Author: Christine Harutyunian

 

 

 

The action plan for beginning the visa liberalization with Armenia will be on the agenda of the next Eastern Partnership summit in 2017, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski said at the “Civil Society Perspectives on EU-Armenia Relations” conference in Yerevan.

“There is an increasing interest in Armenia concerning the future of relations with the European Union, and we are now going into a very busy period in our relations. The negotiations on a framework agreement are under way. We will soon start discussing the partnership priorities between Armenia and EU within the framework of the Neighborhood Policy,” the Ambassador said, addressing the conference.

Outlining the EU priorities in Armenia, the Ambassador said they want to contribute to the economic stability of the country and enhance good governance. The third priority is connectivity, he said.

“We want Armenia to be better connected to Europe in terms of infrastructure, roads, electricity connections, but also in terms of people-to-people contact, cultural exchanges, intellectual connectivity,” he added.

“Another priority is the security cooperation. The EU wants to help its neighbors to deal with security challenges. Of course in Armenia, the security component has a very concrete connotation, because the country faces very material military threats. But from the European perspective, we speak about a very broad range of security issues –ranging from cyber security to terrorism,” Amb. Switalski noted. Another priority is the outreach to civil society and issues relating to human rights.

Speaking about the reasons why the European Union has been trying to develop a political agenda and build bridges with Armenia, Ambassador Switalski said: “We want to show that it is possible to be a loyal member of another integration project and live with European standards and have good relations with the European Union, that there is no contradiction between membership in another integration project and European values.”

The Ambassador said they now have a common understanding with Armenia on issues such as fight against corruption, economic governance, etc. and the conclusion of the framework agreement will open a new chapter in the relations.

“It is the Armenian party determining the ambition in our relations. On countries like Armenia we are not trying to pursue anything, to impose egoistic agenda on the part of the European Union,” Piotr Switalski stressed.

The Ambassador said in the Eastern Partnership there are two groups of countries – association countries and non-association countries. The first group includes Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, while Armenia is put together with Azerbaijan and Belarus. He added however, that the offer presented by the European Union is still non-discrimination. “Even without the association agreement the countries can enjoy a lot from the European Union,” he said.

The Vatican says Pope Francis will meet with Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders during his Sept. 30-Oct. 2 trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan, adding a strong interreligious dimension to an already politically delicate trip, the Associated Press reports.

The Vatican on Monday released the itinerary for the Caucasus trip, which was originally planned as an extension of Francis’ recent visit to Armenia but was split up.

In Georgia, after meeting with the president, Francis will call on the spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, and meet with the Assyrian and Chaldean Catholic community. In majority-Muslim Azerbaijan, Francis will celebrate Mass with the tiny Catholic community and meet with the chief imam, the Orthodox bishop of Baku and head of the country’s Jewish community.

Jose Mourinho all but confirmed Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s move to Manchester United during his first press conference as Red Devils boss, reports.

Prior to his appearance at Old Trafford, the Portuguese has already signed Eric Bailly for £30million and Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer. But when asked about any further new signings, Mourinho let slip. Which you can watch in the video above.

Turning to his PR assistant, he asked: “The third player is already official, or not yet?”

To which she replies: “No.”

Continuing, the new Reds boss says: “The new signing will be official, when?”

“Soon,” she replies.

Mourinho then adds: “I am very clear in my approach and model to play and I need specialists in that. I like one or two multi-functional because you need them when you are in a bit of trouble.

“I want specialists. We decided four targets. Until we have the fourth, we are still working hard. Myself, the structure, Mr Woodward, the owners – we are working hard on that. When we have the fourth, I breathe, we all breathe. We will not get the fourth on 31st August. We will get it before that and then we are stable.”

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov had a meeting on the sidelines of the sitting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers in

The Ministers referred to issues related to Armenian-Russian allied relations, the process of implementation of the agreements reached between the leaders of the two countries.

The interlocutors discussed the steps towards implementation of the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits on Nagorno Karabakh.

Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov exchanged views on the urgent regional and international issues.

Austria’s highest court has annulled last month’s presidential election narrowly lost by the far-right candidate of the Freedom Party, the BBC reports.

The party had challenged the result, saying that postal votes had been improperly handled.

The Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer, lost the election to the former leader of the Greens, Alexander Van der Bellen, by less than a percentage point.

The election will now be re-run.

If elected, Mr Hofer will become the first far-right head of state of an EU country.

Following the court’s order to re-run the vote, President Heinz Fischer will be replaced on a temporary basis by three parliamentary officials, including Mr Hofer.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called for sticking to the official statement on Nagorno-Karabakh and ignoring unseemly attempts to interpret the results of the trilateral meeting of Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in St. Petersburg, reports.

“As is known, the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have made a trilateral statement to reaffirm the agreements concluded at the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Vienna on May 16, geared to stabilizing the situation in the area of the conflict,” Zakharova said in reply to a question from TASS.

“The statement is available on all official websites,” she said. “I would ask one and all – I believe this is a collective request – to be guided by the original of the statement, and not the unseemly attempts to interpret the results of the meeting.”

In a trilateral statement adopted on June 20 the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia reaffirmed their commitment to the normalization of the situation along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an interview to Azerbaijani television on June 22 the deputy chief of the Azerbaijani presidential staff, head of the foreign relations department Novruz Mamedov said that “from now on it is necessary to move towards step-by-step settlement of the conflict.”

In his opinion, this means “the liberation of five districts of Azerbaijan then of another two districts, the determination of the corridor and the establishment of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.”.

 

 

 

The wording used in the Bundestag resolution on the Armenian Genocide includes interesting elements, expert of Turkish studies Ruben Melkonyan told reporters today.

