Category: News

Hamshen Armenian rock musician Yasar Kurt was 40, when he discovered his Armenian roots. The musician has now released a new album titled “Hamshen Highlands,” reports.

The album, released after a break of 5 years, reflects the musician’s Armenian roots and includes Black Sea melodies.

Speaking to Agos, the singer said he regrets no song in Hamshen Armenian dialect has been included in the album. “It’s a pity that the younger generation does not speak Armenian. Even those who know the Hamshen Armenian dialect, rarely use it,” he said.

Yasar Kurt hopes to release a new album in Armenian or Hamshen Armenian in cooperation with the “Vova” group and Aysenur Kolivarin the near future.

Photo: AFP

 

A man claiming allegiance to so-called Islamic State (IS) stabbed a French policeman to death before being killed when police stormed a house, in what officials say was a “terrorist act,” the BBC reports.

The attacker took the officer’s partner and their son hostage in their home in Magnanville, near Paris.

The partner was found dead but the child was rescued.

French media say the attacker had been sentenced in 2013 for involvement with jihadist groups with links to Pakistan.

Unnamed sources identified him as 25-year-old Larossi Abballa, who lived in nearby Mantes-La-Jolie and was convicted for “criminal association with the aim of preparing terrorist acts”.

He was sentenced to a three-year term, with six months suspended, they said.

Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said an IS “fighter” carried out the attack.

The delegation headed by Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan has left for Moscow today to participate in a regular sitting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers.

Barcelona football club has agreed to pay a €5.5m  fine over the transfer of Brazil international Neymar in 2013, the BBC reports.

Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu told reporters there had been “a mistake… in tax planning” in connection with the transfer.

Barcelona had been accused of tax fraud over the signing, which it denied.

Neymar and his father are also being investigated over alleged tax fraud, which they also deny.

“We have had to accept paying a €5.5m fine due to a mistake in the 2011 and 2013 tax planning in the signing of Neymar,” Mr Bartomeu said.

“It was better to accept this agreement than continue on with the uncertainty that has dragged on for a long time over the Neymar case.”

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s sister has dropped a heavy hint that the Dortmund star will sign for Arsenal this summer – by following the Gunners on LinkedIn, according to .

The Armenia international looks set to leave the Bundesliga giants this summer and both the Gunners and Manchester United are interested.

The 27-year-old is out of contract next summer and Dortmund chief Michael Zorc admitted the club will be forced into making a decision over the midfielder’s future this week.

Jose Mourinho is known to be a huge admirer of the former Shakhtar Donetsk star but Arsenal are thought to be leading the chase with the midfielder preferring a move to London.

With Mkhitaryan remaining tight-lipped over his future, the midfielder’s sister may just have let the cat out of the bag by recently following Arsenal on social networking site LinkedIn.

Monika Mkhitaryan works for UEFA and doesn’t follow a single football club on LinkedIn – other than Arsenal.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated their Russian counterparts Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin on the National Day of Russia despite the ongoing tensions between the countries, Turkish broadcaster CNN Türk reported, citing government sources. Yildirim and Erdogan sent letters to their counterparts for Russia’s national day celebrated on June 12, according to reports.

“On behalf of Turkish people, I celebrate the National Day of Russian people. Moreover, I hope that the relations between Russia and Turkey reach the level that it deserves in the near future,” Erdogan wrote in the letter to the Russian President, while Yildirim voiced a similar wish in his letter to Medvedev.

“I hope that the cooperation and relations between our countries reach the level necessary for the common goals of our people soon. I wish health and prosperity to all the Russians,” Yildirim said.

 

 

 

The international organizations, the civilized humanity and the superpowers should take necessary steps to free more than 350 thousand Yazidis in Mosul, Northern Iraq and prevent the annihilation of Yazidis, Aziz Tamoyan, Chairman of the Union of Yazidis of Armenia and the World, told reporters today.

He called on Yazidis of the world and the civilized mankind to be united in the fight against the Islamic State and to take relevant steps to ensure the security of the Yazidi population of Iraq

“The IS militants are an evil to the world, and our goals is to reach the condemnation of their actions,” he said.

Journalist and human rights advocate Hasan Tamoyan reminded that the Armenian President was the first to raise the issue of the threat of annihilation of Yazidis on the international arena.

The Armenian legislative initiative of labeling the atrocities against Yazidis as genocide is an important step that will lead to other recognitions, Hasan Tamoyan said.

“The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union and other international organizations have already recognized the events as genocide, which comes to prove that the civilized world is not indifferent towards the pain of Yazidis,” Hasan Tamoyan said. He stressed the need for more intensified and effective efforts in fighting the Islamic State.

The human rights advocate is concerned by the fact that “Iraqi Yazidis have become victims of political games” and blames those claiming leadership of the Yazidi community of Iraq for the situation. He called on Yazidis to unite and thus contribute to international efforts of fighting the Islamic State.

Global climate risk management issues will be discussed at a three-day workshop organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Armenia and the RA Ministry of Nature Protection.

The Integrated Climate Risk Programme, funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, is planned for the period of 2013-2016. The first phase of the programme was implemented in six countries: Armenia, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, and Uganda. The project is aimed at helping countries to build resilience through risk-informed development, in order to tackle climate change and related natural hazards.

The global results-sharing workshop will provide opportunities to reflect on and share the results and good practices from across the six participating countries in order to improve the resilience and effectiveness of interventions globally.

The workshop will also address sustainability and replicability issues of the programme results with the aim of linking them to broader global partnership initiatives and support networks. In this context, the participants will help to shape UNDP’s integrated tool for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into the development agenda. Additionally, the workshop will support countries in the preparation of sustainability plans for the programme’s next phase and the new global partnership initiative “5-10-50”.

A field trip to Vayots Dzor region will be organized to showcase Armenia’s climate-resilient rural communities’ project, implemented within the framework of the programme.

President Serzh Sargsyan sent today a congratulatory message to the Pulitzer Prize winner, poet Peter Balakian on the occasion of his 65th birth anniversary and wished him excellent health, happiness and prolific literary work.

“You have once again raised the theme of the Armenian Genocide in the American literature and have once again reminded the world community on the tragedy of our nation and our rebirth.

Your creations, which are full of high morality and fascinating charm, are love and appreciated by many readers as well as by the critics which is vividly testified to by the Pulitzer Prize recently awarded to you. Your literature is all-human and lasting. In Armenia, we love you and we are proud of you,” reads the congratulatory message of the President of Armenia.

President Serzh Sargsyan has offered condolences to US President Barack Obama over the horrific terrorist act in an Orlando club that left at least 50 killed and dozens injured, the President’s Press Office reported.

President Sargsyan strongly criticized this nasty expression of intolerance and underlined that “this tragedy that befell the friendly American people proved once again that all expressions of hatred, fighting which is a collective duty and mission of all, still remains a most serious challenge to mankind even in the 21^st century.”