Author: Albert Nalbandian

United States are ready to help resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador James Warlick, James Warlick said Saturday.

“All reject war and are committed to negotiations,” Warlick wrote on Twitter after US Secretary of State John Kerry held meeting with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw.

. spoke with and about . All reject war and are committed to negotiations. The US stands ready to help.

— James Warlick (@AmbJamesWarlick)

The Canadian Senate’s Standing Committee on Human Rights on July 4^th issued a preliminary report regarding its study of the integration of the Syrian refugees, as well as the challenges faced by various levels of government, private sponsors and by non-government organizations which provide assistance  to the refugees,  Levant Settlement Centre (LSC) informs.

The committee made six important recommendations to the Canadian Government.  The most important is the elimination of the loan program for transportation, medical exams, and related expenses.

The committee will table its full report and recommendations in the fall.

The Levant Settlement Centre (LSC) has advocated the waiver of the loan program since last January. Aris Babikian, founder and chair of the centre, was interviewed on CBC-TV on Jan. 14 where he urged the government to waive the loan. On Feb. 8, during the meeting of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, Babikian discussed the issue with the Hon. John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship. Later, the LSC worked with a group of Syrian refugees to draft a petition to the minister asking him to “forgive the loan“ so that the refugees  “may start their new life in Canada with clean slate and without undue financial stress.“  Babikian also raised the issue during his June 2 testimony at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Immigration and Citizenship hearing.

The loan program is hampering refugees integration into the Canadian society.  “Many refugee families are spending their days and nights agonizing over this issue instead of concentrating on improving their English language skills and finding a job, “ the petition to the minister stated.

“We are grateful to the Senate Committee which made such a ground-breaking recommendation. We hope that the House of Commons Committee, which conducted similar study, will also make such a recommendation, “ Aris Babikian, founder and chair of the Levant Settlement Centre stated.  “By waving the loan program the Canadian Government will bring to full circle its trend-setting and outstanding humanitarian and compassionate Syrian refugee`s program and help ease their transition and settlement in their new home in Canada.“

 

On July 1, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian participated in the 34th session of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in Sochi, during which the results of the Russia’s six-month Chairmanship in BSEC were summarized.

In his remarks Edward Nalbandian attached importance to the development of intra-regional transits and transport systems, to the extension of the Black Sea Ring Highway main route to the borders with Iran, the sectoral dialogue partner of the Organization, to the initiative aimed at the development of multimodal freight and passenger ferry lines in the BSEC region.

Edward Nalbandian mentioned that the Armenian experts had their input in the issues of elaborating routes for the access of BSEC small and medium entrepreneurship to the international markets, simplification of trade and trade operations through internet, harmonization of customs procedure, improvement of joint checkpoints, as well as in addressing other issues.

“We welcome the signature of the “Memorandum of Understanding on Information Exchange and Cooperation in the Sphere of Quality Assurance of Medicines” between the BSEC member-states, signed by the Healthcare Ministers. At the same time, unfortunately I have to emphasize, that the BSEC member-states failed to reach a consensus on the Draft Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Sanitary Protection of the Territories of the BSEC member-states.

The Armenian side has a constructive involvement in the initiatives towards the cooperation between the national services in preventing and eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, early warning in case of emergency situations and establishing a network of crisis centers.

Armenia also supports the strengthening of the legal framework of cooperation in the energy field”, the Foreign Minister of Armenia stressed.

Armenia stands for the enhancement of the BSEC role in international arena, the expansion of cooperation with other international, regional organizations, as well as for strengthening of interaction with observers and sectoral dialogue partners.

Indeed, that cooperation should develop in accordance with the BSEC Charter and other fundamental documents.

“We should not allow the politicization of the BSEC, its transformation into a platform for political confrontation. Unfortunately, today we witnessed the attempts of the Azerbaijani delegation to politicize the Plenary Session for their narrow-minded propagandistic goals”, Edward Nalbandian emphasized.

Minister Nalbandian highlighted, “In regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, I would like to remind, that the Vienna and St. Petersburg Summits first and foremost were aimed to stabilize the situation in the conflict zone in the aftermaths of large-scale military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in April. First of all, it is a necessity to implement what was particularly emphasized and agreed upon in the frameworks of the Summits in order to create conditions for the continuation of the negotiation process; i.e. the exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict, the unconditional adherence to the 1994-1995 trilateral ceasefire agreements, which have no time limitations, the creation of mechanism for the investigation of ceasefire violations, the expansion of the team of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.”

