists play Bartók without a deep knowledge of Hungarian folk,’ she says. ‘But when I went on YouTube and saw [the Hungarian folk band] Muzsikas playing the original versions of the pieces he recorded and a folk performance of one of the Romanian Dances, it really changed my interpretation. It made my playing less romantic and more dance like. I think it’s good for pianists to look at these things.’
Lusine Grigoryan’s Komitas: Seven Songs and The Gurdjieff Ensemble’s Komitas are both released on ECM.
Read the review of ‘Seven Songs’ in the January 2018 issue Gramophone (out now), or in Gramophone’s Reviews Database here: ‘Seven Songs’
Explore:
Sogomon Komitas
Sports: Manchester United players Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard praised by Jose Mourinho
Manchester Evening News, UK
Wednesday 7:53 AM GMT
Manchester United players Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard praised by Jose Mourinho
Jesse Lingard scored twice for Man Utd as they drew their Boxing Day Premier League fixture vs Burnley at Old Trafford.
By Samuel Luckhurst
Jose Mourinho believes substitutesJesse LingardandHenrikh Mkhitaryanbrought ‘dynamism’ to helpManchester Unitedearn a Boxing Day draw with Burnley.
United were 2-0 down at home to The Clarets at half-time and Mourinho decided to introduce Mkhitaryan and Lingard for Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, effectively switching to a three-man defence which included only one centre half inPhil Jones.
Lingard scored both goals having been accused of ‘childish’ finishing in Saturday’s Leicester draw, while Mkhitaryan has not started a United game since November 5 and Mourinho is believed to be open to selling the Armenian in the January transfer window.
United’s dropped points tally rose to 15 from the last five with their 2-2 draw on Tuesday but Mourinho was pleased with the impact of the substitutes and the ‘risk’ his players took in an attempt to salvage the game.
“We should have won, yes,” Mourinho told the BBC. “I take satisfaction by the way the team played, by the way the team reacted, to try to recover from 2-0 down.
Jose Mourinho has to make the hardest decision of his Manchester United career
“The boys fought against the 2-0 at half-time, so nothing at all negative to say about my players. I praise their spirit, their reaction, the way they accept all the risks we took in the second half.
“For us to score two goals we need to play in their half for 45 minutes, with only one defender. The end product of so much dominance, two goals, is a miserable number.
“Lingard come in and helped the team, Lingard and Mkhitaryan gave us a good dynamic. All the boys accepted the risk to only play with Jones. All the boys accepted the risk that we took, at least the point is not a defeat and is the minimum the boys deserve for such spirit.”
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President Sargsyan to continue leading ruling party – Sharmazanov on future tenure
Category
Politics
Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov, who also serves as spokesman of the ruling Republican Party, commented on a question on where President Sargsyan will continue his acitivites after his term in office ends in 2018.
Sharmazanov told a press conference that the ruling coalition hasn’t yet discussed this matter.
“We will discuss and answer. Mr. President has clearly and directly answered all questions in his recent interview. He spoke about all challenges of Armenia, he said what will happen in 2018. And what will happen? HHK together with the ARF will continue to lead until 2022. In terms of who will work where, the ruling party and the ARF will discuss and say”, he said.
“Among current politicians, I don’t know any other than President Sargsyan who will be able to more effectively carry out the work of resisting foreign and security challenges and giving right solutions”, he said when asked whether or not he would like to see the incumbent president as PM, adding that wanting something isn’t a political category.
At the same time, he disagreed with the opinion that there are no irreplaceable people.
He also added that it is an honor for every member of the ruling party to be a representative of a political party the commander of which is Serzh Sargsyan.
Sharmazanov said Serzh Sargsyan will continue leading the ruling party.
Sports: Mkhitaryan disagreed with Mourinho’s opinion in heated bust-up: report
Pan Armenian, Armenia
Dec 16 2017
Mkhitaryan disagreed with Mourinho’s opinion in heated bust-up: report
Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho were involved in a heated training ground bust-up following a video analysis session, according to ESPN.
Mkhitaryan, 28, has been absent from seven of United’s last eight matchday squads and sources at Old Trafford have confirmed that the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder angered Mourinho by disagreeing with the manager’s assessment of his contribution during a substitute appearance against Brighton on November 25.
Mourinho was unhappy with Mkhitaryan’s defensive work rate and a mistake made by the player, singling the Armenian international out for criticism in front of the rest of the first-team squad.
Mkhitaryan responded to his manager’s remarks, with the player continuing to debate Mourinho’s assessment of his performance in the corridor outside the analysis suite at Carrington.
Mourinho was unimpressed by Mkhitaryan’s performance against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at the beginning of November and has not selected him to start since.
When asked directly, Mourinho hinted that other deserved to play more than the Armenia international.
Inter Milan are reportedly keen to sign Mkhitaryan, who signed for United in July 2016, and could offer Portugal midfielder Joao Mario in an effort to negotiate a deal when the transfer window opens next month.
