Armenian News... A Topalian - Unique Domain Suffix for Armenia
asbarez.am
.հայ Approved as Unique Domain Suffix for Armenia
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved a new Internet domain representing Armenia—.հայ (transliterated as “hye” in Latin script). The new .hye domain has been delegated to the Internet Society of Armenia, which requested the unique country code in 2014.
ICANN is a nonprofit organization responsible for monitoring Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation and other databases of unique identifiers related to Internet namespaces. In November 2009, ICANN launched the “IDN ccTLD Fast Track String Evaluation Completion” for eligible countries and territories to request respective Internet domains using scripts other than Latin.
IDN stands for internationalized domain name. A ccTLD (country code top level domain) is a two-letter domain that corresponds to a specific country, territory, or geographic region. “AM” is Armenia’s current country code used online.
Armenia’s new domain name was requested by the Internet Society of Armenia (ISOC AM). ISOC AM is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization representing major Internet service providers, universities, libraries, academies, research, and school networks in Armenia. ISOC AM helps manage and improve Armenian Internet networks, develop Internet domain naming policies, and facilitates the development and distribution of Internet standards and technologies in Armenia.
In 2007, ISOC AM became the manager of .am which represents Armenia in Latin script. In August 2013, ISOC AM announced its decision to begin the application process to request a new unique country code for Armenia.
After a call for comments and suggestions, members of the ISOC AM favored .hye, and in April 2014 formally applied for the country code through the IDN ccTLD Fast Track process.
In November 2014, a Fast Track panel found that the code “presents none of the threats to the stability or security of the DNS identified in [the IDN Fast Track implementation plan] … and presents an acceptably low risk of user confusion”. The request for the new code was subsequently approved.
With .hye, Internet users in Armenia will be able to request domain names in Armenian script.
ICANN requires that country domains be at least two characters long, be a “meaningful representation of the name of the corresponding country or territory,” and that the language used be an official language in the corresponding country or territory with either legal status or serving as a language of administration.
Support for .hye came from a variety of governmental and non-governmental representatives, including Head of Staff of the Ministry of Transport and Communication Gagik Grigoryan, and Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences Yuris Shoukourian.
A report published by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) which works with the US government and ICANN stated that, “as the current operator of .AM ccTLD, the application has provided satisfactory details on the technical and operational infrastructure and expertise that will be used to operate the .հայ domain.”
Future scripts currently under development include Greek, Japanese, Arabic, Thai, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Korean.
tert.am
168 ZHAM: DOLLAR MILLIONAIRES IN ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENT
16.07.15
According to 2014 property and income statements, 14 of Armenian MPs
are dollar millionaires, with their cash assets totaling US $223m.
The richest Armenian MP is Gagik Tsarukyan, whose cash assets total
AMD 33.9bn, US $30.37m and â~B¬26.3m.
Samvel Alexanyan ranks 2nd, with his and his wife's cash assets
totaling US $36m. Hakob Hakobyan, owner of the Yerevan brewery, is
the third richest Armenian MP, with his cash assets totaling US $9.6m.
Below is a list of the Armenian MPs who are dollar millionaires:
1. Gagik Tsarukyan 2. Samvel Alexanyan 3. Hakob Hakobyan 4. Gurgen
Arsenyan 5. Ashot Arsenyan 6. Grigor Margaryan 7. Araik Grigoryan
8. Arshak Mkhitaryan 9. Artak Sargsyan 10. Ara Aramyan 11. Manvel
Badeyan 12. Murad Guloyan 13. Artur Gevorgyan 14. Melik Manukyan
horizonweekly.ca
July 16, 2015
The Ramadan meal served in the yard of the St. Hripsimyants Armenian
Church of Istanbul's Sareyer District has frustrated the Armenian
community of Istanbul.
As reports News.am, citing Istanbul's Armenian Agos Weekly, on July 9,
a Ramadan meal (sahur) was served by the council of the St.
Hripsimyants Church of Istanbul and Sareyeri Municipality.
