Author: Knar Zadian

A court in Kyrgyzstan has upheld a government order to shut down the local affiliate of U.S. government-funded broadcaster RFE/RL, dealing another blow to critical media in the country. The judge of the Leninsky district court in Bishkek ruled on April 27 that Radio Azattyk had violated the law in its coverage of a border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that occurred last year. The government claimed that a video report produced by Azattyk “promoted conflict, violence, and ethnic intolerance.” Officials took issue with a passage in the report that cited Tajik claims that Kyrgyzstan instigated the hostilities. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s…

The resolution passed unanimously by the 15-member body in New York, calls for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan”, and urges all countries and organisations with influence on the fundamentalist rulers of the country, “to promote an urgent reversal” of policies which have in effect erased women from public life. Since the Taliban takeover of July 2021, when its forces toppled the democratically-elected Government, it has rolled back a wide range of human rights of women and girls, including a ban on attending high school and university, restrictions on movement and work, and in…

Mexico — On Saturday, April 22, 2023, as part of the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, three khachkars [cross stones] were inaugurated in a roundabout (traffic circle) in the town of Panindícuaro, in the state of Michoacán, located in central-western Mexico. Under the patronage of Jack and Diamandula Sahakian and their family, the khachkars were made in the town of Tlalpujahua – also in the state of Michoacán – by the master craftsman Rigoberto, and starting on this Saturday, they have become the first to be exhibited in a public space in Mexico. The Armenian community in Michoacán is very small.…

HELSINKI — The Finnish president on Thursday formally sealed the Nordic country’s historic bid to join NATO by signing into law the required national legal amendments needed for membership in the Western military alliance. The move by President Sauli Niinisto means Finland has completed national measures needed to join NATO, and is now just awaiting approval from Turkey and Hungary, the only two of NATO’s 30 existing members that haven’t ratified its bid. In Turkey Thursday, a parliamentary committee approved Finland’s NATO application, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, bringing Helsinki a step closer to joining the alliance. Members of the…

Australian engineers who were born overseas fear they could miss out on the AUKUS-inspired defence jobs boom because of restrictive United States security requirements. Tough rules excluding people with links to certain countries mean employers may struggle even further to fill skills shortfalls in the technical professions required for the nuclear submarine procurement, construction and deployment. More than half (59 per cent) of Australia’s engineering workforce is overseas-born, with two thirds of new engineers coming from outside Australia every year, according to Engineers Australia. Software engineer Eric Raygan — an Iranian-born Australian citizen who has lived in Australia since 2010 —…

Today, you can get on a plane and fly from one continent to the next. You can pick up your cell phone in Davos and call somebody in Buenos Aires or Toronto or Singapore as if they were across the street. You can use a UK-issued payment card to buy coffee or lunch in Sydney and know your data is protected. Global, open, interoperable networks make all of this happen, with minimum friction — and can deliver inclusive growth worth trillions for developing countries. The digital transformation of the economy is a force for uplifting economies and democratising access to…

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial dispute, but an issue of self-determination, Armenian MP Hayk Mamijanyan of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc told a meeting of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Social Affairs, Employment, Education, Culture and Civil Society in response to the Azerbaijani delegate’s remarks on Monday. His full statement is provided below. “Madam chair, please believe me that social issues have no nationality or state of origin, so we all do respect all the victims of other conflicts, people who live in Nagorno-Karabakh have the right to be regarded by their rights. First of all, I…

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan bickered over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region Saturday, highlighting their disparate positions and offering scant evidence that lasting peace was on the cards as they met in Munich. Tensions between the two ex-Soviet neighbors have escalated over a two-month blockade of the Lachin corridor, the only land route giving Armenia direct access to Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s first face-to-face encounter since October began with talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, following which both sides said progress on…

Russia on Thursday accused the EU of seeking to fuel “geopolitical confrontation” by sending a civilian mission to monitor Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. Moscow has sought to maintain its role as a powerbroker between the ex-Soviet republics despite being bogged down in its offensive in Ukraine. On Monday, the EU launched a civilian mission to help monitor Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, bolstering the bloc’s role in a region viewed by the Kremlin as its sphere of influence. The mission has been launched during what Armenia describes as a “humanitarian crisis” ravaging the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since mid-December, a…

There is no danger to the lives of the three servicemen receiving treatment after suffering burns in the fire that broke out in the accommodation of a military unit on January 19. The minister of health of Armenia, Anahit Avanesyan, told reporters about this on Thursday. “Two days ago, we had an aggravation related to the health condition of one of the servicemen. But as a result of making changes in the treatment, everyone’s condition is satisfactory at the moment; there is no danger [to their health],” she said. Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that at around 1:30am on January 19,…