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Friday, 29 June 2018
Thursday, 28 June 2018
Armenian News... A Topalian... Subversive attack against Artsakh
PanArmenian, Armenia
June 23 2018
Azerbaijan launched an attempted subversive attack against Artsakh
The Azerbaijani army initiated an attempted subversive attack on the contact line with Nagorno Karabakhon June 17, Karabakh Defense Army spokesman Senor Hasratyan said on a Facebook post.
The Karabakh troops took the necessary measures to thwart the attack and threw the saboteurs back to their positions.
According to Hasratyan, the situation along the contact line changed in the period between June 17 and 23. In particular, he said, an RPG-7 grenade launcher has been used by Azerbaijan in some sections of the frontline.
“Besides, the rival forces continued with the maneuvers of manpower and military equipment in areas close to the contact line,” Hasratyan said.
“The Karabakh frontline units continue controlling the situation on the contact line and retaliating in the event of necessity.”
Panorama, Armenia
June 25 2018
Two Armenians re-elected to Turkish parliament
Two ethnic Armenian lawmakers have regained seats at the Turkish parliament according to the preliminary results of the presidential and parliamentary elections held in the country on Sunday, 24 June.
Garo Paylan nominated from Diyarbakir by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Markar Esayan nominated from Istanbul by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been re-elected to the 600-seat Turkish parliament, Ermenihaber reported.
The initial outcomes of the elections show the ruling AKP has won some 42.49 percent of the votes or 293 seats, while the main opposition CHP has received 22.67 percent or 146 seats.
The pro-Kurdish HDP has gained 11.62 percent of the votes to win 67 seats in the parliament. The MHP, an ally of AKP, and opposition İP have exceeded the 10% threshold to gain 50 and 44 seats respectively.
Arminfo, Armenia
June 23 2018
Armen Sarkissian in the United Kingdom presented political changes in Armenia
Naira Badalyan.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who is on a working visit to the United Kingdom, presented political changes in Armenia. As the presidential press office reports, Armen Sarkissian held a number of meetings.
In particular, in honor of the President of the Republic of Armenia, on behalf of the Minister for Europe and the Americas of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, Alan Duncan, a working lunch was given, during which President Sargsyan introduced political changes in Armenia. He touched upon reforms in various fields, primarily aimed at strengthening the rule of law in the country, as well as government and society efforts aimed at combating corruption. He also spoke about the Armenian- British relations, in particular, about the steps to develop trade-economic, scientific-educational and cultural ties.
Within the framework of the visit, Armen Sarkissian also met with a representative of the Queen in the diplomatic corps of London, who on behalf of the monarch gave farewell words to the longstanding Armenian
Ambassador to Great Britain Armen Sarkissian.
On June 21, President Armen Sarkissian with his wife Nune Sarkissian was at a dinner organized on behalf of the royal family in Buckingham Palace.
On June 22, President met with the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Jean-Pierre Jouyet. The interlocutors discussed issues related to the development of the Armenian-French friendship. They touched upon the business forum that will take place in Yerevan within the framework of the Francophonie summit in October this year, as well as the opportunities for cooperation between the businessmen of the two countries, the development of educational and cultural ties.
On the same day, Sarkissian met with the director of the London Museum of Science (Science Museum), Jan Blatchford. Issues related to the implementation of the joint initiative "The Museum of the Goodwill" in Armenia were discussed. It was noted that the establishment of a strategic partnership with the London Science Museum, as well as the continued participation of other major international partners in the Museum of the Future project will be useful, since it will allow them to establish contacts with the world's leading research centers, to become familiar with the current trends in the development of science and technology.
During the visit, a reception was held dedicated to the farewell ceremony with the former Armenian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Armen Sargsyan, attended by foreign diplomats accredited in London.
RFE/RL Report
Sarkisian’s Chief Bodyguard Suspected Of ‘Illegal Enrichment’
June 22, 2018
Law-enforcement authorities launched on Friday criminal proceedings against former Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian’s longtime chief bodyguard after confiscating more than $1 million in cash from his Yerevan apartment.
In a joint operation, Armenia’s Investigative Committee and police raided on Wednesday a night club in the capital which is owned by Vachagan Ghazarian’s
wife, Ruzanna Beglarian, and suspected of financial irregularities.
They also searched the couple’s apartment in downtown Yerevan and claimed to have found more than $1.1 million, over 230,000 euros ($267,000) and 35 million
drams ($72,000) stashed there. The Investigating Committee said the cash was handed over to Armenia’s Central Bank and will be kept there “until the inquiry
determines its origin.”
The committee spokeswoman, Sona Truzian, said Ghazarian and his wife failed to disclose the large sum in their income and asset declarations submitted to an
anti-corruption state commission.
Such declarations are mandatory for Armenia’s high-ranking state officials and their close relatives. Ghazarian was such an official until Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian dismissed him last month as first deputy head of a security agency providing bodyguards to the country’s leaders.
In a Facebook post, Truzian said the Investigating Committee has therefore opened a criminal case under articles of the Armenian Criminal Code dealing
with “illegal enrichment” of officials and submission of false income declarations by them. She did not clarify whether Ghazarian has already been questioned by investigators.
Ghazarian has headed Sarkisian’s security detail for more than two decades. It is not clear whether he still works for the ex-president.
Ha'aretz, Israel
June 26 2018
Israeli Lawmaker Drops Bill Recognizing Armenian Genocide
Jonathan Lis
Meretz chief Tamar Zandberg withdrew the legislation after the governing coalition and Foreign Ministry demanded to replace the term ‘genocide’ with ‘tragedy’ or ‘horrors’
A legislation that would have provided an Israeli recognition of the genocide of the Armenian people during World War I was pulled on Tuesday.
