Category: News

Photo: EPA    

Lawyer Amal Clooney has urged the UN to act against so-called Islamic State by backing a UK-led investigation into the group’s atrocities in Iraq, the BBC reports.

Speaking at the UN, Mrs Clooney said IS had declared it will “destroy” the country’s Yazidi ethnic group through murder, rape and forced conversions.

The British-Lebanese human rights lawyer said IS was also attacking Christians, and Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Mrs Clooney, who is based in London, accused the UN of “inaction”.

She said: “The UN was created as the world’s way of saying ‘never again’ to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis.

“And yet here we are, 70 years later, discussing the UN’s inaction in the face of a genocide that we all know about, and that is ongoing.”

The UK is drafting a Security Council resolution to establish a UN investigation, but Mrs Clooney said the Iraqi government needs to send a letter formally requesting the inquiry before the 15-member council can vote.

The European Council today re-elected Donald Tusk as its president for a second term of two and a half years, from 1 June 2017 to 30 November 2019. Donald Tusk was also re-appointed as President of the Euro Summit for the same period.

He is the second full-time President of the European Council, following the creation of the post on 1 December 2009 under the Treaty of Lisbon.

Donald Tusk has been the President of the European Council since 1 December 2014. Prior to that, he was Prime Minister of Poland for 7 years.

The President chairs European Council meetings and drives forward its work. He also ensures the external representation of the EU at his level on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy.

Photo: Reuters

 

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has become the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office, the BBC  reports.

Judges unanimously upheld Parliament’s decision to impeach Ms Park over her role in a corruption scandal involving close friend Choi Soon-sil.

She now loses her presidential immunity and could face criminal charges.

There have been angry scenes outside the court, as supporters of Ms Park protested against the verdict.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that two people had died, including one elderly man who fell from a police van. The details are still emerging.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan may return from injury in Manchester United’s Europa League match at FC Rostov and that would be good news for every Reds supporter, as well as a group of Armenian journalists who have driven over 1,300 kilometres to attend Thursday’s tie in Russia.

Stewart Gardner interviewed Robert Gasparyan from Vivaro News before the press pack amusingly sang the ever-popular Mkhitaryan chant.

Firstly, after travelling so far, how much do you hope to see Henrikh in action?
“We heard about the injury and hoped to see him here. We didn’t know if Mourinho would pick him up for this Europa League game against FC Rostov, but we came here and finally on Tuesday we knew Mkhitaryan would be on board. We heard Mourinho say in his press conference that he doesn’t know whether it is possible for Mkhitaryan to play because the conditions are awful. Maybe he will keep Mkhitaryan for the second half and let him play for 20 to 25 minutes, because there is a very important game against Chelsea that is more important than the first leg against Rostov.”

Can you give us an idea of how much interest there is in Mkhitaryan back in Armenia? 
“The transfer of Mkhitaryan from Dortmund to Manchester United was like a boom for Armenia! Everybody expected he would move to Juventus or Arsenal, but he decided on Manchester United so Mkhitaryan has made a step up in his career. It was amazing for us to know and hear about an Armenian player who plays in England, the best league in the world, at Manchester United. There was a hard situation for Mkhitaryan after the Manchester derby when he was not playing for two months, but we hoped that one day he would start playing and show he is world-class.”

How difficult was it getting to Rostov?
“By plane it is much easier for us, but we came by car here and drove 1,300 kilometres across Armenia, into Georgia and then Russia. We went through many passport controls, it was awful, but we got here finally and now we hope that Mkhitaryan will play. We hope to see his best play and, here, there are many Armenian people. Forty per cent of citizens here are Armenians so it is very interesting for the people of Rostov. There are Armenian flags, people screaming Mkhitaryan, singing the famous Sting song [Englishman in New York]. There is a very big interest in Mkhitaryan.”

Finally, as somebody who knows Russian football, what do you expect from the game?
“The draw will be a really good result for Manchester United, because we know about the field. I hope that MU will win, but on 9 March when the fields of Russia are not in a good condition then maybe the draw will not be a bad result. The next game will be in Manchester and, there, I think United will win.”

– Armenia is ready to take unpopular steps including cutting state spending and eliminating barriers to private investment in order to get the ailing economy back on a sustainable footing by next year, its prime minister said.

“Regular structural reforms will be implemented in Armenia, even if these reforms are unpopular,” Prime Minister Karenb Karapetyantold Reuters in an interview.

Cutting administrative expenses, and plans to reduce the budget deficit to 2.7 percent of national output this year from the 5.9 percent expected for 2016, might impact economic growth. But the measures were necessary, he said.

“It will have a negative impact … but we want to compensate it through private investment,” Karapetyan said.

“I think we will be able to withstand (problems) and achieve 3.2 percent growth this year.”

He said that his government would also focus on fighting corruption and “eliminating all barriers that impede business from developing”.

According to officials, the government is preparing an economic development programme that will target growth of between 4-5 percent from 2018.

