Author: Zhanna Nahapetian

As a member and former Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Finland finds the escalation of the Karabakh conflict unfortunate and condemns all violence along the line of contact, Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini said at a joint press conference with visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

He urged the sides to respect the ceasefire. “We all know that there can be no military solution to this conflict, it must be solved in a political way,” the Minister said.

“Finland fully supports the current Co-Chairs – the United States, Russia and France, and all their mediating efforts,” Minister Soini said.

At a meeting in Strasbourg PACE President Pedro Agramunt and the Head of the Armenian Delegation to PACE Hermine Naghdalyan discussed the current situation at PACE in the context of debates on Nagorno Karabakh and the perspectives of taking the discussions to a more constructive field.

The Head of the Armenian delegation also pointed to the biased and unilateral wording in the statements of Mr. Agramunt during the recent escalation at the line of contact.

“We have always said that we don’t see the Parliamentary Assembly as a proper podium for consideration of the Karabakh issue but this becomes a necessity under certain circumstances,” Naghdalyan told .

Mrs. Naghdalyan dismissed the reports on sanctions used against the  Armenian delegation.

“The question refers to the criticism related to the lack of co-operation of the Armenian parliamentary delegation during the preparation of the report on the Sarsang Reservior during the January session. And the discussions were a follow-up to that report with no legally binding consequences,” the Head of the Armenian delegation said.

She said dissemination of false information does no honor to media outlets and does not benefit the country.

She informed that the Armenian delegates are actively working to present materials and provide true information about the recent developments to colleagues at PACE.

The French government plans to extend a state of emergency imposed after the Paris attacks in November to cover the Euro 2016 football tournament, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said, the BBC reports.

Given the scale of the event, security has to be ensured, he said in a radio interview.

The proposed two-month extension will require parliamentary approval.

The European football competition involves 24 national teams and runs from 10 June to 10 July.

The first hearing of the two Dink cases that are joined will be held tomorrow. At the hearing that will be held between April 19 and 21, 34 suspects, 8 of them being arrested, will stand trial together for the first time, reports.

Hrant Dink case will be tried in 14^th High Penal Court. The main case, which was joined with the indictment against the public officials who are claimed to be responsible for the assassination, will last for 3 days.

The court reached the conclusion that the cases should be tried together, because of the relation between the two cases and the nature of the alleged crime.

There are 26 suspects in the indictment which claims that some public officials are responsible for the murder. Suspects Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Ramazan Akyürek, Ercan Demir, Muhittin Zenit and Özkan Mumcu are jailed pending trial.

In the main case, Ogün Samast, Yasin Hayal and Ersin Yolcu are arrested.

Suspect Ahmet İskender, who has a warrant that is issued against him, is still a fugitive.

One of the suspects in Agos’ former editor-in-chief Hrant Dink’s murder case, Engin Dinç, the current chief of Security General Directorate Intelligence Branch, won’t be present at the hearing on April 19. Dinç’s excuse for his absence is the escalated terrorist attacks in Turkey. In the petition that was presented to the court by Dinç’s lawyers, it is stated that the struggle against terrorism is currently intense and thus, for Dinç, it would be hard to be present at the hearing.

The Karabakh issue is a very sensitive topic, and our approach should be very cautious  in order not to harm, Russian President Vladimnir Putin said during the Q&A session today.

“It’s an old conflict that has been frozen for years. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of violence,” Putin said, adding that “it’s necessary to reach a lasting solution, to find a compromise exclusively through political means.

“Russia is interested in the solution of the issue, we want to work fully with both Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the President said.

He pledged Russia’s support to the settlement of the conflict both in bilateral format and within the framework of international organizations, but added that “it’s up to the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan to find a final solution.

The NKR Defense Army has published photos of the uniforms, communications equipment and ammunition supplies the Azerbaijani forces left on the battlefield.

Massis Post – John M. Evans, former United States Ambassador to Armenia, will be the guest of the Armenian Studies Program for a special evening talk on his new book “Truth Held Hostage: America and the Armenian Genocide—What Then? What Now?” at 7:30PM on Monday, April 25, in the Leon and Pete Peters Educational Center Auditorium (in the Student Recreation Center, next to the SaveMart Center), on the Fresno State campus.

Ambassador Evans, who recognized the Armenian Genocide while U.S. Ambassador, was dismissed from his post by the State Department. In his talk, an unrepentant Evans will discuss his new memoir, which gives a blow-by-blow account of his understanding of the Armenian issue, why he criticized United States policy in 2006, and why he still thinks the State Department should change its position on the Armenian Genocide. Truth Held Hostage promises to reframe the Armenian Genocide debate in the United States and has already been praised as the most important work about the Armenian Genocide by a U.S. diplomat since Henry Morgenthau’s groundbreaking Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story in 1918, a compelling, page-turning read, and an even-handed account of a matter of international importance.

Evans first broke with the State Department on the Armenian Genocide issue in Fresno, and it is fitting that he will be back to update us on developments—and his thoughts about the future.

On 23 March Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received foreign minister of the Republic of Armenia Edward Nalbandian, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

Several issues related to foreign policy and cooperation of the two Armenian states in this field were discussed during the meeting.

Artsakh Republic foreign minister Karen Mirzoyan partook at the meeting.

On a working visit to the Russian Federation, President Serzh Sargsyan attended today the official opening ceremony of the “Armenia: Legend of being” exhibition at the State Historical Museum of Moscow organized under the program of cooperation between the Ministries of Culture of Armenia and Russia.

More than 160 unique items from the three leading museums in Armenia – the History Museum, the Museum of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts – are showcased.

The exhibition will provide the visitors with an opportunity to learn about the centuries-long history of Armenia, its multifaceted cultural traditions.

President Sargsyan left a note in the book of honorary guests: “It’s an honor for me, as the President of Armenia, to be in one of the oldest buildings of Moscow – the State Historical Museum of Moscow, where the “Armenia: Legend of being” exhibition dedicated to the centuries-long history of the Armenian people is on display. There ar many glorious pages of interweaving of history of the brotherly Armenian and Russian peoples. I’m confident that the collection of the unique documents and items kept here will be enriched with new valuable testaments of our everlasting friendship.”

President Sargsyan later participated in an award ceremony at the Armenian Embassy in Russia. The President bestowed a Friendship Order to Valery Zorkin, President of the Russian Constitutional Court, for considerable contribution to the reinforcement and development of Armenian-Russian friendly ties, the long-term effective cooperation in the field of constitutional justice.

Friendship Orders were awarded to Russian’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chayka and President of the Russian Investigative Committee Ivan Bastrykin for their contribution to the deepening of cooperation between the law-enforcement bodies of the two countries, the reinforcement and development of Armenian-Russian friendly ties.