Please find the attached press release of the Ministry of Diaspora. Sincerely, Media and PR Department: ( 374 10) 585601, internal 805 ---------------------- Sincerely Department of Press and Public Relations ( 374 10) 585601, extension 805
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched dialogue with parties on an Armenian scout captured by Azerbaijani servicemen.
ICRC is conducting confidential dialogue with the related parties in order to visit the detainee, Ilaha Huseynova, head of the Communication Department of the ICRC Azerbaijan Delegation told APA on Thursday.
In accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, the ICRC has mandate to visit those detained during conflicts.
A reconnaissance and sabotage group of the Armenian Armed Forces attempted to cross the line of defense of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on the contact line between the two countries’ troops on June 20 evening, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on June 21.
As a result of the timely measures taken by the Azerbaijani army, the Armenian reconnaissance and sabotage group suffered losses and had to retreat. One member of the Armenian reconnaissance and sabotage group Zaver Hovanis Karapetyan, born in 1974, was captured by the Azerbaijani armed forces, the Defense Ministry stated.
YEREVAN—This year’s Commencement ceremonies celebrated a number of firsts for the American University of Armenia (AUA), including the inaugural AUA Presidential Commendation award, bestowed to Edward Avedisian. The award was given to the AUA Trustee and major benefactor of the University “In recognition of extraordinary achievements and distinguished service in the advancement of education in Armenia,” as stated on the Commendation.
Edward Avedisian receiving the inaugural AUA Presidential Commendation award (Photo: AUA)
Prior to embarking on a long list of philanthropic works, Avedisian established himself with a notable professional career as a musician, taught at a university, and became a successful investor. He served as a clarinetist in the Boston Pops and the Boston Ballet Orchestra for 30 years and 43 seasons respectively. His musical talent has spanned much of the East Coast as he held posts in the Atlanta & North Carolina Symphonies, Boston Opera Co., Boston Lyric Opera and Harvard Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Boston Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera. In Armenia, Avedisian has also appeared as soloist with the Armenian State Philharmonic, the Armenian Radio and TV Orchestra, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.
Later in his career, Avedisian began combining his musical talents with teaching. He served as Adjunct Professor of Music at Boston University in the 1970s as well as a lecturer at Endicott College. Later, he was a panelist for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts for two years. His service as an educator and musician were recognized in 2008 when he received the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. From 1977, he served as Artistic Administrator of the Harvard Chamber Orchestra for fifteen years. While serving as orchestra committee chairman with both the Lake George Opera Festival and the Boston Ballet Orchestras, Avedisian wrote and successfully negotiated the first union contracts for both organizations.
As a private investor, Avedisian has reinvested his success by establishing endowments and award grants to a number of nonprofit organizations. At AUA in particular, he fully funded the Center for Health Studies & Research and the Center for Business Research & Development. Beginning in 2005, he served as the principal benefactor and Chair of the construction committee of the new 100,000 sq. ft. Paramaz Avedisian Building (PAB). The PAB, named after Avedisian’s late brother, now holds most of the AUA’s academic facilities including schools, colleges, and research centers and has added enormous value and space to the University.
Both in 2008 and 2014, he was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by Armenia’s President Serge Sarkisian for Contributions to Education, Culture Literature and the Arts. In 2016, he was awarded the distinguished Ellis Island Medal of Honor and was one of the few recipients invited to deliver personal remarks at the ceremony. Presently, he remains a Trustee of AUA, the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research, and the Armenian Missionary Association of America.
During the 2017 AUA Commencement exercises, Avedisian was called on to be recognized for his extraordinary service to the University. “The award honors an individual who has made extraordinary contributions in advancing education and scholarships with a special impact on Armenia. I am therefore very pleased to announce that this year’s recipient is Edward Avedisian,” Dr. Der Kiureghian said.
Avedisian addressed the graduates, adding, “I was fortunate to get through school on a number of scholarships. But that is a very small accomplishment when I think of what I can do for others, and I encourage all of you to do the same.”
Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire June 9, 2017 Friday Yerevan accuses Azerbaijan of attack on Armenian village YEREVAN. June 9 The Azerbaijani army shelled an Armenian border village, Baganis, in the Tavush region on Thursday evening, the Armenian defense minister's press secretary Artsrun Hovhannisyan told Interfax on Friday. "The village came under attack at about 9 p.m. (Yerevan time). The shelling lasted for about two hours with some pauses. They firing both on defensive positions and the village itself. Luckily, casualties were avoided," Hovhannisyan said. Baganis village head Narek Saakyan told Interfax that the shells damaged a number of house roofs. Interfax has yet to obtain comments from Azerbaijan. te ng aa
The final round of European Individual Chess Championship 2017 will be held today in Minsk, Belarus, with the best 22 players being qualified for the next Chess World Cup.
