Author: Jirair Kafian

The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) stands for exceptionally peaceful settlement of the situation, RPA Spokesman Edward Sharamazanov said as he commented on the  seizure of the premises of the patrol service regiment in Yerevan’s Erebuni district.

Sharmazanov also explained the silence of the Republican Party of Armenia.

“We kept silence in order not to disrupt or hinder the negotiation process. Now is a very nervous moment, and I hope the Christian moral system and love will win. I believe that conscience and tolerance will win on all sides  an we’ll avoid bloodshed. We don’t need new blood. We have no enemies in Armenia, all are our brothers and sisters. This is the official position of the Party,” Sharmazanov said.

One of the positives from Manchester United’s 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic was the first-half performance of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Jose Mourinho’s summer signing from Borussia Dortmund who impressed supporters with a menacingly creative display at the DW Stadium.

The 27-year-old Armenian started the match as a no.10 and quickly created an excellent opportunity for Memphis Depay, before missing the target himself when meeting a cross. He was taken off at half-time as one of seven planned substitutions and Mourinho praised his unofficial debut after the match, describing him as a “top-class player” with a “magnificent” brain.

Mkhitaryan spoke exclusively to following the final whistle and discussed his first match with United.

“I would say it was a good game,” declared Henrikh. “The first half was a little bit difficult because we couldn’t score a goal. But whatever, we made a good game and thank you to my team-mates. I was trying to feel comfortable. I think day by day it will be better.”

Asked about how he is settling in with his new club, Mkhitaryan spoke optimistically about the future: “I am trying, because the first days are always very difficult. You have to get to know your team-mates and their qualities, so I am trying to learn everything very quickly. Game by game it will be better and better. Of course we’re getting ready for the new season so we are trying to do everything the coach is asking from us.”

Saturday’s 2-0 win in Wigan was cheered on by around 7,000 United fans at the DW Stadium and Mkhitaryan was grateful to play in front of such support. “It’s always a pleasure to see the United fans during the away games so I am happy and I say thanks to them for coming,” he concluded.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has flown in to Istanbul, after an army group said it took over the country, the BBC reports.

He was seen surrounded by cheering supporters, saying in a live TV speech that the coup attempt was an “act of treason” and the army must be cleansed.

Sixty people died during overnight clashes, many of them civilians, and 754 soldiers were arrested, officials said.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the situation was largely under control.

He has ordered the military to shoot down aircraft being used by coup plotters.

Earlier, one of the helicopters being flown by forces involved in the coup attempt was shot down over the capital Ankara.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the military chief of staff, Gen Hulusi Akar, are still unknown. He is reported to have been taken hostage by rebel soldiers.

Gen Umit Dundar, commander of the 1st Army, has been appointed acting chief of staff.

Sporadic gunfire is still reported in major cities.

The row triggered by the German parliament’s Armenia resolution is rumbling on. Bundestag MPs have threatened to scupper NATO’s new reconnaissance flights if they cannot visit German soldiers at Incirlik, Turkey, reports.

The diplomatic impasse between German MPs and the Turkish government has escalated, with the Bundestag’s defense committee threatening to deny the mandate for Germany’s participation in reconnaissance flights over Syria if they are not allowed to visit the German soldiers stationed at the Incirlik NATO base in southern Turkey.

The Bundeswehr has about 250 personnel stationed at the base who help fly Tornado planes on reconnaissance missions to locate the “Islamic State” militia in Syria. But the Bundestag’s vote in early June to recognize the Ottoman massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-16 as genocide has precipitated a diplomatic fallout that is threatening the countries’ military cooperation.

On Thursday, committee chairman Wolfgang Hellmich told the “Bild” newspaper that the Bundestag could vote to block the AWACS reconnaissance flights that NATO wants to fly over Syria.

“I hope that the NATO secretary general realizes that if he wants to have AWACS, then German soldiers are necessary,” committee spokesman Rainer Arnold told DW.

Just two weeks after the vote on the Armenia resolution, which triggered personal abuse from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against certain MPs, Turkey refused to allow a senior German defense official and several Bundestag members to visit the base. The trip was “seen as inappropriate,” in the words of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu – though he suggested that a “nonpolitical” delegation would be allowed.

The Left party MP Alexander Neu said the committee was planning a trip to Incirlik on September 15 – which is now likely to be seen as a test of relations. The Defense Ministry was also hoping to sign a new stationing agreement with Turkey and build new barracks and a command post, all plans that are currently on hold because of the deadlock.

Georgia and Armenia are jointly looking at ways to better harmonise the international transit corridor through Georgia – the E60 Highway – to ensure swift, efficient transporting of goods via European standard rods, reports.

