Author: Alex Nanijanian

Horizon Weekly – Garo Paylan, one of three ethnic Armenians in the Turkish Parliament, will engage in a discussion of recent developments in Turkey and the Armenian community on April 30 and May 1 at the Armenian Community centers in Montreal and Toronto.

The program is sponsored by the Armenian National Committee of Canada, with the co-sponsorship of the Union of Armenian Associations in Quebec and the Union of Armenian Organizations and Churches of Toronto.

In this presentation, his first in Canada, Mr. Paylan will discuss recent developments in Turkey and the region, the challenges faced by Turkey’s Armenian community, Turkish-Armenian relations, and the Kurdish issue. Mr. Paylan will speak in English.

Garo Paylan is a founding member of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and is a deputy representing the third district in Istanbul. Mr. Paylan is also a member of Turkey’s Armenian community and has long been an activist on human rights, Kurdish, and Armenian issues.

Prior to joining the parliament, Mr. Paylan served on the central committee of HDP and also served on the management of Armenian schools in Istanbul. He has long promoted bilingual education and minority rights in Turkey and has been actively engaged in raising awareness on discrimination towards minorities, the rights of the Armenian community in Turkey, Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, and especially on the Hrant Dink murder case. Mr. Paylan is from a family originally from Malatya and was elected to the Turkish parliament in 2015.

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today accompanied by Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan.

Minister  Janelidze laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims and paid tribute to their memory with a minute of silence.

Photo: AFP/GETTY

 

A camp housing 1,500 migrants in northern France has been destroyed in a fire that officials said began during a fight between Afghans and Kurds, the BBC reports.

At least 10 people were injured when the fire tore through closely-packed huts at the Grande-Synthe camp, near the port of Dunkirk.

Last month officials said the camp would be dismantled because of unrest.

The French north coast has been a magnet for migrants trying to reach Britain.

“There is nothing left but a heap of ashes,” said Michel Lalande, prefect of France’s Nord region.

“It will be impossible to put the huts back where they were before,” he added.

The population of the Grande-Synthe camp has grown since last October’s destruction of the “Jungle” camp near Calais, about 40 km away.

Sandra Kardashian ad her husband Hratch Kardashian have opened an Armenian bakery in Taylor, reports.

Yes, they are related to the “other” Kardashian family.

That’s one of the first questions Sandra Kardashian gets asked by people who stop into her new business, Kardashian Bakery and Grill

Her husband, Hratch Kardashian’s father, was the second cousin of Robert Kardashian, the father of  the famous sisters.

The store is the first Armenian bakery in Michigan, according to Sandra Kardashian, and also has a large Italian menu.

“Why cook just one style of food,” she said. “That would get boring.”

She is of Italian descent, her parents immigrated from Naples, Italy, while her husband Hratch is from Armenia.

“I do all the cooking though,” she said. “My husband doesn’t cook.”

Sandra comes from a background working in a hospital, but gave it up to run the bakery after her husband found the location. Hratch works in the printing industry, and kept his job there.

Read the full story .

The European Council today re-elected Donald Tusk as its president for a second term of two and a half years, from 1 June 2017 to 30 November 2019. Donald Tusk was also re-appointed as President of the Euro Summit for the same period.

He is the second full-time President of the European Council, following the creation of the post on 1 December 2009 under the Treaty of Lisbon.

Donald Tusk has been the President of the European Council since 1 December 2014. Prior to that, he was Prime Minister of Poland for 7 years.

The President chairs European Council meetings and drives forward its work. He also ensures the external representation of the EU at his level on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy.

—The Armenian youth in Argentina held a demonstration during the afternoon of Friday, March 3 in front of the Azerbaijani embassy on the 29th anniversary of the Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani cities of Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad.

“The authoritarian regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spends millions of petrodollars on events and publicity to wash away the image of his corrupt government while keeping the civilian population in extreme poverty and harassing and persecuting journalism and opposition,” said Brenda Kechiyan, member of Armenian Youth Federation of South America in her speech. A large number of members of the Armenian community came to support the demonstration, with a strong presence of Homenetmen scouts.

“As opposed to a dictatorial regime that oppresses its population, which censures the press and systematically denies the Armenian Genocide along with Turkey, is the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which in September 2016 celebrated 25 years of independence, democracy, of elected governments at the polls that work day by day to improve the quality of life of their people,” added Kechiyan, who then demanded freedom of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin.

“This is why today we call the international community, but above all the Argentine authorities, to recognize the self-determination of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as a free and independent State, and to condemn denialism in all its forms.”

Open Road Films has released a trailer for “The Promise,” director Terry George’s romantic epic set during the Armenian Genocide.

Empires fall, love survives. When Michael (Oscar Isaac), a brilliant medical student, meets Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between Michael and Ana’s boyfriend Chris (Christian Bale), a famous American photojournalist dedicated to exposing political truth.

As the Ottoman Empire crumbles into war-torn chaos, their conflicting passions must be deferred while they join forces to get their people to safety and survive themselves. The Promise is directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Terry George.

The Promise hits theaters April 21.

Photo: AFP

 

US private rocket company SpaceX has announced that two private citizens have paid to be sent around the Moon, the  BBC reports.

The mission is planned for late 2018, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, adding that the tourists “have already paid a significant deposit”.

“This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years,” he said.

The two unnamed people will fly aboard a spaceship which is set for its first unmanned test flight later this year.

Mr Musk said the co-operation of America’s Nasa space agency had made the plan possible.

He said the two passengers “will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them”.

Mr Musk declined to reveal their identities, only saying that they knew each other and that “it’s nobody from Hollywood”.

The Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office conducted monitoring of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border near the village of Chinari in Tavush province, Press Service of the Armenian Ministry of Defense reports.

From the Armenian side the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic) and Christo Christov (Bulgaria).

Following the monitoring the OSCE representatives were briefed on the situation at the frontline and the statistics of the cases of ceasefire violation by Azerbaijani forces.

The Armenian party called the attention of the OSCE monitors s to the fact that Azerbaijan keeps the Armenian border villages, pastures and fields under fire.

No ceasefire violations and incidents were registered during the monitoring.