Armenia is ranked 84th in the new FIFA World Ranking released today.
World Champion Germany remains on top of the list followed by Belgium and Argentina.
Armenia’s rivals in Euro-2016 qualification round are placed as follows: Portugal – 7th, Denmark – 29th, Serbia – 45th and Albania – 51st.
Rapper 50 Cent is dating an Armenian and she’s a beauty. Her name is Nancy Babochian and he took her with him to the premiere of his series, Power, in New York yesterday.
The rapper escorted Babochian down the red carpet during the NYC premiere of Melissa McCarthy’s new movie “Spy” on Monday evening (June 1).
And the very next day, she supported Fifty during his “Power” season two debut, according to mstarz.com.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Pope Francis on June 10 at the Vatican, with conflicts in Syria and Ukraine likely to top the Holy See’s agenda, the Associated Press reports.
Putin last called on Francis on Nov. 25, 2013.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Thursday the meeting would take place in the afternoon of June 10; Putin is expected to visit Russia’s pavilion at the Expo world’s fair in Milan, where June 10 has been slated as Russia’s national day.
More than 90 people have died in a fire at a petrol station in Ghana’s capital, Accra, the fire service says, the BBC reports.
The fire started as people in the city are trying to cope with two days of heavy rain, which has left many homeless and without power.
The flooding hampered the rescue efforts.
There are fears that the death toll could rise as the search for bodies continues.
It is thought that people were in the petrol station sheltering from the downpour when the fire began.
President John Mahama has visited the burnt-out petrol station and has appealed for calm as the authorities try to cope with the aftermath of the fire and the flooding.
Four Armenian communities – Urtsadzor, Ararat Marz, Vardenik, Gegharkunuk Marz, Akhtala, Lori Marz, and Artik, Shirak Marz signed agreements, on 3 June 2015, with the Council of Europe to receive grants for implementing citizen participation initiatives in their communities.
The four communities have been selected through a competitive process and will receive coaching and expert support from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
“This is the first time that the Council of Europe will provide grants to its partners in Armenia,” stated Natalia Voutova, the Head of Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, congratulating partner municipalities.
Starting from June 2015, the four communities will launch citizen participation processes by involving their residents in identifying, prioritising and finding shared solutions to urgent community problems, which will then be included in the following community annual budget.
“These are actually participatory budgeting pilot initiatives, which as a process, practically doesn’t exist in Armenia. We are confident that these “pilots” will be successful. We will assist the dissemination of results and lessons learnt to other local governments throughout Armenia,” concluded Ms Voutova.
This initiative is implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe as part of the project “Support to consolidating local democracy in Armenia”, which is funded by the Government of Denmark.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Church of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, met with the Right Honourable Mr. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, on June 3, 2015, Horizon Weekly reports.
On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Pontiff expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister on Canada’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, discussed his concerns regarding the conflict in Syria and the impact it has on the Christians and Armenians in the area since its eruption in 2011. His Holiness also informed Mr. Harper on the lawsuit the Catholicosate of Cilicia has filed in Turkey’s Constitutional Court, requesting the return of the historical Catholicosate of Sis, which was forcefully taken by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, as were all Armenian churches and institutions.
During this visit, His Holiness Aram I also decorated the Right Honourable Mr. Stephen Harper with the Prince of Cilicia medal, the highest insignia of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.
His Holiness was joined by the following delegation, Bishop Meghrig Parikian, Prelate of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Most Reverend Father Housig Mardirossian, Ecumenic Relations Officer of the Catholicosate, Krikor Der Ghazarian, Chairperson of the Executive Council of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Dr. Girair Basmadjian, member of the Central Executive Council of the Catholicosate, Raffi Donabedian, Chairperson of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, and Hagop Der Khatchadourian, President of the Armenian National Committee International Council.
On June 4 Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with the Foreign Minister of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan.
During the meeting the Foreign Ministers discussed the developments in the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
The interlocutors referred to the formulations on Nagorno Karabakh included in the Joint Declaration adopted at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga.
Edward Nalbandian and Karen Mirzoyan exchanged views on the regional visit of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, and the meetings with the leaders of Armenia and Artsakh.
The foreign Ministers of Armenia and Artsakh discussed issues related to the cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued his salvoes against a number of minorities, including Armenians and members of the LGBT community ahead of the June 7 general elections, accusing them of supporting the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
“Their biggest ally is Dogan Media. The Armenian lobby, homosexuals and those who believe in ‘Alevism without Ali’ – all these representatives of sedition are [the HDP’s] benefactors,” Erdogan said during an address to citizens in the eastern province of Bingöl on June 3.
Speculation over whether the HDP, which focuses on the Kurdish issue, will be able to pass the 10 percent national election threshold is the key question that will determine how many seats the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) wins in parliament.
On June 3, the Turkish president also repeated his ever-toughening rhetoric against international media. “They also received the support of some foreign media outlets, which see Turkey as their colony,” he said.
Without mentioning the name of the AKP, which he co-founded, Erdogan said that “everyone should go and vote for the party he or she likes.”
In recent days for different reasons, Erdogan has slammed several media institutions including the daily Hurriyet, which is owned by the Dogan Media Group, daily Cumhuriyet, the New York Times, CNN International and the BBC.
Erdogan has made slights against Armenians on several occasions in the past, including last year, when he raged against opposition politicians for calling him an Armenian. “They called me a Georgian. Pardon me for saying this, but they said even uglier things: They called me an Armenian!” Erdogan said in an interview on national TV in August 2014.
