Category: News

A 2006 Olympic ice dancing champion says she is to marry President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman later this summer, the Associated Press reports.

Tatiana Navka has been dating Dmitry Peskov, a father of three from two previous marriages, for several years and they had a daughter in August last year. Despite frequent public appearances together Peskov has not spoken publicly of his relationship with Navka, who also has a daughter from a previous relationship.

Navka, 40, said in an interview with the state-owed news agency on Thursday that the wedding is planned in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, scene of the Winter Games in 2014. She didn’t disclosed the date.

Peskov, 47, has said he would not comment on his private life, which is “nobody else’s business.”

Armenian Ambassador to Poland Edgar Ghazaryan had a meeting with His Beatitude Metropolitan Sava of Warsaw and All Poland in Belgrade, Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

Ambassador Ghazaryan expressed gratitude to Metropolitan Sava for the Mass at St. Maria Magdalena Church on the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and for the joining of all Orthodox Churches in Poland to the bell tolling at 19:15 Yerevan time on April 23.

Issues related to inter-church relations were discussed. Reference was made to the opportunities of cooperation in the field of education.

Ambassador Ghazaryan conveyed to Metropolitan Sava an official invitation form His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, to visit the Mother See of Holy Etcmiadzin.

Work has been initiated for the ancient Ani ruins, which date back thousands of years, in the eastern province of Kars to receive the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Kars Culture and Tourism Director Hakan Doğanay said in the case of its acceptance, Ani would be Turkey’s 16th world heritage site on the UNESCO list.

“The ministry has applied to UNESCO on Feb. 15 with a detailed report on the Ani ruins and we are on the temporary list. Work continues to be included on the permanent list,” Doğanay said.

He said a team from UNESCO would visit Kars for the final decision.

Ani was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey. Ani is protected on its eastern side by a ravine formed by the Akhurian River and on its western side by the Bostanlar or Tzaghkotzadzor Valley. The Akhurian is a branch of the Aras River and forms part of the current border between Turkey and Armenia.

The delegation headed by Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan visited the Armenian Apostolic Church in Marseille.

The spiritual leader of the church Priest Aram Ghazaryan briefed the Mayor on the history of foundation of the church and its current activities.

Attaching particular importance to preserving the national culture and traditions and to the role and significance of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the Diaspora, Mayor Taron Margaryan thanked Priest Aram Ghazaryan for consistent work towards unity of the Armenian community of Marseille.

A German court has convicted a 94-year-old former guard at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews, the BBC reports.

Oskar Groening, known as the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, was sentenced to four years in prison.

He was responsible for counting the belongings confiscated from prisoners and had admitted “moral guilt.”

His lawyers said he did not facilitate genocide, but prosecutors argued that he had helped the camp run smoothly.

Many observers have questioned whether Mr Groening will ultimately be sent to jail, given his advanced age. He is expected to be one of the last Nazis to face a courtroom.

The trial was held in the northern German city of Lueneburg, hearing testimony from several people who had survived the death camp.

The case revolved around the question of whether people who had played a minor role in the Nazi-ordered genocide but had not actively killed any Jews could still be guilty of a crime.

Mr Groening had publicly discussed his role at Auschwitz, making him unusual among former Nazis brought to trial. He said he was speaking out in order to silence those who deny the Holocaust took place.

Kim Kardashian’s ex Reggie Bush welcomed a baby boy with his wife Lilit Avagyan at the weekend, E! News reports.

The newborn has an extra special birthday – it’s his mum and dad’s first wedding anniversary.

A source confirmed to E! News: “The baby is healthy and the couple are so thrilled and excited.

“All their family and friends are around them.”

The American footballer married the Armenian dancer at an upscale resort in San Diego in 2014 after 2 years of dating.

The couple are also parents to 2 year old daughter Briseis who was born in May 2013.

Glendale hospital doctors, nurses and other medical specialists will be heading to Armenia this fall to help improve care offered at a hospital in a rural village and develop a sort of a “sister partnership,” the reports.

Earlier this year, Kevin Roberts, chief executive of Glendale Adventist Medical Center, and two of the hospital’s doctors headed to Noyemberyan, a Tavush province town about 120 miles from the capital, Yerevan, and just 3 miles from the Azerbaijani border.While visiting Noyemberyan Hospital, they identified the health demands that needed to be met and plan to return in October to perform surgeries, provide treatment and bring supplies.

“We came back from that trip very excited and enthusiastic and feeling that the purpose was going to be well connected to this community,” said Roberts, who has wanted to carry out a medical outreach mission since becoming the medical center’s chief executive.

Glendale Adventist is teaming up with the nonprofit Armenia Fund for the outreach, and both will carry out fundraising efforts leading up to the trip.

Roberts said he’ll be heading back with 35 hospital employees this time. The focus will be to offer gallbladder and hernia surgeries as well as procedures to repair cleft palates.

Stroke and heart attack victims will also be treated, and there will also be a focus on preventive care.