A number of resolutions, decisions related to the activity of the Organization were adopted at the session of the BSEC Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs aimed at the deepening of regional cooperation.

At the end of the session Russia handed over the BSEC Chairmanship to Serbia.

 

Montenegro has temporarily annulled visa requirements for citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign affairs informs in a twitter post.

The visa free regime will be in place until October 31, 2016.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimyan participated in the Ministerial meeting dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The meeting was aimed at summing up the results of the work done since the signing of the treaty and focusing the attention of the international community to the need to ban nuclear tests. Speakers at the event referred to the irreversible consequences of nuclear tests, voiced regret for the failure of the treaty to come into force and urged the countries that have not yet ratified the treaty to do so.

Addressing the meeting,  Ashot Hovakimyan reiterated Armenia’s commitment to the full and unconditional implementation of the treaty. The Deputy FM hailed the support for the functioning of the subsidiary seismic station stationed in Garni since 2005, which is included in the system of international control and sends data to Vienna headquarters through satellite.

Ashot Hovakimyan reiterated the willingness of the Armenian government to carry out an open and transparent cooperation with all partner countries and international organizations. He denounced Azerbaijan’s false and groundless accusations of alleged violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons by Armenia, which pursue the single goal of diverting the attention of the international community from the large-sale aggression unleashed against Nagorno Karabakh and the crimes committed against the civilian population.

Renowned Armenian singer, RA People’s Artist Ofelya Hambardzumyan has passed away aged 91.

She had been the soloist of the Aram Merangulyan Folk Instruments Ensemble of Public Radio of Armenia since 1944.

Her repertoire includes classical Armenian music and folk songs. She is especially recognized for her interpretations of Sayat-Nova’s songs. She has also performed the music of Fahrad, Jivani, Sheram.

In 1959 Ofelya Hambardzumyan was awarded the People’s Artist of the USSR. In 2011 she was awarded the Mesrop Mashtots Medal.

Armenia is placed110th (down from 91^st last year) among 162 countries in the 2016 Global Peace Index released by the Institute for Economics and Peace today.

The world has become increasingly violent with deaths from conflict at a 25-year high, terrorist attacks at an all-time high and more people displaced than at any time since World War Two, the 2016 Global Peace Index showed on Wednesday.

The annual index, which measures 23 indicators including incidents of violent crime, countries’ levels of militarization and weapons imports, said intensifying conflicts in the Middle East were mostly to blame.

But beyond the Middle East, the world was actually becoming more peaceful, researchers behind the index said.

Armenia’s neighbors in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia – 85th, Azerbaijan 134th, Turkey -145th, Iran – 133rd. Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Belarus are placed 151st and 106th respectively, Kazakhstan is 75th, Kyrgyzstan is 124th.

Iceland is the world’s most peaceful country listed in the index, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal.

The least peaceful country is Syria, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

The sitting of the Council of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council will take place in Yerevan on May 20. The heads of government of the EEU member states will participate in the meeting.

A wide range of issues related to integration processes will be discussed.

The participants of the sitting will be hosted by President Serzh Sargsyan.

The settlement of the Karabakh conflict should be a “package solution with stepwise implementation,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in an interview with Interfax.

“Over the past years we have been working on compromise formulations and have been very close to a settlement on several occasions, but every time Azerbaijan has made a step backward,” Minister Nalbandian said.

“The implementation of the agreements reached between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna will create necessary conditions for the settlement of conflict and the search for compromise solutions,” the Foreign Minister said.

During the meeting the parties reiterated that there can be no military solution to the conflict. The Co-Chairs insisted on the importance of respecting the 1994 and 1995 ceasefire agreements.

The Presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict. To reduce the risk of further violence, they agreed to finalize in the shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism. The Presidents also agreed to the expansion of the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office. Finally, they agreed to continue the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to which the Presidents committed during the Paris summit of October 2014.

Minister Nalbandian noted that “the first-ever participation of the Foreign Ministers of the co-chairing countries in the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan is a testament to the extreme importance the mediating countries attach to the implementation of the agreements.”

Minister Nalabandian voiced hope that Azerbaijan would not disappoint the hopes of the co-chairing countries and would come up to the expectations of the international community.