Armenian News... A Topalian... International Business Times
Jan 5 2016
When Is Armenian Christmas 2016? Jesus' Birth Celebrated
Through Worship, Decorations And Feasts
By Michael Kaplan
Most people think of Christmas as falling on Dec. 25. And while that's
true for most of the world's Christians, Armenians typically
commemorate the day on Jan. 6. While in many ways the holiday is
celebrated similarly to how it's celebrated by Christians elsewhere
around the world, there are also some differences.
Armenians usually clean their homes before Christmas, and decorate a
Christmas tree with fruit, white doves and golden bows. Tradition is
to use the colors of the Armenian flag ` red, orange and blue ` when
decorating the tree. Family and friends exchange gifts after a large
meal on Christmas Eve, and afterward, tradition has it that children
climb on the rooftops and sing carols.
Armenians typically abstain from eating meat during the week leading
up to the holiday, and on Christmas Eve, they feast on a traditional
fish and rice dish, according to Why Christmas. Desserts include dried
fruits, nuts and distinctly Armenian dishes. Children often take
presents like fruits, nuts and sweets to older relatives, and in the
Armenian capital of Yerevan, a big Christmas tree is usually put up in
the Republic Square. Some visit Bethlehem, the city of Jesus' birth,
during the holiday.
In the Armenian tradition Santa Claus isn't associated with Christmas
but rather with New Year's Eve, Dec. 31. Christmas is usually thought
of as a day for religious devotion.
The Roman Catholic Church established Dec. 25 as Christmas in the
fourth century, but Armenians kept to an older date, according to
various sources. Armenians commemorate Jesus' baptism through a
ceremony wherein a priest uses a basil leaf to sprinkle water over
worshipers. The tradition is called `Blessings of the Water.' Many
also celebrate the `epiphany' ` the moment it was revealed that Jesus
was the son of God.
The Armenian Apostolic Church represents millions of Armenian
Christians worldwide. Armenia, a country of nearly 3 million people,
borders Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, and about 5 million
people with Armenian ancestry are believed to live around the world.
The diaspora formed after the Armenian genocide in 1915. There are
significant Armenian populations in Russia, the U.S., France, Georgia,
Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon and Syria.
By Michael Kaplan
Most people think of Christmas as falling on Dec. 25. And while that's
true for most of the world's Christians, Armenians typically
commemorate the day on Jan. 6. While in many ways the holiday is
celebrated similarly to how it's celebrated by Christians elsewhere
around the world, there are also some differences.
Armenians usually clean their homes before Christmas, and decorate a
Christmas tree with fruit, white doves and golden bows. Tradition is
to use the colors of the Armenian flag ` red, orange and blue ` when
decorating the tree. Family and friends exchange gifts after a large
meal on Christmas Eve, and afterward, tradition has it that children
climb on the rooftops and sing carols.
Armenians typically abstain from eating meat during the week leading
up to the holiday, and on Christmas Eve, they feast on a traditional
fish and rice dish, according to Why Christmas. Desserts include dried
fruits, nuts and distinctly Armenian dishes. Children often take
presents like fruits, nuts and sweets to older relatives, and in the
Armenian capital of Yerevan, a big Christmas tree is usually put up in
the Republic Square. Some visit Bethlehem, the city of Jesus' birth,
during the holiday.
In the Armenian tradition Santa Claus isn't associated with Christmas
but rather with New Year's Eve, Dec. 31. Christmas is usually thought
of as a day for religious devotion.
The Roman Catholic Church established Dec. 25 as Christmas in the
fourth century, but Armenians kept to an older date, according to
various sources. Armenians commemorate Jesus' baptism through a
ceremony wherein a priest uses a basil leaf to sprinkle water over
worshipers. The tradition is called `Blessings of the Water.' Many
also celebrate the `epiphany' ` the moment it was revealed that Jesus
was the son of God.
The Armenian Apostolic Church represents millions of Armenian
Christians worldwide. Armenia, a country of nearly 3 million people,
borders Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, and about 5 million
people with Armenian ancestry are believed to live around the world.