“They have a widespread gap in their vaccination program we would like to start helping to fill,” Roberts said, adding that, as a registered nurse, he will also be pitching in with the effort.

But the project may go beyond the autumn visit. Roberts said he hopes some of the doctors in Noyemberyan will visit Glendale Adventist to get some training and tele-medicine equipment will let them consult remotely with local physicians.

Roberts said that being a public hospital in Armenia limits the resources Noyemberyan has access to and the goal of establishing a sustainable relationship is so that people in the village will not only get better treatment, but regain faith in their local medical center.

“If we can help them reinforce and upgrade some of their practices, their community will save a three-hour drive to Yerevan, and say, ‘I’m going to try my local hospital again,’” Roberts said.

In 2010, the Armenia Fund paid to refurbish Noyemberyan Hospital. The facility staffs 30 doctors and houses 60 beds.

Armenian Kevork Tavityan has been appointed Director of the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet. Tavityan is also the head of the Istanbul Opera Choir.

Speaking to Agos, Tavityan said he’s happy and proud to assume this important post.

Born in Istanbul.Tavityan graduated from the Opera Academy of the State Conservatory of Istanbul (Mimar Sinan University) and achieved a Master of Performance degree at the same Academy.

Tavityan made his professional debut with the Opera of the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall in the role of Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’Amore in 1995 and has been singing for State Opera of Istanbul since 1998.

The Azerbaijani side has intensified the shelling at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

On June 14 the rival used 60mm mine throwers as it fired in the southern direction on July 14.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army mostly remained committed to the ceasefire regime and resorted to response actions only in case of extreme necessity.

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Ruling simultaneously on the Sargsyan vs. Azerbaijan and Chiragov vs. Armenia cases, the European Court of Human Rights decided on June 16, 2015 that Armenia and Azerbaijan had violated the rights of refugees who had fled during the Karabagh (Artsakh) conflict.

Azeri government officials, however, misled their citizens, declaring that Azerbaijan had won and Armenia had lost.

Here are the details of both court cases: On April 6, 2005, six Azerbaijani Kurds filed a joint complaint against Armenia with the European Court. They claimed to have been forced to flee their homes during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in 1992, after Armenian troops took over the Lachin region which separated Armenia from Artsakh. The Azerbaijani refugees alleged that Armenia had violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights: 1) protection of property, 2) right to respect for private and family life, and 3) right to an effective remedy.

On August 11, 2006, Minas Sargsyan filed a similar complaint against Baku in the European Court of Human Rights. He charged that Azerbaijan had violated his rights, the same ones claimed by the six Azerbaijani refugees, since he too was forced to flee in 1992 from his native village of Gulistan in the Shahumian region, controlled by Azerbaijan.

Both parties asked that their property rights be restored and demanded fair compensation.

In March 2010, after years of inactivity, the Court forwarded both cases to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, consisting of 17 judges from Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Ukraine. The Grand Chamber’s decisions are final and not subject to appeal.

A decade after the these cases were first filed, the Grand Chamber issued two identical judgments on June 16, 2015, finding that both Armenia and Azerbaijan had violated the rights of each other’s refugees. In a lengthy document of 221 pages, including the two verdicts and the dissenting and concurring opinions, the Court ruled that the 20-year long peace negotiations did not free the two governments from their responsibility to protect the rights of hundreds of thousands of refugees. The Grand Chamber noted that there are over 1,000 individual applications pending before the Court, filed by Armenians and Azerbaijanis displaced during the Artsakh conflict.

The six Azerbaijani applicants claimed they had suffered $9 million in monetary damages and $330,000 in non-monetary damages. They further estimated their legal expenses to be around $65,000 as of October 2013. The Azerbaijani applicants’ representatives requested that an expert be appointed to evaluate the total damages their clients had incurred.

On the other hand, the Armenian applicant Minas Sargsyan had requested the restitution of his property, including the right of return to his home. He claimed $415,000 in monetary damages and $210,000 in non-monetary damages, in addition to non-specified legal fees.

Acknowledging “the exceptional nature” of the two cases, the Court did not make a final determination on awarding compensation or “just satisfaction.” The Grand Chamber asked the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments and the respective applicants to submit their “written observations on the matter” within 12 months, and “to notify the Court of any agreement that they may reach.”

In my opinion, the European Court’s parallel decisions were aimed at pressuring the two governments to expedite a negotiated settlement that would resolve all outstanding issues, including rights of refugees.

One of the most significant, yet unexpected outcomes of these court cases were the two written opinions — 25 pages each — by Judge Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque of Portugal and appended to the court’s verdicts, in which he presented a strong legal case for Artsakh’s independence: “Whenever a part of the population of a State is not represented by its government and the human rights of that population are systematically infringed by its own government, …the victimized population may have recourse ‘as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression,’ to use the powerful formulation of the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The Judge also wrote that when a State systematically abuses the human rights of a seceding population, it is lawful for another State to take military action in favor of the seceding population, after the latter has established control of its territory and declared its secession.