Armenian News...A Topalian... Pontiff Laments...

RFE/RL Report
Armenian Pontiff Laments World `Unrest,' Urges Strong Faith
07.01.2016

The supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church has blamed a 

decline in "moral values" for conflicts around the world and urged 

Armenians to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ in the face of 

grave challenges facing their nation.

"Humanity entered the 21st century with great unrest," Catholicos
Garegin II said in a homily delivered during a Christmas Mass
celebrated at the main Armenian cathedral in Echmiadzin on
Wednesday. "Conflicts, clash of geopolitical interests, crises and
humanitarian disasters continue to disrupt the world, sowing
intolerance and mistrust and spreading devastation, poverty, and
suffering."

"Across societies moral values are distorted," he said at the liturgy
attended by President Serzh Sarkisian. "Lies, addiction, murder and
vice are commonplace, and the foundations of social and family life
are being shaken."

"Nothing is stable when the feeling of the presence of the Lord is
diminished in mankind, and when everything from personal relationships
to relations between nations is solely built on personal gains or
coercion," added Garegin. "Finding the peace of Christ means having
love and happiness in families, and having solidarity and prosperity
in civil society and countries."

This "peace of souls," Garegin went on, is also critical for defending
Armenia against what he described as serious threats emanating from
some of its neighbors."For years, our country has found itself
blockaded between Turkey and Azerbaijan," he said. "The latter is
committing provocations at our borders in order to trample the rights
of the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to live freely.

"We believe that through initiation of peace and through strengthening
of our faith in Christ, our people will turn their peaceful spirit
into a stronghold against the aggression of the enemy, an
indestructible shield against the encroachment of the borders of our
homeland by heroically protecting our country and sacred values."

The Armenian pontiff similarly deplored a decline in "traditional
family values" when he presided over a Christmas Mass at the
Echmiadzin cathedral two years ago. He said freedom of expression is
increasingly abused by people in Armenia and around the world to the
detriment of "the truth" embodied by Christ.


The Times, UK
Jan 6 2016
Ancient church at risk in Kurdish uprising
by Hannah Lucinda Smith

The caretaker of the ancient Armenian church of Surp Giragos listened
helplessly as, on the other side of the barricades, an explosion blew
out the windows of his building and echoed through the narrow streets.
"There were clashes around the church, but they had stopped in the
past few days," Gaffur Turkay told The Times.

Surp Giragos, which was closed during the Armenian genocide of 1915
and reopened in 2011, is caught in the middle of an urban war, here in
the historic city of Diyarbakir, the de facto capital of the
Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey. The security forces are trying
to quash an uprising led by fighters linked to the PKK, a Kurdish
separatist militia.

Most of Sur, the neighbourhood within the Unesco-listed city walls,
has been under lockdown for the past month. Surp Giragos is behind the
blockades, as are dozens of mosques, ancient bath houses and coaching
inns. Extensive damage has already been wreaked on many of the old
buildings.

Mr Turkay has been unable to reach the church to check the damage
since the curfew began. Today, he and the two dozen others who make up
Diyarbakir's tiny Armenian Christian community will have to begin
Orthodox Christmas celebrations in their homes, rather than under the
splendour of Surp Giragos's arches. "People will visit each other,
give presents, but we can't do anything about this situation," Mr
Turkay said.

The Armenians in southeast Turkey are descendants of survivors of the
1915 genocide, in which 1.5 million Christians were massacred and
displaced as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. It is a chapter that
continues to traumatise and divide the country. Most of the killings
were carried out by Kurdish soldiers on the orders of Ottoman
generals, although many Armenian children were sheltered by
sympathetic Kurdish families, and then raised as Muslims. The Kurdish
southeast has made efforts to integrate and support the Armenian
revival, but many Turks still deny that the genocide happened.

In recent years, as the grandchildren of those converts have
rediscovered their roots, some have chosen to return to Christianity.

Armen Demircian is another who was brought up as a Muslim, and
converted to Christianity when he discovered that his father was a
genocide survivor. "My grandfather and three uncles were massacred,
but a Kurdish family saved my father, who was four years old," he
said. "They hid him in their house, raised him, and treated him like a
son. Until a certain age I felt Kurdish, but after I found out, I
wanted to live as an Armenian."

In southeastern Turkey, the Armenians are once again trapped in the
middle. "If this war extends and gets worse, it will destroy the Kurds
and the Armenians," Mr Demircian said.

"For now we are stepping back and watching."

