Category: News

With an overall score of 67.0 is ranked 54th in the released by the Heritage Foundation. Placed two positions lower than last year, Armenia is rated as “moderately free” country.

Other countries in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia – 24, Azerbaijan – 91^st, Turkey -79^th, Iran 171th.

Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Belarus are placed 153^rd and 157^th respectively, Kazakhstan is 68^th, Kyrgyzstan is 96^th.

Hong Kong tops the rating, followed by Singapore and New Zealand.

According to the report, considerable diversification of the economic base has increased economic dynamism in Armenia. Broad simplification of business procedures has facilitated regulatory efficiency. Following expansionary fiscal policies in recent years, steps have been taken to limit the cost of government through more prudent management of public finance.

The Index of Economic Freedom focuses on four key aspects of the economic environment over which governments typically exercise policy control: Rule of law, Government size, Regulatory efficiency, and Market openness.

In assessing conditions in these four categories, the Index measures 10 specific components of economic freedom, each of which is graded on a scale from 0 to 100. Scores on these 10 components of economic freedom, which are calculated from a number of sub-variables, are equally weighted and averaged to produce an overall economic freedom score for each economy.

Photo: AFP

 

At least 45 people have been killed in blasts near the Shia shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, state media say, the BBC reports.

The Islamic State group said on social media it had carried out the attack.

The shrine, which is highly revered by Shia Muslims, has been targeted before, most recently in February last year.

The attacks came as delegates from the Syrian government and opposition groups gathered in Geneva for tentative UN-sponsored peace talks.

The head of the Syrian government delegation at the Geneva talks, Bashar al-Jaafari, said the attack confirmed the link between the opposition and terrorism.

The main opposition group has backed down from its threat to boycott the talks, but says the Syrian government must meet key demands if negotiations are to start.

The 2015 statistics of the European Court of Human Rights has been published. According to the report, in all countries of the Council of Europe, there were a total of 823 judgments in 2015, of which 692 (84%) found at least one violation of the convention.

The States with the highest number of judgments finding at least one violation of the Convention were Russia (109 judgments), Turkey (79), Romania (72), Ukraine (50), Greece (43) and Hungary (42).

There were 8 judgments on cases brought against Armenia, and in all cases at least one violation was found. This number of judgments in 2015 is higher than in 2014, when only 4 judgments were delivered.

The highest number of violations found in Armenian cases concerned the right to a fair trial (5 violations).

By the end of 2015 the total number of pending cases stood at 64,850, a decrease of 7 % compared with the end of 2014 (69,900 applications pending) and more than 50% from a highpoint of 151,600 in 2011.

The countries with the highest number of applications pending before the Court were Ukraine (21.4% of the total), Russia (14.2%), Turkey (13%), Italy (11.6%) and Hungary (7.1% – a sharp increase from 2.6% in 2014); between them, these five countries accounted for over two-thirds of the total number of pending cases. 958 applications against Armenia are pending before the Court.

In relation to population, the number of Armenian cases allocated to a judicial formation in 2015 was 0.40 per 10,000 people – comparable to Greece, Luxembourg and Russia. The countries with the highest number of cases allocated to a judicial formation were Ireland (0.04 per 10,000 people), Denmark (0.08) and the UK (0.09).

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French President Francois Hollande attended the annual dinner of the Co-ordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF).

Addressing the meeting, President Hollande said he had re-launched the debate on a law that would punish the denial of the Armenian genocide by entrusting a mission to the former President of the European Court of Human Rights Jean-Paul Costa. “I’ve asked Jean-Paul Costa to search any solid, incontestable route that would protect the memory of the Armenian genocide,” said the head of state. He said that Jean-Paul Costa will in a “very short time,” review the “conclusions” that will guarantee there will be no legal dispute.

He added that a law that could be condemned by the European Court of human Rights would be “a terrible defeat for France and the Armenian Cause.

