Category: News

On February 13, in Munich Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State.

The sides expressed satisfaction with the high-level of bilateral relations, attached importance to the steps undertaken in recent years towards the consolidation of friendly partnership between Armenia and the United States. Edward Nalbandian and Victoria Nuland exchanged views on the ways of further development of cooperation in various fields.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia and the US Assistant Secretary of State touched upon pressing regional and international issues

Edward Nalbandian and Victoria Nuland discussed the process of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

This week, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) submitted written testimony to the Helsinki Commission’s hearing entitled: “Update on the OSCE: Religious Freedom, Anti-Semitism, and Rule of Law,” citing Azerbaijan’s escalating and deadly cease-fire violations and urging additional action.

“As the Commission is aware, the Assembly remains deeply concerned about the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan, its jailing of journalists and abandonment of democratic values, particularly for America’s ally Armenia,” Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny’s testimony stated.

Chairman Smith opened the hearing by stating his concern for human rights crises in Europe and Eurasia. Smith described repression in Azerbaijan as “rife,” especially in regards to freedom of the press. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Azerbaijan is the leading nation in Eurasia for jailing journalists. The Human Rights Watch 2016 World Report states that “the [Azerbaijan] government’s unrelenting crackdown decimated independent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and media,” resulting in imprisonment, criminal investigations, harassment, or travel bans.

The Assembly, for its part, highlighted Azerbaijan’s continued ceasefire violations in 2014 and 2015, which have been marked by an unprecedented increase in civilian casualties, including the targeting of a kindergarten in Armenia’s Tavush region. There have been over 54,000 cease-fire violations committed by Azerbaijan on the line of contact from 2014 through 2015, with an estimated total of nearly 1 million shots fired.

“These violations constitute a clear disregard for the rule of law and pose a direct threat to fundamental freedoms,” Ardouny said.

During the hearing, Chairman Smith noted that members of the Commission recently traveled to Baku twice, where they met with President Aliyev in rather lengthy meetings on human rights issues on both occasions. As a result of these discussions, Chairman Smith introduced the Azerbaijan Democracy Act of 2015. Chairman Smith said the reaction by the Aliyev government and parliament was “startling.”  “They claimed the Armenians put me, Chris Smith, up to it. The Armenians had absolutely no input, advance notice, or anything else about the bill,” according to Smith. “So when I hear this coming from the parliament, and coming from major media and presidential spokesmen, I wonder about their credibility on other things,” he said.

 

The Assembly also welcomed the Royce-Engel initiative to U.S. Ambassador James Warlick, U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, calling for: (1) an agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact; (2) the placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact; and (3) the deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.

“We strongly urge the Commission to support this important initiative by convening a special hearing to examine the scope and nature of these violations as well as review steps needed to bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” stated Ardouny.

Below is the full text of Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny’s testimony, which was submitted to the Helsinki Commission on February 11, 2016.

Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
“Update on the OSCE: Religious Freedom, Anti-Semitism, and Rule of Law”

Submitted by Bryan Ardouny

Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America

February 11, 2016

Chairman Smith, Co-Chairman Wicker, distinguished Commissioners, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) welcomes today’s important hearing. We share the concerns of the Commission with respect to threats to religious freedom and the rule of law as well as the specter of anti-Semitism, whether in Europe or beyond.

The Assembly especially appreciates the Commission’s ongoing vigilance in shining a bright light on human rights violations in an effort to bring about much needed change and to protect religious and minority communities. In particular, we remain deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of Christians and other minorities at risk in the Middle East and elsewhere. As ISIS continues its brutal targeting of innocent civilians, images of which evoke the horrors of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and other crimes against humanity, it reminds us all about the urgent challenges before us and the need to redouble our efforts to prevent atrocities from occurring.

We also appreciate the work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), as well as the OSCE Minsk Group which seeks to find a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. We welcome the introduction of the Azerbaijan Democracy Act of 2015 by Chairman Smith, which sends a strong message that the United States takes the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms seriously.

As the Commission is aware, the Assembly remains deeply concerned about the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan, its jailing of journalists and abandonment of democratic values, and the impact it has on the region, particularly for America’s ally Armenia. Unfortunately, these authoritarian trends have spilled over into the OSCE-mediated Nagorno Karabakh peace process wherein the Azerbaijani government continues to violate the 1994 cease-fire agreement at an alarming rate and with more powerful weaponry.

