Author: Ani Tigranian

On November 19, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Greek affiliate will kick off its sixth annual phoneathon. In the course of the two-day fundraising event, volunteers will make calls to close to 1,600 Armenian households in Athens and other Greek cities, to request donations toward the construction of the kindergarten of Karin Tak, a village in Artsakh’s Shushi Region. The kindergarten-construction project, now underway, is a joint initiative with Hayastan All-Armenian Fund benefactors in Argentina and Cyprus as well as the government of Artsakh. The project is slated to be completed in summer 2017.

“Although for a small Armenian community such as ours, it’s hard to sponsor major projects on our own, we continue to help implement them by teaming up with other affiliates of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund,” said Vatche Der-Garabedian, chairman of the fund’s Greek affiliate. “I think such collaborative efforts are marvelous symbols of pan-national unity. It’s thanks to this type of collaboration that projects such as the construction of the community center of Khachmach, a village in Artsakh’s Askeran Region, were made possible.” Der-Garabedian added that if, as he hopes, proceeds from the phoneathon in Greece surpass expectations, the Greek-Armenian community will go on to sponsor an additional development project in the homeland.

The total raised through the phoneathon in Greece, as well as the totals of proceeds from all 2016 Hayastan Fund fundraising campaigns worldwide, will be announced at the conclusion of the organization’s flagship annual event, the Thanksgiving Day Telethon, on November 24.

Emulating the successful model of the fund’s Pan-European Phoneathon, which is headed by the French affiliate, the Greek affiliate has held local phoneathons since 2010, to date raising a total of 140,000 euros for various projects in Armenia.

On November 13^th, a souvenir sheet with 1 postage stamp dedicated to the theme ““Religion. 350^th anniversary of the First Bible in Armenian printed by Voskan Yerevantsi” has been cancelled in the hall of the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam.

The stamp depicts the first printed Bible in Armenian language and the souvenir sheet depicts the illustration from the Genesis Book of the Bible picturing the Creation of the World.

The official cancellation of the souvenir sheet was attended by the Ambassador of Armenia in the Netherlands Dzyunik Aghajanyan, Member of the Christian Party in the Dutch Parliament Joel Voordewind, president of the board of the University of Amsterdam, prof. dr. Geert ten Dam, the Vicar of the Patriarchal Delegate of Western Europe in the Netherlands, Hayr Aren Shahinian, the director of Saint Grigor Narekatsi School Vahan Avagyan (Surp Hoki Armenian Apostolic Church Amsterdam) and the Acting Chief Executive Officer of “HayPost” CJSC.

Religion. 350^th anniversary of the First Bible in Armenian printed by Voskan Yerevantsi

Date of issue: November 13, 2016

Designer: David Dovlatyan

Printing house: Cartor, France

Stamp size: 30,0 x 40,0 mm

S/sheet size: 80,0 x 93,0 mm

Print run: 20 000 pcs.

Photo: Sputnik/ ALEXEY DRUZHININ

Russia has granted citizenship to Steven Seagal via a decree from president Vladimir Putin, published on the Kremlin’s official web site on Thursday.

“He has made requests about citizenship for a long time and quite persistently,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

“This [was his] desire, he had really applied. He had been really persistent for a long time and been asking to grant him citizenship, he is actually renown for his quite warm feelings toward our country. He never made a secret out of it, at the same time he is quite famous, as you know, actor,” Peskov told journalists, reports.

In September, Seagal said that he was considering the possibility of applying for Russian citizenship. He explained his plans by the desire to spend several months a year with his friends in the country.

 

The solemn opening of the fourth international conference of Armenian libraries was held at Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Manuscript Depository (Matenadaran) at the Mother See of Hoply Etchmiadzin today.

The conference titled “Preserving the past for the sake of future” is dedicated to the 350^th anniversary of publishing of the first Armenian Bible.

The event has been organized by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Armenian Ministry of Culture and the National Library.

The opening ceremony was attended by His Holiness Karenin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and Minister of Culture Armen Amiryan.

“The anniversary of  publishing of the Armenian Holy Book is a remarkable opportunity for the Armenian people to once again value their written legacy and the tireless efforts and dedication our devotees have demonstrated to create this heritage. Printing is one of the greatest achievements of mankind, which made it possible for the achievements of human brain to disseminate and reach all layers of society. Printing became one of the favorable conditions shaping the modern civilization,” His Holiness Karekin II said in his opening remarks.

Minister of Culture Armen Amiryan voiced hope that the conference would serve its goals – to support the centers of Armenology, to help libraries register the Armenian printed heritage, to contribute to the long-term maintenance and popularization of the Armenian legacy.

“I hope new routes of cooperation will be found as a result of discussions, new models of digitization and preservation will be offered,” Armen Amiryan said.

Photo: AFP

 

An Iraqi operation to recapture the city of Mosul, the last stronghold of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in the country, has started.

Artillery began firing on the city early on Monday, in a long-awaited assault from Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi government and allied forces.

