Author: Janet Ekmekjian

After Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on all fronts of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic late Friday and early Saturday, hundreds are volunteering to fight on the frontlines.

NKR Prime Minister Araik Harutyunyan met with volunteers today. The PM briefed them on the situation at the frontline and assured that “the NKR Defense Army keeps full control of the military situation and has inflicted heavy losses on the Azerbaijani army.”

“I’m glad to see so many people volunteering to fight. All of us will go to protect the borders of the Motherland if necessary. At this point I urge you to refrain from panic, keeping high the fighting spirit of the society,” the Prime Minister said.

An Egyptian man accused of hijacking and forcing a plane to land in Cyprus on Tuesday using a fake suicide belt has appeared in court in Cyprus, the BBC reports.

The Larnaca court ordered an eight-day detention for Seif Eldin Mustafa.

Possible charges include air piracy, kidnapping and threatening behaviour.

He did not speak, but gave a victory sign as he was driven away by police. Cypriot authorities have described him as “psychologically unstable”, saying the incident was not terrorism-related.

EgyptAir flight MS181 was carrying 56 passengers from Alexandria to Cairo, along with six crew and a security official, when it was diverted to Cyprus.

During a stand-off lasting more than six hours, almost all passengers and crew were freed unharmed as authorities negotiated with Mr Mustafa.

Scores of people remain in intensive care following Tuesday’s suicide bomb attacks in Brussels that left 31 people dead, Belgium’s health minister says, the BBC reports.

Maggie de Block said that of about 300 wounded people, 61 were still in a critical condition, and suggested that the death toll could rise further.

Earlier, prosecutors confirmed they had identified two of the four attackers as brothers Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui.

Two other attackers have yet to be named. One died, another is on the run.

Brahim el-Bakraoui blew himself up in the attack at Zaventem airport that killed 11 people while Khalid struck at Maelbeek metro, where 20 people died, prosecutors said.

Unconfirmed reports say another of the attackers was the wanted jihadist Najim Laachraoui, who is thought to have links with last year’s attacks in Paris.

So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the attacks.

Turkish genocide scholar Taner Akcam’s book titled “The Armenian Issue is Resolved” has been republished for the seventh time by Iletisim Publishing, Akunq.net reports.

According to the source, immediately after the Balkan War, the Committee of Union and Progress cleansed the Anatolian lands of all non-Muslim elements and Turkified them. The 1915 massacre of Armenians was the last stage of the Turkish policy.

In the work based on Ottoman documents Taner Akcam focuses on what the primary sources are telling about the events. The author presents the atrocities carried out under the constant control of Talaat Pasha and the reasons behind the so-called ‘deportation.’

The book quotes Tallat Pasha as saying in one of the telegrams that “The Armenian issue is resolved. There’s no need to stain the nation and the government with extra atrocities.”

Photo: Reuters

 

President Barack Obama has arrived in Cuba for a historic visit to the island and talks with its communist leader, the BBC reports.

He is the first sitting US president to visit since the 1959 revolution, which heralded decades of hostility.

Speaking at the reopened US embassy in Havana, he called the visit “historic”. He also spent time in the old city.

Mr Obama will meet President Raul Castro, but not retired revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and the pair will discuss trade and political reform.

The US president emerged smiling from Air Force One with First Lady Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia.

Holding umbrellas, the party walked in light drizzle along a red carpet to be greeted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

“My purpose here today is to assert in my judgment, (ISIS) is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims,” he said, during a news conference at the State Department.

Kerry said in 2014, ISIS trapped Yazidis killed them, enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and girls “selling them at auction, raping them at will and destroying the communities in which they had lived for countless generations,” executed Christians “solely for their faith” and also “forced Christian women and girls into slavery.”

“Without our intervention, it is clear that those people would have been slaughtered,” he said.

This is the first time that the United States has declared a genocide since Darfur in 2004.

Pope Francis has awarded Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minsyan with a Knight’s Grand Cross Order of Pius IX, press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs.

At a solemn ceremony in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican, Giovanni Angelo Becciu, Substitute for General Affairs to the Secretary of State of the Holy See, handed the Order to Amb. Minasyan.

The Papal letter says Mikael Minasyan was awarded the pontifical title “as a proof of Our benevolence towards You.”

The Iranian Peace Choir group led by Mohammadreza Pourmoghadam will participate in ‘Renaissance’ International Contests Festival in the city of Gyumri in Armenia, reports. 

President Serzh Sargsyan received today heads of delegations participating at the International Ministerial Conference titled New Challenges of Public Health which is being held in Yerevan on March 1-2. Present at the meeting were the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronica Skvortsova, Minister of Health and Medical Education of Iran Hassan Hashemi, Minister of Labor, Health and Social Issues of Georgia David Sergeenko, Minister of Health of the Republic of Belarus Vasiliy Zharko, and Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development of Kazakhstan Elzhan Birtanov.

The President of Armenia welcomed the guests to our country and stressed the importance of the Yerevan Conference on the modern issues and challenges of public health. Underscoring that public health all over the world is viewed as one of vital factors of national security, as well as one of the primary indicators of the countries’ successful social and economic policy, Serzh Sargsyan noted that in the contemporary world problems of public health recognize no boundaries: new viruses and epidemics are not confined within a state and today they pose the most serious threat to the peoples in every country. According to the President, such problems can be efficiently solved only through a closer cooperation, exchange of special experience, by sharing success and achievements with the partners which is exactly what the Ministerial Conference in Yerevan is convened for.

The participants of the meeting thanked the Armenian authorities and in the person of the RA Minister of Health Armen Muradian the officials of the health care system of Armenia for creating such an important platform for discussions and invitation to participate in the forum. They noted that in the area of public health the field for cooperation is extensive and there are many still unutilized opportunities. The guests stressed with satisfaction that at the Yerevan Conference there have been made pretty interesting and useful reports, presented were facts and references have been made to the programs implemented in the participating states based on best practices. Discussed were also reforms conducted in this area, existing problems and challenges. According to the Ministers, cooperation in this format will considerably promote relations and cooperation between the representatives of the area and will give an impetus to the development of health care.

 

 

 

Having a house has become a sacred dream for many families in Gyumri that have been living in temporary dwellings for 27 years now. A photostory was created about three years ago to draw attention to the issue. The photos were even posted on the pages of the National Geographic, but the initiative failed to bring the desirable results.

Photographer Hayk Barseghyan, one of the authors of the initiative, said they tried to find a different solution to the issue. They organized a fund-raising campaign on the British Crowdfunder website earlier this year to help 13 most vulnerable families. All families would have homes, had 120,000 Armenians donated £1 each.

Hayk Barseoghyan tld reporters today that the sum will be enough for just one house, but added they have found alternative ways to raise funds. They have worked out a comprehensive program of events. In particular, personal items of famous Armenians will be put on sale at a charity auction expected in a few days. Wrestler Arsen Julfalakyan, footballer Henrikh Mkhitaryan and many others have joined the initiative.

World-famous pianist Tigran Hamasyan will perform an hour-long concert in Gyumri to benefit the families in need.