Category: News

Photo: AP

Iraqi forces have launched an operation to retake the northern city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State (IS), officials say, the BBC reports.

The first part of the long-awaited offensive has recaptured several villages, the Iraqi military has said.

The operation has been supported by air strikes from the US-led coalition, Kurdish Peshmerga troops and a Shia-dominated paramilitary force.

Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has been under IS rule since June 2014.

An offensive to retake the city, where two million people lived before IS took over, has been in preparation for months.

Officials say the aim is to seize it within the year, but experts have questioned the ability of Iraqi forces to do so.

Nagorno Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan signed a decree today, releasing Harutyun Kushkyan from the post of the NKR Minister of Healthcare, according to his own request.

According to another presidential decree, Karine Atayan will replace Kushkyan as Minister of Healthcare, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

The Chair of the NSW Australia Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group, Jonathan O’Dea MP has remembered the Sumgait Massacres of Armenians by Azerbaijan in a Private Members’ Statement in the NSW State Parliament.

After acknowledging the upcoming 101^st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which will be commemorated next month, O’Dea said: “In a similar vein, but of more recent memory, many people mourn and honour the victims of the ant-Armenian Azerbaijani attacks in Sumgait and Baku from 1988 to 1990.”

“The February 1988 anti-Armenian rallies through Azerbaijan gave way to waves of ethnically motivated violence, death and destruction.”

“Consequently, Azerbaijan’s Armenian community all but disappeared, with thousands displaced, culminating in a war involving the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, otherwise known as Artsakh”, added O’Dea when referring to the Sumgait and Baku Pogroms, while recognising that tensions and border skirmishes are still a reality today despite a ceasefire from 1994.

O’Dea continued: “I am proud to support the Armenian-Australian community… in remembrance of such tragic events. While it is important to promote tolerance, justice, and democratic freedom, recognising and remembering the past will also help ensure that dark historic events are not repeated.”

To conclude his speech, O’Dea paid tribute to those contributing towards more positive outcomes for the future, specifically mentioning the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) and Baroness Caroline Cox from the UK’s House of Lords.

ANC Australia’s Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian said: “We thank Mr. O’Dea for highlighting those matters of importance to the Armenian-Australian community, including the Sumgait and Baku pogroms, while also remembering the victims of the Armenian Genocide, and those Armenians and other minorities who suffer persecution in Syria.”

Markarian added: “As Chair of the NSW Australia-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group, Mr. O’Dea continues to be a great advocate for the moral truths that come with Armenian history and a wonderful supporter of our Armenian community. For this, he should be greatly commended.”

Moscow cannot accept accusations of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who said some co-chairmen of the Minsk group were “contributing to freezing the conflict by their destructive activity,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, TASS reports.

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Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been convicted of genocide and war crimes during the 1992-95 war, and sentenced to 40 years in jail, the BBC repots.

UN judges in The Hague found him guilty of 10 of 11 charges, including genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Karadzic, 70, is the most senior political figure to face judgement over the collapse of Yugoslavia.

His case is being seen as one of the most important war crimes trials since World War Two.

He had denied the charges, saying that any atrocities committed were the actions of rogue individuals, not the forces under his command.

The trial, in which he represented himself, lasted eight years.

His lawyer said he would appeal, a process that could take several more years.

Armenian Ambassador to Russia Oleg Yesayan attended the opening ceremony of the MITT 2016 – Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition.

The Ambassador visited the Armenian booth, where 16 companies from Armenia and Artsakh are showcased with the support of the Armenian Development Agency.

Companies from the fields of tourism, aviation and online booking are also represented at the expo.

The Public Radio of Armenia has undertaken to improve its Overseas Service with a view of paying greater attention to the problems of ethnic minorities, their religious and cultural peculiarities.

Kurds are  one of the largest compactly living ethnic minorities in Armenia. Representatives of the Kurdish community were hosted at the Public Radio of Armenia today to present their views and proposals on the format and content of the Kurdish-language programs.

Kurds have always had the best opportunities in Armenia for launching activity in the scientific-education and cultural spheres, and the Public Radio of Armenia has always been an important platform.

Knyaz Hasanov, President of the Kurdish National Council of Armenia, hailed the role of Public Radio of Armenia in the preservation of the Kurdish language and culture.

“More than 40 million Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran listen to the Kurdish-language programs of the Public Radio of Armenia, which have played an extremely important role in the preservation of our language and culture. The Public Radio of Armenia was the first place Diyarbakir’s Mayor Osman Baydemir visited during his stay in Armenia last year,” the leader he said.

“The Kurdish community of Armenia has always valued the work we are doing, but it’s high time to improve the Kurdish Service and give it a new breath,” says Gayane Gasparyan, Head of the Overseas Service of the Public Radio.

Representatives of the Kurdish community want the programs to last 90 minutes instead of the current 30 and want greater access to the recordings of Kurdish songs kept in Public Radio’s ‘Golden Fund.’

In response to the request, Public Radio’s Executive Director Arman Saghatelyan noted that “international broadcasting envisages a serious financial burden, and extension of the program is a serious issue,” but pledged to find other mechanisms to meet the demands of the Kurdish-speaking listeners.

As for the access to the recordings, the Directors said “they could be released on CDs.”

Attending the event was Aram Ananyan, head of the Armenpress News Agency. Speaking to “Radiolur” news program, he stressed the importance of such meetings and discussions with representatives of the national minorities.

The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 1,100 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions last night.

The rival used HAN-17 grenades in the northeastern direction of the line of contact.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep control of the situation all along the line of contact and confidently continue with their military duty, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held consultations on Armenian-Argentine relations, ongoing bilateral programs and achievements.

The meeting featured Armenian Ambassador to Argentina Alexan Harutyunyan, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Chairman of the Armenia-Argentina Friendship Group, Vice-President of the National Assembly Edward Sharmazanov, Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan, Deputy Foreign Minister Robert Harutyunyan, other officials.

President Sargsyan noted that Armenia and Argentina have traditionally enjoyed friendly relations, and added that the cooperation further deepened after Armenia gained independence.

According to the President, the special relations between Armenian and Argentina are connected with the existence of a viable Armenian community in the country. He praised the role of Eduardo Eurnekian’s activity in the development of economic relations. “Althouargh we are not satisfied with the commodity turnover,  there is a great potential for boosting trade. Of course, it’s important that Argentina is the 5^th country in terms of the volume of foreign investments in Armenia, and the Argentine investments in the country have exceeded $400 mln,” President Sargsyan said.

President Sargsyan pointed out the activity of the “Armenia International Airports,” “Tierra de Armenia,” “Converse Bank,” and other companies as successful examples of Armenian-Argentine cooperation.

Ambassador Harutyunyan presented the spheres of promising and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. “I think the good relations with the newly-elected President of Argentina can play an important role in the further development of bilateral relations,” he said. The Ambassador informed Argentine President Mauricio Macri could visit Armenia in the near future.