Author: Alex Jidarian

On April 12, in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; received Mr. Aleksander Čeferin, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) President. He was accompanied by Mr. Ruben Hayrapetyan, President of the Football Federation of Armenia.

During the meeting, His Holiness referred to the important role football and sports plays in the mutual recognition and reconciliation between nations, noting with regret that it has also become the target of political manipulation by some forces. His Holiness expressed his condolences to the UEFA President on the occasion of the recent terrorist attack in Germany perpetrated against the Borussia Dortmund team. Condemning the incident, His Holiness stressed that the state and public organizations should make every effort in order to prevent sports from such violence.

His Holiness also expressed his appreciation to UEFA and the Football Federation of Armenia for the joint efforts to establish a football academy and stadium in Vagharshapat.

His Holiness stressed that the Armenian Church also emphasizes the importance of sports, all opportunities are provided at the 10 Armenian Church Youth Centers in Armenian, so that the teenagers exercise and participate in various sports clubs.

During the meeting, UEFA President Čeferin expressed his deep gratitude to His Holiness for the reception, and noted that the history of the Armenian people has left a great impression on him. Čeferin also stressed that sports and football in particular, are called to unite people and not to divide. He also noted that football has great importance in the education and upbringing of the young generation.

At the conclusion, The Armenian Pontiff wished the UEFA President success, and productive cooperation with the Football Federation of Armenia.  The UEFA delegation also visited the Mother Cathedral.

Charles Aznavour has said he would like to see Armenia surrounded by friends only.

“Armenia needs help. It’s a small country surrounded by countries, some of which are friends, some are enemies. I would like to see only friends around. But for that they need to have the same mentality. It’s a matter of mentality, not of land or oil. I’m not interested in that. I want a person to remain a person,” Aznavour said.

The world-famous French-Armenian singer was a guest at Vecherniy Urgant (Evening Urgant) late-night talk show on Russian Channel One. Aznavour also talked about his large family and his links with Russia.

Charles Aznavour will give a concert at the State Kremlin Palace tonight.

The U.S. Embassy in Armenia has issued the following statement on Armenian elections:

The U. S. Embassy congratulates the people of Armenia on their April 2 parliamentary election, following a period of widespread competition among various parties and blocs in an environment that allowed all viewpoints access to the media.  Election day was generally calm and orderly across Armenia and voters were able to freely exercise their right to vote. The U.S. Embassy concurs with the preliminary conclusions of  the OSCE’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Mission which assessed elections to have been well administered and fundamental freedoms generally respected, while noting the elections “were tainted by credible information about vote-buying” and pressure on voters.

We urge the Armenian government, political parties, and civil society to work together to address these concerns through existing or new legal and enforcement mechanisms.

For 25 years, the United States has been committed to supporting Armenia as it seeks to develop its democratic processes and institutions. During this election, we were proud to partner with the Armenian government, opposition political parties, and civil society – as well as with the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations Development Program – in implementing new voter identification technology.  With the help of this new technology, procedures within polling stations on April 2 were generally administered without major incident and within guidelines set forth by Armenian electoral laws.

The United States will continue to monitor and analyze reports from international and domestic election observers, as well as the adjudication of election grievances during the post-election period.

Now that the election results are known, we encourage all parties – the government, the opposition, and civil society – to continue engaging in peaceful debate and discussion.

 

 

 

Zangi represents Armenia at 2017 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Attended by a number of telecommunications companies of the world, MWC is the world’s biggest and best mobile industry event.

It provides IT companies worldwide with an opportunity to showcase their innovations, establish business ties, promote their production and follow global trends.

Established in 2013, Zangi began its life by developing cutting-edge communications technology. The Company officially released its Zangi application in early 2015.

The Messenger available on iOS and Android, offers users anywhere an extremely useful communication tool.

“The Armenian application Zangi challenges Skype, Viber and WhatsApp,” Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said in a Facebook post.

Zangi CEO & Founder Vahram Martirosyan says they will return to Armenia with new agreements and a large cooperation packages that will open new perspective for the country and will make it better known in the IT world. New contracts will help create new jobs, as well.

Speaking to , Vahram Martirosyan assured that communicating through Zangi is ‘completely safe.’ The application does not store any data about users anywhere. “Therefore, even if the system is hacked, none of the users will be affected,” he said.

“The Armenian pavilion has been popular among visitors. Many have downloaded and tested the app over four days,” Vahram Martirosyan said, speaking through Zangi.

The NKR Central Electoral Commission has provided final data on the results of voting  at the Constitutional Referendum held on February 20.

Thus,  79 428 citizens or 76.52% of the eligible voters participated in the referendum.

According to the CEC, 69 540 citizens or 87,55 % voted in favor of constitutional reform;  7 686 citizens or 9.7 % of the voters cast their vote against the new Constitution. The number of invalid ballots was 2 202 (2.8 %).

 

 

 

 

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan will visit France on March 8 at the invitation of French President Francois Hollande. Aside from official meetings, President Sargsyan is expected to meet with representatives of the business community, French Ambassador to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier told a press conference today.

“This will provide a good opportunity for presenting Armenia as an attractive for investments,” the Ambassador said. He noted that the Armenian-French relations are developing dynamically in all directions.

Speaking about the Karabakh issue, the Ambassador said “the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs spare no effort to create bases for dialogue in the negotiation process.” “The three Co-Chairs are confident that there is no alternative to a peaceful solution. The status quo cannot be acceptable to any of the parties, because losses are reported on both sides,” he said.

Jean-Francois Charpentier attached importance to the implementation of the agreements reached between the parties on different levels. He pledged the willingness of France to host a meeting between official representatives of the parties, but added that “the resolution of the issue depends on the political will of the parties, not the mediators.”

