11:07,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. 764 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Armenia in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 418,220, the Ministry of Healthcare reported.
14 people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the total death toll to 8392.
4467 tests were conducted on February 23.
970 people recovered (total 396,670).
As of February 24, the number of active cases stands at 11,557.
KARS, Turkiye
A train which ran between Turkiye and Armenia brings back nostalgia to people on both sides of the border.
Amid a thaw in relations between Turkiye and Armenia, people in Turkiye's eastern province Kars are waiting for the Dogukapi border crossing to reopen after nearly three decades.
The border was closed in 1993 in response to Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory.
Turkiye's Eastern Express line, which attracts many tourists, departs from the capital city of Ankara, and arrives in eastern province Kars after a 25-hour-long journey with picturesque views all along the route of 1,310 kilometers (814 miles). From Kars, there is another regional train departing for Akyaka district, located near the Armenian border. Through the Dogukapi border crossing, one can reach Armenia's border city Gyumri.
Recaling those busy days when trains would travel between Turkiye and Armenia, business people and former railway workers say a possible reopening of the line would contribute to the trade and tourism in the region.
Ilim Goktas, who worked for six years at the Dogukapi train station, told Anadolu Agency he hopes "the gate will reopen."
"Peace and tranquility will come to the region, our economy will revive," he added.
Stating that he had to leave his job after the Dogukapi border crossing was closed, Goktas said: "At that time, coal, fiber, sunflower, cotton and iron would come in (to Turkiye through that route)."
"We stayed very busy transferring the cargo coming from Armenia and Russia to Turkish trains at our station," he recalled.
He added that around 100 people would work in shifts at the border crossing at the time.
Livestock from the Turkish provinces of Van, Mus, Agri, Kars and Erzurum would also be sent to the Soviet Union through that gate, he added.
Cahit Akbulak, a retired worker, stated that they operated three shifts due to the high workload on the railway line between the two countries.
Kenan Akbulak, a village head, said: "With the opening of Dogukapi, there will be job opportunities, imports and exports in our village."
Businessperson Alican Alibeyoglu said: "We should see the railway here as the old Silk Road that extends to China and Siberia. Opening the gate will contribute to Kars and other cities in the region."
* Writing by Iclal Turan.
Western Prelate Bishop Torkom Donoyan, on Tuesday welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Aris and Angela Stambolian to the Western Prelacy. The couple expressed their unwavering support for the Western Prelacy in general and the parish of Forty Martyrs Church in Orange County in particular, and donated $2 million for the purpose of establishing a middle school at the Ari Guiragos Minassian Elementary School in Orange County, in memory of their parents Voskan and Elize Stambolian.
Prelate Bishop Torkom Donoyan welcomes Mr. and Mrs. Aris and Angela Stambolian
On this occasion, the Prelate praised the couple’s noble act, which is an immense gesture that contributes to the preservation of the Armenian nation. Also, through the broadening implementation of services and educational programs through our schools, the mission of the Western Prelacy will be even more expanded and meaningful in the lives of our faithful.
Mr. and Mrs. Aris and Angela Stambolian announced their $2 million donation during a meeting with the Prelate
“Joy to us all! On the occasion of the ‘Year of the Diaspora,’ the Prelacy is marking a new milestone in Orange County. We believe that, next to the church, the Armenian school has a unique role in our lives as one of the important pillars of the existence of the Armenian people,” stated the Prelate.
Also present at the meeting were Prelacy Executive Council members, Vahe Hovaguimian, Chair, Meher Der Ohanessian, Vice-Chair, George Chorbajian, Secretary and liaison to the Board of Regents, Dr. Kaloust Agopian, Treasurer, as well as Sarkis Ourfalian, Esq, Chairman of the Board of Regents, along with Rev. Fr. Karekin Bedourian, Pastor of the Forty Martyrs Church and member of the Board of Regents, Mano Dishoyan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Ani Shahinian Sarkisian, Principal of Ari Guiragos Minassian Elementary School, and Ara Malakian, member of the School’s Education Committee were present during the meeting.
Iran specialist Vardan Voskanyan reacted to the fresh threats of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev against Armenians.
"The Baku dictator once again talked nonsense and threatened Armenia, labelling us "fascists" and threatening to destroy us if we try to raise our heads,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday.
“However, this clearly unbalanced "message" is obviously addressed not only to us, since in the same context he speaks about "Armenia's patrons" without naming specific countries. Taking into account his focus on so-called Armenian "fascism”, it is easy to guess that the other main addressee of the "message" is Russia.
“Hence, if we recall in this regard the congratulatory message of the Russian Embassy in Yerevan on the Armenian Army Day, which drops a hint that official Moscow wants to see a strong and restored Armenian army, everything falls into place.
“Incidentally, armies are usually restored and become stronger not for the opening of some "era of peace”, but for the anti-fascist struggle, which is terrifying for truly fascist regimes, like the Azerbaijani one,” Voskanyan said.
