Category: 2018

Armenia’s way of treating Russia may prove ‘fatal’

Kanayan Tamar
Regnum news agency, Russia
July 28 2018
 
Armenia’s way of treating Russia may prove ‘fatal’
 
Fighting reconnaissance in Armenian-Russian relations. The tactic of Fighting reconnaissance is used in cases, when other opportunities of assessing a situation are limited
[Armenian News note: the below is translated from Russian]
 
The story of a charge lodged against the secretary general of the [Russian-led] CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organisation], Yury Khachaturov, is worth considering within the chain of events initiated by new Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in his search for red lines within the frames of Armenian-Russian relations.
 
From all appearances, the charge under a criminal case and a pre-trial restriction in the shape of a bail for the head of the international military and political block, the CSTO, and the proposal made through the media (!) to “replace the CSTO head” without at least informal preliminary coordination of the issue with partners in the block are beyond the boundaries of official, formal, partnership, allied, block, and other relations between Armenia and Russia.
 
In addition to a couple of phrases from a press release regarding a telephone conversation between the heads of the two countries’ foreign ministries, Moscow responded indirectly too, also through the media, dubbing such an approach to things as “non-professional”. At the same time, there was a report on an appropriate procedure for the “termination of powers” of Khachaturov, not his “replacement”.
 
It is also noteworthy that in this connection, Pashinyan decided to call [Belarusian President] Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the head of a partner country in the block, which Yerevan is assailing with letters concerning the sales of multiple launch rocket systems to Azerbaijan. It is possible that the press services of the heads of the two countries did not become preoccupied with a telephone conversation with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and they did talk. However, given the tonality of the indirect response from the Russian Foreign Ministry, it is more likely that there was no such conversation.
 
In general, a firm opinion is taking shape that in foreign relations, Nikol Pashinyan is guided by the straightforwardness of the well-known [Russian film] character, Zhiglov: “A thief must be in prison”. You can by no means find fault with this position. However, sending a thief to prison in the modern situation in international relations and cooperation, it is necessary to take into account also a whole complex of conditions and objectives resulting from the spirit and interests of these relations.
 
Pashinyan’s methods of struggling against corruption and the former regime and for environmental protection, human rights, and other things are identical in their rudeness with his actions in the international arena. And it is not only the CSTO and the EEU [Eurasian Economic Union] that are at issue. He demonstrated his simplified approaches to relations with the EU on the sidelines of the recent Nato summit. However, if there is no one to put him in his place within his country even in his closest entourage in the government, it is possible to find such people in the international arena.
 
In his live appearances in social networks, interviews, and speeches, Pashinyan has stressed on a lot of occasions the need to build equal partnership relations within the frames of the CSTO and in cooperation with Russia, which, as he says, is a centuries-old brother of Armenia. This is quite understandable and acceptable. Enjoying formal and real legitimacy among citizens, Pashinyan can indeed raise the benchmark (as compared to the previous government) to a higher and more efficient level as regards the protection of the interests of a small republic when building relations within the frames of the EEU and in cooperation with the EU, the United States, and Iran.
 
Raising this benchmark within the frames of the EEU and with Moscow in particular, he chose the tactic of fighting reconnaissance. This includes the prime minister’s tough reaction to the incident involving the drills of the 102nd Russian base despite all the apologies on the part of Russia as well as his statement on the role of a military arbiter for Moscow in the Karabakh conflict and the concealment of information on Yerevan’s possible participation in the Nato drills in Georgia together with Baku and Ankara.
 
The story involving Khachaturov or, to be more exact, the way things were done, should also be considered in this context. However, in all appearances, the Armenian government has already reached the line, where it would be good to slow the pace down and start considering external relations from the position of more elaborate complex methods for international relations. The tactic of fighting reconnaissance is used when there are no other opportunities of assessing the situation or when they are considerably limited. It can often prove to be fatal too.

Christians protest control of quota seats by Iraqi Kurdish party

Arbi Tashjian
Nalia Radio and TV website , Kurdistan Province, Iraq
30 Jul 18
Christians protest control of quota seats by Iraqi Kurdish party

[Armenian News note: The below is translated from Sorani Kurdish]

Minority Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan staged a demonstration outside the Kurdistan parliament demanding a fairer representation through the minorities’ quota system, which they say is being “monopolised” by the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Members of the Assyrian community and partisan officials also protested attempts to reduce the quota seats in parliament, privately-owned NRT website reported on 30 July.

The protests follow reports that both the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Change Movement (Gorran) had prepared proposals to reduce the number of seats dedicated for minorities in the 111-seat house from the current 11 to between five to eight.

