Author: Bedik Zaminian

Armenpress: Most important thing for Russia is not allowing "secret games" in the South Caucasus – Russian MFA

Bedik Zaminian

Most important thing for Russia is not allowing "secret games" in the South Caucasus – Russian MFA

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 21:29,

YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Russia is a supporter of turning the South Caucasus into a zone of peace and prosperity and is not going to compete with anyone, ARMENPRESS reports Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Ivan Nechaev said during an online briefing, answering the question of a journalist of the Russian media, how he interprets the information circulating in the press that the West is trying to exclude Russia from the process of normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku.

The spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Moscow's position that efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be based on November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26 statements signed at the top level between Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"We are not against non-regional players joining the process, if they act within the framework of the mentioned agreements and contribute to their implementation. The important thing is to prevent duplication and “secret games” in order to weaken someone, to "put spoke in the wheels", said Ivan Nechaev.

Armenian delegation regrets that OSCE PA is only focused on single issue – Ukraine

Bedik Zaminian

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 12:41,

YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian delegation initiated 3 amendments in the reports submitted at the summer sitting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The amendments pertained also to the issue of the PoWs, preservation of cultural heritage, but the amendments were not adopted, the Head of the Armenian Parliamentary Delegation to the OSCE PA Eduard Aghajanyan said at a news conference.

He said that the very first day of the winter sitting coincided with the events in Ukraine. “From that moment on, the OSCE PA was entirely focused on this conflict only,” he said.

“Frankly speaking, practically it was very difficult to draw the attention of the parliamentary assembly on any other issue, including naturally on the processes taking place in our region,” he said.

Before the summer sitting, Aghajanyan and MP Maria Karapetyan visited Lithuania to meet with the OSCE PA Political Affairs Committee Rapporteur and present the developments in the region.

The three amendments initiated by the Armenian delegation in the annual report pertained to the political affairs report and the human rights report. “These pertained to the developments taking place in the region, the conflict which practically continues since November 9, 2020, and there are outstanding issues which aren’t being solved. These changes aimed at drawing the attention of the international community and the OSCE PA on the outstanding issues,” Aghajanyan said, stressing that their amendments had the maximum number of endorsements by various delegates in the initial period.

“The changes pertained to the outstanding PoWs issue, which isn’t solved since November 9, 2020, despite the trilateral statement itself containing a term in this regard. Many international organizations have addressed this numerously. We can’t see any reason why the OSCE PA should’ve rejected to address this topic. The next issue related to cultural heritage preservation, and the other also the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group and its importance,” Aghajanyan said.

The Armenian delegation stressed the importance of resolving the Artsakh conflict in the OSCE MG Co-Chairmanship format. The amendments didn’t pass.

Aghajanyan delivered a speech in the PA, condemning this stance. In his speech, he expressed regret that the entire OSCE PA is focused only on one issue – Ukraine. “And in essence, we can say for the record that practically our colleagues don’t have any interest in any other issue or conflict in the OSCE region at this moment. This is unacceptable behavior for us, and we are yet to analyze the reasons of this all, taking into account also the actions that were done before the annual session,” he said.

Aghajanyan said that amid Azeri strategy of widespread false accusations, the perceptions of some OSCE PA colleagues could get distorted.

Sports: Armenian gymnast Artur Davtyan gets element named after him

Bedik Zaminian
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia –
, 15:03

The element Armenian gymnast Artur Davtyan performed at the World Cup in Cairo has been officially registered after him, the Armenian Gymnastics federation informs.

Hrant Shahinyan (pole vault), Albert Azaryan (rings), Artur Hakobyan (pole vault), Vahagn Stepanyan (pole vault), Vahagn Davtyan (rings), Houry Gebeshian (uneven bars) are the other Armenian gymnasts that have elements named after them.


Armenia toponyms to be written with Azerbaijani ones in Azerbaijan documents

Bedik Zaminian
NEWS.am
Armenia –
12:03, 20.07.2022

Azerbaijan is changing the procedure for restoring documents registered in Armenia. In particular, it is with respect to place names.