The President assured the initiative had “nothing to do with future elections.” “The challenge is to reconcile,” he said, noting that “Armenia as Turkey will always find France at their side to help them advance on the path of dialogue.”

The CCAF presented four medals of bravery. The first medal was awarded to the Socialist Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, for her “unwavering commitment to the Armenians”, as recalled Mourad Papazian. He stated all she had done for the community during the genocide centennial: exhibition in the town hall of Paris, presence in the presidential delegation in Yerevan April 24, 2015 and then to the Komitas statue in Paris, her initiative to turn off the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

The three other awardees were Republicans MP Patrick Devedjian, Mark Moogalian, who helped prevent a terrorist act in a Paris-bound train and Meral Cildir, Vice President of the Turkish Association of Human Rights.

The social network’s 1.5bn users will soon be able to respond to posts with ‘love’, ‘haha’, ‘wow’, ‘sad’ and ‘angry’ buttons, reports.

Facebook is to expand its “like” feature with five new emoji options called Reactions. The social network’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said the buttons would be pushed out to the site’s 1.5 billion users “pretty soon”.

The “love”, “haha”, “wow”, “sad” and “angry” buttons are being tested in several countries, Zuckerberg said. Each one has an emoji-style face and will appear underneath users’ posts.

A button called “yay” which featured a smiling face with rosy cheeks had been trialled. Facebook said this was removed during testing because it was not fully understood by users.

The “like” button that appears beneath each post on the site is one of its most prominent features. For many years a “dislike” button has been one of the most requested additions that users would like to see on the site.

Zuckerberg, speaking during a conference call after the release of Facebook’s latest earnings report, said that introducing a range of options rather than just an opposite to the like button added “a little bit of complexity” to a user’s reaction. “When you only have a like button, if you share a sad piece of content or something that makes you angry, people may not have the tool to react to it.”

Sophisticated geometry – the branch of mathematics that deals with shapes – was being used at least 1,400 years earlier than previously thought, a study suggests.

Research shows that the Ancient Babylonians were using geometrical calculations to track Jupiter across thght se niky.

Previously, the origins of this technique had been traced to the 14th Century.

The new study is published the Science.

Its author, Prof Mathieu Ossendrijver, from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, said: “I wasn’t expecting this. It is completely fundamental to physics, and all branches of science use this method.”

It had been thought that complex geometry was first used by scholars in Oxford and Paris in Medieval times.

They used curves to trace the position and velocity of moving objects.

But now scientists believe the Babylonians developed this technique around 350 BC.

Prof Ossendrijver examined five Babylonian tablets that were excavated in the 19th Century, and which are now held in the British Museum’s archives.

The script reveals that they were using four-sided shapes, called trapezoids, to calculate when Jupiter would appear in the night sky, and also the speed and distance that it travelled.

Member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assmebly to the Council of Europe delivered a speech at PACE plenary sitting. The full text of the speech is below:

Mr. Chair,

Dear Colleagues,

May I thank both rapporteurs, Mrs. Mailis REPS and Mr. Yves Cruchten for the massive work laying behind the reports and draft resolutions submitted to our consideration and this joint debate today. It is another example that this House is consistent to address its core values unless they are safeguarded in a sustainable manner across the Council of Europe.

It is evident that the existence of dynamic civil society is crucial to a democratic state, and respect for fundamental rights, particularly, the right of free expression, the right to freedom of assembly and the right to freedom of association is vital to the proper functioning of civil society. In this respect, the growing tendency to limit NGOs’ activities and attacking and politically prosecuting or jailing human rights defenders in a couple of member states, more drastically in the neighboring Azerbaijan, an increasing black spot on the human rights map of Europe, is more than concerning.

