Category: News

The United States and Cuba are set to announce the restoration of diplomatic relations on Wednesday, the result of a two-year courtship between former Cold War rivals who severed ties in 1961, Reuters reports.

The chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana will report to Cuban Foreign Ministry to deliver a letter from U.S. President Barack Obama to Cuban President Raul Castro.

Obama will then speak from the White House’s ceremonial Rose Garden. It was unknown whether Castro would reciprocate with comments of his own.

Following 18 months of secret negotiations brokered by Pope Francis and Canada, the two leaders announced separately but simultaneously last December that they planned to reopen embassies in each other’s capitals and normalize relations.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected at a flag-raising ceremony in Havana later this month, when the so-called U.S. interests section will become a full embassy. Cuba’s mission in Washington will undergo a similar upgrade.

The Prime Ministers of Armenia and Russia Hovik Abrahamyan and Dmitry Medvedev had a phone conversation at the initiative of the Armenian side, according to the Russian Government’s website.

The Prime Ministers discussed urgent issues of Armenian-Russian relations, including the results of the sitting of the Inter-Governemntal Commission on Economic Cooperation held in Yerevan June 25-26.

The parties stressed the importance of intensification of bilateral cooperation in different spheres.

Ambassador of France to Azerbaijan Pascal Monnier says when the parties take no steps, the process stops.

He made the remarks commenting on the progress of negotiations to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“It is important that both parties take steps and set up claims,” the Ambassador told Trend News Agency.

“The Azerbaijani and Armenian sides should know that this point is very important and is in everyone’s interests.”

The ambassador said that France puts efforts for the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Having reminded about the visits of French President Francois Hollande in September 2014 and April 2015 to Azerbaijan, Monnier said that talks were held during the visits.

He said that this issue was discussed more than once with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Baku on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the first European Games.

“Also, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group traveled to France, where the discussions continued,” said the ambassador. “The OSCE Minsk Group is trying to organize a meeting of presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in order to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.”

The ambassador went on to add that France has good relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan and intends to expand cooperation with these countries.

“France is home to half a million Armenians, who are very active,” said the French ambassador. “Azerbaijan is important to France as a strategic partner. Every eight months, the French president meets with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

 

 

 

The Islamic State has caused a huge damage to civilization over the past year of its activity and aims to cleanse the region of Christians, experts of Arabic studies Sargis Grigoryan and Armen Petrosyan told a press conference today.

The Islamic State has managed to expand the areas under in control in Iraq and Syria. This is a new reality for the world, since ISIS has set a new benchmark for radicals. The latters’ activity will now serve the Islamic State.

Sargis Grigoryan said “immediately after the Islamic State was proclaimed, a number of Islamist structures in the Muslim world vowed their loyalty to the Caliph.  This was followed by establishment of vilayets in areas controlled by those organizations.

“At this point there are about 35 vilayets in different parts of the Muslim world – from North Africa to Pakistan,” he said.

The last announcement was about the creation of a vilayet in the Caucasus. According to the expert, this means “IS has far-reaching plans connected with this stricture in the region. The Islamic organizations in the Caucasus will receive military, financial and other assistance from the Islamic State.”

“I think the radical Islamist trends will further intensify, as the radical Islamic groups need to prove they are worth being “administrative units” of ISIS,” Grigoryan said.

Armen Petrosyan spoke about the way different regional players use the IS factor for their geopolitical interests. “If there is any provocation in the Caucasus, i.e. the South of Russia, it will be enough for the world to speak about the reinforcement of ISIS positions in Russia,” he said.

“This will mean a serious blow to Russia, which will make the country redirect a huge portion of its resources from Ukraine to the Caucasus,” Petrosyan added.

He said the developments are even more alarming, considering that there are a great number of Armenians living in those regions.

Russia will contribute $6mln to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to help Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan develop agriculture, TASS reports.

An order published on the government website says that from 2015 to 2017, Russia will grant $2bn annually to finance technical issues of securing farm output and agriculture’s sustainable development.

 

Just like their ancestors forced from their homes in 1915-16, the last Armenian families living in the embattled northern Syrian town of Kobane have fled after the repeated jihadist attacks – and they do not intend to go back, according to the Hurriyet Daily News.

