Armenia finished the qualifying round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup with a victory, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-2 in Yerevan.
Armenia have achieved seven wins in same number of matches in the qualifiers and reached the elite round.
Football Federation of Armenia presented the best moments from this match.
And during the break, Armenia’s player Sargis Margaryan proposed to her girlfriend.
On Sept. 27, 2020, on the 100th anniversary of the Ottoman Turkish attack on the newly independent Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan attacked the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. While initially unsuccessful, the local Armenian defense forces collapsed after Turkish Special Forces and F-16s joined in. Before both sides accepted a ceasefire, Armenians lost control of half the enclave they ruled.
At the time, the U.S. presidential campaign was in full swing. Joe Biden issued a statement castigating President Donald Trump for mismanaging the crisis. "While he brags about his deal-making skills at campaign rallies, Trump has yet to get involved personally to stop this war. The administration must fully implement and not waive requirements under section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan, and call on Turkey and Russia to stop fueling the conflict with the supply of weapons and, in the case of Turkey, mercenaries," Biden said.
If only Biden 2023 had the moral clarity of Biden 2020. Azerbaijan talks today not only about completing the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh but also about conquering Armenia proper. Rather than stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken not only defy the Freedom Support Act to send more weaponry to Azerbaijan but also seek congressional approval to send upgraded F-16s to Turkey.
PREVENT 'SECOND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE': CHRISTIAN GROUP URGES BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO TAKE ACTION
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev plays Biden like a fiddle. So long as he tells diplomats behind the scenes that he is interested in peace, Biden refuses to cut off his flow of military equipment. This is backward. Biden should calibrate incentives to peace, not to negotiations. To do otherwise incentivizes insincere adversaries to engage in the process but never reach peace. If Aliyev is sincere about peace, he will renounce territorial ambitions, cease eradicating Armenian cultural heritage, and stop the deliberate starvation of more than 100,000 people for the crime of being Christian.
The provision of weaponry also belies a fundamental question: What for?
This goes to the second false assumption underlying Biden’s policy. Azerbaijan’s lobbyists insist that Azerbaijan stands against Iran. They describe Azerbaijan as a pro-Western oasis in a neighborhood threatened by Iran and Russia. In reality, Azerbaijan collaborates with both. It seeks an Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia trade corridor, partners with Russian oil firms in the Caspian Sea, and swaps gas to give Iran an outlet to Europe.
True, Azerbaijan also works with Israel. Israel and Azerbaijan have a long arms-for-energy partnership, and Azerbaijan enables Israel to listen into Iran and perhaps even infiltrate the country. Here, though, it simply repeats the strategy of Turkey, playing both sides to maximum advantage.
Armenia today is a democracy, tilting ever more toward the West. Azerbaijan is one of the world’s most autocratic and corrupt regimes. That Biden in action if not in rhetoric sides with the latter against the former suggests that Biden based his 2020 criticism of Trump not on principle but on political opportunism.
The truth is both Trump and Biden are equally wrong. If Biden wants to be remembered as better than Trump, perhaps he should not replicate the worst of his policies. It is time for a principled policy in the South Caucasus, one based on reality and human rights concerns rather than wishful thinking and arms contracts.
Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/biden-is-being-played-by-azerbaijan
21:36, 7 March 2023
YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia informs that the message spread by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan that the convoy of military equipment of the Armenian Armed Forces accompanied by the Russian peacekeepers passed along the Stepanakert-Ghaibalishen-Lisagor road on March 7 is not true.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, the claims of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan regarding the transfer of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia to Nagorno Karabakh for carrying out combat duty are also false.
10:35, 3 March 2023
YEREVAN, MARCH 3, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan extended greetings to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on his 57th birthday.
“I heartily congratulate you on your birthday and wish you all the best,” Pashinyan said in the telegram published by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Pashinyan praised the Russian premier for his “rich experience in state, socio-economic and political activities” and thanked him for his “personal contribution to the strengthening of relations between Armenia and Russia based on the allied traditions of the peoples of our countries, age-old friendship and mutual support.”
February 20, 2023
The European Union deployed Monday an expanded monitoring mission to Armenia's volatile border with Azerbaijan as Western engagement grows in the region seen by the Kremlin as its sphere of influence.
The risk of a fresh escalation remains high despite recent progress in peace talks between arch foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have fought two wars for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The EU said it was deploying Monday a civilian mission (EUMA) for two years to the Armenian side of their shared border where the "total — exclusively civilian — staff of the EUMA will be approximately 100, including around 50 unarmed observers".
"The objectives are to contribute to stability in the border areas," the bloc said in a statement.
The initiative was requested by Armenia and expands a 40-strong mission that was deployed for two months late last year.
"Deeply thankful to EU and Member States for manifestation of strong solidarity with Armenia," Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan said on Twitter.
The mission "is to play a role in de-escalation and establishing stability and ultimately bringing peace to region".
In January, Russia's foreign ministry accused the EU of seeking to fuel "geopolitical confrontation" by sending the mission to Armenia.
The deployment came after Yerevan accused Baku of conducting a "policy of ethnic cleansing" and forcing ethnic Armenians to leave the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Since mid-December, a group of self-styled Azerbaijani environmental activists has barred the only road linking Karabakh to Armenia to protest what they say is illegal mining.
According to Yerevan, the blockade has led to a "full-blown humanitarian crisis" in the mountainous region which faces shortages of food, medicines and fuel.
On Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Yerevan has presented Baku with a project for a full peace treaty to end the Caucasus neighbours' decades-long dispute over Karabakh.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday — after what he called a "constructive" meeting with Pashinyan in Munich — that Baku was "studying" the Armenian proposals.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.
Another flare-up in violence in 2020 left more than 6,500 dead and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Armenia cede territories it had controlled for decades.
mkh-im/kjm
17:17, 22 February 2023
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Luxembourg is appointing a non-resident Ambassador to Armenia, Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said in Yerevan at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
“On the bilateral relations, I just wanted to mention that we celebrated 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations last year, and therefore it is a possibility and opportunity to try to increase these relations. We have decided to nominate a non-resident ambassador to your country, Mr. Alain de Muyser, who is here with us. His father was already an ambassador and as a child he was with his father here in Armenia, so I think he is the right man in the right place,” FM Asselborn said.
He expressed hope that the new Ambassador will work with his Armenian counterpart stationed in The Hague to strengthen and enhance economic relations between Armenia and Luxembourg.
14:33,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The director of the Surmalu trade center of Yerevan has been arrested in the ongoing criminal investigation into the August 14, 2022 deadly explosion at the trade center’s warehouse.
Surmalu director Irina Madatova has been taken into custody, the Office of the Prosecutor-General told ARMENPRESS.
4 people, including the trade center’s deputy director are facing criminal charges in the investigation.
Authorities had earlier said that fire safety violations and illegal storage of pyrotechnics were the cause of the fire and subsequent explosion.
The August 14, 2022 explosion in Surmalu trade center killed 16 people and injured over 60 others.
Rev. Dr. Haroutune Selimian gazes at a collapsed building
Barely recovered from the acts of war and completely overwhelmed by the unprecedented economic crisis, Syria is faced with a new disaster – a deadly earthquake. On February 6, 2023, at 4:17 a.m. local time, residents within the greater Aleppo provinces were rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Later, it was followed by two more earthquakes, one with a 7.5 tremor and continuing aftershocks.
In addition to human losses, churches, buildings and institutions suffered extensive structural damage, some even flattened. Soon after becoming aware of the extent of damage in the city of Aleppo, the Armenian Evangelical Bethel Church in Aleppo, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Haroutune Selimian, president of the Armenian Evangelical Community of Syria, immediately acted to help the community. People, gripped by fear and left homeless, rushed to the streets and tried to find shelter in churches, schools and other centers. More than 350 families found shelter in the halls and courtyard of Bethel Church. The Armenian Evangelical Community of Syria, with the financial support of the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) and the encouragement of the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, was one of the first respondents to the disaster with direct material support and taking care of immediate and basic needs, along with moral support, counseling and prayers. The church has also been organizing special programs for the children in its playground to keep them preoccupied and encouraged.
Consul General of Republic of Armenia, Papken Badalyan, visits people sheltered at Bethel Church
On Thursday, February 10, Consul General of the Republic of Armenia Papken Badalyan visited Bethel Church and spent time with the people.
“Armenia and Artsakh, with their own challenges and hardship, are always with us and share our pain and sorrow,” said Rev. Dr. Selimian. “And, instead of us extending our hands to Armenia, Armenia is now extending its helping hands to us by sending special aid to Syria and officially handing it over to the Syrian government.”
As the death toll and the number injured are rising every hour and day, Bethel Church, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Selimian, continues to serve, encourage and inject hope to all those who are affected by this devastating earthquake. The number of those who are sheltered in Bethel Church and other churches and centers is decreasing, as some are slowly returning home or finding alternate residences. “We continue to serve them in the same way,” said Rev. Dr. Selimian. “Feeding them, counseling and encouraging them. At the same time, we are recording all the collapsed and damaged buildings. We are sending special surveyors to evaluate and give us direction on how and when the repairs can start. We are also in the process of repairing the damage to the schools and plan to resume classes on Monday, February 20. On one hand, we try to reduce the pressure on them, and on the other hand, we give them signs of normal life as a psychological transition for them to return from the state of shock to normal life.”
Rev. Dr. Selimian also reports that the condition of many affected buildings remains dangerous. The authorities have marked approximately 40,000 buildings in Syria as dangerous and uninhabitable and must be evacuated immediately, of which approximately 13,000 are in Aleppo and its regions. “Now we are facing another alarm,” said Rev. Dr. Selimian, “because people who thought that they would be able to return to their homes, it appears that they are not allowed to. And this puts another pressure and obligation on us – to find and rent houses to accommodate them. This is certainly not a natural process, because in three-room houses, five to six people are accommodated in each room, and this creates an unpleasant living situation.”
“We pray that the resilient spirit of the community in Syria will once again prevail rising up from the depth of this latest calamity,” said Zaven Khanjian, AMAA executive director and CEO.
Armenian MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition Pativ Unem faction has strictly criticized Artsakh’s domestic political agenda, calling for efforts to clear it of “rubbish”.
"The struggle in Artsakh should be based on a single primary approach – the realization of the right to self-determination; the others derive from this fundamental principle,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday.
“The difficult process of introducing this principle in the negotiation process, the need to preserve the capacity of state institutions and to provide the most effective solutions to various problems of the Artsakh people amid the ongoing crisis stem from it.
“And what are the internal political debates in Artsakh focused on? They are about changing the constitution, the fierce struggle for positions and influence, which overshadows the priorities for which there was a decades-long struggle.
“Artsakh's domestic political agenda should be cleared of rubbish, otherwise it would be impossible to achieve results and victories,” he stressed.