Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

The Days of Armenian Culture in Belarus testifies to the mutual interest of the two nations, Culture Minister of Belarus Boris Svetlov said at an official opening ceremony on 9 February, informs.

The Belarusian-Armenian relations have a long history. The Armenian people made a huge contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. Today representatives of the Armenian diaspora are a pride of Belarus, Boris Svetlov said. In 2014 Armenia hosted the Days of Belarusian Culture. Culture is a calling card of any country that helps address different issues that at first seem unsolvable, the ministry added.

In turn, Deputy Culture Minister of Armenia Artur Poghosyan said that the Armenian people would like to share their huge culture with the Belarusian people. The friendship between the two countries becomes stronger, while the 10-year cooperation in culture and art expands its borders. “Today we are obliged to preserve good traditions, cultural and human ties to hand them over to the future generations,” said Artur Poghosyan.

The Days of Armenian Culture opened with an exhibition of the ancient Armenian book at the National Library of Belarus. The exhibition featured the first printed book in Armenian (1512), the printed Bible in Armenian (1666), the first Armenian periodical Azdarar, and also books from the collection of the National Library of Armenia. Minsk residents and guests will have a chance to get familiar with the artworks of modern Armenian painters in the Mikhail Savitsky Gallery.

The exhibition will open on 10 February. Later  the day the State Jazz Orchestra of Armenia will perform at the concert hall of the Belarusian State Music Academy. The Days of Armenian Culture in Belarus make part of the cooperation program signed between the culture ministries of the two countries for 2014-2017.

The program is aimed at assisting the establishment of direct contacts between the museums of the two countries, exchanging tours between theaters, music and dance companies of Belarus and Armenia. The program also envisages the Days of Belarusian Cinema in Armenia and the Days of Armenian Cinema in Belarus. Apart from that, Armenia is a Guest of Honor of the 23rd Minsk International Book Fair in 2016.

Photo: Getty Images

Prosecutors in Brazil are recommending that football star Neymar be charged over four counts of fraud in relation to a tax case prior to his transfer to Barcelona in 2013, the BBC reports.

It is alleged that companies were set up as fronts in order for the striker to pay a lower rate of tax.

Officials in Brazil say the allegations against the Barcelona striker cover a seven-year period from 2006.

The allegations are separate from a case heard in Spain on Tuesday.

Neymar appeared in court in Madrid in connection with fraud allegations surrounding his transfer. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

“There are no restrictions, when it comes to the development of Tehran’s relations with Yerevan. Armenia and Iran have always enjoyed good-neighborly relations,” Iran’s First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said at a meeting with visiting Armenian Minister of Transport and Communication Gagik Beglaryan.

“The lifting of sanctions opens up new perspectives for the development of banking cooperation between the two countries and raise the level of bilateral relations to a new level,” Eshaq Jahangiri said.

Touching upon the joint projects in the transport sector, Gagik Beglaryan noted that “Armenia is willing to use the capacities of the Iranian companies and contractors, considering their huge experience in the implementation of such projects.”

Iran “has opened a new chapter” in its ties with the world, President Hassan Rouhani said, hours after international nuclear sanctions were lifted, the BBC reports.

The move came after the international nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said Iran had complied with a deal designed to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.

UN, US and EU sanctions have hit Iran hard for years.

Most Western governments hailed the move but Israel accused Tehran of still seeking to build a nuclear bomb.

Sanctions on Iran

• The economic sanctions being lifted now were imposed progressively by the US, EU and UN in response to Iran’s nuclear programme
• The EU is lifting in full restrictions on trade, shipping and insurance
• The US is suspending, not terminating, its nuclear-related sanctions; crucially, Iran can now reconnect to the global banking system
• The UN is lifting sanctions related to defence and nuclear technology sales, as well as an asset freeze on key individuals and companies
• Non-nuclear US economic sanctions remain in place, notably the ban on US citizens and companies trading with Iran, and US and EU sanctions on Iranians accused of sponsoring terrorism remain in place

A flurry of Iranian economic activity is anticipated:

• Nearly $100bn (£70bn) of Iranian assets are being unlocked
• Iran is expected to increase its daily export of 1.1m barrels of crude oil by 500,000 shortly, and a further 500,000 thereafter
• Iran is reportedly poised to buy 114 new passenger planes from the Airbus consortium

Mr Rouhani said everyone was happy with the deal, apart from those he described as warmongers in the region – Israel and hardliners in the US Congress.

