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Armenia’s Sargsyan and US Vice President Biden discuss relations

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Sarkissian-bidenPresident of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a working visit to the US, on Thursday traveled from Boston to Washington D.C., where on the same day he met—at the White House—with US Vice President Joseph “Joe” Biden.

The interlocutors stressed that Armenian-American relations constantly develop ever since Armenia’s independence in 1991.

As per Sargsyan, Armenian-American partnership is now at the highest level. Also, he lauded the US support to the economic development of and ongoing reforms in Armenia.

In addition, the Armenian President underscored the active US involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

Subsequently, the interlocutors exchanged views on this process within the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group.

Also, the President noted that, as a result of the atrocities taking place in the Middle East, numerous Armenians living in Iraq and Syria are also being killed and becoming refugees, and the Armenian spiritual and cultural heritage in the region is being damaged and destroyed.

Vice President Biden, for his part, highly assessed Armenia’s efforts toward giving shelter to a large number of refugees from Syria and creating possible living and working conditions for Syrian Armenians.

They expressed the hope that effective and efficient mechanisms will be developed to solve the problems in the Middle East.

Furthermore, Serzh Sargsyan and Joe Biden expressed confidence that it will be possible to face the present-day challenges by combining efforts.

Armenia’s Sargsyan attends CSTO Collective Security Council session in Moscow

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14985_bPresident of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is in Russia on a working visit, on Monday is attending the Moscow meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

At the beginning of the session, President Vladimir Putin of the host country welcomed the participants and wished them productive work.

Subsequently, the meeting was chaired by Sargsyan, President of Armenia which had assumed the chairmanship of the CSTO.

At the moment, negotiations are held in a narrow format, with the participation of the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Secretary General of the Organization.

Afterwards, the heads of the CSTO member states will continue the session in an

extended format, with the participation of the members of their delegations.

At the plenary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, the parties will sign several documents, including the Declaration of the Heads of the CSTO on fighting international terrorism, and drafts of the resolutions of the Collective Security Council “On the Secretary General of the CSTO” and “On the rotation of the officials-members of the permanent bodies of the CSTO.”

Within the framework of the meeting agenda, the leaders of the CSTO member states will also exchange views on the current global situation and future activities of this organization.

 

Karabakg: Aliyev Sargsyan meeting Saturday in Bern

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arton119994-480x270The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Bern, the capital of Switzerland on Saturday for talks with international mediators hope they soothe tensions in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The office of President Serzh Sargsyan announced the date and place of the meeting with Ilham Aliyev in a short statement. He said that the Russian and French American diplomats who cooperate with the head of the OSCE Minsk Group will also be present at the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit. The announcement was not immediately confirmed by Aliyev’s office or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

Mediators insist for months to the meeting being held in a context of increasing violations of the cease-fire along the “line of contact” around the heavily militarized Karabakh and Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In a joint statement issued on December 3, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of European Affairs of France Harlem Désir had looked forward the next meeting Sargsyan-Aliyev. They urged both sides to “dispel any misunderstandings that they are not serious in order to reach a negotiated settlement.” Sarkisian and Aliyev met recently in Paris in October last year. The two leaders had considered positive the talks.

However, tensions on the front lines were revived in November 2014 by the destruction of an Armenian attack helicopter near the border of Karabakh. What had led to a resurgence of deadly violations of the truce in January.

The fighting in the conflict area, with mortars and other heavy weapons, have again intensified in early and appear to be continuing unabated. The Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Zakir Hasanov said Tuesday that his forces will lead “even more devastating strikes against the enemy. “

The Azerbaijani army has reported two other victims who died in battle in its ranks since. She said one of the soldiers, Jafarzade Rashad, was killed by an Armenian mortar fire on Wednesday night. The defense ministry in Baku said Thursday morning that the Armenian forces violated the ceasefire regime with mortars, heavy weapons and other automatic weapons 84 times over the past 24 hours.

The Karabakh Armenian army contended, for its part, that the Azerbaijani forces fired more than 260 mortar shells on front-line positions in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. In a separate statement, she also said that Azerbaijani commando units tried nocturnal incursions unsuccessful in three sections of the “line of contact” east of Karabakh. “The enemy was forced to retreat, leaving behind a number of military equipment designed for special operations,” the statement said. “The Defense Army [Karabakh] has suffered no loss in the exchange of fire that resulted in”.

Friday, December 18, 2015,
Ara © armenews.com

Sargsyan: Armenia stands ready to render full assistance to France

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Armenia ready to assistYEREVAN. – The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on Saturday sent condolences to President François Hollande of France.

Sargsyan extended his commiseration in connection with Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

“Armenia stands with the brotherly France, and is ready to render full assistance at this difficult time.

“I extend my deepest condolences to you, dear Mr. President, wishing patience, strength and resilience to the friendship people of France and the relatives of the dead, and a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Armenian President’s message states, in particular.

Simultaneous terrorist attacks occurred Friday evening in six different parts of the French capital city.

The attacks claimed over 150 lives and injured numerous others.

ARF-D Paris Office: No Armenians among Paris terrorist attacks victims 

At the moment there are no Armenians among the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, Hrach Varzhapetyan, representative of ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Armenian National Committee French Office told Armenian News – NEWS.am

“We have inquired; there are no Armenians among the victims and injured. Armenian Embassy in France has in its turn inquired whether there are Armenian citizens [among them]. As it turned out, there are no such,” Varzhapetyan said.

According to him, they will finally learn whether there were Armenians or not among the victims after the corresponding lists are issued.

Simultaneous terrorist attacks occurred Friday evening in six different parts of the French capital city.

The attacks claimed over 150 lives and injured numerous people.

Armenia: President Sargsyan responds to Erdogan’s invitation (full letter)

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President of armenia-repons-to-erdoganArmenian President Serzh Sargsyan responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s invitation to visit Centennial commemoration event dedicated to the Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey, reminding his earlier invitation to visit Yerevan on the same day – April 24 – when the Armenians of the world together with the international community will be marking the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Panorama.am presents the unofficial translation of the letter in English.

Honorable Mr President:

I am in receipt of your invitation to take part in the ceremonies dedicated to the Centennial anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli.

Indeed, the World War I has been one of the most horrible chapters in the history of humankind that resulted in millions of casualties and crippled destinies.

An Armenian artilleryman, captain Sargis Torosyan was one of the conscripts in the Ottoman forces at the Battle of Gallipoli. He was an officer who devoted himself to the defense and security of the Empire, and for his faithful service and heroic deeds received military awards on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. Whereas the wave of mass atrocities and forced deportations, planned and implemented by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian people, that reached their peak in the same year, encircled even Sargis Torosyan’s family. Among those one and a half million Armenians slaughtered in the Genocide were his parents, who were brutally killed, and his sister died in the deserts of Syria.

It was because of these unprecedented massacres that Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide”, and it was the impunity of it that paved the way for the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur.

According to you, not only for Turkey alone, but for the international community as well, the battle of Gallipoli is an exceptional example of friendly relations born out of war, and the battlefield that reminds of bitter legacy of war is now a monument of peace and friendship. Leaving aside the well-known meaning of the Battle of Gallipoli or the controversial role of Turkey in two World Wars, one must not forget that peace and friendship first and foremost should be based on the courage to confront the past, on historical justice, as well as on recognition of full-fledged universal memory and not selective approach.

Alas, Turkey continues its traditional policy of denialism and by “improving” its toolset of distorting the history year by year, for the first time this year the centennial of the Battles of Gallipoli will be marked on April 24, notwithstanding that those began on March 18, 1915 and continued through late January 1916, with the allied landing and battles on the ground starting on April 25. What else if not the simple purpose of diverting the attention of international community from the events marking the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide is this now pursuing? Whereas prior to initiating any commemoration events Turkey had much more important responsibility towards its own people and all humankind — to recognise and condemn of the Armenian Genocide.

Therefore, I would advise to remember and include in Your calls of international peace also a message to the world to recognize the Armenian Genocide and commemorate its one-and-a-half million victims. It is the duty of each of us to deliver the real and undistorted history to the next generations, thus preventing the repetition of massacres and building grounds for the rapprochement and further cooperation among nations, especially those that are neighbors.

P.S. Your Excellency, I have invited You to Yerevan still a few months ago to honor the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide together on April 24, 2015. It is alien to our traditions to visit the invitee without receiving a response to your own invitation.

Source: Panorama.am