Category: News

Zlatan Ibrahimovic should complete his long-anticipated move to Manchester United by the end of the week, the reports.

The Swedish striker, 34, is a free agent after leaving Paris St-Germain and is expected to sign a one-year deal with the Old Trafford club.

He will become the second signing for United boss Jose Mourinho, who replaced Louis van Gaal as manager in May.

Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly, 22, has already completed a £30m move to United from Spanish side Villarreal.

United have also made an improved offer for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 27, and are now waiting for his German club, Borussia Dortmund, to make a decision on the Armenian playmaker’s future.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the moment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, TASS reports.

According to the spokesman, the compensation for Russia’s Su-24M bomber downed by Turkey depends on the agreement following today’s conversation.

“I invite you to be oriented exclusively towards the results of the contact between the heads of state,” Peskov told the media.

Photo: Reuters    

A gun and bomb attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk international airport has killed at least 10 people and injured others, with reports of at least one suicide bomber, the BBC reports.

At least 20 people were also wounded with casualties being reportedly rushed to hospital in taxis.

Police opened fire to stop the suspects at an entry point, Reuters reports.

“Ten people have been killed according to a preliminary toll,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said.

“According to the information I was given, a terrorist at the international terminal entrance first opened fire with a Kalashnikov and then blew himself up,” the minister added, according to the Associated Press.

Turkey will not pay compensation to Russia over the downing of a fighter jet last year and has only expressed regret over the incident, prime minister Binali Yildirim has said, after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered a conciliatory hand to Moscow over the incident that shattered ties between the two countries, reports.

Yildirim’s statement on Tuesday appeared to contradict a statement he made to public TV network TRT on Monday evening, in which he said Turkey would pay compensation “if necessary.”

Yildirim also indicated that Erdogan would speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week over how to rebuild ties between the two countries, which back opposite sides in the Syrian war.

Yildirim also said legal proceedings were under way against an individual allegedly responsible for the killing of the Russian pilot.

On 27 June Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received primate of the New Nakhichevan and Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Patriarchic exarch Archbishop Yezras Nersisyan, philanthropists from Diaspora Hayk Maghakelyan and Vahe Karapetyan.

Issues related to the Motherland-Diaspora, church-state ties and implementation of a range of programs in Artsakh were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan noted that the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity was among the cornerstones of our state-building process adding that the presence of Diaspora was tangible in almost all spheres of our republic’s life.

By trying to mend ties with Russia, Turkey is solving a geopolitical issue, Director of the Oriental Studies Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan said in an interview with .

He said “Turkey faces the threat of isolation because of its adventurist policy in Syria, which will be a serious diplomatic defeat,” the political scientist said, adding that “this was the motive behind Turkey’s move to normalize ties with both Israel and Russia.”

Safrastyan said the normalization of relations between Turkey and Russia will hardly affect the settlement of the Karabakh issue.

“I don’t think this will have a principled impact on the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue,” Ruben Safrastyan said. He reminded that the two countries enjoyed rather positive relations, especially in the economic field, before the downing of the Russian Su-24 last November, and it in no way impacted the Karabakh issue.

Ankara and Tel Aviv signed a deal to normalize ties on June 28 after six years of strained relations, teh reports.

The director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, signed the deal in Tel Aviv private broadcaster CNN Türk has reported, while Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu signed the accord for the Turkish side in Ankara, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Turkish and Israeli prime ministers announced on June 27 that a deal to bring an end to the strained ties between the two countries had been reached and a deal would be signed on June 28.

Relations between Turkey and Israel had come to a halt after Israeli commandoes killed 10 Turkish pro-Palestinian activists on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla in May 2010, as activists tried to breach an Israel’s Gaza blockade.

Attempts to mend ties were initiated in 2015 when delegations from two sides met for the first time. Negotiations were conducted throughout 2016 until June 26, when the two sides met in Rome to agree on the latest draft of the agreement.

According to the deal, Israel will pay $20 million in compensation to the relatives of the Mavi Marmara victims.

In exchange for the compensation, all claims against Israeli soldiers in Turkey will be dropped. As the deal will be an international agreement approved by the parliament, it will be positioned above domestic law and all charges against Israeli navy officers will need to be dropped.

The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld a 4-year prison sentence given to prominent Armenian businessman Levon Hayrapetyan for embezzlement of $700,000, reports from the courtroom.

The sentence thus came into force.

In April, Hayrapetyan was found guilty of stealing $700,000 from the mother of former Bashkortostan senator Igor Izmestyev sentenced to life for terrorism. In addition to the prison sentence Hayrapetyan was ordered to pay the victim 20.8 million rubles (about $320,000).

According to investigators, the businessman has misled the woman by promising a reduced sentence for her son. In practice, he could not influence the judgment.

The businessman has pleaded not guilty. According to his lawyer, the case has been framed up.

Hayrapetyan also stands charged with involvement in an embezzlement case under which Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov, sold Bashneft, a midsized oil company he headed for three years, to the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema in 2009 at a huge “discount” of $500 million.

Hayrapetyan holds dual citizenship, has assets abroad and was until recently living in Monaco. Prosecutors presented this information as grounds for arrest. In early October 2014, Hayrapetyan was placed under house arrest. His defense attorney asked the court to release him, citing health problems.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a telephone conversation either on June 29 or June 30, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has stated, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

Martakert is celebrating the 23th anniversary of liberation today. The day started with a military march. Authorities and citizens of Martakert and surrounding regions laid flowers at the monument of glory and visited the museum of memory of the victims of 1992-1994 military actions.

A concert featuring a group of singers from Armenia will take place at the culture house of the city later today. The author of the initiative is Shushan Petrosyan, a long-standing fiend of Martakert.

People in the city say, however, that their feelings and memories are connected with the developments of April 2016 rather than the events of 23 years ago.

Much has changed in Martakert in the course of the past 23 years. People say many found nothing but ruins when they returned to their homes after the liberation. But the city has been reconstructed ever since.

The events of April this year brought about new destructions, fifteen houses were completely ruined, more than 100 were damaged. The reconstruction works are nearing end now, Mayor Mikael Gyurjyan says.

Many of Martakert residents never returned after the exile of 1992. The biggest wish of those who live in the city, who have experienced the difficulties of surviving in a city raising form ruins, have faced the horror of the April war is to see all their fellow-citizens return to Martakert.

They dream of building a country that will make repatriation inevitable.