Today Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili met Armenia’s Minister of Transport and Communication Gagik Beglaryan in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

The two officials spoke about moving cargo through Georgia as a transit corridor and along its main highway. While transit traffic currently used this route, both officials agreed more could be done to improve the local infrastructure and develop the country’s transit potential.

Kvirikashvili and Beglaryan noted the importance of the E60 Highway, which spans the width of the country, from east and west. The road connects Black Sea coastal Batumi and Poti to Tbilisi in the east, and continues on to the Tsiteli Khidi (Red Bridge) border checkpoint between Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The highway is regarded as part of a corridor that connects Europe in the West and Asia in the East via a network of international standard roads.

The two officials also spoke about several other main roads in Georgia that connect the country with neighbouring nations, such as the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Larsi road that heads up from Tbilisi towards Russia and the Tbilisi-Bakurtsikhe-Lagodekhi road that goes east.

Kvirikashvili and Beglaryan agreed that the most efficient way to transit cargoes from Armenia through Georgia is via Rustavi and on to Sadakhlo, and from Tbilisi to Geguti.

The collector Leon Black is the legal victor in a dispute over the ownership of a famed Picasso sculpture and will take possession of it, the reports.

On Wednesday, the parties who had been fighting over the plaster bust of the artist’s muse (and mistress) Marie-Thérèse Walter, announced that they had agreed that Mr. Black would get to keep the work, “Bust of a Woman,” and a rival owner, representing the Qatari royal family, would receive financial compensation of an undisclosed amount.

“We are pleased that the dispute has been settled and Mr. Black will receive his sculpture,” Gagosian Gallery Spokesperson Jeffrey Schneider said in a statement sent to

“Today’s settlement shows without question that the Gagosian Gallery purchased and sold this sculpture in good faith and without any knowledge of Picasso and Pelham’s prior dealings, as we have said all along,” the statement reads.

A settlement had been announced in May, but the court did not disclose any details regarding who would keep the painting.

In a legal action filed in January 2016 in federal court in Manhattan against the Qatari family’s agent, Mr. Gagosian claimed that he bought the 1931 sculpture in May 2015 for about $106 million from Ms. Widmaier-Picasso, and then sold it to an undisclosed New York collector.

But the Qatari family’s agent, Pelham Holdings, run by Guy Bennett, maintained in its own court documents that it had secured an agreement with Ms. Widmaier-Picasso to buy the work in November 2014 for 38 million euros, or about $42 million.

Turkey has criticized plans by Germany’s parliament to recognize the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide, the Associated Press reports.

Germany’s parliament is to hold a vote on a motion describing the deaths as genocide this week.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday that Germany — home to a large Turkish community — should “act with caution.”

He said parliaments should not decide on history and that all countries should make documents available to historians so they can shed light on the killings.

Today, on the occasion of the Republic Day President Serzh Sargsyan handed to the family members of the servicemen who died in year 2016 in combat and non-combat conditions, volunteers, members of the home guard and reservists the highest state decorations which have been awarded posthumously to the modern day heroes who fell valiantly while executing their patriotic duties. The ceremony took place at the Presidential Palace. President Serzh Sargsyan underscored in his speech that the young generation will remember them forever, just as we remember today the brave who fell one hundred years ago.

President Serzh Sargsyan’s message at the award ceremony

Your Holiness,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

As a rule, in situations like this, I start my speech with the words “Dear Awardees”. Today however is different. Our precious and beloved awardees are not with us. They are being awarded posthumously. I have to confess that psychologically this is the most difficult duty which I have to perform from time to time.

Our heroic sons and brothers fell for their beloved ones, for us all, for Armenia, for the peaceful and eternal existence of the Armenian nation. At the fateful moment, they’ve made their choice. They have chosen freedom and dignity. Many of them very young, way too young, but their choice and deeds were so mature that they have made our entire society more mature. In a couple of days, they changed from students into tutors and became the torchbearers of the new generation born by independent Armenia. They have raised the bar of decency so high that it will be impossible to get around. Their life and heroism embody the code of honor of the citizen of Armenia and of the Armenian soldier which will be impossible to get around. It will be impossible because their right here, with us, among us. They are present and they are doing a greater job than some of those physically “present”. For that very reason, allow me nevertheless to address them and to say:

Dear Awardees,

I congratulate you on receiving high state awards. I also congratulate you on the occasion of the Republic Day. Heroes just like you fell in the battles of 1918, so that the Armenian nation could live, so that Armenia could exist. And Armenia lives. For us, you are the same heroes as those of Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan, Gharakilisa. One hundred years later, young generations will remember you, just as we remember today the brave who fell almost one hundred years before.

