Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatiana Moskalkova has said in a statement that blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition is unacceptable. The statement reads:

I consider it unacceptable to extradite Russian citizen, independent journalist Alexander Lapshin, from   Belarus to Azerbaijan.

Article 61, Part 1 of the Russian Constitution states plainly, “A citizen of the Russian Federation may not be deported from the Russian Federation or extradited to another state”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and related agencies have supported my position.

At the same time, I would like to remind Russian citizens going abroad that it is necessary to study and observe laws of foreign states.

Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin has appealed the decision of the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office on his extradition to Azerbaijan, Sputnik reports.

The appeal filed at Minsk City Court is set to be considered on January 26.

The blogger is defended by Israeli and Russian lawyers.

According to Belarusian legislature, Lapshin has the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, as well.

Alexander Lapshin, who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship, was detained by Belarus authorities in December 2016 at the request of Azerbaijan. Earlier this month the Deputy Prosecutor General of Belarus decided to satisfy the request of the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan on the blogger’s extradition.

Although disappointed not to win, Henrikh Mkhitaryan enjoyed the “amazing” atmosphere at Old Trafford in his first experience of Manchester United’s fierce rivalry with Liverpool.

The Reds were held to a 1-1 draw in the Premier League as Zlatan Ibrahimovic notched his 19th goal of the season to cancel out James Milner’s first-half penalty at a raucous Theatre of Dreams.

In particular, the noise levels inside the stadium erupted when Zlatan equalised on 84 minutes as the crowd willed the team on to secure a possible comeback victory. While a second goal unfortunately never came, Mkhitaryan told afterwards that he relished the whole experience.

“The atmosphere was amazing,” Henrikh said. “I want to see more of this kind of atmosphere in the stadium. Thanks to the supporters. They were believing in us and they supported us until the end.”

Offering his assessment of the match, Mkhitaryan continued: “It wasn’t the right result but we were down 1-0 so it wasn’t a bad result. We could have won, we could have lost, but I think we deserved to win more because we played very well like a team and did our best to win the game.

“The score was 1-1 at the end so we were pushing up a bit, trying to find the net for the second time but unfortunately we couldn’t. So 1-1 is not a bad result because we are still very close to the top four and we will do our best in the next games.”

Marouane Fellaini made a telling impact as a substitute on Sunday as his header that bounced off the post led to Ibrahimovic scoring a vital goal just seconds later. Mkhitaryan was quick to praise the Belgian afterwards, but also had positive words for United’s two other replacements.

“Not only Marouane but also Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata put freshness in the team,” Micki explained. “They helped us a lot up front and we are happy that they could change something in our game. We are happy to have them coming on.”

Mkhitryan is unconcerned that United’s nine-match winning run has come to an end, saying records are not the main focus this season, yet he hopes to begin another run at Stoke City next weekend.

“For sure, why not?” he said. “We have to win, try to win the next game. We are not looking for records, we are doing our best to be in the top four and to do that you have to win games. Do not think about records because one day they will break. We are just trying to do our job by winning every game.”

The Azerbaijani side used firearms of different calibers as it violated the ceasefire about 30 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.

The rival fired over 400 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army refrained from response actions and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.

On December 27 Tigran Mkrtchyan, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Lithuania had a meeting with Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas.

The Seimas Speaker commended the level of bilateral political dialogue and the progress achieved in economic cooperation.

The interlocutors noted that the trade turnover over the last years has greatly increased and there are sufficient conditions for its improvement.

The sides highlighted the development of cooperation in the format of inter-parliamentary friendship groups. The Speaker in his turn underlined that the Armenia-Lithuania inter-parliamentary friendship group, re-convened following the Seimas elections, is one of the three biggest groups of the Lithuanian parliament, containing 48 MPs and consisting of one-third of the Seimas members.

The interlocutors touched upon the process of negotiations on Armenia-EU new framework agreement, the visa liberalization perspectives. The Speaker underlined, that Lithuania supports Armenia’s cooperation with the EU.

Talking about the Artsakh issue, Ambassador Mkrtchyan presented to his interlocutor the continuous destructive behavior of official Baku, the anti-Armenian propaganda conducted on the top level.

