Category: News

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.”

Amid talk of a potential Turkish military intervention in Syria, the Turkish military is deploying tanks to the common border to create a “military buffer zone” there, Press TV reports, quoting AFP.

On Monday, Turkish armed forces began amassing near the Turkish border city of Sanliurfa.

The agency said Turkish officials were also discussing the potential intervention.

The planned buffer zone stretches 110 kilometers long and 28 kilometers wide between the southern Turkish towns of Karkamis and Oncupinar.

The forces are deploying opposite the border town of Kobani, AFP said.

 

 

 

The Government will use extra-budget sums to cover the cost of increased electricity prices from August 1, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan told reporters today on the sidelines of the “Economic agenda 2015” forum. He did not go into detail about the financial sources.

There has been and can be no discussion on whether the owner of the Armenian Electric Networks will be changed or not, the Prime Minister told Public Radio of Armenia.

He said the decision to conduct an audit at the Electric Network was rational. “It was a correct decision, and will help to disperse the mistrust in the Public Services Regulatory Commission and the Electric Network of Armenia.”

The Prime Minister said the future steps will be determined after the audit has been conducted. He further added that the agreement on the audit company will be reached by July 10.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Yevand Zakharyan said, in turn, that concrete discussions on the nationalization of the Electric Networks of Armenia will be held after the audit.

At least 37 people have been killed in a military transport plane crash in a residential area of the Indonesian city of Medan, officials say, the BBC reports.

The Hercules C-130 plane crashed into two houses and a car and burst into flames creating a huge fireball.

Military spokesman Fuad Basya told the BBC that the plane came down soon after take-off and that there were at least 12 crew members on board.

Officials say that bodies were recovered from the plane wreckage.

A major rescue operation is under way at the crash site which was covered in flames and thick black smoke.

Barely two months after the 100 year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, relatives of those who survived the mass killings are now fighting to prevent the graves of their loved ones from being exhumed to make way for a luxury resort in the coastal town of Byblos, according to

Escorted by police, a group of laborers arrived at the historic cemetery Monday morning to begin digging up the graves, but they were stopped by a last minute court order filed by the relatives of one of the deceased. Relatives had previously filed a complaint in March soon after the project was first announced and a judge had opened an investigation into the case.  Yet despite this ongoing investigation, an attempt to dig up the graves was made yesterday, according to Vartan Avakian, great-grandson of Hagop Avakian, who was born in 1894 in Turkey and among the earliest genocide survivors to settle in Lebanon.

The younger Avakian, who has been researching and lobbying officials about the case for the last few months, says his family members notified local authorities when the workers showed up. Through a lawyer, they then contacted Judge Joseph Ajaka of the court of urgent matters who has now issued a temporary stop order until the investigation is complete.

But despite this intervention, Avakian worries about rumors that a second attempt to exhume the bodies is being imminently planned.

According to the source, the Armenian Church that manages the cemetery– The Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia– has apparently made a deal with a developer to lease the seaside property for a beach resort. There is concern that the church building itself, one of the oldest Armenian churches in Lebanon–may also be used to host a spa or restaurant for the future resort, which is reportedly linked to former telecom minister Jean-Louis Qordahi.

In the early 1900s the site known as “Bird’s Nest” was part of a Dutch missionary orphanage and school thatsheltered large numbers of genocide survivors, and later became an anchor for one of Leabanon’s earliest Armenian communities.

However Avakian contends that the cemetery property is actually under the jurisdiction of the state’s Directorate of Antiquities, since the land  is just a few meters from the 10,000 year old Byblos ancient port site and has also seen very recent excavations. Following Avakian’s claim,  Judge Ajaka has ordered excavation works stop until the Directorate has clarified its position.

The Church has announced that the bodies will be honored at a new shrine far from the coast, but this will reportedly serve as a mass grave. It’s hard to imagine why a developer or the church don’t find it problematic to exhume the graves of genocide survivors. The idea that the church itself could be used for a resort project is likely to upset many in the community who frequented the place of worship for family events or attended a primary school that was part of the church complex.

The Byblos area hosts one of the few publicly accessible coastal areas in Lebanon, yet a number of private resorts have been controversially built along the shore, including the well-known and extraordinarily priced Edde Sands. The entrance fees of these resorts are  far out of the price range of the average Lebanese person. Because they are patrolled by guards and fences, very little of the coast remains natural and open to the public as can be seen in this map:

 

 

Cristiano Ronaldo is being considered as one of the three over-23 players for Portugal at the 2016 Olympic Games, reports.

The Real Madrid forward, 30, has enjoyed a glittering career at club level but silverware on the international scene has eluded him, with a runners-up medal at Euro 2004 the closest he’s come to winning a trophy with the Seleccao.

Portugal booked their spot in next summer’s Olympics due to the Under-21 side reaching the last four of June’s European Championship finals and, on Tuesday, they could win the tournament with a victory over Sweden’s Under-21s.