As the National Olympic Committee of Armenia told Panorama.am, five representatives of Armenia – Arman Mikayelyan, Hrant Melkumyan, Arman Pashikian, Sergei Movsesian and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan have scored 7 points each and have a chance to be qualified for the World Cup.
Maxim Matlakov (Russia) and Baadur Jobava (Georgia) are leading the table with 8 points. Five more players gained 7.5 points.
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In these weeks, we take a look at the aftermath of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. In this episode we talk about the countries on the Caucasus and what went wrong for them. Since neither Armenia, Azerbaijan, nor Georgia reached the top 10 this year.
Artistic director Sacha Jean-Baptiste did the staging for both Georgia and Armenia in a stunning way. Whilst Azerbaijan had a strong Swedish team behind the DiHaj song ‘Skeletons’. In the semi finals, the success rate for the Caucasus was as strong as ever, with only Georgia not making it to the final, narrowly.
In the final, expectations were high for Armenia, but for Azerbaijan not so much. DiHaj had a act with a man on a ladder with a horse mask, and not everyone understood what it was all about. In the end the song ‘Skeletons’ ended up on a 14th place.
When all votes were counted, Armenia surprisingly did even worse than Azerbaijan this year. ‘Fly With Me’ by Artsvik got huge reviews at the rehearsals and – even though the starting slot on the fifth place was terrible – the song should end up in the top 10. It did not go that way, with an 18th place this year for Armenia…
Armenia has had a couple of good years in the contest and therefore, people can handle a bad result. On the official Facebook page of Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest, people react positive on the pictures of Artsvik returning to Yerevan. Yes, Armenia deserved better, but there is always next year to do as well as in 2014 or 2016.
Especially the draw was bad news for Artsvik, whose song failed to stand out at the beginning of the evening, followed by many big other favourites in the same first half of the show. Azerbaijan was also in that first half, following winner Portugal. But even though DiHaj did better in the end, for Azerbaijan there are more concerns at the moment.
In their debut years, between 2008 and 2013, Azerbaijan ALWAYS had a top 10 result in the final. Amazing stats, on which some people were anxious, and started the conspiracy theory. Did the Azeri bribe themselves to the top? No one speaks of this nowadays, after Azerbaijan did not reach the top in 2014, 2015, 2016 and again 2017. Azerbaijan needs to find their mojo again, with the combination of strong songs, amazing staging and great vocalists.
On the Georgian Eurovision website, there is not much information on the reception of the non-qualification by Tamara Gachechiladze in Kiev. Georgia failed to qualify on several occasions in the past and has always returned stronger to the contest. They are already focussing on the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Tblisi, later this year. Since Georgia did win the last edition of that contest and will probably stay strong in both contests.
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia Tuesday Armenian Defense Minister held meetings with Cypriot authorities Yerevan May 30 Mariana Mkrthcyan. President of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis during the meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan expressed the conviction that this visit will give a new impetus to the development and deepening of the Armenian-Cypriot relations. As the press service of the Armenian Defense Ministry told ArmInfo, Sargsyan presented the details of the talks that took place within the framework of the official visit to Cyprus, indicating the directions in which cooperation between the defense departments of the two countries can develop. During the meeting, the parties touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Sargsyan expressed gratitude to the President of Cyprus for constructive and consistent position on the Karabakh issue. The interlocutors agreed that there is a serious potential for developing cooperation between friendly countries, which need to be carried. On the same day, Sargsyan met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimitris Silluris. The head of the defense department reminded that Armenia is moving to a parliamentary form of government, in connection with which, the role of the National Assembly is seriously growing. In this context, Sargsyan expressed the conviction that the cooperation of inter-parliamentary groups, as well as the interaction of parliamentary delegations on international platforms, becomes more important, which will allow to increase the effectiveness of opposition to political challenges by joint efforts. The head of the Armenian Defense Ministry also met with the Foreign Minister of Cyprus Ioannis Kasulides, who, as an important prerequisite for deepening bilateral relations, described the centuries-old friendly relations that existed between the two peoples. According to the Cypriot minister, Sargsyan's visit to Nicosia can become an important impetus for deepening the Armenian-Cypriot cooperation, in particular, in the field of defense. In his turn, the Armenian Defense Minister said that modern challenges oblige to unite efforts for effective confrontation. Sargsyan also stressed the inadmissibility of forming new hotbeds of tension.
