Author: Meline Chalian

Photo: EPA

 

Ivanka Trump is officially joining her father’s administration as an unpaid employee with the title Assistant to the President, the White House says.

The US first daughter bowed to pressure following an outcry from ethics experts at her initial plans to serve in a more informal capacity.

Ms Trump, 35, said she had “heard the concerns some have with my advising the president in my personal capacity”.

Her husband, Jared Kushner, is a senior adviser to President Donald Trump.

In a statement, the White House said it was “pleased that Ivanka Trump has chosen to take this step in her unprecedented role as first daughter”.

Ms Trump said in her statement that she had been “working in good faith with the White House Counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role”.

A French police sniper has accidentally shot and injured two people during a speech by President Francois Hollande in western France, the BBC reports.

The shot was fired as the officer moved position on a roof about 100m (328ft) from a tent where Mr Hollande was speaking in the town of Villognon.

The bullet went through the canvas of the tent, where drinks were being made. It passed through a waiter’s thigh and lodged in another person’s calf.

The injuries were not life-threatening.

Mr Hollande was inaugurating a new stretch of railway when a gunshot was heard. He interrupted his speech for a few moments but reports say there was no panic.

“I hope it’s nothing serious – I think not,” Mr Hollande said as he paused his address to ask whether anyone had been hurt.

The president later visited the injured – the head waiter of a local hotel and an employee of a railway maintenance company.

One local report said the safety catch of the sniper’s weapon had been unlocked, allowing the gun to be discharged accidentally.

Local government chief Pierre N’Gahane said a judicial investigation had been launched.

Congratulatory address of Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan
on the Motherland Defender’s Day

            Dear compatriots,

On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and personally myself I cordially congratulate you on the Motherland Defender’s Day.

I congratulate our brave soldiers, officers and generals who defend our country’s and people’s security through their daily selfless service, who stand in critical moments next to a serviceman protecting the border and bring their inestimable participation in defending the Motherland.

Today is a holiday for our entire people, as we repeatedly mentioned, we are defending our country all together – workers and physicians, pedagogues and philanthropists, residents from remote village and school children from the Diaspora. The Four Day April War has once again proved this undeniable truth. The Motherland is grateful to all its devotees.

Dear friends,

I once again congratulate all of you, wishing peace, robust health, successes and all the best to you, unshakable spirit and safe service to our soldiers.

The NKR Foreign Ministry has issued a statement on the Constitutional Referendum held in Artsakh on February 20:

On 20 February 2017, a national referendum on a new draft Constitution was held in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh Republic). The turnout has been 76, 44 per cent of the registered voters, of which 87, 6 per cent supported the adoption of the new Constitution. Around 100 international observers from 30 countries monitored the voting process and positively assessed the organization and conduct of the referendum noting their transparency and compliance with international standards.

The new Constitution is to continue the traditions of state building enshrined in the first constitution, further strengthen the sovereignty of the country, and promote human rights and the rule of law, to improve public administration, enroot the independent judiciary and reform the local self-government. A key innovation was the increase of direct participation of citizens in public affairs by providing them with the right to legislative initiative, as well as on proposing amendments to the Constitution.

The referendum on 20 February has become another act of expression of will by the people of Artsakh, in exercising their right to determine their own future, as enshrined in fundamental international documents.

The attempts of Baku to suppress by all means, including military, this inherent right of the people of Artsakh, lead to the outbreak of the armed conflict. It remains a major source of persistent tension in the region and the reason for the lack of progress in the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

The democratic development of Artsakh’s statehood is an irreversible process. Reluctance of Azerbaijan to recognize this fact through denial of the right to self-determination realized by the people of Artsakh is an attempt to return to the past, which is doomed to failure.

The WBO eliminator at super middleweight between former WBA light heavyweight contender Robin Krasniqi (46-4) and and former WBO champ Arthur Abraham (45-5) will go ahead April 22 at the Congress Center in Erfurt,  reports.

It´s a fine matchup with the winner heading for a world title fight while loser faces a long way back.

On 18 February President Bako Sahakyan received members of delegations from Latvia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom, Romania, Slovakia and Belgium comprising lawyers, civil society representatives and journalists, who have arrived in Artsakh to carry out an observation mission at the Constitutional Referendum.

The President highlighted the importance of the observation mission carried out by foreign delegations from the viewpoints of consistent development of democratic institutions in our republic, presenting objective information about Artsakh in various countries and cementing bilateral relations.

Issues related to the NKR state-building process, domestic and foreign policies and regional trends were touched upon during the meeting too.

Photo: Reuters

President Vladimir Put
in has sent condolences after a Russian air strike accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers in northern Syria, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, Sputnik reports.

Peskov said that Russia and Turkey will jointly investigate the deadly incident. The Kremlin spokesman said that Putin told Erdogan that Turkish soldiers had died as a result of lack of coordination regarding coordinates during Russian military jets’ strikes in Syria.

Russia and Turkey will improve coordination of activities in Syria after the unintentional strike, Peskov said.