The diaspora formed after the Armenian genocide in 1915. There are
significant Armenian populations in Russia, the U.S., France, Georgia,
Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon and Syria.
agos.com
Surp Pırgiç got its land back, but can't use it
05.01.16
The land, on which Zeytinburnu Stadium is also located, is returned to
Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation, but this land is turned into
green space by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Yedikule Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation, after running
efforts, got the old gardening zone (a land of 42.259 square meters)
across the hospital back on January 22, 2014 with the decision of
Foundations General Assembly. There are Zeytinburnu Stadium, a sport
complex belonging to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, an open-air
marketplace and a parking lot on the land. After the deed of the land
was returned, Zeytinburnu Municipality filed a suit against the
decision of returning and lost the suit. Moreover, the municipality
made some changes on the zoning plan and turned a part of the land
(8000 square meters) that was registered as commerce space into green
space on October 18, 2014. The changes on the zoning plan were
approved during the meeting of municipal council held last week.
Lawsuit against changes on zoning plan
Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation filed a lawsuit against the
changes on zoning plan made by Zeytinburnu Municipality. Also,
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality requested an opinion concerning the
changes on the zoning plan from Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital
Foundation as the proprietor. The foundation delivered a negative
opinion. In the letter of opinion, the foundation pointed out that the
changes violate the principles of administrative law and the lawsuit
is on trial. The foundation also reminded the precedent decisions of
the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court.
Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation Vice President Herman Baliyan
spoke to Agos about the developments: `It is true that the land in
question was turned into a green space. Zeytinburnu Municipality
managed to get an approval for the changes, but we will continue
struggling. The case we opened is on trial in Administrative Court. We
think that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality will make it right by
considering our previous applications about this change.'
Confiscated in 1974
This land was one of the most important properties that Armenian
community had lost because of 1936 Declaration. In the past, it was a
gardening zone on which `Hampartsum' festival was held in May. In
1974, one morning, dozers entered the land and it was confiscated on
the ground that it has no owner. After this incident, Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality bought a large part of the land. Now, there
are a sport complex, an open-air marketplace and a parking lot on the
land.
World Soccer
Jan 1 2016
Football's Greatest Rivalries: Turkey v Armenia
By James Montague
Given the history between the two nations, the olive branch offered by
Armenia to Turkey before their recent Euro 2016 qualifiers was an
extraordinary gesture.
What was at first seen as a diplomatic nightmare was, instead, seized
upon as a diplomatic opportunity. In 2008, Turkey were drawn in a
qualification group for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa that
included Spain, Bosnia, Belgium and neighbouring Armenia.
The game with Armenia presented several problems. Firstly, Ankara and
Yerevan had not established diplomatic relations since Armenia
declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Secondly, and
probably more importantly, the border between the two nations had been
firmly shut for more than 15 years.
The two countries were not on speaking terms thanks to one of the
darkest moments of the 20th century: the thorny issue of whether the
deaths of as many as 1.5million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire, from 1915 onwards, should be classed as a genocide. Turkey
vehemently denies a planned destruction of a people; almost all
genocide scholars and most Western nations ` including Germany and
Canada ` believe it was.
The game in Armenia looked at first as if it could be explosive, with
Armenian nationalists planning to picket the game. Then something
extraordinary happened.
`I hereby invite President Gul [of Turkey] to visit Armenia to enjoy
the match together with me in the stadium,' Armenia's president Serzh
Sargsyan wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece a few months
before the game. `Thus we will announce a new symbolic start in our
relations.
`Whatever our differences, there are certain cultural, humanitarian
and sports links that our peoples share, even with a closed border.'
Gul accepted and made the first visit to Armenia by a Turkish head of
state in modern times, while 5,000 Turkish supporters were given rare
permission to travel to Yerevan. The build-up to the match was tense,
almost relegating the football to second place.
`This is only a football game, it is not a war,' said Turkey coach Fetih Terim.