According to reports filed with the United Nations (UN) and the OSCE, there were over 11,500 cross-border violations committed by Azerbaijan against Armenia from 2014 through 2015, constituting an estimate of more than 200,000 shots fired. In Armenia’s Tavush region, a kindergarten has been the repeated target of sniper fire. This is an outrageous violation. The targeting of innocent civilians and children must end.

With respect to the line of contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, there have been over 54,000 cease-fire violations committed by Azerbaijan during the same period. These violations constitute an estimated total of nearly 1 million shots fired.

Some of the weapons used by Azerbaijan in its attacks against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh in 2014-2015 include: grenade launchers, large caliber machine guns, large caliber sniper weapons, mortars, and howitzers. Not surprisingly 2014 and 2015 have been marked by increased civilian deaths and casualties. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in a Joint Statement in December 2015 said “there is no justification for the death and injury of innocent civilians.” “We especially condemn the use of mortars and other heavy weaponry,” the joint statement highlighted “and regret deeply the civilian casualties these weapons have caused.”

These violations constitute a clear disregard for the rule of law and pose a direct threat to fundamental freedoms. Given these egregious violations, the Assembly welcomed last year’s initiative by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel to address the dramatic increase of deadly cease-fire violations. In their letter to Ambassador James Warlick, U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, they called for three concrete steps to be taken. These include: (1) an agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact; (2) the placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact; and (3) the deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations. The letter was signed by 85 Members of Congress.

We hope that these recommendations are implemented to help ensure the safety and security of the people of Armenia and Karabakh. Further, we strongly urge the Commission to support this important initiative by convening a special hearing to examine the scope and nature of these violations as well as review steps needed to bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The United States has a vested interest in advancing peace and bringing stability to the region – and a key to stability is respect and adherence to the fundamental tenets of the rule of law and human rights.

Chairman Smith and Co-Chairman Wicker, we commend you for holding this hearing and look forward to working with the Helsinki Commission on these and other pressing issues as we pursue shared values in promoting democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law.

World Radio Day on 13 February brings attention to the role of radio in managing disasters and recovery in their aftermath.

The theme of the UNESCO day this year is Radio in Times of Emergency and Disaster, in short, as the World Radio Day website so simply puts it, ‘Radio saves lives’.   It can also enhance them.

Radio is recognized as a low-cost medium, specifically suited to reach remote communities and is especially effective in reaching people affected by disasters when other means of communication are disrupted. Terrestrial radio broadcasts are effective in providing timely, relevant and practical information to people who are confused and demoralised by the impact of a crisis. Broadcast information is particularly useful in situations where physical access is difficult and aid responders may take several days or weeks to reach affected communities.

Recent natural and man-made disasters are a major cause for concern to the global community. “In times of crisis and emergency, radio can be a lifeline,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “For people in shattered societies, or caught in catastrophe, or desperately seeking news, radio brings lifesaving information. This year, as we start carrying out the Sustainable Development Goals, let us resolve to use radio for human progress. On this World Radio Day, let us resolve to prove that radio saves lives.”

“Radio plays a very significant part of all our lives.  On average, we will listen to nine years of radio in a lifetime – more than any activity except breathing and sleeping!   However, statistics anonymize the audiences.  The human stories behind the figures are moving and compelling.   In difficult circumstances, audiences can receive advice about their personal safety, and counter loss and isolation.   It can amuse and inform us, as a convenient, flexible way to encounter new ideas, new music and new ways of thinking.    Nine years of listening in an average lifetime is indeed an impressive figure, but the real personal impact of radio cannot be quantified.  World Radio Day provides a great opportunity to reflect on the power of radio,” said Graham Dixon, Head of Radio, European Broadcasting Union.

Listen to Radio Day congratulations from our colleagues all over the world”

Greece

Germany

Romania

Ukraine

Slovenia

Slovakia

Serbia

Italy

Japan

Poland

Hungary

Malta

Lithuania

Finland

EBU Geneva

Czech Republic

Cyprus

Croatia

Catalonia, Spain

Canada

Bulgaria

Belgium

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has issued the following statement on World Radio Day:

In times of crisis and emergency, radio can be a lifeline.

For people in shattered societies, or caught in catastrophe, or desperately seeking news, radio brings lifesaving information.

