Armenian Grand Master Levon Aronian has retained the 7th spot in the November ranking of FIDE.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway) tops the ranking, followed by Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Viswanathan Anand (India).
Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian and Sergey Movsesian are ranked 52nd and 76th respectively.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won a critical parliamentary election, regaining the majority it lost in June, the BBC reports.
With almost all ballots counted, the state-run Anadolu news agency said the AKP had won 49.4% of the vote, with the main opposition CHP on 25.4%.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said voters had “shown that they prefer action and development to controversy”.
The pro-Kurdish HDP crossed the 10% threshold needed to claim seats.
The nationalist MHP will also take seats in Ankara.
With almost all of the results counted, the AKP had won substantially more than the 276 seats needed in order to form a government alone.
However, it fell 14 seats short of the number needed to call a referendum on changing the constitution and increasing the powers of the president, AKP founder Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
With 60 more seats, the government would have been able to bring in those changes without a referendum.
Armenians mourn the death of 224 passengers aboard the Russian Kogalymavia’s A321 airline that crashed over Egypt 30 minutes after takeoff in North Sinai Saturday.
People have been laying flowers and toys in front of the Russian Embassy in Armenia.
The Embassy has expressed gratitude for the heartfelt condolences, flowers, toys and candles lit in memory of the victims of the air crash in Egypt.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan earlier offered condolences to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The Tuzla Armenian orphanage camp “Kamp Armen”, seized in 1980s by Turkish state, was restituted to the Armenian community last week. Nor Zartonk, an NGO founded by Armenian young people in Turkey, took part in the struggle for the return of Kamp Armen.
“If we wanted to erect an Armenian Genocide monument in Turkey, there would be no need for that. Kamp Armen stands there like a monument of the Armenian genocide,” Sayat Tekir from Nor Zartonk said in an interview with .
“Many people participated in the Kamp Armen resistance and these were people who had not come to the fore in the political arena before. The resistance politicized the people. We turned Kamp Armen into a space in which everything concerning Armenians could be talked about. We held panel discussions there, we organized activities about culture and history, we kept it constantly alive,” Tekir said.
He said there were two attacks on the hundredth and hundred and twenty first day of the resistance. “Especially because the atmosphere in the country changed after the elections, because nationalism and other racist inclinations had increased drastically, Kamp Armen became a target.”
Kremlin spokesman has said that no possible causes of the air crash in Egypt should be ruled out, TASS reports.
“For now, no possible causes should be ruled out,” Peskov told journalists. “In fact, investigators are only starting their work. Each possible cause will be examined over the course of further investigation. We cannot say anything for now,” he said.
“In any case, it is absolutely wrong to articulate any preliminary speculations, any opinions, any statements. We should wait for first results of the investigation,” the Kremlin spokesman added but refused to forecast when the first results may appear.
He reminded that the main investigation is carried out by the country where the air crash occurred. Peskov added that Moscow highly assesses the effectiveness of Egyptian authorities in investigating the accident. “In this case, we should only wait for the results of the investigation and not speculate,” he stressed.
Russian Kogalymavia’s A321 plane en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashed on October 31 around 30 minutes after takeoff in North Sinai, 100 kilometers to the south of Al-Arish. Flight 9268 carried 217 passengers and seven crewmembers. Most passengers were Russian nationals.
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan presented the draft state budget for FY2016 to the Parliament today. He said the budget is based on principles of “feasibility and stability.”
The Prime Minister said the 2016 budget will be socially-oriented, proved by the fact that the spendings of the fields of social security, education, culture and healthcare make nearly half of the total budget expenditures.
“We look at issues from the perspectives of long-term development, rather than current interests. We have tried to put long-term benefits above the temptation of immediate profits,” the Prime Minister said.
The draft budget approved by the government on October 1, envisages 1 trillion and 373.7 billion AMD in revenues and 1 trillion and 183 billion AMD in spending.
The projected deficit is 197 billion AMD. The GDP growth is expected to stand at 2.2%, the 12-month inflation at 4% (± 1.5%) and the budget deficit at 3.5% of GDP.
On 2 November Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan received head of the “Landmine Free Artsakh Campaign” initiative Ojeni Panosyan and program manager of the “HALO Trust” organization for Armenia and Artsakh Yuri Shahramanyan.
Issues related to the demining process in Artsakh were discussed during the meeting.
President Sahakyan underlined that the “HALO Trust” organization fulfilled a very significant mission in our republic, adding that active participation of the “Landmine Free Artsakh Campaign” initiative in the implementation of mine clearing activities was demanded and necessary.
Kogalymavia confirmed on Monday that a Russian airliner’s tail part had been damaged prior to the air crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Sputnik News reports.
On Saturday, Airbus A-321 operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia crashed in the Sinai Peninsula en route from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board, including 25 children, were confirmed dead by Russian and Egyptian authorities.
The tragedy has already been named the biggest civil aviation disaster in Russian and Soviet history.
After the tail part of the Airbus A321 plane had sustained damages, the airliner was repaired. The technical condition of the plane was normal, Kogalymavia officials said.
External forces are the only possible reason of the deadly crash, Kogalymavia officials said Monday. Kogalymavia 7K9268 flight likely suffered substantial damages when it started to fall, officials said.
The Kogalymavia plane’s crew completely lost control over the aircraft as the disaster started to unfold.
However, the crashed Russian airliner had passed all necessary tests, the company’s top manager said Monday.
President Serzh Sargsyan received today the delegation headed by Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the Council of Federation of the Russian Federal Assembly.
President Sargsyan once again offered condolences over the crash of the Russian airliner in Egypt, which claimed a number of human lives. The President offered to pay tribute to the memory of the victims with a minute of silence.
The parties discussed the issues on the comprehensive bilateral agenda and considered the future steps towards the deepening and reinforcement of the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership. They emphasized the activity of the Armenian-Russian Inter-Parliamentary Commission.
The interlocutors attached importance to decentralized cooperation, which, they said, is enhanced by the conduct of regular inter-regional forums. President Sargsyan welcomed Valentina Matvienko’s participation in the fourth Armenian-Russian Inter-Regional Forum due in Yerevan tomorrow.
According to President Sargsyan, the forum is an important platform for the discussing urgent issues, developing effective mechanisms and determining new perspectives of decentralized cooperation.
The Armenian President and the Chairwoman of the Russian Council of Federation exchanged views on urgent international issues and regional challenges, the current stage of negotiation on the Karabakh conflict.
Three Armenians have been elected to the Turkish Parliament as a result of the Sunday vote, Arevelk.am reports.
Garapet (Garo) Paylan, ran on the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) list; Markar Esayan from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP); and Selina Özuzun Doğan from the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) regained the majority it lost in June.