Meretz party leader, who sponsored the bill, has decided to withdraw the legislation after facing demands that the term "genocide" be dropped from the text.
Zandberg decided to withdraw consideration of the bill, which was scheduled for debate in the Knesset on Tuesday, after the government coalition and the Foreign Ministry demanded that the language of the bill be moderated and the term “genocide” dropped. Instead it was proposed that the term “tragedy” or “horrors” experienced by the Armenian people be used. Zandberg insisted on shelving the bill instead.
A Knesset vote on the legislation would have been largely symbolic. Passage would have not only involved recognition by the Knesset that Armenians had been victims of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, but recognition by the Israeli government as well.
Such a move would have negative implications on Israel’s relations with Turkey, a republic established after World War I following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire on a portion of the empire’s former territory. Turkey denies that Armenians were subject to genocide.
Knesset sources said on Monday that the coalition had begun rounding up a majority to defeat Zandberg’s bill, even though it was thought that if Knesset members were allowed to vote as they choose, in the absence of party discipline, the measure would have passed.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who has been a prominent proponent of recognizing the genocide of the Armenians, had proposed a softened version of Zandberg’s bill and secured the support of all of the parties in the government coalition other than Yisrael Beinteinu for it.
“With a heavy heart, I am forced to pull the bill that I had been due to present recognizing the Armenian genocide,” Zandberg said. “Unfortunately, despite the promises and excuses calling for postponing the vote until after the election in Turkey [last Sunday], now too, the coalition is refusing to support a bill recognizing the Armenian genocide.” Saying that a bill that failed to recognize the genocide was worse than no bill at all, she said she would withdraw it until “another time.” Recognition of the genocide, she said, involved a “historical justice unconnected to any politics,” she said.
26 June 2018
Statue of Kirk Kerkorian Unveiled in Gyumri
A statue of successful Armenian-American businessman, investor and philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian (1917–2015) was inaugurated Sunday on Abovyan Street in Armenia’s second-largest city, Gyumri.
Gyumri city officials are also considering renaming the street to Kirk Kerkorian Street.
The statue was unveiled by Mayor Samvel Balasanyan and US-based businessman Grigor Bediryan, the Gyumri native who is behind the initiative.
In his remarks, the mayor honored Kerkorian for his charitable contributions in Gyumri, which were carried out through the Lincy Foundation.
“The Lincy Foundation built 2800 apartments,” Balasanyan said.
The mayor thanked Bediryan for the initiative to erect the statue in their town. In turn, Bediryan thanked everyone who supported the initiative.
Kerkorian donated millions of dollars to Armenia through his Lincy Foundation, which was established in 1989 after the devastating 1988 Spitak earthquake.
Smithsonian Magazine
June 25 2018
Unfurling the Rich Tapestry of Armenian Culture
This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival will offer a window on Armenian visions of home
By Ryan P. Smith
A modestly sized landlocked nation framed by the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian to the east, Armenia links the southernmost former Soviet Socialist Republics with the arid sprawl of the Middle East. Armenia’s own geography is heavily mountainous, its many ranges separated by sweeping plateaus of vivid green. The wind is stiff and the climate temperate, and the mountainsides teem with archaeological treasures of a long and meandering history.
Thousands of years ago, the land known as Armenia was roughly seven times the size of the current country. Yet even within the borders of contemporary Armenia, cathedrals, manuscript repositories, memorials and well-worn mountain paths are so dense as to offer the culturally and historically curious a seemingly endless array of avenues to explore.
This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival will be bringing deeply rooted Armenian culture to Washington, D.C. From food and handicrafts to music and dance, the festival, taking place in late June and early July, will provide an intimate look at an extremely complex nation. Catalonia, the autonomous region of northeast Spain, is featured alongside Armenia.
What exactly makes Armenia’s cultural landscape so fascinating?
Tufts Armenian architecture expert Christina Maranci, and the Smithsonian’s Halle Butvin, curator of the festival’s “Armenia: Creating Home” program explain the many nuances of the Armenian narrative.
What was Armenia’s early history like?
Given its strategic geographical status as a corridor between seas, Armenia spent much of its early history occupied by one of a host of neighboring superpowers. The period when the Armenia was most able to thrive on its own terms, Levon Avodyan says, was when the powers surrounding it were evenly matched, and hence when none was able to dominate the region (historians call this principle Garsoïan’s Law, after Columbia University Armenia expert Nina Garsoïan).
Foreign occupation was often brutal for the Armenian people. Yet it also resulted in the diversification of Armenian culture, and allowed Armenia to exert significant reciprocal influence on the cultures of its invaders. “Linguistically, you can show that this happened,” Avodoyan says. “Architecturally this happened.” He says Balkan cruciform churches may very well have their artistic roots in early Armenian designs.
What religious trends shaped Armenia?
It’s hard to say what life looked like in pre-Christian Armenia, Avdoyan admits, given that no Armenian written language existed to record historical events during that time. But there are certain things we can be reasonably sure about. Zoroastrianism, a pre-Islamic faith of Persian origin, predominated. But a wide array of regionally variant pagan belief systems also helped to define Armenian culture.
The spontaneous blending of religious beliefs was not uncommon. “Armenia was syncretistic,” Avdoyan says, meaning that the religious landscape was nonuniform and ever-changing . “The entire pagan world was syncretistic. ‘I like your god, we’re going to celebrate your god. Ah, Aphrodite sounds like our Arahit.’ That sort of thing.”