When records of civil status acts developed in Armenia are restored, names of places will from now on be written in accordance with Azerbaijan's historical toponyms by taking into consideration recommendations of Azerbaijan's National Academy of Sciences; this has been reflected in the relevant decision of the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, APA reports.

According to the decision, if it is impossible to obtain the record of the act of civil status developed in a foreign country or the information about its existence, the Azerbaijani registration departments or consular offices restore the record of the act and issue the relevant certificate. Azerbaijani registration departments or consular offices send information about the restoration of the act record of civil status to the registration body where the original act record is—but with the exception of Armenia.

PM Pashinyan, Amb. Arisian discuss the perspectives of development of Armenian-Syrian relations

Bedik Zaminian
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia – July 12 2022
July 12, 2022, 16:56

 1 minute read

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Syrian Arab Republic to Armenia Nora Arisian.

The Prime Minister congratulated Ambassador Arisian on the start of her diplomatic mission and wished her effective activities for the development of relations between the two countries.

“Armenia values cooperation and historical ties with Syria. We are following the developments and wish that our friendly Syria overcomes the crisis as soon as possible,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister referred to the humanitarian mission sent by Armenia to Syria in 2019, which carried out humanitarian mine-clearing, contributed to raising awareness among the population and provided medical services.

Ambassador Nora Arisian thanked for the warm words and emphasized that for her, as a Syrian-Armenian, the diplomatic service in Armenia is an honor. On behalf of the Syrian authorities, she expressed gratitude to the Armenian authorities for the humanitarian assistance provided to the country and noted that she will make her best to further strengthen the bilateral relations.

The interlocutors emphasized the role of the Syrian-Armenian community in strengthening Armenian-Syrian ties. Thoughts were exchanged on the agenda and perspectives of cooperation.

Artur Ghazinyan: ‘We’re in a difficult situation, but not getting serious’

Bedik Zaminian
Panorama
Armenia – July 12 2022

Former MP Artur Ghazinyan, who represented the opposition Hayastan alliance, urged the Armenian public to “get serious” amid security challenges facing the country.

"The security and territorial integrity of Artsakh and Armenia have been violated, the enemy has seized a part of our homeland, killed thousands of soldiers and now has its eye on Syunik,” he wrote on Facebook.

“But what are we doing? The whole nation is discussing the erection of a statue of Jesus Christ atop Mount Hatis.

“We're in a difficult position, but we're not getting any more serious,” Ghazinyan said.

PRESS RELEASE – AUA Hosts Conversation with Dr. Noubar Afeyan and Dr. Karin Markides on Data-Driven Bioscience

Bedik Zaminian
PRESS RELEASE 
AUA Hosts Conversation with Dr. Noubar Afeyan and Dr. Karin Markides on Data-Driven Bioscience

YEREVAN, Armenia — On June 6, the American University of Armenia (AUA) Open Center for Transformative Health Solutions, in collaboration with the HENAR —  Health Network of Armenia foundation, hosted a panel discussion with Flagship Pioneering Founder and CEO Dr. Noubar Afeyan and AUA President Dr. Karin Markides on “Data-Driven Bioscience.” The conversation was moderated by Columbia University and AUA Professor Dr. Kim Hekimian.

The moderator opened the talk by inquiring about the greatest achievements and challenges in the field of bioscience. To this, Dr. Afeyan said, “We’ve made some progress, but that progress has taught us just how little we know, in increasing increments. In other words, every year, we learn even more what we didn’t know about than we did the previous year.” 

To fix that, he explained, scientists can measure massive amounts of information of every scale and every type. The greater progress is made in developing algorithms that can deal with complex systems, the more scientists begin to use those data to predict, model, and influence biological systems. “To me, data-driven bioscience — whether it’s applied to epidemiology, medicine, health, or any number of things — is all about attacking the problem with measurements, and then being able to distill them down to some useful models with which we can do things,” he concluded.

The panelists also broached the topic of preemptive care and health security, exploring how society can shift towards prioritizing these aspects of public health. “We are obsessed with physical security,” remarked Dr. Afeyan. “Why don’t we care about health security as much?” Speaking on the importance of preemptive care, he noted that scientists tend to spend most of their time working on the most serious diseases in their latest stages, which is one of the hardest problems to solve as few solutions remain at such a point.

