Monday, August 11, 2014 Recent Articles from The Armenian Weekly...

Between Sultan and Ataturk: Erdogan Wins Turkey’s Presidential Race Putin, Sarkisian and Aliyev Meet on Karabagh Armenians and Assyrians Team Up to Condemn Attacks on Communities in Middle East A Church Organist Celebrates 66 Years New Book: ‘And Then I Met the Getty Kouros’ Poetic Justice: Diyarbakir Armenians Baptized at Etchmiadzin Twitter Has Moral Responsibility to #StopAliyev Search Armenian Weekly Between Sultan and Ataturk: Erdogan Wins Turkey’s Presidential Race ANKARA (A.W.)—On Aug. 10, the Republic of Turkey held direct presidential elections for the first time in its 91-year history, won by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Previously, incumbent Abdullah Gul and his ten predecessors had all been elected by Turkey’s Grand National Assembly. The change to a direct vote came after a push by Erdogan, who was also the front-runner coming into the election. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the country’s first direct presidential election on Aug. 10 (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian, The Armenian Weekly) Erdogan and his right-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) were running against independent Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Selahattin Demirtas of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). A former professor and Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Ihsanoglu was nominated by Turkey’s two largest opposition parties, with the idea of drawing some religious voters from Erdogan. Demirtas, the... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Putin, Sarkisian and Aliyev Meet on Karabagh Leaders say conflict should be resolved peacefully SOCHI (Asbarez)–Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan met at the Russian president’s summer residence on Aug. 10 and pledged that the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict must be resolved peacefully. President Putin, center, mediates talks between Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents on Aug. 10 in Sochi “I am glad to state that the President of Azerbaijan drew attention to the necessity of resolving the problem peacefully, and the President of Armenia has agreed. This is, in fact, very important, because there is no greater tragedy than the death of people,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, according to reports on the Armenia president’s official website. President Putin met with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts – Serge Sarkisan and Ilham Aliyev – in his residence in Sochi to discuss the current situation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabagh enclave in the South Caucasus. “We should show patience, wisdom,... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Armenians and Assyrians Team Up to Condemn Attacks on Communities in Middle East Protest at United Nations calls on international community to stop violence in Syria and Iraq NEW YORK, N.Y.—Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA ER) activists joined with leaders of the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac communities to rally international support for ending targeted attacks against their brethren in Iraq and Syria during a peaceful protest held in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Assyrian Priests (third and fourth from the left) pictured with some of the ANCA Eastern Region activists in attendance The ANCA Eastern Region’s Armen Sahakyan offered powerful remarks citing Armenian American solidarity with the Assyrian community, noting that today’s violence harkens back to Turkey’s genocide and exile of over 3 million Armenian, Pontian Greek and Assyrian Christians from 1915-1923. Sahakyan went on to urge greater international effort to end the violence against these beleaguered communities, initiated by... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • A Church Organist Celebrates 66 Years Haverhill, Mass.—The year is 1948. A 33 rpm record made its debut to the vinyl industry. The game of Scrabble took America by storm while Judy Garland was strolling along in her “Easter Parade.” A young 14-year-old choirgirl volunteered to play the organ in her church—and never stopped. Instead, she’s been pulling all stops over the past 66 years. Octogenarian Sylvia Tavitian continues to play the organ after 66 years at Armenian Church at Hye Pointe in Haverhill. You’ll find her every other Sunday accompanying the Mass at Armenian Church at Hye Pointe, formerly known as St. Gregory the Illuminator Church, 110 Main St., alternating with another named Virginia Tavitian, her sister-in-law who has 45 years’ service. Furthermore, she’s playing on what’s called “a miracle organ” donated by a benefactor after the church’s regular pipe organ was ruined by a storm. The instrument is a product of the Berj Jamkochian Organ Fund, which has supplied some 15 organs to... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • New Book: ‘And Then I Met the Getty Kouros’ New memoir presents an Armenian-Iranian-American engineer’s odysseyfrom the streets of Tehran to the hills of Malibu LOS ANGELES– …And Then I Met The Getty Kouros is a memoir that chronicles the remarkable story of Jack Njdeh Yaghoubian, who has made a huge impact on the world of engineering in the United States and around the world. This Armenian-Iranian-American odyssey is a story of one life with three rich and distinct cultures as an omnipresent backdrop to a prolific career in earthquake engineering. Yaghoubian invented and holds the patent for an ingenious earthquake base isolation system that enabled the broken Getty Kouros statue of a nude male to stand on its own two marble feet after 2,500 years. Cover of “…And Then I Met The Getty Kouros” The memoir touches on many personal as well as professional subjects: growing up in the Armenian minority in Iran during the 1950s, the challenges of adapting to student life in America, the ways in which careers are... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Poetic Justice: Diyarbakir Armenians Baptized at Etchmiadzin Special for the Armenian Weekly The homecoming trip of the (no more) hidden Armenians from Diyarbakir to Armenia finally began this week, after months of planning, preparation, resolving issues, and seemingly endless three-way long distance discussions from Diyarbakir to Yerevan and Toronto. Diyarbakir Armenians baptized at Etchmiadzin (Photo by Gulisor Akkum/The Armenian Weekly) One moment they burst into dancing in the streets as soon as they hear a playful tune, and the next moment they cry uncontrollably at a scene which may mean nothing to passersby but has reminded them of something, someone – all the way back to 1915. And now, the “new” Armenians of Diyarbakir are strolling in the streets and museums of Yerevan, tiptoeing into the various churches scattered all over Armenia. Emotions are near the surface… One moment they burst into dancing in the streets as soon as they hear a playful tune, and the next moment they cry uncontrollably at a scene which may mean nothing... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Twitter Has Moral Responsibility to #StopAliyev Twitter—the social network that allows 140-character posts from anyone, anywhere, about anything—rose to public policy prominence by “helping” organize the Arab Spring revolution and spread truths about minorities suffering awful mistreatments across several continents. This “giving voice to the voiceless” achieved universally positive endorsements of the Twitter platform, and has helped earn the company a reputation as one helping the Davids face Goliaths. Understandably, these endorsements have been welcomed by Twitter’s hierarchy, including co-founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo, who have on numerous occasions admitted they are proud of the evolution of their communication platform. However, what should happen when Twitter starts being used by Goliaths to bully Davids? What should happen when those with a voice use Twitter to crush the voiceless? What should happen when Twitter’s “positive” influence on public policy turns... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • www.hairenik.com | www.armenianweekly.com | www.hairenikweekly.com 80 Bigelow Avenue, Watertown MA 02472 Subscribe to our list - Unsubscribe from this list - Forward to a friend © Copyright Hairenik Association Inc. 2013 Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Armenian Weekly." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 365 Boston Post Rd, Suite 123, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.