Author: Torgomian Varazdat

Members of the “Sasna Tsrer” (Daredevils of Sasoun), who ceased the premises of an Armenian police station early on Sunday have said they will release the hostages.

Member of the group, Press Secretary of the Founding Parliament Varuzhan Avetisyan told that they held a meeting with Georgy Kutoyan, Chief of the National Security Service, with the mediation of Artsakh Hero Vitaly Balasanyan. They made a decision to release the hostages on condition that a press point is created.

“After additional discussions late in the evening we decided to release the two young policemen before the press point is established, as an addition expression of goodwill. We are now doing that in the presence of Mr. Balasanyan,”Avetisyan said.

They pledged to release two other hostage – a General and a Colonel – at the moment the press point is opened.

Two of Manchester United’s signings so far this summer are set to add to the impressive number of nationalities to have played for the club at first-team level over the years, according to the club’s official website. 

Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly and Armenia skipper Henrikh Mkhitaryan will take the tally of different countries to have appeared for the Reds to 40.

On what his transfer will mean to fans in his homeland, Mkhitaryan told MUTV: “Everyone was waiting for this transfer deal and I’m very happy that everyone can be proud of me. It’s an honour for me to be the first Armenian in the Premier League, and I will try to meet their expectations.”

The 38 nationalities to have played for the club so far, with Germany being the most recent addition with Bastian Schweinsteiger, are displayed in our ‘United Nations’ infographic.

Not every player on our map has gone on to represent their country at international level, but it still highlights the diverse range of nationalities to have donned the famous red shirt.

Bailly and Mkhitaryan’s fellow new arrival Zlatan Ibrahimovic will become the fourth Swede to play for United, after Jesper Blomqvist, Bojan Djordjic and Henrik Larsson.

Photo: Reuters

 

Two Russian footballers have been punished by their respective clubs for being filmed celebrating at a lavish Monte Carlo party after the Russian national team had crashed out of the European Championships.

A video of Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev drinking champagne costing $500 a bottle whilst Russia’s national anthem played in the background appeared on Instagram, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday.

Reports claimed that the two men spent 250 thousand euros ($277,000) on champagne.

Kokorin, a player with Zenit St. Petersburg, was demoted to the club’s second team and fined a “substantial amount,” TASS reported.

Pavel Mamaev was also fined by his club Krasnodar and demoted to the club’s youth team.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has called a lavish Monaco party attended by members of the Russian national team “a shameless display of conceit.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic should complete his long-anticipated move to Manchester United by the end of the week, the reports.

The Swedish striker, 34, is a free agent after leaving Paris St-Germain and is expected to sign a one-year deal with the Old Trafford club.

He will become the second signing for United boss Jose Mourinho, who replaced Louis van Gaal as manager in May.

Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly, 22, has already completed a £30m move to United from Spanish side Villarreal.

United have also made an improved offer for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 27, and are now waiting for his German club, Borussia Dortmund, to make a decision on the Armenian playmaker’s future.

The European Union’s Brussels envoys agreed on Tuesday to extend until the end of January the energy, financial and defence sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, diplomatic sources said, Reuters reports.

The bloc’s ministers have yet to formally approve the six-month roll-over but diplomats said there was no doubt they would. France and Britain asked for time to receive comments from their parliaments, though these have no power to block it.

Diplomats said formal ministerial approval had been pencilled in for a meeting in Luxembourg on Friday although it could be held over until an EU leaders summit next week, or even later.

 

Daniel Sturridge struck an injury-time winner as England came from behind to beat Wales and secure their first victory at Euro 2016, the BBC reports.

England keeper Joe Hart’s dreadful blunder allowed Gareth Bale’s 30-yard free-kick to creep in and put Wales ahead just before the interval in Lens.

Manager Roy Hodgson’s side were jeered off at the break and, with England’s campaign – and arguably his future – on the line, he gambled by introducing Jamie Vardy and Sturridge for the struggling Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.

The roll of the dice worked as Vardy scrambled in an equaliser from close range after 56 minutes before constant England pressure saw Sturridge work his way into the area and poke past Wales keeper Wayne Hennessey at the near post.

England move top of Group B and need a point against Slovakia on Monday to earn automatic qualification into the last 16, while Wales must beat Russia to guarantee a top-two finish.

Sevim Dagdelen has urged action after receiving death threats over the Armenian genocide vote in Germany’s parliament. She said she wants Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be prevented from entering Germany, reports.

Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the Bundestag, demanded that “anyone in Turkey who calls for violence against members of the German parliament should get an entry ban” to Germany. “This includes President Erdogan,” she told the German newspaper “Bild am Sonntag.”

Since the vote, Dagdelen and 10 other German MPs of Turkish origin have faced the ire of Turkish nationalists, receiving death threats and even having their personal details published in newspapers and in mosques.

Dagdelen, who is the Left party’s migration policy spokesperson, told the paper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should respond more forcefully to Erdogan’s attacks.

The politicians are now under 24-hour police protection after Erdogan compared them to terrorists and demanded they have blood tests to prove their Turkish origins.

The lawmakers have also been warned not to make trips to Turkey for the time being, as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

Aydan Özoguz of the Social Democrats (SPD) called on Turkish groups in Germany to unequivocally denounce the Turkish response. Özoguz, who is the government’s integration commissioner, has also received death threats.