The Seimas speaker reaffirmed Lithuania’s stance in Nagorno-Karabakh issue, expressing support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at a peaceful resolution of the issue.

Armenia captain  (up from 77th last year) in The Guardian’s list of 100 best footballers in the world 2016.

José Mourinho has received plenty of criticism for his apparent coldness towards Mkhitaryan, although the Armenian midfielder recently took the blame for his slow start at Manchester United, The Guardian writes.

“The problem wasn’t him, it was me,” Mkhitaryan said. “Even so, it was not easy to understand his absence from a side crying out for more creativity. Quick, elusive and intelligent, Mkhitaryan was superb in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund last season, which is why he has shot up by 20 places, and he has teased United with glimpses of class in the past month. They will be aching for more in 2017,” The Guardian says.

The list of the greatest male players on the planet has been compiled by a panel of 124 experts from 45 nations.

A piece of music handwritten by Gustav Mahler has broken the record for the highest price for a musical manuscript sold at auction, the BBC reports.

The composer’s Second Symphony, which spans 232 pages, fetched £4.5m at Sotheby’s on Tuesday morning.

But a controversial manuscript which the auction house said was handwritten by Beethoven failed to sell.

The authenticity of the manuscript for the composer’s 1817 piece, Allegretto in B minor, had been questioned.

Sotheby’s had stood by the manuscript’s authenticity and expected it to fetch up to £200,000.

But ahead of the auction, Prof Barry Cooper, a musicologist and Beethoven scholar, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there were inconsistencies within the piece.

Two people have been fined for hurling online abuse at two German politicians of Turkish origin. Both officials had backed the parliament’s Armenia Genocide resolution, angering many Turks and Erdogan supporters, reports.

A Berlin court handed financial fines to two people who directed online abuse at German parliamentarians of Turkish origin, according to media reports on Thursday.

A Turkish national was handed a fine of 600 euros ($665) for comments aimed atBundestag member Sevim Dagdelen, of the Left party, on Facebook.

Another man was fined 700 euros for verbally abusing the co-leader of Germany’s Green Party, Cem Özdemir. In return, charges against him were dropped, at least provisionally.

Dagdelen and Özdemir had backed the German parliament’s Armenian genocide resolution in July, which formally labeled the Ottoman Empire’s killing of 1.5 million Armenians and other Christian minorities during World War I as  “genocide.” Both officials were subsequently bombarded with online abuse from Turkish nationalists, including those residing in Germany.

Both targeted officials welcomed the court’s decision. “It is good that the internet is not a lawless environment,” Dagdelen told the “Berliner Zeitung” newspaper. “I hope that the judgment has a deterring effect.” However, there remain outstanding threats of violence and murder that must be curtailed, she said. “I intend to pursue these civil claims.”

Özdemir said that he welcomed the court’s decision to punish online insults and threats. However, “some state prosecutors are reacting too cautiously,” he said. “Some take the issue seriously within our formidable democracy. Others are somewhat more lenient.”

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalabndian had a meeting with members of the France-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group at the French National Assembly.

During the meeting reference was made to the joint efforts towards reinforcement of Armenian-French ties and the joint programs. In this context, the parties emphasized the importance of parliamentary cooperation.

Minister Nalbandian briefed the lawmakers on the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs aimed a furthering the process of settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

The Foreign Minister informed the French MPs about the ongoing reforms in Armenia.

The interlocutors referred to a number of urgent regional issues and the ways of their resolution.

Photo: Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry's Press Office/TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a federal law on ratifying an agreement between Russia and Syria on the deployment of an aviation group of the Russian armed forces in the Syrian Arab Republic, the Kremlin press service reported on Friday, TASS reports.

The law was passed by Russia’s State Duma on October 7, 2016, and approved by the Federation Council on October 12, 2016.

The agreement was signed in Damascus on August 26, 2015. Almost a year later – on August 9, 2016 – it was submitted by Russia’s president to the State Duma for ratification. The deal stipulates that the Russian air force group will be deployed at the request of the Syrian side at the Hmeymim airfield in the Latakia province indefinitely and on a pro bono basis.