Category: News

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern that the sides of the Nagorno – Karabakh conflict have not reached a peace settlement yet and the tension is still growing, Trend reports.

Ban Ki-moon made this statement as part of the PACE summer session.

He said that the military solution to the conflict will be devastating not only for the sides of the conflict, but also for the entire region.

“I hope that the OSCE Minsk Group will help the sides reach a constructive and peaceful solution to the conflict,” he said.

 

 

 

The film documenting the round-the-world voyage of the Armenia vessel premiered at Moscow Cinema Monday.

The film has been shot on the basis of Zori Balayan’s book “Armenia from sea to sea.”

The Armenia vessel started the voyage on May 28, 2009 from Valencia port on the Mediterranean Sea and ended in the same place on August 5, 2011.

Director Vahe Gevorgyants summed up the heroic journey of the 8-member crew through three oceans, five continents and hundreds of cities in a single film.

Armenia is ranked 66th among 174 countries in the BDO International Business Compass 2015 index.

Other countries in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia 43^rd, Turkey – 57^th, Russia – 100^th, Azerbaijan -65^th and Iran – 163th.

Armenia’s partner in the Eurasian Economic union Belarus is rated 85^th, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are placed 73^rd and 102^nd respectively.

Switzerland tops the list, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong.

The study covers 174 countries from 6 continents. Countries with less than 150.000 inhabitants as well as Cuba, West Bank, Somalia and Western Sahara are not included. Luxembourg is also excluded due to its special economic structure and its exceptional per capita investment flows.

The BDO International Business Compass measure the attractiveness of a country as a multi-dimensional concept in three dimensions: the economic, politico-legal and socio-cultural conditions.

The BDO International Business Compass measure the attractiveness of a country as a multi-dimensional concept in three dimensions: the economic, politico-legal and socio-cultural conditions. The appeal of a country is associated with its level of development. It is understood as a combination of economic, politico-legal and social factors.

Creative Space Beirut (CSB), Lebanon’s first free fashion school, was founded by Lebanese-Armenian fashion designer Sarah Hermez, reports.

The school is inconspicuously housed in a run-of-the-mill, weathered apartment building tucked in a corner of the raucous neighborhood of Mar Mikhael — the capital’s capital of cool, generously lined with characterful bars and eateries, home to many an engaging art and design studio. The ambitious CSB, founded in 2011, operates out of an average-sized flat, its spatial modesty belying the bountiful tutelage it offers.

A nonprofit, CSB runs a three-year program catering to students from underprivileged backgrounds. It relies primarily on the generosity of donors for sustainability and it admits only four new students a year, choosing to offer a compact cohort a fulfilling experience rather than overreaching and providing more students with less.

“Design education has become institutionalized, and more about how much money you have than talent,” said the initiative’s founder, 29-year-old Kuwait bred, Lebanese-Armenian fashion designer Sarah Hermez. “Back in the day, designers would go work under others and build their way up, but today without a degree it’s impossible to get a job. We’re trying to provide equal opportunities to people who don’t have access to the elitist world of design.”

A product of the unconventional academic coupling of fashion design and media/cultural studies at the New School’s Parsons School of Design and the New School’s Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts in New York, Hermez graduated wanting to do more than “fashion for fashion’s sake.”

Her desire to merge her zeal for social work with her love for fashion motivated her to move back to her native Lebanon. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said, “but I knew there was so much work to be done here.” She worked in the textile department of a boutique furniture store, taught preschool to Palestinian refugees and explored other opportunities within the very different worlds of NGO work and design, but nothing fit quite right.

Then, during a visit to New York, a conversation with her former professor, Lebanese-American designer Caroline Shlala-Simonelli, sparked what Hermez called “the American light bulb moment — that ‘aha’ moment Oprah talks about.” After listening to Hermez articulate the desire to marry her passions, and her frustration with not knowing how to do so, Simonelli suggested she start her own, free school. She even offered to help her do it.

Luckily, Hermez and her fledgling initiative were extended a number of supportive hands. A friend from Donna Karan in NY donated $100,000 worth of fabric for the future students to work with. “We had fabric and a professor but we needed a school,” she recalled. “It was my job to make that happen.”

Hermez hopes to eventually grow CSB into a school for all manners of design, not just fashion, believing that marginalized communities can greatly benefit from the problem-solving skills the discipline imparts.

The Fuller Center for Housing Armenia team and the Global Builders volunteer team from the U.S., led by Cynthia Reimers Erickson, celebrated the 400th home milestone in Lejan village of Lori Region.

It’s the call of blood and the will of helping others that brings  Cynthia Erickson to Armenia already 10 years; and she comes not alone, but with teams of volunteers who do tremendous work in short time building homes for Armenian families in need of decent housing.

The day was of triple celebration; the 400th home milestone construction became more noteworthy with the 10th year celebration of the dedicated veteran team leader, Cynthia Reimers Erickson and a devoted, selfless volunteer Charles Takesian – 10 years with Fuller Center for Housing Armenia, 10 years of dedicated and selfless service to help the dream of having a decent home of the families in need come true.