Radio can help in emergency response operations – and it can assist with rebuilding.

Through community radio, local people can raise their voices and be heard.

This year, as we start carrying out the Sustainable Development Goals, let us resolve to use radio for human progress.

In the lead-up to the World Humanitarian Summit this May, let us find ways for radio to do even more to help people in emergencies.

On this World Radio Day, let us resolve to prove that radio saves lives.

Photos: REUTERS/MAX ROSSI    

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill embraced and kissed on Friday in a historic meeting nearly 1,000 years after the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart, Reuters reports.

“Finally,” Francis said as he and Kirill entered through doors on opposite sides of a room at Havana airport to begin private talks. “We are brothers.”

The two religious leaders, guests of a Communist government, are addressing ways of healing the rift between their Churches as well as their concerns over the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

They were expected to speak about territorial disputes between the two Churches after the fall of the Soviet Union, and issue a joint declaration following the meeting.

Francis, dressed in white with a skullcap, and Kirill, wearing a tall, domed hat that dangled a white stole over black robes, joined arms and kissed on both cheeks.

“It is very clear that this is the will of God,” Francis said.

“Yes, things are much easier now,” Kirill said. Both men spoke through interpreters and were accompanied by their top aides in the quest for Christian unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch and Russian Metropolitan Hilarion.

Their meeting, announced just a week ago, also carried political overtones, coming at a time of Russian disagreements with the West over Syria and Ukraine.

Cuban President Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the Catholic Church’s highest representative in Cuba, greeted the pope as he got off the plane.

 

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signed decrees, relieving Gorik Hakobyan of the duties of the Director of the National Security Service and appointing him as Adviser to President.

According to another presidential decree, Georgi Kutoyan was relieved of the duties of the Deputy Prosecutor General and was appointed Director of the National Security Service.

Georgi Kutoyan was born in Yerevan, in 1981.

• In 2002 graduated with honors from the Law Department of the Rostov State University in the Russian Federation.
• In 2005 concluded postgraduate studies at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the RA National Academy of Sciences, defended a thesis titled “The 1950 Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Republic of Armenia’s National Legal System” (constitutional and legal research) and was awarded the scientific degree of a Candidate of Juridical Sciences.
• In 2007 graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) at the US.
• In 2002-2010 was teaching at the Armenian-Russian (Slavic) University, at the RA State Governance Academy and at the RA National Academy of Sciences.
• In 2005-2006 worked at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia, first as a researcher at the scientific and teaching center and later as a lecturer at the Law and Structural Reforms Division.
• In 2006-2007 worked in the Office of the Ombudsman of Armenia, as a Senior Advisor to the Ombudsman, and in 2008-2010 as the Senior Legal Advisor of the Ombudsman Staff.
• In 2008 received a lawyer’s license, in 2010-2011 was engaged in private practice as a lawyer.
• In 2011-2016 was Assistant to the President of Armenia.
• In 2011-2014 was the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Strategy Monitoring Commission under the Presidential Anti-Corruption Council
• By the April 17, 2013 decree of the President of Armenia was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh Medal.
• In 1998-2000 was trained at the RF Rostov State University Military Training Department as a reserve officer.
• Kutoyan is the State Counselor of Justice Class I.
• Speaks Russian, English, and French.
• Married, with a son.

Two Russian Il-76 planes have delivered some 50 metric tons of Russian humanitarian aid for residents of conflict-torn Syria, reports.

The cargo includes food, medicine, clothing, school supplies, as well as toys and treats for children. It will be distributed among residents of cities blocked by militants from terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State.

Earlier, a new batch of humanitarian aid prepared jointly by Russia and Syria was delivered to the Syrian city of Deir el-Zour (ez-Zor), besieged by IS militants.

Photo/Getty Images

 

Actor George Clooney and his lawyer wife Amal have had a private meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the crisis in Syria and Europe’s efforts to help refugees, the Associated Press reports.

The actor, who is currently attending the Berlin Film Festival to showcase his new movie “Hail, Caesar,” was accompanied to the 40-minute meeting Friday by David Miliband, the former British foreign secretary who now heads the International Rescue Committee.

Miliband said afterward that they had discussed what countries around the world can do to solve “what is a global problem, not just a Syrian problem or a German issue.”