Tanks are now moving towards the city, which has been held by IS since 2014.

The UN has expressed “extreme concern” for the safety of up to 1.5 million people in the area.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has postponed a planned visit to France amid a row over Syria, French presidential sources say.

Mr Putin had been due to go to Paris on 19 October for talks and to open a new Orthodox church.

On Monday, French President Francois Hollande suggested Russia could face war crimes charges over its bombardment of Syria’s second city, Aleppo.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not arrive in Paris on a visit on October 19, a source in the Kremlin told TASS on Tuesday.

“The visit of the president to Paris on October 19 won’t take place,” the source said commenting on media reports.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) will host a three-day international conference “After Genocide: From Trauma to Rebirth, a Gendered Perspective” on Saturday, September 17 to Monday, September 19 at AGBU Armenia Hall in Yerevan.

The conference is organized by conflict and gender think-tank Women in War (France) in partnership with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of Armenia, DVV International, and AGBU Armenia. The three-day event brings together over fifty speakers from around the world to discuss the gendered nature of personal, political and social consequences of genocide. Feminist thinkers and activists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and lawyers will share differing perspectives on how genocide victims and descendants have been affected by their trauma.

Conference panelists will examine genocides and mass killings, including the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, Nanking, Bosnian genocide, Rwandan genocide, mass killings during the Democratic Republic of the Congo Civil War, Cambodian genocide, and mass killings in Central America and the Middle East. The fate of persecuted people today, including Yazidis, Christians in the Middle East and Kurds, will also be examined as will questions on reparations and possibilities of reconciliation in preventing the recurrence of genocide.

This project was made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (France), DVV International, Swedish non-governmental organization Kvinna till Kvinna (Women for Women), and the Academic Swiss Caucasus Net (ASCN). The conference will be livestreamed at www.agbu.am.

The Exhibit: “Mapping Identity: Figures, Borders, and Nations”

Artist books, paintings and works on paper by Dana Walrath for AGBU Exhibitions

“Mapping Identity: Figures, Borders, and Nations” is a solo exhibition of select works by renowned artist, author and anthropologist Dana Walrath comprised of artists’ books, paintings and works of art on paper. The series consists of handmade books on nine of the genocides of the past 500 years: American Indians, African Americans, Australian Aborigines, Armenians, the Holocaust, Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians and the Rohingya people of Myanmar. One of Walrath’s installations in the exhibition, “View from the High Ground,” renders dehumanization—the fourth stage of genocide—as an interactive process. The handmade books are interactive, forcing the viewer to experience dehumanization literally through the sense of touch as participants page through the images. Two of the nine original books—comprised of hand drawings and an old zoology text embedded within slate—will be on view at AGBU along with larger works on paper from Walrath’s “Armenian Maps” series which explores borders, identity and the fetishizing of nationalism.

Today, the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Republic of Armenia Giorgi Saganelidze presented his credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan, President’s Press Office reports.

The President of Armenia congratulated the Ambassador on assuming the position and wished him success in his diplomatic mission in our country. Serzh Sargsyan expressed confidence that the newly appointed diplomat will make a significant contribution to the development of the bilateral ties in different areas and to the strengthening of the Armenian-Georgian friendly relations. Noting with satisfaction that in recent years high-level interstate contacts have intensified, the President said that in Armenia we are looking forward to the upcoming official visit of the Prime Minister of Georgia.

Ambassador Saganelidze assured that during his tenure he would do his best to deepen the existing close and good-neighborly relations between Armenia and Georgia and added that he was honored to work in a country whose centuries-long history and culture are well familiar to him.

The interlocutors underscored that the active interstate dialogue anchored in the historically traditional friendship and understanding of the two nations has become a strong base for the opening of new areas of cooperation.

President Serzh Sargsyan and Ambassador Giorgi Saganelidze concurred that along with the high-level political relations there also exist wide opportunities and still unused huge potential for the development of the trade and economic ties, expansion of cooperation in a number of promising areas such as tourism, agriculture, energy, culture, etc.

The President of Armenia and Ambassador of Georgia stressed the importance of the active work aimed at the strengthening of the interparliamentary ties.

Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS

 

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has suffered brain hemorrhage and is in an intensive care in a stable condition, his daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on her Instagram page on Monday, TASS reports.

“My father was hospitalised after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage on Saturday morning, and is now receiving treatment in an intensive care unit,” Karimova-Tillyaeva said. “His condition is considered stable. At the moment it is too early to make any predictions about his future health.”

“I will be very thankful to everyone who wishes to and supports my father by their prayers,” she added.

Uzbekistan’s mass media reports said earlier that Karimov, 78, had been hospitalized, giving no details about the diagnosis. Karimov has been the president of Uzbekistan since 1991.

The meetings of the OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh conflict settlement have been postponed, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told RIA Novosti.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs were scheduled to visit Turkey on July 18 to discuss the Karabakh issue.

“The meetings in Turkey have been cancelled. We’re now discussing the date for a new meeting,” Warlick said.