`We cannot carry the weight of history on our shoulders.'
Protesters lined the route of Gul's motorcade to the stadium, but the
match passed peacefully, with Turkey winning 2-0. Shortly before the
return match in Bursa ` also won 2-0 by Turkey ` foreign ministers
from the two countries signed an agreement, laying out a road map
towards full diplomatic relations.
As popular as the club game is in world football, only international
football possesses that level of influence, power and potency. While
club football's local identities are being diluted by globalisation,
international football has maintained its core raison d'etre as one of
the last unshakable symbols of identity and nationhood that a country
or people can clearly recognise.
It is perhaps because of this that football is at its most political
when it comes to the international game. Rivalries tend to be rooted
not just on pure geographical proximity, as most of the great derbies
in the club game are, but in war and conflict. Armenia and Turkey
would not have faced each other in any other arena other than a
sporting one.
George Orwell famously wrote that football was `war minus the shooting'.
The phrase came from his 1945 essay The Sporting Spirit, about a
Russian team playing a series of bad-tempered exhibition matches in
the UK. It is full of observations on how sport in general, and
football in particular, is an extension of the political realm, which
feeds what he viewed as an evil nationalism.
`If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the
world at this moment,' he wrote, `you could hardly do it better than
by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and
Czechs, Indians and British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and
Jugoslavs [sic], each match to be watched by a mixed audience of
100,000 spectators.' Seventy years on, those matches are the most
sought-after in the world game. The biggest events watched on TV are
football matches between national teams. The most watched single world
event is the World Cup. Half-empty stadiums fill to the brim when
North play South Korea, Holland play Germany, Honduras play El
Salvador (the first football match to spark a war, as it did in 1969),
Serbia play Croatia and Scotland play England. Each rivalry is rooted
in a list of historic grievances and bloodshed.
Rivalry as proxy for war has long been a staple of the international
calender. When Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s, each new nation
quickly established its own national team. They were soon playing
heated qualifying matches against each other ` which were both violent
and cathartic ` but the hatred diminished with each passing match.
When Serbia went to Zagreb to play Croatia in a World Cup qualifier,
visiting fans were banned and that could be an indication of the
future.
Some games are now considered so politically explosive that FIFA and
UEFA have intervened to make sure the countries can never play each
other. Azerbaijan and Armenia are kept separate during World Cup and
European Championship draws, for example. Both countries remain at war
since the late 1980s over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, a
pro-Armenian, unrecognised republic that Azerbaijan says is still
their territory ` and the issue over which Turkey closed its border
with Armenia in 1993.
When Gibraltar was admitted into UEFA after a long legal battle, one
proviso was that they would never be drawn in the same group as Spain,
who still have claims over the peninsular. Most recently, UEFA and
FIFA moved to ensure Russia and Ukraine ` who are currently fighting a
pro-Russian insurgency in the east of the country ` can't play each
other either.
After the Euro 2016 qualification match last year between Serbia and
Albania, teams with a fractious history are likely to be kept further
apart in future. Perhaps UEFA and FIFA have taken a leaf out of
Orwell's book.
`There are quite enough real causes of trouble already,' he wrote. `We
need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on
the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators.'
This article was first published in the December 2015 issue of World
Soccer, as part of our celebration of the 50 greatest rivalries of
world football.
New MiG-29 Jets to be Deployed to Russian Airbase in Armenia
© Sputnik/ Sergey Pivovarov
Military & Intelligence
05.01.2016
After being fully repaired, MiG-29 fourth generation jet fighters will
be deployed to the Russian airbase in Erebuni to protect Armenian
airspace.
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Fomichev
Why Did Russia, Armenia Create Joint Defense System in Caucasus?
A group of MiG-20 multirole jet fighters will be deployed to the
Russian airbase Erebuni in Armenia in the second half of 2016, the
press office of the Russian Southern Military District reported.
MiG-29 jets which will be deployed to the airbase after being fully
repaired have been used to protect Armenia's airspace within the joint
air defense systems of the CIS. They have also been involved in
regular training flights in accordance with the combat readiness
program.
