Author: Sonya Jalatian

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revealed the names of the crewmembers of the An-12 plane that crashed in South Sudan this morning:

Gevorg Tovmasyan
Samvel Hambartsumyan
Samvel Mkrtchyan
Armen Antonyan
Suren Petrosyan

The Ministry informs that the plane belonged to the Asia Airways.

Russia emphatically disagrees with the conclusions included in the of the Dutch Safety Board following a probe into the MH17 flight disaster, the deputy chief of Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsiya, Oleg Storchevoy has told the media, TASS reports.

“We’ve studied the document and I can say with responsibility that the Russian commission categorically disagrees with the report’s conclusions. These are fundamentally wrong and contradiction to logic is out of proportion,” he said.

“It seems the commission was picking evidence. The report does not have enough facts confirming the trustworthiness of the investigation,” Storchevoy said.

 

 

 

 

 

Armenia will have a new air carrier soon. The Alliance Airline has already purchased two Sukhoi Superjets, the company’s founding director Ararat Sargsyan told reporters today. The airline plans to buy another four planes by 2016.

The company will start working from March 27 after completing all procedures and receiving a permission to operate flights.

Ararat Sargsyan informed that the pilots have already been hired and will be retrained in Moscow in the near future.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime 100 times last night, firing more than 1,700 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions using 60,82 and 120 mm mortars, HAN-17 and RPG-7 grenades and TP-107 reactive rocket launchers, NKR Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The activeness of the rival was pressured a as result of retaliatory measures taken by the front divisions of the NKR Defense Army.

The Ministry said the Armenian forces confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact.

Croatia has closed seven of its eight road border crossings with Serbia following a huge influx of migrants, the BBC reports.

Officials said they had no choice after more than 11,000 people entered the country since Hungary fenced off its border with Serbia earlier this week.

 

Huge numbers of people heading north from the Mediterranean have created a political crisis in the European Union.

Croatian officials said roads leading to the border crossings had also been shut.

The crossing on the main road linking Belgrade and Zagreb – at Bajakovo – appeared to be the only one left open.

Matthew Karanian’s “Historic Armenia After 100 Years,” was presented at the Armenian Embassy in Canada.

Matthew Karanian is the author of the first travel guide to Armenia, and work as lawyer in California. He lectured at the American University of Armenia from 2002 to 2006.

After Ambassador Armen Yeganian’s opening remarks, Karanian offered a lecture on Armenian cultural heritage. He spoke about the six regions of Western Armenia, the hidden Armenians and church-building in Armenia.

Under the auspices of the Armenian Embassy in Canada, Karanian also presented his book in Montreal and Toronto.

All state agencies are prepared to make prompt and balanced decisions in any situation envisaged by the scenario of the “Shant-2015” strategic command post exercises, Deputy Chief of General Staff of RA Armed Forces Movses Hakobyan told a press conference today. According to him, the country has been brought to a high level of combat readiness, Armenpress reports.

“The exercises aim to reveal the potential of the state in case of possible war. This is the first time Armenia is holding exercises of such scale, involving all state agencies,” Hakobyan said.

“It’s still untimely to assess the results, the outcome will be summed up at a later stage. The agencies get certain assignments, some of which should be applied in practice. All participating bodies will get assessed,” Movses Hakobyan said.

He stressed that the Armenian Armed Forces have seriously prepared for the military exercise and have all kind of material resources stored for as long as 65 days.

 

 

 

Fossils recently recovered from the bottom of Lake Sevan may come to refute earlier beliefs that no aurochs or bisons lived in Armenia.

The at the intersection of Large and Small Sevans at the depth of 6-7 meters could be part of a backbone of a prehistoric animal.

Specialists say a DNA test is needed to establish the facts. They warn, however, that the test will completely destroy the fossil.

Rafael Mkrtchyan, Head of the Diving Department of “AYAS” Nautical Research Club says they have found a lot of items at the bottom of Lake Sevan over years, but never a bone.

Members of the club conduct the research on their own, but say government support is needed.

To preserve the remains it’s necessary to establish a museum and find funds for future research, they say.

Photos by Anna Martikyan, Public Radio of Armenia

A number of foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists, who have been arrested by the Syrian army, have confessed that they were trained in Turkey by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, reports. 

The Takfiri militants, who were caught recently in the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo, confessed in interviews broadcast by the Syrian state TV on Sunday that military personnel from the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar had trained them on Turkey’s soil.

One of the terrorists, identified as Ahmad Mustafa Mastari, said that he, along with other members of a terrorist group, had been sent to Aleppo after received military training in Turkey for 30 days.

He added that the foreign personnel had trained them for 45 days in the city of Salqin in the Syrian province of Idleb before the training in Turkey.

“I was among the force that attacked Jam’yat al-Zahraa in Aleppo, we were about 250 persons, but the operation failed and we were arrested by the army” Mastari said.

Another terrorist, called Mohammad Aqel Akk, said a group of terrorists, including himself, had been trained for 45 days in Salqin, adding that they were later sent to Turkey to complete their training.

He went on to say that besides receiving training, every trainee was given USD 200 in Turkey.

“We then returned to Aleppo and commenced a huge attack on army posts in Aleppo, but our operation was a failure and we got caught,” he added.

Qasem Abdullah, a terrorist who was caught by the Syrian army in Aleppo, said that he received five months of training in Turkey where he was receiving about USD 80 per month.

He added that he was among a group of 50 gunmen who took part in a failed attack in Aleppo.

“A number of us, including me, were injured in the attack and we decided to surrender to the army” he said.