Author: Tambiyan Samvel

The celebrated performer passed away from a heart attack in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday, according to the director of the Moscow State Circus Edgar Zapashny.

“Oleg Popov died in Rostov, he was there on tour.  I got in touch with his producer — his wife was not able to talk — and said that we are ready to provide all possible assistance and to organize a farewell at the Moscow State Circus,” Zapashny told RIA Novosti.

The Russian State Circus Company, Rosgostsirk, said in a Facebook statement in the early hours of Thursday that the time and location of Popov’s funeral were being discussed with his daughter, who is currently in Germany. According to Rosgostsirk, Popov “died peacefully, sitting in an armchair” at his hotel. Oleg Konstantinovich Popov was born in Virubovo, Russia, on July 31, 1930.  He was known the world over for his talents, and was nicknamed the “sunshine clown” by French journalist Jaqueline Cartier.   He toured internationally beginning in the 1950s, and was honored with the title of People’s Artist of the Soviet Union in 1969. Popov moved to Germany in the 1990s, and in 2006 was invited to perform at the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo, where he received a lengthy standing ovation. Popov also appeared in several films.

Turkey can play a positive role in Nagorno-Karabakhh settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday, TASS reports.

“The fact that Turkey can play a positive role, ensuring the unblocking of Nagorno-Karabakh, ensuring normal economic cooperation in the region – is a major factor that we always have in mind,” he told reporters in Yerevan.

“If Armenia and Turkey get back to the implementation of their agreements without reference to the Karabakh conflict, we will only be glad. But our feeling is that progress in the Karabakh settlement will be crucial for seeing Armenian-Turkish relations normalized,” Lavrov said.

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambaev, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakijan Sagintaev, and Secretary General of the CSTO Nikolay Bordzyuzhahave arrived in  in Yerevan to participate in the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council.

At the Presidential Palace they were greeted by the President of Armenia, Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Serzh Sargsyan.

After the welcome ceremony, there will take place a session in the restricted format with the participation of the Heads of the delegations of the CSTO member states and Secretary General. The meeting will be followed by a session in the extended format with the participation of the official delegations.

Photo: NASA

 

There has been an explosion on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the aerospace company SpaceX was readying an unmanned rocket for launch, the BBC reports.

The cause of the blast is not clear and it is not known if anyone was hurt.

Nasa said SpaceX was test-firing a rocket which was due to take a satellite into space this weekend.

Pictures from the scene show a huge plume of smoke rising above the Cape Canaveral complex.

The force of the blast shook buildings several miles away.

Local emergency officials described the incident as a “catastrophic abort during a static test fire”.

Armenia fetched four medals at 31^st Summer Olympic Games in Rio and came in 42^nd among 206 countries in the medal count.

Greco Roman wrestler Arthur Alexanian (98 kg) won the first gold medal for Armenia after a 20-year break.

Armenia was deprived of a second gold medal after a biased decision of the arbiter in the men’s 66 kg Greco-Roman wrestling final. The Serb wrestler was given the gold, while Armenia’s Migran Arutyunyan won a silver medal.

Weightlifters Simon Martirosyan (105 kg) and Gor Minasyan (+105 kg) both fetched silver medals.

Today, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting at the Presidential palace with the representatives of the different segments of the society: cultural figures, representatives of healthcare, Mass Media, public and political figures, members of the Public Council, as well as with the representatives of legislative and executive bodies, heads of the standing bodies and with the representatives of Armenian clergy headed by the Catholicos of All Armenians. The President  made a statement:

Your Holiness,
Distinguished Colleagues,

Yesterday, the situation created as a result of the assault by an armed group on the Police station was finally resolved. It was resolved in a way which was probably the most acceptable for all of us: the National Security Service, Police, State Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs through their consistent and coordinated activities compelled the members of the armed group to put down their weapons and surrender to the authorities. I am very glad that we were able to avoid the “classical” scenario of resolving situations such as this one even though the detailed plan for the implementation of such option was certainly on hand too.

