Author: Jhanna Virabian

The replica of an Old Jugha cross-stone was unveiled in the open-air museum of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs today. The solemn opening ceremony was attended by the Presidents of Armenia and Cyprus Serzh Sargsyan and Nicos Anastasiades. The cross-stone was a gift from President Serzh Sargsyan on behalf of the Armenian people.

Nicos Anastasiades thanked his Armenian counterpart and noted that the monument is a symbol of indissoluble connection between the Armenian and Cypriot peoples and the two friendly states.

“Our peoples that fell victim to the same criminals have been fighting and keep fighting on the international arena to preserve their rights and values. Cyprus was one of the first countries to recognize the Armenian Genocide and condemn that crime. Our countries and peoples are committed to the norms of international law, including the right of peoples to self-determination,” President Anastasiades said. He added that the two countries are committed to the peaceful resolution of all issues and determine their future, respecting human rights.

“The sons of the Armenian nation that fled the genocide a century ago and settled in Cyprus, comprise an active and a very important part of the Cypriot society, at the same time preserving their language, identity, traditions and respecting their roots, their Motherland and the country that hosted them. We are proud to see them as part of our society,” the President said.

“Cyprus and Armenia continue to develop bilateral cooperation, combining efforts to come out victor in their struggle for justice. The opening of this monument today is yet another testament to the deep and friendly relations that exist between the two peoples,” Nicos Anastasiades said.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said the cross-stone will henceforth introduce Armenia and the Armenian people to the foreigners and will stand as an eloquent witness of the Armenian-Cypriot friendship. It will also signal that any expression of violence against culture is a crime against humanity and will send a message of unity to all humanity to fight against the brute force threatening the unique pillars of culture and history.

“This masterpiece of art that has become the symbol of the Armenian spiritual values and the Christian spirit is part of the UNESCO’s intangible heritage,” President Sargsyan said.

“Any cross-stone created in the course of history speaks without words, tells about the glorious pages and failures of our history,” the Armenian President added.

He informed that the cross-stone unveiled in Cyprus is the replica of one of the 3,000 cross stones destroys by Azerbaijanis in Old Jugha.

Photo: Al-Masirah

At least 41 Yemeni civilians were killed when Saudi-led coalition warplanes hit a market Tuesday in the rebel-held northern Hajja province, medics and tribal sources said, AFP reports.

An official at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the facility had received the bodies of 41 people killed in the raids, along with 35 people who were wounded.

A health official in Hajja said the casualties were civilians and included children, adding that “the toll could rise”.

Local officials and tribal sources told AFP that coalition warplanes carried out several raids on the market in the town of Mustabaa.

Photo: AP

North Korea has fired several short-range projectiles into the sea, South Korea’s defence ministry said, the BBC reports.

It comes hours after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to impose some of its strongest ever sanctions against North Korea.

A South Korean spokesman told the Yonhap news agency the projectiles were fired at about 10:00 local time (01:00 GMT) from Wonsan on the east coast.

He said they were still trying to determine exactly what was fired.

Yonhap quoted officials as saying all the objects fell into the sea.

The new UN measures are a response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and satellite launch, both of which violated existing sanctions.

They will result in all cargo going to and from the country being inspected, while 16 new individuals and 12 organisations have been blacklisted.

Uefa president Michel Platini has taken his appeal against a six-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the BBC reports.

Platini and ex-head of world football’s governing body Sepp Blatter were barred from the sport after being found guilty of ethics breaches over a $2m “disloyal payment” between the pair.

Both men, who deny wrongdoing, had the bans upheld but cut from eight years.

Former France captain Platini, leader of European football’s governing body since 2007, wants the verdict annulled.

Private of the NKR Armed Forces David Terteryan, born in 1997, was fatally wounded under unknown circumstances in  one of the military units located in the eastern direction of the Defense Army at about 1 p.m. today.

Probe into the details of the case is under way.

The NKR Ministry of Defense shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses its support to David Terteryan’s family and friends.

PHOTO: REUTERS/DAVID W CERNY

A long-lost composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri was performed for the first time on Tuesday after a musicologist discovered the piece in the reserve collection of the Czech national music museum, Reuters reports.

The piece also appears to show the rivalry between the two was not especially fierce and provides more evidence that Salieri played no role in Mozart’s death in 1791 at the age of 35, the play and Oscar-winning film “Amadeus” suggested.

The collaborative score was written in 1785, during one of the most fruitful periods of Mozart’s career when he composed some of his best-known pieces, including the operas “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.”

“We all know the picture drawn by the movie `Amadeus’. It is false,” said Ulrich Leisinger, director of research at the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. “Salieri did not poison Mozart, but they both worked in Vienna and were competitors.”

The piece, titled “Per la Ricuperata Salute di Ofelia” (“For the recovered health of Ophelia”), was written to celebrate the recovery of a English singer who had performed pieces by Mozart and Salieri, museum officials said. It is unclear whether it was ever performed in public before today, they said.

“Here we have a short, not great, piece by Mozart, but at least something that really sheds new light on his daily life as an opera composer in Vienna,” Leisinger said.

German composer and musicologist Timo Jouko Herrmann discovered the work last November while searching for pieces by Salieri’s students in the catalog of the Czech Museum of Music.

The piece’s fate after Mozart and Salieri wrote it is unclear, but it came to the Czech Museum of Music in 1950s carrying the names of Mozart and Salieri in a kind of signature code common at the time, said Michal Lukes, director of the Czech National Museum.

That made it nearly impossible to identity the composers until the museum digitized its collection, allowing Herrmann to sift through a huge database to discover the joint effort that had been sitting unnoticed.

During the performance in a large hall in the former Baroque church that now houses the Czech Music Museum, a harpsichordist played the short and upbeat piece to the delight of a few dozen people hearing music that probably has not been performed in hundreds of years.

“To hear a joint piece by Mozart and Salieri … lost for more than 200 years, is an amazing experience,” Lukes said.

Armenian hackers from Monte Melkonian Cyber Army attacked Azerbaijani government websites for Armenia Army Day.

‪MMCA started a ‪‎DDOS attack ‪ed Azerbaijani ‪‎government websites and downed the E-Government Portal(e-gov.az), Ministry of Taxes of the Republic of Azerbaijan
(taxes.gov.az), The official Internet resource of the State Bodies (gov.az) ,‪ ‎leaked data from Civil Service Commission under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (csc.gov.az).

British PM is to ask his cabinet to endorse a one-day Commons debate and vote on Wednesday over UK air strikes against so-called Islamic State in Syria.

David Cameron said there was “growing” parliamentary support for air strikes, saying it was “the right thing to do” and in the national interest.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is granting his MPs a free vote on the matter.

He has criticised the decision not to hold a two-day debate, saying Mr Cameron should “stop the rush to war”.

Mr Cameron said he would recommend that a debate and vote is held to extend air strikes against Isil in Iraq to Syria in order to “answer the call from our allies and work with them, because Isil is a threat to our country and this is the right thing to do”.