Author: Albert Nalbandian

Yerevan will host the first European Universities Chess Championship October 6-11.

During today’s working consultations Armenian Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan instructed members of the organizing committee to prepare the event on due level in cooperation with the Chess Federation and relevant state agencies.

“We have to do our best to ensure that every young player feels he’s visiting a chess superpower,” Minister Ashotyan said.

Thirty teams from 15 European countries have applied for participation in the championship. Armenia will be represented by three female and three male teams.

Armenia’s first minister of foreign affairs concluded his four-day visit to Lebanon with a private reception at the residence of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.

Raffi K. Hovannisian, who currently serves as Heritage Party chairman and ACNIS founding director, and Vehapar discussed a broad range of contemporary challenges facing the Homeland and the Armenian nation.

Hovannisian had arrived in Lebanon to take part in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the heroic self-defense at Musa Dagh and the 75th birthday of the founding of the town of Ainjar by the survivors and descendants from Mount Musa.

He had the opportunity there to meet with community leaders and to address words of proud felicitation to the pilgrims gathered from around the world.

On 11 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan held a working consultation with the supreme command staff of the NKR Defense Army at the head of defense minister Levon Mnacakanyan.

Issues related to army building, situation along the line of contact between Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan armed forces and amelioration of social conditions of the servicemen were discussed at the consultation.

The Head of the State gave concrete instructions for the proper solution of the raised discussed issues.

Matthew Karanian, the author of ‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years,’ will present his groundbreaking new book in Canada during a three-city tour of the country in September.

The Canada book tour is organized under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to Canada, and commemorates the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years’ (Stone Garden Press, 2015) is the first-ever historical guide to the ancient Armenian homeland. The book includes 125 color photographs and maps that show Western Armenia as it appears today.

The premiere Canada event is at 9 pm on Friday, Sept. 11 at the Tekeyan Center, 825 Rue Manoogian, St. Laurent, Quebec. This event is hosted by the Tekeyan Cultural Association.

Karanian will also speak at 1 pm on Saturday, Sept. 12 at the Armenian Embassy, 7 Delaware Ave., Ottawa, Ontario. The event at the Armenian Embassy is hosted by Ambassador and Mrs. Armen Yeganian.

The concluding event for ‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years’ is at 2 pm on Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Armenian Community Center, 45 Hallcrown Place, Toronto, Ontario.

The Toronto event is co-hosted by the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) of Toronto, the Hamazkayin Educational and Cultural Society of Toronto, The Toronto Hye Agoump; and Bolsahay Cultural Assocation Toronto.

The entire tour is under the auspices of the Armenian Embassy in Canada.

A ferry carrying 189 passengers and crew capsized off the central Philippines in heavy waves on Thursday, killing at least 36 people but the majority of those on board were rescued, the coast guard and police said, Reuters reports.

The MBCA Kim-Nirvana, a motorized outrigger with 173 passengers and 16 crew on board, capsized minutes after leaving the port of Ormoc.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 127 people survived, while 26 were still listed as missing.

“Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Initially we learned that it was due to big waves,” said Rey Gozon, director of the office of civil defense for the region.

President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has sent a congratulatory message to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on his birthday.

“During your time in office, you have gained the respect you deserve among your compatriots, as well as a high reputation in the international arena. I greatly appreciate your personal contribution to the strengthening of the friendly and allied relationship between our countries,” Putin said.

The message further reads:

“I warmly recall your recent visit to Moscow during which you joined us in partaking in the 70th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. I would be glad to continue our meetings, constructive dialogue and concerted efforts for the well-being of the brotherly peoples of Armenia and Russia.

I sincerely wish you good health, happiness, well-being, success and all the best,” reads the RF president’s congratulatory message.

President Vladimir Putin today also had a phone conversation with President Serzh Sargsyan, congratulated him and sent him birthday wishes.

During the phone conversation, the two heads of state also reflected upon issues pertaining to the deepening of relations between the allied states and the promotion of multifaceted cooperation.”

As part of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the City Hall of the Bouc Bel Air, France, decided to name a square after Henri Verneuil (born Ashot Malakian).

