The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has released the list of the 128 participants of the play-offs for the World Cup.
Armenia will be represented by Levon Aronian, Robert Hovhannisyan, Arman Pashikyan and Sergey Movsesyan.
Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsenw will also participate in the tournament to be held in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. The World Cup will be held under the knockout procedure.
The Captain of Armenian National Football team and Arsenal FC midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has met with Consul General of Armenia in Los Angeles Armen Baibourtian. The Armenian player who is holding a training session in LA with his team was also welcomed by the Diaspora members and met with the press.
“Nice meeting with our Consul General & Representatives of the Armenian Community in LA,” wrote Mkhitaryan on Facebook along with sharing photos from the meeting. One of the photos depicts the player presenting his shirt to the Council General.
To note, Los Angeles is the first destination of the pre-season trainings of London club ahead of the opening of the Premier League season.
Hundreds of Armenian women have been sharing and publishing stories of sexual violence, for the first time bringing the traditionally sensitive issue to broad public discussion.
The movement began with the investigative news website Hetq publishing the account of a Czech woman living in Armenia who survived an attempted sexual assault. The piece, published June 29, recounted in painful detail the refusal of bystanders to help her and the insensitivity of the criminal justice system in dealing with sexual assault victims.
One journalist, Lucy Kocharyan, posted the story on her Facebook page. “Not long after, I got a message on Facebook, an active user in my Facebook friend list, who told her story and asked me to publish it anonymously so everyone knows that not only tourists are being abused in Armenia,” Kocharyan told Armenian public TV.
That inspired hundreds more Armenian women (and a handful of men) to write in, and Kocharyan has collected the stories on a new Facebook page, “Voices of Violence.”
The issue quickly garnered heavy media coverage and became Armenia’s most talked-about topic. The campaign “has shown that we have started to talk, even though it is still anonymous and stealthy, but we are already imagining that any individual story is a link to a larger problem,” wrote Nune Hakhverdyan in a column on the website media.am.
But the campaign also engendered a backlash. Some Armenians said that the anonymously published stories were fakes, or that the campaign was intended to get Armenia to ratify the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe agreement that requires signatories to take specific actions to combat sexual violence. Armenia signed the convention in 2018 but has not ratified it. (Among other regional countries, Georgia and Turkey have ratified the convention, while Azerbaijan and Russia have not even signed it.)
Domestic and sexual violence issues are hotly contested in Armenia, with social conservatives arguing that attempts to regulate the problem represent an imposition of foreign values on Armenia’s traditional family model. The “Voices of Violence” campaign revived those arguments.
“This movement is being used as a tool to push the Istanbul Convention, which is not authentic to the Armenian people,” said Arman Abovyan, a member of parliament with the Prosperous Armenia Party. “Why copy-paste something like this when a state can create its own mechanisms to fight this?” he told the news website 24news.am. “The convention will open the door to non-Armenian developments.”
Kocharyan said she had not even heard of the Istanbul Convention, but as it happened, just after the campaign began the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was launching a joint program with the Council of Europe on "Preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Armenia: Continuing the path towards ratification of the Istanbul Convention.”
Some in Armenia saw a connection. Sofya Hovsepyan, a member of parliament in the ruling “My Step” alliance, said the campaign was an attempt to blacken Armenia’s name. “For two days I have been trying to understand what was the reason that some people started remembering their stories,” she wrote on July 4 on her Facebook page. “It turns out that we are a ‘violent’ nation and we didn’t know it. Stop spreading these stories as if they describe the nation for the sake of promoting your idea.”
The post launched a vigorous debate, with one of her fellow “My Step” MPs strongly disagreeing. “If you want to understand, make a little effort to understand, at the end of it you are an MP of the National Assembly, and a woman,” Grigor Yeritsyan commented. “Have a little respect for people’s personal tragedy,” he said, adding: “Your opinion doesn’t reflect ‘My Step’s’ opinion on the issue.”
In a subsequent interview, Hovsepyan said she believed the campaign could be a means to push Armenia to ratify the Istanbul Convention. “It’s likely that it could be, why not?” she told the news website tert.am.
Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan came out in support of the campaign and said the government needed to do more to prevent domestic and sexual violence and to protect its victims. He argued with critics who relied on official statistics to claim the problem was not as significant as campaigners made it out to be. “In these cases statistics can’t be valid because in most cases people [victims] don’t go to the authorities,” he said in an interview with 24news.am. “For example, we see 50 cases recorded in the statistics and we think we don’t have a problem and can relax, but in reality it’s not 50, it’s 500.”
Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.
Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyuan sent today a condolence letter to the family of Arman Kirakosyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The letter runs as follows:
“I have learnt with deep sorrow about the untimely death of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Arman Kirakosyan.
Arman Kirakosyan was one of the best diplomats in Armenia, who while occupying various positions in the central apparatus and diplomatic missions of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs displayed himself as an experienced, competent, skilled specialist, decent person and true patriot.
He had a substantial contribution to protecting Artsakh's interests, providing accurate information about our republic in various international platforms.
Arman Kirakosyan’s memory will always remain bright in our hearts.
On behalf of the people, authorities of Artsakh and personally myself I extend my condolences and support to all the relatives and friends of the deceased and wish them endurance and tenacity.”
