Friday 16 June 2017

Armenian News... A Topalian... Cardiff Singer of the World


CARDIFF SINGER OF THE WORLD competition on BBC 4 TV
and on BBC Radio 3 

Anush Hovhannisyan is scheduled to sing  on 
Check Radio Times listings

16 June 19.3 -  main competition 
17 June 9.30 -  accompanied by piano for the song price 


Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
June 12, 2017 Monday
Candidates with Armenian origin lead in first round of French
parliamentary elections
The En Marche! (On the Move) party of French President Emmanuel 

Macron sets for big win in the first round of parliamentary elections, 
reports Armenpress.

The election results were also quite positive for candidates with
Armenian origin who are mainly nominated by En Marche! and the
center-right Republicans.

Pascal Chamassian (En Marche!) is leading in first electoral district
of Bouches-du-Rhône community of Marseille with 29.43% of votes, and
the second candidate is Valérie Boyer(Republican) with 24.68%.

Danièle Cazarian (En Marche!) leads in Bouches-du-Rhône’s 13 electoral
district, 33.99%, and Philippe Meunier (Republican) with 20.81% of
votes.

Coming to d’Eure-et-Loir first electoral district, again candidate of
Armenian origin Guillaume Kasbarian is leading with 37.12% of votes,
and the second is Republican candidate Franck Masselus with 22.15% of
votes.

Jacques Marilossianfrom En Marche!-received most of the votes (48.48%)
in 7th electoral district of Hauts-de-Seine Rueil, and Republican Eric
Berdoatireceived 27.91% of the votes.


RFE/RL Report 
Armenia `Reliable Partner' For NATO
June 13, 2017
Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia is a "reliable partner" of NATO and its close ties with Russia
have caused no problems for the Western alliance, according to a
senior NATO envoy.

The official, James Appathurai, described as "excellent" the South
Caucasus nation's increased cooperation with NATO at the start of his
latest visit to Yerevan on Monday.

"We fully respect the balanced foreign policy that Armenia has,"
Appathurai told a news conference. "It causes us no complication that
Armenia is, for example, in the [Russian-led] Collective Security
Treaty Organization or the Eurasian Economic Union."

"Armenia has been a reliable partner for NATO," added NATO Secretary
General Jens Stoltenberg's special representative for the South
Caucasus and Central Asia.

Appathurai met with President Serzh Sarkisian on Tuesday for talks
that focused on NATO-Armenia ties, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
broader regional security. Armenia's relationship with neighboring
Iran was also on the agenda, according to a statement released by the
presidential press office.

The statement said Sarkisian "recalled with fondness" his most recent
meeting with Stoltenberg held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels in
late February. Speaking after those talks, Stoltenberg praised NATO's
"partnership" with Armenia and spoke of "opportunities for us to
cooperate more closely on interoperability, defense reform and defense
education."

Despite its close military alliance with Russia, Armenia has forged
closer links with NATO -- and the United States in particular -- since
the early 2000s. It currently contributes around 130 troops to
NATO-led missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan and regularly participates
in multinational exercises organized by U.S. forces in Europe.

In 2015, Yerevan expressed readiness to participate in more such
missions abroad with specialized medical and demining
units. U.S. military instructors began training Armenian military
personnel for that purpose last year.

Appathurai cautioned that while the two sides will carry on with their
"steady cooperation" he does not expect "dramatic leaps forward" in
their relations.


Tert, Armenia
June 13 2017
Turkish-Armenian MP concerned over Armenophobia in Turkish press 

An Armenian member of Turkey’s parliament has voiced concern over the anti-Armenian propaganda in the Turkish press.

Selina Dogan, who represents the opposition People’s Democratic Party in the Grand National Assembly, called the legislators’ attention to a recent statistics revealing an increased hatred towards the Armenians, sources from her press service told Tert.am.

It comes after the Hrant Dink Foundation published a report outlining cases of hatred against ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey. The document revealed that Armenians were the most frequently selected targets in the Turkish media.

Particularly, in the first four months of 2017, different Turkish media outlets published a total of 1,876
nationalist articles or news items. of which 58 addressed different ethnic or religious groups. The study also found 2,335 racist wordings aired or published in the reporting period. 

Of them, 439 concerned the Armenians, 433 – the Syrians and 228 – the Jews and 2010 – the Christians in general. 
Dogan also called attention to politicians’ rhetoric which she said plays a big role in breeding social hatred. She urged lawmakers to be more attentive and delicate when choosing language in their public speeches.