The square was solemnly unveiled on June 27. The ceremony was attended by Mayor Richard Mallié, Henri Verneuil’s wife, their two children and their families, religious leaders, representatives of the local Armenian community and journalists.

Richard Mallié noted in his opening remarks that “although 100 years have passed since the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey and the larger international community is still to recognize this tragedy. “However, there a number of reasonable people, especially artists, trying to condemn Turkey and urge to recognize the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people. Among them was film director Henri Verneuil, who used the feature film to convey something that would not be possible through speeches and documentaries.”

The rise of Brenda Shaffer as a scholar and oft-quoted expert in the field of energy politics illustrates just how vulnerable the American foreign policy establishment is to manipulation by foreign agents, accoridng to a report published by the .

Till Bruckner, Advocacy Manager for Transparify, which promotes greater integrity in policy research, reveals that “supported by an overseas regime and an assorted network of overt and undercover lobbyists, she used oil money to build her academic credentials, then in turn used those credentials to promote Azerbaijan’s agendas through Congressional testimony, dozens of newspaper op-eds and media appearances, countless think tank events, and even scholarly publications.”

Shaffer first walked into Congress in 2001 to testify before the House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations.

She was introduced as “the director of the Caspian Studies Program and a post-doctoral fellow in the international security program at the Belfort [Belfer] Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government”.

Addressing lawmakers, she asked them to repeal a section of the Freedom Support Act that barred direct US aid to the Azerbaijani government. “They have extended their hand to the US. They have huge expectations that the policy of this country is based on some sort of morality and high ideals,” she told them, and reinforced this in written testimony she also submitted.

Challenged about Azerbaijan’s democratic record, she replied: “There is a lot of room for improvement in terms of democratization. However, every six months, every year, things are getting better and better.”

“What lawmakers listening to Shaffer didn’t know was that the Caspian Studies Program she headed at Harvard was set up in 1999 through a $1 million grant from the US Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and a consortium of oil and gas companies led by Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron, all of which had commercial interests in the region. The chamber of commerce is a pro-Azerbaijan pressure group whose Board of Directors includes a vice president of SOCAR, the Azerbaijan state-owned energy company, and top lobbyists for BP and Chevron,”
Till Bruckner writes.

Shaffer led the Caspian Studies Program until 2005. During her tenure, she wrote 14 op-eds for leading US and Israeli newspapers including the International Herald Tribune and the Jerusalem Post. Most called on American policy makers to pay more attention to the region. One exhorted the US to stop funding for Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

President Serzh Sargsyan received today Natalia Voutova, the newly-appointed Head of the Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Armenia.

The Armenian president congratulated Mrs. Voutova on her appointment and wished her success. Stressing the CoE key and unique role in Europe’s general architecture, Serzh Sargsyan noted that Armenia, as a CoE member country, is keen on promoting cooperation with all the CoE institutions.

According to the president, the CoE standards regarding human rights, democracy and the rule of law provide effective guidelines for Armenia, and our country has achieved some results as a CoE member state having membership obligations which tries to fulfill its obligations.

The RA president and the head of the CoE Office in Armenia agreed that Armenia, as a CoE member country, is actively involved in the organization’s activities at all levels.

The Armenian president greatly appreciated the CoE support for the ongoing democratic reforms in our country and presented the implementation status of various reforms, touching upon, inter alia, the process of RA constitutional amendments which are being carried out in close cooperation with the Venice Commission. Natalia Voutova underscored that the CoE supports Armenia’s path to reform implementation and democratic consolidation.

The head of the CoE Office in Armenia expressed satisfaction with Armenia’s chairmanship in the CoE Committee of Ministers in 2013, stressing that Armenia’s six-month mission fulfilled excellently and creditably and the priorities set forth by it have received high praise from the organization. According to her, that chairmanship will remain in the CoE history as a successful one.

Natalia Voutova expressed the hope that taking into account Armenia’s effective cooperation with the CoE and the positive results achieved previously in the course of the RA-CoE Action Plan implementation, the new CoE action plan will likewise be implemented successfully.

