Author: Hagop Kamalian

Armenian football legend, captain of “Ararat-73” Hovhanness Zanazanyan passed away on October 4 after a long illness.

Hovhanness Zanazanyan’s public funeral will take place at St. Hovhannes Church in Kond from 6-8 p.m. today.

A commission to organize Zanazanyan’s funeral has been established upon the instruction of Ruben Hayrapetyan, President of the Football Federation of Armenia.

Zanazanyan was born in Athens on December 10, 1946. He became Champion of USSR in 1973 as he led the legendary “Ararat.” The team also won the USSR Cup in 1973 and 1975.

Hovhanness Zanazanyan won the bronze with the Soviet team at 1972 Olympics.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, French President Francois Hollande called on the parties to the Karabakh conflict to ensure that there are no incidents at the border.

“France has a role here, because we are a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which seeks to find a solution to this conflict,” Holland told reporters.

“It conflict led to many victims during the war and after the war. So, we call upon all the parties, all the states to ensure that there are no further incidents on the border,” the French President said, commenting on the recent aggression at the Armenian border.

“We continue our mediating efforts. I went to Armenia and Azerbaijani recently to make the same proposals and to call for a lasting solution,” Frsncois Hollande said.

Armenian Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan has called attention to the issue of Armenian civilians killed and wounded in Azerbaijani shelling.

The Ombudsman has applied to a number of international structures, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the International Ombudsman Institute, the EU Commissioner of Human Rights, the European Ombudsman Institute, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Human Rights Watch and other international partners

“Yesterday Azerbaijan severely violated the 3rd Article of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons, which prohibits any assault on the life and health of persons taking no active part in military actions.”

“Besides, the Convention prohibits any attack on the settlement populated by civilians. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has attacked the houses in Armenia’s border villages and cultivated lands,” the Ombudsman said.

Within the framework of the “Shant-2015” strategic command-post exercises President Serzh Sargsyan convened a conditional sitting of the Security Council to inform about the situation around the Republic of Armenia over the past days and the scenario of the exercises.

Members of the Council offered reports and made suggestions stemming from the situation. Instructions complying with the scenario of the exercises were given to the state bodies.

President Sargsyan attached importance to the conduct of the exercises from the point of view of reacting promptly and efficiently in concrete situations, testing the capacities and preparedness of state bodies in those situations.

 

The population of Armenia will plunge to 1.8 million by 2100, the 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects by UN projects.

UNFPA Armenia Assistant Representative Garik Hayrapetyan and demographer Ruben Yeganyan shared insights on the results of the latest UN report.

According to a press release from the Media Center, the forecasts of demographic rates, Garik Hayrapetyan said, are made through average projections.

“Actually, projections are made by optimistic, medium variant and pessimistic scenarios. In 2100 Armenia will have 1.8 million population. The pessimistic variant projection states the population will decrease to less than one million in 2100,” told a press conference at the.

The world population is projected to reach 11.2 billion from current 7.3 billion by 2100. Asia will see a likely contraction of the total population size. Europe will suffer a decrease, with 646 million people in 2100. The fastest-growing area is Africa where population is projected to reach 4.4 billion. Population growth in Turkey and Iran will remain high but they will also see a decrease.

“A major concern for Armenia is the number of workers per retiree. Currently the ratio in the country is 5.4 workers per retiree whereas the medium variant projection defines the number will be 2.4 per one retiree in 2100 and the pessimistic projection sets the one per one variant. It will evolve into a huge social-economic burden for workers and put an end to the principle of generations’ solidarity,” Hayrapetyan said.

With respect to the sex ratio in Armenia, Hayrapetyan said, “Now the sex ratio is 86 males to 100 females but this covers the whole population of Armenia. Meanwhile, among 0-19 olds males exceed females by 11.4,” Hayrapetyan said.

Ruben Yeganyan prioritized migration as a main factor determining these rates. “Now 30 thousand people annually emigrate from Armenia.” In the coming years Armenia’s population is expected to decrease by 12 thousand per year.

Yeganyan added, however, that the UN projection could turn non-realistic. Yeganyan, though, does not consider the presented rates unexpected and believes the country should work to address the issue, develop mechanisms to influence the situation so that the projections do not eventually come true.

Lionel Messi has won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the second time after beating Luis Suarezand Cristiano Ronaldo to the prize, Goal.com reports.

The 28-year-old shone in the second half of last season as he inspired Barcelona to the treble, with the club lifting the Champions League, Copa del Rey and La Liga.

He was awarded the trophy after the group stage draw for this year’s Champions League and thanked his teammates in the aftermath of the event.

“It was an incredible year for us,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s a secret, the dressing room was united and that made for an unforgettable year.

“Thanks to my teammates, we are all represented. I wouldn’t be here if not for them and the club.”

Messi finished level on goals with Real Madrid star Ronaldo and Barcelona teammate Neymar in Europe in 2014-15 – as all three men found the back of the net 10 times.

His Champions League haul helped him to a final tally of 62 goals in 67 games in all competitions for club and country, which means he is again likely to battle it out with Ronaldo for the Ballon d’Or in January.

