Category: News

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) decided last week that no OSCE PA delegation will deploy to observe the 1 November parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, in line with an earlier decision made by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

The President announced his decision during the Assembly’s Autumn Meeting, saying on 17 September that if ODIHR would not send observers due to restrictions imposed by the Azerbaijani authorities, than neither would the Parliamentary Assembly.

Speaking at the PA’s Standing Committee meeting last week in Ulaanbaatar, President Kanerva said, “The Azerbaijan government has imposed restrictions on the work of our traditional OSCE partner, ODIHR. As a result, ODIHR has been forced to cancel their planned observation mission in Azerbaijan. I think it is only appropriate that if our very vital and close partner ODIHR cannot observe, that we also don’t observe in Azerbaijan.”

On 11 September, ODIHR Director Michael Georg Link said that restrictions on the number of observers being imposed by the Azerbaijani authorities would make credible election observation impossible in Azerbaijan. “Regretfully, we are compelled by these actions to cancel the deployment of ODIHR’s observation mission for the parliamentary elections,” said Link.

The Assembly’s decision was confirmed today by OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver. “As an OSCE participating State, Azerbaijan agreed in the 1990 Copenhagen Document to invite the OSCE to observe its elections. It is therefore regrettable that the authorities’ insistence on a restricted number of observers has undermined the effectiveness and credibility of our election observation. The President of the Assembly has announced that we will decline to send observers to these elections if ODIHR does not,” Oliver said.

Since 1993, more than 5,000 OSCE parliamentarians have observed nearly 150 elections in more than 30 countries.

 

 

 

As part of the events dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute (AGMI) presented four new works, two of them in English. Following the presentation AGMI Director Hayk Demoyan awarded medals and diplomas to individuals and groups that contributed to the Museum within the framework of the centennial events.

“The Armenian Genocide in Contemporary American Encyclopedias” by Dr. Arman Kirakossian is a summary of interpretations on the topic of the Armenian Genocide in American encyclopedias.

The author said the work is especially important for scholars and can well be a good propaganda tool.

Hayk Demoyan informed that another two volumes titled “Armenian Genocide Encyclopedia” will be published by the end of the year.

The AGMI also presented Rubina Peroomian’s “The Armenian Genocide in Literature: The Second Generation Responds” and “The number of Western Armenians in 1878-1914” by Robert Tatosyan.

The fourth book unveiled today was the catalogue of the temporary exhibition on “The Armenian Genocide: The Scandinavian Response,” published under a presidential grant.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)  is extending assistance of $89.3 million to help Armenia build earthquake-resilient schools and scale up its capacity for responding to natural disasters in one of the most earthquake prone regions in the world.

“Since the massive Spitak earthquake in 1988, national authorities have taken numerous steps to develop emergency management and response systems and to improve building design and construction,” said Yong Ye, Principal Urban Development Economist in ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. “This  assistance will support ongoing government efforts to rebuild and strengthen school buildings to higher earthquake-resistant standards and to further develop the government’s capacity, ownership and initiative in the management of earthquake risks.”

Armenia has about 1,400 schools and around 1,000 of them require strengthening and reconstruction works at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.

ADB’s loan and grant will support improvements to at least 46 priority schools. It will also help the target schools develop disaster preparedness and response plans, with earthquake awareness campaigns to be carried out in neighborhood communities for each school.

The assistance program incorporates lessons learned from ADB’s responses to natural disasters in other countries, including the recent Nepal earthquake. It will benefit around 58,700 students, teachers and other staff, as well as over 87,000 residents living near the target schools, who will have access to improved temporary shelters during earthquakes.

ADB’s assistance includes an $88.5 million loan from its concessional Asian Development Fund, and a technical assistance grant of $800,000. The government will provide counterpart support equivalent to $18.5 million. The program will run for 5 years with an estimated completion date of November 2020.

The new Moscow Cathedral Mosque opened on Wednesday in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The new building of the Moscow Mosque was erected on the place of a historical building constructed in the early 20th century and torn down in 2011.

Ideological concepts of the Islamic State are distorting and compromising Islam, President Vladimir Putin said at the opening ceremony, Interfax Religion reports.

“We can see what is going on in the Middle East where terrorists of the so-called Islamic State are compromising the great world religion, seeding hatred, murdering people, including clerics, and barbarically destroying world cultural monuments,” Putin said at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque opening ceremony.

