Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit London September 9-10 at the invitation of the Philip Hammond, UK Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs.
Minister Nalbandian will have meetings with his British counterpart Philip Hammond, Minister for Europe David Lidington and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale.
Within the framework of the visit Minister Nalbandian will speak Armenia’s foreign policy priorities at the Chatham House.
Armenian GM Levon Aronian defeated Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to seal a victory in the Sinquefield Cup held in St Louis, USA.
Aronian secured a solid lead by gaining 6.5 point out of 9 possible.
The super tournament brought together eight of the world’s current Top 10 – the reigning World champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), World #2 Viswanathan Anand (India), #3 Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), #4 Hikaru Nakamura (USA), last-year’s winner and World #5 Fabiano Caruana (USA), #6 Anish Giri (the Netherlands), #8 Wesley So (USA), #9 Alexander Grischuk (Russia), #10 Levon Aronian (Armenia) and #26 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France).
Juventus have reportedly switched their focus to Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, according
Massimiliano Allegri is looking to add the Armenian international to his squad in a bid to bolster the Bianconeri’s central area. Mkhitaryan is a versatile player who can play anywhere in midfield, be it in the middle or out wide and is a sharp passer.
“He would definitely suit Juve and should be playing in a top 10 club. He could bring something extra to the Serie A, but I don’t know whether Serie A can afford him,” agent Mino Raiola told Sport Mediaset.
The cause for concern though would be the Turin outfit’s strict wage structure which might be a stumbling block in any deal as it is unclear how much it would require to lure the Dortmund player away from Germany.
Mkhitaryan made 20 appearences for his club and scored two goals in the 2014-2015 Bundesliga campaign.
Orange Business Services, a global telecommunications operator, announced that it has entered into exclusive discussions with Ucom, an Armenian internet service provider, to sell 100% of its mobile subsidiary Orange Armenia. Negotiations to involve international financial institutions are already underway.
In view of worldwide telecom market trends, in 2013 Ucom acquired 4G connectivity service license and planned to launch premium quality services through its LTE networks beginning in 2016, the Company said in a statement.
Orange Armenia entered the Armenian telecom market in 2009, and has since become a beloved and trusted telecommunication brand amongst hundreds of thousands customers.
Ucom said “The positive outcome of the negotiations between Orange and Ucom will provide with the prospect to sustain and leverage the potential of more than 500 professional staff members of Orange Armenia, as well as its innovative technical power. As a result, customers will receive modern and qualitatively different convergent solutions, as well as the added convenience of combining various offers and using the wide spectrum of telecommunication services from the same trusted provider: an opportunity that the Armenian market has never had before.”
There has never been or can ever be a military solution to the Nagorno Karabakh issue, US Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, stated at the Brookings Institution. He said the attention of the United States is centered on the fair, peaceful, lasting solution to the Karabakh conflict acceptable to all parties, thereports.
“There is no better solution. All others are so terrible that are not even worth considering,” Rubin said, speaking at the panel to discuss a new report, “Retracing the Caucasian Circle,” co-authored by Fiona Hill, Kemal Kirişci, and Andrew Moffatt.
The State Department representative emphasized that “it’s time for the parties to reiterate their willingness and commitment to achieving progress.”
“This is not easy, and the parties have to make a certain choice to reach a solution. It’s hard for both parties, and that’s why we’ve not reached a settlement by now,” Eric Rubin said.
He added that the “US, along with other co-chairing countries, is ready to do its utmost for the establishment of lasting peace.” He stressed that the parties should refrain from violence.
“We think it’s extremely important for the parties to refrain from aggravating the situation; avoiding incidents is a key issue,” Mr. Rubin stated.
On 16 July Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan participated in the sitting of the Defense Army’s command staff convoked to sum up the results of the inspection conducted in the armed forces, Central Information Department of the Office of the NKR President reported.
President Sahakyan highlighted the inspections implemented in the army noting that they greatly contribute to the raising of combat readiness of the armed forces.
The President gave appropriate instructions underlining that all the revealed drawbacks must be eliminated unconditionally and within the set time frame.
On July 13 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs – James Warlick, Pierre Andrieu and Igor Popov, and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.
Issues related to the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict were discussed at the meeting.
Germany now plans to return the skulls of ethnic Herero victims of 19th-century colonialism in south-western Africa. Their skulls were transported to what was then the German Empire for “medical research,” reports.