Both reports illustrate in the way best possible where we stay there in Azerbaijan in terms of democracy: heavily increased legal and administrative restrictions for NGOs, ongoing crackdown of the germs of civil society, dozens of politically motivated cases of prosecution and jailing of all those who are critical of the Azerbaijani government and Aliyev family. One may become surprised at this House of Democracy to hear about the legal restrictions posed on civil society organizations in Azerbaijan. In order to establish a local branch the international NGOs are legally oppressed to conclude an agreement with the Ministry of Justice about respecting “national moral values” and “not getting involved in political propaganda”. It is obvious and the rapporteurs confirm it, that it is impossible to define these provisions clearly, which in fact serves a pretext for criminal prosecution of all those who demonstrate any criticism towards Aliyev regime.

All the proactive international NGOs, which have done a lot, along with the Council of Europe and European Union for nursing the germs of civil society in post-soviet area, including Armenia, namely Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Transparency International and others are labeled by the government and our Azerbaijani colleagues sitting next to us here at the Assembly to use double standards towards Azerbaijan, making false claims in their reports thus trying to argue the validness of the harsh restrictions of their activities in Azerbaijan. Even more, civil society organizations are deliberately denied of access to foreign funding: it is legally binding to get the permission of the Minister of Justice to get funding exceeding the amount of 180 Euros let alone the policy of turning down applications of all those NGOs for registration which are critical of the government of Aliev’s autocratic regime.

Colleagues,

Making reference to our region, one may say that the reports are not about the inappropriate restrictions on NGOs’ activities and the human rights defenders being prosecuted but also about the perspectives of peace. In the case of our region democracy means more. Let me be clear. The dominating Goebbels-style state propaganda, when Armenians are declared to be the enemies of the Azerbaijani nation world-over, and having murderer Ramil Safarov declared to be a national hero and an true example for younger generations, all those who speak about peace and the need to find a diplomatically negotiated solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem are labeled and treated as “betrayers of Azerbaijan spying for Armenia”. State propaganda puts all these people to be betrayers of Azerbaijan refreshing our memory back from the brutal Stalin era. My time will not be enough to name all these victims.

We should send a clear message President Aliyev, one of the last dictators in our continent, to put an end to systematic repression of human rights defenders, the media and those critical of his government and his family.

Colleagues, again, democracy means more in our region.

Many thanks for your attention.

World renowned Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Guler’s documentary film, “The Eye of Istanbul,” has become a finalist at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival, the  reports.

Produced by Ümran Safter, the documentary will premiere in the U.S. and Greece in March. Recently, the documentary was also chosen as a finalist at the Washington Film Festival.

The “Eye of Istanbul” tells the story of Güler in conjunction with the preparatory stages of a retrospective exhibition of his in Istanbul. The documentary follows a non-linear narrative and explores the artistic process and the impulses that lead to his works of art. Güler’s curiosity, resourcefulness and fearlessness – all of which play a part in making him who he is – are showcased through a series of stories in the film.

The core team members behind the film are co-directors Fatih Kaymak and Binnur Karaevli, Director of Photography Zafer Bir, Script Writer Ahsen Diner, Editor Engin Yıldız, Composer Derya Türkan and Project Consultant Nezih Tavlas.

Syria’s opposition insists it will not attend talks on a political solution to the war in the country despite the UN announcing they will begin on Friday, the BBC reports.

Opposition leaders say representatives will not travel to Geneva unless steps are taken to alleviate the plight of civilians under siege and bombardment.

But UN envoy Staffan de Mistura plans to proceed with indirect “proximity” talks with the Syrian government.

Iran has signed a deal to buy 118 Airbus planes worth $25bn (€22bn; £17.4bn) at list prices in one of the biggest deals signed since Western sanctions against Tehran were lifted, the BBC reports.

The agreement was signed during a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to France.

The order included 73 wide body and 45 narrow body jets, including 12 A380 superjumbos.

Iran’s decision to buy the A380 is a significant boost for Airbus.

The company has struggled to convince airlines to order the world’s biggest passenger aircraft in the past two years.