According to a decree signed by President Serzh Sargsyan, Yuri Khachaturov has been relieved of the duties of the Chief of Staff of RA Armed Forces.
According to another presidential decree, Yuri Khachaturov has been appointed Secretary of the National Security Council.
Photo: AFP
France has begun air strikes against so-called Islamic State in Iraq from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, reports say, the BBC repots.
A number of Rafale fighter planes took off from the carrier early on Friday, news agency AFP said.
It quoted an officer on board, who said the planes would take part in an attack on Mosul, an IS stronghold in Iraq.
The Charles de Gaulle, France’s only aircraft carrier, was sent to the region earlier in September.
This is the ship’s third mission with the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, since February 2015, when France stepped up its military operations following the attacks in Paris.
Pope Francis has arrived in Georgia at the start of a three day trip to the Caucasus which will also take him Sunday for a brief visit to Azerbaijan, Radio Vatican reports.
On Friday, Georgian government, civil and religious leaders and members of the Catholic community turned out at Tbilisi’s international airport to greet the pontiff, whose plane touched down shortly before 3:00 pm local time.
Meeting national authorities and members of the diplomatic corps in Tbilisi, Georgia Friday, Pope Francis described the Caucasus nation as a “blessed land, a place of encounter and vital exchange among cultures and civilizations” which, since the 4th century, “discovered in Christianity its deepest identity and the solid foundation of its values.”
The Pope was speaking at the Presidential palace shortly after his arrival in the Georgian capital. In his address, he recalled his meeting in the Vatican last year with President Giorgi Margvelashvili and thanked him for the invitation to visit his country whose values, expressed “in culture, language and traditions,” he said, place it fully “within the bedrock of European civilization.”
Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) announced that it will bestow its 2016 Advocate for Justice Award to Congressman Brad Sherman for consistently being one of the strongest voices in our nation’s capital on many issues important to the Armenian community, including justice for the Armenian Genocide, and the security and prosperity of the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Congressman Sherman will personally accept the award at the organization’s Annual Gala to be held on October 16, 2016 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
“Congressman Brad Sherman has been one of our staunchest and most consistent advocates in the United States Congress for a period of twenty years, and we are so gratified to work with him on so many issues important to the advancement of the Armenian Cause. With his vast knowledge of geopolitics in the Near East and Caucasus region, his legal expertise on a wide array of issues facing us, and his commitment to justice, we are fortunate to have Congressman Sherman represent us with such passion and unwavering persistence. The ANCA-WR Board of Directors is proud to honor Congressman Brad Sherman with its 2016 Advocate for Justice award, and we look forward to continuing our close and productive relationship with him,” stated ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian.
“I am honored to be recognized by the Armenian National Committee of America as the 2016 Advocate for Justice. In collaboration with the ANCA, I have consistently focused on recognizing the Armenian Genocide and increasing aid to Armenia, Artsakh, and Javakh. I look forward to continuing my work on these issues in support of a stronger U.S-Armenia relationship. The ANCA has done a tremendous job representing the interests of the Armenian community. I want to extend my best wishes for a most memorable event and continued success in all your future endeavors,” noted Congressman Sherman.
First elected in 1996, Rep. Brad Sherman has, over the past two decades, consistently and effectively championed the views, values and policy priorities of Armenian Americans throughout California and across the United States. His perfect A+ grades reflect his unfailing support for our homeland and heritage, as does the prestigious Mkhitar Gosh Award he received from the Republic of Armenia.
Congressman Sherman’s leadership on issues of special concern to Americans of Armenian heritage encompasses the full array of our community’s foreign policy priorities – from a just resolution of the Armenian Genocide, security for the independent Nagorno Karabakh Republic, increasingly strong U.S.-Armenia bilateral relations, and humanitarian support for at-risk Armenians across the Middle East.
Since taking office he has co-sponsored every Armenian Genocide Resolution, leveraging his seniority on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to secure the adoption of this human rights measure by the panel on a number of occasions, including high-profile legislative battles in 2007 and 2010. Additionally, Congressman Sherman has openly and aggressively pressed Presidents of both parties – from Clinton and Bush to Obama – to end U.S. complicity in Turkey’s obstruction of justice for this crime. He has, as well, worked to block U.S. arms sales and transfers to Turkey that potentially threaten the security of Armenia, Greece, or Cyprus.
