Category: News

A large explosion in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has left at least five people killed and 10 injured, the city’s governor says, the BBC reports.

The blast happened next to a passing military vehicle, in an area close to parliament and Turkey’s military headquarters.

Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from the area and witnesses said the blast was heard all over the city.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag called it an “act of terrorism”.

The Ankara’s governor office said the explosion was caused by a vehicle full of explosives that was detonated as military buses were passing by.

Ambulances and fire engines were sent to the scene.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has extended condolences on the death of the former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports. The letter reads:

Dear Madam Leia Boutros-Ghali,

It is with great grief that I learnt about the passing away of Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

He will always be remembered as one of the most remarkable figures in the international arena of the second half of the 20th century, as an outstanding statesman and brilliant diplomat, who led the United Nations at a critical juncture, who ably guided The International Organisation of La Francophonie, who put his vast knowledge and experience in the service of the peace, security and prosperity of the world with unreserved dedication.

I have an honor to personally know Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an extraordinary person. The meetings with him will be recalled by most cordial and warm memories.

I extend my deepest condolences to you, the family, friends, colleagues and all those who mourn the loss around the world.

With deep respect,
Edward Nalbandian

The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 800 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions last night, the NKR Ministry of Defense reports.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep control of the situation at the line of contact and resort to retaliatory measures when necessary.

During the SARF (Syrian Armenian Relief Fund) Save a Life Telethon to raise money for critically needed aid to Syrian-Armenians, on February 21st, a delegation of the Armenian Bar Association will present $10,000 to SARF to aid and improve living conditions of Syrian-Armenians.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war for the past five years, which has destroyed cities and towns and left residents displaced, without shelter, and lacking the most basic necessities. The Syrian Armenian Relief Fund provides humanitarian assistance for the essential needs of the Syrian-Armenian Community – food, water, and medical assistance.

“The Armenian Bar Association is steadfast in its resolve to always rise fiercely in support of the plight of our Syrian-Armenians Compatriots,” said Saro Kerkonian, Esq., West-Coast Vice-Chair of the Armenian Bar.

 

 

 

Armenia manages to conduct policy of restraint to ensure that the fluctuations of foreign currency rate have minimal influence on our economy, economist Vardan Bostanjyan told reporters today.

He did not rule out that the USD exchange rate could hit 500 AMD, but said that it should be done ‘fluently.” “I’m confident the Armenian financial authorities are doing their best to avoid price pressures that exist in a number of countries,” he said.

The economist said the current situation does not provide for good conditions for exports and negatively affects the export-import ratio.

“Imports exceed exports several times, which is not good. There is no proper environment for exports,” he said.

He also pointed out the high level of our economy’s dependence on Russia, stressing that the state of the Russian ruble finds its reflection in Armenia.

Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Bologna are investigating the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a money laundering probe, ANSA sources close to the matter said Tuesday, reports.

The inclusion of Erdogan’s son Bilal in the list of people under investigation follows a petition to authorities from Turkish businessman Murat Hakan Uzan, a political opponent of Erdogan who is wanted by Turkish authorities and is in exile. The petition asks Italian police to investigate potential sums of money brought to Italy by Bilal, who has been studying at John Hopkins University in Bologna since last autumn.

Bilal, 35, officially came to Italy to resume PhD studies he began in 2007. However, Turkish anti-government sources say he flew to Italy in the fall with a “large sum of money” as part of a “getaway operation”, according to Uzan’s petition.

The petition also states that Bilal arrived in Bologna with a team of armed body guards who were not granted access to Italy until they were conferred Turkish diplomatic passports.

Uzan says he and his family are victims of a political and judicial campaign launched by Erdogan.

A major computer security vulnerability has been discovered – with experts cautiously warning it could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of devices, apps and services, the BBC reports.

However, due to the nature of the bug, it is extremely difficult to know how serious the problem is.

“Many people are running around right now trying to work out if this is truly catastrophic or whether we have dodged a bullet,” said Prof Alan Woodward, a security expect from the University of Surrey.

Google engineers, working with security engineers at Red Hat, have released a patch to fix the problem.

It is now up to manufacturers, and the community behind the Linux operating system, to issue the patch to affected software and devices as soon as possible.

In a blog post explaining the discovery, Google’s team detailed how a flaw in some commonly-used code could be exploited in a way that allows remote access to a devices – be it a computer, internet router, or other connected piece of equipment.

The code can also be within many of the so-called “building blocks” of the web – programming languages such as PHP and Python are affected, as well as systems used when logging in to sites or accessing email.

“It’s not a sky-is-falling scenario,” said Washington D.C-based security researcher Kenneth White.

“But it’s true there’s a very real prospect that a sizable portion of internet-facing services are at risk for hackers to crash, or worse, run remote code to attack others.”

He said that while there is no publicly known attack code using the flaw, it’s a “near certainty” hackers would try to exploit the weakness.

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Now that the two major political parties have begun holding Primaries to select their nominees for this fall’s Presidential elections, Armenian-Americans are weighing the merits of the eight remaining candidates.

I would like to propose that from now on Armenians refrain from asking presidential candidates whether they would recognize the Armenian Genocide once elected. There are two problems in posing such a question:

1) Armenians should know from previous disappointing experiences that they cannot trust promises made by most politicians.

