Category: News

The Armenian national team will hold a training campaign from August 31 to September 3 to prepare for a Euro-2016 qualifier against Serbia scheduled for September 4. The team will leave for Serbia on September 3. Interim head coach Sargis Hovsepyan has called up 23 players to take part in the training campaign:

Goalkeepers

Gevorg Kasparov FC Alashkert

Arsen Beglaryan FC Mika

Gevorg Prazyan FC Ararat

Defenders

Robert Arzumanyan Amkar (Russia)

Hrayr Mkoyan Esteghlal (Iran)

Gael Andonyan Olimpique (Marseille, France)

Hovhannes Hambardzumyan FC Vardar (FYR Macedonia)

Levon Airapetian FC Pyunik

Taron Voskanyan FC Pyunik

Varazdat Haroyan FC Pyunik

Kamo Hovhannisyan FC Pyunik

Midfielders

Henrikh Mkhitaryan Borussia (Dortmund, Germany)

Gevorg Ghazaryan C.S. Maritimo (Portugal)

Marcos Pizzelli Aktobe (Kazakhstan)

Aras Ozbiliz Spartak (Moscow, Russia)

Karlen Mkrtchyan Anji (Russia)

Norayr Aslanyan Almere City (Netherlands)

Artem Simonyan Zurich (Switzerland)

Artur Yuspashyan FC Pyunik

Artak Grigoryan FC Alashkert

Forwards

Yura Movsisyan Spartak (Moscow, Russia)

Edgar Manucharyan FC Ural (Russia)

Ruslan Koryan Luch-Energia (Russia)

Heavy rain battered the Black Sea port of Batumi on Tuesday, causing flooding, reports.

Several streets including the entrance to the city were blocked by the flood, while rescue workers tried to help with the first floors of buildings that were full of water.

Some cars were stuck in the streets. Additional teams of rescue workers were sent from Tbilisi and Kutaisi, because all available personnel in the Adjara region were already on duty.

There were also problems in other places around Batumi. Houses were flooded in Khelvachauri, while in Poti, an electricity substation was struck by lightning and power was cut for part of the city. First floors of houses were also flooded in Poti.

Kosovo and Serbia have signed a series of agreements in key areas, in a major step towards normalising ties, the BBC reports.

Serbs in northern Kosovo will enjoy greater rights through one of the deals, while Kosovo gains its own international dialling code in another.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, who mediated, called the agreements “landmark achievements”.

Kosovo split from Serbia in 2008, a decade on since a conflict between Serb forces and Kosovan Albanian rebels.

As well as deals on energy and telecommunications, Kosovo and Serbia also agreed on how to share the symbolic Mitrovica Bridge that separates Albanian and Serb communities in the north.

Both sides aspire to join EU, which for Serbia depends on implementing a 2013 EU-brokered agreement on normalising ties with its southern neighbour.

“This is a big achievement for the whole of Serbia and it means there are no longer any obstacles, nothing stands on Serbia’s way towards Europe,” said the Serb President Aleksandar Vucic.

On August 22 a delegation representing the brotherhood of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia left for the Sis Catholicosate with the blessing of His Holiness Aram I.

A requiem service was held in Sis for the blessed souls of deceased Catholicoi who lived and served at the Catholicosate of Sis from 1293-1915. Then the pontifical message of His Holiness Aram I was read.

It  was the first time in the last 100 years that a pontifical message was delivered to our people from the ruins of the Catholicosate in Sis. In his message the Pontiff referred to the Armenian Genocide, and His demand for the return of the Sis Catholicosate to its rightful owner, the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia.

His Holiness also reaffirmed the commitment of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia to the sacred legacy of the Armenian martyrs.

On 27^th of April 2015, a lawsuit was filed by the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia to the Constitutional Court of Turkey, demanding the return of the centuries old Catholicosate in Sis to the Armenian Church.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) has welcomed the pre-selection of Hovig Melkonian as the Australian Labor Party’s candidate for the Federal seat of Casey in Victoria.

Melkonian is a current ANC Australia National Board member and he will take an extended leave of absence from his position to contest the election, which will likely take place no later than 2016.

79% of Labor members in the Casey branch supported Melkonian’s nomination as their Party’s candidate and he was pre-selected unopposed by Labor’s public office selection committee.

“I’m honoured to have earned the support of rank-and-file members to contest the next federal election as the Labor candidate for Casey,” Melkonian said.

“This is the part of the world where I grew up. I’m very proud to have the opportunity to represent this community.”

Melkonian will be running against the incumbent Liberal Member for Casey and new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith MP.

Melkonian studied Advanced Manufacturing and Mechatronics Engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). He has also served in the National Union of Students as a Welfare Officer and as an RMIT Council Member.

Greg Soghomonian, Chairman of ANC Australia, said: “We warmly welcome the pre-selection of Hovig as the Labor candidate for Casey. Participation in public office is an important element for the development of our nation and we are confident that if elected, Hovig will make an enormous contribution to Australia.”

Vache Kahramanian, Executive director of ANC Australia, echoed these sentiments: “I have had the great pleasure of working with Hovig for many years. He has been a great asset to the Armenian National Committee and he will be an even greater asset to the Australian nation.”

