Author: Varazdat Torgomian

Salvador Sobral from Portugal won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Amar Pelos Dois’.

This is the country’s first time taking home the trophy. After 53 years of trying they had never even made it to the top five.

Bulgaria and Moldova came in the 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Armenia was placed 18th.

The second Semi-Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Kyiv, Ukraine. In total 18 countries competed for the remaining ten places in the Grand Final.

The second Semi-Final was broadcast live from the International Exhibition Centre in Ukraine’s capital. The following ten countries qualified for the Grand Final (in the order they were announced): Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Denmark, Israel, Romania, Norway, the Netherlands and Austria.

The final result was determined through a combination of scores received from national expert juries and televoting. The national expert juries had already casted their votes after watching the live feed of the Dress Rehearsal held on 10th May.

Serbia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Malta, Ireland, San Marino, Switzerland, Lithuania and Estonia failed to make it through to the Final.

Republic of Artsakh Ombudsman Ruben Melikyan recently completed a ten-day tour organized by the ANCA Eastern Region to highlight Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses and the potential war crimes committed during the Four-Day War in April 2016. The Ombudsman made stops in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington, DC, New York, and New Jersey holding over 40 meetings with government officials, media representatives, and NGOs active in the fields of human and legal rights.

“We were happy to be able to connect Mr. Melikyan with key officials and groups during his visit to the U.S.,” said ANCA-ER Community Outreach and Communications Director Dr. Artur Martirosyan. “Today, in the midst of rising autocratic and populist tendencies in the entire region, Artsakh stands as a beacon of democracy, human rights, and freedom. We are proud of the progress that the Artsakh Republic has made in upholding Western values and traditions since its independence a quarter century ago.”

His Washington, DC itinerary included two public talks and a series of meetings with various groups and officials. On March 15 Melikyan headlined an event entitled, “Human Rights in Non-Recognized States: The Case of Karabakh” at the prestigious Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Benedikt Harzl, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellow at CTR, moderated the event. The Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States hosted Melikyan for his second public event where he presented his recent report “Atrocities Committed by Azerbaijan During the 2016 April War” and answered questions from the audience.

“It is important to deliver Artsakh’s message throughout major capital cities in the world,” said Melikyan. “I am thankful to the ANCA Eastern Region for organizing such a fruitful visit to Eastern United States and look forward to collaborating with all of our partners throughout the Diaspora to raise awareness and understanding about Republic of Artsakh and its unique human rights situation.”

Melikyan’s visit to Washington, DC also included an interview with the renowned Foreign Policy Magazine as well as discussions with reporters from The Washington Post. He also met with other leading human rights, civil society, and public policy organizations discussing the general human rights situation in Artsakh Republic and the projects that his office undertakes to safeguard and further strengthen the overall human rights situation in the country. Melikyan also met with ANCA coalition partners In Defense of Christians, A Demand For Action, and the Hellenic American Leadership Council, where he shared the details of his report on the Four-Day War. The parties also exchanged ideas about regional developments and held consultations.

His visit to Washington, DC concluded with meetings held on Capitol Hill with various Members of Congress, including House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA), Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Dave Trott (R-MI), Jackie Speier (D-CA), and David Valadao (R-CA), and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). Melikyan touched upon the duties and responsibilities of his office, the general human rights situation in the country, and challenges facing the region. The Ombudsman’s last Capitol Hill stop was the event commemorating the one-year anniversary of U.S. recognition of ISIS Genocide, where Melikyan was present in solidarity with all the victims of this horrific atrocity.

In New York, Melikyan held meetings with the representatives of the Armenian Bar Association, Archbishops Oshagan Choloyan and Khajag Barsamian as well as leading human rights organizations headquartered in the city. A special community briefing entitled, “Human Rights in Artsakh Amid Azerbaijani Aggression” was held at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral and Fr. Nareg Terterian of St. Sarkis church hosted Mr. Melikyan on his podcast show.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov, Stéphane Visconti and Richard Hoagland and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The Co-Chairs briefed Minister Nalabndian on the results of the meetings in Baku.

The interlocutors discussed ways of furthering the Karabakh settlement process, emphasizing the importance of implementation of the agreements reached at Vienna and St. Petersburg summits.

Photo: Reuters

 

Iraqi forces have retaken the main government offices in Mosul as the offensive continues to oust the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, the BBC reports.

The advance could pave the way for an attack on the heavily-populated old city, where the militants are still entrenched.

Thousands of civilians are streaming out of the city every day.

Mosul is the last stronghold for IS in Iraq. The east of the city was recaptured in January.

Civilians say it was the heaviest night of bombardment since the operation to retake the city’s west began on 19 February.

The Iraqi forces launched a surprise attack overnight to storm the government buildings.

Although the structures are reported to be largely destroyed, they are a strategic and symbolic win.

Head of the Azerbaijani community of Moscow Region Qalib Agayev has been arrested after a criminal case was instigated against him in January.  The man  accused of fraud is currently under house arrest, reports.

According to the source, Agayev is accused of embezzlement of budget funds at the amount of 600 thousand rubles.

He received the funds in 2015 under the “Russia in the eyes of Turkish and Azerbaijani schoolchildren” grant program provided to the “Russian world” Fund of the Ministry of Education.

Agayev had to organize the visit of Azerbaijani and Turkish schoolchildren to Russia for a tour around the Golden Ring.

Presumably, the man used the large sum at his discretion.

– When President Donald Trump signed his executive order halting refugee admissions last month citing national security, he made it a point to say that religious minorities, especially Christians, would be given priority.

But some Christian refugees have been unable to enter the U.S. in the aftermath of the presidential order, even though the travel ban has been suspended for now by federal courts.

One family bound for Los Angeles is among the refugees held up in Iran.