Karapetyan said a new centre for strategic initiatives would look to draft short- and long-term projects with the private sector.

He said it was “realistic” to try to attract $850 million of investment this year, with the bulk coming from the private sector.

Armenia attracted $513 million in foreign direct investment in the first half of 2016, up from $323 million in the same period a year ago, according to national statistics office data.

Countries with significant investments in Armenia include Russia, Germany and France and the main sectors attracting funding are agriculture, energy and tourism.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s ability to produce sublime strikes for Manchester United has now won him a hat-trick of Goal of the Month accolades.

The Armenian was in award-winning form again at the beginning of February when he notched the best of United’s three efforts away to Leicester City. It also turned out to be the pick of all the Reds’ goals at different age levels last month, following a fan poll conducted here on ManUtd.com.

“I controlled the ball, I passed Robert Huth and then I had free space ahead of me,” said Mkhitaryan, when speaking to following the 3-0 win. “When I was in front of the goalkeeper, I saw the far post was open so I aimed my shot there and finally it went into the net.”

Mkhitaryan’s solo run and finish at the Foxes’ expense gleaned 41 per cent of the votes, to pip Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s EFL Cup-final free-kick (39 per cent). The Swede’s trophy-winning header was the supporters’ third favourite goal scored in February with nine per cent, leaving the other shortlisted strikes to sweep up the remaining 11 per cent between them.

Henrikh retains the Goal of the Month honour after winning it in January with a counter-attack in the cup win over Wigan and wowing us all in December with his scorpion kick against Sunderland.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Bellecour Square in Lyon today and laid a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims, President’s Press Office reports.

Later the day President Sargsyan had a meeting with Lyon Mayor Gérard Collomb. The President expressed gratitude to the Mayor for careful attitude towards Armenia-related issued.

Serzh Sargsyan said that Mayor Collomb’s efforts aimed at reinforcement of friendship between the two peoples and his principled stance on Armenian Genocide do not go unnoticed.

The interlocutors discussed issues of decentralized cooperation, interaction in science and education and a number of other directions.

President Sargsyan also left a note in the guest book.  He awarded Gérard Collomb with a Order of Honor for his significant contribution to the reinforcement and development of Armenian-French ties.

The Mayor of Lyon hosted an official dinner in honor of President Sargsyan.

On the eve of the Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Armenia, discussing the Statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs of 17 February, 2017 on the Constitutional Referendum of 20 February, 2017 held in the Republic of Artsakh, the Board of the Political Science Association of Armenia (PSAA) adopted an Appeal to the Secretary General of the OSCE and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship states.

Below the full text of the Appeal is presented by the Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia, Professor, D.Sc. Hayk S. Kotanjian.

The Promotion of Democracy in the Karabakh Conflict Zone as a Peacebuilding Resource for Conflicting Parties and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship

The Political Science Association of Armenia has the honor to address Your Excellencies – the Secretary General of the OSCE Mr. Lamberto Zannier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov, the US Secretary of State Mr. Rex Wayne Tillerson, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Mr. Jean-Marc Ayrault on the maintenance of peace in the turbulent zone of the Karabakh armed conflict and the surrounding volatile region of the Greater Middle East.

On 20 February 2017, a National Referendum on the draft of a new Constitution was held in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). The turnout has been 76,44 % of the registered voters, of which 87,6 % supported the adoption of the new Constitution. Around 100 international observers from 30 countries monitored the voting process and positively assessed the organization and conduct of the referendum noting their transparency and compliance with international standards.

The Constitutional Referendum of 20 February 2017 became the successive step in the legitimate institution-building in the Republic of Artsakh, based on the democratic will of the population in the continuation of the results of Referendum of 10 December 1991 on the independence of Artsakh with the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in accordance with the norms of the international law and the Soviet legislature then active.

The comparative analysis of the current state-building processes in the neighboring states of the Republic of Artsakh – the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan – shows fundamental distinctions in terms of the development of democracy in these countries. Following the record of another positive result of applying a referendum tool of direct democracy in the state-building of Nagorno-Karabakh one may notice an opposite trend of rollback to totalitarianism in neighboring Azerbaijan. In particular, the former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich qualified the appointment by Ilham Aliyev of his wife Mehriban Aliyeva on 21 February 2017, to the position of the first Vice President as a step towards the establishment of a monarchy in the country.

At the same time, the ruling regime in Azerbaijan systematically carries out repressive measures against the opposition, trying to suppress any manifestation of dissent in the republic. Many opposition figures are convicted under various articles, are obliged to leave the country; many international organizations have repeatedly drawn attention to the extant human rights situation in Azerbaijan, describing it as unacceptable.