We suffered two losses and have many injured. I express my condolences to the family and friends of the Police Force serviceman, Sergeant Yuri Tepanosian. We convey our admiration and respect to the family of Colonel Arthur Vanoyan. He was a true devotee, who had steadfastly passed from the Artsakh liberation war up to the April war, but was killed by a bullet of his fellow citizen at the moment when he was carrying out his duty towards Fatherland. Glory to you, proud Colonel!

As I have already noted, the state bodies of the Republic of Armenia took all conceivable measures to avoid human losses. With this regard, I first of all express gratitude to the representatives of the law enforcement bodies for their work. Composure and magnanimity signify professionalism and understanding of one’s own power. You have manifested them in full measure. I thank you for your expert work.

I also thank those who took the Hippocratic Oath – our doctors and medical workers for their awe-inspiring stance; I bow to their professionalism, to their courageous spirit.

I express my thanks to oufviolr General, Hero of Artsakh Vitalyi Balasanian who these days has become the voice of reason.

Distinguished Colleagues,

The unacceptable situation has come to an end; however its full resolution lies ahead. First of all there needs to be made a thorough investigation, a comprehensive and unbiased examination, and an open trial. Every single person must answer for his actions only and only before the law. There will be no other options; any attempt of personal vengeance will be stopped by the law. All processes unfolding in the Republic of Armenia will take place exclusively in the framework of the RA Constitution and laws.

The time has come to draw conclusions. A full analysis of these events will take a long time. However one thing is clear: the process of the radical changes in Armenia’s social and political life must be expedited. First of all, the very existence of the disastrous tendency to solve problems through violence must be eradicated. We have no right to tolerate even a intention of solving problems by force; the next one can be disastrous for our state.

Last two weeks and the losses we suffered in the course are unacceptable – human, social, loss of values and the huge blow which our economy has suffered. No country in the world can afford such thing to happen; moreover Armenia had no right to do it.

From now on we will allow no one to take our country hostage.
We will allow no one to undermine the foundation of our state.
Problems in Armenia will not be solved through violence or arms.

Yerevan is neither Beirut nor Aleppo. Let no one aspire to import Near East solutions of the previous century, of the Cold War to Armenia. Let those who don’t comprehend this need to look at the history of Lebanon’s civil war or at the consequences of the civil war going on the moment in Syria and draw conclusions.

I express gratitude to all political figures who have manifested themselves as true political and state figures and comprehending all that was going on from day one spoke about the unacceptability of the events. Unlike a few short-sighted persons, they understand only too well where ends the line of political competitiveness and starts the security of Fatherland. Critical situations often become litmus tests, pointing out for the society and history mature persons and singling our short-sighted one and adventurists.

I also thank our prominent culture figures, our public figures, our true intellectuals who understood very well that through the public condemnation of the unacceptable steps, conveying the word of reason to the members of the armed group, they contributed to a bloodless resolution of the situation, and showed these men a safe way out. Alas, those who were cheering them up unwisely didn’t understand that spilling out the spite accumulated in them they did a terrible thing and in reality led the armed ones to destruction.

Thanks God, good reason is prevailing in our country.

In Armenia a simple truth, which it seems could not be debatable in the first place, has prevailed. That truth lives in our system of values, in our mentality, in our kind, and is about our heritage. Anyone can dislike the authorities, or the government, or the President, can be categorically against our policies. However, dislike cannot be a reason for glorifying those who attempt to solve problems with arms. Authorities come and go; encouragement of terrorism will remain as cancer and will spread; it will ruin everything our nation has created. It is dreadful, it must be fully eradicated. Ladies and gentlemen, dear young people, the encouragement of terrorism is a mortal sin. Stay away from that horror no matter what’s the reason, even if it’s the most compelling reason. Say no to terrorism and all its manifestations. Say no in the name of our country, our nation, our generations, our Fatherland. Say no to that cancer. Toss it away, far away. I ask you.

Dear Friends,

I thank our journalists and reporters for their dedicated work and for working for a bloodless resolution of the situation. I also apologize to the journalists for the events which took on the night of July 30; during these events it was our greatest blunder. Certainly, conclusions will be made. I ask for our indulgence, I ask journalists but not the low enforcement personnel to forget about these events, because I am confident that it will never happen again. I also want these events to have no event subconsciously an impact on the freedom of your work.