Armenia has long had strong ties with Christian religion. In fact, Armenia was the first nation ever to formally adopt Christianity as its official faith, in the early years of the fourth century A.D. According to many traditional sources, says Levon Avdoyan, “St. Gregory converted King Tiridates, and Tiridates proclaimed Christianity, and all was well.” Yet one hundred years after this supposedly smooth transition, acceptance of the new faith was still uneven, Avdoyan says, and the Armenian language arose as a means of helping the transition along.
“There was a plan put forth by King Vramshapu and the Catholicos (church patriarch) Sahak the Great to invent an alphabet so that they could further propagate the Christian faith,” he explains.
As the still-employed Greek-derived title “Catholicos” suggests, the Christian establishment that took hold in the fourth century was of a Greek orientation. But there is evidence of Christianity in Armenia even before then—more authentically Armenian Christianity adapted from Syriac beliefs coming in from the south. “From Tertullian’s testimony in the second century A.D.,” says Avdoyan, “we have some hints that a small Armenian state was Christian in around 257 A.D.”
Though this alternative take on Christianity was largely snuffed out by the early-fourth century pogroms of rabidly anti-Christian Roman Emperor Diocletian, Avdoyan says facets of it have endured to this day, likely including the Armenian custom of observing Christmas on January 6.
How did Armenia respond to the introduction of Christian beliefs?
With the enshrinement of Christianity came a period characterized by what Avdoyan generously terms “relative stability” (major instances of conflict—including a still-famous battle of 451 AD that pitted Armenian nobles against invading Persians eager to reestablish Zoroastrianism as the official faith—continued to crop up). Yet the pagan lore of old did not evaporate entirely. Rather, in Christian Armenia, classic pagan myth was retrofitted to accord with the new faith.
“You can tell that some of these tales, about Ara the Beautiful, etc., have pagan antecedents but have been brought into the Christian world,” Avdoyan says. Old pagan themes remained, but the pagan names were changed to jibe with the Christian Bible.
The invention of an official language for the land of Armenia meant that religious tenets could be disseminated as never before. Armenia’s medieval period was characterized by the proliferation of ideas via richly detailed manuscripts.
What was special about medieval Armenia?
Armenian manuscripts are to this day world-renowned among medieval scholars. “They’re remarkable for their beauty,” Avdoyan says. Many have survived in such disparate places as the Matenadaran repository in Yerevan, the Armenian Catholic monasteries of San Lazzaro in Venice, and the Walters Art Museum in Maryland.
Historians define “medieval Armenia” loosely, but Avdoyan says most place its origin in the early fourth century, with the arrival of Christianity. Some, like Avodyan, carry it as far forward as the 16th century—or even beyond. “I put it with 1512,” Avdoyan says, “because that’s the date of the first published book. That’s the end of the manuscript tradition and the beginning of the print.”
What sets the manuscripts apart is their uniquely ornate illuminated lettering. “The Library of Congress recently bought a 1486 Armenian gospel book,” Avdoyan says, “and our conservationists got all excited because they noticed a pigment that didn’t exist in any other.”
Discoveries like this are par for the course with Armenian manuscripts, which continue to draw academic fascination. “There’s still a lot to be learned about the pigments and styles.”
The structure of life in medieval Armenia was a far cry from what Westerners tend to picture when they hear the term “medieval.” A kind of feudalism did take hold for a time, Avdoyan says, but not that of lordships and knights. “Unlike feudalism in Europe, which was tied to the land,” he notes, “feudalism in Armenia was tied to the office. You had azats, the free, you had the nobles, and in a certain period you had the kings.” For a stretch of Armenian history, these divisions of office were rigidly enforced—everyone knew their place. “But by the ninth century, tenth century, it rather fell apart.”
One facet of Armenia’s medieval period that was more consistent was the majesty of the churches and other religious structures erected all across its mountainous topography. These creations are the focus of medieval Armenian art historian Christina Maranci.
Armenians take pride in their historic architecture. Why?
It is something of a rarity for a country’s distinctive architecture to inspire ardent national pride, but Christina Maranci says such is most definitely the case in Armenia. “Many Armenians will tell you about Armenian architecture,” she says. To this day, engineering is a highly revered discipline in Armenia, and many study it. “A lot of Armenians know very well how churches are built, and are proud of that.”
Maranci says that what makes Armenian art history so fascinating to study, even before the medieval period, is its simultaneous incorporation of outside techniques and refinement of its native ones. Before Christianity, she says, “you have what you would traditionally consider to be Near Eastern art—Assyrian art, Persian—but you also have evidence for Mediterranean classical traditions, like Hellenistic-looking sculpture and peristyles. Armenia provides a very useful complication of traditional categories of ancient art.”
But later architecture of the region—particularly the Christian architecture of the medieval period—is what it is best known for today.
How far back can we trace Armenian architecture?
With the dawn of national Christianity, Byzantine and Cappadocian influences began to take hold. And places of worship began to dot the land. “The first churches upon the conversion of Armenia to Christianity are largely basilicas,” Maranci notes. “They’re vaulted stone masonry structures, but they don’t use domes for the most part, and they don’t use the centralized planning” that many later Armenian churches claim as a hallmark.
By the seventh century, though, Maranci explains that Armenia began to embrace its own signature architectural style. “You have the domed centralized plan,” she says, which “is distinctive to Armenia and neighboring Georgia, and is distinct from Byzantine architecture, Syrian architecture and Cappadocian architecture.” Within the span of just a few decades, she says, centrally planned churches came to predominate in Armenia. And “it becomes ever more refined through the tenth century, eleventh century, and so on.”