Dr. Markides then spoke about the role higher education institutions play in collaborating with the industry and its stakeholders in advancing the field of bioscience. Dr. Markides highlighted the fact that universities house the next generation of scientists and have access to all the disciplines that could disrupt and transform any challenge or solve any problem. “No other stakeholder has these advantages,” she remarked. “We also have a long-term vision, so we should utilize those assets available to us.”

Dr. Markides also emphasized the transformative approach universities must take to involve themselves in the field of bioscience. “For so many years, universities have focused on different disciplines and siloed themselves because that is how scientists can handle and control experiments,” she said. “Now, we need to shift that. In order for us to train these computers to be most effective, we have to increase the amount of data we input and ensure that the data is relevant and open so that others can use it as well.”

At the end, HENAR Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Arman Voskerchyan thanked AUA for co-hosting the event and cited statistics which illustrate the pertinence and relevance of health security specifically for Armenia.

In conclusion, Dr. Afeyan encouraged the audience, particularly students, to think about their current and future academic endeavors in terms of acquiring, applying, and creating knowledge, which he described as the scientific process of discovery. He argued for a completely new approach to acquire and create knowledge, departing from the traditional incremental hypothesis-driven way. “Our imagination — or the computer-aided part of imagination, which is machine learning as far as I’m concerned — is the ability to foresee the next science that doesn’t yet exist, and see if you can leap to some new capabilities, new learnings,” said Dr. Afeyan. “That capability exists in your own brains.”

The recorded livestream of the discussion can be viewed on YouTube.

The American University of Armenia Open Center for Transformative Health Solutions provides transdisciplinary education and collaborative experiences and stimulates collaborations outside the traditional public health disciplines to develop solutions to complex health problems modern societies face.

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Margarit Hovhannisyan | Communications Manager

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Terry George visits ARARAT Museum

Bedik Zaminian
Panorama
Armenia –

ARARAT Museum on Thursday hosted famous Oscar-winning director Terry George in the frames of the 19th Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival.

Terry George is the Jury President of this year’s film festival and in the list of his notable works are such films as “The Promise”, “Hotel Rwanda” any many others.

During his visit, Terry George got acquainted with the history of legendary Armenian brandy, secrets of its creation, the creative searches and innovative approaches of the brandy masters.

The film director also visited the Treasury of ARARAT Museum, where a unique collection of ARARAT brandies is kept. On behalf of the Yerevan Brandy Company, Terry George was presented with ARARAT Charles Aznavour Signature Blend brandy.

“To be presented with Charles Aznavour Signature Blend is a great honour. Charles Aznavour is a great hero of mine, a great hero of Armenia and I will save this for very special occasions,” noted Terry George.

Disney+ warns Turkish subtitle translators about hitting political nerves in Turkey

Bedik Zaminian
Turkish Minute
International Journalists Association, Germany
By

 Turkish Minute

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Disney+, which launched in Turkey last month, has warned its Turkish subtitle translators about the political atmosphere in Turkey, telling them to avoid hitting a nerve on a wide range of controversial issues that the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are sensitive about, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Wednesday.

Disney+, The Walt Disney Company’s flagship direct-to-customer digital streaming service platform, has been offering Turkish viewers access to more than 1,000 movies and over 16,000 episodes from some 400 TV shows and 170 documentaries and exclusive content collections since it launched in the country on June 14.

Before it started broadcasting, the online streaming platform opened an office in Turkey in line with a social media law that went into effect on Oct. 1, 2020, setting forth progressive sanctions forcing social media platforms with more than 1 million connections a day to appoint a representative in Turkey with whom the Turkish authorities can resolve problems arising from cases of insult, intimidation and violation of privacy.

After initially refusing to comply with the law, giant social media platforms, which were subjected to large fines by Turkish courts, had to announce that they would appoint local representatives to Turkey.

Duvar said the Disney+ administration sent an e-mail to its Turkish translators to warn them about the political atmosphere in the country with respect to some of the productions that include religious, national and political references.