Messi first won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award back in 2011 on the back of helping the Catalans win yet another European crown.

 

Russian millionaire German Sterligov intends to sue Azerbaijan at the European Court of Human Rights, his lawyer Artur Ayrapetov has revealed to

He said the case will be taken to Strasbourg in the near future. “The matter is that German Sterligov was first named persona non grata and denied access to Baku. Then the Azeri authorities launched a criminal case against him,” Ayrapetov said.

The lawyer is confident Sterligov will win. “That’s nonsense from the point of view of international law. They first banned him from entering the country and then opened a criminal case, thus depriving him of the right to defend. Azerbaijan is a member of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and its behavior in the given situation is unacceptable,” the lawyer said. He added that the sum of the compensation would be revealed later.

According to earlier reports, Interpol removed German Sterligov’s name from its wanted list. The Russian businessman was accused by Azerbaijan of launching illegal activity in Nagorno Karabakh.

Pluto has mountains made of ice that are as high as those in the Rockies, images from the New Horizons probe reveal, the BBC reports.

They also show signs of geological activity on Pluto and its moon Charon.

On Wednesday, scientists presented the first pictures acquired by the New Horizons probe during its historic flyby of the dwarf planet.

The team has also named the prominent heart-shaped region on Pluto after the world’s discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.

The spacecraft sped past the dwarf planet on Tuesday, getting as close as 12,500km and grabbing a huge volume of data

A German court has convicted a 94-year-old former guard at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews, the BBC reports.

Oskar Groening, known as the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, was sentenced to four years in prison.

He was responsible for counting the belongings confiscated from prisoners and had admitted “moral guilt.”

His lawyers said he did not facilitate genocide, but prosecutors argued that he had helped the camp run smoothly.

Many observers have questioned whether Mr Groening will ultimately be sent to jail, given his advanced age. He is expected to be one of the last Nazis to face a courtroom.

The trial was held in the northern German city of Lueneburg, hearing testimony from several people who had survived the death camp.

The case revolved around the question of whether people who had played a minor role in the Nazi-ordered genocide but had not actively killed any Jews could still be guilty of a crime.

Mr Groening had publicly discussed his role at Auschwitz, making him unusual among former Nazis brought to trial. He said he was speaking out in order to silence those who deny the Holocaust took place.

The Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art in Cyprus will showcase a drawing exhibition by Arshak Sarkissian entitled Tera-Genesis as of tomorrow, July 1st, the reports.

Sarkissian’s art revolves around contemporary man, the complexities and controversies that surround him as well as his metaphysical peculiarities as refracted through the artist’s imagination. Convinced that the world is a pluralistic place that is not just limited to physical reality and in which many worlds – directly inspired by arts and literature – are just as factual, his world is informed by the Magic Realism of South America as well as Asiatic Shamanistic traditions.

Therefore Sarkissian illustrates the supernatural aspects of everyday life in his art. For him as an artist, the comprehension of multidimensional realities is fundamental in recognizing man’s own reality, and he is fascinated by exploring the extremes of human behavior and nature.

Sarkissian’s study of the human personality’s multitude of dimensions comes out in his drawings, which are peopled with self-conscious entities that seem to be in psychological experiments with themselves in a process of self-discovery and evolution. It is through such experiments that the personality gives way to the genesis of either a monstrous abnormality or a hybrid of fauna or flora, until human and inhuman ultimately become indistinguishable before the next stage of metamorphosis.

The drawings express the artist’s never-ending yearning for change and the novel. They are figurative as well as contemporary, and are greatly influenced by Renaissance art. His characters have an eccentric temperament and an exotic disposition, and his animal hybrids always reveal extra dimensions and expressions along the way. They emerge from an ancient world that was populated by half human, half animal prototypes, whose mythologies revealed complex worlds. The drawings, however, place these creatures in a post-modern, contemporary world where they still struggle with their daemons.

Sarkissian, from Armenia, studied at the National Aesthetic Centre of Art in Armenia and went on to participate in a residency under Stass Paraskos at Lemba Art School in Cyprus supported by the Pharos Arts Foundation.

The artist has had solo shows at the Albemarle Gallery in London, Gavriel Gallery in Bremen, Mildberry Gallery in Moscow, in Paris and New York, and participated in group exhibitions in the Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art and the Gyumri International Biennale in Armenia, the Charlie Smith Gallery in London, the Harvest Gallery in California and the Marie Pavgas Art Gallery in North Carolina.

He has been commissioned to create work for the passenger terminals at Zvartnots International Airport in Armenia. He has participated in numerous art projects, among others, as part of his residency in the OMI International Arts Centre in New York, in the “Stand Up For Your Rights” Design and Illustration Programme in Buntingford, UK, and the Andorran National Commission for the UNESCO International Art Camp in 2014. Sarkissian works and lives in Yerevan, Armenia. His works can be found in several important private collections.

The exhibition will run at the Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art until July 29 and can be viewed by appointment after the initial opening tomorrow.