Agop Tomasyan, an Armenian from Kobane close to the Turkish border, who fled his hometown for Turkey around nine months ago when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched an attack, said the last eight Armenian families had left Syria for good and would not return.

“There were only eight families left before the ISIL attack [in October 2014]. All of these families left Kobane after the attack,” said Tomasyan.

Syrian Kurdish forces expelled ISIL fighters from Kobane on June 27 and retook full control after three days under siege, after a group of ISIL militants stormed into the border town. ISIL had also failed to capture Kobane at the start of 2015 after four months of deadly clashes.

Three Armenian families are currently living at the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) refugee camp in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa province.

Tomasyan, who belongs to one of the three families in the Suruç refugee camp, said they had to leave their hometown after ISIL’s attack because they knew that the jihadists would kill them once they learned that they were Christians.

“We understood that it was time for us to go. We decided to come to Turkey after a discussion between the last Armenians left. Eventually we came to Suruç,” he said. From Suruç, the eight families had spread to various other places.

“One family settled in Şanlıurfa, another in Hatay, and another in Aleppo. Two of the families who had passports went to Armenia. The remaining three families were placed in refugee camps in Suruç,” Tomasyan said.

He added that they had at one point decided to return to Kobane but changed their minds after his brother was killed by jihadists in front of his son’s eyes during ISIL’s latest attack.

“Before the recent ISIL assault, my brother wanted to return to Kobane to see how his house and store was. He took his 14-year-old son with him, but later he was killed by ISIL in front of his son,” Tomasyan said.

“Kobane is not our homeland anymore.”

The 14-year-old Aram Tomasyan, who is Agop Tomasyan’s nephew, said four ISIL members wearing uniforms of the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) had shot his father on the morning of June 24.

“My father was bleeding from his heart when he fell on the ground. Despite this he still raised his hand and said, ‘Son, run, they are ISIL.’ I ran. If I hadn’t run, I would have been shot too,” the boy said.

The elder Tomasyan said the ancestral roots of Kobane’s Armenians could be traced back to Southern and Central Anatolia, but his ancestors were exiled during the massacre and deportation of Ottoman Armenians in 1915-16. They fled to Kobane and settled there to start a new life.

“We had said that we would never leave Kobane, no matter what,” said Tomasyan, adding that they had two churches in the town and lived in harmony with everyone around them.

Dear prosecuting officers,

Dear employees of the Prosecutor’s Office,

I congratulate you on Prosecutor’s Office Employee Day and the 97th Anniversary of Prosecution Service in Armenia.

Today the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia faces many difficult problems among which the strengthening of the rule of law and the fight against corruption are of special importance.

The first article of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia stipulates that our country is a democratic and law-governed state. It is the cornerstone of your activities, and, hence, your institution has a crucial mission to protect human rights and consolidate democratic values.

You must demonstrate an uncompromising attitude towards manifestations of corruption weakening our society, and it is impossible to implement the necessary systemic solutions without your tireless and consistent efforts. You must be guided by adherence to principles and professional self-esteem. I am confident that you will be able to successfully fulfill your tasks through adopting new approaches to work organization.

I am glad that our prosecution system continues to fill with young, skillful and competent lawyers. I believe that there is great potential of qualified experts in this field which can exercise the prosecution powers enshrined in the Constitution.

I once again congratulate you on your professional holiday and wish you further achievements in your responsible activities, and I wish you and your families good health and success.

Indonesian officials say 141 bodies have been recovered after a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of Medan on Tuesday, the BBC reports.

The military says none of the 122 people on board the Hercules C-130 survived when it hit houses and a hotel before bursting into flames.

Many of the victims are thought to have been relatives of servicemen and women.

But the latest death toll indicates there were at least 19 people killed on the ground.

 

Greece has missed the deadline for a €1.5bn (£1.1bn) payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hours after eurozone ministers refused to extend its bailout, the BBC reports.

But the ministers say they will discuss a last-minute request from Greece for a new two-year bailout on Wednesday.

Greece is the first advanced country to fail to repay a loan to the IMF and is now formally in arrears.

There are fears that this could put Greece at risk of leaving the euro.

The IMF confirmed that Greece had failed to make the payment, shortly after 22:00 GMT on Tuesday.

“We have informed our Executive Board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive IMF financing once the arrears are cleared,” said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice.