Armenian News... A Topalian...9 editorials
Forthcoming dedication of Khatchkar
within the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral, the Mother Church of the Anglican Faith on 2 March 2019
Stone Cross to commemorate Armenian Genocide
A two metre tall half tonne stone cross, hewn out of volcanic stone from Armenia, has been given on long term loan to the Cathedral to commemorate the Armenian Genocide of 1914-1923.
Parajanov Season at Close-up Film Centre, London
8-30 March 2019
Extract from Programme 2: Sayat-Nova Outtakes "During the Soviet era, it was customary to incinerate outtakes of negative film stock so the silver could be recycled. Through miraculous circumstances, the outtakes from Parajanov’s classic The Colour of Pomegranates were saved, granting us a remarkable insight into Parajanov’s creative process and glimpses of ghost films, tantalising suggestions of what ...
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 26 2019
The anniversary of Armenian massacres in Sumgait and Baku commemorated in Yerevan
A demonstration on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of Sumgait and Baku pogroms was held at Liberty square in Yerevan. As Panorama.am reports, the participants chanted “No territories to give away”. The commemorative event started at Tstsernakaberd memorial complex, where the participants laid flowers at the monument of the innocent victims of the massacres.
Then, the participants marched to the Liberty Square.
One of the organizers of the protest action, the head of “Armenian National Guard” NGO Arshak Zakaryan told reporters. “We are speaking on behalf of the Armenian nation and say the no power in Armenia is authorized to compromise on territories. Our message is addressed to the current Prime Minister and all future authorities. Whenever they go for talks, they should consider the Armenian nation will never reconcile with an idea of giving away territories,” Zakaruyan said.
To remind, from 1988 to 1990, the Armenian population in Soviet Azerbaijan was the target of racially motivated pogroms in the cities of Sumgait (February 27-29, 1988), Kirovabad (November 21-27, 1988, Baku (January 13-19, 1990) and Maragha (April 10, 1992).
February 22, 2019
Karekin II, Aram I Meet with Pashinyan to Discuss ‘National Agenda’
YEREVAN—The Catholicos of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin and the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday to discuss what he describes as “a very important mission of establishing a national agenda.”
Pashinyan explained that during his tenure as prime minister he has had several meetings with His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, saying that the two have “managed to create a sincere and open atmosphere” to address matters of church and state—specifically touching on an agenda for the nation.
“This particular dialogue is of key importance for the future of our country—for the future of our people—because I think that we have a very important mission to discuss our agenda for the nation and establish a national agenda,” Pashinyan told the two pontiffs.
“We know one thing for sure –we, our people, our church and our religious leaders have a shared appreciation that we will not be defeated and have to overcome all the challenges facing our state, people – the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Artsakh and the Diaspora. I am confident that such interactions, our relations with the Church and discussions are of decisive and key importance,” added Pashinyan.
Karekin II briefed Pashinyan on the discussions he has had with His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, who arrived in Armenia on Tuesday has been at Holy Etchmiadzin, where the two have held extensive discussions about various problems facing the Armenian Church and attempts to find reasonable solutions for them.
According to Karekin II, Pashinyan has established a working group to address and examine issues concerning the church and state with the aim of finding appropriate solutions to them.
“We also referred to the mission of our Church in our national and spiritual life, highlighting our role for the spiritual and national consolidation of our people, as well as for the progress of our country,” Karekin II said of his meeting with Aram I.
“We emphasized the importance of stability in our country and that the atmosphere of love prevails in our country, as well as how the Armenian Church has always stood with the state whenever we had our independent statehood, and made a contribution to the safe and secure existence of our country. We have had numerous opportunities to emphasize that the Armenian Apostolic Church will continue the same work with the same vigor and enthusiasm, so as to enable our people to overcome all the difficulties with collective efforts, all the problems facing our country and the worldwide Armenian people. Naturally, this goes for the issue of the recognition of Artsakh’s independence, recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the stable, safe progress of our country,” explained Karekin II.
“Your success is the success of our homeland and the success of the homeland is the success of our entire nation, because the Republic of Armenia has some responsibilities beyond its borders toward the Diaspora,” said Aram I adding he anticipated the people’s expectations would be met during Pashinyan’s tenure.
“You set out on this path with that commitment and emphasized in all your public speeches that you come from the people; that the people represent the power and it’s the expectations of the people that must inspire you and the government,” Aram I told Pashinyan.
“Of course, it is necessary to be realistic and not be emotional. My final expectation is that the aspirations and needs of the people are met, and I anticipate that in this process you will be emphasize the benefit and need for diversity,” continued Aram I, explaining his belief that having differing opinions are enriching and inspiring as long those opinions intersect “around our national values and ideals,” said Aram I.
