Author: Ani Kharatian

Photo: Getty Images    

Manhester United have seemingly confirmed their deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan by putting shirts with his name on up for sale, the reports.

It has been widely reported recently that Mkhitaryan will make the move from Borussia Dortmund to Old Trafford this summer.

But United have now dropped the biggest of hints that he will be signing by selling his shirts on their official website.

The 27-year-old’s name is on the back of the club’s new away shirt, priced at over £70m, but it without a number.

Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS    

Creating a mechanism to investigate truce violations would lay a good basis for talks on a settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, TASS reports.

“Our position on the Karabakh issue is known to all. We wish this issue to be settled exclusively by peaceful means. And I would like to thank Russia as a co-chair of the Minsk Group for the understanding and efforts it pays to this issue,” Sargsyan said.

“Regrettably, such conflicts are never settled at the wish of one party. We would be glad if we managed to make progress today towards the implementation of the agreements that we have achieved, in other words, to create mechanisms of investigating truce violations. This would create a good working climate for talks,” Sargsyan said.

For his part Putin agreed to discuss all these issues.

The crews of Mi-8 and Mi-24 attack helicopters held exercises at the Russian military base in Armenia, the Russian Ministry of Defense reports.

The pilots were training to hit targets on the ground and flying the helicopters at high altitudes.

Management of Mi-8 and Mi-24 heavy helicopters in the mountains has its peculiarities.

It is necessary to carefully fly the machine over mountain ridges and peaks, taking into account the features of rarefied air. That’s why all flights were performed under the guidance of instructors.

Clark University History Professor Taner Akçam received the “Friend of the Armenians” award from the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) at a banquet of the Diocesan Assembly on April 29 in Cleveland. Hundreds of Armenian Church leaders from around the country attended.

“It is deeply rewarding to be recognized as a friend of the Armenians,” Akçam said. “While power, not truth, reigns supreme in politics, it is truth that wins in the fields of education and scholarship. We need to train dozens of young academics who can express the truth not as an emotional plea but as a scholarly fact.”

In his speech, Akçam (pictured) recognized two scholars, and Ümit Kurt, who recently earned their doctoral degrees in Armenian genocide studies from Clark’s .

“The truth is that the more academics we have working in this field the less oxygen denialism receives. Education is where the real investment needs to be made,” he said.

Every year, the New York-based Diocese of the Armenian Church of America bestows its “Friend of the Armenians” award on an individual in the public arena who has been a heroic advocate for the Armenian-American community. Past recipients have included U.S. Ambassadors Harry Gilmore and John Evans; U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and Robert Dole; and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

The Diocese selected Akçam for the award because of his “history of courageous humanitarianism” and his “lifelong effort to reveal and defend historical truth of the Armenian genocide through his scholarship.”

“All of these things have done much to promote admiration, goodwill and affection for [him] throughout the Armenian-American community,” wrote Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America.

In recent years, Akçam has been honored with the Hrant Dink Spirit of Freedom and Justice Medal by the Organization of Istanbul Armenians, theHeroes of Justice and Truth Award from the Diocese and Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Churches of America and the Hrant Dink Freedom Award from the Armenian Bar Association. In 2006, he was recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for his outstanding work in human rights and for fighting genocide denial.

Akçam is the Robert Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies. He received his doctorate in 1995 from the University of Hanover, with a dissertation on “The Turkish National Movement and the Armenian Genocide against the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul Between 1919 and 1922.”

Explorers are setting out to create a 1,000-mile hiking route across a little-visited mountain range in Georgia and Armenia, reports.

The team will survey and hike off-road routes over the next six months to design the first long distance walking trail through the Lesser Caucasus mountains.

The team’s leaders, experienced traveller and film-maker Tom Allen and robotics engineer Alessandro Mambelli, will use technology to gather data on the network of off-road car tracks, logging roads and informal trails through important areas.

The Caucasus region is dominated by the Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountain ranges, some of the most impenetrable in the world but known for their rich wildlife, including rarely-seen Eurasian lynx, Caucasian leopards and bears.

Exploring them has been difficult due to the lack of formal trails and maps, which the team hopes to change to help give local people and visitors access to the mountains and raise awareness of the region’s landscapes and cultures.

They are working with the newly-formed Transcaucasian Trail Association and local communities, who will maintain the trails and benefit from them through increased tourism.

The long term vision is to create a way-marked trail network similar to Alpine back-country routes, including sections that would involve camping out and staying in refuges while hiking between villages, backed up by resources such as guidebooks.