Dear Awardees,

Rest in peace and rest assured that we are a nation because of you, we are a state because of you, and we are decent people because of you. Every generation will know and will not forget it. You’ve left us with great pain, but also with great pride and bequest. We bow to your deeds and promise that we will spare no effort to do all the good that you didn’t get time to do.

***

On the occasion of the event, His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II gave his patriarchal blessings to the present and offered a prayer.

At the conclusion of the event, the President of Armenia made an appeal to the attendees.

“Your Holiness,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Young servicemen present here are cadets from the RA Ministry of Defense, Vazgen Sarkissian Military Insitute, and Marshal Armenak Khanperiants Military Aviation Institute. I asked them to come here to be present at the ceremony award but not only for that. I also want them to approach you right after the ceremony, get acquainted with you, to connect with you and throughout their army duty to be with you, next to your families, thus becoming a link between your families and the Armenian Army.

It is very important for the army officer to stand by the families of our fallen heroes, to understand the pain of parents who’ve lost their sons, to understand the significance of sons, to appreciate the importance of soldiers – of those very soldiers whose commander he will be very soon, whom he will lead in training and on combat positions, whom he will be responsible for, also responsible for making them stronger, to make them more combat ready, to defend together with them our Fatherland.

I ask you right after the ceremony to use this opportunity. I also have a little hope that they will be able to console you, even if just a tiny bit. Thank you,” said President Serzh Sargsyan.

An Ecuador delegation headed by First Vice-President of the National Assembly Rosana Alvarado visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

The guests visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial Institute. Rosana Alvarado left a note in the Honorary Guest Book.

Mordecai Paldiel and Zvika Kichel, Charles Aznavour confirmed the riveting story of courage in which his late parents, Knar and Mischa, as well as his sister Aida and himself, had played a key role during the dark days of the Nazi occupation in France.

With a great sense of humbleness, so characteristic of him, Aznavour told how his parents gave shelter at their own home to Jews, Armenians and others who were persecuted by the Nazis. By so doing, the Aznavours had given the gift of life to other, while risking their own.

The IRWF has resolved to set-up a special research team to further investigate the feats of the Aznavour family and at the same time, all the Board Members of the NGO have unanimously decided to pay tribute to the Aznavours.

In a personal letter signed by the Chairman of the IRWF, Mr. Eduardo Eurnekian and by its Founder, Mr. Baruch Tenembaum, Mr. Aznavour was greeted on his 92th birthday and informed about two initiatives. The first one is to commission a special commemorative stamp to be issued by the Israel Postal Authority with the semblance of Mischa and Knar Aznavour, Charles’s late parents. The second one is to award the Raoul Wallenberg Medal to both siblings, Aida and Charles Aznavour, who as young people helped their parents in their life-saving mission.

Eduardo Eurnekian said – “The Aznavour family is an example of humble and decent people who did not stand idly by when faced with evil. His mother, Knar, nee Baghdasarian, was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide and she understood the plight of the Jewish people and all those who were brutally persecuted by Nazism. It is our duty to recognize the heroism of the Aznavour family and instill their spirit of civic courage in the hearts and minds of the young generations”.

The letter reads:

Dear Mr. Aznavour,

Let us start this letter by congratulating you on 92th birthday! We wish you good health and many more years of productiveness in your artistic, diplomatic and humanitarian activities!

We would like to thank you once again for having agreed to meet our Dr. Mordecai Paldiel and Mr. Zvika Kichel in New York. We watched the video of this meeting and were deeply moved by your humble approach and the courageous deeds undertaken by your dear late parents, your sister Aida and yourself, during the dark days of Holocaust. We also thank your son, Nicolas, for having arranged this gathering in such an efficient way.

As a result of this preliminary audience, we have instructed our research team to try and secure more information about the feats of your family during WWII and of course, we shall keep you duly posted.

At the same time, in a special meeting held by our Board, it has been unanimously resolved to pay tribute to your late parents, Mischa and Knar, as well as both you and Aida, as a token of recognition to your spirit of solidarity. The fact that you have given shelter and protection at your own home, to people from all faiths who were persecuted by the Nazis, is something that has to be remembered and recognized. We have therefore resolved to ask the Israeli Postal Authorities to make a special and limited stamp issue dedicated to your late parents. Should this be agreeable, our team in Israel will contact Nicolas with some administrative information (we would need some good photos of your parents as well as a written authorization from you to approach the Israel Postal Authorities).

Furthermore, it was decided to bestow upon you and your sister Aida, a special award, the Raoul Wallenberg Medal, in recognition of the role you played during the Shoah and for your staunch and consistent support of humanitarian causes.

As soon as we receive the acceptance from you and your sister, we shall coordinate with you the details and logistics of the award ceremony.

Thanking you in advance, we remain at your disposal should you require any further information on our end.”