Author: Ani Tigranian

The Armenian weightlifting team returned from Fjord, Norway last night.

The athletes were greeted at Zvartnots airport by President of the National Olympic Committee Gagik Tsarukyan, Minister of Sport and Youth affairs Gabriel Ghazaryan, fans and relatives.

The Armenian team was the first with the overall number of medals won (8 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze medals). Turkey and Ukraine came in second and third respectively.

Thus, Armenia became the winner of the European team championship with a total of 449 points.

Initiatives for Development of Armenia Foundation (IDeA Foundation) thanks all individuals and organizations that support 100 LIVES and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. We express our deepest gratitude to the partners of Aurora Prize Inaugural Сeremony: producer of the legendary Armenian brandy “ARARAT” – Yerevan Brandy Company, Armenia’s Leading Telecommunications Operator VivaCell-MTS and Panarmenian Media Group.

“We are grateful to the companies that have joined us in sharing the ideas and values of our initiative. This is especially relevant today, when the humanitarian challenges of the world are as urgent and important as a century ago, ” Edgar Manukyan, CEO of IDeA Foundation, noted.

“The idea of honouring heroes a hundred years later on behalf of all the survivors of the Armenian Genocide in gratitude to their saviours, and launching a new global initiative, is unique, and we are very delighted to contribute to its realization”, said Igor Arakelyan, Chief Operation Officer of Yerevan Brandy Company.

“Aurora Prize is a clarion call to go back to the core values of our human nature, to cherish once again the need of helping each other and save each other’s lives. We join Aurora Prize initiative to celebrate those people who are putting their lives at risk to save others,”stated VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian.

“It’s a great honour for us to be the main media partner of Aurora Prize. I hope that 100 LIVES initiative and Aurora Prize will make the world kinder and the people more humane”, Chairman of the Board of Panarmenian Media Group Armen Arzumanyan said.

The Inaugural Ceremony of Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity will take place on April 24 in Yerevan, Armenia.

Pope Francis will visit Armenia June 24-26 at the invitation of President Serzh Sargsyan and His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, President’s Press Office reports.

A lobbying firm that’s a registered agent of the Turkish government is trying out a new argument during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the U.S. this week: the Russians are coming, and Armenia is helping them, the reports.

Representatives from Mercury LLC have contacted multiple congressional offices to argue that Russia’s presence in Armenia, a small country on Turkey’s border that has tensions with the Turks lingering from the 1915 genocide of Armenian Christians, makes it important for the U.S. to close ranks with fellow NATO member Turkey, according to two Capitol Hill aides.

Mercury, which registered to work on behalf of Turkey last month, hopes to convince lawmakers to attach their names to two separate documents, an aide told The Huffington Post.

One is a letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry that focuses on the “growing military alliance between Russia and Armenia” — citing the flow of Russian fighter jets, helicopters gunships and drones to Armenia. It calls the Russia-Armenia relationship “deeply concerning.”

Asked for comment, Mercury shared a statement from an organization called the Turkish Institute for Progress, the Huffington Post says.

“The Turkish Institute for Progress along with U.S. security experts and officials are calling on Armenia to expel the two Russian bases in Armenia and to sever its military ties with [President Vladimir] Putin’s Russia. The close relationship between Russia and Armenia speaks for itself,” said Derya Taskin, the institute’s president.

“The two nations are still divided by the open wound of Nagorno Karabakh,” Federica‪ Mogherini High Representative of the ‪‎European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission said, summit up the results of her recent trips to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“For the European Union the peaceful solution of the conflict is high on the agenda, and we are constantly involved through our Special Representative,” she said.

 

President Serzh Sargsyan sent today a congratulatory message to the renowned author, expert in Armenian studies, translator and intellectual Kim Bakshi and wished him excellent health and new creative achievements.

“Dear Mr. Bakshi,”

On behalf of the grateful Armenian people, I congratulate you on the occasion of your 85th birth anniversary.