Later, it became clear that the council of the St. Hripsimyants
Church hadn't received permission from the Armenian Patriarchate of
Constantinople to organize a Ramadan meal for Muslims.
General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople,
Archbishop Aram Ateshian also mentioned that certain members of the
Armenian community claim that the Muslims also performed a namaz in
the church. He stressed that if this is confirmed, the Patriarchate
will only be able to recall its clergyman as a sanction.
Today's Zaman, Turkey
July 16 2015
Journalist and writer Hayko Bagdat has filed a counterclaim against
Ankara Mayor Melih Gökcek over the content of Gökcek's legal claims
against him.
In March, Gökcek made what some see as a verbal attack on Cem Ozdemir,
the co-chairman of the Green Party in Germany, writing on Twitter:
"I am asking Ozdemir just out of curiosity... Please give me a response
Cem Ozdemir... Are you of Armenian origin?"
Gökcek's tweets came after Ozdemir called on Turkey to recognize
the killings of Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Empire
as genocide.
In response to Gökcek's tweets, Bagdat posted several tweets mocking
Gökcek's question. "Reply Cem Ozdemir! ... You are said to be an
Armenian," posted Bagdat.
In his following tweets, Bagdat suggested that Gökcek is Armenian. "I
formally say you are an Armenian. In my opinion, you should sue me
@06melihgokcek," Bagdat wrote.
"The capital city [Ankara] was handed over to an Armenian! What a
shame! I wait for you to come to church on Sunday @06melihgokcek. We
are all grieving..." wrote Bagdat.
After these tweets, Gökcek first filed a criminal complaint against
Bagdat and then filed a lawsuit demanding compensation of TL 10,000
for psychological damages, arguing that Bagdat's remarks defining
him as an Armenian were insulting and libelous, and made with the
intention of harming Gökcek's reputation.
Bagdat also used a hashtag #melihgökcekermeniymiÅ~_" (Melih Gökcek
turns out to be Armenian), which Gökcek referenced in his lawsuit.
In response, Bagdat announced the lawsuit on Twitter, saying: "Turns
out Melih Gökcek sued me demanding TL 10,000 for calling him Armenian.
We are going to have so much fun."
After that case was launched, Bagdat filed a counterclaim against
Gökcek based on the content of Gökcek's claims against Bagdat,
stressing that the word "Armenian" had been used to defame and insult
him, amounting to an "explicit example of an attack on his rights
and honor."
Bagdat demanded compensation of TL 10,000 in damages.
AZERBAIJAN HOLDS ARMY DRILL, RISKING ESCALATION
Bloomberg
July 16 2015
by Zulfugar Agayev
Azerbaijan told hospitals to be ready for war and started what it
called "intense" military exercises, raising the risk of an escalation
in its conflict with Russian ally Armenia over the breakaway region
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
All medical institutions and personnel received "specific instructions"
from the Azeri Defense Ministry to "take the necessary measures to
prepare for possible military action that can take place at any
moment," the ministry in the capital, Baku, said on its website
on Thursday. The Defense Ministry said earlier in the day that its
armed forces began drills involving tanks, armored infantry carriers
and aircraft.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, frozen since a cease-fire 21
years ago, periodically threatens to spark a war on Russia's southern
periphery. Armenians took over the region and surrounding territory
from Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly warned it will use force to
regain it. Dozens of deaths have been reported this year in clashes
on the front line.
An escalation would pose risks to the energy infrastructure around
Azerbaijan. The Caspian Sea nation is the third-biggest oil producer
in the former Soviet Union, and also provides the only westward route
for central Asian crude that bypasses Russia.
The State Department is aware of the Azeri military measures and is
watching the situation closely, spokesman John Kirby said in Washington
on Thursday.
AZERI AIR FORCE HOLDS DRILLS NEAR KARABAKH
APA, Azerbaijan
July 15 2015
Azerbaijan's warplanes are carrying out training flights in the front
line zone, APA news agency reported on 15 July.
It quoted the Defence Ministry's press service as saying that warplanes
and helicopter gunships are involved in the planned drills.
