Category: News

Photo: Getty Images

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho expects Henrikh Mkhitaryan to return in time for the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final with Chelsea on 13 March.

The Armenia international was a key figure in the previous round’s win at Blackburn Rovers before sustaining a hamstring injury soon after scoring the only goal of the Europa League tie at Saint-Etienne.

The problem caused the attacking midfielder to miss the EFL Cup final and he also looks set to sit out the visit of Bournemouth to Old Trafford on Saturday and the European encounter at FC Rostov next Thursday.

However, Mourinho believes the 28-year-old is well on the road to recovery, even if another of his players, Bastian Schweinsteiger, has picked up a minor knock.

“Mkhitaryan is still out,” the manager told . “He didn’t recover in time for this game. I believe, during the next week, especially for the weekend [ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge], he will be fine and we don’t have major problems. Bastian has a little thing but, apart from that, everybody is fine.”

The boss has promised to utilise his squad in the coming weeks as the games continue to pile up for the in-form Reds.

“I told them [the squad] already a player that is not even selected can start the next match and this is the reality,” he said. “We have to go match after match. If we decide not to give a priority to any competition, as we’ve said every competition is important, we cannot choose this team to play this match and that team to play that one. We have to go match after match and make readjustments and try to be as strong as possible.”

 

Photo: AFP

 

The two accountants who muddled up the main award envelopes at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony have been given bodyguards following reports they have received death threats on social media, the BBC reports.

Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said security has been beefed up at the residences of Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz following the mistake.

Celebrity website TMZ.com said the pair were in fear of their lives.

On Wednesday it emerged they will not be employed to do the Oscars job again.

But TMZ.com reported that they will not lose their accountancy jobs.

PwC spokeswoman Carey Bodenheimer said that they had been given protection after their home addresses and photos of their families were published in the media.

On March 3^rd, 2017, “HayPost” CJSC has cancelled and put into circulation a postage stamp dedicated to the theme “175^th anniversary of Alexander Mantashian.”

The postage stamp is designed in the form of an old banknote. The postage stamp depicts the Armenian prominent businessman, benefactor and great oil magnate of the early 20^th century Alexander Mantashian.

The background of the postage stamp depicts the Armenian Church of St. John the Baptist situated near the Champs Elysees in Paris and the facade of the building of the Union of Armenian Artists of Tbilisi (now Tbilisi Academic Theater named after Rustaveli) which were built by the funds donated by Alexander Mantashian. After the construction of the Armenian Church in paris A. Mantashian was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

The nominal value of the postage stamp is 380 AMD. The author of the postage stamp is the designer of “HayPost” CJSC Vahagn Mkrtchyan.

The postage stamp was cancelled by the RA Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan, President of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia Arsen Ghazaryan, President of the Union of Philatelists of the RA Hovik Musayelyan and the Acting Chief Executive Officer of “HayPost” CJSC Haik Avagyan.

Date of issue: March 03, 2017

Designer: Vahagn Mkrtchyan

Printing house: Cartor, France

Size: 40,0 x 30,0 mm

Print run: 40 000 pcs

Asbarez – The Los Angeles premiere of “The Last Inhabitant,” filmed in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Republic, will take place on April 7 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.

The screening is presented by the Artskah Arts and Cultural Foundation.

Inspired by true events, The Last Inhabitant is an Art House film with English subtitles filmed in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). It was considered for the 2017 Golden Globe Awards.

Evicted as a result of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Abgar stays behind alone in a gradually shrinking enemy ring. He is waiting for his daughter, who has become a witness to her husband’s murder by an angry mob and was hospitalized with a trauma disorder. An Azerbaijani named Ibrahim, in exchange for finding and bringing Abgar’s daughter, suggests that Abgar work on the construction of a mosque. A few days later, Ibrahim finds the girl, named Yurga, in one of the psychiatric hospitals of Baku and brings her to Abgar.

President Serzh Sargsyan received today Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

Noting that Armenia and Russia will celebrate the 25^th anniversary of diplomatic relations in a month, President Sargsyan said it’s a good occasion to assess the bilateral relations and establish guidelines for the future.

The Russian State Duma Speaker emphasized the dynamic development of interstate relations and said the parliaments of the two countries are planning to expand relations and the cooperation framework. Vyacheslav Volodin attached importance to decentralized cooperation.

President Sargsyan stressed the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in the development of interstate relations and attached importance to the continuous reinforcement of inter-parliamentary relations.

Photo: AFP    

The Paris home of France’s conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has been raided by investigators, French media report, the BBC reports.

The search was part of an investigation into an allegedly fake job given to his wife. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Fillon has vowed to continue his presidential campaign, despite growing pressure for him to step down.

He was once seen as the favourite to win the election but his poll ratings have dropped since the scandal emerged.

The allegations circling around the Fillon family focus mainly on his Welsh-born wife Penelope, who is also reported to be facing an investigation.

