Category: News

Armenia firmly supports Russia’s position on the Syrian issue, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I reiterate that we firmly support Russia’s stance on the Syrian issue, welcome the agreements with the United States on the cessation of hostilities and commitment to a political settlement in this matter,” Sargsyan said.

The leaders of the two countries discussed a wide range of issues on bilateral agenda, referred to the perspectives of development of integration processes within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union and exchanged views on international and regional challenges.

Presidents Sargsyan and Putin discussed issues related to the current stage of settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the perspectives of furthering the process.

President Sargsyan thanked Putin for the efforts towards the resolution of the Karabakh conflict and assured of Armenia’s commitment to the peace process.

The wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday hailed the harem of the Ottoman sultans as “a school for preparing women for life,” AFP reports.

Emine Erdogan’s comments come a day after the president triggered protests by saying he believed that “a woman is above all a mother” in a speech marking International Women’s Day.

Critics have accused Erdogan’s government of trying to impose strict Islamic values on Turkey and curtailing women’s civil liberties.

“The harem was a school for members of the Ottoman dynasty and an educational establishment for preparing women for life,” Emine Erdogan said at an official event on the Ottoman sultans in Ankara, according to Turkish TV stations.

President Erdogan has come under fire in the past for urging Turkish women to have at least three children and railing against efforts to promote birth control as “treason”.

He and his wife regularly speak of their attachment to Islamic principles and the values of the old Ottoman empire, from the ruins of which the modern Turkish state was founded in 1923.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

During the meeting reference was made to the cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, the conduct of regular consultations.

The Ministers exchanged views on urgent international and regional issues.

Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov signed the 2016-2017 plan of consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Russia, under which the parties will hold tens of meetings on international and regional issues, regional affairs, exchange of information, consular services, etc.

The Azerbaijani side deliberately aggravates the situation at the line of contact, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement today.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 850 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions on March 8 and 9.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army gave a worthy response and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact, the Ministry said.

“Ignoring the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ calls to implement confidence-building measures, the Azerbaijani side not only continues to deliberately aggravate the situation at the line of contact, but also disseminates misinformation, accusing the Armenian forces of opening fire at the civilian population,” the statement reads.

The NKR Defense Ministry declared that it respects the peaceful population of Azerbaijan, which has been forced to bear the heavy burden of the Aliyev regime in the course of 20 years.

Title chasers in England and Germany meet on Thursday night as Tottenham Hotspur travel to Borussia Dortmund for the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

Spurs and Dortmund find themselves five points behind the current leaders – Leicester City in the Premier League and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga – but still in the running.

The first leg in Germany will be head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s 100th game in charge at Tottenham.

“Borussia Dortmund have very good players, a very good team, a great coach – Thomas Tuchel is fantastic and he has showed that from the beginning of the season,” Pochettino said ahead of the match.

“I like the way they play but I think that it’s a good challenge for us. I think we play against one of the best teams in Europe,” he added.

“The strikers they have – Aubameyang, (Henrikh) Mkhitaryan, Gundogan in midfield, Hummels – they’re internationals and big players. They can stay here or go to Real Madrid or Barcelona,” the Tottenham manager said.

Photo: AFP

A woman flew from Istanbul to Paris with a four-year-old girl hidden inside her hand luggage, Air France has said.

The airline said the child, travelling without a ticket, was discovered on board the flight on Monday night.

An airport source told AFP news agency that the woman was a resident of France who was in the process of adopting the child, from Haiti.

The airline notified the French authorities but prosecutors decided not to press charges.

The woman was in the transit zone in Istanbul but was preventing from boarding her flight with the child, the source told AFP.

She then bought a new flight ticket and hid the child in a bag.

Once on board, she placed the child at her feet under a blanket, but the girl needed to go to the toilet and was noticed by other passengers, the source said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan on Wednesday (9 March 2016) for talks on the partnership between the Alliance and Yerevan. The Secretary General thanked Armenia for its contributions to NATO’s missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

The two Ministers also met with the North Atlantic Council for an exchange of views on Armenia’s cooperation with the Alliance and regional security. The Secretary General welcomed Armenia’s commitment to the NATO Building Integrity Programme and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Mr. Stoltenberg also highlighted Armenia’s sustained cooperation with NATO in the areas of defence reform, enhanced interoperability, defence education reform and civil emergency planning. Armenia has been a NATO partner for over 20 years, developing political dialogue with Allies and cooperating on democratic, institutional, and defence reforms.

The Armenian national team will host Belarus in a friendly on March 25. The fixture to be held at Yerevan’s Vazgen Sargsyan Stadium will be the farewell match of Armenia’s long-time goalkeeper Riman Berezovsky.

The legendary keeper decided to quit international football after a Euro-2016 qualifier against Portugal.

Berezovsky had been playing for the Armenian national team since 1996. On club level he played for Russian “Zenit,” Torpedo” and “Dinamo” and holds the Russian and USSR record of denying penalties.