“We Iranians have reached out to the world in a sign of friendliness, and leaving behind the enmities, suspicions and plots, have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world,” he said in a statement to the nation on Sunday morning.

The lifting of sanctions was “a turning point” for Iran’s economy, he added, saying the country needed to be less reliant on oil revenues.

 

 

 

“The only fact of Aliyev saying that the meeting with Armenian President was formal is enough to show Azerbaijan’s position on the negotiations,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters after the government sitting today.

“This is enough to understand the stance of the Azerbaijani leadership on the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the principles of conflict settlement. Definitely, this is the reason why there has been no progress in the settlement,” Kocharyan said.

According to him, progress in the approaches of the parties is important for achieving progress in the negotiations. “Of course, the Co-Chairs try to organize meetings as frequently as possible, but there can be no progress, if Azerbaijan continues to describe them as formal,” he added.

The Deputy FM said discussions in Bern were focused on the need to implement a mechanism of investigation of borer incidents, as installation of corresponding equipment.

“Although Azerbaijan rejects the proposal, this shows that the mediators are worried and are seeking new ways of settlement,” Shavarsh Kocharyan noted.

The Deputy Foreign Minister made it clear that should these attempts fail, there will be two options left –either imposing peace on Azerbaijan or recognizing the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

AP Photo/ SERGEY PONOMAREV

 

Seven of Russia’s advanced Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters and Mi-8MT Hip transport helicopters have been deployed to a Russian air base in Armenia, the Southern Military District (SMD) said Tuesday, reports.

An additional batch of helicopters is expected to reach the base by the end of the year, the SMD said.

“The Russian air base Erebuni, Armenia, received a batch of modern helicopters – Mi-24P attack and Mi-8MT transport helicopters,” SMD’s press service said.

The helicopters will sit alongside the MiG-29 fighters at the air base, the SMD said, adding that pilots would begin helicopter flights in a month.

The district’s Erebuni base was formed in 1995 and the MiG-29 Fulcrum multirole fighters were deployed there in 1998, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. In July 2001, the units at Erebuni were incorporated into an air division of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri, Armenia.

 

 

 

“There are huge perspectives for the development of friendly relations between Armenia and Georgia,” Georgian Foreign Minister Georgi Kvirikashvili told

“The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Georgia Edward Nalbandian and Georgi Kvirikashvili participated in the six informal meeting of the Eastern Partnership FMs held in Tbilisi.

Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova have signed Association Agreements with the European Union, while Armenia and Belarus are members of the Eurasian Economic Union. However, the different integration frameworks are no obstacle to the development of our relations,” Kvirikashvili said.

 

 

According to the Georgian Foreign Minister, there are huge perspectives for the development of traditional and friendly relations between the two countries.

“We discussed with the Armenian Foreign Minister a number of important issues and referred to border-related issues. I accepted Mr. Nalbandian’s invitation to visit Armenia, which will provide another opportunity to discuss issues of reciprocal interests once again,” Kvirikashvili said.

Photo by The Dailly Star

At least 25 people have died and as many as 40 have been wounded in a suspected twin suicide attack in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, the Associated Press reports.

The explosion is believed to have taken place in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood Burj al-Barajneh, to the south of the city, a city official – speaking on condition of anonymity – said.

Witnesses said that there were only minutes between the two blasts.

According to Al Jazeera, security forces have urged residents in the area to stay away from the targeted sites.

Coffee shops and stores suffered extensive damage from the two blasts.