17:27,
YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. Passengers using the Yerevan-Istanbul flights will be exempt from the “air tax” – a state duty usually included in the price of the tickets.
“The routes which haven’t been served in the past 12 months and are now starting to operate and where there will be at least 1 flight per week for at least 1 year will be exempt from the air duty. This doesn’t only refer to Istanbul, many other directions have been exempt from the air duty by this principle,” the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia told ARMENPRESS.
The “air duty”, or “air tax” is a 10,000 dram tax.
The Istanbul direction is exempt from the air duty for the period of February 2, 2022 –February 2, 2025.
Other routes exempt from the air duty include Vilnius, Milan, Rome, Kaluga, Odessa, Frankfurt and others.
The Armenian Flyone Armenia airline earlier announced that it will start flying from Yerevan to Istanbul from February 2. The Turkish Pegasus airline will also operate the Istanbul-Yerevan route.
Diran and Seta Apelian fund $100k endowment for UCI graduate students studying Armenians
By Lilibeth Garcia
Between 1915 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire systematically killed over a million Armenians in what’s now called the Armenian Genocide. Survivors, like the Apelians’ ancestors, fled to safety, and diaspora communities sprang up all over the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Researchers in the School of Humanities are now working to preserve what is left of Armenian culture for future generations – an effort made possible thanks to engaged community members like the Apelians.
Diran Apelian, Distinguished Professor of materials science and engineering at UCI, is renowned in academic circles for his innovative work in metal processing and leadership as a researcher and educator. And while he has deep ties to UCI’s Samueli School of Engineering, there is more to his UCI story.
“When UCI’s Armenian Studies Program came to our attention, we were thrilled,” says Diran Apelian.
Passionate about keeping Armenian history and the Western Armenian language alive, the Apelians have recently funded a $100,000 endowment to support graduate students in UCI’s Armenian Studies Program. An endowment creates a legacy – the interest of the gift will support generations of Armenian studies scholars in perpetuity.
A byproduct of the Armenian Genocide that remains today is that the Western Armenian language is in peril. UNESCO declared it an endangered language in 2010, mostly because it’s rarely taught intergenerationally, with fewer and fewer descendants of genocide survivors who live outside of Armenia learning the language. At UCI, however, the language is thriving.
With an active group of supporters, including the Apelians, UCI has grown its offerings in Armenian studies to include two years of instruction in Western Armenian. In addition, the School of Humanities is home to a robust undergraduate and graduate program in Armenian history and offers undergraduates a minor in Armenian studies, while the Center for Armenian Studies offers the community and public a variety of events, including film screenings and book talks.
“The program itself, and what it stands for, is critical for the survival of the Western Armenian language,” Diran Apelian says.
Both the Armenian Studies Program and the Center for Armenian Studies are led by Houri Berberian, professor of history and Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies.
“The Apelians’ generous support will be a tremendous help to our graduate students as they pursue their research. Because of the far-reaching nature of academic publishing and dissemination of knowledge, the scholarship they produce will have a wide impact beyond the here and now,” says Berberian. “Therefore, endowments like the one established by the Apelians not only facilitate and advance the original research carried out by our graduate students but also contribute to the UCI Armenian Studies Program as a whole and the broader field of Armenian studies.”
From Armenian studies to human studies
Diran Apelian is no stranger to the humanities, despite being a prominent engineer and scholar. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, European Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, Armenian Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has received numerous honors and awards, and has 21 patents and over 700 publications. He advocates for bringing a “human dimension” to engineering, particularly when considering the ethical impact of a new technology.
“If you don’t understand how technology impacts humanity, I think you've only got half of the picture,” he says.
The Apelians’ interest in the humanities comes from a shared experience that is both distinctly Armenian and universally human.
As a result of the Armenian Genocide, they share a global heritage. Their parents and grandparents fled the Ottoman Empire and found refuge in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Italy. Diran was born in Egypt, and Seta was born in Israel, although her family later moved to Egypt. They both grew up in Heliopolis, Egypt and were classmates from kindergarten to ninth grade. When they were in their teens, Diran’s family moved to Lebanon and then migrated to the United States; Seta moved to Canada. Two decades later, they reconnected by chance in Montreal and soon got married.
“Everybody's got a story, but the sentiments Seta and I have are not just Armenian sentiments,” says the professor. “They're worldly sentiments. They're of the universe, of our planet.”
It’s a story of “survival,” says Seta, who acknowledges how their global background gives them empathy for all the struggles around the world. For the Apelians, the Armenian story reflects a universal human experience.
Paying it forward
Seta’s father and sister passed away when she was 10 years old. She came of age in Canada with only the support of her mother and brother. “Both of us came to North America without having any money and not knowing much English, and we went through our educational process under a great deal of stress,” Diran recalls. They are grateful for their higher education, which enabled them to have successful careers (Seta is a retired orthodontist) and a family – two daughters and five grandchildren. Now, they feel compelled to give back.
