Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU delegation to Armenia, made a rather sharp speech at the conference entitled “Electoral developments in Armenia; lessons learnt and future steps” organized by the Council of Europe, noting that in Armenia the ruling party tries to use the Electoral Code for serving its interests.
“A1+” hosted Armen Grigoryan, Coordinator of electoral projects of “Transparency International” NGO, to talk on the topic.
YEREVAN, June 13. /ARKA/. There are about 220,000 bee colonies in Armenia now, however, nearly half of bees die annually due to lack of necessary funds for their treatment and prevention of diseases, as well as due to shortage of experts dealing with their treatment, the chairman of the National Union of Beekeepers of Armenia Telman Nazaryan told a news conference today.
Nazaryan recalled that during the Soviet period, the overall number of bee colonies used to grow by 30-35% per year, but now beekeepers barely manage to keep the population at a certain level. Nazaryan also noted that over the past 25 years the beekeeping has recorded no progress in Armenia.
"Beekeeping has been practiced in Armenia since time immemorial, and now the government has forgotten about this branch of agriculture," he said.
In his turn, the president of the Armenian Technological Academy Vanush Davtyan, said honey produced in Armenia can not be exported to the EU countries because of improper treatment of bees.
"It is necessary to provide for all factors to receive environmentally clean honey that meets strict European standards," he said.
As Davtyan noted, there are three major beekeeping problems in Armenia- diseases, chemicals that are used to treat fields which harm bees, as well as frequencies used by cellular operators.
Honey bees produce rhythmic sound impulses of a certain frequency during the honey harvest, which contain information about the geography of the honey crop and help the bees to orient themselves in space. According to Davtyan, today cellular operators, although they deny this, use frequencies that interfere with bees, as a result the bees are disoriented failing not find their way back home and die.
He said also that Telman Nazaryan has developed a technology that allows getting more royal jelly, which is highly valued, because of being produced in limited amounts.
"If the technology developed by Nazaryan is used throughout Armenia, we can get more profits than from selling honey," he argued. However, for this purpose it is necessary to purchase special equipment, which, in turn, requires government support.
In 2016, Armenian beekeepers produced a total of 3,500 tons of honey. Annually one bee colony produces now 7-10 kg of honey, down from 30-40 kg produced during the Soviet time -0-
The head of the NA Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Armen Rustamyan referred to the recent incident between him and American-Armenians during the interview.
Earlier, some American-Armenians had persisted Armen Rustamyan to answer whether he believes that Gevorg Safaryan and Zhirayr Sefilyan are political prisoners, and he had refused to answer. “I answered dozens of questions, the most pressing questions. It appeared that people had come to roughhouse because that was what they wanted to”, Armen Rustamyan noted.
According to him, some people were predisposed to extreme, with the intent to discredit everything. As he says, “They came to mess the meeting up, but they failed”.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
By Trend
Azerbaijan’s Chargé d'Affaires in Australia Eljan Habibzade and Azerbaijan’s Honorary Consul in Australia Aydan Rzayeva met with Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
The Australian minister was informed about Azerbaijan’s political and economic success, the projects implemented in energy, transport and other sectors, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, occupation policy.
Azerbaijan’s representatives thanked for Australia’s fair position in supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
In her turn, Fierravanti-Wells once again stressed the Australian government’s unchanged position of supporting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The Australian minister also expressed great interest in expanding relations with Azerbaijan in political, trade and economic areas. Fierravanti-Wells stressed the importance of developing interparliamentary cooperation, which is an important component of interstate relations.
The sides also discussed prospects for cooperation in the non-oil sector, which is one of the priorities of Azerbaijan's economic policy. The need for developing cooperation in such areas as agriculture, tourism, IT and the use of Australia's experience in these areas was stressed.
The Australian minister was also informed about the policy of multiculturalism and tolerance in Azerbaijan.
Fierravanti-Wells added that as Australian former deputy minister for multiculturalism affairs, she understands the importance of promoting multicultural values in the current world conditions and supported Azerbaijan's efforts in that direction.
Moreover, the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Australia and Azerbaijan has been marked this year. The importance of mutual visits for strengthening relations and developing cooperation was also stressed during the meeting.