As important in medieval Armenian church architecture as the churches themselves was their situation amid the natural flow of their surroundings. “The outside of the church was, from what we can tell, used in processions and ceremonies as well as the inside,” Maranci says. “In traditional Armenian churches, you see very clearly the way the church building is related to the landscape. That’s another piece that’s important.”
Many of these elegantly geometric models have endured in Armenian architecture through to the present day. Yet Maranci says that the Hamidian Massacres of the 1890s and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1922 have exerted undeniable influences on Armenian architecture and art more broadly. “The recovery of medieval form now has to be mediated through this trauma,” she says. Modern Armenian art often subverts medieval forms to illustrate the annihilating effect of the bloodshed.
Moreover, since many Armenians emigrated out of the nation during or in the wake of these dark periods, diasporic Armenians have had to come up with their own takes on the traditional in new, unfamiliar environs. “You can see how American churches use prefab forms to replicate the Armenian churches,” she says by way of example. In lieu of Armenia’s incredibly sturdy rubble masonry technique—which dates back nearly two millennia—American communities have made do with plywood, drywall and reinforced concrete, improvising with their own materials yet staying true to the ancient architectural layouts.
What is significant about the Armenian diaspora(s)?
Many have heard the phrase “Armenian diaspora,” generally used as a blanket term to encompass those Armenians who fled the region around the time of the genocide and other killings. During and after World War I, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed—the Turkish government, for its part, disputes the death toll and denies that there was a genocide.
Avdoyan notes that, really, there was no one diaspora, but rather many distinct ones across a wide stretch of history. By using the singular term “diaspora,” Avdoyan believes we impute to the various immigrant groups of Armenia a sense of cohesion they do not possess.
“There is no central organization,” he says. “Each group has a different idea of what it means to be Armenian. Each one has a feeling that their Armenian-ness is more genuine or more pure. And it’s also generational.” The Armenians who fled the genocide have identities distinct from those of emigrants who left Armenia after the Lebanese Civil War, and distinct in a different way from those of the emigrants who have left Armenia since it secured its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Avodoyan hopes that one day all the different diasporic generations will be able to come together for a cultural conference.
What aspects of Armenian culture will the Folklife Festival be highlighting?
Between the rich artistic and religious history of the Armenian homeland and the various cultural adaptations of diasporic Armenian populations worldwide, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage had its work cut out for it in selecting elements of Armenian culture to showcase at this year’s Folklife Festival. The Folklife team settled on two major themes to explore—feasting and craft. These will be presented through the lens of home, an essential concept throughout the Armenian narrative.
On every day of the festival, which runs from June 27-July 1 and July 4-July 8, a dedicated “demonstration kitchen” will hold hourly presentations of Armenian recipes in action. Festival curator Halle Butvin calls special attention to Armenian methods of preserving food: “cheesemaking, pickling, making jams and drying herbs and fruits.”
The demonstration kitchen will also be showing off recipes featuring foraged foods, in honor of the self-sufficient food-gathering common in mountainous Armenia, as well as foods tied to the time-honored ritual of coming together for feasting: “Armenian barbecue, tolma, lavash, cheese, different salads. . . some of the major staples of an Armenian feast.”
Linked to feasting is Armenia’s dedication to its national holidays. “Vardavar, a pagan water-throwing tradition takes place on July 8 and Festivalgoers will get a chance to participate,” Butvin says. She says celebrants can expect to learn how to make such treats as gata (sweet bread), pakhlava (filo pastry stuffed with chopped nuts) and sujukh (threaded walnuts dipped in mulberry or grape syrup) for the occasion.
Diasporic Armenian eats will be prepared as well as time-honored homeland fare. Since “Armenian cultural life really does revolve around the home,” Butvin says, “we’ll have the whole site oriented around that, with the hearth—the tonir—at the center.”
Tonirs, the clay ovens in which Armenian lavash bread is cooked, are traditionally made specially by highly skilled Armenian craftsmen. One such craftsman will be on site at the Folklife Festival, walking visitors through the process by which he creates high-performance high-temperature ovens from scratch.
Another featured craft which speaks to the value Armenians place on architecture is the stone carving technique known as khachkar. Khachkars are memorial steles carved with depictions of the cross, and are iconic features of Armenian places of worship. Visitors will get hands-on exposure to the art of khachkar, as well as other longstanding Armenian specialties like woodcarving and rugmaking.
Musically, guests can expect a piquant blend of Armenian jazz and folk tunes. Butvin is looking forward to seeing the camaraderie between the various acts in the lineup, who all know one another and will be building on each other’s music as the festival progresses. “They will play in different groupings,” Butvin says—guests can expect “a lot of exchanges and influences taking place between the artists.”
And what would music be without dance? Butvin says the dance instruction component of the Folklife Festival will tie in thematically with the feasting traditions emphasized among the culinary tents. “Usually you eat, drink, listen to music, and then dance once you’re feeling a little tipsy,” Butvin says. “That’s kind of the process of the feast.”
The emphasis of the Armenian portion of the festival on home and family will contrast well with the Catalonian activities’ stress on street life. “The whole Catalonian site is focused around the street and the plaza and this public space,” Butvin says, “whereas the Armenia side is really focused on the home itself. It will be an interesting difference, to look at the two.”
Butvin is hopeful the festival will show visitors the wonders of Armenian culture while also impressing upon them the degree to which it has spread and evolved all over the globe. “All of these different objects and traditions help to create a sense of home for Armenians,” she says—even those Armenians “who are in diaspora, who are trying to hold on to this sense of Armenian-ness.”
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival takes place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., June 27 to July 1, and July 4 to July 8, 2018. Featured programs are “Catalonia: Tradition and Creativity from the Mediterranean” and “Armenia: Creating Home.”