“The bill refers to the “Genocide in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago, which is an important message to the world that even 101 years after the genocide the process of its perception of the genocide extends into the international community,” Melkonyan said.

On the other hand, he said, the bill refers to the “Genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities.” “Thus, the resolution comes to prove that there has been a genocide against Christians in the Ottoman Empire, which points to the state policy of xenophobia. Although this somewhat shadows the exceptionality of the Armenian Genocide, the positive emphasis is obvious,” the expert said.

As for Tukish reactions to the scheduled vote, Melkonyan said “this is the first challenge the Turkish diplomacy has to withstand without its foreign policy architect Ahmet Davutoglu, and the first international trial for the newly-appointed Prime Minister.”

There are 630 Deputies in the Bundestag, and this complicates the adoption of the bill, Melkonyan said. He’s not optimistic about the perspectives of the passage of the bill, as real political interests often conflict with the moral issues, and political interests often triumph.”

He said, however, that “even if the bill fails to pass, it will bring a positive wave that might contribute to the acknowledgement of the fact of genocide among the German public.”

Rescuers in Sri Lanka are searching for scores of people missing after massive landslides following days of rain, the BBC reports.

The Red Cross says more than 200 families are feared buried in the mudslides in three villages in central Kegalle district.

At least 13 bodies have been recovered so far. Another three bodies were found elsewhere in the district.

Disaster officials say about 150 people have been rescued but more than 60 houses have been buried by mud.

At least 32 people have been killed in flooding during three days of torrential rain in Sri Lanka, according to official figures.

Nearly 350,000 people have been displaced by the flooding.

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov discussed the settlement of the Karabakh conflict at a meeting in Yerevan today.

“The recent escalation in the Karabakh conflict zone comes to prove that there is no military solution to the Karabakh conflict. The issue can be solved exceptionally in a political and diplomatic,” Lavrov told a joint press conference with Minister Nalbandian in Yerevan.

According to him, the priority at this point is to ensure full commitment to the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994, unequivocal respect for its provisions by all parties. Lavrov reiterated Russia’s willingness to provide every support to the parties both as an individual country and in its capacity as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed the importance of soonest implementation of confidence-building measures, the measures of investigation of border incidents agreed between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan with Russian mediation in 2011.

He said further delay in the implementation of the measures is unacceptable.

As for Turkey’s statements that followed the escalation along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact, the Russian Foreign Minister said they are completely unacceptable, for one reason.

“The statements were a call for war, not peace,” Lavrov said. Those were calls to solve the conflict in a military way. This contradicts the position of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the position of the international community.

Statement
by Armenia in Relation to the Seventh Forum of the
United Nations Alliance of Civilisations

In the early hours of April 2, 2016 Azerbaijan unleashed large-scale offensive operations against Nagorno-Karabakh thus violating trilateral agreements of 1994 on cease-fire and of 1995 on the cease-fire consolidation, signed by Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, which do not have time limits. Azerbaijan has violated basic principles of international law, the decisions and declarations adopted by the OSCE Summits and Ministerial Councils, blatantly disregarding the statements of the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – the Russian Federation, United States of America and the French Republic, on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.

From the very beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive the civilian infrastructures and civilian population, including children and the elderly, became intentional and indiscriminate targets. Among the first civilian victims were a 12 year old boy who was killed in front of the school building as a result of a Grad missile attack and two other schoolchildren wounded.

In one of villages in Karabakh three elderly persons, including a 92 year old woman, were brutally tortured, mutilated and killed. Moreover, three captive soldiers of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces were beheaded by Azerbaijani armed forces in ISIL style, which was subsequently celebrated in the towns and villages and publicized through social networks. Furthermore, during the exchange of bodies of the deceased between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan carried out through the mediation of the International Committee of Red Cross and the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, it was registered that the bodies of deceased transferred by the Azerbaijani side had the evidences of severe torture and mutilation.

Those barbaric acts of Azerbaijan, going beyond elementary norms of civilized world constitute violations of core international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Convention on the Rights of the Child, etc. In this context, it is also imperative to specifically mention the blatant violation by Azerbaijan of Geneva Convention of 1949, which inter alia addresses groups exposed to specific risks, such as children, women and elderly and its additional protocols of 1977, 1989.

Azerbaijan demonstrates its total disregard for international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Persistent violations of human rights inside Azerbaijan, consistent attacks and imprisonment of its civil society representatives, the media and human rights defenders, coupled with the regular dissemination of intolerance and hatred against the Armenian people provides breeding ground for the criminal military adventurism of the Azerbaijani regime.

At the time of the gathering of the Seventh Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan continue to violate the cease-fire, with new human losses. Since the beginning of Azerbaijani aggression and up today as a result of Azerbaijan’s aggression hundreds were killed and wounded, including civilians. This is a manifestation of the absurdity of celebrating more peaceful and socially inclusive world, building mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious identities in a country, which is engaged in barbarity and killings a few hundred kilometres away from the venue of the Forum. This is an affront to the image and the integrity of the Alliance.

In this dire situation the convening of the Seventh Forum should have been cancelled in Azerbaijan – a country that grossly violates the very aims, principles, values of the Alliance of Civilizations.

Armenia remains committed to the purposes of the Alliance and remains its Friend. However, given the circumstances. Armenia does not join the consensus on the Declaration of the Seventh Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. Therefore, in the absence of consensus the Declaration cannot be adopted.

Armenia rejects the Seventh Forum, to be held in Baku, in its entirety, including its outcome.

On April 19, the following text was send to the member states of the United Nations Alliance of Civilization.