2) There is no need to ask for such a promise since the Armenian Genocide has been repeatedly recognized by the various branches of the US government for many years:

1. a) Document submitted by the US government to the World Court in 1951;
2. b) Resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives in 1975 and 1984;
3. c) Pres. Reagan’s Proclamation referring to the Armenian Genocide on April 22, 1981.

Furthermore, the continued pursuit of genocide recognition — when it has been already recognized — would simply undermine its acknowledgment and cast doubt on it veracity.

Instead, Armenian-Americans should ask presidential candidates for their positions on more pressing issues such as:

1) Allocating more foreign aid to Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh);

2) Promoting US trade with Armenia;

3) Pressuring Turkey to lift its blockade of Armenia;

4) Demanding that Turkey return the confiscated Armenian churches to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul;

5) Condemning Azerbaijan for its repeated threats and attacks on Armenia and Artsakh;

6) Supporting the independence of Artsakh.

Once elected, officials would want to satisfy some of these demands in order to maintain the support of the Armenian community during their future campaign for reelection.

Here are the records of all six Republican presidential candidates on Armenian issues:

Gov. Jeb Bush (Florida)

— Traveled with his son on a humanitarian mission to Armenia on Dec. 24, 1988, shortly after the earthquake;

— Issued an Armenian Genocide proclamation on April 7, 2006;

— Received the Friend of Armenians Award in 2013 from the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church.

Gov. John Kasich (Ohio)

— Received ratings of C, D, and F from ANCA during most of his tenure in the House of Representatives, 1983-2001;

— Cosigned letters to Pres. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev supporting Artsakh’s independence in 1991;

— Cosponsored the Armenian Genocide Resolution in 2000;

— As Governor, issued a proclamation in 2012 to celebrate Armenian Independence Day.

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

— Received a C- rating from ANCA in 2014;

— In 2015, issued statement on the Armenian Genocide and cosponsored the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

— Received a C rating in 2012 and B in 2014 from ANCA;

— Voted for passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2014;

— Cosponsored the Armenian Genocide Resolution in 2015;

— Cosigned letter to Pres. Obama urging him to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 2015.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson (Michigan): No statements on Armenian issues.

Businessman Donald Trump (New York): No statements on Armenian issues.

Here are the records of the two Democratic presidential candidates on Armenian issues:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (New York)

— As Senator, cosigned letters to Pres. Bush urging him to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 2005 and 2006;

— Cosponsored Resolutions on the Armenian Genocide in 2006 and 2007;

— As Presidential candidate in 2008, made a promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide;

— Later in 2008, spoke at a Turkish Cultural Center banquet in New York City in the presence of then Prime Minister Erdogan;

— During an official visit to Yerevan in 2010, placed a wreath at the Genocide Monument, which the US Embassy in Armenia called a “private” act, even though the ribbon on the wreath carried the inscription: “From Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton”;

— In 2012, as Secretary of State, referred to the Armenian Genocide as “a matter of historical debate,” contradicting her earlier clear stand on this important issue.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont)

— Received an A+ rating in 2012 and C in 2014 from ANCA;

— During his tenure in the House of Representatives (1991-2007), he supported a variety of Armenian issues, including the Genocide Resolution, in 1996, 1997, and 2000;

— Cosigned letters to Pres. Bush urging him to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 2002, 2003, and 2004;

— As Senator, he cosponsored in 2012 two Resolutions on the Armenian Genocide and Return of Armenian Churches by Turkey.

The polls and results of the early Primary elections indicate that no candidate in either party is likely to have an overwhelming majority in the Primaries and the November elections which would encourage the candidates to be more accommodating to all voters, including Armenian-Americans.

Under these circumstances, my suggestion to the Armenian-American community is to refrain from making an early commitment to any candidate. The decision as to whom to support can be made later as the presidential race gets tighter and the candidates get more desperate for votes!

Tehran and Tbilisi are holding talks on the supply of 200 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to Georgia, Director General of the National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) Alireza Kameli declared, TASS reports.

The statement was made after  talks in Tehran between Iranian Minister of Oil Bijan Namdar Zangeneh and Georgian Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze.

“Georgian state and private enterprises are interested in purchasing gas from Iran,” Kameli said. “The gas supply to Georgia is expected to start from next Iranian year (starts on March 21). According to him, the contract will be signed for seven months and will serve a basis for possible future cooperation. He further clarified that “Georgia will have to get a permission from Armenia for the transit of the Iranian gas through the territory of the neighboring county.”

“If the deal proves economically expedient, we’ll be able to speak about medium-term and long-term contracts for delivery of gas to Georgia,” Kameli concluded.

Georgia currently gets 88% of its gas from Azerbaijan. Another 12 % comes from Russia, as a free for transit of gas to Armenia.

Photo: Dorith Mous/Copyright A.M.P.A.S. via AP

The statuettes for the upcoming Academy Awards are based on an original Oscar from 1929, the Associated Press reports.

The film academy announced Tuesday that a New York foundry is restoring features of the original design to the Oscar statuettes for 2016 using digital scans and 3-D printers.

It took Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry three months to make the 50 statuettes needed for the Feb. 28 ceremony using the high-tech process. Oscar was previously made in a more traditional way by Chicago’s R.S. Owens & Company, the academy’s foundry for the past 34 years.

Oscar is still plated in 24-karat gold. Oscar’s dimensions remain the same: He’s 13 ½-inches tall and weighs 8 ½ pounds. And he’s still just as hard to get.