Category: News

On 27 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov (the Russian Federation), Pierre Andrieu (France), James Warlick (the USA), personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and accompanying them individuals.

Issues related to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement and situation along the borderline were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan noted that Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy and gross violations of the ceasefire regime, rejection of any constructive proposals by official Baku endangered stability and peace in the region, as well as the mediatory mission carried out in the direction.

The President underlined that it’s necessary above all to give new impetus to the maintenance of the ceasefire regime and particularize responsibility mechanisms for its violation, adding that official Stepanakert is ready to take an active part in that process.

Asbarez – In response to the recent escalation of violence and war threats by the government of Azerbaijan against Armenians in Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia, Councilmember Paul Krekorian, the first Armenian-American elected to public office in the City of Los Angeles, urged U.S. Congressional leaders to take immediate action to save Armenian lives. In an recent letter to Southern California Congressmembers, Krekorian asked leaders to sign the Royce-Engel letter and hold Azerbaijan accountable for its crimes, refrain from further violence and take measures toward establishing a lasting peace in the region. Krekorian’s letter is attached and reprinted below:

Dear Congressmember:
As you know, more than 20 years after Artsakh’s declaration of independence and the ceasefire in its subsequent war with Azerbaijan, ongoing tension in the Caucasus region continues to devastate innocent lives and threaten regional stability. In particular, the Republic of Azerbaijan has engaged in both increasingly bellicose rhetoric and an increasing willingness to engage in active violence in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

In the past few weeks, for example, Azerbaijan’s shelling of villages in the Tavoush region of Armenia has killed numerous civilians, including 83-year-old Paytsar Aghajanyan, Sona Revazyan, 41, and Shoushan Asadryan, 94, along with at least four Armenian soldiers. Many other innocent civilians have been wounded in separate unprovoked attacks. Shellings like these, as well as cross-border killings by Azeri snipers, have taken countless lives of civilian men, women and children.

The response from our government has been pathetically weak. U.S. Ambassador and OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick has said that both sides should refrain from violence, but the United States refuses to state clearly that there is only one state that continues to be the predominant aggressor and provocateur, and that is Azerbaijan.

Any statement of moral equivalence in the face of continued aggression by the government of Azerbaijan is not an acceptable way forward. It could give the world the perception that the U.S. government sees no difference between the perpetrators of violence and the victims. Our government has an obligation to stand on the right side of this issue and should not give Baku cover for their crimes against the Armenian people in Artsakh and in the Republic of Armenia.

I urge you to join so many of your colleagues in signing the Royce-Engel letter, calling for a transition away from a failed policy of false parity to a constructive, accountability-based approach to peacekeeping. Renewed U.S. leadership in keeping the peace along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact is absolutely necessary as Azerbaijan steps up its attacks.

This sensible, bipartisan letter proposes three concrete steps to help save lives, avert war, and reach a just and lasting peace:

1. An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact;
2. The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact; and
3. The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.
Armenia has already agreed to abide by these principles, but the Aliyev regime continues to refuse to do so.

Please sign the Royce-Engel letter today. Azerbaijan’s unprovoked attacks will continue unless we stand together for justice and peace. The government of Azerbaijan must honor its OSCE obligations to refrain from violence and to undertake confidence-building measures toward a lasting peace.

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue. I am confident that your leadership will make a material difference in helping to prevent the destructive slide toward a new war.

Georgia and Armenia are expanding commercial, economic and tourism ties by building a new bridge to better connect the two countries, Agenda.ge reports.

A delegation from Armenia visited Georgia today to sign an agreement on building the new bridge over the Debed River, near the Armenian border.

The new bridge will be built at the Sadakhlo-Bagratashen border checkpoint. Currentl this border crossing point only has a single narrow bridge built in Soviet times.

The decision to build a new bridge was made last year when Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and his Armenian counterpart Hovik Abrahamyan met. While discussing ways to deepen political and economic relations, two officials agreed to jointly construct a bridge to commemorate their friendship.

For this reason, the bridge would be called “a bridge of friendship”.

Construction of the new bridge will be carried out by the Georgian Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure. Further details of the construction plans or the anticipated costs have not been revealed.

Stephan P. Barnicle’s new choral composition — “A New Armenia!” — that was commissioned by the Master Singers of Worcester premiered at the Armenian Genocide Centennial Commemorative Concert Oct. 25 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, the  reports.