According to Duvar, translators were asked to inform the platform’s Turkey administrators about productions that deal with critical issues for Islam, the massacre of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, which Turkey does not recognize as a “genocide,” the Kurdish issue, the Cyprus problem and LGBTI+s, topics that Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government are sensitive about.

The Kurdish issue, a term prevalent in Turkey’s public discourse, refers to the demand for equal rights by the country’s Kurdish population and their struggle for recognition, while the Cyprus problem refers to an ongoing dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots about each other’s legitimacy on the island.

The e-mail also asked the translators to inform Disney+ administrators for Turkey about productions that “make Erdoğan look like a dictator,” according to Duvar, which added that authorities from the digital streaming platform hadn’t returned their calls for comment.

https://www.turkishminute.com/2022/07/13/warns-turkish-subtitle-translators-about-hitting-political-nerves-in-turkey/

Rules of conduct to follow by all Armenian public servants adopted and presented in Yerevan

Bedik Zaminian
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia – July 4 2022

The Model Code of Conduct for Public Servants developed and adopted with the support of the Council of Europe was presented today at a high-level conference in Yerevan. Based on the model rules, specific Codes of Conduct for all Armenian public institutions will be developed and adopted. The conference signalled the launch of this process. 

The “High-level Conference on the Model Code of Conduct for Public Servants in Armenia” was jointly organised by the Council of Europe and the Corruption Prevention Commission of the Republic of Armenia, in the framework of the European Union and Council of Europe Partnership for Good Governance II (PGGII) Project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia”.

The development and promotion of the Model Code of Conduct, as well as the preparation of the respective guidance has been envisaged in the Armenian Public Service Law as part of the Corruption Prevention Commission’s responsibility. Furthermore, the adoption of codes of conduct for public officials is one of the recommended actions by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) as a measure towards enhancing integrity of public officials.

The Model Code of Conduct for Public Servants in Armenia is part of the tangible results of the co-operation between the Corruption Prevention Commission of Armenia (CPC) and the PGGII Project and the result of a long process which begun in 2021 and included a public conference on corruption prevention, integrity and codes of conduct in February 2022, as well as other forms of interaction with the stakeholders through the national consultation process, the outcomes of which were taken into account in the final version of the Model Code. 

The purpose of today’s event was to present the Model Code as officially endorsed at  high level of the Armenian government, highlight its essential role in the development of the corruption prevention system of Armenia, and promote the next steps, namely the adoption of specific codes of conduct by all institutions, as well as associated guidance and training on effective implementation of the rules and more systematic promotion of ethical practices at all levels of public service. The PGGII project will continue supporting the Armenian authorities on this path.

The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, the Ambassador of the European Union to Armenia, and the Executive Secretary of GRECO and Head of the Action against Economic Crime Department of the Council of Europe delivered keynote speeches at the event. The importance of Codes of Ethics for public officials in preventing and fighting corruption was highlighted by the keynote speakers. Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan expressed Armenia’s strong commitment to progress further towards an effective anti-corruption system in line with European standards and to address pending GRECO recommendations in this regard. European Union Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin and GRECO Executive Secretary and Head of Council of Europe Action against Economic Crime Department Hanne Juncher encouraged Armenian authorities to continue to take concrete steps in this direction and renewed the commitment of the Council of Europe and the EU to continue to support Armenia in this endeavour.

Corruption Prevention Commission Chair Haykuhi Harutyunyan presented the main elements of the newly adopted Model Code and the next steps required for its adaptation and adoption by public institutions at all levels, as well as related guidance and training.     

Participants of the event, including over sixty representatives of public authorities and civil society, also learned about good practices and practical challenges faced by other countries in the adoption and implementation of rules and codes of conduct for public officials. The Deputy Minister of Justice of Albania shared her country’s experience in this regard. 

A forward-looking discussion followed these interventions, focusing on practical implementation modalities of the adopted Model Code, and its integration with other anti-corruption mechanisms in order to strengthen the overall system, with the ultimate aim to induce a progressive positive change of culture and mentality in the Armenian society as a whole.  

This activity was organised in the framework of the Project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia” which is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II.