Thursday 14 January 2016

Armenian News... A Topalian... Earthquake in Azerbaijan felt in Armenia and Karabakh...


panorama.am
EARTHQUAKE IN AZERBAIJAN FELT IN ARMENIA AND KARABAKH
12/01/2016


The earthquake that hit Azerbaijan was felt in several settlements
of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Reopublic (NKR), according to the
press service of Armenia's Ministry of Territorial Administration
and Emergency Situations (MTAES).

The Seismic Protection Service of MTAES recorded a 4.8-magnitide
earthquake in Azerbaijan at 6:39 am today, January 12. The earthquake
measured 5-6 on the Richter scale at its epicenter.

Tremors measuring 3-4 were felt in the NKR's cities of Stepanakert,
Askeran, Hadrut, Shushi and Berdzor and in cities of Kajaran and
Kapan in Armenia's Syunik province. 


news.am 

ARMENIAN POGROMS IN BAKU STARTED 26 YEARS AGO
ON THIS DAY
13.01.2016


Pogroms of the native Armenian population of Baku, the capital city
of Azerbaijan, had begun on January 13, 1990, exactly 26 years ago
on this day.

Several thousand power-striving savage supporters of the Azerbaijani
National Front had organized the mass killings of the Armenians in
the city.

When the pogroms had started, the leadership of Azerbaijan SSR had
almost completely lost control of the situation. And the Soviet
military units in Baku were locked in their barracks

The leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan had officially accepted the fact
that these pogroms were carried out on ethnic grounds.

The logic of these tragic events in Baku, however, does not fit in
the "logic" of modern-day Azerbaijan's state propaganda machine,
which the country's ruling Aliyev clan has taken under its supervision.

On this day, Armenia mourns for the fallen and the maimed of these
pogroms. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, either does not remember them,
or disseminates respective cynical and apparent falsehood, especially
through its state-subject media.


RFE/RL Report
Swine Flu Death Toll Rises In Armenia
Nane Sahakian
11.01.2016


An outbreak of swine flu, which struck Armenia late last month, is
under control, the Ministry of Health insisted on Monday after the
H1N1 virus killed two more people in the country.

The ministry also continued to downplay an upsurge in other, less
severe acute respiratory diseases that has led to the hospitalization
of more than 650 Armenians, most of them children, since the start of
the New Year.

Ministry officials said 83 of them remain in intensive care. Ten of
them are in a severe condition, officials said without elaborating. It
was not clear whether they are suffering from swine flu.

According to a spokeswoman for Health Minister Armen Muradian, there
were 89 officially registered swine flu cases in the country as of
Friday. Two more people died from the dangerous virus over the
weekend, raising the H1N1 death toll to 6.

"There is no epidemic in the country," the Ministry of Health said in
a statement issued on Monday. "Analyses conducted by a rapid reaction
group formed by the ministry show that the overall number of cases is
virtually unchanged as of now," it said.

"We are continuing to take preventive measures," added the
statement. "Hospitals and policlinics have been provided with
necessary medication and materials."

Acting on Muradian's recommendation, Education Minister Armen Ashotian
announced late last week that winter school holidays in Armenia have
been extended by one week, until January 18.

The mass hospitalizations appear to have raised fears among many
Armenians. Taguhi Stepanian, the head of Yerevan's public ambulance
service, reported a record-high number of phone calls received by the
service in recent days. "On January 7, for example, we had 956 calls,
which is unprecedented for our service," she told RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am).

In Stepanian's words, as many as 6,700 Yerevan residents suspecting
flu symptoms called an ambulance from December 31 through January
7. The vast majority of them did not require hospitalization, she
said.


armenianow.com
H1N1 UPDATE: KARABAKH CONFIRMS THREE SWINE FLU CASES
12.01.16


Three cases of the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, more commonly known
as swine flu, have officially been confirmed in Nagorno-Karabakh amid
what seems to be a general flu outbreak in Armenia and the broader
region, including neighboring Turkey, Iran and Georgia.

At the same time, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's Health Ministry says
on its website that no rise in the number of ambulance calls have,
in fact, been registered by its services, while a general decline in
the number of acute respiratory virus infection cases was actually
observed in the period of November-December 2015.

Still, under an order of the NKR health minister, a daily monitoring
is being carried out in the republic and "complex measures" are being
taken at all levels of healthcare services, including at pre-school
and general educational establishments.

The measures in Nagorno-Karabakh come amid what appears to be a more
serious situation in Armenia where six deaths caused by complications
of the H1N1 virus have been reported since late last year.

Armenia's health authorities have confirmed dozens of swine flu cases
as well as more than 650 cases of hospitalized patients, most of them
children, with less severe acute respiratory diseases.

Despite this, Armenia's Ministry of Health insists there is no flu
epidemic in the country.

Still, acting on the Health Ministry's recommendation, Education
Minister Armen Ashotyan announced late last week that winter school
holidays in Armenia have been extended by one week, until January 18.

