Category: News

A total of eight people were killed in the floods that affected the Black Sea province of Artvin on Aug. 24, with one child still remained missing, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

According to initial reports, Hacer Kara, 56, Altan Kara, 60, Funda Toksoy, 41, Sabri Acıbadem, 41, Nermin Demir, 59, Emniyet Gedik, 55, Ünsal Gedik, 41, and Erdal Eren Gedik, 17, were killed in the floods that hit the Hopa district after heavy rainfall.

Rescue work is ongoing to find the missing five-year old child.

Akunq.net reports that the region. is populated mainly by Hamshen Armenians.

 

Militants suspected of belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) detonated a bomb at the section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline passing through the Sarikamis district of Turkey’s northeastern province of Kars Monday night, BGN News reports. 

The attack occurred at 10:00 pm local time (7:00 pm GMT) on Monday at the Sarikamis Hill location, roughly 2 kilometers from the Sarikamis district.

100 meter (330 foot) flames erupted from the site of the blast. Easily visible from nearby towns, the flames finally went out at 11:00 pm local time (8.00 pm GMT), a short while after the valves had been closed off.

Sarikamis district governor Yusuf İzzet Karaman likened the explosion to a similar one at the same site 2 years ago.

Kars Governor Günay Özdemir announced that the attack was the work of the PKK. He added that the location of the explosion was fortunately far away from any residential areas.

Security measures have been taken in the area.

Spain and Morocco have arrested 14 people in a joint operation targeting suspected recruiters for the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, the reports.

The arrests were made in suburbs of Madrid and in various Moroccan cities.

Those arrested are suspected of involvement in a network to send fighters to areas of Syria and Iraq under IS control.

On Friday a Moroccan who had lived in Spain was arrested following a foiled attack on a high-speed French train.

Ayoub El-Khazzani, 25, originally from Tetouan in northern Morocco, arrived in Spain in 2007 and lived there for seven years, in Madrid and Algeciras, before moving to France.

He is suspected of having had contact with radical Islamists and had been put on a list marked as “potentially dangerous” by Spanish authorities. They flagged this up to French counterparts in February 2014.

Spanish counter-terrorism sources quoted on Monday by the Spanish Cadena Ser radio network said that some 800 people with a radical Islamist profile were in Europe and ready to strike, having returned from Syria and Iraq.

The latest arrests took place in the San Martin de la Vega district of Madrid, and in the Moroccan cities of Fez, Casablanca, Nador, al-Hoceima and Driouech.

The Spanish interior ministry said the operation was ongoing, without giving specific details.

Both Spain and Morocco have arrested dozens of suspected radical Islamists in recent years.

Islamic State fighters have overrun large parts of Syria and Iraq si

South Korea has halted its propaganda broadcasts into North Korea as part of a deal to defuse tension, the BBC reports.

Seoul had begun the loudspeaker broadcasts, which infuriate Pyongyang, after a landmine at the border injured two of its soldiers earlier this month.

The tensions bubbled over in a brief exchange of fire at the heavily guarded border last Thursday.

The deal was reached after the North, which initially denied planting the mine, agreed to express “regret.”

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye said the deal “could serve as an occasion to resolve all inter-Korean issues through trust”.

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.

Armenian Amalya Margaryan stunned the jury and audience at Ukraine’s X-Factor.

Amalya performed “Rise like a phoenix,” the song that brought victory to Austria’s Conchita Wurst at Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

All four members of the jury gave her a berth to the next round.

The Azerbaijani side intensively violated the ceasefire regime at the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh over the weekend.

The rival used  artillery weapons of different caliber (including 60, 82 and 120 mm mortars) to fire in the direction of the Armenian forces.

The front troops of the NKR Defense Army resorted to retaliatory measures to pressure the activeness of the Azerbaijani side.

NKR Defense Ministry reports, quoting reliable sources, that at least 4 Azerbaijanis were killed, another 15 wounded.

 

Islamic State militants have destroyed Palmyra’s ancient temple of Baalshamin, Syrian officials and activists say, the BBC reports.

Syria’s head of antiquities was quoted as saying the temple was blown up on Sunday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it happened one month ago.

IS took control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears the group might demolish the Unesco World Heritage site.

The group has destroyed several ancient sites in Iraq.

IS “placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin today [Sunday] and then blew it up causing much damage to the temple,” Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP news agency.