Was it murder and expulsion, or should it be called genocide? The terminology becomes political when talking about the victims of German colonial rule in south-western Africa, mainly Namibia, around the turn of the 20th century. The deaths that occurred back then have not yet been clearly defined in the history books.
The proper term has been debated for decades, not unlike the disputed genocide against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. For Israel Kaunatjike from a Berlin NGO against genocide, the Namibian skulls represent a chapter in German history that should have been rewritten long ago. “The first genocide of the 20th century took place in Namibia,” he told DW, “and we are listening carefully to what German politics is saying about that.”
Kaunatjike was born in 1947 as the son of Herero survivors in southwestern Africa. He has lived as a political refugee in Germany since 1970. His family’s past is closely interwoven with Germany’s colonial history. “My grandmother was employed by a German family back then – Otto Möller’s family. And that’s where my mother was born. I found that out much later,” he said.
On July 9, 1915, Germany’s colonial rule in southwestern Africa came to an end. A century later, this forgotten slice of Germany’s history is finally gaining attention. The president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Herman Parzinger, recently commented on the situation, referring specifically to a large collection of skulls which Berlin’s Charité hospital recently gave the Heritage Foundation. The precise origin of the skulls has not yet been determined.
For Parzinger, intensive provenance research is necessary. “It’s especially crucial to separate remains from pre-historic graves in Germany from those that came from German colonial territories in the 19th and early 20th centuries which may have been illegally brought to Berlin,” he told the epd news agency. Parzinger sees the scientific research as the first step to returning the remains. “However, it must be clear who the lawful recipient is,” he emphasized.
Kaunatjike has a different priority. “For us, it’s very important that the remains are brought back home. We estimate that approximately 3,000 Hereros and Namas from Namibia are here in Germany. These people were killed, expelled into the desert, or were put in camps – women, children, men.”
The skulls had likely been sent to the Charité hospital for “racial research” – a disturbing racist practice that was not uncommon in Western Europe at the time. Kaunatjike described exactly how the remains were prepared. “The Herero women had to scrape the skulls with glass shards, and wash and boil them,” he explained. “Then they were brought here – like ostrich eggs. That is inhuman. And we don’t know whether these people were beheaded.”
For Kaunatjike, the provenance research on the skulls is secondary. “These remains don’t belong in the archives of German universities and other medical institutions. They are still being used for research. That hasn’t ended.”
Helmut Parzinger has recommended that Germany’s colonial past – and the crimes committed during that time – be included in the presentation of exhibits of artifacts. “Among the German public, knowledge about these events has been overshadowed by the crime of the century – that is, the Holocaust – and World War II,” he admitted. The forgotten colonial area is to become part of the exhibitions in the planned Humboldt-Forum, which is to be part of the newly reconstructed Berlin Palace. “That has to change if we are to participate in earnest, eye-level discourse with others,” added Parzinger.
For the current generations of Hereros, like Israel Kaunatjike, the decisive point lies elsewhere: Germany’s long-overdue official apology has yet to happen. Nevertheless: “I’m very glad that the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert said that it’s high time that this part of Germany’s history be recognized,” said Kaunatjike.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has not excluded the perspective of Azerbaijan’s joining the Eurasian Economic Union, but only after the settlement of territorial disputes in Armenia, RIA Novosti reports.
“Never say never. We should keep all perspective in mind,” Mammadyarov said in an interview with Rossia 24.
According to him, the current Azerbaijani leadership is considering its foreign policy doctrine, proceeding from its
“One of the components of the Eurasian Economic Union is the free trade zone. But we can’t co-exist within this union with, say, Armenia. If the borders are opened, if there is a normalization of the situation, if there is an economic component between Armenia and Azerbaijan, who knows what will happen tomorrow.
An opera singer from Cardiff will perform in front of millions when she represents Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest final this weekend.
Mary-Jean O’Doherty, 33, will sing Face The Shadow in Vienna on Saturday as part of the Armenian group Genealogy.
Speaking to , she praised the Welsh support which helped the group through the semi-final on Tuesday.
“It’s just one of those surreal moments where you just think ‘wow’,” she said.
“There was a lot of Armenian flags and Welsh flags as well which was great. There was so much positive energy.”
O’Doherty, born in the United States to an Australian father and a Greek-Armenian mother, has settled in Cardiff with her Welsh husband.
She was selected for this year’s contest by broadcaster Public Television of Armenia.
“I have never been to Armenia and I have always wanted to know about my heritage, about my genealogy,” she added.
“I couldn’t think of a more interesting or outstanding way to do both.”