Category: News

The United States has warned Azerbaijan against the attempts to force the closure of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

“We are very concerned by the situation regarding the OSCE Office in Yerevan,” US Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. Kate M. Byrnes told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.

“This office, like all OSCE field missions and institutions, is an important element of the work done by this organization to assist participating states with the implementation of their OSCE commitments,” she said.

“Should the Office in Yerevan be forced to close, this will reflect poorly on Azerbaijan and its government’s commitment to the OSCE,” Byrnes warned.

She urged the government of Azerbaijan “to constructively engage in finding a compromise solution as soon as possible that will allow the office in Yerevan to remain open.”

Gagik Tsarukyan has been elected President of the Prosperous Armenia Party at the 9^th Convention of the Party held at the Sports and Concert Complex today.

He has also been elected President of the Political Board.

Naira Zohrabyan, who had been heading the party since February 2015, announced earlier this month se would step down.

Photo: AFP

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday rubber-stamped controversial constitutional changes that will boost his own powers, paving the way for a referendum on the legislation in April, AFP reports.

The government says the proposals to create an executive presidency will simplify the government structure, but opponents fear they will lead to one-man rule in Turkey.

“People will have the final say,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said in comments carried by the Anadolu news agency, announcing that the referendum would take place on April 16.

Parliament in January approved a new 18-article constitution to create an executive presidency in the NATO member state along the lines of the system in France and the United States.

Brawls erupted between lawmakers during debates over the bill, highlighting the divisive nature of the changes, the most far-reaching constitutional shift since the creation of modern Turkey in 1923.

Erdogan approved the legislation six months after an attempted coup against him by a rogue military faction in July last year.

Under the new constitution, the president will have strengthened executive powers to directly appoint top public officials including ministers.

The post of prime minister, currently held by Erdogan loyalist Binali Yildirim, would be replaced with one or more vice presidents.

Erdogan’s supporters say the changes are necessary for effective government and to avoid fragile and unstable coalitions that were a feature of Turkey’s political scene in the past.

The bill also calls for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held at the same time, with the draft giving November 3, 2019 as the date of the next ballot.

Photos: Hungary Police

 

Hungarian police say they have finished their investigation of a trove of Persian, Sumerian and Assyrian antiquities found last year in a truck, the Associated Press reports.

Police in Bacs-Kiskun County said Wednesday that bronze objects from as early as 900 B.C. were among the dozens of items recovered.

The artifacts, including a helmet, small bells and horse tack, were likely from the grave of a high-raking military officer from Urartu, also called the Kingdom of Van, corresponding to parts of modern Armenia and Turkey.

Police found the objects during a routine search on Sept. 29 of a truck going to Lithuania. They have recommended that the Turkish driver be charged with receiving stolen goods.

The entire collection is estimated to be worth up to $690,000.

The military and technical cooperation between Russia and Armenia meets the friendly relationship between the two countries, Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volynkin said in an interview with TASS.

“The military and technical cooperation between Russia and Armenia is complex and in line with the friendly relations between the countries,” he said.

The sides are consistently improving the contractual legal framework, Volynkin said, adding that an Agreement on creation of a combined force was signed last year, and an Agreement on creation of a combined regional air defense system has recently came into force in the Caucasus region.

According to the Russian Ambassador, “the intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation regularly discusses the pressing issues of Russia’s arms delivery, as well as expansion of cooperation between Russian and Armenian enterprises of the military-industrial complex (its 11th meeting was held last September).”

There has been an offer to organize a meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers later this month, Spokesperson for the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

“The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have offered to organize a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference,” Tigran Balayan told Tert.am.

“As Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a press conference earlier this month, let’s wait and see what gambles Azerbaijan tries this time,” Balayan said.

“The leadership of Azerbaijan violates the peaceful efforts of the international community and throws down the gauntlet to the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said, commenting on the statement of the President of Azerbaijan that “the April military actions and the ongoing tensions along the Line of Contact are the internal matter of Azerbaijan.”

“First of all, Azerbaijan has signed the 1994 Trilateral Armistice Agreement and the 1995 Agreement on the Consolidation of the Ceasefire Regime, which have no time limitations, with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The international community and the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, which have the mandate for mediation mission, have called on numerous occasions to strictly adhere to those agreements, maintain ceasefire regime and resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue exclusively through peaceful negotiations,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said in comments to Armenpress.