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Armenian News ... A Topalian... Crime Bosses Rounded up!
RFE/RL Report
Armenian ‘Crime Bosses’ Rounded Up By Police
June 21, 2018
Tatev Danielian
The Armenian police reported two arrests on Thursday after raiding the homes of
around three dozen men described as major crime figures.
A police statement specified the names as well as underworld nicknames of the
individuals whose homes in Yerevan and other parts of Armenia were searched on
Wednesday. It said law-enforcement officers found weapons, ammunition and
“substances resembling narcotics” in some of them.
All of those men were then taken to police stations for further questioning.
The statement referred to them as “thieves-in-law” and “criminal authorities,”
terms commonly applied to crime bosses in the former Soviet Union.
A spokesman for the national police service, Zarzand Gabrielian, said two of
them were placed under arrest. “They are Aleksandr Makarain nicknamed ‘Alo’ and
Andranik Harutiunian nicknamed ‘Masivtsi Andik,’” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am). “The others were interrogated and released.”
Gabrielian added that the detained men have not been formally charged yet.
The police statement and a video attached to it said that the raids were
sanctioned by courts as part of an unspecified “criminal case.” It did not
elaborate.
The national police chief, Valeri Osipian, also declined to go into details
when he spoke to journalists on Thursday. “Everyone in the Republic of Armenia
must obey the laws,” he said vaguely.
Artur Sakunts, a veteran human rights campaigner, welcome the police raids,
saying that they are part of the new Armenian authorities’ efforts to
strengthen the rule of law in the country. “They are taking clear steps on the
basis on the notion that the criminal underworld and its rules cannot be part
of government,” he said.
Sakunts claimed that Armenia’s former leaders relied on reputed crime figures
in falsifying election results. The latter will now be discouraged from any
involvement in political processes, he said.
RFE/RL Report
Armenian Minister Withdraws Resignation
June 21, 2018
Karlen Aslanian
Ruzanna Stepanian
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Mane Tandilian on Thursday withdrew her
resignation which she tendered last week in protest against the Armenian
government’s decision to complete a controversial pension reform.
Tandilian announced her decision after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged
to consider amending a new pension system that will become mandatory on July 1
for all Armenians born after 1973.
Tandilian was one of the organizers of street protests in 2014 against the
reform requiring those citizens to finance a large part of their future
pensions through additional tax payments. The protests forced Armenia’s former
government to make the new system, recommended by Western donors, optional for
private sector employees until July 2018.
Shortly after Pashinian appointed her as minister last month, Tandilian
proposed that this deadline be extended by one more year. The new government
turned down the proposal, sticking to its predecessor’s plans. The only
concession it made was to get the Armenian parliament to temporarily cut the
new pension tax rate from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.
Tandilian cited the government’s stance when she stepped down on June 12.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Pashinian said that he did not accept
the resignation. He said he and the minister have agreed to work together on
“making that system more acceptable.”
“We need to dispel all doubts existing in the society and among ourselves in
order to be sure that we are on the right track,” the premier told cabinet
members. The new, partly privatized mechanism for retirement benefits needs a
“very serious improvement,” he said without elaborating.
Shortly after the cabinet meeting, Tandilian wrote on her Facebook page that
she will not resign after all. She said her ministry will draft amendments to
Armenian pension legislation within the next two weeks. She expressed hope that
they will be adopted by the parliament later this year.
The parliament, meanwhile, voted on Thursday to pass in the second and final
reading a government bill that prompted the minister’s resignation letter.
Panorama, Armenia
June 21 2018
Armenian Helicopters ready to operate charter flights
Armenian Helicopters is already ready to carry out flights as the company has today been licenced by Armenia’s General Department of Civil Aviation (GDCA).
The air company founded in Armenia is set to operate charter flights through U.S.-manufactured Robinson R66 as well as European AIRBUS EC130T2 aircrafts in the near future both in the territory of Armenia and abroad.
The flights will enable the Armenian residents and foreign tourists to enjoy sights from a bird’s-eye view.
The company’s operation can boost Armenia’s aviation and the country’s attractiveness for foreign tourists, the civil aviation’s press service told Panorama.am.
Armenian Helicopters also plans to invest around $10 million in the next three years and create new jobs.
Arminfo, Armenia
June 20 2018
Baku attempts to take credit for Pashinyan's victory
Marianna Mkrtchyan.
Baku tries to take credit for Nikol Pashinyan's victory. Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov is convinced that the Supreme Commander-in- Chief Ilham Aliyev brought down Serzh Sargsyan's government diplomatically, without using any weaponry, APA reports.
He also stated that the Azerbaijani military is trying by all means to defeat the enemy (Armenia). Hasanov also considers that Armenia has launched a massive information war against Azerbaijan. ''We all must put up a fight against the enemy. Armenian special service agencies are using social networking to cause us to lose our confidence.
Respected media representatives should beware of such provocations. I ask media workers to be careful. The media are a huge force. This force must join the fight against the enemy'', APA quotes Hasanov as saying.
Kent and Sussex Courier, UK
June 20, 2018 Wednesday
Audiologist James is jetting off to Armenia to give the gift of hearing
AN AUDIOLOGIST from Crowborough is returning to Armenia on his second hearing mission with Starkey Hearing Technologies.
James Owen, from Owen Hearing, on Croft Road in the town has been invited by Starkey to take part in the project.
Joining 14 other hearing audiologists from across the UK and Ireland - and a six-strong team from the hearing device manufacturer's European headquarters in Cheshire - James will travel 2,400 miles to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
James's visit is part of the worldwide Starkey Hearing Foundation initiative, which has provided over 1.9 million hearing devices in more than 100 countries. Its mission is to give the gift of hearing to those in need, helping them to achieve their potential. High-profile supporters include Richard Branson, Bill Clinton and Elton John.