George Haratoonian, a business owner who lives in Glendale and arrived himself as a refugee nearly three decades ago, was expecting his brother’s family to fly into Los Angeles on Feb. 4. They were planning to live with him until they got settled.

But just as the president’s order took effect in late January, the family received disappointing news: their visas to Austria, the first leg of their journey, had been canceled. Haratoonian was with them in Tehran when they got the news.

“We had hoped that this thing was a rumor,” he said. It wasn’t.

The Haratoonians are Armenian Christians, a religious minority in Iran. The family was traveling to the U.S. through what is known as the Lautenberg program, which benefits religious minorities. The program was originally enacted in 1990 to assist refugees from the former Soviet Union. Today, the program mostly benefits Christian, Jewish, Baha’i and other religious minority refugees from Iran.

Under the program, refugees transit from Iran to Austria, then on to the United States. Because the U.S. has no embassy in Iran, they must complete their paperwork in Austria before they continue on to the U.S. In order to get to Austria, they receive what’s known as a “D visa” from the Austrian government.

An Austrian government official confirmed in an email to KPCC that the visas of Iranian refugees in the program were canceled “following a procedural modification on the part of the United States.” The action occurred just ahead of the ban taking place. Refugee agencies believe that the Austrian government anticipated a policy change and didn’t want refugees stuck in transit.

Haratoonian said his family has lost much more than visas. They had quit their jobs, left school, moved out of their home and sold all their belongings.

“Now, they’ve lost everything. And now they are living like homeless. It’s ridiculous,” he said.

The family is staying in a vacant house in Tehran, owned by a friend. Haratoonian’s eldest niece spoke with KPCC from there.

“The house is totally empty, and all we have is the stuff we already packed for going to Austria,” said Haratoonian’s niece, a 21-year-old college student who withdrew from the university she attended as the family prepared to leave the country.

Administration officials are now weighing their options, which could include a revision of the travel ban to address legal issues and a request for the full Ninth Circuit to review the stay of the ban.

As his family waits for news, George Haratoonian calls his brother nearly every day. He dials them in the mornings, when it’s nighttime in Iran, calling from his party-rental business in Atwater.

“I just give them hope, I can’t do anything else,” said Haratoonian. “I can’t send a visa for them. I can’t send an airplane for them. What can I do? It’s devastating.”

Photo: Getty Images

 

Much of Facebook’s recent growth can be attributed to the spread of video on its network – and the company told investors recently it planned to aggressively monetise that success.

Today, it announced some ideas to get things moving – starting with a change many users may not appreciate, the BBC reports.

Videos have autoplayed on Facebook’s News Feed for some time, leading to a curious rise of “silent movies” as publishers adapted to knowing that the majority of viewers would be watching, but not listening, to their work.

But between now and the end of the year Facebook’s News Feed will be enabling sound on your News Feed by default, a move the company has been testing out on a limited number of users for a short while.

The firm said it had received “positive feedback” so far.

“With this update, sound fades in and out as you scroll through videos in News Feed, bringing those videos to life,” the company explained in a blog post on Tuesday.

“As people watch more video on phones, they’ve come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on.”

Thankfully – for those who don’t want videos to suddenly play out on the bus – if your phone is set to be completely silent, Facebook will not override that. You can also turn it off completely in the Facebook app’s settings.

High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatiana Moskalkova has said in a statement that blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition is unacceptable. The statement reads:

I consider it unacceptable to extradite Russian citizen, independent journalist Alexander Lapshin, from   Belarus to Azerbaijan.

Article 61, Part 1 of the Russian Constitution states plainly, “A citizen of the Russian Federation may not be deported from the Russian Federation or extradited to another state”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and related agencies have supported my position.

At the same time, I would like to remind Russian citizens going abroad that it is necessary to study and observe laws of foreign states.

There are 41,000 Georgians living in Armenia today, according to a study published by

“Georgia was one of the richest republics in the Soviet Union, and so, in 1990, very few Georgians – even among those with Armenian background – had reasons to emigrate to Armenia. Less than 2,000 Georgians resided in their southern neighbor country. The subsequent failure of Shevardnadze is nicely illustrated by the migration development in the years that followed: by 1995, almost 28,000 Georgians had moved to Armenia, and in the year 2000, this number stood at 47,000,” the study says.

“When the reformers took over in Georgia, many of these people decided to return to their home country. By 2005, there were only 31,000 Georgians left in Armenia, and by 2010, this number had gone down to 26,000. Now we are back to 41,000, giving support to the perception of many people that in the last years, Georgia’s economic fortunes worsened,” the Financial said.

According to the study, in 2015, there were 1,980 Armenian nationals residing in Georgia, while there were almost 41,000 Georgians in Armenia.

In search for the reasons of the difference, The Financial refers to the figures presented by the Armenian statistical office Armstat, which claims that wages are slightly higher in Armenia. “In 2014 the average wage was 788.5 lari in Georgia and 818 lari in Armenia (converted by the official rate of the Central Bank of Armenia). These numbers do not conflict with the fact that most sources state a slightly higher nominal per capita GDP for Georgia.”

“Unlike in Tbilisi, walking around in Central Yerevan evokes the impression that one is in a rather wealthy and very well-developed country. However, the suburbs of Yerevan do not look much different than the suburbs of Tbilisi, and the countryside of Armenia is in many places very dilapidated,” the Financial writes.

“A more plausible explanation might be that many of the Georgians in Armenia are in fact ethnic Armenians who moved to Armenia in the 1990’s for good, integrated in the Armenian society and just did not return their Georgian citizenships. They would still be counted as Georgian migrants living in Armenia, while in fact they are Armenians living in Armenia who are essentially culturally and economically indistinguishable from their compatriots.”