Sports: Armenia names its top10 athletes of the year

Panorama, Armenia
Dec 21 2018

Armenian Ministry of Sport and Youth has published the list of the "10 Best Athletes of the Year" following the vote through SMS vote and the voting of the media accredited by the Ministry as well as the voting of the coaches of the Armenian Olympic and Non-Olympic sports teams.

The following Armenian athletes made it to the top 10: Arthur Alexanyan (Greco-Roman wrestling), Arthur Tovmasyan (Sports gymnastics), Ferdinand Karapetyan (Judo), Vladimir Harutyunyan / Lev Sargsyan (Synchronous jump), Arsen Ghazaryan (Sambo), Maxim Manukyan (Greco-Roman wrestling)
Simon Martirosyan (Weightlifting), Gor Minasyan (Weightlifting), Grigor Mkhitaryan (Sambo), and Edgar Stepanyan (Cycling)

To note, the extended list of the nominees comprised 21 names. The SMS voting took place on December 7-21, and the media and coaches voted on December 21. 

Numerous staff members, officials of culture and Diaspora ministries declare strike, protest governmental optimization plan

Category
Society

Numerous staff members of the Ministry of Diaspora and Ministry of Culture are on strike, protesting the optimization plan of the government that envisages merging the culture ministry with the ministry of education and science, and the Diaspora ministry will become be downgraded to a department under the foreign ministry.

Diaspora ministry officials protesting outside the ministry building near Republic Square in Yerevan claim that the ministry is fulfilling all its functions duly. They argue that their functions are not the same as the foreign ministry’s functions. They also have fears of losing their jobs as a result of the ministry’s dissolution.

Staff of the culture ministry oppose merging with the education and science ministry. They say that culture is Armenia’s visiting card, and therefore the ministry of culture should be given broad authority and resources to preserve culture and to create a society developed on national system of values.

The protesting staff of the ministries walked towards the governmental headquarters in Republic Square and are planning to convey a letter to caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The protestors argue that dissolving or merging the ministries at once is wrong. They suggest examining and analyzing the functions of each staff member, make assessments, and then only make optimizations.

168: Bio-labs in Armenia are civilian, military presence is ruled out – foreign ministry

Category
Society

Biological laboratories operating in Armenia are of civilian nature, and military presence there is ruled out, foreign ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan told a press briefing.

“The sanitary-epidemic control sector is part of the Armenian-Russian bilateral relations. A dialogue exists over this matter, however these laboratories belong to Armenia and have civilian nature. There cannot be any talk about a military presence there in the case of Armenia,” she said.

Earlier Russian FM Sergey Lavrov had said during an interview that Armenia and Russia are currently working on the draft of a document that will guarantee the absence of foreign military in Armenia. He was speaking in the context of the laboratories.

Sports: Rex Kalamyan to discuss programs related to Armenian basketball

MediaMax, Armenia
Dec 21 2018
 
 
Rex Kalamyan to discuss programs related to Armenian basketball
 
 
General Manager of Basketball Federation of Armenia Artur Nazaryan is in the United States on a working visit.
 
He met with Los Angeles Clippers’ assistant coach, Armenian specialist Rex Kalamyan.
 
Specialist, who has worked in NBA for many years, has mentioned that he is ready to discuss programs related to Armenian basketball and hopes that Armenians from California will continue to be involved in Armenian basketball.
 
 

Armenia dreams turn sour as immigration firm dupes 22 city youths

The Tribune, India
Dec 20 2018


Armenia dreams turn sour as immigration firm dupes 22 city youths

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 20

A city-based immigration firm allegedly duped around 22 city residents of approximately Rs 18 lakhs on the pretext of sending them to Armenia. As per residents who are now terming it a fraud, the travel agent of the firm has locked the office and is absconding now.

Lakhvir Singh, Jatinder Singh, Baldev Singh from the city and Bittu from Amritsar, among others, said, “An immigration firm, Standard Life, that was operating in the Basant Nagar area has cheated us. The owner of the firm, Mandeep Singh, and his assistant Simarjit Kaur had promised us of providing work visa and jobs of food packers and drivers in Armenia. They charged Rs 90,000 from each candidate. There are 22 candidates cheated by the firm. The travel agent not only fled away with the money, but also did not return our passports.”