Russia Sends Attack, Transport Helicopters to Air Base in Armenia
"In the second half of 2016, a new unit of MiG-29 fourth-generation
multirole jets as well as a Mi-8 transport helicopter will be deployed
to the Erebuni airbase, in Armenia," according to the report.
The military underscored that after the New Year holiday season
preparations will start at the airfield for the new aircraft,
including building storage housing modules.
In November 1998, Russia deployed the first MiG-29 jets to the Erebuni
airbase. In July 2001, an air force unit was formed from the aircraft
deployed to the base.
Given the history between the two nations, the olive branch offered by
Armenia to Turkey before their recent Euro 2016 qualifiers was an
extraordinary gesture.
What was at first seen as a diplomatic nightmare was, instead, seized
upon as a diplomatic opportunity. In 2008, Turkey were drawn in a
qualification group for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa that
included Spain, Bosnia, Belgium and neighbouring Armenia.
The game with Armenia presented several problems. Firstly, Ankara and
Yerevan had not established diplomatic relations since Armenia
declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Secondly, and
probably more importantly, the border between the two nations had been
firmly shut for more than 15 years.
The two countries were not on speaking terms thanks to one of the
darkest moments of the 20th century: the thorny issue of whether the
deaths of as many as 1.5million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire, from 1915 onwards, should be classed as a genocide. Turkey
vehemently denies a planned destruction of a people; almost all
genocide scholars and most Western nations ` including Germany and
Canada ` believe it was.
The game in Armenia looked at first as if it could be explosive, with
Armenian nationalists planning to picket the game. Then something
extraordinary happened.
`I hereby invite President Gul [of Turkey] to visit Armenia to enjoy
the match together with me in the stadium,' Armenia's president Serzh
Sargsyan wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece a few months
before the game. `Thus we will announce a new symbolic start in our
relations.
`Whatever our differences, there are certain cultural, humanitarian
and sports links that our peoples share, even with a closed border.'
Gul accepted and made the first visit to Armenia by a Turkish head of
state in modern times, while 5,000 Turkish supporters were given rare
permission to travel to Yerevan. The build-up to the match was tense,
almost relegating the football to second place.
`This is only a football game, it is not a war,' said Turkey coach Fetih Terim.
`We cannot carry the weight of history on our shoulders.'
Protesters lined the route of Gul's motorcade to the stadium, but the
match passed peacefully, with Turkey winning 2-0. Shortly before the
return match in Bursa ` also won 2-0 by Turkey ` foreign ministers
from the two countries signed an agreement, laying out a road map
towards full diplomatic relations.
As popular as the club game is in world football, only international
football possesses that level of influence, power and potency. While
club football's local identities are being diluted by globalisation,
international football has maintained its core raison d'etre as one of
the last unshakable symbols of identity and nationhood that a country
or people can clearly recognise.
It is perhaps because of this that football is at its most political
when it comes to the international game. Rivalries tend to be rooted
not just on pure geographical proximity, as most of the great derbies
in the club game are, but in war and conflict. Armenia and Turkey
would not have faced each other in any other arena other than a
sporting one.
George Orwell famously wrote that football was `war minus the shooting'.
The phrase came from his 1945 essay The Sporting Spirit, about a
Russian team playing a series of bad-tempered exhibition matches in
the UK. It is full of observations on how sport in general, and
football in particular, is an extension of the political realm, which
feeds what he viewed as an evil nationalism.
`If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the
world at this moment,' he wrote, `you could hardly do it better than
by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and
Czechs, Indians and British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and
Jugoslavs [sic], each match to be watched by a mixed audience of
100,000 spectators.' Seventy years on, those matches are the most
sought-after in the world game. The biggest events watched on TV are
football matches between national teams. The most watched single world
event is the World Cup. Half-empty stadiums fill to the brim when
North play South Korea, Holland play Germany, Honduras play El
Salvador (the first football match to spark a war, as it did in 1969),
Serbia play Croatia and Scotland play England. Each rivalry is rooted
in a list of historic grievances and bloodshed.