Currently five of these quota seats are allotted to the Christian Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac communities, five to Turkomans and one to Armenians.

Both PUK and Gorran have claimed that the KDP had controlled those seats by fielding its own affiliated minority candidates and making sure they receive enough votes through its own supporters.

The protesters repeated the claim, but also criticised the PUK and Gorran for attempting to reduce the number of the minorities’ seats.

Galeta Shaba, the president of Abnaa al-Nahrain (an Assyrian political party which currently holds one seat in the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament), said current MPs do not represent them.

“We have five seats under the quota system, but for years they have been usurped, stolen from us especially by the ruling party – and I say it openly here,” she said.

An Assyrian MP interviewed by NRT explained that one of their demands is for the current election law in Kurdistan be amended to allow elections of minority constituents to be held on a separate day, rather than on the main election day with the rest, so that non-minorities cannot vote for minority candidates.

Shaba said the current parliament presidency held by the KDP has repeatedly avoided the inclusion of the Christian proposal to amend the law in the house’s agenda.

The Kurdistan Region parliamentary election is scheduled for 30 September.

Shaba said there is still time to amend the law if there is a will.

Armenian Authorities Broke Promise Not to Persecute Political Predecessors – Lavrov

Badalian Vardan 
Sputnik News Service, Russia
 Tuesday 8:32 PM UTC
Armenian Authorities Broke Promise Not to Persecute Political
Predecessors - Lavrov
MOSCOW, July 31 (Sputnik) - The current developments in Armenia
contradict the statements by the new leadership of the country about
the refusal to persecute its political predecessors, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists on Tuesday.
"Russia, as an ally of Yerevan, has always been interested in the
stability of the Armenian state, therefore what is happening there
worries us, including from the point of view of the tasks of normal
functioning of CIS organizations in which Armenia participates,"
Lavrov said.
"The recent events clearly destroy such a positive attitude, and run
counter to the recent statements by the new leadership of Armenia that
it has no intentions to organize the persecution of its predecessors
for political reasons," Lavrov stressed.
Former Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Secretary General of
the Collective Security Treaty Organization Yuri Khachaturov have been
recently charged with violating constitutional order by suppressing
the 2008 protests in Yerevan.

Russian sisters who killed ‘mafia boss’ dad are accused of making up story about his ‘years of sexual abuse’

Garnik Tadevosian
The Mirror, UK
Russian sisters who killed ‘mafia boss’ dad are accused of making up story about his ‘years of sexual abuse’
Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, was attacked by his daughters Kristina, 19, Angelina, 18 and Maria, 17, at their Moscow home
 
 By Will Stewart
 
 
Three Russian sisters charged with the murder of their ‘mafia boss’ dad have been accused of making up a story about ‘years of sexual abuse’.
 
Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, was attacked by his daughters Kristina, 19, Angelina, 18 and Maria, 17, who confessed to jointly killing him.
 
He was found with 36 stab wounds and ten hammer blowsto the head in the block of flats where the family lived in Moscow, Russia.
 
A Moscow court has now refused to free the teenagers from detention despite their claims they acted in self-defence against a monster father who allegedly raped at least two of the girls.
 
Currently they are accused of acting as a gang in a premeditated murder with a sentence of between eight and 20 years – but a formal decision on custody is expected within 72 hours.
 
‘Butcher of Kiev’ killer with the blood of suspected 10,000 victims on his hands is finally unmasked
 
A video shows Angelina in a Moscow court cage during a custody hearing as distressed friends look on.
 
Friends of the sisters claim that their father sexually attacked her on 21 July, less than a week before the girls knifed him to death.
 
She has also alleged that he raped her – then aged 14 – in a hotel in Israel in four years ago.
 
Two years later the sisters claim he sexually attacked Kristina who then tried and failed to take her own life.
 
He was accused of being a drug dealer, setting up web cameras in the family home to monitor the girls – and forcing them to parade naked in front of him.
 
Top Stories from Mirror Online
 
Russian mafia boss gunned down by hooded assassin in middle of party celebrating his release from prison
 
At the same time he was seen by friends as a “devout” Christian – a video shows him bathing in the River Jordan.
 
A close female family member has anonymously disputed the sisters’ account, while a lawyer acting for the dead man – who has himself been branded a mafia king with friends in high places in Russia – claimed the version of his daughters that they were sexually abused was incorrect.
 
George Chuguashvili said: “He was a strict father. Perhaps he did not meet modern requirements, maybe even a tyrant.
 
“But he never used violence against his children. It’s all fiction for the defence.”
 
The relative said: “Mikhail was strict, but a very kind and good person. Everyone respected and loved him.
 