Matthew Karanian, the author of ‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years,’ will present his groundbreaking new book in Canada during a three-city tour of the country in September.

The Canada book tour is organized under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to Canada, and commemorates the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years’ (Stone Garden Press, 2015) is the first-ever historical guide to the ancient Armenian homeland. The book includes 125 color photographs and maps that show Western Armenia as it appears today.

The premiere Canada event is at 9 pm on Friday, Sept. 11 at the Tekeyan Center, 825 Rue Manoogian, St. Laurent, Quebec. This event is hosted by the Tekeyan Cultural Association.

Karanian will also speak at 1 pm on Saturday, Sept. 12 at the Armenian Embassy, 7 Delaware Ave., Ottawa, Ontario. The event at the Armenian Embassy is hosted by Ambassador and Mrs. Armen Yeganian.

The concluding event for ‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years’ is at 2 pm on Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Armenian Community Center, 45 Hallcrown Place, Toronto, Ontario.

The Toronto event is co-hosted by the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) of Toronto, the Hamazkayin Educational and Cultural Society of Toronto, The Toronto Hye Agoump; and Bolsahay Cultural Assocation Toronto.

The entire tour is under the auspices of the Armenian Embassy in Canada.

President Serzh Sargsyan received the representatives of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

The President expressed his gratitude for the high quality expert assistance to the process of elaboration of the Draft Constitutional reforms provided by this respected international institution. He also underlined the significance of such assistance for the ongoing legal reforms in the country.

During the meeting the interlocutors also underscored that there are no substantial discrepancies concerning the draft on the table. They also exchanged views pertaining to the democratic innovations embedded in the Draft Constitutional reforms of the Republic of Armenia.

Co-Founders of 100 LIVES initiative Ruben Vardanyan, Noubar Afeyan and Vartan Gregorian sent open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

“It is with profound respect and gratitude that we join you on this World Humanitarian Day in honoring and commemorating the humanitarians who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

For the three of us, the spirit of this day is deeply personal. As Armenians, we are profoundly grateful to those individuals whose heroic acts saved lives during the Armenian Genocide. Their courageous legacy, like that of Special Representative Sérgio Vieira de Mello, has motivated many to pursue humanitarian work and inspired us to recognize the sacrifices made by so many to benefit the lives of others.

Out of a deep sense of indebtedness and appreciation, we developed the 100 LIVES initiative to remember and honor those whose selfless actions saved lives 100 years ago. The initiative seeks to share the remarkable stories of both saviors and survivors and celebrate the strength of the human spirit.

As part of the initiative, we have established a new global humanitarian prize, the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. The Aurora Prize will be presented annually to humanitarians who put themselves at risk to enable others to survive and thrive. The Prize winner will receive a US$100,000 award, as well as a US$1 million grant to be donated to the charitable organization that inspired his or her work.

This year, your World Humanitarian Day campaign is shining the spotlight on humanitarians around the world and profiling valiant Humanitarian Heroes. We are doing the same through the Aurora Prize. We want to recognize those individuals undertaking life-­‐saving work around the world, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances where others cannot or do not want to go. We invite the public to submit nominations for candidates they believe are deserving of this esteemed recognition through our online portal at  .

We hope that you will join us in promoting noteworthy nominations so that modern-­‐day saviors can be honored in a manner that drives further good work. This can only raise public consciousness to the issues that you face daily, and those that confront the most vulnerable around the world today”.

The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber as it continued the intensive shelling at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan August 24-25.

Aside from 60, 82 and 120 mm mortars, the rival used Turkey-made TP-107 reactive rocket launchers, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army resorted to retaliatory measures to pressures the activeness of the rival.

– Mark Moogalian, who lives in Paris but is originally from Midlothian, Virginia, in the United States, is the previously unnamed man who came to the aid of “Damien A”, 28, a French banker who confronted El-Khazzani.

A 51-year-old Sorbonne professor, Armenian-American Mark Moogalian, has been identified by the UK’s The Telegraph daily as the first passenger to tackle gunman Ayoub El-Khazzani on August 21 aboard the Amsterdam-Paris train.

One of the passengers who helped disarm a suspected gunman on a high-speed train has a connection to Chesterfield. He is now at a hospital in the intensive care unit. “But I look at my husband through the seats at an angle and he looked straight at me and said, ‘I’m hit!’ …”

Mr Hollande presented Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler and Briton Chris Norman with the Legion d’honneur at the Elysee Palace.

According to Sadler, the trio were initially sitting in a different carriage, but a bad wifi connection led them to get up and move to what became the scene of the attack.

Moogalian told his wife to “go” and then “rushed toward the gunman to remove… the Kalashnikov”, Risacher-Moogalian said.

“He kept pulling more weapons left and right”, Stone said, his arm in a sling from injuries suffered in the struggle. The attacker started jabbing at Stone with a box cutter and all three friends began punching and hitting him to subdue him.

“I’m impressed with them”.

“That gave me the impetus to get up and do it”, he said. “So human nature, we either fight or we flee and many of us our natural instinct was to dive under the tables and run away”.

“I am happy that no one got hurt”, he said. On Monday in Paris, the Americans received the French Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor.