Saturday 30 April 2016

Armenian News... A Topalian... Armenia's Best Champions at Chess!


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Norway Chess: Armenia’s Aronian beats World Champion Carlsen
28 Apr 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan 


Amenian GM Levon Aronian beat World Champion Magnus Carlsen in Round 
8 of the Norway Chess-2016 super tournament. 

This marked Levon’s second subsequent victory in the tournament. The 
Amenian had beat Pavel Eljanov in Round 7. 


Kim Kardashian West blasts Wall Street Journal over advert 

armradio.am
Azerbaijan shells Martakers and Mataghis, two Armenian servicemen killed
26 Apr 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan 


The NKR Defense Ministry reports about 80 cases of ceasefire violation
by teh Azebaijani side last night.

The rival used alll types of artillery weapons, 60 and 82 mm mortars,
RPG-7, HHN-9 and HAN-17 grenade launchers, ZU-23 antiaircrat systm,
TR_reactive missile system and a tank.

The Aebaijani side also used an MM-21 multiple rocket launcher as it
shelled the settlements of Martakertand mataghis.

Contract servicmen of the NKR Defense Army Tigran Mkhitary Poghosyan
(born in 1992) and Aramn Nikol Arushanyan (born in 1972) were killed
as a esult of violation of agreement on ceasefire.

The NKR Defense Ministry shares the sorrow of the heavy loss an
expressed its condolcenes to the families and friends of the killed
servicemen.

The Karabakh foces reorted to etaliatory means to neutralize teh
actions of teh rival, targeting frontline positions, inflicting human
and equipment losses. 


news.am 
Karabakh President: We immediately got prepared after listening 
to Azerbaijan’s statement
28.04.2016 

On the days of four-day April war, the Nagorno-Katabakh
authorities had accepted the Azerbaijani Defense Minister’s statement
to bombard Stepenakert and got prepared to counterattack in case of
such development, Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan said in an
interview with Artsakh Public Television and Mediaton company.

“We accepted that statement and immediately got ready for such
development. Calling their aims into question would mean that we
continue staying misled. Our child killed at school, the bodies of our
beheaded sons, our 90-year-old parents shot in their flat and other
atrocities [committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces] prove that they
were once again coming to behead all of us, tear into pieces the tombs
of our ancestors, as well as rape our women and sisters. Therefore, we
have to give relevant qualifications to their actions and carry out
all our further actions considering that cruel truth,” Sahakyan said.

He also noted that following that, he ordered to bring to the firing
positions anti-aircraft autocannons, multiple rocket launchers and
rocket systems, including long range multiple launch rocket systems.

“If Azerbaijan made such a step, we would immediately open fire and
the response would be adequate in case of such development,” he said.

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 28 2016
Azerbaijan to be forced to take decisive measures in 
Nagorno-Karabakh 

The Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan said that the country
may take decisive measures, if Armenia continues provocations in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

"If the international community continues to remain silent, Azerbaijan
will have to take decisive measures to protect the civilian population
and put an end to provocations. From now on, the responsibility for
this situation will lie directly on Armenia and those who turn a blind
eye to its provocations," the President's Aide for Public and
Political Affairs, Ali Hasanov, said.

The Armenian Armed Forces have attacked civilian targets in Terter and
Agdam regions in recent days. Azerbaijani citizens were killed and
injured as a result of shelling.

Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan
were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars,
grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near
the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result
of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of
Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven
surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four
resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh
and the surrounding districts.


RFE/RL Report
Senior Armenian Military Officials Sacked
Sargis Harutyunyan
26.04.2016 


President Serzh Sarkisian dismissed three senior Armenian military
officials on Tuesday more than three weeks after the outbreak of heavy
fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh that nearly escalated into a
full-scale Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

Sarkisian's press office gave no reasons for presidential decrees that
relieved Deputy Defense Minister Alik Mirzabekian, General Arshak
Karapetian, the military intelligence chief, and General Komitas
Muradian, the commander of the Armenian army's communication units, of
their duties.

Mirzabekian also headed the Armenian Defense Ministry's Department on
Material-Technical Procurements charged with supplying Armenia's Armed
Forces with weapons and ammunition.

The presidential office could not be reached for comment. The Defense
Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, declined to comment on the
sackings.

Koryun Nahapetian, the pro-government chairman of an Armenian
parliament committee on defense and security, confirmed that they
resulted from "shortcomings" in the Armenian military's response to
the April 2 Azerbaijani offensive in Karabakh. About 80 Armenian
soldiers and volunteers were killed during four-day hostilities
stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

"It is obvious that the four-day war exposed new problems that need to
be addressed promptly," Nahapetian "Also, time is needed for a
comprehensive analysis of shortcomings and omissions that exist in our
national security system."

The Azerbaijani assault seems to have taken Armenia's and Karabakh's
armed forces by surprise. Azerbaijani troops captured several heights
at northern and southern sections of the Karabakh "line of contact"
but failed to advance farther. According to independent sources in
Baku, at least 92 Azerbaijani soldiers, many of them members of
special forces, died in action.

The hostilities raised questions about the Armenian army's apparent
lack of prior knowledge of the assault. Critics also suggested that
Armenian frontline troops did not have sufficient modern weapons and
other military equipment when they came under attack.

Sarkisian insisted on Monday that the Azerbaijani offensive failed
because it was aimed at achieving significant territorial gains that
would have led to a "military solution" to the Karabakh conflict." But
he admitted that Armenian military intelligence failed to get "precise
information" about it beforehand.

"Had we had [such intelligence] the Azerbaijanis would have suffered
much greater losses and failed to seize those several meters [of
land,]" Sarkisian told the Bloomberg news agency.

Levon Zurabian, a leader of the opposition Armenian National Congress,
called for more sackings. "Many heads must roll now," he told RFE/RL's
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am)."It's only natural that such a process
has begun."

Zurabian stressed that the Sarkisian administration must not confine
itself to personnel changes within the military. "We need to radically
change the nature of our state," he said. "What we have now is a
criminal-oligarchic, corrupt system which has demonstrated its
inadequacy in the face of external threats."


RFE/RL Report
Armenia Sets Conditions For Renewed Talks With Azerbaijan
25.04.2016 


Armenia will not resume negotiations on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict unless Azerbaijan agrees to safeguards against ceasefire
violations proposed by international mediators, President Serzh
Sarkisian said on Monday.

In an interview with the Bloomberg news agency, Sarkisian also said
that heavy fighting along the Armenian-Azerbaijani "line of contact"
around Karabakh could again break out "at any moment." A
Russian-brokered truce, which stopped four-day hostilities there on
April 5, may not be enough to prevent another flare-up of violence, he
warned.

Sarkisian made clear that it is "unreasonable" for Armenia to return
to peace talks with Azerbaijan without security guarantees because
"the situation is entirely different now." "On the one hand we'd be
talking somewhere while, on the other, military officials would be
engaging in war here to try to settle the conflict," he said.

Sarkisian said the Russian, U.S. and French mediators acting under the
aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group must therefore put in place
"confidence-building measures" before any new peace talks. He singled
out "an investigation mechanism for violations of the cease-fire that
would pinpoint exactly which party" is responsible. Armenia also
requires "assurances that these kinds of violations will not happen
again," he added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the warring sides to
accept these proposed measures without "further delay" during a visit
to Yerevan last week. Unlike the Armenian side, Baku has opposed them
until now.

France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir also
stressed the importance of the safeguards against truce violations on
Monday as he visited Yerevan for talks with Armenian leaders dominated
by the Karabakh issue. A statement by the Armenian presidential press
service said Desir and Sarkisian agreed that the confidence-building
measures are critical for renewed Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.

"The resumption of peace negotiations and introduction of
confidence-building mechanisms will be the main focus of the political
meetings that I will have in Yerevan today and in Baku tomorrow," the
Armenpress news agency quoted the French official as telling reporters
earlier in the day.