Xinhua, China
June 13 2017
IMF encourages further diversification of Armenian economy 

On the 25th anniversary of Armenia's membership in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Deputy Managing Director of IMF Tao Zhang urged Armenia on Monday to further modernize and diversify its economy, reported Armenpress.

While acknowledging the significant progress made by Armenia in providing macroeconomic stability in relation to the steady growth of the economy and control over inflation, Zhang said Armenia needs to continue utilizing opportunities and addressing challenges in order to achieve stable and inclusive economic growth rates.

"We anticipate future cooperation with Armenian authorities and are ready to support Armenia and its people," Zhang was quoted as saying in his message to the Armenian government.

Armenia has been a member of the International Monetary Fund almost immediately after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.


World Nuclear News
June 15 2017
Russia to start upgrading Armenian plant in 2018
Rosatom plans to carry out work to extend the operating period of unit 2 of the Metsamor nuclear power plant in Armenia in 2018 and 2019, the Russian state nuclear corporation said on 13 June, following a meeting between its director-general, Alexey Likhachov, and Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.

A "large amount" of construction and commissioning work on the VVER-440 unit will include modernisation of its cooling towers, turbine unit, control and safety systems, and other equipment, Rosatom said.

Rosatom and the Armenian government signed an agreement in December 2014 on extending the operations of Metsamor 2 by ten years to 2026, and in February 2015 the two sides agreed on Russia's provision of a loan to finance the project. In February this year, Artem Petrosyan, head of nuclear energy at Armenia's energy infrastructure and natural resources ministry, said no issues had been found that would prevent the 2026 target.

During his meeting with Karapetyan on 12 June, Likhachov said Russia has "rich practical experience" in the implementation of such projects and understands the importance of work on the Metsamor unit for Armenia's energy security. The unit provides about 40% of the country's electricity.

"Armenia's nuclear facilities will in fact be thoroughly upgraded. Our common goal today is to move clearly on the agreed schedule, observing the unequivocal priority of quality work and safety requirements," Likhachov said.

The Metsamor unit, known as Armenia unit 2, is the second of two Russian-built 376 MWe VVER reactors at the site which started operating in 1976 and 1980, respectively. Both units were taken off line in 1988 due to safety concerns regarding seismic vulnerability, although they both continued to operate and had not sustained any damage in a major earthquake in the region earlier that year. Unit 2 was restarted in 1995, and is subject to ongoing safety improvements. Unit 1 is now being decommissioned.

news.am , Armenia
June 13 2017
Deputy Minister: 8 Armenian villages damaged by hailstorm 

Eight Armenian villages in Ararat valley have been damaged by Monday hailstorm, deputy agriculture minister said.

The agriculture ministry is calculating damages in other regions as well. As soon as the work is completed, the ministry will listen to the requests of the farmers.

In early April 2017 Karen Karapetyan instructed to submit proposals on the way toda improve the effectiveness of anti-hail installations, as well as to expand the use of anti-hail networks in two weeks.


ARKA, Armenia
June 13 2017
Armenian Sign Language apps wins international contest 

An application called Armenian Sign Language, created by One Step Ahead, a team of high school girls, became the winner of an international contest Technovation Challenge in the category Education, the press service of the Association of Employers of Information and Communication Technology reported.

In August the team will travel to USA to take part in the International Summit and receive the prize.
Two teams from Armenia took part in the international competition that attracted 99 teams from 27 countries.

The One Step Ahead, composed of 18-year-old schoolgirls from 10 Armenian schools had 12 months to create mobile applications to solve a problem of their community.

The Technovation Armenia program was implemented by the National Institute of Education and the Women and the Information Society NGO with the assistance of the UN Office in Armenia, the American University in Armenia, the Association of Employers of Information and Communication Technology Employers, Synopsys Armenia, Unicomp and the Enterprise Incubator Foundation.


Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
June 14, 2017
Properties of Armenian Church in Ottoman Empire' book submitted 
for publication
The National Archive of Armenia has submitted the book ‘Properties of 
Armenian Church in the Ottoman Empire’ for publication, President of the 
National Archive Amatuni Virabyan told Armenpress, adding that the book 
contains many important documents.

“They are original documents. They present in-detail which church has
a property. It can be a building, shop, land, school and etc. The
original documents on this are kept on us”, he said.

He said the documents in the book are kept at the National Archive,
specialists are exploring them for a long time. The book is in the
publishing house and will be published soon.

Amatuni Virabyan said they also prepare a repository about properties
of Armenian families in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. He said they have
information about 300.000 people in total, however, it is
understandable that there are much more data.

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