The ISIS ideology “is built on lies, on blatant distortion of Islam,” he said.

“GDP growth in Armenia accelerated to 4.0% in the first half of 2015 from 2.6% in the same period in 2014 and to 3.5% for all of 2014. All major sectors contributed to growth, but a 4.2% slump in trade slowed growth in services to 1.8% from 3.7% a year earlier,” the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a new “Asian Development Outlook 2015” report.

Agriculture saw double-digit growth at 15.5%, and industry including construction expanded by 3.7%. On the demand side, private consumption and investment declined, while public consumption showed only modest gains. The drag from the deficit in external trade and services moderated significantly, as exports fell much less than imports.

Despite strong growth in the first half, the growth forecasts are trimmed for 2015 and 2016, as problems in Armenia’s major trading partners continue to reduce trade, remittances, and investments and so depress economic growth.

Agriculture is still foreseen as the primary driver of growth, along with a modest contribution from industry and services. On the demand side, the pattern of growth is expected to continue for the rest of the year, with a larger deficit in external trade and services, along with weaker investment and private consumption. The lagged pass-through of currency depreciation at the end of 2014 caused average annual inflation to accelerate to 5.0% in the first 7 months of 2015 from 3.4% in the same period in 2014 and 3.0% in all of 2014.

The 12-month inflation rate of 4.2% in July remained within the central bank’s target band of 2.5%–5.5%. Despite these developments, inflation forecasts remain unchanged for 2015 and 2016, as strong growth in agricultural supply, weak domestic demand, and tight monetary policy should cause inflation to recede in the months ahead.

The current account deficit narrowed to 7.3% of GDP in 2014 from 7.6% in 2013. A slight improvement in the goods and services trade deficit was partly offset by a larger deficit for primary and secondary income, reflecting the drop in remittances. In line with this improvement, the projections for the current account deficit are narrowed for 2015 but kept unchanged for 2016.

Armenians of Philadelphia welcome Pope Francis to the US with special digital billboards to thank the Pontiff for his recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“Thank you Pope Francis for Recognizing Armenian Genocide. #NeverForget 2015” the posters read.

Pope Francis has begun his tour of the US, where he is expected to greet millions of American Catholics and address thorny issues like climate change and income inequality.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the Pope as he landed on Tuesday – a rare honor for a foreign dignitary.

The Pontiff will visit Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia.

Today Pope Francis will pray with U.S. Catholic Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

His Holiness, Pope Francis  during a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will leave for New York on September 24 to participate in the 70^th session of the UN General Assembly.

Within the framework of the visit Minister Nalbandian will participate in a number of high-level conferences and meetings.

The Armenian Foreign Minister is expected to meet with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister.

Edward Nalbandian will also hold meetings with his counterparts from a number of countries.

Pope Francis has begun his tour of the US, where he is expected to greet millions of American Catholics and address thorny issues like climate change and income inequality, the BBC reports.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the pope as he landed on Tuesday – a rare honour for a foreign dignitary.

The pontiff will visit Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia.

Before he departed Cuba on Tuesday, he called on its people to live a “revolution of tenderness”.

In the final Mass of his four-day visit to the island, with President Raul Castro attending, he urged thousands of Cubans to serve one another and not an ideology.

An Armenian delegation led by Deputy Minister of Economy Sergey Avetisyan and Executive Director of the Armenian Development Agency Arman Khachatryan attended the 21st World Routes 2015 forum held in Durban, South Africa September 19-22.

The World Route Development Forum is the largest global annual event of its kind. The largest and most prestigious event in the Routes portfolio, the event attracts the most senior representatives from airlines, airports and tourism authorities, who wish to meet, plan and discuss new and existing global air services.

This year the event brought together representatives of about 250 airlines, 650 airports, 2,500 specialists of the sphere and 170 tourism authorities from more than 100 countries of the world.

The Armenian delegation presented the “Open sky” policy of the government and the steps targeted at promoting tourism in the country. Reference was made to the process and perspectives of Armenia’s integration with the global tourism market.

On the sidelines of the forum the Armenian side held negotiations with about twenty airlines to discuss the perspectives and formats of their entry into Armenian market.

Four Armenians were injured in a rocket attack on Nor Geghi neighborhood of Aleppo, Kantsasar newspaper reports.

The district came under heavy shelling on September 21. The attack left nine killed and many injured, a number of buildings were collapsed, the source said.