They said, “Even the air travel tickets provided by them were fake and we had to return from the Delhi airport after the authorities concerned raised questions over the authenticity of the documents/tickets. When we contacted the assistant working at the immigration firm, she told us that the tickets have exceeded the travel time limit and asked us to return to Bathinda so that she could provide fresh tickets to us. But when we came back to Bathinda from Delhi, we were shocked to see that the office of the immigration firm was lying locked. ”

The victims have submitted a written complaint to SSP Nanak Singh and urged him to do the needful.

Tbilisi: Nagorno-Karabakh: a Small Conflict with Big Repercussions

Georgia Today
Dec 20 2018

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan around Nagorno-Karabakh has reached a dangerous level, where the existing status quo is difficult to preserve due to the military successes of Azerbaijan and inherent problems of Armenia’s dependence on Russia. Nevertheless, as Moscow has biggest stakes in the conflict, it will continue to supply arms to both Baku and Yerevan to keep the military balance, preserve the existing state of affairs, as well as deny any other power, such as Turkey and Iran, possibilities to increase their influence in the conflict resolution process.

Unlike other breakaway conflicts across the former Soviet space, the one around Nagorno-Karabakh has not been frozen since its inception in the early 1990s. Daily ceasefire violations can at times reach more than 100 instances, which limits the possibility of reaching a peaceful resolution to the standoff where Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked. However, as the near-war between the two sides showed in April 2016, the conflict is not static but is susceptible to changing geopolitical circumstances.

Beyond the immediate situation on the contact line, any progress towards resolution of the conflict is complicated by the many actors which have geopolitical interests in the South Caucasus. One of the major powers is Turkey, for which Azerbaijan is an important economic and military ally. Since the end of the Soviet Union, the two countries have developed a network of railway and pipeline infrastructure spanning from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish border through Georgian territory. Geopolitically, Turkey has resisted the expansion of Armenia as it will not only weaken Azerbaijan but will also strengthen Russia’s military position in the South Caucasus.

Another power which could potentially play an important role in the simmering Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is Iran. Since the lifting of sanctions against Teheran in early 2016 by major western powers, Iran’s influence is expected to increase in the South Caucasus. While until now this has been mainly in the economic realm, another area of involvement for Iran could be the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. And Iran already has experience dealing with the Azerbaijani-Armenian confrontation: in the early 1990s, there were some unsuccessful attempts by the Iranian government to mediate the conflict. Since both Armenia and Azerbaijan border on Iran, it is quite natural to expect from Tehran to try playing a bigger role in the conflict. However, Russia, which still is a dominant power in the conflict resolution process, would be opposed to any Iranian initiatives which can diminish Moscow’s role.

There are other powers too which are interested in the conflict resolution process. Yet, in comparison with the neighboring Turkey and Iran, the US and the EU currently have only nominal influence. Both are taking an active part in the Minks Process (the official name of the mechanism for the conflict’s resolution), but due to geographic distance, their direct engagement in said resolution remains minimal. This leads us to the remaining and arguably the biggest player in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict – Russia.

Russia’s Geopolitical Imperatives

Moscow’s indirect involvement in the conflict falls neatly within the Russian overall strategy of fostering and managing separatist conflicts across the Soviet Union. The Russia-influenced separatist statelets of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnistria have remained a cornerstone of the Kremlin’s foreign policy against the western military and economic encroachment. From Moscow’s perspective, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine’s pro-western aspirations would be stopped if not permanently, then at least significantly hampered if these conflicts continue to exist.

Although Moscow does not have its troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, it does have a military base – the 201st – in Armenia. Moreover, Russia’s influence in Armenia has been increasing over the past decade or so with Kremlin-backed businessmen and companies such as Gazprom and others buying up vital electricity, communication and gas infrastructure in the country. Yerevan has also joined Moscow-led integration projects such as the Eurasian Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Russia is also supporting Yerevan militarily through providing separate multi-million loans to buy Russian military hardware.

Armenia’s overall dependence on Russia’s economic and military potential gives the Kremlin the ability not only to navigate Yerevan’s foreign policy vector and keep it strictly within the Russian sphere of influence, but also to impact the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Moscow also needs to be involved in the conflict as it fears Azerbaijan, with its rich energy resources and strong military capabilities, would be able to limit Russian influence on its foreign and internal political processes. Losing any levers of influence to impact Azerbaijan’s foreign policy will be tantamount to the near collapse of Russia’s South Caucasus policy, which includes not only denying Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia possibilities to join western integration projects, but also to successfully export rich deposits of oil and gas from the Caspian Sea.