Woman journalist pays the price for reporting from Raqqa Isis has
killed a female Syrian journalist accused of espionage against its
selfproclaimed caliphate. Ruqia Hassan, 30, who worked under the
pseudonym Nisan Ibrahim, disappeared from her home on July 21 last
year. Isis fighters visited her family on January 2 and informed them
that she had been executed, although it was not made clear when
exactly she died.

Ms Hassan, a Syrian Kurd, was an opposition activist who took part in
the uprising against President Assad. When Isis took control of Raqqa
in 2014, she fled to the Kurdish-majority town of Kobani, but later
returned and continued to report on the conditions of life under Isis
on her Facebook page. In her last post before she disappeared she
joked about Isis's decision to ban wifi hotspots in the city. "Go
ahead and cut off the internet, our messenger pigeons won't complain!"
she wrote.

Ms Hassan is the fifth Syrian journalist known to have been killed by
Isis in recent months. Two of those, Ibrahim Abdul Qader and Fares
Hammadi, who worked with Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, were
found beheaded in Mr Qader's apartment in the southeastern Turkish
city of Sanliurfa in October. 

arka.am
MORE THAN HALF OF ARMENIANS CONSIDER THEMSELVES 

HAPPY, ACCORDING TO GALLUP SURVEY

YEREVAN, January 8. More than half of Armenians consider
themselves to be happy, according to a survey conducted by Gallup
International. The survey found that 53% of respondents in Armenia
were satisfied with their lives with more than 40% being neutral, 6%
considering themselves unhappy and 1% finding it difficult to answer
this question.

Thus, the happiness index in Armenia (the positive difference between
those happy and unhappy) was 47%, securing the country the 35th place
in the Gallup ranking.

According to Gallup, Colombia topped the index of happiness with 85%.

It is followed by Fiji and Saudi Arabia with 82%. The fourth is
Azerbaijan (81%), and the top five of the happiest countries is
Vietnam with an index of 80%. The average index of happiness in the
world was 56%.

The survey also found that the expectations of Armenians in 2016 are
not too high: only 21% of respondents are hopeful that the 2016 will
be better than the past year. At the same time 29% of the population
are pessimistic, 38% are neutral, and 11% are undecided. As a result,
pessimists outweighed optimists by 8%.

Economic expectations of Armenians are hopeless likewise with only
16% of respondents being positive about economy in 2016. Some 44%
are negative, 31% are neutral and 9% being undecided.

The survey polled more than 66,000 respondents from 68 countries,
asking them, "In general, do you personally feel very happy, happy,
neither happy nor unhappy, unhappy or very unhappy about your life?"

The study also found the top 10 unhappiest countries. These are
Iraq (with 12 percent net score of happiness), Tunisia (7 percent),
Greece (9 percent), Afghanistan (14 percent), Palestinian Territories
(15 percent), Ghana (24 percent), Hong Kong (24 percent), Bulgaria
(30 percent), Congo (30 percent), and France/Italy (33 percent). -0-


armenews.com
ARMENIAN SHIPS
In search of 15 Armenian sunken ships in the Caribbean Sea off 

the coast of India, China, and the Philippines

Krikor Amirzayan
Among the projects of the Marine Research Centre of the Armenian yacht
club "Ayas" are searching for the missing ships said during a
conference its president Captain of the ship "Kilikia" Karen Balayan.
"In the Caribbean sea outside sunken ships shops we spotted 15
Armenian vessels were wrecked there. We know their shipments and
coordinates of places of their shipwrecks"said K. Balayan. He also
claims that around the world, his Russian friends, European, American,
Indian, Chinese and Filipinos are willing to participate in such
expeditions on trances Armenian ships sank in the Caribbean Sea. K.
Balayan added "these are divers and scientists. The realization of
this project depends on its financing, "which states that" our
scientific expedition will and do not confuse us with the treasure
hunters'. For example K. Balayan cited the Quedagh Merchant ship 400
tons Armenians belonged to traders from India, Khodja Hagop and Khodja
Hovhannes. He was taken by the famous English pirate William Kid. The
ship was burned and sank in 1699 near the island of Katalina in the
Caribbean Sea. At the scene of the wreck, were found 26 guns.Since
2008 working at the scene of the shipwreck of the Armenian ship, an
American team led by Charles Becker. Leaving the boat, William Kidd
had brought with him the treasures and have hidden on his way to New
York. "It's been 300 years since its treasures are sought," said K.
Balayan. The club "Ayas" also has extensive data on Armenian ships
sank with broad of India, China, the Philippines. Armenians having
sailed very far, and to Acapulco in Mexico.

 
tert.am

2015 was successful year for book printing, says Armenian 

literary critic
04.01.16
2015 turned out a very successful and productive year for Armenia's
publishing art, says a literary critic.

