Category: News

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.

Roy Hodgson has resigned as England manager after his side suffered a shock 2-1 defeat by Iceland to crash out of Euro 2016 at the last-16 stage, the BBC reports.

The 68-year-old had been in charge for four years after replacing Italian Fabio Capello but has won just three of 11 games in major tournament finals.

Iceland – with a population of just 330,000 – were among the lowest-ranked teams in France at 34 in the world.

“I’m sorry it will have to end this way but these things happen,” Hodgson said.

“Now is the time for someone else to oversee the progress of a hungry and extremely talented group of players.

“They have done fantastically and done everything asked of them. I hope you will still be able to see an England team in a final of a major tournament soon.”

Hodgson, who won 33 of his 56 games as England boss, would have been out of contract at the end of the tournament.

The issue of Nagorno Karabakh requires silence, Spokesperdson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova told a press conference today.

“Diplomats and experts should work on the issue,” Zakharaova said, commenting on the results of the trilateral meeting between the Presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg.

“What’s important is not to diffuse the positive achievements reached at the meeting in public rhetoric, they need to be preserved in order to be realized in the course of concrete steps,” she added.

“There are topics, which require silence, because it’s diplomats and experts that must work here,” Zakharova noted.

“It’s important to ensute that the settlement of the Karabakh conflict moves to a concrete real platform,” the Spokeswoman said.

Asbarez – The Armenian American Museum Governing Board said said that it commends California Governor Jerry Brown for including a $1 million earmark for the Museum in the 2016-2017 California State budget.

“The funding from the State of California at this early stage of the Museum project will give an important boost to securing the approvals and funding needed for the construction of the Armenian American Museum in Glendale,” explained Governing Board Co-Chair Archbishop Hovnan Derderian.

“We are grateful to Senate President Pro-Tempore Kevin De Leon and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for including funding for the Armenian American Museum in the compromised Budget negotiated with the Governor,” stated Co-Chair Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian.

Archbishop Mardirossian and other representatives of the Museum met with Speaker Rendon (D—Paramount) and worked with Senate President Kevin de Leon (D—Los Angeles) to include the funding request submitted by Senator Carol Liu (D—Glendale) and Assembly Member Adrin Nazarian (D—Sherman Oaks).

Although the funding included in the compromised budget between the Legislature and the Governor is lower than the amount approved by the State Assembly, the Armenian American Museum’s Executive Committee Chair Berdj Karapetian described it as “a sizeable commitment by the State to make the Armenian American Museum a reality.” Karapetian additionally noted, “This is an important first step and we hope that more funding will be available as we move forward with this project.”

The Armenian American Museum is working closely with the City of Glendale to complete the due diligence requirements and feasibility studies for building the Museum in the Arts and Entertainment District of the City.

The mission of the Armenian American Museum is to promote understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Armenian American experience.

Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has admitted that they will come to a decision over Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s future soon, the reports.

Manchester United are closing in on the Armenian midfielder and Watzke confirmed that a new, improved, bid had arrived.

Dortmund were desperate to keep hold of the 27-year-old but an offer in the region of £33m looks like it has convinced them to sell.

They wanted him to stay and see out the last 12 months of his contract but agent Mino Raiola went into overdrive in a bid to get him out.

Watzke told German paper : “The situation is now different.

“Manchester have made a much improved offer.

“In situations like this there are always a lot of different things to consider and in the end at one point we have to make a decision.

“And as we are back in training on Monday we will decide at the weekend.

“I have contacted the relevant people and we will weigh things up at the weekend. And then the board will make the decision, definitely at the weekened.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Yerevan on July 4, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said on Tuesday, reports.

“The ministers will discuss current problems of international and regional security, cooperation on the international arena,” she said.

The CSTO top diplomats will also exchange views on “combating terrorism and extremism in the light of the situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan,” she said.

Moscow “hopes the Yerevan meeting will make a major contribution to the implementation of agreements reached at the top level,” Zakharova said.