“I expect Turkish associations in Germany to clearly condemn the threats against MPs,” she told the “Bild am Sonntag” weekly paper, adding that Turks can remain committed to their origins without being an extension of Turkey.

Her comments were backed up by Green Party leader Cem Özdemir, who was one of the initiators of the Bundestag’s Armenian resolution.

“You may not agree with the resolution, but Turkish organizations must issue unqualified denouncements of the death threats,” he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.”

Earlier, Özdemir had told the paper that Erdogan’s response to the issue was “unworthy of a head of state,” adding that he was worried: “What if someone goes crazy?” Özdemir asked, referring to threats against him and his family.

Germany’s Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) supported German politicians and called the threats made against lawmakers inacceptable.

“No one should be dehumanized or threatened,” DITIB national spokesperson Murat Kayman said. “This is not up for discussion and there is no justification for it. That’s the basic agreement of civilized societies.”

US doesn’t seek to engage in arbitration but merely wants to see both sides of the conflict to engage in dialogue and work towards a comprehensive settlement, Department of State spokesperson John Kirby told a daily briefing, Sputnik News reports.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is interested in examining ways with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to reduce the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, Kirby said.

 

“Secretary Kerry definitely wants to discuss… how we can better lower the tensions in Nagorno-Karabakhand deescalate the violence that has sadly continued,” Kirby stated. “He wants to explore ways in which we can ratchet down the tension.”

The US role in the process, Kirby added, was not about “arbitration or mediation”, but is simply driven by a desire to see both sides engage in dialogue, abide by the ceasefire and work towards a comprehensive settlement.

he World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$30 million loan for the .

This Project will support the Government’s efforts to maintain adequate and reliable electricity supply by improving the financial condition and governance of the state-owned power generation companies and the private power distribution company.

Throughout the last five years, the state-owned generation companies have been experiencing a shortage of cash to finance key expenditures, because of lending and spending for purposes not related to their core business of generating and supplying energy. This is how the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) and Yerevan Thermal Power Pant (YTPC) have accumulated large cash deficits amounting to US$104 million which accounts to 80 percent of their total estimated revenues for 2015.

If the financial difficulties of the ANPP and YTPC are not overcome, it will have significant impact on their ability to maintain the current levels of generation with resulting negative consequences on the cost and adequacy of electricity supply in the country. In 2012-2014, those two plants accounted for 42 percent of total annual electricity generated for domestic needs. Inability of ANPP and YTPC to generate power at current levels could push up the average cost of electricity supply and possibly cause an electricity deficit.

“Improvement of the financial standing and governance of the state-owned power generation companies, and a better managed financial relationship with the private power distribution company is critical for maintaining adequate and reliable electricity supply at affordable tariffs, “ says Laura E. Bailey, World Bank Country Manager for Armenia. “The Government is committed to improving the financial governance of these companies, and has already undertaken a number of steps in that direction as reflected in the Program for Financial Recovery of the Power Sector.”

There are four results areas which this Program will achieve: elimination of cash outflows of state-owned power generation companies for non-core business related reasons; reduction of expensive commercial loans, recovery of receivables, and repayment of YTPC’s payable for natural gas; setting of tariffs reflecting changes in the cost of electricity supply, and maintaining the generation capacity of the gas turbine at YTPC’s Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant.

Since the end of January 2016, the generation companies were able to start repaying the loans because of the recovery of receivables from Electricity Network of Armenia (ENA), the only company operating the power distribution network. The recovery of receivables from ENA will allow financing the backlog of expenditures for critical repairs and maintenance, however, additional cash injection is needed to help YTPC and ANPP as they regain their solid financial condition.

“The beneficiaries of the Program are all electricity consumers in Armenia along with the state-owned generation companies and the private power distributer. Financial health of ANPP and YTPC, as well as ENA, will ensure they have enough resources to spend on maintenance and finance some of the new investments required for reliable supply of electricity. Moreover, 140,000 businesses and other legal entities connected to the network will also benefit because the Program will help to fully meet their demand for electricity in a reliable manner,” says Arthur Kochnakyan, World Bank Task Team Leader of the Project.

In 2012-2014, ENA suffered a cumulative loss of around US$50 million due to revenue shortfall, accumulated for reasons not under its control (e.g. dry years in terms of hydrology, longer-than-planned recurrent repair of ANPP). In addition, the existing regulation did not allow Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) to adjust ENA’s tariff margin to reflect the full amount of difference between the actual and forecast cost of purchased electricity in subsequent tariff period.

The tariff margin was revised in 2015 to compensate for those losses incurred during previous years. Going forward, PSRC will be revising the methodology to allow reflecting in ENA’s tariff margin the 100 percent of loss (profit) plus interest cost (profit) due to the above highlighted difference.

The World Bank will provide a US$30 million IBRD loan of variable spread with a 14.5-year grace period and the total repayment term of 25 years. Since joining the World Bank in 1992 and IDA in 1993, the total IDA and IBRD commitments to Armenia amount to around US$2.3 billion.

On 23 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan visited the town of Hadrout and held there a working consultation to discuss issues relating to the army’s activity and implementation of operational tasks by the Hadrout regional administration’s departments in this sphere

The President gave concrete instructions towards proper fulfillment of the discussed issues.

NKR deputy defense minister, head of the Artsakh Union of Freedom Fighters, Samvel Karapetyan, chairman of the “Yerkrapah” Volunteers Union organization’s board Manvel Grigoryan and other officials partook in the consultation.