”I am very happy to be working with the Fuller Center Armenia all these years. They have dedicated and extremely competent staff who have generous hearts and are devoted to helping their fellow Armenians be successful in Armenia. It is a pleasure for me to bring a team of Americans to Armenia to work with these selfless folks and contribute to the completion of a suitable home for a family.  Armenia is in my blood and, for me, this is the best way I can honor the memory of my grandparents and their family members who were deprived of their lives and their homeland – by helping others gain a home and strengthen their homeland,” said Cynthia Reimers Erickson.

Many families have felt the constructive force of Cynthia Erickson’s team. This time the Margaryans from Lejan Vilage of Lori Region were among the happy ones, who have been the eyewitness of the unreal seeming change of their house since June 15.

The Margaryans lost their house during the 1988 earthquake and since then they have been living in a temporary shelter (domik).

”Each time I see the Armenian families becoming homeowners  it fills me with special joy and sense of pride. Today it’s the 400th times I am the eyewitness of such happiness. I hope that we will still build many more homes with the help of our friend, Cynthia, who helped us in our mission throughout her 10 years of devotion, her team and many other volunteers who come to Armenia to help build homes,” said Fuller Center for Housing Armenia President Ashot Yeghiazaryan.

After a marathon of amendment voting, PACE  approved its resolution on democratic institutions in Azerbaijan by 140 votes to 13.

The Assembly voted 85 to 78  to accept the amendment tabled by the Armenian delegation to exclude the term”occupation” with regard to Nagorno Karabakh.

The Parliamentary Assembly says in the final text of the Resolution it “is fully aware of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which dominates to a large extent the Azerbaijani foreign policy agenda.”

The draft reaolution read: “The Assembly is fully aware of the occupation by Armenia of NagornoKarabakh and seven other provinces of Azerbaijan, which dominates to a large extent the Azerbaijani foreign policy agenda.”

Kurdish forces in northern Syria say they have captured a key military base from Islamic State (IS) north of the militants’ self-declared capital of Raqqa, the BBC reports.

The Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) were backed by US-led air strikes and other rebel groups.

It comes a week after Kurdish forces seized a Syrian border crossing with Turkey from the jihadists.

The move cut off a major supply route for IS.

A Kurdish forces spokesman said they had complete control of the Liwa (Brigade) 93 base, which is deep in IS-held territory.

Redur Xelil said the YPG was now on the outskirts of Ain Issa, a town only 50km (30 miles) north of Raqqa.

“They [IS] have been defeated,” he said.

The Armenian authorities must urgently ensure an impartial, independent and thorough investigation into allegations that police used excessive force – including dousing people with water cannon – to disperse a mainly peaceful demonstration before arresting more than 200 protesters on the streets of the capital Yerevan early this morning, Amnesty International said.

Yerevan police said they arrested 237 people after a crowd marched away from round-the-clock protests in a central square towards the presidential headquarters. Since 19 June, thousands of people have taken part in the demonstrations against rising electricity prices in Yerevan and elsewhere, including the town of Gyumri where 12 others were arrested.

“For the Armenian authorities to disperse what was up until then a peaceful demonstration is a heavy-handed tactic that must be avoided to protect the right to freedom of expression and assembly. Video footage showing high-powered jets from water cannon flinging peaceful protesters to the ground is a cause for concern,” said Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“It is our understanding that the Armenian authorities are investigating the protesters for ‘hooliganism’, rather than the heavy-handed police response. They must not do this at the expense of an impartial and independent investigation into the police’s alleged use of excessive force, including water cannon, against demonstrators who may have obstructed traffic but were peaceful. Any security forces found responsible of violations must be disciplined or prosecuted.”

In a statement, police said that stones were thrown and that at least seven protesters and 11 police officials were injured. No serious injuries were reported.

Police and an eyewitness also confirmed that journalists were targeted as well as peaceful protesters. Despite the journalists showing press credentials, police confiscated and damaged video equipment.

“The allegations that police specifically targeted journalists have worrying implications for freedom of expression, and must also be independently investigated,” said Denis Krivosheev.

James Horner, the Hollywood composer who wrote the score for the Oscar-winning film hit Titanic, has died in a California plane crash aged 61, the BBC reports.

A trained pilot, he is reported to have been alone aboard a small private plane which crashed north of Santa Barbara on Monday morning.

The two-time Oscar winner worked on three James Cameron films, as well as A Beautiful Mind, Troy and Apollo 13.

He won one Oscar for the Titanic film score and one for its theme song.

The plane crash left an impact crater and sparked a brush fire that had to be put out by firefighters, local fire authorities said.

Gita Elibekyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Tbilisi

Head of the Georgian Alliance of Patriots Party David Tarkhan Mouravi has called on the Georgian Government to recognize the Armenian Genocide, reports.

“Not a single acre in Turkey belongs to Turks, everything belongs to Greeks, Armenians and Georgians. What happened in 1915 was really genocide, Armenians were killed simply for being Armenian,” David Tarkhan Mouravi said.

He added Georgians were also subjected to genocide, although no one speaks about it.

The Alliance of Patriots was formed a few years ago and is preparing to run fo parliament at the next elections.