Author: John Hovhannisian

 

 

 

“The peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict remains a priority for the European Union. The European Union supports the negotiations aimed at settling the conflict led by the OSCE Minsk Group,” President of the Council of the European Union Donald Tusk said at a joint press conference with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

“We support further dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including at the highest level – at your level Mr. President. It is critical to respect the ceasefire strictly, to exercise restraint on actions and statements, and to create an atmosphere conducive to progress in the conflict settlement,” Mr. Tusk said.

“I’m confident there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement. If we want to reach a peaceful settlement, all players in this risky game should refrain from any aggressive elements and rhetoric, because words, speeches and rhetoric have implications on politics, and sometimes dramatic ones,” he said.

As for Armenia choice not to make use of the European Union’s offer of an Association Agreement including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, Tusk said “this is a choice that the European Union fully respects.”

“We still stand ready to deepen our relations by working together to open markets and by advancing on democratic reforms, economic growth, regional integration, a better business-investment climate, and sustainable development. In short a broad reform agenda,” he stressed.

“We have just successfully completed the first stage of discussions on a new, comprehensive bilateral agreement. In this agreement we have identified areas for future cooperation. The EU Member States are already discussing the mandate for these negotiations,” the EU President said.

“One important area in our cooperation is to make it easier to travel between Armenia and the European Union. I welcome the good progress made by Armenia on the Mobility Partnership. The effective implementation of the Readmission and Visa Facilitation Agreements that entered into force in January 2014 is a crucial condition to start talks for a visa liberalization dialogue. A visa-free regime is the final goal. I am hopeful that the next step can be taken in the coming months, if this pace of work continues,” he added.

Tusk assured “Armenia can count on the European Union’s continued support to advance on a whole range of political and social reforms, and to improve the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“The European Union supports the work of civil society in Armenia and I encourage a closer involvement of the civil society in the reform process to broaden the perspective and ensure common ownership. This year is decisive for our relations,” Donald Tusk said.

Mr. Tusk thanked for the possibility to visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial. “This was my second visit, and was as moved as during my first visit,” he said.

With the aim of helping boost computer literacy in Artsakh schools, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Cypriot affiliate has initiated and sponsored the establishment of computer classrooms at five secondary schools in the Karvachar area, by donating six computer systems as well as computer furniture to each of the schools. The government of Artsakh has given the project additional support by funding the complete renovation of the computer classrooms.

The beneficiaries of the project comprise the William Saroyan School (city of Karvachar), J. Jlavyan School (Nor Verin Shen village), S. Erumyans School (Nor Brajur village), V. Nazaryan School (Nor Getashen village), and P. Ghevondyan School (Yeghegnut village). The five schools have a total of close to 300 students. As Zhora Sargsyan, principal of the P. Ghevondyan School, stated, today it would be hard to imagine the life of children and teenagers without computers, especially at school.

Sebouh Tavitian, chair of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Cypriot affiliate, said he’s delighted that the small Armenian community of Cyprus was able to help enhance the learning experience of Artsakh schoolchildren. “I’m sure they will take good care of their new computers and enjoy using them to broaden their knowledge and skills,” Tavitian stated.

By Mary Boland in Stepanakert

The blue-and-white bird-like structure of Nagorno-Karabakh’s airport perches in the Caucasus Mountains like a shining, defiant emblem of national pride. The departures screen lists an international flight to Yerevan, the Armenian capital. Members of the airport’s 120 staff stand by to pass luggage through the latest model X-ray machine. Authorities at the facility, which cost $20 million (€18 million) to rebuild, say it has sophisticated satellite navigation technology.

However, there are no passengers – and no aircraft. The flight to Yerevan is aspirational; the only way to get there remains a six-hour drive through the mountains. The reason: any flights that land at or leave this airport will come under fire from Azeri troops.

As a self-proclaimed republic recognised by no country in the world, Nagorno-Karabakh considers itself a nation under siege. Located within Azerbaijan’s official borders but run by ethnic Armenians, the landlocked enclave was the subject of a devastating war between 1991 and 1994, which cost some 30,000 lives and displaced a million people.

Nagorno-Karabakh has kept its de facto autonomy, butAzerbaijan maintains its claim to it.

Shoot down

The airport, destroyed in the war, reopened four years ago. “In 2011 we wanted to start flights, but our neighbours intervened – they said they would shoot down our aircraft,” says Dmitri Atbashyan, head of the statelet’s civil aviation authority.