Now about the criticism which has been voiced. I am not talking about the armed persons that were acting in a distinct terrorist style and were hiding their intentions under the slogan of patriotic and social justice. I am talking about concern which is present in some segments of our society. Yes, it is true that the Armenian authorities are not perfect. Yes, it is true that there are many problems and complex issues in Armenia. Our goal is to give them a speedy resolution.

At this stage our goal is also to form the authorities of national accord, in which issues will be solved under a wide consensus. The constitutional reforms are aimed at exactly that; the reforms have given a base for the formation of such authorities. A government of national accord is not about a lost someone who is trying to make his way to a high position; it is about the widest possible distribution and sharing of political responsibility, and have already provided for its entire institutional base. I state with confidence that only months later we will have a government of that kind, authorities of that kind.

We follow that route and that route is about political forces and political figures. I state once again, it’s about political figures but not about those who follow the route of armed terrorism and those who support them. Thanks God, as we have seen, today we have no shortage of political figures who share the values necessary for building a state and a country. There many of them in all political parties. And it makes the political wealth of our country.

I would like to speak about another issue, which we have spoken about on many occasions. It is about the Karabakh issue and so called “surrender of lands.” My personal statements with regard to our clear-cut position on that are probably numberless. I repeat once again: there will be no unilateral concessions in the resolution of the NK issue. Never. Nagorno Karabakh will never be part of Azerbaijan. Never.I repeat once again:it is out of question. I have given my entire adult life to this. To get to the solution acceptable for my nation, I have always been ready to sacrifice any position, and also my life. It is like that today, it will like that tomorrow.

Distinguished Colleagues,

I conclusion, I would like to stress that we as a state have emerged from that calamity even stronger. Today we are even more determined to move with doubled speed towards the implementation of the agenda of positive changes in our country. We will talk about it in a greater detail very soon.

Thank you.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs plan to visit the region, but no exact date has been set, Russian Co-Chair Igor Popov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“We’ll definitely visit the region, but are still coordinating the date with the parties,” he said.

Popov said all members of the Minsk Group held their regular meeting in Vienna Monday. The Russian, American and French Co-Chairs and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office participated in the meeting.

“The meeting was generally dedicated to the assessment of the recent mediating efforts taken by the co-chairing countries and the results of the summit in St. Petersburg. My French and American colleagues told about French President Francois Hollande’s and Secretary of State John Kerry’s discussions with the parties. We also discussed the further mediating efforts,” Popov said.

President Serzh Sargsyan met with his French counterpart Francois Hollande on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw today.

President Sargsyan thanked Hollande for his consistent support on issues of vital importance to Armenia and stressed that Armenia is proud of its privileged relations with France.

Serzh Sargsyan underlined the considerable expansion of economic cooperation between Armenia and France and noted that France remains a leading country in the EU in terms of investments in Armenia.

President Sargsyan expressed gratitude for the adoption of a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

During the meeting reference was made to the Karabakh issue. Serzh Sargsyan attached importance to the active role of France, in its capacity of Minsk Group co-chairing country, in the procreations.ss of peaceful settlement of the issue through negotiations and thanked Francois Hollande for his personal efforts and consistent contribution.

The Presidents attached importance to the unconditional implementation of the provisions incorporated in the statements adopted at meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg. They exchanges views on the perspectives of furthering the negotiation process.

Four Dallas police officers have been killed and seven wounded by sniper fire during protests against the shooting of black men by police, authorities say, the BBC reports.

Police are in a standoff with one armed man in a garage. Three other people have been detained.

Gunfire broke out at around 20:45 local time on Thursday (01:45 GMT Friday) as demonstrators marched through the city.

The protests were sparked by the deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.

Veteran Iranian Armenian composer Loris Tjeknavorian has successfully undergone balloon angioplasty at Day General Hospital in Tehran, the Persian media reported on Monday, reports.

Tjeknavorian was admitted to the hospital last week.

Several colleagues and a number of cultural officials, including Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Ali Moradkhani, visited him at the hospital.

Tjeknavorian, who is of Armenian origin, has widely performed across the world, having conducted international orchestras in Austria, Britain, the United States, Canada, Hungary, Iran, Finland, Armenia, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Africa and Denmark.

His own compositions have also been performed by major orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.