Armenian vice-champion Ararat Armenia are preparing for the second qualifying round of the Conference League.
The Yerevan club played a friendly against Georgian Torpedo Kutaisi and won 2-0. Portuguese forward Hugo Firmino scored a double.
Ararat Armenia will play its first game of the second qualifying round of Conference League on 21 July in Yerevan.
The Yerevan club will play the winner of the pair Dinamo Tbilisi – Paide Linnameeskond.
SEARSPORT — Searsport Shores Oceanfront Campground is hosting a free Armenian Picnic, Saturday, July 23, from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
“Summer in Maine is all about eating outdoors – the pleasure of long sunny days, and farm stands overflowing with heirloom tomatoes, glorious salad greens, local cheese and baked goods galore,” says Astrig Koltookian Tanguay, in a Searsport Shores news release. “With beautiful picnic spots and delicious food around every corner. I think we should be called the ‘Picnic State’ instead of the ‘Pine Tree State’!”
Astrig – whose family is originally from Armenia – and her husband, Steve, run the Campground, where eating al fresco is a way of life, according to the release. This will be their second year of hosting an Armenian Picnic in conjunction with the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine and the Makers Guild of Maine.
“It’s a great way to celebrate our beautiful surroundings, the region’s wonderful produce, and share our cultural heritage with friends, neighbors and visitors to Maine, ” said Astrig, “Plus we had so many people asking us to do it again.”
COME FOR THE FOOD…..
There will be authentic shish kebab sizzling on the outdoor grill, and great bowls of fragrant rice pilaf, handmade hummus and vegetarian falafel. Armenian ‘pizza’ – lamejun – will be baked to order in the wood fired oven along with puffy pita breads, and there will be trays of homemade paklava and other middle eastern sweets for dessert. Coffee lovers will get the rare chance to taste genuine Armenian coffee – a potent espresso like brew – boiled up in a traditional jazzve with sugar and spice to taste.
COME FOR THE MUSIC…& THE DANCE..
Armenian and Middle Eastern music will be provided by master Oud player and recording artist, Leo Derderian, accompanied by veteran musician, Bob Arzigian, and friends. There will also be traditional folk dancing and the opportunity to learn the steps and join in. Picnic-goers are also invited simply to relax in the campground’s gardens with their spectacular views of Penobscot Bay or explore the rocky shoreline and woodland trails.
“Middle Easterns are known for their hospitality” said Astrig, “and all are welcome.”
LEARN MORE…
This new addition to the Midcoast calendar is the latest in a long tradition of Summer Picnics organized by Armenian communities around New England.
“The earliest of these American Armenian Picnics go back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,” said Astrig. “When Armenians first sought refuge here, they were leaving behind farms, orchards, and villages that their families had lived in for generations. Many had to make new lives in industrial towns and cramped apartments. Summer picnics – often organized by the Armenian Church – became a lifeline, reconnecting communities with the outdoors and each other, and keeping memories, customs, and Armenian culture alive.”
THE NITTY GRITTY…
Searsport’s Armenian Picnic is being sponsored by three organizations: (1) The Makers Guild of Maine, a local nonprofit that promotes the ongoing value of heritage skills – and making things by hand, or at home, or in the community. (2) The Armenian Cultural Association of Maine, a Portland based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and perpetuating the Armenian culture and heritage in all aspects of life through the enhancement of its language, education, art, music, dance, literature, singing, theater, and sports. (3) Flying Shoes of Belfast a nonprofit dedicated to bolstering the spirited dance and music community of Midcoast Maine.
Admission is free and food will be available for purchase, but advance booking is strongly recommended as last year’s feast sold out fast. Proceeds and donations from the event will be donated to the Mughdusian Studio Center in Yerevan Armenian. The Center was founded in 2014 with the goal of achieving social justice through art.
Searsport Shores Ocean Campground is located at 216 West Main St. (Route 1) Searsport, Maine 04974.
Please bring friends and family, leave pets at home and wear comfortable walking shoes. Handicapped parking is available.