Any moves around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which could harm Russian interests will in turn embolden Russia’s geopolitical contenders Turkey and Iran. Turkey could increase its military cooperation with Azerbaijan, while Iran could potentially become more vocal about its broader interests in the South Caucasus.

For that reason, Moscow is increasing military hardware sales to both Armenia and Azerbaijan and thus tries to remain a major arbiter. When in April 2016 a near full-scale war broke out in the Nagorno-Karabakh area, Russia was the power which stopped the fighting by brokering a ceasefire in Moscow between the Armenian and Azerbaijani military officials. Russia is also very careful not to allow any of the competing sides to achieve ultimate military preponderance. It is true that statistically Russia sells more armaments to Azerbaijan than to Armenia, but this deficiency is more to accentuate Armenia’s need of having Russia as its supporter. In other words, Armenia’s military dominance would negate any logic of needing Moscow as a military factor around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Bearing in mind these geopolitical imperatives the Russian government has, it is thus unlikely to see any major shifts around the conflict. Russia will try to maintain the existing status quo, meaning both Baku and Yerevan will remain largely dependent on Moscow’s actions. Western influence as well as that of Iran and Turkey will be limited as Russia will continue pursuing its policies of isolating other major powers from interfering with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

By Emil Avdaliani

Six pairs of twins born simultaneously in Armenian medical center

PanArmenian, Armenia
Dec 20 2018

PanARMENIAN.Net – Six pairs of twins were born at the same time at the Research Center of Maternal and Child Health Protection in Armenia, Med Practic reports.

Two of the twins were conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), while the other four were conceived naturally.

“We are currently taking care of six pairs of twins, which is something unprecedented,” says neonatologist Anaida Asatryan, who heads the neonatal resuscitation and intensive therapy at the center.

Arms race in the region should stop, Armenia’s MFA Spokesperson says

Public Radio of Armenia
Dec 20 2018
Arms race in the region should stop, Armenia's MFA Spokesperson says

2018-12-20 15:49:36

The arms race in the region has always been high on the regional agenda

She added that Armenia’s acting Minister stressed during the recent OSCE Ministerial meeting that the reduction of threats should be of primary importance to the OSCE member states.

She also quoted Zohrab Mnatsakanyan as saying that the sale and supply of weapons simply contributes to the threat of its use. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan also advised the participating states to review their attitude.

“What could be business to some, is fatal to our people,” Naghdalyan said.    

“Reducing the arms race in the region is always high on the agenda of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign affairs,” the Spokesperson added.

She stressed that the arms race contributes to the growth of instability. The Spokesperson added that the Ministry has been raising the issue during meetings on different levels and on multilateral platforms.

“The position of Armenia is that the arms race in the region needs to be stopped,” Anna Naghdalyan stated.

MFA: Armenia biological laboratories are for civilian purposes only

News.am, Armenia
Dec 20 2018
MFA: Armenia biological laboratories are for civilian purposes only MFA: Armenia biological laboratories are for civilian purposes only

15:22, 20.12.2018
                  

YEREVAN. – The biological laboratories in Armenia are solely for civilian purposes.

Anna Naghdalyan, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), noted the above-said at Thursday’s press briefing.

She added that these laboratories were overseen by Armenia, and only Armenian specialists worked there.

That is, there is no need for military presence in Armenia’s case, the country is conducting no talks with respect to deployment of military personnel from third-party countries, and nothing is said about a military presence in these biological laboratories, the MFA spokesperson stressed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had stated that Yerevan and Moscow were completing the preparation of a document guaranteeing that there will be no foreign military presence at the biological laboratories in Armenia.

What for others is just a business, for us is a lethal tool: Armenia’s MFA responds to Lukashenko

Aysor, Armenia
Dec 20 2018

What for others is just a business, for us is a lethal tool, MFA spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said at a briefing today, referring to the statement of president of Belarus about sale of weapon to Azerbaijan. She stressed that Armenia’s foreign ministry always keeps in the limelight the agenda of prevention of arms race in the region.

“I also want to add that the arms race results in growth of instability. It is a principal position for us that the arms race in the region should be prevented,” Anna Naghdalyan said.

“We may state for sure that the Armenian armed forces have high sense of responsibility and high level of preparedness to guarantee the security of Armenia and Artsakh. We simply realize the consequences of growth of escalation in the region,” Anna Naghdalyan said.