The threats are not exaggerated. Last year three military personnel died after Azeri troops shot down their helicopter. Troops from both sides have died in sporadic clashes on the border, in breach of a 1994 Moscow-brokered ceasefire.

With a wry sense of humour and a glint behind his aviator sunglasses, Atbashyan is proud to show off the little-used airport – and tout its advantages as a flying school, in which lessons involve close-range sorties safe from gunfire. “You can get your pilot’s licence here for $6,000 [€5,400]; in the US it will cost you $31,000. And we have some of the best pilots.”

As if on cue, instructor Samuel Tavadyan, an ex-military man, starts up a small Zenith plane and takes off. He shoots into the sky, then ducks, weaves and does hairpin bends reminiscent of scenes from a Warner Bros cartoon. After landing, he jumps out and walks away as though he has parked a car.

The airport’s staff are kept on the payroll and all systems remain running “because with such sophisticated machines, it would be too expensive to turn them off”, says Atbashyan. He stresses that every aspect of the facility complies with international standards, so it should therefore be possible to operate it normally.

“The UN Declaration of Human Rights grants everyone freedom of movement,” he says. “This shouldn’t depend on the status of the country of that person.”

No UN member state recognises this enclave of some 147,000 people, despite its national flag, government, public institutions, army and police force. In the eyes of international law, it is a country that doesn’t exist.

This reality is ever present a few kilometres away in downtown Stepanakert, where the president, Bako Sahakyan, faces a lonely challenge on the international stage. As a member of the Commonwealth of Unrecognised States, Nagorno-Karabakh shares a bond of mutual recognition with the club’s three other similarly troubled adherents: South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria.

“Our primary goal is to be integrated into the civilised and international community,” says Sahakyan, a balding, ruddy man in his 50s.

Far from the front lines

The president is sitting in the boardroom of his presidential palace overlooking the significantly renamed Renaissance Square in the reconstructed capital, with its wide avenues, cafes and fashionable shops. At this comfortable distance from the front lines, it’s hard to imagine that a low-level war is unfolding.

“Being unrecognised always forms the basis of our policies,” he says. “But you must know that everything we do as part of our state-building – our legislation, law enforcement, judicial system, our elections – are all established and operated according to international standards. What we have to do is restore historical justice.”

For Sahakyan, this means righting Moscow’s 1923 designation of Nagorno-Karabakh as an autonomous region within Soviet Azerbaijan. “This entity was itself created artificially when it was forcefully incorporated into Azerbaijan.”

The conflict dates back further, to rivalry between the Christian Armenians and Muslim Turkic Azeris who populated the area for centuries.

Nagorno-Karabakh means “highland black garden”, but locals call it Artsakh, or “strong fortress”. It is nonetheless deeply connected to and dependent on neighbouringArmenia. Its citizens, more than 95 per cent ethnic Armenians, hold Armenian passports, speak Armenian and use the Armenian currency, the dram. And Armenia’s 11 million-strong diaspora is a significant source of funds.

As Sahakyan concedes, it is not easy to run a nation at war over its very existence.

“Of course we think we have to settle this issue with our neighbour,” he says. “We want to discuss, we want to negotiate. Unfortunately, the other side is rejecting our proposals.”

The centuries-old rivalries behind this decades-old conflict are far from resolved. This country that doesn’t exist will likely remain in limbo for some time yet.

Dear compatriots,

The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia was adopted twenty years ago, on 5 July 1995. The Supreme Law is the pillar of each country’s statehood-building, the bright symbol of statehood formation, and the guiding landmark for social development.

The adoption of the Constitution in the newest stage of our history brilliantly epitomized Armenians’ ages-old dream to establish an independent state, became the testimony of our legal equality in the international family of states, and the key guarantee for the establishment of a sovereign, democratic, social state governed by the rule of law.

The constitution of 1995 played a fundamental role in the establishment of democracy in Armenia, the strengthening of foundations for a law-governed state, enshrining constitutional guarantees for protection of human rights and in the gradual improvement of state institutions.

At the same time, the progress in public life requires adequate constitutional developments. They ought to take us to a destination when it will be possible to finally state that democracy stands firm on the ground, human rights are reliably protected and an effective system of government has taken root.

Life has demonstrated that constitutional developments are an objective necessity. It was true in 2005, and it is true today.

Nevertheless, the irrefutable fact is that it is man who must be at the core of constructional relations, with his unbreakable dignity, inalienable and immediate rights and freedoms.