The area, located off a main highway leading to Beirut’s airport, is a well-known commercial and residential area in the capital’s southern suburbs.

Much of southern Beirut is a Hezbollah stronghold, which witnessed a string of deadly suicide explosions in 2014.

Islamic State militants have killed three captives in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra by tying them to columns and blowing them up, activists say, the BBC reports.

The identities of those reportedly killed on Sunday have yet to be given.

But they are thought to be the first to have been killed in that way since the jihadist group seized the ruins in May.

IS has destroyed two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers at Palmyra, one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

The group believes that such structures are idolatrous. The UN cultural agency, Unesco, has condemned the destruction as a war crime.

From reinforced trenches reminiscent of World War One, Azeris and Armenians watch each other intently through binoculars. Separated by 300 meters of ground dotted with land mines, they’ve recently witnessed mounting casualties caused by ever-more powerful arsenals of weapons, Bloomberg writes.

“Their shooting is increasing,” said Simyon Sarayan, a 25-year-old front-line soldier from Nagorno-Karabakh. “We’re always on alert and ready to give a proper response.’’

While fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan would bring more turmoil to the region – and potentially disrupt a new energy corridor between Central Asia and Europe – analysts say the risks of a full-blown war dragging in other powers are limited.

“A calculated escalation to a full-scale war is still unlikely at this point,” Laurence Broers, co-editor-in-chief of the Caucasus Survey journal, told Bloomberg.  “The various constraints and risks are too great.” The international interests at stake in the region and “the exploitation of Caspian oil and gas militate against a fully-fledged military campaign.”

The agency reminds that the confrontation dates back to the dying days of the Soviet Union and adds that military spending in Azerbaijan increased 30-fold in the past decade and is planned at $4.8 billion in 2015, more than Armenia’s entire state budget.

That doesn’t deter Nagorno-Karabakh’s defense minister, Levon Mnatsakanyan, who says one of the first targets of any new war will be a BP-operated oil pipeline that’s less than 50 kilometers from the conflict zone and carries as much as 1.2 million barrels daily from Baku to Turkey’s Ceyhan.

“This is a very serious financial resource for Azerbaijan and we need to deprive them of these means,” he said in an interview in the capital, Stepanakert. “If we’d known the situation would be like this today, we’d never have signed that truce 20 years ago.’’

Azerbaijan has begun “a new stage of escalation of the situation with the use of heavy artillery,” and “violates fundamental international obligations” of resolving the conflict peacefully, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a conference in the capital, Yerevan, on Friday.

“The risk is that there will be a really bad incident and we’ll end up with a small war by miscalculation,’’ Tom de Waal, senior associate at Carnegie Europe, said by e-mail. While mediators “are trying to maintain the cease-fire” and keep talks going, “few believe in the chances of genuine conflict resolution.”

Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan equated weapons sales to Azerbaijan with similar supplies to Islamic State, now facing Russian air strikes in Syria. Even so, Armenians don’t want fighting to escalate and “we’ll do everything possible to secure our state,’’ he said in an interview last month.

Stretching out the status quo may be the Armenians’ best strategy. “Time is working for us,’’ Karen Mirzoyan, Nagorno-Karabakh’s foreign minister, said in an interview last month. “The more time passes and the more successful we are in strengthening our statehood, the closer we are to international recognition of our independence.’’

With Azerbaijan vowing Nagorno-Karabakh “will remain an inalienable part of’’ it, increased violence remains possible. Greater use of heavy weaponry has led to the “worst casualty rate since the 1994” truce as Azerbaijan seeks to challenge the outcome of the war, though “the conflict remains politically choreographed,” IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review reported on its website Tuesday.

In the Armenian trenches, senior-lieutenant Gegham Grigoryan points to evidence of that challenge left by shrapnel in the wall of a hut used by soldiers. “A mortar from a Turkish-made howitzer landed just behind here last night,” he said. “The types of weapons used here and their caliber has changed. They’re getting bigger.”