An initial visit was undertaken last summer to carry out hearing screening tests and take ear impressions to identify recipients. Then in October, James and other audiologist volunteers flew out on phase one of the mission to fit over 1,800 people with hearing instruments - as well as counselling patients and supporting them with that all-important aftercare.
This month's visit will further build upon the work already undertaken.
James said: "I'm very pleased to be asked back to give the gift of hearing in Armenia.
"It is great to be involved in something that means so much more to the recipients who haven't got the facilities in the own communities.
"This is proof that the Starkey Hearing Foundation doesn't just visit once and leave with no support, it shows that what is given is for the long term with aftercare provided.
"When we last visited we fitted over 1800 people with hearing aids and that only scratched the surface. It's wonderful to be involved in continuing the support of the Armenian people."
According the World Health Organisation, more than 360 million people have disabling hearing loss, with the greatest number living in developing countries.
Unfortunately, less than three per cent can afford hearing aids or access to care.
The Independent, UK
June 21 2018
In the land of the massacres, the very last Armenians have been finally been found
Robert Fisk
Avedis Hadjian, author of “Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey”, sometimes appears out of breath, exhausted by his attempts to find his people’s ancestors and descendants
Following journalist and writer Avedis Hadjian across the mountains of eastern Turkey, through the snows and winds and those high villages which clasp to the rock of what was western Armenia before the Armenian genocide, is a bit like roaming the lands of Ninevah if Isis had won. Imagine the converted Christians clinging to their land under the clothes of Islam if Isis had not been destroyed, the Yezidi sex slaves sold into marriage but still passing on to their future children and grandchildren the fragments of a past life and an ancient language. For what was discovered by Hadjian in the fastness of Mush and Bitlis and Urfa and Erzerum and Marash was the bottom of the pond of history: the very last Armenians to survive in the land of massacre.
So deep is the pond that the author of this newly published book – “Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey” – sometimes appears out of breath, exhausted by his attempts to find his people’s ancestors and descendants, sometimes bravely failing because they will not talk or because they have just died. Perhaps it is because the light in the depths of the pond is of such cathedral-like gloom that historians have largely ignored Hadjian’s work; scarcely a review of this book has been published in Europe or America. Like the Armenia of the killing fields, it is as if it has never been.
In truth, we in the West have known of these “secret Armenians” for at least a decade, ever since Fethiye Cetin wrote of her Armenian-Turkish grandmother – inevitably the old lady was given a Muslim funeral for she was, as a Turk, a Muslim – and we all remember Hrant Dink, assassinated outside his newspaper office in Istanbul in 2007 because he remembered the Armenian genocide rather too much. But what Hadjian has done is to climb the tired old roads to the ancient villages of an unknown Turkey – to Garin, Van and Cilicia, where the survivors of the survivors, so to speak, of the first genocide of the twentieth century still exist.
They speak a kind of Armenian, those who remember the language of their race, and one of them even writes down the sounds of Arabic in Armenian script – he is quoting the Koran – which he does not understand. There may be up to two million of these souls, their identity as complex as their nationality; for who knows what identity is. Your religion? Your race? Your customs? Geography? A Turkish girl climbing a Christian Armenian holy mountain, Mount Maruta, frightened because her bag has flipped open to reveal an embroidered Armenian cross? Hadjian includes a coloured photograph of the girl in her long skirt, but with her light brown hair uncovered, the ghost of a lost people.
I’m still not quite sure why Hadjian, an Aleppo-born Armenian who has been an Argentinian Armenian since the age of two, traipsed up so many mountainsides. The Palestinians may dream of returning to lost lands, but the comparatively wealthy, cosmopolitan Armenian diaspora – most of the 11 million Armenians who are alive, descendants of those who survived the genocide of one and a half million of their people at the hands of the Turks (and of the Kurds, let us remember) – have no desire to re-settle in the old killing fields. For the places of massacre are well known to those forlorn people who still live there but who sometimes have only the memory of grandparents speaking in “a strange language” to hint at their family history.
In most cases, of course, it was the women who survived. And we know why. They were raped by Turks or Kurds or sold into marriage to Turks or Kurds or Arabs. The men were butchered with knives, roped together and thrown into rivers, tossed into gorges. So there is the mist of ancient dishonour over womanhood, although Hadjian does not speak of this in so many words. He finds a Muslim Imam of Armenian origin whose grandfather was killed in the genocide but whose uncle, a seminarian, converted to Islam. The imam speaks Kurdish, Turkish and Arabic but no Armenian, although he knows his history and claims he was not forcibly converted.
“The descendants of the people who massacred our family are still around,” he tells Hadjian. “We know them. We know the descendants of the people who murdered our grandfather Sahin. We lived among them. I would see them every day. We would see a dishonourable man like the one who killed Sahin every day. And yet, there was nothing we could do.”
Yet although he understood no Armenian, the imam knew the name of Sahin’s killer: Divan Erat.
At Argat, Hadjian visits the Ermeni Deresi, the “Armenians Gorge”, which is what it sounds like: the crevasse in which Armenians had been thrown to their deaths in 1915. There are no bones left. But there are memories of the dead, and Ibrahim, as he walks up the gorge, recalls what his parents said of his great-grandmother Zara, who was five when “she saw bandits decapitate her parents and her seven siblings”. Zara then fled through the mountains – a five-year old child, remember – to the village of Bahro, “seeing huge piles of corpses along the way.” Yet the descendants of the dead are kaleidoscopic. One family Hadjian meets are Armenian by ethnicity, Assyrian Orthodox Christians or Sunni Muslims by religion, Turkish by citizenship. Like the onion, he says, “peeling it to the end leaves you with nothing, for it is the aggregate of layers that makes the whole.”
