Category: News

Today, the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Commonwealth of Australia to the Republic of Armenia Peter Tesch (residence in Moscow) presented his credentials to the President of Armenia.

President Serzh Sargsyan congratulated the Ambassador on assuming his position and expressed hope that during his tenure he will spare no effort to develop friendly relations between Armenia and Australia. Wishing Ambassador Tesch all the best, Serzh Sargsyan assured that the state structures of Armenia will provide comprehensive support to the activities of the Ambassador aimed at the strengthening of the Armenian-Australian relations.

In the context of making the bilateral relations more substantial and elevating them to a qualitatively new level, the two parties stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits and regular contacts at different levels, including in the interparliamentary format, close and efficient cooperation in the framework of international and regional organizations as well as the development of economic relations in the mutually attractive areas.

Ambassador Peter Tesch spoke with esteem about the large Armenian community of Australia and stressed that in his country the Armenians have fully integrated into the social and political life of Australia and bring their input to the development of different areas and at the same time promote the strengthening of the Armenian-Australian friendship.

Photo: AFP

 

A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters has begun a campaign to expel Islamic State (IS) militants from land north of Raqqa, the BBC reports.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is believed to have deployed about 30,000 fighters.

US-led coalition warplanes will support the offensive and Russia has also given its backing.

The SDF did not mention any plan to take Raqqa, the de facto capital of the “caliphate” proclaimed by IS in 2014.

Photo: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree pardoning Nadezhda Savchenko, who was sent to Kiev, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, reports.

“Relatives of the murdered journalists requested that Vladimir Putin pardon Nadezhda Savchenko as a humane gesture,” Peskov added.

Savchenko was sentenced in late March to a 22-year jail term in Russia for her part in killing Russian journalists in Donbass. On June 17, 2014, a court ruled that she had directed the artillery fire at a group of Lugansk militia and Russian journalists, which lead to deaths of Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin.

Two Russian citizens who had been jailed in Ukraine, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov, have also been freed.

“The transfer of Nadezhda Savchenko to Ukraine and Russians Alexandrov and Yerofeyev to Russia has been completed. This happened on the basis of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, ratified by Russia and Ukraine,”Russian Upper House Speaker Valentina Matvienko said.

“This is not a prisoner swap,” she added.

The plane carrying Russian citizens Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov has landed at Vnukovo Internatinal Airport.

In May 2015, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov were detained by Ukrainian forces near a front-line town in the Lugansk Region in eastern Ukraine. A Kiev court sentenced them to 14 years in prison, having found them guilty of terrorism-related activities.

No violations of the agreement on ceasefire were registered at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night, NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep the operational situation under control and take necessary steps to organize a reliable protection of the military positions.

Armenia duly fulfills its obligations undertaken under the UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, State Committee under the RA Government on Nuclear Safety Regulation (ANRA) said in a statement.

According to the committee, inspectors have conducted about 200 inspections: no any non-compliance or deviation from the requirements of international treaties has been recorded.

The full text of the statement is provided below:

In 1991, the Republic of Armenia (RA) joined the UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and then ratified the Agreement between the Republic Armenia and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in connection with the NPT and the Protocol Additional to the Safeguards Agreement.

In accordance with the Law of the RA on Safe Utilization of Atomic Energy  for Peaceful Purposes, the RA established the state system on accounting for and control of nuclear materials. The RA Government adopted relevant legal acts to ensure fulfillment of its obligations undertaken under the international treaties.

The RA performs continuous accounting for and control of nuclear materials that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

In accordance with the NPT and the IAEA Safeguards Agreement, the state accounting for and control of nuclear materials is implemented at three levels:

1. The facility level: the accounting for and control of nuclear materials is implemented by the facility personnel.
2. The state level: the accounting for and control of nuclear materials is implemented by the state authority empowered by the legislation, i.e. the state committee under the RA Government on nuclear safety regulation.
3. The international level: the accounting for and control of nuclear materials is implemented by the IAEA inspectors.

In accordance with the mentioned agreements and the procedures established by the laws, the IAEA inspectors regularly conduct on-site inspections to verify the presence of the nuclear material accounted and reported. In its turn the RA submits relevant reports and declarations to the IAEA.

In accordance with the safeguards procedures, video cameras have been installed by the IAEA inspectors to continuously control the movement of nuclear material.

Nodes, installations, safe boxes housing nuclear materials are sealed by special IAEA seals any damage of which is recorded directly through the satellite by the IAEA special unit.

The IAEA inspectors have conducted about 200 inspections: no any non-compliance or deviation from the requirements of international treaties has been recorded.

The RA has participated in four Nuclear Security Summits held at the initiative of the US President. In this context a number of measures have implemented aimed at strengthening the safety of nuclear installations, nuclear and radioactive materials, enhancing their physical protection level as well as preventing the illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials.

The RA duly fulfills its obligations undertaken under the international treaties.

Radio Free Europe journalist Khadija Ismayilova has been freed from jail in Azerbaijan on Wednesday after the country’s Supreme Court amended her imprisonment to 3 1/2 years of suspended sentence, Reuters reports. 

In September, an Azeri court sentenced Ismayilova, a prominent journalist known for exposing corruption among the ruling elite, to seven-and-a-half years in jail.

 

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

A decade ago, two Turkish Islamist leaders — Recep Erdogan (now President) and prominent Sunni cleric Fethullah Gulen — were the best of friends. Their common enemy was the Turkish military. But as Erdogan solidified his dictatorial rule by castrating the generals, he turned against his old ally, Gulen, to monopolize his grip on power. Erdogan purged and jailed hundreds of Gulen followers: journalists, judges, police, and state officials.