The Ambassador said “the Armenia-EU negotiations on a new Framework Agreement will be completed soon.” He noted that the deal that will be signed upon the conclusion of the talks will be different from the Association Agreement negotiated, but not signed in 201, but no less important.

Armenia-Switzerland relations actively developparticularly in the financial econo, mic and mutual investment sectors. Although Switzerland was the number one investor in Armenia with $ 90 million investment according to the official data in 2015 but Armenia has a problem of becoming well-known in the foreign world. Lukas Gasser, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation in Armenia, told a press conference at the Media Center today.

According to the Ambassador, Armenia and Switzerland efficiently collaborate in the financial-economic realm. “Switzerland makes significant investments in Armenia’s economy. Due to the official data, Swiss companies invested 90 million dollars only in 2015,” he said, expressing confidence that Armenia would continue to remain at the core of Swiss companies’ attention as an investment country.

The Ambassador considers that during twenty-five years of independence, Armenia has achieved a reasonable level of stability. “The problem is not only to be a stable country but to be perceived as such in the foreign world. In this regard, the unsolved conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh is a challenge,” he said. At the same time, the diplomat recalled that certain Armenian companies make investments in Switzerland.

The Ambassador said, “Switzerland encourages Armenia-Iran relations.” “Switzerland has good relations with Iran and is very interested in developing them. In addition, Switzerland represents the US interests in Iran by its diplomatic mission,” the diplomat said, adding that Armenia, being a neighbor of Iran, is of great interest. “It is important that Armenia is not only geographically neighboring Iran but also has good relations with Tehran,” he said.

The Ambassador also touched upon the issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. According to Lukas Gasser, the maintenance of the ceasefire agreement of 1994-1995 is important for Karabakh conflict settlement. “The Karabakh conflict has no solution other than a peaceful settlement,” he said.

The Ambassador said that the conflict resolution stems from Armenia’s economic and political interests. He noted that all the parties to the conflict should be supported, which would require a fairly extensive diplomatic activity, especially in the framework of the OSCE. “We want to support all the parties involved to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict. This requires serious diplomatic work within the framework of the OSCE,” the Swiss ambassador said.

Referring to the process of normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations, the Ambassador said that Switzerland is now ready to assist the parties in establishing contacts and relations.

“The problem is that these relationships do not exist in fact but we are ready to provide assistance to the sides when the parties are ready,” he said. According to the diplomat, it is not a natural situation when two countries have a long common history and a common border but relations are absent. He reminded that Switzerland played a big role in the initiation of Zurich Protocols in 2009, regretting that “these documents were not ratified”.

It is noteworthy that Switzerland is among the unique countries where the Armenian Genocide denial is criminalized. As a reply to the question “Did the ECHR decision about “Doğu Perinçek against Switzerland” case have an impact on Swiss legislation?” the Ambassador said. “After the Court’s verdict, Switzerland is not obliged to modify its anti-racism legislation, particularly Article 261 of the Criminal Code. Doğu Perinçek’s case is a special one and the Court’s decision refers to this case.”

Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been named Armenia’s 2016 Footballer of the Year, collecting 245 points out of 250 possible.

This is the 7th time the Armenia captain wins Player of the Year award and the sixth in a row.

Gevorg Ghazaryan, who plays for Portuguese Maritimo, came second with 56 points. Marcos Pizelli of Al-Fujeira was placed third.

FC Shirak head coach Vardan Bichakhchyan has been named Coach of the Year.

None of the three Armenian submissions has been nominated for the Golden Globes. Three films from Armenia were submitted for consideration for Best Foreign Film in the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards: The Last Inhabitant, Hot Country, Cold Winter, and Earthquake.

La La Land lead the motion picture nominations with seven nods including Best Motion Picture Comedy Musical, Best Director for Daman Chazelle and Best Actor Musical Comedy nominations for stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

In the Foreign Language department it was time to sing the Marseillaise as two French and one French/Iranian co-production secured nominations berths.  Celine Sciamma’s tale of banlieu girlhood and hard knocks got a nod as well as Paul Verhoeven’s Elle starring standout Isabelle Huppert. The veteran French actress also received a nomination as one of the year’s best Drama Actresses, alongside Amy Adams (Arrival), Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane), Ruth Negga (Loving) and Natalie Portman (Jackie). Rounding out the international category were Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman which continued the Globe winning director’s (A Separation) streak, Maren Ade’s German Cannes favorite Toni Erdmann and Neruda from Chile’s Pablo Larrain.

Ambassador Piotr Antoni Świtalski, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia launched today the Next Generation Anti-Corruption Game at the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, which was created by Tumo and funded by the EU. This event was an opportunity to get acquainted with the demo version of the Next Generation Anti-Corruption Game.

This interactive and fun game aims to raise awareness about the risks of the corruption especially among the youth. It also aims to inform them about the prises they will get if they confront corruption, as they must know that this is a long term investment in personal and social prosperity.

16-20-year-old Tumo students work on creating EU-Tumo joint project’s anti-corruption game with the help of the centre’s experts.

The launching of the game was held under the slogan “Stop the Flow of Corruption”. The aim of “Stop the Flow of Corruption” entitled event is to reaffirm that the EU supports Armenia’s government and civil society in their efforts to fight against corruption.

Speaking to the guests, Ambassador Świtalski said “Education of corruption prevention and awareness-raising of the youth play an important role in the fight against corruption. Developing and educating a new generation in the values of integrity, democracy and transparency is one of the most powerful tools for ensuring a future where corrupt practices are not part of the normal way of life”.