On the Initiative of the EU Armenia Friendship Group in the European Parliament and the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) a panel discussion entitled “Conflicts and the right to self-determination” took place in the European Parliament on Wednesday, June 3. The panel discussion focused on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, its structure, historic and legal aspects with a special emphasis on the right to self-determination.

EAFJD President Kaspar Karampetian opened the panel discussionhostinga number of politicians and distinguished guests from academia. He thanked Eleni Theocharous, MEP, President of EU- Armenia Friendship Group in the European Parliament for making this panel discussion possible, he expressed his satisfaction over the high profile speakers and the number of guests from various countries; he stressed, that such discussions are an important step for Nagorno-Karabakh’s international recognition.

HE Tatoul Markarian, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium, Head of Mission of Armenia to the European Union was represented by Mnatsakan Safaryan – counsellor of the Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union. On behalf of the Ambassador he said the following: ‘The activities of the European Parliament in this matter, hearings like this, visits to the region and discussions, help to further increase the awareness within the European Parliament and European institutions and keep the Nagorno Karabakh issue in the limelight of the international community thus signaling to Azerbaijan to stop its warmongering and focus on the peaceful settlement’.

MEP Dr. Eleni Theocharous was the key-note speaker of the panel discussion. Prof. Dr.  Andrzej Zieba from the JagellonianUniversityof Krakow Poland, Dr. OhannesGeukjianfrom theAmerican UniversityofBeirut Lebanon, Dr. YiannosCharalambides from Cyprus, XavierFollebouckt from Louvainla Neuve University, Belgium were the participants of the panel. The discussion was moderated by Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat ARF Dashnaktsutyun, Armenia.

MEP Dr. Eleni Theocharous drew parallels between the conflict in Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh: “Currently, we are experiencing and living a similar struggle through the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh who are fighting to exercise their right to self-determination in order to achieve their freedom and thereby, define their own future and their destiny.” “The right to self-determination is enshrined within Article 1, Paragraph 2 of the UN Charter, it is the cornerstone for freedom and the symbol by which people all over the world, are inspired and encouraged to take their lives into their own hands,” said Dr. Theocharous.

Prof. Dr.  Andrzej Zieba’s contribution focused on the historic aspects of the conflict:“The necessity to deal with the crisis of political setting was the main reason for conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Caucasus was a conflict-trigger itself, but so was the case for any other region in the world. The presence and simultaneous unsteadiness of outside powers in South Caucasus impaired the effect of historical state-building processes and did not allow consolidation of the local hierarchy of political structures. It was the historical aspect which renews the military rivalry for territory until this day,” said Dr. Zieba.

Dr. YiannosCharalambides , political analyst from Cyprus, elaborated on thestructureoftheconflict andtheright to self-determination. He stressed the necessity to find out the causes triggering a conflict, in order to resolve it. He further raised the question if  the right to self-determination is a source of conflict or a fundamental legal and political basis for a solution. Dr. YiannosCharalambides further stated: “The people of Nagorno-Karabakh meet all the relevant criteria set out by the international law. The Armenians living there constitute an indigenous population carrying on their backs a vast civilization, while at the same time they had not settled in the region as conquerors of other nations. In accordance with the international law, Artsakh is their ancestral land. Certainly ethical reasons and the clauses of the international law are not, on their own, adequate factors for a solution to a problem. The art of diplomacy is the skill of coupling legal rights and clauses with national strength.”

Analyzing the current state of affairs XavierFollebouckt from theLouvainla Neuve University, Belgium said:  “It will be hard to achieve peace. But peace will always be worth the effort, worth the unavoidable compromises. Because peace will not only put an end to the violence and the instability on the ground; it will allow societies on both sides of the frontline to reach across this divide, to look towards the future and start building their nations on solid foundations, rather than on historical grievances. “

Elaborating on the legal aspects of the conflict Dr. OhannesGeukjianfrom theAmerican UniverisityofBeirut, Lebanon concluded: “My argument maintains that if Nagorno-Karabakh can perform the requisite political functions, the existing state has no jutification for its nonconsensual coercion. In other words, when a nation is sufficiently large, ecnomomically sustainable, politically organized and territorially contiguous (like Nagorno-Karabakh), it can secede and thereby enhance its national self-determination without jeoperdizing political stability.”