The Russian and Turkish presidents held a phone conversation earlier on Thursday. Putin expressed condolences to Erdogan over the deaths of Turkish soldiers near Syria’s al-Bab, the Kremlin said earlier. They to expand military coordination during the operation against militants from Daesh and other extremist groups in Syria.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish General Staff said that an accidental Russian airstrike killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded 11 others in northern Syria.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption, after allegations that a former senior member was paid €2.39m  to engineer votes to protect the kleptocratic regime of Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, reports.

Pieter Omtzigt, a centre-right Dutch parliamentarian, is urging PACE leaders to launch a “deep, thorough investigation by an independent panel” that makes its findings public.

“We see a lot of suspicious outcomes of votes and procedures on Azerbaijan,” Omtzigt told the Guardian. The Dutch Christian Democrat is the co-author of a resolution calling for an urgent investigation and overhaul of the assembly’s code of conduct.

The Council of Europe, which was created in 1949 to protect democracy and promote the rule of law, has 47 members including Russia and Turkey. Azerbaijan joined in 2001, but observers have long raised questions about the parliamentary assembly’s weak response to ballot-box stuffing and human rights violations in the oil-rich country.

Human rights groups have blamed “caviar diplomacy”, gifts of gold, silver, silk carpets and the regional fishy delicacy, which are showered on visiting dignitaries to the capital, Baku.

The latest allegations are centred on Italian politician Luca Volontè, the former chair of the centre-right group in the parliamentary assembly. He is being investigated by the Milan public prosecutor’s office for allegedly accepting €2.39m in bribes, in exchange for working for Azerbaijan in the parliamentary assembly. Human rights groups allege he played a key role in orchestrating the defeat of a highly critical report on the abuse of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in 2013. Volontè denies any wrongdoing.

Many senior parliamentarians have warned that failure to carry out an independent investigation would erode the credibility of the human rights body, which was inspired by Winston Churchill, and sends election monitors to every corner of Europe. “It is not credible if you tell other countries to be open and transparent if you do not investigate credible allegations of vote-rigging,” Omtzigt said.

One fifth of PACE’s 324 parliamentarians have signed Omtzigt’s resolution, which states that “recent, serious and credible allegations of grave misconduct” risk undermining public confidence in the assembly. The signatories are a cross-party coalition, drawn from 25 countries, including the UK, France, Germany, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Greece and Ukraine.

Manchester United remain four points off the Premier League’s top four after being held to a 0-0 draw by Hull City at Old Trafford, Goal.com reports.

The Red Devils struggled for fluency throughout against Marco Silva’s side and the result could have been worse for them if a superb effort from Lazar Markovic late on had not caught the post.

United’s best chance fell to Juan Mata, who appeared certain to score at the far post when Chris Smalling headed across goal only for Eldin Jakupovic to make a stunning save.

Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool all failed to win in their respective league outings on Tuesday but with Manchester City beating West Ham, Jose Mourinho’s men remain adrift in the race for Champions League qualification.

Gita Elibekyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Tbilisi

The Georgian authorities assure that by agreeing to transit Russian gas to Armenia Georgia emphasizes the importance of economic and political rapprochement with the neighboring country. The issue, however, remains a hot topic in Georgia.

Under the pressure of the opposition, the authorities have revealed some details of the deal with Gazprom. Deputy Minister of Energy Mariam Valiashvili has said that “had Tbilisi not agreed to the terms offered by Moscow, the transit of gas through Georgia would be terminated and Armenia would get gas from Iran.”

“The existence of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is no secret to anyone. The capacity of the pipeline is 2.3 billion cubic meters, which is much more than Armenia’s demand. In case the demands increase, it will be possible to quickly reshape the infrastructure, just as Russia did in case of Ukraine, where such infrastructure did not exist at all,” Valiashvili said.

This statement raised even greater wave of criticism on the part of the opposition. Opposition MP David Darchiashvili says that “Georgia should first think about its interests rather than those of the neighboring country.”

“Negotiations on the deal were held behind closed doors, and the society does not have enough information about the content of the agreement. We have to be cautious with Russia on such important issues, as it is a matter of our national security,” Darchiashvili says.

Besides, the opposition insists that Gazpom has no alternative route for delivering gas to Armenia, otherwise it would have used it over the past ten years.

Although the opposition is confident that the deal is not fully acceptable, it helps solve a very important issue.

“To refuse from preconditions of Grzprom, as the opposition insists, would mean creating energy problems for a friendly country (Armenia), refusing from the function of being a transit country and breaking all ties with Gazprom,” says MP Gia Volski, a key member of the Georgian Dream.

“The Georgian authorities do not want to create additional problems for the neighboring country,” Volski said in an interview with .

“By accepting the preconditions of the Russian side, Georgia keeps transporting gas to Armenia, thus emphasizing the importance of economic and political rapprochement with the country,” he added.

Expert on energy issues Liana Zarvelidze considers that the concessions of the Georgian side are justified by the country’s position of maintaining its reputation as a transit country.

“All conditions exist for the delivery of Iranian gas to Armenia, the pipeline is there. Armenia could possibly get more gas from Iran, which Georgia would also use. However, Georgia is unwilling to endanger its reputation of a transit country by opposing the Russian side,” she said.