Armenia-EU new agreement serves a firm base for future developments – Italian Ambassador
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia December 1, 2017 Friday Armenia-EU new agreement serves a firm base for future developments – Italian Ambassador YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. The signing of the Armenia-EU new agreement is a positive event, Ambassador of Italy to Armenia Giovanni Ricciulli told ARMENPRESS. According to the Ambassador, the agreement signed in Brussels on November 24 will boost the bilateral relations in a number of fields. “Before this the relations were friendly, partnering, but this new base didn’t exist. We all were working for that, Armenia as well was working, and finally, the process reached its end. We are very happy since it forms a new circle for the relations which can serve a firm base for further developments”, the Italian Ambassador said. Armenia and the European Union signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement in Brussels on November 24. The document was signed by Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. Syuzi Muradyan
Artsakhpress-A gymnasium of “Armfighting” Federation was opened in Stepanakert
Artsakh hero Robert Abajyan would have turned 21 today A gymnasium of "Armfighting" Federation was opened in Stepanakert Poets Hakob Movses and Henrik Edoyan performed at ArPU with a lecture The director of the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema spoke at ArPU with a lecture The "President's Youth Award" open competition has started A seminar dedicated to military journalism will be organized in Stepanakert
Tashir Group of Companies, the Investors Club of Armenia and international financial institutions will invest about $ 1 bil
ARMINFO News Agency November 13, 2017 Monday The Tashir Group of Companies, the Investors Club of Armenia and international financial institutions will invest about $ 1 billion in the energy sector of Armenia in the next few years Yerevan November 13 Alexander Avanesov. The Tashir Group of Companies, the Investors Club of Armenia and international financial institutions will invest about $ 1 billion in the energy sector of Armenia in the next few years, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan participated in the presentation of the investment program. According to the press service of the Armenian leader, during the presentation, the president was provided with details of the sources of funding for the program, its directions and expected results. The presentation was attended by representatives of international financial organizations - partners of the group of companies "Tashir". At the end of the event, the ceremony of signing documents between the companies "Tashir", "Electric Networks of Armenia" and financial partners was held. According to Karen Darbinyan, vice president of Tashir, investments will be made in two directions: distribution networks and electricity generation. In the field of hydropower, the most important investment will be the construction of the Shnokh HPP. The construction of a 120 MW power station will provide 6% of the total electricity consumption in Armenia. According to Darbinyan, the project will cost about $ 200 million. The program will also involve the American company Robbins and the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. The construction will be completed within four years. As for the second direction - distribution networks, in the next few years about $ 900 million will be invested in upgrading the network infrastructure. "Despite financial success, the technical equipment of the company is obsolete by 85% and needs modernization," Darbinyan said. On this issue, the company has been negotiating with the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development since 2016. Agreements on attracting $ 160 million have been signed. An agreement with the EDB on attracting another $ 100 million will also be signed. Negotiations with other organizations are also under way. According to Darbinyan, "Tashir" plans to invest also in the spheres of industry, real estate and telecommunications. He noted that the main principle of investing is investing without raising tariffs. In addition, he added, 80% of the equipment to be used should be produced in Armenia. This suggests, according to preliminary data, the creation of 2.5 thousand jobs. On October 31, in Moscow, the Eurasian Development Bank signed an agreement with Electric Networks of Armenia, providing for a $ 100 million loan to the company for the development and modernization of the country's energy infrastructure. Not only the EDB loan funds, but also the resources of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be involved in the program implementation. About half of the resources in the development of electric grids are invested in the project by its main shareholder - the Tashir Group of Companies. On July 27, 2017, the Armenian government allowed Tashir Capital to pledge shares of Electric Networks of Armenia to obtain a large loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). According to the draft decision of the executive body, 69.9999594% will be put on bail (172496) of ESA shares. Earlier, at a press conference in Yerevan, responding to a question from ArmInfo, the CEO of the company Karen Harutyunyan reported that the total cost of the investment program of Armenia's electricity networks for the next five years will be $ 200 million, of which $ 80 million will be provided by ADB and the same amount by the EBRD. After the implementation of this phase of the program, the company will begin implementing a 10-year project worth $ 500 million. In early July this year, The Board of Directors of ADB approved a credit program providing for the issue of a loan to "Electric Networks of Armenia" in the amount of $ 80 million. The funds will be used to improve distribution networks and increase energy security. Investments will help improve the distribution of electricity in the private sector, reduce losses in the energy system from the current 10% to 8% by 2021. Let us note that on July 3 this year. the company "Electric Networks of Armenia" received an international independent certificate of quality and compliance with the world requirements ISO 9001: 2015. Certified audit was conducted by the world leader in the field of independent expertise, one of the largest international bodies for the certification of management systems by TUV Rheinland. The group of companies Tashir, headed by a large Russian businessman of Armenian origin Samvel Karapetyan and Inter RAO, signed an agreement on the purchase and sale of electricity assets of the Russian energy holding in the Republic of Armenia - Electric Networks of Armenia and Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant on September 30, The reason for the sale of the company was public outrage over the unjustified, according to consumers, increase in electricity prices by about 16.7% (6.93 drams per 1 kWh). The regulator's decision to raise the tariff caused a wave of protest, and in order to contain the protest mood, the Armenian authorities agreed to conduct an audit of the validity of the PSRC decision on the growth of tariffs and the activities of the Electric Networks. In addition, the country's authorities have decided to subsidize the increased tariff for the population and small and medium-sized businesses, until the energy company's audit is completed.