Mr Allen, who has close personal ties to Armenia through his wife and has lived there for periods in the last eight years, said he wanted to do something of value to the region.

“There is a real lack of access to the outdoors, there’s no information, the maps are extremely out of date, from the Soviet era.

“People don’t know how to go out and engage with the geography of the country they are living in or go exploring.

“The main objective is to develop a long distance hiking trail which is a kind of flagship for the idea of more trails being developed in the future.”

He added: “This is a very nice rural area within these two countries, there’s a low crime rate, it’s very safe, and people are very hospitable to tourists.”

The team have mapped out plans for covering 1,000 miles (1,500km) of the mountain range, though they are set to walk much further than that as they explore potential routes in detail.

They are backed by a bursary scheme run by the Royal Geographical Society and Jaguar Land Rover, with a Land Rover Defender 110 Station Wagon being specially adapted to carry the team’s GPS equipment and a drone-landing platform.

Mr Mambelli, who lives in Armenia, enjoyed hiking in the Dolomites in his native Italy when younger and took the opportunity to take a break from his engineering career to take part in the expedition.

“I’m looking forward to doing the exploration for some time in the mountains. It’s something I used to do for fun and I’m now doing with a purpose, not just having fun for myself,” he said.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in remembrance of one hundred and one years since the beginning of the Armenian Genocide:

“More than a century ago, starting in 1915 and lasting nearly a decade, more than 1.5 million innocent Armenian children, women, and men were systematically slaughtered during the horrific genocide committed by leaders of the Ottoman Empire.  Today, we remember the victims of this brutal, inhumane period of ethnic cleansing.  We honor their memories by acknowledging the past.

“We must never forget this wretched campaign that destroyed lives, upended communities, and attempted to eradicate an entire culture.  Too often the tragic crimes of history have been ignored, minimized, or denied.  We owe it to future generations to confront the painful past so we can create a more hopeful future.

“On this solemn anniversary, we must embrace the truth.  It is our moral responsibility, every day in every community, to work together to speak out against the bigotry, discrimination and hatred of difference that too often fuel acts of violence.”

The Azerbaijani side kept violating the agreement on ceasefire along the line of contact with Karabakh forces all through April 13, the NKR Defense Army reports.

Between 17:15 and 18:00 the rival used 82 mm mortars in the northern direction (Martakert).

At about 17: 50 the Azerbaijani forces used 60 mm mortars, as they shelled the Armenian posts located in the Talish direction.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army remained committed to the oral agreement on ceasefire and resorted to retaliatory measures in case of extreme necessity.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is concerned about the humanitarian impact of fighting along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh, which seriously deteriorated on 2 April 2016. Casualties reported on both sides included civilians.

“We are ready to assist and support those affected by the recent escalation of fighting, as well as to act as a neutral intermediary between the parties”, said Patrick Vial, head of the operations for the region. “All sides to the conflict have an obligation to respect the rules of international humanitarian law. As per these rules, the parties must ensure that civilian life and infrastructure is protected”, he added.

The ICRC has been present in the region since 1992 in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Through the delegations in Baku and Yerevan and the mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ICRC supports communities living along the line of contact and international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In addition, the ICRC works to clarify the fate of missing persons and help their families, visits detainees and acts as a neutral intermediary to facilitate transfer and repatriation of persons released on both sides of the border and the line of contact.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a summer transfer target for Arsenal. They have sent scouts to watch the Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder and have further monitored his progress via video clips, reports.

The 27-year-old Armenian, who was close to joining Liverpool and also Tottenham Hotspur during his time at Shakhtar Donetsk, is under contract at Dortmund until the summer of 2017 and the Bundesliga club are trying to get him to agree to fresh terms.

The Armenia international is torn between renewing at Dortmund – for whom he signed in 2013 from Shakhtar for £23.5m – and considering a move to the Emirates Stadium. He would have no shortage of other offers from clubs across Europe.

Mkhitaryan caught the eye for Dortmund against Arsenal in the Champions League meetings between the clubs in the previous two seasons and he has been an outstanding performer in Europe and the Bundesliga, particularly this season, when he has scored 20 goals in all competitions. Quick, technically gifted and clinical, he can play in any position across the line behind the striker.

Arsène Wenger is likely to lose Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky from his midfield in the summer. All three are out of contract and not expected to be given new deals, with age and injury problems having caught up with them while there is uncertainly over Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s future at the club.