To expand its global investigation into the activities of Gulen-led organizations, the Turkish government hired, for $50,000 a month, the London-based law firm of Amsterdam and Partners. The law firm will also provide legal advice on the Erdogan regime’s request for Gulen’s extradition from his self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

“We have been retained by the Republic of Turkey to expose allegedly unlawful conduct by the Gulen network worldwide,” stated Robert Amsterdam, founding partner of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, during a recent press conference in Washington DC. “The activities of the Gulen network, including its penetration of the Turkish judiciary and police, as well as its political lobbying abroad, should concern everyone who cares about the future of democracy in Turkey.”

The high-powered lawyer’s insincere lament regarding “the future of democracy in Turkey,” is preposterous, as Erdogan himself has single-handedly demolished all vestiges of democracy in Turkey!

In a recent press release, Amsterdam claimed that “The Gulen network, which operates more than 100 charter schools in the U.S., has become the subject of federal and local law enforcement and regulatory investigation in the United States. According to separate cases filed against Gulen-affiliated schools, the group has allegedly engaged in systemic abuse of the American visa system.” The lawyer representing Turkey also asserted: “Globally, the Gulen network operates thousands of schools and has an agreement with the African Union to open 1,000 new schools in the region.”

Erdogan’s long arm has now reached all the way into Texas, going after Harmony Public Schools, the largest charter school system based in Houston, which has 30,000 students and operates under various Gulen-affiliated non-profit organizations.

Last November, Amsterdam and Partners filed a 90-item public information request that would cost Harmony $4.5 million to complete. Even after the lengthy list was shortened, it would still cost Harmony $690,000 to compile and provide that information. The Texas Attorney General will now have to decide the appropriateness of the Turkish request.

This week, Amsterdam and Partners is expected to file a 30-page complaint with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) against Harmony schools. Jim Arnold, an Austin-based lobbyist, also hired by Turkey, sent an e-mail to the Texas Governor’s office stating that the complaint “will outline a series of allegations concerning Harmony’s financial operations as well as their alleged misconduct, and request a comprehensive investigation by TEA.”

In response, Soner Tarim, chief executive officer and co-founder of Harmony Public Schools, told the Houston Chronicle that the targeting of his schools by the Turkish government is “mind-boggling and politically motivated.”

Meanwhile, Amsterdam and Partners has filed similar complaints against the Gulen-affiliated Magnolia Charter Schools in California, “urging the California Department of Education to conduct a full investigation of the charter network’s financial practices,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

In a strongly-worded letter, Cong. Brad Sherman complained about the Turkish government’s attacks on Magnolia Charter Schools: “President Erdogan is a repudiation of everything that good American schools stand for. He has personally done tremendous damage to democracy in the Republic of Turkey.”  Cong. Sherman also wrote in his April 26 letter that “Amsterdam & Partners was being paid $600,000 a year to disparage Magnolia Public Schools” and that “at various times, President Erdogan’s government has assisted ISIS. Accordingly, I cannot think of a worse source of information about American education than President Erdogan and his paid agents,” the Houston Chronicle reported.

Tarim told the Houston newspaper that regretfully “The Turkish government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless time attacking these American schools, forcing Harmony to match the effort. The money and energy would be better spent on students.”

Armenian-Americans can sit back and watch with great interest this costly and scandalous court battle between the Turkish government and Gulen’s organization. Let them waste their money and energy by fighting each other rather than wining and dining U.S. officials on all-expense paid extravagant junkets to Turkey and lobbying members of Congress against Armenian issues!

 

 

 

Armenia is the only country, were Yazidis have been provided with broad opportunities to preserve their national identity, head of the Yazidi community of Armenia Aziz Tamoyan told reporters today.

The Yazidis pledge to stand by the friendly Armenian nation to rebuff the assaults of a common treacherous enemy if necessary.

More than 50 Yazidi volunteers left for Artsakh to stand next to Armenian brothers during the large-scale military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan in early April.

“Everyone knows that Artsakh has historically belonged to the Armenian people, and Aliyev’s criminal activity is doomed to fail,” Tamoyan said.

“The international community, the progressive mankind, the international organization should strongly condemn Aliyev’s misanthrope policy and punish him as a war criminal,” Tamoyan said. He added that “Yazidis in different countries of the world will combine their efforts to achieve this.”

Five Yazidis were killed in the April war. The beheading of serviceman Kyaram Sloyan will never be forgotten.  Volunteers, who have just returned from Artsakh, say they have the duty to punish such barbarities.

A team of scientists comes up with an unusual idea to preserve the disappearing snows of Armenia, according to .

Because of climate change, the weather in the small mountainous country of Armenia is getting hotter and hotter. The mountain snows that normally serve as a source of water now melt earlier, meaning floods in the spring and droughts in the summer.

Filmmaker Vardan Hovhannisyan follows a team of Armenian scientists on Mount Aragats who has come up with an unusual new idea to preserve the mountain snows.

Bundesliga’s Player of the Season Henrikh Mkhitaryan has thanked all Bundesliga professionals for the votes.

“Truly honored to be voted Best Player of the Season! Thanks to all the‪ ‎Bundesliga professionals  for this amazing recognition!” Mkhitaryan said in a Facebook post.

Borussia Dortmund’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was named the footballer of the Bundesliga 2015-16, according to a poll conducted by German magazine

Mkhitaryan topped the list with 31.1 percent of the votes, followed by Bayern Munich’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski with 22.1 percent, reports Efe.

Bayern’s Thomas Muller came third with 13.6 percent, ahead of Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with 13.2 percent.

The best goalkeeper of the season was Bayern’s Manuel Neuer with 23.8 percent, followed by Mainz’s Loris Karius with 13.6 percent and Bayer Leverkusen’s Bernd Leno with 12.8 percent.