Category: News

Asbarez – In collaboration with Salmast Heritage Association (SHA), Cambridge Professor of Linguistics, Bert Vaux, conducted a week-long research project on the dialect of Salmast, also believed to be the language of Historic Armenia.

The SHA identified nine Salmasttsi speakers of the dialect, arranged for appropriate space and technological support for interviews, and recorded individual and group sessions. The research subjects were from Haftvan, Mahlam, Sarna, Payajuke, and Akhtkhan. Dr. Vaux studied phonetic as well as written vocabulary words and sentences, and recorded the variations between regional definitions and pronunciations. The totality of the information they shared was qualified as “priceless,” as native speakers of the dialect are aging and not easily accessible. Most importantly, the week-long field work on the Salmast dialect showed that many of the words and definitions brought to light by the nine Salmasttsi interviewees are not found in Muradyan’s dictionary, the foremost authority on Armenian dialects.

Linguistics Professor Vaux received his PhD from Harvard where he taught for nine years. He is an internationally recognized expert in his field, is fluent in several languages including Armenian, and has published several textbooks and numerous papers on such topics as Historical Linguistics, Phonology, Dialectology and related subjects. He enjoys working with native speakers to document endangered languages, especially dialects of Armenian, Abkhaz, and English.

Dr. Vaux’ partial list of publications includes: The Phonology of Armenian; The Armenian Dialect of New Julfa, Isfahan; Eastern Armenian, A Textbook; A Textbook of Western Armenian; Hamshetsma: The Language of the Armenians of Hamshen; The Armenian Dialect of Khodorjur; Vowel Harmony in the Armenian Dialect of Marash; Syllabification in Armenian, Universal Grammar and the Lexicon; Armenian Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics and more.

According to preliminary results, the Republican Party of Armenia claimed victory in the Yerevan City Council election.

With bulletins from 474 polling stations processed, the Republican Party has recieved71.25% of the votes, YelkBloc and Yerkir Tsirany Party  have collected 21% and 7.75% respectively.

345,226 citizens or 40.99% of eligible voters participated in the election.

The Supreme Religious Council will convene its regular meeting in Moscow at the invitation of Archbishop Yezras Nersisyan, Primate of New Nakhijevan and Russia Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The meeting will be held May 16-18 and will be dedicated to the 300^th anniversary of establishment of the Diocese.

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, has left for Moscow to participate in the meeting.

The Azerbaijani side opened fire from a guided missile in the direction of the military objects of the Artsakh Defense Army at about 16:30 today.

One unit of military equipment has been partially damaged in the shelling, the Artsakh Defense Ministry said. No casualties are reported.

The Defense Army said in a statement “the provocation of the Azerbaijani armed forces will not go unpunished,” and added that “the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan will bear full responsibility for the consequences.”

The General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia has given the AMC Airlines a permit to operate Hurgada-Yerevan- Hurgada, Sharm El Sheikh-Yerevan- Sharm El Sheikh and Hurgada-Yerevan-Sharm El Sheikh flights.

The Hurgada-Yerevan-Hurgada flights will be operated from June 18, 2018. The flights in Sharm El-Sheikh-Yerevan-Sharm El Sheikh direction are expected to start from September 24, 2017, while Hurgada-Yerevan-Sharm El Sheikh flights will be operated starting from September 17.

The Air Cairo Airline will also operate weekly flights from June 20 to October 28 in Hurgada-Yerevan-Hurgada direction.

The air company is also planning flights in Sharm El Sheikh-Yerevan-Sharm El Sheikh direction between June 22 and October 28.

The flights will be operated every Thursday.

– Uruguayan human rights lawyer, Oscar Lopez Goldaracena, denounced Azerbaijan for adding him to their so-called “blacklist,” after the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry forbade him and other deputies and authorities of Bolivia who had officiated as international observers during the constitutional referendum in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Republic, from entering the country.

Goldaracena said that “I immediately made the complaint to the Chancellor of the Republic Rodolfo Nin and to the National Human Rights Institution” and explained that Nagorno-Karabakh is “a country of Armenian population, independent for 25 years by history and by decision of its people; A democratic, republican country, with an institutional framework in rights, with an Ombudsman and mechanisms of direct democracy that really work.”

“An example,” added the lawyer. “A country that is not recognized by any other country in the world but exists. It is Azerbaijan who attacks it.”