Speaking to Tert.am, Arqmenik Nikoghosyan highlighted particularly the
progress in translation art, which he considered positive.

"Many translated books were published, so they are expected to have a
great influence on the literary progress," he noted.

As for achievements in the Armenian literature, Nikoghosyan said he
thinks that last year was somewhat a period of interval or
preparations.

"It isn't  naturally possible to write and publish, say, a good novel
every year. Novels by several writers will be published in the coming
year [2015]. Nonetheless, I would like to highlight the collection of
poems 'House Door' by Husik Ara, the essay 'Finger Script' by Gurgen
Khanjyan and the collection 'Jesus' Cat' by Grig. On the other hand,
there were unexpected books, so to say, by authors who weren't that
popular before. 'One Needs to Live before Death', a novel by Mher
Israelyan, was a revelation for me, for example.

"Suren Sarumyan's novel, 'Shami Khalif - Abu-Bakr al Baghdadi' was of
a great interest," the literary critic noted.

He added that the year was remarkable also in terms of the publication
of a new book dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centennial and its
presentation on international exhibitions. "Those participations were
very important this year [i.e. - in 2015] also in terms of the
Genocide Centennial, as publications dedicated to the massacres were
being presented. They were, in general, useful both in terms of
cooperation and presentation of writers abroad," he added.

Nikoghosyan further highlighted the importance of the increase in
readership in 2015. "I think that the slight shift in the area of
reading saw a little bit more progress this [i.e. - last] year. And
that's natural given that many books are being published in Armenia.
So that will, some or another, contribute to the development of
reading," he added.


tert.am 

ARMENIA'S IT SECTOR NEEDS 3,500-4,000 HIGHLY SKILLED 

ENGINEERS - HOVIK MUSAYELYAN
08.01.16

In an interview with Tert.am, Dr. Hovik Musayelyan, Director of
Synopsys Armenia, said that lack of highly skilled personnel remains
a major problem of Armenia's IT sector.

According to different estimates, Armenia's IT companies need 3,500
to 4,000 engineers.

The reason is that higher schools do not train specialists the private
sector needs.

"As soon as higher schools start training such specialists, we'll
say we have not such a problem any longer. The first reason why we
have not the required number of engineers is the teaching staff's
professional level. And the second reason is lack of technical
equipment," Mr Musayelyan said.

Armenia's higher schools do not even have funds for well-equipped
laboratories.

Mr Musayelyan points out a need for huge investments - hundreds of
millions of US dollars.

"Serious universities worldwide have as big budgets as our state
budget."

As for the accomplishments in 2015, Musayelyan particularly pointed
out to two projects: one for secondary schools and the other for
universities offering higher educational programs for future IT
specialists.

"In the area of general education, an exceptional project was launched
in 2015, making microelectronics telecommunication and information
technologies compulsory subjects. At the world's most authoritative
Education World Forum, which is to take place in London on January 17,
Armenia will introduce that project as an exceptional [initiative],
as it is the first ever country to implement it."

Commenting on the project for higher educational institutions,
Musayelyan said that the concept for having a technological university
was elaborated at the end of last year. "It is a very ambitious project
which will yield its results in the couple of years to come," he said.

Musayelyan added that he finds educational initiatives of the kind
the best possible way to bridge the human resources' gap on Armenia's
IT labor market. "If our records in late 2016 demonstrate that the
vacancies for high-quality specialists have decreased in number,
we will be able to state that we have a progress," he said.

Today's Zaman, Turkey
Re-entering 1915
CENGÄ°Z AKTAR
January 06, 2016

I wrote an article titled `Entering 1915' on Dec. 31, 2014 to predict
how the centennial anniversary of the Armenian genocide would take
place and how the malediction of our century-old failure to face the
facts would continue.

At the end of that article, from which I copy few excerpts below
(readable in full from the following link:
www.todayszaman.com/columnist/cengi-z-aktar/entering-1915_368487.html),
I expressed my hope that the centennial anniversary would be a
historic opportunity to dispense with our old habits, to understand
the `Other' and begin a collective therapy. But that hope stands
unfulfilled! Rather, the curse of 1915 has haunted the entire country.
Today, Turkey is suffering from a state of complete insanity.

When I speak of a curse, I wasn't referring to a parapsychological
observation. Although, I must note that the realm of agonizing souls
shouldn't be underestimated either. Rather, I was referring to the
following verity: As long as we refuse to face the facts regarding the
massive crime of genocide and are not absolved of it by ensuring total
justice for the grandchildren of the victims, we will pay the price of
ensuing evils. This is a fundamental ethical problem. As a matter of
fact, genocide is such a massive crime that it is incomparable to the
public, individual and collective crimes being committed currently.
For a body that can `digest' the genocide, the current crimes can be
easily accepted. Thus, we continue to live with evil.