The Political Science Association of Armenia analyzed these facts that evidence the deepening systematic totalitarianization of power in Azerbaijan, which is accompanied by the use of the energy resources of this state for narrow clan purposes and as a resource for more militarization of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s budget and as a result of this – as a main factor of returning the Karabakh conflict to the acute phase of war. These trends contrast with the condition in the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh, particularly, with the recent constitutional reform in the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which the state makes a transition to the parliamentary form of government. Thus, in terms of the development of democratic institutions, there is a widening gap between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, on the one hand, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the other, which unequivocally manifested itself in the referenda on constitutional amendments held on 6 December, 2015 ‒ in Armenia, 26 September, 2016 ‒ in Azerbaijan and 20 February, 2017 ‒ in the Republic of Artsakh.

Through the Constitutional Referendum in the Republic of Armenia the Basic Law was adopted, aimed at the further promotion of democracy in the process of transition to the parliamentary model of governance, as evidenced by the assessments made by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights according to the results of the Referendum (OSCE/ODIHR final report on Armenia’s Constitutional Referendum recommends inclusive electoral reform. 5 February 2016.

The contradiction between the constitutional changes and Azerbaijan’s international commitments to protect democracy was claimed in the letter of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights ‒ one of the most prestigious US institutions in the field of human rights protection ‒ addressed to Ilham Aliyev before the Referendum, which particularly states: “By extending presidential terms and expanding presidential authorities, the proposed constitutional changes are susceptible to abuse that would entrench political authority, making it less responsive to the will of the Azerbaijani people. We are especially troubled by the amendments that would restrict fundamental rights vital to open public debate and government accountability.”

Against this background, an extensive process of democratic state-building is consistently implemented in the NKR. Since 1991, competitive presidential and parliamentary elections have been held in the NKR, and since 1998 – local authorities have been formed through elections. According to the assessments of international observers, elections in the NKR are conducted in line with the Electoral Code of the Republic and according to the universally recognized norms of international law, as a step reinforcing democratic institutions and developing the civil society.

The NKR Constitution, adopted through the Referendum in 2006, imparted a more systemic character to the process of state-building. Today, the NKR population has all the legal and political tools for the organization of domestic life, formation of political and state structures, as well as development of democratic institutions.

At present, by its political culture and the level of development of democratic institutions, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (renamed the Republic of Artsakh as a result of the recent Constitutional Referendum) outperforms Azerbaijan. The proof of this is the Freedom House Report “Freedom in the World 2017”, where Azerbaijan is included in the list of “not free” states, whereas the NKR and the Republic of Armenia in that of “partly free” states.

The escalation of the situation along the line of contact on the night of 25 February, 2017, once again demonstrated the problematic character of identifying the perpetrators of ceasefire violations, and stressed the urgency of effective and immediate implementation of agreements reached on at the Summits of Vienna and St. Petersburg in 2016 towards the introduction of mechanisms for monitoring ceasefire violations. (Joint Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Secretary of State of the United States of America and State Secretary for Europe Affairs of France.

At the same time, unlike other conflicts (Ukraine, Syria), the continuous coherence of US and Russian positions towards the settlement of the Karabakh Conflict enables to consider the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship as an effective platform for opening a constructive dialogue between these states.

In this regard, it would be effective to assume control over the warlike preparations of the sides in the entire zone of the Karabakh Conflict through the orbital means of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states from the near-Earth space. Such innovative application of hi-tech information and communication technologies in the outer space sensing for deterring a war could also become an experimental platform for the exchange of targeted intelligence information among the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs – the Russian Federation, the U.S. and France, aimed at peace building. This innovation in political-diplomatic containment and military deterrence in the case of success could be used globally to prevent the escalation of Karabakh-like frozen local conflicts towards a war with the catastrophic involvement of actors from volatile surrounding regions like the South Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia.

According to the above-mentioned, we call upon the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states to consider the Constitutional referenda of 6 December, 2015 and 20 February, 2017, correspondingly held in the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, as well as the upcoming Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Armenia as stages of democratic institution-building in the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, as well as a factor contributing to the stability and security both in the turbulent zone of the Karabakh armed conflict and the surrounding volatile region of the Greater Middle East.

Armenia has chosen the song for Eurovision 2017.

Late last year the Public TV Company of Armenia (AMPTV) announced an open competition for submissions for Artsvik’s entry for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. More than 300 composers and songwriters from all over the world submitted their work but only 10 songs were shortlisted. After a careful consideration, AMPTV’s creative team, together with Artsvik, have made their choice – Fly With Me, Eurovision’s official website reports. 

Fly With Me was composed by Lilith and Levon Navasardyan, who are known to Eurovision fans for Aram MP3’s Not Alone from the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, Mika’s Love (Junior Eurovision 2015) and Iveta Mukuchyan’s LoveWave from last year. Lyrics were written by Avet Barseghyan and David Tserunyan.

Armenia is placed 85th (down from 82nd last month) in the FIFA World Ranking released today.

Argentina is still on top of the world followed by Brazil and Germany.

The top 20 are unchanged from February except for two notable exceptions. Poland (12, plus 2) reached their best ever world ranking, joining Wales in joint 12th position for March.