Rivalry as proxy for war has long been a staple of the international
calender. When Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s, each new nation
quickly established its own national team. They were soon playing
heated qualifying matches against each other ` which were both violent
and cathartic ` but the hatred diminished with each passing match.
When Serbia went to Zagreb to play Croatia in a World Cup qualifier,
visiting fans were banned and that could be an indication of the
future.
Some games are now considered so politically explosive that FIFA and
UEFA have intervened to make sure the countries can never play each
other. Azerbaijan and Armenia are kept separate during World Cup and
European Championship draws, for example. Both countries remain at war
since the late 1980s over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, a
pro-Armenian, unrecognised republic that Azerbaijan says is still
their territory ` and the issue over which Turkey closed its border
with Armenia in 1993.
When Gibraltar was admitted into UEFA after a long legal battle, one
proviso was that they would never be drawn in the same group as Spain,
who still have claims over the peninsular. Most recently, UEFA and
FIFA moved to ensure Russia and Ukraine ` who are currently fighting a
pro-Russian insurgency in the east of the country ` can't play each
other either.
After the Euro 2016 qualification match last year between Serbia and
Albania, teams with a fractious history are likely to be kept further
apart in future. Perhaps UEFA and FIFA have taken a leaf out of
Orwell's book.
`There are quite enough real causes of trouble already,' he wrote. `We
need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on
the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators.'
This article was first published in the December 2015 issue of World
Soccer, as part of our celebration of the 50 greatest rivalries of
world football.
New MiG-29 Jets to be Deployed to Russian Airbase in Armenia
© Sputnik/ Sergey Pivovarov
Military & Intelligence
05.01.2016
After being fully repaired, MiG-29 fourth generation jet fighters will
be deployed to the Russian airbase in Erebuni to protect Armenian
airspace.
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Fomichev
Why Did Russia, Armenia Create Joint Defense System in Caucasus?
A group of MiG-20 multirole jet fighters will be deployed to the
Russian airbase Erebuni in Armenia in the second half of 2016, the
press office of the Russian Southern Military District reported.
MiG-29 jets which will be deployed to the airbase after being fully
repaired have been used to protect Armenia's airspace within the joint
air defense systems of the CIS. They have also been involved in
regular training flights in accordance with the combat readiness
program.
Russia Sends Attack, Transport Helicopters to Air Base in Armenia
"In the second half of 2016, a new unit of MiG-29 fourth-generation
multirole jets as well as a Mi-8 transport helicopter will be deployed
to the Erebuni airbase, in Armenia," according to the report.
The military underscored that after the New Year holiday season
preparations will start at the airfield for the new aircraft,
including building storage housing modules.
In November 1998, Russia deployed the first MiG-29 jets to the Erebuni
airbase. In July 2001, an air force unit was formed from the aircraft
deployed to the base.
armenianweekly.com
Five Armenians Awarded France's Highest Honor
By Weekly Staff on January 5, 2016
The French Legion of Honor, established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802,
is awarded for excellent civil or military conduct.
PARIS, France (A.W.)'Two French-Armenian historians, Anahide Ter
Minassian and Raymond Kevorkian, are among five Armenian recipients of
the French Legion of Honor (Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur),
the highest decoration in France, in 2015.
By decree of French President Francois Hollande dated Dec. 31, 2015,
the Grand Chancellor of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
published the names of the honorees, which also include Professor
Serge Nazarian, and pharmacist and former president of the Armenian
Association for Social Assistance André Yédikardachian.
Armenian-American professor Mark Moogalian, the first passenger to
tackle a gunman aboard an Amsterdam-Paris train on Aug. 21, 2015, was
awarded the Legion of Honor in September 2015.