1915 didn't come to the national agenda at the level it should have
due to the sheer intensity of the repression occurring in 2015 as well
as the widespread lack of knowledge in society. And even this is
closely associated with our century-old culture of injustice and
impunity.

Let me illustrate with an example: One of the frequently used
explanations for whatever is befalling the Kurds these days is that
their persecution has gone unpunished since the establishment of the
republic. But no one dares to remember the fact that Armenians and
other non-Muslim groups were persecuted before and that Armenians were
particularly oppressed by Kurds.

Turkey has been decaying for a century; it is wallowing in the mire at
the turn of the 21st century and moving assuredly toward fascism...

`Entering 1915'

`Who knows, all the evil haunting us, the endless mass killings and
our inability to recover from afflictions may be due to a century-old
curse and a century-old lie. What do you think? This is perhaps the
malediction uttered by Armenians -- children, civilian women and men
alike -- who died moaning and buried without a coffin. It may be the
storms created in our souls by the still-agonizing specters of all our
ill-fated citizens, including Greeks and Syriacs and later, Alevis and
Kurds.
Perhaps the massacres that have not been accounted for since 1915 and
the `prices' that have remained unpaid are now being paid back in
different venues by the grandchildren. The curses uttered in return
for the lives taken, the lives stolen, the homes plundered, the
churches destroyed, the schools confiscated and the property
extorted... "May God make you pay for it for all your offspring to
come." Are we paying back the price of all the injustices committed so
far? Does repayment manifest itself in the form of the audacity of
being unable to confront our past sins or in the form of indecency,
which has become our habit due to our chronic indulgence in
unfairness? It seems as if our society has been decaying for a
century, festering all around.
Despite this century-old malediction, 2015 will pass with the debate,
"Was there really genocide?" remaining unanswered. We will watch how
the current tenants of the state exert vast efforts to cover up this
shame and postpone any move to confront it. If it were in their hands,
they would just skip the year 2015. The denialist prose that consists
of three wizened arguments, which amount to upheaval, collaboration
with the enemy and victimization -- it is the Armenians who killed us
-- will continue to be parroted in a series of conferences. And we
will dance to our own tunes. On April 24-25, 2015 an official ceremony
will be held on the occasion of Anzac Day in Gallipoli, not in
connection with the genocide. And we will hear abundant tales about
heroism in the Dardanelles. But we will find none to listen to our
narrative.
How many more maledictions need to happen to us before we will be inclined
¢ to reckon with our bloody nation-building process?
¢ to know and remember how an innocuous, hardworking, productive,
talented and peaceful people were destroyed by the warrior people of
Anatolia and to empathize with their grandchildren in remembrance?
¢ to feel the gist of the tyranny that made unfortunate Armenians cry,
"Ur eir Astvadz" (Where were you God?) in the summer of 1915, which
was as dark and cold as death?
¢ to realize that the population of Armenians has dwindled from
millions in 1915's Ottoman Empire to virtually none today. The
remaining Armenians have either concealed their true identities or
were converted to Islam, after sweeping aside the puzzle, `Was it
genocide or not?' or the question `Who killed whom?' and purely
listening to our conscience?
¢ to understand, as Hrant Dink put it, a full-fledged cultural
genocide and the loss of a tremendous amount of civilization?
¢ to realize that the biggest loss to this country is that non-Muslim
citizens of this land no longer live here?
¢ to comprehend why the genocide -- which Armenians of those dark days
would refer to as the Great Catastrophe (Meds Yeghern) -- is a
disaster that befell not only Armenians, but the entire country?
¢ to see that the loss of our non-Muslim citizens who were killed,
banished or forced to flee amounts to the loss of brainpower,
bourgeoisie, culture and civilization?
¢ to calculate the curse of the goods, property and children confiscated?
¢ to duly understand the wisdom of the author YaÅ?ar Kemal, who wrote:
`Another bird cannot prosper in an abandoned nest; the one who
destroys a nest cannot have a nest; oppression breeds oppression'?
¢ to even realize that those who would reject all the aforementioned
points would do so because of a loss wisdom deriving from the
genocide.
The Armenian genocide is the Great Catastrophe of Anatolia, and the
mother of all taboos in this land. Its curse will continue to haunt us
as long as we fail to talk about, recognize, understand and reckon
with it. Its centennial anniversary actually offers us a historic
opportunity to dispense with our habits, understand the Other and
start with the collective therapy.'