“He did a lot of good for his daughters. They killed a sleeping man….. I do not know how to name such daughters…”
 
Man ‘used Tinder to find victims who were raped and murdered’ in crime spree stretching from New York to LA
 
A family friend called Bruce Khlebnikov said he saw the crime scene and the family flat was “covered in blood”.
 
“After he was killed, a crowd of people gathered at his house – friends, acquaintances, relatives,” he said, describing Khachaturyan, an ethnic Armenian, as a “holy man”.
 
“Everyone was crying. No one could believe that the murder was committed with particular cruelty by his own daughters.”
 
Khlebnikov, formerly known as the “strongest boy in the world”, claimed: “He loved his daughters so much, he was always talking about them.
 
“And how he spoiled them, you cannot even imagine. All that the golden youth could have – these girls had.”
 
He was poised to buy a car for his eldest daughter. He did not spare money for them on their belongings and trinkets.
 
“His girls wore the most fashionable things, he bought them new iPhones, and they had all the gadgets they wanted.
 
“They did not know the word ‘refusal’.”
 
But he accused the sisters of not doing anything at home – “they lived for their own pleasure” – after their mother left home.
 
He accused the teenagers of “provoking” their father who wanted them to grow up as “decent” women.
 
He operated an 8pm curfew and tried to stop them meeting young men, he admitted.
 
Neighbour Varvara Sibirskaya said: “He forced his daughters to be naked at home, to sing and dance for him. He also drugged them….
 
Salisbury investigators believe MORE deadly novichok dumped on streets by two teams of Russian hitmen
 
“He beat them, not just with hands, but with a belt, and iron rods. He tied them and burned the with iron.”
 
Another local said: “Any woman to him was like a red rag to a bull. He yelled at them every single day in obscene words.”
 
When they had birthdays, he invited his friends, not theirs.
 
A friend of the daughers, called Irina, said the three “constantly hid bruises on their bodies” and that their father treated them like “servants”.

Amal Clooney makes Lebanese student’s dream come true with scholarship

Emil Lazarian 
WENN Entertainment News Wire Service
 Tuesday 11:30 AM GMT
AMAL CLOONEY MAKES LEBANESE STUDENT'S DREAM COME TRUE WITH SCHOLARSHIP
AMAL CLOONEY has helped a Lebanese teenager realise her dream of
studying abroad as part of her young women's scholarship programme.
The human rights lawyer, who married Hollywood superstar George
Clooney in 2014, founded her educational initiative the following year
to help girls from her native Lebanon realise their potential.
This year (18), Amal and assessors at the Aurora Humanitarian
Initiative, an organisation founded on behalf of the survivors of the
Armenian Genocide, chose 16-year-old women's rights activist Kamar
Omary as the youngster who will travel to Armenia to attend the United
World College Dilijan.
"This scholarship will give young women from Lebanon the opportunity
of a lifetime," the 40-year-old said in a statement. "Cross-cultural
learning and studying abroad can be transformative. I am grateful to
the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative for helping to open doors for these
bright and talented young women."
Kamar, who was selected due to her interest in activism and her school
grades, also revealed that her mother "cried" when she found out that
her daughter would begin studying in Armenia in August.
She added: "The closer it gets to August the more nervous I become -
it's exciting because it's terrifying. This is an opportunity of a
lifetime. I hope to gain a platform - to talk to and change people. To
bring about change you need to inspire individual people and change
the world one person at a time. And that's what I'm planning to do."

Sports: Armenia gymnastics team to compete in medal count in European C’ship

Emil Lazarian
MediaMax, Armenia
Aug 1 2018
Armenia gymnastics team to compete in medal count in European C’ship

Secretary General of Armenian Gymnastics Federation Garnik Saroyan has told Mediamax Sport that both senior and junior athletes will be competing for medals.

For the first time, Armenian senior team will be involved in the competition for medal count. Head coach of the team Hakob Serobyan has chosen which athletes will represent Armenia in each exercise.

Floor: Vahagn Davtyan, Artur Davtyan, Vigen Khachatryan.

Pommel horse: Harutyun Merdinyan, Artur Davtyan, Vigen Khachatryan.

Rings: Artur Davtyan, Vahagn Davtyan, Artur Tovmasyan.

Vault: Vigen Khachatryan, Artur Davtyan, Vahagn Davtyan.

Horizontal Bar: Harutyun Merdinyan, Artur Davtyan, Vigen Khachatryan.

Parallel Bars: Vigen Khachatryan, Artur Tovmasyan, Artur Davtyan.

They will compete in the qualifying round on August 9. The final will take place on August 12.