“It’s necessary to avoid polarizations. If there is polarization, then [the sides] must be bridged over the same values. And for this I greatly highlight the role of the Church. I am glad you highlighted the role of the Church in your speech. The Catholicos of All Armenians also said that the Church-State relations, or I would say partnership, is a must for nation building. Naturally, there are different opinions and approaches. As I already said, these differences should become useful, because we are all in the same ring and on the same path,” added Aram I.
Click for Public Interview (in Eastern and Western Armenian)
RFE/RL Report
No Amnesty For Leaders Of Armenian Radical Group
February 22, 2019
Ruzanna Stepanian
The leaders and other members of a radical group that seized an Armenian police station in 2016 do not qualify for a general amnesty declared by the authorities late last year, Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian confirmed on
Friday.
Under an amnesty bill passed by the Armenian parliament, participants of the deadly attack can be pardoned only with the consent of their former hostages
and other individuals who were subjected to violence by them.
The three dozen gunmen took several police officers hostage when they seized the police compound in Yerevan in July 2016 to demand the resignation of then
President Serzh Sarkisian. Among the hostages were Valeri Osipian, who became last year the chief of the Armenian police, and Vartan Yeghiazarian, a former
deputy police chief.
Both officers objected to an amnesty for members of the group called Sasna Tsrer when they testified at their trial earlier this month. “I lost comrades,” Osipian told the judge, referring to the three policemen who were killed during the gunmen’s two-week standoff with Armenian security forces.
According to Zeynalian, the objections mean that 21 members of Sasna Tsrer charged with hostage taking cannot be pardoned and will therefore remain on trial.
Those defendants include the two leading members of the group, Varuzhan Avetisian and Pavel Manukian.
Shortly after Sarkisian resigned in April 2018 amid peaceful mass protests, Avetisian, Manukian and all but two other members of Sasna Tsrer were set free pending the outcome of their trials. The two defendants remaining behind bars stand accused of murdering the police Colonel Artur Vanoyan and Warrant Officers Gagik Mkrtchian and Yuri Tepanosian. They deny the accusations.
One of the Sasna Tsrer lawyers, Arayik Papikian, deplored the legal clause that precludes the pardoning of the group’s members. “No person in Armenia must be
in a position to agree to the enforcement of a law,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “This is nonsense.”
Papikian also condemned Osipian for opposing the amnesty, saying that the police chief lacks a “statesmanlike thinking.”
Osipian was a deputy chief of Yerevan’s police department at the time of the attack. He went into the police facility shortly after it was seized by Sasna
Tsrer early in the morning.
In his February 6 court testimony, Osipian said that he was beaten up by several gunmen. He claimed that they also threatened to kill him if he refused to tell police forces to join Sasna Tsrer.
Armenpress.am
25 February, 2019
UK’s Good Governance Fund supports program on increasing role of women and youth in Armenia
Women In Politics, a program funded by the UK’s Good Governance Fund, has launched today in Yerevan, reports Armenpress.
The program will be implemented by the partnership of the UNDP Armenia, Armenia’s ministry of territorial administration and development and the OxYGen Foundation.
The program aims at enhancing the role of women in the Armenian society, in decision-making bodies, as well as contributing to the youth engagement in local governance and development processes by developing the current capacities and expanding the results recorded in recent years.
UK Ambassador to Armenia Judith Farnworth stated that they aim at strengthening the women’s role at local and national level.
“In our country, and I think all over the world, the protection of rights and equality of women and men remain a priority. This program will promote women’s political empowerment, the leading role of youth, the inclusive local self-government, public awareness and protection of interests”, the UK Ambassador said, expressing confidence that the OxYGen Foundation and the UNDP will record great results.
First deputy minister of territorial administration and development Vache Terteryan noted that the ministry has carried out and continues to carry out a lot of work with the UNDP.
“By mainly cooperating with the UNDP we are going to more actively engage women in politics, leadership and the process of solving economic problems”, he said and thanked the Good Governance Fund for making possible the implementation of the program.
OxYGen Foundation’s Executive Director Margarita Hakobyan said they attach great importance to this cooperation. “We have always attached importance to the provision of equal opportunities and rights in all programs implemented by us. Women’s political engagement is one of the most important, vital and strategic priorities. We also highlight the cooperation with different concerned sides”, she said.
UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia Dmitry Mariyasin touched upon the existing potential among women and youth in Armenia and stated that their skills are sometimes not being fully utilized.
“The women and youth engagement at local level in the decision-making processes is low. We will support the reforms aimed at strengthening them”, he said.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Armenpress.am
22 February, 2019
Development of military-industrial complex declared as a priority by government – Armenian PM
The session of the Military-Industrial Committee of Armenia was held in the government led by Prime Minister Nikol Pahsinyan, the PM’s Office told Armenpress.
The PM opened the session and noted: “The development of the military industrial complex is declared by the government as a priority, and we need to make serious changes and record results here. For this purpose, of course, it is necessary to make both structural changes and find opportunities in order to greatly increase the financing of the sector.
In fact, we need to do the following for the development of the military-industrial complex: we must have a clearly working mechanism of our scientific potential, private investments and public administration system, and this issue should be under our spotlight in the near future. Of course, we view the creation of the ministry of high technologies industry in Armenia in this context which is an important, but not sufficient condition so that we can reach major changes in the field. Here the issue of cooperation with our scientific potential and also the analytical work of the defense ministry, the General Staff for the needs of our Armed Forces, even if the resources, be they a lot or less, of course, it’s important if they are a lot, but in case of being a lot, the targets should be determined right, we should decide right what kind of developments, research, production, ammunition and equipment we need, and the development, production and upgrading of what part of hem we can implement in Armenia.
Overall, of course, today we have some capacities in Armenia, but the volume of these capacities and the real production cannot seem satisfactory and enough. In general, I think that while discussing the problems in this field, as well as in the remaining fields, we need to discuss not the difficulties, how difficult it is to solve this or that issue, but we need to form our goals, and all our actions should derive from the priority to reach these goals. The geopolitical, military-political atmosphere existing today in our region doesn’t enable us to live with the logic of “getting alone”, because with this logic we just consume the resources we have.
We need to think of developing our resources and here we need to be ferocious first of all towards ourselves. Yes, we must make very serious, even non-popular, voluntary solutions in order to be convinced that there is no idle in our state system which receives state funding by doing nothing. Eliminating them with extreme cruelty is our key task, no matter which sector it relates to, especially in the fields of military industry and technologies. Here we should really be able to propose technological solutions. By saying a technological solution I imagine the following: the important is not the tank, but the problem we want to solve through the tank. Therefore, not the tank, but the problem and its solution are important. Our thinking must be to find a way that will solve that problem no matter what is its name, tank or something else.
Therefore, our logic in the fields of military industry, science and technology should work in the following way: we need to understand our problems, our solutions and refuse from the traditional perceptions over these solutions and tools in order to ensure certain technological progress and change”, the Prime Minister said.
Head of the State Military-Industrial Committee Avetik Qerobyan said the delegation of the military-industrial complex this year participated in the IDEX International Defense Exhibition and Conference in the United Arab Emirates for the first time in a separate pavilion. He said the Armenian pavilion created a great interest, and Armenia’s products were under spotlight also thanks to the brilliant performance of the Guards of Honor, the Military Orchestra of the defense ministry and the Yerevan Drums musical group. Avetik Qerobyan informed that the investors of the Middle East are greatly interested in the Armenian military production which is a good base for attracting investments and expanding the export markets of the Armenian scientific-technological production.
Thereafter, the session participants discussed the programs and future actions aimed at developing the military-industrial complex.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Armenpress.am
21 February, 2019
Ex-president's brother returns another 11.5 million USD to the state – criminal case still in process at NSS
Alexander Sargsyan, former MP, brother of ex-president Serzh Sargsyan, has paid 11.5 million USD to the state as a compensation for tax evasion, abuses. Earlier, he transfered18.5 million USD to the state, NSS Director Artur Vanetsyan told the reporters.
Vanetsyan added that the criminal case is still in process and there will be new information about Alexander Sargsyan's possessions.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Financial Times.London
25 September 2015 redistribution
The monk keeping his Armenian heritage alive in Venice
Father Hamazasp Kechichian mourns for his war-torn homeland from a tranquil island in the lagoon
In the middle of the Venetian lagoon, near the Lido, lies a remarkable island that escapes the radar of checklist tourists. It is an oasis of calm and spacious gardens, fragrant with pine, roses and the residual trail of incense. In the silence, you hear birdsong, the thrice daily tolling of bells and the plangent echo of Armenian chants. For an hour or so each day, you will also hear a guide showing a small group the treasures and achievements of this place, which have been admired by luminaries including Pope Pius VII, Lord Byron, George Sand and Richard Wagner. If you are lucky, that guide might be Father Hamazasp Kechichian, one of just 17 souls living on the island in buildings dating from the 18th century.
The island, San Lazzaro degli Armeni, has been home to a community of Mekhitarist monks — Armenian Catholics who follow the Armenian rite and liturgy — since a monastery was founded on the former leper colony by the eponymous Abbot Mekhitar in 1717. For Kechichian, the tranquillity is a far cry from the troubles that besiege his home town of Kessab, near the Turkish border in Syria. “The attack from rebel forces on 21 March 2014 — [Syrian] Mother’s Day, as it happens — was completely unexpected,” he says. “Rebels launched missiles from Turkey, then crossed the border . . .
Churches and icons were destroyed; houses burnt. My grandfather’s tomb was [desecrated]. Seven-hundred families fled with nothing. My family took refuge in Latakia, then Anjar [Lebanon] and returned after the Syrian army retook Kessab in mid-June. They found nothing left. Everyone must start again from zero. And there is still a risk.” Kechichian was born into the predominantly Armenian community of Kessab in 1980.
“It is unique among towns of the diaspora,” he says. “Armenians have lived there for over 500 years, the last remnants of the ancient Kingdom of Cilicia. Our ancient traditions are still practised — oral traditions. We even have our own dialect.” He recalls a blissful childhood.
“My cousins used to come every summer from Aleppo, and we would stay in my grandmother’s house to pick apples. Kessab is famous for its apples. Then in autumn, we would make grape syrup. It was a beautiful place — and had many tourists until recently. The people are simple and very hospitable. There is beautiful nature, mountains, sea, fresh air . . . It is a lost paradise.” At the age of 15, Kechichian left his home town. “I decided I wanted to become a priest,” he says, “so I spent two years in an Armenian Catholic seminary in Lebanon. My mother is Armenian Apostolic [Orthodox], my brother works in an Armenian Protestant school. I chose the Mekhitarist order because Mekhitar worked for all Armenians, without distinction.”
The island of San Lazzaro, just off the Lido in Venice In 1997 Kechichian arrived at the mother seat of the Mekhitarists, San Lazzaro, where his uncle was abbot.
Three years later, philosophical and theological studies took him to Rome, then back to Lebanon, before he returned to Venice where he was ordained at San Lazzaro in 2007. As well as working on a thesis about feasts dedicated to the church, he is also vice-rector of the seminary, with responsibility for the island’s 40,000 annual visitors and the kitchens, where he consults with the cook on daily menus, occasionally donning an apron himself. “It’s usually Italian food,” he says, “but sometimes we make Armenian dishes out of nostalgia . . . On feast days, we drink Mekhitarine — a liqueur made to a 16th-century recipe by our sister-monastery in Vienna. Here, we make rose-petal jam, from the lilac-coloured roses in our gardens.” Kechichian has special dispensation from the abbot to make daily trips to the Lido to collect bread and post, as well as weekly visits to the market for vegetables and monthly trips to Venice “for a big shop”. Meals are taken in silence in a wood-panelled refectory, where the abbot sits beneath a painting of the Last Supper while a novice reads the scriptures from a pulpit above. Typically, the monks rise at 6am. “We have prayers three times a day, including Mass,” says Kechichian.
The monks of San Lazzaro have long been famed for their scholarship, and translations. The monastery’s museums and libraries represent the largest repository of Armenian culture in the diaspora. They also contain 30,000 European printed books, dating from 1400 to 1800, and 4,500 manuscripts dating from 862AD, including early translations of ancient works whose originals have been lost. Kechichian stays in regular contact with his family in Syria via Skype and WhatsApp
From 1789 until 1996, the monastery operated its own printing press and, at its height, the polyglot monks published works in 36 languages. Such scholarship proved to be the saviour of the community: Napoleon designated San Lazzaro an academic institution, thereby sparing it from the destruction suffered by other monasteries. “My most important education — my spiritual and cultural values — come from Kessab and San Lazzaro,” says Kechichian, who stays in regular contact with his family in Syria via Skype and WhatsApp.
“I am suffering for all Armenians and for all the people of Syria. It is a beautiful country, with so much culture, so much history. All destroyed. The Latin bishop of Aleppo was asking ‘How can the west let this happen?’”
Five hours have passed in conversation. “I’m sorry,” says Kechichian, “I must go. Visitors are arriving for a tour, and I will give a talk about culture and history.” Perhaps this will take place in the book-lined room where Byron spent six months in 1816, studying the Armenian language under the tutelage of the monks. “A seventh-century BC Egyptian mummy lives there now,” says Kechichian. “The gift of an Egyptian prime minister. It is very popular with visitors”.
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