He praised Merkel for “showing very strong leadership and example not just to Europe but globally” during the refugee crisis.

Massis Post – Eight Armenian films will be screened as part of the third edition of the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival, a ground-breaking non-profit film festival that showcases socially relevant films with human interest stories. The festival opens on the 14th of March with a panel on Adapting the Novel to the Screen with such prolific panelists as Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, and widely published French novelist Marc Levy. The films screen from March 15-19 at The Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea and the closing night Awards Ceremony takes place at the Tenri Japanese Center on the 20th of March.

The full line-up and program of this year’s SR Socially Relevant Film Festival was announced at its Press Day, hosted at Bocca East in Manhattan, on February 2. Selected films will focus on the current topics of immigration, female empowerment, human exploitation, gender politics disability and more, and will feature distinguished personalities including Erin Brockovich, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Marc Duret and others.

Two narrative features and six shorts revolving around Armenian themes will have a special presence in this year’s film festival, including the International Premiere of 100 Years Later (directed by John Lubbock) which follows historian Ara Sarafian’s journey through Anatolia as facts of the 1915 Armenian Genocide are uncovered and dialogue is established with local Kurds and Turks.

The second feature, Who Killed the Armenians? (directed by Mohamed Hanafy Nasr), will have its World Premiere at the festival and is the first Arabic documentary on the Armenian Genocide, filmed in Egypt, Armenia and Lebanon. The film reveals rare documents, footage and interviews related to the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

The short film, Eclipse, (directed by Ara Yernjakyan) which will have its U.S. premiere, revolves around the children who suffered and the families that were destroyed during the Armenian Genocide.

Girl on the Moon, (directed by Aren Malakyan), filmed in Armenia, focuses on the first steps of disabled people and how they try to change the course of their lives through dance.

How to Cross from Jiliz to Jiliz, directed by Marineh Kocharyan and Sona Kocharyan, is about a young girl who dreams of being with her grandmother and relatives who live on the other side of the border, only a few meters away. The film will have its New York premiere.

Now I Know, directed by Anna Bayatyan from Armenia, will have its International Premiere, focusing on the theme of hope.

Shattered, directed by David Hovan, focuses on memories of war and chaos and post-traumatic stress disorder. It will have its New York Premiere.

Where is the Euphrates, Son? Directed by Rouben Pashinyan, filmed in Armenia, the film tells the story of an Armenian grandfather who arrives in Armenia as a tourist and tries to find the Euphrates River. It will have its New York premiere at the festival.

Founded by award-winning actor, filmmaker and curator Nora Armani, SR aims to satisfy a market need concentrating on everyday human stories as an alternative to the proliferation of gratuitous violence in film making.

“The Minsk Group is the only mediation format that has been accepted by the sides and has the full confidence of all OSCE participating States,”  Ambassador Véronique Roger-Lacan, France’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE, said in an . She made the statement on behalf of the three countries co-chairing the Minsk Group, the Russian Federation, United States and France.

“The Minsk Group Co-chairs contribute to stabilizing the security situation by keeping regular contacts with the sides and through close cooperation with the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office who monitors on a daily basis the situation on the ground, – in the context of regular and often deadly ceasefire violations – along the line of contact as well as along the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” she said.

“According to its mandate, which is inter alia “to conduct negotiations with the Parties to obtain conclusion of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict”, the Minsk Group Co-chairs aim at promoting, through the Madrid principles, a balanced approach to the settlement of the conflict, based in particular on the conciliation of the principles of self-determination, territorial integrity and non-use of force. It is not the inefficiency of the mediation process conducted by the Co-chairs that is to blame for the serious lack of progress in the negotiations, but the lack of political will of the parties to reach a peaceful settlement,” Véronique Roger-Lacan said.

“The Co-chairs are also working on the endorsement by the parties of confidence building measures, such as the creation of a prevention and investigation mechanism of the ceasefire violations along the line of contact, and dialogue between the communities of Nagorno-Karabakh. Their action also focuses on the humanitarian measure of exchanging data on the missing persons from the conflict, agreed at the Paris summit of 27 October 2014 and implemented by the ICRC,” the French Representative said.

“The Co-Chairs will continue to brief international and regional organizations interested in supporting the Minsk Group process. They will continue their engagement to work closely with the sides in order to reach a peaceful and sustainable settlement of the conflict,” she concluded.