Speaking during a talk show on Shant TV late on Monday, Armenia's
chief infectious disease specialist Ara Asoyan did not exclude that
recommendation for further extending the school vacation period might
be made later this week based on the actual data of the situation
monitoring. 


arka.am
BLOOMBERG EXPECTS ARMENIAN ECONOMY TO GROW BY 
2.5% IN 2016
YEREVAN, January 12. According to a Bloomberg forecast of
worst economic performers in 2016, Armenian economy will grow by 2.5%,
up from 2.2% expansion predicted by the Armenian government.

The World Bank and the Eurasian Development Bank also expect Armenian
economy to grow by 2.2% in 2016.

Bloomberg also predicts a 3% GDP growth for Turkey, a 3% growth for
Georgia and a 2.4% growth for Azerbaijan.

The oil-rich Venezuela will contract by 3.3 percent this year,
the worst forecast of any of the 93 countries in the analysis,
followed by junk-rated Brazil (2.5% contraction), debt-laden Greece
(1.8%). They are followed by Russia and Ecuador, which are expected
to contract by 2.5% each.

India is forecast to show the highest growth of 7.4%. Next are Vietnam
and Bangladesh, each forecast to grow by 6.6%. -0-


armenianagenda.com
Pope Francis Plans to Visit Armenia in April to Commemorate 
101st Armenian
Genocide Anniversary
By Danielle Saroyan
January 11, 2016


Pope Francis will possibly visit Armenia in April 2016 for the 101st
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, World Religion News reports.

Pope Francis' 2016 travel schedule was publicized last week and includes
confirmed plans to visit Mexico for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and
Poland for World Youth Day in 2016. The trip to Armenia is planned, but has
not yet been confirmed.

Last November, the Armenian Agenda was first to report that Pope Francis
stated his desire to visit Armenia during an hour-long news conference
aboard the papal plane at the end of a six-day trip to Africa. Pope Francis
admits, `I am old and these trips are heavy,' which may prevent travels to
Armenia in 2016.

The Vatican has a long history of involvement in and good relations with
Armenia. At the beginning of last week, Papal Nuncio Gabriel Katchea
delivered a letter from Pope Francis to His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos
of the Great House of Cilicia, on the occasion of Armenian Christmas. His
Holiness Aram I expressed gratitude to the Vatican and Pope Francis for
this letter, as well as the full support to Armenians on the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Pope Francis held a mass on April 12, 2015 in honor of the victims of the
Armenian Genocide and called on heads of state to condemn the actions which
led to the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. During the mass, Pope
Francis identified the Armenian killings as `the first genocide of
the 20th
century.' He said, `concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to
keep bleeding without bandaging it.' 


RFE/RL Report
Russian Church Reassures Armenians Over Genocide Recognition
Tatevik Lazarian
11.01.2016


Responding to an uproar in Armenia, the Russian Orthodox Church
clarified on Monday that its supreme head, Patriarch Kirill, did not
deny the 1915 Armenian genocide when he praised the Ottoman Empire's
treatment of its Christian minorities.

A spokesman for Kirill said that the influential church continues to
believe that the World War One-era slaughter of some 1.5 million
Armenians constituted genocide.

The Kremlin-backed Patriarch raised eyebrows in Armenia when he
discussed the plight of shrinking Christian communities in the Middle
East in a weekend interview with Russian state television. In a clear
reference to atrocities committed by Islamist militants, he said
Christians in the region are being subjected to genocide.

"Nothing similar to the current events had ever happened in the
Islamic world," Kirill said, adding: "Take, for example, the Turkish,
Ottoman Empire. Yes, there were Christian minorities there but they
were not exterminated."

The remarks angered many Armenian social media users before being
similarly condemned by some political figures. Giro Manoyan of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a major party that
has traditionally been sympathetic to Russia, called them
"unacceptable."

"Obviously, Christians were not constantly massacred throughout the
existence of the Ottoman Empire," Manoyan told RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am). "But failing to see that there were massacres,
genocides targeting Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and other minorities
is tantamount to distorting history."

Manoyan urged Armenia's government and the Armenian Apostolic Church
to officially react to Kirill's statement.

Rev. Vahram Melikian, the spokesman for the church, said the
Echmiadzin-based office of Catholicos Garegin II expects an
explanation from the Russian Church and has already contacted the
Moscow Patriarchate for that purpose.

Melikian publicized later in the day a statement to the Armenian media
released by Kirill's spokesman, Rev. Aleksandr Volkov.

Volkov insisted that the Patriarch alluded to only some periods of
Ottoman history that saw "relative security and stability in the lives
of religious minorities." "The absence of such order -- both in the
Ottoman Empire 100 years ago and in contemporary Iraq, Syria and Libya
-- always leads to tragic events," he said.

"The position of our Church on the Armenian genocide has been
repeatedly and clearly expressed in numerous statements and messages
of the Patriarch," added Volkov. He pointed out that high-level
Russian Orthodox clerics took part in last year's events in Armenia
that marked the centennial of the Armenian genocide.

Kirill prayed and laid flowers at the Armenian genocide memorial in
Yerevan when he visited Armenia in 2010.

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