Dear compatriots,

I cordially congratulate us all on the occasion of Constitution Day. I am confident that regardless of difficulties we may face on our future path, we will achieve the desired results through national coherence, tolerance, a deep understanding of our place and role in history and through our responsibility towards the nation, people and generations, and that our new generation of independence will become the crucial bedrock developing our country through the establishment of constitutionalism.

Actor Vardan Petrosyan, who serves sentence at “Nubarashen” penitentiary, has announced he’s starting a hunger strike in support of the “No to robbery” initiative protesting against the electricity price hike, Tert.am reports.

“I cannot be there personally, but I can express my support to all participants,” Vardan Petrosyan’s sister quoted him as saying.

Armenia is ranked 66th among 174 countries in the BDO International Business Compass 2015 index.

Other countries in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia 43^rd, Turkey – 57^th, Russia – 100^th, Azerbaijan -65^th and Iran – 163th.

Armenia’s partner in the Eurasian Economic union Belarus is rated 85^th, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are placed 73^rd and 102^nd respectively.

Switzerland tops the list, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong.

The study covers 174 countries from 6 continents. Countries with less than 150.000 inhabitants as well as Cuba, West Bank, Somalia and Western Sahara are not included. Luxembourg is also excluded due to its special economic structure and its exceptional per capita investment flows.

The BDO International Business Compass measure the attractiveness of a country as a multi-dimensional concept in three dimensions: the economic, politico-legal and socio-cultural conditions.

The BDO International Business Compass measure the attractiveness of a country as a multi-dimensional concept in three dimensions: the economic, politico-legal and socio-cultural conditions. The appeal of a country is associated with its level of development. It is understood as a combination of economic, politico-legal and social factors.

President Serzh Sargsyan has sent a congratulatory message to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister David Cameron on the national holiday of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Armenian president has congratulated the queen, the royal family and the friendly people of Great Britain and has sent them his best wishes. The president wished the United Kingdom further prosperity and continued progress. Serzh Sargsyan expressed confidence that Armenian-British relations will continue to broaden and deepen to ensure the well-being of the two peoples.

In his congratulatory message to Prime Minister David Cameron, Serzh Sargsyan expressed his belief that only through joint efforts they will manage to further strengthen friendly relations between Armenia and the United Kingdom both in bilateral and multilateral formats.

Serzh Sargsyan today also visited the Embassy of the United Kingdom in the Republic of Armenia and congratulated Ambassador Katherine Jane Leach and the entire embassy staff on the occasion of British National Day.

US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick today met with the Armenian athletes leaving for Baku to participate in the inaugural European Games in the Azerbaijani capital, the US Embassy in Armenia informed in a Twitter post.

Attending the event were President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia Gagik Tsarukyan, the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Gabriel Ghazaryan, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, Olympic Champion Albert Azaryan and others.

The European Games will run from June 12 to 28.

The Armenian pavilion stands next to more than 10 others in the “Little Europe” Eurovision Village in front of the Vienna City Hall. The pavilion opened on the occasion of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 provides an opportunity to introduce Armenia as a tourism destination.

The initiative has been called to life thanks to the Armenian Embassy in Austria, the Austrian Development Agency and the Austrian Oriental Society.

On May 21 the Armenian pavilion was attended by Armenian Ambassador to Austria Arman Kirakosyan, Executive Director of the Austrian Development Agency Martin Ledolter and representatives of the Austrian Oriental Society.

They wished success to the Armenian participants at the Grand Final.

Syria’s army dispatched reinforcements to Palmyra in a bid to push back jihadis who advanced Friday to within touching distance of the ancient city, officials and a monitor said, AFP reports.

“Islamic State group jihadis are now one kilometer from the archeological site of Palmyra,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

UNESCO describes Palmyra as a heritage site of “outstanding universal value.”

The ancient metropolis stood on a caravan route at the crossroads of several civilisations and its 1st and 2nd century temples and colonnaded streets mark a unique blend of Graeco-Roman and Persian influences.

Since ISIS’s offensive began Tuesday night, more than 138 combatants – including 73 soldiers and 65 jihadis – have been killed.

But the governor of central Homs province, where Palmyra is located, said the situation was “under control.”

“The army has sent reinforcements and it is bombing the (IS) positions from the air,” said Talal Barazi.

According to Barazi, the inner city houses about 35,000 people, including displaced Syrians who fled there after their hometowns were engulfed in violence, and the suburbs host roughly another 35,000.