Portugal Football Association (FPF) president Fernando Gomes says that planning for Rio 2016 is still in the early stages but admitted Ronaldo could feature at the Games.

“It’s a possibility,” Gomes told Globo Esporte when asked about Ronaldo being involved in the Olympics.

“We can take three players aged over 23. Ronaldo is one of our current options but we have not thought too much about it yet.”

Sixteen teams will compete for the gold medal in the men’s football event in Rio, with the three other European entrants confirmed as Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

Should Ronaldo still be at the Santiago Bernabeu heading into the 2016-17 campaign, Madrid are likely to heavily object to Ronaldo’s participation in the Olympics due to the close proximity to La Liga’s start date in August.

Barring injury, Ronaldo is also likely to be involved in the Euro 2016 finals, assuming Portugal remain in the top two teams of their qualification group.

Portugal currently sit top of Group I with half of their matches played, ahead of Denmark, Albania, Serbia and Armenia.

Tens of thousands of Greeks rallied on Monday to back their leftwing government’s rejection of a tough international bailout after a clash with foreign lenders pushed Greece close to financial chaos and forced a shutdown of its banking system, Reuters reports.

With a popular referendum on the bailout planned for Sunday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras put his own position on the line, saying he would respect the result of the vote but would not lead a government to administer “austerity in perpetuity.”

“If the Greek people want to have a humiliated prime minister, there are a lot of them out there. It won’t be me,” he said in an interview on Greek state television as one of the biggest rallies seen in Athens in years was taking place.

The show of defiance came at the end of a day that started with stunned Greeks waking up to face shuttered banks, long supermarket lines and overwhelming uncertainty over Greece’s future in the euro zone.

 

Armenian hackers have attacked dozens of Azerbaijani websites overnight.

The Monte Melkonian Cyber Army ( MMCA) says it hacked 47 website, posted data from passports and ID cards of  5,700 Azerbaijanis.

The group says it wa sa response for the recent attack of Azerbaijani hackers.

“Let them know we are awake and ready for an attack. Our response will always be more painful,” the Monte Melkonian Cyber Army said in a Facebook Post. It also provided the.

On 30 June Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan sent a congratulatory letter to President Serzh Sargsyan of the Republic of Armenia in connection with his birthday.

The letter runs as follows:

“Your excellency, Mr. President,

I cordially congratulate You on Your birthday anniversary.

Having a substantial contribution in the formation of the two Armenian states and the Armenian army, You continue to serve devotedly to safeguarding the security and raising the welfare level of the people, solving nationwide issues and realizing our historic goals.

I am confident that all Your patriotic projects aimed at reinforcing and ensuring the prosperity of Mother Armenia and Artsakh will be further on crowned with success and our people will gain new victories.

I once again congratulate You on Your birthday anniversary and wish peace, robust health and all the best”.

Armenian Americans from the Greater Washington DC area condemned ongoing Azerbaijani aggression and honored the memory of its latest victim, Arman Yepremyan, at a June 28th protest in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy, set to coincide with the closing ceremonies of the European Games in Baku, reported the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
“We gathered at the Azerbaijani Embassy today to denounce Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev’s repeated attacks against Armenia and Artsakh, and to remember Arman Yepremyan and all the young men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure peace and freedom for the Armenian Homeland and stability in the Caucasus region,” said ARF Sebouh Gomideh Chairman Aram Sarafian, Esq.  “No amount of public relations spending, or the extravagant hosting of the first European Games, can whitewash Azerbaijan’s crackdown against journalists and rights activists in their own country and ongoing ceasefire violations, which undermine prospects for a lasting Karabakh peace.”

Arman Mayisi Yepremyan was killed on the Nakhichevan border on Friday, June 26th, raising concerns about yet another Azerbaijani escalation of violence this summer.  Hundreds have been killed as a result of the Aliyev regime’s ceasefire violations over the past 20 years, with 2014 being among the bloodiest.

Yepremyan’s death came one day after President Aliyev made outlandish statements laying claim to all of Armenia, stating, “Not only Nagorno Karabakh is ours, but even the present-day Armenia was created on historical Azerbaijani lands. We all know that. Already the world knows about it. Irevan [Yerevan] khanate, Goyche, Zangezur Mahal – these are our historical lands, and we, Azerbaijanis, must return to this land.”

“President Aliyev’s warmongering should be publicly condemned by the OSCE Minsk Group, charged to mediate a lasting Artsakh peace,” continued Sarafian.  “Similarly, the European Olympics Commission and other international sporting organizations must not allow brutal dictators to use athletes to cover up atrocities and human rights violations.”

Over the past two weeks, Baku’s bid to boost its international image by spending billions hosting the European Games largely backfired, with a steady stream of articles and op/eds spotlighting Aliyev’s arrest and incarceration of journalists and human rights leaders appearing in top international publications including The Guardian, The Washington Post, New York Times, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and lampooned on John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’, available here – .