Long an ardent defender of Artsakh’s freedom and security, Congressman Sherman – along with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce – earlier this year spearheaded the Royce-Sherman letter. This bipartisan Congressional letter, signed by more than 50 legislators, called on President Obama to press Azerbaijan to stop blocking the implementation of proposals to strengthen the Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire. Among these proposals (backed by the U.S. and the OSCE, endorsed by both Armenia and Artsakh, but rejected by Azerbaijan) is the deployment of gunfire locators, the addition of observers, and the withdrawal of snipers and heavy arms from the line of contact. Parallel to his work supporting the ceasefire, he has – in the wake of Baku’s April 2016 offensive – formally called upon the Obama Administration to launch a “Leahy Law” investigation to determine if Azerbaijani forces that committed human rights abuses against Artsakh citizens and soldiers had received any military assistance from the U.S. government.
As early as 2012, Congressman Sherman began advocating for the right of Nagorno Karabakh to begin operating the Stepanakert airport, publicly condemning Baku’s threats to shoot down civilian planes using this facility. In that same year, he was among the most vocal U.S. legislators to protest Azerbaijan’s release and pardon of unrepentant anti-Armenian axe-killer Ramil Safarov. In 2011, he was the key to securing written assurances from the Export-Import Bank that its financing of satellite purchase by Baku would not add any military capability to the Azerbaijani armed forces. He has, consistently, marked anniversaries of the Baku/Sumgait pogroms, always protested publicly against Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian aggression, and consistently defended the Section 907 restrictions on direct U.S. aid to the Azerbaijani government.
On foreign aid, Representative Sherman – long a strong champion of robust levels of economic development assistance to Armenia, frequently questioning USAID and State Department officials when they appeared before Congress. On issues of international development, he is, though, perhaps best known for his pioneering “Sherman Amendment” during consideration of the Fiscal Year 1998 foreign aid bill. His leadership, within the Foreign Affairs Committee and with his House colleagues, developed the bipartisan consensus needed to launch the U.S. aid program to Nagorno Karabakh – an unprecedented effort that has, over the past two decades, provided tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to Nagorno Karabakh. Congressman Sherman has been a legislative leader in seeking targeted U.S. aid to the Armenian-populated Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia, and also supports U.S. and international assistance to help Armenia settle refugees from the Middle East.
As a legislative leader of Armenia’s aid to trade transition, Representative Sherman was a driving force behind 2015’s signing of a U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. He is currently the leading Congressional voice in support of a U.S.-Armenia Tax Treaty, having twice questioned Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew during hearings about the urgent necessity of removing the threat of double taxation as an obstacle to the growth of bilateral commercial relations.
Congressman Brad Sherman, from Sherman Oaks, was born and raised in southern California and represents California’s San Fernando Valley. He has been in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, serving his tenth term in Congress. Congressman Sherman is a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Previously, the organization announced that it will honor California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson with the Man of the Year Award, Varoujan Koundakjian posthumously with the Legacy Award, California State Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian with the Legislator of the Year Award, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and the Kerr family with the Humanitarian Award, and German Parliament Member Cem Ozdemir and the German Bundestag with the Freedom Award. As a part of the program that evening, a special recognition and presentation will be made to and by filmmakers of the newly-completed Armenian Genocide-era film, “The Promise, which will include a short clip from the film with behind-the-scenes footage compiled especially for this event.
Photo: ESA
Europe’s Rosetta probe has ended its mission to Comet 67P by crash-landing on to the icy object’s surface, the BBC reports.
Mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, was able to confirm the impact had occurred when radio contact to the ageing spacecraft was lost abruptly.
The assumption is that the probe would have been damaged beyond use.
In the hours before the planned collision, Rosetta sent back a host of high-resolution pictures and other measurements of the icy dirt-ball.
“I can announce full success of this historic descent of Rosetta towards Comet 67P,” said European Space Agency mission manager Patrick Martin.
“Farewell Rosetta; you’ve done the job. That was space science at its best.”
Scientists expect all the data gathered at 67P in the past two years to keep them busy for decades to come.
Anti-Mafia police in Naples have recovered two Van Gogh paintings stolen from Amsterdam in 2002, the Van Gogh Museum and organized crime investigators said Friday, the Associated Press reports.
The museum in a statement on its website Friday said the paintings, found without their frames, are in “relatively good condition.” It said the two paintings are the 1882 work “Seascape at Scheveningen” and a later work, “Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen.”
Police in Naples said the paintings, of “priceless value,” were discovered during a raid as part of a crackdown against a Naples-based Camorra crime clan suspected of cocaine trafficking. Naples prosecutors said more details will be given later at a news conference in the southern Italian city.