KUWAIT: Aram I, the Chatolicos of the Armenian Church speaks to reporters. – Photos by Joseph Shagra
KUWAIT: Aram I, the Chatolicos of the Armenian Church speaks to reporters. – Photos by Joseph Shagra KUWAIT: Aram I, the Chatolicos of the Armenian Church is on a brief visit to Kuwait to dedicate and consecrate their house of worship in Salwa. The Chatolicos spoke with local reporters yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel where he thanked His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for the warm reception and welcome accorded to his entourage.
He said that he briefly met with His Highness the Amir and thanked him for the privilege to personally extend greetings of the Armenian church to Kuwait. He also lauded him for the religious tolerance in the country. “I came to Kuwait to consecrate the church of Armenia in Kuwait. According to tradition, it is the building where we hold our praise and worship in the house of God and so we it must be consecrated. That is the purpose of my visit. But my visit has several programs and activities including meeting HH the Amir. I visited the Amir six years ago. The people of Kuwait must be proud of their leader, because HH the Amir is a man of time. He is a man of intelligence, wisdom and courage and more importantly a man of tolerance,” he said. “In a world which is becoming more of a global village, we must live together, it is not a question of choice, but it is a must. We are all brothers and must live together. I am happy that we are all witnessing that here in Kuwait. We are all living in this beautiful country with mutual respect. That is all we need, to live in harmony with each other, we must understand and accept each other,” he said. Asked by Kuwait Times whether the Armenian Church in Kuwait has been experiencing the same problem with other Christian communities like the shortage of the house of worship, he said, “I cannot speak on behalf of other Christian communities in Kuwait. I meet them several times, but there is one thing in common I heard from everyone, that they are extremely grateful for HH the Amir for the kind of religious tolerance they have been experiencing here in this country. As for the Armenian Church, we have enough space. We are thankful because through Armenian churches and schools here, we can educate our people. We are just thankful for everything.” By Ben Garcia, Staff WriterAll rights reserved.
Last Updated: 20/05/17 1:38pm
Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan says losing the Europa League final against Ajax is not an option.
United go to Stockholm next week after their final Premier League game of the campaign against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Sunday, following a guaranteed sixth-place finish in the top flight.
A win on Wednesday night would see them claim their third trophy of the season after the EFL Cup and Community Shield, and would also hand them a spot in the Champions League group stage for next season.
Jose Mourinho has described the game as the biggest in United’s history, and Mkhitaryan also claimed it is one of the most important of his own career.
Mkhitaryan told Sky Sports: “I can say that of course there is only one choice and that is to win, we are not going to the final to lose.
“We want to win and have to win, for us it is very important to win this trophy, and also the opportunity to play in the Champions League because Manchester United are not the team who has to play three years in a row in the Europa League.
“It’s going to be one of the most important games in my life. I don’t want to lose this opportunity. I am only thinking of winning that game, I know we are able to win, and I know it will be a big pleasure to win it.
“If we are going to win the Europa League final it will be an amazing season for us, because have already won two trophies, and this one would be the third one.
“I will not be nervous because I’m not a kid anymore. I know how to handle the pressure, how to get ready for that game, just play my game and be myself.
“I watched some Ajax games, they are a young team, have very good football players individually, and I can say they are very aggressive, they are trying to play the football they are used to playing.”
Reflecting on his own season, his first at United since moving from Borussia Dortmund last summer, the Armenian forward says though it started off as a struggle, he would class the campaign as “not bad”.
Mkhitaryan burst into form around winter following a slow start under Mourinho, but insists there is more to come next year, and he has enjoyed the challenge.
He said: “My first year was not very easy because at the very beginning I had a little bit of struggle, but that’s part of football, I just kept trying to work hard and wait for my second chance, which I took very well.
“I used it, and then I started to have good times. It wasn’t a bad year, a normal year, maybe I am able to do more, but for this year it’s not bad, and I will try to do more next year.
“Of course I am always positive, and I know I’m capable of doing more. I’m sure I will do more, so I’ll keep working hard with a positive mind, and will wait for next season to score more and assist more.
“Manchester United have big ambitions and are always trying to do the best and the maximum, I like that challenge to do something new and challenge myself also.”