The Le Canard Enchaine newspaper alleges she was paid €831,400 over several years for working as a parliamentary assistant for Mr Fillon and his successor, but had no parliamentary pass – raising questions over whether she did the work she was paid for.

 

 

 

“Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decision to appoint his wife as Vice-President raised a wave of discussions. Therefore, the provocations at the line of contact were meant to distract public attention from the fact,” says Shahin Mirzoyev, Talyshi activist, journalist at Tolishi Sado newspaper, who has fled Azerbaijan and been provided asylum in Armenia.

Speaking to reporters in Armenia today, Mirzoyev said he feels good in Armenia, but keeps receiving threats from Azerbaijan. MPs even suggest introducing the death penalty and sentence Mirzoyev to death.

“And this is how they are going to solve the Karabakh issue in a ‘peaceful way’,” Shahin Mirzoyev said.

Speaking to Public Radio of Armenia, the Talysh activist said he has relatives in Azerbaijan, who are being insulted, but Mirzoyev is not sure they will also be able to escape to Armenia.

Having had an opportunity to compare the public opinion in Armenia and Azerbaijan, he said “societies in both countries are ready for dialogue on the Karabakh issue.” He added that “dialogue is possible only in case Ilham Aliyev’s regime is ousted,” but added that “Aliyev is doing his best to have the conflict and enmity continue in order to keep power.”

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian does not exclude the perspective of having one country recognize Artsakh Republic by the end of year. “Recognition by one country is not enough, but everything has its beginning,” Minister Nalbandian told reporters in Stepanakert, as he commented on the possibility of recognition of Artsakh’s independence by Armenia.

“The negotiation process is aimed at exceptionally peaceful settlement of the conflict. We should reach not just recognition, but also realization of Artsakh people for self-determination. This will allow to hope for Artsakh’s recognition,” Edward Nalbandian said.

The Foreign Ministry said “Azerbaijan is losing in the negotiations, the Azerbaijani leadership has forced itself into deadlock, because what the Azerbaijani leadership is doing is completely different from what the Co-Chairs holding international mandate are doing.”

“Having forced itself into deadlock, the Azeri side is trying to use force, which, they think will bring them bigger success.  But soldiers in Artsakh have proven their illusions are void,” Minister Nalbandian stated.

Asbarez– Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Wednesday released a statement commemorating the Sumgait Pogrom.

Rep. Schiff’s full statement is below:

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. 29 years ago Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed their Armenian neighbors. When the violence finally subsided, hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, women and young girls were raped, and victims were tortured and burned alive. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, leaving behind everything they had in their desperation.

The pogroms were the culmination of years of vicious anti-Armenian propaganda, spread by the Azerbaijani authorities. The Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the violence. Unsurprisingly, it was not the end of the violence, and was followed by additional attacks, including the 1990 pogrom in Baku.

The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. That war resulted in thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Time has not healed the wounds of those murdered in the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is celebrated in in Azerbaijan, a situation most vividly exemplified by the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan with an axe while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of Baku as a returning hero.

The assault on ethnic Armenian civilians in Sumgait helped touch off what would become a direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. And today, Azerbaijan’s dangerous behavior on the Line of Contact threatens peace and stability in the region. Artillery and sniper fire across the Line of Contact has become a fact of daily life for civilians in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, causing numerous casualties. In April of last year, Azerbaijan launched its most aggressive attack in many years, resulting in the loss of many lives over the course of three days of intense fighting.

Along with other Members of Congress, I have consistently called for a direct international response to Azerbaijan’s aggressive behavior through deployment of international monitors and technology to monitor ceasefire violations. Azerbaijan’s continued rejection of these simple steps speaks volumes, but I believe they should not prevent the installation of these technologies within Nagorno-Karabakh. The anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.

Mr. Speaker, this April we will mark the 102nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred yesterday or 29 years ago or 100 years ago. Today, let us pause to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in hope that history will not be repeated.”

The tunnel mural of the Armenian Students’ Association (ASA) was found defaced and covered with propaganda posters on the morning of Feb. 27,  reports.

Serge Iskedijan, senior executive member of the ASA, said he and his club suspect the incident is a hate crime, and reported the incident to Campus Safety.

Iskedijan said Campus Safety has involved the Ottawa Police in the case.

“We were deeply appalled that they chose to attack the mural . . . The mural is a depiction of just our historical background,” he said. “There’s nothing political about the mural. We’re not sending a message, and we don’t want people to interpret it that way.”

According to a statement on the ASA’s Facebook page, the posters were not approved by the Carleton University Students’ Association, and were not found anywhere else on school grounds.

The ASA said in the statement that they condemn “any sort of hate speech and discrimination towards any race, ethnicity or faith.”

This mural defacing was not the first time his club has encountered hostility, according to Iskedijan.

The posters placed on the mural appeared to be part of Azerbaijani campaign  called “Justice for Khojaly.”

Iskedijan said Campus Safety has forwarded information about the case to the intelligence unit of the Ottawa Police, which will determine whether or not the incident will be considered a hate crime.