Your creative journey is closely connected to the history and culture of the Armenia people. Through the decades your diligent and vigorous work translated into travel notes, books, and scripts for documentary movies. Ancient marvels of the Armenian culture, which by a twist of history appeared in different corners of the world, in all their splendor and charm present themselves in your works.

Your activities encouraged numerous sons and daughters of our nation to look thoroughly into our rich historical heritage and made the Armenian culture recognizable all over the world,” reads the congratulatory letter of the President of Armenia.

AA Photo

 

A military ground operation in Syria by Turkey and Saudi Arabia is not on the agenda and any such move would need to involve all countries in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday, Reuters reports.

“Russian air strikes were the biggest obstacle to achieving a ceasefire in Syria,” Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara. He said the Syrian opposition, which said on Saturday it had agreed to the “possibility” of a temporary truce, would meet in Riyadh on Tuesday.

 

 

“The region is on the threshold of a new phase in the Syrian crisis,” Director of the Oriental Studies Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan told a press conference today.

“Ground forces of other countries will be deployed in Syria soon. Saudi Arabia has already declared about the intention to send forced. The US-led coalition is seriously considering the opportunity to deploy foreign troops,” he said.

Safrastyan added that “Turkey is also mobilizing forces at the Syrian border, but has not reached the ultimate goals it pursued when getting involved in Syria.”

Commenting on the recent developments in Turkey-Vatican relations, Safrastyan warned against hasty conclusions. “Let’s wait and see what happens next,” he said.

Remind that Turkey returned its ambassador to the Vatican on Thursday, nearly 10 months after withdrawing him in protest against Pope Francis’ description of the century-old massacres of Christian Armenians as genocide. Muslim Turkey promptly recalled its envoy.

The decision came after the Vatican on Wednesday praised Turkey’s willingness to open its archives to historians and create a joint commission of scholars to explore past events.

Ruben Safrastyan believes that “what Pope Francis did on April 12, 2015, was simply unprecedented.” Reaching targets through treachery and intrigues has always been an indispensable part of Turkey’s policy, which find sits reflection on the Syrian front, as well. The political scientist said, however, that the policy has been a failure so far.

To solve his personal problems, Erdogan escalated the domestic situation in the country months ago by inciting tensions against Kurds. Erdogan solved his issues through elections, but created a situation that had not been in place for decades. Safrastyan is confident the situation will further deteriorate in the future. “The Turkish policy of the recent months aims to engage the US and NATO into a conflict with Russia, but Turkey has failed here, as well,” he said.

The Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe Eurimages welcomed a new member state, Armenia, as of 1^st January 2016.

As a result, co-production projects involving a co-producer from Armenia can be submitted to Eurimages for examination at the forthcoming meetings.

As Armenia does not have access to the support mechanisms of the CREATIVE EUROPE MEDIA Programme, distributors from Armenia can apply for support. In the same manner, exhibitors from Armenia will be eligible for the Eurimages programme of support for exhibition.

EURIMAGES is a support fund for cinema co-production, theatrical distribution and exhibition established by the Council of Europe in 1988.

Since it was set up in 1988, EURIMAGES has supported 1726 European co-productions for a total amount of approximately 518 million euros.

 

The Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has expressed gratitude to delegates, who demonstrated a principled stance and rejected a report dangerous for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict presented by Robert Walter.

The Armenian delegation said in a statement that the two reports debated at PACE today “grossly distort the history and essence of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and impermissibly interfere with the peaceful settlement process.” “This is supported by an earlier statement released by the OSCE Minsk Group and the speeches of a number of delegates during the plenary sitting of the Parliamentary Assembly,” the statement reads.

“Aware of the responsibility of the moment, members of the Parliamentary Assembly rejected the report on “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”

As for the second report on Sarsang water reservoir “a number of MPs voted in favor of it, ignoring the opinion of the international community and demonstrating a unilateral stance, thus attributing a political meaning to a humanitarian-technical report.”