Senator Portantino (right) and GCC President David Viar’s testimony on behalf of SB 568 during a higher education assembly
SACRAMENTO–California State Senate bill 568, authored by Senator Anthony J. Portantino passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee on Tuesday. Glendale Community College’s Superintendent and President David Viar flew to Sacramento to offer testimony in support of the bill. SB 568 would help the college offset revenue losses associated with closing on April 24. This date is important worldwide to the Armenian Community as it commemorates the Armenian Genocide.
“When I was first approached by several GCC Board Members with this unfair situation, I promised that I would do my best to correct it. GCC should not be penalized by California for closing on April 24. It is my hope that SB 568 will pass the legislature, garner the Governor’s signature, and change state law to allow GCC the same flexibility that education code gives to the GUSD,” commented Senator Portantino.
Senator Portantino, who has a long and positive relationship with the Armenian American Community and Glendale Community College, has participated in negotiations with the Chancellor’s Office for the last two years to solve this issue. SB 568 is the culmination of those discussions. Under current law, K – 12 school districts like the GUSD have the ability to close and not lose funding. Currently, community colleges do not have the same flexibility, causing GCC the loss of an estimated $500,000 for closing on April 24.
“As educators, we teach history to ensure tragedies like the Armenian Genocide never happen again. The value of our college being able to declare a Day of Remembrance is an important part of that education beyond the classroom. We appreciate Senator Portantino’ s leadership in designing a solution that allows our students to participate in remembering the past without loss of state funding to the college as our students pursue their educational goals,” stated GCC President, Viar.
Rep. Brad Sherman’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would block the sale to Azerbaijan of U.S. armaments which could augment that country’s ability to shoot down civilian aircraft.
The California Congressman’s Amendment would Block U.S. Support for Azerbaijani Military’s Airstrike Capabilities
WASHINGTON—Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Tuesday filed an amendment that would block the transfer of U.S. defense articles that strengthen Azerbaijan’s offensive airstrike capabilities, reported the Armenian National Committee of America. The initiative aims to limit Baku’s ability to act upon its standing threat to shoot down civilian aircraft operating out of Artsakh’s Stepanakert Airport.
“This amendment will send a strong message to Azerbaijan that it cannot threaten to shoot down civilian aircraft. Azerbaijan must not be allowed to intimidate its neighbors. The last thing we should do is help strengthen Azerbaijan’s air defenses in any way,” stated Rep. Sherman, upon filing the amendment.
ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian concurred, noting: “This common-sense amendment is needed to signal Azerbaijan that the United States stands unconditionally against any and all threats to destroy civilian aircraft. No U.S. taxpayer-funded defense articles should ever be deployed by a nation that is on record threatening to use its offensive air capabilities to kill innocent passengers.”
In March of 2011, Arif Mamadov, the Director of Azerbaijan’s Civil Aviation Administration, reported that the Azerbaijani government had warned the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that it had not authorized flights to Nagorno Karabakh, explaining that “The law on aviation envisages the physical destruction of airplanes landing in that territory.” The Azerbaijani government has neither withdrawn this threat, nor agreed that its forces will not shoot down civilian aircraft. As a result, the civilian airport in Stepanakert has remained closed for the past eight years, depriving the citizens of Artsakh and others of their universally recognized right to travel.
The text of the Sherman Amendment states that “none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available to the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2020 may be used to transfer defense articles or services that improve Azerbaijan’s offensive air capabilities or air defense systems, which could threaten civil aviation in the Caucasus region.”
The U.S. House Rules Committee is set to meet during the week of July 8th, following the Independence Day recess, to consider whether this amendment, and hundreds of others offered to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), will be ruled in order and allowed to come to an up-or-down vote of the full House of Representatives.
Two judges who are hearing the case involving Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan have asked for guarantees of their safety. Iravaban.net reports that the judges have applied with the respective request to law enforcement bodies.
“Judges Davit Grigoryan of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction and Armen Danielyan of the Yerevan Criminal Court of Appeals have applied to the General Department of Combating Organized Crime of the Police of Armenia asking to provide safety guarantees,” the source wrote, adding the Police have approved the requests and has already taken necessary measures.
Catholicos of All Armenians receives Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Pavel
17:30, 8 June, 2019
YEREVAN, JUNE 8 ARMENPRESS. Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II received His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslav, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Pavel at Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, ARMENPRESS reports head of public relations department of the Mother See Fr. Vahram Melikyan wrote on his Facebook page.
His Holiness Pavel has arrived in Armenia at the invitation of the Catholicos of All Armenians. Ambassador of Armenia to Belarus Armen Ghevondyan was also present at the meeting.
The Armenian Catholicos underlined with satisfaction, that the visit of the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Pavel not only reaffirmed the personal friendly and warm relations, but also is aimed at fostering fraternal relations between Churches and further strengthening of partnership. Catholicos Karekin II recalled the years of their postgraduate studies at the Moscow Theological Academy
His Holiness Karekin II highlighted such visits, citing also his regular meetings with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, during which they discuss the problems and challenges facing the Churches and the ways to overcome them.
Thanking for the warm reception, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Pavel said that it was a long time he wanted to pay a visit to Armenia. He noted that he is well aware of the heroic historical path of the Armenian people and the Armenian Church and in different places of his service he regularly interacted with the bodies of the Armenian Church and the representatives of the Armenian community.
The two spiritual leaders exchanged views on the activities of their Churches.
At the end of the meeting the Armenian Catholicos wished his spiritual brother health and long years of productive activities.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan