Category: News

The delegation headed by Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimyan participated in the 67th session of the Executive Committee of the Programme of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees held in Geneva October 3-7.

Opening remarks by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon were followed by UNHCR Filippo Grandi’s speech.

Referring to the global challenges related to refugees, Ashot Hovakimyan pledged Armenia’s willingness to continue the effective cooperation with the UNHCR Office to address the needs of displaced people and support the refugees and asylum seekers.

The Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister referred to the issue of Armenian refugees, who have been forced to leave their homes in Azerbaijan because of the latter’s policy of ethnic cleansing. He presented the Azerbaijani military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh unleashed in April this year, which was accompanied by harsh violations of international humanitarian law.

Ashot Hovakimyan noted that Armenia has provided refuge to more than 20 thousand Syrian refugees, being the third country in Europe with the number of Syrian refugees hosted.

In response to Armenia’s delegate’s speech, High Commissioner Filippo Grandi noted that the UNHCR Office will maintain support for the solution of problems displaced people face. He attached importance to the soonest resolution of the Karabakh conflict and expressed his support to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ efforts.

On October 5, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan to the south of Gulistan settlement of the Shahumyan region.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain) and representative of the OSCE Chairmanship, staff member of the German Foreign Ministry Klaus Keller.

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, his Field Assistant Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded for developing the world’s smallest machines, the BBC reports.

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize for the design and synthesis of machines on a molecular scale.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden.

The winners join a prestigious list of 200 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901.

The 2nd plane cartrying humanitarian aid for  people in war-torn Syria took off from Armenia today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

Vardan Makarian, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration and Ivan Volynkin, Russian Ambassador to Armenia,  were at the airport to see off the plane.

The Russian Defense Ministry helps deliver the humanitarian aid to Syria. The first military transport aircraft Il-76 of the Russian Defense Ministry delivered to the Hmeymim airbase about 40 tons of canned foods, vegetables, baked goods, flour, sugar.

Armenia’s Civil Court of Appeal has rejected a motion by the country’s prosecutors against the release of Russian national Sergei Mironov, sought by US authorities on suspicion of money laundering and illegal technology transfer, Sputnik News reports, quoting a source in the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office.

Mironov, 30, was detained in Yerevan airport on August 26, but was released on August 29 on a ruling by a Yerevan district court and returned to Russia on August 31.

The Armenian prosecutors appealed the court’s decision in the country’s top appellate court. Mironov’s defense  earlier insisted that Mironov, employed at the Moscow office of the Synesis intelligent video surveillance developer, had no access to military technology and had visited the United States only once in 2013.

More than 40 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.

The rival fired more than 4,000 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions. More intensive firing was reported in the northern direction of the lien of contact, where more than 500 shots were fired from The DShK large-caliber machine gun.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army resorted to response actions to pressure the activeness of the rival, retaining full control over the situation at the frontline.

Photo: Reuters

 

Portugal’s former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is poised to become the next UN secretary general, UN diplomats say, the BBC reports.

Mr Guterres, 66, was the “clear favourite”, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin announced on Wednesday.

A formal vote will take place in the UN Security Council on Thursday to confirm the choice of nominee.

Mr Guterres, who led the UN refugee agency for 10 years, will take over from Ban Ki-moon early next year.

The 15-member Security Council cast secret ballots for each of the 10 candidates on Wednesday and none were found to oppose Mr Guterres.

They were asked to select from a choice of encourage, discourage or no opinion for each candidate, with the former Portuguese prime minister receiving 13 encourage votes and two no opinion votes.

On 5 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan sent a congratulatory address in connection with the Day of Teachers.

The address runs as follows:

“Dear teachers,

On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and personally myself I extend my cordial congratulations on your professional holiday, a day that our people traditionally celebrate with a deep feeling of respect and gratitude.

Gratitude for the significant and difficult work that you fulfill educating and bringing up our children, insinuating in them love and respect towards knowledge, helping them make the first steps in life and become honest individuals and citizens, thereby carrying out a patriotic mission of carving the future of our state and people.

Each of us has a favorite teacher and keeps the memories related to him and school years bright during the whole life. These memories warm our souls and leave their unique trace on our further activity.

Highlighting the special role of teachers in our people’s life the state always rates their work high and keeps issues existing in the sphere of education and science in the spotlight, does everything possible to raise a patriotic, educated and progressive generation.

Dear friends,

I once again congratulate all of you on the Day of Teachers and wish peace, robust health, happiness and all the best”.

Terrorist groups continued shelling the peaceful population in Nor Kiugh, Mogambo and Muhafaza neighborhoods of Aleppo after midday, the Armenian Kantsasar newspaper reports.

According to the source, two Armenians were killed and one was wounded in the attack. The victims are identified as Gaspar Shatoian (born in 1986) and Movses Movsessian (born in 1987).

On October 3, AGBU welcomed member of Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan to its Central Office in New York. As part of his tour of the United States, Paylan met with AGBU President Berge Setrakian and AGBU Central Board members Ani Manoukian and Vasken Yacoubian.

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Setrakian paid tribute to Mr. Paylan’s courage in coming forward with his intervention in the Turkish Parliament on April 24 and for his activism in defense of human rights in Turkey.

During the meeting, both parties discussed the role of the diaspora in supporting the democratic process in Turkey. This meeting was the first to take place between AGBU and Paylan and will set the groundwork for future interactions.

Paylan was one of three Armenians elected to the Turkish Parliament in June 2015. A founding member of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), he has a track record for defending minority rights in Turkey and has been vocal in calling for the country’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Before his election to the Parliament, he served on the central committee of the HDP and worked with Armenian schools in Istanbul to promote multilingual education.