Hadjian even finds one village, high in the sierras, where the enmity between Armenian-origin villagers and their neighbours continued into the 1960s with occasional shooting battles, even killings, completing a genocide that lasted – for them – half a century.
Hadjian has no final conclusions for his readers in this book, save for the observation that the survivors – including the frightened young Armenian girl on Mount Maruta – are not alone.
I’m not sure what that means. Survival keeps history alive, but I’m not sure it guarantees life in the future.
OC Media
June 21 2018
Age discrimination in Armenia: why women turn to plastic surgery to find work
by Armine Avetisyan
With high levels unemployment, Armenians are especially vulnerable to exploitation from unscrupulous employers. Given a lack of legal protections, employers are free to discriminate against female applicants based on their age or how they look. For some women, the only answer they see is to undergo cosmetic procedures, to make them look younger in the hope of finding a job.
The streets of Yerevan are lined with beauty salons, where for a small amount of money, certain external cosmetic procedures can be carried out.
‘I carry out procedures to enlarge the lips, lip liner tattoos, as well as smoothing out small wrinkles on the mouth, eyes, and forehead. I have many clients who visit me regularly’, says cosmetologist Shushan. According to her, some of her regular clients do not visit her by choice.
‘I have clients who compulsorily come for a couple of procedures twice a year; they should always be in good shape — that's a demand from their bosses. Their facial treatment is like buying a new T-shirt, they say that nothing “worn out” is accepted in their company, neither clothing nor faces’
If you are over 25 years old then you are too old
Thirty-one-year-old Alina was looking for a job for a long time. Upon graduating from university, she left for Europe to work on volunteer projects in Poland. When she returned home, she struggled to find work. She says she couldn’t find a job because employers considered her too ‘old’.
‘I’m a translator, I’m fluent in foreign languages, but it’s difficult to find a job in my profession in this city, so I decided to go for a job as a shop assistant at a store where I knew they had a vacancy. I applied. The director didn’t even care who I was, what kind of education I had, he just examined me and asked how old I was. I said 27. Then he replied: “Sorry, but you’re too old, you’re not right for this job” ’, Alina says.
Today, Alina works in an educational institution and says her friends are jealous of her, as despite her age, she has been able to find a good job.
A cleaning woman is needed, up to 25 years old, pretty, beautiful, without any complexes, to work in my own apartment. Salary- starting from 150,000 drams (AMD).
‘My 33-year-old friend can’t find a job anywhere. Everyone says she is too old and not good-looking enough. She’s only offered jobs as a cleaner’, says Alina.
Being a woman is complicated in Armenia; there are few places in the labour market for a woman past her late 20s, 25–27 years old is the limit. Beyond that, a woman is considered to be useless by many employers.
‘I came from Vanadzor [a city in northern Armenia] to Yerevan in search of work and thought I would find a job here; I couldn’t find a job within my profession in my hometown — I’m an economist. I came, began to search for work, and realised that it was totally useless to come to Yerevan’, says 38-year-old Lusine, who not being able to find office work, began to look for a job as a shop assistant.
‘I went to a few shops, but they told me: “sorry, we can only offer you a job as a cleaner” ’
Wanted: a saleswoman who looks like a model
‘I have a small kiosk where I sell bags, and at the moment I have an advertisement looking for a tall saleswoman with long hair and thick lips, up to 25 years old. It's pleasant for me when a girl with this type of look works in my store. [A woman with] this kind of appearance also attracts customers’, says Arayik, a male resident of Yerevan who has not chosen a saleswoman yet.
Ara Ghazaryan, an expert in international law from Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates, says that according to the Labour Code, there is no clear regulation prohibiting employers from discriminating based on gender, appearance, or age. He says the only legal mechanism that could be cited is the Armenian constitution, according to which everyone is equal before the law and discrimination is prohibited.
‘We face discrimination on the basis of gender. There is only one point in the Labour Code in which discrimination is prohibited[…] unfortunately, we do not have a specific law to combat discrimination [even though such a law] is very necessary in Armenia today’.
According to Ghazaryan, not only is there no provision within the law to combat sex-based discrimination, but women will also go to great lengths to avoid voicing problems related to their employers.
‘A woman applies for a job. She is rejected for some reason or simply refuses the offer without mentioning the reason. Often the employer exploits the fact that he has the right to decide who can work with him even though it does not mean that he will make an announcement and state that he is looking for attractive, young girls [with perfect bodies]’, says Ghazaryan.
Demand for sexual services in return for employment
Twenty-nine-year-old Ani recently responded to an online advertisement for secretaries up to 25 years old which offered a monthly salary of ֏200,000 ($410). She says she called the employer and said that though she was slightly older than the age limit, she has work experience and asked to be given a chance.
‘I went to the meeting with the director. He examined me from head to toe and even asked me to turn around for him. He thought for a few moments and said that despite my “older” age, I still looked fresh and could work. But he put several conditions before me: I had to plump up my lips and be ready for free ‘communication’ outside of work. He said he liked going out and that his secretary should socialise freely with him at night and sometimes kiss him with her thick lips. I just ran out of there’, says Ani.
‘I graduated from the Pedagogical University. I am a linguist. After three years I still couldn’t find work so in the end, I decided to take a job as a waitress in a cafe as there was no other option. A week after I started, the café’s manager called me into his office and said he could make me a manager, but I had to earn it — he demanded I have sex with him in return. My face became completely red, I just wanted to die of shame. Being a waitress does not mean being a prostitute’, says Gayane (not her real name).