For more information please visit:
www.makersguildmaine.org/armenian-picnic/ or www.campocean.com or call the campground at (207) 548-6059.
United States
15:47, 9 July 2022
YEREVAN, JULY 9, ARMENPRESS. US billionaire Elon Musk has terminated his deal to purchase Twitter social network, TASS reports citing CNBC television channel.
According to CNBC, “Musk wants to end his deal to buy Twitter, according to a letter sent by a lawyer on his behalf to the company’s chief legal officer.”
A copy of the letter was published on the official website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In the letter, attorney Mike Ringler charged that “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.”
On April 25, Twitter executives announced that Musk would acquire the company for $44 billion. On May 13, Musk announced he’s putting his takeover of Twitter “temporarily on hold,” saying that he wants more details about how many of the social platform’s accounts are fake or spam.
He said he needed to make sure fake accounts “do indeed represent less than 5%” of Twitter’s users. Such an estimate was given in the company’s report, published on May 2. According to the entrepreneur, there are currently more than 20% of fake accounts on the social network.
According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, if the billionaire decides to terminate the agreement, he will have to pay the company a $1 billion fine. If Twitter initiates the termination, Musk will receive a compensation. The closing date for the deal is set for October 24.
Mkhitaryan participates in first training session with Inter
12:05, 7 July 2022
YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan held his first training in Inter.
Inter has already started the pre-season training preparations for the forthcoming 2022/23 season.
Mkhitaryan also participated in the first training session.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan officially joined Inter on July 2 after leaving AS Roma.
Rep. Brad Sherman
Representative Brad Sherman, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Congressional Armenian Caucus, voiced his disagreement with the Biden’s Administration’s decision to waive Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which among other measures, restricts U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.
“We should not abandon Section 907 and provide any assistance to oil-rich Azerbaijan, which has unleashed an aggressive war. The aid we provide is not large, but I think it is important diplomatically, so it should be stopped,” Sherman, a California Democrat, told Voice of America.
In his opinion, American aid for humanitarian projects in Artsakh should be increased, and Armenia should be given the opportunity to be included in the “Millennium Challenge” program.
“The World Bank ranked Armenia among those with above average income. I would like it to be so, but we have to take into account the economic consequences of the terrible war, the coronavirus epidemic,” Sherman said.
On a related note, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said on Monday that the U.S. can play an important role in normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku.
“At a time when favorable conditions have been created for the establishment of stable peace and economic progress in the South Caucasus, we believe that the United States can play an important role in the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the opening of communications, and the establishment of people-to-people ties,” Aliyev’s said in a message to President Joe Biden on Independence Day, the Russian TASS news agency reported.
Aliyev also expressed opinion that the U.S. can make a significant contribution to the process of preparing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
16:00, 29 June 2022
YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. The voting on electing Prosecutor General of Armenia started in the Parliament at 16:00.
The voting is being held in a closed format and will last until 17:00.
The ruling Civil Contract faction has nominated Anna Vardapetyan for the Prosecutor General.
Since March 2, 2020, Anna Vardapetyan has been serving as assistant to the prime minister of Armenia.
The term of office of Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan ends on September 16.
17:21, 29 June 2022
YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Armenia elected Anna Vardapetyan as the new Prosecutor General of Armenia.
The voting was held in a closed format.
70 MPs participated in the voting and all voted in favor of her candidacy.
Anna Vardapetyan has been nominated by the ruling Civil Contract faction.
The opposition factions did not participate in the voting.
The swearing-in ceremony of the new Prosecutor General will be held on September 15.
Since March 2, 2020, Anna Vardapetyan has been serving as assistant to the prime minister of Armenia.
The term of office of Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan ends on September 16.
On June 18, new amendments in the country’s mining code went into force. Among other things, they allow companies to carry out mining with environmental impact assessments more than a year old, as long as the delay was caused by reasons that include “civil disobedience.”