On the Initiative of the EU Armenia Friendship Group in the European Parliament and the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) a panel discussion entitled “Conflicts and the right to self-determination” took place in the European Parliament on Wednesday, June 3. The panel discussion focused on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, its structure, historic and legal aspects with a special emphasis on the right to self-determination.
EAFJD President Kaspar Karampetian opened the panel discussionhostinga number of politicians and distinguished guests from academia. He thanked Eleni Theocharous, MEP, President of EU- Armenia Friendship Group in the European Parliament for making this panel discussion possible, he expressed his satisfaction over the high profile speakers and the number of guests from various countries; he stressed, that such discussions are an important step for Nagorno-Karabakh’s international recognition.
HE Tatoul Markarian, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium, Head of Mission of Armenia to the European Union was represented by Mnatsakan Safaryan – counsellor of the Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union. On behalf of the Ambassador he said the following: ‘The activities of the European Parliament in this matter, hearings like this, visits to the region and discussions, help to further increase the awareness within the European Parliament and European institutions and keep the Nagorno Karabakh issue in the limelight of the international community thus signaling to Azerbaijan to stop its warmongering and focus on the peaceful settlement’.
MEP Dr. Eleni Theocharous was the key-note speaker of the panel discussion. Prof. Dr. Andrzej Zieba from the JagellonianUniversityof Krakow Poland, Dr. OhannesGeukjianfrom theAmerican UniversityofBeirut Lebanon, Dr. YiannosCharalambides from Cyprus, XavierFollebouckt from Louvainla Neuve University, Belgium were the participants of the panel. The discussion was moderated by Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat ARF Dashnaktsutyun, Armenia.
MEP Dr. Eleni Theocharous drew parallels between the conflict in Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh: “Currently, we are experiencing and living a similar struggle through the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh who are fighting to exercise their right to self-determination in order to achieve their freedom and thereby, define their own future and their destiny.” “The right to self-determination is enshrined within Article 1, Paragraph 2 of the UN Charter, it is the cornerstone for freedom and the symbol by which people all over the world, are inspired and encouraged to take their lives into their own hands,” said Dr. Theocharous.
Prof. Dr. Andrzej Zieba’s contribution focused on the historic aspects of the conflict:“The necessity to deal with the crisis of political setting was the main reason for conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Caucasus was a conflict-trigger itself, but so was the case for any other region in the world. The presence and simultaneous unsteadiness of outside powers in South Caucasus impaired the effect of historical state-building processes and did not allow consolidation of the local hierarchy of political structures. It was the historical aspect which renews the military rivalry for territory until this day,” said Dr. Zieba.
Dr. YiannosCharalambides , political analyst from Cyprus, elaborated on thestructureoftheconflict andtheright to self-determination. He stressed the necessity to find out the causes triggering a conflict, in order to resolve it. He further raised the question if the right to self-determination is a source of conflict or a fundamental legal and political basis for a solution. Dr. YiannosCharalambides further stated: “The people of Nagorno-Karabakh meet all the relevant criteria set out by the international law. The Armenians living there constitute an indigenous population carrying on their backs a vast civilization, while at the same time they had not settled in the region as conquerors of other nations. In accordance with the international law, Artsakh is their ancestral land. Certainly ethical reasons and the clauses of the international law are not, on their own, adequate factors for a solution to a problem. The art of diplomacy is the skill of coupling legal rights and clauses with national strength.”
Analyzing the current state of affairs XavierFollebouckt from theLouvainla Neuve University, Belgium said: “It will be hard to achieve peace. But peace will always be worth the effort, worth the unavoidable compromises. Because peace will not only put an end to the violence and the instability on the ground; it will allow societies on both sides of the frontline to reach across this divide, to look towards the future and start building their nations on solid foundations, rather than on historical grievances. “
Elaborating on the legal aspects of the conflict Dr. OhannesGeukjianfrom theAmerican UniverisityofBeirut, Lebanon concluded: “My argument maintains that if Nagorno-Karabakh can perform the requisite political functions, the existing state has no jutification for its nonconsensual coercion. In other words, when a nation is sufficiently large, ecnomomically sustainable, politically organized and territorially contiguous (like Nagorno-Karabakh), it can secede and thereby enhance its national self-determination without jeoperdizing political stability.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Syrian and Armenian people face the same challenges and dangers, SANA reports.
The President’s remarks came during a meeting on Thursday with the visiting delegation of the Armenian-Syrian Friendship Association at the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, headed by the Association’s President Tachat Vardapetyan.
Drawing parallels between the dangers facing the people of Syria and Armenia, the President said the Ottomans who committed massacres against the Armenian people a hundred years ago are today represented by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, using the same tools, mainly terrorism, against the Syrian people.
He warned against the expansive threat of terrorism on the entire Middle East region and the world, saying terrorism “knows no border and doesn’t stop at the frontier of this or that country.”
That’s why parliaments, in their position as representatives of peoples, are called upon to take effective action to pressure the international community into adopting an efficacious policy against terrorism and the obscurantist thinking for the sake of not just the Syrian people but also the peoples of the region and the world, the President added.
Vardapetyan, for his part, stressed that the Armenian people stand by the side of the people of Syria in the face of the regionally-backed terrorist war waged on them, voicing confidence that Syria will get over this war and rout terrorism and its backers.
Talks during the meeting highlighted that further developing the relations between the National Assembly of Armenia and the Syrian People’s Assembly would help in consolidating the relationship between the two countries.
Chairman of the Syrian-Armenian Friendship Association at the People’s Assembly Butrus Marjaneh and Armenia’s Ambassador in Damascus Arshak Poladian attended the meeting.