‘Exploiting a woman’s vulnerable situation, male employers sometimes offer them an intimate relationship. This is very common in Armenia. But since we do not have a law regulating this issue, and things are already complicated for women, they are ashamed to speak about this problem, these cases do not go to court yet’, Ara Ghazaryan says.
There are 46,700 unemployed women registered in Armenia. They make up two thirds of the total number of unemployed people.
Due to employers’ demands for female employees to have a certain ‘look’, beauty salons and cosmetic surgery clinics have become more popular in Armenia. Though there are no official statistics, plastic surgeons report that every day, with surgery and cosmetic adjustments, dozens of young women are plumping up their lips, buttocks and breasts. To get the job, women are forced to transform themselves.
This article was prepared with support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Regional Office in the South Caucasus. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of FES.
Daily Mail, UK
June 21 2018
Incredible moment Armenian fitness fanatic does push ups with only two fingers
-Narek Hakobyan, 29, can perform push ups using just his index finger and thumb
-Armenian fitness fanatic practices the stunt every morning to build up strength
-He said: 'I do the exercise every day, two or three hours per day from my home'
By CONNOR BOYD FOR MAILONLINE
This is the incredible moment an Armenian fitness fanatic performed push-ups with just two fingers.
Narek Hakobyan, 29, has perfected the stunt by practicing it each morning to slowly build up the strength in his thumb and index finger.
He said: 'I do the exercise every day, two or three hours per day. Mostly, I work out at home. I have one rest day on Sundays when I don't work out.
This is the incredible moment an Armenian fitness fanatic performed push-ups with just two fingers.
The video shows Narek performing a series of push-ups with his feet resting on a wood cupboard.
The stuntman does several reps before casually dusting himself off.
'I like to spend my free time by painting,' he said.
'I have always loved and practiced sports since my childhood.
'I have practiced different kinds of sports such as karate, boxing, weightlifting, swimming, running, all of these kinds of sports have been done so that l can strengthen all of my muscles and do interesting record-worth tricks.
'l was into the above mentioned sports for only several months, only karate- for about 4 years. I started to get seriously engaged in sports since 2012.
'Almost every day I exercise, work out two or three hours. I have rest only on Sundays.'
Watch video at
Daily Mail, UK
June 22 2018
Now THAT'S a man cave! Inside the 65ft-deep underground world dug out by a builder over 23 YEARS... using just a chisel and hammer
Levon Arakelyan, who was a builder by profession, spent 23 years crafting the 280-square-metre cave.
Today the hand-crafted cellar in the village of Arinj in Armenia is open as a museum
New Zealand-based photographer Amos Chapple recently journeyed to the attraction to shed some light on it
By Sadie Whitelocks for MailOnline
These fascinating photos show how one man painstakingly created a jaw-dropping basement under his house, using just a hammer and chisel.
Builder Levon Arakelyan spent 23 years crafting the incredible 65ft-deep, 3,000-square-foot subterranean space and he was even working on the project on the day he died in 2008, aged 67. He began working on itafter his wife, Tosya, asked for a cool space for her potatoes. He got carried away.
Today the hand-crafted cellar network in the village of Arinj in Armenia is open as a museum and New Zealand-based Radio Free Europe photographer Amos Chapple recently journeyed to the attraction to shed some light on it.
Mr Chapple said he decided to visit the unique basement after reading an article about it online.
Apparently Tosya no longer ventures into the cavern as she's scared of having a fall, so the cameraman went down there alone.
Describing the cave, he told MailOnline Travel: 'I went and scouted the place out with the lights on. I then went back up and asked Tosya to switch all the lights off and I would work down there alone to take photographs.
Today the hand-crafted cellar in the village of Arinj in Armenia is open as a museum and New Zealand-based Radio Free Europe photographer Amos Chapple recently journeyed to the attraction to shed some light on it
Over the years Levon continued to burrow 65 feet down, adding intricate detailing to the cave-like space
Some of the tunnels feature grand doorways, with Romanesque columns carved into the stone and there are perfectly angled stairs chipped into the rock.
'So being down there in the darkness was amazing - there was utter silence and darkness, and it was easy to get lost.
'At first though I was a little nervous - Armenia is earthquake-prone and in the deeper caverns the rock crumbled under my fingernails.
'I tried to banish the thought of a collapse from my mind and just concentrate on photographing.'
Levon would often spend 18 hours a day underground only emerging for a few hours to sleep before starting again. His wife Tosya (pictured right) now opens the quirky basement to visitors
The walls of the cave feature a mix of hard and soft volcanic rock and the temperature remains around 10 degrees Celsius all-year round.
Asked what the most interesting feature of the cave is, Mr Chapple said: 'It was impossible to photograph well, but there's a kind of portal above ground at the very top that runs down through all the levels.
'You can stand in this back room of the house and look all the way down to the bottom level some 65 feet below you.'
Levon started hammering out the basement in 1985 and over the years he continued to burrow, adding intricate detailing to the cave-like space.
Some of the tunnels feature grand doorways, with Romanesque columns carved into the stone and there are perfectly angled stairs chipped into the rock.
Levon would often spend 18 hours a day underground only emerging for a few hours to sleep before starting again.
The cave museum features the rustic tools used by Levon and the shredded boots he worked in.
All of the earth removed during the excavation project was donated to local builders for use on construction projects.
Mr Chapple said he only saw two other visitors to the cave while he was there and there was no entrance fee, just a suggested donation.
Photos at
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