Sarkisian also told Bloomberg that as things stand now, there is no
place for Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone to separate the
two sides. While talk of Russian forces being deployed "wasn't
entirely without grounds" in previous peace negotiations, "I don't see
any such opportunity" now, he said.

"If there are no negotiations, how can Russian forces appear in
Karabakh or between Azerbaijani and Karabakh forces?" said the
Armenian president. 


armradio.am 
Turkish leadership’s mentality unchanged 101 years after 
Armenian Genocide: Shavarsh Kocharyan
28 Apr 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan 


“Erdogan’s statement is a confession of the fact that the mentality of 
the Turkish leadership has not changed even after 101 years after the 
Armenian Genocide,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minster Shavarsh Kocharyan 
said. 

The comments come after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 
“Armenia is playing with fire” and reminded about “more than 100,000 
Armenians living in Turkey.” 

“The Turkish President is trying to threaten Armenia, linking the 
dependence of the Armenians of Turkey on the country’s authorities to 
his denialist statement released on April 24 this year,” Kocharyan 
said in comments to Tert.am. 

“According to Erdogan, Azerbaijan is different from neighboring 
countries and Ukraine. The only thing I have to add is that with its 
xenophobia, its mania of spreading a wave of instability and 
bloodshed, with its genocidal approaches, Azerbaijan is like and even 
identical with one country – Turkey,” the Deputy Foreign Minister 
said. 

“Such convulsive statements coming from both Ankara and Baku are the 
expression of their horror of finding themselves intentionally 
isolated as a result of their racist policy,” Shavarsh Kocharyan 
concluded. 


Newsweek
April 26 2016
At Least Two Dead in Bus Explosion in Armenia
By Damien Sharkov On 4/26/16  

At least two were reported dead when a bus exploded in Armenia’s 
capital of Yerevan, only a day after the country marked the most 
solemn date in its national calendar — the anniversary of the Armenian 
Genocide. 

The blast happened on Monday night as the bus travelled along Halabyan 
Street and, according to Armenia’s chief of police Vladimir Gasparyan, 
it appears the explosion may have been deliberate. 

Eight are reported injured, three of whom are teenagers and two have 
been confirmed dead by the Armenian government, although their 
identities have not been given. 

“At this point it is clear that this was not an explosion of the gas 
cylinder or from the diesel fuel,” Gasparyan told Russian state news 
agency RIA Novosti. He said it was “too early” to speculate on the 
causes of the incident but did say that, according to preliminary 
findings, a bomb could have been placed under one of the seats. 

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan called for police patrols on the 
cross section of Halabyan and Arzumanyan streets, where the bus 
exploded. 

The official investigation is yet to classify the incident as an 
attack and no group has claimed responsibility. However, the blast 
came at a difficult time for Armenia, only a day after the annual 
commemoration of the killing and deportation of 1.5 million Armenians 
by Ottoman authorities. 

The event has been highly politicised as Armenia and Turkey continue 
to disagree as to whether the event constituted a genocide or not. 

Armenian-backed forces have also engaged in a tense flare-up with 
Turkey’s ally, Azerbaijan, in its wantaway region of Nagorno Karabakh 
since the start of April. Yerevan officials have not linked the 
conflict with Monday’s blast. 


Catholic Culture
April 26 2016
Aleppo's Armenian districts bombarded on anniversary of genocide 

Islamic forces in Syria launched an artillery attack on Armenian 
sections of the city of Aleppo on April 25, the AsiaNews service 
reports. 

The heavy bombardment, an obvious violation of a ceasefire agreement, 
killed at least 17 people. Residents of the city's Armenian district 
stated their belief that the attack was deliberately timed for the 
100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide-- an 
anniversary that had been observed at churches in the neighborhood the 
previous day. 

Residents also charged that Islamic forces in Aleppo are receiving 
assistance from Turkey, and blasted Syria's President Assad for his 
failure to protect the Christian minority.

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