“We want to make sure that the Western Armenian language is sustained, and that, more importantly, young people who are in need will have the resources enabling them to study,” Diran says. “If one thinks education is expensive, the alternative is even more expensive and damaging.”
Bedros Torosian is currently a Ph.D. candidate in history studying Ottoman Armenian migration to the U.S. under the direction of Berberian. As the first in his family to attend college and a descendant of Armenian refugees, he has benefited from the generosity of donors like the Apelians.
“The grants have been immensely valuable for my academic journey at UCI, especially in the context of a global pandemic and as an international student whose home country, Lebanon, is in the state of free fall,” he says. “In a climate of greater financial stability, I was able to make great strides in my studies and research.”
The financial support also enabled Torosian to gain access to new archival collections that formed the core of his dissertation and enroll in an online language class that helped him amplify his expertise in an older Ottoman version of Turkish. Torosian’s research on an early 20th-century Armenian diaspora is just one example of how student funding can change lives while deepening crucial scholarship.
To keep Western Armenian alive, an endowment would secure long-term funding for language instruction at UCI. The School of Humanities also strives to establish an endowed Center for Armenian Diaspora Studies. The Apelians’ endowment is a step in those directions.
“Hopefully, others will join in, because it's not about us, it's about the generation of students that will benefit from it,” says Diran. “And then, when they get to be older, they can do the same. Let’s call it the circle of goodness.”
“They can continue the chain,” Seta concludes.
Donors like the Apelians play a vital role in ensuring the UCI School of Humanities' brilliant future. Launched in 2016 with support from the Orange County community, the UCI Armenian Studies Program provides a range of academic offerings and engagement opportunities focused on Armenia and the Armenian diaspora to both the UCI community and Orange County community. To support Armenian Studies Program scholars and events that matter, consider making a gift today.
Photo credit: Steve Zylius/UCI
13:44, 20 January, 2022
YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke about the normalization process with Armenia.
Cavusoglu said that the measures for normalizing relations with Armenia are on the agenda.
“A full normalization is the goal,” Hurriyet quoted FM Cavusoglu as saying. “The Armenians are also very satisfied from this, in addition to the launch of flights and appointment of special representatives, other steps as part of the process leading to a full normalization will also be studied,” he said.
Cavusoglu said that the special representatives will discuss steps for strengthening trust in the future.
Armenian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Varuzhan Nersesyan, had a video talk with Feryal Clark, a member of the UK-Armenia Friendship Group in the British parliament and an ethnic Kurdish MP from the Labour Party, the Embassy of Armenia in the United Kingdom reported.
Congratulating the ambassador on his appointment, Clark expressed confidence that with his appointment, bilateral relations will be considerably intensified—including at the parliamentary level.
Ambassador Nersesyan, in his turn, thanked Feryal Clark for supporting pro-Armenian initiatives, and noted that he will work actively in a number of domains and, from that point of view, the support of Armenians' friends in the UK Parliament will be invaluable.
Noting that she considers herself a friend of Armenia and the Armenian people, Feryal Clark said that she is ready to be engaged—as much as possible—in various initiatives related to Armenia.
10:40,
YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. 11 people face criminal charges for launching and operating what Armenian authorities described as a “Ponzi scheme”.
The members of the organization began operating in 2016 in Armenia together with a number of foreign citizens, namely nationals of Iran and Canada. The scheme used the UK-registered Vodanet British LTD company name as its cover. It was launched in 2013 in Iran, the Investigative Committee said in a press release.
Authorities said the members of the criminal syndicate calling themselves VODA planned and operated an “illegal and morally distorted system” of recruiting new members and assets. As a result, the syndicate started recruiting many people under the pretext of “phased training courses” to obtain the opportunity to engage in business operations as an “internationally reputed company”. The recruited members were told to get registered at voda.net and vodanet.io online platforms and make fake hotel package bookings ranging from 450 to 21,000 USD, which was presented to them as a guaranteed investment and condition for joining their company.
Criminal investigations launched by Iranian law enforcement agencies in June 2018 led to Vodanet British LTD ceasing operations, and the voda.net and vodanet.io websites were shut down, and this in turn led to the fraud mechanism being disbanded and divided among several syndicates.
Then, several members of the syndicate re-organized and registered a company called Onyxum in Canada, launching an eponymous website and recruiting the main coordinators of Vodanet British LTD and re-launched operations in Armenia already with improved methods with intent to gain more assets from new investors. Onyxum then opened offices in Yerevan and other cities to recruit numerous citizens who were made to believe that they’ll be able to make money with the condition of recruiting new members.
Authorities said they continue investigating the scheme to reveal all potential criminals.
The Investigative Committee called on everyone to refrain from using Onyxum.com website or services rendered by its offices.