The drills simulate combat scenarios and aircraft practise air raids
on an imaginary enemy's targets and interaction with ground troops.
APA embedded the video of the flights. ( http://az.apa.az/news/390640 )
It said in a separate report that military drills had been held in
Azerbaijan's esxclave of Naxcivan.
Night-time live-ammunition fire training was held in the army units
stationed in Naxcivan, the report quoted Defence Ministry's press
service as saying. Troops, warplanes, air defence systems and artillery
took part in the drills.
APA embedded the video of the exercise. ( http://az.apa.az/news/390617 )
According to the caption on the video, the drills were held on 10 July.
RFE/RL Report
Armenian Security Chief Chides Government Over Unpaid Wages
Sargis Harutyunyan ## Ruzanna Gishian
16.07.2015
The head of Armenia's most powerful security agency on Thursday
publicly rebuked the government for failing to pay back wages owed to
thousands of former and current employees of a troubled chemical
plant.
Gorik Hakobian, who runs the National Security Service (NSS),
unexpectedly spoke up during a weekly meeting of Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamian's cabinet that discussed renewed street protests staged by
Nairit plant workers.
The workers are accusing the government of failing to meet its recent
pledge to end the wage arrears by July 15. Hundreds of them blocked a
Yerevan street adjacent to Nairit's premises on Tuesday and rallied
outside Abrahamian's office during Thursday's cabinet meeting.
"There were around 500 protesters yesterday," Hakobian told
ministers. "It's not a small number. Their sole demand is as follows:
they want to get the money at once, all at the same time. Why? Because
they fear that you would pay a particular number of workers and [then
say that] the money has run out."
"There is no trust in our authorities," added the media-shy general
heading the successor agency to the Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB.
Abrahamian assured Hakobian that the government has already set aside
5.3 billion drams ($11 million) for the payment of more than one
year's worth of back wages. Energy Minister Yervand Zakharian, for his
part, said his ministry will now start paying the Nairit workers. He
said it needs up to 15 days to complete this process.
Zakharian reiterated this pledge when he met with Hrach Tadevosian,
the leader of the workers' trade union, after the government
session. Not all of the protesting workers were convinced that the
government will meet the new deadline. Some of them said they will
continue to demonstrate and keep up the pressure on the government.
"We are sick and tired of our long-running fight," said one
middle-aged man. He said he and his colleagues are worried that the
government will not fully honor its pledge.
The Soviet-built plant manufacturing synthetic rubber has barely
operated since 2011. The government laid off 1,700 of its workers in
January.
The NSS chief's remarks, meanwhile, came as a surprise for Armenian
political observers and, most probably, government members as
well. Hakob Badalian, a prominent media commentator, described them as
"extraordinary."
"This could be a warning that the situation [in Armenia] is, in a
sense, getting out of hand and that it is no longer possible to cope
with or suppress popular sentiment with traditional methods," Badalian
told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "This might also be a
message to the effect that changes are needed within the government
because the situation is so grave now that such changes are now a
matter of national security."
18:21, 16 Jul 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Famous English film director Sean McAllister's film A Syrian Love
Story is included in the competition of documentary films of the
Golden Apricot International Film Festival.
It is a story of love and family under the conditions of the Syrian
crisis. Filmed over five years, A Syrian Love Story charts an
incredible odyssey to political freedom in the West. For Raghda and
Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution,
their homeland and each other.
"I have tried to avoid politics as much as possible and focus on
the love story of a couple, which is more universal than politics,"
Sean McAllister told a press conference today.
Having left school at 16, Sean McAllister worked in a variety of
factories in the North of England before he picked up a camera and
filmed his way into the National Film School, where he graduated
in 1996.
His first film, Working for the Enemy was followed up with The Minders
and both earned him Royal Television Society Award Nomination. After
these came Settlers (2000) and Hull's Angel in 2002.
>From his early films to his more recent international successes,
Sean McAllister's films portray, with characteristic intimacy and
frankness, people from different parts of the world who are struggling
to survive but are survivors. They are caught up in political and
personal conflicts, trying to make sense of the world we live in.
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