The paintings were sequestered along with other property, worth “tens of millions of euros,” said the police. The Financial Guard, a branch of the Italian police, often sequesters financial assets of suspected criminals.
“After all these years, you no longer dare count on a possible return,” the museum quoted its director Alex Rueger as saying, and expressed gratitude to Italian investigators and police.
The museum said the paintings, inspected by a curator, do show “some damage” and it is unclear when they will return to Amsterdam. The museum director was planning to attend the news conference.
Turkey has ordered the closure of 20 television and radio stations, including one that airs children’s programmes, on charges they spread “terrorist propaganda”, adding to fears that emergency rule is being used to stifle the media, Reuters reports.
President Tayyip Erdogan has said he wants a three-month state of emergency, imposed after a failed coup attempt in July, to be prolonged past October so authorities can eradicate the threat posed by a religious movement blamed for the attempt, as well as Kurdish militants who have waged a 32-year insurgency.
The banned channels are owned or operated by Kurds or the Alevi religious minority, according to Hamza Aktan, news editor at IMC TV, a news broadcaster slated for closure. He cited a copy of the decision obtained by his channel, which was based on powers given the government in a decree issued in July.
“This has nothing to do with the coup. It is an effort to silence the last independent media covering the Kurdish issue and violations committed by the state,” Aktan told Reuters.
IMC has aired reports looking at security forces’ conduct during 14 months of military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has killed thousands.
Among the 12 shuttered television channels are Govend TV, which plays folk music, and Zarok TV, which airs Kurdish-language children’s cartoons. The decision also shut 11 radio stations for harming national security, Aktan said.
“Turkey is targeting a wide swath of cultural and political expression by shuttering minority broadcasters,” Robert Mahoney of the Committee to Protect Journalists said. “When the government sees even children’s programming as a threat to national security, it is clearly abusing its emergency powers.”
The Balyan family was one of the most well-known Armenian families during the Ottoman era. Family members served as imperial architects for years and are remembered as the masterminds behind many palaces, mosques and barracks like the Dolmabahce Mosque and the Beylerbeyi Palace, Daily Sabah writes.
An Armenian family coming from the province of Kayseri was the origin of nine craftsmen consecutively, and they left their marks on many buildings in Istanbul and its surroundings during the 18th and 19th centuries such as palaces, mosques, churches, mansions, waterfront residences, barracks, schools, hospitals, towers, fountains, weirs and theater halls.
The Balyan Family developed a unique architectural style by blending Europe’s baroque and imperial styles with Oriental ornamental style. Apart from passing down their knowledge and experience from one generation to another, the Balyan Family succeeded in modernizing themselves and making sure they were not forgotten.
Not many people who perform their prayers at the mosques in the Bosporus are aware that some of these mosques have been built by an Armenian.
On September 29, Edward Nalbandian, the Acting Foreign Minister, delivered a speech on Armenia’s foreign policy at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington D.C.
The U.S. State Department and National Security Council officials, leading experts and diplomats accredited in Washington D.C. attended the meeting with the Foreign Minister of Armenia, chaired by Andrew S. Weiss, the Vice President of the Carnegie Endowment.
In his remarks, Edward Nalbandian presented the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy, country’s path during these 25 years since the declaration of independence, Armenia’s stance on a number of regional issues and the ways to resolve them.
The Head of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia presented to the leading U.S. experts the consequences of April aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and the efforts exerted by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group countries to overcome those consequences, the current stage of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process; he presented the agreements reached during the summits held in Vienna and St. Petersburg aimed at creating necessary conditions for the advancement of negotiation process and Azerbaijan’s destructive stance, attempts to reject the reached agreements.
While answering the numerous questions of the attendees, Edward Nalbandian touched upon the gross violations of the international humanitarian law by Azerbaijani Armed Forces during the April war, Armenia’s membership at the Eurasian Economic Union, the Armenia-European Union cooperation, the Armenian-Iranian relations.
The Council of the Italian region of Basilicata (Consiglio Regionale della Basilicata) unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide on September 27, expressing its support to the Armenian people.
The bill was submitted by MP Aurelio Pace at the request of the Armenian community.
The bill says the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by a number of international organizations, including the Turkish Tribunal in 1919.
The document underlines that it’s necessary to inform the public, especially the younger generation, about the tragedy that befell the Armenian nation with a view of preventing similar crimes in the future.
The Regional Council of Basilicata became the 180th regional council in Italy to recognize the Armenian Genocide.