“It is obvious that resumption by Azerbaijan of military actions against Nagorno-Karabakh in April of 2016 is a gross violation of Azerbaijan’s international commitments entered into under the abovementioned agreements, constitutes an explicit disregard for the calls of the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and is an aggression against the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

“In its recent statement the leadership of Azerbaijan violates the peaceful efforts of the international community and throws down the gauntlet to the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries,” he noted.

“Either Azerbaijan believing that Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is its internal issue pretends that it takes part in the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, or it participates in the negotiations at the same time pretending that the conflict is its internal issue. Both cases are aimed at undermining the mediatory efforts of the international community,” the Deputy Foreign Minister said.

“If the leadership of Azerbaijan makes such statements without realizing the abovementioned, it still bears the responsibility for the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani side during the April aggression,” Shavarsh Kocharyan concluded.

Manchester United midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has thanked Jurgen Klopp for the advice that helped him through a tough start to his Old Trafford career

Liverpool boss Klopp counselled the player through a difficult time when they were at Borussia Dortmund in 2013.

Earlier this season, Mkhitaryan, 28, did not play in the league for 10 weeks and remembered Klopp’s previous advice.

“I am thankful to Klopp. He worked on my personality and the psychological part,” he told .

The Armenian spent two seasons working under Klopp in Germany before the coach quit, later taking over at Liverpool in October 2015.

Within eight months, the playmaker was following his old boss to the Premier League, joining United for a reported £26.3m.

However, after being substituted at half-time during United’s 2-1 home defeat by Manchester City on 10 September, he did not play in the Premier League again until 27 November.

“At Dortmund, I was very stressed after a few games when we were playing really bad,” added Mkhitaryan, who has scored five times this season.

“Klopp showed me the way. He supported me and told me I had to keep my head up because good things were coming. He helped me to become a player.”

However, he says Klopp is a different person to United manager Jose Mourinho.

“They are both very friendly and very good at their jobs but the way they work is different.

“It is the first year under Jose’s management and we are working very hard. He tells us what he wants to see. Of course, it is not very easy when you have a new manager.

“You have to adapt to him and the team, the training sessions and the games. At the beginning we had a little bit of difficulties but then we started winning in November.”

The move to the Premier League was another step on a remarkable journey for Mkhitaryan, who speaks six languages – including English – and is the son of one of Armenia’s most famous footballers.

Father Hamlet was also an Armenian international and one of the first players from the country to play outside of the old Soviet Union. He died of a brain tumour when Mkhitaryan was seven.

“He was my drive, my goal, my dream,” he said. “I did not feel the true impact when he died but I knew that he was watching me from the sky. He has to be very proud.”

 

Russia continues to take steps to bring Armenian and Azerbaijani positions closer with a view of solving the Karabakh conflict in a peaceful way, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volynkin said in an interview with .

“A number of steps have been taken by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to normalize the situation after the four-day war in April 2016, which, I stress, could be stopped thanks to the timely mediation of Russia,” the Ambassador said. He reminded about the two summits held in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

“Unfortunately, the agreements reached at the summits, including the ones on an investigation mechanism and expansion of the OSCE monitoring mission have not been implemented yet,” Volynkin noted.

He called attention to the clashes at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on December 29, 2016. “Armenian servicemen and one of the attacking soldiers of Azerbaijan were killed on the territory of Armenia,” the Ambassador reminded.

“Russia stands for re-establishment of peace and stability in the South Caucasus. We see no alternative to the peaceful settlement. In cooperation with the partners in the Minsk Group, we’ll maintain efforts to bring the positions of the parties closer,” he assured.

Photo: Reuters

President Vladimir Put
in has sent condolences after a Russian air strike accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers in northern Syria, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, Sputnik reports.

Peskov said that Russia and Turkey will jointly investigate the deadly incident. The Kremlin spokesman said that Putin told Erdogan that Turkish soldiers had died as a result of lack of coordination regarding coordinates during Russian military jets’ strikes in Syria.

Russia and Turkey will improve coordination of activities in Syria after the unintentional strike, Peskov said.

The Russian and Turkish presidents held a phone conversation earlier on Thursday. Putin expressed condolences to Erdogan over the deaths of Turkish soldiers near Syria’s al-Bab, the Kremlin said earlier. They to expand military coordination during the operation against militants from Daesh and other extremist groups in Syria.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish General Staff said that an accidental Russian airstrike killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded 11 others in northern Syria.