Development of the Amulsar mine was suspended in 2018 following large protests against the project’s potential environmental damage. Since then its prospects have fallen and risen as the government appeared unable to reconcile the need for investment and jobs in the country with the serious environmental consequences that the mine threatened, and the resulting popular opposition to the project.
The government has not said formally whether it intends to restart the mine project. But activists monitoring it say that all signs point in that direction.
After parliament passed the law earlier this year, a group of activist organizations appealed to the government to revoke it. “This legislative change is, in fact, a restriction on the constitutional right to hold public meetings, rallies, marches, demonstrations, as well as the right to participate in decision-making,” the February 10 letter read. “It is obvious that the legislative change is primarily related to [the] Amulsar gold quartzite mine development project.”
The activist organizations appealed to President Vahagn Khachaturyan to not sign the law but he did on June 18, saying that experts consulted by his office confirmed that the law was constitutional.
Amulsar is one of the largest foreign investments in Armenia. The company that operates it, Lydian International, says that it has already invested $300 million in the project and claims that the mine would contribute $488 million to the state budget through taxes and royalties over its 11-year operation, amounting to 1.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
But many experts and environmentalists believe that the mining process in Amulsar, close to the resort town of Jermuk, will harm the local ecology and could even pollute Lake Sevan, Armenia’s largest source of fresh water.
As an opposition politician, Nikol Pashinyan also opposed the project, the contract for which had been signed in 2007. When Pashinyan became prime minister following 2018’s “Velvet Revolution,” activists, encouraged by the rise to power of someone they saw as an ally, rallied for a new wave of protests against the mine that summer. The prosecutor general’s office launched a criminal case in August 2018 against the operator of the mine, Lydian Armenia, accusing it of damaging the environment by unauthorized mining operations.
The government commissioned a new audit of the project, arguing that the initial environmental impact assessments were tainted by the close association with Lydian Armenia of the experts who carried them out. When the new audit was released, in August 2019, it largely supported the previous assessments, though it did identify some additional risks.
Pashinyan initially said the new audit was positive enough to go ahead with the project, but a public backlash forced the government to backtrack and promise that it would produce yet another environmental impact assessment.
Lydian responded by threatening to sue for damages of up to $2 billion if the government pulled out of the project. Demonstrations began again to gather steam, with clashes between police and protesters in August 2020. A month later, however, the war with Azerbaijan started and the issue largely dropped off the public agenda.
The criminal case, meanwhile, was terminated in December 2021. No new environmental impact assessment was ever carried out, and the new law means that Amulsar can move forward using the most recent assessment.
Sources in the current and former governments have told Eurasianet, on condition of anonymity, that economic needs in the post-war period have meant the likelihood of the mine reopening has significantly increased.
Western embassies, in particular the British and American, have long supported the project. United States Ambassador Lynne Tracy visited the mine site in April and “encouraged an expeditious and transparent resolution of outstanding disputes around the project,” the embassy said in a statement. She also “welcomed Lydian’s commitment to upholding the highest international labor and environmental standards and noted the potential for the project to serve as a significant driver of growth for Armenia’s economy.”
Environmental activists disagree.
“[T]here is abundant evidence of serious violations of a wide range of rights in the development of the Amulsar gold mine, from substantive and procedural environmental rights to social, economic and political rights of affected individuals and communities,” wrote CEE Bankwatch Network, an organization monitoring projects in the region funded by international financial institutions, in a new report.
It recommended that the Armenian government revoke all licenses to operate the mine, initiate an “independent expert assessment of the costs and benefits” of the project, then “take this assessment into account to ensure that negative impacts are duly identified and prevented and that local populations and communities may directly benefit from the project if it is finally pursued.”
By Eurasianet.org
The representative of Armenia Karen Grigoryan took part in one of the chess events held in Madrid near the World Chess Candidates Tournament.
In the blitz tournament, the Armenian grandmaster scored 7.5 points out of 9 and took the third place.
The title of the winner was won by the Spaniard Eduardo Iturrizaga, who scored 8 points. The second place was taken by Cuban Yusnel Bacallao Alonso with 7.5 points.