Anahide Ter Minassian
Ter Minassian, whose work focuses on modern Armenian history, teaches
at l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School for Advanced
Studies in the Social Sciences) and the Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
Ter Minassian has published several books about Armenia and the
Armenian Genocide, including La question arménienne (The Armenian
Question) in 1983; 1918-1920-La République d'Arménie (1918-1920-The
Republic of Armenia) in 1989; Histoires croisées: diaspora, Arménie,
Transcaucasie (Intersecting histories: Diaspora, Armenia,
Transcaucasia) in 1997; and Smyrne, la ville oublié: Mémoires d'un
grand port ottoman, 1830-1930 (Smyrna, The Forgotten City: Memories of
a Great Ottoman Port, 1830-1930) in 2006.
Raymond Kevorkian
Kévorkian is a lecturer at the University of Paris VIII:
Vincennes`Saint-Denis, and serves as research director at the French
Institute of Geopolitics (Institut Français de Géopolitique).
Kevorkian is also the director of Paris's Nubarian Library and the
editor of Revue d'Histoire arménienne contemporaine (The Journal of
Contemporary Armenian History). In 2006, Kevorkian published The
Armenian Genocide: A Complete History, the first book on the Armenian
Genocide to make extensive use of the archives of the Nubarian
Library. In 2010, he received the Presidential Award from Armenian
President Serge Sarkisian in recognition of his scholarly work in
Armenian history.
On Sept. 13, 2015, Armenian-American Mark Moogalian, the 51-year-old
Sorbonne professor who was identified by the UK's the Daily Telegraph
as the first passenger to tackle gunman Ayoub El-Khazzani on Aug. 21
aboard an Amsterdam-Paris train, was awarded the French Legion of
Honor by French President Francois Hollande.
Moogalian was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honor for
bravery by French President Francois Hollande at the Élysée Palace
During the high-speed train ride, Moogalian tackled El-Khazzani, who
was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle. It is reported that he
instinctively acted to protect his wife, Isabella Risacher, and
managed to take the assault rifle away from El-Khazzani. The assailant
drew another gun and shot Moogalian in the neck, revealed the
professor's sister, who was also on the train. Moogalian's heroism,
along with the actions of Americans Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone, and
Anthony Sadler, and Briton Chris Norman, helped save many lives.
Skarlatos, Stone, Sadler, and Norman were awarded the Legion of Honor
soon after the attack. Hollande had announced he would award Moogalian
the Legion of Honor once he had recuperated.
RFE/RL Report
Blizzards Hit Armenia
Narine Ghalechian
05.01.2016
Unusually strong snowstorms have swept through Armenia in recent days,
killing one person, blocking major highways and leaving many cars
stranded.
The blizzards aggravated by freezing temperatures began on New Year's
Eve and continued in various parts of the country in the following
days. The southeastern Syunik province was hit particularly hard by
the calamity.
Police found on Tuesday the dead body of a 48-year-old man near Goris,
a town in Syunik. The man, who worked as a guard at a local cattle
farm, reportedly went missing on Monday after heading home to get some
food.
The continuing heavy snowfall in the area blocked on Tuesday morning
traffic through a road connecting Goris to another regional town,
Sisian. Dozens of vehicles were left stranded there.
The Armenian traffic police stopped other motorists from driving
towards that road, which is part of a highway running southeast from
Yerevan to Armenia's border with Iran, as local authorities and rescue
workers scrambled to clear the snow. The highway section was only
partly reopened to traffic by Tuesday evening.
Several other roads passing through another mountainous province,
Gegharkunik, remained closed. The blizzards have also seriously
complicated traffic in other parts of Armenia and even in
Yerevan. Many residents of the Armenian capital have angrily
criticized municipal authorities for what they see as a slow response
to the emergency.
"We haven't had such a long and intensive snowfall for years,"
Hovannes Khangeldian, a senior official at the Armenian Ministry for
Local Government and Emergency Situations, told RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am).
"Cleaning works are continuing in all directions, and if there are no
further weather surprises all the roads will be reopened in the coming
hours," he said.
Blizzards Hit Armenia
Narine Ghalechian
05.01.2016
Unusually strong snowstorms have swept through Armenia in recent days,
killing one person, blocking major highways and leaving many cars
stranded.