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan Armed Forces’ units have destroyed a protected command-and-observation post, as well as optical devices on an observation tower of Armenian Armed Forces on the contact line of the troops, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported on June 1.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. within the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no results so far.
Despite the ceasefire agreement, Armenia keeps constantly violating armistice with Azerbaijan.
Indian film director Shekhar Kapur will direct Three Apples Fell From Heaven, a film based on the Micheline Aharonian Marcom novel adapted by Motorcycle Diaries writer José Rivera, Deadline reports.
The film is set in 1915-1917 as Turks slaughtered Armenians, and revolves around a young female refugee taken in by Turkish neighbors after the death of her parents. Her childhood shattered, she now views the remains of her world through a Muslim veil, as several tragic characters circle around her.
While the Armenian genocide is a century old, there is an eerie parallel to the refugee crisis, beyond Kapur’s memory of his own family forced to flee Delhi as refugees during the partition of India. The filmmakers made available a clip of the young women Kapur has auditioned to play the lead role; they are refugees from Aleppo whose descendants fled there to escape the Armenian genocide and who’ve come back to escape the violence that has devastated Syria.
The clip is a sad reminder of how little the world has really reformed for refugees. This becomes the first film from a new social justice storytelling production company, Disruptive Narrative, which will launch at Cannes as part of Sunday’s Refugee Voices In Film day, presented by IEFTA, the UNHCR and Marché du Film. The company is founded by leading human rights lawyer, Jen Robinson, of Doughty St Chambers , and Syrian-Armenian actress/writer/producer, Sona Tatoyan.
The Supreme Religious Council will convene its regular meeting in Moscow at the invitation of Archbishop Yezras Nersisyan, Primate of New Nakhijevan and Russia Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The meeting will be held May 16-18 and will be dedicated to the 300th anniversary of establishment of the Diocese.
His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, has left for Moscow to participate in the meeting.
Photo: Reuters
A cyber-attack that has hit 150 countries since Friday should be treated by governments around the world as a “wake-up call”, Microsoft says, the BBC reports.
It blamed governments for storing data on software vulnerabilities which could then be accessed by hackers.
It says the latest virus exploits a flaw in Microsoft Windows identified by, and stolen from, US intelligence.
There are fears of more “ransomware” attacks as people begin work on Monday, although few have been reported so far.
Many firms have had experts working over the weekend to prevent new infections. The virus took control of users’ files and demanded $300 payments to restore access.
The spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack slowed over the weekend but the respite might only be brief, experts have said. More than 200,000 computers have been affected so far.
Artsvik of Armenia has been voted best female soloist of 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. She received 16.82% of the 16,225 votes cast in a poll announced by
Coming in for the silver medal is Kasia Mos from Poland.
Rounding out the talented top three was Blanche from Belgium.
Artsvik represents Armenia at 2017 Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song Fly With Me and will perform 5th in the Grand Final on Saturday.
Several events in Glendale are slated to commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide during the coming days, the Glendale News-Press reports.
On Wednesday, the 16th annual Armenian Genocide commemorative event sponsored by the Armenian clubs at all of the high schools in the Glendale Unified School District will be held at 6 p.m. in the John Wayne Performing Arts Center at Glendale High, 1440 E. Broadway, Glendale.
Also Wednesday, a “Walk, Talk & Learn” event will be held at Rosemont Middle School during lunchtime — from around 12:15 to about 12:50 p.m. — to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and all genocides, according to event organizers.
On Thursday, an event titled “A Historical View of the Assyrian Genocide” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in the recital hall at Brand Library and Art Center, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale.
The annual Unified Young Armenians candlelight vigil will be held at 6 p.m. on Sunday in Parcher Plaza at Glendale City Hall, 613 E. Broadway, Glendale.
The local series of events will culminate with a commemorative event to be held at 7 p.m. Monday, which is the actual anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.
Also, there will be a 1.5-mile March for Justice starting at noon on Monday at Pan Pacific Park, 7600 Beverly Blvd., and ending at the Turkish consulate at 6300 Wilshire Blvd., where there will be a rally. Among the speakers scheduled are Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).