Author: Maral Takmazian

The Russian State Duma has ratified an agreement between Armenia and Russia on the creation of a Regional Air Defense System in the Caucasian region. The document was submitted for consideration by Russian President Vladimir Putin, TASS reports.

Russia and Armenia signed the agreement in Moscow on December 23, 2015. The document stipulates “the establishment of a regional Unified Air Defense System as part of the of CIS Unified Anti-Air Defense System.”

The main task of the system is to “set up and maintain air defense combat duty in the Caucasus region, keep the battle management system, the weaponry and the military hardware of the Unified Air Defense System on alert, cooperate with the forces of other regional air defense systems,” an explanatory note says.

In peacetime, the member states’ defense ministries are supposed to draw up plans for the combined use of the troops, their joint air defense combat duties, as well as operational and combat training.

Armenia’s Parliament ratified the agreement at the end of June.

The Parliamentary Friendship Group for Armenia was announced in the Federal Parliament of Australia by the group’s elected Chair, Trent Zimmerman MP.

The Member for North Sydney has been working closely with fellow MPs and the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) to re-form the group after the most recent Federal Elections.

Zimmerman told the House of Representatives: “Our relationship with modern Armenia – which celebrated 25 years of independence just this year – is an important one. I am pleased this has been recognised through the establishment of a Parliamentary Friendship Group for Armenia and I am honoured to have been appointed as its Chair.”

He added: “I want to thank the many members who have helped establish the group, including the Member for Hunter (Joel Fitzgibbon MP) and the Member for Bennelong (John Alexander MP) – both of whom have been such strong supporters of the Australian-Armenian community. I also want to particularly acknowledge the advocacy of the Armenian National Committee which has done so much to encourage the formation of the Group.”

ANC-AU Managing Director, Vache Kahramanian welcomed the formation of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Armenia.

“The Armenian National Committee of Australia always looks for ways to improve ties between Australia and Armenia, and the formation of this group – which has a sister group in Armenia’s National Assembly – is critical to achieving this goal,” said Kahramanian.

“President Obama and his Administration, as have past administrations, have repeatedly mourned and acknowledged that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,” Spokesperson for the US Department of State Mark Toner told a daily briefing.

“We also called for a full and frank acknowledgement of the facts of what happened around those deaths. And that remains our policy. I don’t want to get into terminology or how we referred to it. We acknowledged that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred, as I said, and we want to see a full historical accounting of those events,” the Spokesman said.

The comments come after UN Ambassador at an event honoring the Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel’s life and work.

Mats Hummels has backed Henrikh Mkhitaryan to come good for Manchester United.

The Armenian ace has struggled since his £26million switch to Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund in the summer.

Mkhitaryan has been restricted to just two Premier League starts for the Red Devils so far this season.

However, his former Dortmund teammate Hummels insists the 27-year-old will shine for Jose Mourinho’s men if he’s given the chance.

“If you let him play, you will see how good he is. I am 100 per cent sure of this. He is one of the best I have played with,” he told the

“But if you can’t play, you can’t shine. It’s easy! It’s really easy! I saw part of the game against Feyenoord.

“I saw part of the game against West Ham. There he was – always good, as he is always when he is on the pitch. He played at that level (raises his hands) all of last year.”

On the sidelines of the Ministerial Conference of the International Organisation of la Francophonie being held in the capital of Madagascar, on November 23, Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, met with Michaëlle Jean, Secretary-General of the International Organisation of la Francophonie (OIF).

During the meeting, the sides touched upon the outcomes of the OIF Ministerial Conference held in Yerevan last year. Within this context Michaëlle Jean mentioned that she recalls with warmth her visit to Armenia and the high level of organization of the Conference.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia and the OIF Secretary-General discussed steps being taken towards strengthening of the Organization and enhancing its reputation.

The interlocutors exchanged views on the preparatory works of the Ministerial Conference and the upcoming OIF summit.

Photo: AP

 

Donald Trump has asked Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, the BBC reports, quoting US media.

Senator Sessions, a former prosecutor elected to the Senate in 1996, has been one of Mr Trump’s closest allies throughout the campaign.

Meanwhile, retired three star lieutenant general Michael Flynn is understood to have accepted the position of national security advisor.

Both men have courted controversy over their views previously.

However, Mr Trump has yet to confirm the appointments himself.

Transition officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said Mr Sessions and Mr Flynn have been offered posts in the new administration.

However, Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer, who is involved in the Trump presidential transition, would not confirm the reports on CNN.

“Until Donald Trump says it, it’s not official,” Mr Spicer said.

Europe has criticized the detentions of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers and co-chairs.

The high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, reacted to the detentions of HDP lawmakers.

Mogherini said on Twitter she was “extremely worried” about the arrest of Selahattin Demirtaş and other HDP MPs and said she was in contact with authorities, while calling for an EU ambassadors meeting in Ankara.

“Very bad news from Turkey. Again. Now HDP members of parliament are being detained.” Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur said on her Twitter account.

A government delegation, led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, will be paying a working visit to the Republic of Belarus on October 27-28.

On October 27, the Prime Minister will attend a regular meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Minsk. On October 28, Karen Karapetyan will participate in the session of the Council of CIS Heads of Government.

Luis Suarez admitted there were questions to answer when he got home from Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Manchester City on Wednesday night when his children asked why he had not scored, the Daily Mail reports. 

Suarez was joined on stage by his son and daughter as he was presented with the Golden Shoe for scoring 40 league goals last season – more than any other striker in Europe.

“I told them don’t worry, we won and [Lionel] Messi scored a hat-trick and they were happy,” he said.

Messi and Andres Iniesta also joined Suarez at the event in Barcelona as the Uruguayan won the award for the second time in three years.

The scout who discovered him in Uruguay, Wilson Perez, appeared on the big screen talking about Suarez’s early days at Uruguayan club Nacional, where some fans labelled him a donkey because he struggled to score when he first broke through into the first team.

There were also words of congratulations from Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez.

At the invitation of the President Serzh Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev will arrive to Armenia on official visit on October 13 ,President’s Press Office informs.