Hrant Dink awarded posthumously with Armenian President's prizeJune 18, 2007 - 19:55 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian has handed 13 nominal presidential awards for 2006. Agos Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was awarded posthumously. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani also received the award for their Lark FarmThe award was for the first time conferred posthumously. "Hrant Dink's death is a great loss for our people. We will always remember him and I assure his family that Armenia is their home and we will always be glad to see them," Mr Kocharian said. When receiving the award, Dink's widow Rakel Dink said, "The award of the President of Armenia is honorary and sad for our family. I believe Hrant wished he could be among us now. He used to say that Armenia is a big Homeland and Diaspora appears as small islands." Awards were also handed to a group of young scientists. "Today we have heard unknown names. But I wish these names to become Armenia's visit card in future," the RA leader said. The presidential award has been conferred since 2001 with the assistance of Rober Poghossian and Sons Foundation and Hayastan All Armenian Fund, the RA President's press office reports. Top stories President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering. Michael Roth believes sanctions must be put on the table after Baku‘s ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Partner news | Armenia, U.S. customs authorities to boost assistance with new deal The government has approved an agreement with the U.S. government on mutual assistance between the customs authorities. Armenia, Russia agree on repairing railway destroyed in floods Yerevan and Moscow have agreed to repair a flood-stricken railway in northern Armenia. EU calls on Azerbaijan to release all political prisoners The European Union calls on Azerbaijan to release all those imprisoned for exercising their fundamental rights. Armenia-Azerbaijan: Turkey wants deal after “positive developments” Turkey hopes “positive developments” in negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan will lead to an agreement. |