“The population is at risk and has been the victim of war crimes. Hundreds of international observers, among whom I find myself, have corroborated what I am writing, as a way of threatening and preventing its recognition as an independent state. I would like to express my hope that, for peace and freedom, Uruguay repudiates these practices of ‘black lists’ and recognizes the independence, as sovereign state, of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Goldaracena.

Bolivian Members of Parliament Alicia Canqui, Nelly Lenz, Mario Mita Daza, and the Coordinator of Multi-Sector Solidarity Fair in the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies, Sandra Quiroz Quilo, are some of the new names of the extensive list of “personae non grata” in Azerbaijan.

Photo: KCNA

 

North Korea has claimed that the missile it tested on Sunday was a new type of rocket capable of carrying a large nuclear warhead, the BBC reports.

The missile, launched at a steep angle, reached an altitude of 2,000km and travelled about 700km, landing in the sea west of Japan.

North Korea said on Monday it was a test of the abilities of a “newly developed ballistic rocket”.

South Korea’s military said it could not yet verify the North’s claims.

But it said the North’s missiles did appear to be able to leave and re-enter the atmosphere, which is crucial to developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the Yonhap news agency reported.

Repeated missile tests by the North this year – not all of them successful but all a breach of UN sanctions – have sparked international alarm and raised tensions with the US.

The US and Japan have called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

In the framework of his official visit to the State of Qatar, President Serzh Sargsyan met today with the CEO of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker.

The parties discussed the process of the Armenian-Qatari cooperation in the area of aviation and prospects for development. President Sargsyan spoke about the significant role of the flights carried out by Qatar Airways in the expansion of the agenda of the interstate bilateral cooperation. Qatar Airways entered the Armenian aviation market in May 2016 and is carrying out Doha-Yerevan-Doha regular flights.

According to the President, the increase of the number of tourists from the countries of the Persian Gulf, including Qatar, is also conditioned by the existence of direct flights.
Noting that Armenia adopted Open Sky policy in 2013, President Sargsyan underscored that Armenia’s policy in the area of civil aviation and air communications provides new opportunities to the Armenian and foreign companies and ensures equal and free competition field for all.

Serzh Sargsyan noted that Armenia will encourage and support Qatari investors to make investments in different areas of the Armenian economy, including the aviation area.

The CEO of Qatar Airways informed President Sargsyan that he has already received instructions from His Majesty the Emir of Qatar to develop cooperation with Armenia in the area headed by him and assured that he would do his best to fulfill the task.
Akbar Al Baker noted that his company sees prospects for the development of  cooperation and is striving to promote the mutually beneficial cooperation.

Photo: Reuters

 

A cyber-attack that has hit 150 countries since Friday should be treated by governments around the world as a “wake-up call”, Microsoft says, the BBC reports.

It blamed governments for storing data on software vulnerabilities which could then be accessed by hackers.

It says the latest virus exploits a flaw in Microsoft Windows identified by, and stolen from, US intelligence.

There are fears of more “ransomware” attacks as people begin work on Monday, although few have been reported so far.

Many firms have had experts working over the weekend to prevent new infections. The virus took control of users’ files and demanded $300 payments to restore access.

The spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack slowed over the weekend but the respite might only be brief, experts have said. More than 200,000 computers have been affected so far.

On an official visit to the State of Qatar, President Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Noting that the Middle Eastern region is of great significance for Armenia’s foreign policy and Armenia enjoys special relations with the Arab world based on centuries-old friendship, President Sargsyan said “Armenia is interested in intensifying the high-level political dialogue with the State of Qatar and deepening of cooperation in all spheres.”

The interlocutors voiced hope that the first-ever visit of the Armenian President would have a serious impact on the further development of bilateral ties.

Hailing the increased number of tourists from the Gulf states visiting Armenia, the parties discussed the opportunities of visa liberalization between the two countries, as well as the perspectives of development of cooperation with the Qatar Airways.

Reference was made to the perspective of using Armenia as a transit route to the Eurasian Economic Union.
The opportunities of development of cooperation in multilateral format were also discussed.

President Serzh Sargsyan and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani also referred to the process of settlement of the Karabakh conflict. In this context the Emir attached importance to the establishment of stability and peace in the region, stressing that there is no alternative to a peaceful negotiated solution.