The blizzards aggravated by freezing temperatures began on New Year's
Eve and continued in various parts of the country in the following
days. The southeastern Syunik province was hit particularly hard by
the calamity.
Police found on Tuesday the dead body of a 48-year-old man near Goris,
a town in Syunik. The man, who worked as a guard at a local cattle
farm, reportedly went missing on Monday after heading home to get some
food.
The continuing heavy snowfall in the area blocked on Tuesday morning
traffic through a road connecting Goris to another regional town,
Sisian. Dozens of vehicles were left stranded there.
The Armenian traffic police stopped other motorists from driving
towards that road, which is part of a highway running southeast from
Yerevan to Armenia's border with Iran, as local authorities and rescue
workers scrambled to clear the snow. The highway section was only
partly reopened to traffic by Tuesday evening.
Several other roads passing through another mountainous province,
Gegharkunik, remained closed. The blizzards have also seriously
complicated traffic in other parts of Armenia and even in
Yerevan. Many residents of the Armenian capital have angrily
criticized municipal authorities for what they see as a slow response
to the emergency.
"We haven't had such a long and intensive snowfall for years,"
Hovannes Khangeldian, a senior official at the Armenian Ministry for
Local Government and Emergency Situations, told RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am).
"Cleaning works are continuing in all directions, and if there are no
further weather surprises all the roads will be reopened in the coming
hours," he said.
RFE/RL Report
New Mining Complex Inaugurated In Karabakh
05.01.2016
An Armenian mining giant has built a new copper and molybdenum ore
processing plant in Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the biggest business
project implemented in the territory in more than a decade.
Vallex Group inaugurated the modern plant late last month shortly
after launching open-pit mining operations at the nearby Kashen
deposit in Karabakh's northern Martakert district containing an
estimated 275,000 metric tons of copper and 3,200 tons of
molybdenum. The company claims to have invested $130 million in the
new facilities currently employing more than 1,400 people.
The Kashen project was launched two years ago amid the depletion of
copper and gold reserves located elsewhere in Martakert. Vallex's
Karabakh subsidiary, Base Metals, has exploited the Drmbon reserves
since 2001, becoming Karabakh's single largest corporate taxpayer and
private employer.
According to officials in Stepanakert, Base Metals has paid an average
of 4 billion drams ($8.3 million) in taxes each year. By comparison,
the Karabakh government's 2016 budget is worth 89 billion drams.
Nagorno-Karabakh - Officials inaugurate an ore processing plant built
near the Kashen copper deposit, 26Dec2015.
Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, underscored the Kashen
project's importance to the local economy with his presence at the
inauguration ceremony. Sahakian said new jobs created by Vallex will
contribute to economic growth.
His prime minister, Ara Harutiunian, told reporters that the
non-ferrous metal reserves at Kashen will be enough to keep the new
mining complex operational for at least 25 years. Harutiunian
downplayed recent years' substantial drop in international copper
prices, saying that Vallex could even expand its mining operations in
Karabakh in the coming years.
Vallex plans to extract and enrich at least 1.75 million tons of ore
annually. It says that the Kashen deposit contains about 56 million
tons of ore.
The company, which has bigger mining operations in Armenia, has hired
not only Armenian but also foreign specialists to build and run the
new facility. "I hadn't heard of a country called Karabakh before I
came here," Johann Murray, a South African mining engineer, told
Karabakh television during the ceremony. "Karabakh Armenians are proud
and decent people. I enjoy working with them."
The Martakert mines have been a major contributor to robust economic
growth recorded in Karabakh in the last several years. "The total
number of employed people in Karabakh rose from 41,000 in 2007 to
50,300 in 2014," Harutiunian said a year ago.
Thousands of other, mostly male Karabakh Armenians serve in the local
military closely integrated with Armenia's armed forces.
According to the authorities in Stepanakert, the Karabakh economy grew
by over 7 percent in January-September 2015 on the back of a 32
percent rise in agricultural production.
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