Author: Hambik Zargarian

Head of the Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC), political scientist Stepan Grigoryan offers to organize a forum on human rights in Belarus and invite prominent dissidents from that country.

The situation around the arrest of the Russian-Israeli blogger and the plans to extradite him to Azerbaijan are conditioned by the bilateral interests of Baku and Minsk, Stepan Grigoryan said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.

The political scientist considers that Armenia should respond to Alexander Lapshin’s issue with a propaganda campaign and by seeking support from human rights organizations.

Stepan Grigoryan is confident that Alexander Lukashenko does not want problems with those structures, as the relations with Europe are important to him now.

Hripsime Arakelyan has been appointed Acting Head of the Information and Public Relations Department of RA Government

Born in Yerevan, she graduated the Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan and the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia.

Hripsime Arakelyan has headed the news departments at Ar TV and Hay TV Company. She also worked at the Public TV Company of Armenia and headed the “Radiolur” program of Public Radio of Armenia.

In a recent interview President Barack Obama revealed an irrational fear of snowmen, the  reports. 

“There’s a whole kind of Chucky element to them. They’re a little creepy,” he told .

When First Lady Michelle joked about putting one in their bedroom Mr Obama said he would move out if he saw one there.

But that didn’t stop White House staff having a go at scaring him.

Official White House photographer Pete Souza explained the prank on his Instagram page.

“For the past three weeks, there have been four snowmen on display in the Rose Garden.

“We’ve been joking that we should move the snowmen a few feet closer to the Oval Office every day to see if anyone noticed.

“Then we realised the snowmen were too heavy to easily lift.

“But finally this morning before the president came to the office, some helpful staff – I won’t say who – moved all the snowmen so each one was peeking through a different window into the Oval.”

Once the figures had been moved a picture of a snowman looking over the president with the caption “do you want to build a snowman?” appeared on the official White House Instagram account.

Despite some suggesting the image is a bit sinister, Mr Obama apparently took the joke well with Pete Souza writing that “he enjoyed the prank”.

Photo: Reuters

 

German police are investigating a “probable terrorist attack” after a man ploughed a lorry into a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48, the  BBC reports.

The driver is an Afghan or Pakistani asylum seeker, according to security sources cited by DPA news agency.

He reportedly arrived in Germany in February as a refugee.

The daily Tagesspiegel said the man was known to the police for minor crimes, but not terror links.

“All police measures related to the suspected terrorist attack at Breitscheidplatz are progressing at full steam and with the necessary diligence,” Berlin Police said on Twitter.

German politicians had avoided branding the bloodshed a terror attack in the hours immediately following, but Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD television, “there are many things pointing to one”.

Famous Lebanese Armenian journalist Paula Yacoubian will join the new Government, reports.

According to the source, Paula Yacoubian will represent Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s bloc in the 30-member government.

Paula Yacoubian is a Lebanese media trainer and a political strategist; she is also the host of a prime time talk on Future News network.

If appointed, she will become the first female member of the government in the country.

Apart from Armenian, Yacoubian is fluent in Arabic, English and French.

– Trailing 2-0 to Montenegro at half-time in November’s FIFA World Cup qualifier, Armenia must have felt that the writing was on the wall and that a fourth defeat in as many games was looming. Two goals in quick succession from Damir Kojasevic and Stevan Jovetic had enabled the visitors to go into the break in firm control, and seemingly primed to record a third successive win in Group E against their lowly hosts.

Armenia manager Artur Petrosyan – taking charge of his first game after the resignation of Varuzhan Sukiasyan – and his players had other ideas, however. Galvanised as they entered the pitch after the break, they looked a completely different side and staged a valiant and unlikely comeback to restore parity, before bagging a dramatic last-minute winner through attacking midfielder Gevorg Ghazaryan.

The result not only gave Petrosyan a winning start to life as coach, but lifted the south-east European nation 38 places to 87th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, establishing them as November’s biggest mover.

A four-time Armenian Premier League winner with Shirak Gyumri who also has experience of Swiss football with Young Boys and FC Zurich, Petrosyan – a former midfielder – hung up his boots in 2006 before going on to serve as a youth coach at FC Zurich. After a spell as Armenia assistant manager under Swiss Bernard Challandes from 2014 to 2015, he accepted the head coach role in October 2016, although the timing of this promotion came as a surprise.]

The country’s fourth all-time appearance-maker with 69 caps, Petrosyan holds the accolade of appearing in Armenia’s first international – a goalless home draw against Moldova – and was the nation’s all-time leading goalscorer before being surpassed by Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Having now ended their three-year winless run in qualifying and embarked on a dramatic rise in the FIFA Ranking, Armenia will naturally have a spring in their step going into their next qualifier on the road to Russia, at home to Group E basement side Kazakhstan in March.

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

Artsakh authorities take responsibility for all monuments on the territory of the republic irrespective of their religious status. The plans to renovate the Upper Mosque in Shushi (built in 1883) come to prove the commitment.

The NKR Ministry of Economy and the Iranian Part Saman Jahan Company have signed the protocol on cost estimation of reconstruction works.

The Foundation for the Revival of Oriental Historical Legacy has undertaken to find funds for the renovation.

The Part Saman Jahan has already conducted research on the history of Shushi and the mosque itself, Director of the Company Saeid Nahavandi said. “We are far from politics and have approached the issue exceptionally from the professional perspective,” he said.

According to NKR Deputy Minister of Economy Sergey Shahverdyan, It’s not yet clear whether the monument will serve as a mosque or will be rebuilt as a museum.

PHOTO: EPA/SANA

 

Syrian government forces have captured a key part of eastern Aleppo, splitting rebel-held territory in two, the reports.

State TV said government troops were dismantling mines and explosives and continuing their advance.

A monitoring group says the rebels have now lost more than a third of the previously rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

Thousands of civilians have fled the besieged districts after a weekend of heavy fighting. Hundreds of families have been displaced within the area.

Both state TV and the UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the district of Sakhour had fallen to the Syrian army.

This cuts through the middle of the previously rebel-held territory, dividing it into two.

On November 27, the XVI Summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie being held in Antananarivo adopted Final Resolution on the Settlement of Crisis Situations and Enhancement of Peace. On Armenia’s initiative, the full support of the member states of the Organization to the efforts being exerted by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was enshrined in that document.

“We urge all the parties to the conflict to refrain from the threat or use of force, which can undermine the peaceful settlement process, to continue negotiations on the basis of proposals presented by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs as an integrated whole, particularly, non-use of force or threat of use of force, territorial integrity and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples,” reads the Final Resolution of the XVI Summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie.

On 24 November Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan launched consultations around the new Constitution draft presented to him by the Expert Committee on the Constitutional reforms under the NKR President.

On the same day the President met with a group of the Artsakh movement activists considering symbolic the start of this process within such a framework, NKR President’s Press Office reports.