Junior athletes to represent Armenia are Zhora Smbatyan and Gagik Khachikyan. Both will be involved in all around competition on August 3. If they reach the final, we will see Smbatyan and Khachikyan perform on August 10 as well.

Calendar of Events – 08/2/2018

Emil Lazarian 
                        Armenian News's Calendar of events
                        (All times local to events)
                =========================================
What:           Help Armenia Face the Challenges of Alzheimer's Conference
When:           Oct 26 2018 9am
Where:          Yerevan State Medical University
                Koryun St 2, Yerevan Armenian
Misc:           Registration: 9am - 10am | Conference: 10am - 4pm
                As Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia become an increased
                concern, we are taking steps to help Armenia face them. Mark
                your calendars for this very important conference and help
                raise the level of care through awareness and education.
                Speakers include:
                Professor Mikhayil Aghajanov, MD, Chairman of Biochemistry,
                Yerevan State Medical University
                Topic: Understanding Alzheimer's Disease
                Professor Hovhannes M. Manvelyan, MD, Ph.D.
                Chair of Neurology Department, YSMU
                Topic: The Problem of Dementia in Armenia
                Dr. Jane L. Mahakian, Ph.D. President, Alzheimer's Care Armenia
                Topic: Memory Loss: What's Normal and What's Not
                Victor Mazmanian
                Senior Director of Faith Outreach, Silverado Mind Heart Soul 
Ministry
                Topic: Caregiving and Hope
Online Contact: [email protected]
Tel:            Dr. Jane Mahakian (949) 212-4105
Web:            
                =========================================
What:           "Toward Sis with an Eyewitness View"
                a lecture is given by Bishop Torkom Donoyan
When:           Aug 19 2018 1pm
Following       Church Divine Liturgy which starts at 10:30am
Where:          Armenian Apostolic Church of Crescenta Valley
                Western Prelacy's Hall, 6252 Honolulu Ave., La Crescenta, CA
Misc:           By the blessing and ordination of His Holiness Catholicos Aram 
I,
                on August 22, 2015, four members of the Holy See of Cilicia
                Brotherhood departed on a two-day visit to Sis, once the seat
                of the Cilician Catholicosate and kingdom. During the historic
                mission which was initiated and organized by His Holiness,
                through the eyes of his spiritual children the Pontiff saw the
                dilapidated Catholicosate destroyed by the genocidal Turks, the
                fortress, the capital city. In the ruins of the Catholicosate
                and the fortress the clergymen offered prayers for the souls of
                the Catholicoi who served in Sis, for Cilician rulers, and for
                the souls of all of our nation's martyrs. The Pontiff's moving
                and inspirational message, titled "Greetings from the historic
                Sis Catholicosate," was read by H.G. Bishop Torkom Donoyan.
                Through the eyes of an eyewitness, Bishop Torkom will impart
                the experiences, sentiments, discretion, tears, and triumphs
                associated with the mission which was revealed to the
                clergymen mere hours prior to their departure.
                The event is free to the public.
Online Contact: [email protected]
Tel:            818-244-9645
***************************************************************************
Armenian News's calendar of events is collected and updated mostly from
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Sports: Unfamiliar ratings for Aronian in FIDE’s August list

Albert Nalbandian
MediaMax, Armenia
Aug 1 2018
Unfamiliar ratings for Aronian in FIDE’s August list

Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian with 2767 points has found himself in an unfamiliar position, the 13th place.

Other Armenian players in top 100 are Gabriel Sargsyan (ranked at 59t), Hrant Melkumyan (85) and Vladimir Hakobyan (93).

World champion Magnus Carlsen with 2842 points remains a confident leader in the list.

Sports: Edgar Stepanyan to compete for medal and Olympic quota in Glasgow 2018

Babken Chilingarian
MediaMax, Armenia
Aug 1 2018


Edgar Stepanyan to compete for medal and Olympic quota in Glasgow 2018


He has already arrived in Scotland and trained yesterday, head coach of the Armenia cycling team Armen Gyozalyan told Mediamax Sport.

Stepanyan will compete on August 3-5, in scratch, omnium and time trial. The prize at stake is the Olympic quota.

The Armenian cyclist trains and competes in the U.S. since March 2018. “It has helped Edgar a lot. He’s gaining experience and competing in different tournaments. Our primary goal now is to perform well in Glasgow to win the Olympic quota in omnium and a medal too, why not?” said Gyozalyan.

Stepanyan traveled to Armenia from U.S. in June and held a training camp in Olympavan, the Olympic training complex in Armenia.

This month Edgar has one more tournament, the U23 European Championship in Switzerland.