The concert was co-sponsored by the Master Singers of Worcester and the Armenian Church of Our Saviour in Worcester. The program also featured sacred and secular music of Armenia, and the Worcester premiere of American composer Dan Forrest’s “Requiem for the Living.”

The Master Singers were joined by a chamber orchestra, organist William Ness, singers and dancers from the Armenian community, and the children’s choirs of First Congregational Church in Shrewsbury and St. Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury.

The countries in which people feel the safest to walk home alone at night have been revealed in the 2015 Gallup Law and Order Index, reports. Armenia is placed 9^th in the list.

 is a worldwide measure of people’s sense of personal security in local areas, as well as their own experiences with law enforcement.

The report is based on more than 142,000 interviews with adults in 141 countries in 2014.

For one of the measurements, respondents were asked: “Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?”

Singapore and Hong Kong share the honour of the countries in which people are most likely to feel safe, both achieving 91 per cent.

Venezuelan adults are the least likely to say they feel safe walking alone at night, with only 22 per cent.

 

A powerful earthquake has struck northern Afghanistan, with tremors felt in Pakistan and northern India, the BBC reports.

At least 40 people are said to have been killed in Pakistan, with about 20 deaths reported in Afghanistan.

The magnitude 7.5 quake was centred in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, 75km (46 miles) south of Faizabad, the US Geological Survey reported.

Buildings were evacuated in the capitals of all three countries and communications disrupted in many areas.

In the Afghan province of Takhar, a stampede at a girls’ school triggered by the quake is reported to have left 12 students dead. Another 25 students were injured.

Five people died in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, hospital sources said.

Most of the casualties in Pakistan are reported to have happened in the northern tribal areas.

Officials said the quake happened at a depth of 212km. The magnitude was initially put at 7.7 but later downgraded.

The representatives of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan agreed on multilateral cooperation, an interstate system for space monitoring of emergency situations, as well as an interregional satellite communication system, according to Roscosmos, Sputnik News reports.

A protocol on CIS countries cooperation that includes an agreement to establish a Joint Institute for Space Research, was signed on Friday, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.

“One of the key decisions is the agreement of the partners to start preparing a project on the establishment of an international intergovernmental research organization [called the] Joint Institute for Space Research,” the statement reads.

The space agency noted that the final protocol was signed in Minsk, Belarus, following a two-day meeting of representatives from the CIS countries’ executive authorities devoted to the cooperation in space.

According to Roskosmos, the representatives of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan agreed to create a new contract-legal basis for multilateral cooperation, an interstate system for space monitoring of emergency situations, as well as an interregional satellite communication system.

On Thursday, the sixth conference devoted to cooperation in space for CIS countries opened in Minsk. The main objective of the event is to discuss acute issues of multilateral interaction in the sphere of research and how space can be used in the interest of CIS member states.

A Saudi prince and four others were detained on Monday in the largest drug bust in the history of the Beirut airport, a security source said.

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained by security at Rafik Hariri International Airport while allegedly “attempting to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine,” a security source told AFP.

“The smuggling operation is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut International Airport,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Captagon is the brand name for the amphetamine phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant. The banned drug is consumed mainly in the Middle East and has reportedly been widely used by fighters in Syria.

The security source said the drugs had been packed into cases that were waiting to be loaded onto a private plane that was headed to Saudi Arabia.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs James Warlick, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu.

The parties continued the discussions on furthering the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh.

The Armenian Foreign Minister called the attention of the mediators to the fact that Azerbaijan continues to violate the ceasefire at the line of contact with Artsakh and the shared border with Armenia even after the two statements the Co-Chairs issued last month.

“The border provocations by Azerbaijan are accompanied by belligerent statements and threats in Baku on the highest level, the propaganda of enmity and hatred,” Minister Nalabndian said.

“Azerbaijan’s rejection of the Co-Chairs’ proposal to create a mechanism of investigation of border incidents testifies to the fact that Baku wishes to foil the efforts of Armenia and the co-chairing countries aimed at peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict,” the Armenian Foreign Minister stated.

A Service of Commemoration of the Armenian Martyrs of 1915 will be held at Westminster Abbey at 7.00pm on Wednesday 28^th October.

The service will be attended by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Excellency Dr Armen Sarkissian, the Armenian ambassador to the Court of St James, and members of the Armenian Government.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale discussed the preparations for the event at a .